Overlord (LN)

“We wish to enter the city, but... what’s going on?”

“Uooooh!”

The two men exclaimed in the same surprise as the soldiers outside. The village girl was stunned when she saw it.

“If... if it isn’t Momon-sama himself! Forgive us!”

“Now, what’s going on here... hm? This girl is...”

She seemed familiar. Ainz felt that he knew her, and he searched his hippocampus ─ though he did not possess such an organ ─ for information confirming her.

“Yes! We were investigating a suspicious girl, which took some time. We sincerely apologize for inconveniencing you, Momon-sama─”

Ainz was beginning to find the man’s chatter intolerable. Then, inspiration struck, and he recalled the village girl’s name.

“─Enri , right. You must be Enri Emmot, am I correct?”

“Er, ah, who’re you... er, no, I am. Ah, you were the one who came with Nfirea that time, right? I don’t remember speaking to you... DId Nfirea tell you my name?”

At that moment, Ainz instinctively pressed his hand over his mouth.

He had met Enri when he was the masked magic caster Ainz Ooal Gown. Now, he was the adamantite-ranked adventurer in jet-black armor, Momon.

Crap! I spoke in my normal voice! This is terrible. I need to leave here right away. But still, what’s that village girl doing here? Won’t it be troublesome if she finds me ─ no, finds Ainz Ooal Gown here? I need to clarify the details with her.

She did not seem to have divined his true identity from the conversation just now, but he could not rule out the possibility that he had been exposed. Granted, he did not think she would have matched his voice from several months ago to a few words spoken through a layer of armor, but it was best to be prudent.

Ainz beckoned the magic caster over. He felt that the man ought to know more than the soldiers.

He led the magic caster out of the duty station, and they went some distance away to avoid being overheard by the sentries.

“It’s like this... that girl’s a friend of a friend. Can you tell me what happened with her?”

He was not lying, since Nfirea was indeed a friend of Ainz and Momon.

The magic caster’s eyes went wide. He appeared to be shocked, but that was not the case. It was more like connecting points of data to form a beautiful line. It was as though a mystery in his heart had been solved.

“I see... as I thought...”

Could you please hurry up the process of accepting the facts? Ainz very much wanted to say that, but he bore with it and waited for the man to speak.

“She said she was just a village girl, but she was carrying a powerful horn-shaped magic item. I wasn’t sure why she had such a powerful item, and I had other questions of my own, so I wanted to clarify things.”

“What sort of horn was it? What effects did it have?”

“Its effects were─”

After listening to the whole explanation, Ainz could not help looking up to the sky.

That was because he was trying to run away from the knowledge that it was an item which he had given her.

At that time, Ainz had not known that such an item was beyond the comprehension of this world. He had given her the horn simply for her to protect herself. Who could have imagined that it would have created so much trouble for her? Ainz could probably have come up with an excuse along the lines of “I did nothing wrong”, but ignoring her plight was not good either.

I’ll help her out a little. I didn’t do anything wrong, but I did give her the item, after all, so the responsibility lies with me... if I abandon her and it falls into someone else’s hands, it’ll end up being more troublesome for me. Besides, if she gets locked up─

Nfirea knew that Momon and Ainz Ooal Gown were one and the same. Given these circumstances, if Enri told him about this, he would surely think that Ainz had left her to her fate.

It’ll definitely leave a bad aftertaste between us... I don’t care about causing difficulties with worthless humans, but he’s a very valuable being. As the saying goes, I ought to turn this danger into an opportunity. If I lend her a hand, Nfirea ought to be grateful to me. If I do this, I can chain his heart closer to me with more obligations.

Ainz spoke, in a tone which he believed combined calmness and dignity:

“There is no need for you to worry. I am very familiar with her character. She will not go around causing trouble, so could I impose upon you to let her pass? ─Could you?”

“But of course. If she is a friend of Momon from ‘Darkness’, and you are vouching for her, then we would allow her in, no matter how vicious a criminal she was.”