Overlord (LN) - Volume 13 - Chapter 95
Montagnes left the room with a “Yes.” The Zern envoy left the room as well. It would seem they did not want to let others know that they were working with the humans.
Neia went to Shizu’s side and picked all the chunks out before tossing them into the barrel.
She could not have come all this way without Shizu.
“Yes.”
Having reached the topmost level, Shizu and Neia exchanged looks. There was only one door here. That would mean it was undoubtedly their objective.
They nodded to each other, and then kicked the door in.
However, their caution had been in vain. Therefore, they both leapt into the room at the same time. Neia grit her teeth against the pain from her shoulder and went left, while Shizu went right, and they both covered each other.
Shizu raised her chin to signal to Neia, and Neia silently approached the cabinet before opening its doors. Of course, Neia opened it from the outside and stayed out of its way in case anything happened, while Shizu pointed the muzzle of her spell gun at the interior of the cabinet. “…Not here.”
Part of it was bulging up.
Neia looked to Shizu before nodding to show she understood, and then she flipped up the blanket.
There was a pretty-looking lump of lustrous purple meat there. No, it would be better to say it was a huge maggot. It was about 90 centimeters long, and it did not have hands, but stubby feet.
Shizu pointed her gun’s muzzle at it without any hesitation, and Neia hurriedly called out to her.
“…This?”
That was what the Zern envoy had told Neia. However, she could understand Shizu’s doubts, because Neia had been quite confused herself when the Zern had given her the description of the Zern prince.
The Zern were a species of demihumans whose royalty looked very different from other individuals of their species. In addition to that, they ought to be sexually dimorphic too.
“Er, can you hear us, Zern prince-sama?”
“―Mm. Speak. It seems you are not my food.”
He sounded like a teenager. Neia was curious as to where his voice was coming from and examined him, whereupon she saw that his maggot mouth was opening and closing.
He was still a prince, even if he looked like this, so she had to abide by the rules of etiquette. In addition, she would need his race’s help when finding the Sorcerer King. Therefore, she ought to do him a favor now, instead of offending him. “Was it a request from my eggmates (comrades)? Who asked you to do this?”
“It was a Zern called Beebeebee. Do you know her?”
“Beebeebee, you say? Ah, her, then? Hm… But if I leave this place, Jaldabaoth…-sama will be angry. This will place the Zern people and particularly the King in danger.”
“While I’m not too sure about the details, it seems the King has passed away, so we must rescue you at the very least. That is why the Zern made this request of us.”
“What!?”
It was impossible for a human like Neia to read the expressions of the Zern prince, who could not be anything but a gigantic maggot. However, she could clearly sense the profound sorrow in his voice.
“Oh, Father was actually… I see. That bastard Jaldabaoth… In that case, can you get us safely out of here?”
“Your Highness’ underlings will be guiding us out, so I think it should be fine.”
“I see… oh human heroes, who have come this far to aid me, I have a shameless request for you. Can you pretend that you carried me off by force while I was resisting you?”
That request was probably just in case.
“I understand. We shall pretend it is so.”
“Thank you very much.”
The prince raised his head. While it looked just like a maggot raising its head, this was probably how his species expressed their gratitude.
Neia wrapped the prince up in the sheets like a baby ― if he had been a baby, he would have been scared to tears; she had experienced that twice now ― and carried him on her back.
Hearing those words spoken from the vicinity of her neck made Neia shudder.”