Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 2 (light novel)

by Hiro Ainana

  “That depends on the person. Those two girls are just my maids! Liza and the others can serve as guards, but they aren’t very well suited to going shopping for me and such.”

  “…But…”

  Maybe she understands now, but her feelings haven’t caught up yet?

  I guess saying something like “If that were my goal, I would’ve bought a sexy adult woman” would just make her angry again, so I’d keep that to myself.

  “Your outfit makes you look quite different from last time. The frills add a nice touch of style to your classic tidy look… It really draws out your charms.”

  A time like this called for vague compliments.

  Zena mumbled, “Oh…this old thing…” in an embarrassed tone, but she did look a little happier despite herself.

  “It’s lovely, but aren’t you cold being so lightly dressed?”

  “No, I’m quite used to it, so I’m fine.”

  That’s not how this exchange is supposed to go, Zena.

  You’re supposed to take the guy’s arm and say, “I’ll be warm as long as we stay close!” or something playful like that!

  “Come to think of it, there’s a stall near here that sells some beautiful scarves. Would you like to go see? I’m sure they’d look great on you, Zena.”

  “Really? I’d love to!”

  Perfect, I’d managed to change the subject!

  On the first day that I came to Seiryuu City, I had noticed that Martha’s eyes were locked on this particular boutique.

  After we had inspected dozens upon dozens of scarves and shawls, Zena picked out a pink scarf, and I bought it for her as a present.

  It took a little bit of a quarrel to get her to accept it, but by the time we left the store, her good mood seemed to have recovered completely.

  …Women sure take a long time to shop, though.

  When I returned to the inn with Zena in tow, Arisa was standing near the entrance beckoning to me. There was an entrance to the inn’s courtyard meant for horse-drawn carriages right near where she was standing.

  “Welcome back, master. I’m glad you seem to have cleared up the misunderstanding,” Arisa said smoothly, as if she hadn’t caused the problem in the first place. I flicked her lightly on the forehead. “Oww…”

  “Thanks. What are you doing out here?”

  “I was starting to get hungry, so I came to ask Liza to share some food with me.”

  “Did you eat already?”

  “Yes, and Lulu is still eating with them. But she doesn’t seem to have much of an appetite…”

  Right, I suppose cheese and smoked meat wouldn’t be very appealing if you weren’t feeling well. I gave Arisa a few coppers and asked her to go buy some fruit.

  Meanwhile, I went back to the room to change my clothes.

  Zena waited for me in the barroom on the first floor, where I suggested she drink some fruit-flavored water.

  Back in my room, I poured some water from the Well Bag into the copper washbasin that was set against the table and used it to wash my face. I seemed to be free of bedhead, so I just ran a damp hand through my hair for good measure. I’ll have to find out sometime what they use for hair product in this world.

  “Sorry to keep you waiting, Zena.”

  “It’s all right. I’ve been chatting with Martha here.”

  “I’ll leave you two alone.” Martha went back to her work right away.

  Just as she left, Arisa appeared in the doorway, so I sent her to summon Liza and the others.

  Lulu looked awfully pale, so I let her return to the room. The maid, Yuni, happened to be passing by, so I asked her to bring some water up to our room, giving her a penny coin as a tip.

  I went back outside with Zena, where Arisa was just approaching with Liza and the girls.

  “Use this money to buy clothes and daily necessities for everyone, please. I’ll leave calculation and price negotiation to you, Arisa. Liza, please protect Arisa and the girls from any pickpockets or kidnappers.”

  I handed a small pouch containing ten silver coins or so to Liza. Arisa got another pouch with two silvers and some change.

  It would be dangerous to keep all the money in one place, so I figured it would be best to take the same precautions as if we were traveling abroad.

  Arisa asked me in a whisper if she could use skills and magic for concealment and keeping an eye on their surroundings, so I granted her permission. I had forgotten to lift the ban I’d given her last night.

  “I’ll protect us, too, sir!”

  “Me, toooo!”

  “All right, you two can flank Arisa to guard her, then.”

  “Yes, sir!”

  “’kaaay!”

  Pochi and Tama seemed excited, so I patted their heads.

  Wow, their hair felt a lot smoother than it used to…probably because they bathed every day at the castle.

  “Oh, right. If you find a charmer who can use Everyday Magic, get them to use a cleaning spell on everyone’s clothes.”

  With these instructions, I gave the girls a few more silvers to use for cleaning magic.

  “Excuse me, master. If we have money left over, can we buy ourselves some sweets?”

  “Sure, as long as it’s no more than a large copper. It’ll be lunchtime soon enough, so make sure you don’t just buy snacks.”

  With an enthusiastic “Yes, sir,” Arisa led the charge down a back road toward Teputa Avenue.

  Pochi and Tama flanked her on either side, making her look like the ringleader of some neighborhood gang. Liza looked like their guardian as she followed close behind them.

  “They seem quite informal for slaves, don’t they?”

  “I know that might not be the typical way to handle things, but I find it easier this way.”

  I was sure I would have become absolute trash in no time if they ran around waiting on me hand and foot, so I definitely preferred this.

