Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 9 Page 5

  If we were going to use weapons aboard this ship, it might be better to trade out the Holytree Stone engine for a bigger one after all.

  “Firing now, I declare.”

  Nana pulled the trigger.

  The blast that roared from the muzzle looked like an average mage’s fireball made much bigger. It hit the water near the rock, sending up a huge splash.

  Though their names were similar, the Small Magic Gun seemed to be much less powerful than the Small Magic Cannon.

  “Huh, that’s stronger than I expected.”

  “About five times the strength of a Fire Rod, perhaps?”

  “Little more.”

  Mia’s guess was probably correct. To be precise, I would say it was about seven times stronger.

  “Rapid-fire is also possible, I report.”

  Nana fired five more times, after which the body of the gun became rather hot, so I had her stop the test.

  “Perhaps we could use it to dispose of monsters on our travels?”

  “…Th-this isn’t going to work. Maybe if it got its magic power supply from the ship, though.”

  While Nana was testing, Arisa had attempted to charge another one with magic power, but she threw in the towel.

  Evidently, this wasn’t the kind of weapon that any normal individual could fire multiple times in a row.

  Since this ship didn’t have a Magic Furnace, I’d equipped it with something like the magic collection device I’d learned about in the elf village.

  Incidentally, my salvaging also turned up a special Garage Bag that could also transport living things, Flying Shoes and a wooden Pegasus like the hero Hayato’s party had, and other such valuable magic tools.

  The Garage Bag that could carry living things didn’t seem to have solved the issues that the elves had told me about, so I would have to be very careful about using it. It must have been used as a pet carrier originally, since I found the bones of a small animal inside.

  “A rooock?”

  “It’s an island, sir!”

  Back up in the lookout post, Pochi had a longscope in hand.

  The biggest of the Seadragon Islands must have come into view.

  Before long, we were close enough that the island could be seen with the naked eye even from the deck.

  “Hey, doesn’t that look more like a sideways city than a rock?”

  Just as Arisa said, the large rock in the center of the island almost looked like a city that had fallen from the sky.

  That was a remarkable sight in itself, but there was something else that surprised me even more…

  “Emergency stop!”

  On my command, the figurehead golem stopped the ship.

  The city-rock wasn’t showing up on my map.

  That meant it must have some kind of power that hid it from my map somehow.

  “Wh-what’s going on?”

  “It might be a little dangerous here.”

  Everyone was looking at me in surprise, especially Arisa, but I couldn’t explain exactly what the danger might be.

  “I’m going to go take a look at that island. If I don’t come back before sundown, return to Bolenan Forest and ask Miss Aaze for help.”

  To be safe, I lined the deck with some Magic Bows, special Holy Swords and Spears without user limitations, and so on.

  Since the group wouldn’t have enough magic power to make use of the rapid-fire capabilities of the Magic Cannons and Guns, I didn’t put out any of those.

  “W-wait a minute! Why would you go out of your way to investigate something dangerous?! Let’s just ignore that island and go right by it!”

  Arisa tugged my sleeve urgently, trying to stop me.

  The others all looked worried, too, of course.

  But if I didn’t find out why the city-rock on that island wasn’t showing on my map, I wouldn’t be able to travel with peace of mind.

  “It’s all right. Once I figure out the cause, I’ll come right back.”

  “Cause? The cause of what?!”

  I waved at the infuriated Arisa and took off toward the island with “Skyrunning.”

  The water around the island was quite shallow, giving a clear view of the ocean floor below.

  “Looks like there are a lot of sunken ships here, too…”

  Among the coral reef on the ocean floor were the forms of quite a few large ships.

  I gradually raised my altitude as I approached the island, until suddenly…

  “M-masterrrrrr!”

  My “Keen Hearing” skill picked up on cries from my party as I crashed into the ocean waves.

  My mouth and nose felt strange and my ears popped, like the sensation when one dives off a diving board, as I collided with a rock on the bottom of the ocean.

  …Ouch.

  Beyond the froth of white bubbles, I saw colorful sea creatures wildly fleeing from me.

  But no matter how long I looked at them, no information appeared in my AR.

  Kicking off the ocean floor, I floated back up to the surface. For some reason, I couldn’t use “Skyrunning.”

  “Are you okaaay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  My friends called out to me with worry, so I waved at them reassuringly.

  In the meantime, my research continued. My menu was displaying normally, and I seemed to be able to bring items into and out of Storage without a problem. Even my map appeared normal at a glance, but it wasn’t updating with any new information.

  Next, I tried selecting magic from my menu, but like “Skyrunning,” I couldn’t use any of it.

  Whatever the reason, it seemed that I couldn’t use magic or magic-related skills around this island.

  My unique skills seemed to be functioning fine, but there were evidently limits on their ability to acquire new information by way of magic.

  I moved away until I could use magic again, trying to figure out the range of the effect.

  By marking a few kinds of migratory fish and following their movements on the map, I was able to get a rough estimate of the range. Magic seemed to be invalidated in about a two-mile radius around the water near the city-rock.

