Chapter 5, Part 18

Ainz walked out of a [Gate] and let out a sigh of relief. The speech he gave at E-Rantel went better than expected. In fact, it went so well that he felt compelled to continue despite going through all of the prepared points, which nearly backfired as he started to fumble toward the end. 

Still, for my first speech in front of such a large audience, I’m happy with my performance, Ainz thought, caressing his chin. But, I can’t relax just yet.

He turned around and watched Albedo, Demiurge and Zanac emerge from the [Gate]. Thankful for his expressionless skull that betrayed none of the mental exhaustion he felt, Ainz forced himself to proceed with the task at hand.

“Thank you, Zanac, for playing along with our little plan. Perhaps it will lower the chances of a revolt while Marquis Raeven and Renner establish order,” he began.

“What are you saying, Your Majesty? Who could possibly revolt against you, especially after you’ve shared your vision for the future?” Zanac exclaimed, an earnest expression upon his face. “If anything, I should be thanking you for allowing me to see how a true Monarch conducts himself.”

He’s as energetic as ever, no qualms about being ousted from his position by me. Hmm, maybe he really didn’t want to be king? Ainz wondered as he nodded thoughtfully to Zanac’s words.

“It would be good if the rest of the citizens felt the same way. Well, no need to burden yourself with it, after all, your task now lies elsewhere. I’ll open a [Gate] to Edira, the city closest to the border between the former Draconic and Beastmen Kingdoms. They should be expecting you,” Ainz said as he cast the spell.

“I shall not fail the trust you’ve placed in me, and will strive to accomplish the goals that have been set before me,” Zanac declared as he gave a deep bow to Ainz. “Albedo-sama, Demiurge-sama,” he continued, giving the two a less exaggerated bow before going through the oval of darkness that was [Gate].

One down, two to go. But how should I proceed now? Ainz thought as he eyed the two NPCs. On one hand, he wanted to ask about their thoughts on his speech. On the other, it might be better to find some excuse to get away from the two, preventing them from dragging him into some unexpected mess.

“What an amazing performance,” Demiurge spoke, robbing Ainz of his choice.

“Fufu, as expected of the one I love,” Albedo seconded, her wings fluttering excitedly. “While we are focused on what’s in front of us, Ainz-sama is already setting the stage for the future.”

“Truly, we are but children stumbling in the dark. I am ashamed that just a few years is the limit of my ability to plan ahead,” Demiurge said softly, his face and posture exuding regret.

“It’s obvious that we could never compare to the leader of the Supreme Beings. No matter how smart you or I are, the number of variables make it impossible for us to plan centuries ahead.” Albedo shook her head, but in contrast to the demon, she looked excited.

“I suppose there’s no shame in admitting my defeat before Ainz-sama,” Demiurge said, the regretful look on his face clearing up. “Then, is everything proceeding according to plan, Ainz-sama?”

And there it is. Why? Why do you do this to me, Demiurge? Ainz wailed mentally. I was hoping they would just chat amongst themselves, but obviously that was far too optimistic. Setting the stage for the future? Planning centuries ahead? Just what in the world did the two of you imagine in my speech? He wondered as he stared at them. Oh, no, I’m taking too long! Ainz thought and began to panic.

“As expected of the two brightest minds in Nazarick,” he began. The familiar wording offering the comfort his mind sought as he tried to buy more time to come up with an appropriate follow up. “It seems you were able to grasp the entirety of my plan.” This much should be safe, right?

“I’m unworthy of such praise, Ainz-sama. At most, I can grasp a few bits of your plan,” Demiurge replied.

“It saddens me that I’m no more capable of sharing your vision than Demiurge,” Albedo admitted. “Won’t you tell us of your plan, Ainz-sama? After all, as your servants, it’s our duty to help you reach your goals, yet we cannot do our job if we cannot discern your intentions,” she added, an eager expression on her beautiful face.

Et tu, Albedo?! Ainz cried out in his heart. Usually it was Demiurge that would ask for the impossible, yet the Guardian Overseer was not beyond it. Argh, I don’t have the energy to deal with this, Ainz thought annoyed.

“Mm, the future is hard to predict, even for me. It’s better to focus your effort on the more immediate tasks,” Ainz said, quickly continuing lest he get interrupted. “Over the next few days I’ll meet with all of the Guardians, as I ascertain our current circumstances and plan for the future.”

“Understood, Ainz-sama,” Demiurge replied, while Albedo bowed her head silently.

“Then, I won’t keep you any longer. I’m sure you have plenty of things to do,” Ainz moved to conclude their conversation.

