Overlord (Light Novel)

Part 1.2

Evileye waved to indicate that they should proceed, and then Remedios and Gustavo rose and entered the adjoining room — the bedroom.

“Then, can we use this flask?”

Gagaran pointed to the flask of water and the glasses around it as she addressed Neia.

Why me, Neia fretted as she replied, “Please do.” She wanted to praise herself for her perfect tone and not letting her voice tremble.

After Gagaran had poured water for everyone, Remedios and Gustavo returned.

“We’ll pay your fee, so can you tell us what you know?”

Huh, Neia thought. For some reason, she had the feeling that Remedios, who had complained about the expense of staying in an inn, would not approve. While Gustavo had probably said something, Neia had no idea what reasons he had used to convince her.

“That’s fine too, although I think we’d be able to tell you what you need to know if you told us about the state of the Holy Kingdom now.”

“Please let us pay the appointed fee.”

Gustavo promptly placed a small pouch on the table.

“Mm. Oi.”

Evileye jerked her chin at one of the thieves. In response, she swiftly reached out and snatched up the pouch, lightly bouncing it up and down in her hand. Then she caught it and nodded to Evileye.

She was probably trying to see if it contained the expected amount by the sensation from throwing it up and catching it.

“All right. Then I, Evileye, shall explain on their behalf… Although, like I said just now, asking for all the information we have about Jaldabaoth is a bit like trying to seize a cloud. Let’s start by talking about what happened in our country. But before that, I want to verify something with you. Your Jaldabaoth looks like this, right?”

Evileye took a pen and paper from beside the table and began drawing with fluid strokes. However, the picture she produced could only be regarded as childish scribblings as best.

Remedios was about to say, “No, that’s not…” before one of the twins snatched back the paper and tore it in half.

“What the hell are you doing!?”

While Evileye was furious, the other twin snatched away the pen in the meantime and drew swiftly on the new piece of paper, then showed Evileye the finished product. The masked magic caster muttered, Uguu… in a disgruntled tone. The truth was, it was of far greater quality than the picture just now.

His appearance was very difficult to describe with words. He was dressed in foreign clothing and wore a strange mask. After seeing the picture, Remedios angrily clenched her fists and growled like a wild beast.

“That’s the bastard.”

After seeing this, the twins and Evileye ceased their feuding and turned back towards Remedios.

“Then we’ve verified one thing, that this is the same per— the same demon. Well, if demons like that could appear one after the other, we’d be in trouble. Thank heavens for small mercies, as they say. Now—”

Evileye then proceeded to narrate the events that had transpired in the Royal Capital, and Neia winced in her heart.

She knew Jaldabaoth was strong. And she knew that the demon army and that scaly demon existed, so she was not shocked by them. But the fact that there were five maid demons who could each take on an entire adamantite ranked adventurer team by themselves deepened her sense of utter despair.

I don’t think anyone spotted those maid demons in the Holy Kingdom. So they’re Jaldabaoth’s trump card? To think he had something like that…

“—Then, what would you estimate Jaldabaoth’s difficulty rating to be?”

Gustavo’s question caused Blue Rose to look at each other, but in the end it was still Evileye who spoke on everyone’s behalf.

“Let me get this out of the way first; this value is just a conjecture. It might be higher, it might be lower, so I hope you’ll keep that in mind. We estimate that demon’s difficulty to be around two hundred.”

“Two hundred…”

Gustavo gasped. Neia very nearly gasped as well, but she managed to resist that impulse. Some of the paladins lining the walls were not so successful. Remedios was the only one to remain calm, her expression unchanged.

If Neia recalled correctly, difficulty one hundred monsters were not something which humans could defeat.

“Exactly how powerful is a rating of two hundred?”

Evileye seemed to have a bit of trouble answering Remedios’s direct question.

“While difficulty two hundred beings have never appeared in the human world before… well, old Dragons would be roughly around one hundred.”

“An old dragon… while I’ve never fought those before, would that be around the same as the Guardian Deity of the oceans?”

The Guardian Deity of the ocean referred to a Sea Dragon which dwelled in the ocean.

It had two arms and feet and a long, thick tail that replaced its atrophied wings. It resembled a Sea Serpent more than a Dragon, and its intellect was on par with or surpassed mankind. It was quite a benevolent being that would protect ships if it was properly venerated.

Neia had the very good fortune of seeing it once, from a distance, when they had gone to Rimun on holiday.

