The Two Leaders

option. The message said it would be fine for them not to participate, but Mare just couldn’t refuse a proposal from his kind and generous master. No, there would not be anyone in the Great Tomb of Nazarick who would refuse.

Mare picked up the pencil that was included in the file and circled the “participating” next to his name.

“…Ehehe.”

He smiled while looking at the circle beside his name, but dark clouds soon shrouded his heart.

“Uh, but… how do I give this to Cocytus?”

There were several mentions across the message to not tell anything to the female guardians and Mare could feel his master’s intention of wanting to keep it a secret amongst the male guardians. In this case it would be best for him to hand the message personally.

If I keep it a secret and sneak out… it won’t be good, right? Because if I’m… uh, do they call it

“attention”? While I’m getting that, she’d need to defend the floor alone.

Unless it was due to orders, Mare would always tell Aura where he was going, even if he was just going to visit the other guardians. It was the right thing to do since Aura and Mare were both tasked with defending this floor.

Mare grasped the magic item hanging around his neck.

“S-sis? Can you hear me?”

An immediate reply came.

『I can hear you Mare. What’s up?』

“Ah, that’s a relief. Uh, what was it. I need to go visit Cocytus right now. I’ll be back soon.”

『To Cocytus?』

“Yea. I need to hurry.”

『What’s it about?』

Mare’s shoulders flinched for a brief moment. He felt like his voice would crack, but then he barely managed to squeeze the words out.

“N-n-n-n-nothing? It’s nothing… but I need to go.”

『Hmmm…』

Aura’s voice sounded as if she was suspicious, and the thought of that caused Mare’s hands to be soaked with sweat.

But, uh, I can’t help it. It’s Ainz-sama’s orders.

Apart from Mare and Aura’s creator —Bukubukuchagama— Ainz’s words ranked higher than any other Supreme Being’s. It took priority over anything else.

『Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. Go then. Remember that the 5th floor is cold, so protect yourself against it… Ah, but if it’s Mare there won’t be a problem.』

“Y-yeah. It’s fine if I use magic. Then I’ll be off.”

If he kept talking for too long, he might give something away. So Mare quickly took his hand off the magic item. It sounded like his sister was trying to say something else before she was cut off, but whether it was fortunate for him or not, he couldn’t hear it.

“A-alright! Time to hurry.”

Mare activated the most important ring he received from his master.

Immediately after he teleported, Mare felt something white sticking to his face.

It was snow that was flying in the air.

Mare’s breath condensed into a white cloud which was instantly blown behind him. It was the result of the snowstorm and the extreme cold in the area.

The snow and ice flew along with the storm in a frenzied whiteout, and the endless snow covered any trace of footprints almost immediately. Though the weather was designed to make any invader lose track of where they were, it was usually not this severe. Usually, the black clouds in the sky would drop a few sprinkles of snow, and even though this was a gloomy world, the clouds never completely covered the sky.

“……Huh…”

Mare looked to the left and the right. He used the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown, so he should be close to where he wanted to go.

Mare moved swiftly after finding his destination. There were no footprints left where he walked.

There was no soft sinking sensation like stepping on snow, it felt more like walking on hard ground.

This pure white world without a trace of anybody else seemed to be telling Mare that there was only snow here. Of course, Mare knew with his passive magical ESP that this wasteland was just a disguise. The ambushers knew that he was the 6th floor guardian, that was why they didn’t show themselves.

Mare arrived at his destination in silence. In front of him was a gigantic white sphere that resembled an upside down wasp’s nest.

Surrounding the structure were six towering crystals, their sharp edges pointed to the sky. There were human-like silhouettes visible on the inside.

As Mare stepped forward, an unnerving cracking sound came from below his feet. When he turned his attention to the floor, he could see that he was standing on a sheet of smooth ice, unlike the snow-covered plain he had been walking on thus far. The ice looked thick, but he could tell there were dark shadows lurking just under the ice.

Mare kept on walking. He took each step with confidence, as if he knew the ice would not break.

Despite the cracking and crunching noise, Mare arrived before the gigantic sphere without a problem.

“E-excuse me. Uh, is Cocytus-san here?”

Mare spoke towards one of the gigantic crystals instead of the sphere.