15

Ainz arrived at the small fort only a little bit later than Hassan, but before the rider, who was rushing forward at the moment with all the strength available to him and the horse under his saddle. This happened due to the fact that after taking a few steps forward, Ainz used the spell "Mass Flight", after which he was able to easily overtake the galloping knight and arrive at the place where Hassan was at the moment, and then look at the destination.

Hassan's unequivocal discovery was a fort — or rather a full-fledged stone fortress, but nothing in the form that appeared before Ainz would fit this formidable name. The fortress that appeared before the magi's eyes was closer to the ruins than to a mighty stronghold - the walls of the fort were already partially crumbled, and vegetations rose along the stone below, because of which the fortress seemed more like an abandoned skeleton of a former stronghold than a true castle.

"Was there a battle here?" Mashu was also able to notice the ruined appearance of the fortress, and instantly spoke out about it, "But in France there were no sieges at this time..."

"No" Archer, who appeared next to Ainz, just shook his head at the thoughts of the girl "Take a closer look, there are no scorch marks on the walls, nowhere is a single broken staircase or frozen resin. This was clearly not a siege... At least, not a siege from the english army."

"But what happened here then?" - after these words, Mashu turned her gaze to the slightly leaning gates of the fortress.

Ainz, in his turn, was completely unsure of the answer to this question. He had seen various sieges and battles. However, in this particular case it served as more of a complicating factor, since he could easily name at least several dozen possible battle scenarios which would not have left behind any of the marks listed by Archer. As an example, an attack by a single giant monster, or a siege by a group of high-level psychics who used telekinesis to destroy the walls or fly over them. Because of how instantaneously the theoretization began in the his mind, Ainz was forced to shake his head. Some experts with certain magical skills could look at the logs of a particular location in order to find out exactly what happened there in the past. But, unfortunately, Ainz himself was not one of those.

In any case, having looked at the mass of the towering ruined castle, the necromancer realized that Hassan clearly wanted to say something to him.

"Yes?" looking at the Assassin, the magi nodded, asking him about his unspoken thoughts "Anything else?"

To this, Hassan nodded in response "The fortress is full of wounded and tired people. Soldiers, armed, almost all on the verge of exhaustion, were sent in patrols around the perimeter."

Ainz only nodded at this - if the fortress is full of wounded and sentries are set out around the perimeter, it means that there is a reason for this behavior - some enemy whose attack left many wounded in the fortress.

"As I thought, if someone raised the alarm, then a peaceful conversation with the soldiers would become impossible" - Ainz unequivocally nodded to this - "In this case, you should never raise an alarm"

Ainz glanced slightly to the side, from where he himself, along with the Servants, had come just a minute ago. The rider galloping at full speed was barely visible on the horizon - but the moment when he becomes visible from the height of the observation tower was only a matter of a few minutes, after which the knight will tell, that he met the Dragon Witch not far from the fortress. After this, any peaceful contact with the French troops will become at least extremely difficult, if not completely impossible. In that case, Ainz's decision was as simple and unambiguous as possible.

Raising his hand, he almost commanded Hassan to get rid of the interfering element and the approaching rider at the same time, but Ainz instantly noticed Mashu looking at him, after which his instructions were stuck in his throat.

From an objective point of view, there was no reason why Mashu's opinion should have meant anything to him - as a fighting unit she wasn't anything worthy, and he knew her only a little more than a week. In other words, Ainz did not see any good reason for refusing a simpler and more understandable plan for a guaranteed solution of the problem of undesirable witnesses. But…

Blinking, he turned his eyes to Hassan, who was standing next to him, and then to Serenity, Arthuria, and the other Servants - it seemed as if everyone was busy with their own business, but Ainz was sure that each of them was watching him at the moment.

'Good' - in the end, Ainz still managed to form a logical conclusion for his empathy - 'Until I study the psychology of all my Servants, it's best to completely avoid all morally ambiguous decisions.'

"Archer," the magi finally concluded, "Can you get the rider out of here?"

"No problem," Archer only nodded, after which a bow appeared in his hands after a moment. Ainz himself turned away from the Servant and looked at the fortress again.

"In any case, we need information" - to this Ainz nodded several times, "It is necessary to meet with these people, however..."

