Part 2
“Thank you, Demiurge.”
After the master had left the Throne Hall, the first thing that Cocytus did was to give his thanks to Demiurge. To Cocytus who was bowing deeply, Demiurge gave one of his regular slight smiles.
“No, it was nothing.”
“That won’t do. If it were not for you, the lizardmen would definitely have been exterminated.”
“… Cocytus, I would say that you should not take Ainz-sama’s words at face level. I believe that Ainz-sama originally expected things to turn out this way.”
Demiurge raised a finger during this explanation, after which there was a surprised voice. The one who gave out that voice sounded like himself, yet also sounded like it came from all of the surrounding Guardians.
“That also means to say that I reckon that Ainz-sama predicted that you would say those words earlier, thus he sent you to be the commander for the invasion of the lizardmen settlement. I also believe this because when you opposed the extermination of the lizardmen settlement, Ainz-sama appeared to be extremely delighted, and when you were unable to suggest an alternative, he looked quite disappointed in comparison.”
“Then what you mean to say is that Ainz-sama felt disappointment because things did not go according to his plan?”
“That is precisely it. It also means that all of the dialogue that happened in this place was quite possibly within Ainz-sama’s predictions.”
“No wonder he is Ainz-sama! Apparently he has perfectly calculated this far ahead!”
“B-But then….a-about tha-that…”
“… If you have something to say then be quick about it.”
Elder sister Aura severely directed her stuttering younger brother Mare to speak quickly.
“Y-yes, about that, I always felt that something was off. At the start, why were those weak undead assigned. Th-that… c-can’t say for certain, maybe Ainz-sama set this expedition up to fail from the very beginning…”
“Instead of thinking of defeat as a given, maybe our master took into account that Cocytus will scout the Lizardmen out and report back the viability of the task?”
Cocytus thought back to that conversation he had with Demiurge and felt ashamed, because he had screwed everything up.
“If he was not familiar with Cocytus’ personality, it would not have been possible to carry out this plan. As expected of Ainz-sama…”
“In the battle with Shalltear it was already possible to figure out Ainz-sama’s fighting ability, but it was not expected that he was also a strategist of the highest class. It truly is remarkable to the highest degree. Although Ainz-sama said what he said, I still feel that it is sufficient to act accordingly to Ainz-sama’s orders…”
“It really is incredible. Being able to bring together all of the Supreme Beings, goes to show that his name is not just for show.”
After Demiurge whose brain was top class finished, Shalltear approved what was said with delight, and all of the other guardians nodded their heads in agreement.
Ainz returned to his room and leaped onto his bed. After a lengthy hang time, Ainz’ body fell into the bed, then — he began to roll around.
Rolled right, then rolled left.
He was only able to roll as such because the bed was large enough.
Although his exquisite changpao was already greatly wrinkled, Ainz, who was completely fine with this happening, continued to laugh softly as he rolled around. Of course, he acted so childishly because nobody else apart from himself was allowed to enter.
Not long afterwards, Ainz who was fully satisfied in his indulgence in the mattress, laid there facing the ceiling.
“Haaa, so tired… Ah~ I really wish to indulge myself in alcohol to my heart’s content, and drink myself into a stupor… although that’s no longer possible.”
Ainz finished complaining then gave a big sigh — However Ainz did not breathe, that was why it was merely the appearance of a false sigh.
It was because he was an undead, that was why he was indifferent to physical and mental fatigue. However, to describe it in human terms, for the past month he had been worn out every day. If he still had a stomach, it would have been long ruined by now.
Because Ainz had been enduring pressure.
Momon the warrior had vanquished the silver-haired vampire— Shalltear. For those who didn’t know, perhaps they would only consider this feat as incredible, but to the mysterious person who used a World class item on Shalltear, it would give another impression. The opponent would probably keep a close eye on Momon, or even establish contact.
That was why Ainz had remained on alert for the entire day, and had also prepared several cash items to enable him to escape at any moment. During his free time, apart from maintaining alertness, he had also done some imaginary role playing — or perhaps better called paranoia training — visualising if the opponent had showed up, would he be able to escape whilst at the same time devoting energy to collecting information.
Although being stressed out like this every day had no real impact on Ainz Ooal Gown, it was still mentally taxing on the remnants of humanity he still possessed, as the human Satoru Suzuki. During his free time where he was able to relax and be by himself, he would push aside his attitude as Nazarick’s Supreme Being, and revert to his childish behaviour. This was probably because deep within Ainz, that stressed out and tired Satoru Suzuki desired to act like that.
“I have no memories of ever having such restless and sleepless work before… makes me wonder how much overtime I will be getting this month.”
This outburst of complaint was perhaps due to the Satoru Suzuki personality taking over Ainz.
“The Great Tomb of Nazarick… no, I mean Ainz Ooal Gown… is not a corporation. Joint venture companies are compassionate enterprises, and should fully guarantee compensation for employees’ overtime.”
Rambling as such, Ainz pursed his non-existent eyebrows.
“Eh? … It can’t be because of duty allowance that I am not entitled to overtime compensation? Wow…”
Ainz once again rolled left and right. After rolling over about five or six times, he suddenly stopped moving.
“Enough… meaningless babble needs to stop here… Come to think of it, Cocytus was quite incredible too, being able to speak out as he did.”
It was surprising. Apparently Cocytus would empathise with the lizardmen.
That action of Cocytus had made Ainz feel troubled greatly.
Satoru Suzuki was the kind of person whom, when preparing a briefing, would first fully assemble all of the data, then proceed by following standard practice to the letter. As such, he was not accustomed to dealing with unexpected problems. However, if only it were mentioned in writing as part of the information, then he would be able to handle it according to the data information. In other words, for Satoru Suzuki, the key to the success of his briefings were that any problems were already dealt with at the investigation stage. Such a kind of person was extremely unsuited for situations where it was necessary to adapt to the situation, to the point that he detested such scenarios.
As it was, it was neither possible to bring data into the Throne Hall, nor have the comfort of being able to say “then, please turn to the next page.” Therefore Ainz had prepared for flow of events in the Throne Hall long before, by rehearsing the entire sequence in his mind for more than ten times. In his heart, he had even prayed that nobody would act unexpectedly.