Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Read online

  I see… So she was raised sort of like a gifted child? There were little kids in Japan who couldn’t play with other children because they had lessons, too, so I guess this was sort of like that.

  Maybe I shouldn’t have asked.

  “Oh, but I don’t have any ill will toward my parents for raising me like that or anything! It’s fun to use magic, and my goal is to be able to fly someday.” Sensing that the mood had gotten a bit gloomy, Zena quickly added, “So why are you interested in practicing magic, Satou? Would it be useful for your trade?”

  “Oh, no… There’s no bath in the inn, so I thought maybe if I could use Everyday Magic, I wouldn’t have to bathe outside and stuff.” Trying to lighten things up, I gave the silliest reason I could think of.

  My clowning must have worked, because Zena stared at me incredulously for a moment, then burst out laughing. “Ah-ha-ha-ha! I’ve never heard of anyone wanting to learn magic for a reason like that!”

  Was it really that ridiculous…? I must have hit her funny bone, because Zena couldn’t seem to stop laughing.

  “Is that weird?” I was mostly joking, but I didn’t think it was that bad of a reason. Who wouldn’t want to make an annoying task more convenient?

  Her reply was instantaneous. “Yes, it is! Really weird!”

  “I mean, if you had the time and money to learn magic, you’d be better off installing a bath in your house, wouldn’t you? And you could just hire a servant or buy a slave to heat it up for you!”

  Oh, so that’s how it is…

  I tend to think that if I can do something, I’d rather just take care of it myself, but I guess it was normal to buy labor here. Apparently, it didn’t cost much, either.

  But now that I knew the basics, I figured I could find an introductory book and practice the lines some more.

  At any rate, sometime during the course of this conversation, I’d gained the skill “Secrecy” and the titles Clown and Gentleman. But I didn’t have time to worry about my log too much.

  Having successfully restored the positive mood of our trip, I continued walking around with Zena, trying different foods. Our next destination was a sweet-smelling dessert area.

  “This is a fried sweet bun! They make a paste with steamed sweet potatoes and knead it into the dough before frying it.”

  A dessert-like bun made with sweet potato… That sounded vaguely Japanese to me. As I ate the sweet bun, I also sipped on a hot beverage that tasted sort of like watered-down ginger tea.

  “And I saved the best for last! Lilio told me about this place.” The next stall Zena had guided me to was selling the same malt syrup candy I’d had with Martha yesterday. The shopkeeper was even wearing the same apron as the man we’d bought them from.

  I gave the man two copper coins and bought one for each of us. Taking two slim sticks, the man dipped them into the sticky brown liquid and rotated them slowly before pulling them back out.

  Zena seemed so excited about showing me, so I would’ve felt bad saying I’d had some yesterday. Instead, I decided to act like it had been a really long time.

  “Malt syrup candy, huh? That brings back memories.”

  “Oh…so you’ve had it before?”

  She looked a bit disappointed. Damn… I guess I should have acted surprised for her.

  “The syrup candy I’m used to is usually clear, so I didn’t know what it was at first.”

  “Young master, the colorless syrup candy is a high-class product, made with rice and sugar. Ours is more for commoners, so we use potatoes and gabo fruits with malt. That’s why it’s brown, y’see.” The older man cut in rather quickly.

  Young master? Who, me? He didn’t seem to be talking to Zena.

  “Oh, sir…I’m just a commoner myself. A friend gave me the clear candy a long time ago—I didn’t know it was a high-class item.”

  I mean, it was only two hundred yen at a festival.

  After that, we browsed the other stalls, enjoying the sights and sounds of the crowded street.

  I decided to buy some fried pastries made with honey for the girls working hard back at the Gatefront Inn. Zena and I each ate one, and they were pretty tasty. I figured the girls would like them, too.

  After having more than our fill of food and drink, we visited some stalls selling miscellaneous goods.

  A stand with cute shells and bisque pottery caught my eye. For some reason, the market price shown by my “Estimation” skill for the shells was pretty high. When I asked the elderly shopkeeper about them, she explained that they were vessels for holding medicine.

