While the two were chatting, they suddenly witnessed the spectacular scene caused by Mare’s magic.
The ground, stretching over a hundred meters, shook like ocean waves.
The plains began to rise into small mounds one after another, gathering together to form hills that surged toward Nazarick.
When the hills collided with the walls of Nazarick, they crumbled into fine soil, covering its exterior.
“The Earth Surge… it seems not only has the skill’s range increased, but he’s also using his class abilities… Truly worthy of being Mare.
Entrusting him with the task of hiding Nazarick was absolutely the right decision.”
“Although it looks amazing, hiding a structure as huge as Nazarick must be exhausting for Mare.”
“I heard from Demiurge that even with tireless undead and golems assisting him, the progress has been extremely slow…” Luke said as he watched the scene below and spoke to Momonga.
“That child really has it tough… Luke-san…”
“Hmm?
What’s wrong, Momonga?” Luke asked curiously when Momonga called out to him.
“I’m thinking of giving Mare and Albedo the Rings of Momonga Ooal Gown.
What do you think?” Momonga asked.
“Oh.” Luke remembered—since Nazarick, as their ultimate fortress, prohibited the use of teleportation gates, the only way to teleport within it was by wearing the Ring of Momonga Ooal Gown.
There were only one hundred of these rings, forty-two of which were held by guild members.
Momonga wanted to give the rings to the guardians because, as Floor Guardians, not being able to move freely around Nazarick was indeed quite inconvenient.
“Well, I think that’s a good thing.
I have no objections.
No matter how you look at it, the remaining dozens of rings are more than enough.
Keeping thirty should be plenty.
The rest could go to the other guardians — what do you think?”
“You’re right… But if they get it too easily, they might not cherish it.
Let’s just start by giving them to Mare and Albedo.”
Having made his decision, Momonga immediately began descending toward the ground.
Still floating in the air, Luke muttered to himself, “Come to think of it, I remember that after old Bones handed out the rings, the battle of Carne Village happened right after?
That was the first step in conquering the world…”
“Hah, Momonga, are you doing this on purpose?
Two rings — one to the crossdressing trap, and the other to Albedo who’s in love with you — this is definitely the kind of thing that leads to misunderstandings…”
Not long after finishing his little rant, Luke was called over by Momonga.
…
“I never would’ve thought this farsight mirror would be so useful here.” Luke sighed in admiration as he watched Momonga adjust the mirror to display the outside scenery.
“Indeed.
In the game, it was very easy for others to avoid, or even to trigger counterattacks from anti-scrying items.
But here, it works surprisingly well and just a wave of the hand can scroll the image.”
Through repeated trial and error, Momonga quickly mastered how to operate the mirror and began searching for traces of intelligent life.
After a very, very long time of repeating the monotonous process, Momonga finally began to grow tired of it.
“When I first discovered this, I was so excited to call you over, but to think it would turn out to be such a boring task…” Momonga grumbled.
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it, Momonga.
From the sky, we can already tell that this world isn’t any smaller than Earth.
On Earth, it’s not surprising to go hundreds of kilometers without seeing a single soul if you’re unlucky…”
Luke tried to console him, though the effect was clearly… minimal.
Momonga’s heart sank at his words.
“Luke-san, now that you say that, I really feel like giving up.
If it could be hundreds of kilometers with no one around, how long will it take to find someone?”
But Momonga is Momonga — just as the protagonist was about to give up, the plot finally delivered results.
It was practically Newton’s second law of storytelling…
Just as they were ready to stop searching, the image shifted, and they finally spotted what looked like a village.
It was located about ten kilometers southwest of Nazarick, near a forest.
Surrounding the village were numerous wheat fields, giving it a very rustic charm.
At first glance, the level of development didn’t seem very high.
Momonga zoomed in on the village, and the scene of many people running around appeared on the mirror.
Carne Village — located near the southern slopes of the Angeleiya Mountain Range, on the border between the Empire and the Kingdom, right beside the vast Great Forest of Tob.
The village had a population of around 120, made up of about twenty-five families.
It was a border village under the Kingdom’s jurisdiction.
Its economy depended mainly on forest resources and crops — a typical case of “living off the mountain and river.” It was a poor, ordinary village that even the tax collectors only visited once a year. This chapter is updated first at novelping . com.
The villagers lived like peasants from an ordinary rural village — working from sunrise to sunset.
Though they had heard of legendary magic users in big cities and magic that could turn night into day, those stories had nothing to do with their lives.
It was like a remote Earth village where electricity had only recently arrived while the rest of the country was already planning moon missions.
Enri, a sixteen-year-old girl, had never imagined that life would ever change.
As she went about her farm work as usual, she never expected that a sudden man-made disaster would almost wipe out the entire village.
First came human screams, then the neighing of horses and shouts.
Horses?
The sound was clearly from outside — the village didn’t have many horses, and certainly none that neighed so powerfully.
What was happening?
Enri started running.
No matter what, her little sister, just ten years old, was still over there.
She had to find her!
And her parents too!
People had long known that moral fiber wasn’t necessarily tied to education.
Even well-educated elites could commit murder over a small grudge, and teachers could abandon students in moments of crisis.
