The nephilim Warrior Takemikazuchi did not take part in the dialogue. Instead, he sank into thought, scribbled some things onto his PDA, and then he spoke.
“If we want to use the ん sound… how about Ains? Nine’s starts with the letter N, and in Hiragana, n is ん. That way, if we take the first character N and substitute it with an A, we get Ains.”
“Not bad. So it represents the end of the current clan, and a new beginning in the form of Ains?”
“It feels a bit forced, but it’s definitely the best suggestion so far…Ains… it comes out as Ains, right? Or how about Ainz?”
“Both are fine, right? It’s not a big problem. Rather than think about that, we should try and find a way to use Own and Goal.”
“If we go with that,” Punitto Moe began. “How about Ooal Gown? Have Own Goal become Ooal Gown.”
“Ohh! It’s perfect… hm? There’s an extra O, where did it come from? Without it, it becomes Gwn? Ainz Ooal Gwn? Hm…”
“Well, it’s not often that you get the chance to play with anagrams.”
“Before that, Ooal is pronounced oo-ul, right?”
“Just like that. After all ooze is for slimes.”
That great insistence came from Herohero, the slime.
“N, W and G are all used. North, West… gone.”
Though the topic had completely shifted to making anagrams of the name, the voices slowly grew softer, like they were tired.
Amidst this heated debate, Momonga felt that there would probably not be any better ideas. He carefully considered the suggestions and after making sure that there were no others, he looked to all the members and made his decision clear.
“Then, we will combine the suggestions from Takemikazuchi-san and Punitto Moe-san to make the new guild name. Does anyone disagree?’
“Nope~”
Everyone seconded Bukubukuchagama’s statement.
If that was the case—
“Then, our guild’s new name is Heteromorphic Zoo!”
In that instant, the sounds of laughter and teasing reached Momonga. He showed both his palms to indicate that he got it, and then he coughed.
“Well, that was a silly joke. So — we’re decided on Ainz Ooal Gown then?”
The clan members agreed in one voice.
“Then, who will take the quest for setting up the guild? Is anyone willing to help? If you’re busy, I’ll progress it slowly in my free time..”
One needed to carry out a mission when it came to registering a guild. There were eight types of missions to choose from, but only one needed to be perfectly completed. Momonga wondered which of these would be the simplest.
And then, there was no need for that.
“It’s fine, Momonga-san. The fact is, I already completed the mission and brought the mission item back, so we can use that.”
It was Touch Me who said that.
“Can we?”
“Of course. I gave up halfway — this is the least I can do.”
Momonga took a scroll from Touch Me.
When he unfurled it, a new window opened in his line of sight.
It was a guild setup request form.
If he followed its instructions and entered the relevant information, he could found a guild.
“Then, I’ll disband the clan.”
Somber, mournful music came from Touch Me’s position.
After about a minute of music, the clan disbandment message that appeared informed everyone that Touch Me’s request had been completed. Momonga entered his acceptance of the disbandment with the keyboard floating over his console, and then hit Enter.
In that moment, a brief burst of fanfare rang out.
“Everyone! I made the guild. Next, I’ll send out the invites. Look out for them.”
After making enough invitation scrolls to Ainz Ooal Gown for everyone, he sent them out. This was shortly followed by messages appearing in front of everybody.
Momonga thought it was quite amusing how everyone opened the scrolls and entered characters in the same way.
A bell rang continuously as the number of guild members kept increasing. In the end, all the members of Nine’s Own Goal were now in Ainz Ooal Gown.
Thus, the clan of the past vanished, and a brand new guild was born.
His status window indicated that the territory belonging to the clan called Nine’s Own Goal had been transferred over to the guild called Ainz Ooal Gown.
It was nothing much in the big scheme of things.
New guilds popped up in Yggdrasil at about the same rate as old ones vanishing. However, there was a strange feeling in Momonga’s heart.
This was because he had been saved from PKing by Touch Me when he first started playing. He had been invited into Nine’s Own Goal and learned how fun the game could be. Then when its members had increased, he had enjoyed playing the game with his new friends.
And now, the clan which was the source of so much of his joy was now gone.
However, the loneliness he felt passed in an instant.
This was because the newly-founded guild would carry on everything.
Indeed, this was not an end, but a beginning. However, it was not just happiness that he felt.
A mighty burden weighed down on his back.
Until now, he had been happy enough playing with and helping his fellow clan members. But now, as a Guildmaster, he had to help everyone enjoy themselves.
As Momonga watched everyone talking about what they would do next, Momonga felt the crushing stress his sense of duty gave him. He took a breath, and then stood up.
Judging by the movements of the new Guildmaster, he probably had something to say, so they immediately shut up.
Amidst this silence, Momonga explained what he was thinking about.
“Then, for our first guild activity as Ainz Ooal Gown, I plan to conquer the dungeon in the swamp which Nishiki-san just found.”
Replies of “sounds good” came from all around him. Amidst this atmosphere of excitement, Momonga gulped, and struggled with the buzzing tension inside him.
He might be branded as a failure of a Guildmaster because of what he would say next.
But before Momonga could speak, someone asked:
“Guildmaster, I have a question. Since it’s an unknown dungeon, we should only be making a reconnaissance first. When will we seriously try to clear the dungeon? Our gear and preparations may need to be changed depending on that.”
It was a heaven-sent question.
This was the last decision point. If he wanted to stop, he would have to do it now. However, Momonga committed himself to his decision.
“No. Actually, I have an idea.” Momonga coughed, and raised his voice. “Everyone, listen to me.”
Tension hung heavy in the air, given that Momonga had raised his voice.
Suppressing the crushing pressure to run away that made him want to vomit, Momonga stated his piece.
“Please listen to me. I was hoping to clear the unexplored swamp dungeon in one go.”
An uproar.
There was an uproar. It was only to be expected.
Momonga knew full well how foolhardy his words had been.
Unexplored dungeons had unknown monsters waiting in them, and there was no indication as to what traps were present.
Therefore, they had to mount multiple attacks on a dungeon. In this way they could identify effective ways to bring down the monsters and the shortest way to the heart of the dungeon, as well as some way to beat the dungeon boss. No, usually a dungeon could not be cleared without using these methods.
“Still, that should be impossible. We don’t know the ideal level to clear that dungeon, and trying to clear a dungeon blind will be difficult, even if it’s a very low-levelled dungeon.”
The person who put that forward was Bellriver, a heteromorphic magic knight who looked like a lump of meat covered in mouths.
Several others also began voicing their opposition, in support of Bellriver’s sensible conclusion.
Naturally, Momonga understood how they felt.