Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 9

by Hiro Ainana

  Just for fun, I decided to match the baron’s style of self-introduction.

  While I was at it, I produced the Sapphire Medal from Storage by way of my pocket and fixed it to my breast as well.

  “…The Sapphire Medal?!”

  The baron’s eyes widened as he stared at my medal.

  His hands were visibly shaking, revealing his alarm.

  The knights and mages around him all murmured in surprise, too.

  Thinking back, I remembered that Sir Ipasa Lloyd, the imperial knight and son of a viscount, had been surprised when I received the Sapphire Medal, too.

  A few of these men were muttering things like, “Isn’t the Muno Barony that cursed territory?” but most of them seemed to be more surprised by the medal.

  None of them made any effort to hide their surprise, but the baron was the first to recover.

  “Sir Pendragon, might you be willing to take us to the trade city of Sutoandell on your ship? We are the sole survivors of Viscount Emerin’s trade fleet. Naturally, we shall reward you however you may wish.”

  “Yes, of course.”

  I had no intention of asking for a reward for helping out a friend of a friend.

  “Perhaps it was fate that I discovered that ship adrift at sea.”

  “Adrift, you say?”

  I thought it might cause a scene if I told them I repaired it, so I decided to say that I’d just found it by chance.

  I wasn’t sure if they would believe my story, but they definitely wouldn’t believe the truth.

  “Indeed. Since it was flying the flag of Viscount Emerin, I thought it prudent to search for survivors on the nearby islands. This is the last island in the area, so I was quite relieved to find you here.”

  My “Fabrication” skill helped me make up a story on the spot.

  Of course, I’d already confirmed on the map that there were zero survivors anywhere else.

  If I didn’t tell them that I’d searched the islands, they might drag me into a lot of pointless searching.

  “Well then, Sir Pendragon, if you do not mind a brief wait, we shall prepare to depart at once.”

  The baron called over his associates and asked how long it would take them to prepare enough water for the trip.

  “Five days… No, if we mobilize everyone with the ‘Item Box’ skill, we can do it in three,” his first mate responded with grim determination.

  “Your Excellency,” I interrupted. “Pardon my intrusion, but if it’s water that you need, we have more than enough on board for the journey to Sutoandell.”

  “A-are you quite certain?!”

  I nodded and gave the first mate a number of barrels.

  “Yes, that is more than enough. Why, with that amount, we could make a round trip to the ends of the Seadragon Islands and still reach Sutoandell safely.”

  I pulled out a sea chart from my Garage Bag, showing them our current location.

  This chart was for use with the general public, so it wasn’t marked with the places I’d set seal slates.

  “Wh-what a detailed map!”

  “It even includes the watering holes on the islands and the distribution of monsters…!”

  The sailors were all very impressed with my sea chart.

  “You really searched the islands this thoroughly for survivors…?”

  One easily moved sailor fought back manly tears as he gazed at me in admiration.

  I definitely couldn’t tell them that I’d drawn it in the thirty minutes or so it took to get here.

  “Your Excellency, from here, we should be able to reach Sutoandell within less than ten days.”

  At the navigation officer’s words, the other men embraced one another with shouts of joy.

  Even the archers who’d been hiding in the forest forgot to keep concealing themselves, jostling shoulders with one another excitedly.

  In the end, we decided to depart the following morning.

  The sun had set while the men were carrying their supplies from their base onto the ship.

  We’d decided to have a banquet that night to celebrate the departure, so I was sitting with the baron at a table on the bigger ship.

  I’d already sent Liza and Nana back to join the others on our ship. Some of the young sailors’ eyes were fixed lustily on Nana, so I thought it best to have them retreat.

  “  Lamp Toumyou.”

  The monster wards hanging from the prow to the stern, which looked a bit like mosquito lamps, weren’t very bright, so the Practical Magic users on the crew created magic lights all over the deck.

