Overlord (Light Novel)

Ainz, Aura, and Mare were having their morning meal.

Of course, because Ainz couldn’t eat, it was really just Aura and Mare who were eating. It wasn’t only the dishes—which brought out the flavors of the ingredients—that the Dark Elves had provided them.

There were also things from Nazarick that Ainz had put into his Inventory and brought here with them.

After each bite of the dishes the Dark Elves had provided them, Aura and Mare would write their impressions of it on the paper next to them, they would then be shown to the intellectuals of the various races in E-Rantel and researched.

However, as of right now, they had not made a single surprising discovery—including things of monetary value. They didn’t know what would happen to their relationship with this village hereafter, but there didn’t seem to be any materials that they could use as the basis to form beneficial trade relations with.

The reason Aura and Mare were recording their impressions of the food after each bite was so that when they were asked about it, even Ainz would be able to answer.

However, there was just one problem: being used to the food of Nazarick, no good impressions of the Dark Elf cuisine came from the refined palates of Aura and Mare. But the only people who could possibly say “it doesn’t taste good” to the people who made it were people who didn’t consider others' feelings, people who wanted to worsen their relationship. In other words, and for the sake of the argument, children.

Therefore, their meal took quite a long time to finish.

They would take a bite, chew it, raise their eyebrows, and then write their honest impressions; after that, Ainz would flip through the notebook they wrote in, knit his eyebrows, and finally write a more flattering impression. To write “the ingredients are fresh” every time would hardly qualify as a proper impression. For that reason, it was necessary to change up the words even if just by a little bit.

When they had finished writing down their impressions—which were so painstakingly hard to come up with that if they had a thesaurus, they would have immediately started flipping through it—Aura and Mare were exhausted. They looked as if they had been in an eating contest.

It was precisely because he knew how hard their work had been that Ainz told them, “thank you for your hard work.”

At the sound of Ainz’s voice, the two of them stiffened their faces.

“Nah, this sort of thing is nothing…you know, uncle!”

“R-right. B-because we just ate and wrote our impressions.”

No, it was just as Mare had said. However, there was no way he could have said things like “yeah, you’re right” or “exactly” since he had a body that couldn’t eat. Their hard work had been for Ainz’s sake from the very beginning.

Even if those two, who were children, were to give their honest impressions, it —probably—wouldn’t be that big of a problem. The only one for whom it would have been a major problem for was Ainz. If Ainz were able to eat, he wouldn’t have had to have them rack their brains this much.

It would never be enough, no matter how many times he thanked them. Although, if he were to declare his gratitude over and over again, the two of them would probably feel weighed down by it.

That was why Ainz didn’t say any more than that, and asked for their impressions of the meal.

Those honest impressions were the same for both of them, and were the same every time. That said, he still had to know just in case.

“Maybe we should have offered them some well-seasoned food from the outset and told them that we eat this kind of food. If we had, they might have tried to make the same sort of dish.”

“They may ha…might’ve?” while tilting her head in puzzlement at her own words, Aura continued. “Only sprinkling salt on the meat when you’re grilling is simple and not a bad idea, but maybe their method of preserving the freshness isn’t perfect. The gaminess of the meat really lingers in your mouth…right? I think there are people who would even say that’s fine, but I don’t really like it, y’know?”

A fair amount of time had passed since she had come to this village, but Aura’s way of speaking was still inconsistent after all.

“I-I agree. It’s a little gamey.”

“I see.”

“The vegetables aren’t too bad, but there isn’t much sweetness to them and the bitterness or acidity would be the first things you’d notice about them. I might recommend them to people who like that sort of thing but…Couldn't they make condiments with fruit, I wonder?”

“I want some dressing.”

“I see.”

It really was the same as always after all.

“Then, I’m sorry but, could you two show me what you wrote?”

When he saw what they had written, he understood just how hard they had worked on complementing the food.

{I really do appreciate your hard work.} Ainz lowered his head to the two of them in his mind.

After briefly scanning over it—not that there was very much—and desperately trying to remember all of it, Ainz returned the notebook to them. With this, their morning preparations were over.

