"Going out?"
"Yes."
As my proficiency in magic increased, the time required grew exponentially.
That created gaps in my work, and in the end, my attention turned elsewhere.
One of those things was magic items.
The rare items I had seen that day had left too much regret behind after merely observing them with my own eyes, so I decided to go out and find a way to obtain them.
Serie, who had been reading a book through a monocle, sent me a dissatisfied look, but soon let out a sigh and turned her head away.
"Come back quickly. If you're not here, I can't ask you what the translated passages mean."
"Understood. I'll do my best."
Serie had already been lounging crookedly in her chair, and her posture slanted even further, but I paid it no mind and left the stone chamber, walking down the road.
I recalled the plan I had laid out in my head.
The goal was to find a stable way to acquire magic items.
There were many possible methods, such as working to earn gold coins or exploring dungeons and excavating them, but those were not things I could do now, when my focus was on the study of magic.
There were other reasons as well, but for now I set them aside.
'The most likely option is selling Yggdrasil gold coins.'
They were not currency from this world, but they were still gold coins, so they should have value.
Or perhaps, since barter seemed common here, selling Yggdrasil items would not be a bad strategy either.
When the three of us had gone out before, I had refrained from doing that because it was difficult to judge the relative value of magic items and items.
Just as the magic items of this world fascinated me, the other side would also be seeing my items for the first time, which meant they could try to lowball me or grow greedy.
Revealing my hand too carelessly would be a bad move.
However, no matter how much time I had, the items would not wait for me forever, so I needed to secure a means quickly.
Compared to my own infinite lifespan, there might be precious items that existed in only a single copy.
That was why I was heading to Flamme, who knew magic items well.
In the current situation, she was the most suitable person to consult.
It did not seem likely that Serie knew much about the state of the market.
I had heard where she lived, but I had expected it would take time to find Flamme's residence. Contrary to that expectation, it was not difficult at all.
"Do you know where I can find a mage named Flamme?"
I asked a farm woman at work in the fields, and she clapped her hands in recognition.
"Ah, the one who helped with the fieldwork using magic the other day was definitely named Flamme. If you go that way, you'll find her."
A remote forest far from the city.
In a place where one's senses dulled enough that a wrong turn could leave you lost, I asked a boy gathering herbs.
"That older sister? I see her sometimes when she passes by. If you go over there, it's close. Oh, if you meet her, please tell her thanks for helping me tell poisonous herbs apart last time!"
Following the boy's directions, I came out of the forest and found an artificially made staircase, and below it a modest one-story brick house.
So I've arrived. This must be Flamme's house.
Lowering my head, I stepped through the open doorway, and inside was not Flamme, but an old woman.
"That's a face I haven't seen before. A guest, are you?"
"I've come looking for Flamme."
"Hmm... then you must be an acquaintance."
When she opened her clouded eyes a little, her brows rose with them, revealing a dim, unfocused gaze.
"Ah... so you're the masked man that child talks about from time to time."
"You know of me?"
"I do. Flamme, that child, mentions you now and then."
"I see. But why are you here? Where is Flamme?"
"She went down to a nearby village. She's probably driving off monsters, so it'll take some time before she returns."
The old woman took a sip of the tea on the table.
"The reason I'm here in Flamme's place is simple. As much as she protects us from monsters, I protect this house in turn."
She pointed toward a corner of the forest beyond the doorframe.
"You're looking for Flamme, yes? If you go down that path, you'll reach her soon enough."
"Thank you."
"No, I'm the one who's grateful. Flamme protects us from monsters. But there isn't anyone who protects her in return."
In the hand she pointed with, the traces of a long life and the tremor of old age coexisted.
"If even I disappear, then there'll be no one left to watch over this house either."
"Then why thank me? I've never done anything for Flamme the way you have."
The old woman chuckled softly.
"Because whenever that child talks about you and her master, she looks happy."
"Is that all?"
"No. Things you don't know about, or brushed aside as nothing, may still be important to someone else."
Ainz had said he had done nothing for her, but it was Ainz who had protected them from the demons' attack before.
Even if that incident had begun because of Serie and Ainz, he had still helped her overcome her fear of demons.
"It's because you were there that the Flamme of today exists."
People cannot live alone.
Just as the character for person is formed by two figures supporting one another, people can stand only with the help of others.
"That's why I'm grateful. Because that child has been here until now, I can still live, still tell you which way to go. I can wait for the day I die, one of these days, without having died yet."