At the same time, illiterate outcasts could jump into rivers to save strangers, and farmers could risk their lives to protect others.
Of course, these were individual cases, not the rule.
But Enri, a girl with little education, still thought of her sister in the midst of disaster — proof enough that she was a praiseworthy elder sister.
But reality does not change simply because one is a good sister.
As Shakespeare once said, tragedy is the destruction of beautiful things.
“Mr.
Molgar…”
Enri kept running, even as she watched neighbors she knew being cut down by strangers in armor.
Finally, she reached her home and found her parents and sister there.
Enri breathed a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness…
She felt sorry for her neighbors who had just been killed, but she was still relieved that her family was safe.
“Alright, Enri is back.
Let’s escape quickly!”
Her mother embraced her gently.
Their situation was extremely dangerous.
Because they had waited for Enri, they had missed the best chance to escape.
Now that all four of them were together, their large group was an easy target.
And very soon, their fear became reality.
Just as they were about to flee, a figure appeared at the doorway.
Bathed in sunlight, the chest insignia of the fully armored knight, the mark of the Baharuth Empire, gleamed so brightly that it hurt the eyes.
The Baharuth Empire, simply called “the Empire”, was a neighboring nation to the Re-Estize Kingdom and a frequent aggressor.
Normally, battles happened near the fortress city of E-Rantel, never reaching their small village.
But today, that history came to an end.
Though the whole scene felt painfully long to Enri, in reality it was only a moment.
Her father charged at the clearly elite, fully armed soldier, while her mother sadly shook her head…
They had clearly accepted that death was unavoidable.
Unarmed, there was no way they could harm a fully armed knight.
Even if a hero descended and they miraculously killed this one soldier, there were more outside.
Better to sacrifice themselves to give their children a chance to escape; however slim that chance might be.
Enri, though full of guilt, was no fool.
She understood her parents’ intentions.
Without much hesitation, she dragged her little sister along, tears streaming down her face as she ran.
No matter what, she had to leave this place.
At least… at least don’t let her sister see her parents being killed.
…
Luke thought to himself, ‘As expected of Momonga.
Such good luck — the first village we find is already in the middle of a massacre. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
If I didn’t know your real name, I’d think you were related to that kid detective…’
“Are they holding a festival?” Momonga asked, puzzled as he watched the people rushing in and out of houses.
“I don’t know how you’re linking this to a festival, but it’s pretty obvious to me that a festival in this world wouldn’t involve people hacking others with swords.”
“If I’m not mistaken… this looks like a massacre.
Possibly what the history books call… a ‘village slaughter.'”
With one glance, Luke could tell that this was a massacre.
The blood splattering everywhere could have come straight out of a zombie movie.
He wasn’t sure if this was Carne Village as in the original story, these soldiers had apparently slaughtered several other villages before reaching Carne.
Since Luke had traveled with Momonga, while the big picture hadn’t changed, many small details had.
So, he couldn’t be sure this was the same Carne Village as in the original.
It could very well be one of the villages that had been massacred beforehand.
Unless they found those two fleeing sisters.
While Luke was thinking, Momonga also noticed something was wrong.
After all, the knights in full armor were clearly raising their weapons and cutting down villagers in tattered clothes.
“Luke-san, you were right.
This is a massacre.”
Each swing of the knights’ swords in the image caused another villager to fall.
If not killed outright, they were finished off by dismounted knights.
After watching for a while, Luke asked, “Momonga, what do you think?”
“Ah, of course we won’t save them.
These people have no value or benefit worth saving, right?”
‘Actually, you just don’t want to drag everyone into unknown danger, do you… Really, this excessive caution is why progress has been so slow…’
“That’s not right, Momonga.
Didn’t Touch Me say it himself — when you see injustice on the road, draw your blade and help?”
Momonga turned his head to look at Luke.
“When you were constantly hunted back then, Touch Me, a total stranger, stepped in to save you.
Have you forgotten?”
“I know you don’t want to get into fights and risk danger… but honestly, looking at those soldiers’ weapons and skills… I don’t feel any danger from them at all.”
“Haven’t we seen enough people deliberately hide their strength to bait us over the years?” Momonga replied calmly, though his heart was already in turmoil.
Yes.
If not for Touch Me’s intervention back then, he would have already quit YGGDRASIL.
Without that person, without those words, there would have been no Ainz Ooal Gown, no memories with everyone.
“Well?
Looks like you’re changing your mind, Momonga.”
‘Sigh.
In that case, there’s nothing more to say.’
“Hmph, fine.
A man must repay his debts.
Besides, sooner or later we have to test everyone’s combat capabilities in this world anyway.”
“Then let’s make our appearance.
Notify Albedo, tell her to come fully armed.
Also call for the subordinates with stealth skills.”
“You’re right.
Good deeds improve your luck and increase your chances of rare drops.
So yes — helping others will surely bring good fortune.
Now then… how should we happily torment them…”
Luke licked his lips and made a twisted expression.
“Momonga, is this expression scary?”
“Hmm… not quite.”
“That’s odd.
I guess I should study how to act like a villain next time…”
###
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