Chapter 4 The Beyonders
1
“Say, Satoru, why did we come here?”
That suspicious mountain range was the destination of this journey.
Of particular note was the city near the Kaidinias Mountain Range.
It was a city of the Aina Multiracial League, which was located near the mountains — in other words, a neighbor of Inveria — Seruk-3.
While it was not the capital of the Aina Multiracial League, it was one of the largest cities in the surrounding countries, and it boasted a population of over 400,000 people. The two of them had been travelling towards the city on their covered wagon for four days now. Keno had no longer been able to contain herself and asked that question.
It had been five years since they left Inveria.
They had not even come near it until now, yet they had suddenly — in a great departure from their original direction of travel — moved towards Seruk-3, so it was hard to fault Keno for reacting like that.
In truth, he had no reason to continue hiding the truth from Keno. All he had to do was say, “This mountain range might contain the reason that you became undead, so I wanted to check it out.”
Even so, Suzuki Satoru could not bring himself to say it.
That was because even Suzuki Satoru could not explain his reasons for coming here.
On his part, curiosity was the biggest motivation for Suzuki Satoru to go there, but if he actually said that, Keno would have attacked his explanation from various angles and then made him take the wagon elsewhere. If Keno had said, “There’s no reason for you to put yourself in danger, Satoru,” then Suzuki Satoru would only be able to reply, “Well, yes.”
The other reason was because Suzuki Satoru did not want to get Keno’s hopes up.
The greater one’s hopes and expectations rose, the greater the disappointment when they collapsed. It was just like how Suzuki Satoru had clung to the hope that his guildmates would return, and had fallen into despair when he realized that nobody had come.
Three years ago, Suzuki Satoru had seen Keno pretend to give up hope. In that case, what would happen if Suzuki Satoru gave her hope now?
Suzuki Satoru was clearly uneasy as he glimpsed the past — when he had first met Keno.
Therefore, Suzuki Satoru did his best to deceive her.
“Hm? There’s no special reason for it.”
“…Really?”
Keno turned to peek at Suzuki Satoru’s face, but Suzuki Satoru was not afraid. His skeletal face was expressionless and he did not have to worry about the beating of his heart.
In other words, he could probably lie without being found out.
However, the way Keno narrowed her eyes and kept peering at Suzuki Satoru made him feel a little uneasy. Though his body could not sweat, he still wiped the hands holding the reins on his robe anyway.
And then, Keno cut in.
“Li~ar.”
“I’m not lying,” Suzuki Satoru replied immediately. He was deceiving himself, that must have been it, that must have been why he could reply so quickly. Even he wanted to praise himself.
His words were immaculately ordered, and he had not shown any emotion. Surely anyone who heard them would think Suzuki Satoru was telling the truth.
However…
“Yes, you are, Satoru. You must be in some sort of difficulty. I’ve been travelling with you for five years — even if it doesn’t show on your face, I can tell if you’re lying.”
“……”
There was power in Keno’s words, and he could sense her great confidence. She was certain that Suzuki Satoru had some other objective in mind. He wanted to say she was overthinking things, but she had seen right through Suzuki Satoru.
Suzuki Satoru unconsciously felt his face. It was cold, bony and skeletal, without any hint of expressions — how on earth could such a face produce emotions that Keno could read?
“…Well done, Keno,” Suzuki Satoru sighed, as though giving up.
“Fufufu,” Keno giggled happily.
“It’s been five years. I can roughly guess what you’re thinking. After all, I’ve been by your side all this time.”
“…It’s been five years, huh. Indeed, after such a long time it’s possible you might be able to tell what mood I’m in just by looking at my face.”
A character could not change their facial expressions in Yggdrasil. The only way to tell how someone else was feeling was by their voice. Producing a normal voice and minimizing the times he sounded different was not a skill unique to Suzuki Satoru. When he had been depressed, someone else had also seen through how he had forced himself to appear jovial.
The words that person had said still lingered in his heart: “We’re friends, after all, I guess we can still understand each other.”
“—Indeed, that’s right, Keno.”
“Hm? What’s wrong? Are you feeling lonely? … Or very happy? Satoru?”
“Ah… that’s right. The way I feel about you being able to understand my feelings is definitely not loneliness, Keno. If I had to put it into words… it would be gratitude.”