  If there was something causing this, it would probably be at the center of that circle.

  I headed toward the central point at the speed of an Olympic athlete.

  I wasn’t very good at swimming, since my body kept popping out of the ocean, so eventually I just started running along the surface of the water at high speed.

  “A sea serpent welcoming party, huh?”

  I unloaded several harpoons from Storage into the depths below, eliminating any sea serpents in my way. Once in a while, bigger creatures showed up, too, like deep sea serpents and something that looked like a mosasaurus.

  Because of the huge difference in our levels, I was able to defeat them easily even without any magic or magical skills.

  However, since I couldn’t use Magic Hand, putting the corpses into Storage was a lot harder. Because I left a lot of them behind, the sea was starting to turn red, but I’d have to deal with that later.

  “This should be the center of the radius… Hmm? There’s something in the water.”

  On the ocean floor, I could see something that looked like a shrine surrounded by Grecian stone pillars.

  Once no more monsters were coming to attack me for the time being, I dove into the water to investigate.

  Occasionally supplying myself with fresh oxygen from Storage, I explored the seabed shrine.

  There was something written on the walls in what appeared to be Ancient Language.

  THE FLOATING CASTLE NONOLIE HAS FALLEN TO OUR DEVOURING TRAP. WE WILL USE THE HEART OF NONOLIE TO CREATE A SECOND AND THIRD TRAP. THE FLOATING SHIPS, THE FLOATING ISLANDS…AND FINALLY, THE SKYFOLKS’ CAPITAL, LALAKIE… WE SHALL BRING ALL OF THEM DOWN TO THE EARTH. FREEDOM SHALL BE IN OUR GRASP.

  The final sentence was written in a strange scrawl, with red staining the grooves of the carved letters. It definitely gave off a sense of madnes
s.

  It was likely a trap laid by Captain Ghost’s people.

  The large amount of sunken ships near this area must have been caught in the magic-nullifying trap. Without magical defenses, the wooden ships especially would never have held up to sea serpent attacks.

  A ship made with a magical alloy might manage, but against a larger monster like a deep sea serpent, it would probably meet the same fate.

  I found a staircase leading downward and followed it to find an underground cavern.

  I swam along a slope lined with white stone slabs that looked like coffins.

  It felt as though I’d wandered into a graveyard.

  …Hmm? White hair?

  Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a woman lying on one of the slabs.

  An icy chill ran down my spine as I whirled to face her.

  “…I guess I imagined it.”

  There was nobody there.

  If there had been, surely I would have noticed when I first passed it.

  Since coming to this world, I’d thought that encountering ghosts and undead kings and such had gotten me used to the supernatural, but I guess I still didn’t deal well with this kind of deathly atmosphere.

  When I reached the end of the slope, I saw an open space with a gigantic jet-black rock buried in the center.

  A magic circle was emanating from the black rock.

  This must have been creating the magic-nullifying space.

  It would be difficult to pull the stone out without magic, but if I left it alone, this part of the ocean would become a ship graveyard not unlike the Bermuda Triangle.

  I pulled out a blue-steel tool the kobolds had given me and dug out the rock.

  Once I put it in Storage, the magic nullifier was canceled and I was able to use magic again.

  Just to be sure, I confirmed that none of the items in Storage had lost their magic power.

  “I guess this case is closed.”

  Opening my map, I saw that I was receiving new information again.

  As I thought, the city-rock was the wreckage of the city called Nonolie.

  Once I dealt with all the strong monsters in the area, I returned to my comrades on the ship.

  “Land hoooo!”

  “Sir!”

  The ship had arrived on the beach of an inlet on the city-rock island, where I activated Dimension Anchor to keep it in place.

  I lowered the gangway to the beach, and everyone happily disembarked, with the little kids in the lead.

  “There are monsters and other dangerous creatures in the forest and beyond the cliffs, so don’t go too far.”

  I stepped down onto the sand myself as I called out a warning.

  Flotsam and jetsam from sunken ships were washed up all over the shore.

  I gazed at it all absently as I set up a beach parasol next to the sheet Liza and Lulu had laid out.

  The sunlight was strong, bright enough that it hurt my eyes bouncing off the sand.

  I handed out canteens to make sure nobody got heatstroke.

  “Ooh, that’s nice and cold.”

  “Bubblyyy?”

  “It’s carbonated, sir!”

  “Mm, yellorange fruit.”

  The younger kids thanked me and ran off to play by the water.

  I followed them with the older group in tow.

  “Hee-hee, you can’t come to the beach without dipping your toes in a little.”

  “Mm. Nice.”

  “Feels funnyyy?”

  “It’s amazing, sir! There’s sand moving between my toes, sir!”

  Arisa took off her shoes, and the rest of the younger crew soon followed suit, frolicking at the water’s edge.

  “There is a foreign object in the sand, I report.”

  “A shell, maybe?”

  “No, it seems to be some kind of rusted jewelry.”

  The older crowd had found a washed-up piece of flotsam from one of the sunken ships.

  “Gold coooin?”