After this thought, the magi turned his eyes to Arthuria, who was standing nearby, and shook his head. No matter who the "Dragon Witch" was and how Arthuria was involved in this, with another reaction like the one that happened just ten minutes ago, Ainz could not hope to have any dialogue. Because of that, he clearly had to meet people without Arthuria. Moreover, given that the fortress was full of wounded people and sent patrols around - any suspicious behavior of Ainz could disrupt a possible dialogue. Of course, if all the soldiers of France were no stronger than the previous patrol, then for Ainz, it would not have been difficult to seize the entire fortress on his own, but then even if he could get the captured people to speak, he would most likely have gotten nothing but lies, and would have no way to verify what was said by other people - because of that, he had to look as unsuspicious as possible while talking to the soldiers.

Looking at Hassan again, Ainz shook his head - a tall figure wrapped in a black cloak with a white mask that looked like a skull definitely raised questions.

"Hassan?" - He turned to the man instantly, - "Can you take off your mask so as not to attract attention?"

For a moment, the Assassin fell silent before shaking his head a little, "No, I'm sorry, Lord Mage. I'm sorry, but this is not possible."

Ainz was thinking of asking the Assassin something like "why," but he stopped halfway down. Should he ask it? Of course, people wearing a mask will always look suspicious, but if this is due to his personal circumstances or religious faith, then such a question can be regarded as offensive...

The assassin, apparently also instantly realizing what his master was thinking, nodded.

"Nothing scary, Master," - as if talking about some insignificant trifles, Hassan said, - "It's just that there is nothing under this mask - I cut my face a long time ago with a knife."

At this point, Ainz choked on air.

For a moment, questions like "how" and "why" arose in his head again, but he did not dare to ask anything, but only nodded, - "I see."

What Ainz heard was incomprehensible, but he didn't want to know the peculiarities of the Assassin's current state.

"Well," Ainz said to himself, after which he looked around. Because Hassan did not lower his voice, the details of his current state could be heard heard by everyone around him - none of them showed any particular reaction to what was said. Neither Arthuria, nor Archer, who at that moment fired a blunted arrow at the moving rider, and followed it with a second one at his horse, no one seemed to react at all to what had happened, as if such a thing was absolutely normal. The only person whose face reflected something like shock was Mashu - which confirmed to Ainz that what he had heard was not a hallucination.

Of course, Ainz did not experience shock, unfortunately, in his past life he saw many things related to poverty and cruelty - and even if he experienced a really strong emotion, his emotions would be instantly suppressed by his Skills. However, even if such things happened all the time, they were rather an exception for Ainz, they were acts of savagery, absolutely not the ordinary occurrence that Hassan's action seemed to be for the rest of the Servants.

'It's not normal for me, and Mashu considers it abnormal as well, but for the other Servants, this is not something strange or scary,' the magi shook his head. 'Besides, when I decided to kill those soldiers, only Mashu objected...'

This time, even more attentively, Ainz glanced at the Servants around him. Perhaps he should have not have considered Olga-Marie the only "villain"?

"A clear hit," as Archer said this, he lowered his bow, after which Ainz saw the rider fall off with the horse in the distance.

"Okay," the magi sighed as a result, and then stopped thinking about him. In this case, Arthuria and Hassan definitely were out of question...

Ainz looked again - this time at Medusa, who, sensing this, turned her face to him. The masked man will definitely look suspicious, but someone in blindfolds will probably look even stranger - besides, Ainz did not want to ask Medusa if she could remove her blindfold - perhaps because he did not want to hear from her something as disturbing as "I cut my face with a knife."

"In that case," eventually, Ainz concluded, "Arthuria, Medusa, Hassan and Archer remain here — it would be better to conduct reconnaissance, but the main thing is not to get caught by the rest of the patrols. In the meantime I, Cu Chulainn, Mashu, and Serenity will try to sneak into the fortress.

No one had any objections to the stated plan, so a moment later, the four remaining Servants moved away, while Ainz, taking a step, stopped, after which he thrust his hand into the black portal that opened before him.

"Here," having said this, Ainz pulled out one shoulder bag first, then the second, third and fourth, "Put it on."

Serenity followed the instructions instantly and without talking, but both Cu Chulainn and Mashu just stopped in front of Ainz.

"Senpai?" - the girl looked at Ainz inquiringly, - "What is that?"

