Demiurge was all smiles.
“Still, an answer like that would be entirely too boring. If Ainz-sama is interested in replying, then please convey to him the fact that there is an answer I would like to know. Originally, I was intended to rule over twelve demons, yet now only seven remain. I would be honored if he could tell me the reason why.”
Demiurge recited the names of the missing demons — Garira, Iabel, Belias, Kainon, Abiretsia.
“I pray you will ask the master if these five demons remain in Nazarick. Then, is there anything else?”
The Death Knight shook his head.
“Is that so. Then, permit me to escort you to the teleport gate.”
The Death Knight indicated that he did not require such an entourage. After all, he clearly understood his master’s desire not to be seen by any of the Guardians.
With that, the Death Knight bade Demiurge farewell, and walked alone to the teleport gate.
This time, his master did not speak to him.
After entering the teleport gate and returning to the 9th floor, he heard his master’s voice. He was instructed to return to Ainz’s room, and perhaps he might have begun sprinting, but then he remembered the encounter with the maid.
Instead, the Death Knight elected a quiet jog that would not invite censure, and as he considered how he might sometimes howl from time to time, he covered his mouth with both hands as a countermeasure against that.
After taking several turns, he finally saw the servants guarding his master’s chambers. They remembered him from when he had left the room, so they immediately stepped away from the door and let him through.
After opening the door, Ainz jumped in fright and slipped something under the table that the Death Knight could not see. After seeing that it was the Death Knight who had opened the door, Ainz breathed a sigh of relief and raised his right hand.
“…Huh? So it was you. For a moment I remembered what surprise felt like… well, next time, knock before you enter.”
Ainz, while sticking the book in his right hand back into his pocket dimension, muttered imprecations at the Death Knight who was carefully closing the door.
Normally, his master should have been able to feel the Death Knight’s presence and location. Perhaps his shock came from the fact that all of his attention was focused on the book he had just put away.
“Well, then. Let me hear Demiurge’s answers.”
As the Death Knight spoke about the people Demiurge was close to and distant from, for want of anything better to say, Ainz — even though he had no expression on his face due to being a skeleton — smiled.
From his pocket space, Ainz withdrew a silver plate that was larger than his hand. After manipulating the plate, an image appeared on it.
This image depicted over thirty heteromorphic creatures, and Ainz pointed to two of them.
“These two never really got along before the formation of Ainz Ooal Gown. Outside of these group photos, you would almost never see them in the same picture together. I think you could count those pictures with the fingers on one hand, and that includes the one we took after conquering Nazarick. Really… those two never got along.”
Although he seemed to be explaining this to the Death Knight, he knew that his master was not really speaking to him. As such, the Death Knight did not make any reply. He sensed that that was what his master had hoped for.
“So children take after their parents after all…”
Ainz seemed to cherish this plate dearly, given the satisfied look he had.
“Like their fathers… hm? Like their parents?”
Ainz furrowed his nonexistent brows.
“Well, that fellow seems pretty lively, I should probably go visit… or not. Even just looking makes me feel… huh, is that it? I feel… uneasy? Hmm… Unease, is it. Hah, well then, let me hear the rest.”
Hearing “the sky” as the answer seemed to surprise Ainz.
“Did he really say that?”
The Death Knight nodded deeply.
“The sky, huh… well, he really does set his sights high… what an unexpectedly romantic gesture. Or did he come up with that when we were looking at the night sky? What an unexpectedly interesting fellow Demiurge is. One might even call it an innocent desire… Well, no matter what, I can’t give him the sky, but I could give him something close enough.”
The other answer was “I need nothing to strengthen Nazarick”, and Ainz’s face was a picture of shock after he heard it. The Death Knight relayed the rest of Demiurge’s words to his master, and after hearing them, Ainz sighed.
“He’s absolutely right. That’s exactly it. Every Guardian lives in a place filled with everyone’s feelings. Yet I — thinking I could do better than their creators— went to ask them what else they needed. What was I thinking? The only answer they should be able to give is that they don’t need anything. Back then, when I designed Pandora’s Actor, I also gave him a fully-equipped place to live in. Although that was meant to be our secret base… ah, how embarrassing, how foolish I was. I… am I really fit to rule, to manage this place?”
Silence descended over them for a moment.
The air was somber and heavy, but the Death Knight could not speak any words of comfort, because he had not been allowed to do so.
His master looked back to him with a bitter look on his face.
“Since it was my decision, I should see it through to the end. After all, this is also a lesson to remind myself of my own foolishness. Then, the last one should be Albedo. Go, then.”
But the Death Knight did not move. It could not move.
That was because it did not know anything about the subject in question.
As for why—
“What’s wrong? Why aren’t you moving? Before that, Albedo’s room… where is it, anyway?”
Part 7
Summoned or created monsters could be banished in several ways — when their summoning time ended, when they took too much damage, or when their masters manually dismissed them. When a monster was banished from taking too much damage, it was a common tactic to immediately re-summon another monster of the same type.
After Ainz banished the Death Knight, he cast ‘Message’. Like a telephone call connecting, Ainz began speaking once he felt the link form.
“—Albedo.”
『—Yes, Ainz-sama? What do you wish of me?』
“No, it’s nothing important, I just wish to chat with you. Where are you now?”
『A, a chat! You have but to give me an order and I will rush to your side!』
“There’s no need for you to go to that trouble. I just wish to chat with you in your room. Where are you now?”
『M-My! In my room?!』
The shrill screech of delight suddenly turned into a somber deadpan.
『I am in the throne room…』
“Do you mean you’re patrolling the throne room?”
The reply was off by just a beat.
『No, not that… if you will permit me this disrespect, it is, in a sense, my bedroom…』
Ainz pictured the throne room in his mind, and fell silent. That room was certainly a luxurious one, yet as a place to live in, it was quite lacking.
The frantic reply came from Albedo, who seemed to have misinterpreted Ainz’s silence as something else entirely.
『M-my deepest apologies, to think I considered Ainz-sama’s grand throne room to be my own sleeping area! If it displeases Ainz-sama, I will depart this place at once!』
Ainz said nothing, but activated his ring.
After reading the room with the hemispherical ceiling that was flanked by dozens of golems, he promptly pushed open the great doors that were carved with angels and demons.