It had raised its head high above the surface of the seas, and it was a sight majestic enough to earn it the title of Guardian Deity. It was hard to imagine a human being could defeat such a being.

“Captain Remedios. If we use defeating the Guardian Deity as a baseline… hm, if there were a fisherman here he’d be giving us the stink-eye. Still, that means he’s twice as strong as an old Dragon.”

“Indeed. We’ve determined that he’s stronger than the legendary Demon Gods who were defeated by the Thirteen Heroes. That is to say, his appearance in the human world would be a great tragedy and multiple nations will be destroyed. That’s how powerful he is.”

“Although, I hear that when Jaldabaoth was wreaking havoc in the Kingdom, he was driven off by Momon-dono. That would mean Momon-dono must be just as powerful, right?”

Remedios swallowed, and then continued.

“Or does that mean — he used some kind of special item when defeating Jaldabaoth?”

That was when Evileye’s attitude changed.

Neia could not see her face, but she had the feeling that her face was flushing under that mask of hers.

“I don’t think he used any such item. However, Momon-sama fought magnificently when he duelled Jaldabaoth. I was fighting Jaldabaoth’s subordinates back then, so I did not see the full fight, but it was a terrifying battle. It was a battle fought by a hero among heroes, a champion among champions.”

“Is, is that so?”

It was all Gustavo could do to squeeze those words out after being crushed by Evileye’s presence as she leaned herself out.

“Precisely! Ah, what an amazing battle. Momon-sama defended me while he was fighting Jaldabaoth, you know.”

“So he fought Jaldabaoth — that monster — and drove him off? Is that true?”

“What? Are you saying what I saw with my own two eyes was a lie?”

Evileye countered Remedios’s question with a vicious retort. Gustavo struggled to clear the uneasy mood in the air.

“Ah, no, what our Captain meant was that if Darkness could attack some weak point of Jaldabaoth’s, perhaps we could do something too. I apologize for not clarifying.”

“No, we should be apologizing for the immature tone our Evileye is taking with a client.”

That reply came from Lakyus. What was this, when the two main players were sidelined and their supporting cast went on to smooth things out between themselves.

“Hm… well, assuming Jaldabaoth really does have some weak point, Momon-sama must have won by attacking it. Still, it’s hard to imagine a demon like that would leave his weaknesses unguarded.”

“Indeed… perhaps he used an item or a subordinate to make up for it.”

While this was the first time she had heard of the maid demons, Jaldabaoth had several powerful demon minions.

After questioning demihuman captives, they knew there were at least three of them.

There was the demon who ruled the wilderness where the demihumans lived.

There was the demon who ruled the port city of Rimun.

And then, there was the scaly demon who commanded the demihuman army.

“So, can you tell us in detail about that scaly demon you mentioned earlier?”

“That’s right, can you tell us what abilities it has?”

“Yes I fought it before, so I’ll take Evileye’s place and describe it in detail.”

She described its abilities and how they fought it. Lakyus’s tale ended with Brain Unglaus — a man on Gazef’s level — slaying that demon.

“…That’s strange. Jaldabaoth hasn’t made any movements after conquering the Holy Kingdom’s capital, but that scaly demon’s been commanding the demihuman armies in his place. Wasn’t it already defeated?”

“I see… however, we’ve met this Brain fellow before, and I don’t think he was lying. It’s probably not a unique demon, just a high level one.”

“In other words, Jaldabaoth can conjure that demon any number of times as long as certain conditions are met? Or perhaps he can summon the same demon multiple times?”

Neia could not cast spells, but she had heard this during her lectures.

It was difficult to summon multiple beings with summon magic.

In other words, when a summon spell was active, casting another summon spell would cause the previous summon spell to end. The currently-summoned monsters would go back from whence they came and new monsters would be summoned in their place.

However, people capable of high tier summoning spells could simultaneously conjure several weaker monsters at once, of the sort that one would evoke with a low tier summon spell. For instance, one could use a fourth tier spell to summon multiple monsters that could be invoked by a third tier spell.

“I don’t understand at all. His method of summoning demons is still a mystery. While it felt like he was summoning them with spells, he couldn’t have summoned multiple demons of such power… but if he could, that would beg the question of why he did not do so in the Kingdom. Perhaps if he were a magic caster who specializes in summoning, he could simultaneously summon multiple copies of such a creature…”

“So even if we defeated the scaly demons, Jaldabaoth could immediately resummon it?”