"In the current conditions of the patrols and a certain "Dragon Witch" sneaking around, the appearance of any unknown person will turn out to be suspicious, and may provoke mistrust on part of the soldiers. At best, they may refuse to talk with us - at worst, they will take us for enemies and attack. Suddenly appearing in such a place without arousing suspicion requires a backstory and a disguise." Ainz nodded at that, then put his bag over his shoulder. It was one of many useless things that was stored in his inventory. Ainz was a collector and a miser, and he preferred not to use even the simplest consumables, if he could do without them. But even so - something so useless was stored in his inventory not because he wanted to preserve it, but because he has not found any other use for it. Dozens of garbage items "Big Bag" were not even enchanted, and therefore had no value for him - moreover, they continued to lie in his inventory only because he did not find any way to sell them before - and he never believed, that they will be useful to him in such conditions.

Finally, being satisfied with the response, Mashu put on her bag, after which, with a martyr's sigh, Cu Chulainn followed her example.

"To force me, the greatest hero of Ireland, the embodiment of Celtic druid wisdom, to carry luggage" Cu Chulainn sighed loudly at this, "What vulgarity!"

Ainz, however, missed Caster's words, "I will do the talking, don't talk and do what I say. Okay?"

Serenity instantly nodded at what was said, as if it were the only possible behavior, after which, Mashu nodded and, with reluctance, Cu Chulain followed her example.

"I hope that you will not force me to do something even more shameful than carry luggage" the guy sighed, at which Ainz just sent him a look and moved on.

They did not have to go for long, but a dozen minutes under the scorching sun, despite the fact that Ainz himself, like the other Servants, was not afraid of sunstroke, still annoyed the guy. If he had taken advantage of Flight spell, he could have gotten there in just a minute - not to mention Teleportation, but such an action would have been too suspicious and would clearly have caused much trouble in the event of a collision with French soldiers.

Literally in a few minutes, the observer at one of the dilapidated towers noticed the four figures approaching, after which a languid romp began at the gate, so that when Ainz approached the soldiers, a large man, wearing armor and a cape similar to the one worn by head patrol of french soldiers, appeared on the walls.

"Hold!" - after Ainz got within about a hundred meters of the gate, a man barked loudly, making the foreigner stop. At the same time Ainz noted how they were carefully observed by four archers standing on the walls, - "Who are you and where do you come from? What brings you here?"

Sighing, Ainz summoned all his acting skills and experience as a salaryman, after which he took a step forward.

"We are just a wandering merchants from afar!" - Ainz began the story, after which, in order to prove his words, he shook his bag hanging on his shoulder, - "Please, kind people! Our wagon was attacked by the forces of the Dragon Witch, we barely managed to escape!"

"Dragon Witch?! Here?!" - The knight who spoke took a step back, after which Ainz noticed how the soldiers around him began to whisper instantly, and fear began to appear on their faces.

"The Dragon Witch frightens them..." Cu Chulainn noted offhand, to which Ainz nodded. Depending on how much the soldiers reacted to the mention of the "Dragon Witch," his further behavior could change a lot.

"Who exactly attacked you?!" the commander attentively stared at Ainz. Most likely Ainz's information was necessary for him in order to prepare his troops for a possible attack.

"It was at night, we couldn't see them for sure," Ainz used the most safe lie in these conditions, "But there were not very many of them, people - armed soldiers in strange clothes that I have never seen before."

Since the knight he had met earlier had thought Ainz himself and the company of his Servants for the possible witches' minions, it was possible to guess how they should look like for Ainz to make his lies believable.

"That's how..." - the knight thought. Ainz saw the warriors gradually lower their guard and several soldiers surrounding him lowered the bows in their hands, looking at Ainz and company - but this was only the first possible pitfall. If Ainz himself was at the knight's place, he would definitely have noticed that the four arrivals were not soiled or injured, which could have happened during the night fight, or would have required additional information about the attack to make sure that he was not a spy from the unknown Dragon Witch, but apparently the commander either did not anticipate such a possibility, or for some reason found Ainz not suitable for this. Also, he probably would have paid attention to the strange clothes of the arrivals - even if Mashu was wearing suitable armor, and Cu Chulainn was in a relatively realistic cape, he himself, like Serenity, was wearing somewhat improper clothes, not suitable for the current situation.

"Where are you from, trader?" - apparently, in the end, noticing it all the same, but already relaxed enough, the knight asked just in case, "What do you trade here?"

