Chapter 329: Meeting the Guardians ; Name ; Plans |
"Albedo, step back," I say as I sense the small figure getting closer to the throne.
"Yes, Lord Momonga," she responds as the passionate look on her face abruptly changes to a serene one, following which she respectfully takes a few steps back.
At this moment, the giant double doors quite a distance away from me slowly open. Following this, a doll-like girl enters the room while carrying a purple umbrella atop her head.
The girl has extremely pale skin and is of short stature. Her attire consists of a black dress with a big heavy-looking skirt.
Upon closer inspection, I notice two things that stand out most about the young-looking girl.
First, there is a giant ribbon atop her head that's tied to her silver hair, forming a long ponytail.
Leaving that aside, what stands out most about her are her ruby eyes. From within them, I sense both passion and reverence as she gazes at me with a bright smile covering her dainty lips.
"Excuse me, Lord Momonga," Albedo says as she bows before she turns and begins to step down from the higher ground while keeping her focus on the approaching doll-like girl.
"Good evening," the girl says to Albedo as she lets go of her umbrella, which immediately turns into tiny black fluttering creatures which seem to be butterflies.
"Is something wrong? For Lord Momonga to require the presence of the Floor Guardians, it appears that there is an urgent matter."
"Yes," Albedo responds coolly, "Although it's unclear why Lord Momonga has made such an order, there surely is an important reason behind it."
Ignoring the two ladies' conversation, I take a quick look through my current abilities and suddenly come across something familiar - Clairvoyance.
Focusing on the ability, some information suddenly appears in my head regarding it and its usage.
Fortunately, it turns out that the ability is similar to the Clairvoyance I am familiar with, albeit this one requires me to activate a spell.
Out of curiosity, I mentally activate the spell, immediately after which, I feel like my sight detaches from my head as I look down upon the chamber and throne that I am sitting on.
While doing so, I notice another difference, which is that unlike the Clairvoyance I am used to, this one can't have my sight freely moving around. Instead, it's completely stationary, unless I reactivate the ability to move my sight elsewhere.
Anyway, I better check out the world I am in since I will most likely be spending quite some time here.
With such thoughts swirling in my mind, I reactivate the Clairvoyance spell, willing for it to appear way up in the sky.
The next moment, my sight is high up in the sky, looking down upon a green and lush world. Right underneath me, there is the top of the tomb, which is rather large and gives off an eerie vibe.
While checking out the tomb, I notice a swift black figure moving like a gale as it comes to a stop now and then, seemingly to check the place out.
That should be Sebas, the butler. His speed sure is something...
Ignoring Nazarick and the busy man, I start to look around, only to be pleasantly surprised with the things that enter my vision.
For instance, there is a village quite some distance away from here, which would've been impossible to spot if my sight wasn't as absurd as it currently is. Out of curiosity, I reactivate Clairvoyance to shift my sight over to a new location right above the village.
Having done so, I start inspecting the buildings and the happenings in the village, only to realize that it's a relatively normal village with building styles that seem to be from the medieval age.
There are fewer villagers outside than I expected, which I assume is because it's nighttime.
Still, I wonder what these fellows are up to in their homes? In this age, there are no cell phones and other entertainment devices from the modern age to pass time. Do they occupy themselves with their hobbies, or do they do some simple work to sell for some currency?
Either way, I am curious to the point that I would like to simply go ahead and check the village out personally. But then again, I can't do that just yet, since I have to settle the matter with my current base and my new underlings.
Done inspecting, I deactivate Clairvoyance, causing my sight to return to my current body, only for me to get startled with the presence of a lot more individuals than the initial two.
Right now, there are a total of eight individuals present within the room, including myself. Out of the eight, two are currently bickering. One is the doll-like girl from earlier, and the other is a young-looking tanned girl with pointy ears.
Close to them are two individuals who seem to have gotten caught up in their bickering. A young-looking girl... or is it a boy? I don't know, he or she is dressed in female attire, so I can assume it's a she for now. Anyway, she looks highly like the one that's currently bickering with the doll-like girl.
Setting her aside, there is a giant blue insect-like creature with multiple arms near her, that's standing motionlessly with a long blue staff in its hand. For some reason, I feel like it's tired despite it being extremely hard to make out any expression from its odd head.
