Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 9

by Hiro Ainana

  “Almost the entire fleet was sunk by monsters called ‘sea lord’s spawn’ in the Kraken’s Domain near the Seadragon Islands. Only one captain managed to bring his ship back to tell the tale.”

  The king went on to explain that the mithril-alloy warship in their harbor was stolen from survivors of the Flue Empire.

  “Thanks to those sea lord’s spawn, the greedy empire’s fleet was destroyed, so they could not steal our autonomy or our Dragon Cannons.” The king chuckled heartily. “I guess even monsters can come in handy sometimes.”

  When I asked, he explained that the sea lord’s spawn was the general term for a variety of octopus-type monsters that lived in the Kraken’s Domain.

  “They say that Lalakie undoubtedly sank somewhere in the wide expanse of the Kraken’s Domain, but to venture into that area would be suicide. Steer clear of that place, I tell you.”

  With that, the king and the prince led me to the banquet hall.

  The feast consisted of all kinds of seafood; the giant fish boiled in soy sauce in particular was unbelievably delicious.

  Sadly, there was no sashimi, but the chefs’ remarkable talents came through in every dish, so each course was a delight for the tongue.

  This was the last leisurely moment I would spend in Ishrallie, however; at dawn the next morning, per the king’s request, our hurried preparations for departure began.

  “Sir Pendragon, I can’t go on…”

  Prince Sabaan fell into my arms, whimpering.

  Not long after we left the harbor, the prince became incredibly seasick.

  Ignoring Arisa’s shrieks from her cabin, which sounded something like, “Satou x Sabaish, now that’s a good ship! A pale shota and a tanned, handsome prince!” I held up the slumped Sabaish.

  “Don’t be silly. I have medicine for seasickness.”

  “I’m sorry, but that stuff doesn’t work on me.”

  I wasn’t expecting the prince of a maritime nation to fare this poorly on a ship.

  “How about some medicine to make you sleepy, then?”

  “Yes, that would be great, thanks. I hope we’re in Lalagi when I wake up…”

  I gave the prince a long-lasting sleep potion and laid him down in a guest cabin on the forecastle.

  The prince being asleep for the journey meant we could use flying mode, so it worked out for everyone.

  “…Arisa.”

  I bopped Arisa lightly on the head to stop her deranged mumbling and went back onto the deck.

  The guard ships hadn’t followed us past the gate.

  Most likely, Ishrallie needed all of its navy to prepare for the flamebeast.

  “Master, more pirates!”

  “So it’s three small galleys this time, hmm?”

  Half a day had passed since we left Ishrallie. Exactly as I’d heard at the bar in Sutoandell, there were a lot of pirates patrolling the route between Ishrallie and the Kingdom of Sorcery Lalagi.

  It would be a pain to arrest the pirates and bring them all the way to Lalagi, so we were merely chasing off the pirates without much bounty and sinking the ships that were full of pirates with lots of sins on their bounty list.

  The galley ships tended to attack from behind islands, so the pirates could just swim to shore.

  Of course, whether they would survive on the monster-infested desert islands was up to their own abilities and luck.

  A few of the pirate ships that attacked us were actually ship-like structures on the backs of giant fish- or turtle-like monsters, but we managed to deal with them anyway. Of course, the giant monsters in question went right into our food stores.

  “Which kind?” Arisa asked.

  “The really evil kind,” I answered after checking their bounty info.

  They didn’t seem to have any slaves on board, so I went ahead and hit the ship with a preemptive Water Wall attack, overturning the boat and shooting a few holes in the bottom with Short Stun to sink it. By now, I had the whole routine down to a science.

  “Master, recommending a change in course.”

  “Good idea.”

  I nodded at Nana and opened my map.

  We were about to leave the Ishrallie area.

  As soon as we did, I used “Search Entire Map” to investigate the Kingdom of Sorcery Lalagi.

