Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 9 Read online

  I chose the most roundabout course possible so that they would hopefully reach the fish at around the same time as the second round of shots from the cannons.

  “All cannons, fire!”

  “““Aye!”””

  The shooters looked grim as they pulled the levers to fire the second volley.

  A barrage of magic shots hurtled toward the rock-head bass, which were now incredibly close.

  At the same time, there was a flash in the waves, and the underwater monsters began to sink as they were hit by Remote Arrow.

  “Whew. Looks like we drove ’em off somehow.”

  The baron heaved a sigh of relief, then started giving post-battle orders.

  The crew gathered the cores that had wound up on deck, but since it seemed like they were just going to give up on the ones in the water, I collected them for myself. The captain wanted to buy them off me to power the Magic Furnace, so I sold them at the price he proposed.

  “It’s the water gate to the port!”

  Back on our ship, we heard a shout from the baron’s ship.

  Seven days since the battle against the rock-head bass, we were about to safely enter Sutoandell.

  I’d returned to my own ship right after that battle and hadn’t bothered the baron’s ship any further except to confirm our route.

  Since the sailors hadn’t been bathing, their ship smelled absolutely awful.

  They avoided using up precious fresh water whenever possible and would use seawater for cooking, washing their faces, and so on.

  No wonder the first mate and I had such different outlooks on the value of water.

  Before my eyes, the water gate began to open.

  Oh, I better warn her now.

  “”

  “”

  The rest of the group often sang together to pass the time on our journey, but whenever Rei joined in, it always attracted schools of fish or swarms of seabirds.

  This was all very nice and fantasy-like, of course, but in reality it might cause problems if she did it in front of strangers.

  While the girls amused themselves on our travels, I’d secretly been doing a bit of remodeling on the ship.

  In preparation for a possible rematch with the Skeleton King, I’d made portable Holy Stones for each member of the group and upgraded the ship’s Holytree Stone engine to a bigger, more powerful model.

  In the future, I planned to add features like a rocket launcher and improve the defensive barrier.

  “Wow, now that’s a big gate.”

  “They have so many big cannons and towers…”

  Arisa and Lulu gazed at the gate and its fully armed defensive towers in surprise.

  The towers also seemed to be staffed by birdfolk soldiers, archers, and mages. Defense must be very important to them.

  “They use the gated entrance to the bay there to keep out monsters.”

  There were large pillars placed inside the gates for warding off monsters, too, like the ones we saw on the huge river near the old capital.

  The flow of water coming through the narrow gates was as fast as a river.

  That was probably because the water from that same river let out into the bay.

  Checking my map, I saw that there were other gates and channels for routing out excess water. One particularly large channel even doubled as a place to cultivate seaweed.

  “Master, the harbor watch ship has given us the signal that we may enter.”

  “Thank you, Liza. Let’s head on in, then.”

  Thanks to the baron’s ship preceding us, we were able to get into the harbor after only a simple identity check.

  Normally, the harbor watch would have to thoroughly inspect any weapons and search for smuggled goods before allowing us in.

  There were virtually no monsters in the harbor, so there were plenty of small boats fishing.

  “”

  “”

  Rei pointed out the many larger ships in the harbor.

  Several of the largest ones were Ougoch Duchy gunships; a few large and medium battleships were anchored in the harbor as well.

  They were evidently kept here as a precaution against the foreign ships in the same harbor.

  The most noticeable ships were what looked like paddle steamers with sails from the Saga Empire and Weaselman Empire ships with oars, but there were also many medium-size ships from the southern islands.

  As I was explaining some of the ships to Rei and the others, I heard the rumbling of the beastfolk girls’ stomachs.

  “Well, it’s almost lunchtime. Shall we eat once we get into the harbor?”

  “Meeeat?”

  “I want meat, sir!”

  Tama and Pochi hopped up and down excitedly.

  We’d been subsiding largely on seafood during our travels at sea, so they were overdue for some red meat.

  “All right, let’s find a place that sells some good meat dishes.”

  Everyone except Mia cheered in agreement.

  “And rice and vegetables, too, of course,” I added.

  “Mm, yeah.”

  At that, Mia smiled and nodded, too.

  Trade City Sutoandell

  Satou here. They say “fate works in mysterious ways,” and I think that’s true. Lots of relationships start from unusual connections, not just romantic ones. Especially in a parallel world…

  “Well, Sir Pendragon, let us meet again at the New Year’s kingdom conference! I’ll repay my debt to you then with treasures the likes of which you’ve never seen!”

  When we entered the trade city of Sutoandell in the Ougoch Duchy, Baron Jeetbert shook my hand fiercely before riding off to the viceroy’s castle on horseback.

  He was going to borrow an emergency high-speed boat from the viceroy to hurry to the old capital.