Then the next thing he should do was head to the office.

“Okay! It’s about time, so I’ll be heading out. I think I’ll also be home late today, so could you go ahead and eat without me?

The two of them answered in unison. Just then, Ainz noticed that Aura looked like there was something she wanted to say.

“What’s the matter, Aura? Is something bothering you?”

“Oh, ye, err, yeah, that’s right uncle. You’re going to learn how to make medicine today, too, right?”

“That’s right, exactly. Today he’s going to teach me how to make medicine that’s a little more difficult. I used [Gate] to go ask Nfirea about the name of the medicine, but he said that even he didn’t know it. Really, it would’ve been faster if we could use [Message] but,” Ainz let out a sigh. “Well, when you consider that people who are enemies of Nazarick could possibly be using it, it might be better to just leave them as they are.”

“—Is it really okay to do that?”

Aura’s tone of voice changed, so Ainz also changed his tone to match.

If this was a question she made as a Floor Guardian, then it was also necessary for Ainz to answer as the ruler of Nazarick.

“I do not know…But, I have no intention of making that medicine, because if the medicinal herbs it uses also exist in YGGDRASIL, I will absolutely fail.”

It was the same with cooking.

Because Ainz didn’t have the required skill, he couldn’t use medicinal herbs, alchemical reagents, or other things to make medicine in YGGDRASIL. But, by using the technology of this world and the medicinal herbs unique to it, he could make medicine. Therefore, when he was receiving instructions from the pharmacist, he had to first ask what kind of medicinal herbs they were using.

However—

“—There really are a lot of mysteries, huh. I can’t use the medicinal herbs of YGGDRASIL, but what would happen if they were raised in the soil of this world? Would they be judged as being particular to this world? Or would that not work?

“P-probably the, umm, the latter I think.”

“You’re probably right. Then, what would happen if their efficacy dropped? Isn’t it true that the efficacy of whatever is grown in a man-made medicinal herb field drops? According to Nfirea, the reason for not making medicinal herb fields in E-Rantel and other places is because of the soil, or because of insufficient nutrients. He said the effects were weak. Though it seems that is the very reason why he was conducting experiments by making a medicinal herb field in the middle of that forest.”

“Yes. It does seem like that is the case. It was small, but there was one in the forest. Then there were also a lot of logs with mushrooms growing on them, as well as ones with moss growing on them. I remember seeing that kind of thing when I secretly checked in on them. It really is pretty tough to secretly get close to that village…”

Aura said earnestly.

The goblins under Enri’s control were standing guard in a wide area around Carne Village. In particular, there seemed to be a being called the Goblin Trapper. Unlike damage-type traps, the alarm-type traps set by the Goblin Trapper were more difficult to discover.

“But, if there aren’t enough nutrients, then I think we just have to use items and have Mare work hard on them…”

Upon receiving the gazes from the two of them, Mare shrank back.

“Uh, well, you see, I don’t think it’s something that I can’t do, but I think what might be re-really necessary is the nutrients in the soil… O-Of course, I’m secretly doing that at night in the E-Rantel adventurer’s guild’s medicinal herb garden, but I also have a feeling that it’s not really doing much good…”

Though they may look the same, when they actually tried making potions using the medicinal herbs from the guild’s field, a troubling result appeared—there were signs that the effect was slightly inferior.

Was it because there was an overabundance of nutrients from what Mare was doing? A coincidence? Was something else lacking? Was there magic suited to medicinal herb cultivation? Because there were a great many elements that could be the cause of the problem, they had not yet been led to an answer.

“Even though several years have passed since we came to this world, there really are a lot of things that we still don’t understand, huh.”

“Yes.”

“Y-yes.”

Every time their knowledge bank grew, every time they discovered a thing they didn’t understand, the mysteries of this world grew as if they were connected. Ainz didn’t know whether or not you could say they were fortunate, but the only question that remained was if they were a high priority; as a result, the things they hadn’t investigated and put off until later accumulated.

