Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 6 Page 8

  Tolma led us all over the old capital, showing us the hidden sights. We went down strange back alleys, cut through other people’s gardens, and generally followed a path that was more like a naughty child’s favorite obstacle course than a shortcut.

  Tama or Pochi would probably have loved it, but Mia started falling behind pretty quickly, and I ended up carrying her on my shoulders.

  Eventually, this sketchy course led us to a strange patch of land between two buildings, almost like an empty lot.

  Because it was actually surrounded by a grove of trees, not buildings, it was more like a natural park, but it still struck me with that impression.

  “Fresh,” Mia murmured.

  True enough, the scent of greenery was strong here.

  Suddenly, I got a strange feeling and glanced at the radar in the corner of my vision. As it turned out, this place was treated like a different map area.

  It was a tiny space, but just to be safe, I used my “Search Entire Map” skill. Fortunately, it didn’t alert me to any hostile presences.

  “Sir Satou! Over here.”

  Tolma had already pushed his way forward through the weeds and was waving us over.

  Looking in his direction, I saw a single house buried among all the greenery.

  “This is one of the best shops in town. They’ve always got tons of good finds.”

  Cheerfully ignoring the CLOSED sign on the door, Tolma walked on in as if he himself owned the place. Maybe I could learn a thing or two from his boldness.

  The entrance of the ivy-covered brick building was too small to enter with Mia on my shoulders. Even at my height, I was a little worried I’d hit my head going in. I lowered her to the ground, then took her hand and entered the store.

  “Hey, Gramps!” I heard Tolma yelling farther inside. “You alive in here?”

  After a moment, there was a crashing noise and a yelp of pain from Tolma, followed by an angry retort from an old man.

  “Am I alive, my arse! If anything, it’s been so long since I saw ye that I thought ye might be dead yerself.” The old shop owner was too short to see behind Tolma. “Anyway, Tolma. Who d’ye think yer bringing into my store?”

  “Oh, these are some friends of mine…”

  Tolma turned to introduce us, finally giving us a glimpse of the shop owner.

  He had a green hat like a nightcap, a wrinkled face, pointed ears, and grayish skin with silver eyes. According to the information on the AR display that popped up next to him, this man was a kind of fairyfolk called a spriggan.

  If I remembered correctly from video games and such, spriggans were treasure-hoarding sprites. Perhaps that was why the shelves behind him were full of magic items, scrolls, and so on.

  “It’s too bright… I cain’t see.”

  The old shop owner shaded his eyes with his hands for a moment. When he lowered his arm, his silver eyes were now jet-black.

  “Looks like a little humanfolk boy… Hmm? Isn’t that the Silent Bell of Bolenan? I see, I see.”

  Noticing the bell hanging from my belt, the spriggan shopkeeper folded his arms and nodded wisely.

  Then he noticed Mia hiding behind me.

  “Oh-ho-ho? Is that young lady an elf? Yer the spitting image of Cyriltoa, though ye mustn’t be.”

  “Mm. Mia.”

  A little sullen, Mia lowered her hood as she offered a terse introduction.

  “…I’m sorry if I offended ye.”

  The old shop owner took off his cap and stood behind the counter.

  “My name is Eucham Bolesven. As you can see, I’m but an old spriggan.”

  “I am the youngest elf of Bolenan Forest, Misanaria Bolenan, daughter of Lamisauya and Lilinatoa.”

  The spriggan introduced himself in Elvish, and Mia did the same.

  Her expression returned to normal as smoothly as if her pout had been wiped away with a cloth. I guess there are certain rules and customs that only fairyfolk know.

  Oblivious to the quiet change in the mood, Tolma began pestering the shop owner.

  “Got a few minutes, old man? I want you to show these two that special item you were telling me about, the one you called a book of treasures.”

  “Hmm, that one, eh…? Very well. Just a moment.”

  The old fellow disappeared into the back of the shop, and Tolma set about making tea and rearranging the chairs in the room as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

  “I come here to buy adult books all the time.”

