Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 8

by Hiro Ainana

  “A golem with a pilot is pretty unique, right? Not only can it crawl all over the World Tree with its eight legs, it can even produce fire from this hole and propel itself through the void.”

  I was a little confused by Kiya’s proud statement.

  “Fire? Not compressed air?”

  “Explosions are a more efficient use of magic.”

  Huh. So flying with magic like that must have cost less than a propellant or compressed air.

  I guess relying too much on my scientific knowledge could lead to strange pitfalls in this world.

  “What about an aerodynamic engine? Does that have to do with efficiency, too?”

  “You mean skypower? There’s no air in the void, so it wouldn’t work.”

  So the void was definitely similar to outer space, then.

  “How does this valve here operate?”

  “There’s a winding mechanism at the end of this metal cord. An ultrasmall living doll inside the golem cranks it.”

  What a strange structure—I wasn’t sure whether it was low-tech or high-tech. Couldn’t it just be set up to rotate when magic turned the device on?

  I proposed a simpler mechanism to Mr. Kiya.

  It could probably be used for controlling the sails on a boat and such, too.

  While I was talking to Kiya about the mechanics of the golem, Doa came into the room. She was about as high-ranked in the studio as Kiya; they seemed to be husband and wife.

  “Just looking at it from the outside won’t convey how much the golem is really worth. It’s got an intelligence circuit using Holytree Stone on the inside. Look, Satou. This is basically the golem’s brain.”

  Doa led me into the cockpit, opened a wooden case, and showed me a remarkable magic circuit with a glowing blue stone set in the center.

  I didn’t know how they did it, but there was a complicated magic circuit carved inside the transparent blue stone, too.

  “The intelligence circuit receives orders from the cockpit and uses its own judgment to manipulate the eight legs. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  I’m a programmer, after all.

  I’d studied control of multi-legged robots to the point where I’d even read foreign papers on the subject.

  Intrigued, I went out on a limb and asked Miss Doa to show me the circuit diagram.

  “If you think you can read it, go right ahead,” she answered simply and offered me a sheaf of papers.

  They were a little complicated, but thanks to my maxed-out INT stat, I was able to figure them out in a reasonably short time.

  Even in a parallel world, the process of trial and error was essentially the same.

  It had the same problems, too: The algorithm had been expanded until it had a lot of bugs, which were then patched in a way that only caused further complications.

  So I decided to share just a little bit of knowledge from my student days on the parts that seemed to be causing them the most trouble.

  “Miss Doa, about this line…”

  I was sure it was all right if I meddled just a tiny bit.

  Thus, I spent a few enjoyable hours until the sun went down and then stopped by the sewing workshop on the way home to help finish the last of the void suits.

  The owner complained about the overtime, but I managed to get her through it with the help of some dragonspring liquor.

  She contacted Jia about the order using a small bird-type pseudo-spirit made with Spirit Magic, so I left the rest in their hands and headed back to the tree house.

  Sunbeams streamed in through the tree house window, inviting me to awaken.

  I was still half-asleep when the gentle scent of miso soup reached my nose. My “Keen Hearing” skill let me know that Lulu and Liza were working and chatting downstairs.

  “…Morning already?”

  I’d slept a lot deeper than I’d expected, perhaps because I’d managed to take care of the pending problem of making the void suits.

  Letting my eyes wander, I saw Tama, sleeping curled up in a ball on my stomach, and Pochi, who was asleep holding hands with Mia. The pleasant sensation on the left side of my body was probably Nana.

  Mia had been staying at her parents’ home for the past few days, but she must have crashed here last night.

  The four of them were wearing a new creation of mine: kigurumi pajamas.

  I’d made each of them in accordance with their personalities and tastes: a cat, a dog, a rabbit, and a chick.

  “Good morniiing, all and one!”

  Arisa flew into the bedroom in exceptionally high spirits.

  Ever since we’d arrived in the Bolenan Forest, she’d been waking up early like a kid on vacation.