  The area was about the same size as Ishrallie, but its population was about 30 percent larger. The island that housed the capital was fairly large, about the same area as Hokkaido.

  Like Ishrallie, it was primarily populated by humans, with very few demi-human races; a small amount of sea-dwelling demi-humans lived around an island in the far-off reaches of the area.

  Though Ishrallie was swarming with pirates, there were hardly any in Lalagi.

  They appeared to stay in the part of the sugar route that connected Ishrallie to Lalagi.

  The City Core here in Lalagi seemed to be set to a higher temperature than the one in Ishrallie; the closer we got to the capital, the hotter it became.

  “Arisa,” I said abruptly. “They’re here.”

  “Whaaa—?” she responded blankly.

  “Tuna.”

  “Wh-where?!”

  There were several of them in the sea east-southeast of Lalagi. That must be the area where they lived.

  I put markers on the bullet tuna as I spoke with Arisa.

  You’re not getting away now.

  “They’re a little far away, so we should take care of things in Lalagi first.”

  As Arisa and I exchanged looks, both of us started grinning at the same time.

  We had plenty of wasabi and daikon radishes for garnishes, plus white rice and vinegar to make sushi rice, so all we needed now was the tuna.

  In the meantime, we’d have to practice making sushi rice and nigiri.

  “There’s a sailing ship over thataway, sir.”

  The first to spot the vessel was Pochi, who was on duty in the lookout post.

  Tama, who’d been stretched out lazily below the mast, sat up with her ears twitching.

  Swiftly climbing the rope ladder, she borrowed the longscope from Pochi and looked at the ship.

  “No one’s theeere?”

  Just as she said, the ship drifting toward us was unmanned.

  Checking my map, I saw that four fleets of twenty-eight ships total on the route ahead of us were drifting without a crew.

  A few of them had run aground, but still, it was strange.

  Why would they all be unmanned?

  Looking at the map, I didn’t see any monsters lurking nearby.

  “What’s up with that?”

  Like Tama, Arisa had been lying around due to the heat, but now she sat up and shaded her eyes to look.

  “Mrrr?”

  “Master, the larva’s hair decoration is glowing, I report.”

  Mia and Nana drew my attention to Rei’s hair barrette, which was indeed letting off a faint light.

  “Satou…?”

  “It’s okay—it’s just purifying miasma.”

  Reassuring the nervous-looking Rei, I activated my “Miasma Vision.”

  …Yikes.

  The unmanned ship coming toward us up ahead was completely covered in miasma-like blobs of thick black ink.

  The dark aura reached out from the drifting ship like tentacles, one of which had already reached our ship.

  It wasn’t behaving like ordinary miasma, so this was definitely the work of some nonhuman culprit.

  Judging by the tales of the Skeleton King and drifting ships that I’d heard in the tavern in Sutoandell, it was very possible that the Skeleton King was rebuilding his ghost fleet.

  Either way, we should probably investigate the ship before jumping to conclusions.

  And so…

  “Hang on a minute. I’m going to get rid of the miasma.”

  I unleashed my spirit light, which I normally kept suppressed, at full throttle, driving away the miasma around us. Any miasma that touched my multicolored spirit light promptly evaporated.<
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  I had learned in the elf village that spirit light could dispel miasma, but it was still amazing to see it with my own eyes.

  “I’m going to go check out that ship for a minute.”

  “B-be careful!” Arisa called nervously.

  Giving her a wave, I purified the drifting ship as I explored the interior.

  The Magic Furnace was still running, and there was food on the table and in the pots, so the situation must have happened very abruptly.

  Judging by the state of the food, it had probably been only a day or two since the people disappeared from the ship.

  Like the famous case of the Mary Celeste, all the cargo was still intact, with only the crew missing.

  Documents on the ship indicated that this was the flagship of a Shiga Kingdom trade fleet belonging to a man called Duke Vistall.

