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

  Mia and Lulu trembled as they looked at the oncoming ghost ships.

  “Master, shall I produce Flexible Shields? I inquire.”

  “I think I can slow down one or two of them.”

  “It’s all right,” I reassured Nana and Arisa. I appreciated the offers, but we were on track to put a perfectly safe distance between us.

  “Master, at least allow me to guard from the stern—”

  “No, you could fall.”

  Liza, who had changed into her armor, looked eager as well, but I shook my head.

  Perhaps due to the intense rainfall or the appearance of the ghost ships, the formerly calm seas were becoming increasingly tempestuous.

  If someone fell in there, they could drown in a matter of seconds.

  Besides…

  “I’ll take care of the rest. You all just stay here and watch.”

  I smiled at everyone, then used “Skyrunning” to take off from the poop deck.

  The figurehead golem should be able to take care of steering the ship.

  “Wow, they really are ghost ships, all right.”

  As I came closer, I could see the ships more clearly.

  They weren’t merely different sizes—they were from all different places and eras, too.

  All the ghost ships in the fleet had tattered sails, and some even had broken masts or huge holes in the sides.

  They were each trailed by a black cloud, giving the illusion that they were burning from a direct cannon hit.

  All they had in common was the fact that they were floating in the sky and that they were all captained by ghosts or skeletons with rusty cutlasses.

  It was a fantastical scene and all but a little bit too horror-flavored for my tastes.

  “Okwabeetouga!”

  Beneath the sounds of rain and whipping winds, I heard a skin-crawling voice shrieking.

  > Skill Acquired: “Hallowed Language”

  The inflection was similar to Ancient Language, but apparently, it wasn’t the same.

  I quickly put skill points into “Hallowed Language” and activated it.

  On the map, I could see that my comrades’ status condition had changed to Fear. That shriek must have had a similar effect to the black dragon’s roar.

  I felt bad for them, but I would probably have to deal with this situation first.

  “”

  The bearded skeleton captain of the largest ghost ship shouted from the deck.

  Um, aren’t you dead, though?

  “”

  Just to be safe, I searched my Storage and the map for it, but the key didn’t seem to be anywhere around.

  “”

  The Skeleton King swung a dark-red rapier, and all the ghost ships turned their sides toward me.

  “”

  Boom! The ghost ships shot at me with a dull sound and clouds of black smoke.

  Cannonballs flew toward me, blazing with black flame.

  My Flexible Shields or the ship’s defenses could probably ward them off, but there was no need to put everyone in danger like that.

  Instead, I changed my title to Hero and brought out the Holy Sword Claidheamh Soluis.

  “ Claidheamh Soluis!”

  On my command, the Holy Sword transformed into thirteen blades and began counterattacking the cannons.

  “”

  Upon hearing the Skeleton King’s words, I finally understood.

  The ghost ships were all different because they were the shades of the Skeleton King’s victims. That explained why the crews’ clothing ranged from that of pirate lackeys to navy uniforms.

  The ghost ships attacked at the Skeleton King’s command.

  They were led by former pirate ships, which had naval rams on their bows.

  The ghosts who were able to fly took off like carrier-based aircraft, and the deck-bound skeleton soldiers began to fire with guns and bows.

  AWUOOOOOOWN.

  The skeletons’ cries echoed through the stormy sky. There was no meaning to their words.

  Giving a brief, silent prayer for their souls, I swung my raised hand down.

  “ Claidheamh Soluis—bring the dead to rest.”

  My slightly dramatic words scattered on the wind.

  The blades of my Holy Sword let off a bright-blue light as they zoomed around like guided air-to-air missiles from a certain mecha anime.

  WHOOOSH.

  Claidheamh Soluis reached the first of the ghost ships.

  The black clouds of the ghost ship and the blue glow of Claidheamh Soluis clashed for an instant, but the latter quickly won out.

  When the flash of light faded, the ghost ship was gone, leaving nothing but white ash falling amid the rain and gusts.

  All over the stormy skies, the same scene was playing out.

  One by one, the ghost ships turned to ash along with their skeletal crews and disappeared.

  I thought I heard the skeletons sigh with relief as they vanished, but it might have been my imagination.

  “”

  The Skeleton King shouted with rage as his ghost fleet disappeared.

  His pompous mannerisms reminded me of the jet-black greater hell demon I’d encountered in Seiryuu City.

  “”

  “”

  I had no idea what the Skeleton King was talking about at that point.

  “”

  For some reason, the Skeleton King was glaring into the swirling black clouds. I’d thought he was talking to me, but it seemed he was shouting at some other person in his memories instead.

  “<—and I shall see that promise through, no matter who or what I must sacrifice to do so!>”

  This all sounded very grandiose but also maybe a little crazy.

