Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 9

by Hiro Ainana

  “Soldierrrs?”

  “There are so many, sir.”

  Tama and Pochi looked up at the defense garrisons that had been carved into the cliff faces.

  The younger girls waved up at the soldiers, who kindly waved back in return.

  Before long, our ship came out into the inlet, and we headed for the island in the center.

  “What a pleasant place,” Arisa remarked.

  The temperature in the inlet felt like a warm spring day, and the waves were gentle and subdued, barely rocking the boat at all.

  Many small fishing vessels floated in the water, pulling in colorful tropical fish.

  “Swirlyyy?”

  “It’s a spirally city, sir.”

  “Mm, snail shell.”

  Tama, Pochi, and Mia were gazing at the island that held the capital of Ishrallie. It was a multilayered city, bearing a resemblance to a carved seashell.

  If anything, it looked more like a sci-fi setting than a fantasy.

  Arisa was silent for a moment, but just as she muttered an expectant “Well?” Rei’s pupils disappeared and she went into another trance.

  “”

  Rei’s explanation was fairly short this time. Judging by this and the previous round of information, the inhabitants of this island seemed to be descendants of a nation called Totorie from the Lalakie-dynasty era.

  It was probably a vassal nation of Lalakie’s or something like that.

  “Big shiiips?”

  “They’ve got oars and sails, so they must be strong, sir!”

  There was a dock in one part of the harbor reserved for battleships, including five large warships and forty smaller ones of various sizes.

  As Pochi observed, the Ishrallie warships were all sailing ships with oars.

  This seemed like a surprisingly large navy for such a small nation, but they probably needed to protect themselves, since they were in the middle of a monster-infested ocean.

  Most of the large warships were wood, but the flagship in the center, which was bigger than the other four, was made from a mithril alloy.

  It looked a little beat-up, as if it had recently returned from battle.

  “”

  I heard a familiar word come drifting on the wind from the direction of the naval port, so I used the Space Magic spells Clairvoyance and Clairaudience to check it out. My “Keen Hearing” skill worked only within a certain range, after all.

  “”

  “”

  “”

  “”

  “”

  “”

  “”

  “”

  “”

  …I see.

  So the Skeleton King had been working on a scheme all this time.

  I opened my map to check on the whereabouts of the Skeleton King and Yuuneia.

  The Skeleton King was still in the Spirit World, just as he had been that morning, but Yuuneia was in an area I’d never heard of before called the Kraken’s Domain.

  Since they seemed to be taking action now, I had better keep a closer eye on them.

  “”

  The day after we arrived at Ishrallie, I was visiting the royal castle with Rei in tow.

  “Is she quite all right?”

  “Yes, she just tends to talk to herself.”

  The official from the trade ministry, who was the reason we were at the castle, cast an alarmed look at Rei.

  When he’d learned that our ship was from the Shiga Kingdom upon our arrival, he approached us to negotiate the purchase of some Shigan silk.

  “”

  Taking advantage of his obvious need, I offered him some silk in exchange for an audience with the king of Ishrallie.

  They must have seriously wanted that silk, because the very next day, my request was granted, thus our visit to the castle.

  Of course, I was seeking contact with the royal family in the hopes that it might jog Rei’s memories and cure her amnesia.

  “”

  Listening to Rei’s trance-state muttering, I looked more closely at the structure of the royal palace.

  There was a repeated arch structure of pillars that supported more pillars above, creating a stately dome-like space.

  It reminded me of some architecture I’d seen on my trip to Europe. The St. Sophia’s Cathedral, perhaps?

  “Please do not worry. We’ll be sure to avoid any such muttering in front of the king.”

  The official still looked nervous, so I smiled reassuringly as we followed the court lady who was guiding us.

  Unlike the men, who were generally dressed in an Eastern Roman Empire style, the woman was wearing a thin cloth draped over a short vestlike garment and a wrap skirt, which gave bewitching glimpses of her curves as she walked ahead of us. From the front, her belly was very much exposed.

  Overall, it was sort of like a combination of Roman Empire style and an Arabian Nights costume.

  As we continued through the enormous dome, we reached a throne at the center of the room.

  It was raised two steps higher than the floor we walked on.

  Rei looked up at the dome and started to explain it, but since we were about to have our audience with the king, I broke her out of the trance with a light prod.

  It seemed to me that her transitions in and out of the trance state were getting smoother.

  “Are you the merchant who wishes to present us with silk for my daughter?”

  The king of Ishrallie looked down at me from the throne and spoke (in Ishralliese, of course).

  The man had a bit of an “evil uncle” look to him, giving off the impression that he’d played around a great deal in his youth.

