[What did you just say, Sebas!!!?]
The voice in his head was loud and full of anger, but Sebas still replied in a calm, respectful tone.
[Ainz-sama went into Enri Enmot's house and has been talking with her for a while now.] He had seen his master going inside and overheard some of the conversation while checking with the Eight-Edge Assassins for his master's security.
After receiving his master's permission, Sebas was now helping an old lady move her belongings into a friend's house.
Apparently, the wall on her house was destroyed in the fight with the human knights, so she couldn't stay there until it was fixed.
While helping her, his colleague and superior, Albedo, called using [Message], and so he answered her questions while carrying a simple bed in his arms.
Sebas heard terrifying noises coming from the spell, finding them awfully distracting and even a bit annoying.
Albedo was usually a very dependable colleague, unfathomably smart and competent, but whenever the subject of their master came up, she would become irrational and obsessive, a transformation that brought problems to whoever had to deal with her at the time.
As the one who was accompanying their master, Sebas was the subject of this outburst of jealousy.
"Thank you, Sebas-sama." The old lady thanked him after he gently lowered the bed into the bedroom.
She patted his arms, complimenting him on their firmness and strength.
He smiled gently at her, even if she couldn't see his face through the mask.
[What were they talking about?]
Albedo finished her tantrum and continued with her questioning.
So he continued answering her questions while helping the villagers he saw along the way.
Before long, she was satisfied and deactivated the spell.
Sighing in relief, Sebas began to think about his master.
Ainz-sama is kinder than I expected.
It may be rude to have these thoughts, but he fully expected him to be ruthless and uncaring with the lives of beings outside of Nazarick.
He knew that in Nazarick, most denizens were evil in nature, and if they didn't actively target other creatures for fun, they would already be considered quite benevolent there.
This wickedness, he knew, only applied to those who didn't originate from Nazarick, so the operations of the tomb were not hindered in any form by this common disposition.
He did not comprehend people like Solution and Shalltear, who took pleasure in tormenting the innocent, but couldn't bring himself to judge them harshly, since they were like this by the Supreme Being's design.
Even so, he couldn't help but feel a bit alienated in the midst of them when the subject of outsiders came. His creator, Touch-me, gave him such a desire to help others that he couldn't feel indifferent when something like what occurred today in this village happened.
Coming as his master's bodyguard, Sebas was prepared to do whatever his master ordered him to.
If he ordered him to massacre these villagers, he would kill his heart and do so without hesitation.
But his master, Ainz-sama, did not ask him to do so; rather, Ainz-sama clearly changed his plans to appease him, just to make him, a servant, feel more comfortable.
Ainz-sama was a man of great kindness, of this he was convinced, and his actions afterworld only sedimented this conviction in his heart.
Suddenly, he heard a sound behind him and turned to see his master approaching to greet him.
"How is it going, Sebas?" He could hear a jovial tone in his master's voice.
He seems to be in a good mood.
"Reporting to you, Ainz-sama," he kneeled on the ground, "Most of the villagers have already found accommodations and are currently resting in their houses."
This was the result of his master's kindness.
"I see. That's good to hear." His master was looking at some faraway place.
"Now, come with me to greet some visitors that Aura saw coming."
***
Clouds of dust were left behind as Gazef and his group of warriors made their way towards the next village on the map.
The men in this group didn't look like a military unit, but rather a group of mercenaries.
They had mismatched equipment, disheveled appearances, and on their faces they showed looks of exhaustion.
It had been many days since they departed from E-Rantal, the Fortress City, and they had almost no time to rest since then.
As they moved from village to village, they only found scenes of destruction. Hundreds of dead villagers greeted them wherever they went, making Gazef feel a sense of powerlessness that was making him almost despair.
He knew very well that this was a trap set by his enemies to kill him.
He didn't know who, but he could be certain that the Noble Faction was involved in this. He couldn't prove it, but the smug faces of those bastards when he departed from the capital were iron-clad evidence for him.
Despite knowing this, he still came for two reasons.
First of all, this was royal territory, so if he failed to stop the group responsible for this, he would be giving ammunition for the Noble Faction to use against the king.
And more importantly, Gazef was born a commoner, a simple villager, just like the ones who were dying in these attacks.
How old was I back then? 12?
