Overlord: The Undead Oh! Chapter 43

Inspiration ★ Nazotoki ★ Vampire (ひらめき★ナゾトキ★吸血鬼) is the forty-third chapter of the Overlord: The Undead Oh! series.

Summary
Mare Bello Fiore is in Ashurbanipal in search of a new book to read when he spots Shalltear Bloodfallen. The female Floor Guardian greets the dark elf, who is surprised by Shalltear's appearance in the library. The vampire states that she is looking for a book, Mare offers to call a librarian for help, but Shalltear declines as the item of her search is a bit embarrassing, which cause Mare to assume that she is looking for an adult novel. Shalltear is embarrassed at the suggestion, but in any case that is not what she is looking for. Since she values Mare as a trust colleague she decides to tell him the type of book item she is looking for, which is a book that will help make her smarter.

Mare suggests that she get acquainted with an encyclopedia, but Shalltear feels that she should find a book with practical uses rather than just knowledge. She wants a book that after being read will help her in any situation and prevent her from being fooled. With great insistence she implore Mare if there is such a book in the library. Mare seeing that she is serious decides to help her. Since she is looking for a book to enhance her problem solving skills, he goes to ask the librarian for any books on that subject. Soon after he returns with two books from the librarian. One being "Inspiration! Mystery and Quiz 50 Questions" and the second being "Problem-Solving Techniques For Business People ~ The Method And Logic ~". Shalltear looking at the difference between the thicknesses of the two books, instinctively selects "Inspiration! Mystery and Quiz 50 Questions" due to its narrow size.

Back in her quarters, Shalltear's Vampire Brides praises their mistress at her concentration on her studies. Reading her book, Shalltear comes across a question asking her of a situation in which there is a fire and the person is far from a facet and has a bucket for water. It asks where she could sprinkle water first: A) A shelf full of books. B) Window Curtain. C) Floor. Shalltear selects the obvious choice being C, however the answer turns out to Miscellaneous as she first needs to put water into the bucket. Her mistake causes her to lash out kicking a table with a tea set.

The vampire then goes to the 6th Floor and finding Aura Bella Fiora, quizzes her on a question: "There is Mr. A and Mr. B who came from the same mother and were born on the same day. But the two are not twins why not?" Aura answers that it's because they are triplets of quadruplets. Her quick answer causes Shalltear to be in angst as he stressed over finding the right solution. Taking a moment to explain what she is doing, Aura learns that Shalltear is trying to make herself more educated. Aura states that Shalltear could understand a problem by seeing the answer. Shalltear laments that the stuff she is reading doesn't seem helpful, but Aura tells her not to be discouraged as the reasoning could be applied in certain situations. Remembering that one of the Supreme Beings was a teacher, specifically Yamaiko, Aura suggest that she gets tutoring from Yuri Alpha. Shalltear is eager for that idea, though Aura makes the vampire promise not to makes any advances on Yuri given her necrophilia.

Later at the 9th Floor Classroom, Yuri is present ready to begin the problem-solving course for Shalltear. Shalltear is not alone in the class, as Lupusregina Beta is also present as she feels she needs to take it after being scolded by Ainz Ooal Gown due to her mishandling of Carne Village. Yuri starts out a trick answer question: "One night a papa bear made seven mugs of hot milk and gave out to five cubs, two which he brought for himself and the mama bear. All three cubs drank the milk, but two drank only half. Assuming there was no other change in the contents of the mug, how much hot milk was left the next morning?" Shalltear reasons that the parent bears cups are untouched so two and the extra one are left making it three cups of hot milk. The answer though is there is not hot milk because the hot milk has cooled down and turned into just milk after cooling down. Shalltear is left dumbstruck that she got tricked again.

Yuri sees that this of thinking requires a problem solver to let go of assumptions and prejudices. In order to solve such a problem, Shalltear needs to get a different viewpoint on the problem. She mentions that the problems that they solve in class are simple with enough study, however those in reality are more complicated so trial and error is needed to get it right. The maid then introduces the two to a new problem: "A person is trying to carry a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage to the other side of the river.  To move a small boat across a river, the person must ride and operate it, and the small boat can only carry the person and either the wolf, the goat, or the cabbage at a time. Furthermore, if you leave only the wolf and the goat together, the goat will be eaten, and if you leave only the goat and the cabbage together, the cabbage will be eaten.  How can the person safely carry all the subjects to the other side of the river?"