  “Erm, then this ‘book of treasures’ you mentioned…?”

  “Ha-ha-ha! Of course not. At my age, I wouldn’t come here to buy those.”

  Tolma laughed off my concerns easily.

  It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested in the adult books of this world, but I didn’t exactly want to go through a whole song and dance of introductions just to get my hands on them. Fortunately, Mia didn’t seem to know what “adult books” meant; she didn’t declare me “guilty” this time.

  “Satou, tea snacks.”

  “Is something like cake or cookies all right?”

  “Honey nut cookies.”

  I took out the sweets from my Garage Bag as requested, placing them on a handkerchief in lieu of a plate.

  “Something smells sweet in here, eh?”

  “Please, help yourself.”

  I offered the cookies to the old shopkeeper as he returned with string-bound books and scrolls.

  “Delicious. Bring these next time, too.” The old spriggan must have been a fan of sweets. This was probably also a roundabout way of granting me permission to come back.

  While the shopkeeper ate with relish, I turned my attention to the books he’d brought.

  Could it be…?

  I read through the scrolls stacked along with the books. These weren’t magic scrolls like the ones I bought at Mr. Kikinu’s place but rather rolled-up notes of some sort.

  The books bound with strings listed the chants for various spells.

  There wasn’t a single line of explanation in the Shigan language, either. Instead, the rolled-up papers contained guides and notes for reading the scrolls, so I used those to try to read them.

  It brought me back to my time as a student, when I would try to reverse-engineer the source programs for games from the binary code. I’d always enjoyed stuff like that.

  It wasn’t encrypted like the guide to making Holy Swords, making it relatively easy for me to read.

  “Is this Space Magic?”

  “That’s right. I’m impressed ye could decipher it so quickly, boy!” The spriggan raised his eyebrows in surprise, then smacked my shoulders admiringly. “No wonder ye were entrusted with the Silent Bell. A traveling sorcerer left these with me and asked me to give them to the first person who could read them,” he explained, telling me the origin of the spell book.

  I never would have expected to get this handy volume here, and I was extremely pleased. It would make a good souvenir for Arisa, who was back watching the mansion.

  “Incidentally, Sir Eucham… Are the scrolls on the shelf behind you for sale, by any chance?”

  I pointed to the shelf that had caught my attention a little while ago.

  “Hmm, ye have a sharp eye. I normally dinnae sell them, but they were left to me by the same sorcerer. Perhaps ye ought to have them, if ye like.”

  “Yes, please!”

  Thanks to my enthusiasm, the old shopkeeper agreed to sell me four scrolls.

  They included the Space Magic spells Clairvoyance and Clairaudience, the Practical Magic spell See Through, and the light magic spell Illusion.

  The spriggan man warned me not to peep too much, but I had no intention of using it that way.

  Tolma seemed to want to chat with the old shopkeeper for a while, so we decided to go on ahead.

  Following the shopkeeper’s instructions, we proceeded straight from the door and came out an alley near the main street.

  “Huh. So this is where it’s connected to?”<
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  I looked over my shoulder, only to find nothing but fences.

  A glance at my map told me there were several empty lots full of trees.

  When I searched for Tolma and Mr. Eucham, I found that the store was actually located some ways away.

  “Wandering Forest.”

  I put together the information from Mia’s short explanation in my head and filed it away.

  From what I gathered, Wandering Forest was a Spirit Magic spell that formed a barrier to protect the shop. If one were to proceed in any direction but the correct path, they would come out in a different area like we just did.

  So there was a reason for Tolma’s meandering route after all.

  Feeling rather satisfied, I found a street carriage to take us back to the mansion.

  “Lady Cyriltoa does not meet with anyone without an appointment, I am afraid.”

  On the way home, we’d passed by the concert hall where Miss Cyriltoa the Songstress was performing, so I’d stopped in to see if Mia could meet her. Unfortunately, the older lady at the reception counter sharply refused.