The hand that looked as though it might fall at any moment remained straight and showed no sign of dropping.
"A miracle like magic, the kind people call a bond."
*
I headed down toward the village the old woman had told me about.
'She is loved.'
I retraced the path Flamme had walked until now.
On the way here, I had seen the shape of one person's life.
Even without meeting her face to face, her footsteps had spoken more deeply than words.
It was utterly different from Earth, which had been filled with malice, where people trampled others to climb higher.
It was warm.
The previous world had been like thorns. The closer one drew, the more one was wounded.
That was why I had feared people.
Perhaps that psychology had also lain beneath my choice of the undead race.
"A bond, hm."
The hearts of those who lived here shone like jewels, just like the world I had first seen that day.
"Perhaps taking a journey someday would not be so bad."
A journey to save someone.
Just as the me of today existed because Touch Me had saved me on the day I was being chased by vicious players, good deeds returned like a boomerang.
"First falling into the sea, and now a journey. I've become rather carefree myself."
Thinking that, I descended through the forest, and then a gigantic shadow fell across the sky above.
A massive body large enough to cover the forest was circling through the air.
'Hm? That's...'
Thick wings, a sharp beak and claws, and eyes stretched long and narrow.
Its appearance was more than worthy of being called a monstrous bird.
'A monster.'
I had learned enough of this world's knowledge by now that, even if I did not know its exact name, distinguishing it was easy.
The bird monster soared through the sky, then was struck by magic fired from afar and crashed to the ground.
The moment I saw that magic, I knew at once who had cast it.
'The power of that magic... no doubt about it. That village is where Flamme is.'
"Fly."
Only demons used magic to fly, so I normally avoided using it, but realizing this was an emergency, I immediately cast Fly.
Once I rose to a certain height, the sight before me drew a hollow laugh from me.
"So it wasn't just one."
What filled the sky and pounded the earth was a great horde of beasts.
There were so many that it seemed every monster in the surrounding area had been gathered together.
One of the flying monsters noticed Ainz hovering in the air and charged at him with claws bared.
Even in an emergency, my mind remained calm.
'When I checked with Enemy Detection, there was nothing unusual nearby. Only the monsters and the mana rising from the village. To be cautious, I inspected once more with Mana Essence, and still found nothing.'
After comparing it to the characteristics of ordinary monsters I had read about in books and running several other detection spells, I became certain that the attack was nothing more than a simple physical strike without a trace of magic.
I stood there and took it head-on without defending myself.
Its claws, sharp enough to tear steel, raked through me with a sound like ripping air, but Ainz did not move in the slightest.
Instead, he opened his gauntleted hand and seized the bird's head.
It struggled to break free, but could not escape.
It clawed, pecked, and beat its wings, but all of it was useless.
"It's no use. Physical attacks with low data don't work on me."
Perfect defense through high-tier physical nullification.
Though he belonged to the mage class line, Ainz's overwhelming max-level strength crushed the fragile skull of the bird monster.
Crack
At the sound of something snapping, he opened his hand, and the bird monster fell far away to the ground below.
No sound came from it as it fell.
It seemed it had turned to ash and vanished.
"It's nice not getting blood on me."
I brushed the ash from my hand.
Judging Ainz to be a threat, the monsters heightened their vigilance and attempted the kind of coordinated assault they had not used before.
The way they spread out in a circle and closed in resembled the hunting method small animals used to bring down a much larger foe.
"A giant-slaying tactic, is it? Using numbers to make up for the difference in strength is a good method, but unfortunately..."
No matter how many ants gathered, they could never defeat a tank.
"You chose the wrong opponent."
I drew up the karma within my body.
"Negative Burst."
A torrent of energy erupted outward with Ainz at its center.
With a single spell, the surrounding monsters were swept away.
From sky to earth, the aftermath trembled.
The force that had burst outward pushed the air away, and when it rushed back in, a fierce wind swept through.
At the great magic spreading out in a perfect circle, the monsters outside its range faltered.
"From here on, passage is forbidden."
Using magic that moved objects, I toppled trees and drew a boundary line.
Even monsters incapable of speech could understand that act.
An intangible boundary imposed by an overwhelmingly superior being, one they could not dare trespass.
A territorial mark.
"If you cross this place from now on..."
Though he wore a mask, the skull visible beneath it seemed to breathe fire.
"It will be extermination."
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