One particularly hardworking Elder Lich opened up the plans in his hands, and gave orders to the working golems.
Looking at the golems who stopped and obeyed his command, he compared the construction site and the plans in his hands. After a little consideration, he spoke to the imp sitting on his shoulder.
After listening, the imp expressed his understanding, flapped his wings and flew up into the sky.
With flying that could not be considered elegant, the imp surveyed the area with his eyes opened wide. Not long after, the imp found his target and quickly flew downwards.
That person was the Great Tomb of Nazarick’s Sixth Floor Guardian, Aura Bella Fiore, and also one of the new kings of this forest.
The Dark Elf girl used a rolled up paper as a megaphone, allowing her voice to travel far. The imp flew down and stood in salute in front of her, Aura then inquired in a familiar tone.
“Good~ now which group are you coming from?”
“Aura-sama, it would be Group U, number 3.”
“U Group, good good, understood. Now what else is the problem?”
The ones working here were divided into groups named with letters, from A to U, each group was sent to a different area to do a different job. From Aura’s memory, she remembers that Group U’s job was the construction of the storage warehouse, whose construction progress was also the second fastest.
TL Note: A to U means the Japanese Language Hiragana system, which is A, E, I, O, U. Not English!
“There are problems with the width of the logs used for construction, are we able to request for a little more ti—”
At this moment, the imp’s voice suddenly stopped, this was because a sound came out from a piece of iron hanging around Aura’s wrist.
“Its break time~”
Hearing a bubbly female voice, the color of Aura’s face suddenly changed, her ears dropped down, and changed into an embarrassed expression.
“Yes, understood, Simmering Teapot-sama!”
Aura energetically replied to the voice from her wrist.
“So, because it is already time to eat, the work for this morning will end for now.”
Out of all the monsters working in the area, almost all of them didn't need to eat. On that issue, Aura herself was also wearing the Ring of Sustenance, and needed neither food nor sleep. But since her own master worried about the wellbeing of everyone and always said “Always have a good rest”, she followed his instruction happily.
“Although it would be rude to you, but it is time for rest, so please come back in an hour.”
“Understood, then this subordinate will take his leave.”
The imp quickly left and flew into the air, leaving only the sound of his flapping wings.
Looking at the imp going towards where the construction of the warehouse was happening, Aura shook her shoulders, then looked at the strap on her wrist.
This time she showed an expression filled with happiness.
This was a reward given to her by her master because of all her hard work. Of course, towards their main task as a Floor Guardian, working hard at their job was a given, and did not warrant a reward. In fact, it should be obvious to give all that she has for the master.
However, she could not just reject the wristwatch given to her by her master.
“Hohoho, I really want to hear more of Simmering Teapot-sama’s voice.”
Aura warmly touched the strap on her wrist. Her current actions could be comparatively warmer than when she was touching her own pets.
All the voices that came from this instrument were from the one who created Aura.
Even though the voices were only used to tell the time, this still served to satisfy Aura greatly.
When she heard that her younger brother had received the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown, she felt a little envious, but honestly speaking, right now she felt that the object she obtained was so much better.
“Hohohohohohohoho.”
Aura’s ears drooped, and she looked shyly at the strap. She looked at the light shining brightly onto the strap, and satisfyingly nodded her head.
“Why did Ainz-sama set some times when it cannot be used?”
Ainz-sama ordered that the times 7:21 and 19:19 can not be set as alarm time.
“Eh... why don’t we just ask him? Ah, this is bad!”
Aura looked at the numbers on the strap, and quickly ran off.
In front of where she was going was a maid.
One of the 41 maids within the Great Tomb of Nazarick, a homunculus whose outer appearance was that of a beautiful lady, but she was an exception.
Her head was that of a dog, with a vertical line running down the center of her face like a scar with signs of stitching. It felt as though her face that had split into two halves were being sewn back together.
Her name is Pestunia S Wanko.
She is the Great Tomb of Nazarick’s Head Maid, and also a High Priest.
“As per Aura-sama’s wishes, I have brought a hamburger, as well as two pickles, french fries with skin on, the drink would be cola… Woof.”
After a long pause, she let out a “woof” sound, making Aura think that she may have just forgotten to add it at the end. But Aura did not say anything special about this, because there was something else that had her attention. It was the smell which would make one’s stomach growl. Although the Ring of Sustenance made it so that one did not have to consume food, it did not mean she could not eat. Also eating should be a fortunate thing, especially if it was food that was so delicious.
“Speaking of the overall effect of eating this…”
“Ah, no need, no need, I am not eating this for the sake of a beneficial effect.”
“Understood woof.”
Aura walked towards the side of Pestunia, where a meal cart was emitting a fragrant smell.
“Time to eat, time to eat.”
Pestunia, upon hearing Aura’s self-composed meal song, took off the silver lid off the plate on the meal cart.
“Aah~”
Aura could not help but stare intently at the food revealed before her, at the same time spoke the words that immediately came to her mind.
“Although A7 beef is also good, but I much prefer a mixture of beef and pork. If only I could use that combination to create a 3 layered meat pie.”
“Then, this servant will convey your suggestion to the chef woof.”
“Ah sorry to trouble you!”