  “This salve is very effective, young master.”

  “Oh? What does it do?”

  “It works wonders for cuts or chapped skin. If you hand it out to your servants, why, they’ll work hard as horses!”

  On closer examination, the wrinkled old shopkeeper’s skin was much less cracked than the Gatefront Inn’s landlady. She’d fed me well with delicious food, so I decided I might as well buy some for her as a souvenir. And while the price was expensive for shells, it was still only a few copper coins.

  “I’ll take five, then, please.”

  “Now, that would be fifteen copper coins, but I’ll knock it down to twelve for you.”

  Wow, that’s actually lower than the market price. I reached into my pocket for the money to pay the woman, but Zena’s slim hand stopped me midmotion.

  “Excuse me, madam, but that seems a little high. Wasn’t it two for one copper last time I came here? And since he’s buying five, couldn’t you make it nine?”

  Whoa. Zena was smiling sweetly as she drove a ridiculous bargain.

  “My, I didn’t notice before because you have a man with you today, but aren’t you the girl who’s usually with Lilio? Well, I can’t go any lower than ten coppers.”

  “Then can you throw in three of these small ones here, please?” Recognizing that she wasn’t going to lower the price any further, Zena had pointed at some small shell vessels beside the salve I was buying and asked for them as a bonus. Based on their size, I’d guess the miniature ones could hold about a third as much as the bigger shells could.

  “Goodness, girl! If you start acting like that Lilio, you might never get married. I’ll throw in one of the small ones and nothing more.”

  Zena’s face twitched a little at the part about marriage, but she maintained her smile as she evenly accepted the bargain. “Very well. That’ll work just fine.”

  She’s only seventeen… It’s a little early to be worrying about marriage, isn’t it?

  The old lady skillfully wrapped the shells in leaves, then used some kind of thin vine to bind them together. If I put them in my bag like that, I feel like they’re going to make a mess. I thanked Zena for looking out for me and gave her one of the shells.

  I would have done it anyway, so…

  After we’d reached the end of the street stalls, Zena brought me somewhere new.

  “Are you sure you’re all right with coming to a place like this?”

  “Yeah, the breeze feels great.”

  “Hee-hee, that’s true.” Zena giggled as she surveyed the scenery below. We were standing atop one of the towers of the city walls. I had spotted it from the area past the street stalls, so she’d offered to take me there. Since it was a military installation, I couldn’t look around unless I was with her.

  Zena seemed to be relatively famous, because even in her civilian clothes, she was allowed up without a problem.

  “I know I’m the one who asked, but are you sure it’s all right to bring someone up here who’s not part of the military?”

  “It’s fine! The only attacks we have to fear out here in this city are from wyverns. We haven’t fought with any neighboring countries for a few hundred years, and the war with the beastfolk ended ten years ago.”

  Hmm… I wonder if the beastfolk slaves in the city were prisoners of war from that period?

  “Zena, what is that windmill used for?”

  “Oh, th
at? It’s a flour mill. But it can also be turned into a gun battery platform in case of a wyvern attack.”

  A gun battery? In the middle of town? “If they fired cannons from a spot like that, wouldn’t it damage the houses nearby?”

  “Well, they do have cannons, but against a wyvern they fire only nets or blanks.”

  “I see… So it’s used to drive a wyvern away in a different direction?”

  “That’s right. They drive it over to a field in that manor over there so they can finish it off.”

  Wouldn’t that destroy the field, too?

  Zena could tell that I was really interested in this subject, so she offered to take me to the manor and windmill. I’d been planning to ask her later, anyway, so that worked out for me.

  Along the way to the nearby windmill, Zena said we could stop off at Parion Temple. The shady priest raising a fuss yesterday was from Zaicuon, right? And the one who healed Zena’s leg was Garleon… I wonder if all the gods have “-on” at the end of their names?

  “Ah, there it is!”

