180

It could be said that there were no chokepoints in the Great Forest of Evasha where the elves reside. There were certainly places with dangerous monsters, small nations of demihumans, and impossible labyrinths, but there were no structures that could be called a fortress or impassable physical barriers.

However, there existed a place that could be called a chokepoint.

It was the work of a single person.

The Holocaust Scripture's vice-captain, Schoen, tried looking ahead of him while he hid behind the scattered trees.

There sat a girl of around 8 years old who looked even younger than her age would suggest, as Elves tended to.

She was sitting on a small chair on top of a slight incline, holding a bow too large for her. There was a quiver beside the chair with a few arrows poking out of it.

There were fewer arrows in that small quiver than could be counted with both hands, but they were informed beforehand that the arrows would never run out.

There was no doubt that it was a magic item.

No one was around except for the girl.

…That was what scared him.

A hero could overturn the tides of battle by themselves. You could say that one of them was equal to an army of ten thousand. In fact, this girl in front of him had already taken over a thousand lives from the Theocracy's army.

An army of 40,000 was being nailed down by a single girl sitting primly on a chair.

The recommended strategy in such situations was to move around the obstacle. It wasn't like they had to break through from here. The great forest itself was a natural barrier but it was not impossible to take a detour.

That said, the opponent was not an army, but a single combatant. It was easy to take note of an enemy's movements if they were in large numbers, but this girl was more than just an exceptional combatant. As an individual, she would also be more mobile than their army. Once they lost sight of her, it would be hard to find her again. If an enemy capable of fighting an army alone was left to their own devices in the dark depths of the great forest—there was no need to say that the vanguard's morale would take a plunge.

They could also try and delay her by pinning her down with a small force while letting the larger force advance. That was not exactly a bad idea, except for the fact that it was idiotic to divide their forces in a hostile land.

So, it could be said that this was their best chance: while the opponent was deployed (although, it's doubtful if sitting on a chair could be considered as deployment) like this. The top brass decided that she should be dealt with while they knew of her location, even if they had to sacrifice some of their forces.

"Only a hero could stand against a hero" goes the aphorism. Nothing would be solved by sending in the riff-raff.

There were no heroes within the Theocracy's invasion army this time, so it fell to the Holocaust Scripture to deal with this.

But there were no heroes in the Holocaust Scripture either. There used to be one, but he was transferred to the Black Scripture. In the Theocracy, anybody who stepped into the realm of heroes would be moved to the Black Scripture.

Unfortunately, Schoen is yet to step into that realm.

Despite that, they were sent to this battlefield because it was widely believed that the Holocaust Scripture could take down a hero when they worked as a team.

And that's true.

The Holocaust Scripture can kill heroes.

But, there was a large difference between those who just stepped into the realm of heroes and those who were nearly outliers. Even if they could win against the former, it was impossible for them to triumph against the latter. That was why Schoen was observing the girl seriously.

Common soldiers, stronger soldiers, elite soldiers, heroes, and outliers…

Schoen, who had seen beings of various levels, had enough knowledge and intelligence to measure her strength accurately and minimize their casualties as much as possible.

Although not comparable to the Black Scripture, the members selected for the Holocaust Scripture were elites in their own right (but you could say the same for any of the six scriptures). He didn't want them to be killed for no reason.

Depending on her strength, he might have to give the order to sacrifice some soldiers to hold her back while they waited for the Black Scripture to get dispatched from the Theocracy.

Schoen slowly let out a slow, long breath.

Though he was hiding behind the trees with [Invisibility] and [Silence]—

[Silence] was not originally an arcane spell, but this version was developed for use by magic casters—he still had to be mindful even when taking a breath.

He wanted to wipe the sweat off his forehead, but considering any of his movements could lead to certain death, he chose not to. Schoen might be a talented caster, but he was only a little better than the ordinary person at stealth without using magic.

The elf girl was probably a ranger or an archer. If it was the former, it was possible for her to sense Schoen even though he was being hidden by magic. She might not know his exact location, but she could just use an area-of-effect attack—which she was confirmed to be able to do—to smoke him out.

Schoen wouldn't die from a single attack even if the opponent was a hero, but he was not confident in escaping smoothly if he was wounded.

Even more than his fear of death, Schoen was afraid that he might die in vain without bringing back the intel he collected.

—But she really was an unpleasant brat

She hadn't made a single move since he started observing her. Her glazed expression makes her look like a doll.

But, Schoen knew she was a living being, not a doll.

After an unknown amount of time since he started his observation, the target finally moved.

Schoen's heart flinched, worrying if the target found him at last.

However, the target did not look at him, but that didn't mean he could let down his guard. For people who honed their skills to their limits, it was child's play to feint with their eyes. In fact, Schoen knew that such a skill actually existed.

With his hearing strengthened by [Elephant Ear], he soon heard a large group of people approaching from behind. They were likely the ones his target noticed.

He was sure that they were his peers—soldiers of the Theocracy.

Schoen suddenly felt guilty, because he knew the reason why they were sent here.

He would not warn them, because that's what his duty demanded.

Still, he would not leave anything unobserved. That was all he could do.

The target's true strength could only be understood if they saw her fight.

Those soldiers were the sacrifices the top brass sent for that purpose.

They were going to sacrifice the valuable lives of their comrades. Schoen turned to look behind him, making sure he would not get noticed by the target.

His eyes, strengthened by the second-tier magic [Hawk-eye], spotted an arrow flying over.

The lone arrow bent around the trees in its path and then, it scattered into multiple arrows mid-air, turning into a rain of arrows that covered a large area.

The arrow was not probably aimed at anything specific. Even if she could locate her target through sound, this was in the middle of the forest. It was impossible to snipe accurately with all the trees around.

But something like a [Fireball] would be able to burn beyond these obstructions. She was just emulating it by combining the ability to weave through the gaps between the trees with the ability to multiply the arrows.

Schoen's strengthened ears picked up cries of pain from the soldiers. It seemed like no one was left unscathed.

—cries? They are still alive?

The soldiers milled about in confusion, fearing the arrows that came from beyond their vision. As no one managed to figure out the trajectory the arrows flew in, everyone started to run hither-thither. There was no fighting spirit left in them.

They weren't exactly doing the wrong thing. In fact, it could be said they were responding correctly by scattering around randomly, which would let at least a few of them survive.

The girl fired another arrow.

It weaved through the spaces between trees again and then multiplied. Among the rain of arrows, the sounds of pitiful cries and trampled undergrowth gradually came to a halt.

He learned one important thing as a result of the deaths of these soldiers.

She couldn't kill an ordinary soldier in a single attack. Of course, considering the ability—martial art—that made the arrows multiply, it stood to reason that each arrow would have reduced precision and damage. That said, a hero could kill every one of those regular soldiers with a single attack. It could mean only one thing.

—She isn't a hero. That brat didn't step into the realm of heroes, That was Schoen's conclusion.

It was because he worked hard to match his rival, the third seat of the Black Scripture, "Earth, Wind & Fire (ft. Water)", that he could be sure of his conclusion.

(T/N: Third seat's title should be "The Four Elements", the same kanji as Inveria's traditions)

She was weaker than Schoen, but that didn't mean they could be at ease.

The fighting styles of a magic caster and an archer are strong in their own ways.

Even if he was stronger than her in general, the battle could still go either way.

It was also possible that she was hiding her true strength after realizing she was under observation.

But, Schoen, the observer in question, could say with certainty that she didn't notice yet.

There was only one thing left for them to do. Remove the obstacle in the path of the Theocracy's advance.

