Demon lord [Overlord X Male OC]

Chapter-9 Discussion

YN POV

They were two main routes carriage could take heading from E-Rantel toward the village of Carne to the northeast. We could go north and then follow the forest to the east, or we could start off going east and change course to head north. This time, we all chose the former.

Going along the forest made the monster-encounter rate slightly higher, so it was technically the wrong choice for an escort job. But the reason we did it was the monster-hunting work I originally agreed to take on with Peter and his crew. There was the risk of chasing two hares and catching neither, but everyone felt secure in knowing that the powerful me, Velze, Momon and Nabe were there, so they chose that route. The Lightning Ainz had Narberal cast once they were outside the city as proof she could use tier-three magic had surely helped put them at ease.

In any case, we weren't going deep into the forest, just out to the plains, so we wouldn't run into any terribly powerful monsters. Since I would be more than able to deal with them, we all still decided it would be a good chance to verify each team's abilities in actual combat. 

We left E-Rantel when the sun was a bit past its peak. Far in the distance we could see a virgin forest so dense it looked like a dark green lump. The thick trees stood straight up, and because their magnificent branches spread out and blocked the sun, visibility inside the forest was poor, and it almost felt as though one were being swallowed up by the darkness. The gaps between trees inspired terrible uneasiness--- they seemed almost like gaping maws waiting for prey to jump in.

The party was arranged with the cart in the center. The driver was Nfirea, naturally, and the others proceeded in a formation where Lukrut the ranger was out front, Peter the warrior was on the left flank, druid Dyne and caster Ninya took the right, and Ainz and Narberal brought up the rear. While I and Velze ran along a little far from the cart handling things if we get ambush and checking around. 

We hadn't been terribly cautious, partly because visibility was good, but now for the first time Peter spoke in a slightly harder tone.

Peter: "Arc, we're entering a bit of a dangerous area. I don't have there will be any monsters we can't handle, but be on your guard, just in case."

Arc: "Got it."

In a game, the monsters a player could encounter in a specific area were set, but there was no way that would hold in real life. God only knows what kind of tricky enemies we'll be up against.

I was confident in my own and Momon's strength after the battle at Carne and based on the info we were able to get out of the Sunlit Scripture members we'd caught. But that was confidence as a warrior. At the present moment, Momonga could hardly cast any spells because he was wearing a suit of armor. With his specialty removed from the picture, would he be able to perform as the vanguard everyone was counting on him to be? Also, since this was an escort job, it wasn't simply a matter of defeating monsters---he had to add keeping Nfirea alive to the victory conditions. Thinking about all of that made him a little anxious.

If push came to shove, I would ditch the disguise and handle the situation with combat, but then I would either have to kill Peter's party or make Momonga to use his memory manipulation on them, so I didn't want that to happen. It'd be a pain.

Momonga moved his head to look over at Narberal. She noticed him and nodded once. They'd planned so that she would cast spells higher than tier three--- up to tier five--- if it became necessary. Hopefully that would take care of things. If it didn't, then Momonga would take off his armor and get just a little bit serious.