Overlord v12 Author's Thoughts

Here are the thoughts of Overlord Volume 12’s author, a book where hardly any cute girl characters showed up~

To all you readers who have finished Volume 12, please accept my gratitude. Also, my apologies! The story progressed slower than expected, so Ainz did not die. Rest assured, he will die in the next one.

In truth, my plan was to write about someone’s reaction to Ainz’s death in the intermission, but then I considered that it would involve a lot of jumping around the timeline, which would confuse the readers, so I packed it all off to Volume 13. Therefore, the intermission split into two… hm, usually I would have written it into this volume...

Also, perhaps that is why this volume was surprisingly short. Actually, it could have been stretched out more, but this is a rarity for the Overlord series in that this volume is about the same length as the first. (TL Note: v1 was 382 pages long, v12 was 391 pages). No, that should be the norm, because this is very thick for a light novel series. Hopefully the next volume will be the same way, but who knows how it’ll turn out?

Season 2 of the anime is slated to air in January next year. Maruyama would be very happy if everyone looked forward to it the way they looked forward to the light novel. Director Itou’s storyboards are of amazing quality.

Also, the Overlord earphones have gone on sale. They are called the Overlord AH-GC20, Headphones of Ainz Ooal Gown. It seems they’re made to order, but the headphones are completely different from those of the past… Truly technology moves at a rapid pace!

...well, there’s a double meaning to that.

(TL Note: Maruyama says どっぐいやー referring to the rapid pace at which the IT field moves, but it also sounds like “dog ears”)

Finally, the ebooks Maruyama bought were Kaguya-sama, Karakai Jouzu, High Score and Tonegawa.

Maruyama loves love-comedies! He loves them!

Now then, time for the various characters.

Ainz:

The type of MC who plans out almost everything he does. This time round, I would be very happy if, after reading until the end, you re-read all the scenes where Ainz appeared. At least, that’s what I think.

Speaking of which, every time Ainz appears on screen, he shows off his collector’s nature. Everyone, when you play games and you collect a powerful weapon, are you the type that immediately sells off your starter gear (that’s not available anywhere else) to make space for it? If not, do you feel a certain degree of resonance with Ainz’s actions?

Frankly, Maruyama hates those bastards who gain cheat skills through reincarnating and gaining power from god, then think they’re super badass and go around lecturing others. In that scene, what Ain wanted to say was his last sentence, I didn’t go out of my way to write it into a lecture, you know? If it ended up sounding like one, I sincerely apologize.

Neia:

A girl whose mental state is quite unstable. Come to think of it, from what age to what age are girls considered girls? However, this question feels as dangerous as bringing up the Kinoko Takenoko War, so it’s better not asked carelessly. Mm… she doesn’t count a cute female character; rather, she’s an unorthodox kind of female character. That’s why I didn’t write her as a beauty, no?

Even in her normal state, she looks like she’s glaring at people, and so her superiors don’t think well of her. Also, her father is super important, so the people around her don’t dare to offend her either and treat her with kid gloves. It feels like there’s a problem with the way her life was designed. I wonder if you readers like her?

(TL Note: The Kinoko Takenoko War is the endless feud between which chocolate is better: Kinoko no Yama and Takenoko no Sato. Like Pepsi vs Coke for you burgers out there)

Calca:

Written as Calca, pronounced “bludgeoning weapon”.

She is a very kind person, and she is a rarity among female Overlord characters: an ordinary, normal and kind person, but Jircniv hates her because her personality is too goody-two-shoes. As a Queen, she is unwilling to use underhanded means and she is too pretty, which really pisses Jircniv off. She has all the talent needed to be a Queen, yet she can’t do the important things, which annoys Jircniv.

In the end, because she didn’t take a hardline stance, she couldn’t fully win over the south. Jircniv, on the other hand, would probably have been able to get the south on his side. Well, all the Holy Kings until now have been male and they couldn’t manage it either.

Incidentally, the ability of various kings are as follows:

(ranked in order of how prosperous their nations would be, after starting with the same conditions and reigning for 20 years)

Renner (beyond comprehension)

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>

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Jircniv (a monster)

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Draudiron (has the most hard-earned rulership experience of all the surrounding nations)

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Zanack (excellent) = Pe Riyuro (experienced and has a good foundation)

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Buser (would probably turn his nation warlike)

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Ranpossa (no great failures or successes)

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Calca (can’t take hardline policies)

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Olasird’arc (puts himself first)

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Barbro (only has the knowledge needed to be a king)

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Shasuryu (very limited worldview)

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Suzuki Satoru (a commoner)

That’s the rough ranking, but Olasird’arc would be the most personally affluent.

Draudiron would be lower-ranked if she weren’t so experienced. Pe Riyuro would rise in the rankings if he had more knowledge. Ainz would be amazing if he used his overwhelming might and forced his policies through, but we’re ranking them by their aptitude for rulership and not their power, right? For similar reasons, Tsa has been excluded from that list.

If she were willing to do dirty deeds, Calca, with her tremendous charisma, beauty, and high-level priest skills, could possibly end up just below Pe Riyuro.

Buser:

A demihuman king of considerable strength. He’s not as high-levelled as Pe Riyuro, but since he was born in a tribe that occupied land that was constantly contested by other demihumans, he’s accumulated a great deal of knowledge and experience, and he is optimized for the task. In addition, he uses magical arms and armor traded from the Dark Dwarfs to strengthen himself so he might be able to beat Pe Riyuro in a fight. In fact, he might even be able to overcome Pe Riyuro’s resistance to metal weapons through brute force and win…

From the perspective of his species, he is a charismatic leader who is respected by all. His karma value is positive (but he is not a good person). When he meets a strong foe, he leads his men from the front. Using the skulls of one’s food as ornaments does not penalize one’s karma rating.

Also, people who are immune to fear might be able to resist all fear effects inflicted from the outside, but internal fear still has some effect, in order to avoid a situation where complete immunity to fear leads to unfavorable circumstances. That was why Buser reacted as he did when Ainz revealed his hidden power. If one had to describe his state of mind at that time, it would be along the lines of “Ah, it’s it’s impossible for me, I’m definitely going to die.”

Jaldabaoth:

There’s an A-san and B-san for him, and if you know the true identity of B-san, you must have spent a lot of money on Overlord. Thank you very much.

Incidentally, not every prison camp contained demons. These demons worked in pre-arranged prison camps to make preparations for the future.

The main purpose of the farms is to strengthen Nazarick. In light novel terms, it would be like an isekai protagonist receiving a magician’s cheat abilities from the gods, but still working hard to hone his sword skills and other martial arts.

Remedios:

The strongest paladin of the Holy Kingdom, but unfortunately, she is only the strongest in the Holy Kingdom, and not the strongest in the region. The first is someone in the Black Scripture, the second is one of Enri’s(?) subordinates, and then her. Even so, she’s very strong, so nobody dares to scold her even if she does things which she ought to scolded for. When the country is at peace, people can probably wave it off with a bitter smile, but annoying people probably still annoy them. For instance, the three people running around probably felt that way.

Incidentally, some of her lines were modified from things spoken directly to Maruyama in real life, or from things he overheard in conversations with others. Therefore, if you read these lines and they make you mad, please shake hands with me! If you can laugh after hearing about a grown man bursting into tears after being loudly scolded by someone else, that proves you’re working in a happy company.

These are my thoughts.

And so, I would be happy to meet you again next time.

See you.

Art shamelessly stolen from masiro-sama and 2ch.