He didn't remember his age, but he remembered that he had been accompanying the village chief on a trip to E-Asenal when a group of goblins attacked them.
He had been scared; it was the first time he had seen a demi-human so close, and he could smell the stench of death coming from them.
They were all villagers with no combat training, all except for Bron, an old, retired iron-plated adventurer.
He was a friend of his father, the village's blacksmith, and had volunteered to accompany them on this trip to keep him safe.
Bron had a somber look on his face as he looked at the group of goblins. He put a short sword in his hands before drawing his own longsword and told him to protect himself before charging at the group with his longsword in hand.
Bron was stronger than any one goblin and killed two in a few seconds, but he was alone, and soon he was surrounded.
The him of back then didn't think about the consequences, if there was anything on his mind, it was that if he didn't do anything, Bron would die, and everyone would soon follow.
His sword was bathed in blood as goblin after goblin fell to his blade, and he woke up hours later in a small clinic in E-Asenal, wounded, but alive.
On that day, he learned that he could change lives with a sword, and from then on, the sword never left him, taking him all the way to the position of Warrior Captain.
But upon becoming the Warrior Captain, he learned that there were things that couldn't be changed even if his arm was stronger and his sword faster.
The treacherous schemes of the nobles in the capital left him powerless. More than once, he had fallen for their provocations, bringing problems for his king, and more than once, he had wished to use his sword to purge all the members of the Noble Faction, especially Marquis Raevan, that viper.
But every time he stopped himself, hesitating over bringing any more problems for his king, to whom he owed everything.
Gazef didn't like life in the capital; as a man of action, something about politics irked him, and there he felt like a glorified bodyguard. Certainly, he could do more for the people on the field, he thought.
But here he was, in a combat mission given to him by his king, and he still couldn't do anything.
Would this next village be the same as the others?
Would he be greeted by even more corpses?
Just as these thoughts began to take shape, he saw buildings on the horizon, and as he got closer, he got a better look.
There were people in this village, and they didn't look like knights, but just normal villagers.
As Gazef and his Warrior Troupe approached the limits of Carne Village, he saw fear stamped on the villagers' faces.
They were attacked, he understood, but then, how are they alive?
The frightened villagers retreated to the inner parts of the village, and Gazef followed them, ordering his subordinates to slow down.
He moved slowly, looking at everything as he tried to picture what had happened to this village.
There was a faint smell of blood in the air, the kind that lingered after a battle had been fought.
The villagers hid in damaged houses, looking at his men with fear rather than curiosity.
Even the children were no exception.
These, he thought, were people who learned to distrust other humans.
It was obvious at this point that this village had been attacked, but he still didn't know how they survived when other villages were destroyed.
But as he reached the center of the village, he got his answer.
Two masked men stood there, seemingly unbothered by the presence of a group of armed men running in their direction.
One of them was dressed like a butler, but Gazef could feel the aura of a veteran warrior exuding from him.
The butler stood behind someone dressed as a magic caster, holding a golden staff that looked incredibly valuable.
To his side stood a big undead wearing black armor.
It looked like a creature that had climbed straight out of the deepest abyss, showing clear hostility to him and his men.
NEIGH!
NEIGH!
NEIGH!
Gazef almost fell as his horse stopped on its own. Many of his companions weren't so lucky and fell to the ground unceremoniously.
What's going on?
He felt his horse trembling under the saddle. Its eyes were wide, and it arfed, caught between its training and its desire to retreat.
He saw that all the horses were facing a similar situation, and once again looked at the two men, and at the undead monstrosity following them, reevaluating the threat they posed.
Could I defeat them?
He couldn't be sure, but his instincts told him he had no chance.
He looked at his men, struggling to control their horses, with some even giving up control and just dismounting.
He did the same, letting his horse retreat on its own.
These were warhorses, bred and trained to remain composed even on the battlefield, but now they were all trembling in fear when faced with these men.
Gazef approached the two men while unsheathing his sword.
If these men posed a threat to the villagers, he would fight them to the death.
"I am the Warrior Captain of the Re-Estize Kingdom, Gazef Stronoff," he said, and then pointed his sword at the magic caster leading the group.
"I ask you who you are and what you are doing in this village." Gazef tightened his grip on the sword, silently activating his martial arts.