Suzuki Satoru released the reins in his hands.
He had made up his mind.
He had prepared himself for this.
He was filled with determination that would never waver.
For that reason, Suzuki told the lie he had prepared beforehand.
“Our destination is a city of the Aina Multiracial League, Seruk-3. I learned that there was a rare item there, and our objective this time is to recover it.” “You’re… lying? I’m not too sure, but it still feels like you’re lying. Oh well, never mind. You’re hiding something, but you must be worried about me, right, Satoru?”
Suzuki Satoru hesitated over whether he should not, but doing so would mean admitting that he was lying to her.
“It’s fine, Satoru. Don’t worry about it. Just go.”
“Ah, thank you, Keno.”
As they approached the borders of the Aina Multiracial League, they found their path blocked by a long defensive line. It was not made of heavy stone blocks, but a simple wooden fence.
It was not hard to imagine that it had been built to curb the spread of the Zombies. Such defensive structures would be enough to deal with Zombies, but the Zombies’ true threat lay in their numbers. If an entire nation’s worth of Zombies — in the millions — flooded in at once, it would be completely useless. However, a few short years would not be enough to build a kilometers-long fence around a nation’s borders.
He came to a stop some distance away and used [Fly] to quickly scout the area, but he did not find anything like a checkpoint. All the roads leading to the Aina Multiracial League had been sealed off. In addition, he had spotted patrols.
He knew that they probably would not let them through, even if he pleaded “Please let us pass.” Therefore, he used [Gate] to teleport them and the wagon ahead.
After that, they drove the wagon down unused roads. They felt there was no need to pretend to make camp at nightfall, so they maintained their speed and travelled day and night.
They passed through several cities filled with wandering Zombies and were less than a day away from Seruk-3. However, they sensed something was amiss. “This is strange.”
“Indeed, it’s very strange.”
They had seen all kinds of Zombies in Keno’s country. Not all of them had been formerly human. It would seem all living things above a certain size had been converted into Zombies. In the wild, they had encountered plodding animal Zombies. That much was the same in the Aina Multiracial League.
However, they were nowhere to be seen as they approached Seruk-3.
Perhaps someone had exterminated the Zombies, but typically they would have eliminated the animal Zombies outdoors as well.
That was the problem.
Suzuki Satoru looked straight ahead. Seruk-3 lay down the road ahead of him, and beyond that was Mount Kaidinias.
If this phenomenon was limited to the surrounding area, then there must have been some kind of connection there.
Nothing else happened after that, and they arrived at the main gate of Seruk3. After that, the mountain range descending from. Mount Kaidinias slowly came into view.
The gate showed off the size and splendor of the city.
The Aina Multiracial League had originally been a country formed from the union of many races. Among them were highly intelligent Giants. That was probably the link here.
However, they had not seen any Zombies in the vicinity.
In some cities, one could see Zombies spilling out from the city gate, but there were none in sight here. Certainly, that would not be the case if the gate was shut.
But the gates were wide open.
…Could this city have some kind of protection which prevented it from being zombified?
Suzuki Satoru immediately dismissed that notion.
The population of Seruk-3 was 400,000.
Surely that many survivors would have caused a huge uproar. If they had not abandoned the city, then they would have stayed here, and they would have taken extensive security measures.
However, not a single whisper had come from Seruk-3, to say nothing of any security.
It was true that they were some distance away. But things were too quiet, even at this distance.
There were no residents and no Zombies. It was as though this city had been abandoned.
Did someone come here and clear out the Zombies? It’s not entirely impossible, but then why didn’t they liberate the other cities along the way? Or have they all been dominated by an undead of some power, like “Corpus of the Abyss”?
Indeed, this place was quite a good location when considering the distance from the cities of the living and the surrounding zombification. Since it was a major city, it ought to have magical items and books for research.
“This place really is suited for an undead magician.”
After muttering to himself, the Keno in his head began lecturing him, and so Suzuki Satoru had no choice but to concentrate and think seriously.
However, they lacked information. It would seem he had no choice but to enter the city.
“…Say, Satoru. Are you going into the city? The closer we get to it, the fewer Zombies we see… this is the first time we’ve encountered something like this.”
