Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 10
Page 27
“Then this isn’t just a onetime situation, I hope?”
The viceroy’s wife’s eyes glittered.
“Of course—as long as I continue to fly Sir Pendragon’s flag.”
Rayleigh turned to me and winked.
Japanese people didn’t really do that, though.
“Oh my, then I suppose we simply must treat Sir Pendragon as part of the family, hmm?”
The viceroy’s wife smiled at me wolfishly.
As long as she didn’t try to marry me off, I’d let them use my Liquor Marquis title as much as they liked.
“Mother, if you’re thinking of marrying him into one of our collateral families, please don’t.”
“Oh? The main family line, then?”
“No, that’s not what I mean. He’s lovesick over a queen from a fairy land, so he isn’t interested in any other marriage propositions right now.”
“Lovesick”? It was a little embarrassing to hear him say that in front of other people.
“So just try to accommodate him normally, okay?”
“Accommodate him, you say? Sir Pendragon, you did have a request earlier, did you not?”
“Yes, to have the public orphanage rebuilt…”
I paused in the middle of my statement and looked up the number of homeless kids in the city.
There were more than I expected. A public orphanage alone wouldn’t be able to take them all in.
“…and permission to start a private orphanage. I’d like to regularly distribute food, too, please.”
“You’re asking for philanthropy over any personal business interests? Wow, you really are a nice guy. You even helped those folks you rescued from pirates find new work in Lalagi.”
Rayleigh stared at me in surprise.
It’s not like I particularly enjoy volunteering or anything, though.
I just want to be able to enjoy life in Labyrinth City as carefreely as I possibly can.
I couldn’t exactly walk around eating tasty food without feeling guilty if I was going to see kids starving in alleys along the way.
“Well, I’m certain we can grant those requests right away. The public orphanage existed until not too long ago, so we can just have it rebuilt.”
The viceroy’s wife was quick to comply with my requests.
“Do you have a plot of land or building in mind for the private orphanage yet? If not, please have my butler help you—Bastian, set Sir Pendragon up with the proper real estate and materials.”
The latter part was directed toward a butler standing by the wall.
Between him and Sebaf, the butler in the old capital, I couldn’t help wondering why these butlers came so close to the classic butler name without quite getting there.
Still, there were plenty of empty plots of land and houses around my mansion, so I could probably just have those repaired for the private orphanage.
Good thing I took the guild up on their offer to sell me all that land together.
When it came time to hire staff for the orphanage, I planned to have Viscount Siemmen, his noble friends, and the viceroy’s wife help me find the right people.
Thus, our productive tea party came to an end, and Rayleigh walked me back to the entrance.
“If trade keeps up like this, we should be able to pay back your money within three years. In fact, I’d love to buy more ships if we can.”
“I’ll put in a request with a merchant I know, then. He just sent me a letter not too long ago that they’d received three new ships.”
I gave Rayleigh the fictional merchant’s name: Akindoh.
At some point, I’d have to befriend someone with the “Name Order” skill and add that alias to my name list in my networking tab.
“These are your dividends from our first trip. From now on, I’ll send them to you via the money order system in the commerce guild.”
As I accepted the heavy bag of money, I was surprised to learn that money orders existed in this world.
It made sense, though. There weren’t many people with the “Item Box” skill, so carrying all this heavy gold around could probably get pretty difficult.
“Welcome home. Judging by your expression, I’m guessing it went well?”
When I returned to the house, Arisa greeted me from the garden, where she was showing the hired children how to weave grass into cords.
The little kids all welcomed me back with smiles, too.
“Yeah, I got permission to rebuild the public orphanage. The Shiga Kingdom is going to take care of all the budget and staffing for the public one, too. As for the private orphanage, they’re going to put me in touch with some good craftsmen, and they’re even going to add our area to the city guards’ patrol route.”
Now I could devote myself to crafting, exploring the labyrinth with the girls, and so on without having to worry about anything else.
“Wow, that’s amazing. What kind of spell did you use?”
“It’s a bit of a long story. Let’s make some tea and I’ll tell you about it.”
I tasked Arisa with bringing in the rest of the group from their work.
The sandy breeze from the desert tousled my hair.
Looking up, I saw a beautiful full moon with not a cloud in the sky.
“What perfect weather.”
I hadn’t mentioned this because I didn’t want to undermine Princess Meetia, but one of my cure-alls or elixirs could probably have cured the viceroy’s daughter.
For now, they had Princess Meetia’s Breath of Purification to keep the illness at bay, so I would investigate a bit more before offering my own medicine.
I wanted to use the basement laboratory of the Ivy Manor to make magic items from the materials we got in the labyrinth anyway, and now I finally had the time to do all of that.
The main purpose of our trip to Labyrinth City, raising everyone’s levels, would probably be accomplished within the next month or two.
This city didn’t seem to have much discrimination against demi-humans, so we could stay here while I worked on my new goal: making original armor, with the help of Arisa and Mia, that could stand up against the likes of a greater hell demon.
“Now all we have to do is relax and enjoy living in the labyrinth.”
I waved at Arisa and the others as they came running toward me and smiled to myself as I thought about our pleasant prospects for the future.
Time for another day of enjoying life in another world!
Afterword
Hello, this is Hiro Ainana.
Thank you for picking up the tenth volume of Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody!
That’s right, tenth! We’re in the double digits now!
I never imagined we’d get to this point when I was writing the first volume, so I’m really emotional about it.
Considering all these feelings, I’d love to talk about the progress of work on the anime adaptation now, but since I’m writing this afterword in the early stages, I’m afraid there’s no further news just yet. I’m sorry.
There might be more information by the time this volume comes out, so if you’re interested, please check the official Death March page on the Kadokawa Books site for updates.
Now, let’s discuss the major selling points of this volume, in the hopes that you’ll carry it right to the register.
Compared with the previous volume, which was entirely new content, and the volumes before it, this one is relatively low on new episodes.
Before you accuse me of cutting corners, the truth is that working on this volume took far more time and effort than the one before it, so please don’t worry.
I’m rather fond of the writing and organization of the Labyrinth City arc in the web version, so I tried to preserve the best parts about it while adding a new main storyline into the mix.
The spotlight is on this volume’s guest heroine, Princess Meetia (or the “thee-thou” princess), as well as Satou and company’s easygoing process of setting up a new base in Labyrinth Ci
ty.
Of course, there are plenty of new scenes that weren’t in the web version: more of Satou and friends in the labyrinth, labyrinth cuisine taste-testing scenes, and plenty of unexpected new acts from Satou himself.
I’d like to talk about it more, but I don’t have many pages left this time, so let’s wrap up the discussion of Volume 10’s contents here.
Finally, the usual thank-yous! To my new editor A, as well as shri, everyone else who was involved in the development and sale of this book, and of course all of you readers who’ve supported the series! Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end of this book!
Let’s meet again in the next volume for the Labyrinth City arc part two!
Hiro Ainana
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