[Gate] He cast the spell without waiting for their replies.

Walking through the portal, he emerged in front of his room on the ninth floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. He nodded to the two undead beings guarding the door – apparently, it was Shalltear’s minions’ turn to perform such duties- and entered. Inside, he was greeted by a Homunculus maid and several Eight-edge assassins hanging from the ceiling.

“There is something I need to do that requires perfect concentration,” Ainz declared as he walked toward his bedroom, “Don’t interrupt me,” he added as he gestured for the NPCs to remain where they were.

Finally! Ainz exclaimed in his mind, as he approached his large bed. Lately, he made it a point to dive into the bed, and he’d gotten quite skillful at it, yet he had no energy for such things right now. Ainz simply fell onto the bed, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. His face buried in the covers, he inhaled the now familiar scent of the bed sheets, as he tried to push all thoughts out of his mind.

Being undead has served Ainz well, not needing to take time to sleep or eat essentially made his day longer by a third. But it also meant he could never fully rest, not how he could as a human.. Laying face down on the bed while trying to make his mind go blank was the closest thing he found. 

After laying on the bed for an undetermined amount of time, Ainz began to roll around. It was a childish act, one that the NPCs would no doubt find quite shameful, still, it somehow served to calm him down and help his mind relax. It was a while later that he finally stopped and laid on his back, his thoughts returning to what made him so mentally exhausted.

It wasn’t the speech that drained him, though being stared at by hundreds of people while speaking was stressful in its own right. No, it was the half an hour he spent with Renner before making his appearance to deliver his speech. The girl watched him like a hawk as he interacted with Demiurge and Albedo.

Renner seemed to grasp every word he said and every motion he made. He felt like he was being examined under a microscope. It was unnerving! He felt grateful that he managed to push through the idea that Renner should remain in the Re-Estize Kingdom and help Raeven, rather than going with Albedo’s original suggestion to allow Renner to reside in Nazarick.

I’m not sure what Albedo was thinking, but I’m certain that if she was allowed to gather information from the unsuspecting NPCs, as well as  interact with me more frequently, Renner would figure out the truth. Then there is Climb who, thanks to our little performance, thinks that Renner was forced into serving me. However, that makes me his enemy. Not that he can do anything to me, but between the boy and his mistress, I’m glad to keep them both away. Hmm, I wonder if it will become an issue later… oh well, Renner should have plenty to keep her busy for a while, Ainz concluded, pushing the thoughts of the newly turned Succubus and her pup away.

He reached out a bony hand toward the ceiling, grasping at the stars depicted above. The interactions with Renner seem to confirm my new method works, though it also highlighted its weakness, Ainz thought, his mind switching to a new theme. He got up and walked to his desk. There, he produced a lockbox from his inventory, entered the code to open it, and pulled out his notebook. 

He flipped through the various sayings, gestures, and other things he was working on, and settled on a page depicting a simple house. It was an infographic for his new conversation method to handle such troublesome opponents as Demiurge, Albedo, and Renner. Granted, it was basically what he had always done, but now he fully understood what it was he was doing and why it worked.

This understanding came to him by accident when he was preparing for his first meeting with Renner. Since she was by far the smartest human he met, Ainz took his preparation seriously. Going over his interactions with all the people he met, he settled on Jircniv as the closest to Renner, both were smart and liked to scheme. However, going over his interactions with Jircniv left him shaking his head – there seemed to be no rhyme or reason for the Emperor’s decisions. Feeling thoroughly annoyed, Ainz decided to consult Pandora’s Actor regarding this matter. It was then that he learned the shocking truth.

Apparently, Jircniv had completely misinterpreted everything Ainz had said to him, down to the very greeting they exchanged. It was a misunderstanding to such an absurd degree that Ainz wanted to dismiss the idea, but the more he thought about it, the fewer arguments he had to oppose it. In fact, if viewed under such a lens, Jircniv’s inexplicable actions made perfect sense. Of course, accepting it raised an obvious question – how could such a thing actually happen? The answer to that question resulted in the method depicted in the notebook.

Reputation formed the foundation of the house. A magic caster wielding God-like powers, a commander of an unimaginably powerful undead army, a leader of unbelievably powerful beings, an undead who had lived for millennia. With such a reputation behind him, it was inevitable that the people he met would view all of his actions through a certain lens, and wouldn’t be able to remain completely objective.

His undead skull worked as the facade, both in the diagram in the notebook and in reality. The perfect poker face. Unable to read his emotions, it left his opponents free to imagine whatever they wanted.

