Intermission

Enri woke up at sunrise. As the village Chief and the commander of five thousand strong goblin army, there was a lot she had to do so she couldn’t sleep in. She set up and was about to get out of the bed when she felt Nfirea stir.

She held still and looked at her husband. Who turned on the other side and mumbled: “No, please, no more,” before going to back to sleep. With a smile on her face, Enri got out of bed and stretched her young body. She walked energetically to a nearby closet, making her small breasts jiggle, and put on her clothes.

Lupus-san said it’s my obligation to satisfy my husband. I am glad that despite all of the work I have to do, I still make time to take care of him, she thought, as she took one last look at her husband before leaving the house.

Enri found that she enjoyed making love to Nfirea very much. There were some stamina issues, but that was taken care of when Nfirea invented a certain potion. Since then their love life was great. Although due to the noise the lovebird made, Nemu had to be moved to a nearby house, it couldn’t be helped.

“Good morning, General Enri,” a Redcap goblin greeted her outside.

“Good morning, Redcap-san,” Enri greeted him. “I am going to the mess hall, and then to the administrative office,” she added.

The Redcap nodded in acknowledgment and they proceeded toward a large building near the outskirts of the village. The large Goblin Army which Enri summoned via the second [Horn of the Goblin General] presented a number of logistical problems. The biggest one – food, had been solved by the benefactor of Carne village, Ainz Ooal Gown.

However, even with the Sorcerer Kingdom providing the food, it still needed to be prepared. And the Goblin Army neither contained any cooks nor could the goblin learn to cook. Enri found it quite strange, however, Lupus suggested that it might have to do with them being summoned. Regardless of the reason though, the army had no chefs and five thousand goblins required a lot of food. To fulfill this need, over two dozen villagers had begun working as cooks.

The kitchen Enri was going to was the place where they worked. As she got closer to the building she could see a number of goblins moving sacks of foodstuffs from the warehouse to the kitchen. Enri smiled at the thought she didn’t have to cook for the whole army herself, and could focus on other things. She walked inside the building and greeted the Head Cook.

“Morning, Josef-san,” she said to an older man with an impressive mustache and red hair.

“Oh, Enri-san, we have begun to cook breakfast, it will be ready in half an hour as usual,” the man replied.

“I see. Also, I wanted to check with you to see if we needed anything from the Sorcerer Kingdom.”

“Hmm, no. Any shortages will be fixed by the regular shipments. Though I did hear the dwarfs complain about their tavern running low on alcohol,” Josef said with a chuckle.

“Alright, in that case, I’ll let you get back to work,” Enri said.

Josef nodded and went back to work. Before Enri left, she spent some time observing. Large pots filled with water were placed on a stove, and she could see the water inside boiling. Several people were measuring cupfuls of grain and putting them into the pots. While others chopped the meat, from the animals the goblins had caught, into small bits. All in all the work was moving smoothly, and the cooks were well organized.

For a countless time, Enri thought how lucky she was to have Josef overseeing the food preparation. She left the kitchen and went to another new building – the administrative office. Managing five thousand goblins was a lot of effort, and so Enri was overwhelmed with work. In the beginning, she even had Nfirea helping out.

Things were different now though. The Sorcerer Kingdom had dispatched half a dozen Elder Liches, trained in administrative work, to help her. As such, Nfirea could go back to his potion research, while the load on Enri’s shoulders lessened quite a bit.

The goblins didn’t particularly like the presence of the Elder Liches, but went along with it after Enri told them to. Still, they were always cautious around the undead, which is why two more Redcaps had joined Enri’s entourage as she walked to the administrative building. Still, having the undead, who did not sleep, perform administrative work was extremely helpful.

Enri exchanged greetings with several goblins stationed at the entrance, as she walked inside the building. The Liches had their desks on the first floor, while Enri’s and the Goblin Strategist’s offices were on the second floor. After greetings the undead, she went to the second floor and into the Strategist’s office.

Dressed in a white, Taoist robe the Strategist sat behind a table. After Enri walked in, the two exchanged greetings.

“I am afraid there is no time for a lesson today,” the goblin said.

“Yes, I’ll be leaving shortly after breakfast,” Enri agreed. “How’s everything else?”

“Well, the boys are a bit bored, as you know. They are hoping we can send a few more teams to challenge the Adventurer’s Dungeon.”

