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 a question if he knows a novel where a boy dresses as a girl. The books that Mare 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 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 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 tell 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 original search in finding a book with a boy dressed as a girl. If are couldn't find what he was looking for the Overlord suggests that the dark elf write 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 to exactly 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 whole book before fleshing in fine detail. Thanking him for his help and 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 take 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 Job" which Cixous admits to adding by accident. Though given the chance to redraw, Mare decides to keep the theme and pulls out the cards for the genre.

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
 * Albedo
 * CZ2I28 Delta

Known Locations

 * Great Tomb of Nazarick
 * Ashurbanipal

Chapter Notes

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