If they were able to leave it to the servants or summoned monsters, they might be able to solve them quickly, but unfortunately, servants and summoned monsters couldn’t do a portion of the experiments.

Ainz had considered that at a minimum, the experiments had to be done by beings who were born in the same way that the NPCs or Players were created. However, if that were the case, then even if Ainz—a Player—and an NPC were to do the same things, there might be differences in the results. If he believed that it was necessary to investigate something, they would need to have Ainz, an NPC, and a servant—three people repeating the same experiment.

“If we do this kind of cultivation experiment, it might be fine to leave it to the people we have placed under our control, but important experiments and such can’t be entrusted to those who could become our potential enemies in this world. And if that is the case, it means they must only be performed by those from within Nazarick…but we don’t have that kind of leeway in terms of personnel. It’s a troublesome thing.”

{So that means while being on guard so that other countries’ technologies don’t make breakthroughs, we’ll only be improving the technology in Nazarick so that it benefits us, huh.}

It was troublesome but—

{—There’s no doubt that if I left it up to Albedo or Demiurge that they could take care of it one way or another. Those two are smart, after all.}

Or rather, it was because it was those two that there was a chance they were already tackling it, so it might just be unnecessary worrying on his part. For the time being, he probably only had to raise the issue.

{Just like last time, all I would have to do is make a summoned monster, write it down, and throw it into the suggestion box.}

If he did that, he could avoid the danger of it appearing like he was “only just realizing that now?”

{—Whoops!}

“—Crap. It’s already time! Well, I’ll be going then.”

Faster than he could even see the two of them nodding, Ainz flew out their borrowed Elf Tree.

As expected, there was no way he could be late. Even in his former working life, he hadn’t been late even once no matter how absorbed in YGGDRASIL he had been, for instance.

{Hurry up, hurry up.}

Light shone on Ainz’s face.

The sunshine falling through the slight gaps made by the thick branches of the trees told him the weather would be good again today.

With the sounds of their master’s footsteps no longer audible to Aura, she finally opened her mouth.

“Somehow Ai…haaa.”

Aura sighed. When she was alone with Mare, it was impossible for her to keep up the act. This was bad. On that point, Mare wasn’t really acting like he was acting.

{That’s a little unfair, isn’t it?} Aura gave him a reproachful stare.

“Huh? Err, w-what’s wrong sis?”

“Hm? Nothing at all. It’s nothing, okay?” It wasn’t as if anything would change by taking her anger out on him. Aura regained control of herself and said what she was trying to say just a moment ago.

“Uncle looked like he was somehow having fun, didn’t he?”

Mare nodded in agreement.

To Aura, that point was something she really didn't understand very well. “Hnnngh”, she groaned. Her head cocked to the side as she asked a question.

“At any rate, he’s been going to the Chief Pharmacist’s place every day since we came to this village, but I wonder if there’s any value in going that far?”

“I wonder about that…B-but, you know? Since even I can’t cast druid spells that make use of these trees, maybe they also have independently developed pharmaceuticals, right?”

“Since that smart uncle of ours considers it interesting, that might be it but…in this kind of countryside village that’s a little unbelievable, isn’t it? In the first place, isn’t it strictly the magic that makes use of these trees that you can’t use?

“Hmmm…I wonder? If it were a different person, uh, they might be able to use it, but I get the feeling that it’s like domestic magic for me. It’s probably Elven magic that was independently developed in this world…But, even so, if uncle is going there every day, there would absolutely be value in just that, right?”

It was a sound argument that left her at a loss for words.

“Well, I guess that’s probably it,” Aura looked up at the ceiling and then once more returned her gaze to Mare. “Then, I wonder why uncle looks like he’s having fun every day?”

“I-it’s probably that, right. I-I wonder if he is just having fun getting ahold of new knowledge—information. Since uncle really values information.”

“Aah, now I see. Uncle’s like that, isn’t he? That’s probably the reason why everything moves according to his plans, right?”

It wasn’t merely just that he was smart. That very attachment to information, what you could call a thirst for it, was probably connected to his wisdom to see through all.