  World domination was the kind of goal that should show up only in children’s stories.

  As I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, my Holy Sword returned from sweeping away the ghost fleet.

  All that was left was the Skeleton King’s flagship.

  “”

  I had a bad feeling about it, so I put a marker on the Skeleton King and his ship.

  If conversation was possible, I preferred to settle things with words rather than trying to kill each other, but…

  “”

  The bow of the ghost ship opened, revealing a giant cannon.

  Red particles of light began to gather at its muzzle.

  …Clearly, this guy was out to kill me.

  The red light began to form into a straight conducting line.

  This Magic Cannon must have the same firing sequence as the Small Magic Cannon I’d tested before.

  “”

  Magic circles began to spawn around the red line.

  …Yeah, I’m not going to just let this thing fire.

  I would’ve let him go if he was harmless, but having a phantom ghost ship with a grudge against us roaming around would be bad for my mental health.

  From Storag
e, I produced a Holy Bullet that had been overloaded with magic power, and then I flung it toward the Magic Cannon with all my might.

  A blue flash evaporated the nearby raindrops, piercing the Magic Cannon along with the ghost ship itself.

  The ship exploded, leaving a few rings of black dust.

  “Was it wasteful to use a Holy Bullet when a few of them could kill a demon lord?”

  Within moments, the rain let up, and the clouds began to disperse. The Skeleton King appeared to have been the cause of the storm.

  A dark voice spoke to me from the seas below.

  “”

  Just as I suspected, the Skeleton King had some tricks up his sleeve.

  According to my marker, his current location was now the Spirit World. He must have used the “Spirit World Passage” he and the ghost ships had.

  The Skeleton King had next to zero HP left. He must have fled to this Spirit World place moments before the attack could kill him.

  The marker I’d attached to the ghost ship had disappeared, so I’d successfully destroyed that, at least.

  I searched around for the source of the voice. If I could hear him, there must be a gate to the Spirit World somewhere.

  “<…Let us meet again, elsewhere in time.>”

  Finishing his monologue, the Skeleton King’s presence vanished completely, leaving the echo of an ominous laugh.

  I didn’t manage to find the gate, but my “Sense Danger” would be on high alert for this guy. If we did “meet again,” I would dispose of him with no questions asked.

  You had to deal with guys like that before you wound up with some kind of fated adversary.

  The Amnesiac Girl

  Satou here. I’ve been on ferries and fishing boats before but never sailing ships. When I first saw a model sailing ship at a friend’s house, I was surprised by how much rope there was.

  “…Lalakie?”

  “Yeah, that’s what the Skeleton King on the ghost ship said.”

  Once I cleared the Fear status condition from my party, I summarized what had happened.

  “That name sounds familiar… Wait, didn’t you say the ghost captain of that blue sunken ship said the same thing?”

  With a nod, I presented my hypothesis.

  “He may have come to search for the ‘key to Lalakie’ in the ruins of Nonolie because I deactivated the anti-magic trap.”

  I didn’t know how spirits and magic were connected, but I had a feeling that might have been keeping them away.

  “So do you have it?”

  “Nope.”

  This wasn’t a game, so of course an important item like that wasn’t just lying around.

  “Didn’t Captain Ghost say something about keys and coffins and stuff like that?”

  Arisa’s words sounded familiar, so I searched my memories.

  Let’s see, I think he said…

  “…The key to Lalakie… Stolen. Now Lalakie…can no longer fly. All that remains is to bring the Coffin to His Majesty the Emperor in the Room of Reality…”

  …or something like that.

  Based on the clues, I guessed that Captain Ghost’s men had stolen from the Skeleton King the “key” required for Lalakie to fly, as well as this “Coffin” thing, which they were trying to bring to some “emperor.”

  “All this happened a long time ago, so it probably reached this ‘emperor’ after that.”

  “I guess so.”

  Arisa nodded in agreement, and we put the subject of Lalakie to rest.

  “Master! There’s someone on the beach!”

  Lulu pointed back toward the edge of the water.

  I couldn’t see too closely, but it looked to be a woman with long white hair.

  The tips of her hair were blue. Maybe they were dyed?

  “Oh no! We have to help!”

  Whoops. Arisa is right.

  Better rescue her first and worry about her hair later.

  We were still roughly three hundred feet from the shore, so I used Magic Hand to retrieve the person.

  Once she was on the deck, I could see that she was a gorgeous woman with dark-brown skin.

  Her face was pale, and she looked to be in pain.

  Lulu produced a blanket from her Fairy Pack and covered her with it.

  “Master, this woman…!”

  “I know.”

  Arisa looked serious, and I nodded gravely.

  To think that there is someone else with a bust big enough to rival Miss Karina’s…

  “Hi-ya!”