“I’ll ask about it. What else?”

“The barracks construction had finished, so we are all set on housing. The food supplies and preparation is taken care of, and the dwarfs along with our own blacksmith can keep our gear repaired. Boredom aside, the Army has no issues.”

“Very well, I am going to go over some things in my office, before breakfast,” Enri said.

Between the Strategist and the Elder Liches, Enri only needed to make decisions and then oversee that they were properly carried out. The freed up time, however, was taken up by her lessons with the Strategist. The goblin had a surprising amount of knowledge of both war tactics and government policies. She probably wouldn’t think of asking him to teach her these subjects, but when the great Ainz asked her to do it, she was happy to oblige.

Enri went into her office and looked through the papers on her desk. She was looking for a document which detailed the results of using undead skeletons for farm work. While the Sorcerer Kingdom had, apparently, been doing so for some time, the Carne village was the first place to test if a regular village could use the undead for farm work.

The results were spectacular, without a need for rest or sleep just twenty skeletons could perform the work of a hundred humans. And although the villagers felt uneasy at first, once they saw the results any wavering about commanding and using the skeletons went out of the window. After rummaging through various reports, Enri finally found the one that had detailed numbers for the workload and output the skeletons could produce, as well as a note about the villagers experience of using the undead.

She picked up the report, folded it and placed it in her pocket, before leaving the administrative building. Once again joined by one of the Redcaps she made her way to her residence. She entered the house and saw the Nfirea was still sound asleep.

“Enfi, wake up,” she said as she shook him.

“No, I can’t… look, it doesn’t work anymore…” Nfirea mumbled, still asleep.

“Oh, for the love of Ainz-sama, wake up Enfi! Breakfast is ready, and we have to leave.”

After some more shaking, the young man finally woke up and was greeted by a kiss from his wife.

“Come on, breakfast is done and we still need to get everything ready for our trip,” Enri said.

“Ah, that’s right, it’s today,” Nfirea replied.

“I’ll go wake up Nemu,” Enri said.

She left her house and walked up to the one next to it. This house also had a Redcap goblin guarding the door. She greeted the guard and entered the house, only to find that Nemu had already woke up and was putting on her clothes.

“Morning, Nemu.”

“Morning, Enri!”

“Look at you, all excited for your first trip to E-Rantel?” Enri asked with a smile.

“Yes! I want to see the tall buildings and the crowds of people, and the adventures and the demi-humans and…”

“I am glad to see you are as excited as ever. Come, let’s all go and enjoy breakfast,” Enri interrupted the excited girl.

After Nemu put on her clothes the two sisters left the house and were joined by Nfirea, as they all went to the mess hall. Normally, Enri would cook for the three of them, however, there was no time for it that day.

At the mess hall, they saw the dwarfs already there. The dwarfs were a merry lot and never missed their meals. Enri and the rest got their food and sat around a table, they cheerfully talked about their upcoming trip to E-Rantel.

Enri wanted to report on the use of skeletons for farming. While Nfirea needed to deliver a new batch of the purple healing potion to the Adventurers Guild. Speaking of which, a dwarf approached them after they were done with their meal.

“My cart is loaded and ready to go. We can put all the stuff on it, and I’ll join the lot of you in your cart instead,” he said after they’ve exchanged greetings.

“Sure, if you don’t mind riding with us for so long, Gondo-san,” Enri replied.

“What are you talking about las? It will be great to have someone to chat during the journey, normally I travel alone. Quite a long ride if you got nothing to do but sightsee, ya know,” Gondo Firebeard replied.

“Alright, then, why don’t you bring your cart up to my grandmother’s house, and we can load it up,” Nfirea said to the dwarf who nodded.

Sometime later Nfirea could be seen taking several boxes out of his grandmother’s house, which also served as their alchemical lab.

“These look kind of heavy, here, let me help ya lad,” Gondo offered.

“They aren’t, it’s just, I feel tired,” Nfirea complained, while the dwarf and the nearby goblins helped him load up the cart.

“Tired? A young lad like you? What could possibly make someone so young tired?” Gondo shook his head.

“Well, um, you know…”

“Ah, I see. Well, Enri-san is as strong as the wine Ainz-sama drinks,” Gondo chuckled.

“As expected of our General Enri,” “She’s too swole to control” and “Enri-san is totally ripped” type of exclamation came from the surrounding goblins, making Nfirea turn red.

