Overlord Volume 1 Prologue & Chapter 1 Part 4

"Is something wrong, Momonga-sama?"

Albedo kept asking him questions. Momonga did not know how to respond. As it was, there were far too many things he did not understand, so his thought processes short-circuited.

"Forgive me."

Momonga could only stare dumbly at Albedo, who was standing by his side.

"Are you all right?"

Albedo's beautiful face drew close to Momonga's as she studied him. A faint fragrance entered his nostrils. The scent seemed to restore Momonga's ability to think, and his mind, which had been hitherto out of comission, slowly returned to normal.

"No… nothing is wrong… no, nothing."

Momonga was not the sort of person who made a habit of speaking politely to dolls. However… hearing Albedo's questions instinctively made him want to respond with deference. Her movements, her speech patterns, her whole being radiated an undeniable humanity.

Momonga still had the feeling that something was terribly wrong about Albedo and himself, but he had no way of understanding exactly what the problem was. All he could do in this ignorant state was to suppress his fear, shock, and other unnecessary emotions. However, Momonga was a common person, and could not do that.

Just as Momonga was about to cry out, the words of one of his guild members came to mind:

—Panic is the seed of defeat, so you must maintain your calm and think logically. Remain calm, look beyond your surroundings, and don't waste your effort on unnecessary details, Momonga-san.

As he recalled these words, Momonga slowly regained his composure.

Momonga silently thanked Punitto Moe, the Zhuge Liang of Ainz Ooal Gown.

"Is something the matter?"

She was close to him now. Albedo was so close he could feel her gentle breaths. Her lovely face dimpled in an adorable way as she asked her question. Momonga, who had calmed himself after much effort, was in danger of being driven into panic again from her nearby face.

"...The [GM Call] function does not seem to be working."

Entranced by Albedo's limpid eyes, Momonga could not help but question the NPC.

In Momonga's past life, he had not received romantic attention from the opposite sex, let alone those of a sexual nature. Although he knew that she was just an NPC, he could not help but be moved by her realistic expressions and movements.

However, as his passions stirred within his heart, they were quenched like they had been earlier, and he returned to normal.

Momonga felt uneasy at the lack of strong emotions within himself, and he wondered if it was related to the words of his comrade from just now.

But was that really the case?

Momonga shook his head. Now was not the time to ponder these things.

"...Please forgive my inability to answer the Supreme One's questions about this "[GM Call]." I apologize for not meeting your expectations. Nothing would please me more than a chance to make up for my prior mistake. Please, command me as you see fit."

...The two of them were conversing. There was no doubt about that.

Learning this fact shocked Momonga so greatly that he could not speak.

Impossible. This should have been impossible.

The closest thing NPCs could come to conversations was with macroed responses to being addressed in a certain way. There was audio data for roars and cheering for players to download, but actually allowing an NPC to engage in conversation was an impossible task. Even Sebas from just now could only accept simple orders.

Why had such an impossible event occurred? Was this phenomenon limited to Albedo?

Momonga dismissed Albedo with a wave of his hand, and disappointment flashed across her face as she retreated. Momonga turned his eyes from her body to the butler and the six maids, whose heads were still lowered.

"Sebas! Maids!"

"Yes!"

Their voices chorused out as one, and then the butler and maids raised their heads.

"Approach the throne."

"Understood."

They responded as one, and then rose to their feet. After that, they proudly strode to the front of the throne before dropping to one knee and lowering their heads again.

Momonga had learned two things from this.

The first was that he did not need to specially enter commands on a keyboard; the NPCs would understand his intentions and execute his orders.

The second was that Albedo was not the only one who could speak.

At the very least, all of the NPCs in this room were exhibiting anomalous behavior.

As Momonga thought about this, he suddenly felt that there was something very wrong about himself and Albedo. In order to discover exactly what that something was, he fixed Albedo with a piercing gaze.

"—I-Is something wrong? Have I made a mistake…?"

"...!"

As he finally realized what the problem was, he did not shout, nor did he keep silent, but he simply sighed imperceptibly.

That unexpected breadth of facial expressions. The reason why her mouth could move and why she could speak—

"...pos...sible!"

Momonga hurriedly placed a hand on his mandible, and spoke.

—His mouth was moving.

This should have been impossible, going by what he knew about DMMO-RPGs. A character's mouth would not move with their words.

The basic premise was that external appearances were fixed. Because of that, facial expressions were impossible to design.