  “Then, if I could make an appointment, please—”

  “Even if you were the son of a noble or a royal from another kingdom, I could not accept your request. If you would like to make an arrangement in the future, you will have to acquire a ‘songstress meeting license’ from His Grace the duke.”

  What is this, a side quest?

  I managed to keep my irritation from showing with my “Poker Face” skill.

  “Call Ciya.”

  “Excuse me? Who do you think you are? Calling the great Lady Cyriltoa the Songstress by a nickname!”

  The old lady’s eyebrows practically shot through the ceiling. She had to be a devoted fan of Miss Cyriltoa—more like a worshipper, really.

  But her attitude quickly changed when Mia lowered her hood.

  “Call her.”

  “…Those ears! You look like…! Could you by any chance be a relative of Lady Cyriltoa?!”

  “Mm. Mia.”

  Unmoved by the woman’s shock, Mia replied with her usual shortness.

  After that, we were able to meet Cyriltoa the Songstress without any further trouble.

  “Welcome! If it isn’t Laya and Lia’s daughter Misanaria. How long has it been? A century? Why, you’ve grown so much! How lovely.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  To my surprise, Miss Cyriltoa spoke normally for an elf. The ones I’d met so far, Mia and the store manager in Seiryuu City, both spoke mostly in one- or two-word sentences; I’d assumed she would be the same way.

  Miss Cyriltoa was a young elf girl who bore a striking resemblance to Mia.

  Her hair was closer to light blue in color, long and straight, but other than that you could barely tell the difference. Her age was several times more than Mia’s, making her older even than the store manager.

  Elves must age physically very slowly, no matter how old they are. A lolicon would probably be thrilled.

  “My, it’s been so long since I had fresh fruit from the Mountain-Tree.”

  “Mm, good.”

  The slice I offered Miss Cyriltoa put a smile on her face.

  She had declined the baked goods and dried fruit I offered, saying they would be bad for her throat, which was why I’d brought out the fruit instead. I took it from Storage through the Garage Bag, of course.

  “The Bolenan Senate contacted me to say that you were missing, Mia. Did you run away with this human boy, then?”

  “Mm. Lovers.”

  As usual, Mia was deadpanning, so I explained in her stead.

  She didn’t seem too happy to be corrected, but I thought it was best to cut off rumors like that before they started.

  “How wonderful. So you rescued our princess from an evil sorcerer.”

  “Romantic.”

  When I finished summing things up, each elf commented on the story.

  I guess Miss Cyriltoa is preoccupied with love, too.

  “Lady Cyriltoa, it’s almost time for your next performance…”

  As the three of us were chatting, the receptionist from before came to call Miss Cyriltoa away. We must have been talking for longer than I thought.

  “Oh my, what a shame. Will you be staying in the old capital awhile?”

  “Mm. Will come back.”

  When Mia noticed Cyriltoa seemed reluctant to part ways, she nodded reassuringly.

  “Oh, I know! Mia, you can have this.”

  Miss Cyriltoa took an instrument case off a shelf and handed it to Mia.

  “Ciya!”

  “I don’t use it anymore. It’ll be happier with you.”

  Lady Cyriltoa stroked the case lovingly. Her hand, encased in a glove up to the elbow, was labeled artificial hand in my AR display.

  Its movements were so natural that it was impossible to tell it apart from an ordinary hand, but it must have been inadequate for a master musician.

  “…Mm. Okay.”

  After hesitating a little, Mia accepted the musical instrument in its case.

  As the receptionist panicked further, Cyriltoa took her sweet time saying good-bye.

  “I would love to chat again.”

  “I’ll make some sweets that are easy on the throat for next time.”

  She giggled. “I can’t wait.”

  Waving her gloved hand, Miss Cyriltoa left the room.

  In the carriage on the way home, Mia hugged the instrument case to her chest as she relayed stories about the elfin songstress in short, halting sentences. As it turned out, she’d lost her arm in a tragic accident while exploring in the Labyrinth City Celivera.