“While I didn’t come here for that reason… it seems I’ll need to conduct some investigations.”
Suzuki Satoru was at a loss for what to do with Keno after this.
Should he cast [Create Fortress] outside the city to make a fortress and have her stay in there? Or should he bring her into the city with him? While he would like to be able to draw on her knowledge, he ought to keep her in a safe place.
Seruk-3 was nothing more than a base camp to investigate the mountain range. He had only come here for ease of teleportation.
He had not expected something abnormal like this to happen here. When he thought calmly about it, he realized that he had never once considered the possibility that the culprit and cause for everything might not have come from the mountains, but this city instead. It was a frustrating error.
“I want to go too. Ah, perhaps you might think that it’s dangerous and that you’re going to leave me here by myself, but I know more about magical lore than you do. Therefore, I’m going with you, and if there’s fighting — you’ll protect me, won’t you, Satoru?”
“—Ah. Yes. I will protect you. That’s my job — you’re in charge of the intellectual work, while I take care of anything involving violence.”
In truth, he would feel better with Keno around if it turned out that there were clues present.
That being the case, could Suzuki Satoru, as the person responsible for brute force, protect Keno when under threat?
It should be possible.
He had managed to keep Keno safe even when his opponent was the Brightness Dragon Lord — the most powerful foe he had faced to date. To be precise, he had bought them time to flee. However, only a fool would act in a blind and arrogant way. He had to plot his course carefully for the sake of the future, and he could not be careless this time either.
“Keno, I’m giving you the usual crystal. If I give the signal or if you get attacked, you have to use it without hesitating, okay?”
The item he had produced from his inventory was a spell-sealing crystal imbued with [Greater Teleportation].
Spell-sealing crystals were one of the rarest magic items. In turn, they were also very easy to use, and at high levels they were employed in large quantities. As a result, Suzuki Satoru did not have many on him and there were almost no spell-sealing crystals in the gear his friends had left him.
He had entrusted this valuable item to her for safety’s sake.
Suzuki Satoru could destroy Keno in a single attack. Therefore, if he met an opponent that was on his level, they could probably do the same thing.
It was only appropriate that they take extensive precautions so that they could deal with such an encounter.
As Suzuki Satoru handed the crystal over, he wondered if the spell infused into it was appropriate.
[Perfect Unknowable] might have been more useful for fleeing, but [Greater Teleportation] was the best choice if he wanted to increase the chances of Keno’s survival.
Keno using [Perfect Unknowable] might not be enough to guarantee that there were no mishaps.
While he had scrolls containing [Perfect Unknowable], a low-level magic caster like Keno would not be able to use them. Wands could not contain such a spell, so Suzuki Satoru did not have one. If he wanted one, he would need a World Class Item that could allow him to make requests of the developers. Perhaps Keno could have used a staff, but unfortunately Suzuki Satoru did not have staves imbued with [Perfect Unknowable].
[Perfect Unknowable] appeared to be a very effective spell at a glance, but its inability to be applied to others meant that it saw surprisingly little use in party play. While it was possible that ambushers might use it, both Suzuki Satoru and enemies of Momonga’s level had many spells or abilities to see through it.
In the worst-case scenario, one might end up being invisible to friends but not to enemies, which would mean that they could not be healed or supported by their friends.
Simply put, many Players considered [Perfect Unknowable] to be a spell that was used on themselves when facing lower-level opponents or numerous opponents.
Therefore, the average Player did not learn that spell, but instead used consumable items to make up the shortfall.
Suzuki Satoru was the reverse. Since he could cast many spells, he chose to learn it himself rather than rely on consumables. Therefore, he could not give her any appropriate items at a time like this.
He had not expected that practice to end up being a handicap at a time like this.
“Mm, got it. Should I set the teleport destination to the usual place?” Suzuki Satoru expressed his agreement.
There was a small house in a city over 2000 kilometers away that he had set as one of their teleport destinations.
After that, Suzuki handed over a legacy-class item known as the Ghillie Cloak to Keno.
While it looked like a tattered cape with cloth and strings dangling from it, it was an item that conferred exceptional stealth capabilities.
While it was almost useless without concealment skills, it also possessed effects in addition to that, and those additional effects were quite good.