  His crown was a wrap of gold thread lavishly decorated with Heaven’s Teardrops, impressive in a different way from the more traditional crown of the Shiga Kingdom.

  The Heaven’s Teardrops were perfectly round jewels that sparkled in the light, so I could understand why they would be so valued by Shigan nobles— Wait, what? That’s alua.

  My AR display labeled them Heaven’s Teardrops: Alua Resin. With the normal “Analyze” skill, it read only Heaven’s Teardrops.

  Alua was a material I’d acquired in the elf village, which I’d used for the coating on the deck and Tama and Pochi’s favorite hard-to-break cups and plates.

  Opening my map, I searched for the trees that produced the resin used to make alua.

  They grew on a single uninhabited island.

  The royal family was probably monopolizing it to produce Heaven’s Teardrops for themselves.

  My curiosity was now sated, so I turned my attention back to the king.

  “It is an honor to meet you, Your Highness. I am a hereditary knight of the Muno Barony in the Shiga Kingdom. My name is Satou Pendragon.”

  I thought it best to give an honest answer to his honest question, so I introduced myself and gave a noble bow. Luckily, the classes I took for new nobility in the Muno Barony had taught me how to introduce mys
elf to a foreign king.

  “So you are a noble, not a merchant? Forgive me.”

  The king nodded magnanimously, urging me to continue.

  “This is jade silk from the Shiga Kingdom.”

  “Jade silk, you say?!”

  The king, the official next to us, and even the nearby nobles all exclaimed in surprise.

  I didn’t think it was so special that even a king would react like this…

  “You’ve avoided the preposterous tax imposed by Lalagi? Do you by chance have a Liquor Baron title, perhaps?”

  As it turned out, the Kingdom of Sorcery Lalagi antagonized Ishrallie by imposing taxes on jade silk of more than a hundred times its worth whenever a merchant ship passed through their kingdom.

  Their goal was to sell their rival product red silk at a high price and buy Heaven’s Teardrops more cheaply.

  I’d gotten all this information from Ishrallie citizens, of course, so it was probably best to take it with a grain of salt.

  “If you have brought gifts of jade silk—and such high quality, at that—you must be seeking the right to trade in Heaven’s Teardrops, correct? Very well.”

  This caused a commotion among the officials and vassals in the room that bordered on shrieking.

  “But first, I must speak with you. Come this way.”

  With that, the king of Ishrallie stood and led me to a royalty-only passageway behind the throne.

  The official was made to stay behind, but Rei was allowed to come with me.

  “”

  Looking at an art sculpture in the hallway, Rei entered a trance again.

  This special hallway was a wide-open corridor with a view of the mansion and the castle town below. It didn’t seem very well protected against assassination attempts.

  “”

  It seemed that the king of Ishrallie could speak Hallowed Language.

  “”

  “”

  I wasn’t sure how serious the king was, but when I politely declined, he seemed unbothered and turned his interest back to Rei.

  “”

  The king pointed at a mysterious object at the top of the royal castle.

  “”

  “”

  I wondered why the king mentioned the Skeleton King and not the flamebeast there.

  When Rei heard this, she returned from her trance and looked like she wanted to say something, but in the end, she stayed silent.

  “…Guard the prince?”

  “Just so. You are surely aware that Lalagi will soon hold the Skydea Festival? It is the custom for the prince to make an appearance as a show of goodwill.”

  When we reached the king of Ishrallie’s private room, he made an unexpected request.

  He probably wanted to send his son to another nation in case the flamebeast attacked.

  Still, it seemed a little careless to entrust his precious son to somebody he’d met only recently.

  “Why ask a foreigner such as myself? Ishrallie is known far and wide for its impressive navy.”

  “I need them for the fl… No, never mind that.”

  The king started to say something about the flamebeast but then cut himself off.

  “Please forget everything I just said. Instead, I would like you to carry an advance messenger for me. Your ship should surely be able to carry a messenger with no guards, yes?”

  That definitely sounds like you’re going to send the prince disguised as a messenger.

  “This will be your reward.”

  The king placed a pouch on the table that was full of Heaven’s Teardrops.

  That seemed excessive for transporting one messenger.

  “Surely this is unnecessary for one messenger—”

  “I am paying for your utmost haste, as well.” The king cut me off. “Please be prepared to leave Ishrallie by the day after tomorrow.”

  This made sense. A bigger ship would take much longer to prepare for departure and certainly wouldn’t have time to buy or sell supplies.

  So the generous reward was to compensate for the cost and inconvenience of preparing quickly.

  “Very well. I shall do my utmost to meet your needs.”

  I guess doting fathers exist even in a parallel world.