  And since she was eating well and playing around all day, every day, a slight plumpness had returned to her cheeks and stomach.

  I considered having her go on a diet, but her health seemed just fine for her age, so there was probably no need for that.

  “Good morning, Arisa. Shouldn’t that be ‘one and all’?”

  “I’ve heard it both ways. Anyway, we have the morning off today, right? Let’s go see the trampoline mushrooms or hunt for cured ham!”

  Arisa threw the window blinds open gleefully.

  I could more or less picture the former, but I wasn’t sure how one would “hunt for cured ham.”

  Was there a cured ham tree in the Bolenan Forest or something?

  …The scary part was that it wouldn’t be that surprising.

  I checked the schedule tab in my menu.

  “Today’s no good. We told the elf teachers we’d go mountain-stream fishing with them.”

  “Ohhh, right. Guess the ham hunt will have to wait till next time, then.”

  Arisa looked disappointed.

  She seemed really intent on this cured-ham-hunt thing, so I made a note of it at the top of my list of activities.

  “Good morniiing?”

  “Yaaawn, sir.”

  Tama stretched out in her cat pajamas, and Pochi rubbed her eyes and yawned widely in her dog pajamas.

  Mia and Nana were awake, too.

  “Satou.” Mia smiled sleepily. Despite her rabbit pajamas, she was purring and rubbing her face against me like a cat.

  “Master.” Apparently envious of Mia’s gesture, Nana started imitating her.

  “Me toooo?”

  “Pochi wants to cuddle, too, sir.”

  “M-me too, then!”

  In the end, all of them dove on top of me, and we ended up tumbling back into bed.

  I guess peaceful mornings like this weren’t so bad.

  After a light breakfast, we went to the mountain stream in the Bolenan Forest with our elven teachers. Today, we weren’t training until the afternoon.

  “Big caaatch?”

  “Tama’s amazing, sir! I won’t lose, either, sir!”

  Tama’s and Pochi’s cheerful voices rose over the soft burbling of the stream.

  Arisa was wearing a large straw hat, a red long-sleeve shirt under a white T-shirt, and jeans-style pants.

  It was probably some kind of cosplay, but I didn’t know who she was supposed to be.

  “Mm. Big one.”

  Mia reeled in a large rainbow trout–like fish called a Bolenan Large Trout.

  Seeing that, Arisa turned a little frantic.

  “Oh dear, even Mia’s gone and gotten ahead of little old me!”

  Her strange phrasing probably had something to do with her cosplay.

  She soon got bored of it, though, and went back to her regular manner of speaking.

  “Maaan, now master and I are the only losers left!”

  Excuse you.

  If I could just catch a single fish, I could get the “Fishing” skill, and… No, I guess that wouldn’t be fair.

  I quickly put aside such wicked schemes and simply devoted my heart to the melody of the stream and the quiet forest.

  “A bite!”

  Arisa’s shriek brought me back to re
ality just as I was about to become one with nature.

  There wasn’t anything pulling on my fishing rod.

  Arisa must have caught something.

  “Whoo-hoooo!” She seemed even more excitable than usual.

  The fish looked like a red haddock of some kind and was called a Leprechaun River Cod.

  It was nearly a foot long. According to the elves, it was omnivorous and thus not well suited to being eaten raw, but it was delicious if pickled or dried. I bet it would taste great with sake.

  Then, at long last, I finally got a bite as well.

  I pulled the rod up with a light snap and landed a tiny, tiny loach.

  > Skill Acquired: “Fishing”

  “Won’t lose next time!”

  The rest of the group praised me, but Goya snarled unhappily and ran away.

  I hadn’t even known he was there or that we were competing again… Too bad. He could’ve joined us for lunch.

  Upstream, where Goya had run off to, the samurai elf seemed to be up to something new.

  “Prettyyy?”

  “It’s a bug made of feathers and string, sir.”

  “Watch and learn, you lot.”