In addition, Momonga's face was a skull, without a tongue or a throat. He looked down to his hands, and they were the same fleshless pair that he was used to. He could also see that he had no lungs or, indeed, any other internal organs. But then, how was he speaking?

"Impossible…"

Momonga could feel the certainty he had in the world evaporating away, replaced by an ever-growing uneasiness. He suppressed his desire to shout out and, like he expected, his surging emotions were suddenly quashed.

Momonga slapped forcefully at the throne, but as he expected, no damage values appeared.

"...What should I do… Is there anything I can do?"

He knew nothing about what was going on. Nobody would help him even if he got angry.

Then, his first priority should be — looking for clues.

"—Sebas."

He could see an earnest, sincere expression on Sebas's face. He looked like a real person.

It should be fine to give him orders, right? Although he had no idea what would happen, he could assume all the NPCs in the Tomb were loyal to him, right? For all he knew, the people in front of him might not be the NPCs that everyone had made together.

Numerous questions rose up in his mind, floating on a sea of uneasiness, but Momonga forced aside all these emotions. In the end, the only choice he had for reconnaissance was Sebas. He glanced briefly to Albedo, but then Momonga steeled himself and decided to order Sebas out.

The mental image of a department chief giving orders to his subordinates appeared in his mind. Momonga took on a superior, commanding attitude, and spoke:

"Exit the Tomb and investigate the surrounding region. If you encounter intelligent creatures, interact peacefully with them and invite them to the Tomb. Attempt to accommodate the other party as much as possible during negotiations. Do not stray more than one kilometer from the tomb and avoid unnecessary combat."

"Understood, Momonga-sama. I will do so immediately."

In YGGDRASIL, NPCs made to protect a guild base could not leave it under any circumstances. However, it would seem this ironclad restriction had been overturned.

No, he could only be certain of that once Sebas returned.

"...Select one of the Pleiades to accompany you. If battle begins, retreat immediately and tell me everything you have learned."

That was simply the first step.

Momonga let go of the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown.

The staff did not fall onto the ground, but floated in the air as though someone were still holding it. This was in complete defiance of physics, but it was a common sight in the game. There were quite a few items in YGGDRASIL which would continue floating in the air when left unattended.

The aura of tormented spirits seemed to cling to Momonga's hand as he let the staff go, but Momonga paid it no heed. He was long since used to that sight… or not. Thinking that the macro command would have already been built in, Momonga snapped his fingers and deactivated the aura.

Momonga folded his arms.

The next step would be—

"...I should contact the game company."

The game company would know the most about Momonga's present situation.

The problem was actually contacting them. Normally, simply using the /shout command or a GM call would put him in touch with a GM instantly, but if these methods did not work either...

"「Message」?"

This was a spell used to communicate in the game.

Normally, its use was restricted to certain places and conditions, but perhaps he might be able to make good use of the spell in this current situation. The problem was that this spell was originally designed to communicate with other players, so it might not be able to reach a GM.

And in this extraordinary situation, there was no guarantee that the spell would work either.

"...However…"

He had to give it a try.

Momonga was a level one hundred spellcaster. If he could not cast spells, his mobility, his ability to gather information, and of course his fighting power would plummet drastically. In these unknown circumstances, he had to verify that he could use magic, and quickly.

Now where can I go to test my magic... As Momonga thought about that question, he looked slowly around the Throne Room and then shook his head.

Although this was an emergency situation, he had no desire to conduct magical experiments in the silent, nearly sacrosanct Throne Room. He contemplated suitable locations for magical testing, and then a promising place came to mind.

There was one more thing he wanted to confirm, in addition to his own abilities.

He wanted to be certain of his authority. He had to know whether his powers and privileges as the guildmaster of Ainz Ooal Gown still existed.

Until now, all the NPCs he had met were loyal to him. However, in the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, there were several NPCs with levels equal to his own. He had to make sure they were still loyal.

However—

Momonga glanced at the kneeling Sebas and the maids, and then at Albedo beside him.

Albedo was smiling. It was a beautiful smile, but it seemed to be concealing something else behind it. As he wondered what that "something else" might be, unease crept through Momonga.

The NPCs were loyal to him, but would they stay that way? If this were in the real world, subordinates would no longer be loyal to superiors who constantly screwed up. Would the NPCs be that way as well? Or was it that once they were programmed to be loyal, they would stay that way forever?

If their loyalty to him wavered, how should he regain it?

