Maruyama Kugane: The Invaders of the Large Tomb

“Although our spies, who had been tailing them, have only sent a preliminary report via ‘Message’, they estimate that the workers have been wiped out.”

Jircniv snapped his fingers, and slightly opened his eyes. He had heard that multiple skilled worker groups had been deployed, but it was quite a shocking turn of events for them to be wiped out in just one day, or perhaps even half a day.

Fluder was not really surprised since it was the outcome he had expected, but still showed a surprised expression.

“……Is that so? But speaking of which, it is information gathered through magic, and you know how unreliable that is. How much time will it take for the adventurers to return?”

“Considering that it was an urgent situation where none of the workers had returned, they should have retreated immediately, so it’s estimated that it will still take around four days in total.”

“Including the time needed to gather information from the adventurers… At least five days. So before that, we won’t be able to take any action.”

‘Message’ was not reliable, due to the content becoming less clear over long distances. Many countries did not rely on ‘Message’, for several reasons.

One of them was the tragedy in the country called Gartenbarg.

It happened in that country about three hundred years ago. It was a nation founded by humans who were mainly magic casters with cities centred around quick exchange of information using

‘Message’. But because they trusted ‘Message’ too much, when they received three falsified messages, a civil war broke out between the cities. Then it was destroyed when monsters and demi-humans invaded.

There were also other examples, such as the songs the bards sang about a man who murdered his wife based on false information.

As a result, few people trusted ‘Message’. Conversely, anyone who relied too much on ‘Message’

was thought of as foolish. Jircniv was one of the smarter ones. While he did make use of ‘Message’, he would also gather information through other sources. He would never trust only in a single spell.

“But, that Earl sure is foolish. If he had hired the workers from E-Rantel, things might have gone more smoothly. He might be dancing within my hand due to his incompetence, but too much incompetence is a problem as well. If he’s going to be the bait, he should at least do a good job of it”

“It is as your Majesty says.”

Fluder’s agreement caused Jircniv to raise a brow.

There were two reasons why he accepted Fluder’s proposal in the meeting couple days ago.

The first, would be to gain an understanding of Ainz Ooal Gown’s character.

After Fluder’s investigation, they confirmed that Ainz had not left the ruin for several days, so they considered it to be his dwelling and sent in the workers to gauge his reaction.

It was to see if he would deal with intruders in a reasonable or a harsh manner.

The annihilation of the workers spoke something of his personality.

The other objective was to sow discord between Ainz Ooal Gown and the Kingdom. Thus, it would have been much better if the workers had been hired from E-Rantel, but unfortunately, that was not an option.

He couldn’t have been that foolish, could he?

All the information the Earl had been given was about an unexplored ruin. Knowing that he was going to be delving into a ruin in the Kingdom’s territory, he probably didn’t have the courage to hire people from the Kingdom as well. Hiring workers from the Empire was thus unavoidable.

But under these circumstances, the relationship between E-Rantel and Ainz Ooal Gown, and the Re-Estize Kingdom on the whole wouldn’t deteriorate. If he wanted any hope of accomplishing his second goal, he needed to leak the information about the ruins to the Kingdom’s Adventurer’s Guild as well.

“Momon came to the Empire at the right time.”

“I agree. The information that there was an unexplored ruin as well as the annihilation of the workers will naturally flow to the Kingdom’s Guild through his report. They’ll start a more serious investigation just like the Emperor wanted.”

It was because of this reason that adventurers hadn’t been allowed to take part in this at all. Of course, they did not use the Emperor’s authority, but rather through spies leaking information to the nobles.

This case needed to be handled as a single foolish noble going rogue. They could deny the Empire’s involvement, and then Ainz’s hostility would be directed towards the Earl, while Jircniv could take a friendlier approach.

“After the Kingdom’s adventurers invade the merciless Ainz Ooal Gown’s stronghold, what will the Kingdom’s reaction be once they found out about the powerful magic caster living there? And what will the Kingdom’s Adventurer’s Guild do after they were retaliated against?”

Jircniv smiled while looking forward to his carefully prepared plans.

“I understand Ainz Ooal Gown’s strength. He is powerful enough to wipe out the worker groups.

Our plan to clean up the mess with a single noble’s head. Has it been done yet?”

“Of course, it was done cautiously. No one outside this room should know of the situation.”

“Then, just in ca—What was that!?”

The shaking of the ground interrupted Jircniv mid-sentence. The windows and all of the furniture violently shook around as well, but it was different from the feeling of an earthquake. It felt more like an impact caused by something massive hitting the ground, generating a huge shockwave.

“What happened!? Go and confirm it—damn, it’s noisy. What the hell is going on?!”

Even inside the room, Jircniv could hear the screams coming from outside. This room’s walls had been made quite thick and sturdy, therefore the sound needed to be very loud or there needed to be many people screaming. Just what was happening outside to make people scream like this?

In answer to Jircniv’s doubts, a guard replied from between the gaps of the window’s shutters. He came from the central courtyard, the origin of the sound, and his face was pale.

“Your Majesty! It’s a dragon! A dragon landed on the courtyard!”

For just a moment, the atmosphere in the room froze over. They could not make sense of these words right away, or rather, they could not make sense of these words at all. Even though they knew that the guard had no reason to lie, everyone still rushed to the windows to confirm the situation for themselves.

Jircniv pulled away the curtains peering through a semi transparent window, everyone dropped their jaw at seeing the dragon sitting on the courtyard.

“W-Why is there a dragon here? Where did that dragon come from?”

“Foreign affairs minister! Did you hear of anyone who was going to disrespectfully arrive riding a dragon and land in middle of the courtyard?”

“I know of no such thing!”

“Was there an arrangement with the dragon from the Council? Is that not it!?”

“…Their appearance is completely different from what I had heard. The description from the ministry of foreign affairs should not be wrong.”

“No, the biggest problem is that the thing was allowed to get this far! The Emperor is here! What are all the palace guards doing?”

Dragons could be said to be the mightiest beings in the world, with powerful bodies wrapped in sturdy scales, a lifespan far exceeding those of human beings, as well as all manner of special abilities and magic. Of course, there were exceptions as well, and some dragons had been slain by adventurers in the past, but there were just as many cases in the past where cities and even countries had been destroyed by the flames of wrathful dragons. One such city in the south had been destroyed just twenty years ago.