With the subsequent arrangements finalized and her Doppelganger prepared to take her place, all that remained was a period of pleasant rest.
The Blood Emperor must have been sufficiently frightened by now; it was important to be moderate and not put too much pressure on him. After all, Iri didn't want to conquer the Empire prematurely, as it would be disastrous if the story veered off into an uncontrollable direction due to missing plot points.
For instance, the Blood Emperor's attack this time was not in the original work. Iri was unsure if handling it this way was appropriate, only doing so to at least protect the Blood Emperor from dying here, and to show off a bit.
Now, before the battle on the Katz Plains begins, there's a vacuum period of about one to two months, which is the Yestijia Kingdom's conscription period and the Bahaus Empire's preparation period.
During this time, Iri planned to split her efforts: on one hand, playing the role of the naive and innocent Great Demon princess in the Bahaus Empire.
On the other hand, she would act as the hidden fifth member of the Four Strategists Squad in the Yestijia Kingdom. Therefore, a Doppelganger was necessary to take her place when she went to the Kingdom to play.
These past few days, the Blood Emperor frequently came to flirt with Iri under various pretexts. Although Iri understood his intentions, to play her role well, she had to endure the incredibly embarrassing lines that gave her goosebumps while humoring the Blood Emperor. She also intentionally or unintentionally revealed a lot of information about Nazarick to the Blood Emperor—of course, none of it was true.
Following this, the Bahaus Empire issued a declaration of war, ostensibly to assist Nazarick in reclaiming its territory and acknowledging Nazarick's existence.
The Yestijia Kingdom's reaction, needless to say, was largely the same as in the original work: fight first... Thinking about the Yestijia Kingdom's Old King and Warrior Captain, they really had it tough!
All their subordinate nobles were half-hearted and didn't truly care for the country. It would be better to centralize power through reforms, like the Bahaus Empire.
However, given the current power dynamics within the Yestijia Kingdom, that would be impossible!
Now, with the Nazarick situation, they were truly unlucky. So... Iri's plan now was to go play in the Yestijia Kingdom. As for the Blood Emperor, she could just have a Doppelganger pretend to be her and feign romantic encounters with him.
After assigning the Doppelganger its task, Iri slipped back to Nazarick. Lately, she rarely saw Ainz whenever she returned to Nazarick. It seemed Ainz was quite engrossed in playing the Adventurers role-playing game.
Do all magic casters truly possess the heart of a melee fighter? After all, there wasn't much else to do before the war began.
Xiao Di was managing the Happy Ranch and seemed to have started moving against the Holy Kingdom.
Insect Lord Cocytus was managing the Lizardmen, while Albedo stayed in Nazarick every day, or more precisely, in Ainz's personal room... As for Shalltear, well, she was still managing the teleportation gate.
Since she hadn't directly visited the Yestijia Kingdom Capital, Iri had to ask Shalltear to open a teleportation gate for her again.
Every time Iri saw Shalltear, she felt quite sorry for her. The Guardian with the strongest overall combat ability, the only Guardian defending the third floor, was now reduced to a teleportation gate administrator.
This situation would only improve after the Dwarf Kingdom arc. However, after Iri was severely "loved" by Shalltear every time they met, her previous pity for Shalltear completely vanished. Perverts never change their nature, even with their own daughter.
Despite this, Iri still forced herself to maintain a good relationship with Shalltear. After all, Iri still hadn't managed to extract Shalltear's trump card. The main problem was that this person's intelligence was too low, and Iri couldn't explicitly ask, so she could only subtly probe little by little. This time, she still didn't get anything out of her.
So, after replenishing her magic scrolls, Iri put on her Adventurers attire. She initially intended to go to the Yestijia Kingdom Capital alone to stir up trouble, but after some consideration, she realized it would be inconvenient to be alone.
The main issue was that she had no identity, not even an Adventurers identity. She had already rejected the Adventurer's Guild once before, and it wasn't her style to go back on her word. So, no matter what, she needed someone with an identity to guide her.
Otherwise... although her pocket money wasn't as stingy as before, it still wasn't much... Can you believe it! The princess of Nazarick! She only had that tiny bit of pocket money!
Although she could directly ask Albedo and get as much as she wanted, the cost would be...
Iri preferred to earn it herself.
So this time, Iri thought of the Four Strategists Squad. Of course... Iri didn't plan to have all of them accompany her on the adventure; too many people would be troublesome. So, Iri intended to have Arshe accompany her.
After all, Arshe was also from a noble background, so if there was an opportunity to interact with the Golden Princess, those noble etiquettes might still be useful. Thus, Iri's first destination was Karn Village.
Iri, who came directly through the teleportation gate, was naturally welcomed by the villagers and Arshe's two adorable younger sisters. Unfortunately, Arshe was out on a quest with the Four Strategists Squad and was not in the village.
Another empty trip... In that case, she could only wait for them in E-Rantel and also take care of the outstanding requests there!
The requests Iri mentioned here were those for her healing services. Most of Iri's pocket money came from this.
Although Iri never asked for money to build a reputation, those who received her aid would voluntarily give some, though the amount wasn't much. After all, Iri didn't expect to earn much from commoners.
So, with her plan set, Iri teleported to E-Rantel, then went to the Adventurer's Guild to say hello, asking the Four Strategists Squad to find her at her inn after they completed their mission.
Then Iri returned to the inn to see if there were any healing requests. She had told the Boss of the inn to leave an address if anyone needed her, and she would provide home service when she had time.
Upon returning to the inn, the Boss was overjoyed to see Iri... Because Iri had been away for quite some time, a lot of requests had accumulated. Iri could only patiently ask the Boss to translate those requests for her, and then she heard the name of a very familiar client.
"Lakyus Alvein Dale Aindra? Is that right?" Iri repeated it once. Why such a mouthful of a name! Iri never remembered surnames, but she did remember Lakyus, the captain of Blue Rose.
"Yes, that's correct. It's a request from Lakyus, the captain of the Adamantite-ranked Adventurers team, Blue Rose," the Boss confirmed again.
"What's the request? Can you tell me more details?" Iri was secretly delighted. Blue Rose's area of activity was the Yestijia Kingdom Capital. It was like someone bringing a pillow when she was sleepy!
This would make her appearance in the Kingdom Capital quite reasonable. But what did Lakyus want from her? And she even came all the way to E-Rantel.
The Boss then said that the request only stated they would discuss it upon meeting, and the agreed meeting place was an inn in the Kingdom Capital. He said they would be staying there for a while and hoped to meet Iri during that time.
This was naturally good. With Blue Rose involved, she could go alone, but to be safe, it would be more appropriate to bring a teammate. Being a lone wolf would make people suspicious.
Didn't Ainz also bring Nabe along when he played Fei Fei? So, Arshe had no escape from accompanying her this time!
-----------------------
To read the next 40 chapters in advance, you can follow and support me on Patreon.
I'll be posting early chapters there so you can always stay ahead and never miss any new content.
patreon.com/SolyuraMT
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"