Even the level 100 Suzuki Satoru would see Keno as a blur — as though she were blending into the landscape — once Keno put it on. It was very effective against adversaries with low perceptive abilities.
Incidentally, Suzuki Satoru had forgotten who he had bought it from and he only had the one piece, so he had kept it in its original state.
He told Keno — who was blurred and indistinct thanks to the Ghillie Cloak’s powers — to cast [Fly] and [Invisibility].
The two of them looked down on the city from above.
The lack of obstructions meant that their opponents would have a clear view of them too, so it was very likely that they would be attacked. On the other hand, it also meant that it was easy to collect information while flying.
After weighing the former against the latter, Suzuki Satoru decided that the latter was more important. Of course, he had also used [Delay Teleportation] and other such spells to protect himself. If they were attacked, he would be able to protect Keno as well if he was nearby. That was the power of his gauntlet, the legacy-class item Guardian Heroes.
As they looked over the city, the abnormality of this place became even more apparent.
“Satoru… there’s nobody here at all.”
“Yes, there’s nobody here, and — there aren’t any Zombies around either.” After checking their surroundings, he pondered the strangeness of this city as he descended to ground level with Keno.
The possibility that came to mind was that someone had invaded the city and then wiped out 400,000 Zombies.
But that would probably be very difficult to do.
It was not that they would lose to Zombies, the weakest of the undead, but at the very least they would have left corpses behind.
Corpses vanished over time in Yggdrasil, as did those of Zombies. But in this world, the Zombies’ corpses should have remained forever after being struck down. Of course, dead Zombies would begin to rot and after a while they would become skeletonized, and after that the bones would disintegrate.
As an aside, moving Zombies would not rot or harbor maggots because they were animated by negative energy. However, the loss of negative energy once they were defeated meant that they would rot as normal, flies could lay eggs in them, and small animals would gnaw on them.
It had been over 40 years since that incident.
Was it possible that someone had buried or cremated 400,000 corpses—
“—Keno, do you think an army invaded this place, killed all the Zombies, buried them and then left?”
“I doubt it. While you could take about 10,000 soldiers to dig a huge hole and then bury them all in it, it would be very obvious and there are no signs of it now.”
“What about cremation?”
“It sounds even less likely. After killing a Zombie, you could just throw it into a house and burn them with it. But on the whole, I don’t see any signs of burning.”
Currently, Suzuki Satoru had not seen any similar signs either.
It was clear that Keno had examined the area more carefully than Suzuki Satoru, but that was no cause for alarm. That had become a clearly established fact during their five-year journey.
“If there were a way to do it, then surely it would be an assembly of high-level priests turning undead at the same time, right?”
“I see…”
That would have disintegrated the Zombies, and it would explain their absence. However, there was a limit to how many times one could turn undead each day, and low-level priests could not use that ability often. Therefore, it would probably be impossible to annihilate a swirling horde of 400,000 Zombies without committing sizable numbers to the task.
While news would leak more easily as more people took part, Suzuki Satoru had not heard about anything like that even though he had kept his feelers out and listening.
“Or could it have been a ‘Super-Tier spell’ like the kind you cast, Satoru? Of course, the existence of a spell with that area of effect would be another matter entirely, but we won’t be able to tell if we don’t enter the city, right?”
“That’s true. We’ll proceed with caution, then.”
“Yup!”
The two of them entered through the city gates.
While [Phase Door] would have made entering the city safer, they had to discover what had happened and if anyone was hiding within by using themselves as bait.
Naturally, Suzuki Satoru would be fine even if he were attacked from inside the city, so he walked in front of Keno to block the line of fire to her. While it would be pointless if the enemy used an area-of-effect attack, he would be an excellent shield for her against single-target attacks.
They passed through the city gates without incident, and they saw a wide street.
This was probably the largest street in the city.
There were no signs of Zombies in this place which should have been lively and bustling, and they could not hear anything despite pricking up their ears. All that remained was a nauseating silence.
It looked as though all the city’s residents had abandoned it. However, it did not feel like they had left of their own free will. The goods in the stores remained in place — though they were spoilt or rusted — and after checking, even the coins were still in place.
While it did not seem like they had left of their own free will, it did not seem like someone had invaded either.
