Momonga reached out his hand for the staff, but he stopped halfway. At this very moment — even though Yggdrasil's service shutdown was near, he felt hesitation towards the act of debasing the glorious memories that they had made together.
The days they spent together adventuring repeatedly in order to create the guild weapon.
Those good old times of dividing up into teams and gathering materials as though it were a contest, arguing over what its appearance should be like, and combining everyone's suggested idea and making it little by little.
They were the heydays of Ainz Ooal Gown — the times where they were most glorious.
There was a person who went as far as to strain his overworked body to show up. There was even a person who showed up after having a big fight with his wife due to him neglecting time with his family. There was also a person who laughed saying he took paid leave.
There were times where they spent the whole day chattering, getting worked up over idle stories. There were days where they planned their adventures and swept up the treasures. There were times where they went on raids and captured hostile guilds' castles. There were days when they destroyed every hidden boss monster that they could find. They had found countless undiscovered resources. They had placed various monsters in their base and cleared out invading players.
But now there was no one.
37 out of 41 people have quit, and though the remaining three remained as guild members in name, Momonga could not recall the last time that they'd shown up with the exception of today.
Momonga opened the console and accessed the official data, where he searched for the guild's ranking. At one point they had stood at Rank 9 out of a little over 800 guilds, but now they had dropped to 29th. Still, this wasn't so bad in comparison to Rank 48 when they were at their lowest.
The reason why the guild was able to maintain its rank was not due to Momonga's exploits, but thanks to the items left behind by his old comrades — the relics of the past.
Although it was very much a guild in ruins now, there was a time where it shined.
— The fruit of those times.
Their guild weapon: the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown.
Momonga did not wish to drag the weapon filled with their glorious memories into this time of ruins; however, a contrary feeling was ablaze inside of him.
All this time, Momonga had placed importance on majority vote.
Although he was in the position of a guildmaster, what he actually did was miscellaneous work like contacting people.
That was why, in this moment with nobody around, the thought of wanting to use his authority as the guildmaster crossed his mind for the first time.
"This outfit doesn't have enough swag."
Muttering to himself, Momonga started operating his console to equip his avatar with armaments befitting his position as a prominent guildmaster.