Copyright
OVERLORD VOLUME 12
KUGANE MARUYAMA
Translation by Emily Balistrieri
Cover art by so-bin
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
©Kugane Maruyama 2017
First published in Japan in 2017 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo. English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.
English translation © 2020 by Yen Press, LLC
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Maruyama, Kugane, author. | So-bin, illustrator. | Balistrieri, Emily, translator.
Title: Overlord / Kugane Maruyama ; illustration by So-bin ; translation by Emily Balistrieri.
Other titles: Ōbārōdo. English
Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2016–
Identifiers: LCCN 2016000142 | ISBN 9780316272247 (v. 1 : hardback) | ISBN 9780316363914 (v. 2 : hardback) | ISBN 9780316363938 (v. 3 : hardback) | ISBN 9780316397599 (v. 4 : hardback) | ISBN 9780316397612 (v. 5 : hardback) | ISBN 9780316398794 (v. 6 : hardback) | ISBN 9780316398817 (v. 7 : hardback) | ISBN 9780316398848 (v. 8 : hardback) | ISBN 9780316398862 (v. 9 : hardback) | ISBN 9780316444989 (v. 10 : hardback) | ISBN 9780316445016 (v. 11 : hardback) | ISBN 9781975308063 (v. 12 : hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Alternate reality games—Fiction. | Internet games—Fiction. | Science fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Science Fiction / Adventure.
Classification: LCC PL873.A37 O2313 2016 | DDC 895.63/6—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016000142
ISBNs: 978-1-9753-0806-3 (hardcover)
978-1-9753-0807-0 (ebook)
E3-20200519-JV-NF-ORI
Chapter 1 | Evil Emperor Jaldabaoth
1
The Sacred Kingdom Roebel was situated on a peninsula southwest of the Re-Estize Kingdom.
Ruled harmoniously by influential shrines and a holy king wielding powerful faith magic at the top, the Sacred Kingdom was a deeply religious country—though not to the extent of the Slane Theocracy.
The realm of the Sacred Kingdom had two unusual characteristics.
One was that its territory was split north and south by the sea. Of course, the two parts weren’t completely cut off from each other, but the land’s shape resembled a sideways horseshoe—and right in the middle was a giant bay stretching approximately twenty-five miles north to south and a hundred and twenty-five miles east to west.
This gulf is so great that some people distinguish between the northern Sacred Kingdom and the southern Sacred Kingdom.
There was one other notable thing.
A massive wall spanned the mouth of the peninsula, running over sixty miles north to south.
The purpose of the barrier was to prevent invasions from the various subhuman tribes who made their homes in the hilly area to the east that was situated between the Sacred Kingdom and the Theocracy.
The sheer thickness of this formidable wall, as well as the amount of time and national power devoted to its construction, spoke volumes about how much Roebel had suffered and mourned at the hands of its neighbors.
The gap in innate ability between subhumans and humanoids is vast.
Certain races like goblins could be considered an exception.
Goblins are significantly smaller in stature than humans. They are often inferior in terms of physical ability, intelligence, and number of casters born in the population.
But even goblins could prove a troublesome foe if they took advantage of their night vision and ability to conceal themselves—for example, lying in ambush under the cover of darkness in the forest.
As a matter of fact, most of the various races in the region were far more muscular than humans. Quite a few were born with arcane powers as well. If the Sacred Kingdom allowed an invasion to occur, the blunder would surely be paid for with a terrible amount of blood.
Which was why its people went to such lengths just to strengthen its defenses.
To prevent subhumans from setting so much as a foot in its territory.
To show them this land belonged to someone else.
To make sure all its enemies knew that any who dared to trespass would be in for the fight of their lives.
These were the reasons why the wall had been raised. Unfortunately, there was a problem.
Fully maintaining the fortifications required a vast number of soldiers. On one occasion, the Sacred Kingdom’s leaders estimated how many soldiers would be required to defend against a subhuman invasion.
The result of their investigation showed that the nation would collapse long before the invaders ever mounted an attack.
It wasn’t economically feasible to have so many soldiers on standby at the walls. At the same time, everyone agreed that they had to man the defenses to a certain degree.
The worst encroachment in the history of the Sacred Kingdom—that took place after the wall had been built—was an attack that came with rain that kept up for days.
This raid was conducted by the srasch, a race with suckers on their limbs and long tongues that could cross great distances to deliver paralyzing venom. Some elite members of their kind could even change the color of their skin and achieve an effect similar to the Camouflage spell.
These were the invaders who scaled the wall and pushed westward.
Multiple villages fell
