Ch51. Merlin meets Ainz

Rei, Merlin, and Solution exited Shiba's Garden, reappearing at the spot where the previous elven village was located. While in Shiba's Garden almost a month passed since the dark elves entered it, in the new world, only four days passed since Rei left Nazarick in order to explore. It was all thanks to the time dilation ratio of one day outside to ten days inside.

"Are you sure it will be fine, Rei? You said the people in Nazarick do not like humans overly much." Merlin asked while the trio traversed the Great Forest of Tob, heading towards Nazarick.

"Don't worry. It doesn't matter what they think. Just stick to the story." Rei reassured her.

They came up with a background story for Merlin and how she became Rei's subordinate. Rei couldn't simply come and tell Ainz that he pulled her from a different world, now, could he?

"Well, I am not going there to make friends anyway..." Merlin shrugged. She didn't really care how the residents of Nazarick perceive her. She simply didn't want to make things difficult for Rei.

After entering Nazarick, Rei decided it would be prudent to introduce Merlin to Ainz first, considering he was the guild master and having an unknown woman wander through the guild base would be quite awkward.

It didn't take long for the group to find Ainz. He was in his office accompanied by Narberal Gamma, trying to equip armor and weapons and failing at it hard. Rei noticed Merlin's eyes shine with interest as she watched the spectacle. She was probably already forming ideas about why it was impossible to use them for Ainz, utterly ignoring the fact he was a scary skeleton.

Rei also observed he had the same problem as Ainz. He was unable to 'equip' some weapons. While that didn't mean he could not use them, he would not receive any additional bonuses since even if he held a sword, it would not be considered equipped. Rei wasn't overly bothered by that fact as he had his custom-made gloves and could still hold a weapon in his hands despite having these gloves equipped. It was simply just a minor inconvenience.

"Stop trying to equip it." Rei quipped, catching Ainz's attention. "You can hold and use anything. The reason why the greatsword is 'dropping' from your hand is that you are subconsciously trying to equip it."

Ainz looked at the greatsword on the ground for a moment before he bent down and picked it up... it didn't fly out of his had this time. "Oh! Thank you, Rei." He exclaimed in wonder. "Here I thought it would be completely impossible to hold it!" It was then that Ainz noticed Merlin. "You brought a guest?"

"This is Merlin, my new subordinate. We kinda ran into each other in the Great Forest of Tob and stuff happened... you know." Rei casually shrugged, "She is a magician."

"Oh?" The red light in Ainz's eye sockets brightened in interest as he stared at Merlin. "Do you trust her?"

"We have a contract between us and she can't betray me." Rei assuaged Ainz's worries before redirecting the topic. He said she can't betray him, not that she was loyal to Nazarick. It wouldn't do to give Ainz time to ponder about his wording. "By the way, you are preparing to go somewhere?" He gave the pile of low-level gear discarded in the corner a once over.

"Er... is it so obvious?" Ainz nervously chuckled and Rei just shrugged in reply. "Yes, I am planning to go to E-Rantel and become an adventurer there in order to gather information."

"Are you sure that's the real reason why you are going there?" Rei smirked, knowing there were many more efficient and faster ways to gather information than playing an adventurer.

"I have no idea what you are talking about..." Ainz sagely answered, ignoring the knowing look Rei was giving him.

"Of course not." Rei mirthfully chuckled.

"Miss Merlin, could you tell me more about this world?" Ainz turned towards Merlin, attempting to change the topic. He was a bit surprised the woman showed not even an ounce of fear but he chalked it up to her already having seen some undead before.

Merlin gave him a small apologetic smile. "I am sorry, Lord Ainz. I can't really provide any reliable information."

Seeing that Narberal wasn't happy with that answer and was about to say something most likely insulting, Rei quickly interjected, "She has a special condition that stopped her aging. The last few centuries she spent in seclusion in the nearby forest so I doubt she could tell you anything important about the current situation in the world. The last time I asked, she was not even aware of the names of the nearby countries."

"Ah... a pity." Ainz nodded, inwardly happy since this just meant his excuse to go to E-Rantel wouldn't become obsolete. "If I may ask... how old are you, Miss Merlin?"

"The hag is over three thousand years old." Solution's melodious voice suddenly resounded through the room as she gave Merlin an innocent smile, making her scowl in return.

"T-Three..." Ainz stuttered under his nose, utterly flabbergasted at such a number as he looked at the young-looking woman in front of him. Thankfully, his emotional expression worked its magic, calming him down. "No wonder she is such a high level." Ainz muttered, using appraisal on Merlin.

Rei smirked, knowing exactly Ainz wouldn't be getting proper knowledge about Merlin's prowess through that. He wasn't planning to explain that Merlin used a different magic system. Leaving Ainz misunderstand and think she also used Tier System was fine by Rei. It would cause fewer bothersome questions.

"Yeah, probably best you go to E-Rantel and scout the situation there. I doubt there are many people around Merlin's level in this world, considering our encounter with Sunlight Scripture and what our torturers managed to get out of them, but better safe than sorry." Rei said, making Ainz inwardly happy as he took it as Rei's approval of his vacatio-, ahem, mission in E-Rantel.

Rei mentally calculated the time it would take for Ainz to arrive at E-Rantel and do the whole mission for Nfirea alongside the undead uprising in E-Rantel. 'It should take at the very least a month if one considers the distance between E-Rantel and the Carne village.' Rei realized.

"I guess you are leaving Nazarick in Albedo's hands?" Rei asked.

"Yes. Do you want to take over until I return?" Ainz showed a bit of surprise at the question. Rei never revealed any sort of interest in taking care of Nazarick so he directly delegated the role to Albedo.

"Nope..." Rei shook his head, "I just wanted you to inform her and the other guardians of Merlin's presence. She will mostly spend her time in the library anyway but it would be troublesome if I had to stop the more anti-human oriented residents of Nazarick from causing trouble."

"Ah... I understand. I will inform them before I leave." Ainz nodded and Narberal who stood behind him frowned, giving Merlin a cold look.

"Well, thanks for your time. I still have to show her a lot of things here so we should probably go." Rei excused them, continuing the tour of Nazarick while introducing Merlin to various residents.