We dealt with the demons' attack.
Perhaps because my standards had been raised by fighting Serie, the battle against the demons had honestly fallen below my expectations. But looked at another way, that only meant Serie was absurdly strong, far beyond common sense. As a test, it was a fairly satisfying result.
*Things went more smoothly than I expected.*
When I looked to the side, the Death Knight was there, waiting for orders.
Rotting, decaying skin. A gaunt face thin enough to be mistaken for a skull.
Its demonic full plate armor and weapons were hideous by any standard, but as I watched it stand there quietly staring at me, somehow...
*It's like a dog.*
Why did I find it cute?
Had my sense of beauty become warped because I was no longer human?
"So cool!"
As I was wondering whether my human sensibilities had simply dried up, Flamme clapped at the Death Knight.
Perhaps the sight of it cutting down the demons had left an impression on her.
Praised as cool by a young girl, the Death Knight bashfully twisted its body.
It was certainly a strange sight, but what Ainz felt was not dissonance, but relief.
*Thank goodness. So I'm not the strange one.*
Relieved by the thought that I had not yet lost my humanity, I spoke to Serie.
"Honestly, I thought she'd be scared, so I'm glad she likes it."
"..."
Caught between two eccentrics whose tastes were far removed from ordinary human aesthetics, Serie had to wonder whether she was the odd one after all.
Was this what it felt like for a two-eyed person to enter a world of one-eyed people?
...Putting that aside, I looked at the demons lined up behind the Death Knight. Every one of them was missing its head or had damaged body parts, yet they were all standing properly.
This was the creation effect of one of the Death Knight's abilities, Squire Zombie.
"You did better than expected, Death Knight."
At Ainz's words, it bowed its head as if saying it was honored.
No matter how strong it was, the Death Knight was only level 35.
Its defensive potential was high, but its offensive power was lacking, so I had honestly not expected much.
And yet it had gone and filmed a mad scene of lopping off every demon's head, so I had to revise my opinion.
*Judging by the amount of mana, the demons were quite strong. Even so, they died easily to the Death Knight's surprise attack.*
Just as Serie had said, mages in this world were weak in close combat.
Because mages relied on image, if their opponent's mana was higher than theirs, they ended up forming the image that they could not win.
*But against a warrior, there may be a difference in strength, yet the possibility of victory still exists.*
It was not easy for the weak to defeat the strong, but the difference between 0 damage and 1 damage was immense.
*If I can multiply that 1 damage with my own abilities, then the gap created by levels stops being absolute.*
In simple terms, it was a matter of compatibility. This world was different from Yggdrasil, where nullification-type effects were often attached as passives.
Because this world was reality, it was not a place determined by simple numerical values like a game.
Thinking back on it now, countering Serie by becoming a perfect warrior had been a desperate measure, but it had also been the most appropriate one.
"That aside, it should be about a hundred minutes soon."
The Death Knight had been created by an Undead creation skill in a place where there had been nothing at all. Its duration was roughly a hundred minutes, so it would soon disappear.
It was good timing, since I could not have taken it all the way into the city anyway.
I had hidden its skeletal features with a mask and gauntlets so no one would realize it was Undead.
Since the word Undead had come up the first time I met Serie, they must exist in this world as well.
However, just as in Yggdrasil, they were probably not on friendly terms with humans.
"It's about time."
The Death Knight gradually grew fainter.
"Ah..."
Flamme, who had been watching the Death Knight with fascinated eyes, let out a disappointed sound.
The Death Knight said nothing either, but it lowered its head as though apologizing for leaving.
And when the Death Knight vanished, the demons that had been remade into Squire Zombies also crumbled into ash and scattered.
"So demon corpses don't remain behind."
"When monsters die, they do not leave corpses behind, but vanish into dust. The demons derived from them are the same. The only reason they had maintained their forms until now was because they were being held together by mana."
Serie recited her knowledge of demons.
"That saves us the trouble of burying them. Though it is unpleasant that they can make such a mess and then disappear without leaving anything behind."
Leaving the demons that had turned to dust behind, I looked at the place where the Death Knight had disappeared.
"Watching that magic that raises corpses made me realize something. The magic you use shatters everything I know as common sense."
"What makes you think that?"
At first glance, Ainz's magic could seem like magic that insulted the dead. But the Death Knight created just now had been made purely through a skill.
"Magic may rely on image, but that does not make it an all-purpose force that can do anything. The more refined the magic, the more exacting its conditions become."
For example, the magic that controlled water, which had displayed tremendous power at sea. But if there was no water, it had to use the moisture in the air, and its power dropped sharply.
To begin with, it was Serie who had been abnormal for pouring mana into the sea itself and making it move. An ordinary mage needed prior preparation just to move a river.
"What about magic that creates flower fields? It makes beautiful flowers bloom even on land where there aren't any."
When Flamme asked, Serie pointed out the magic that created flower fields.
