Overlord IV – 09 – Baking a Softer Biscuit

After chastising a courtier for interrupting her, Albedo cuts to the chase: The Sorcerer Kingdom is declaring war on the Re-Estize Kingdom, but they won’t deploy their forces for a whole month, and Ainz promises not to use any “large spells” like the one that killed 200,000 on the Katze Plains. Brain knows Ainz is planning something (duh).

A month later, and Ainz has already taken steps to ensure a swift invasion of Re-Estize, focusing on destroying the villages near the borders in order to prevent outside forces from interfering. But he’s loath to reveal to his always-gung-ho generals the fact that he’s holding back on purpose, resulting in some humans surviving and escaping.

While not wholly his idea, since Ainz is, deep down, just a regular human gamer, he’s both more empathetic and respectful of the opinions of fellow “lowly” humans, or in this case, slightly-less powerful underlings, like Albedo’s older sister Nigredo (who is missing her face skin…if she ever had it) and the dog maid-themed Pestonya. They urge their overlord not to snuff out a race as innovative as humanity too rashly.

The Sorcerer Kingdom’s latest target is the seaside town of E-Naeul, who have contracted the mithril adventurer group Four Armaments, led by a cool beauty and including a slightly perverted mage. Like many new Overlord introductions, this four-person party brings an immediate lived-in quality with their easy banter and subtle swagger. At the end of the day, they’re professionals, and if their job is to hold E-Naeul as long as they can, they will hold.

The zombie rabble that constitutes the main Sorcerer Kingdom force isn’t particularly intimidating; the onna kishi who leads the Four Armaments is far more concerned about the two giant Death Knights, wondering if only two were sent because that’s all it was assumed would be needed to cause the town to fall.

After provoking the Death Knight to charge the front gates, The onna kishi has her partymates buff her up with attribute enhancements, and she conjures a doppelganger of her hand axe so every strike counts twice. More than anything, she doesn’t flinch even a little bit in the face of a massive undead warrior getting all up in her space.

While she’s not taking any damage thanks to her superior speed and agility, she’s not really causing any to the Death Knight, and when the dual-wielding Death Warrior catches up with its companion, it starts to look like even one of the more renowned adventurer groups in the kingdom is going to start experiencing what the “stick” in Ainzs’ carrot-and-stick plan entails.

But then, suddenly, the Death Knight’s head is blasted off, and the knight crumbles into a pile of ash. The shots came from high in the sky, where a figure in a high-tech red metal mech suit is brandishing an equally anachronistic machine gun. The Death Warrior does its best to deflect the red one’s shots, but eventually falls as well, and the red one simply gives a friendly gesture and flies off into the wild blue yonder.

With the biggest enemy threats removed, it’s highly likely the Armaments and town forces will be able to repel the remaining zombies and prevent E-Naeul from falling. But when reports come back of the Death Knights’ defeat, Ainz shocks his Guardians by remarking that he expected this. So who is the one in red, who is identified by the Armaments as an adamantite adventurer…and will Ainz eventually have to fight them?

Yuru Camp△ 2 – 09 – You’ll Never Ride Alone

Nadeshiko is back from her solo trip, and admits that after her dinner of foil-wrapped salmon (the veggies were apparently only an appetizer!), things got a little boring. With bad cell signal, she looked out at the scenery and thought, and came to the conclusion that she wanted to go camping with everyone again. It’s not that she dislikes solo camping, but she’ll definitely be staggering solo trips with group trips.

When Nade, Chiaki, and Aoi go to Toba-sensei to voice their intention to go on another trip, she’s ready with the suggestion of Izu in March. For one thing, she wants to visit the Iida’s to thank them for saving her students—left unsaid: she also wants more of that sake! Izu won’t be cheap, hence setting the date a month in the future. That’ll give the girls time to make some extra money to fund the trip and time to study for finals.