"I'm from Spain, I'm a fur dealer," - Ainz used one of the prepared versions, - "After we were attacked at night, the fur had to be thrown away - that's all that I managed to drag off."

Ainz pointed to Cu Chulainn who was standing next to him, which not only explained the more than inadequate state of his fur mantle, but also added additional truth to his words, forcing the commander to finally relax.

"Then what's in the bags?" - Ainz saw that these words were no longer needed by the commander, that he almost commanded his men to open the gates, but here the second part of this conversation played the role.

"Everything that was at hand," Ainz replied to this as uninterestedly as possible, "A little money, food, medicine— everything we might need."

At that moment, the commander stopped a little, after which he ordered to open the gate - Ainz grinned internally.

'Bull's eye' - he nodded to himself, moving to the slowly opening gate. If the fortress was full of exhausted and injured people, in this case food and medicine would be much more valuable than money - even if the commander had any suspicions about Ainz, then he would have to let them in to at least get the contents of his bags. The most important thing in this case was that Ainz really didn't lie - he had both food and various kinds of medicines ready - potions, reagents, scrolls, meat, dishes, spices - almost everything that one could wish for in these conditions and even more. Moreover, using what was stored in the bags Ainz could exchange this for information from the commander. Considering that even the bags in the hands of the Servants were not empty - Ains was in the most advantageous position. Although there was no practical value in the bags themselves, since the players had endless inventory that allowed them to carry all things, many players used bags to sort things inside their inventory into groups. Once upon a time, when Ainz himself was just starting to play Yggdrasil, he used bags in a similar way, but after a relatively short time he stopped doing that, leaving several bags full of low-level junk in his inventory - which was useful to Ainz now.

The commander, who appeared behind the opened gates, smiled at Ainz, after which, all he had to do was open the door completely, take a step out, and extend his hand to Ainz, forcing him to shake it back.

"In such a harsh time, all we can hope for is help from our neighbors," the knight shook his head, after which he glanced at the people accompanying Ainz, "And these are..."

"These are our guard and guide" Ainz nodded at Mashu and Cu Chulainn, after which he turned his gaze to Serenity, "And this is my wife. Unfortunately - she does not speak French."

Representing Serenity as the wife of Ainz was the simplest solution - only her clothes and Ainz's clothes were knocked out of the medieval realities surrounding Ainz, so it would be easiest for him to explain their clothes as something expensive from overseas, suitable for the status of a merchant and his wife, so as not to produce redundant and overly complex explanations.

However, having heard something like this - Serenity froze in half-step, after which she could move only after Ainz passed by her while lightly touching her shoulder, forcing the girl to move inside.

"All right," the commander was finally satisfied with this explanation, and turning around, pointed to a half-ruined fortress with a broad gesture "At this difficult moment, let me show you a little bit of a real French hospitality."

"Looking around?" - the voice that appeared behind Archer made him flinch, but Archer suppressed his reflexive desire to turn to him instantly, preparing for the blow. Instead, the Servant calmly finished his observation, after which he slowly turned to the Assassin. The black figure behind him could have been at least half a meter taller if Hassan had decided to straighten himself completely, however, because the Assassin in black tatters continued to hunch - he looked even shorter than Archer. But in the end he did not seem short - due to the fact that he continued to hunch he only looked even more threatening than in normal conditions - like a wild beast, ready to jump.

"Assassin.." Archer noted his presence. Although Archer himself was a Servant with outstanding abilities to detect enemies, Hassan had a high rank of Presence Concealment, which made it difficult to notice his approach, even for the most vigilant Servants. In addition, Archer himself was distracted just a few seconds ago.

After that, Assassin took a step towards Archer, as if in order to look at what he was watching just a second ago, - "A squad of skeletons is on the move, several kilometers to the east, several dozen of them. They are moving towards the fortress of French soldiers."

"Okay," Archer only nodded in response, "You must inform the Master."

Reaching for the connection of the Master and the Servant, Archer, however, heared Hassan's voice "I already informed him."

Expecting something like "and destroyed the skeletons," Archer glanced at Assassin, but he stopped, ending his thought.

"You destroyed them?" in the end, Archer asked the question after several seconds of silence.

"No," Hassan just shook his head at this, "The skeletons continue to move toward the castle and will reach it within ten to fifteen minutes."