  The elves had crafted bait and were skillfully manipulating their rods to attract the fish.

  “Looks reeeal?”

  “The fish fell for it, sir!”

  Tama and Pochi were so impressed that they did a little dance.

  “…Fake bait? How very wicked.”

  Miss Poa looked vexed.

  Maybe she didn’t like that her student Pochi was more interested in the samurai elf’s technique than in her own.

  “I believe using a lance is still faster than fishing.”

  With that, Liza handed a significant bundle of river fish to Lulu.

  She had been downriver with her teacher, the spear master Mr. Gurgapoya.

  If we really wanted to be efficient, it’d be faster to just catch the fish with Magic Hand, but that would take the fun out of it.

  We’d reeled in a decent amount, so I salted a fish for each person and roasted them over a fire on skewers.

  This was an important part of river fishing, really.

  For the main course, I made hot pot with miso, fish balls, and fresh wild vegetables. The younger kids had caught some river crabs, so I cut them in half and added them to the pot.

  It wound up being a nice, rustic meal, taking me back to the survival camp I did as a kid during summer vacation.

  “Mm! It’s a little salty, but that’s exactly how grilled fish skewers ought to be!”

  Arisa chomped on her skewer happily.

  “Arisa, you’ve left the head and the guts. They’re perfectly tasty. If you leave them, a waste ghost will come and haunt you,” Liza scolded.

  “Awww, what? But the worms we used for bait are in there…”

  “What about it?”

  Liza clearly didn’t understand Arisa’s modern-girl sensibilities.

  Luckily, Nana and Tama rescued her from her plight.

  “Master, the watermelon has reached the perfect temperature for eating, I report.”

  Nana was carrying two watermelons that had been chilling in the river.

  Then, while Liza was distracted, Tama ate the remains of Arisa’s fish in two quick bites. “Thanks,” Arisa whispered.

  “Don’t worry, be happyyy?” Tama responded cheerfully and dashed off to get some watermelon.

  Judging by her tail, which was sticking straight up, she seemed to be proud of herself.

  “Master, the watermelon is delicious, I confirm.”

  “Thank you, Nana.”

  Nana’s face was covered in juice from the watermelon, so I wiped it with a handkerchief before biting into the slice she brought me.

  Then, as I reached up to remove the seeds from my mouth…

  Ichirou! You must not eat like such a lady!

  A memory flashed unexpectedly through my mind.

  When did that happen?

  On the balcony at the shrine next to my childhood friend’s house, a little girl with green hair smiled at me.

  Her face was shadowed, so I couldn’t see her very well.

  One must spit the seeds out like so if he wishes to properly enjoy the summer of his youth!

  The summer breeze gently shifted her silver hair.

  It must have been a memory of a summer vacation from my childhood, then… Or was it?

  My childhood friend had black hair.

  Then whose memory was this…?

  “Master?”

  A willowy hand tugged me back to reality.

  “Sorry, Nana. I think I was daydreaming a little.”

  I stood up and stretched to shake off the strange sense of déjà vu. Maybe I was just exhausted.

  Since this was basically an adult summer vacation, I should really try to relax and enjoy it more.

  “Ahhh, there they are!”

  A voice like a spring breeze caressed my ears.

  Turning around, I saw Aialize and Lua stepping out of a fairy ring.

  They’d been so busy recently that it had been five days since I’d last seen them.

  “Thank you, Satou!”

  Aialize rushed up to me and grabbed my hands in both of hers, shaking them up and down.

  “Kea and Kiya told me everything! They said it was all thanks to you that the void suits were ready earlier than expected!”

  “Oh, don’t mention it.”

  Just seeing Aialize’s smile was thanks enough for me.

  “Mr. Satou, about the potions you gave Jia…”

  Lua explained that the energy drink–style nutritional supplement potions turned out to be very popular.

  “…If possible, we would love it if you could mass-produce them at our alchemy workshop…”

  Darn. This was poorly timed, considering I’d just resolved to enjoy my vacation more.

