Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 3

by Hiro Ainana

  “Monsters! You have to run!”

  The coachman spotted us and screamed out. He must not have heard the rocket wolf breathing down his neck because he didn’t look back at all.

  The rocket wolf triumphantly opened its mouth above the coachman’s head.

  That’s as far as you go.

  I turned the Magic Gun to its highest setting and blew off its head. With a fountain of blood, the giant wolf tumbled off the vehicle.

  Now the carriage was passing through the plaza.

  “Arisa!”

  In response to my call, Arisa sent her Shock Wave spell into the crowd of wolves chasing the carriage, catching all of them head-on.

  The regular wolves stumbled and fell, bleeding from the eyes and ears. At least half of them were dead.

  I wanted the beastfolk girls to take out the rest of the weaker animals, but there were two more rocket wolves to take care of first.

  At that moment, a point of light appeared on my radar, coming straight toward us from the summit of the mountain.

  I tried to find it but didn’t see anything.

  It seemed to be after the other carriage, not us. I went out into the road, peering after the fleeing cart.

  A giant creature descended from the sky and landed on top of the carriage, demolishing the damaged top carrier.

  It was a dragon-like beast with three snakelike heads and two wings: a hydra.

  It was level 39, which seemed appropriate for a monster roughly the size of a single-family house. That’s on par with the Undead King Zen.

  Trying to save the coachman, I aimed my gun at the hydra.

  “Master, behind you!”

  I heard Arisa cry out behind me. My “Sense Danger” skill reacted at the same time.

  A red point was hurtling toward me on the radar—a rocket wolf.

  “Shield Tate!”

  Before I could turn my head, Nana’s magic shield halted the rocket wolf’s charge.

  It didn’t fully stop the momentum, though, as the wolf pushed the transparent shield toward me. I stored the Magic Gun away and stopped the shield with my newly freed hand.

  Alas, the coachman’s dot had already disappeared from the radar.

  In a burst of rage, I kicked the shield and the wolf into the air.

  My attack shattered the spell into shards of light and smashed the jaw of the rocket wolf behind it. The blow took almost 90 percent of its health, and its HP gauge was rapidly decreasing.

  Pochi and Tama rushed up and slashed the tendons of its hind legs, and Liza’s spear pierced through its flank right into its heart.

  Finally, Nana’s Foundation Magic created three Magic Arrows that ran through the wolf’s head, finishing it off.

  Leaving the last remnants of the wolf pack to Liza and the others, I turned back toward the hydra. It was carrying the horse in its mouth in a leisurely escape to the other side of the mountain.

  I knew attacking the hydra now wouldn’t change anyone’s fate, but I could at least take revenge for them. The thing was already out of range of the Magic Gun, so I took a short spear out of Storage, aimed at the hydra, and hurled it with all my might.

  The spear broke the speed of sound as it flew and skewered all three of the hydra’s heads.

  My weapon had pierced right through the first two heads and put a decent dent in the third, but that wasn’t enough to defeat it. Losing height rapidly, the hydra disappeared behind the mountain.

  My Fire Shot spell probably would have finished it off, but considering the forest fires that might result, it was too dangerous. I really needed some user-friendly long-range magic, like Freeze Bullet or Magic Arrow.

  Just to be safe, I marked the hydra on my map.

  I considered indicating all the strong monsters in the county, but a search quickly revealed that there were too many.

  The dots for monsters and hell demons on the radar were white unless they were hostile, the same color as people and animals, so I changed the default color for them to yellow.

  While I did, I noticed that unlike Seiryuu County, this territory contained several blank areas. Most likely, Count Kuhanou didn’t control these areas.

  The majority was near the southern border of the Muno Barony, but the blank space south of the nearby town of Noukee sat right near our location.

  Hopefully it was just an undeveloped or autonomous region, but if it was a den of dangerous beasts like the hydra, I’d rather find that out as soon as possible.

  Once we locate an inn in the town tonight and everyone’s safely settled in, I’ll have to sneak out and investigate. They’ll think I’ve been out in the red-light district again, but ensuring our safety is the most important thing.

  By the time the battle was over, the sky had opened into a torrential downpour.

  I felt guilty about leaving the bodies to get soaked in the rain, but landslides were a risk now, so we all evacuated into the mountain hut.

  Because everyone was cold and soaked from the rain, I asked Liza to prepare lunch to warm us up.

  Arisa and Nana had gained one level each in the battle. Nana hadn’t acquired any skills, and Arisa seemed to be saving up her points.

  Nana had used too much Practical Magic in combat and was low on MP. I gave her a magic recovery potion I’d bought in Seiryuu City.

  Once we’d boiled some water, Lulu brewed tea, and the refreshing herbal flavor helped to clear my head.

  I hadn’t thought of it before, but it had just occurred to me that if anyone crashed because of the wrecked carriage and the rocket-wolf corpses, it’d be on my conscience.

  I opened the map and searched for other possible carriages on the road. Even the closest vehicle wouldn’t pass through here for at least another three hours.

  …Oh? There was a survivor in the middle of the mountain pass. Two of them, in fact. They still had about half their stamina left, but their status read Unconscious.

