“Yaho~. Working and sweating hard as always!”
The sous-chef raised his head at Aura’s energetic voice and spotted the three.
“It’s not like this body particularly sweats either.”
He stood up and straightened his waist with a grunt. It was an appropriate gesture for someone who was working while squatting, but he didn’t really have any feature that could be described as a waist. Because his body was completely straight and there were no contours or narrowing points anywhere, it was difficult to tell whether he really was stretching his waist or was doing it for the sake of doing it.
Next, the sous-chef stretched his neck as if it was strained. His head was a mushroom and looked as if a purple liquid was oozing from it, but since it was very adhesive and sticky it never splattered anywhere.
“Is that a tomato?”
Albedo took interest in the red fruit in the sous-chef’s hand. He raised it up all the way to his face and tilted his head as if it was something strange.
“It seems like a tomato. It’s a tomato you all know very well. Not the type that gathers sunlight to explode, not the type that attacks you suddenly, not the type that glows like gold when you cut it, but a regular tomato.”
“So I reckon it’s a common everyday tomato used as cooking ingredients, right?”
“Yes. Since I don’t have the skill for it, I can’t cultivate any vegetables that confer special effects.
Were you interested in it because you wanted a dish made with tomatoes? Unfortunately, I can only make drinks.”
“No, I was asking purely out of curiosity. Isn’t it Shalltear who would want a dish made with tomato?”
“…Why do you think vampires would drink tomato juice? Undead cannot receive buffs from eating food at all.”
“Speaking of which, there are not many people in Nazarick who need to eat.”
Just as Aura said, most NPCs used items, so they no longer needed to consume food.
“It can’t be helped. If they started eating as well, the upkeep for Nazarick would skyrocket.
Especially big eaters like your beasts would be a problem.”
“Seriously? Then should I let them go outside and forage there?”
“It’s not necessary. Ainz-sama, along with the other Supreme Beings, calculated our income and expenditures in such a way that they would be balanced when they created this tomb.”
“Ahhh, is that why Ainz-sama ordered so that only those who were self-sufficient be allowed in? So it would not upset the balance of the population?”
“Yea… Don’t you know about it?”
Albedo looked at the faces of the other three, one after the other.
“This is troubling. Not knowing anything about the place you’re protecting is no good. Make some time for it in your schedules. I’ll explain everything then.”
Albedo let out a sigh and looked at the field without much thought. Then she recognized the plant leaves that were spread out in front of her.
“Is that a carrot… no, a magical carrot?”
“No, that’s not the case. Did the Overseer not receive any reports about it?”
“What do you mean?”
The sous-chef’s gaze headed towards Aura.
“Mm, nothing… I see. You weren’t told of it. Then Aura-sama, what should I do? Will Aura-sama demonstrate it? I believe I taught you as well?”
“I definitely put it on the report…”
Aura smiled before breathing in deep and shouting with a loud voice.
“—Long live Ainz Ooal Gown!”
The rows of leaves started moving in response. The main roots, which were covered by the soil like normal carrots, dug themselves out by vigorously wiggling left and right.
They were shaped like ginsengs, but there was a clear difference between them and ginsengs. They had distinguishable arms and legs, and moved with clear self-awareness. Around the stem were holes resembling eyes and a mouth.
Shalltear opened her eyes wide and spoke their name.
“Are these mandrakes? I thought they didn’t exist inside Nazarick…”
“Ah! So that’s what it is! I knew about it from the report, but it’s my first time seeing it up close.”
The mandrakes arranged themselves into a formation while shouting ‘Long live Ainz Ooal Gown!
Long live Ainz Ooal Gown!’ in unison.
“They’re not too smart. It’s a shame, considering that their cousins Galgenmaennlein, Alruna and Alraune are pretty intelligent… We didn’t spot any of them in that forest. Maybe it’s simply too big and that’s why we haven’t ran into any yet. There was a pretty sizeable underground cave at the mountain range. It seems like there’s a myconid tribe in there. We haven’t touched them yet.”
“But I’m truly moved that you taught them to speak this much.”
The sous-chef picked up one of the mandrakes lined up in formation and stared at it. The mandrake was squirming about, as if being held by the stem on top of its head hurt.
“Long live Ainz Ooal Gown! Long live Ainz Ooal Gown!”
The mandrakes broke their formation and surrounded the sous-chef as if they were protesting the violence inflicted against their comrade. However, they only repeated the same phrase.
“I apologize, Aura-sama. Could you make them return?”
“Okay! Good! Go back!”
Along with the mandrake that the sous-chef gently lowered to the ground, all the mandrakes went back inside their holes. The way they burrowed underground again reminded everyone of animals getting ready for hibernation.
“I see. So it’s basically like an animal's cry.”
“That’s correct. They can only parrot certain words and can’t speak in any meaningful way. They also seem to have a minimum intelligence threshold and can’t speak if they have not passed that threshold. The details are under research right now.”
The sous-chef also added — “I’m just repeating what Demiurge-sama said.”
“Hmm, Albedo, will it be fine for me to ask you a question? Isn’t it a problem that you, as the Overseer, do not know about the newcomers? What would you have done if there were spies?”
Someone objected before Albedo could answer.
“Ahahaha, Shalltear, that’s a good joke. Of course, because the 6th floor is so wide, it would be obvious for you to think it’d be hard to find an intruder. If they manage to escape the colosseum…
and scatter in every direction like baby spiders, it might get annoying if there’s a lot of them.”
Aura’s laughs were empty and her gazes were icy.
“But aren’t you underestimating me? This is my hunting ground. Whether they scatter or not, I can immediately hunt them down. Even if they plan on harming Ainz-sama and somehow manage to escape this floor, they’d still need to get past Guren’s area on the 7th floor, and they won’t be able to survive even a single step on the 8th floor. If they do decide to run away, they’d need to tread through the dark waters of the 4th floor and your area… Do you really think that’s possible?”