Ch22. Planning

Rei casually walked through the grassy plains as if he was taking a stroll, heading towards the place where the Slane Theocracy troops started gathering when they notice him leaving the village in their direction. Rei was taking his sweet time, knowing it would piss them off, and enjoyed every second of it.

Behind him, Solution dutifully followed, inwardly not liking how her master was putting himself in danger. 'He should have sent me first in case our enemies are powerful.' She thought disgruntledly but didn't dare to voice her opinion aloud. In the end, she just decided to believe her Master knew what he was doing and if not... she could always sacrifice herself to buy him the necessary time to retreat. After all, in her opinion, she was build to be extremely durable exactly for that.

'Solution,' Rei's Message suddenly flared in Solution's head, causing her to subconsciously straighten her back.

'Yes, Master?' She composed herself and replied.

'Turn off every anti-scrying magic and take off every anti-scrying magic item on you.' Rei ordered while they both quietly walked side by side, giving no sign of communicating.

'Er... may I ask why?' Sulution asked in confusion but Rei noticed she already subtly did as he ordered.

Rei smiled under his hood. 'From the available information the Eight Edge Assassins provided about this group, I am presuming somebody will try to watch this battle so why not make it into a show?' He quipped while disabling his own anti-scrying items and passive skills, 'And today's star is you, Solution.'

Solution momentarily slowed down, glancing at Rei who still outwardly appeared as if he had no care in the world. 'Understood.' She decided to be satisfied that her Master wasn't reckless enough and decided she would probe the enemy first.

Hearing her, Rei's smile faltered as he could understand what went through her head, and for a moment, he was glad for his hood that hid his sour expression. 'You should question it more, you know? I bet you have no idea why I want you to fight them. And no, it is not because you are expendable because you are definitely not.'

Solution tried to push down her blush, partially succeeding as her cheeks only slightly pinked, but she was also properly chastised, realizing the conclusion she came to was wrong.

'Then... why?' She asked, not wanting to disappoint her Master further.

Sighing, Rei only hoped she would take his words to heart. Smart subordinates were good and all but the ones that were too smart usually caused more problems than they were worth. He definitely didn't need Solution to become one of those. He would rather she questioned every order rather than misunderstood his intentions and did something outrageous.

'These people use angel summons. That points to religious background, Solution. I would bet our opponents will be some kind of zealous fanatics screaming shit about their gods.' Rei chuckled, thinking how useful having foreknowledge was. 'There is simply no better way to screw with this kind of people than to curb stomp them to the ground with even stronger holy power.' Rei explained, 'I want you to show them the wrath of the divine. Make them pray to their gods in despair that they earned the ire of an even holier being. Be creative and show off.'

A wide gorgeous smile appeared on Solution's lips as she heard her Master's reasoning. She understood this was their debut in this world and her Master wanted her to make it count. Solution couldn't help but be delighted in the trust her Master was showing her! After all, she was perfectly aware this was already a part of her Master's scheme.

To be perfectly honest, Solution was right. Rei had an ulterior motive. What he didn't tell her was that they were blatantly baiting the Slane Theocracy. Not him as much as Solution. Rei was clad in his cloak and had his hood up. His hood would prevent anyone from finding out his appearance so there was no problem with that. Solution, however, only wore her maid outfit and her face was completely visible and she would be the one to fight the Sunlight Scripture.

In short, she was the bait.

As long as the Theocracy focused on chasing Rei Shiba and his maid Solution, the more time would Ainz Ooal Gown and Nazarick have to prepare in the shadows with none the wiser.

But that didn't matter much to Rei either.

He wanted the Black Scripture to try confronting Solution. He wanted the Theocracy to shit their pants, thinking there is a holy creature that is not under their supervision running around the world. He wanted them to bring their [Downfal of the Castle and Country], trying to capture her.

These religious fanatics were simply so easily predictable it was not even funny. The second they realized Solution had massive holy power, Rei reckoned they would be dispatching their brainwash commando on her.

Hence, the turned-off anti-scrying protection.

Frankly, Rei knew about the function of the [Downfal of the Castle and Country] and also knew there was a danger of encountering it in the new world. Just the thought of Solution, the crystallization of his two years of utmost effort, being simply brainwashed by a useless trinket to turn on him was maddening for Rei. Naturally, since he had years to prepare, he made damn sure that would not be happening. Ever.

Solution had absolute protection against mental attacks. Not even a World Item could affect her thanks to the special countermeasures Rei put in.

So... yes, Rei really, but really hoped the Black Scripture would be stupid enough to go and pick a fight with Solution, thinking they could mind control her. It would be an amusing show.

Rei even considered the possibility the Slane Theocracy had more World Items and while it was impossible to prepare for most of them, there were some items generic God-wannabes like the six Gods of Slane Theocracy would most likely try to get their hands on.

Like Ahura Mazda... Which was just pure bullshit. Rei had an inkling who these 'Six Gods' were and if he was right, they indeed had this evil-punishing bullshit.

Inflicting a massively powerful area of effects on targets with a negative karma value across an entire world?

Even Rei could only facepalm at how overpowered that item was in reality.

In the game, it sounded cool but frankly, it was not all that impactful. Using it had a lot of requirements and all it did was wipe out players with bad karmic value across one entire world out of the nine Yggdrasil was composed off. Yeah, it was kinda overpowered even then but... death in the game wasn't all that troublesome. People lost some EXP and grumbled under their breath about the unfair system while the guy using Ahura Mazda would cry tears of blood at how much it cost him to use it.

And the item had a massive cooldown too. The kicker, however, was that in its description was blatantly stated it could be used only once every five hundred years. Rei didn't know if the in-game cooldown or the one in the description would apply but there were still EXP cost, gold cost, permanent MP sacrifice, and other requirements. After all, it did wipe every 'evil' player in an entire world and the cost reflected that.

That was actually why Rei made sure his and Solution's karmic value was solid 0. There was Ahura Mazda and then there was its counterpart that targeted 'good' players but... while both of those somewhat hurt neutral players depending on where on the neutral scale of karmic value they were located, there was no specific item targeting the neutrals with a certain death effect thorough the world upon use.

On the bright side, there would be no one-hit certain kill World Item threatening Rei and Solution's existence anytime soon.