Lupusregina comments that her sister Solution Epsilon could probably contain all three items within, but Yuri underlines that the person operating the boat is just a normal person in this problem. Going over the problem, Shalltear deduces that the wolf and cabbage will need to stay on the river in order for the boatman to proceed. Yuri states that to be correct and has the boatman row the goat to the other side of the bank. Looking further into the problem, Shalltear thinks that no matter which they choose be it the cabbage or wolf, to the other side of the bank one will be eaten. Lupusregina thinks maybe they can dismantle the cabbage into juice to make the goat lose interest in it, but Yuri states that subjects need to be brought to the other side safely and intact.

The two student then begin to question the contents of the question, like why couldn't they break apart the cabbage to distract the goat long enough for the person to cross the river to retrieve the wolf. Lupusregina asks why didn't the wolf eat the rower? Yuri tells them not to complicate the question and just see it as the wolf was befriended by the person in the question. Yuri asks them to look more closely at the issue and change their perspective. Shalltear thinking for a minute, misses the point completely by inquiring that the wolf is actually a werewolf that obeys commands as she thinks the hint was Lupusregina who is a member of the same race. Yuri states that to be far from the correct answer and tries to get Shalltear to widen her horizons on the problem at hand like she did with the first step of the question. But all that does is make Shalltear literally view the other side of the river bank and believe that she solved the problem as all three subjects are together. To Yuri the right solution would be to: 1) Take the goat over. 2) Return. 3) Take the wolf or cabbage over. 4) Return with the goat. 5) Take the cabbage or wolf over 6) Return. 7) Take goat over.

Seeing that Shalltear keeps getting weird ideas, goes over the problem asking hypothetically what would happen if the person brought the wolf next to the other side of the bank. Shalltear states that the wolf would eat the goat, but Yuri reminds her that the person is there to stop that from happening when at the other bank. It's only left along does the wolf eat the goat. The vampire thinks she gets it, which please the teacher, only to once again miss the point when she thinks that the solution is to create an Einherjar and leave it on the other side to keep the wolf and goat from eating each other. Her answer wrong once more, Shalltear in frustration states that then the person will use mind control to stop the wolf from eating the goat, failing to understand that the person is just an ordinary being. The vampire collapses in despair at being unable to solve a simple question. Lupusregina who has been watching the debacle from her desk comments that the teacher has been denying all of her student's answers and has become boring. This leaves Yuri in aghast at the criticism and defends herself stating that she is trying to teach them the correct way to solve the problem.

Lupusregina is unconvinced and believes that the problem can be solved differently rather than Yuri's rigid thinking, stating all of Shalltear's crazy ideas are signs of flexibility. Her words cause Yuri some introspection, as she had ignored the individuality of the student by imposing a straightforward attack on the student's willingness to study going against Yamiko's teachings. This in mind, Yuri agrees to allow some leeway as long as their answers do not contradict the content of the question, bringing cheers from her student. Shalltear excited at this randomly asks Yuri to become her concubine as well but is rejected by the maid. The parameters of the problem are changed allowing the person rowing the boat to be not ordinary. However this leads to convoluted answer devoid of rational thinking as Shalltear cites that the wolf to be a Vampire Wolf that she can control, and using her Einherjat to row the boat while watching the subjects to creating a [Gate] to transport them all efficiently. The answer causes Yuri to bite her lips at how the answer defeated the purpose of the question.

Character Appearance

 * Shalltear Bloodfallen
 * Aura Bella Fiora
 * Peroroncino (Cameo)
 * Bukubukuchagama (Cameo)
 * Mare Bello Fiore
 * Yuri Alpha
 * Lupusregina Beta
 * Lizzie Bareare (Cameo)
 * Nfirea Bareare (Cameo)
 * Enri Emmot (Cameo)
 * Nemu Emmot (Cameo)
 * Solution Epsilon (Cameo)
 * Yamaiko (Cameo)

Known Locations

 * Great Tomb of Nazarick
 * Ashurbanipal

Chapter Notes

 * This chapter first appears in the Monthly Comp Ace December 2020 Issue.