164

[Prologue]

Ainz's room was situated on the Ninth Floor of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick. The room, which had been converted from a bedroom to an office, was positioned closest to the corridor. Inside, its owner was nowhere to be found yet the faint sound of paper being shuffled couldbe heard. Next to the desk frequently used by Ainz sat a smaller yet equally exceptional table and chair. It is upon such a chair that Albedo, the Guardian Overseer of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, was perched to process the documents laid on the desk.

Ainz had already prepared a separate office specifically for her, one that was equal in status to his room, a room reserved for prospective guild members. At first, she had indeed been using that room as her own for clerical purposes, yet the day still came when she could no longer suppress her desire to work in the same room as her master. Although her requests were not met with any positive responses at first, her sincere pleas on the practical advantages of her proposal, in combination with a relentless barrage of complaints, had managed to receive approval from her master.

Staring at the vacant seat, Albedo lowered her head and pouted slightly. The maid assigned to Ainz's room for the day (not the one assigned to accompany him) was standing silently behind her. Due to that, Albedo's rare expression went completely unseen. Her one and only master was currently out tending to his duties and so was absent from the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick. He was taking care of routine business in the city of E-Rantel.

If she had her master's permission, she would have severely punished the idiots who, by setting up a meeting, had dared to encroach on the time she should be spending with him.

Of course, she knew that such a request would never be approved. As such, she forcefully suppressed her pipedream to turn E-Rantel into a sea of flames, but her efforts were in vain. The dissatisfaction in her heart grew until it boiled over and managed to manifest as complaints.

"How annoying… those insects…"

Labored breaths filled with terror could be heard from the ceiling, yet they were intentionally ignored by Albedo. She still hadn't forgotten the time they had ruined her chance and felt certain that they deserved to be scared at least a couple of times more. On the other hand, she had already forgiven Mare for his part in the incident for some reason.

To regulate her emotions, Albedo sighed heavily. She gently twisted her shoulders a couple of times before turning to look at the remaining documents.

Following Nazarick's — no, the Sorcerer Kingdom's accelerated expansion, her workload had increased proportionally.

Regarding Diplomacy:

Behind the curtains of the cordial interactions they've had with multiple other countries, the horns signaling the start of an espionage war had already been sounded.

Although they had confirmed the presence of spies from the Theocracy, the Kingdom, and the City State Alliance in E-Rantel, the Sorcerer Kingdom chose to simply observe their actions for now. As Demiurge was managing those affairs, all Albedo had to do was to memorize the reports in front of her.

Regarding Internal Affairs:

E-Rantel hadn't experienced many incidents caused by racial tensions. It wasn't as though there were none to speak of but, compared to other countries, their numbers were shockingly low.

The citizens weren't technically being threatened into this state either. They just had a clear understanding of exactly how terrifying the Sorcerer King and his undead subordinates could be, to the point where they'd choose to keep to themselves and live out peaceful lives by their own free will.

The crime rate was thus minimal. Although misdemeanors had occurred, none dared to commit a felony. E-Rantel had become a haven where women and children could walk the streets at night without worrying about their own safety.

It had come to the point where they had run out of criminals to experiment on and had to import them from the Empire.

A crime that occurs in such a peaceful city is then a matter of utmost importance to Albedo. According to Heinrich's law, a major accident indicates the presence of 29 minor accidents which in turn could indicate over 300 anomalies. What needs to be done then is to respond to any and all oddities, no matter how small they may be.

The binder in her hand held a month's worth of court records from E-Rantel.

Due to how detailed the reports were, reading even a single one of them would be a massive time commitment. However, Albedo could process these documents much faster than a regular person, giving onlookers the false impression that she's just flipping through them without giving them much thought at all.

In conjunction, the pen that was held in her other hand moved at a blistering pace, noting down information she found interesting onto a white sheet of paper.

Was the judge's ruling appropriate? Why would the defendant commit such a crime? Surmise from the above the current state of public order and morale in E-Rantel. Is the creation of new laws in response to the above necessary?

