Overlord (LN)

Overlord Volume 8 Side 1 (1/2) Enri’s Tumultuous and Hectic Days

Retranslated by Nigel

Edited/Proofed by Deus Ex Machina

Part 1

Enri Emmot rose before the sun came up to make breakfast. She was not as good a cook as her deceased mother, and there was a lot of food to prepare.

Counting Nemu, Enri herself and the nineteen Goblins loyal to her, she had to make breakfast for twenty-one people. Cooking for two more on top of those would make twenty-three in total. Preparing that much food was a lot of work, and could be considered a battle in its own right. Enri trembled while looking at the vast quantity of food in front of her and realised that it would all be gone in one meal.

“This is nearly six times as much as before...”

After taking a deep breath, she rolled up her sleeves, psyched herself up and got to work.

She silently sliced up the vegetables, and then the meat. The process was engraved into Enri’s mind by now.

Although Enri was not especially talented at cooking, the fact that she had learned to cope with such an enormous task in such a short time was a textbook example of how diamonds were made under pressure.

Her little sister woke from the sound of Enri making breakfast and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

“Morning, onee-chan. Let me help too!”

“Morning, Nemu. I’m good over here, but there’s still that thing I asked you to help me take care of yesterday...”

Unhappiness flashed over Nemu’s face for a moment, but in the end, she did not complain, although she did droop her head and reply “...‘Kay” as she obeyed Enri.

Enri’s hands stopped.

Her heart ached.

Nemu was ten years old now, and she had been a lively and spirited girl once. After that incident, the formerly naive and carefree Nemu was now slavishly obedient to her sister, without any of the playfulness or tantrums of children her age. She was a good girl now — so good that it hurt.

The smiling faces of her parents appeared in Enri’s mind. Although several months had passed, the wounds from that incident had not yet healed.

If they had died because of illness, she could have prepared herself for it. If they had died from an accident or a natural disaster, she would not have hated anyone else for it, and maybe she would not have been scarred either. But her parents had been murdered in front of her eyes, and her heart was now filled with resentment. There was no way she could feel otherwise.

Enri squeezed her eyes shut. If there was someone nearby, then she could work hard so they would not see her weakness. But when she was by herself, the loneliness reopened the wounds in her heart.

“―Isn’t that right?”

She still saw her parents’ kind smiles floating in the darkness behind her eyes. Even when she opened them, their forms did not fade from her vision. She replayed the tender moments of the past in her mind, over and over again.

After that came the maelstrom of black emotions in her heart — her hatred for the people who had murdered her parents. Driven by them, Enri slammed her cleaver into the meat with all her might, splitting it in half.

However, since she used too much force, she also chopped a divot out of the block, which made her furrow her brow in frustration.

If the blade gets chipped, it’s going to be hard to fix...... I’m sorry, okaa-san.

Enri covered up the hole as she apologized for damaging the cleaver that was her only link to her deceased mother.

She gently ran a finger along the edge to make sure it was fine, and at that moment, the door beside her, which led to the living room, opened up.

The person who entered was not human, but someone shorter — one of the demihumans commonly known as Goblins.

“Morning, Ane-san. Today’s my turn to... what’s wrong?”

The Goblin paused in the middle of a perfect bow to turn concerned eyes to Enri’s hands.

Enri was a mere village girl, but the Goblins served her without hesitation because she was their summoner.

After that incident, when the villagers had wondered if they needed to take shifts standing guard, Enri remembered the horn she had been given and used it to summon the Goblins.