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Overlord (Light Novel) - Volume 11, Chapter 2 - In Pursuit of the Land of the Dwarves Part 3
Volume 11, Chapter 2: In Pursuit of the Land of the Dwarves Part 3
This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml
Shalltear and her underlings picked up the pace as they headed towards the location of the Quagoa. They leapt from roof to roof at breakneck speeds. Since she was already in armor, she did not have to worry about the several layers of breast pads within her clothing.
She glanced back at Aura, who was following from behind.
The fact that she was being followed by a Guardian — who was supposed to stay by her Master’s side — was proof that he did not trust her.
That was only natural.
She might not remember her failure, but she had heard the details from others.
Although her compassionate Master had said “Shalltear, you did nothing wrong”, that could not possibly be true. Thus, she had been waiting for a chance to scrub away the stink of failure from herself, but sadly that chance had not come.
Aura might have comforted her, but that was not what Shalltear wanted.
Shalltear looked ahead, her gaze full of strength. She would not allow herself to make any mistakes on this journey.
Before long, they reached a building near their objective. Shalltear looked down on the Quagoa from its roof.
There were many silhouettes visible, of the kind that the Hanzos had described.
“Now then — what shall I do…”
Shalltear pondered the matter.
Aura should have heard what she said, but Aura merely folded her arms, intent on remaining silent. That too, was expected. Before Aura had come here, her Master gave her an order: “Keep an eye on Shalltear’s movements. If she looks like she’s about to begin massacring them, make her stop by any means, even if you have to hit her. Apart from that, you are not to interfere with Shalltear’s battle plans.”
Shalltear had also been told that Aura would merely observe from behind, and she was not to be used in any combat operations. In other words, the entire operation, from planning to execution, was solely Shalltear’s responsibility.
Firstly, she had to perfectly and elegantly fulfil her Master’s orders.
She unclenched her fists.
“Hanzos.”
“Yes!”
The ninja-costumed minions gathered before her.
“I want to make sure that none of them escape. Can you verify that there’s nobody else in the tunnel?”
“Certainly. We await your command.”
As expected of her Master’s minions. Their enemy would have no means of retreat now. The next thing she had to worry about was if the enemy was scattered throughout the city. Of course, she could take some time to hunt down and root them all out, but she wanted to avoid wasting time. While her Master had not given her a time limit, wasting too much time was proof of incompetence.
“Alright. How about this...”
Shalltear relayed the details of the plan she had thought up on the way here.
She would surround the enemy, and then disable everyone within the perimeter.
In other words, she would use the Hanzos to cut off their retreat, then compact them into a mass before taking them all out in one blow.
Granted, this plan was a little dangerous, given that she did not know the abilities of the opposition. However, if the enemy had the power to kill Shalltear and the Hanzos, the Dwarven Kingdom could not possibly have survived this long.
Well, provided that Dwarf Gondo was not especially weak.
After dispatching the Hanzos, Shalltear counted out three minutes. She had to do so because she had no means of communicating with the Hanzos.
Fortunately, the Quagoa seemed to have circled their wagons around the building, with no intentions of dispersing.
“Let’s start. Begin as ordered; keep them from escaping into the surrounding area.”
After giving orders to the undead she had brought along, Shalltear ran along the rooftops, and then leapt in front of the Quagoa. At the same time, her undead landed around them.
They had taken control of all the major thoroughfares around the building. The Quagoas’ routes of retreat were almost completely cut off.
Shalltear sensed their confusion, and she cast a spell long before they could recover.
“[Mass Hold Species].”
As she had expected, they were not high-level opponents. Many of the Quagoa had stopped moving, frozen in place.
Those Quagoa who had not entered the spell’s area of effect managed to recover from their confusion, but none of them attempted to attack Shalltear. She had appeared out of nowhere and used a spell they had never seen before to pin down their comrades. Even choosing between fighting or fleeing must have been very hard for them.
Shalltear smiled thinly.
It would seem the conclusion she had reached from observing them, that of centering the spell on an outstanding-looking Quagoa — for now known as the commander — had been a worthwhile one.