  “I found a pretty rock, sir.”

  “Mm. Aquamarine.”

  After a little while of gathering shells, the group moved on to combing the beach for treasure.

  Arisa dragged Lulu over to look at some barrels that had washed up onshore.

  “Barrrrel.”

  For some reason, Arisa kept muttering barrel to herself and giggling. It was probably a joke from some famous game or anime series.

  “This one smells of alcohol.”

  Some of the hardier barrels still had their contents intact. There were all different kinds, including a handful that contained food, drink, or liquor that was still usable.

  Unfortunately…

  “Eeeeeek! B-buuuugs!”

  …some of them had been infested by roaches or flies, so we had to proceed with caution.

  Lulu was clinging to me and trembling, so I patted her reassuringly as I spoke to Liza.

  “Liza, I’m going to go check out the city-rock a bit. Could you keep an eye on things over here?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  Liza nodded, but she looked like she wanted to say something else.

  It was Nana who stepped in for her.

  “Master, if you are going to investigate the city-rock, please bring a guard with you, I request.”

  Ah, I see. She doesn’t want me to go alone.

  “Don’t worry. I’m only going to fly around and collect some treasure from the sunken ships nearby, plus take a little peek while I’m at it.”

  The older girls looked worried, so I tried to reassure them as lightly as possible.

  I wasn’t too worried about monsters or other things I could detect in advance, but I didn’t want to risk putting them in danger of landslides, falling rocks, or that sort of thing.

  “And I’ll put a Return seal slate here, so I can come back at any time.”

  The trio still looked worried, so I showed them a seal slate, at which point they finally smiled in relief.

  “That’s probably enough salvaging for now…”

  I’d used “Skyrunning” to do a loop around the island, picking up treasure from sunken ships as I went.

  Most of the ships themselves were in pretty rough shape, so I put them back in the water to serve as fish reefs once I’d recovered the treasure and other remains.

  Some of the ships had rotted so severely that they’d lost their shape entirely, turning into piles of scrap wood and metal with the occasional treasure buried within. Since the anti-magic space had also canceled out the Fixify spells, the only valuables that were still intact were certain precious metals and gems that were resistant to rust and seawater.

  Among the relatively newer sunken ships, I found a few that seemed to belong to Viscount Emerin, who I’d met in the old capital. From those, I was able to recover the remains and articles of the deceased, as well as some Magic Furnaces and Cannons that were damaged but potentially repairable.

  Strangely, though Viscount Emerin had spoken of a lost fleet, there was one less ship here than the amount he mentioned. I was a little curious about this; perhaps it had broken apart and left no remains or sunk in a deep area that was part of a different map.

  Once we set sail again, I decided I would give the unidentifiable remains a proper burial at sea.

  These poor souls had probably been caught in the magic-nullifying barrier and slaughtered by a swarm of sea serpents near this beach, so I doubted they could rest in peace properly here.

  “Next, I guess I’ll investigate the city-rock.”

  I took off into the sky, leaving the waves far below, until I was high enough to look down at the city-rock.

  The side we’d been facing was merely bare rock, but when I came around to the other side, I could see just how bizarre it was.

  The image of buildings that were hundreds or even thousands of years old, all clustered together horizontally, was so strange, it seemed like something out of a movie.

  There weren’t any buildings as tall as you would see in m
odern Japan, but I thought it was pretty impressive that none of them had bent out of shape. They were still standing straight and tall, despite being tilted to one side for so long.

  When I came closer, I saw something else that intrigued me.

  “I’ve seen this crest somewhere before…”

  There were four crests engraved on the front gates of the city, one of which was made with a familiar-looking red stone.

  “…Oh yeah, the pyromaniac noble.”

  For some reason, it looked like the crest sported by the pyromaniac noble we’d encountered a little while before we went to the elf village.

  “I knew it. It’s the same one in the stone from the Crimson Cane.”

  When I produced the stone of his fiery weapon from Storage, I saw that they were one and the same.

  Still, that didn’t explain what the connection might be.

  I put the stone back in Storage and approached one of the buildings.

  Peering in through the window, I saw that the lower wall was severely indented beneath a heap of crushed furniture and equipment.

  From somewhere in this pile, I heard the flapping of wings.

  “…Birds?”

  The arrival of an intruder (me) seemed to have scared away some birds.

  The ruins of these buildings must be a bird paradise; there were countless nests in most of the buildings below a certain point.

  I passed the web of a giant spider that preyed on the birds, arriving at the ground.

  “Looking up at it from down here is impressive, too, in a different way from seeing it from the sky.”

  I landed near some kind of monument close to the city-rock.

  “‘Freedom shall be in our grasp’ again, huh…”

  That same phrase was engraved on this monument, a warped, sinister-looking stone.

  It was written in the same mad-looking penmanship I’d seen in the underwater temple.

  “What’s this, then?”

  There was a huge pit directly in front of the monument.

  “…Geh!”

  I used the Wind Magic spell Blow to disperse the leaves that had settled over the pit, shedding sunlight on its contents.