  “Oh-ho, that smells tasty. How long has it been since we’ve had any seasonings but salt?”

  “Sir Pendragon was kind enough to share some of his spices, so I used them to the best of my ability!”

  The baron and his sailors looked thrilled when the food was carried out.

  Most of the hearty fare was made from seafood the men had caught on the island. To celebrate their departure, they even brought out tankards full of ale, which were distributed to even the lowliest soldiers.

  “Sir Pendragon, you have women in your crew, no? It’s bad to bring women on a long journey at sea, you know.” The baron took a swig of ale. “Some captains bring their wives or lovers on board, but that often leads to mutiny, see.”

  I assumed he was referring to the old bad-luck superstition, but it turned out he just meant it could cause unrest with the crew.

  “Thank you. I’ll keep your advice in mind.”

  In our ship’s case, we were more like a family than a crew, so I didn’t think it would be a problem. Besides, I was the only man in the group.

  “Raise anchor!”

  “Anchors aweigh!”

  “““Anchors aweeeigh!”””

  When the captain gave an order, the head sailor would repeat it back loudly, followed by a chorus of the rest of the sailors. Together, they began hauling on a pulley.

  Many of them had the “Strength” skill, but it still looked pretty tough.

  I wanted to see how a normal ship prepared to set sail, so I asked the baron to let me stay on board. I was able to use the Telephone spell to give orders to our ship’s figurehead golem, so there were no issues there.

  “Bowsprit, hoist the sails!”

  “Saaails!”

  “““Saaails!”””

  The sailors climbed the mast easily, untying the ropes that kept the sails in place.

  Once the sails were unfurled, the wind began to turn the ship gently.

  “Pull the port rigging!”

  “Pull to pooort!”

  “““Pull to pooort!”””

  A few of the sailors turned bright red with exertion as they yanked on the rope.

  Once the ship was turned in the proper direction, they used the rigging to keep it running straight.

  There was probably still a rudder, of course, but the sails were the main power source regardless.

  Leaving a few sailors in charge of the bowsprit, the rest rushed to help with the stern. Their crew wasn’t as large as usual, so they seemed to have their work cut out for them.

  Arriving at the stern, the sailors climbed the rope ladder easily.

  “Main mast, hoist the sails!”

  “Saaails!”

  “““Saaails!”””

  When the central sails were unfurled, the ship’s speed rose.

  The sailors on the main mast slid down the rope, heading to their assigned rigging.

  “Stern, hoist the sails!”

  “Saaails!”

  “““Saaails!”””

  Once the rear sails were ready, most of the crew came down to the deck, operating the rigging ropes to keep the ship on course per the captain’s orders.

  This work seemed primarily fueled by manpower; they weren’t using the ship’s Magic Furnace.

  I guess since Magic Furnaces were fueled by cores, it would be too costly to use them all the time.

  Thinking back, I remembered that
the dwarves used something called “refined monster coal” instead of cores because Magic Furnaces were so inefficient.

  “Sir Pendragon, your sailors are a talented bunch. It’s rare to see such skilled steering and effortless departure.”

  “Much obliged.”

  I’d borrowed the blueprints from the elves’ self-steering ship library, so I didn’t feel like I could be particularly proud.

  “By the way, why isn’t your ship flying the Shiga Kingdom or the Muno Barony flags?”

  “My apologies. I’m afraid our flagpole was blown off in a recent storm, flags and all.”

  My “Fabrication” skill helped me answer the baron’s question.

  I’d completely forgotten about flags to show our affiliation.

  According to the information I casually gathered from the navigation officer later, most ships generally flew the flags of their kingdom, territory, and captain, as well as a flag to indicate whether they were warships or general passage.

  I mostly remembered the Muno Barony flag, and I could probably copy the kingdom flag from this ship’s.

  As for the general passage flag, I could probably re-create it from some of the sunken ships I’d recovered.

  “Captain, we’ve entered the current.”