“[Mass Hold Species].”
She cast the same spell again, and now even the fleeing Quagoa were neutralized.
“Close in!”
In response to Shalltear’s shouted orders, the surrounding undead shrank their perimeter.
The Quagoa within the building heard Shalltear shout and sensed the abnormality in their comrades, but it was far too late for them.
As a sadistic grin grew on her face, Shalltear clapped her cheeks. She could not be careless. Her failure in the past was most likely because of that.
After recovering her composure, Shalltear stormed the building. While breaking through a window would have given her the element of surprise, she considered the effort of breaking through and decided on going straight through the door instead, using herself as bait.
The waiting Quagoa swiped their claws at Shalltear over and over again.
Three in front of me, four deeper within, nobody who looks like a commander. I should take their attacks and verify their strength.
Shalltear did not avoid their attacks, but bore the brunt of the Quagoa offensive.
As expected, she was unhurt.
Shalltear could only take damage from magical silver weapons. Some high-level monsters had natural attacks which counted as magic, while others had attacks which counted as silver, but those were very rare in low-level monsters.
While she might have expected this, the Quagoa were taken aback. As though unable to believe what they were seeing, the surrounding Quagoa clawed at her, but to no avail.
“Alright, the experiment’s over. Shall we end here? [Mass Hold Species].”
As the spell was cast, all the Quagoa present stopped moving.
“Now then, next up.”
Shalltear looked around and saw the Quagoa in the next room through the remains of a broken door. Their wide eyes held the emotion she most loved — fear.
As Shalltear’s stride brought her forward, the Quagoa clambered over themselves to flee.
However, they were too slow. To Shalltear, they were as slow as slugs. She resisted the impulse to give voice to mocking laughter, and instead cast her spell at their backs.
There would be no escape.
Shalltear would not tolerate any slipups.
Now that all the Quagoa within the building had been captured, she entered the tunnel and found six Quagoa by the feet of the Hanzos. Given the faint movements from their bodies, it would seem that they were still alive. Shalltear then asked the Hanzos:
“Now then, are these the Quagoa who tried to flee?”
“Yes. Nobody else managed to escape through here.”
Since Shalltear had not let anyone get away, one could consider her mission to have been perfectly accomplished.
“Just in case, go make sure there’s nobody else lying in wait within the building. After that, have the undead who are bringing them in carry these Quagoa out. You can tell the undead to bind them with ropes, right? I’ll wait here until you finish searching the interior and see if anyone else is trying to make a run for it.”
After receiving Shalltear’s orders, the Hanzos picked up the Quagoas on the ground and returned to the building. They returned to Shalltear after two minutes had passed.
Having flawlessly completed her task, Shalltear emerged from the building, where she saw many bound Quagoa and the forms of Ainz, Aura, the Hanzos, the Dwarf and Zenberu.
“Well done, Shalltear. It seems you accomplished your mission and didn’t let anyone escape.”
“Yes! Thank you very much, Ainz-sama!”
“Now then, Shalltear, I shall give you your next order. Interrogate these people, but do your best not to hurt them.”
“Understood.”
To begin with, she ordered the undead to drag out one of the Quagoa who had been captured with magic — in other words, one of the first captives.
“Hiiiiii! Save me!”
“Hehe, well, if you’re honest, I won’t kill you. If you’re honest. First things first, who’s the greatest of you people here?”
“Him, the one with the streaks of blue in his fur.”
“You son of a bitch! You sold me out!”
The one shouting back did seem to have a faint hint of blue in his pelt.
“Okay, okay, don’t fight. Then, can you bring him to me? Send this one back.”
They brought the highest-ranking Quagoa was brought before her.
“Hmph! You must be a friend of the Dwarves! I’ll never talk! I’ll stake the pride of my race on it!”
“Really now. All right, then. [Charm Species]. Done, can you answer my questions?”
“Ahh, of course! What do you want to know?”
The Quagoa behind him could not help but gasp at his earnestness.