  “Wobblyyyy?”

  “Kinda feels like we’re still on a ship.”

  Tama, Arisa, and a few of the others were stumbling around, unaccustomed to solid ground after so many days on the ship.

  “You’ll get used to it pretty quickly. For now, let’s take care of things here and find somewhere to eat.”

  At that, everyone immediately jumped into action. I guess they really wanted to eat some meat.

  Leaving the care of the ship to the figurehead golem and the living dolls, which were disguised with Illusion, we went to the harbor’s chamber of commerce to rent a small temporary warehouse and place some requests with the merchants.

  I’d used up a good deal of my supplies and ingredients in the elf village, so I wanted to restock as much as I could here.

  Once that was taken care of, we went to a meat restaurant as promised, which turned out to be a big hit.

  We’d mostly been living off seafood during the journey, so aside from Mia and Rei, the girls all dug in to their meat with a great deal of relish. I decided I would start cooking meat for them a little more frequently when we resumed our travels.

  Patting their bellies, everyone practically bounced out of the shop.

  “So fuuuuull?”

  “Meat really is the best, sir.”

  “The mutton was truly delicious. Its sinew had such an excellent mouthfeel.”

  The beastfolk girls seemed especially satisfied.

  Liza’s remarks were a little unusual, but if she was happy, that was good enough for me.

  “Whaaat? The lamb steak was waaay better.”

  “The sauce was very flavorful. I can’t wait to try to make it myself.”

  Arisa and Lulu, too, looked so pleased that it wouldn’t have surprised me if little musical notes appeared next to their heads.

  “Larva, what is the matter? I inquire.”

  “”

  Rei staggered a bit when we left the shop, but Nana was quick to hold her up.

  She was probably merely a little di
zzy, but her face looked strangely pale, so I decided we should find an inn as soon as possible so she could rest.

  “Pilaf tasty.”

  “”

  Mia was the last to leave the restaurant with a comment, and Rei nodded in agreement.

  Apparently, she liked the pilaf and salad so much that just thinking about them brought her back to her regular self.

  “I agree with the larva. The seaweed salad was delicious as well, I report.”

  They were right: Even the non-meat dishes were very tasty.

  I was particularly curious about how they’d made the seaweed salad Nana mentioned. I’d gotten them to wrap up an extra portion for me, so perhaps I could ask the elf chef Miss Nea next time I went back to the elf village.

  I could probably figure it out with the Space Magic spell Clairvoyance, but that would be cheating.

  “So we’re spending a night here, right? What are we doing after that?”

  Arisa turned around to face me as she walked ahead of us.

  “I want to buy some scrolls at the magic shop, so we’ll check out some street stalls along the way.”

  It was actually quite fun to walk around the open, friendly trade city.

  Like in the harbor area of the old capital, there were a lot of exotic sights and people wherever we looked.

  I picked up a few foreign language skills, but most of them were just dialects of languages I already knew, so I didn’t put any skill points into them.

  Besides, the magic shop in this harbor seemed to be selling a scroll of the Practical Magic spell Translation: Lesser.

  I was hoping to buy it along with any scrolls that might be of use in our journey at sea.

  “In that case, I’d like to take a look at some accessories!”

  “Mm. Yeah.”

  Mia, who was walking alongside me, nodded in agreement with Arisa, who was still facing us.

  Despite the fact that we’d recently eaten, the beastfolk girls and Lulu were eyeing all the food stalls with interest.

  “Okay, but could you stop walking backward like that? It’s dangerous.”

  “All riiiight… Hmm? Who’s that?”

  Looking past us, Arisa tilted her head in confusion.

  “”

  A voice called out from behind us that nearly sent a chill down my spine.

  It had a strange echo to it.

  Turning around, I saw a slender young girl with black hair, the ends of which were red, standing with her shoulders squared.

  Her skin was so light that it almost blended in with her white clothing. She bore a strong resemblance to Rei when she was in young-girl mode.

  This girl’s eyes, however, were alarming. They looked like a photo negative: black where there would normally be white and white where the pupils should be black.

  “”

  Judging by the direction of the girl’s gaze, Reiaane must be Rei’s real name.

  But while she looked happy to see Rei, Rei was trembling and hiding behind my arm.

  “”

  Rei clung to me even tighter.

  So this was the person Rei saw in her dream?

  “Grrr…”

  “Tama, what’s wrong, sir?”

  Tama was growling at the black-haired girl, the same way she’d reacted when we first met Rei.

  Liza and Nana moved to stand in front of me, but I stopped them with a wave of my hand.

  Tama’s reaction prompted me to activate my “Miasma Vision,” and when I did, I saw something truly frightful.

  With “Miasma Vision,” the girl in front of us looked like an evil spirit.

