Or maybe in his mind, he already thought of the Magic Caster as a strange person. This would actually be more advantageous for Ainz…
"Should I prepare you something to drink?"
"Oh, no, I'm not thirsty, please do not bother."
The chief’s wife had already left the room and went outside — there were a lot of things that needed to be done. At the moment only the village chief and Ainz are in the house.
Ainz first questions were about the neighboring countries and he never even heard of the names mentioned by the village chief. Although he prepared himself psychologically, saying to himself that nothing will surprise him, but he was still surprised after hearing it..
At the beginning, Ainz constantly imagined that this world was based on the lore of YGGDRASIL. Since you could use YGGDRASIL magic in this world, perhaps it was somewhat related to YGGDRASIL. However, the names he heard had absolutely no relation to it.
The neighboring countries were the Kingdom of Re-Estize, the Baharuth Empire and the Slane Theocracy. In the Nordic mythology and lore of YGGDRASIL, these names didn’t appear.
His eyes were constantly shifting and his body was shaky. Ainz put his metal-gloved hands on the table and was barely able to keep his balance. He already knew that he arrived in a strange world and was mentally prepared for it, but it was impossible to not be surprised.
The impact was worse than expected.
This was the first time ever since his body became undead that he felt such a dramatic impact.
Trying to stay calm, Ainz recalled the names of those neighboring countries he just heard and their geographical conditions.
Beginning with the closest ones, Re-Estize Kingdom and Baharuth Empire. These two countries were separated by the Azellerisia mountains. To the south of the mountains was a large vast forest which belonged to the Kingdom. This village and the nearby fortress city were both located at the edge of the forest.
These two countries were constantly fighting against each other and there were skirmishes almost every year in the wilderness near the fortress city.
As for the country in the south, that was the Slane Theocracy.
To explain the relationship between these three countries in simpler term, it was like drawing a circle and putting a “T” in the center. This explanation might be a bit vague but it should be easy to understand. The Kingdom of Re-Estize on the left, the Baharuth Empire on the right and the Slane Theocracy to the south. There appeared to be other countries but the village chief only knew only about those three.
As for political events, there was no way for the chief of a small village to know more.
Which means ───
"… just now I made a fool of myself."
Just because the armor of the knights bore the emblem of the Baharuth empire, the village chief had assumed they were Baharuthian knights. But since this place was bordering the Slane Theocracy, they might have just as well been Slane knights in disguise.
Releasing all the knights had been a mistake, he should’ve kept at least one person to ask some questions. Now it was too late for that.
If this had really been the doing of the Slane Theocracy, then maybe he should warn the Empire. As for the Kingdom, since the villagers had been saved everything should be alright.
Ainz was deep in thought.
Was he the only one who came to this world?
That was impossible, the chances for other players to be here as well should be high. Perhaps Meromero also came here. The next step should be considering what to do in case he encountered other players.
From a Japanese person’s point of view, if other players got transported here as well then they should stick together. It would be best to cooperate as much as possible with each other when that happened. As long it had nothing to do with Ainz Ooal Gown, it wouldn’t matter what of concessions he would have to make.
The only problem would be if the other party considered him as an enemy. Although the probability for that to happen was very small, it wasn’t completely impossible.
Ainz Ooal Gown had always played the role of the bad guys and had been PKing all the time. As a result they were generally disliked. It wasn’t clear if that resentment has disappeared or not. Maybe the other party would try to bring him to justice, driven by their anger and hate.
In order to prevent being hated, he first had to try to avoid hostile behaviors in the surrounding area. Massacring the local residents, especially innocent people, would very likely enrage other players who had yet to lose their humanity. Of course, if he could provide the other side with a good reason for his acts, it might become a different matter. Saving attacked villagers from being killed for example.
All his future actions had to be justified with commendable reasoning rather than convenience. In other words, it was possible that next time he had to do things he didn’t want to do, but there was no way around it.
Still, if the other party still felt lingering resentment towards Ainz Ooal Gown because of the past, then fighting would become unavoidable. So he must draft out a countermeasure for that situation.
As for the fighting force of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, if the opponent had around thirty level 100 players, he should be able to easily destroy them. Since he was also to use the legendary stored inside the Great Tomb of Nazarick, it could be compared to an impregnable fortress. If the enemies were only just as strong as those knights, the it should be easy for Nazarick to repel them.
But as one could imagine, fighting in a fortress without receiving reinforcements would be a very disadvantageous situation. Using Ainz Ooal Gown’s legendary items would make it very easy to kill them, but Ainz’ level would be reduced every time he released its maximum power. If he used it to repel every attack, there would be a day when he became unable to use them.
Ainz understood how easy it was to make mistakes or to not notice certain things when he just concentrated on fighting. But Ainz wasn’t a child, and so he would take the worse case scenarios into account before he started to act. That way he could think of counter-measures before the problem even occurred.
If he just wanted to live, then he wouldn’t need to think so much. He could just be like a beast and live in the forest. But because of his strength and the proud name he was wearing right now he couldn’t allow himself to do so.
If he wanted to live peacefully with others, he would just have to improvise.
Therefore it became an important as to how he would face combat in the future. He had to properly expand his military strength. Next he had to gather information about this world, including any news about other players.
“… This should be sufficient.”
“Is there anything wrong?”
“No, it’s nothing. It’s just that my predictions were different from reality, so I forgot myself. Right, are there any other matters you can tell me about?”
“Ah, yes I understand.”
The Village Chief’s talk changed to the subject of monsters.
This world was the same as in YGGDRASIL in the aspect that they both have monsters. Inside forests, there were Magical Beasts as well, in particular in the area called “Forest of the Sage Kings”. There were also Dwarves, Forest Sprites or Fairies, Goblins, Orcs, Ogres and other demi-humans. There was even a demi-human country established somewhere.