He activated [Silent Magic - Wall of Protection from Arrows].

He didn't feel like that was enough preparation, but she might notice something suspicious and escape. if he tried to do more at this distance.

He can only strengthen his resolve.

[Silent Maximized Magic - Magic Arrow].

He came out of hiding from behind the tree and activated his abilities at the same time. He also activated the once-per-day trump card of the Arcane Devotee class that Holocaust Scripture required its members to acquire. He used it to access the spell-strengthening metamagics he had yet to learn. Naturally, he chose [Triplet Magic].

A total of twelve magic arrows flew out at the same time.

One could not escape from these arrows, but unfortunately, the damage of a single arrow was not enough. As long as there's not much difference between the strengths of the opponent and the caster, it would be hard to kill them even with [Maximize Magic]. But—that was only true if he was fighting alone.

All of his subordinates were observing Schoen's movements with [See Invisibility].

Their target's expression changed in an instant.

Perhaps it was because she was in pain from Schoen's attack, or perhaps it was because she saw the hundred plus [Magic Arrows] coming at her from behind Schoen.

Holocaust Scripture was entrusted with assassination and counter-terrorism work that required them to be flexible, so their teams consisted of at least four members, each with different jobs. This was similar to the adventurers' tactics in the Kingdom and the Empire. As the adventurers' guilds were in fact created secretly by the Theocracy, you could even call them brothers-in-arms.

The tactic this time relied upon a team consisting of one common class. On top of that, only those who could use a specific skill were selected.

The end result was a team of magic casters who could also use [Invisibility].

Hit.

Hit.

Hit.

Hit.

It was like wings of light flew across the sky.

The target collapsed on the ground and laid still with her face down. Even so, only Schoen approached her.

He didn't think the target, who was an archer, could use it, but there were illusions that could make one appear dead. He can't let his guard down yet.

He put his foot under her body and flipped her around.

There was not a single part of the child's body that was without wounds from being hit by their magic arrows. Schoen took a closer look at her face. There was no light in the eyes that peeked out from under her swollen eyelids.

She was dead for sure.

"Huh. —Right back at you, you shitty brat"

They didn't select [Magic Arrow] just so that it could be an act of symbolic revenge. People like rangers with keen senses could sometimes sense and escape from damage if they were attacked with area-of-effect spells.

Mental attacks were situationally effective at dealing fatal damage in a single blow, but there was a high probability that it would just get nullified. So, since he had others to back him up, he chose to use a method that was guaranteed to hit the opponent.

Be that as it may, it was still the best spell they could have used to take revenge for the soldiers killed by her arrows.

Schoen wrinkled his brows at the dead child's face.

He felt like there was a hint of tranquility in it.

Maybe he was just mistaken, but if he wasn't, that would be extremely irritating. This elf killed nearly a thousand of his comrades from Theocracy, so he wanted her to die in painful agony, regretting her actions at the end.

Schoen stopped himself before he could spit on her corpse. He had to get the equipment off of her first. He planned to do it here as there were no enemies around. He would probably feel disgusted if he had to touch his own saliva in the process, so he should spit after he took them off her.

First, the bow.

It was the weapon of an opponent who managed to stop the Theocracy's army by herself. It should be something good.

"Good grief."

Schoen suddenly went stiff upon hearing the nonchalant voice of a man.

Although he should have responded immediately, the suddenness shocked him to a stop. Turning to look at the source of the voice, Schoen found a single elf.

There wasn't supposed to be anyone here, there was no mistake about that.

There should be no elves other than the target present. He even took care to use [See invisibility] while approaching the target.

"Human, did you know? That fighting with the strong, with one's life on the line, is the fastest way to become stronger? Though I took her away from her mother and threw her into the battle immediately, thinking that she was a success…"

The voice sounded disappointed. The elf looked at the girl's dead body with scorn. "You useless shit. You are even worse than the other failures for wasting my time. As I thought, people who can't bring forth the king's essence are no different than trash"

Schoen already understood who the elf was.

His heterochromatic eyes were clear enough proof.

The final target of the Theocracy.

A deplorable criminal.

It was the Elf king.

An existence that even heroes couldn't win against, never mind Schoen.

Someone above even the Outliers.

There was no chance of victory.

[Silent Magic - Invisibility]

Shoen panicked, immediately activated the spell, and moved a short distance.

Yet, the Elf king's eyes followed him. Even though he just moved a short distance from the place where he cast [Invisibility], the elf king clearly saw him.

The moment he realized that, Schoen ran with his back turned to the Elf king.

He can't hide the grass being trampled by him even if he was using [Invisibility] and [Silence], but he couldn't stop running.

Still, the elf king didn't shift his gaze even a bit from Schoen. It didn't seem like he was using [See Invisibility] to see him perfectly. He was seeing through [Invisibility] and [Silence] with just his extraordinary sight. That was why Schoen had to create some distance between them. If the opponent was not using anti-stealth abilities to find him, only increasing the space between them would make it easier to hide.

For just a moment, he regretted not using [Fly] to escape, but he couldn't do it anyway because of one of the classes he acquired.

Adepts of Surshana had a special ability with a limited number of uses per day.

This ability allowed them to extend the effective time of a spell by consuming their mana. Taking advantage of that ability, he had already exhausted most of his mana to maintain his other spells; therefore, he did not have enough mana to effectively use [Fly].

Also, one would have to be mad to use [Fly] as it made them defenseless while within the reach of the Elf king. Schoen wasn't that desperate yet. It was more practical to use it after he could get far away enough and hide among the trees.

"—Hah"

He heard the Elf king scoff behind him.

"It's meaningless to kill you people but—I went through all this trouble to come here, so I might as well do it to relieve my boredom."

As a magic caster, Schoen wasn't exactly skilled at moving his body. Even so, as someone who stood at the boundary to the realm of heroes, he could cross vast distances with little effort. After Schoen managed to get far enough away, the Elf king's voice suddenly echoed in his ears, which were strengthened by [Elephant Ear].

"Go—Kill everyone, Behemoth"

The land shook around him. He understood that something huge had appeared without needing to look.

"Disperse!" He shouted, canceling [Silence] so that his voice could reach his subordinates.

He had never shouted so loud in his entire life. If the Elf king grimaced a bit at this, then it's even better.

He needed his subordinates to do their best now, even if it meant throwing away some people's lives as sacrifices. Getting the intel back home was the only way to recompense the lost lives.

Schoen, who was nearest to the elf king, would certainly die. So he turned back.

If he died before his subordinates, that would be a good thing in itself.

He had seen Earth Elementals before. They were weird chubby-looking things, smaller than humans and with arms too large for their bodies. But, the one that stood before him was not such a cute thing.

A misshapen body made of boulders and mineral ore, and as large as the trees around it, enough to make one call it the Earth Elemental Lord.

Thick and long arms with stout but short legs. Maybe it would have looked comical if it was much smaller, but its arms and legs displayed power that no monster should be capable of. The elf king stood behind it, looking at Schoen's desperate struggle with a sneer.

His attitude was absolutely disgusting.

Someone who took lives without betting his own.

Unconcerned about things like Schoen's anger, the Elf king immediately closed the gap between them with graceful movements as if he was skating over ice. The Earth Elemental—Behemoth, lifted its two giant arms high into the air.

"—try me, you piece of shit! [Wall of Stone]"

A stone wall was erected between the Elf king and him.

In the very next moment, it was broken with a single strike, with its pieces melting away into the air.

Though there were other factors, the strength and durability of a wall tended to be proportional to the caster's strength. Even so—no, maybe it showed that the Elemental summoned by the Elf king was just that strong.