  Arisa’s tiny fist bopped my head.

  “Judging by that face, you’re not thinking what I’m thinking at all, are you?”

  Arisa put her hands on her hips, glaring down at me as I knelt next to the unconscious woman.

  “What—?” I started to ask, but then I realized what Arisa was talking about.

  Half-ghost?

  The AR display said that her race was Half-Ghost.

  In a strict fantasy world like this where humans and elves couldn’t even produce half-elves, how could a half-ghost exist?

  I had the urge to lodge a complaint with whatever gods made the rules of this world.

  “Looks like she’s lost her memories, too.”

  I nodded at Arisa, using the “Poker Face” skill to hide my inner complaints.

  Her status condition read Amnesiac. Maybe that was why most of the fields in her information, like name and affiliation, were blank; white text stated that she was level 1 with the skill “Song,” but next to that was gray text that said level 27 and listed skills like “Earth Magic,” “Summoning Magic,” “Singing Magic,” “Meditation,” and “Sociability: Lalakie.”

  “She’s level one with only one skill, so maybe we shouldn’t pry about her race?”

  Raising an eyebrow at Arisa’s muttered remark, I turned off my menu display and used my “Analyze” skill to check her status.

  As it turned out, the regular “Analyze” skill could see only the white text.

  In that case, Arisa could probably see only the white text that read Amnesiac, not the grayed-out titles like Last Princess of Lalakie and Sacrificial Maiden.

  Her race-specific inherent skills like “Magic Absorption: Weak,” “Health Absorption: Weak,” and “Spirit World Passage” were grayed out, too.

  It was similar to the state of my companions’ newly acquired skills before they fully sank in.

  “What’s wrong, Tama, sir?”

  Turning at the sound of Pochi’s voice, I saw Tama lurking behind the mast, glaring at the unconscious woman.

  Her tail was puffed up, and she was clawing at the mast, growling a little.

  The half-ghost woman was probably putting her on edge.

  “Satou.”

  “Don’t assault her!”

  Mia and Arisa protested when I put my hand to the woman’s wrist.

  “I’m just checking her pulse.”

  What the…?

  When I let go of her, something felt strange.

  Passing my hand over her skin, I felt some kind of reaction when my skin was on the verge of brushing against hers.

  “Mrrr. Guilty.”

  “How is that checking a pulse?!”

  The pair tried to pull my hand away, so I passed them off to Nana and Lulu.

  What’s going on here?

  No matter how hard I stared, I couldn’t see anything.

  With Spirit Vision activated, I saw that the space around her was utterly devoid of spirits.

  With “Magic Vision,” I noticed she was giving off more magic power than the average person.

  But what I was feeling wasn’t magic.

  If anything, it was more like when I touched the Undead King Zen’s shadow…

  > Skill Acquired: “Miasma Vision”

  Now I could see
a faint black aura around the girl.

  Like when I first started to see spirits, it didn’t show up if I concentrated; I had to look at it out of the corner of my eye.

  I added points to the new “Miasma Vision” skill and turned it on.

  My vision turned black-and-white, like I was looking at a negative of the world.

  “…Geh!”

  I could see an ominous aura of miasma around the young woman much more clearly than before. It was like a dark hatching effect from a manga.

  A chill ran down my spine.

  “<…Nnngh…>”

  The aura seemed to constrict the woman, and she cried out in pain.

  Instinctively, I reached out and grasped some of the miasma.

  When I moved to break it apart, the mysterious woman’s face relaxed just a little.

  I set about removing the miasma that was tormenting her, like untangling a knotted web of fishing line.

  It was pretty difficult work.

  But as I concentrated so intensely that I could see only the tangled miasma, I became able to remove it faster and faster.

  The shackle-like miasma around her hands and feet was especially strong, but it wasn’t anything I wouldn’t be able to handle with a bit more concentration. The chain-shaped miasma trailing from the shackles cut off partway down, so I probably didn’t need to worry about that too much.

  “Aaaah!”

  In a distant part of my consciousness, I heard Arisa shriek, but it didn’t sound like anything too important, so I just kept working at the miasma.

  “Whew, all done— Wait, what’s going on here?”

  “Master, we must bathe the larva and give it new clothing, I advise.”

  Nana lifted the woman—or should I say, the little girl?—and carried her downstairs.

  “What in the world happened?”

  Lulu explained. “You started moving your hands like you were pulling on rope, and after a while, she started shrinking—or rather, getting younger.”

  I had been so focused on untangling the miasma that I hadn’t even seen what was happening around me.

  “Master, what were you doing?”

  Arisa looked at me suspiciously, so I explained that I’d been unraveling the miasma.

  “But why would that make her younger?”

  “Don’t ask me. She looked like she was in pain, so I just thought getting rid of the miasma would help her.”