Lastly, there is Albedo, whom I am already familiar with, as well as a small floating pink creature with an odd appearance. This one should be Victim, according to Satoru.
As for the twins, they should be Aura and Mare. While the insect-like creature is Cocytus.
That only leaves the doll-like girl, which should be Shalltear, a true vampire.
All of those present are currently busy among themselves apart from Victim and Albedo, who are positioned closer to the stairs and are soundless.
Hm... I feel like one of the Floor Guardians is missing...
As soon as the thought passes through my head, a somewhat tall figure appears within my senses and directly makes its way into the throne hall.
Looking over, I find a man neatly dressed in an orange suit. From his back, protrudes a thick ashen-colored tail.
Appearance-wise, the man is quite slim, and his face is lean. He has dark skin and neatly combed black hair. His ears are pointy, similar to Aura and Mare's ears, and has a few silver piercings attacked to them.
"I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting," the man says in a pleasant tone while smiling.
"You. Are. Finally. Here. Demiurge," utters the giant Cocytus as a gust of cold air exudes from the orifices in its head.
Seeming to have been waiting for this moment, Albedo gracefully walks to the front of the group as she turns to face them and says, "Everyone, we pay to our supreme leader, the ritual of fidelity."
As her voice fades, the rest of the Floor Guardians become silent as, apart from Victim, they straighten their posture and stand in an orderly fashion.
A few seconds later, Shalltear takes a step forth and places her left palm atop where her heart is as she kneels and says, "The guardian of the first, second, and third floor, Shalltear Bloodfallen. I bow before the supreme one."
Following this, Cocytus steps forth and kneels similarly, repeating the statement with utter respect, with the only changed thing being that he is the guardian of the fifth floor.
After him, one of the two twins takes a step forth and says, "The guardian of the sixth floor, Aura Bella Fiora."
Shortly after which, the other twin also steps forth and says, "Also the guardian of the sixth floor, Mare Bello Fiore."
"We bow before the supreme one," they say collectively as they both kneel at the same time.
Seeing the two are done, this time, Demiurge steps forth and introduces himself as the guardian of the seventh floor.
Unlike the rest, Victim remains in its place as an odd voice reaches me, ".droL yM ,wob ot elba gnieb ton rof eno siht esucxE .mitciV ,roolf ht8 eht fo naidraug ehT"
... Huh? My confusion lasts for a brief moment before what he uttered starts to make sense somehow. 'The guardian of the 8th floor, Victim. Excuse this one for not being able to bow, My Lord,' it said.
What's with this creature? First, there is its creepy yet strangely cute shape, and now there is its manner of speaking.
For now, I decide to not heed it much attention as I focus on the only one left - Albedo.
"Leader of the guardians, Albedo. I bow before the supreme one," she says in a calm and serene tone as she kneels while smiling.
After a brief moment of silence, Albedo opens her mouth once more while still kneeling and states, "Other than the Floor Guardian of the fourth floor, Gargantua, all the guardians have appeared to bow before you."
Wow... And here I thought that the angels were going to be the only ones with absurd loyalty and reverence toward me. Yet, here I am, sitting atop a throne, with a bunch of guardians in front of me that are expressing their overwhelming loyalty in such a manner.
I can practically feel the varying emotions contained within these guardians, which would be an understatement to say that it only makes me satisfied.
If things are as they seem to be, finishing my objectives shouldn't be that hard, considering how powerful these subordinates are according to Satoru.
All of a sudden, another figure steps into the throne hall, which I directly recognize as Sebas.
The old-looking man elegantly walks over, only to stop right behind the floor guardians, albeit a little to the right as he kneels and says, "Lord Momonga, I have finished the task that you had assigned to me."
"Good," I say in a calm tone, "Share with us the result of your observation."
"Yes, at once," he responds before inhaling and saying, "There appears to be a problem concerning the location of the Great Tomb of Nazarick."
His words cause a small stir among the guardians as some of them twitch and carefully look over at him.
"Instead of the swamps that used to surround Great Tomb of Nazarick, it's now surrounded by grasslands."
