The internment camps, or as Demiurge called them, Well-Structured Interrogation Camps, were populated with living curiosities that Nazarick had found. To Demiurge's credit, they were compartmentalized and neatly categorized. There were humans, who were the majority, and some demons, monsters, and entities.
Demiurge walked the sterilized halls again, his shoes clacking against the floor, producing an intense feeling of dread within the prisoners. The prisoners immediately knew who it was by the pacing and rhythmic steps.
The group of JGSDF soldiers, deprived of their weapons and uniforms, all huddled in a single prison cell. They only wore their underwear beneath the provided clean white robe. The soldiers tried it all: diplomacy, passive threats of modern weaponry, and Japan's industrial might, but nothing seemed to have any effect.
Their eyes were lifeless, staring at the immaculate floor, waiting for the decision that would determine their fates. The soldiers even tried to rouse the other inmates to revolt and fight, but the inmates merely glared at them with disdain and tired eyes.
Rebellion was not feasible.
Demiurge stopped at the locked cell and stared at the downtrodden group of soldiers, smiling at their helplessness. For Demiurge, helplessness was acceptance, and acceptance meant compliance, and compliance meant he would get everything he wanted.
Demiurge had already interrogated these soldiers, and his master, Ainz Ooal Gown, had taken a primary interest in this group. He was also surprised when his master was well-informed about Japan and the surrounding countries the soldiers had come from.
Of course, Ainz-sama knew. It was only natural and right, Demiurge thought one time. He then walked away and checked on the other prisoners. The one that absolutely didn't give anything was a vampire that Shalltear had captured.
"Alucard van Hellsing, I assume you still aren't ready to speak right now?" Demiurge asked, his tone polite and almost warm but not exactly welcoming.
Alucard slowly glanced upwards; his figure hung from a wooden cross, his hands, limbs, legs, and thighs were pinned down by enchanted wooden staves. His armaments were confiscated, and he was also constantly pinned down by some restrictive spell.
A massive pool of blood pooled beneath his pinned figure, blood constantly dripping since his wounds never seemed to close or heal, an effect from the enchanted staves.
"You assume right." The 'true' vampire replied dryly.
Demiurge sighed, adjusting his eyeglasses, reflecting a small glint. The vampire was tight-lipped; no amount of mind control seemed to have sufficed. The vampire was extremely resistant to it, and Ainz-sama had temporarily forbidden the use of expensive and powerful spells or scrolls.
Neuronist Painkill, Nazarick's Special Investigator, couldn't deal with Alucard. First and foremost, Alucard was far more powerful than the Pleiades maids; Neuronist didn't have the expertise or power to handle the vampire.
Second, Alucard was unnaturally resistant to torture, advanced interrogation techniques, mind control, and mind influencing. An attribute that Demiurge assumed to be a byproduct of his idiosyncrasy from Yggdrasil vampires and possibly life experiences.
Even Kyouhukou with his cockroaches didn't pierce the vampire. Alucard ate the cockroaches, and Kyouhukou filed a formal protest, citing that his cockroaches simply couldn't brute force the vampire and any more attempts would require a formal study first.
Those pretty words from Kyouhukou simply meant that he cared deeply for his cockroaches and wanted to keep them from dying too quickly.
Demiurge sighed again.
There were other ways to guarantee results, but they required super-tier spells and expensive items. Demiurge had already recommended the former and the latter; now all he had to do was for Albedo to guarantee the recommendation personally.
Not everything was bleak, however. There were several promising prospects in the Well-Structured Interrogation Camps, two of them specifically: a demon and a clown.
The most promising prisoner was a demon calling itself Muzan Kibutsuji. Ainz-sama was also quite knowledgeable about where this demon had come from.
Nazarick always values its willing allies, but this demon, as Demiurge surmised, was an opportunistic one; it wanted true immortality, and it realized now that whatever flower it was chasing paled in comparison to what Nazarick could offer.
The other one, the clown, was half dead.
Mare Bello Fiore encountered this clown, who appeared out of nowhere and was already itching for a fight. Mare offered generous Nazarick surrender terms, but the clown refused to submit.
Mare reported that the man used some invisible force to manipulate objects and also attack. He reported that it took a while to find the right spell to perceive the forces, but eventually he saw it. He managed to extract the impression, which apparently looked like gum and rubber.
The clown explained it halfway through the fight that it had properties of both rubber and gum, whatever that meant. Mare swiftly dealt with him after the information that was acquired had sufficed.
The clown has pinkish light hair and pale skin, with heavy makeup, and a blue star shape below his right eye and a yellow teardrop shape below his left eye. The man wore a strange padded vest with a black spade icon on the back.
The eccentricity of these individuals coming from different realities produced a small smile on Demiurge's face. He loved the unique and dangerous specimens appearing all over the thresholds or backrooms as it was colloquially called.
Although three of Nazarick's maids were killed by some of these unique specimens, the perpetrators will be brought to justice within a given amount of time. They were merely heavy roadblocks, annoying but solvable.
And after that?
Nazarick will become an interdimensional empire, conquering other realities and worlds. It was what Ainz-sama wanted, and it was up to him to realize that ambition and plan; he would willingly sacrifice his life to deliver his master's ultimate happiness.
"Muzan Kibutsuji."
Demiurge had said, walking away from Alucard's specialized cell. Muzan perked up at hearing his name and walked forward, gripping the steel bars of his cell with clenching excitement. Demiurge stopped at Muzan's cell while showing a massive grin.
"Ainz-sama saw it fit to give you a gift for your compliance. You and I have a job to do. Your job is to kill Reinhard van Astrea and Sung Jin Woo."
Demiurge announced. He stared at Muzan, who was covered with stitches and bloodied bandages; the demon was wearing the white slacks he had arrived in. Demiurge was proud of his achievement, having experimented with and influenced the mind of a lower demon.
"They are as good as dead." Muzan had said, brandishing his clawed fingernails.
(The next chapter is the tracking of Reinhard and Sung.)
(Do you think Muzan can kill both Reinhard and Sung? Hehehehehe.)