“Shizu! Let go at once!”
“…Denied. Denied. Denied.”
“What do you mean by ‘denied’?”
Though she planned to use force to pull her away, she ended up grabbing the Spear Needle’s fur too, and the magical beast yelped in pain.
“Mmm, it hurts.”
“Really now…” Yuri let go as she heard Aura speak on the beast’s behalf. “Shizu, I‘m going to get mad at you.”
“…Yuri-nee, you are already angry.”
“I’m serious. I’ll tell her that you’re not allowed to come here any more.”
“…if you do that by yourself, Ainz-sama will be angry.”
“I am here to see you on Ainz-sama’s orders. I trust you understand my meaning?”
Shizu hopped off the Spear Needle in the blink of an eye.
Shizu had probably imagined something other than what her master had intended from Yuri's words. While she had misunderstood, there was no need to correct her.
Shizu touched her scarf and deactivated her invisibility spell.
Her scarf was a legendary-class item imbued with several specialized stealth and ambush-type spells. It could even turn her invisible for a short while.
In the moment Shizu jumped off, the Spear Needle ran off, as though to say “so long, I’m out of here.”
Shizu watched it leave with regret in her eyes. While her expression had not changed much, as her elder sister, Yuri could pick out the minute differences on her face.
“…Shizu, why did you do that?”
“…”
She looked aside, like a kid. It would seem she did not intend to answer.
Then what should I do? As Yuri thought that, someone extended a helping hand from the side.
“Well, Shizu often comes by and plasters herself to the magical beasts. Do you like them?”
“…Mm.” After Aura said that, Shizu looked Yuri straight in the eye. “…They’re cute, so I like them.”
“Yes, that’s how you are.”
That was the kind of girl Shizu was. She liked cute things and furry things.
“Ah~ It’s as I thought~ Well, I figured it’d be this way~”
“…I want to raise one. Recently, Eclair’s been running away whenever he sees me.”
“Umu~”
Yuri looked into the sky. The 9th Floor had no cute creatures.
For a moment, she wanted to ask Eclair to offer himself up here as a sacrifice, but that would be too cruel.
How about something like Ainz-sama’s pet, Hamsuke? While its fur stiffens on impact, said fur was quite soft under normal circumstances — yes, in that case, once I report what happened here to Ainz-sama, he’ll be able to come up with a good idea, I’m sure!
In that case, one task was dealt with.
Shizu’s discontent stemmed from her desire for cute pets.
Is that really alright? She had considered whether or not she should ask questions related to work like how the Guardians had been questioned, but she could not think of a way to allay Shizu’s frustration, so all she could do was ask her Master for help.
“I understand. I will discuss how to satisfy you with Ainz-sama.”
“Ahh, that’s right. If it’s Ainz-sama, it’ll be fine.”
“…Mm.”
The name of the Supreme One was very powerful. While her expression had not changed, her mood seemed to have changed from overcast to a sunny day.
“…Ainz-sama. In that case, I want Hamsuke.”
“I understand~ that fur is great.”
“…Mm.”
While Hamsuke might be a rarity in Nazarick, there might be many of her kind in the outside world.
“…After Ainz-sama has finished what he’s doing, I’ll be able to go outside too.”
“I do look forward to that. When the time comes, shall we visit the city which Ainz-sama rules together?”
After smiling to her seemingly excited little sister, Yuri’s expression turned serious.
“Come with me, Shizu.”
“…Where are we going?”
“To Entoma… Aura-sama, I apologize for the trouble Shizu has caused you.”
“Hm? Oh, it’s fine. It’s not like when she pasted the one-yen stickers from before.”
Yuri sighed, “Haaaaaah.”
“Please paste the stickers which show you like something on your own things… Then it would seem she also gave you trouble back then. I do apologize.”
“It’s fine, she didn’t paste any more after that. That stuff doesn’t come off with water. I thought it’d be easy, but it gave me quite a surprise.”
“…Specially made by the Professor. They’re gone once they’re used, but Ainz-sama said he would mass produce them for me.”
“Is that so, how nice.”
Ainz-sama is really kind, Yuri thought as she sighed, and then she noticed the same look on Aura’s face. After that, it appeared that Aura had noticed her noticing, because they ended up looking at each other.
“Ainz-sama is truly compassionate.”
“Mm, mm, I think he’s the nicest person after Bukubukuchagama-sama.”
“…Shouldn’t that be after Yamaiko-sama?”
“…It’s Bukubukuchagama-sama.”
Yuri glared at Aura, and Aura did not shift her gaze.
“…Right now, Ainz-sama is the nicest of all the Supreme Beings because he stayed behind.”
They stared dumbly at Shizu after she said that. Nobody could object to her words.
“Indeed.”
“Yeah, er — hm? Looks like someone came in from above through the door. I didn’t get an intruder notification, so it should be someone from Nazarick, which means I can probably ignore it… But it wouldn’t be good to let them wait, so I’d better go over and take a look. How about the two of you? Entoma’s topside today, right? Shall we go together?”
There were no objections to Aura’s suggestion.
Both of them nodded and followed behind Aura. A glance behind the door that led to the 5th Floor revealed that there was someone — something — there.
“A-ra~ It’s been a while, Aura-chan. Yuri-chan and Shizu-chan too.”
While the tone made people think that each sentence ended with a <3 symbol, the voice in which those words were spoken defied easy identification as male or female. This being truly deserved to be described as “monstrous”.
It had a humanoid body, but its head resembled a distorted squid. Said head sprouted six tentacles which reached all the way down to its thighs, and they writhed and twitched.
Its body was the ghastly white of a drowned corpse. Its body was similarly swollen up like a drowned corpse and wrapped in many black leather straps in lieu of clothing, cutting deep into the skin like the string used to tie up sides of meat.
The monster had four slender fingers on each hand, with webs between each finger. Its fingernails were very long and painted with pretty lacquer, and further decorated with bizarre nail designs.
This was the Special Intelligence-Gathering Officer of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick — known as Neuronist Painkill.
“Huh~ it’s rare to see you here, Neuronist. Is something the matter?”
“Ufufufu, someone mentioned that it had been a long time since the Worsts had met up, so I came here. I believe Kyouhukou will be coming along too.”
“Ugeeehh~”
A look of clear disgust crossed Aura’s face.
“Worst Job, Worst Personality, Worst Homebase, Worst Looks and Worst Lewdness?”
“That’s right. Yuri, you’re — on — the — mark.”
Neuronist nimbly closed one of its slimy-looking eyes. Had it come from someone better-looking, that movement might have been taken as a wink that discharged a flying heart symbol.
“…What are you holding there?”
“Aran~ Shizu-chan, you’re interested in this? Ufufufu, it’s an essential item for a lady. It’s perfume~”
Neuronist waggled the cute bag in its left hand.
“Well, this one’s for men. Did you notice Gashokukochuuou built a new home? This is a housewarming present.”
“Perfume is essential for ladies? Isn’t it just for stinky people?”
Yuri concealed her smile at Aura’s childish reply.
“Ufufufufu, that’s still too early for you, Aura. But should the day come when you need it, onee-chan will personally impart all sorts of essential knowledge for ladies to you. That ugly freak won’t teach you that sort of thing.”