Overlord IV – 05

「ドワーフの国を求めて」 (Dowaafu no Kuni o Motomete)
“In Pursuit of the Land of Dwarves”

With Overlord having given Albedo plenty of time with the bone daddy, one probably shouldn’t be shocked the next arc up to bat would be giving Shalltear opportunity to make up for lost time. Yeah yeah, transitory episode or not, exposition and a flashback to one of Overlord’s weakest arcs or not (lizards do be an acquired taste), at least the dwarf memes will be plentiful for the near future. After all, someone had the misfortune of letting the subterranean dogs out.

Considering how many of the latest events have revolved around Ainz getting ahead thanks to subordinates running wild and papa bones having zero clue why things are working, it’s somewhat nice to see that side further fleshed out courtesy of Demiurge and Shalltear reappearances. Oh, and Cocytus for fairly obvious reasons. While there’s plenty to say regarding how Jircniv’s submission played out – i.e. ubiquitous adaptation chopping problems run amok – it remains chuckle-worthy knowing the running gag of Ainz and crew talking past one another and still getting plans to work out in the end. Hell even finding time to weave some Shalltear-grade misunderstandings into the picture courtesy of Aura prompts does the trick. Sometimes it’s all about the little things and Overlord has kept this aspect going strong.

The more immediate focus of this arc, however, will be on the oft-mentioned dwarves and what Ainz hopes to get from them: magic. Or at least runic magic, since at this point the only big piece of the puzzle missing is a tangible sign of another player’s presence and seeing what’s up with everyone’s favourite fantasy miners might provide a clue on this. As such the setup itself isn’t really that important (new allies to make, new enemies to fight, new situation for a Floor Master to prove themselves and show independence) as much as where it leads. Will Ainz finally come across an answer regarding other players and the state of the world? Or will matters restrain themselves to further character development and subordinate chicanery?

We’ll just have to wait and see how rescuing the dwarves winds up affecting Ainz’s future plans. You know, once Ainz figures out what those plans are.