  A few streets away from the area with all the stalls, we arrived at Parion Temple. It was on a pretty big plot of land—about three-quarters of an acre? At any rate, it was three times the size of any normal house.

  The wall around the area seemed to serve as the outer wall of the temple. It was made of stone; upon going through the arched entrance, I could see a space for parking horses and carriages and a wide-open gate.

  There was an expensive-looking carriage in the parking area. Maybe it was wrong of me to presume, but I had a strong suspicion this clergy was loaded.

  Zena took my hand and guided me into the temple. Inside was a large room with a high ceiling at least thirty feet up. Various banners and holy symbols decorated the room, and several priests were performing a sort of baptism ritual for the child of someone who looked like a merchant.

  There were skylights in the ceiling, though no stained glass; on the upper half of the wall, there was a painting of a sword-wielding knight locked in combat with a horned demon. The image was a bit strange but oddly powerful.

  “That’s a picture of the first hero battling the demon lord.”

  “Oh, that’s the hero? I was sure he was a knight.”

  “You can tell because his Holy Sword is glowing blue. It would be easy to tell if he was a knight—he’d be wielding a Magic Sword instead, and those glow red.”

  Come to think of it, those Holy Swords I have glowed blue when I first took them out, too. But it lasted for only a second.

  “Is the hero’s Holy Sword the only one that glows?”

  “A Holy Sword should glow blue only if it’s accepted the wielder. But some Holy Swords have been used by people without the title of Hero—like Gjallarhorn, which the ancestral king Yamato left behind, and Claíomh Solais, the Holy Sword that protects our kingdom.”

  “Accepted the wielder,” huh? I didn’t have a whole lot of confidence in my heroism, so I doubted a Holy Sword would accept me anytime soon. Anyway, Claíomh Solais was a famous enough name that it sounded familiar, but I’d never heard of Gjallarhorn.

  Oh, but I got a bunch of titles, too… Since I did kill some dragons, I wonder if I got the Hero title? When I opened the list of titles to check, I encountered something strange.

  …Godkiller?

  Alarmed, I double-checked my log. Luckily, it didn’t seem like anything had been deleted yet.

  Among the notifications of enemies I’d defeated, there was a scattered handful of titles. I’d gotten a few titles like Lizardman Slayer, Dragon Slayer [Lesser], Dragon Slayer [Fully Grown], Dragon Slayer [Ancient], and Dragon Slayer [God]. Aside from ~ Slayer, there were also ones like ~ Destroyer and Natural Enemy of ~.

  And after all those…

  > Defeated Dragon God Aconcagua!

  > Title Acquired: Godkiller

  Do you believe in gods?

  I see… So the Meteor Shower can even kill gods? It can, huh…

  I’d panicked and fired off three of them, but if I had stopped at one, would I have been met with a counterattack from an angry god? All’s well that ends well, I guess.

  “That doesn’t mean just anyone can use a Holy Sword.”

  After I’d fallen silent in shock, a woman’s gentle voice broke in to our conversation…

  “Only those heroes who answer the call of our youthful goddess Parion can fight a demon lord. Before a hero who wields a Holy Sword from such a god, even a demon lord can do naught but fall to his knees.”

  Turning around, I saw a young woman in a scarlet outfit not unlike a Western nun’s. Something about her, maybe her pale eye color, made her whole presence seem somehow faint to me. Her attire was different from the clothes I’d seen on the other clergy here. Was she an important figure?

  Beside her face, an AR screen began to display the woman’s information. Very convenient.

  “Sister Ohna!”

  “It is good to see you again at last, Zena of the house of Marienteil. Is your younger brother in good health?”

  “Yes! He’s going to become the new head of the family next year, so he’s studying hard.”

  “I see. If anything should arise that I can be of help with, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

  Having talked with the priestess for a moment, Zena turned toward me for introductions. “Sister Ohna is the count’s daughter. My mother was her wet nurse, so Sister Ohna is always worrying about my younger brother’s health.”