  Mia remembered her singing abilities as being average, so she must have devoted herself to training her voice after losing her arm.

  I had a lot of respect for her ability to persevere in the face of adversity.

  While I was discussing this with Mia, the carriage arrived back at the mansion, and I decided to take everyone to see her perform sometime.

  Late that night, I returned into the labyrinth ruins under the old capital.

  Naturally, I wanted to test out the scrolls I’d acquired.

  The reason it ended up being so late was that I had to explain to Arisa and Mia the Space Magic spell book I’d only just gotten.

  As soon as I explained, Arisa wanted to learn it right away, but she didn’t have enough skill points to reach the level that allowed her to use Teleportation; she ended up rolling around on the floor in despair.

  Anyway, it was time to start experimenting.

  “Hmm. This one’s more powerful than I expected…”

  When I used Fire Storm from the magic menu, it utterly destroyed everything I set up to test out my spells’ effectiveness: rocks, armor, and more. The temperature itself was lower than that of Forge, but its overall power was much higher.

  Spells created specially for combat really were destructive.

  I didn’t feel like going too far, so I started my experiments in a relatively high level of the labyrinth, but at this rate, the spells might actually cause noises or tremors aboveground.

  Just to be safe, I moved closer to the middle tier of the labyrinth to experiment with the other scrolls.

  The attack spells all packed a punch, but the Light Magic spell Laser did relatively little area damage.

  Since it was possible to reduce its power by adjusting the number of beams fired, it might be handy in a variety of ways.

  If used in conjunction with Condense, a spell I’d acquired previously, I discovered I could focus all the beams together to raise its power, alter its trajectory, and things like that. Glad Condense has its uses after all.

  I didn’t get to test Break Magic very much, but it seemed decent, too. However, if I used it to cancel out an intermediate spell like Fire Storm, the excess magic would end up surging in all directions. I’d have to find a way to protect against that.

  According to one book, Mana Section was the best way to prevent this magic �
��surge.” There was another one for the list of scrolls I needed.

  The communication spells were all very handy. Clairvoyance, which could be used to check in on faraway companions, and Telephone, which could communicate with them, seemed especially useful.

  Hopefully, Arisa or Mia could at least learn how to use Telephone from the Space Magic book. Maybe Lulu could, too, since she had the Chant skill.

  Sightseeing in the Old Capital

  Satou here. Prince Shotoku is said to have been able to listen to eight people talk at once and understand what each of them was saying. Whenever I hear that story, though, I always wonder why he didn’t just ask them to speak one at a time.

  “Master, please look at the sky!”

  The normally calm Liza was pointing up excitedly.

  Following her finger upward, I saw an airship drifting through the morning mist. According to my AR display, it was a Shiga Kingdom Large Rigid Airship.

  “Monsterrr?”

  “Watch out, sir! It’s a giant peanut, sir!”

  Tama and Pochi hopped up and down as they tugged on my sleeves.

  The other kids, too, all stood outside the Worgoch mansion to peer up at the sky in surprise.

  The airship was indeed peanut-shaped, with jumbo jet–esque wings protruding from the indented area in the middle. It could be said that the globe-shaped turrets attached to the ends of each wing made it even more fantasy-like.

  According to the book I bought from Mr. Kikinu’s magic shop, it flew using a magic apparatus called a “skypower engine.”

  “Whoa! Now that’s some fantasy RPG stuff right there. How cool is that?”

  “How does it stay in the air?”

  Arisa and Lulu seemed curious, too. I guess there weren’t any airships in their hometown.

  “Airship,” Mia muttered.

  Mia didn’t look as surprised as the others. Maybe she had seen one before.

  “Airshiiip?” Tama tilted her head.

  “It’s a flying ship,” I explained.

  “Are there people on board?” Miss Karina asked.

  I nodded.

  “Amazing, sir! I want to ride one, sir!”