Charm magic caused the target to regard the caster as a trusted friend or colleague. However, since friends would not tell friends to kill or hurt themselves, the targets would not obey orders which would result in such. Also, the term “friend” was also a bottleneck of sorts; there were secrets which people would keep even from their friends, so this magic would be ineffective at winkling out such information. If that were the case, more powerful mind control spells would be needed. However, such measures did not appear to be necessary this time round, a fact for which Shalltear thanked her luck.
“Firstly, are you really the greatest one here?”
“Ahhh, I was appointed the leader of this group. Oi, quiet down there, she’s a friend so it’s fine to tell her. Ah, could you keep that a secret?”
“Of course. We’re friends, aren’t we?”
“Ahhh, yes, we are, I’ll trust you, then. Still, those guys… Especially that guy, is he undead?”
The Quagoa stared at Shalltear’s glorious master. It annoyed her, but she had to bear with it to extract information from him.
“It’s all right. We’re friends so you’ll believe me, right?”
“Is he your minion?”
I’ll fucking kill you, Shalltear almost said. However, she swallowed those words. That was because her master spoke before she could.
“That’s right. She is my mistress.”
“Ho, that’s my friend for you, you’re amazing.”
“Th-thank you.”
Shalltear agonized over these complex feelings, which she could not put into words. Although she wanted to roll around on the floor, she could not waste the loving assistance which her Master had given her.
The Quagoa commander fell into deep thought, and the Quagoa behind him went, “What happened?” “What’s going on?” “Are we the only ones who don’t know that she’s a friend” and so on. However, the Quagoa commander ignored them, and a twisted look dawned on his face, which was probably a smile.
“I get it. Since you said so, I’ll believe you. After all, we’re comrades joined by a firm bond of friendship, aren’t we?”
Shalltear snorted.
“Then, could you speak loudly enough that the people behind me can hear? Who are you people? What are you doing in this city?”
Normally speaking, they should have been suspicious that a friend did not know this. However, this was the greatness of magic. The Quagoa commander replied without raising any doubts.
“We’re a detached force from the invasion force. We came here to kill the Dwarves which might have fled to this city.”
“Say what?!” the Dwarf exclaimed in shock. “What, what does that mean?”
“Shut up and keep quiet, Dwarf. Filthy races like yours should be exterminated.”
“Alright, alright, that’s about enough. You were saying something about an invasion force?”
“Ahhh, sorry, I seem to have gotten a little over-excited. There’s a Dwarven city north of here. The invasion force was raised to destroy that city. The problem is that the suspension bridge over the Great Rift is protected by a fortress, so our attacks have always been defeated. However, we’ve found a shortcut that bypasses the Rift and runs alongside the fortress, so we’re planning to use that to wipe them out in one fell swoop.”
Shalltear narrowed her eyes at the Dwarf. His expression looked ghastly. Apparently this was very bad news.
“When will the attack come?”
“We’re a detached force, we split off from the main body so we don’t know the exact time. But I think it should be today, or maybe tomorrow.”
Shalltear overheard the conversation between her master and the Dwarf.
“That said, will the city actually fall if the suspension bridge is taken?”
“I’m not sure, but I’ve heard that since the enemy needs to use the bridge, they can only attack one spot. Thus, we can use the magic items within the fortress to repulse them. However, if the fortress is taken, the enemy will have a clear path to the city, and it’ll be hard to stop the advance of a large army. If that happens, we might have to abandon the city and escape to here, but if we’re ambushed here, the Dwarven race might be wiped out.”
The Quagoa commander chuckled deviously as he listened to their conversation.
“So are you the only detached group?”
“We’re the only ones who were sent here. We don’t know how strong the Dwarven city is or how many men we’ll need, so most of our troops are there.”
“Ain—eh, ah, then, then, is there anything you want to ask?”
I can’t say Ainz-sama, Shalltear fretted as she tried to piece her next words together.
“...There’s not much else. Strictly speaking, we only need to know how to communicate with their main body or something similar.”
After Shalltear repeated her Master’s question, the charmed commander babbled like a brook.
