Thus he handed the problem off to his future self.
Then, Ainz headed to the sofa and sat down. Shortly afterwards, the three people he mentioned earlier sat down as well, he began speaking.
“Then, let’s start by recording our travels for the day. Aura, please.”
“Yes, Ainz-sama.”
Aura flipped open a memo pad, holding it open with one hand and sketching a map on it with another.
“I’m not too confident on some of the smaller details, but it should roughly be like this.”
“Umu. Thank you, Aura.”
It was a fairly crude map, but they could verify distances and the like from the air.
“Now then, I know you’re tired, Zenberu, but I would like to request your cooperation. You might not like this.”
“…What do you mean, Your Majesty?”
Ainz smiled to the somewhat nervous Zenberu.
“In other words, I wish to look through your memories.”
“W-what does that mean?”
“…I think I came off like a villain when I said that. I can control others’ memories with magic, but that same magic can browse through the memories of others. Frankly speaking, it drains a lot of mana and I’d rather not use it if I could avoid it, but relying on your clouded memories alone is somewhat worrisome.”
“I, I trust it will not have any side effects?”
“It’ll be fine. Thanks to the assistance of a certain cleric, I can safely say that I’m quite the veteran at this. There won’t be any problems as long as I don’t do any weird things in there. In fact, I’ve performed the same procedure on one of my maids and there were no problems either.”
“You mean Shizu, right?”
“Exactly, Aura. That said, the spell isn’t all-powerful. If the person himself has almost forgotten an event, I can only get rough details. There are also other things which complicate the spell’s use. For instance, the memories might not reside within the brain, but accessed from a more primordial source—” Ainz shrugged as he realized he had gone off topic. “Well, something like that. In any case, I’d like to investigate your memories.”
“I see… Just in case, I would like to ask again, but is it really going to be alright?”
“I understand your concerns. Do not worry, Zenberu. I will not alter your memories. I swear that on my name.”
“Then — what should I do?”
“Umu. Sit there, and relax. This won’t hurt a bit. However, I need to verify some details with you before I cast the spell. Things like, how many months and years ago and where these memories took place, and so on.”
After hearing Zenberu’s explanations, Ainz cast the spell.
Having cast this spell many times before, Ainz had an expert’s confidence in his handling of the magic, but still, using it was extremely difficult.
Since any changes to the memories remained forever, mishandling them might lead to an irrecoverable situation. It was like trying to reprogram a computer without making any backups of the data. One could say it was an excellent spell for making vegetables.
More importantly, the spell expended a vast amount of mana while it was in effect. That was what made it hard to use.
Ainz felt his mana draining away in torrents after briefly browsing Zenberu’s memories.
Ainz’s original plan was to find the targeted memories and then browse around at his leisure. However, he estimated that his MP would run dry before that. In addition, the problem with this spell was that even if he wanted to wait until the next day for his mana to recover before casting the spell again, he would still have to start from the beginning.
As a result, other spells were more effective at gathering information.
After grumbling in his heart, he saw what looked like a mountain. Just as he found the place he was looking for, his mana ran out.
Examining memories of the past are the most tiring. It’s much easier to view recent memories…
As he had expected, the memories he found were blurred, as though shrouded in mist. He saw the faces of Dwarves, but they all looked the same to him. He did not know if that was Zenberu’s fault, but he could not tell them apart. All of them were simply beards who bellowed in crude tones and swilled beer.
This is no good. I used that cleric as a test subject and it worked well on Shizu. But I feel like I still can’t use it well enough… I can’t afford to make mistakes with delicate things like memories. I wanted to continue experimenting with that cleric, but he can’t even speak coherently any more… Well, rewriting memories works if I limit myself to the recent few years. I guess I should conduct an experiment on what’ll happen if I wipe a person’s memories clean…
Maybe I should select a few people sentenced to death from E-Rantel and use them for experiments…
With that thought in mind, Ainz ended the spell.
“How are you, Zenberu? Do you feel unwell?”
“Eh? I feel fine, but weird…”
Ainz smiled.
“I merely looked through your memories. It would be strange if that felt weird to you, given that I made no changes. That is probably a placebo effect of some sort; it should fade soon.”
Zenberu shook his head forcefully. Ainz paid him no heed, but turned his attention to the map.
Even after looking at Zenberu’s memories, he still did not quite get it.
There were no distinguishing features there, and how could he confirm his position in the confusing scenery of the mountains? In addition, the memories of hiding from monsters had been far more vivid in comparison.
The fact was that even if his mana recovered by tomorrow, he would not gain information which was worth that massive expenditure of magical power.
“Then, we shall stick to the plan and have Zenberu lead us north. I didn’t see anything helpful in his memories anyway.”
It was not as though he had any better ideas.
Dispatching outriders would only serve the purpose of massacring the monsters ahead of them.
“Dismissed. Everyone, rest… well, it looks like nobody needs to rest besides Zenberu. Well then, prepare yourselves for tomorrow.”
As she watched her master return to his room, Aura turned to Shalltear, who was seated beside her.
“There are rooms to the left and the right of Ainz-sama’s own room. Which do you want?”
Aura had a magic item which allowed her to go without sleep, and Shalltear was undead. Strictly speaking, neither of them needed a room. However, it would be rude not to use the rooms provided for them, and it would be bad for security if they were too far away from him.
“Hm~ well, I’d think either side would be fine, don’t you think?”
“Well, I guess that’s right… Say, what are you doing?”
Aura looked over to Shalltear after hearing her distracted response. This was when she realized Shalltear was writing something in a memo pad.
“Hm, Ainz-sama said that, check. I’m taking notes, of course. I don’t want to forget Ainz-sama’s words.”
“Hmmm~ that’s pretty hardworking of you. Lemme see.”
Aura paused to peek, and saw that the memo pad was covered in densely-packed script, with hardly any blank space left in between the letters.
After a quick glance, she discovered that Shalltear had essentially recorded her master’s words down in exacting detail, as well as the actions he took.
This… how shall I say this? Of course, it makes sense to preserve Ainz-sama’s words for posterity, but I doubt Shalltear is writing them down for that purpose…
Shalltear should have recorded the key points of her master’s wisdom, and then learned from them. However, this situation was beginning to make her feel uneasy.