No — is it possible someone whose objective was not money had invaded this place?
Magic items were more precious than mountains of gold and silver. If this city had a powerful magic item, then it might be more valuable than all the wealth in this city.
However, that theory was also suspect. While one could not rule out the possibility that such an item existed, surely there ought to be a more elegant way of obtaining it. Like say, sending someone with thief skills to sneak into the city and so on.
“Ah, Satoru. You can dominate the undead, can’t you, Satoru? Can you use that ability to order Zombies to go outside?”
“It’s possible, but there are various conditions for dominating the undead. For instance, there are limits on the maximum number of undead that can be controlled at one time and how powerful of an undead being can be dominated. If everyone in this city became a Zombie, then guiding them anywhere would be annoyingly repetitive.”
“Even so, if they were undead, surely they could ignore their lifespans and do it over and over again, right?”
“You mean a cabal of undead beings like ‘Corpus of the Abyss?’ While it’s not impossible… do you mean they’d be walking around and dominating undead over and over again inside this city? If it were me, I think it would have been fine to leave them alone since I was undead and wouldn’t have been attacked anyway… mm, if that really was the case, then I’d have to take my hat off to their diligence.”
“What if it were because of an item?”
“From what I know, there are no unlimited-use items like that.”
If such a balance-breaking item did exist, it would probably be a World Class Item or something similar.
“…Hm. I can’t break through the limits of my imagination no matter how much I think. We really do need information after all.”
“Then how about taking a look in the castle?”
Keno was pointing to the castle of the marquis who ruled the surrounding lands. It was situated on a small hill and they could clearly tell how solid its walls were.
Suzuki Satoru agreed with that suggestion.
If there were any traces left behind, they would probably find them in the castle. After all, it was the most luxurious and comfortable place in the city, which made it perfect as a home base. Also, the castle sported several imposing towers, which made it feel like the ideal place for overlooking the city.
The two of them cast [Fly] spells and headed toward the castle in a beeline.
If they looked down, they would see an empty city below them. It was a hollow metropolis, without so much as the presence of small animals. Having Zombies wandering around would probably have made it less scary.
“Still, there’s no movements here at all.”
While he had coolly spouted some stuff about movements and the like, Suzuki Satoru was not very clear about what he was saying. However, it was true that certain monsters had an overwhelming presence about them. The monster he had encountered with the most powerful presence was the Brightness Dragon Lord.
“…Was this city destroyed by something else… hm?”
“A plague? Poison? But that would be weird, no? If a plague had broken out here, then they would have burned the victims, and I think there would be signs of that within the city.”
They had found what looked like paupers’ districts when they were observing the city from above, but no traces that looked like scorch marks.
Just as Suzuki Satoru was beginning to admire Keno’s focus, she continued speaking.
“Since there were no such signs in the pauper’s district, where a disease would have the highest chance of spreading, I think that would rule out such a possibility.”
Suzuki Satoru had not thought that far ahead. He had to hand it to Keno.
“In that case — did the destruction of this city lead to some kind of chainreaction zombification? For example, was it because a monster with an instant death aura was walking around inside the city or something?”
“But if that were the case, wouldn’t it be strange that there were no corpses? It’s as though everyone here suddenly vanished. And it would also be very strange for people setting out from this place to abandon all their wealth…” Suzuki Satoru and Keno tilted their heads in bafflement.
When they reached the castle, the two of them walked inside without any hesitation.
Keno held Suzuki Satoru’s hand.
This was a bad move in a dangerous place.
Fighting while holding someone’s hand was very disadvantageous. However, Suzuki Satoru held Keno’s hand tightly without saying a word.
After that, they did a quick survey of the castle, but they could not find any traces. Of course, neither Suzuki Satoru or Keno were detector-types, so they would not have been able to spot any high-level thieves hiding in here. However, there was a piece of evidence which made them conclude otherwise.
“The dust is in piles. It looks like this castle was left empty a long time ago, and nobody else came in either.”
It looked like the castle had been abandoned before the undead conversion had begun, or perhaps the city had been abandoned with it.
“What should we do?”
“After a quick look around, we haven’t spotted any signs that anything happened in the castle. First, let’s go take a look at the treasury. There might be powerful items inside.”
