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"Well then," Ainz said and was trying to walk off when an elder stopped him.

"Uh, Fior-dono. I had really thought that we would be able to discuss this when nobody else was around; this is a completely irrelevant question, but would you mind me asking?"

"What is it?"

"Has Fior-dono joined his hands with someone in marriage?"

Ainz was bewildered by the elder's question.

"If you don't have anyone like that, how would you feel about taking someone

from this village as a wife?"

When he passed his gaze over them, there were no Dark Elves directing

negative emotions toward him. On the contrary, the colors of expectation were

in the eyes of the Dark Elf women. And it was not as if they were being sacrificed

for the sake of the village, there were even people directing favorable smiles at

him.

It wasn't as if Ainz was particularly knowledgeable about women. On the

contrary, he didn't understand a single thing about them. However, even then,

he was confident that the smiles the women had on their faces weren't fake.

"N-no, I will decline. That…the truth is, there are quite a lot of women who

have approached me favorably, you see. It really is quite a problem, you know.

Haha…"

Shaken by an attack from an unexpected direction, his way of speaking became

a little confused. However, the elder didn't appear to be particularly worried

about it.

"I'm sure it is. If it were a gentleman with outstanding abilities such as

yourself, there would be many ladies who would hold affection for him."

It seemed that one's attraction to another changed with the level of one's

combat ability, it was the same as it was in human societies. No, when looking at

the attitude of the women, that tendency might be stronger in places like this

with danger all around them. But, there were signs that the women seemed to

have accepted his excuse just now.

This should probably be the last thing he said.

"These will be the final words I leave you with, but if all of you…if you were all

to decide that you want to abandon this village and flee to the city where I live, then I would be more than willing to help you. Should that need arise, do not

hesitate to tell me. It may be a few months from now, but I would like to return

to this village. If by that time it seems like you have reached the conclusion to

abandon this village, I would like to have you bury a map with everyone's location

on it in front of the tree I stayed in."

"…I pray that such a thing won't happen, but should the time come, we will be

in your care."

The elder bowed his head and in time with that, all of the Dark Elves there

bowed their heads as well.

Ainz, seeing that they had all raised their heads, announced, "Well then, I will

be taking my leave here," he looked over at everyone and bowed his head. Finally,

he sent a sincere and deep bow toward the Chief Pharmacist.

And then Ainz walked off.

No one stopped him—of course, he had thought that sort of thing wouldn't

happen—Ainz walked until he was no longer in their line of sight.

The figures of Aura and Mare were there. His performance as an uncle had now

ended. Their attitudes were those of Floor Guardians. Furthermore, Aura

seemed to be extremely cautious, as she quickly ran her eyes over Ainz's entire

body.

"Ainz-sama…I am happy for your safe return. However, did they do anything

to you? Before Ainz-sama finally walked away there was an unusual presence

being generated over there. It had the air of hunters with nocked arrows to it."

There was only one thing that came to mind.

"Ah, that was just a slightly bothersome proposal they approached me with.

That might have been directed at me by the ladies. That being said, I'm fine. I

deceived them properly."

"Is…that so? Even when Ainz-sama was walking toward us, a bit of that feeling

remained. No, I had a feeling that it became even stronger."

Ainz knitted his eyebrows. It had appeared to Ainz that the women had

accepted his excuse, but perhaps that wasn't true? In any case, Ainz didn't know

what he should do about that. Plus, they were already heading home, so there

probably wasn't a better way to deal with that than what he chose.

"Normally, I would've asked this beforehand, but is there anyone who is paying

attention to us right now?"

"It's okay. There's nobody."

Aura assured him.

If that was the case, then there definitely weren't any problems. No, Aura

already knew that, and that was why she tossed out that question when they met.

"—Now, I thought it was fine, but were you listening to what we were talking

about?"

"Yes, Ainz-sama. I have already finished explaining the contents to Mare."

Rather than talking here, it would be better for them to return to their

temporary lodgings and do it there. However, the two of them might have

noticed something that Ainz had overlooked. Depending on what it was, and

while it would be a little embarrassing, it might be better to return to that place

and participate in the meeting one more time. For that reason, it was necessary

for them to talk here whilst being aware of the danger.

