Volume 4 The Lizardmen Heroes
Prologue
"Welcome back, Ainz-sama."
Returning to his own room after half a month, Albedo’s next words drained all the strength from his body.
"Would you like to have something to eat? Would you like to have a bath? Or would you like to have… me?"
For a moment, Ainz thought he could see multiple heart shapes fluttering behind Albedo’s body
"...What are you doing"
"I’m playing newlyweds, Ainz-sama. I heard that there is no better way of welcoming back a husband who went out on a work trip with the family pet. How was it?"
He finally understood why no one welcomed him back at the surface this time. This man who had never dated before, let alone married, was just about to calmly reply "I don't know", but immediately swallowed those words. His pride as a man did not allow him to show weakness. Besides, how was one supposed to answer a question like ‘How was it?’?
Although he had no self-confidence... why not reply with a knowing attitude for a guaranteed flawless response.
"It was very charming, Albedo."
"That’s wonderful!"" Albedo’s smile showed how delighted she was.
Being assaulted by Albedo’s bewitching smile, Ainz sat down slowly and prepared to deal with business.
He felt like there was a snake slowly crawling up his back.
It was probably due to the animalistic desire flashing in Albedo's golden eyes that he felt that way. If he were to jokingly answer "I want you", she would immediately use it as a pretext to descend like a carnivorous beast on him. Somehow, the words "reverse rape" appeared in his mind.
His sexual appetite was effectively non-existent, but the small remaining amount still made itself known at the smell emitted by Albedo. His desire to know what would happen next was spurred on by curiosity and the thought that no harm would be done.
It wasn’t because of strong self-control that he ignored Albedo’s feelings, it was more like resignedly telling himself that it would be impossible for a human skeleton.
Before coming to this world, he had jokingly changed Albedo's settings to "be madly in love" with him. Because of that, he felt as if he was taking advantage of her feelings that way and thus he was unable to take even a single step forward to accept her feelings
These were the thoughts of Ainz, who had never gotten into a relationship with a member of the opposite sex before.
Besides, from a certain point of view, the NPCs his comrades had created were like children. To tarnish that kind of important things would make him feel very awkward.
"Ah!"
Because Albedo suddenly let out her voice, the light in Ainz’ eye sockets became brighter.
"Wha-What is it!? Albedo! What happened?"
"Forgive me. A newlywed wife definitely has to be wearing the Final battle attire (naked apron) to receive the husband."
Finishing her words, Albedo’s red face looked down at her skirt, saying:
“With your permission, I’ll change immediately.”
While stealing glances at him, she added with a bashful, yet still discernable voice: “...in front of Ainz-sama…."
"....Ah, yes.... um, seriously…. haa~~~, Albedo stop joking around, and let us begin the organisational meeting and exchange information."
"Yes, as you command."
Ainz forced himself to place the regretful—— for reasons unknown—— Albedo’s inexplicable effort at the back of his mind and slumped into his chair. He then tossed three leather bags onto the table. Toward Albedo, who’d already changed from a newlywed bride back to an outstanding secretary, he said:
“First of all, take this currency obtained in Re-Lantier and use it for various experiments.”
The three bags all had different sizes, with the largest one bulging enough to be able to stand. Inside of them were the gold, silver and copper coins Ainz had earned as an adventurer.
"As you command, this money will be used for Nazarick’s defense systems, as well as experiments on the summoning systems for minions."
"See to it. Furthermore, confirm at once whether or not these can be used for the manufacturing of magic scrolls and other items."
The gold obtained in the game YGGDRASIL wasn't just used to buy items, it was also used for many other things: to cover the administration fees for a Guild’s base-defense systems and the costs for automatically summoning servants of level 30 or higher, as a medium to launch certain spells, to pay the manufacturing costs of items and even as a price for the revival of dead NPCs.
It had already been confirmed there were no problems using YGGDRASIL's gold coins in this world. However, they still needed to find out if this world's currency could also be used to cover their expenses, especially if it was possible to use silver and copper coins —— since gold coins were the only currency in YGGDRASIL.
It wouldn’t be the slightest exaggeration to say that these experiments could affect Nazarick’s fate. If the currency obtained in this world could be used in the same way as in YGGDRASIL, then future operation policies would be affected, notably regarding the importance attributed to coins.
Depending on the situation, the priority given to obtaining coins would increase. On the other hand, if the currency of this world couldn’t be used, then the money in the treasure room would become the final lifeline and any pointless spending would have to be curbed.
"Now about Clementine ——"
Saying the name of the woman’s missing corpse, Ainz made a face as if he’d bitten a bug.
Because of Ainz’ mistake, this woman who learned much precious information had probably been revived. The disquieting sensation that she was probably disseminating her information was slowly accumulating.
The number of possible enemies were many, yet information regarding them was scarce. In contrast, the information on this side had already been leaked.