She remembered hearing from Demiurge that he had fixed his gaze a thousand years ahead, but when she saw her master’s attitude, she had no choice but to accept that it was indeed true.

(T/N: it was 千年 in the raw so Aura probably misremembered or it’s a mistake by Maru.)

A sigh of deep respect and admiration leaked from Aura’s lips.

As expected of the great personage who had brought together the Supreme Beings.

For Aura, Bukubukuchagama was the greatest of the Supreme Beings. Ainz came in second for her, edging out Peroroncino. Ankoro Mocchi Mochi and Yamaiko were tied at a distant fourth. The rest of the Supreme Beings were all whatever. In Mare's case, his top three were the same, but everyone else was equal.

“As expected of uncle. And in exchange for that—” Aura’s face was gloomy. “—When it comes to us”

Mare had the same gloomy look on his face.

“Y-yeah. Special information, the information uncle seems to be seeking out, we haven’t gotten ahold of a single bit of it at all…and even so, we’re doing it again, aren’t we?”

“It can’t be helped now, can it? Even I really hate playing House again, but then, what else do we have if we say we want to play a different game? There’s no way we could lose, and if we lost on purpose it’d be a bother if they thought we were making fun of them, wouldn’t it? So for the time being, that means it’d be better for us to get along with them.”

The two of them were silent.

As things stood, they would be playing House again. However, they didn’t have the perfect excuse to refuse to play it, nor did they have an alternative idea for a game to play. If this hadn’t been an order from a Supreme Being, they might have said they weren’t feeling well and avoided them, but they couldn’t do that.

“…For the time being, we know my abilities as a Tamer don’t work on Dark Elves, but that might be information that nobody else has verified until now,” seeing a bitter smile appearing on Mare’s face, she continued. “Incidentally, Level 100 Dark Elves are included in that.”

Mare, upon remembering something, looked pretty disgusted.

♦ ♦ ♦

Under the sunshine that leaked through the gaps in the trees, Ainz was walking across a bridge that hung from a tree.

From time to time, he would see a Dark Elf waving at him. Not only that, but the Dark Elf walking up to him from the opposite direction would talk to him with a smile.

“Heading to the Chief Pharmacist’s place again today, Fior-san?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Ainz answered smoothly.

At first this fake name hadn’t felt right to him, but even though only a few days had passed, he was already completely used to it.

“It’s embarrassing, but my lack of talent is making my temporary master take a lot of time and effort to teach me.”

“You possess wonderful talents as an Arcane-type magic caster, Fior-san. But even so, it would be even more surprising if you also had talent as a pharmacist. It’s the same thing as there being no one who excels as both a ranger and a druid.”

Ainz had killed a magical beast—a Giant Hypnotism Python that had approached the village—using magic once. It was that course of events that led him to win deep respect from the Dark Elves of this village.

And so it was with the people who came to talk to him, and the people who waved at him. In all of them, he could see the respect hidden within them.

“I feel better from hearing you say that. I would love to continue talking with you like this, but it is not as if I can keep my temporary master waiting, so if you would excuse me here.”

“I am terribly sorry. I’m the one who should apologize for stopping you when you are in such a hurry.”

Exchanging ‘no, no, I’m the one who…” and other social pleasantries, Ainz started walking on. Finally, he arrived at the laboratory he had been frequently visiting these past few days.

While calling out “I’m sorry I’m late,” he entered the Elf Tree.

It wasn’t as if he was actually late. Rather, in this village, the only way of measuring the passage of time was individual intuition. Because of that, aside from the hunters, they had a loose sense of time, and hardly ever made promises based on it. Even still, they had a rough sense of it. Therefore, it wasn’t like it had been specified that Ainz must absolutely come at this time.

But even so, since he had been a little later than usual, he said it as a matter of courtesy.

In fact—

“—You’re not really late though?”

A voice called back from inside.

In the familiar sight of the work room, the Chief Pharmacist—with unfamiliar hand movements—slowly, ever so slowly placed the ground medicinal herbs on a dish, without turning around to look at him.

Ainz, taking a seat next to him, took the loaded dish and placed it on the scales. On the opposite side there were weights that had been placed on the scale.