After that, Archer probably had to ask Assassin something like "why you didn't destroy them," but the assumption appeared in his head much earlier, which is why Archer silently looked at his Master in the distance.

"Yes," Hassan nodded affirmatively, "They will attack the fort, and then Lord Mage will help the soldiers fight off the skeletons in order to gain their trust and learn the necessary information."

Hearing what Assassin said, Archer turned his gaze from the fort to the east, to see rows of skeletons walking in the distance, slowly approaching the fortress.

"You could have killed them much earlier if you noticed them from afar" Hassan sighed, and then, like Archer, turned his gaze to the fortress, "If you only had not been focused on spying on the Master."

From the very beginning it was clear that Assassin saw right through Archer's actions, but as soon as he said this out loud, the unspoken claim turned into an almost direct accusation.

"Yes," Archer did not hide this fact, "Yes, I watched him. But if you wanted to inform the Master about this - you would have told him a long time ago - after which you would have slaughtered me according to his instructions."

"Is it so?" - Assassin did not show any surprise or joke to these words, as if he really didn't understand Archer's point of view, - "Lord Mage isn't like this - at least he wouldn't order your execution without a reasons much more serious than your desire to watch him. If you think that he may fear your betrayal, then this is unlikely. If you have no other choice, then even the worst option becomes the best - you would not betray him only because his behavior and personality might seem suspicious to you."

In response to these words, Archer glanced at Hassan with an unspoken question, "You talk about me with confidence."

"We came across once," Hassan nodded a couple of times at that, and then, glancing at Archer, turned his eyes, "But it doesn't matter. I had time to watch you in this world."

The thought slipped through Archer's head before he realized what the Assassin meant, "Did you spy on me?"

"I spied on all," however, the words of Hassan were not overshadowed by repentance or something similar, it was like a completely unequivocal fact was stated, "However, I see no reason for your displeasure. You have just done this in relation to the Master on your own, neglecting the order given to conduct reconnaissance. Disobeying the orders of the Master is disobeying one's own nature."

Archer did not respond to what was said, as if he did not want to maintain a dialogue.

"I will go on reconnaissance," he eventually moved away from the Assassin's location, pursuing solely the goal of being as far as possible from Hassan, after which, having walked just a few steps, turned into an invisible form.

The Assassin, remaining on the hill for a dozen seconds, eventually shook his head disapprovingly.

"I was not familiar with him closely then, but now he feels quite differently," Hassan sighed, "Maybe after the War... Or is it completely different?"

The games with the Throne of Heroes were always difficult - the Servants, who were called again and again, changed and adjusted in incredible ways with every summon, depending on the conditions, the Master, time and even on chance, because of that, the called Servant was usually a completely different person, unlike his previous call, but even so, Hassan did not expect such behavior from Archer.

"Those who do not obey the hierarchy... A huge problem" - as a result, having come to a definite conclusion, the Servant turned into an invisible form - "However, Lord Mage... What does he plan to do with Archer?"

The behavior of the Lord of the Mage did not concern Hassan - he was a summoned Servant, and therefore obeyed the orders of his Master. Moreover, he considered many things to be justified under the current conditions - the Master's desire to spare the attacking soldiers or the rider, from the Assassin's point of view, was not the most effective line of behavior available to him, which is why Hassan's condemnation of Archer was more about foolishness than morality in current conditions - with the rescue of mankind in mind, only the result was important for Ainz, and not at all the morality of his actions, which is why should Archer have been planning to oppose Ainz's orders - Hassan's goal was to prevent this. Specifically, suspecting something similar, Assassin spent the past week watching the Servants who surrounded Ainz. At the very beginning, the idea of using Serenity to help him occurred to him, but Hassan himself understood that it was not possible to control Serenity - at least not for anyone other than Lord Mage. Her actions could be emotional - and therefore lead to greater consequences than even the actions of those opposing Ainz - because of that, Hassan took this responsibility alone.

"However, I cannot make a decision on my own" - in the end, having come to a conclusion, Hassan reached out to his connection with the Master.

"Lord Mage?" - a second later, when the connection between them was established, Hassan said mentally, - "This is not very important, but I think that you should know something..."

After listening to what was said, Ainz was only able to answer Hassan "Well, I understand," after which, he ended the conversation with Assassin, leaving no new instructions for him.