  “Very well. Activate the Magic Furnace and double down on our lookout.”

  The first mate nodded, then shouted, “Activate Magic Furnace, lowest output!” into a speaking tube.

  After a few moments, a voice reported, “Activation complete,” and a mage used the Wind Magic spell Long-Range Search Wind. It appeared that he was using the power from the Magic Furnace to maintain the spell after he cast it.

  The results of the search were displayed on a mirror near the helm.

  Keeping the spell up continuously cost a huge amount of magic, so it couldn’t be used at the same time as their defensive barrier when the Magic Furnace was in low-output mode.

  Apparently, with their current stock of fuel, the Magic Furnace could run in high-output battle mode for only thirty minutes at the most.

  “Oof, I gotta take a leak…”

  “Fool! We have a guest here!”

  As the captain scolded him, the soldier ran to a mysterious object at the side of the ship, a sort of car seat–like protrusion.

  That’s a toilet?!

  Once his business was taken care of, the soldier hurried back to his post, ducking his head toward me apologetically.

  “Don’t just stand around! Swab the decks!”

  The head sailor barked a command, and the lowest-ranked sailors scrambled to start cleaning the decks with seawater.

  Maybe this was for sterilizing, but if anything, I thought the salt might actually damage the wood.

  Curious, I asked the head sailor if he knew why they were using seawater, and he explained that soaking the wood caused it to expand, shrinking the gaps in the deck to reduce the risk of flooding.

  I see. That makes sense.

  Our ship was coated with resin, so that wouldn’t be necessary in our case.

  We used a resin called “alua” developed by the elves, the same substance that was used for my favorite goblets in our tree house. Alua was transparent and light yet durable, and like acrylic, it wouldn’t break when dropped, so I used it frequently on tableware for the kids and such.

  “Sorry it’s nothing fancy.”

  At the baron’s request, I joined him for lunch. As he said, it was fairly modest: a few lightly baked biscuits, salty soup with beans and jerky, and a sauerkraut-like side along with some dried yellorange fruits.

  Aside from the dried fruits, the rest of the ingredients came from the barrels we’d found washed up on the beach at the city-rock island, as well as the ale they were drinking.

  I was reluctant to give them secondhand goods, but all we had available that was appropriate for a voyage at sea was the dried fruits, so I didn’t have any other choice.

  I used “Analyze” to make sure none of it had gone bad, of course.

  “This is delicious. What kind of fruit is it?”

  “Oh, that’s dried yellorange fruit from a Mountain-Tree.”

  When I answered the young assistant mate’s question, everyone froze.

  “Y-yellorange fruit?”

  “Y-you mean the legendary Mountain-Trees that only grow in the elves’ forest?”

  The sailors all peppered me with questions.

  Mountain-Trees grow in the giants’ forest in the Muno Barony, too, you know.

  “Ch-chef! Cease distributing the dried fruit at once!”

  Looking flustered, the baron gave an order into the speaking tube connected to the galley.

  “Is something wrong?”

  “S-Sir Pendragon, do you not know how valuable yellorange fruits are?”

  Huh?

  Each giant piece of fruit weighed more than a ton, so I had lots, and I knew they were delicious.

  But I’d never seen them in a market before, so I hadn’t gotten the chance to use my “Estimation” skill on one.

  Looking at the dried fruit, I saw that a single slice was worth anywhere from one to three silver coins each. So five slices would be worth more than a gold coin? Even if they were rare, that seemed pretty ridiculous to me.

  As we ate lunch, I decided to find out if the captain or any of his men happened to know anything about Lalakie.

  “Lalakie? I feel like I’ve heard of it.”

  The baron stroked his beardless chin thoughtfully.

  “…Ah, I remember. I heard about it at a festival in the Kingdom of Sorcery, Lalagi, which is in the middle of the sugar route.”

  According to the baron, the royal family of Lalagi were said to be descendants of the skyfolk, and the Skydea Festival was exhibiting something called a “Lalakie Box.”

