But the older sister was dragged off by a noble— a noble who had nothing but bad rumours about him. If the older sister had been able to live happily, the younger sister would have been able to put up with the parting, but the younger sister could guess what would happen from the rumours she had heard. Her older sister would be treated like a plaything and abandoned like trash once he tired of her. This was the truth and the younger sister left the village to find a way to save her older sister, because nobody in the village had tried to help her. Soon, the younger sister realized she had a talent for magic and tried to get stronger to save her sister. However, she passed away before she could realize her goal. The page with one short sentence was the last page of the diary. It was about a new comrade on the mission to gather herbs, praises about two adventurers called Momon and Nabe.

“Thanks to this diary, I have learned much about this world. This is my debt. I will repay my debt to you with your sister.”

Ainz put away the diary whose colours had started to fade due to its age.

“Then I have one request to make of you, Ainz-sama.”

“What is it, Demiurge.”

“I found a strange information amongst Sebas’ reports. I wish for time to investigate further.”

“Is there a problem?”

“It would appear so. I have a place I want to check out and I hope that I can make it there by the time you have returned, but I cannot say for certain as I need to find the place first… I know it is disgraceful to waste your time, but please grant me some respite.”

Ainz reassured Demiurge with a bright expression.

“It does not matter, Demiurge. No doubt you are acting for the benefit of Nazarick. How can I not wait under such circumstances. Go, Demiurge.”

“I am forever grateful.”

Part 2

Lower Fire Month (9th Month), 4th, 15:01

The sun rose and Sebas’ and Solution’s busy day started again.

The reason for being so busy was simple. It would have been easy to leave the Kingdom without a word, but then all the connections and contacts they built up would have gone to waste. Thus they acted as if they were returning to the Empire. With Solution in tow, Sebas exchanged farewells with all the merchants and important guild members he was acquainted with.

Obviously, the conversation didn’t end at parting wishes. It was obvious that people wanted to leave a good impression for future business, not to mention having an opportunity to talk to a beauty like Solution. As a result, each farewell took more than 30 minutes and the day dragged on.

“It took a long time, but the process of moving all the wheat from storage is complete. It seems we can return to Nazarick without a problem now.”

On his words, Solution seemed to beam with happiness. Sebas felt that she was happier about completing the master’s orders than the prospect of returning to the Great Tomb. As Sebas was the one in charge of collecting information in the Kingdom, there were not many opportunity for Solution to feel as if she was carrying out her duties.

At least the farewells were Solution’s work as she needed to appear to be the one in charge. With her strong sense of satisfaction, she almost looked as if she was humming in joy.

As a matter of fact, because she was in such a good mood while talking to the merchants, Sebas was able to negotiate several favourable agreements, like the waiving of storage fees because they had purchased large amounts of wheat.

There are benefits to being a beauty.

Sebas truly thought that while tying the horses at the stables and walking towards the front gate with Solution.

Standing in front of the door, Sebas put the key in the keyhole. He turned the key as he had done many times, but there was no clicking sound of unlocking. Sebas frowned in surprised and met his eyes with Solution.

The door isn’t locked?

With a small push, the door creaked open. The only other person in the manor was Tsuare, but there would be no way that she left on her own.

“There are several new scratches around the keyhole. There’s a large possibility somebody picked the lock…”

Before Solution could finish her sentence, Sebas slammed the door open. He didn’t think there would be any traps, and even if there were, he would just smash them apart.

The manor felt empty since everything had already been cleared out. Setting his detection abilities to maximum, he scanned for Tsuare, but he felt nothing.

“Tsuare! Tsuare! Are you in here?”

He shouted while searching the manor. He had searched every corner but there was not a single trace. It was almost as if she had never existed in the first place.

Someone was definitely in here. Considering there’s no smell of blood, she must have been kidnapped. Then what would their demands be…

Sebas balled up his fist tightly.

He was angry with himself, carelessly leaving Tsuare alone in the house. As a matter of fact, he had been apprehensive about leaving Tsuare alone. After his encounter with the underground organization, he knew there would be trouble afoot.

However, he still left her at the manor because of her trauma and her fear of the outside world and strangers. Only reason why she didn’t act up while facing the Guardians was because she could not register them as humans. Tsuare’s reaction back then was an extremely normal reaction of a person who encountered a monster.

Even if Tsuare could’ve been left in the carriage, Sebas had wanted to avoid any possible complications and had left her in the manor.

Because the brothel he destroyed would need time to re-establish itself, and since it would take some time to plan an attack, Sebas had assumed that the ones behind the destroyed brothel would have needed more time to reorganize themselves before trying to take their revenge. In hindsight, it was a disastrous miscalculation, but it was too late now.

As he walked briskly down the hallway, he heard Solution call out for him in reception room.

“Sebas-sama, over here.”

“Did you find her, Solution?”

There was no way she did, because Sebas had checked just now. However with hope, he stepped inside the room to see Solution holding a piece of parchment.