'Haaaah' - Ainz just managed to squeeze out of himself a moment later, when the feeling of a mental connection with the Servant disappeared, - 'As I thought, I've made a very bad boss'

Frankly, Ainz himself never encountered such a thing as "a team that does not accept a new boss," but he had heard about it from his acquaintances many times when their boss was replaced. The old team of employees usually reacted very badly to the change of management and often began to observe the new boss before making their final decision about the new boss. Of course, Ainz himself heard that such things usually happened in older teams who worked together and bonded over a long period of time, however, probably in new teams an inexperienced boss, especially if the rest of the workers were already experienced professionals, was the subject of observation of workers trying to determine how much they feel about him too.

'So, Archer is watching me...' - recalling the face of the gloomy guy in the red coat Ainz shook his head - 'It's good that it's only him... Although, no, why only him? Maybe someone else will be watching me... Or even everyone!'

From the thought that Ainz had to be not just a normal boss, but a boss who was followed closely by much more experienced subordinates, he felt dizzy, so that he almost missed the question addressed to him by the commander sitting opposite him.

"I'll be brief," deciding not to go around the topic for too long, as soon as the knight and Ainz and his companions arrived at something that could be called a donjon, the commander proceeded to discuss, "You saw yourself, many of my people were injured and any food is on the account, so we would like to purchase all the contents of your bags."

Remembering the rows of people lying at the entrance to the hospital not so far from the donjon, Ainz nodded affirmatively, after which, straining all his acting skills, he spoke.

"I understand this," Ainz nodded in response, portraying understanding and even some note of sadness on his face. "However, you also understand that these things are also necessary for ourselves — we cannot simply give them to you."

"Yeah, I thought something like that," the commander just shook his head, "Then how much are you willing to sell to us?"

"Commander, do I look so stupid enough to demand gold from you now?" - at this Ainz just snorted. For Ainz himself, gold was useless just as much as bags filled with low-level junk that he was ready to sell, but for the average merchant food, water and medicine in this conditions were much more expensive than all the world's diamonds - he had no use for the gold, should he starve to death.

"No," the commander was eventually forced to admit, after which he sighed, "But you also understand that our people suffer."

"I understand that," Ainz just nodded in response, "So I can share some of my supplies in exchange for something equally important."

"Like what?" - after these words, the knight probably thought about weapons - since by sight of those present only Mashu was armed with at least something, even if with a huge shield, however, Ainz hastened to dispel his doubts.

"Information," Ainz smiled, "The most important thing for any merchant is information.

The knight hesitated literally a second before nodding to Ainz, "Good. What kind of information?"

"About the incident," Ainz eventually began the conversation, "When I visited France last time, nothing like the Dragon Witch had happened yet."

It was a rather risky phrase if the Dragon Witch existed for a long time, but judging by the way the soldiers panicked, all he had to do was to mention the appearance of Dragon Witch minions at close range - he could always just say, that he meant the appearance of the Dragon Witch here, near the route, but fortunately, this was not required.

"She was not here" the man grinned. "Just a few days ago... Or weeks? Frankly, I already lost track of time - but not so long ago it was still quiet. Then... They burned the Dragon Witch..."

"Burned?" - on this Ainz thought for a second. If she was burned, did it mean that she was reborn after? Or that she survived this somehow?

"Yes, they burned her," the man shook his head for that, "I was then, fighting for France... She died - those British burned her. We were furious, we were ready to tear our enemies apart! Our commander howled day and night - I thought that he would go mad - if he hadn't already. He was her friend, and even something more, her closest aid. But she returned after just a couple of days. Her eyes were a little brighter, her skin was a little paler, but it was the girl who led us into the battle for France. I thought I was crazy - but it was her, no doubt. However, she returned already as the Dragon Witch, and not the Holy One, that raised us to the battle."

"Holy One?" - At this moment Mashu intervened in the conversation, forcing the commander to cast a disapproving glance at her, "So, you mean it was..."