  I told Arisa and the others that I was going to check on the carriage for a moment and stepped out into the rain alone.

  After I’d collected the bodies of the fallen guards and wolves strewn over the road, I headed toward the two survivors.

  They must have fallen off the carriage when it took a sharp turn on the pass and survived by landing on a ledge jutting out from the cliff.

  I tied a rope to a sturdy-looking tree protruding from the mountainside and used it to climb down. I certainly could have hopped to the ledge as usual, but I thought it was best to take care, since I had to bring two people back up with me.

  It was hard to tell what they looked like, since they were covered in mud, but according to the AR display, they were a boy and girl in their mid-teens. Surprisingly enough, despite being only high-school-age kids, they were husband and wife. Well, I guess that’s not too strange, since they’re adults by the standards of this world.

  Because the boy had a broken leg, I did some emergency first aid and applied a splint. Then I secured both of them to the lifeline and jumped back up a hundred feet or so to the road above with one person under each arm.

  …I guess the rope wasn’t really necessary after all.

  At any rate, their lives didn’t seem to be in danger, so I laid them under a tree to rest out of the rain for a moment, collected and stored the bodies of the escort captain and his horse, and carried the two survivors back to the log cabin.

  I placed the corpses under a large tree and covered them with a cloth. Since the horse was too large to enshrine under the tree, I laid it nearby under a waterproof cloth instead.

  “I found survivors. Mia, please use recovery magic on them.”

  “Mm.”

  Mia nodded, and I left the two in her care and headed back outside. I wanted to recover the body of the coachman.

  “Master, I’ve left Lulu and Nana in charge of the cooking. Please, allow me to accompany you.”

  Liza had followed behind me in her rain gear, so I decided to bring her along. Pochi and Tama wanted to come, too, bu
t since the body would likely be a gruesome sight, I ordered them to stay behind.

  Liza and I stepped into the road.

  “I suppose this is to be expected, since that enormous demi-dragon landed here…,” Liza murmured in a trembling voice.

  Following her line of sight, I saw the wreckage of the horse-drawn carriage. Where the coachman’s stand had once been now lay the corpse of a man, crushed from the waist up. He must have already been dead by the time I tried to save them.

  I collected the articles of the deceased and checked the man’s ID papers. He had been a merchant from Kuhanou City. Most of the cargo had been demolished, so I pushed it and the wreck of the carriage into a thicket on the side of the road so it wouldn’t block traffic.

  After the rain let up, Arisa used her Psychic Magic spell Wake Up to rouse the two survivors. I broke the news that they were the only ones left and led them to the tree where I had laid the bodies to rest. They exclaimed:

  “Big bro…”

  “Brother!”

  The beastfolk girls, who had been retrieving the cores from the corpses of the rocket wolves in the plaza, approached the pair with sympathy.

  Lulu, who was draining the blood from the brown wolves nearby, looked worried as well. I couldn’t read Nana’s expression as she worked next to Lulu, but since she was watching the survivors as well, she probably felt the same way.

  The boy settled down first, so I spoke with him a little.

  The coachman had been the girl’s brother, and the three of them were doing business together. They’d hired a group of competent escorts when they heard the border was infested with wolves, but none of them had known monsters like rocket wolves would attack, too.

  He bitterly kicked the head of the rocket wolf in the square, and I took him with me to retrieve the cargo that had been scattered on the road. It would probably help take his thoughts off it for a while.

  I called Arisa and Mia over to tend to the girl.

  The boy and I inspected the cargo they’d discarded to lighten the carriage. Pochi and Tama tagged along, too.

  Most of their cargo had been woodworking products and pottery. The pottery was cushioned with something like sawdust, so at least half of it was intact. There were all sorts of wooden goods, like spear handles, arrow shafts, and a variety of furniture.

  “We’ll heeelp!”

  “Sir!”

  Tama and Pochi insisted that they’d carry the load, and by the time we reached the escort captain’s body, most of the goods had been recovered.

  “What should we do with the bodies?”

  “I think it’d be best to bury them behind the mountain hut. I’m terribly sorry to have you help us so much, but do you think you could lend me a hand?”

  I’d expected him to ask us to take them to the nearest town, but according to the boy, most people just left bodies on the side of the road as is, and even devoutly religious people made only a prayer or offering.

  Even if there were surviving relatives, like in this case, they could rarely afford a burial.

  I readily agreed to his request, and we dug some graves behind the hut.

  It would normally be difficult to dig holes to bury four people, but between my absurdly high STR stat and the help of the beastfolk girls, we were done in no time.

  While the two survivors said their last good-byes, I buried the horses in a corner of the plaza. Liza asked whether we should butcher them down for food, but that didn’t seem right to me.

  I gave the Garage Bag to Pochi and Tama to collect the corpses of the brown wolves, then went to help Liza take apart the rocket wolves.

  They were too big to fit into the bag, which was probably why she’d asked.

  Since Lulu and Nana had finished bleeding out the brown wolves and joined us, the only role left to me was tying the rope onto the branches of a large tree to string up the rocket-wolf corpses.