Unfortunately, they didn’t balance the first time, so Ainz repeated the task of changing the weights several times until they finally became even. After that, Ainz wrote down the mass of the weights on the stack of paper he had prepared.

“By all means, please continue.”

The Chief Pharmacist, who had been irritatedly watching Ainz place the weights, took the dish with the medicinal herbs in a rough fashion and transferred them to another vessel. He was doing it carefully, but there was no way he could get all of the ground up medicinal herbs off of the dish. A slight trace of the medicinal herbs, as well as the juice from crushing them, remained on the dish.

Looking at that with an irritated expression on his face, the Chief Pharmacist tried to transfer them one more time using a spatula.

If he had something like a rubber one, he might have been able to cleanly scrape them off, but unfortunately it was a wooden spatula. He was able to get most of it, but some still remained on the dish.

“Ugghh! This is such a pain in the ass!!!”

The Chief Pharmacist shouted while scratching his head in frustration.

It was definitely an attitude he hadn’t shown to Ainz when they first met. In the few days he had been instructing Ainz, he had opened up and now openly displayed his anger at Ainz’s proposed method by over-reacting. In other words, his reaction carried the meaning that they should “come on and stop it with this way of doing things already.”

“Please bear with it, temporary master.”

The Chief Pharmacist turned to Ainz with a sour look on his face.

Maybe if it were a woman or child, a different emotion might have arisen in him. Yet, even if a man—a full-fledged adult member of society—had shown that kind of attitude, Ainz wouldn’t have thought anything particular of it even if they were handsome, for instance.

“…Don’t make me do something that’s such a pain in the ass. Temporary apprentice.”

“No, I told you the reason before, did I not? And you agreed to it, did you not? It was not as if I forced you to do it, did I?”

“…At that time I thought there was logic in what you were saying, since there’s no way something like a Giant could be in this village. However, I thought about it while I slept, and making you remember it in your head is still important after all. Why can’t you just measure it properly yourself later when you’ve returned to the city…”

Maybe he was quickly losing his confidence, but the Chief Pharmacist’s voice slowly grew quieter.

Meanwhile, Ainz mentally clicked his tongue. {So he noticed that, huh.}

He didn’t know whether the Chief Pharmacist’s act of noticing {that} had been fast or slow, but he had wanted him to remain deceived.

The reason why they were putting the medicinal herbs on a plate was because the Chief Pharmacist had tried to make Ainz remember it using his hands and tongue before.

If it were just his hands he could still fool him if Ainz worked hard at manipulating his illusion. However, tasting things was completely out of the question. Even if he were told to “understand the numbness when placing it on your tongue,” it would be impossible no matter what for the tongueless Ainz. But, there was no way he could tell that to the Chief Pharmacist.

Therefore, he made an excuse. “Just as there are giants and other huge races in my city, there are also races like dwarves, who are smaller than us. I don’t have confidence that the same amount of medicine would heal those kinds of people. And so, I want to correctly measure the amounts of medicinal herbs used for just one person’s worth of the medicine that you are making for me and then I could make medicine for each race while taking into account their body weight and other things.”

To the Chief Pharmacist, who specialized in treating Dark Elves, those would be the words that made him think that it certainly was a valid concern.

Ainz also didn’t see it as a total lie. However, he also understood that it wasn’t the truth, either.

This was because, if anything, Ainz’s logic was reasonable in his original world, but perhaps not so reasonable in this one.

In this world, a different physical law—magic—existed. If that were the case, then things like potions, which had one foot in magic, could no doubt deviate from the common sense of the old world that Ainz knew.

In fact, even a small amount of potion healed a giant’s wounds just the same as it did for smaller races.

Of course, because the maximum amount of HP differed between an ordinary human and a Frost Giant, the amount of recovery would appear to be different. However, they were in fact the same. Of course, because he hadn’t taken his experiments that far, this was just a guess. This was based on Ainz’s knowledge of YGGDRASIL, which was the closest to the laws of this world. Therefore, it didn’t mean that there was no chance that the content of what he said would match.