“Just so. However, that refers to the situation where Jaldabaoth conjures them with magic. If he used some kind of special ability to do it, that would be another matter entirely.”

“So you don’t know much about that side of things?”

“Sorry, but I don’t. We know very little about him.”

Evileye sounded clearly disheartened.

“…Erm, I didn’t get any of that at all, you know?”

“…I’ll explain it to you later, Captain.”

“No, start clarifying now. I haven’t been able to keep up since just now.”

This is our Captain… the person in charge of all of us…

“That being the case, was that disgusting insect maid one of Jaldabaoth’s summons too?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to think that way…”

Blue Rose’s members began discussing among themselves.

“Erm, may I ask a question?”

Everyone turned to look at Neia after she nervously spoke up, and the tremendous pressure made her regret doing so. Perhaps it might be better for someone other than her to bring this up. However, the die had been cast, and after firming up her resolve, she asked:

“This might be a very basic question, but where did Jaldabaoth come from? Was the name of Jaldabaoth passed down from earlier days?”

“That is unclear. We’ve studied all sorts of literature, but we haven’t been able to find that name in any of them. We’ve also tried looking for clues based on his appearance, but similarly, we haven’t been able to make any headway either.”

“Could it be an alias? Maybe he caused trouble under a different name in the past?”

“I doubt that. To demons — this applies to angels as well — their names are a very important part of their very being. If a demon wants to show up, it has to engrave its name into the world. Therefore, they can’t use false names. Experiments show that using a false name might even cause them to disappear on the spot.”

Neia knew next to nothing about demons and angels, but if an adamantite ranked magic caster said so, then that ought to be the case.

“As for his origins, if he came from the other side of the continent, then it’s only natural that there’d be no information about him… but after thinking so much, every possibility seems equally likely, and so there’s no telling where to begin.”

Evileye shrugged.

“…Say. What if you got Jaldabaoth’s appearance wrong? Was the Jaldabaoth you looked into the Jaldabaoth in the picture? What if that appearance of his was a deception?”

“Ho,” Evileye leaned over the table towards Remedios. “Can you go into more detail?”

“We managed to press Jaldabaoth in that form quite badly, and then he revealed his true form…”

Remedios closed her eyes.

“It was an utter defeat for us.”

“Can you be more specific?”

“Telling them that much should be fine, right, Gustavo?”

“Yes, no objections here. If we can learn more about him from his appearance, hiding that information would be harmful instead.”

“While I feel a full disclosure would be better….”

Remedios began muttering and grumbling, and then she told Evileye about Jaldabaoth’s appearance.

Halfway through, Remedios’s face twisted in anger. She had probably recalled the battle that nobody here knew anything about.

“I see, then we’ll continue our investigations based on what we have just learned. We’ll keep you informed with our findings, so could you tell us if you wish to stay in the city?”

“We haven’t decided that yet. In any case, does that mean you do not know anything about that form of his?”

“—Lakyus, do you remember?”

Lakyus shook her head.

“That’s how it is. Sorry.”

“I understand. Then, after we make our decision, we will contact you immediately.”

“But in that case, we’ll have to consider the worst-case scenario — the possibility that his appearance in the Kingdom was intended to create a false impression, so he deliberately refrained from showing his true power.”

“In other words, our country was Jaldabaoth’s true objective, and that he had some other plan for the Kingdom?”

“Perhaps. If the Kingdom was his main priority, he would have shown his true form like he did in the Holy Kingdom, no? Or was it because he was startled by Momon-sama’s strength, and chose to protect his true identity rather than let his plan be ruined? I really don’t want to think that’s the case.”

Evileye’s words left the room in a gloomy silence, so profound that even the faint sounds of breathing seemed very loud. Who would speak first? In this tense atmosphere, Lakyus proved her bravery.

“Now then, let me say again — we’re in the same boat as you. We want to know more about Jaldabaoth. Frankly speaking, everything we’ve learned is basically analysis from our encounter with him. We have no inkling of Jaldabaoth’s aims, true identity, or abilities.”

“Maybe we could summon demons to learn about Jaldabaoth… But that will stain the soul… And even if we summon low ranking demons, it’s quite likely that they won’t know anything about high ranking demons. In that case, we’ll need to contact a summoning adept…”

“Unfortunately, we don’t know anyone who’s good at summoning demons.”

Evileye had been the first one to supplement Lakyus’s words, followed by one of the twins.

Surely nobody would, at least not under usual circumstances, Neia mused.

