The wall which enclosed the Dwarven ateliers had been personally raised by the ruler of this nation and the savior of this village, the Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown. “Its purpose is to minimize the damage caused to the surrounding village when their experiments fail,” he had said.
She had wondered if they could not simply build it outside the village, but obviously she could not say such a thing to His Majesty.
“I wonder what magic items the Dwarf-sans are working on now?”
“Shall we investigate?”
“I’ve told you before, you can’t.”
While nobody had told her what the Dwarves were working on in their workshops, she was confident that it would not harm the village. Enri could accept that.
Should she try to stealthily gather information about them? The Goblins had suggested that several times in the past, but Enri had always shut down those suggestions with ironclad finality.
Carne Village’s savior, Ainz Ooal Gown had said that he wanted the village to accept these Dwarves. At the same time, he had told them that what they were working on was top secret.
Even if he was an undead being who hated the living, he was still the magic caster who had saved the village several times, and so they trusted him more than anyone alive.
Just then, the Redcap slid in front of Enri. They only did that under certain circumstances.
Enri shifted her line of sight and saw the familiar form of a beautiful woman, who was surrounded by four Redcaps.
“Hiya, En-chan. How ya doin’~”
“Ah, good morning, Lupusregina-san.”
Things had been like this ever since the person called Lupusregina met the Goblins. The Redcaps were few in number, but whenever Lupusregina showed up, they appeared in groups. In addition, they wielded weapons that they would not normally carry around.
It was said that there were other Goblins present in the vicinity besides the Redcaps, but Enri had never seen them before.
Even Enri could tell that the reason why they had gone to such lengths was because the Redcaps — no, the Goblins were wary of Lupusregina. That said, Lupusregina might be a mystery, but Enri did not think that she would do anything to a village which hosted a bronze statue of her master. In addition, she had saved Enri and Nfirea’s life in the past.
On the contrary, Enri could not help but worry that this would upset her.
She had spoken to the Goblin Strategist and he had said that he would talk to them about it, but it would seem nothing had come of that thus far.
The sole saving grace was that when she had told Lupusregina about this, she told Enri not to worry about it.
“I’ve only been here a while and already there’s people dashing out. Poor me~”
“There’s no way we wouldn’t be on guard against you when you arrive in that way. You should know that.”
The answer came from one of the Redcaps surrounding Lupusregina.
His voice was calm, but there was a clear sense of wariness in his voice.
“Ah!” Enri raised her voice as she considered that the situation was developing in a bad direction. “How exactly did you come here, anyway?”
“Hm? I took Flatchest Vampire Airlines Frost 05, from Nazarick to Carne~”
“Eh? Flatchest Vampire Airlines?”
“Yup. It’s the name of the person in charge of all outdoor movement~”
“Pettan Ketsuki Koukuu-san, then?”
“Yup. Pretty much, Oh, and if you meet her in person, just tell her I said it. Or rather, I hope you’ll mention my name. Otherwise, who knows what will happen to you~”
As she looked on Enri’s puzzled face, Lupusregina broke into a smile.
“En-chan, you’re really funny. Really, you’re quite interesting…” Lupusregina’s eyes narrowed in an instant. “Really~”
Lupusregina’s bright red tongue peeked out from her slightly opened mouth and licked her lips.
It was not a seductive gesture. However, Enri felt something crawl up her lower back.
In that moment, the Redcap standing by her sprang into action.
He pulled Enri back and slid into the gap — in front of Lupusregina — which had appeared.
In this highly tense atmosphere, Lupusregina shrugged, wearing her rarely-seen serious face.
“…I won’t do anything to her~ Is that enough to calm you down? Still, if you don’t believe me, why don’t you all come at once and have a go? That way, I can deal with you without holding back.”
The Redcap lowered his head, and returned to his original position.
“—And that’s that. By the way, Frost refers to Frost Dragons.”
“Frost — Dragons?! By Dragons you mean the Dragons from legend, right? Amazing! Are those Dragons Gown-sama’s servants as well?”
“Yup. Air transport is flourishing in the Sorcerous Kingdom~”
“That’s amazing!”
Enri’s eyes were sparkling.
The Dragons in question were incredibly powerful monsters sung about in legends. Anyone who could subjugate them was no ordinary magic caster.
“Gown-sama is really amazing!”
“…Well, that’s true,”
A troubled expression came over Lupusregina’s face.
“A Dragon like that… hm~ someone like me… Well, it’s fine~”
There were some things Enri wanted to ask, but since she seemed to have come to terms with things, it was alright. Probably.
“Ah, why did you come around today?”
“Ah, yes, yes. Hm… I might not be able to come by for a while. I came to tell you that I hope you can take care of yourself.”
They had known each other for over a year, but this was the first time she had said such a thing.
“What happened?”
“Hm~ I guess it’s okay to tell you, En-chan. Actually, it seems Ainz-sama was defeated in battle and died.”
Enri pondered the meaning of those words, and then their meaning sank in.
Her response was equally understandable.
“EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?!”
Afterword
This is Volume 11, the longest one of all. Did it excite you? Books get tiring to carry when they’re heavy and I’d like to avoid that, so why did it end up so long… And if I were to cut pages, where should I cut from? By the way, this has already been heavily cut down from the original proofreading. It feels like there were at least six more pages before… Hm. I guess there wasn’t much of a change, after all.
Well, please forgive me and just think of this as a form of savings, then. I think in the future, the volumes will only be 300 pages long. When that happens, please don’t think “so thin!”, but instead consider that the use of what’s been saved until now. After all, it’ll still be quite thick if you average all the books out.
Then, let’s think about other things — I’m writing this on a hot summer day. The AC in my room is working at full blast and saving Maruyama from the scorching fires of hell.
I hate summer. When I walk to the office, there’s nothing I hate more than touching other people with my sweaty body. “I won’t touch you, so don’t touch me,” I scream internally. The only salvation is that the decrease in students means the trains aren’t so packed. On that note, winters are great! I want to sleep under the blanket and never get out!..Well, the people in Hokkaido and Tohoku might not think that way, but Maruyama still wants to say; Winters Are The Best!
It seems the Overlord Compilation Movie will be made in the Best Season! For some reason, it seems Maruyama has to work hard… I’ll work hard. And that’s that. There should be more news coming out in future, and I’d be happy if you could look forward to it.
I’ve given a lot of people this time round too. So-bin-sama, I made you redraw the insert images several times, thank you very much. To my editor Ohaku-sama, I’ll reduce the pagecount for sure next time! And thank you for doing the design for the deluxe edition package this time round, Chord Design Studio-sama.