Behemoth immediately lifted its left fist.

Schoen saw the Elf king standing there with a satisfied grin from the corner of his vision and understood what he was thinking. He knew what would happen.

He was probably thinking that Schoen would die from the next attack.

He was certainly not wrong.

The Behemoth's fist will reach Schoen before he could cast another spell, and then he will die.

Even so—

I managed to buy some time

He wasted his opponent's time, even if it was only a few moments, but that is enough.

It was more than enough.

At least one person would survive to return to the Theocracy because of this.

It's a defeat for Schoen, but not for the Theocracy.

In the next moment, Schoen was turned into pulp by Behemoth's fist, with a smile on his face till the very end.

-x-X-x-

The Elf king—Decem Hougan, passed through his castle gate, letting out a sigh from feeling unpleasant.

It took too much time to return to the castle which put him in a bad mood.

By riding the indefatigable Behemoth, he likely returned in the fastest way possible. Even so, wasting time was a bore and he hated the stress it gave him.

Retrieving the weapons he gave to his failed creation was certainly not a waste of time—he should in fact be praised for it. The gear he gave her were things he received from his father, things that no one else could make. He could not let them fall into the hands of humans who couldn't understand their value.

But, the problem was that there was no one else who could complete such an important task.

He didn't have underlings who he could entrust such issues with. It was because all of them were weak.

All of them were useless.

Elves were a splendid race. His father was the proof of that fact, that they were a race that could become stronger than anyone else. If Decem was a special type of Elf like a High Elf or an Elf Lord, he would have concluded that the others were just worse and that would be the end of it.

However, that wasn't the case. His father was also just an Elf. This meant any Elf could become strong.

That's why he couldn't understand why the others were so weak.

How could he prove that Elves were the greatest race?

He just had to achieve something that others could see.

He just had to make this world the dominion of the Elves—of him who held such a revered bloodline.

He required excellent—strong females for that.

(T/N: he's got the incel mentality, if that wasn't obvious enough)

But, he couldn't be sure which females had superior wombs until the children were nurtured. So, he sent all of his children to fight in the war but almost none of them managed to return.

He was bothered by the fact that even after doing this for such a long time, he had no results to show for it.

A female approached Decem, who looked quite menacing as he thought about various things.

"—my king"

"What is it?"

He directed his simmering anger at the female and then slightly widened his eyes with surprise.

A strong person's (i.e. Decem's) stare contained within it strong emotions— especially if it was filled with hostility or the intent to kill. As a result, it tended to break weaker beings. Yes, he didn't direct his killing intent at her, only his anger. Even so, weaker beings should still be affected and though this female went pale, she withstood it.

She was just supposed to be a weak female.

In that case, how did she withstand his aura? Perhaps it was because he was exhausted. He didn't really care but he should reward her for being able to withstand it.

So, he stopped to look at her. Decem was a merciful lord.

"How is that child?"

Who is "that child" supposed to be? What exactly was she thinking by asking him such meaningless questions instead of first thanking the king for his hard work after a long trip? He lost his motivation immediately.

"I am asking about Roogi"

Roogi.

He didn't remember such a name.

Decem can't really remember names, because there was almost no one who was worthy enough to be remembered by him.

From his point of view, remembering useless names was a waste of memory.

It's not that his memory was limited, but there's no meaning to using his memory for unimportant things. In fact, he couldn't understand why so many people try to memorize useless things.

The female shifted her gaze to the bow in Decem's hands.

"So, she died"

Something clicked in him. It was about that failure, the one who managed to die even though he gave her such precious weapons. He felt ashamed that half of the blood that flowed in her veins was his own. No—rather, it was because it was not more than half that she got killed by someone like humans.

"Yeah, she died"

"Is…that so"

Her voice trembled.

She was also probably feeling ashamed upon remembering that her blood flowed through that failed creation, but that failure was still stronger than her.

This female should be even more ashamed.

But it was the king's duty to give people a chance.

Decem felt moved at how gentle a king he was that he would show mercy even for the incompetent.

"Come to my room later. I will give you another chance"

Decem started walking without waiting for a reply. He should get these weapons to the treasury first.

After he returned from the treasury, Decem washed off the dirt from the battlefield and laid on the bed in his room.

While he was waiting like that, a man came requesting his permission to enter.

He couldn't see that female anywhere behind him.

"…What is it?"

"I have information for the king. The woman summoned by the king, named Myuugi, has committed suicide"

"Suicide?"

"Yes. She did it by jumping from the castle"

"What? She died from falling from just that height…no, I forget that you people are only that strong"

Decem pondered for a bit. He couldn't think of a reason for her suicide. First of all, he had just summoned her to his bed, so she should have been joyful. Maybe it's not suicide, but instead, she got murdered by someone who envied her.

.

"…Are you sure that it's a suicide?"

"Yes. We are sure, as there was someone who saw her do it."

Decem thought for a moment that maybe that witness was the murderer, but if it really was a suicide, what could have been the reason? After he mulled it over for a while, Decem finally found the answer.

"I see… So it's something like that. I understand now. She was sorry for giving birth to a useless daughter and killed herself as an apology, right?"

"…Only she can know her true feelings, but you are probably right, my king"

The man replied with an expressionless face.

"…In that case, give her a fitting funeral. She used her life to apologize after all. It's a king's duty to forgive others"

"I am grateful for my king's merciful consideration"

Decem nodded regally at the man who was bowing deeply. As he thought, kings should be merciful like this to useless beings.

Feeling extremely compassionate, Decem decided to reward the loyal man—

he didn't remember his name—in front of him.

"Do you have any daughters?"

"…Yes…I do"

"You are fortunate. Send them here if they are already of age. If they aren't, your wife works too"

The man looked like he was deeply moved. After his body shook all over, he spoke like he was trying to squeeze the words out.

"Understood, my king…"

He left the room and Decem proceeded to forget about that female. He didn't care about what happened to some useless female.

-x-X-x-

Above the great forest sprawling far south from the Sorcerer Kingdom, to the south of the Theocracy.

Ainz stared at the land below with the winds raging around him.

"So this is what they call the Great Forest. It's more like a sea of trees…yes, The Great Sea of Trees."

Due to it being nighttime and the deepness of the greenery that extended below him, it looked like it was painted black. When the winds brushed the canopy, waves rippled out just like the sea. He felt like this was the land most suitable to be called The Great Sea of Trees.

In fact, this forest was larger than the Great Forest of Tob and the Azerlisia Mountain Range put together. It might even be larger than the entire Kingdom.

This is The Great Sea of Trees from now as far as the Sorcerer Kingdom is concerned ,This outrageously large forest had no landmarks to speak of as far as he could see. Various species should have built independent civilizations that changed the surroundings to suit their lifestyles in this forest, but he did not find any signs of those changes from the sky.

—Maybe they are being hidden by the canopy. Their civilizations probably developed to hide themselves from the sky because there are monsters that can fly .

But, he did discover two things.

One was the crescent-shaped lake that was said to be the location of the Elven capital. He discovered it comparatively quickly due to its large size.

The other one was the earthen road that extended from the Theocracy.

It was artificially made by clearing the forest for the advance of the

Theocracy's armies.

It looked like a thread compared to the gigantic forest around it, but it should be over 100 meters wide. He shouldn't be able to see it from the sky if it wasn't at least that wide. He thought that was a lot of useless work, but there was probably no other way for them to establish a level of safety in this giant forest.