{If I think about it, it might have been better for me to say that I have a taste disorder at the beginning.}

If he had, he wouldn’t be having this trouble right now. That said, if he had told that sort of lie, he would probably have ended up bearing some other burden.

{…Even if I regret it right now, there’s nothing I can do about it. What I need right now is something to deceive him with, something he’ll accept…but nothing’s coming to mind. It was a failure on my part for thinking that I had deceived him well and for not thinking up additional excuses.}

Ainz moved the illusory face and slowly closed its eyes. Since it was just an illusion, his field of vision remained as it was, unchanged.

Since those two had told him that, “your face is motionless, like you’re wearing a mask,” he had been intentionally closing his eyes from time to time. Because the parts of his face not concealed by the cloth were his eyes and eyebrows—the places where emotions were most visible—Ainz himself hadn’t noticed that it would be a little unsettling if he focused his vision on one point and didn’t move an inch from that point.

Therefore, under the supervision of the twins, he practiced and practiced. Now, if he consciously did it like this—the process of changing his expression was clumsy, and he couldn’t possibly do it unconsciously—he had improved his skills enough to somehow look like he had closed his eyes.

How had he reacted to Ainz’s silence? The Chief Pharmacist continued.

“Furthermore, doing this kind of thing is…that’s right! Productivity drops, that’s what it means. For the amount of medicine I can make in a day to decrease is a huge loss for this village!!”

It was a sound argument.

Because there were a number of druids in the village, though they were of a lower position, they could generally heal urgent injuries. However, those who needed the pharmacist’s medicines were the hunters and others who spent their time outside of the village—where the druids were not.

If a druid accompanied the hunters, they might be able to help them when they were injured. However, at the actual hunting grounds, a druid who wasn’t good at concealment would be a burden on them. From the perspective of someone without much hunting knowledge like Ainz, he would consider saying, “why don’t you just create a base camp and have the druids on standby there?” but this village had its own rules. In most cases, that kind of thing was borne from the results of trial and error. They had no knowledge of that practice in this Sea of Trees, and there was no way he could tell them that in his position as an outsider.

“In the first place, who can claim that there are no alterations to the medicinal herbs when placed on this dish, right?”

These scales and dishes were old ones used by the Bareare family, who as far as Ainz knew were the most outstanding alchemists in this world. Since even they were using something like this, there probably shouldn’t be any problems with them. Of course, Ainz had already told him that. He had told him that these were things he had received from his master, so there shouldn’t be a problem.

But even still, the Chief Pharmacist persisted “Did that master of yours use the same kinds of medicinal herbs? You can’t assert that there have been no changes in these medicinal herbs, can you?” When Ainz was asked that, he was hard pressed to give him an answer. In fact, he would have to ask how they could have changed.

“So far as it goes, in regards to that, I said before that it is believed that there are no differences.”

“You said ‘is believed’ didn’t you? That’s not a guarantee now is it? In other words, not even you yourself have the conviction that it absolutely will not happen—which means you’re not confident, right? Are you okay with that? Medicine can sometimes harm people. It might change into something that harms people because of the alterations caused by placing it in this dish, right?”

“…First of all, I believe that will not happen.”

“Of course, that may be true. However, to investigate if that is true, you will need to make all the medicines and confirm it, won’t you? First and foremost, when you investigate, if there was a minute change, you might not know immediately that it had been altered. Then, when a few days or weeks have passed, it might change significantly. If it were used on a person in critical condition, a life that could have been saved might change to one that cannot because of that small alteration, might it not?”

A sound argument yet again.

“Might,” while he argued against that hypothetical, Ainz didn’t have any proof that could absolutely declare that he was wrong. Thus, it was impossible for him to win the argument.

And adding on top of that, Ainz’s knowledge was just a thin veneer. This was bad. He couldn’t come up with a hypothetical story based on his knowledge as a pharmacist. If someone from the Bareare family were here, they could probably immediately refute it.

However, he couldn’t back down here.

Considering the possibility that he would be instructed to remember with his tongue, he really couldn’t back down.