"To make a bud bloom, you need an image of the flower you intend to bloom. You cannot create a flower that does not exist."
"I see. I've never tried making a flower I didn't know, so I never realized..."
"You know flowers well, so you've probably been able to make most of them bloom with ease."
Within such constraints, Ainz's magic was different.
That much was clear from seeing him detect the signs before the demons appeared and send the Death Knight around by another route.
The Death Knight had not risen from the ground. It had leaped out from a magic circle.
"About that thing called a Death Knight. Can something made by magic really be called a corpse?"
To the eyes of a mage from this world, Yggdrasil's magic belonged to the domain of creation.
If it were magic that raised a corpse, then naturally there should have to be a dead body.
Hearing that, Ainz could not simply say, "Because it's a game," so he considered it realistically.
"Certainly, hearing it put that way makes the alien nature of my magic stand out. Then what happens if I use it on an actual corpse?"
"I don't know."
There was no fear of the unknown. What could be seen through Serie's eyes was nothing but scholarly curiosity.
"Which is why we find out, isn't it?"
Her expression said she found magic too fascinating to bear.
The soap bubbles covering the sky could no longer hold their shape and burst.
"Well then, our time for idle talk is over. We'll leave the discussion here. We can learn the rest little by little."
We had all the time in the world, so we could leave the rest for later.
She pushed her feelings about magic deep down her throat and brought up a new topic.
"The city is close. The barrier has fallen, so we can continue the rest of this conversation after we return."
When we arrived at the city, I saw white buildings rising behind the walls.
I could also see people patrolling the area with torches in hand.
When we approached the city wall, the guards recognized Serie and immediately opened the way.
The inside of the wall was dimly lit by tiny lanterns.
The white monotony and still structure stood out, but the cloths hanging on lines showed traces of daily life.
The finer details were different, but if I had to compare it to something, the architecture resembled that of Greece.
When we searched for materials to expand Nazarick, our guild home, the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, we had referred to Greek styles quite a bit.
We passed through an alley and entered a large building.
"It's big."
"How many years do you think I've lived?"
As we stepped into a building large enough to rival one of Nazarick's floors, a long corridor greeted us.
"Flamme, it's late. Go to your room and sleep."
"Okay. Sleep well, Master."
After seeing Flamme to her room and the two of us were left alone, Serie spoke.
"Since you're Undead, you have no need for sleep anyway."
"That's right."
Since coming to this world, I had never once felt fatigue or lack of sleep.
I probably never would again.
They were senses I had lost when I became Undead.
"I thought as much. Come with me. I'll show you something good."
We walked down the long corridor.
Seen from afar through the corridor windows, it looked as though Serie was leading and Ainz was following behind.
When we reached the end of the corridor and stepped beyond it, deep darkness spread before us.
"Here it is."
With a snap of her fingers, the torches set in place lit one after another, revealing the vast hall within.
What filled it was simple. Books, and more books. Countless mountains of books rose like pillars into towers.
[High-Tier Item Detection] went off.
*Are most of these grimoires?*
The more I appraised them, the more awe they inspired.
"Hah..."
It was a treasury of books that reminded me of Ashurbanipal, Nazarick's great library.
"Impressive indeed. It's been a long time since I've seen so many books gathered in one place."
"This is where every grimoire in the history of present-day mankind lies sleeping."
Her sleeves fluttering, she walked across the carpet.
"Tell me one magic you like."
"Are you saying you'll give me one just because it's written in a book?"
"Who knows? Depending on your answer, I just might."
I could lie to obtain magic, but judging by instinct, honesty was probably better.
"I've never liked any in particular, so I wouldn't know."
To Ainz, magic had only ever been a means used in a game. It was hard to say he liked it.
She nodded as though even that answer pleased her.
"We have all the time in the world. If you don't have a favorite magic, then you can simply make one."
She crossed the carpet and climbed a short flight of stairs.
"What kind of being you are, what kind of life you've lived, what sort of past you carry—none of that matters."
At the top of the stairs, she sat crookedly upon a stone seat.
It looked almost frivolous, but anyone who had seen the years she had lived and the authority she possessed would acknowledge that arrogance.
"From now on, we will hear the same things, learn the same things, and remember the same things."
We had each lived different lives, but the eternal and the deathless had met across the ages. If we kept moving forward, we would eventually run parallel.
"After all, both of us have more time than we know what to do with, don't we?"
For two beings who would live spans far beyond a human life, unless one of us died, this relationship at least would be eternal.
I did not know what form it would take, but the days ahead would surely be busier than the time I had spent in the sea.
"I look forward to working with you from here on, partner."
And so my study of magic from another world began.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Are you an idiot? Don't tell me you can't even use basic magic. At this rate, this is going to take ages."
"..."
For Ainz, whose education had ended with elementary school, the study of magic did not go smoothly. But one way or another, time was eternal, so surely he would manage it someday.
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