“Yup.”
They broke the sturdy door and negated the magical traps with Suzuki Satoru’s magical resistance, then proceeded to plunder all the treasure within. That said, it had not been done for acquiring money, but more because Suzuki Satoru was interested in acquiring rare items.
The appraisal of the treasure took place as it was being looted, so it finished over an hour after the robbery was complete.
“No powerful items here.”
“Yeah. While there were no powerful items, it seems there are quite a few pieces with historic value.”
While he knew that they were accessories and the like, that was all he knew. And while Keno, responsible for the knowledge work, was familiar with art, magic, noble society, and so on, she was not learned enough to determine whether or not a particular object was historically significant. All she understood was that it looked valuable.
“We won’t be able to sell them, right?”
“Yeah. I won’t sell them, anyway. After all, we have money to spare. Plus, it would be troublesome if we got wrapped up in annoying things after selling something with a history.” Keno laughed happily.
“After all, the Yggdrasil item you sold caused an incredible ruckus, Satoru.”
Suzuki Satoru could not help but be embarrassed. Looking back now, it had been a pretty good experience, but he wanted to apologize to Keno for the trouble he had caused her back then.
“I won’t repeat that mistake again. After all, standing out isn’t a good thing, especially for undead beings like us.”
This world ran on the axiom that the undead were the enemies of all living beings. The two of them were heretics for wanting to enter the world of the living. They were practically traitors.
“Still, we managed to help someone in trouble because you sold that, right, Satoru? I don’t think your judgement was wrong.”
Keno seemed to have misunderstood something. He could not care less if some human he did not know lived or died. Ever since his body had ended up like this, he had not felt anything like love for his fellow man or whatnot. The only important things to Suzuki Satoru were his friends.
“—Hm? What’s wrong, Satoru?”
“No, nothing’s wrong, Keno. Still, we need to let an appraiser look at them. However, if they’re from too far away, it’ll decrease their historical value. What a pain.”
“While I’ve told you this before, you don’t need to worry about my share, right? After all, you gave me all sorts of things, didn’t you?”
“Don’t worry about that. After all, it’s only natural for a senpai to take care for his kouhai.”
As undead beings, they had no daily expenses. While it was not as though they could not live without selling accessories which might have historical value, they were items obtained through their adventures, so he had to reimburse half their value in cash to Keno.
He took that sort of thing seriously even between guild members. He could not be lax on that.
“Also, our travelling expenses were all paid by you, weren’t they, Keno? These things need to be split evenly, so would I do something dumb like not sharing the money we obtained with you? Let’s not talk about who does more or less work, okay? We divided the jobs up into knowledge and the use of force… hm? So we’ve got an operational allowance but no managerial allowances?”
Keno looked at Suzuki Satoru with a baffled expression on her face, as if to say, “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Ahem! Uh, anyway, that’s why. We need to share everything valuable evenly.
Got it?”
“Uh, um. Thank you, Satoru.”
“No, you really don’t need to thank me. After all, we’re moving as a team, and
I need your strength from time to time, Keno.”
“But, I don’t know how I’ve helped…”
“Well, you’re better in the artistic department, and now you’re better than me in terms of magical knowledge, right? We’ll have to look to the future. In other words, this is an investment.”
“I understand, Satoru. I’ll work hard!”
He did not mind even if she did not go out of her way to work hard. Keno had been incredibly helpful even as she was now. However, rejecting her determination might mentally scar her, so he decided to accept her.
“Hm, we’ll go with that, then, Keno.” As he saw Keno looking delighted, Suzuki Satoru remembered the reason he had come here. “Now then, let’s continue looking around this castle a little more and look for the reason why there are no undead in this city.”
“What should we do?”
“Oh yes, there’s the top and bottom. Let’s check the bottom first.”
“The gaol?[2] Given that this big castle wasn’t meant to be used as a fortress, I think usually they’d build a prison elsewhere, don’t you think?”
“But wasn’t there a gaol in your castle, Keno?”
“Yeah, there was. But it wasn’t used for normal people, only to briefly confine high-status people. It didn’t look like it had been used ever since I was born.”
“Perhaps there’s a gaol like that here too. Let’s go take a look. If it’s not there, we’ll look in the city and check inside the cells in the guards’ duty posts.”
