Grand Foreigner (Chapters 1- 200)

Chapter 43

Ainz was the last to arrive to the meeting, entering the meeting room at a time when all those present were already seated and were only waiting for his appearance.

"I'm sorry for being late," Ainz sighed, after which he looked around the room.

This room that was called the "main meeting room" solely for a lack of other suitable rooms for the role. In fact, it was most likely some kind of reception room or even a lounge for staff - at least it beared such an impression - a small room stuffed with small sofas and armchairs, with a couple of small tables nearby and a somewhat large plasma TV, that was, of course, lifeless at the moment hanging on the wall.

'Not the best choice for a serious discussion' - Ainz remarked to himself, after which, looking at those present, he took a couple of steps and sat on a free space on a sofa, leaning back on its soft back.

In addition to Ainz, there were three more people in the room, who at the moment were the triumvirate of power in Chaldea. The chief, Olga-Marie, who is silently and thoughtfully looking at Ainz. Roman, a man who at the moment could be called the responsible deputy of the chief, is massaging his head - apparently, overwork and stress have caught up with him. The only one who did not seem to be busy with something was Da Vinci, who was seated with a cup of tea in her hand in the corner, preferring to sit on a low window sill, shifting to the side some regular potted plant, one of those that was put in the room "to create comfort". Ainz thought for a second that in all the companies that he had to work in, he had never seen living plants - only plastic imitations. It was to some extent even funny that he saw some living vegetation only now, when the whole world was already destroyed. Some kind of strange irony.

The door behind Ainz finally snapped its automatics, closing the door, thereby snapping the chief out of her strange fugue, after which she blinked a couple of times and started talking, "So, everyone is here."

Ainz nodded and Olga-Marie immediately turned to the main topic - "We managed to establish a connection with the second Singularity. You can go there now."

"Okay," Ainz nodded in confirmation, "What is known about the Singularity?"

"Nothing really useful," Olga-Marie sighed. "But I still managed to find out something. Judging by the facts reported by our observations system, this Singularity is located quite far in the past, much further than the previous one, and is connected with one very definite place."

"It is connected with Rome," Olga-Marie said, "During the time of The Roman Empire, the date is no later than the first century AD and no earlier than 1 AD. The peak of the power of Rome, when its legions were strong, the people were united, and the generals and politicians paid attention to distant lands without doubting their own power and the possibility of conquest."

"Hm," Ainz nodded. He has heard about the Roman Empire - it was hard not to hear about such a historical civilization. He was even quite sure that he had heard something about the Punic Wars - in the end, Punnito Moe chose his name in honor of this event, about the Triumvirate, about Caesar and Caligula. Even more so, if Ainz thought a little, maybe he would even be able to remember what exactly caused the Third Age Crisis...

'Thank you, Punnito' - Ainz kindly recalled his old friend, who had been a fan of the history of Antiquity and had managed to provide Ainz with some understanding of that era.

"We were also able to determine the place of the greatest accumulation of mana," Olga-Marie sighed. "This is Rome. Region Latium, to be more precise."

Ainz nodded at this yet again - it was nice that he did not need to do something like investigating the vast territories of Rome and moving throughout the empire in some kind of treasure hunt.