Overlord: The Undead Oh! Chapter 23

Creative Beginner Mare (創作初心者マーレくん) is the twenty-third chapter of the Overlord: The Undead Oh! series.

Summary
Ainz Ooal Gown is in Ashurbanipal looking at any material that could help him as a leader. There he meets Mare Bello Fiore who admires that Ainz is increasing his knowledge, despite him being all-knowing. The dark elf has a question, and Ainz mentally worries that his so-called title as a genius would be seen through. However, Mare merely asks if he knows a novel where a boy dresses as a girl. The books that Mare read so far had a male character dressing as a girl at one point, but he never found a book where the boy dressed up as a girl to begin with. Ainz recommends that he search for books based on the trope that a girl is the main protagonist and the title "The Wizard of Oz" comes to mind. But that unfortunately is not what Mare is seeking. Ainz sees that Mare wants to read about a character he can emphasize with as he can relate as he enjoys reading about a hard working man doing his best in contrast to a rich elite cruising through life. There is also another reason why Mare is looking for a book of that specific theme as he wants to understand why a character would dress as a girl and maybe help him understand Bukubukuchagama's choice of attire for him.

Ainz honestly believes it to be a peculiar hobby of his old guildmate, but then ponders if there might be some sort of psychological reason for Mare's settings. An old memory drifts into Ainz's mind when he recalls when he dressed in feminine attire. It was all due to practicality as at that time he wanted to test ice magic and because the dress he had was said to increase ice damage he wore it. In addition, Ainz remembers Tabula Smaragdina's musings on various myths where heroes dressed as women. Examples such as in Scandinavian mythology where the gods Thor and Loki dressed as a bride and attendant to steal back Mjolnir from a giant; Or even in the Kojiki, where Yamato Takeru dressed as a girl to sneak into a banquet to defeat the Kumaso.

While he cannot for certain know Bukubukuchagama's reason for dressing Mare as a girl, he tells the dark elf that it may have probably been to put the enemy off guard. Mare thinks about it and asks Ainz then why doesn't his sister Aura Bella Fiora look more like a girl. The Overlord is at a loss for an answer, and responds that Mare is wise for thinking about that query and directs Mare back to his original search in finding a book with a boy dressed as a girl. If he couldn't find what he was looking for the Overlord suggests that the dark elf writes the book himself. In doing so, it would possibly help Mare to understand his creator's intentions for making him and Aura the way they are. While Mare states that he has never written a novel before, Ainz believes that the elf could do it given his literacy.

A week later Mare comes pleading that he cannot do it as he is overwhelmed on what exactly to write. To assist him, Ainz suggests Mare to talk to Demiurge. The former gives Demiurge a call through [Message] who offers advice on picking a genre to narrow the story line. In addition, he believes that the first step to writing a novel would be to draft a brief synopsis that summarizes the whole book before fleshing out in fine detail. He tells Mare to prepare some writing materials and calls Cixous to assist. Ainz then fills out a table on a sheet with various words and plans to make into cards and extract them out randomly to determine the setting and plot. From the random selection, Mare takes out "school" as the setting for his book. The next is determining what the protagonist loses in the story, which Mare takes out at random as "Aura." Mare becomes depressed as he thinks that he will have to kill his sister in his story, though Ainz tells him he could make it as if she was kidnapped. Cixous tells Mare that there is the next pick which is what the character regains and thinks Mare could pick "Aura" again to balance it out but ends up with "New Sister." Mare unsure with the arrangement of the story is convinced by Ainz to base it on his interpretation. The next theme ends with "Cafe Prosperity" which Cixous admits to have added by accident. Though given the chance to redraw, Mare decides to keep the theme and pulls out the cards for the genre which turns out to be "Mystery" and "Comedy".

A brief summary of Mare's story is written about a twin brother and sister that work at a cafe in a slime town of a certain country. A war soon breaks out and all young men are conscripted to the war effort. The sister knowing her brother is not suited for the battlefield switches places with her twin. While the sister is off fighting a war, the brother is sent to an all girls academy for his protection where he gets involved in the drama with the other students. Eventually the war ends, but the boy's sister never returns and is suspected to be dead. However a letter soon comes from his sister directing him to a secret ward of the academy. There he finds that his sister is not only alive but converted into a brainwashed cyborg as part of a secret government project. The letter was to draw her brother to the facility so her master could convert him. The sister manages to break from her master's control and turns on him, destroying the laboratory and rescuing her brother. The two then return back to working at the cafe where it becomes popular due to the sister's new fame. Overall after reading it Ainz considers it to be a good start to a story. Mare agrees, having enjoyed putting the story together and plans to write the novel. Though he wasn't able to determine his creator's intentions, he thinks that's alright and hopes to one day speak to her and ask her himself

A day later Aura finds the novel and reads it to Mare's embarrassment, learning that she was a model for one of his characters.

Character Appearance

 * Mare Bello Fiore
 * Aura Bella Fiora
 * Ainz Ooal Gown
 * Bukubukuchagama (Cameo)
 * Touch Me
 * Tabula Smaragdina
 * Herohero
 * Fenn (Cameo)
 * Demiurge
 * Pulcinella
 * Shalltear Bloodfallen (Cameo)
 * Enri Emmot (Cameo)
 * Nfirea Bareare (Cameo)
 * Cixous (Cameo)
 * Albedo (Cameo)
 * CZ2128 Delta (Cameo)
 * Éclair Éklair Éklare (Cameo)

Known Locations

 * Great Tomb of Nazarick
 * Ashurbanipal

Chapter Notes

 * This chapter first appears in the Monthly Comp Ace February 2019 Issue.