  I wasn’t familiar with the name, so I checked my notes from Tolma, which were full of information about nobles.

  It read that he was one of the three dukes of the Shiga Kingdom and the political opponent of Duke Ougoch. His territory was in the northwest of the Shiga Kingdom, separated from the Saga Empire by several smaller nations.

  Once I’d satisfied my curiosity about Duke Vistall, I continued my investigation.

  The coins, magic items, and other goods in the captain’s cabin were still safely stored away, so this clearly wasn’t the work of ordinary pirates.

  “How many ships are left? Three?”

  Arisa was looking at yet another unmanned ship that had appeared up ahead.

  “No, this twenty-fifth one is the last.”

  After about an hour of traveling around in flying-ship mode recovering the drifting ships, we finally reached the last one.

  The last three had been sunk by monsters before I could retrieve them.

  Of course, I recovered as much of the bodies, cargo, and so on as I could.

  The fact that I was able to collect twenty-five of the ships in the kind of seas where three ships could get sunk in such a short time must have meant that the Skeleton King was closer than I realized.

  Up until now, I’d been checking his marker only once in the morning and once at night, but now it seemed like I might have to start checking every hour.

  “Do you think this is the work of the Skeleton King?”

  “Most likely.”

  The sailors at the tavern in Sutoandell had said things like a drifting ship without a crew is a sure sign of a Skeleton King attack and the sailors he kills are forced to work in his ghost fleet for all eternity.

  The Skeleton King had probably taken the lives of all of these ships’ crews and turned them into undead sailors in his ghost fleet.

  I used my Magic Hand to put the last unmanned ship in Storage.

  Once that was done, I could open each ship like a folder and move the miasma around like an item.

  “It’s…gone.”

  “Vaniiished?”

  “Poof, sir.”

  At first, Rei had been surprised to see the drifting ships disappear, but now she seemed to be used to it: She was standing with Tama and Pochi, watching the small whirlpool created by the ship’s disappearance.

  “Larva, do not lean over too far or you may fall, I advise.”

  “Mm. Danger.”

  “Okay… I’m sorry.”

  Rei meekly pulled back from the railing.

  “What about uuus?”

  “Aren’t we in danger, too, sirs?”

  “Of course you are. Come back to the deck at once before you fall.”

  Tama and Pochi seemed to be feeling left out, so Liza scolded them gently.

  “Aye-aaaye?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Tama and Pochi looked strangely cheerful about being rebuked, and they hopped down to the deck with big smiles.

  “Master! There’s someone out there!”

  Lulu, who was peering through the scope of a rifle-style sniping Magic Gun, called out in an uncharacteristically loud voice.

  This Magic Gun was something I’d made by repurposing one of the Small Magic Cannons from the sunken ships.

  It was only about a tenth as powerful as the original, but I thought it was still pretty impressive for something that could be carried by a single person.

  It also featured a battery made from bluecoins, so even Lulu could fire it.

  “Ah! They’re sinking!”

  Oops, this is no time to be monologizing to myself.

  I took off from the deck and used See Through and Magic Hand to retrieve the person from the sea.

  The miasma seemed to have knocked him unconscious, so I healed him and let him rest in one of the guest cabins.

  I wanted to ask what had happened when his ship was attacked, but he appeared to be in a weaker state than I thought, so we might not be able to get any information from him until we reached Lalagi.

  “Huh, so he’s a Shiga Kingdom noble?”

  “The second son of Marquis Ashinen, it seems.”

  According to my Tolma notes, the house of Marquis Ashinen was one of the most influential families in the royal capital.

  And his father, the current head of the family, was the viceroy of Labyrinth City Celivera, which we were planning to visit soon.

  That was a convenient coincidence.

  “Let’s make our way to Lalagi. We’re passing a few pirate hideouts along the way, so better get armed and ready.”

  “Understood.”

  Liza nodded and took the rest of the group downstairs.

  “Satou…?”

  “What is it?”