  After placing a small cask full of water near Liza and the others, I watched over their work quietly. I had expected them to take only the fur, but they collected the meat as well.

  “U-um, Ms. Liza? Can you really eat monster meat?”

  “We’ll discard the organs, as they could be dangerous, but from the color of the meat, I believe it should be safe to eat.”

  Liza answered Lulu’s question confidently.

  It certainly did look like beef in color, but I wasn’t sure if one should really base one’s decision on that alone.

  I analyzed one of the pieces of meat and discovered they were indeed edible and free of poison.

  Arisa and Mia, who had been accompanying the boy and girl, called me over from behind the log cabin.

  “Have you finished your good-byes?”

  “Yes… My elder brother would surely scold me if I kept crying forever.”

  Wiping the last tears from her reddened eyes, the girl gave me a resolute smile. After speaking with her for a moment, the boy and I shoveled soil over the bodies.

  I carved the names on the identification papers of the deceased into a suitably sized stone to serve as a grave marker.

  After we left the mountain hut, we reached the nearest town in Kuhanou County, Noukee, in the evening.

  The boy reported the incident to the gatekeeper at the mountain pass. I came along to fill in the details.

  “So a wolf pack led by rocket wolves appeared on the road in our county? They usually stay farther west…”

  …Maybe the hydra chased the pack into the area?

  With that thought in mind, I told the gatekeeper about the hydra.

  “A hydra, you say? Not just rocket wolves?”

  “I saw the smashed carriage, too. The only other way it could’ve been crushed like that is if a giant rock fell on it or something.”

  The guard seemed unconvinced, so the boy supplemented the testimony. Still, the guard clearly found it hard to believe that a hydra had appeared on a populated road.

  “Are you sure it wasn’t crushed by falling rocks, then?”

  “If you have any doubts, I would invite you to inspect the remains for yourself. I’m certain there were other witnesses, so perhaps you could ask some neighboring farmers or hunters?”

  It wasn’t a big deal if he didn’t believe us about the hydra. I chose not to push the story too much.

  However, the comment ended up making it more believable, so he took us to a government office to meet with someone called the “assistant secretary.”

  “Allow me to summarize. You saw a pack of brown wolves and rocket wolves chasing some merchants, the wolves killed the merchants’ escorts in battle, and while you were fighting the wolves, a hydra suddenly appeared, killed the coachman, and flew away with the horse. Is that correct?”

  I nodded, confirming the assistant secretary’s description. The only other people present were the boy and a few official-looking men. Everyone else was waiting beside our carriage outside the government office.

  “Then I will now question you about the details of your story in chronological order. Regardless of whether it is true or not, I expect you to simply answer yes.”

  With that, he began a careful review.

  “Assistant Secretary Hatess inquires: The merchants’ escorts were killed during the battle with the wolves, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “Assistant Secretary Hatess inquires: A hydra killed the merchant, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “Assistant Secretary Hatess inquires: You yourselves caused no harm to the merchants, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “Assistant Secretary Hatess inquires: The hydra fled into the mountains, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  He seemed to be casually interrogating me, too, but I paid it no mind and answered.

  Since the first guard had the Eye of Judgment gift, he should already have known we didn’t kill the merchant.

  “This person is telling the truth.”

  “Sir!” Flustered, one of the officials hurried into
another room. He was going to the constable, the person to which the lord had entrusted the governance of the town.

  “The constable will use a magic tool to get in touch with the count right away. I’m sure he will dispatch the army to take care of the hydra in no time.”

  The secretary gave a confident smile.

  The boy and I were called into the constable’s office, and once again we had to explain the situation with the hydra and the rocket wolves.

  Apparently, the rocket wolves had been controlling the brown wolves as decoys for hunting in the mountains, and the duke’s army had been struggling to deal with them. The baron who was serving as the constable praised us, albeit condescendingly.

  After that, we moved to the office of the constable’s aide to discuss our reward for the information about the hydra and the defeat of the rocket wolves.

  The town seemed to have a small budget, and I sensed they were reluctant to give up cash, so I tried asking for a letter of introduction to an inn for the night in place of goods or money. The instant I told them that a pecuniary reward wouldn’t be necessary, the slender aide gleefully set about writing with a brush and ink.

  I guess that despite being a titled lesser noble, he had a pretty tough life.

  After that, the boy went to report the deaths of the peddler and the guards.

  In the meantime, I sold two of the cores from the rocket wolves at the teller window in the government office. The value was much higher here—almost three times the amount in Seiryuu City.

  Once our errands in the office were over, I took the kids to a company where one of their acquaintances worked.

  As a reward from the boy, he told me to take whatever I wanted from the goods they had in stock.

  I had no shortage of money, but it would be rude not to accept his thanks, so I chose some arrow shafts and spear handles.

  I’d have been a bit worried about the boy’s future if I left it at that, though. I subtly convinced him to mention which of their products were hardest to unload in this town and bought some at a slightly higher price.

  Arisa chided me for being soft, but since we didn’t have to pay for shipping, I figured we’d be able to break even by selling them somewhere else.