  As long as we made sure the prince enjoyed himself at Lalagi’s festival, it shouldn’t be a problem.

  “So you accept! Wonderful! I shall lend you a room within the castle. Please come to dinner tonight and tomorrow, as well.”

  With that, the king ushered us back out.

  I would’ve liked to ask about Lalakie, but I could probably just do that at dinner.

  “Master! Over here, over here!”

  Arisa called me with the Space Magic spell Telephone, so I came to the shopping district in the castle town.

  Apparently, she wanted to show me some kind of seashell workshop.

  The signboard read LI-BURA with a fancy logo that looked like something out of a game art book. Since bura was the word for workshop in this language, the store name probably meant “Li Workshop.”

  “What do you think? Amazing, right?!”

  “Yes, it really is. It’s more like an art studio than a workshop.”

  Looking at one of the delicate shellwork pieces, I noticed something strange.

  The “Estimation” price was far too low. The bigger pieces cost silver coins, but the rest were mostly one copper coin apiece.

  “How much is this one?”

  “They’re all three copper coins each.”

  The shopkeeper gave me a price that was three times my estimated market price, but that wasn’t a problem.

  Normally, I would haggle down to the market price, but in this case, that seemed like an insult to their delicate handiwork.

  “Well? Pretty cheap, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  I nodded. Artwork this elaborate ought to be at least one gold coin.

  The biggest piece, a crown made with pearls and seashells, would look amazing on a mermaid—a finfolk girl. It would make anyone look like the queen of some underwater kingdom.

  “Don’t you think we could resell these?”

  So that’s why Arisa called me here.

  That made sense. Since I gave each of them a gold coin’s worth of spending money, she should be able to buy any of these for herself if that was what she wanted.

  This would be the perfect gift for nobles in the royal capital and Labyrinth City, so I decided to go along with Arisa’s plan.

  The idea of making a killing in trade was always an alluring one, after all.

  “So if you have extra stock, I would love to make a bulk purchase.”

  “R-right. The young lady suggested as much to me, so I’ve just come back from our storehouse with a list.”

  According to the shopkeeper, they had around three hundred pieces altogether, but only fifteen or so were of the highly intricate quality found in the shop window.

  “I’m afraid I only have Shiga Kingdom coinage. Is that all right?”

  “Yes, of course. We rarely get Shigan copper coins around here, so the traders will exchange them without a fee.”

  Ishrallie copper coins were only a third of the size of Shigan copper coins, so I realized that the price the owner gave me was actually equivalent to my initial estimation.

  Either way, it was far too cheap, so I threw in some extra coins.

  “Master Noble, if you like, could I per
haps interest you in my friend’s shop as well?”

  Once I’d finished paying, I accepted the shopkeeper’s proposal. Bringing the rest of my group along, I wound up doing even more trading at the pearl workshop, and a coral workshop as well.

  The pearl shop was called Lai-Bura, and the coral shop was Tori-Bura.

  All of them showcased highly skilled craftsmanship to rival the shellwork. The coral workshop in particular had a great deal of inventory, with a varied lineup ranging from accessories to interior design, so I bought up quite a bit of stock.

  Products with sea-based materials like coral and pearls were quite highly valued in the inland areas of the Shiga Kingdom, after all.

  “My name is Sabaan Ish—”

  The handsome, droopy-eyed prince’s self-introduction was interrupted by a sharp elbow strike from the king of Ishrallie.

  He was probably about to give his real name instead of an alias.

  I was the only one who’d been invited to the banquet; the girls were being treated to a feast in the castle room we’d been given.

  “Erm, Sabaish. Thank you for taking me to Lalagi.”

  The prince introduced himself in a still obviously royal tone, eliciting a groan from the king.

  Doing my best to look completely oblivious, I introduced myself to “Sabaish.”

  After a brief conversation, I asked the king about Lalakie.

  “Are you interested in Lalakie?”

  “Yes, I happen to be doing some research on it.”

  Thanks to my “Fabrication” skill, I came up with a plausible reason on the spot.

  I doubted he would’ve believed me if I told him I was trying to bring the half-ghost Rei back to her home.

  “If it’s treasure you seek, I advise against it.”

  The king sipped a goblet full of an orange cocktail as he gave me a warning look.

  “Even the Flue Empire failed on their quest to acquire the treasure of Lalakie.”

  I wasn’t sure what he meant, so I waited for the king to continue.

  “It is written in our history books. In their battle against a demon lord, that empire sent a large fleet east of Lalagi to seek the ancient weapons.”

  I checked the location in question on my map as I listened.

  The Kingdom of Sorcery Lalagi was to the southwest of our current location, Ishrallie, so maybe this area was to the southeast?