His attributes provided the walls and roof. He had conducted numerous experiments to test his luck, and while the results varied slightly, they were far beyond what they should’ve been according to probability. Similarly, his numerous interactions had shown that his charisma likely matched his character sheet. How else could one explain the ease with which he befriended people. How could a hated undead so easily turn humans from being hostile to supporting him? Be it the old guild master in E-Rantel, Pluton Ainzach, his friend, the former head of the magician’s guild, the leader of Rainbow, Moknak, and many others. There was no other explanation for why they would make a one-eighty in how they viewed Ainz after a short conversion.

The intellect of the opponent provided the setting. It was a key component, as it served to frame everything else. Jircniv was smart and scheming, when encountering one as powerful and smart as Ainz, he naturally assumed the latter was similar. Supported in his belief by what he knew of Ainz, and allowed to imagine whatever he wanted by the undead’s poker face, and aided by Ainz’s luck, Jircniv drove himself off a cliff with barely any push needed from Ainz. 

Similarly, Renner was a genius. It was simple to set her free, allowing her imagination to draw just the kind of scheme that would work best under any given setting. All Ainz had to do was make open-ended statements, and his opponents would essentially defeat themselves.

However, there were three issues with this method. The first was that left to their own devices, people would often imagine things he never intended, which could cause plenty of trouble. The obvious example of this being his interactions with the Guardians, Demiurge and Albedo in particular. The very reason for Ainz’s conquest of the New World stemmed from one such misunderstanding. The second issue was that with enough interactions a smart person would eventually get over their skewed vision and realize what was happening. Naturally, this didn’t apply to the NPCs, since their settings prevented them from making such a breakthrough. Renner was a different matter, which was why Ainz felt so much pressure when interacting with her the second time.

The last and most troublesome issue was Ainz’s intelligence attribute. His physical strength and speed had increased in accordance with his character’s attributes. So did his luck and charisma. Intelligence should be no different, yet he did not feel anymore intelligent than when he was human. Could it be the one attribute that worked differently than the rest? That seemed unlikely. After pondering it for a while, he could only think of one thing: his human self wasn’t smart enough to fully utilize the Intelligence attribute of his character. But what if he was doing so subconsciously?

In many of his interactions, Ainz would reply quickly. Since he wasn’t thinking of the answers he gave, there was no reason to delay. But was it possible that the quick replies allowed him to tap into his subconscious intellect? Without slowing things down to process them manually, the correct answer would simply pop up into his mind. There was a strong possibility of this being the case. Similarly, could his perfect timing be attributed to his luck alone or did his subconscious intellect play a role there as well? Be it with his duel with the Martial Lord, his visit to the Dwarven Kingdom, and other such instances, they came at the perfect time. It was possible that by analyzing all the information he had access to, he subconsciously knew to visit these places at the right time. Even if his conscious mind came up with a completely different reason for why he did so.

That point raised the most troublesome issue, one that Ainz was unsure of how to deal with, or if he should try to deal with it at all. Was the human, Suzuki Satoru the one in control, while the character, Ainz, utilized its formidable intellect to make Satoru’s goals come true? Or was Ainz secretly in control, and the decisions made by Satoru simply what Ainz needed him to do at any given time? Would Ainz eventually replace Satoru? Would they merge? Wouldn’t that essentially kill Satoru? If Ainz was as omnipotent as the Guardians believed, if Satoru obtained that kind of intellect, could he still consider himself human? Did it matter?

“Argh, this is giving me a headache,” Satoru muttered as he rubbed his forehead. 

He focused back on the notebook, flipping through the next few pages where he had written down the results of various tests and interactions with humans and NPCs. Mm, logically, there shouldn’t be a separate entity. After all, unlike the NPCs that have flavor text the character Ainz has no such background. Aside from his attributes and karma value, there is nothing to go on there. Such a non-existent entity shouldn’t be able to overtake me, an actual human stuck in a game. At most, we would merge, but that might already be the case. I didn’t feel anything when killing humans, even those two knights from the Slain Theocracy, despite encountering them after only being in the New World for a few days. Then… I’ve essentially merged with the character right from the start. Yes, that should be the case. The only issue is the intelligence attribute. My human mind isn’t capable of working at such a high capacity, forcing it to aid me subconsciously. Yeah, let’s go with that.

He stared at the wall in front of himself as he pushed all these thoughts out of his head. After a while, he returned to the notebook, flipping through the pages until he came to the one he was looking for. “The Five Year Plan.” 

“Now, where did I leave off?” Ainz mumbled under his breath as he looked through the notes.

*****

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