Considering the amount of time and labor that road would have required, one could feel the Theocracy's obsession with wiping out the Elven country.

But I can't understand it at all. Why is this the only thing that stands out? Did the Theocracy stop its advance?

If they wanted to destroy the Elven villages, wasn't felling the trees and then creating forest fires the best way to do it? The forest was not dry but it wasn't very humid either. Destroying the Elven villages should be easy as long as they took care of their surroundings when they start the fires.

They want to take the Elves as slaves so they are not burning them down? In that case, it seems like the theocracy isn't that pressed…Maybe there's just that much of a difference between the strength of their forces.

He didn't find any burned patches of forest from the sky, but he couldn't be sure considering he was far above the land. Perhaps Aura would have noticed if she was here.

And that bunch of lights over there should be the Theocracy's vanguard camp…

Humans couldn't see in the dark, so the larger their encampment, the more likely it was bright enough to be seen from far away.

But, due to various reasons—especially his position in the sky—it was hard to get a good idea of the distance between the camp and the capital. He had no idea how long it would take the army to reach the capital if they proceeded in a straight line while clearing the forest.

Ainz believed that he had seen all he needed to see, so he activated [Greater Teleportation].

It was easy to be seen from the ground if he stayed in the sky without any cover.

There were many people with superior vision, so he certainly couldn't be careless even though it was night.

Of course, if the other side noticed him, he could easily escape before they could climb the height of thousands of meters to reach him. Still, there was no merit in letting others know about his presence here. So, Ainz did not dispel .

[Perfect Unknowable].

From Ainz's analysis of the information he gathered, most of the living beings in this world were weak.

Yet, he couldn't say with certainty that there was no one equal to him in regions he had no information on. He should proceed while assuming that "maybe" they do exist. Since the enemy can prepare countermeasures if information regarding him was leaked, a card of his exposed was a step closer to his defeat.

…Well then, the next should be the Elven capital.

—Deep in the night.

The forest was gloomy with very little moonlight, but that was not an issue to Ainz. He came down from the sky using [Fly], using it to float just above the ground so that he wouldn't step on the undergrowth and advanced towards his target.

He already understood how far the Theocracy's army had advanced. Next, he had to collect information in the Elven Royal Capital.

The space before him opened up gradually.

Elven houses were made from short and stout trees called Elf Trees and the Royal Capital where a large number of them were gathered looked like a forest.

The construction was the same as in any other Elven village, but it was especially striking when they were gathered in such large numbers. Maybe it was because they were denser in the capital, but it was overwhelming enough to pressure even him. Ainz felt like avoiding the place because it reminded him of his former graytinted world.

The trees were cleared around the Royal Capital and instead converted into a large field of grass.

That was not a natural phenomenon, but something the Elves did for the capital's defense. It was made to provide better visibility, making it harder for an enemy to approach the capital without being seen.

But on the other hand, maybe this could also be considered as the Elf Tree's survival strategy

He initially didn't feel anything strange when he heard that the Elves grew Elf Trees with magic, but perhaps instead, the Elf Trees were using the Elves to multiply themselves.

He could imagine Elf Trees as a kind of monster. He should probably investigate this more to find out if they were intelligent.

Ainz tried to see ahead of him as he thought about how to investigate this and whether or not he should entrust it to Mare.

There should be guards on the lookout, surveying the cover-less grasslands. It would be hard to break through without using magic.

That said, it should be possible for an Aura-level ranger. High-level rangers had the ability to stay hidden even if there was no cover. If the level difference between them was large enough, it was possible for the observer to not notice anything out of place even if they met eyes with the ranger. He had heard from Aura that the stealth capabilities of a highly-skilled ranger was good enough to make you think that they were nothing but a pebble by the road, but Ainz had his doubts about the veracity of that claim. He had experimented on their journey here by having Aura go into hiding, but Ainz was more or less able to detect Aura when she didn't use any magic items or special abilities to boost her skills.

That was because Aura had her levels divided between ranger and beast tamer, and it was also because Ainz was just too high-leveled so his base stats were high. Ainz felt regret at not being able to personally experience what Aura talked about.

Leaving that matter aside, Ainz was not good enough at stealth to infiltrate the Royal Capital without using magic. So, he cast [Perfect Unknowable] and on top of that, turned into an elf with illusion magic.

Though it would be difficult to break through his [Perfect Unknowable] considering the strength of an average person in this world, he still had to be careful just like when he was flying in the sky. That was why he went as far as creating an illusion as well.

He never thought for a moment that he knew everything there was to know about this world's special abilities and techniques. After all, Ainz's knowledge came from his time in Yggdrasil and even that was not perfect.

He should assume that the other side is using an ability all the time to see through invisibility, just like Ainz did.

Ainz also wore a magic item called the Ghillie-Ghillie Mantle as a part of his stealth setup. Despite covering himself in layers of stealth, he also prepared measures to fool the enemy in case he was discovered. One could never be too careful.

Let's start then.

After he reached the boundary between the forest and the grassland—there was no cover to be found further in—Ainz observed the capital.

He could see Elves making rounds on the bridges connecting the outer circle of trees that made up the Royal Capital.

They were probably equivalent to a city's walls, the bridges being the allures on said walls.

He didn't know if they lacked the skills to see through his [Perfect Unknowable] or if they were just not paying attention, but the soldiers didn't act like they had noticed him. Well, he was going through all this trouble to stay hidden, it would have been embarrassing if they managed to find him so quickly.

After he made sure that he wouldn't be in the line of sight of those soldiers,

Ainz took out a scroll.

Then he activated the scr—he hesitated.

He started again—and hesitated.

He had resolved to use it before coming here, but even so, he couldn't help but feel that it was such a waste. He turned reluctant to activate the scroll every time a thought flashed by that there should be a better way.

He wouldn't have hesitated if he was in a battle with his life on the line—but the fact that he wasn't in such a desperate situation was the root cause of his hesitation.

After a while, Ainz succeeded in clearing his head and finally activated the scroll. He would have hesitated again if he thought about anything at all.

The activated spell was [God's Eye].

A ninth-tier spell that created an intangible and invisible eye. This was probably the first time he used this since that time with the lizardmen.

Its range was far greater than [Remote Viewing] and it could also pass through obstacles like walls.

While this spell was excellent for spying, you couldn't say that it was the absolute best there was. Though it was invisible, it could easily be detected by second-tier detection spells. Plus, even though it was intangible, if it was destroyed in an attack, the caster would receive damage as feedback.

Since this was also considered divination, the opponent could find his location through anti-divination measures or an attack could come flying over if it triggered any automated defenses. The fact that this eye itself didn't have any HP and it wouldn't use Ainz's level or defenses was the main issue.

Even so, as it was far better than going over there and directly observing, it was valuable at times.

It flew at a constant speed—but so slow that Ainz felt a bit impatient—and finally reached the city walls.

Three Elf guards equipped with bows were patrolling as a team, but no one noticed the approaching [God's Eye].

Seems like there's no one with anti-invisibility skills here but… I can't be sure that there's no one among the Elves who have classes with such abilities.

There was no reason for them to overlook the eye if they noticed it, so he should be correct. However, he shouldn't be careless because it was their first intel-gathering mission in a previously unknown place.

Ainz's [God's Eye] passed under the walkways and entered the capital. He immediately brought the eye back after it just entered the city, and then moved it in front of the three guards from before. It appeared that they were talking about something, but they still hadn't noticed the eye.

"Fuuu. it's all good…"

Ainz breathed a sigh of relief.

