A Peaceful Day

Nearly a week and a half had passed since the last probing attempt.

Higashino Makoto had remained exceptionally well-behaved in Nazarick.

After all, it was only a clone. Unless necessary, Higashino Makoto still preferred to act through his true body.

Besides, Novas Aetir was no worse than Nazarick, and it was not Grem's body either, so he could enjoy neither fine food nor beautiful women.

Amon lay on the bed with a beautiful young-looking girl in his arms.

She possessed an ethereal, transcendent air, a cool expression, and a voice as crisp as chiming bells. Her hair and skin were white as snow; even her eyebrows and down there were a sheet of snowy white.

Her long hair was silky smooth, while her deep-blue pupils were equally exquisite.

Her name was "Pandora," the Witch of Vainglory from Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World, and she was almost certainly one of the final villains.

Of course, the main reason Higashino Makoto had chosen her still came down to two words—good-looking.

After a month had passed, this adorable girl became the second person to obtain the position of secretary—

Well, judging solely by her appearance, perhaps "loli" was a more fitting description?

Come to think of it, Higashino Makoto had actually been quite surprised that Pandora had become the second secretary.

Among the guardians he had designed, girl-type characters were the most numerous. After all, high school protagonists made up the majority in anime, and most heroines were at that age as well.

Next came the mature-woman type, while loli types were the fewest.

"But it is precisely this uncertainty that makes it all the more exciting and worth looking forward to!"

After checking the time and discovering it was already past nine in the morning, he pulled Pandora out of bed with him and headed for the second floor, the Eternal Day Arena.

"Please, spare us!"

"...How could this happen, damned humans?"

"Die!"

"Let me out..."

Quite a few demi-humans had been imprisoned here in separate batches: iron ratmen, cave-dwellers, spiderfolk, stone-eating apes...

There were all kinds of demi-humans.

These had been captured from the Abelion Hills, east of the Holy Kingdom, by the angels Higashino Makoto had summoned and dispatched.

Following Higashino Makoto's orders, they cast magic that detected justice values and specifically captured those with lower justice values.

Although later experiments showed that there had been no failures even with demi-humans whose justice values were relatively high.

According to his speculation, it was probably because the level gap was simply too great.

Without high-level enemies to experiment on, though, no conclusion could yet be drawn.

Though there was little difference either way, Higashino Makoto still had the angels sent outside capture demi-humans with lower justice values as expendable materials.

"I really am kind..."

Higashino Makoto occasionally thought to himself.

Stopping before one of the cages, he ignored their cries and directly activated a spell.

"Summon Mid-Tier Angel—"

As the spell activated, all the demi-humans within one cage began struggling, only to transform within an extremely short time into mid-tier angels between Lv35 and Lv42, floating in the air.

After repeated experiments, the results were indeed similar to Ainz's conclusion in the original work.

Perhaps because the natives' level cap was too low, the high-tier angels summoned and transformed from demi-humans could not exist for long.

Mid-tier angels, on the other hand, could exist for extended periods, provided they were specially summoned by Higashino Makoto and did not exceed level 42.

Thus, every day, Higashino Makoto made it his daily task to summon the maximum of twelve mid-tier angels.

Twelve per day meant 360 in a month, and more than 4,000 in a year.

It still could not compare to the undead's particular effectiveness against low-level creatures.

But given enough time, each one could destroy an ordinary human city without resistance from adamantite-ranked adventurers.

Of course, knowing how useful the undead were, quite a few of the NPCs Higashino Makoto had created possessed the ability "Summon Mid-Tier Undead."

All told, counting only the summoned angels and undead, Novas Aetir could field an army of roughly forty thousand in a year, all between Lv35 and Lv42.

After opening the cages and arranging for the angels to head to the first floor, Pandora lightly bowed to Higashino Makoto.

"Lord Amon, thank you for your hard work. According to the previous plan, you will need to handle these documents next."

The girl wore only a piece of white cloth over her body, and as she bent over, more of her snow-white skin was exposed.

Barefoot and without shoes, Pandora hugged a stack of documents as she followed behind Higashino Makoto in small steps.

Only after the angels had been summoned did the girl step forward from behind him and inform him of what needed to be done next.

Higashino Makoto sat down in a nearby pavilion, took the documents, and began reading through them.

They were all relatively simple choices.

Because there had not been enough game time back then, Novas Aetir's construction had never been fully completed.

He only did things as they occurred to him, so many functions hadn't been perfected—and some might not even exist at all.

The defenses on each floor were also arranged rather casually, based only on Al's rough calculations.

That was why Higashino Makoto had specifically given the guardians the ability to modify their floors.

Naturally, they would usually come up with several renovation plans for Higashino Makoto to choose from.

They could also make requests for anything they needed.

<Fourth Floor Silent Great Library Renovation Plan—Option Two>

Though it was called a great library, the fourth floor actually also served as a treasury.

A large number of high-level mercenary summoning spells, data crystals, gold coins, race conversion items, and the like—nearly a third of them were stored on this floor.

"Mm, not bad. Every plan is already quite complete."

Higashino Makoto nodded, very satisfied with the guardian who had created these proposals.

These designs considered not only basic defensive capabilities, but also daily use, aesthetics, and many other aspects.

In any case, Higashino Makoto probably didn't have the ability to design something like this from scratch.

I really am useless.

After spending an hour choosing the one that suited him best, he signed his name and closed it.

Pandora, who had been massaging Higashino Makoto's shoulders behind him, let go and walked to the desk to put away the proposal.

"Lord Amon, would you like to inspect the floors next, have morning tea, or...?"

To be honest, Higashino Makoto had trouble making choices.

He raised a hand and interrupted Pandora.

"You're my secretary. Just arrange my schedule for me."

Whenever he had nothing to do, Higashino Makoto chose to trust his secretary's judgment.

Come to think of it, as the ruler of Novas Aetir, Higashino Makoto truly had very little to do.

The guardians diligently arranged everything.

Even when minor problems arose, they would first notify the secretary, who would then pass them on to Higashino Makoto.

The most troublesome matters were nothing more than choosing plans like this one.

Other than wandering around, eating, sleeping, soaking in hot springs, and reading to pass the time every day, all he did was tease his secretary now and then.

When there was work, the secretary did it. When there wasn't...

Ahem!

Dull and tedious, but damn, it was nice!