With Aura and Mare gone, Ainz finished unpacking. He spent some time gazing absently at the ceiling, occasionally checking the note in his hand.
Killing time.
There hadn’t been that much to unpack, and he was soon done. Finalizing the interior coordination would require their input.
He’d expected someone would come by soon, but no one had.
Ainz glanced back at his notes.
This contained a list of things he expected to happen here and how to deal with them. Nowhere on the list was the scenario “nobody comes at all.”
He had to admit he’d already uncovered a major gap in his projections.
This realization itself was not particularly shocking. Ainz considered himself a thoroughly average mind, and his planning abilities were simply not up to the task. What mattered was how he would recover from this.
He could think of two approaches offhand. First, just sit and wait. The second was get up and go out.
He opted for the former. Didn’t want to accidentally miss them.
For a while, Ainz waited, doing nothing in particular. Just as he was starting to fear he’d made the wrong choice, a young dark elf finally poked her head in the door. This was a very tight-knit village, and no one considered this rude. Her eyes met Ainz’s, and she looked a bit surprised.
That seemed odd to him.
Why would his presence be surprising?
Or maybe this is a natural reaction to poking your head in someone’s house—loaner or not—and finding them staring right at you. But given how they act around one another, I somehow doubt that.
The young woman bobbed her head at him, then turned her eyes to the floor. She stepped inside and set down the plate she’d brought.
Dark elves wore shoes even inside the elf trees. Ainz privately thought it a bit weird to put dishes of food down on the floor, but they also sat there to eat—from what he’d seen, less than half of them used tables—so maybe this was considered normal.
There was something else on his mind now.
Ainz and the woman were already quite close to each other. Another step or two and she could have handed the dish right to him. But she’d set it on the floor without a word. Their eyes never met again after she’d first stepped in.
Ainz knew what that meant.
She had no intention of speaking to him.
This didn’t appear to be a gesture of hostility, scorn, loathing, or anything negative like that. The way she’d set the dish down had been perfectly polite. Perhaps she was just…a poor communicator.
Or maybe it’s an overabundance of caution. An adult comparable to Aura in power—one they know little about. A measure of caution is commendable. Especially when you consider the gender difference. But I brought gifts to avoid giving any standoffish impressions and put on a whole performance… Dang. Not sure what to do.
He didn’t know if this woman had children and didn’t want the village women—especially the mothers—telling their kids not to play with the twins.
Children ignored what their parents said all the time, but they also listened.
Ainz thought a moment and decided he wasn’t getting anywhere fast.
If I don’t know why she’s acting this way or how she feels, there’s nothing I can do. I don’t know how she normally behaves, so speculation is useless. No need to rush to a conclusion.
Once she’d finished setting the dish down, she bowed her head and left the elf tree. Ainz bowed his head in return.
Left alone again, he let a long sigh slip out.
He’d failed to ask.
He couldn’t bring himself to confront her about her behavior. Even if he’d let that pass without comment, there’d been other questions or conversations he’d wanted to have. But the wall between them was so obvious, it had made him instinctively recoil.
He would just have to hope the next person would be more receptive.
Waiting for them to come to him seemed more productive than trying to break through that woman’s barriers.
Putting the thought out of his mind, he turned his attention to the food she’d left—which brought back memories of being Satoru Suzuki.
I was wrong! It’s still not too late! I need to take action before it becomes a problem!
That was how it went at work.
It hurt less to report a mistake to the boss right away than wait for it to be discovered. What seemed like a huge blunder often turned out to be not that big a deal after all. But left unchecked, the wound often festered.
And right now, he had several things he needed to communicate to the dark elves.
Ainz got up and hustled out of the elf tree.
He soon found the retreating woman. Dark elves—or elves in general—had better hearing than humans, so she’d likely heard him coming after her and had already started to turn.
“—Excuse me.”
“Y-yes?”
He must have spoken a moment too quickly and startled her; her voice was a squeak.
“About the welcome banquet”
“Please bring that up with the elders.”
She spoke quite quickly, almost on top of him.
Ainz suspected there was something she didn’t want to admit or was actively hiding. Could it be a surprise party? That was the only thing Ainz could think of.
It was pretty weird to try and make a welcome banquet a surprise, but maybe that was how dark elves did things, and he was better off just ignoring that little detail.
“Okay, so…I’m not sure what you call it in this village, but I’m currently on a Kayoukazen’s Lament.”
“A…Kayoukazen’s Lament?”
“Yes, you’ve heard of it?”
The name and the practice itself were both things Ainz had made up, so she couldn’t possibly know it—a fact rather undermined by her response.
“Er, um…no, well… I might have… Yes! It may or may not ring a bell.”
This rattled Ainz. Did they have a similar phrase? Then this whole thing could backfire. Especially if their term referred to something bad. He had no clue how he’d wriggle out of that one.
But since the word lament itself was often used when mourning someone, perhaps that alone suggested what he meant. Since Kayoukazen was a word he had pulled out of thin air, he should be able to imbue it with whatever meaning he needed to cover all contingencies.
Incidentally, Ainz hadn’t learned the word lament at work but from a skill name in Yggdrasil. He’d gotten curious about what it meant and looked it up.
“Uh, really? No, that makes sense. We’re all dark elves. Perhaps we do share the term. But we can’t be sure it means the same thing without further explanation.”
“Y-yes, that’s a good point. I feel like I’ve heard the term before, but I can’t be sure it’s the same Kayoukazen.”
They were both talking a bit too fast, and their smiles were noticeably strained. Ainz’s face was an illusion, so it didn’t actually move that much.
“At any rate, this month I’m mourning those I’ve lost, so I’d rather avoid anything as festive as a banquet. Naturally, I respect your village’s customs, so if you insist I make an appearance, I’m willing to do so—just be aware that I won’t be consuming anything.”
“Ah, you’re in mourning? Fasting is completely understandable, then.”
Is it? Ainz thought, nodding anyway.
“In any case, I’d like to inform the elders. Do you know where I can find them?”
“I—I can pass along word for you.”
“Oh? Then…thank you! Please do!!”
The way the woman had been talking, Ainz had assumed he’d have to go himself, but he wasn’t about to point that out. Not even to double-check. Her proposal was very convenient, so he took her up on it.
Now all he had to do was beat a quick retreat before she changed her mind.
He bid her farewell with a speed that left her blinking. Ignoring her reaction, Ainz rushed back to their lodgings. Fortunately, she didn’t call out or try to stop him.
Once safely back inside, he picked up the dish she’d left on the floor.
It was heavily laden—though still easy to lift by Ainz’s standards—with a massive amount of food. Clearly more than three people could consume.
The likely intention was to provide six servings. Morning and evening meals for three. That went a long way to explaining the sheer volume, but it still seemed like a lot. Maybe that was simply because Satoru Suzuki had never been a big eater, and since becoming Ainz, he’d become unable to eat anything at all. Perhaps this wouldn’t seem too much to anyone else.
Living in a place like this, you likely need a substantial calorie intake. There are no nutritionally complete food products.
The meal consisted of cooked meats—just roasted with no accoutrements, by the looks of it—and dried fruits. These were paired with some sort of leafy salad. There was also something that resembled mashed potatoes accompanied by a variety of nuts. And what appeared to be fried caterpillars. Rather large ones.