Just like Nazarick, guild bases had traps that activated the moment they were invaded, weakening or nullifying certain types of magic. They could break [Invisibility], reduce the strength of the holy element, et cetera. Ainz checked whether the Elven city had any such traps in place.

(T/N: Raw had "guild home" in katakana, will assume that's a mistake until proven otherwise)

He would have to check again at the important-looking locations within the city, but it seemed like the ordinary parts of it weren't problematic.

He didn't want to spend too much time maintaining [Perfect Unknowable].

Considering the amount of mana he would be left with after this, he really didn't have much leeway.

Ainz gradually made the eye move into the deeper parts of the city. He wanted to find the Elves that resided in trees that corresponded to shops.

If he thought of it as a usual town, the shops should be clustered together in a convenient place to reach. Considering that they also had to keep inventory on hand, it wouldn't be strange if they were located in the larger trees.

After a while, Ainz groaned silently.

"—I can't find them!"

This city, made out of thousands of trees, was nothing but a forest to the human eye. He couldn't find anything like a signboard because it was night and there were no nameplates on the trees either. It was just rows and rows of trees without any individual characteristics that he could see. He couldn't be sure that the tree he was looking at wasn't the same tree he saw just before.

If this was a human city, there would be a thoroughfare with shops arrayed on both sides. They could also be clustered around the main square.

He couldn't find any such places here at a glance. With his experience till now becoming useless, he had no choice but to search by intuition.

This was a city that was not at all welcoming to a traveler. It was hard—no, it was impossible to find his target amidst this.

That said, it was not like he needed to complete everything today. They shouldn't be hasty, but instead, take it slow and safe.

Even so, Ainz continued his search for a while after that. He had already activated [God's Eye] so he might as well use it until it ran out of duration.

But Ainz could only sigh after his long search.

—It's no use doing the same thing again when the residents are sleeping.

He shouldn't do things without a plan. Even though it would be riskier, he should return to search in the morning. He would probably get a clue by observing the way people moved around. Ainz wasn't sure how long it would take to accomplish his goal if he didn't do that.

Ainz selected a random place and sent [God's Eye] in. Elves use the walkways between the trees to move around the entrances of their homes which would correspond to the first or second floor of a human house. So he decided to infiltrate from the first floor. It was the same principle as a thief looking through drawers. Starting from the second floor would make for terrible pathing.

After [God's Eye] passed through the wall, it flew up until it found elves sleeping on the third floor.

He found a father, mother, and two boys sleeping there. It seemed like this house belonged to a family.

I already heard about this but…how primitive…

The four of them were sleeping soundly on a large amount of leaves collected in what was supposedly a bedroom. Human villages also used dried grass in place of a mattress so maybe this was similar to that.

According to the elves in Nazarick, this was what a normal Elven bedroom looked like. Although it took a lot of work to collect a large amount of leaves, they could be used for a long time without any issues. When he asked them about being bitten by insects, they replied that a spell was cast on the leaves to prevent that.

The children—the two boys were pleasantly sleeping with slow, calm breaths.

"Sleep, huh…how did it use to feel like?"

A long time had passed since he gained this body. This body's lack of the three basic needs and its insensitivity to pain was probably the reason he managed to not collapse till now, but he still felt some regret about it. When he sees such pleasant sleeping faces, he feels nostalgic and a bit envious. Even more so when he sees tasty food.

Good grief…

Ainz shrugged and activated [Greater Teleportation], arriving in front of a large curtain made of vines.

It was not weird to see such veils made of vines in the forest, but if one looked at this curtain closely, they would find that it was skillfully hiding a small cottage behind it.

This had been their party's temporary base for these past few days, a Green Secret House created by a magic item.

Fenrir, who was sitting beside the Green Secret House, slowly stood up to sniff its surroundings, letting out a growl while looking—no, glaring in Ainz's direction.

But, his line of sight was a bit off.

Just like Aura back then, even Fenrir couldn't completely sense someone being hidden by [Perfect Unknowable]. Rather, it should be praised for the fact that it even managed to sense Ainz while he maintained [Perfect Unknowable].

Ainz canceled the spell.

Now that it could see Ainz, Fenrir bowed its head with a look of remorse on its face.

Although it couldn't talk, Fenrir was rather intelligent. Its act of bowing its head was not the instinctual act of a beast but clearly conveyed its apology to Ainz. But Ainz didn't think that Fenrir was at fault here.

From its point of view, he had been just some unknown intruder that suddenly appeared here. This was the natural reaction for a guard protecting its master; it would have been more problematic if it hadn't responded like that.

He had only brought this Fenrir with them instead of the usual Hanzos this time. Although Ainz said that he would take a lot of high-level underlings with him, he did not stay true to his words due to certain reasons. In the present situation, where he couldn't predict how his plan to obtain friends for the twins would work out, he didn't want to expose information to others if possible.

And the other reason.

He stopped allowing the Guardians to head out alone after Shalltear's brainwashing incident.

But what was the result? Even though Nazarick started being more active since then, the enemy didn't appear again. The only one who fell for the bait was a platinum-armored man named Riku Agnesia when Ainz—who was actually Pandora's Actor—appeared alone. It was like the enemy who brainwashed Shalltear didn't exist at all.

That was why.

Since he managed to fish out Riku when there were no Hanzos around, maybe the enemy had a way to detect the presence of the Hanzos.

Perhaps it's some ability of a World Class Item.

Or perhaps with some kind of talent.

Therefore, he was performing a dangerous experiment by not bringing the Hanzos along.

He informed Albedo of this reason, but even Ainz could see that there were a lot of faults in his reasoning. She was persuaded by his spiel, smiling all the while, which made him doubt if she was really persuaded. Maybe he would get a talking to after he returns.

"—good work"

Ainz left Fenrir with a curt greeting, feeling a little somber. He then put his hand on the Green Secret House's door—so camouflaged that one couldn't find it without knowing that it was there beforehand—and pushed a little.

The door didn't move.

Unfortunately, as this magic item did not have a keyhole (though it could be forcibly opened by something like Epignoi), one had to request someone inside to open it once it was locked.

Ainz used the door knocker. One could look out from the Green Secret House by making the door translucent from the inside. After a few moments, he heard the door being unlocked.

And then it opened.

"Welcome home!"

"We-wel-come-come…home…"

The one who replied energetically was Aura. Mare slowly followed with his welcome, his eyes completely drowsy.

Both of them have changed into pajamas, Mare going as far as wearing a nightcap. Of course, this was the correct appearance given the time.

"Sorry for making you both wait so late into the night"

Ainz said as he entered.

The space inside was filled with a warm light and was far larger than one would expect from its outer appearance.

You would directly enter the living room from the door and you could see the kitchen and other rooms from there. There were also 4 doors that were connected to the individual rooms.

"No, no, we expected it to take more time when we were informed that you could be late"

"I thought so as well, but…let's not talk while standing here. Let's sit over there"

He wanted to tell Aura that it was fine to go to sleep. But he should still share the gathered intel with them, even though it's just a meager amount. Ainz didn't put much trust in his ability to remember so it's better to do it as soon as possible.

While feeling a bit guilty about making them go along with his selfish reasons, he invited them into the living room to talk about what he saw.

Sitting on the chairs there, he found Aura looking attentive in contrast to Mare, who already dropped his head onto the backrest with his eyes half closed.

He looked like he would go to sleep any time now. Ainz felt even more guilty when he compared them to the sleeping children from before.

Am I not being considerate about those who need sleep because I don't need any? This is bad…

"Why don't we let Mare go to bed? I won't mind if you informed him about our talk in the morning"

"Good grief…" Aura slapped Mare's head. "Wake up. You are being rude to Ainz-sama, you know?"