Looking around Nfirea saw Enri and Nemu approaching.

“What’s going on here?” Asked Enri looking at red-faced Nfirea and the smiling goblins.

“No, nothing! We’ve loaded the cart and are ready to go,” her husband replied.

“Alright, then let’s go. Here Nemu, let me help you up,” she said as she lifted Nemu placing her on the cart.

The rest of them took their places, and soon three carts left the Carne village on their way to E-Rantel. The first cart held Enri, Nfirea, Nemu, and Gondo. The second cart carried a dozen goblins, who refused to leave Enri unguarded. The last cart was loaded with runesmithed gear and the purple healing potions for the Adventurers Guild. It was also guarded by a trio of Death Knights, which caused the goblins to glance at them uneasily. Of course, so did the Soul Eaters which were pulling the carts, but the advantages of using this undead as horses could not be denied.

Also, the dwarf came from a different culture than the other three, all four of them shared their admiration for their benefactor – Ainz, as such they spent the time talking about how their lives had changed after meeting the enigmatic magic caster.

While Nemu told Gondo about the sights Ainz had shown her that time they were invited to his house, Enri thought about her first visit to E-Rantel.

That time I almost got in trouble, when the guards stopped me at the gates and the magic caster guard freaked out about the Horn of the Goblin General. If it wasn’t for Momon-san interfering, who knows what would have happened. I wonder if I’ll see him so I can thank him for helping me that time. Enri thought. And, I really am looking forward to reuniting with Jugem, I’ve missed his no-nonsense attitude.

She wasn’t sure why Ainz asked her to send Jugem and a handful of other goblins from his troop to train in the Adventurers Dungeon. But, given how much Ainz had done for her village, not to mention that he was now the ruler of that land, she was happy to oblige.

Two Months Earlier

After his fake death in the Holy Kingdom, Ainz finally had the time to contemplate the state of affairs. E-Rantel continued to be ruled peacefully, even after the news of his death swept the city. None of their allies or vassals were showing signs of betrayal. And everything seemed to be going well, especially the new Adventurers Guild. After Ainz came to terms with just how profound the results of his, seemingly whimsical, decision to reform the Adventurers Guild were, he began to look for other such possibilities.

Conquering the world, strengthening Nazarick and searching for his friends were the three main things he was interested in. He could do nothing about the later, and the world conquest was going surprisingly smoothly, which allowed him to focus on strengthening Nazarick.

After going through the various information available, Ainz came to a conclusion that the biggest gains could be made by combining things from Yggdrasil and the New World. The difficult part was finding such combinations, as they could only be found by testing, and therefore required luck or an excellent imagination.

His undead summons having no time limit when appropriate level corpses were used was one such example. The Horn of the Goblin General was another. With nothing else to do, Ainz decided to focus on this, originally trash item. Whether due to being in the New World or due to no one being able to meet the conditions, this item produced spectacular results. But, it didn’t always do so, the first time Enri used the item, it summoned the same thirteen goblins it always did.

This allowed Ainz to guess at what the conditions for the second summon were. Considering he had piles of these Horns, he could run more experiments to narrow it down in the future. However, he first had to determine if it was worth it. While the Goblin Army which Enri summoned held huge power in the New World, it wasn’t much to Ainz. His undead summons were both stronger and easier to manage, as they required no food or lodging, and frankly, any enemy Ainz might have trouble with would just brush such a Goblin Army aside.

But, what if it could get even stronger? Could even higher level goblins be summoned? After consulting his guardians, the consensus seemed to be that the requirements probably include either reputation or time spent with the goblins, as well as some kind of leadership skill. What if Enri increased both of these parameters? Would she be able to summon stronger goblins? To that end, Ainz had asked her to study under the Goblin Strategist, which would, in theory, increase her leadership skills.

He also wanted to test if the goblins could gain levels or learn martial arts. While he had concluded this was impossible for the denizens of Nazarick, the goblins were summoned, and in a very different way than Nazarick’s pops or Demiurge’s Evil Lord’s summons. Could the rules be different for them?

Ainz was a thorough player and wanted to test all of the possibilities. Assuming that things worked a certain way without testing could result in missing out on a great power addition to Nazarick.

With Enri studying leadership and Jugem and his troop fighting through the Adventurers Dungeon, Ainz was patiently waiting for the results.

 

Previous | Next