What would normally require an intense scrutiny of records by officials gathered from every corner of a nation, Albedo was doing on her own: analyze, evaluate, process. To do this, one would require an intimate understanding of internal affairs on par with one's familiarity with the backs of their hands as well as an inhuman level of lucidity.

Her pen stopped moving as soon as she finished reading the report and the process to transcribe the key words she had noted down began. After all it was something her master was about to read, illegible handwriting would be absolutely unacceptable. After spending more time transcribing the most important details, proposals, and other such documents than she had spent reading, it was finally ready.

Skimming over the completed documents from top to bottom, Albedo's lips formed the tiniest sliver of a smile. This wasn't for the fact that she had just completed another task but was simply borne from the gratification she experienced knowing that she was proving herself to be useful to her master.

She placed the documents back into the binder and gently raised it into the air where it was received by the maid on standby, who subsequently placed it onto her master's desk.

This was the fifth binder she's had to go through today. A slightly concerned expression could be seen on her face, her current situation was not great to say the least.

The Sorcerer Kingdom had through both direct and indirect means greatly expanded its territory, causing them no end of troubles. Compared to before, the number of documents that must be brought to her master's attention had greatly increased. A leader being forced to sift through mountains of documents would imply flaws in the organization.

As originally intended, her superior would only have to dictate a general direction or goal for his subordinates to work towards. All he should have to do is to sit back on his throne and observe the hard work of his creations.

The fact that reality did not match expectations was not her master's fault.

Those that could match his expectations were few and far between, in other words, they lacked sufficient talent. As the one appointed to manage the internal affairs and human resources of Nazarick, Albedo couldn't help but feel ashamed of herself. Though she had taken precautionary measures, the future remained uncertain.

To bother my master over such trivialities would be absolutely ridiculous, but… racial unity policies, plans to trial national laws, economic policies, and more must be determined by my master… if I do all the progress checks on tasks assigned to the Floor Guardians, it would displease everybody because they won't be able to see Momongasama, right…?

For the moment, her master had given her free reign over all his affairs, no matter how important or insignificant they are. She was also told as long as she approved of something herself, it would be fine in his eyes.

Still, to avoid any unnecessary complications, it was best to leave the right of final approval to her master. After all, even Albedo makes mistakes.

There was one time when she was about to send some idiotic scum and his family to the Frozen Prison for an affront to her master (at least it was in her opinion) and asked if the conviction should be for indignity or idiocy. To her great surprise, her master objected to the punishment.

I knew Momonga-sama was a merciful one, yet I still…

Hmm… Albedo pouted her lips. For her it was truly a rare expression to make, and one that only surfaces for a moment when her master is not there.

Before long, her smile returned as she picked up the next binder. While reading, her mind became preoccupied with something else. Among all of the Floor Guardians, there was one that she should stay the most vigilant for —Demiurge.

As the operations against the Holy Kingdom had drawn to an end, Demiurge had been busy traveling far and wide to set up an intelligence agency with Nazarick at its center. To Albedo, the agency could prove to be problematic. It would have been fine if it were to be headed by Albedo, the Guardian Overseer herself, but it was not unlikely that the newly created position would be given to

Demiurge. That would be a troublesome situation.

If possible, she would love to take that authority for herself by letting an easily manipulated puppet chair the agency.

A few faces came to mind, but they were all lacking in some capacity.

If I cannot get the job, then the only eligible candidate by a far margin would be Pandora's Actor. It'd be very difficult to wrestle that much authority from Demiurge…

It would not be impossible for him to learn of Albedo's true intentions if that were to happen.

If that were to be the case it would become a great cause of concern. It was probably best not to do anything rash for now.

Her older sister might be a decent choice, but she was not an ally that Albedo could trust unconditionally. If she figures out Albedo's true intentions, it was entirely possible for them to become enemies.

Her younger sister, the strongest NPC in Nazarick, would probably stay by her side even if she found out about Albedo's plan. That, however, was because her creator had ordered her to obey Albedo's commands.

Haah. What a mess.

They were understaffed.

No, manpower was not the only thing they lacked. There was also the matter

of the funds that Albedo herself could spend freely. In that case, her master's plan to expand operations outside of Nazarick had worked to her favor.

