The Invaders of the Large Tomb

The creature pulling the luxurious carriage was an eight-legged beast, a Sleipnir. Two skilled-looking warriors were seated on the front platform, on the roof of the carriage. The area where the luggage was usually stored had been modified to seat a group of four magic casters and archers, who were watching the surrounding with wary eyes.

It could be described as a mobile stronghold traveling under high security in broad daylight. And of course, the one riding inside was of a fittingly high status.

Just by looking at the emblem on the side of the carriage, which consisted of three overlapping staffs, everyone with a certain level of knowledge/culture would be able to tell who was sitting inside and who the owner of this carriage was. As such, the knights standing guard did not make any sound.

There were three men inside the carriage. All of them wore robes and were dressed like magic casters.

Although all three were famous figures within the Empire, even among them there was a clear difference in their attitude and status. The white haired elderly man clearly had the highest status among them.

Similar to how Gazef Stronoff was renowned as a warrior, there was no magic caster who was more famous than this man. This elderly man was the most powerful magic caster in the Empire, ‘Tri Arts’ Fluder Paradyne.

Opposite Fluder were two of his disciples, both of whom could use magic up to the 4th tier.

As though he could no longer endure the heavy atmosphere after setting off from the Imperial capital, one of the disciple sheepishly said:

“Master, what should we do about his Imperial Majesty’s orders?”

Silence took over the carriage once again. The moment they thought that was the case, Fluder answered in a deep and calm voice.

“If his Imperial Majesty wishes it, we as his vassals can only carry out his orders and begin our investigation. However, it is too risky to investigate using magical means. Should we start by studying the archives or conducting a demon summoning? In the end, we still need to gather information.”

“Are you saying that even you do not know, Master?”

Fluder closed his eyes and opened them several seconds later.

“My knowledge is lacking. I don’t know anything about the powerful demon Jaldabaoth.”

About one month ago, a group of demons assaulted the Kingdom’s capital. According to the intelligence they gathered, the commander Jaldabaoth and his maid servants were horrifying beings from another plane of existence.

Because of the demon crisis, the annual invasion against the Kingdom hadn’t been launched this year. Thinking normally, the Empire should have taken advantage of the situation and attacked the Kingdom while they were still exhausted from the demon invasion.

However, there were two reasons why the Empire waged war against the Kingdom.

The first reason was to exhaust the resources of the Kingdom. Unlike the Empire that formed standing armies, the Kingdom conscripted their soldiers. Hence, the Kingdom would lose in terms of quality every time the Empire mobilized its forces, so they had to make it up with the quantity of their troops. That was the reason why they picked the harvesting seasons to wage war. The farmers would be conscripted and unable to harvest their crops, which was a long term plan to sap the resources of the Kingdom.

The other reason was to weaken the power of the nobles within the Empire. During the war, they imposed special taxes on nobles who opposed the Emperor and drained them of their money. If they refused, they would be would be charged with treason. In the end, the only difference was tightening the noose on their necks or killing them for expressing a wrong idea.

As those were the reasons, the Kingdom which was already spent from the battle could be left alone— that was the conclusion of Emperor Jircniv. He had pulled the fangs of most of the nobles anyway.

However, there was still one problem.

Where was Jaldabaoth now, the one who committed atrocities befitting the title of a demon? And what kind of existence was this being that created such calamity?

It was only natural for the order to investigate Jaldabaoth to fall on Fluder, the most outstanding magic caster in the Empire.

“And the one who defeated Jaldabaoth, ‘Dark Hero’ Momon and his team mate ‘Beautiful Princess’

Nabe. How fascinating. And the mysterious magic caster Ainz Ooal Gown. Are all the hidden heroes starting to make their move? Maybe a fierce battle similar to the fight against the demon god two hundred years ago will happen once again.”

“...Will that really happen?”

“I have no idea, but only a fool would make preparations after the fact. Being ready before it happens is the action of a wise man.”

The carriage finally reached its destination.