Overlord (book 1)

Ainz watched the woman standing in the kitchen corner and the various tools lying around the

house.

No mechanical appliances could be seen anywhere.

When Ainz started considering that science and technology were less developed in this world,

he immediately realized that his expectations were a bit naive. Even with magic, science

wouldn’t necessarily advance quickly.

In order to avoid the sun, Ainz cautiously moved his hand on the old table. The simple work

table started to wobble even though the metal gauntlets weren’t that heavy. The chair also

creaked loudly, reacting to Ainz’s shifting weight.

In the truest meaning of the word, poor.

In order to put it out of the way, Ainz leaned his staff against the table. The staff reflected the

sunlight, which created various to bright reflections. Although he was in a rundown village home,

he still found himself surrounded by the illusions of a mythical world. Ainz recalled the amazed

expressions of the villagers.

Upon beholding the high level staff Ainz and his companions had created, the villagers were in

awe, causing Ainz to feel very proud. However, this fleeting feeling immediately became merely

a normal level of happy, causing Ainz to furrow his non-existent eyebrows.

He really disliked his forced composure. However, being too scatter-brained would make it

difficult for him to resolve future problems. Reflecting on this, Ainz prepared himself for the

challenge in front of him:

He needed to negotiate with the village chief about the reward for saving the village.

Ainz’s true objective was gathering information rather than gold, but directly asking for

information would raise suspicions.

Although this small vil age shouldn’t be too much of a problem, Ainz was stil worried about the

authorities of the land. If such people knew that Ainz frequently mingled with the villagers to gain information about this world, they would immediately manipulate him.

Am I being too cautious?

Ainz felt like this situation was similar to dashing across the road. There was a chance that he

could get into a fatal accident at any moment. In other words, there might be a chance that he

would meet with the world’s strongest fighters.

Ghoststaker: Remember to look left and right in case of Martial artists…

Strength was relative.

Ainz might’ve been stronger than anyone he had met in this vil age, however that didn’t mean

he was stronger than everyone else in this world. Also, right now Ainz was an undead and

judging from the girl’s past reactions, the general disposition towards undead was very obvious.

He needed knowledge about his situation and he had to be careful since he could be attacked

at any time by humans who hated him.

"I kept you waiting."

The village chief sat down on the seat across from Ainz and his wife stood behind him.

The village chief had dark, muscular skin and a face full of wrinkles.

From a glance you could tell that his robust body was forged through heavy manual labor. Half

of his hair was already white.

Although his cotton clothes were stained with dirt, they didn’t smell.

From the weary look of his face, one would guess that he was more than forty years old. His

actual age however was hard to accurately discern.

Apparently the today’s events caused him to age a few years. The vil age chief’s wife seemed to

be as old as he was.

Although she formerly had the charm of a slim, delicate beauty, many years of hard farm work

have washed it almost completely away. Her face was full of freckles. Now she was only a

skinny, old auntie with disheveled, shoulder-length black hair. Even if viewed in the sunlight, its

color would still be dull.

"Please."

The old lady put a humble village cup on the table. Albedo wasn’t served because she was stil

walking around the village.

Ainz raised his hand to decline the steaming cup with the boiled water.

He didn’t feel thirsty and he couldn’t take off his mask. But since he saw the hard work put into

preparing the water, he should have declined earlier.

By the way, the hard work refers to the task of boiling the water.

She started with a flint. Showering small sparks onto thin wood chips, she then let the fire grow

larger. It took her a while to get the stove’s fire going, and then she had to wait until the hot

water boiled.

She didn’t use electricity, but a fire she made by hand to boil the water. This was the first time

Ainz saw anything like this and, he was very interested in the process. In Ainz’s original world,

everyone in the past used gas to cook, so what she just did should be about as hard.

Regarding technology, Ainz wanted to use the opportunity to gather some information. Thinking

this way, Ainz once again faced the village chief.

“Even though you boiled water especially for me, I’m truly sorry.”

"You are too kind, there’s no need to apologize."

Ainz, who is gently bowing his head to apologize, made the couple feel uneasy. They couldn’t

imagine that the person ordering the "Death Knight" around would actually bow his head in

order to apologize.