Chapter 124: Scheming
Demiurge was still waiting, perfectly patient and respectful, for Ainz's response.
Ainz realized he couldn't stall any longer.
"In that case, Demiurge." Ainz spoke with an air of complete command, deliberately vague, attempting to bluff his way through. "Phase Two — I leave it entirely in your hands."
"As you command, Ainz-sama."
Demiurge bowed, bearing perfectly respectful.
Ainz exhaled inside himself. Good. He'd bluffed through it. Demiurge hadn't pressed for specifics — if he had, Ainz would have had absolutely nothing left to say.
Ainz was preparing to say something further — anything to cover the nervousness his vague answer had left behind and reinforce his standing as a Supreme Being.
Demiurge suddenly straightened.
He performed an action Ainz had not anticipated at all.
Demiurge raised his right hand to the front, five fingers pressed together, spine perfectly upright.
It was a textbook —
German military salute.
"Then, this subordinate will take his leave."
Demiurge's bearing was entirely composed, an elegant and appropriate smile on his face, as though what he had just done were the most unremarkable farewell gesture in the world.
Ainz's jawbone dropped wide open.
In a very short span of time, Ainz's jawbone had been put through quite a few dramatic cycles of opening and closing. Fortunately, the undead had no need to worry about joint dislocation.
Ainz attempted to stop him, but the shock was so complete that he couldn't produce a single sound.
Demiurge, seeing this, let the curve of his smile lift another degree.
Ainz-sama is clearly very pleased. He offered himself a quiet internal affirmation. It seems I've learned it rather well.
He held the pose and took two slow, deliberate steps back. Only then did he lower his right hand, turn, and walk toward the exit.
His footsteps echoed through the hall, growing gradually more distant.
The heavy doors closed softly behind him.
Ainz sat alone with his jawbone still dropped open, motionless for a long moment.
He raised a hand and slowly covered his face.
Shame and shock rose from somewhere deep in his soul like a tide, wave after wave, nearly submerging him.
Demiurge...
A quiet groan somewhere inside him.
When did he learn that? Was it from watching Pandora through the [Crystal Screen]?
After a long while, Ainz finally lowered the hand covering his face.
He leaned back against the throne, the red light in his eye sockets dimmer than usual, as though performing some silent, unspoken sigh.
The shame passed, and Ainz began to think.
Pandora's Actor had performed that gesture and drawn cheers from E-Rantel's citizens.
Demiurge had now done the same thing — and done it with such natural composure.
Ainz had never been a particularly confident person. Seeing so many people respond so positively to that gesture, he found himself beginning to waver.
Could it be...
The thought surfaced quietly inside him.
Is that gesture actually genuinely cool?
Ainz's jawbone closed slightly. The bones of his fingers moved across the smooth dome of his skull, arranging himself into a posture of deliberate thought.
He thought back to when he'd built Pandora's Actor in YGGDRASIL — adding those design choices. The German military salute. The German lines. At the time, he'd thought it was extremely cool. Full of presence.
Later, every time he witnessed Pandora in the throes of that particular affliction in person, the shame had come in waves.
But maybe...
Maybe the problem was with him?
Maybe his taste wasn't wrong — maybe he'd just been too worried about what other people thought?
Ainz's finger bones tapped lightly against the dome of his skull, producing a faint tapping sound.
To be safe.
He made his decision quietly inside himself.
Gather a bit more data before reaching a conclusion.
After all, as the ruler of Nazarick, as the one who bore the name Ainz Ooal Gown, he could not easily do something unbecoming of his position.
What if the gesture actually wasn't cool at all, and E-Rantel's citizens and Demiurge simply happened to share a peculiar aesthetic sensibility —
Ainz thought the probability of this was admittedly small, but not zero.
Find an opportunity to ask Albedo about it.
He turned it over quietly in his mind.
If even Albedo thinks the gesture is cool, then it probably actually is.
Ainz gave a small nod, feeling a thread of satisfaction at this sensible plan.
---
Great Tomb of Nazarick, Seventh Floor.
Demiurge passed through the corridor lined with flowing lava and returned to his residence — the Crimson Temple.
This ruined Greek-style temple stood amid encircling rivers of lava, its scorched stone columns threaded through with deep crimson cracks, as though the entire structure were burning in slow motion. Waves of heat pressed in from every direction. The sulfur in the air was thick enough to nearly taste.
For Demiurge, this was the most comfortable environment imaginable.
He passed through the temple's arch and entered the inner chamber fitted as a study.
His gaze swept the desk from behind the round lenses of his glasses. Various intelligence reports forwarded from Sebas were spread across its surface.
Demiurge sat at the desk.
He did not rush to reread the documents he had already gone through several times. His thoughts began to move in their methodical way.
Ainz-sama had given his approval to begin Phase Two.
Although Ainz-sama had not specified the particulars — likely a test of his own judgment — Demiurge felt he understood Ainz-sama's intent completely.
Phase One had been to establish a reputation in E-Rantel through the Momon adventurer identity, achieve Adamantite rank, and thereby open a channel to the Kingdom's upper power networks. Pandora's Actor had accomplished this with distinction.
Phase Two: expand that influence from E-Rantel to the Kingdom's center of power — the royal capital.
And to accomplish that, a suitable point of entry was required.
Demiurge opened his eyes and picked up the intelligence summary on the Kingdom's nobles that Sebas had forwarded.
He cross-referenced it with the intelligence Pandora had reported — that Eight Fingers had been dismantled in a joint operation by the Adamantite-ranked adventurer team Blue Roses and Princess Renner.
A confident smile appeared at the corner of Demiurge's mouth.
The key figure needed as a point of entry had to draw sufficient attention without disrupting the Kingdom's overall functioning too greatly.
And the candidate who perfectly fit what Ainz-sama's plan required.
Was —
Demiurge's fingers slid lightly across the page, coming to rest on a name.
Barbro Andrean Ield Ryle Vaiself.
First Prince of the Re-Estize Kingdom. First in line for the throne.
Demiurge carefully recalled Sebas's description of this prince: arrogant, short-sighted, pleasure-seeking — almost entirely without redeeming qualities.
His smile slowly took on a more meaningful quality.