Diabolists were typically evil beings, and fortunately very few of them were powerful in their own right. That was because most of the time, they either destroyed themselves or they were slain by death squads.

Of course, there might be some experts in the field who had submersed themselves into the darkness, but they typically hid themselves and did not make friends.

“Still, just waiting there to die is very frustrating. The next time that monster comes to the Kingdom, I want to make him weep with my own two hands. In order to do that, I need to learn as much as I can about him.”

“Also, he was not leading any demihumans in the Kingdom. If he recruited the demihumans due to his failure in the Kingdom, then we’ll need to be even more wary of him.”

Those words were spoken by Gagaran, and then the other twin.

“Is that why you wanted to know what we knew?”

Everyone in Blue Rose nodded. Lakyus summed up for them.

“We’ll pay a sum equal to the fees we’d receive for a similar request..”

“Captain. May I handle the upcoming negotiations?”

Remedios immediately agreed with Gustavo’s question.

“—In place of money, we would like some other form of payment.”

“What is it? While we would like to meet your wishes, we can’t do everything… However, if you want to make contact with powerful nobles, that could be arranged.”

“Is that so? Thank you very much. However, we were not thinking of that — could you come to our country and fight alongside us?”

The room was silent once more. It lasted several seconds — no, perhaps it was longer. The next sound they heard was that of Lakyus leaning on her chair.

“I am very sorry, but we cannot offer that form of payment.”

“…We’re gathering intelligence because we don’t want to die. Doing that would be counter to our purposes.”

Evileye shrugged, as if to say there was nothing that could be done about it.

“We won’t ask you to fight Jaldabaoth. All you need to do is wait in the rear and help with healing magic.”

“Bullshit, you don’t have the luxury of doing that.”

Gagaran’s words left them speechless.

She was correct. The northern half of the Holy Kingdom was now subjugated by Jaldabaoth’s beastmen, and all they could do was mount a feeble resistance. Many of the people had been incarcerated in camps, and the surviving paladins were hidden in caves as defeated soldiers.

“No, that’s not the case. We stopped the demihuman advance in the nick of time.”

They still held the south, where the Army and Jaldabaoth’s forces were staring each other down, so saying that they were at the edge of extinction might be accurate.

To Neia, who knew what was going on, Gustavo’s words sounded more like lies than the truth.

“Can you come, in that case?”

“I refuse.”

Remedios sat up to ask her question, and Evileye flatly rejected it. Given the way everyone in Blue Rose remained silent, she was most definitely not alone in her opinion. They must have all felt the same way.

“…Frankly speaking… we might have stopped them in the nick of time, but we’re also at the end of our rope. The Holy Kingdom is in ruins, but the southern troops are still intact. However, they alone won’t be enough to beat Jaldabaoth.”

Gustavo poured a glass of water for himself, drank from it, and then continued.

“The reason why we haven’t been completely conquered yet is because the navy has been pinning down Jaldabaoth’s army on the northern coastline and holding them off. If Jaldabaoth manages to figure out some way to deal with that and advances his troops to the south, they won’t be able to offer the slightest bit of resistance.”

However, that was the thinking of a man from the north, who knew Jaldabaoth’s power. The people of the south would probably have different plans. For instance, driving off Jaldabaoth with their own might.

While part of the reason for that was because they had not shared their intelligence, it was also due to the long-standing feud between the north and the south.

From the start, many of the nobles in the south had always protested the fact that a woman — skipping ahead of her elder brother — was to be crowned as Holy Queen for the first time in history.

For that reason, in order to avoid a rift between the north and the south, the former Holy Queen ignored even such baseless allegations as “The Holy Queen assumed her position because she had something going on with the temples, and she was secretly assisted by Queralt Custodio.”

After that, the south did not escalate matters any further and thus a full-scale confrontation was averted, but that was only because the north and south had been in a balance of power. Now that the north was in ruins, the south no longer had any reason to hold themselves back any more. Thus, the south began snubbing the north now.

Even in the face of Jaldabaoth’s invasion, the humans still bore grudges against each other. Neia simply found that laughable. In addition, there were whispers of a power struggle for the position of the next Holy King, and it only served to make Neia, a commoner, even more unhappy.

“That’s quite bad.”

“Indeed. The navy has very few assets which can do battle against flying demons, and their battles have taken a terrible toll on them. If this keeps up, they won’t be able to hold off Jaldabaoth’s army forever. We need strength to overcome this situation! Please, I beg you, lend your strength to us! All we need is a month or two! We can pay anything you want! I beg you, please save the Holy Kingdom.”