Rewards? There was vast wealth in the Treasury. Although it pained him to expend the treasures left behind by his former comrades, they would probably understand if it was for the sake of Ainz Ooal Gown. The question would then be how large of a reward he should give.

In addition, was he superior to others by virtue of being higher-ranked? But what criteria could he use to quantify his superiority? He was not clear about that yet. He had the feeling that as long as he kept this dungeon going, he would eventually come to understand these things.

Or did that mean—

"—Power?"

He opened his left hand and gripped the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown that sailed into his grasp.

"Overwhelming power?"

The seven gems set into the staff gleamed brightly, as though imploring their master to use their colossal might.

"...Forget it, I'll take my time to think about that later."

Momonga released the staff he held, and the wavering staff fell to the ground as though it were angry at him.

In any case, as long as he acted the part of the leader, they would probably not raise their hands against him right away. Be it among animals or humans, enemies would probably not attack if their intended prey did not reveal any weaknesses.

Momonga declared in a powerful voice:

"Pleiades. Other than the maid selected to accompany Sebas, the rest of you will head to the Ninth Floor and repel any invaders from the Eighth Floor."

"Understood, Momonga-sama."

The maids behind Sebas acknowledged his orders respectfully.

"Begin immediately."

"Understood, my master!"

Once more the chorus of voices rang out. Sebas and the maids bowed once more to their lord who sat upon the throne, then stood and left simultaneously.

The giant doors opened, and then closed again.

Sebas and the maids vanished beyond the doors.

It was good that they had not replied with a "No," or something similar.

A great weight seemed to lift off Momonga's chest, and at the same time he looked at the person who had stayed by his side. That person was Albedo, who had stood by, awaiting orders.

She smiled, and asked him, "Then, Momonga-sama, what will you have me do next?"

"Ah, ahhh… got it."

Momonga rose from the throne to retrieve his staff, and as he did that, he spoke:

"Come to me."

"Yes."

The smiling Albedo drew closer. Although Momonga was wary of the black wand and orb she had been carrying, that caution passed in an instant, and he decided to temporarily ignore its existence. Just as Momonga finished thinking that, Albedo was close enough that he could embrace her if he wanted.

She smells nice — wait, what am I thinking.

Momonga cast out the thoughts which had rose up inside him again. Now was not the time for fooling round.

He reached out his hand to touch Albedo's.

"...mf."

"Hm?"

A pained expression flickered across Albedo's face. Momonga drew his hand away, like he had received an electric shock.

What's this? Did I make her feel uncomfortable?

Several bad memories ran through his mind — like being hit by loose change that fell from the sky — but in the end Momonga found his answer.

"...Ah—"

Overlords required levels in the Elder Lich racial class, and among the abilities Elder Liches possessed was the ability to inflict negative energy damage on anything they touched. Was that the reason?

Although, even if it really was the reason, he still had some questions to ask.

In YGGDRASIL, the monsters and NPCs that appeared in the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick would be recognized as belonging to the Ainz Ooal Gown faction. Since every member of the guild was also flagged as belonging to Ainz Ooal Gown, there should be no problems even if they attacked each other.

Could it be that she no longer belongs to our guild? Or has friendly fire been enabled?

The latter possibility was more likely.

With that conclusion in mind, Momonga apologized to Albedo.

"Forgive me. I forgot to deactivate my negative energy touch skill."

"Please pay it no heed, Momonga-sama. That damage hardly counted as damage. And as long as it is you, Momonga-sama, I would gladly endure any kind of — kya!"

"Ah… mm. Is… that so… No, no, I must still apologize."

Momonga was caught off-guard by Albedo's adorable yelp and the way she shyly covered her face, and his reply ended up being less dignified than he had hoped for.

So it was due to the negative energy touch after all.

Momonga turned his eyes from Albedo, who was going on and on about how this was nothing compared to the pain of losing her virginity, and began thinking about how to temporarily deactivate the always-on skill — and then he suddenly knew how to do it.

To Momonga, who wielded the power of an Overlord, it was as simple and natural as breathing.

He could not help but laugh at the strange situation he found himself in. After all the shocks and surprises he had received so far, this was hardly worth panicking about. It was frightening how well he had adapted to his condition.

"I'm going to touch you."

"Ah."

After deactivating the skill, he touched Albedo's hand. Thoughts like Her hand's so slim, her skin's so white, and so on raced through his head, but he cast aside these male desires and focused on one thing — the pulse at her wrist.

