Being exposed had nothing to do with her mentioning Albedo, but that was a huge blunder. I will use this chance to correct her and warn her to never do it again. First would be banning her from addressing me as Ainz… But… No one seemed to have heard…
“Allow me to atone for my crime with death!”
She didn’t sound like she was kidding.
Everyone in the Grand Tomb of Nazarick was like that, treating the 41 members of Ainz Ooal Gown as the Supreme beings, the absolute authority and took glory in serving them.
It was a bit heavy for Ainz, but it wasn’t bad if the NPC he created served him happily. That was the fate of all creators.
Narberal was an NPC like that. If she were jokingly ordered to commit suicide, she would oblige immediately. She was seeking permission because of her sense of absolute duty to her master, since she saw her life as the property of her master.
“… Enough. No matter who, everyone makes mistakes. Just work hard and avoid failing again. Work hard step-by-step and don’t make the same mistake. I won’t pursue this failure further, Narberal Gamma.”
Her feelings of wanting to die to atone for her failure and Ainz’s refusal for her to do that. Narberal was trapped between these two emotions. Shortly after, Ainz felt the scale of her emotions fall towards one end.
Narberal lowered her head slowly:
“I am very grateful! I will take care and not make the same mistake next time!”
“… Yes, don’t take it too hard. Because the adventurer known as Momon— this disguised identity isn’t a complete failure yet, just be careful next time. But… depending on how things pans out, we might need to dispose of Nfirea…”
“Right now?”
“Don’t joke with me. It would be more troublesome to mess up the assigned job.”
Nfirea’s grandmother is a famous pharmacist in Re-Lantier. Angering her would make achieving Ainz’s goal even harder.
“Anyway… let’s see how things turns out.”
Right now, that was the best he could do.
Part 3
A few hundred meters away, there was a large clearing in the direction of the forest.. The goblins felled the trees there to construct the palisade, but the opening looked like the maw of a giant monster.
Ainz's group did their final check here. The young man who made the job request was the first to speak up:
"We will be entering the forest now, I will be relying on everyone to act as escorts. The territory of the Virtuous King of the Forest isn’t far from here, if everything goes well the chance of encountering other monsters will be low. The only problem is that the place where we encountered the ogres yesterday is also inside the Virtuous King of the Forest's area of influence, so something might be happening in the forest. This is a somewhat trivial matter, but nevertheless I hope everybody will keep their guard up."
Nfirea's gaze stopped on Ainz's face momentarily.
The members of the ‘Sword of Darkness’ also looked at Ainz.
"With Momon-san here, it shouldn't be a problem."
"If the Virtuous King of the Forest shows up, we will keep it busy. Please escape in the meanwhile."
Ainz's confident words made everyone swoon. After the battle with the Ogres yesterday, he became the center of attention.
Ainz felt uncomfortable with everyone praising him.. His embarrassment was the result of not having been praised much in his past life. Ainz envied Narberal who accepted all this proudly.
"If there’s a need to run, could I trouble you all to clear the area? The stronger the Virtuous King of the Forest is, the more power I need to use and I don’t want everyone getting caught in the crossfire."
"Understood. We will protect Nfirea-san and escape out of the forest. Please don't push yourself too much either, Momon-san."
"Thank you. I will run if I think it is too dangerous."
"Erm… Momon-san."
Nfirea who was hesitant about speaking up finally made up his mind:
"Could you spare the Virtuous King of the Forest and just chase him away?"
"… Why?"
"Well… Because of the influence of the Virtuous King of the Forest, Carne is able to avoid the attacks of monsters. If you defeat the Virtuous King of the Forest…"
"I see…"
"This is rather tough. Momon-san might be very strong, but the opponent is a legendary monster. If he doesn't use his full power, Momon-san might not be able to protect himself. How could he spare the effort—"
"I understand."
"Huh?!"
Lukeluther yelled in surprise. The other members of the Sword of Darkness didn’t speak up, but they still had a surprised expression on their faces.
"It might be difficult, but I will do my best to hold back and endeavor to drive it away."
Listening to Ainz’s confident words, the group of adventurers felt shivers running down their spines.
"Even though the opponent… is the legendary monster that lived for centuries…"
"This is the attitude of a powerful man…"
"Considering Momon-san's personality, he shouldn’t be boasting…"
Unlike the members of the Sword of Darkness, Nfirea had a rough idea of Ainz’s strength and was showing a relieved expression. Ainz smiled in his heart as he watched this young man.
The young man hoped that no monsters would attack Carne village. If Ainz replaced the Virtuous King of the Forest with another monster to maintain the sphere of influence, Ainz could still grant the young man's wish.
Even if Ainz killed the Virtuous King of the Forest, he could resolve the issue by sending an underling from Nazarick to take over.
"Alright! Let's make haste, the herb I want to harvest looks like this. Please inform me if anyone finds these."
Nfirea took out a dried plant from the pouch on his waist.
"Oh, its Arnica grass!"
To Ainz, this plant was no different from the weed growing nearby, but the druid Dyne could tell the difference and identify it by name.
Reacting to this name, Lukeluther and Ninya nodded in agreement. They probably had some knowledge about plants and found the name familiar.
As Ainz was hesitating if he should pretend to know about it, everyone was looking at him.
"Would you have any problem, Momon-san?"
"Hmmm? Ah, that plant? I got it."
Ainz nodded calmly.
If not for the mental tenacity of the undead, his voice would’ve wavered or changed in pitch. But Ainz's expression was covered by his helmet, so no one would know what he was thinking. Ainz who was covered in layers of metal looked impressive, but he was wavering on the inside.
"Yes, this is the herb that is normally used in the process of making healing potions."
"And it grows near the adventurers guild!"
"Oh, is that so. Then the mystery of why we made the trip to the forest in order to harvest the herb is solved— I heard that wild herbs are more potent than farmed ones?"
That's correct. All the potions from my place uses natural herbs, that is a selling point to be proud of! But the potency only increases about 10 percent."
"For people with their life on the line, these 10 percent are very important. Selling better potions for the same retail price as others… As expected of the famous Bareare pharmacy."
Listening to the members of the Sword of Darkness discussing potions with Nfirea, Ainz fell into deep thought.