"Fuaah, oh, W-welcome back"

Mare gave a small bow. Ainz couldn't mock that they already went through that.

"This child, really" Aura was getting angry at Mare's attitude .

"It's not good to force someone to stay awake. It can affect tomorrow's opera—"

Ainz shut his mouth suddenly, remembering himself from his YGGDRASIL days.

Of course, he believed that it didn't affect his office work, but was that really the case? Also, it was different when you did it to entertain yourself versus when you were made to do so for others' convenience.

Ainz—Suzuki Satoru used to complain when he had to stay late because of his boss.

First of all, he shouldn't be comparing children to adults, but it could also be considered wrong to compare a child with the astounding physical ability of a level 100 NPC to an ordinary adult like Suzuki Satoru.

The two of them stared at Mare, whose eyes—half-closed from drowsiness—

looked like he was glaring at them.

Mare's head suddenly slid, causing him to panic with his eyes wide open. He then returned his head to its previous position.

He was nearly at his limit.

"—Well then. Let's do it like this. Mare can go to sleep to not affect tomorrow's work. His wits will become dull if you forcefully keep him awake and that's not a good thing. Can you inform him in the morning about what we will talk about here like asked before?"

She should have immediately agreed to Ainz's orders. Instead, she made a complicated expression, probably thinking that Mare's behavior was too slovenly for a Guardian. However, it was just for a moment. She deeply bowed, as if she just persuaded herself in her mind.

"…Understood. I will immediately take Mare back to his room. …Can you stand?"

"Uh, uhhh?"

He can't even give a legible response to Aura, so standing is out of the question.

"—Hmmm. Let me carry him"

Aura looked like she wanted to say something, but Ainz ignored her, stood up, and lifted Mare in his arms.

Perhaps because Mare had changed into pajamas and was only minimally equipped, he found Mare to be quite light. No, normal children probably only weighed about this much.

It would have been harder if he was fully equipped, though it's not like I couldn't carry him even then… That thing is really heavy…perhaps the heaviest of all of the Guardians' equipment

(T/N: Probably talking about Mare's staff)

Since both of his hands—he could have carried him with one hand if he wanted to—were occupied, he let Aura go before him to open the door. He entered Mare's room and let him down slowly onto the bed.

He had already closed his eyes and was taking slow calm breaths. He probably started sleeping while he was in Ainz's arms.

Ainz silently exited the room, taking care not to make any sounds. Aura followed him even more silently, as expected of a Ranger.

.

Both of them returned to the living room and took their seats again.

Immediately, Aura bowed her head and started speaking, "please forgive us for taking a rest while Ainz-sama is working so hard. I apologize on Mare's behalf. You'd be right to be angry and feel uneasy about his work ethic as a Guardian, but let me assure you that we would usually equip items to remove our need for sleep if we have work to do at night and you wouldn't see such a slovenly appearance from us. If you were to ask us why we didn't do so today it's because our strength in battles would be reduced a bit as equipping the item meant leaving out our battle-focused equipment. So we decided not to equip the item as we will be standing on guard to protect Ainz-sama…"

Aura quickly explained. He could feel her anxiety peeking through her uncharacteristic way of talking.

"No, no, you don't have to worry so much. We are here on vacation after all. There's nothing wrong with sleeping early. More importantly, what about you, Aura? Don't you feel sleepy?"

"Ah, no, I would never show you such an unbecoming appearance like that—"

"—too stiff, too stiff. I am not feeling angry at all. Rather, I feel happy that I got to see a different side of Mare, you know? You people always end up being too formal in front of me. I now feel extremely curious about how others behave normally. —Like say, how about Cocytus?"

"…there's not much difference from the normal Cocytus"

Aura returned to her normal expression.

"I see. In that case, should I secretly have a look using [Perfect Unknowable] ,while he is alone?"

Ainz subtly smiled—although his face didn't show it, his voice probably relayed his feelings—and Aura too joined in with a smile akin to that of a pranking kid.

"Well then, are you sure you don't want to sleep?"

"I am usually awake around this time so I don't really feel that sleepy"

According to her, it was common for her to stay awake late into the night to play with those of her monsters that were nocturnal. This "playing" seemed to be important for beast tamers as the monsters would build up stress and wouldn't operate at full potential if they skipped it. That said, it was not like she was reducing the amount of time she spent sleeping. She just slept late into the day following the night she stayed awake. So, it was something similar to a night shift.

By the way, if any of the twins had to head outside of Nazarick, they would equip the aforementioned item to skip sleep and stay alert.

hnn—What should I do about this? It's natural that the persons in charge would be working hard but shouldn't the races that need sleep be better off sleeping? Especially children who need a good rest for their growth. Maybe I should discuss it with Albedo…that aside!

After he took a breath, Ainz talked about the Theocracy's camp he saw in The Great Sea of Trees, though he did not manage to figure out their troop strength or how far away they were from reaching the Elven capital. It was just enough to know their armies were still advancing. Coming to blows with the Theocracy is not a part of Ainz's present mission.

Then, he started explaining the more important matter of his exploration of the Elves' Royal Capital.

He talked about everything that happened without hiding anything. There was no use in hiding such matters. He just had to be honest when something was impossible. Also, Aura was different from those two. Maybe she would take his words as they were and give him better ideas about how to proceed.

"Is that so…" Aura, who heard his explanation, nodded slightly. "In that case, we should observe them during the day just as Ainz-sama says"

"Aah. I am planning to do so but what are you two going to do during that time?"

"About that… it's better If I…don't infiltrate, right?"

"You are right. I think there's a very low chance of you getting discovered but we still don't have enough information to be sure. It's better not to leak who we really are in the present situation"

"In that case, I will talk with Mare tomorrow about his task. But, I am planning on cooperating with Ainz-sama. How about I investigate the surroundings of that city to find any tracks left by the Elves?"

Ainz nodded in agreement.

If goods were being transported to the Royal Capital, they should leave some kind of trail behind, however faint. The more used trails are no different from roads.

If they managed to find them, they could also expect to find places frequented by the Elves like the Elven settlements at the other end of the road.

All of this rested on the assumption that the Elves didn't use something like [Forestwalker], but Aura's idea was very good. There wasn't a single reason for Ainz to object to it.

"It's a splendid idea. To search all the areas around…would probably not even take a day for you. Work with Mare to search for any trails left behind by them. I'll be relying on you"

"Okay! Understood!"

"In that case, I will once again conduct some intelligence gathering during noon tomorrow—actually it's today, considering the time"

"Then I will conduct the search at night because I feel like it's easier to get noticed in the day"

"Umu, I will leave it to you. Well then, let us go to bed as well…Good night, Aura"

"Okay. Good night, Ainz-sama"

Ainz stood up along with Aura.

He went separate ways from Aura to the room designated to him, entered it, and laid on the bed. But Ainz didn't need to sleep because he is an undead. He ended up taking out a book from the item box.

It was one of the books on management he had been reading a lot, titled "To become a good leader." To be frank, he didn't feel like reading these books was helping him, but it was probably better than not reading them at all.

Ainz started turning over the pages.

-x-X-x-

Ainz was in a daze for a while. He wasted two precious scrolls on infiltration on the first night and the noon of the second day. Only on the noon of the third day did Ainz finally manage to find important intel. That being said, the only things he found were the trees with shops, but this did let him get a sense for the capital's layout.