“If that is the case, please just do it like that, temporary master. I will carry the data back to the city, and as temporary master told me to, I will make all the medicine and investigate the various effects.”

Faster than the Chief Pharmacist could get a word out, Ainz piled on his declaration. To give an opponent a chance to counterattack was the act of a fool. Incidentally, because Ainz was a fool, he was constantly receiving his opponent’s counterattack—he wondered if that was what they called friendly-fire? Especially from Demiurge.

“The number of pharmacists in the city isn’t in the ratio as it is here. If I were able to gain their cooperation, I would be able to make a large amount of medicine at once, wouldn’t I? Moreover, because there are various races living there, in order to investigate whether anybody can use them without any problems, I must also borrow the wisdom of the pharmacists of those various races, mustn’t I?

The Chief Pharmacist looked just a little uncomfortable. The recipes of the medicines passed on to one’s own tribe—be they secret or otherwise—being spread to many people wouldn’t be a pleasant thing, would it? Ainz agreed with that. Rather than it being about protecting a vested interest, giving knowledge to beings who might become your enemies was sheer stupidity.

In fact, even Ainz didn’t seriously intend to do that. That was just some appropriate words he weaved to trick him.

Ainz had also been taught this by his friends.

It was precisely because the fruits of knowledge were monopolized that they had value.

“Since it seems that you have no objections, temporary master, if you would, please continue.”

Upon receiving Ainz’s counterattack, the Chief Pharmacist raised his voice in what sounded like disagreement. However, it seemed like a decisive way to mount his own counterattack hadn’t come to him. Showily drooping his shoulders, he once more began putting medicinal herbs on the dish.

His movements were swift. It would be tough for Ainz to take notes while completing his own tasks like this.

It appeared that that was exactly what his opponent was aiming for.

Even though the Chief Pharmacist’s own work was finished, if Ainz wasn’t finished with his, there was no doubt that he would give him a snide comment or something of that sort. Rather than this being his attempt to say “let’s hurry up and finish this unpleasant work,” there was no doubt in Ainz’s mind that this was his revenge for being beaten in their argument.

{Don’t you underestimate me!}

Certainly, there was probably no way he could win against the Chief Pharmacist, who had spent many years making medicine, in terms of speed. However, he had also spent the last few days next to him repeating the same simple task over and over again. From the very beginning, he had no intention of admitting defeat.

{Uooooooooooo!} While his fighting spirit burned in his heart, Ainz also frantically started his work.

He capitalized on all of his experience up till now to instantly find the weights that suited the dish of medicinal herbs he was handed. If he didn’t have time to take notes, then he just had to pound the information into his head. Ainz could never say that he had a keen mind, but that didn’t mean his ability to remember things was non-existent.

As Ainz’s speed increased, the Chief Pharmacist moved even faster.

They were both wordlessly absorbed in their tasks as if they were competing against one another—if a cool-headed third party were there, they would absolutely have thrown in a quip or two.

{However…this is interesting.}

While Ainz was remembering how to make the medicine, he thought about its effects.

{This medicine’s effect is very weak. However, if the medicine and that method are used simultaneously, perhaps they’ll have an unexpected synergy?}

To the Players of YGGDRASIL, using the absurdly large amount of data in the game to come up with new tactics was one of the most enjoyable things they could do. Ainz—no, Suzuki Satoru— was no exception.

Using the technologies of this world to create medicines that weren’t in YGGDRASIL revealed the hidden possibility that they could be used in new battle tactics.

{Using magic items rather than magic to compensate for your weak points…No, doing that would take time. Something that can be done in a much shorter period of time…}

In practice, he would probably have to verify whether or not there was any synergy between them. Even so, Ainz felt excitement at the prospect of acquiring a new tactic.

{I already have a connection…If I said something, he would probably teach me a lot more things…}

The reason he hadn’t done so was because up till now, Ainz had been spending all of his spare time to study something far more different. He had left the acquisition of the technology of this world to Titus and everyone else.