"Grasslands, you say?" I utter as I consider how a base surrounded by swamps would've been. Nothing neat, I'd guess.
"Yes, My Lord. Aside from that, there are no buildings, humans, or monsters in a one-kilometer radius."
"Great work," I say, as I shift my focus over to the guardians.
Looks like the base has been transported elsewhere. Perhaps, this is why I have received my current objective of securing the base?
But then again, what exactly are going to be my foes in the future? Monsters or humans? This is a game after all, so I suppose it would more of the former. Nevertheless, from what I've seen so far, this guild consists of quite a bit of non-human beings.
Speaking from experience, humans aren't going to be very welcome of supernatural creatures, especially one like me, a damned skeleton that can cast magic and leads around an entourage of other powerful non-humans.
Anyway, aside from the objective granted by the game, I will also depend on some self-made objectives, such as recognizing my foes in this world and discovering more information about the world itself. After all, knowledge is power - in more ways than one in my case.
For now, since there are so many inconsistencies with Satoru's description of the game, I suppose this world is different from the 'game world' he is used to.
If anything, I feel like this 'game' is yet another Platform. However, that shouldn't be the case for a few reasons.
First, the Time-Key would've had some kind of effect on it really was a Platform. Second, and more importantly, I would've had to pass through the Mete to access it.
Hold on... That tutorial - at the beginning, I did find myself in a white endless void similar to the Mete. Could this place really be another Platform?
But then, how would it turn into a 'portable-world' as per AI's statement?
Shaking such thoughts away, for now, I focus back on reality, only to realize that the guardians are all still kneeling.
"As you have heard," I state, "The Great Tomb of Nazarick is currently facing a trial. From the information that has been gathered, the location of the tomb seems to have been changed abruptly by some unknown means.
"Naturally, this poses a great threat to us. Do not misunderstand my words. The Great Tomb of Nazarick and its residents are by no means weak. Nevertheless, it would be nothing short of idiocy to venture out into unknown lands without information.
"And so, I wish to hear your thoughts regarding what should be done."
Having said that, I look over at the guardians one after the other, until my sight sets upon Demiurge.
"Demiurge," I utter, "Do you have anything to say?"
According to Satoru, Demiurge is a being of extreme intelligence and could be recognized as a great strategist. I would be a fool to not make use of his intelligence to accomplish my objectives.
"Yes, Lord Momonga," he responds in a respectful and elegant tone, "It is as Lord Momonga says, if The Great Tomb of Nazarick truly has been transported elsewhere, then we need to collect information as soon as possible.
"A good starting point would be finding the cause of The Great Tomb of Nazarick getting relocated. After that, it would be of utmost importance to look into the monsters and other creatures outside to get a grasp on the severity of the situation."
Satisfied with his words, I say, "Well said. What you stated shall be exactly what will be done."
"I am humbled, Lord Momonga," he returns with a smile covering his lips.
"On that note," I say, "There is one announcement that I would need to make before we discuss the way we will be gathering information."
Alright, I need to make this performance as exaggerated as possible without it seeming awkward.
With such thoughts swirling in my mind, I proceed to get up from my throne and reach my right hand out to the floating golden staff.
The moment I grasp the staff, I sense a rush of energy circulates through my body as my senses seem to get enhanced even further.
Ignoring this odd phenomenon, I lightly slam the staff into the ground, resulting in a clinging noise reverberating within the throne hall.
"Henceforth, my name shall no longer be Momonga! Instead, it will be Victor. Each and every one of you is going to be referring to me as such."
The guardians as well as Sebas are a little startled but shortly break into cheers as they start singing praises for my 'new' name.
"Such a beautiful name, truly befitting of my most beloved Mo- no, Lord Victor!" Albedo exclaims as she raises her head with a passionate look in her eyes.
Close to her Demiurge's smile has grown while his eyes seem to be lost in deep thought. Who knows what he is thinking...
Hah~ That's great. The guardians don't seem to find the abrupt name change weird. In fact, they seem to be extremely happy about it.
Well then, with that settled, it's time to discuss some plans with them. Currently, my objective is to leave management in the hands of those who are capable enough for the job, while I go do some investigations on my own - particularly, that village I spotted earlier.