The reorganized Adventurer's Guild can be by my… Mare's actions… the need to be on the alert for Aura… under Cocytus' command… intelligence from Victim… the value of Shalltear's transport network… amassing a secret fund from the Merchant's Guild… manpower… and also…

Demiurge and that girl, huh…

It took a mere moment for Albedo to consider matters from multiple facets, a feat no ordinary person could do, after which her brows furrowed slightly.

That would not work. I must remain cautious of Demiurge. Reaching out to that girl would also be too dangerous. If I am not careful, she might become an opponent that I would have to be wary of, even more so than Demiurge…

She completed another task while pondering all sorts of strategies and reached for another binder.

The binder contained limited amounts of information. Either a new problem was being presented, or it was prepared by someone not used to paperwork, like

Shalltear.

Albedo glanced at the cover titled "Regarding the problems faced by the team supporting the Holy Kingdom's grain management."

Apparently, it was the former. Albedo could not recall anything regarding such a problem.

Did something happen? Albedo blinked a few times as she read, her eyes opening wide into smooth circles. She read it again from the beginning and after confirming its content contained no metaphors or falsehoods, her mouth opened slightly as if in a daze.

"Huh?"

Her usually dignified face appeared to be more perplexed than anything else, as if she's unable to comprehend what she'd read.

Albedo, one of the top minds of Nazarick, had an expression rarely seen by others, a testament to the situation's severity. Despite that, Albedo's lucid mind still pushed onwards, contemplating the cause and possibility of the problem being presented.

It's highly likely that the girl betrayed us but… did she accept a better offer from another organization? But according to my judgment, that offer should've been impossible to trump… No, nothing is confirmed yet. A lack of intelligence again, huh.

Whoever presented the report must explain it to her in detail. At the same time, she must discuss the matter with Demiurge, her colleague who's probably deeply linked to the problem.

Reporting to her master will have to wait till afterwards.

She browsed the two other reports, confirmed that they were not that important, and said to the maid standing behind her,

"We must hold an emergency meeting. I will go to the Seventh Floor first to discuss matters with Demiurge. If anyone comes looking for me, tell them that I'm absent for the moment."

She activated the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown on her left ring finger as soon as she finished dictating her orders.

As the Guardian Overseer, she had to keep in her mind where every Floor Guardian was at all times.

Demiurge had just finished his work in the Holy Kingdom. In order to prepare plans against the alliance of the Council State, Slaine Theocracy, and the CityState Alliance, he should have returned to his abode on the Seventh Floor.

If Demiurge was not there she'd have to find Entoma and have her use [Message] or have her older sister investigate his whereabouts.

With that in mind, Albedo initiated the teleport.

***

In the Kingdom of Re-Estize and in its capital, Re-Estize.

There lies the castle Ro-Lente, which contains the Valencia Palace, within which is an office.

In the office where generations of kings performed their duties, its rightful owner, Ramposa III, was nowhere to be found. Instead, the room was being occupied by the Second Prince, Zanac Valleon Igana Ryle Vaiself.

Zanac's face grew dark as he examined the documents that were submitted, and a heavy sigh escaped his mouth. Surely no one could keep a cheerful expression after reading through said documents, its contents detailed the current state of the Kingdom.

During the Battle of the Katze Plains, though it would be more accurate to call it a massacre, much of the Kingdom's population lost their lives. Even so, it wasn't as though the damage inflicted on the Kingdom was lethal. Its population was around nine million and of that 180,000 died, a mere 2% loss. Plus, a multitude of them were the second or third sons of farmers so they were practically "spare men."

In other cases, they had lost apprentices with barely any experience. So although saying this out loud would sound cruel, nothing of value was lost through their deaths.

Still, they had lost 4% of their male population, those who were young and strong to boot. The negative impact of this loss was gradually becoming apparent and this was all clearly outlined in the document.

Zanac let out a groan as he placed the document on the table, his vision shifting focus to the other person in the room.

"Oy, sister. How would you deal with this if you were in charge?"

Upon hearing the question, his sister, Renner Theiere Chardelon Ryle Vaiself, who sat on a chaise longue far away from him, smiled as she raised her head.