It was just a small step for others but a giant leap for Ainz. He was so happy that his emotional suppression was triggered. Therefore, he resolved not to waste this chance. Ainz made sure to remember the route to the shop.

He retreated at that point. There was certainly still some active duration left for the spell. Although he felt extremely curious, wanting to send the [God's Eye] over to the awfully wide and large tree that was the royal castle and take a peek, he managed to control himself.

In human civilizations, kings were not always the strongest beings around.

This was probably for two reasons. One was that it would be hard for humans to prosper if they followed the strongest instead of the ones who could make better decisions. It was the survival method of a species that was nothing but prey for the other races, who were weaker than the others but also more populous. The other reason was that they occupied comparatively safer areas. That was what as special about the Kingdom, the Empire, and the Holy Kingdom.

However, for the races who lived in a land that required clashing blades with other races, it was natural to have the strongest of them be the king.

The Elf king was then probably a strong person. In that case, they should not invite meaningless danger after going through all this trouble to be careful.

He had collected various pieces of information on this world until now, but he had yet to meet a strong being that could match him and wasn't a monster. Maybe if he hadn't met that mysterious warrior called Riku, he would have been careless and would have looked down on the Elf king. Instead, meeting Riku made him more cautious than ever before.

He dispersed the eye and cast [Greater Teleportation].

Ainz returned to their base and exchanged the intel he found with the two (Mare with his eyes completely open this time), who had just returned earlier.

He was informed that although they had wasted the second day before realizing the Elves were using the trees to travel, they finally found success in finding multiple trails. It might take different amounts of time to investigate them depending on the distance to the nearest settlement on those roads.

Ainz expressed his unease about being seen by the Elves using those roads if they decided to investigate them.

In response, Aura said that they would travel along the road on the ground with Fenrir. She confidently proclaimed that as long as they were inside the forest, they would not get discovered. She was so sure of her opinion that it made Ainz think his worries were unfounded. Even so, Ainz did not give his go-ahead for the moment. Instead, he requested them to wait for a while longer. He would likely be getting his hands on some good intel today.

And so, on the night of the third day.

Ainz approached the Elven royal capital again using [Perfect Unknowable].

Naturally, he infiltrated from a different spot, one he hadn't visited before. He couldn't guarantee that he didn't leave any marks behind on his previous incursions that some excellent ranger among the Elves managed to notice.

He always moved using [Fly] so as to not leave any marks behind, but that was just from Ainz's point of view who was a layman when it came to stealth and search. He was not confident enough to proclaim that he didn't break any branches or make the leaves bend in strange directions on his way here.

Honestly, I sometimes wonder why I am being so careful… but it would be bothersome if the nearby Elven villages started thinking that some mysterious entity was prowling around. It would be especially troublesome if they were to be captured by Theocracy and then leak that information to them.

It was highly unlikely that this "mysterious entity" would be traced back to the Sorcerer Kingdom, but letting the Theocracy know that there was a third faction nearby would be bad. He was afraid of how the Theocracy would react to that intel. Their unanticipated reaction could throw his plans into disarray.

…It wouldn't be a bad idea to pause this now and have a discussion with Albedo and Demiurge, but if I were to do that, my plans for Aura and Mare to make friends would be disturbed.

Therefore, the only option left to Ainz was to be as careful as possible.

Ainz took out a scroll and quickly activated it. He didn't hesitate because he was sure there would be concrete results to show for it this time.

"Good!" Ainz whispered after infiltrating the target's Elf Tree with [God's Eye].

His target was sleeping, buried in a mountain of leaves. It was a male elf.

Elves were fundamentally a slender race, shorter by about 10 to 20 percent when compared to humans. In addition to that, they barely had any body hair and didn't grow beards. As they also looked like young adults for a long period of their life, it was extremely hard to estimate their age from their external appearance alone. Most of them look far younger than their real age.

Therefore Ainz was not certain that this elf held the information that he wanted, but there was a reason Ainz chose him as his target despite that.

It was because there the elf lives here alone.

Abducting an entire family would cause trouble later, but it was easy if it was just a single person.

He also had another reason, but that can only be confirmed later.

As he already memorized the route, Ainz directly teleported over with [Greater Teleportation].

The elf didn't wake up at Ainz's intrusion. Rather, it was a given that he wouldn't even be able to sense Ainz unless he was a high-level ranger.

Ainz then cast the fourth-tier spell [Charm Species] on him.

The spell triggered without fail thanks to him being asleep and the large gap between their levels.

"Wake up," Ainz spoke to him.

His [Perfect Unknowable] was dispelled the moment he cast a spell with the intent to harm (or to be more precise in gaming terms, if his magic triggers some resistance). He continued to wake him while shaking his shoulders gently with his hands, being careful not to cause him pain.

"…nnah?"

The elf mumbled like an idiot but it couldn't be helped as he was just woken up now.

"Don't resist, ok?"

Ainz ended with that and activated [Greater Teleportation] while he held the elf's hand.

This spell allowed one to teleport with other people, but they had to be in agreement and not resist the teleportation. It worked here because the "charmed" status was considered as agreement.

The "dominated" status should also work in the same way, but he didn't use this harder-to-resist and higher-tier option because he was on guard against certain things.

This kidnapping was perfect in execution. You could even call him a first-class criminal.

Good. Just like I planned!

Of course he would be happy because his plan was going so smoothly. While he had a wide smile on his bony face—

"—Wah! W-what the hell? What is this?"

Upon seeing the sudden change in his surroundings and feeling the ground underneath him, the elf jerked up and turned completely awake. He didn't look like he was still thinking that this was a dream. Or maybe the Elves didn't have the concept of a dream world in the first place.

"Don't make such a loud voice"

"E-even if you told me not to…"

"I used teleportation magic. Calm down. There's no one here who would harm you"

"T-teleportation magic?"

The elf continued to panic silently. The only reason he stopped was because the charm magic was still in effect.

"Well, we are here"

Ainz opened the half-opened door completely and led the elf into the Green Secret House.

Aura and Mare should be observing them from the gaps of their rooms' slightly opened doors.

He also thought about letting the captive see them, who were Dark Elves, in hopes that it would make him speak more freely. But considering the troubles that this might end up causing in the future, he decided not to.

Although the Dark Elves weren't considered enemies by the three captured elves, the situation could be different now. Maybe Dark Elves were now considered enemies in the Royal Capital.

Of course, it wouldn't be a problem if Ainz said "they are not enemies" to him.

"What is this place…Don't tell me this is the World of the Divine Tree…"

Ainz didn't know a thing about this World of the Divine Tree, but he could guess that it was probably something from their myths and legends. Or, perhaps—

Is it related to some player from YGGDRASIL? There's a need to investigate, but…I don't want to spend too much time here. I will do it sometime later.

Ainz made him sit on a sofa in the living room and took a memo pad out. It contained a list of bullet points with the questions he needed to ask. He couldn't waste any time. If something failed in the process, he would have to kill the guy.

Although it was extremely unlikely, someone suddenly disappearing from the Royal Capital could still cause problems in the future.

"Tell this friend of yours about various things you know, in as few words as possible," Ainz continued without waiting for his reply, "is there a possibility that you will die if someone used magic or other means to get information from you?"

"Huh? No way there's going to be anything like that on me right?"

The guy looked like he had no idea what Ainz was talking about, but there was a possibility that the elf just didn't know even if there was such a trap.

If I remember correctly, it took three questions before it was activated that time…

Ainz took such scenarios into account while he prepared the questions in the memo, so he just needed to go through the list from top to bottom.

"Do you know any Dark Elf village's location?"