They found the gaol soon enough, but it was empty. The interior was piled high with dust as well, so there probably had not been anyone inside it.
“What a shame. Let’s continue heading upwards, then. I saw several towers when observing this castle from the outside — let’s go check out the surroundings from there.”
“Yup!”
Perhaps the highest tower had been used as a landing platform for flying monsters, because it was very wide and very heavily defended against attack and invasion.
“Uwah~”
Keno exclaimed in delight at the panoramic view of the city.
Suzuki Satoru thought, You saw it all from the air while using [Fly], so why does this scenery excite you so much? However, he was smart enough to not actually say that.
When Suzuki Satoru had set foot upon the peak hailed as the highest in the world, he too had been moved by the way he could see everything from the summit. But what had truly left the deepest impression on him was the battle
2. Gaol, an archaic British spelling of the word “Jail.”
which had followed.
Suzuki Satoru watched Keno run around in circles and looking around in all directions, and as he saw her display a childishness that matched her appearance, he smiled.
After that, he began examining the city, with the mindset that someone had to do what they came to this city for, even if it was just himself. Then, he found something which bothered him.
While there were three gates leading into the urban area of the city, the gate leading to the mountain range seemed to have been split open.
“Keno, look at that. What do you make of it?”
“Hm~ it doesn’t look like it was broken from the outside, but burst from the inside? Although… if it wasn’t destroyed by some terrible strength… how should
I put it?”
“Want to go take a look?”
After receiving Keno’s approval, Suzuki Satoru cast [Fly] and the two of them headed straight for it. And then—
“Satoru, this is…”
“Yeah, you’re right. Something strange happened here… no, in this city too.”
One of the doors of the gate they had reached was leaning to one side. It had not been caused by age. And he could see the forms of the city’s residents there. No, it would be better to say that they had once been the residents of the city.
Countless bones were scattered in front of the gate, within the gate, and behind it. They looked like they had been trampled to bits.
He did not know whether to call it a coincidence, but there should have been many more bones which had been pulverized into a powder and swept away thanks to exposure to the elements.
And since the bones had been crushed, there was no way to tell how they had died.
“I trust there’s no doubt that these were once the city’s residents?”
“Yeah… did some emergency occur, some confusion that caused everyone to flee for their lives? Or were they turned into Zombies, dominated, and then herded outside?”
“Probably the latter. I don’t see any luggage scattered around, only bones and clothing.”
An investigation of the tumbled bones revealed rings and other such items, but there were no gems or other things one would have taken with them while fleeing.
Suzuki Satoru looked beyond the door — at the place where the Zombies of this city had probably been headed.
“…If someone used [Create Undead], the undead produced would be under the control of their maker.”
After realizing what Suzuki Satoru was trying to say, a look of shock appeared on Keno’s face.
She could see a tall, steep mountain.
It was Mount Kaidinias.
Its summit was wreathed in clouds and she could not make it out.
Suzuki Satoru took out his map and checked to see where the large road extending from the gate would lead.
This road seemed to circle around the base of Mount Kaidinias and led to other cities. If they went down it, they would be able to reach other countries.
“Now then — stay here, Keno.”
“A-Ah, could I not? Would that be alright?”
Keno spoke in a frightened tone. She had probably understood the real reason why Suzuki Satoru had come to this city.
“It’ll be fine, Keno. This was why we hunted ‘Corpus of the Abyss.’ You heard it from those guys too, didn’t you? Intelligent undead beings of great power remain animated even when their creator is destroyed. Even if I annihilate the mastermind behind the zombification, it won’t affect you, Keno.”
“No! That’s not what I mean!! I’m worried about you, Satoru!!!”
“—Huh?”
“I mean, this is a being that turned so many people in such a large area into the undead! It’s definitely not normal! Even you couldn’t do it, Satoru!”
“Ah, hm. I couldn’t do something like that.”
“In that case! In that case!” Keno’s face twisted in agony, and then she instantly resumed her normal expression before it kinked up again. “Doesn’t that mean there’s a chance you might get defeated, Satoru?!”
Indeed, that was true. He ought to admit it. He could not definitively state that “It won’t happen.”