  Nidoren had taught me a lot about slaves, but I thought I was allowed to be a little informal if I wanted.

  “Do you have the day off from work today?”

  “Yes, the first stage of the investigation is over, so we were given one day off.”

  Zena smiled happily, but if you asked me, giving them just a single day off in the time since we escaped the labyrinth seemed like an extremely sketchy business practice. What an intense work environment.

  She didn’t seem to mind, so I wasn’t going to say anything, but I hoped she didn’t collapse from overwork.

  “Will you be going back to your home unit tomorrow?”

  “No, a newly established special labyrinth force will be taking over starting tomorrow. I won’t be able to go back to my usual patrol unit for at least five more days.”

  Zena explained that there were two different kinds of patrol units: those that went on long patrols for two or three days at a time and those that went out for only one day.

  Units that included magic soldiers would usually be sent out on the longer ranging patrols, so once she rejoined her unit, I probably wouldn’t be able to see her much.

  Come to think of it, hadn’t Arisa wanted to go into the labyrinth?

  “Zena, is the labyrinth closed to everyone but military personnel right now?”

  “Yes, and it will probably stay closed for several months at least. Why? Is there someone you know who still hasn’t come out of the labyrinth?”

  “No, no, it’s nothing like that. I was just a bit curious, that’s all. I’m sorry if I worried you.”

  Looked like Arisa wouldn’t be getting her wish anytime soon.

  Especially given the situation with the beastfolk girls, maybe we should head to Labyrinth City when we were done sightseeing in Seiryuu City?

  It’d be a little sad to say good-bye to Zena, but I was sure I could come back and visit again.

  “Satou, do you have any plans for today?”

  I was so lost in thought, I responded to Zena’s question without really thinking about it.

 
; “Yes, I was planning to go to a general store to see if they could point me toward an inn that’ll accept demi-humans. I can’t just let Liza and the girls keep sleeping in the barn, after all.”

  “U-um, in that case, would it be all right if I join you?”

  Wringing her hands, Zena looked up at me anxiously.

  “I don’t mind, but are you sure you want to waste your precious day off on something so boring?”

  “Yes!”

  I didn’t think it’d be much fun for her to follow me around while I looked for a place to stay… But her smile was so bright as she replied, I couldn’t turn her down.

  So with Zena in tow, I headed toward the general store across from the plaza at the main gate.

  “Hello, is anyone here?”

  There was nobody to be found on the first floor of the general store, so I called out loudly.

  I could see on my radar that there was someone on the second floor, so I adjusted my volume accordingly. Since I got the “Amplification” skill before, I could raise my voice without any strain to my throat.

  A calm voice called, “Coming!” from the second floor, and I heard the patter of footsteps coming down the stairs.

  Shortly past the entrance of the general store was a wooden counter, behind which there was a sofa set and a massive work desk.

  There were all kinds of documents piled up on the table by the sofa set. The place had the atmosphere of a detective’s office from a bygone era.

  “Thank you for waiting. I’m Nadi, a general merchant.”

  A woman who looked about twenty or so appeared from upstairs, her red hair woven up in a bun. She was wearing a white shirt and a deep-emerald-green jumper skirt.

  “What can I do for you today?”

  “Well, I was hoping you could help me find an inn or a house for rent…”

  I explained that I needed a place that would allow my demi-human slaves to stay with me, and with good security.

  A quiet place would be nice if possible, but that wasn’t as high a priority as the first two things.

  “With demi-humans, you’ll be best off in the west quarter or the nearby workers’ district. I’d be worried about the chances of crime at an inn in that area, so I think a rented house would be ideal.”

  Nadi flipped through some folders of real estate information.

  I was surprised that they actually had ledgers like that—but I guess it would be rude to say that out loud.

  “What does your budget look like?”

  “Well, I suppose around two silvers would be ideal. If that’s not enough, I can go as high as one gold coin.”

  “In that case, there should be some options.”

  Based on the fact that the Gatefront Inn was considered a bit expensive at one large copper coin a night, and considering the extra people with me and a little margin of error, I estimated about two silver coins.

  I thought that would be a lot, but judging by Nadi’s reaction, I guess it was just barely enough.

  “I believe that these three places would be able to meet your requests. However…” Nadi hesitated for a moment before she explained. Apparently, all three of these houses had a questionable history.

  I decided it would be best to have a look at each one before deciding whether to rent any of them.

  House number one was a two-story estate over three thousand square feet in size, and a member of some criminal guild had assassinated its former owner. It had the appearance of a stately Western house, with ivy climbing the stone outer walls.

  When I examined the floor plan in 3-D with my map, I discovered a huge hole in an area that couldn’t be seen from the main gate.

  This was probably where the assassin broke in, and they’d just left it as is.

  Garden shrubs made it impossible to see the hole from outside the grounds, so I asked for a tour and then led them to the hole—under the guise of getting lost, of course.

  We passed by the second house without stopping the carriage—the reason being that it was directly behind a street lined with brothels.

