Overlord - Prologue

“Go ahead, Peroroncino-san.”

“…I’d like to know, just to test the waters, as a hypothesis, for comparison… but what kind of name would Momonga pick for the guild?”

Momonga racked his brains as he heard the question.

“Right now, I don’t have anything in mind.”

“Well, any name will do.”

Why were they so adamant about this? As those thoughts ran through his mind, Momonga started trying to think of a good name.

“How about Heteromorphic Zoo?”

That seemed like a decent name. Someone must have muttered it from somewhere.

“Heteromorphic Zoo, huh? It’s surprisingly good, and it does fit our image. Just that… well, it makes us sound like small fries.”

“It sounds a bit exotic, but it’s not bad… Although it does sound like a cameo organization you find in mangas. You know, in tournaments.”

“It feels like the sort of team that shows up on the fight list, but ends up losing before getting a chance to show up. That’s what I would do, to make the readers think they were strong, but then they’d lose in the next panel.”

“I kind of like it, though, it has a nice villainous feel to it.”

Yamaiko was muttering to herself among the people discussing nearby.

“Still, I feel that it’s a waste to completely abandon our current clan name. It would be nice if we could pick a new name that had some relation to the old one.”

Silence suddenly fell across the room, followed by voices agreeing with Yamaiko.

Momonga could accept that suggestion — although she probably had not meant to make one. Closing his eyes brought to mind the enjoyable times spent with these clan members. He considered that these unforgettable memories would vanish with that name, and he hated it.

“Nine’s Own Goal. Nine suicidal people? Is there something related to—?”

“If that’s the case, how about the Knights Templar? After all, Touch-san is kind of like Hugues de Payens. Well… though we are missing one person.”

Although he had no idea what Tabula Smaragdina was talking about, Momonga felt it must be related to some occult knowledge. After all, he was quite versed in occult lore. There were far too many things that Momonga did not know anything about.

“Knights Templar doesn’t even have a word in common with Nine’s Own Goal.”

“Tabula Smaragdina-san is always talking about things we can’t understand.”

“Ah, yes, sorry about that.”

“How about baseball? A baseball team needs nine people.”

“Even football is on its way out. Besides, you should remember that the reason we’re discussing this is because we aren’t nine people any more. You should think about something that doesn’t have anything to do with the number nine.”

The nephilim Warrior Takemikazuchi did not take part in the dialogue. Instead, he sank into thought, scribbled some things onto his PDA, and then he spoke.

“If we want to use the ん sound… how about Ains? Nine’s starts with the letter N, and in Hiragana, n is ん. That way, if we take the first character N and substitute it with an A, we get Ains.”

“Not bad. So it represents the end of the current clan, and a new beginning in the form of Ains?”

“It feels a bit forced, but it’s definitely the best suggestion so far…Ains… it comes out as Ains, right? Or how about Ainz?”

“Both are fine, right? It’s not a big problem. Rather than think about that, we should try and find a way to use Own and Goal.”

“If we go with that,” Punitto Moe began. “How about Ooal Gown? Have Own Goal become Ooal Gown.”

“Ohh! It’s perfect… hm? There’s an extra O, where did it come from? Without it, it becomes Gwn? Ainz Ooal Gwn? Hm…”

“Well, it’s not often that you get the chance to play with anagrams.”

“Before that, Ooal is pronounced oo-ul, right?”

“Just like that. After all ooze is for slimes.”

That great insistence came from Herohero, the slime.

“N, W and G are all used. North, West… gone.”

Though the topic had completely shifted to making anagrams of the name, the voices slowly grew softer, like they were tired.

Amidst this heated debate, Momonga felt that there would probably not be any better ideas. He carefully considered the suggestions and after making sure that there were no others, he looked to all the members and made his decision clear.

“Then, we will combine the suggestions from Takemikazuchi-san and Punitto Moe-san to make the new guild name. Does anyone disagree?’

“Nope~”

Everyone seconded Bukubukuchagama’s statement.

If that was the case—

“Then, our guild’s new name is Heteromorphic Zoo!”

In that instant, the sounds of laughter and teasing reached Momonga. He showed both his palms to indicate that he got it, and then he coughed.

“Well, that was a silly joke. So — we’re decided on Ainz Ooal Gown then?”

The clan members agreed in one voice.

“Then, who will take the quest for setting up the guild? Is anyone willing to help? If you’re busy, I’ll progress it slowly in my free time..”

One needed to carry out a mission when it came to registering a guild. There were eight types of missions to choose from, but only one needed to be perfectly completed. Momonga wondered which of these would be the simplest.