  She was completely shrouded in a black aura, and black chains of miasma writhed around her body like snakes.

  There were shackle-like miasma shapes around her hands and feet, too; the thick chain attached to them faded into the mist that had suddenly risen up around us.

  If she could see this, it was no wonder Rei was frightened.

  Since she was speaking Hallowed Language, this girl was probably connected to the Skeleton King, so I put a marker on her just in case.

  “”

  As soon as the girl finished shouting, something about Rei suddenly changed.

  The light left her eyes, which became unfocused as she looked up at the girl.

  “”

  Rei spoke in a voice and manner that didn’t sound like her own.

  Her tone resembled a prerecorded announcement being played back.

  “”

  Finally noticing Rei’s unusual state, the girl squinted at her quizzically, then saw me standing in front of her and scowled.

  “” I attempted a friendly greeting, but she jutted out her chin and glared even harder.

  “”

  According to the information in my AR display, her name was Yuuneia. She was level 30, with the inherent ability Foundation. She had four skills: “Ghost Magic,” “Tuning,” “Evasion,” and “Animal Training.”

  Judging by her apparent race, she couldn’t possibly be Rei’s sister by blood. They were probably either sisters-in-law or simply had been raised as siblings.

  “<…Can you hear me? I keep telling you to get out of the way.>”

  As I raised my head to stare at her, Yuuneia sounded exasperated.

  She must have told me to move a few times while I was inspecting her information.

  “” I apologized, but it didn’t seem to be enough to calm her anger.

  “”

  As she scowled, a gear-like ring of light appeared over her forehead.

  I guess I messed up.

  I should have been dodging to the side, not apologizing.

  But I wouldn’t have done that even if I knew, of course.

  “”

  SHWNESHWNEEEE!

  A call like a mynah bird’s cry echoed over Yuuneia’s voice.

  Wondering where the call was coming from, I nonetheless focused on using Break Magic to ward off the shots from her forehead.

  Before long, twenty or so skeleton pirates rose from her shadow and attacked.

  Is that Ghost Magic?

  “Aaaagh!”

  “Monsterrrs!”

  The passersby who’d been gathered around talking about Yuuneia in a language I didn’t know all screamed and fled when they saw the skeleton pirates.

  “Prepare for battle, everyone.”

  On Liza’s command, the rest of the group started producing their weapons from their Fairy Packs.

  Nana chose the large shield.

  Despite their numbers, the skeleton pirates were only around level 10, so the girls could probably take them without my help.

  Just to make sure they didn’t get hurt, I used Enchant: Physical Protection and Enchant: Magic Protection on all of them.

  “They’re level ten,” Arisa called. “They have the Paralysis effect, though, so watch out for unarmed attacks, too!”

  The others all shouted affirmation.

  “”

  “”

  Yuuneia produced another gear-shaped magic circle over her forehead.

  I knew it. So Rei’s key-shaped hair ornament really is an important item.

  But a
lso… “Orders,” huh?

  At this point, I finally noticed that her status condition read Possessed.

  That explained the miasma around her.

  “”

  I entrusted Rei to Lulu and zipped over to Yuuneia with “Warp.”

  She tried to fire a Foundation spear, but I again evaporated it with Break Magic.

  “”

  I produced a Holy Stone from Storage and put magic power into it.

  Given her race, she shouldn’t be purified along with the evil spirit possessing her.

  GHWEGHWEEEE!

  “Aaaaah!”

  As Yuuneia was bathed in holy light, a black cloud erupted from her body with a roar. For some reason, she let out a scream as well.

  Luckily, she didn’t seem to be hurt, but her white clothes started contracting around her, binding her tightly.

  I felt awkward seeing her like that, so I switched over to “Miasma Vision,” which revealed the cause.

  The vortex of miasma around her was fading, but the miasma chains had tightened on her body. The shackles were still totally intact.

  I stopped the Holy Stone at once and started to unbind the miasma around her by hand instead.

  If I kept trying to banish it with the Holy Stone, it might seriously harm her.

  I could just defeat the thing possessing her whenever it came out.

  “”

  “”

  With this absurd response to Yuuneia’s protest, I drained her magic to prevent her from trying to fight me off with Foundation.

  “”

  Yuuneia kept struggling, so I held her up with Magic Hand while I undid the chains of miasma.

  “”

  I wanted to get the shackles off first, but judging by the way they were put together, it looked like I might have to start with the chains.

  Ignoring Yuuneia’s violent resistance, I continued my work.

  “Wh-why, you heartless… Nnngh… Aaah… Aaah!”

  As I started to remove more of the miasma, a few of Yuuneia’s screams seemed to take on a borderline sexual tone, but I figured that must be my imagination and ignored it.