  As soon as Nadi began to explain as much, Zena instructed the coachman to keep driving, her voice hard.

  I could see from the side that her face was turning bright red, which was kind of cute.

  The third house was a crumbling mansion right near the outer walls of the city, said to be haunted by ghosts.

  Apparently, it had been the home of a noble until about a hundred years ago. It was the biggest Western-style house I’d seen yet, but we definitely couldn’t live there.

  Part of it was that I really disliked horror and gore, but more importantly, the basement of the haunted mansion appeared to be the hideout of a criminal guild.

  All kinds of murderers and other serious felons were lurking around inside.

  I was sure they must have started the rumor that the place was haunted in order to stay in hiding there until things blew over.

  …Hmm?

  There was some strange movement on my radar. A few dots were moving around just outside the grounds of the mansion.

  Finding it suspicious, I took a closer look on the map and discovered an underground tunnel that led outside the city. My guess would be that it had been there since a noble owned the mansion. It looked like it was being used for smuggling and such.

  Nadi started to head inside, but I stopped her.

  “I have a strange feeling about this place. Let’s not go in. It’s probably cursed.”

  Zena looked at me with surprise. I guess that wasn’t the sort of thing that someone would say after escaping a labyrinth full of wandering skeletons and monsters.

  “If there’s a ghost or some kind of undead monster, you could always pay a temple to come and do an exorcism.”

  Nadi proposed the sort of solution one would expect from a fantasy world, but if we actually called a priest, I was sure the criminals below would just hide themselves away.

  I’ll write a letter later explaining what I know and drop it off at a guard station or something.

  I was sure my “Secret Maneuvers” skill would come in handy there.

  In the end, none of the houses we visited met all my requirements, so our rental house tour came to an end.

  “With a budget of two silver coins per trimoon, I’m sure there must be more options out there. I’ll check with some other companies this afternoon and find a few more properties that might work.”

  Nadi seemed to be more than willing to take charge, so we decided I’d return to the store again in the evening.

  I’d meant for my budget to be two silver coins per day, but apparently, the standard measurement for rented houses was trimoons (ten-day periods).

  I really needed to check these things more thoroughly.

  Since I now had time to kill until evening, I asked Zena if there was anywhere she wanted to go. Apparently, the restaurant she liked required reservations in advance, so it wouldn’t be possible to go there today.

  Zena looked a bit crestfallen about this, but Nadi came to her rescue.

  “A flea market just opened up yesterday in the plaza nearby. There are always tons of bargains there, so the shop manager and I usually go around on the last day picking up things on clearance.” To Zena, she added, “It’s a great place for a date,” causing Zena’s face to turn red.

  Since we were already there, we decided to have a look around the flea market and come back to the store after.

  According to Nadi, there was a popular love story called The Tragedy of Muno Marquisate being performed on the outdoor stage that had been set up in the market.

  There were a lot of people there, so I narrowed down the range of my radar, zooming in to a radius of fifteen feet around me. I knew this should be enough to get a good idea of who was coming near me.

  “Master! Sir!”

  “Found yooou!”

  Pochi and Tama both vigorously latched onto my waist.

  Behind them, I could see Liza and Arisa as well.


  “Oh? What happened with the shopping?”

  “Our baggage was starting to get heavy, so we dropped it all off at the inn. Look at this!”

  Arisa took off her hooded overcoat and handed it to Liza, then did a little twirl on the spot.

  Her pale pink skirt fluttered in the air, showing off a glimpse of her bare legs—although, being a child, there was nothing whatsoever to “show off.”

  These must have been new clothes from Teputa Avenue.

  Pochi and Tama opened their overcoats, too, proudly showing off their new outfits. Tama wore a cute ruffled pink dress, Pochi wore an outfit like Martha’s, with a white dress shirt and yellow skirt, and Liza now sported a sturdy-looking getup that looked like a military uniform. She was wearing trousers underneath a skirt.

  Pochi and Tama tried to twirl around and show off like Arisa had, but since the plaza was getting more crowded, Liza stopped them.

  “You all look very cute.” I patted Pochi and Tama over their hoods, praising everyone. I wasn’t just being polite, either—they really were cute. “By the way, is that a wig?”

  “Heh-heh, that’s right! It’s to hide the color of my hair.”

  Indeed, Arisa was wearing a golden-blond wig.

  Apparently, she bought it in order to keep her violet-colored hair from causing problems with its cursed association.

  “Is that all right?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  Since it’d ward off trouble, I’d consider it a necessary expense.

  “But there is one more thing that I wanted to talk to you about buying…”

  Arisa pressed her nonexistent chest up against me, batting her eyes at me coquettishly.

  “Cut that out. What is it that you need?”

  I pulled Arisa off me as I asked the question.

  Zena’s gaze seemed to be boring a hole into me, for one thing, and it’d be even worse if Pochi and Tama started copying that behavior.

  After letting Zena know where we were going, I went with Arisa to see what she wanted to buy. The open-air stall she led me to had karuta-style playing cards on display.

  With permission from the young shopkeeper, I picked one up to examine it.