“Is, is, is that so? Th-then, Nee-san… about that…”
“Mhm. Since it’s Ainz-sama, he must have some big plan in mind. Who knows, he might be planning some big scale rearrangement or something. Ah, I’ll answer the question first. Let’s see, besides Mare, then… hmm, if you don’t count Mare, then my beasts don’t count either. That leaves Albedo and… Shalltear, I guess.”
“Th-that, about that, I–I don’t, h-have any…”
“Ah, well, Mare likes to hide in his room to read books. Why don’t you go out and get some sun?”
“I–I don’t really like moving around… so. That… and… and I like being in my room…”
“Look at him, it’s hard to believe he’s the number two among the Guardians, right?”
Every Floor Guardian had their specialty.
Among them, Shalltear was considered the strongest for her overall abilities.
In the 2nd place was Mare Bello Fiore, who excelled in devastating area attacks.
The 3rd place belonged to Cocytus for his skill and ability with weapons, followed by Sebas who excelled in hand-to-hand combat, and then Albedo, who boasted the strongest defense.
Similarly, in 6th place was Aura Bella Fiora, who was the strongest in group battles, and then Demiurge in his third form — the most wicked Form of the Devil in Ainz Ooal Gown— which was the strongest in a manly sense.
At the bottom of the heap was Victim. Regretfully, he could not be considered the strongest in any field, although if pressed, one could say he was the best at delaying the enemy.
In the whole of Nazarick, the only two who might have more than even odds of beating Mare were Shalltear Bloodfallen and Albedo. Still, even his twin sister would grab her head in annoyance when she saw the discrepancy between his strength — which was ranked second among the Guardians— and his pitiful demeanor. To the Death Knight, because he was undead and would not be affected by emotions, he was able to calmly evaluate the situation, which could be considered a relief of sorts.
“In any case, go out and make some friends!”
“Eh, but, but how do I make friends?”
“You don’t need to think so much about that sort of thing. Go bug some people, sit down with them, and eventually they won’t be able to stand the silence and start talking. Then you let the situation develop and now you’ve got a friend!”
“Ehhh—”
“Like I said, all you need to do is say hi to them. After that, they’ll start talking to you. Besides, only a really extroverted guy could engage a whole bunch of people at once, so I won’t tell you to do that. And when you’re in Nazarick, you can meet people anytime you want, right?”
In response to Mare’s “Uuu, uu, alright—”, Aura took on a solemn expression and nodded with a “Hmph”.
“Ah, um. Well, do let Ainz-sama know. Mare will work hard to make friends from this day forth, so you don’t need to worry about that either. Ahhh, start with the Librarian, at least the two of you’ll have similar interests.”
“Ah, uuu, um…If it’s Librarian-san, it should be all right, right?”
The Death Knight promised that he would pass on the message.
“Although you don’t have a lot of people you’re close to now, it’ll get better as time goes by. Right, Mare?”
The Death Knight agreed as he saw her brother’s head nodding at high speed.
“Then, then, about, about the next question, it’s the last one, right? Only two, right? Then, then, could, could there be something we haven’t done yet?”
“It’s because Mare doesn’t have anyone he’s close to, right?”
The Death Knight reassured the two of them by saying that he had only asked the other Guardians the same questions.
After he made sure that they understood, the Death Knight continued asking.
“What I want? Well, I want a new magical beast! I promise I’ll take care of it!”
“…Nee, nee-san, I think, I think he means in terms of what we need to protect this floor…”
Before the Death Knight could interrupt, Aura retorted, with a red face.
“I know that! That’s why I asked for a new magical beast, there’s nothing wrong with that, right? I can tighten up security even more that way!”
“Ah, uu, um. Th-that’s true. S-sorry.”
“And if I can, I’d like to ask for a magical beast that can fly. Speaking of which, Mare, how about you? What do you want?”
“Ah, that, er, about that, I… I’ll be happy with some plant monsters. I’ll take care of them and keep them from withering.”
“See, isn’t that about the same?”
“Uuu, but, but apart from that, it can protect the floor too…”
“Like I said, they’re about the same, right? Maybe after a while you’ll think of something different, but right now, they’re the same, right?”
“Mm, yeah, I guess it’s like that…”
The two of them seemed to be conversing in a way only they could understand. Since there was not much else the Death Knight could say at this point, that meant his work here was done.
The Death Knight let them both know he was leaving, and rose from his seat. The two of them stood up to send him off.
He followed the twins down to the bottom of the stairs, and returned his ring once he was outside.
The Death Knight waved goodbye to the twins who were waving at him and headed for the Colosseum. That was where the teleport gate to the 7th floor was.
Before he could enter, his master spoke into his mind again.
As he charged toward one of the chambers in the arena, he saw his master leaning against a wall and reading a book.
“—Good timing.”
Ainz closed the book and returned it into his pocket space before nodding.
Since this was the third time he had done this, the Death Knight had learned how to summarize his reports.
“I see. For Aura it’s Albedo and Shalltear, is it? They’re all Guardians, after all. But why not mention Yuri Alpha, or Pestonya Shortcake Wanko, or Eclair Egglair Egglayer?”
The Death Knight shook his head.
“…Is that so. I thought they would get along because they were all NPCs made by women… well, I understand about Shalltear at least. After all, Peroroncino-san made her. Albedo however… if the relationship only started when we came to this world, then if we don’t keep an eye on their relationship, it might self-destruct from within, right?”
The Death Knight quietly watched his master, who was covering his mouth with his hand.
He could hear fragments of speech coming from the other side of the hand.
But in the end, all he could make out was “They’ve only been dumped in this New World for a while, there’s no point thinking too hard about it when it won’t give any answers. Because of that, I need to keep that in mind and be aware of it”.
So in a sense, he was just kicking a can down the road.
After being pressed to talk about Mare, the Death Knight gave his answer, and Ainz muttered “I see.”
“Well, since Mare’s on the move, there’s no need to say too much. Besides, there’s no need for someone who likes to be alone to be forced to go out and mix with other people. In the first place, it was just to see who was under too much stress. If it backfired and stressed him out instead, that would be putting the cart before the horse. Well, I’ll keep an eye on it and who knows, it might be better if I trigger any incidents before they build up… maybe I should talk to the Chief Librarian before Mare goes to speak with him. It might help.
Finally, as Ainz heard the desires of the twins, he kept repeating, “Isn’t that wonderful?”
“That’s what I wanted to hear. I see, new magical beasts it is. And they can even be used to strengthen Nazarick, not bad. Well, Mare’s the same as well, so, I can rest easy thinking about these two. After this is Demiurge. Remember not to say unnecessary things, and I’ll leave it to you.”
The Death Knight bowed to Ainz as he teleported away, then carried on to the next floor.
Part 6