"Unfortunately, I'm afraid I won't be able to go out as I please in the future."
Inside the luxurious royal chamber on the ninth floor of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, Ainz lay supine on the soft bed, his gaunt face buried in the covers, sighing softly. After today's attack, Albedo and the other NPCs held an emergency meeting concerning his safety.
The final outcome was that his guise as an adventurer, along with Narberal Gamma, for intelligence gathering, had to be immediately halted. That job was handed over to Sebas Tian, Shalltear Bloodfallen, and the others. Not only that, if he were to leave Nazarick in the future, he would have to be accompanied by Albedo, Victim, and other powerful bodyguards, and he must not participate in dangerous plans without sufficient guardian strength.
Although it sounded like a reversal of roles between superior and subordinate, since something bad had just happened and the proposals from Albedo and the others were born entirely out of their deep loyalty, Ainz couldn't refuse. But if he did that, his life would return to the same state as when he first traveled to this other world. Wherever he went, he would be followed by many subordinates. He had to be careful in every movement, never behaving in a way that didn't fit the nature of a perfect ruler. This feeling was truly exhausting, yet it was something he had to bear.
"If I had known this would happen, I should have forced Herohero to stay. At least there would be one more person to share the burden on my shoulders!" Ainz said, as if complaining to himself.
Didi!
This feeling is... communication magic?
Ainz received the magic's effect, then heard a familiar reporting voice from the other end of the magic.
"Ainz-sama."
"Is that Demiurge?"
"It is, Ainz-sama. The interrogation of those humans has yielded results. Should I come to your room to report directly?"
Several human corpses were found at the site of the previous attack. Ainz arranged for Demiurge to use resurrection magic to bring them back to life and then conduct appropriate intelligence interrogations. To prevent Nazarick's location from being exposed, he specifically ordered Demiurge to carry out this mission in a distant forest. Now that the mission was complete, Ainz was quite interested in the results.
"Is there any valuable information among the obtained data?"
"Yes, there is indeed some information that requires attention."
"I see..." Ainz thought for a moment and replied to Demiurge, "Then let's gather all the Guardians in the throne room. Since this is important information, everyone should know about it."
"As you command, Ainz-sama."
After Demiurge received the order, the magical communication was cut off. Ainz rose from the bed, tidied his noble appearance, and walked out of the room, accompanied by loyal maids and the Eight Edge Assassins. Since the ninth floor was closest to the tenth floor, by the time he arrived at the Throne Room, except for Albedo who was already standing guard there, the other Guardians had not yet arrived.
"Welcome, Ainz-sama!"
Albedo, without her full body armor, wore a beautiful pure white dress that was very appealing to a man's eyes. Upon seeing Ainz, her genuine joy and eyes full of love always made Ainz feel a little embarrassed and guilty. Albedo was an NPC created by a guild member, Herohero. She was a perfect woman who excelled in every aspect. However, before crossing over, Ainz had accidentally changed Albedo's settings, adding the phrase "deeply loves Momonga," which drastically altered her personality. So, according to Ainz, Albedo's adoration for him was solely due to his self-admitted mistake, not out of her own sincerity. Ainz deeply regretted "defiling" an NPC created by his guildmate and forcibly twisting Albedo's feelings.
"Albedo, you're here."
"Yes, upon receiving your command, I immediately rushed here, only to be the first to greet you."
"Yes... Is that so? Thank you for your hard work."
After the awkward greetings, Ainz sat on his throne, feeling the invisible weight of responsibility. Not long after, the other NPC Guardians arrived one by one. Demiurge, who was responsible for the intelligence interrogation mission, was the last to enter the hall, marking the official start of the meeting.
"Ainz-sama, please take a look!" Demiurge handed Ainz a paper document containing the information. Although there was only one copy, Ainz's goal was to inform all Guardians about the situation, and then pool everyone's wisdom to analyze it together.
So, as he took the document and looked at it, he also asked Demiurge: "So, what's the gist of the matter?"
Demiurge immediately understood Ainz's intention and reported in a voice clearly audible to all Guardians: "There are two main pieces of information. The first is related to the identities of those humans."
"They come from two different forces. One is the Royal Warriors of the Re-Estize Kingdom, and the other is a special force of The Slane Theocracy, one of the Six Scriptures, namely the Black Scripture."
"The information from the Re-Estize Kingdom is more or less the same as what we learned before, nothing special. Regarding The Slane Theocracy, we learned from the captives about the Power of the Six Scriptures, the Six Great Gods' Divine Lineage Builders, and the Theocracy's True Divine Artifacts."
"The Six Scriptures are..." Demiurge explained the general situation of The Slane Theocracy one by one, with a calm yet calculated intonation.
After listening to this, Ainz and the Guardians became more wary of this nation.
"Humans who have awakened the bloodline of the six gods are much stronger than ordinary humans," Shalltear Bloodfallen said, using her limited intelligence to think for a moment and come to this conclusion. "So, we cannot use the intelligence we gathered about humans in other worlds to gauge the divine level. We need to pay special attention, don't we?"
Demiurge nodded after hearing this. "There is a hidden god in The Slane Theocracy. He is The Slane Theocracy's ultimate trump card. Before we can obtain more information about him, we must be cautious when taking action against The Slane Theocracy."
"Then, Ainz-sama, the second important piece of information concerns the Undead who attacked the Black Scripture."
"The information provided by the captives indicates that one of the two individuals who attacked the Black Scripture with the Undead is a traitor to The Slane Theocracy. She is currently affiliated with an alien organization called Zuranon and is being hunted by The Slane Theocracy."
"Based on the analysis of her activity range, that woman should be active in E-Rantel. If we can find her, perhaps we can contact the force behind her and let them test the details of the Church of Fate on our behalf."
"Oh?" Upon hearing this information, Ainz was immediately interested.
Although he was disguised as the adventurer Momon at the time and didn't directly fight the Great Undead Sage, judging from the power the other party displayed, he must be a very high-level individual. Not only that, the Doom Lord that appeared later was clearly not summoned by the Great Undead Sage, meaning there must be someone among them who could use tenth-tier magic. With two senior members who far exceeded the ordinary level in the other world, this organization called Zuranon was clearly not simple.