When Rin and Ena get the invite, it doesn’t take long for Rin to agree to go “if she can go”. While on her way out, Ena mentions how good a person Rin is to have gone all the way to Fujikawa to check on Nadeshiko, leaving Rin wondering how the hell Ena found out about that!

Chiaki mentions that Aoi’s birthday is March 4…which as it happens, is also Nadeshiko’s birthday! It’s also the birthday of historical figure Ohshio Heihachirou, leading to one of the more disturbing cutaway shot of the two girls with Ohshio’s face…pure Nightmare Fuel! I’ll take Ojou-sama Nadeshiko any day! When home, Aoi learns that her little sis Akari wants to go with them, not necessarily for the camping, but because there are capybaras. Hot spring capybaras.

The next day during club Toba-sensei informs everyone of the loose itinerary, starting with a night by the shore at Shimoda, followed by a night on a mountaintop with a view of Suruga Bay and Fujiyama. She approves Akari coming, and when asked how all seven of them will be transported, Toba-sensei says she’ll be borrowing her sister’s minivan.

Rin respectfully asks that she be allowed to go on her moped, but not because she’s worried the van trip will be too rambunctious. Instead, it’s because her initial New Years plans to ride to Izu were cancelled, and she’d been rearing to go ever since.

With the whens and where’s settled, all that’s left is to get to the date. A month passes in pleasant montage form, with Chiaki, Aoi, Rin, and Nadeshiko hard at work at their jobs (only Ena’s job isn’t shown). The group minus Rin also studies together in the library (though Rin isn’t far away), and Chiaki, the one everyone was most worried about, ends up passing the finals along with everyone else.

Chiaki also reaches out to Rin and Ena about pitching in to buy a gift with which to surprise Nadeshiko and Aoi on their birthday. It’s from Caribou, so it must be camping equipment. It’s also reasonably priced, so it’s definitely not the huggable Caribou statue, which costs the equivalent of $3300!

Rin plans her route, choosing to leave early and take the long way so she’s riding along the coast as the sun comes up. Nadeshiko is trying to think of recipes for their meals without success and gets some pointers from her dad (Izu is known for its wasabi, alfonsino, and deep sea fish). He also plans to slip her some petty cash with which to buy tasty souvenirs.

The night before Rin leaves, she gets her package containing a luggage rack and phone clip, which combined with a windshield her grandfather has lying around will make her moped journey significantly easier and more comfortable. Her dad comes home having gotten her moped serviced, inspected, and thoroughly cleaned.

Rin and her dad spend some quality time installing the rack and clip, but when her grandfather arrives for dinner and inspects the ignition switch, he notices something amiss: the phone keeps charging even with the engine off, which will drain the battery if she forgets to unplug it. Even though dinner is almost ready, he hops right back on his motorcycle to buy a relay in Kofu.

By the time he returns and has the relay installed, it’s almost nine, so the Shimas have a late dinner. We learn that both of Rin’s parents used to ride, and her mom in particular was extremely talented. Her dad even mentions some photos of her mom from that time, which really spark Rin’s curiosity —and her mom’s embarrassment—but Rin needs to head to bed since she’s got an early start.

When her alarm wakes her at three in the morning, Rin suits up and prepares to leave, only to find her grandfather in the genkan also gearing up. He’s not just leaving at the same time, but no doubt inspired by the reminiscing during dinner, he proposes they ride together for a little while.

Grandfather and granddaughter ride out in the middle of the night, two birds of a feather both in the way they might appear cool and distant at first glance but in actuality are two of the nicest, warmest, and most caring souls you could ever meet. There’s a quiet thrill in watching them ride together through dramatically lit tunnels and a past a slumbering Fujiyama, both the visuals and music rising to the occasion.

They stop at a konbini for a quick coffee before parting ways. Before riding off, her grandfather, not a man of many words or extreme emotions, expresses how happy he is he got to ride with his precious granddaughter. After this episode, you could say the Shimas’ hearts pump two-stroke fuel, and now in at least its generation with Rin, the family legacy is still going strong. Onward, to Izu!