"Of course! It was Jeanne d'Arc, whom else can I talk about?!" - the man burst out, hitting the table - after which he paused for a second, restoring his lost mental balance, - "Jeanne D'Arc and Gilles De Ré, two of those who led us into battle then. Jeanne was captured by the damned British and burned as a witch - we were then furious, but now we are wondering - were they far more observant than us? She returned only three days later - however, it was not the saint, under the flag of which I fought - it was the "Dragon Witch"! The British retreated long ago, but France is almost lost - her monsters walk the lands, cities are destroyed and worn out people barely cling to life, the King... Charles VII was burned at the stake - this witch burned him herself. The soldiers are broken, France is dying..."

'Destruction of France' - suddenly Ainz felt Mashu say the words in his head thanks to the connection - 'That's it! Violation of the Grand Order - the history of mankind! France was the cradle of human rights and freedoms, revolutions, the bourgeoisie - its destruction would cause not only changes in history, but also the death of many ideas of progress in general. This is what gave birth to the Singularity.'

Ainz himself was not aware of what was said, so he trusted Mashu in her judgment of the situation, since in essence it did not change anything for Ainz, as well as for his action plan.

"Okay..." Ains finally nodded a couple of times. In some ways, however, the emerging Singularity clearly was tied to the new, revived Jeanne d'Arc. Of course, Ainz only briefly heard about her from Tabula, but surely it was some famous historical person, - "And what about... In the sky?"

"What is in the sky?" - the guy opposite to Ainz did not fully understand the question, - "It looks like it always looked. If the sky had also changed, then everything would be even worse than now - although it seems that it can't get any worse for us now."

The idea of a strange hovering anomaly in the sky arose in Ainz's head, however, exchanging glances with Mashu, the necromancer did not raise this topic - if the people living here considered such a thing in the sky to be normal.

After that, Ainz also wanted to ask one more, final question, but was interrupted by a howl that had risen in the distance.

"Those bastards!" - the commander was not taken aback and instantly jumped from his seat and moved out of the donjon, - "This is an attack of the Witch's forces!"

Ainz nodded attentively at these words, after which he glanced at Mashu and Cu Chulainn standing next to her. "If we can help with something, just say so."

"Help?" - the commander stopped in a half-step, after which, turning around, he looked at Ainz, and then at those surrounding him, - "What can you do? You are not even armed."

"I and my guide know a little bit of magic," by saying this, Ainz did not risk anything, since the existence of "magic" was absolutely normal in a world where the "Dragon Witch" and the resurrection from the dead existed, "And Mashu is really very strong..."

At this, the commander only skeptically looked around the audience, and then, fixing his eyes on the bags, he nodded, "Good. If you can knock at least a couple out, this is already a good thing."

"Okay," Ainz nodded to that. Although he forbade the Servants to use in front of other people most of their abilities - for saving people, as well as earning credibility, they had a trivial task.

Looking from the walls how Mashu, even trying to limit himself as much as possible, smashed the approaching skeletons with ease, Ainz continued to lazily send the "Fireball" time after time, periodically letting himself wait a few minutes while Cu Chulainn supported his actions with his spells - the most simple ones - that, however, continued to reduce the ranks of the advancing attackers with each use.

However, after the next lazy spell, thrown down, a sudden inner feeling distracted Ainz from the lazy farce. The feeling was a bit similar to what Ainz himself was experiencing when trying to connect with one of his Servants for communication, forcibly distracting the guy from his actions. It caused him to ignore what was happening and touch the sensation - but a voice in his head put everything in its place.

'Chaldea on the line!' - Olga-Marie's vigorous and almost joyful voice contrasted perfectly with the reality surrounding Ainz. 'Finally, Roman realized how this thing works! Roman, what am I paying you money for?!'

'Chief, this is an anomaly! Any attempts to contact Ainz were simply interrupted — as if such a person simply did not exist!' - Roman's voice, in response, made Ainz sigh. Most likely, the reason for Chaldea's unsuccessful attempts to contact Ainz was Ainz himself - or rather, the ring he was wearing, that he wore to conceal his presence - because it had an extremely strong skill of suppressing divination and clairvoyance magic - because of that, Ainz was extremely difficult to use detect or search magic on. And even if someone could try to cast a spell on Ainz, he would only activate the multiple abilities of Ainz himself — because of that, the caster trying to spy on Ainz would suffer instead of learning something about the magi.

'It doesn't make any difference!' - however, the chief instantly dismissed Roman's thoughts, after which she returned to addressing Ainz - 'In any case, operative! We scanned everything that we could reach - a Servant was found next to you!'