"…I don't know the exact place, but I do know their general location in the great forest"

It sounded like it was further south from the Royal Capital. He went into more detail, saying that it was in a place called The Three Trees, where the trees were huge. But, Ainz couldn't make any sense of it as he didn't know the layout of this area.

He would have to rely on Aura, who was listening in.

"Continuing to the next question.."

When he was making this memo, the twins were surprised that he didn't include this question. Now that he thought about it, it did look important so he moved on to the third question.

"—Tell me what you know about the Theocracy"

"The Theocracy…haa, that horrid country of humans! Those shitheads are attacking us for no reason at all! A country without honor, that attacked us while we were unaware, a bunch of wretches who kidnapped hundreds of Elves," so started the guy's denunciation of the Theocracy, which continued on with vigor until Ainz stopped him in a fluster.

But it did seem like the guy, who was only a commoner, didn't know how far the Theocracy had advanced. He wasn't even sure if the Elves were winning or losing. However, seeing the patrols moving in a tense mood compared to before, the common opinion among the Elves was that the situation was not good.

Three questions were asked, but there was no indication of anything happening to the elf. As he thought, that time was an exception. In that case, he could ask the elf everything he wanted to hear about, but he couldn't really spend that much time with him.

"How are the relations between the Elves and the Dark Elves? They aren't bad right?"

"Not really…I think?" Before Ainz could ask him the reason for the slight pause, the elf started speaking again, "I don't dislike them and I don't think those around me have any bad feelings about the dark elves either. For us, they are like some kind of distant relatives. But, this is only about how we feel and we don't know how the other side thinks about us, you know? We rarely meet them so I don't have a clue about what their feelings are."

"Do you know anything about the Sorcerer Kingdom?"

"What's that?"

Instant reply. Well, he expected this so he wasn't surprised. Anyway, he determined that nothing in the information acquired just now constituted a hindrance for the plan to make friends for the twins.

"That's all I wanted to ask. —I am grateful"

"It's all good, aren't we friends?"

Ainz unintentionally smiled mirthlessly at the guy's reply. He was planning on making friends for others, but when the same word was pointed at him, it rang hollow. For Ainz, only his guildmates could ever be called his friends.

"That's it then."

Mare popped his head out of the door behind the elf when Ainz sent him a signal. Ainz continued to talk with the guy to divert his attention, "I also wanted to know more about things like Elven culture, but I can't spend too much time on—"

He saw the elf's eyes become drowsy and then he fell sideways onto the sofa.

The elf was taking slow, calm breaths that were a mark of deep sleep. This sudden turn of events was caused by Mare's [Sandman's Sand].

Ainz made Aura, who was following Mare, confirm that the elf was asleep.

"…Aura. Do you think we can reach the Dark Elves' village using what this guy said?"

"I feel like I can, probably. But I might need to conduct a detailed recon when we are near it to find the exact location"

That was good enough for him. Ainz cast [Control Amnesia] on the elf. This was the main reason why he kidnapped—selected—an elf living alone.

Since it was hard to estimate an elf's age, he couldn't be sure that he would get an adult with all of the knowledge he required even if he kidnapped a maturelooking elf. There was a chance the elf would end up being a very young person who never stepped outside of the Royal Capital.

On the other hand, he could be sure if he kidnapped an elf with children, but then there would be as many untied ends as there were members in that elf's family to deal with later.

If he killed them all just because it was bothersome, it would mean that an entire family would have disappeared from the capital, without any signs of resistance to boot. That would surely create problems for them. He probably couldn't make it look like they had escaped away during the night due to debt or something.

And there was no way his mana could last long enough to cast [Control Amnesia] on a whole family like he was doing now.

Therefore, he selected a male elf who lived alone.

Ainz removed the elf's memories in a single move. Fine manipulation of memories, making sure that the details stayed consistent, was difficult. However, removing them in batches without caring much for the details was not that hard at all.

Plus, the memories he needed to erase didn't span across that much time. This was the reason why he tried to take as little time as possible for his questions. If he didn't need to erase the elf's memories with [Control Amnesia], Ainz would have spent as much time as possible—maybe even until the charm ended or even longer by recasting [Charm Species]—to question him.

Since he controlled the number of questions and was done with the questioning in a short time, he easily managed to delete the memories up till the moment he went to sleep. No, he even ended up erasing a bit more, to the time just before the elf went to bed.

This was caused by him wiping a bunch of memories at once, but his MP probably wouldn't have lasted otherwise. Speaking in hindsight, his remaining MP actually looked like it would have held, but hindsight was hindsight.

He couldn't do anything about it now, so even if the elf had some doubts, he just had to hope that the elf would reason it out by himself.

His MP was low, but because they managed to complete the task without an issue by preparing meticulously, he was left with enough to complete the remaining tasks.

"I'm leaving then. Aura and Mare, can you lend me a hand just like we planned?"

"Okay! Leave it to me!"

"Ah, Y-yes. I will do my best"

Aura and Mare held the elf's limbs, swinging him while they carried him with Ainz at their lead. Considering their strength, one would have been enough to carry the elf but if he was hit by something and it was considered as damage, he may wake up. Then Ainz would have to cast [Control Amnesia] again and he was not sure that his remaining MP was enough for that.

Of course—

—I made a different plan for that scenario so it shouldn't be a problem.

Ainz first exited the Green Secret House by himself and activated [Perfect Unknowable]. He opened a [Gate] after that.

Naturally, on the other side of the gate was this elf's house.

Ainz first entered the gate alone and entered the elf's bedroom. He immediately started looking around while trying to listen for any sounds.

…Fuuuuh. It's safe.

It seemed like there was no one around to be alarmed by the sudden [Gate].

For a moment Ainz continued to listen carefully, observing the situation.

…Looks like…there's no problem.

A ranger on Aura's level could stay silent without letting Ainz hear anything, but it was not like even someone like Aura was doing it at all times. It would be like some farce out of a dark comedy if a veteran ranger existed who, in this short time, managed to notice something was wrong in this house and laid in wait expecting something to occur again. So, Ainz could only assume that it was safe.

Ainz dispelled [Perfect Unknowable] and stuck his head into the gate to send a signal to the twins. They carried the man, swinging by his limbs, through the gate.

The three of them executed their plan in silence.

First, Aura and Mare carefully laid the man on his bed made of leaves. It would be too idiotic if he were to receive damage now and end up waking.

[Sandman's Sand] caused a deeper sleep than [Sleep]. One would wake up from just a shake for [Sleep] but wouldn't open their eyes unless they receive damage if it was [Sandman's Sand].

If they left him like this and if no one discovered him and woke him up by causing damage to him, he would gradually die from emaciation. The uproar that would cause was not something Ainz wanted after going through all this trouble to not create any such disturbances.

They started preparing to wake the guy up after letting him down on the bed.

Ainz looked around the room, trying to find the object he saw when he entered it.

It was a weird (at least he didn't find it ordinary) wooden sculpture with a bulging stomach that looked like the cross between a mole and a frog. They didn't find any such animals in the few days they had spent in the forest. Maybe it was a mythical beast from Elven mythology and legends. Ainz took that sculpture into his hands.

As I expected, it's wood. But…it's heavier than I expected. Not bad…but if it ends up killing him…well, there's nothing I can do about that

It's very unlikely that they would suspect Ainz's involvement even if they started a murder investigation.

Upon seeing Ainz with the sculpture, the twins carried the elf under the shelf where the sculpture was.

After Ainz gave them a nod, the two went first into the [Gate]. Ainz followed them and stopped just in front of it.

.