Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 9
Page 8
I had no idea why disentangling the miasma would have turned her into a little girl.
“Maybe it was a curse?”
“That’s possible.”
I hadn’t seen anything about a curse in her status, but that dark tangle of miasma was definitely out of the ordinary.
Whatever it was, it couldn’t have been anything good.
The girl’s Sacrificial Maiden title worried me, too.
If what the Skeleton King said was true, that girl was probably his daughter. But judging by her titles and that miasma from before, it seemed to me like he might have tried to sacrifice her to resurrect Lalakie… Whatever that meant.
Maybe she was the woman I thought I saw lying on one of the stone coffins in the underwater shrine.
As I speculated, Arisa pressed me with another question.
“More importantly, what do you think of that key-shaped hair barrette she was wearing?”
“She had something like that?”
“You boob-obsessed moron! You must’ve been distracted by that Karina-tier rack of hers!”
She was absolutely right, but I tried to defend myself anyway.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I was just worried about the miasma around her.”
Sunlight began to peek through the clouds, bringing light to the deck.
I gave a saintlike smile as the soft light washed over me, which seemed to convince everyone but Arisa.
“I’ll let you get away with it this one time!” she snapped, grabbing me by the ear like a wife who’d seen through her husband’s lies.
“Master!”
With my “Keen Hearing” skill, I heard Nana call out to me from downstairs.
“Nana!”
I used “Warp” to get down to the central cabin as quickly as possible.
“Wha—?”
Bursting in through the open door, I found a completely naked Nana with the young girl reaching out to her.
Noticing my entrance, Nana turned toward me, making zero effort to cover herself.
She must have intended to warm the little girl up with a bath.
“Master, the larva has requested magic supply. Permission to proceed?”
Nana tilted her head, completely unabashed about her own nudity.
“Um, no. And please put something on.”
I picked up Nana’s clothes from the floor and pushed them toward her.
According to the AR display, the little girl had zero MP remaining.
“If she needs magic, she can have some of mine.”
The girl was kneeling on a massage table, so I reached out toward her.
Then I noticed that she was naked, too.
Just as Arisa had mentioned, there was a key-shaped ornament attached to her hair. The key itself was golden, with six different-colored gemstones set into it.
Her red eyes were blank and unfocused, suggesting that she wasn’t fully conscious yet.
Catching my outstretched hand with both of her own, she bit my pointer finger and started sucking on it feebly.
In my AR display, I saw my MP starting to go down, so slowly that it immediately recovered after each point.
It was probably so slow because her inherent skill “Magic Absorption: Weak” was grayed out, to say nothing of the “Weak” aspect. If this was the most she could do, she probably didn’t pose a threat to my companions.
As she continued to absorb my magic, the young girl slowly began to age, until she looked slightly older than Arisa.
The color started to return to her face, and a bit of warmth came back to her cold hands.
“
Mumbling in Hallowed Language, the young girl released my hand and passed out on the massage table, evidently satisfied.
She was still completely exposed, so I took a piece of cloth from Storage to cover her.
Turning around, I saw Nana and everyone else staring at me.
“Well, I’ll be…”
“What are you doing?”
Arisa abruptly grabbed my hand and attempted to bite my finger, so I held her off by the forehead.
“Well, it looked like that girl was enjoying it, so…”
Arisa giggled innocently, and the other girls nodded.
I could see why the younger kids and Nana would fall for her games, but I wasn’t sure why Lulu and Liza were agreeing.
In the end, they all insisted that I hold out my hand.
Liza, Lulu, and Mia each lightly kissed my fingertip, while Pochi and Tama licked my fingers like a puppy and kitten respectively.
Fortunately, Tama was no longer growling at the little girl like she had on the deck. She had probably just been sensing that miasma before.
“Looks like I’m up next.”
“You must not take both hands, I rebuke.”
“You can have the right hand, then.”
After this strange exchange, Nana and Arisa each clamped on to one of my fingers like they were ice pops.
Something about the way Arisa was sucking felt like sexual harassment, so I stopped her, ignoring her protests of “Just a little mooore!”
“Master, no magic is coming out, I report.”
“Oh, sorry.”
At Nana’s request, I produced some magic power from my fingertip.
“I believe that receiving it through my back is more efficient, I request.”
Still just holding her clothes to her chest, Nana turned to face her smooth back toward me.
Come to think of it, it had been a while since I last provided her with magic, so I decided to comply with her request.
