The Two Leaders

“I don’t know the details, but I saw this young lady going towards the checkpoint with some soldiers. Then suddenly—”

Even though he heard the summary, it was hard to discern the details. Ainz stuck his head out and listened in towards the direction of the check point. He could hear a loud shout when he listened carefully.

Hmmm.

Ainz’s curiosity was stimulated.

When he first arrived at E-Rantel, he was asked several questions as well, but in the end he could enter easily. He almost felt that guards were rather friendly towards common folk like adventurers and travelers. There was probably a real reason why they were friendly to him, but what kind of interrogation was that country girl undergoing?

Because his adamantite rank was universal in nature, there were few cities which would not allow Ainz inside. So Ainz wanted to know what they were asking her. In the future, he might need to infiltrate a city as someone who was not an adamantite-ranked adventurer like Momon. To avoid any problems which might result at that point, he wanted to be prepared.

“Wait here. I’ll check it out.”

“I shall go with you.”

“There’s no need. I’ll be very brief.”

All the soldiers who spotted Ainz shouted out in surprise. In E-Rantel, there was not a single person who did not know of the adamantite-ranked adventurer, Momon.

Ainz put special care into appearing confident as he approached the checkpoint. Inside was an agitated magic caster, a soldier and a country girl sitting on a chair.

“We want to enter the city as quickly as possible… but what’s the matter?”

“Uwaaah!”

The two men screamed out in surprise like the soldiers on the outside and the country girl looked over in his direction with a stupefied expression.

“M-Momon-sama! I apologize!”

“What are you... Hm? She’s...”

It was a familiar face. He felt as if he had seen her before and he racked his brain —even though he did not have one— for information about her.

“Yes! We were investigating this suspicious girl, so it took some time. We apologize for inconveniencing you, Momon-sama—”

Ainz remembered the girl's name while thinking that the man’s voice was distracting.

“—Enri. Yeah, you’re Enri Emmot, correct?”

“Uh, I’m sorry but who… Ah, that’s right. You came to the village with Enfi. I don’t remember talking with you… Did you hear my name from Enfi?”

Ainz froze unintentionally.

The one who met with Enri was the masked magic caster, Ainz Ooal Gown. Right now, he was the adamantite-ranked adventurer wearing pitch black armour, Momon.

Damn it! I said it out loud without thinking. Crap, I need to leave here quickly. But why is she here?

If she was looking for me— no, looking for Ainz Ooal Gown, is something wrong? I need to hear about the details.

Considering what she had just said, it was not likely that she had discovered his true identity, but he needed to take the possibility that he had been discovered into consideration. Even if she could not tell that Ainz and Momon was the same person by comparing the voice from several months ago to what was coming out through the helmet now, there was nothing to lose by being careful.

Ainz called over the magic caster with a beckoning gesture. The magic caster would know more about the situation than the soldier.

He took the magic caster outside the checkpoint, far away enough so that nobody else could listen in the conversation.

“So... She’s a friend of a friend of mine. Can you tell me what happened?”

Technically, it wasn’t a lie since Nfirea was both Ainz and Momon’s acquaintance.

The magic caster opened his eyes wide. His expression was similar to surprise, but it was subtly different. One might compare it to a strand of string connecting to another. It was like he had solved a puzzle.

“Is that so… Of course…”

He wanted to tell the magic caster to stop talking to himself, but Ainz waited for him to speak.

“I thought she was a simple countryside girl, but she was carrying a powerful magic item in the shape of a horn. So I was going to find out how she came into possession of such a powerful item among other things.”

“What kind of horn was it? And its effects?”

“The effects were—”

Ainz looked up into the sky after hearing the whole story. He wanted to avoid the situation because he realized he had given that item to her.

He had given Enri that item for her to protect herself, without knowing that this kind of item was abnormal in this world. He did not imagine that it would cause her trouble. He could make excuses, saying that it was not his fault, but he could not just abandon her either.