  Maybe I could just give the recipe to the elf alchemists and let them handle the rest…?

  “Please, Satou?”

  “Of course. It would be my pleasure.”

  I tossed my reservations out the window and took Aialize’s hand instead.

  “Guilty.”

  “Why, you! Take this—Sunshine of Juuudgment!”

  Urk, that’s bright.

  The girls had redirected some sunlight right into my eyes with a reflector. I had the “Light Intensity Adjustment” and “Self-Healing” skills, so all it did was blind me a little, but that could’ve damaged the eyesight of an ordinary person; I’d have to scold them later.

  Mia and Arisa were using the magic-reflecting prototypes I’d made with Kenea worm thread and the silver hide of the whales. If all they were going to do was reflect light with them, they should’ve just used a hand mirror.

  I moved into the shade, where their reflected-light attack couldn’t reach me.

  “Are you all right, Satou?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  I smiled at Aialize, who was kind enough to worry about me, then made arrangements with Lua for the potion producing.

  “It’s no use hiding in the shade! Light can reach even the dark side of the moon!”

  “Mm. Satellite.”

  The two of them worked together to bounce the light into the shadows.

  It reminded me of an old sci-fi anime where they reflected a giant laser attack, so I took a reflective sheet out of my pocket and bounced the light back at them for just a moment.

  “My eyes! My eyyyyyes!”

  Ignoring Arisa’s dramatic reaction, I watched Aialize and Lua leave, their business here finished.

  Due to circumstances at the transmutation workshop, my little apprenticeship would be taking place the next day.

  That left all of today to enjoy myself to the fullest and spend some quality family time together!

  …Oh, but first I had better scold those two for their little light-reflecting prank.

  “Is this the nutritional supplement potion I’ve heard so much a
bout?”

  “It’s sweet. You didn’t just add sugar to a recovery potion, did you?”

  When I arrived at the transmutation workshop per Miss Aialize’s request, I was met with two familiar elves.

  One was Tuya, the alchemist who’d given away all that information when I first went to the underground city with Mia; the other was his master, one of the Four Shogi Kings of Whatever, Miss Aea.

  “No, there’s no sugar in it, I’m sorry to say. The main ingredients are yellorange fruit from the Mountain-Trees and gabo fruit.”

  I handed the pair a recipe booklet, which I’d put together in Elvish.

  It had simple illustrations along with step-by-step instructions, so I shouldn’t need to explain too much.

  “Tuya, go get the materials from the workshop.”

  “We don’t have any gabo fruit.”

  “Satou, do you have any you can spare? If it’s payment you want, help yourself to any materials from the warehouse.”

  “There’s no need for that. I have plenty of gabo fruits to go around.”

  I had already transferred some gabo fruits to the Garage Bag in advance, so I brought them out.

  Tuya returned with the yellorange fruits floating behind him thanks to Practical Magic, and together we got to work.

  We used a magic tool of my own devising to grate the fruits.

  “Hmm. So the top of the grater is fixed to this pedestal, then the gabo fruit is attached to this part that moves it back and forth across the grater… Quite ingenious.”

  Ignoring his master, Aea, who was obsessing over the magic tool, Tuya set about grating the fruits with an ordinary formulation tool.

  “Satou, contest!”

  “Perfect timing, Goya. Help us grate these gabo fruits, please. Whoever grates them the finest wins.”

  “Mm. Got it.”

  Tuya seemed to know how to manage Goya pretty well and smoothly redirected him into helping out with the labor.

  He didn’t seem to realize he’d been tricked, and I certainly didn’t mind the extra hands.

  “When we’re done, we mix it into the boiled yellorange fruit juice, correct?”

  “Yes, just add it a little at a time until it’s nice and thick.”

  I watched Tuya work diligently.

  When the elves’ Transmutation Tablet was activated, it formed a transparent magic frame, and the ingredients within floated in midair. The whole thing was surrounded by a mysterious sparkle throughout the process.