“Master, I’ll give this girl a bath.”
“Lulu! I shall care for the larva, I insist.”
Just as I was reaching for her back, Nana whirled around to face Lulu, which meant that my hand wound up directly on her new-and-improved F cups.
It felt like the god of perverts was smiling down on me, but I prudently withdrew my hand without even a single squeeze.
I am her guardian, after all.
Arisa and Mia accused me of being “Guilty” as usual, but this was a genuine accident, so I didn’t feel guilty about it.
Behind them, I saw Nana snatch the young girl from Lulu’s hands and start rushing over to the bath.
That worried me a little, so I asked Lulu to intervene.
“Hmm? I don’t see that young lady’s clothes anywhere.”
Picking up Nana’s discarded clothing, Liza looked around in puzzlement. From the massage table to the floor, there was no sign of the girl’s clothes.
The young kids peeked around the laundry basket and beneath the table, but they were nowhere to be found.
I wondered if maybe they had gotten mixed in with some other clothes, but when we’d first rescued her, she’d been wearing a silk garment with a distinctive luster, so it would still stand out.
“Search.”
Mia threw the door to the bathroom open unceremoniously and stepped inside.
“Eeeek! Mia, I keep telling you not to leave the door wide open when you enter the bath!”
“Mm. Sorry.”
Lulu was wearing shorts and a T-shirt for post-bath stretching, so it was no big deal, but I still looked away out of politeness.
Arisa poked her head into the bath. “They don’t seem to be in here, either.”
My “Keen Hearing” skill picked up on a conversation between Mia and Nana.
“Clothes. Where?”
“Once removed, her clothing faded and disappeared, I report.”
Maybe her clothes were ghostly in nature, too.
“That’s a good wind.”
Standing on the starlit deck, I looked out at the island in the dim light.
I’d set up Holy Stones, purifying magic circles, and runes all over the island to ensure that the people I’d reburied that afternoon wouldn’t be disturbed or resurrected as undead monsters.
Since my Light Magic spell Laser was too strong, I used an inverted version of the Co
ndense spell to disperse the wind and lessen its intensity so that I could use it to draw magic circles.
This was my first time drawing such a large magic circle, but it was easy enough, since I used the map to draw it, adding Holy Stones as I went.
Then, using techniques I learned in the elf village, I connected a magic power line from the magic circle to the island’s mana source, creating a weak purification field that should perpetually stay in effect throughout the island.
If people started visiting the Seadragon Islands in future generations, maybe this island would become a popular sightseeing spot.
With these absentminded thoughts, I continued reading the ancient text I had open in the menu, Secrets of the Underwater City Nenelier.
In addition to the titular city, the book contained information about the ancient Lalakie civilization’s demise as well.
Hmm?
My radar alerted me to a white dot moving on the ship.
I heard light footsteps that stopped behind me.
“
“
“
I held out my hand, and the young girl—now wearing a baggy T-shirt—started sucking magic from my finger again.
She’d looked around Arisa’s age when she fell asleep, but now she looked like a preschooler.
Unlike earlier, her red eyes were no longer glazed over.
I’d assumed that her faltering speech from before was due to her consciousness still being hazy, but maybe I was wrong.
As she absorbed my magic, she gradually grew taller and rounded out a bit.
It was like watching someone grow in fast-forward.
When she’d had enough magic, she let out a sigh of satisfaction and gave me a timid “
“
I knew she had amnesia, but I asked anyway, since she should probably be aware as well.
“
The girl closed her eyes and furrowed her brow, trying to remember.
“<…I don’t…know.>”
She frowned, biting her lip.
I noticed that her white hair had grown from around ear length to down past her shoulders in the magic-absorption process.
“
She looked up at me with wide eyes, possibly surprised that I believed her so readily.
“
I wasn’t the most creative person, so if I gave her a name myself, it’d probably be something like “Lala” from “Lalakie” or “Ha” from “half-ghost.”
“
The young girl looked around uncertainly.
Then her eyes fell on the city-rock—Nonolie.
“
At first I thought she might cry, but she simply gazed at the city-rock with a soft expression.
The city-rock was lit up with blue light, creating a solemn atmosphere.
“
I didn’t understand at first, but then I realized that the first part of the Hallowed Language word for soul lights was pronounced “rei.”
“
“
We exchanged a friendly handshake, then smiled at each other.
“
“
I tried to convey that it was no big deal.