"In that case, did you not have any thoughts about it? Let me hear your candid

opinions."

The two of them looked at each other.

"There were no points of particular concern. I thought Ainz-sama's suggestion

was perfect."

"Y-yes. From what my sister told me, uh, umm, I also thought that."

Hm? Could it be that they didn't notice that the parents of the children they played

with might be sent to the battlefield—sent to die? Or is it that they did notice it, but they

can't voice their objections because it was my suggestion?

If it were the former, it might make the two of them feel sad and put cracks

into the friendships they had properly made. He should probably ask them about

it a bit more.

"You know, the parents of the children the two of you played with might be

sent off?"

The two of them had curious looks on their faces. After looking at each other

one more time, they returned their gazes to Ainz. It was Aura who spoke as their

representative.

"—That's right. Is there something wrong with that?" Her expression said that

she was sincerely curious. "Is there something bad about that?"

"…No, nothing at all."

He couldn't ask them how they could make those sorts of expressions.

All that he could think was just that a friendship hadn't been born after all.

Or is it that…just as my friends prioritized the real world, these two are prioritizing Nazarick…If so, then what's the right thing for me to do?

While Ainz was not sure what to do, Aura cupped her hand behind her ear, the

motion of her trying to hear distant sounds better. Maybe some important topic

had come out over there. Ainz was silent so as to not get in Aura's way.

"—Ainz-sama. It seems the subject of Ainz-sama has come up over there."

"Could you let me hear what kind of things they're talking about?"

"Yes. Generally, they're saying things like this."

Aura slightly changed the tone of her voice—although she wasn't very good at

it—and let him listen.

"Why did you decide to keep it a secret that it was his suggestion?"

"Because the country he lives in is close to the human country. If the human

country were to learn the truth, that he stated that opinion here, it might cause

trouble for him in the future, don't you think?"

"The chance of that happening, is that what the elder is thinking about?"

"I don't know. However…isn't it matter of fact that we should do it so that

something that could cause him trouble didn't occur?"

"—All the other villagers agreed with this and decided to keep it a secret."

"I see. Thank you, Aura."

"Uh, umm, the fact that Ainz-sama led them to this decision, err, won't be

leaked, right?"

He didn't have any particular memory of leading them to it, and he felt the

desire to ask Mare why he thought he had led them to it. All Ainz had done was

make a suggestion, but more important than that was the following.

"So long as there is mind control magic, if we want to perfectly avoid

information leaks, it will be necessary to kill them…"

"Are we going to kill them?"

"No, we won't. I feel there is no merit in doing so. No, should I put it like this?

There are no demerits in the Theocracy finding out, because the Theocracy is

virtually an enemy nation. It's not like I particularly want to deepen our ties to

them, and supporting the enemy of your enemy is an obvious thing to do…No,

that itself has merit to it. I had a false appearance and name. We'll have the

Theocracy spend their efforts on useless things."

Ainz stole a glance at the twins' attitudes there.

"…However…I suppose it's too bad. If the Theocracy had directly attacked this

village, we really could have gotten a lot more benefit out of it."

After the twins looked at each other and made curious expressions, Mare

tossed out a question.

"Uh, umm, Ainz-sama? Why didn't you make them attack the village? Ah, err,

we should have killed the Theocracy's soldiers, uh, umm, while disguised as Dark

Elves and drawn them this way, shouldn't we?"

He was exactly right.

The benefits to Nazarick should be greater by doing things that way, even Ainz

understood that much. It wouldn't have been hard to accomplish by causing

MPKs. In spite of that, the reason they hadn't done that was—

(T/N: MPK = Monster Player Kill)

—Because I didn't want to.

Life in this village had been unexpectedly fun. Setting fire to this kind of village

with his own hands felt distasteful to him for some reason or another.

That would be a very natural feeling to have. Nobody would want to do

something they didn't want to do. However, that was an absolutely unforgivable

excuse as the absolute ruler of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick. The

one who was the head of an organization should prioritize the benefits of the

organization. In spite of that, he had prioritized his own feelings.

In a sense, this might even be considered a betrayal of Nazarick.

So I told them to make friends, but I'm the one who enjoyed it the most. Is that how

things ended up?

