Aura listened until her master’s footsteps were out of earshot before she spoke.
“I feel like Lord… Haaagh.”
She trailed off in a sigh. It was hard to keep the act up when it was just the two of them. Not good. Meanwhile, Mare wasn’t really doing any kind of act at all.
It was hardly fair. She shot him a look.
“Mm? Aura, wh-what is it?”
“Mm? Nothing. Nothing at all!” Taking out her frustrations on her brother wouldn’t help. Aura put her head on right and finished her earlier thought. “Uncle Ain seems to be having fun.”
Mare nodded at that.
Aura didn’t really get why, though. Her head tilted to one side.
“He’s been running to the apothecary every day since we got here, but is it really worth all that effort?”
“Good question. B-but I can’t use the druid spells with these trees, so maybe their medicine has some unique qualities, too.”
“If someone as smart as Uncle Ain is this interested, maybe. But I find it hard to believe that this poky little town has something so special to offer. I mean, even the tree magic is just something you happen to not have, right? Or is it something other druids can’t use, either?”
“Hmm. I don’t know. Other people, um, might be able to, but I feel like it’s elf-specific magic that originated in this world. Like daily-life magic did. Also, if Uncle Ain is spending this much time on something, it must be worth it, right?”
That went without saying.
“Yeah, that’s probably true.” Aura looked up at the ceiling, then back at Mare. “So why is it he’s having so much fun?”
“W-well, you know. N-new knowledge—gaining information? That’s fun? He really likes information.”
“Okay, okay. That, I get. That’s how he can make such good plans.”
Their master wasn’t just smart. His obsessive hunger for knowledge directly fed the brilliance and foresight that saw so far ahead.
She remembered Demiurge saying their master had plans that spanned a thousand years, and the way he acted made that claim very convincing.
Aura let out a sigh of admiration.
He hadn’t led the Supreme Beings for nothing.
BubblingTeapot was still her ultimate master, but Ainz was close behind. Peroroncino lagged a distant third. Ankoro Mocchi Mochi and Yamaiko were tied at fourth and the rest of the Supreme Beings beneath them. Mare ranked everyone below third basically the same.
“That’s our uncle! Meanwhile…” Aura’s face fell. “We’re getting nowhere.”
Mare looked just as gloomy.
“Y-yeah. We’ve learned nothing special, not one piece of information that sounds relevant. And we’ve gotta try again?”
“What else can we do? I’m getting real sick of playing house. But if we play something else, then what? We’d probably win most games without even trying, and if we pretend to lose, what’ll happen if they find out and think we’re making fun of them? Technically, we’re supposed to be getting along.”
A long silence.
Another day of playing house lay before them. But they had no solid reason to back out of playing with the village children and had no alternate proposals. If this wasn’t a directive from a Supreme Being, they might have tried faking sick, but that was off the table.
“……………Well, at least we know my tamer skills don’t work on dark elves. That’s something we didn’t know before.” Aura saw Mare wince, so she snapped, “I’m including one-hundred-level dark elves, you know.”
The reminder made him shudder.