Aura then took the plate and happily walked away.
Part 3
Zaryusu observed the Dragon Tusk Tribe’s settlement before him. At the same time, a bundle of vegetation appeared from beside him. Needless to say, that bundle of vegetation was actually Crusch. She reached out her hand out to part the grass, revealing what Zaryusu thought was a beautiful face.
“Do you really wish to directly charge inside? Are you trying to clash with them head-to-head?”
“Wrong, it is the opposite. The Dragon Tusk Tribe values strength heavily. If we were to casually part from Rororo and enter the place, we could quite possibly come across people picking a fight before we even meet with the tribe chief, and that would be troublesome. Proceeding forward whilst riding Rororo would deter that kind of situation from arising.”
After riding Rororo forward for a distance, various warriors throughout the village must have seen them. Each one was holding weapon, and watching Zaryusu’s group with unwavering gazes.
Sensing hostile intent, Rororo let out a low growl. Zaryusu listened to Rororo’s warning and indicated for it to continue proceeding forward.
Continuing forward would eventually ignite into battle. Yet they kept proceeding forward until they had reached a threshold, a brink where anything could happen at any moment; before Zaryusu finally let Rororo stop and jumped down. Crusch also followed suit and was down in a moment.
Several warriors’ sharp gazes were directed towards the two individuals. Those gazes carried such intensity that they were no longer simply hostile but outright murderous.
Crusch was slightly intimidated by their gazes which caused her to halt her steps. Although she was an incredibly skilled individual amongst druids, she lacked experience of being in the frontlines.
Conversely, Zaryusu took one more step forward. Using half his body to shield Crusch, he shouted out loudly:
“— I am the representative of the Green Claw Tribe, Zaryusu Shasha, and my visit here is to discuss matters with the tribe chief!”
His powerful bellowing voice seemed almost as if it would disperse the murderous intent around them. The Dragon Tusk Tribe warriors were all startled and seemed almost as if they were intimidated.
Following this, Crusch also spoke up, announcing herself:
“I am the Red Eye Tribe's acting chief, Crusch Lulu, and likewise I have come to visit the tribe chief.”
Although her voice was not loud, it carried the pride and self-awareness of a tribe leader. The young skinny female lizardman from earlier was gone with the encouragement of the male’s self-confident voice.
“Once again, we are here to see the tribe chief! Where is he!”
At this moment, the atmosphere around them was rippling. It was just like the mood of the scene had suddenly turned into actual attacking force directed at the two of them.
Each of Rororo’s four heads did a somersault. Opening its jaws, it let out a threatening roar in all four directions as it shook its heads and glared angrily. As the gigantic hydra’s sharp growl emanated, fear seemed to permeate the surroundings as the atmosphere tensed up.
“... There was no need to protect me from something so trivial.”
“I did not intend to protect you, because you came of your own volition. However, I am the one who allowed their entire tribe to perish, therefore it ought to have been only myself to shoulder their hostile gazes.”
Warriors started to gather at the interiour of the tribe settlement. All of them were muscular and burly lizardmen with light scars on their scales, suggesting that they were veterans of countless of battles. However Zaryusu perceived that the tribe chief was not amongst them.
Each of the lizardmen were merely warriors. None of them carried authority like his older brother did, nor had a strange appearance with the confident atmosphere of being tribe chief like Crusch.
During this period when only Rororo was emitting an intimidated sound, each individual lizardman maintained a high level of alertness. At this moment—
“Haah!”
Crusch exhaled a breath of air, letting out a weak sound. However, Zaryusu, who predicted that there would eventually be one lizardman making an entrance, remained unmoved. This was because even before the opponent had shown himself, he could feel that there was an enormously powerful being slowly getting closer.
But he still could not help staring dumbfounded at the lizardman who appeared in front of him.
To simply put it, that lizardman’s appearance was simply bizarre.
The opponent was an enormous individual with a body build exceeding two hundred and thirty centimeters in height. This feature alone would be insufficient to justify calling it bizarre, therefore there were other reasons for describing the appearance as such.
Firstly, his right shoulder had a weird outer appearance being relatively thicker than the other, just like how fiddler crabs have a unilaterally giant claw on only one side. No, his left shoulder was not thin at all, with a thickness about the same as Zaryusu’s own shoulder. It was simply his right shoulder which was abnormally thick, and this was not because of illness or congenital malformation, but was actual muscle.
His left arm’s ring finger and pinky were completely gone.
His mouth was parted far backwards, perhaps as a result of a cut injury, and his tail was squashed quite flat, not like a lizardman’s but rather more like a crocodile’s.
However, even when compared to these, the most striking feature was— the insignia seared on his chest. Although it was different image to the one on Zaryusu’s chest, the meaning was the same, proving that this lizardman was also a ‘traveller’.
That lizardman with the strange appearance sized up Zaryusu, and let out a terrible laughter as his teeth clashed together, sounding like collision between dead wood.
“Welcome, wielder of Frost Pain.”
His deep voice was extremely fitting for his appearance, except it had the effect of making even plain talk sound threatening.
“This is the first time we have met. I am the representative of the Green Claw tribe, Zaryu—”
The lizardman waved his hand indicating that introductions were not necessary.