  I see… She must care a lot about Zena’s brother, then. She’d approached us just to ask about him, after all.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m a peddler by the name of Satou.”

  “I am Sister Ohna, a priestess who serves the temple of Parion. Please forget the lineage Zena spoke of; such worldly status is meaningless in the temple.”

  So being a priestess here was sort of like being a Buddhist monk?

  Though she was younger than Zena, her calm disposition somehow made her seem more like a doting mother.

  “Still, your visitation brings me great peace of mind. Until now, Zena has only ever shown interest in the study of magic, but it seems spring has come for her at last.”

  “Wh-wha…? No! It’s not like that at all! Satou and I, um, we’ve only just met, so…!” Zena, who apparently had little experience with love, seemed disproportionately flustered by Ohna’s remarks and was frantically making excuses. Her pubescent thought process was written all over her face: I’m fond of him…but it’s not love or anything… But I don’t think I’d object if…

  She was so innocent… It brought back memories of my school days.

  I wanted to talk with the priestess a little longer, but a commotion near the entrance forced us to break it off.

  “Your Holiness! The head of the Boril family is deathly ill! He’s still far too young—please come help him!”

  “Master Boril, is it? We novices alone can’t allay his illness…”

  “Send the priestess, then!”

  “Isn’t the Boril estate in the west quarter? We can’t very well send the revered priestess serving as our god’s Oracle to a place of brothels and filth!”

  “Please! I’m begging you!”

  A priest and a man who seemed to have barged into the temple were having a heated discussion. Sister Ohna turned to Zena. “There appears to be an emergency, so I must take my leave now, Zena.”

  With that, the priestess walked over to the two men. “I will go. Please prepare the carriage.”

  The priest still seemed indignant at the thought, but he was no match for the will of the “Oracle” herself. I could hear him arguing with her in an urgent whisper. It’s rude to eavesdrop, of course, but I’d forgotten to turn off my “Keen Hearing” skill, so I ended up tuning in.

  “Sister Ohna, should you not go to the count to convey the Oracle you received not long ago?”

  “I have already entrusted the head priest with that task.”

  “But the prediction sai
d there would be a disaster at Zaicuon Temple—it’s far too dangerous to go near it in the west quarter!”

  “I believe it will be fine. The Boril estate is far from their temple.”

  Zaicuon Temple, huh? That’s where that tubby priest was from, the one who’d been preaching in the east quarter. Was he going to do something drastic to win back followers?

  Well, we’d just have to make sure we didn’t get too close if it seemed like a riot or something was about to break out. I was sure I could pick up Zena and hop onto a roof if it came to that.

  Zena and I left the temple and returned to our stroll through town.

  Walking around the European-style streets with a lovely young lady was certainly fun. Parks, open plazas, public wells, and the like were distributed throughout the city at regular intervals. We walked along a path next to one such park, taking in the scenery.

  In a little plaza where the grass was cut short, we saw an old couple with an infant relaxing on a bench and a group of ten or so youngsters practicing martial arts. I’d thought the turf was a uniform lawn, but on closer inspection, I saw it was a mixture of different weeds and grasses.

  Zena seemed to have found something of interest, because she stopped suddenly and rushed over to a large tree in the middle of the park.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “Satou, look what I found…”

  Zena held out her hands—cupped inside was a baby bird.

  A beautiful girl holding up a tiny bird, sunlight filtering down through the trees… Now, that was a picture worth a thousand words.

  “It looks like there’s a nest at the top of the tree.”

  The nearest branch was about eight feet up… Hmm. I could make that jump in one go easily enough, but that would probably look a little too superhuman. It was probably best to just climb and pull myself up.

  “Um, Satou, could you please…?” Zena asked timidly, so of course I gladly agreed.

  I’d already planned to, anyway.

  Accepting the baby bird in one hand, I grabbed the first branch with the other. I did a one-armed pull-up to get onto that branch, putting my foot up and clambering to stand against the tree trunk. It was pretty tough to do without crushing the little chick.