“Ah, Satoru. Did you enjoy our travels together?”
“—Yeah. I was as happy as I had been with my former friends. Yes. I was happy, really, I was.”
He understood why those World Searchers had kept doing all those things he felt were pointless. He also understood the joy of exploring the world that the management and the developers wanted to give to the Players.
His journey with Keno had been a very enjoyable one.
“In that case, why don’t we keep travelling? I’m undead like you, so we can travel forever, can’t we, Satoru? Let’s go and see a broader world! There are so many places we haven’t seen before! Can you forget about this, please?”
“…I could. It’s not right to do something my friends don’t like. Trying to put someone in my debt would only vex them.”
“Y-Yes. Let’s, let’s go travelling together, forever, okay? Just the two of us. We’re undead, after all! Don’t do dangerous things and continue travelling with me…”
That was correct.
Suzuki Satoru had no right to determine Keno’s happiness. If travelling together was happiness, then would he not be showing kindness to Keno by doing so? However—
“Keno Fasris Invern!” Suzuki Satoru shouted, and Keno’s shrank away from him.
“Y-Yes… I’m sorry, Satoru. Please don’t get mad…”
“I’m not angry… Being a princess should be a job, right?”
“Huh?”
Keno’s mouth hung open in a stupid-looking way. She was probably showing how she could not keep up with the sudden change in topic and did not understand his meaning. Suzuki Satoru mocked himself in his heart. Ah, it couldn’t be avoided.
“Like I was saying, being a princess is a job, right?”
“Is, is it? It doesn’t feel that way to me…”
“So, does that mean kings and queens are unemployed? Is that not how it is?” “When you put it that way, that might be the case… is it?”
“Now, on to the next item; gaining the approval of more than half of the guild’s members — well, there’s only one person, but that counts as more than half.”
A baffled look appeared on Keno’s face.
“In addition, you’re a heteromorphic creature of the type known as a Vampire, Keno. In other words, you have cleared all the requirements. Now then, Keno Fasris Invern. I recognize you as a member of Ainz Ooal Gown. You shall be the 42nd member. Or should I say, the second member of the New Ainz Ooal Gown?”
Ainz took out the ring of Ainz Ooal Gown from his inventory and gave it to Keno.
Keno’s expression flashed from shock to normality to shock again.
She had heard Suzuki Satoru talk about how important that ring was to him countless times. It stirred her emotions up enough that they had to be forcibly suppressed.
“Can… I?”
“Yes. Keno, you’re one of us now, a member of Ainz Ooal Gown. You have the right to take this ring.”
Of course, this ring would only be truly useful in a place like Nazarick. Without Nazarick, it was simply the proof that one was a member of the guild.
…And now there are two members of Ainz Ooal Gown… who knows, it might be a good idea to find another 58 members in this world.
“Thank you, Satoru!”
Keno put the ring on delightedly, as though she had forgotten what had happened just now.
Suzuki Satoru watched her, and then faked a cough before speaking.
“Now then, Keno. To me, there is one thing I cannot tolerate under any circumstances. And that would be — forgiving anyone who has done wrong by a member of the guild and who is still at large.” “No, it’s just a little hardship. Travelling with you—” Suzuki Satoru did not let Keno finish her sentence.
“—I might be able to turn your zombified parents back into human beings.” Keno froze, and her eyes wavered.
“…Keno, this is what you hoped for, isn’t it? To stay as one of the undead, and resurrect your parents, am I wrong? Or do you want to become human, along with your parents?”
“Can, can you do it?”
“I don’t know. But Keno, nothing would delight you more, am I right?”
Keno looked in all directions, and then she lowered her head and quietly replied, “Yes.”
In that case — Suzuki Satoru’s course was set.
It was only natural that a guildmaster would fight for his guild members. “—Keno.”
Keno raised her head suddenly as she heard the iron in his voice.
“Do not let your guilt bind you. There is no need for that at all. I must go, first to see what caused this all to happen, and then, depending on the circumstances
— I’m very sorry, Keno, but you must stay here.”
Keno hesitated for a few seconds, and then she nodded.
She was no fool. She understood that she would be holding him back.
“Now then, I’ll use [Create Fortress] to build a fort some distance away. You don’t mind staying in there, do you?”
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