—It was there.

It was a steady rhythm, lub-dub, lub-dub. She was a living being, so it was only natural.

Yes, she was alive.

Momonga released her hand and looked at his own arms. All he saw was an expanse of polished white bone, bereft of skin or flesh. Because he had no blood vessels, he could not feel a heartbeat. Indeed, an Overlord was an undead creature, a being that had transcended mortality itself, so obviously it would not have a heartbeat.

He shifted his gaze to Albedo.

Momonga saw himself reflected within Albedo's moist golden eyes. Her cheeks were pink, probably because her body was rapidly heating up. The changes in her body surprised him.

"...What's this?"

Is she not an NPC? Is she not pure electronic data? Why does she feel like a real person? What kind of AI could do this? More importantly, why is it that YGGDRASIL feels like the real world...

Impossible.

Momonga shook his head in denial. There was no way such a fantastic scenario could have occurred. But once the idea took root, it was not easy to eradicate. Momonga was not sure how to proceed given the changes in Albedo.

The next step… yes, the final step. If he could confirm that, then all of his predictions would be vindicated. Was this real life, or was this just fantasy?

He had to do this. If she attacked him with that weapon of hers, it could not be helped.

"Albedo… I, may I touch your breasts?"

"Eh?"

The air between them seemed to freeze.

Albedo's eyes went wide.

A wave of depression washed over Momonga as he considered his words.

"I have to do this," what the hell was he thinking, saying that to a woman? He wanted to scream "Despicable!" at the top of his voice. Indeed, using one's superior position to commit sexual harassment was the most despicable thing imaginable.

But he had no choice. Indeed, he had to do this.

As Momonga convinced himself with all his strength, his composure gradually returned to him. Resuming the air of a proper ruler, he continued forcefully:

"That... should be fine, right?"

It was not fine at all.

In contrast to Momonga's nervous request, Albedo seemed to be overflowing with joy. She gave him a glittering smile.

"But of course, Momonga-sama. Please, help yourself."

Albedo straightened herself up, presenting her ample twin peaks for Momonga's inspection. If he still had saliva, he would have swallowed several times by now.

Her breasts swelled up through her dress. And now, he was going to touch them.

On the other side of his abnormal tension and nervousness, a quiet, calm part of Momonga's brain was observing his own actions. He noted how foolish he was, and wondered why he had thought of this, and why he was still going to follow through anyway.

He sneaked a peek at Albedo, and found that her eyes were shining, jiggling her bosom as though to say Hurry up and touch me.

Not knowing whether it was because of excitement or embarrassment, Momonga steadied his hands with sheer force of will, steeled his resolve, and reached out.

The first thing Momonga felt was something hard under the dress, followed by a soft, yielding sensation.

"Fuahh.. haaa..."

As Albedo moaned wetly, Momonga completed yet another experiment.

If his brain was normal, there were two possible explanations for his present situation.

The first was that this was a new DMMO-RPG. That was to say, the moment YGGDRASIL had shut down, a new game, "YGGDRASIL II", had immediately taken its place.

However, in light of this experiment, the probability of that being the case was vanishingly small.

This was because R-18 actions were strictly forbidden in these games. Who knew, perhaps even R-15 actions might be banned as well. Violators would be publicly listed on the game's official website, and their accounts would be deleted, or worse.

Once the records of these R-18 actions were publicly released, they might be punished for damaging moral culture and thus violating the Social Order Maintenance Act. As such, most people would consider these acts off-limits.

If they were still in a game world, the company should have made it impossible for players to do such things. If the GMs and the game companies were watching, they would have prevented Momonga from performing lewd actions. However, there was no sign of any resistance or opposition.

In addition, one of the fundamental rulings which pertained to DMMO-RPGS was that forcing a player to participate in a game without permission could be treated as a form of cyber-kidnapping.

As such, forcing a player to test out a game in this manner was a prosecutable offense, especially if there was no way to force-quit the game. It would not be unexpected for a company to receive fines or jail time for such things. If a situation arose where a player was not able to log out of the game, up to a week's worth of game activity could be stored in a legally-mandated record, which would make it easy to prosecute the company for their violations of the law.

Therefore, if Momonga did not report to work for a week, someone would have found it strange and come to his house to check on him. Then all the police would need to do was to access the records with a specialized console and the problem would be solved.

Which company would risk arrest or worse to commit a corporate crime like this? Of course, they could try to muddy the waters by saying "this was a closed beta test for YGGDRASIL II," or "there were third-party programs used here." But in truth, such a risky matter would have no benefits at all for the game company.