  If I remembered correctly, “skyfolk” referred to the people of Lalakie.

  Perhaps the descendants of Lalakie were secretly living in this Kingdom of Sorcery called Lalagi.

  “Thank you very much, Your Excellency.”

  “Not at all. I’m glad I was able to be of some assistance.”

  I thanked the baron and later asked a navigator to tell me the locations of the sugar route and Lalagi.

  Getting to Labyrinth City would probably take a little longer than expected, but if we traveled at full speed with the flying ship, the detour should amount to only a week or so of lost time.

  In the middle of this conversation, we unluckily came across some monsters.

  “Captain! We’ve spotted a school of torpedo squid to starboard! They haven’t noticed us yet.”

  “All right, hard to port!”

  The ship veered off to the left, attempting to avoid getting into a battle.

  The torpedo squid were only around level 10, but there were a lot of them, somewhere between thirty and fifty. If they all came at us at once, it would be a pain to deal with.

  “Increase power to the Magic Furnace. As soon as it’s ready, raise the defensive barrier!”

  After a minute or so, the ship was surrounded by some kind of Practical Magic–type defensive shield, and its speed raised slightly.

  The underwater portion of the shield was probably reducing the friction from the water.

  “W-we’ve detected the presence of rock-head bass near the island up ahead!”

  A sailor who was in charge of monitoring the enemy detection reported this with a shaking voice.

  According to my map, there were only about ten of these rock-head bass, all of which ranged from level 10 to 15.

  Was that really an enemy worth shaking over?

  “Magic Furnace, maximum power. All hands not steering the ship, prepare the Magic Cannons! We’re going around the right side of the island, so focus on the port-side cannons!”

  The baron called out orders.

  I helped move the Magic Cannons across the deck as well.

  “Here they come!”

  “Their rock heads can repel Magic Cannons! Aim
for their bodies or the center of their foreheads!”

  “““Aye-aye!””” chorused the men.

  So these were a type of monster whose defense was focused on their heads.

  The captain shouted, “Fiiiiire!” and thunder shots flew forth from the cannons. For water-based enemies, they apparently used thunder, ice, and rock shots. Fire was reserved for foes like pirate ships.

  Since they were short on shooters, I got to man one of the cannons.

  Because the magic supply was relatively sparse, the shots weren’t very powerful. And since one Magic Furnace was powering all the Magic Cannons, it took a long time to recharge between shots.

  Forced to lower their speed to dodge the shots, the rock-head bass were circling around to regain speed, aside from one that charged forward without attempting to evade.

  When it got close, the fish monster leaped into the air, aiming to strike one of the crewmen on the deck.

  It was enormous, easily around the size of a car. I guess even low-level sea-based monsters could be pretty huge.

  “Aaaagh!” The targeted sailor screamed in fear.

  The captain drew his two-handed sword, but it didn’t look like he’d get there in time.

  I pulled out a heavy rock spear from Storage and tossed it at the rock-head bass.

  It hit the monster much harder than I expected, pinning it against the forecastle wall.

  “Thank you, Sir Pendragon! Hurry up with the second volley, men!”

  The baron made no comment on the spear that had suddenly appeared in my hand. He was too preoccupied with giving battle commands.

  Just in case I needed an excuse later, I put on a stone spear ring.

  As far as anyone else could tell, I was officially level 30, so I didn’t think the fact that I defeated the monster would be too suspect, but it was possible that someone would question the sudden appearance of the spear.

  “Let’s finish them off! Aim carefully, lads! Once you’ve fired, prepare for close-quarters combat!”

  “““Aye-aye!””” the crew shouted again.

  The first round of shots managed to take out only about 30 percent of them. At this rate, the rock-head bass would definitely break through, possibly putting my party in danger.

  So instead of preparing a second shot, I went to the other side of the ship and made sure nobody was watching as I fired Remote Arrow into the water.