Renner, who was looking through a different set of documents had a worrisome smile.

"Even if you asked me what I would do… Onii-sama, how can I give an answer when you haven't even given me enough details in your question?"

"It's about this."

Zanac did not bother with an explanation, he just picked up the documents he had laid down and fanned them around. Renner stood up, walked towards Zanac, and took the documents from him.

"…This?"

After scanning the document from top to bottom, Renner replied in a casual tone.

"That… there's nothing we can do about it, right?"

"Dear gods…"

Zanac raised his head towards the sky.

If his sister, who was much more brilliant than him, said this, then there really wasn't anything they could do about it. However, as rulers, they could not just give up on something like this so easily.

"Is this matter really that troublesome? It's true that our nation's strength has waned temporarily, but that's all it is, it's only temporary. I don't believe that it's serious enough to warrant us doing something about it?"

"If our nation's power is weakened, then people will start to die from starvation, right?"

Due to the repeated clashes they have had with the Empire, their inability to store sufficient grain had continued on to the present day. It was in these conditions that they ceded the crucial grain-producing region of E-Rantel, which was directly under the king's rule, to the Sorcerer Kingdom.

The loss of life on the battlefield also meant that they lost a sizable chunk of their labor force.

Perhaps the consequent effects were not as pronounced for now, but years down the line, it was highly likely that the decrease in grain production would cause the price of grain to skyrocket till the point where the poor could no longer afford it. No, it was safe to say that this was definitely going to happen.

"That makes sense."

"That makes so much sense! Say, sister, if it's as insignificant as you make it out to be, how will we deal with the chance that a drought or a cold snap occurs, causing crop failure?"

"High-level druids seem to have the ability to control the weather, so I believe we'll at least have a way to deal with the issues that arise regarding the amount of sunlight available. Since we'd only have to hire adventurers for it, it would be highly cost-effective. Still, whether or not such high-level druid adventurers exist is something we should find out as soon as possible. If this was in the past we could've always relied on adventurers from the Empire in cases of emergency, but now that the Empire has become a vassal state of the Sorcerer Kingdom, that could prove to be difficult."

"Ah, I see, let's handle droughts this way then. What about cold snaps, sister?"

"Druids would have to work hard on that as well."

Zanac carefully observed Renner's face, one that's all too familiar to him.

Does she not know about that? Zanac wondered.

As Renner said, high-level druids can cast spells to create temporary rain, so droughts could be dealt with. However, he remembered hearing from Marquis Raeven, his confidant, that druidic magic is powerless against cold snaps.

For a cold snap, the weather must be maintained throughout the entire season. To that end, a high-level druid must be assigned to each village. It was simply not realistic to gather a few hundred high level druids, which were rare to begin with.

This level of knowledge in magic was not part of conventional education, so it wasn't taught even in noble families. This fact applied to the royalty as well.

The only reason Prince Zanac knew what he knew about druids was because he had actively sought out that information.

The fact that magic casters didn't hold any status in the Kingdom was probably to blame. If it was like the Empire where someone as great as the TriArts Magic Caster exists, it might have been a completely different story.

However, the Kingdom's ignorance of magic and desire for brave, strong cavalrymen had already become deeply rooted in their culture. A magic caster capable of changing the status quo never appeared.

As a result, nobles who believed that "magic is cowardice" on the battlefield passed that notion along to the next generations. Ignorance about magic turned into disdain, and a vicious cycle was born.

To Zanac, magic was an art with incredible power. For people to distance themselves away from it due to old, boring traditions would bring about a day when the Kingdom would unconditionally lose in the struggle for power with its neighboring countries akin to death by asphyxiation.

Zanac had therefore considered hiring a teacher who was knowledgeable in magic for his future children. Some nobles should follow suit once they find out the royalty is being educated in that field, right?

No, even without doing something like that, the appearance of the Sorcerer King, one who commands powerful magic, caused a paradigm shift in the minds of the Kingdom's citizens, noble or otherwise. Perhaps the era when everyone would want to learn about magic had finally come.

Though it was disappointing that the trigger for change was an external source, it was ultimately beneficial to the Kingdom so they acquiesced.