That being the case, the only answer for his present circumstances would be that a third party was doing something here, and it had nothing to do with the game company. If that was the case, he would need to throw out all his previous theories and think in other directions, otherwise he would never find the answer.

The problem was that he had no idea where to start. And there was another possibility...

...The possibility that the virtual world had become reality.

Impossible.

Momonga promptly rejected that idea. How could such an illogical, foolish thing happen?

But on the flip side, the more he thought about it, the more strongly he felt it was the right answer.

And then — Momonga remembered Albedo's scent.

In accordance to the software legislation for virtual reality games, such games were not allowed to provide sensory data for smell and taste. Although YGGDRASIL had food and drink items, consuming them was little more than changing a value in the game system. In addition, the sense of touch was heavily limited, in order to prevent confusion with the real world. These limitations meant that VR systems were not very useful for the sex industry.

However, none of these limitations were in effect now.

Realizing these facts shocked Momonga. Countless questions like, "What about tomorrow's work? What'll happen if this keeps up?" flashed through his mind, but then he cast them all to the back of his mind.

"...If this virtual world is just a simulation of the real world… then the quantity of data involved must be unimaginable…"

Momonga swallowed with a nonexistent throat. Though his mind could not comprehend the situation, his heart could.

His hands finally left Albedo's ample bosom.

He realised that he had been groping her for a long time, but Momonga justified it to himself by saying that he had no choice but to grope her for that long, and it was definitely not because squeezing her supple flesh felt so good that he reluctantly let go of her… or something.

"Sorry, Albedo."

"Fuahh…"

A sensual moan came from the red-faced Albedo, and he could practically feel her body heat raising the surrounding temperature. After that, she shyly asked Momonga:

"Will I have my first time here?"

Momonga was caught off guard by her question, and before he could think clearly, he replied:

"...Eh?"

His mind was suddenly frozen, and was unable to parse her question,

First time? What's that? What's this all about? And why does she look so shy?

"May I ask how you wish to dispose of my clothes?"

"...Wha?"

"Would it be better if I disrobed myself? Or would you like to unwrap me, Momonga-sama? Or if we did it while I was wearing the dress, afterwards… it would get dirty… no, if you want me to wear this dress, I have no objections, Momonga-sama."

His brain finally managed to make sense of Albedo's words. Although, whether there really was a brain under that skull remained to be seen.

As Momonga realized why Albedo had this reaction, an immense struggle took place within himself before he finally said:

"Enough, that's all for now, Albedo."

"Eh? I understand."

"Now is not the time for… no, there's no time for that sort of thing."

"My, my apologies! I allowed myself to be ruled by my desires despite the urgency of the situation!"

With a swift movement, Albedo made to genuflect in apology, but Momonga stopped her:

"No, all this is my fault. I forgive you, Albedo. That aside… I have an order."

"Please give me any command you desire."

"Tell the Guardians of each Floor, with the exception of the Fourth and the Eighth Floors, to meet at the Colosseum on the Sixth Floor in an hour's time. I will contact Aura and Mare myself, so there is no need to inform them."

"Understood. Allow me to repeat the order; aside from Aura and Mare of the Sixth Floor, I am to inform all the Floor Guardians to meet one hour later at the Colosseum."

"Correct. Go."

"Yes."

Albedo swiftly departed the Throne Room.

As he watched the retreating Albedo, Momonga let himself sigh, in a way that suggested he was thoroughly exhausted. Once she left the Throne Room, Momonga groaned painfully:

"...Oh, what have I done? It was supposed to be a silly joke… If I'd known I wouldn't have done it. I've… I've soiled the NPC Tabula Smaragdina-san created…"

When he thought about it, there was only one reason why Albedo would react like she had.

It must have been when he was editing her backstory, and changed that line to "She is in love with Momonga."

That must have been why she acted that way.

"...Ah… shit!"

Momonga muttered to himself, thinking about how Tabula Smaragdina had painstakingly created his masterpiece Albedo out of whole cloth, and then someone else had splashed paint all over his work at will, and now she had become like this.

The knowledge that he had ruined someone else's hard work made him feel miserable.

However, the frowning Momonga — although it could not be seen because he was a skeleton — eventually rose from the Throne.

Momonga told himself that he had to leave this at the back of his mind. After the important things were taken care of, he could agonize over it later.