Overlord Volume 8 Side 1 (1/2)
Enri’s Upheaval and Hectic Days
Part 1
Enri Emmot rose before the sun came up to make breakfast. There was a lot of food to prepare, and she wasn't as good a cook as her deceased mother.
Counting Nemu, Enri herself and the nineteen goblins loyal to her, she had to make breakfast for twenty-one people. Cooking for two more on top of everyone’s would make twenty-three in total.
Preparing that much food was a lot of work, and could be considered a battle in its own right. Enri trembled while looking at the vast quantity of food in front of her and realised that it would all be gone in one meal.
“This is nearly six times as much as before…”
After taking a deep breath, she rolled up her sleeves, psyched herself up and got to work.
She sliced the vegetables up quietly, and then the meat. The process had been engraved into Enri's brain by now.
Although Enri was not especially talented at cooking, the fact that she had learned to cope with such an enormous task in such a short time was a textbook example of how diamonds were made under pressure.
Nemu woke from the sound of Enri making breakfast and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
“Morning, onee-chan. Let me help too!”
“Morning, Nemu. I'm good over here, but there's still that thing I asked you to help me take care of yesterday…”
Unhappiness flashed over Nemu's face for a moment, but in the end, she didn't complain, although she did droop her head and replied “‘kay” as she followed Enri's request.
Enri stopped halfway through the cutting.
Her heart ached.
Nemu was ten years old now, and she had been a lively and spirited girl once. After that incident, the formerly naive and carefree Nemu became slavishly obedient to her sister, without any of the playfulness or tantrums of children her age. She was a good girl now — so good that it hurt.
The smiling faces of her parents appeared in Enri's mind. Although several months had passed, the wounds from that incident had not yet healed.
If they had died because of illness, she could have prepared herself for it. If they had died from an accident or a natural disaster, she wouldn't have hated anyone else for it, and maybe she would not have been scarred either. But her parents had been murdered in front of her eyes, and her heart was now filled with resentment. There was no way she could feel otherwise.
Enri squeezed her eyes shut. If there was someone nearby, then she could work hard so they would not see her weakness. But when she was by herself, the loneliness reopened the wounds in her heart.
“―Isn’t that right?”
Even when she opened her eyes, her parents' smiles still floated before her. She replayed the tender moments of the past in her mind.
After the tender memories came the turmoil in her heart. Driven by her hatred for the people who had murdered her parents, Enri slammed with all her might at the hunk of meat with her cleaver and split it in half.
However, since she used too much force, she also chopped a divot out of the block, which made her furrow her brow in frustration.
Enri thought as she apologized for damaging the cleaver that was her only link to her deceased mother.
She gently ran a finger along the edge to make sure it was fine, and at that moment, the door beside her, which led to the living room, opened up.
The person who entered was not human, but someone shorter — one of the demihumans commonly known as goblins.
“Morning, Ane-san. Today's our turn to… what's wrong?”
The goblin paused in the middle of a perfect bow to turn concerned eyes to Enri's hands.
Enri was a mere village girl, but the goblins served her without hesitation because she was their summoner.
After that incident, when the villagers had wondered if they needed to take shifts standing guard, Enri remembered the horn she had been given and used it to summon the goblins.
The villagers were initially surprised and afraid of the goblins since they had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, but they calmed down when Enri told them that she had summoned the goblins with an item from their savior, Ainz Ooal Gown. Needless to say, this was because of the gratitude and trust they felt towards Ainz. Thereafter, the work the goblins had done was enough for the villagers to put aside their suspicions and welcome them from the depths of their hearts.
“Good morning, Kaijali-san, I just used a bit too much force with the cleaver…”
