5
Watching the city begin to panic as the enormous host of subhuman soldiers drew closer, Ainz slowly crumpled to the ground.
This was not a metaphor.
The extreme strain that had built up in his mind mentally exhausted him despite being undead, and his knees hit the ground. He covered his face with his hands.
What do I do…? What am I supposed to do now…?
Ainz had been basically following the script that Demiurge prepared.
Naturally, it wasn’t as if he had written out every word and gesture—there was a lot of ad-libbing—but even so, Ainz felt he had adhered to Demiurge’s plan.
Or rather, the problem was that there had been too much ad-libbing.
Frankly, most of what Demiurge’s manual said was Go with the flow.
This is extremely unhelpful. That’s what Ainz thought the first time he laid eyes on it.
If Ainz were a brilliant person, perhaps he could have perfectly played the role of the King of Darkness. But unfortunately, Ainz only had average, or possibly even slightly below-average, abilities.
And so a fierce fight broke out between the two of them.
To summarize, Ainz pleaded, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this. Write a more detailed plan, and Demiurge humbly answered, I couldn’t possibly insult your intelligence in such a way, my lord. Ainz was disadvantaged from the start, but then Albedo joined in, cementing his defeat.
Which is how the operation manual that left everything up to him remained in use.
If Demiurge was picking on him, he might have been able to find another way to fight back, but the present situation was the result of the trust and respect his subordinates had for him.
Especially when he could tell they were thinking, You’re sure to get better results than us, Lord Ainz, so it wouldn’t do for us to limit you, there was simply nothing he could do.
Using a little common sense, would a king really go off to another country on his own…?! This is so forced… But I’ve made it this far. I bent over backward a few times and nearly failed, but I’ve made it this far.
He didn’t believe in any gods, but he sure wanted to pray to one now.
I wish Demiurge and Albedo would at least take into account my strengths when they tell me what to do…
When they gave him impossible tasks, it sucked all the motivation right out of him.
……Okay, c’mon. Hang in there, me. If you can get past this, the rest’ll be comparatively easy.
Ainz tensed his legs and stood up.
The plan was reaching the middle stage, the climax, and it was The Worst.
Demiurge had told him that if they were to build a defensive line at this city, he would attack until 85 percent casualties were reached.
Ainz didn’t feel anything about that.
If that was what Demiurge thought, it was surely better than whatever he would have come up with. If that many dying was good for Nazarick, then that was what should happen. Actually, it made him wonder if killing more would be even better.
The problem was that Demiurge wanted a list of the people he shouldn’t kill.
If that were all, Ainz could have listed some random names and been done, but there was a condition: It had to be people who either worshipped Ainz or seemed likely to join his side.
When Demiurge got in touch to say, Knowing you, Lord Ainz, I’m sure you’ve already mesmerized a number of humans like you did that dwarf, so please tell me their names. I’ll take care not to kill them, Ainz wondered if he was being sarcastic.
“…There’s no one…” Ainz moaned in spite of himself.
There wasn’t anyone who worshipped him.
On the contrary, he could feel—tangibly—the intense hatred for undead the Sacred Kingdom had.
How was he supposed to overcome that adversity to get someone to adore him?
But there was no way he could tell Demiurge there wasn’t a single person.
Demiurge was utterly convinced that Ainz was capable of captivating people. So what would he think if he told him that getting even one was impossible?
My stomach hurts…
The dwarf Demiurge mentioned was probably Gondo Firebeard, but that had been pure luck. He just happened to land a critical hit on a weak point; there was no way such good fortune would repeat itself.
And it was thanks to having Gondo as a source of information that he had been able to strike so effectively at the rune crafters. But he didn’t have someone that close to him in the Sacred Kingdom.
He had succeeded in getting on friendly terms with the squire Neia Baraja, but that was as far as their relationship went.
And he had lent her a magic item to deepen their friendship—not that that was the only reason—but he wasn’t sure how effective it had been. She was always looking at him with the eyes of a murderer, so he didn’t think he should expect much.
If I told him there was only one, what would he say? Ainz asked himself.
Would Demiurge’s image of him shatter into a zillion pieces if he did that?
And then what would happen?
I told him back in the dwarf country that I wasn’t as smart as he thought, but he doesn’t seem to have believed me… This is bad. How high has he built me up in his mind? Or, like, is the feeling that he keeps building me up bigger and bigger just in my head? Doesn’t this usually happen in the opposite way?
The expectations were painful. Not burdensome—painful.
The old him never knew what a heavy, stifling thing loyalty was. What hurt the most was how great his subordinates thought he was.
Maybe this is just the right time to let him know that I’m not as awesome as he thinks. But if the plan he’s been working on for so long fails because of me, then what? If I worked for several years on a deal and then one dumb remark from my boss ruined the whole thing…
Ahhh, he thought, and would have been pulling his hair out except he didn’t