“Nope, our mission wasn’t seen as very important. In the end, our job was just to hunt down anyone who fled.”
Shalltear looked back to her Master, who nodded to her.
“How should we deal with them?”
“...Gondo, I’m sorry about this, but can you prepare to travel?”
The Lizardman and Dwarf understood the meaning behind those words, so they turned and left in silence. Ainz watched them leave, and gave Shalltear her next orders.
“...Then, let’s go. Shalltear, send them all back to Nazarick. They are to be observed. Whether they are to be killed or spared depends on the kind of relationship we forge with the Quagoa. Do not kill them until they are fully hostile to us. However, order some light experiments to be conducted. The hardness of their claws, the physical and magical resistance of their bodies, that sort of thing. Although, some of them might die as a result… Order them to minimize the number of deaths.”
“Understood.”
Shalltear immediately cast her [Gate], opening a portal to the surface of Nazarick.
“Come, you lot get in here.”
Led by the Quagoa commander, the others followed him in one after the other. Some of the Quagoa stood in place, frozen by fear, but Shalltear simply picked them up and chucked them through the [Gate].
After sending them all through, Shalltear briefly returned to Nazarick as well. She repeated her master’s orders to the Old Guarders standing by there, and then returned through the still-open [Gate].
Beyond it was Shalltear’s Master. His arms were crossed and he seemed to be waiting for her.
“Your collection of information was very thorough, Shalltear.”
The first thing he said was to praise her! Shalltear’s flat chest surged with heat.
“Yes!”
Shalltear reflexively got to her knees. That was the only appropriate position to take in response to her Master’s praise.
“—Mm, umu. I look forward to your loyal service in the future.”
“I understand, Ainz-sama!!”
“Don’t stay like that. Stand up. We’ll need to discuss things with Gondo. ...This is a chance to have them owe us a big favor.”
“How fortunate. Ainz-sama, your actions seem to be blessed.”
Their gazes met, and they smiled.
Granted, her Master’s face did not move, but Shalltear was absolutely certain that he was smiling.
“Then, let’s go.”
“Yes!”
Mmmm~ This is great! The two of us, walking side by side… Haaa, I’m so happy.
Shalltear left the building as she savored the taste of happiness.
“Gondo, sorry for the wait. What do you want to do now?”
“Would anything we do even make a difference… It takes about six days to travel underground to the city. It’s too far for us to bring that information back to the city.”
Shalltear’s slightly slack face tensed up, and as she exchanged glances with Aura, her Master and the Dwarf began their discussion. She strove to memorize it so she could record it into her memo pad.
Since he was her glorious Master, he probably intended to crush the Dwarf’s heart into utter submission. Either that, or he would fasten a heavy shackle around his neck and ensure that he would never betray him. Something like that.
“Is that so? Well, since you can’t make it there in time, what’s there to be done? If that’s the case, why not come to my country? You can’t do anything by yourself either, right?”
“Mmm… umu.”
“Although, I’d like to save the runesmiths… but even if we rushed there to help them, could we maintain an advantageous position during negotiations? Are the Dwarves a species that appreciates kindness shown to them?”
“Umu, I hope you can believe that. If you save the Dwarves from the threat of the Quagoa, I’m sure the negotiations will go well.”
“If that’s the case, then we’ll need to pick the right time to step in.”
After her Master made his experimental declaration, the Dwarf shrugged, as though to say he was alright with anything.
“I have already taken my lord’s… Your Majesty’s suggestion to heart.”
Shalltear had no idea what those words meant, but for some reason, she knew that the Dwarf had chosen her Master over his race.
Shalltear was both awed and frightened by the fact that her Master had managed to utterly dominate the soul of this Dwarf during the brief period in which he had entered the tunnel.
It must have been this charisma which enabled him to lead and coordinate the Supreme Beings.
“...No, I guess we ought to make haste. After all, we want to avoid the deaths of the runesmiths, and there’s no telling what will happen if we go underground, so we shall proceed from the outside. Can I trust you to guide us?”
“I’m not very confident, but I shall do my best.”
“Alright, then prepare to move out!”