{Frankly, managing an organization—a state—is impossible for me. Rather than doing that, wouldn’t it be better for me to be placed in a position of technological research after all? Plus, I enjoy this more.}

He once again thought about what he had vaguely felt since the beginning, when he started learning about the medicines here.

If Suzuki Satoru had had an outstanding mind—Ainz didn’t have one though—he would have learned them both well. However, that was not the case. Despite that, he had divided his efforts on a field that he himself wasn’t good at, you could even say that it had been a waste of time.

{Until now, I was thinking about running away from work…No. People have areas where they’re best suited to. When I return to Nazarick…I’ll try requesting a department transfer from Albedo…But, that…wouldn’t that be a betrayal of the NPCs faith in me? As the Guild Leader and the person who dubbed himself ‘Ainz Ooal Gown,’ is that the right thing to do? I wonder… what everyone would say…Ah!}

At the sudden halt of the Chief Pharmacist’s hands’ movement, their contest and Ainz’s thoughts came to an abrupt end.

The Chief Pharmacist turned around—towards the entrance.

Ainz looked as though a smile of victory was about to appear on his face, but he immediately amended that and looked in the same direction. It wasn't as if anybody was there. In that case, he tried pricking up his ears.

It felt like something was happening far away. However, there were signs that this noise wasn’t from an emergency—like a monster attacking the village, or someone was wounded.

“You guys were the last ones coming from the city, right?”

“Huh? Oh, yes. I haven’t heard that anyone except us was coming. …Could it be…?”

“Yeah, that’s right. When someone comes to this village it’s like this, I guess. They’re also an outsider…There wouldn’t be this kind of reaction if it were one of the Dark Elves from around here…Assuming that, maybe an Elf came?

Or maybe it was someone from Nazarick?

{No}, Ainz thought. If they wanted to contact Ainz, they had [Message] and other methods of doing so. It was hard to believe that someone from Nazarick had come. However, if the other party were an Elf, then only one sort of being came to mind.

“Could it be a peddler?”

“It…might be…Though I also have a feeling it’s something a little different. Well, it probably doesn’t have anything to do with us. If something did happen, someone should be coming right away.”

The Chief Pharmacist answered as if he was trying to persuade himself that it was true, and once again turned back to the desk.

“More importantly, let’s continue our work. You may have also been taught this by your master, but when mixing, there are kinds of medicines for which efficacy can deteriorate along with the passage of time.”

Their work was progressing much more slowly than it had been just a little while ago, but they would soon be forced to interrupt it. One of the Dark Elves from the village rushed in completely out of breath.

“Mango-sa—!” the voice of the dark elf who had suddenly entered lost its vigor when he caught sight of Ainz.

“Oh,—Fior-san. Pardon me for interrupting your work.”

There weren’t any villagers who didn’t know Ainz had been hanging around the Chief Pharmacist’s house to seek his instruction. Yet, something had happened and he seemed to have forgotten that due to his impatience.

“…So there’s an apology for my temporary apprentice, but not one for me. What the hell is this?”

The Chief Pharmacist muttered, but he probably wasn’t serious about it. His face looked dissatisfied, but in some ways it also looked like a mischievous child’s.

“Oh! I’m sorry, Mango-san. Sorry for bothering you.”

Mango Gilena—that was the Chief Pharmacist’s name.

The Dark Elf who had apologized to him kept glancing over at Ainz; it seemed like he wasn’t going to broach the subject.

“Aah, if this is something that would be bad for me to hear, then how about I step outside?”

“No, it’s really nothing like that. But, you see. …Mango-san. An Elf came to the village just a little while ago, and they said that the country of humans outside of the forest is attacking close by.”

When he had said that much, he glanced over at Ainz once more.

“I see, if that is the case, it doesn’t mean that the country I live in is the one that attacked. I think it is, probably, a country called the Theocracy—a country that is near my own. I have heard stories about them attacking the Elven Country before.

An expression of relief appeared on the Dark Elf’s face.

“And the Elf came to tell us to be sure to send troops from this village. That Elf must also inform the other villages and has already left the village, but it seems like the Elders want to have a meeting about what we should do from here.”