It would be bad if he wasn't careful so that he could prevent this kind of thing

from happening again in the future.

Ainz had to think and act with the benefit of the Great Underground Tomb of

Nazarick as his priority.

That was his duty as the sole remaining Guild Leader, and his role as the leader

of the NPCs.

Swearing that in his heart, he was lost as to how he should answer Mare's

question. He should probably apologize because he had honestly been naïve.

"…That's right. I also considered that. If it were to obtain benefits for Nazarick,

that's what I should have done. Yet in spite of that, I didn't do it because I was

naïve…That was improper of me as the ruler of Nazarick. I will strive so that this

sort of thing never happens again."

The two of them were googly-eyed.

"Uh, n-no…I-it's nothing like that."

"That's right. Everything Ainz-sama does is correct!"

While the two of them were comforting him, they had arrived at their

borrowed Elf Tree. Once they collected the things they had left there, their

preparations for withdrawal would be complete.

Since they originally had hardly any luggage, they finished right away and

carried their luggage outside.

There, Aura lifted up her face. When Ainz followed where her gaze led, he

caught the sight of the Chief Pharmacist running towards them.

He arrived in front of Ainz's group right away.

The Chief Pharmacist was slightly out of breath. He possessed high abilities as

a pharmacist, so he could be considered as a being of moderate level, but his

physical stats were low. It was unclear what Class he had taken, but it probably

raised Ability Scores in the same kind of way as an arcane magic caster did.

He didn't have the air of someone who had come to give them a souvenir. No

doubt he came here directly from the meeting place. Perhaps he had come to say

goodbye?

"What's the matter? I apologize for not being able to say goodbye to you

directly—"

"—No, I thought I'd give a final present to my temporary apprentice. A number

of the women are trying to go with you guys to the city. I know because I saw

them dashing off to their own homes. If you really don't want to deal with that,

you'd best hurry out of the village."

"What?"

"Whaddya mean, 'what?' They probably don't intend to leech off you, but

jumping into an unknown place, they'll beg for your—the only one they can

depend on—aid, probably as a tactic to slowly close the distance between you.

Incidentally, if you can support them, our way of thought is that polygamy or

polyandry aren't really a problem. They're probably thinking that it wouldn't be

too bad to reunite our separated tribes with you as the intermediary. And, if the

other tribes find out about this too, well…I'm on your side so…you get what I'm

trying to say, right?"

This was bad.

If they made contact with his body, his true form would be found out. He

couldn't guarantee that the women wouldn't make those kinds of moves.

The Elves regarded the undead as enemies. That was the same for the Dark

Elves.

Until Ainz had completely won over the Dark Elves, he couldn't allow them to

know his true form. When he took placing the Dark Elves under his rule into

account, he absolutely couldn't harm the women of the advance party.

"What? You didn't even imagine that it would come to this? Not even this

much? C'mon now, are you serious? A guy as quick-witted as you? Perhaps you

did think this might happen but you didn't think they would put it into action

this quickly, or something? …Oh, come on. Be grateful I came to warn you, okay?"

There was only one measure Ainz could take—

"…Let's go, you two! We're going on a little run! Well then, temporary master."

—and that was to just run away.

Having barely finished his goodbye, the three of them slipped past the Chief

Pharmacist and jogged off.

They immediately entered the forest, but they didn't stop. Naturally, they ran

until they reached a point where they believed they could no longer be pursued,

and finally stopped.

"…We're okay. There are no signs of any pursuers. So then, are we returning

to Nazarick from here?"

Ainz, the sign of relief appearing on his face, grinned broadly at Aura's

question. Of course, his actual expression didn't move an inch, or rather, he

wasn't even controlling his illusion.

"We won't do that. Returning to Nazarick, assembling troops, and taking

action isn't a bad idea, but I don't want to waste this perfect opportunity. The

three of us—a select few—are going to carry out the strategy that Punitto Moesan taught me in the past."

"Wh-what might that be?"

Mare asked, his eyes sparkling. Ainz was a bit happy. If Mare had taken an

attitude of "whoop-de-doo" here, his enthusiasm would have diminished.

Ainz answered boastfully.

"Strictly speaking, it's a little different but—we're kill stealing."