  Rei, who’d stayed behind on deck, looked at me with a grave expression.

  “My heart…feels sort of…noisy.”

  Thinking that she might be sensing the presence of the Skeleton King or Yuuneia, I searched the map, but there were no signs of either of them.

  The nearest threat was a level-50 octopus sea monster lurking not far from Lalagi.

  There’d been at least one or two such monsters in most of the sea territories we passed through, so it didn’t seem worth mentioning.

  I decided to stay on guard to be on the safe side, but even after we dealt with the pirates and arrived at the Kingdom of Sorcery Lalagi, nothing ever came of Rei’s fears.

  It was probably just her imagination.

  The capital of Lalagi was deep inside a bay around the size of Tokyo Bay.

  Unlike the Shiga Kingdom, instead of having a physical water gate at the entrance to the bay, there was a magical invisible barrier.

  It was similar to the Bolenan Forest barrier that protected the home of the elves. No wonder they called this place the Kingdom of Sorcery.

  “Tiltyyy?”

  “It’s slanted, isn’t it, sir?”

  Tama and Pochi leaned to the side to match the slanted surface of the capital of Lalagi.

  Were they trying to find an angle where it would look perpendicular to the sea?

  “”

  Rei went into a trance and spoke as she looked up at the city.

  There were countless white buildings, surrounding an enormous cone-shaped structure that was probably the castle. At the top was a mysterious object similar to the Heavenslight Protection on the Ishrallie royal castle.

  Most of the buildings around the castle were quite tall, but the outer edge of the city consisted of mostly one- or two-story houses.

  The fact that the entire city was on a slant was likely an indication that it had made an emergency landing on the ground long ago.

  When Rei returned from her trance, her eyes narrowed as she sniffed the air.

  “It smells…sort of…sweet.”

  “That is the scent of pastries, I inform.”

  “Mm. Sugar.”

  The Kingdom of Sorcery Lalagi was probably the biggest producer of sugar on the sugar route. There even seemed to be a sugar refinery in the royal capital.
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  As Rei listened to Nana and Mia discussing what kinds of sweets might be waiting in the city, the anxiety she’d mentioned before we dealt with the pirates was gone without a trace.

  Lalagi, Kingdom of Sorcery

  Satou here. When you think of alcohol-loving fantasy races, dwarves are on the top of the list, but it looks like the sailors in this parallel world are no slouches, either. Rum never tastes better than when you’re drinking it out of a tankard while surrounded by jovial sailors.

  “Isn’t that ship behind you the Gabato Trading Company’s SS Cloud? Why would a Shiga Kingdom noble have such a vessel with him?”

  The harbor official frowned as he looked at the large merchant ship behind us.

  By now, I’d already acquired the “Lalagian Language” skill, so I could understand him. It sounded fairly similar to Ishralliese.

  “We found this vessel drifting unmanned, so we brought it with us. On board are—”

  “Sir! This ship is full of suspicious-looking men!”

  Before I could finish, a harbor employee who’d boarded our consort ship exclaimed loudly.

  “—some pirates we apprehended when they attacked us along the way.”

  These men had come from a total of seven different pirate ships and three different hideouts.

  The victims we’d rescued from these pirates were aboard our own deck.

  I explained all this to the director and his officials in the office of the harbor authority. Then I just had to accept some bounties and sign some criminal-slave-sale consent papers.

  The pirates would soon find permanent employment as rowers on a galley.

  As the harbor official was leaving with the papers, Liza and Nana came in instead.

  “Master, we have found accommodation for the marquis’s son and the other rescued victims in an inn recommended to us by the harbor authority.”

  “Thank you, Liza.”

  Those victims who had friends or relatives within the capital of Lalagi had already been sent off to them.

  I planned to provide travel expenses for those who had a home to return to elsewhere and some emergency living expenses for those who had nowhere to go, but after that, they’d have to figure it out on their own.