Oh, right. Maybe I should ask her one more question…
“
“
Tears began to stream down her cheeks, so I wiped them away with a handkerchief.
“
“
“”
Rei’s homesickness must have been so strong that even her amnesia couldn’t erase it completely.
Her small hands trembled as she clung to my leg.
“”
I didn’t know how to tell her that her civilization was long gone.
The ancient text was primarily about the Underwater City Nenelier, but within the text were also rumors stating that when Lalakie sank into the ocean, its survivors created a hidden village on an island somewhere in the southern seas.
It would be a little bit of a detour, but we might be able to bring Rei to meet the descendants of Lalakie.
As long as the others were okay with it, of course.
“
Rei tugged on my hand, interrupting my thoughts.
She looked a little shy for some reason.
“
“
I didn’t want her to get cold in the evening breeze, so I sat her on my knee and wrapped her in a terry-cloth blanket.
She hadn’t eaten since we rescued her, either, so I had her drink a sweetened nutritional supplement potion, a concoction I’d popularized in the elf village.
As she drank, I noticed her hair ornament swaying in the breeze.
“
“
I reached out to touch the barrette, but Rei quickly covered it with both hands.
I caught the potion she’d dropped before it spilled onto the deck.
“
Her voice trembled as she shook her head.
“”
So Rei didn’t know what the key was or why she didn’t want me to touch it.
“
Once she finished drinking the potion, I took the empty vial back and supplied her with more magic as she’d requested.
Squish, squish.
Feeling a soft sensation enveloping my right arm, I opened my eyes to find a beautiful woman—Rei, returned to her adult form—sleeping beside me.
Lowering my gaze, I found that she was hugging my right arm to her chest.
Thinking back, I remembered that I’d been giving her magic last night.
The blanket I’d produced so she wouldn’t catch a cold was just barely covering her body and my left hand.
For some reason, I could feel something warm beneath my left hand— Oh.
“Master, the larva has vanished, I report!”
Nana came flying out of the hatch and landed on the deck.
I started to call out to her, then remembered my current precarious position.
Since I’d been holding her as she sat on my lap in her smaller form, my hand had naturally wound up somewhere on her lower half while we were sleeping.
I hastily extracted my hand and folded both of them innocently on my lap.
“Over here, Nana!”
“Master… The larva has grown? I inquire.”
“She asked me to supply her with magic last night, but I must have given her a bit too much.”
Nana’s normally expressionless face was full of surprise.
Checking my MP reserves just to be safe, I found that they’d already recovered to the maximum amount.
Rei’s “Magic Absorption: Weak” must have absorbed magic at the same rate as my natural recovery, perhaps even a little slower.
The other girls gathered around and made a fuss as well, but since Rei’s clothes were perfectly in place, it didn’t get too out of hand.
“Master, she is almost there, I report.”
Judging by the magic I felt leaking from Rei, staying in adult mode seemed to deplete the most magical energy, while being in young-girl mode took less. She probably reverted to near-infancy only when she ran out of magic entirely.
Once Rei shrank back down to the size of a young girl, she opened her eyes.
Greeted by the sight of the entire group staring at her, she winced.
“
“Mm. Morning.”
Rei cautiously greeted them in Hallowed Language, and Mia responded quite naturally.
“Satou, rings.”
Mia held up the translation ring on her finger for me and the others to see.
When we were in the elf village, she’d worn one so that she would match with the rest of us.
Evidently, the translation rings we got from the elves also supported Hallowed Language.
“Good thinking, Mia.”
When Arisa complimented Mia, Nana held up her ringed finger as if to point out that she, too, had done well.
So that was why Nana had been able to tell me that the “larva” had “requested magic supply” before.
I just thought that she figured it out by looking at her somehow.
“Riiings?”
“I want to talk, too, sir.”
The other girls produced translation rings from their Fairy Packs, put them on, and introduced themselves one by one.
“
Rei looked bashful under all the attention.
“You remembered your name?”
“
Arisa whipped her head around at me like a haunted doll in a horror movie, looking accusatory, so I simply said, “It makes things easier.”
Still, Rei was the one who had chosen that name herself.
Could it be that she didn’t remember?
“All right, want to offer up those flowers before we head out?”
Now that Rei was awake, I directed the ship toward the grave of the Nonolie people on the opposite side of the island.
I’d been worried that the purification barrier I put up around the island would have a negative effect on Rei, but now that the miasma had been cleared away, it didn’t seem to affect her at all.