Chapter 7: Arrival and Strange Interactions, part two (28)
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“Nfirea, can I borrow your friend for a bit?” asked the masked woman.
Nfirea didn’t know why his good friend had reacted that way upon hearing miss Viridael’s voice. But he surmised that it was something important, so he nodded his head in the affirmative.
With his confirmation, Enri and Viridael walked into her house together to speak about something that he hadn’t the faintest clue about. He then looked to Momon and Nabe on his wagon.
The both of them seemed clueless on what was going on between the two of them. He hoped it was nothing bad. In actuality, it was something rather good that was going to happen. This village lacked any real protection, so Viridael was going to give them some.
…
As she looked on at the sixteen-year-old girl in front of her, Aeskell couldn’t help but think of her as a little bit airheaded. She had nearly given away her and Ainz’s disguises. That in and of itself was slightly annoying, but it didn’t come to pass, that’s fine.
As Enri fidgeted nervously in her own seat, Aeskell sighed again. This was starting to get awkward, and she really wanted to get this over with now. The danger of her and Ainz being discovered had dampened the adventure somewhat and now she simply wanted to get this over with.
She took off her circlet and mask. At this, the girl in front of her gasped as if she didn’t already know it was Aeskell under the mask. She sighed once more, and then started to speak.
“Enri, I’ve put up sound proofing spells for this room. You don’t need to hold back on what you’re gonna ask. Just, please do so,” she stated with a slight exasperation.
“OK Lady walker, why are you here? And why are you dressed in that plate armor. And… and why is that making my brain go all fuzzing when I look at the belly area?” she asked.
Ok, that last question was probably a blossoming bisexuality thing. But that’s beside the point. Aeskell needed to just deal with this. She took in a deep breath and decided to answer the girl’s questions.
“Me and Ainz, along with a subordinate of ours you haven’t met, decided to start adventuring under the guises of different people. If you’re wondering why, it’s because we wanted more information than we currently have gotten from your village,” she told the young lady.
The young girl nodded her head, then she spoke up with a different question. Aeskell was starting to get the hang of these questions now. In fact, she was starting to enjoy it a little bit. That was probably bad now that she thought about it. she might spill the beans on anything.
“So, is that big guy in the plate armor lord Ainz?” the girl asked.
Aeskell nodded her head. Enri seemed rather shocked by this. It was like her whole idea on what magic castors could be had flipped. She looked back out the singular window that her house had.
There he stood, lord Ainz in plate. He seemed even more imposing now than when she had met him back last week, when the village was attacked. Aeskell could tell that she had started to think about the past week without her family, so she decided to lighten the mood and give the girl something she had thought about giving her.
“Enri, I was thinking about giving you something that could protect the village when we left. But Ainz said we probably shouldn’t, and I had agreed with him at the time,” Aeskell started speaking and Enri looked at the older woman.
Aeskell took two horns out of her inventory and placed them on the table. They were horns of the goblin general. In Yggdrasil they were simple and rather trash items. They would simply summon a troop of goblins to fight for you until they died.
Here, they might have other effects, so Ainz and Aeskell hadn’t given them to Enri and her sister. But that was about to change. Enri took the horns in her hands and looked at them, studied them.
“My lady, I couldn’t possibly take these magic Items. I don’t even know what they do!” Enri rebutted the gift.
Aeskell sighed. She hadn’t expected to have to argue the point like how Ainz had to argue the point with the NPCs of the tomb. She felt like this might be how he feels while speaking to them.
“Enri, these are some rather simple magic items. Simply blow on the horn and it will summon some basic goblins troops. You of course don’t have to do it now. But, you can use it if the village needs any help,” Aeskell stated with a matter-of-fact tone.
Enri nodded at this, finally relenting after the tone that Aeskell had taken said so. She then pushed them deep into her own pockets. Then she looked back up at the older woman and noted her putting back on the mask and circlet.
“Oh, and My armor was made to look attractive. That’s probably why you felt funny,” she finally answered one of Enri’s first questions that she had initially brushed off.
Enri blushed at the brutish reply and bowed her head. She was then about to ask another question, but the other person in the room silenced her.
I am afraid that’s all the time I have right now. I still need to do this job your friend hired me and my group to do. Please don’t talk about this to anyone else, I really don’t like it when Ainz uses memory manipulation magic,” she told the girl, “Oh and call me Viridael while I’m my adventurer self.”
“Of course, Miss Viridael,” Enri replied.
…
Momon was wondering what the two girls had talked about while in the house of the Emmots. But he had an idea on what they had talked about, mainly because Viridael had told him what they had talked about.
But now the boy Nfirea was talking to his friend. The girl had recognized Viridael’s voice as that of Aeskell’s. He wondered why that was the case. Had he forgotten to change the girl’s memory about Aeskell and remembered only himself? That was probably it, how tiresome.
He looked into the woods and started to think about what the job at hand entailed. He had heard about the wise king of the forest, and he was thinking about fighting it to earn some glory in the eyes of the villagers and the other adventuring group, swords of darkness.
As he walked over to the other group that had made their own way over to the forest. He looked back to find Nabe clutching at the cloak she now wore. It seemed she was still shaken up by whatever talk Viridael had had with her.
He leaned onto one knee to look at her and ask her what was wrong.
“Nabe, I want to know what is wrong. What has gotten you so sad?” he asked the child of his friend.
She looked up, expecting to see him towering over her, but instead she saw him at eye level, worried for her. Nabe didn’t know what to think this past day. It was all rather depressing to think about. But she answered her lord anyway.
“I was wondering my lord… Does my fa- Creator miss us?” she asked him.
Momon sucked in a breath. He hadn’t expected such a simple question to be so hard to answer. He also hadn’t expected this question period. He wondered what Viridael had talked to the battle maid about.
“I Don’t know… But I do know this… If I was alone without you or the rest of the great underground tomb of Nazarick… I would sourly miss you all…” he took a minute to think about the next thing he said, “I love you all, children of my friends.”
The tears had started to flow from her eyes now. At first, there was simply one or two of them, but now it was like a downpour. Not like Momon had ever seen rain in its natural state before.
“Don’t cry, Narberal,” he spoke to her. “We have a job to do, remember?” He reprimanded her playfully, and the girl smiled.
…