'Servant?' - Ainz responded to this instantly. If a Servant was found near Ainz, then he needed to take all measures to detect him - and prepare to neutralize him. It would be nice if this Servant was as friendly as Cu Chulainn in their first meeting, but he had to prepare for the worst outcome.

'Yes, a Servant!' - instantly Olga-Marie rejected the altercation with Roman - 'He did not move during the last half hour and the signal from him is very weak, but this is definitely Servant! Just a few steps away from you - in the donjon!'

At this Ainz instantly froze for a second - was the Servant here?! All this time, right under his nose, and he didn't know about it?!

'Understood' - however, Ainz's emotions were instantly suppressed when they reached a certain point, so because of that, he replied to the information expressed to him absolutely calmly - 'Anything else?'

'I can not say for sure, Roman broke something again and nothing is clear!' - the girl immediately responded with an accusation.

'Chief, have mercy, this is an anomaly! I just don't understand how such a perfect surveillance system fails to work!' - Roman literally begged before Olga-Marie, forcing her to snort indignantly.

'This is definitely due to my protection from observation...' - concluded Ainz, after which he sighed softly. Roman was pitiful, but if Ainz had admitted that it was because his own actions that they were having such problems in order to make the surveillance system work — and that he could not remove his ring now — he would definitely have called the anger of the chief. However, he could not remove the ring for such a simple reason under the current conditions of an unknown enemy, his enemies could try to find out anything about him - thanks to that not only a prepared counterattack, but also protection against observation were necessary for Ainz at any time.

'Sorry, Roman' - Ainz mentally sighed at his colleague, after which he ended communication.

'Serenity' - he immediately turned to Assassin.

'Yes, my husband?' He immediately received an answer, which made him almost freeze in place. Questions like "why are you addressing me like that, although no one is hearing us?" began to arise in his head, but he dismissed this question as it is unimportant at the moment.

'Try to become invisible and carefully scout the donjon in the camp,' he addressed the girl. 'Somewhere inside is a Servant. The signal is weak, but it can be a trap from a disguised Servant. If you find something suspicious, immediately retreat and report to me.'

'Will do, my husband' - Ainz thought how these words were uttered by the girl with some quite tangible pleasure.

"Well, your guys sure broke some legs!" - at the same time, Mashu's shield crushed the bones of the last skeleton, forcing the commander to clap his hands approvingly, clearly thinking about his joke, - "Yes, and you are not half bad! I confess that I don't really trust the magic at all - but you are above all praise!"

"Thank you," Ainz just smiled at that. Any of the Servants and Ainz himself could easily destroy all the skeletons within a tenth of the time it took for them, should they fight them more seriously, but as practice has shown - Ainz himself did the right thing by making them hide their abilities - because if the Servant was in the donjon, this meant that his Master was somewhere nearby.

"However, I wanted to ask something else," recalling the question that Ainz wanted to ask before the start of the battle, the mage nodded, "Concerning the Dragon Witch... Why is she called that?"

"Huh?" - on this question, the commander stopped a little, - "Because she is one hell of a Dragon Witch!"

An unpleasant sensation made Ainz's abdomen curl into a painful knot.

'Master...' - the last nail in the coffin of Ainz's confidence was the voice of Archer - 'We got a dragon…'

Existence Outside the Domain: EX

According to its name and definition, this skill means the existence on other physical and metaphysical principles than could be expected from a given Servant in a given universe, but a skill of rank EX means something truly Alien.

At this rank, the existence of Ainz is something like an "error" in reality, "an incorrectly substituted variable" or, to make an analogy, an "unrecoverable bug in code". Ainz is in himself a creature with several personalities - embodying a simple person, Suzuki Satoru, who could not get to the Throne of Heroes on his own, at the same time he is the embodiment of a whole archetypical "hero from another world" and Momonga, "the one who conquered the worlds and universes in pursuit of power", whose existence in the Throne of Heroes is also an exception among exceptions - but not because his personality is too weak and small to be in the Throne of Heroes, but rather the other way around.

The powers of this Skill are diverse and, with the exception of a few, this skill is in fact the fundamental principle for almost all other forces, Skills, Phantasms and Parameters of Ainz.

In any case, at this rank, in essence, Ainz exists in his own, special reality, functioning according to its own laws, whimsically intertwining with the laws of the universe surrounding him, both to Ainz's good and bad.