Considering the current state of the Kingdom, it was natural for Renner to not know. Even a genius would arrive at the wrong answer on unfamiliar turf.

Blindly trusting in his sister could prove to be very dangerous.

Renner, however, was close with the adamantite-ranked adventurers' team

Blue Rose, so obtaining detailed information on a spell was probably not too difficult for her. Was it really possible that his sister, a person that could be described as a singularity of intelligence, knew of the problem but didn't bother to check with her sources?

Then again, Renner had no reason to lie about such a small detail. It was probably just a rare manifestation of her human side; in other words, she's being a dork.

It was clear that Renner had no interest in the throne, her goal seemed tiny to Zanac. It's better to say that her goal would become unachievable should she ascend to the throne. Even if she's plotting against him, it wouldn't benefit her directly.

"—Sister, a cold snap is difficult to deal with even with the power of a druid."

"Is that so? If that's the case then it would be quite unfortunate. Ah! But the problem is about grain, right? We have plenty of supplies so it's not a problem. That's excellent news, Onii-sama."

Zanac made the exact opposite face as Renner's smile.

"By grain, you meant that? I would not want to touch that… are you sure people won't turn undead from eating too much of it?"

If one were to ask the question "does the Kingdom have surplus grain?", the answer would be yes: a generous supply sat waiting in some merchants' warehouses. But, they shouldn't make plans that relied on said grain, because it was technically not the Kingdom's.

The Sorcerer Kingdom, ruled by the terror that was the Sorcerer King, leased those warehouses from merchants of the Kingdom and put grain there. Such a thing had never occurred throughout the entire history of the Kingdom.

Apparently the merchants were allowed to sell the grain, but its price was a bit higher than market price due to a tariff. The price was set by the Sorcerer Kingdom with no room for negotiation. As such, the people did not buy any and it just sat there in the warehouses.

The Kingdom's wealth was not flowing into the Sorcerer Kingdom at the moment, so frankly this was not detrimental to the Kingdom. The current situation made it feel like everything was fine. But Zanac, concurring with Renner, thought that was part of the Sorcerer Kingdom's strategy.

"The Holy Kingdom is consuming the same grain, so the grain itself should be harmless, right?"

"No, perhaps they wanted us to think that way and only the grain in the capital was tainted?"

Renner smiled bitterly.

"You don't really think so, do you?"

"Well, I guess not. Afterall, we checked the contents."

Regarding the usage of the warehouses in the capital, the Sorcerer Kingdom's official statement was that it was to store grain to be used as food aid for the Holy Kingdom. Apparently plans were made to transport the grain to the Holy Kingdom from these warehouses.

Regarding the logistics:

Due to a lack of protection for the caravans, if they were to be attacked by bandits or monsters, the responsibility for that would fall on the Sorcerer Kingdom. Hiring mercenaries would be the obvious solution, but the Sorcerer Kingdom proposed to simply install a flag that would make it extraordinarily obvious that those carriages belonged to them, apparently as some form of selfdefense.

The Kingdom, wishing to avoid unnecessary conflicts, agreed to the Sorcerer Kingdom's proposals under the conditions that their undead are not to enter the Kingdom's borders and that a transit tax must be paid. Looking back on it now, accepting it was undoubtedly an erroneous decision.

. "—What, what's going on? What's with the commotion!"

Just as Zanac raised his voice, the door was suddenly opened.

"Your Highness! Emergency!"

A noble dressed in familiar court attire ran into the room. He was one of the officials in charge of internal affairs. Tightly gripped in his hand was a piece of parchment.

"What happened!"

Zanac took one look at the parchment presented to him and a surprised expression could be seen on his face. It was as though he could not comprehend its contents. No, it was more like he was in disbelief.

"What's wrong?"

Zanac did not have the strength to reply, instead, he just passed the parchment paper to Renner in silence. And then—

"Hah?"

The sound that she made was uncharacteristic for her, it sounded like she was absolutely dumbfounded.

Oh look, she's exposing her human side again. Zanac grinned in a way as if he had just given in to his despair.

-x-X-x-