"Understood."
Taking his eyes off Nabe, who was walking over to the princess, Ainz took his helmet off as well. He felt the eyes of the entire room focusing on him. He cricked his neck, and then put the helmet back on. Originally, he'd planned to spice up the act by wiping his sweat off, but Ainz’ “face” was an illusion, and if he didn't do it right, his hand would end up passing through it instead. So, he decided to end it with the neck-crick instead.
That was the plan, to satisfy Gazef's curiosity by letting him see Momon's face.
Hopefully after Narberal goes over, they'll forget about coming over to talk to me...
Ainz prayed so in his heart while he turned back to the adventurers who were seeking him.
"What a surprise, are you used to this already?"
It was Evileye's voice. She was still hanging around. Why couldn't she have been a good girl and gone over with Narberal? Of course, he didn't reveal his irritation. In fact, to avoid suspicion, he replied to her in a gentle voice.
"Oh, it wasn't anything special."
This was nothing for anyone who had worked in a company before.
"Hardly. I think it's the best attitude to have for leading a party."
How annoying. Stop cutting in when I’m making introductions.
The words burned in Ainz’ heart, but he had to swallow them. If he lashed out at her now, the effort he put into not killing her would have been wasted. He split his attention as though he were performing a simple task, and made the appropriate noises to someone who had come to see him. The other party also knew that Momon was being called away, so they wrapped things up in two or three sentences.
After the line of adventurers had dispersed, a quick look revealed that Gazef was gone. He suppressed the urge to burst into dance, and instead spoke calmly to Evileye.
"The legendary Warrior Captain seems to have left... oh dear. I think I spent too much time with the others. My apologies."
"Mmm? What do you know, he's gone. He's a busy person, it makes sense that he couldn't stay. Although, it does seem quite rude that he didn't even say a word of thanks to our ace, Momon-sama, who's going to protect the capital. How rude. Let me get him for you."
"Wait. Wait!"
He'd accidentally raised his voice. Ainz continued in a more even tone.
"No, it won't be a problem. Really, don't worry about it. I'm only here because Marquis Raeven hired me, anyway. Protecting the capital is simply business. Nothing that the Warrior Captain should praise me for."
"Is that so... I've been feeling that Momon-sama was a generous man."
Ainz thought he was being mocked, and he looked closely at Evileye. But he couldn't read her face, covered by her mask as it was.
I can't trust anyone who wears a mask after all... what a pain. Still, why does she wear the mask? It must be some kind of magic item...
It was at this moment that Ainz realized his mistake, and he scrambled to examine his surroundings. The mood of the room hadn't changed, and nobody had reacted with fear and hostility toward the adamantite adventurer Momon.
Illusions in YGGDRASIL were just a trivial way to change an item's appearance, but in this world, illusion magic was real. In that case, it wouldn't be unusual for items that pierced illusions to exist... In E-Rantel, nobody saw through it, and after I heard from the Magician's Guild leader that one needed experience to see through them, I got careless... there are also quite a few orichalcum ranked adventurers here, what a blunder...
Ainz surveyed the room again.
Nobody's on their guard, I guess my secret's still safe... from now on, I won't remove my helmet in the capital unless I have to. Someone might have a talent for seeing through illusions.
"...Evileye-san,"
"Please, call me Evileye. Momon-sama is my savior, you need not be so formal with me."
Ainz was only being polite. But if that was how she wanted it, he had no reason to refuse.
"Then, Evileye, let's go over there..."
"Of course!"
It was an extremely delighted reply. Not knowing what he had done to please her so, Ainz allowed himself to be dragged by Evileye toward the princess.
The adventurers started talking again as they saw the group heading toward the other room— Renner and her underlings, along with the two adamantite ranked adventurers.
Naturally, the central topic was Momon, the top-ranked adventurer.
"I heard the rumors from E-Rantel, but the real thing was beyond my expectations."
"Not just him, right? I've seen Red Drop too, and I got the same feeling from them. He seems perfect in just about every way. I guess being adamantite-ranked isn't just about strength."
The one addressing the two mithril ranked adventurers was one with a platinum plate on his chain.
"Is that so? Still, he was summoned by the princess and still took his time to say hello to novice adventurers. Someone like that can't possibly exist, right?"
"It certainly surprised me."
Murmurs of approval came from the adventurers around them.
During a mission like this where parties had to work with each other, it was only sensible to make introductions, in order to secure assistance and support for each other. One would certainly prefer to aid someone they knew rather than a stranger. However, the only ones who could even begin to help an adamantite ranked adventurer were all ranked mithril and above. As such, greeting a fresh adventurer could be said to be a waste of time. Which meant that Momon wasn't thinking of benefit for himself, but just wanted to deepen his friendship with others.
"Normally, you'd expect him to go over to the princess while his partner attended to the novices, right?"
"Ah, yes, that's what most people would normally do. It's what I'd do. You guys too, right?"
"Same here... this may sound kind of bad, but maybe he doesn't understand this sort of thing. Does he have his priorities straight?"
Those words could certainly be seen as an insult, but the man speaking them did not have a single iota of malice on his face.
"Maybe he does. Maybe his priorities are just different."
As though waiting for this, the man who had spoken earlier replied quickly.