“You are now a chair, understand?”
“Yes!”
Ainz shifted his gaze from Shalltear whose voice was getting shrilled, onto Demiurge.
“— Sorry Demiurge, that’s how it is.”
“I see! Marvellous! To use a Guardian as a chair! This is a chair customized specifically for the Supreme Master! As expected of Ainz-sama. I would never have thought of that!”
“Is, is that so…”
In the face of the glittering respect shown on Demiurge was expressing, Ainz averted his face, not understanding why he was smiling so brilliantly. After this, a beautiful woman said to Ainz with a wonderful smile.
“My apologies Ainz-sama. Please allow me to excuse myself. I will return shortly.”
“You need something Albedo? Permission granted, carry on.”
After thanking him, Albedo left the room. Immediately, a woman screaming ‘Hyaaahhhhhhh!’ and the sound of a wall being smashed violently could be heard, and the whole fort seemed to be shaking.
After a minute or so, Albedo returned to the room dominated by silence with her usual smile.
“I have returned, Ainz-sama. Oh right, Aura. I accidentally ran into the wall when I left the room. It seemed to be damaged, could you repair it later? I am very sorry.”
“Ah, ermm… Okay, I will get it done.”
Ainz swallowed the words he wanted to say and sighed. He focused his wandering gaze and fixated on the staff emitting an aura of terror.
The real staff of Ainz Ooal Gown was not brought here, this was a replica— a prototype in replicating the guild weapon. Made from parts dug from the depths of the treasury, it was a prop that looked almost perfect on the outside.
The guild will fall if the guild weapon was destroyed, so it could not be brought out so carelessly. It was entrusted to the Guardian of the Cherry Blossom Zone in the 8th floor for protection right now.
We did come up with countermeasures for if we got robbed of our rings, but it is not easy to just find a place… to test it out…
As he was thinking about that, Shalltear suddenly fidgeted, adjusting herself for Ainz to sit more comfortably. This made Ainz look down at the back of Shalltear’s head with a strange sense of unease.
Her breathing was ragged.
It must be heavy for her. Under Ainz was the slim back of Shalltear who looked to be fourteen. A grown man was sitting on the back of this young girl. Realizing how perverted, shameful and cruel that was, Ainz felt he might have gone too far.
Shalltear was a NPC created by his companion in the past. Even Peroronchino wouldn’t abuse her like this. This action was akin to soiling the memories of his past comrades. It was foolish to think of this as a self-punishment.
To torture Shalltear like this… unforgivable.
“Shalltear, does it hurt?”
Ainz was planning to say ‘if that is so, let’s end this’. Shalltear looked up with a face blushing with passion, her expression full of pleasure.
“It’s not painful at all! This is like a reward!”
She kept exhaling the heat stored within her body, reflecting Ainz’ face in her dazed eyes. Her wet tongue brushed against her lips, reflecting light lecherously. She squirmed her body like a snake.
“… Hnngh!”
Ainz felt the urge to get away immediately.
He almost gave in to this urge.
No, I can’t do that.
He was punishing Shalltear, but Shalltear’s mistake was actually Ainz’ fault. That’s why enduring the urge to get up was Ainz’ punishment.
Ainz destroyed the complicated emotions welling up within him.
He tried his best to ignore the chair that was panting and squirming. But he couldn’t help thinking Peroronchino, what a perverted setting this is.
“… Well then, let’s move on to the serious topic. Did we intimidate them?”
“I think it was perfect, Ainz-sama.”
“Exactly, just look at the lizardmen’s faces.”
Ainz smiled in relief after hearing what the Guardians said. Actually, it was impossible to tell the changes in the expressions of the lizardmen. They might be closer to humans than reptiles, but their facial expressions were totally different from humans.
“Is that so. Then the first phase to awe them with might is a success.”
Ainz exhaled in relief.
He used the Super-tier magic ‘The Creation’ that could only be used four times a day after all. If that didn’t work, nothing else would.
“Demiurge, how long would it take to find out exactly how large the frozen area is?”
“We have already started to do so, but progress is slow as the area is wider than expected. Please grant us more time.”
Ainz stopped Demiurge who was about to kneel. Ainz covered his mouth with his bony finger and thought. The area of effect being larger than expected could be considered a success in terms of magical experimentations.
‘The Creation’ is a Super-tier magic that could change the terrain itself. In YGGDRASIL, it was used to guard against the heat of volcanoes or the cold of freezing lands.
It was possible to show their might without using Super-tier magic.
Unrelated to this deployment, Ainz had always wanted to perform this experiment in determining the area of effect. ‘The Creation’ was a magic that had an amazingly large area of effect, and could cover the entire 8th floor in Ainz's experiment inside Nazarick. But it wasn’t clear what effect it would have in the world outside.
In YGGDRASIL the spell effect could cover an ‘Area’, but how big would an ‘Area’ be in this world? Ainz wanted to find out. If it could cover an entire plain, that would be too big.
Similarly, freezing the entire lake was going overboard. Care should be taken when using Super-tier magic.
“Aura, how is our security net?”
“Yes! We have deployed the undead assigned by Ainz-sama to secure a two kilometer radius area. But there has been no signs of anything special coming in so far. I have also sent monsters specializing in scouting to patrol the area within 4 km, but we have not spotted anything suspicious.”
“I see… The enemy might be hiding from detection as they draw close, what about the countermeasures against that?”
“There are no problems. With Shalltear’s cooperation, we have sent out undead proficient in reconnaissance.”
“Splendid.”
Aura smiled happily after Ainz praised her. Her depressed expression was gone without a trace.
“We have exposed ourselves to this extent, why haven’t the people who used the World class item against Shalltear made a move?”
Ainz asked again under the gaze of everyone present, but did not direct his question to anyone in particular.
“Why aren’t they performing surveillance on Nazarick and this place?”
“Could it be that they are surveilling us with World class items that could not be detected by normal means?”
Ainz tilt his head in response to Demiurge’s counter question.
“… I did consider this possibility, that’s why I use Momon… If they are really using World class item to spy on us, they wouldn’t be able to spy on Momon who also owns a World class item. That’s why I have been assuming they will use physical means such as scouts to watch us… They might use magic surveillance too, but it should be orthodox means…”
Ainz realized the Guardians around him seemed confused, which meant his explanation wasn’t clear enough.
“Well… How should I put this… In the past, we owned a mine that could generate a type of metal that was rare. As we were monopolizing the supply, the market price for it soared and people started scheming to rob it from us. The item they used that time was Ouroboros. It was a top World class item known as one of the ‘Twenty’.”