As Gustavo bowed his head to them, Neia and the other paladins went “Please!” and bowed as well.

The room was silent once more, and then Lakyus’s voice spread through it.

“Please, raise your heads. And — I am very sorry, but we cannot go to the Holy Kingdom.”

“Why!?”

Neia jerked her head up at the sudden shout from Remedios. She saw Remedios had risen from her seat and was glaring at Lakyus.

“There’s no way Jaldabaoth will stop at conquering the Holy Kingdom! He’ll gather his strength there and then invade the Kingdom, you know! If you don’t beat him now, he’ll become even stronger in future!”

“You are correct. The possibility of that is very high.”

“Since you understand, why aren’t you helping us!? And it’s not just you, it’s also the nobles of this country, of our country! None of you get it! Isn’t now the time to come together and fight as one!?”

“…The reason why this country’s nobles won’t lend you their strength is slightly different from our own. What do you know about the Sorcerous Kingdom?”

It was a frightening place ruled by the undead, a city taken from the Kingdom and used as the heart of a nation. That was all the average citizen of the Holy Kingdom knew about it. As Remedios said as much, Lakyus smiled bitterly to her.

“That’s true, and it’s largely accurate… but it’s wrong in some places… While the undead are everywhere, the humans there live safe and peaceful lives.”

“…Eh? In a country founded by the undead, who hate the living?”

“There are many kinds of undead, and the Sorcerer King is a ruler of the undead. Ordering the undead under his command not to harm human beings and enforcing that order is a simple matter for him.”

Evileye made a noise of disapproval.

“Evileye… Mm, anyway, we still have the Sorcerous Kingdom before our eyes to deal with, so it’s hard for them to aid your country. Also, a lot of people perished during the battle with the Sorcerous Kingdom, which will have grave consequences in the future. The nobles who appear so well-off are hardly as well-to-do as you might think.”

“Even so, isn’t Jaldabaoth a problem that should be taken care of as soon as possible? The fact is, countless people are suffering because of Jaldabaoth. And the Sorcerous Whatever hasn’t harmed anyone, has he?”

“…Fighting on two fronts at once while you’re exhausted is very dangerous. I trust I don’t need to tell you that, right?”

Remedios shut her mouth.

“Also, it’s the same with us. Two of us were killed in combat with Jaldabaoth and while they were resurrected from the dead, they still have not regained their full strength yet. If we invade Jaldabaoth’s territory in this state, we might all end up being killed.”

“Didn’t Gustavo say that you wouldn’t need to fight Jaldabaoth?”

“What the heck, she actually believed that…”

“Tia! Excuse me. Ahem. I’m very sorry, but I don’t think things will turn out as you imagine. So long as it involves the risk of facing Jaldabaoth, we will refuse this job. We need to become stronger than we are now in order to prepare for the future. …This is just a hypothesis, but we need to get ready in case Jaldabaoth decides to attack the Kingdom once more.”

The faces of every member of Blue Rose were unmoved. It would seem they could not be swayed.

Soon, Remedios managed to squeeze a few words out.

“Then, who else is there who can save our country?”

Blue Rose’s members looked at each other.

“There’s only one person,” Evileye replied. “Or rather, he’s the person you should have gone to in the first place, no?”

“…Who’s that?”

“Momon-sama, of course. The Momon-sama who beat off Jaldabaoth.”

“Ohhh! Did he!?”

“A moment, Captain Custodio… If I’m not wrong, he’s…?”

“You’ve heard, haven’t you? Yes, Momon-sama is now in the Sorcerous Kingdom and is one of the Sorcerer King’s subordinates. Therefore, you will most likely have to convince the Sorcerer King to help you.”

“Geh!” Remedios grunted bitterly.

Neia understood how she felt. Any citizen of the Holy Kingdom would have very complex feelings about asking anything of the undead.

Considering she, as a squire, felt that way, how much worse would it be for the captain of an order of paladins who bore a holy sword? However — Remedios looked forcefully at the members of Blue Rose.

“…If that is the best way to defeat Jaldabaoth, then let’s do it. No, that’s all we can do. If we can, we’ll pin our hopes to that Momon—”

“—I believe it’s Momon-sama, Captain.”

“Er, yes! Can you please write a letter introducing us to Momon-sama?”