Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 8

by Hiro Ainana

  After experimenting with a few more options, I’ll have Gillil pass this information along.

  Research day ten: I’ve finished testing all the liquor I had on hand, so now I’m trying various sauces and seasonings.

  Maybe I should blame it on the smell of soy sauce, but the tentacles started looking a little appetizing. I found myself wanting to eat one but decided against it, since they might be poisonous.

  In the evening, I received information from the research-loving Beliunans and Bulainans about their experiments with various liquors. Having a lot of researchers makes this sort of thing go much faster.

  Research day ten, night: I gave in to my curiosity and made tentacle teriyaki.

  Earlier in the afternoon, I had a lab mouse eat one of the tentacles, and it didn’t seem to be affected.

  So I tried a little bit, and it was tastier than I expected. Not a delicacy, exactly, but the kind of taste you could get addicted to. It’d definitely go well with dragonspring liquor.

  Research day eleven: The lab mouse coughed up blood and died.

  Nothing’s happened to me, but I’d better not feed this to anyone else.

  Just to be safe, I used Clairvoyance to take a look inside my stomach, but I didn’t see any inflammation or anything.

  In the evening, I received word from the Beliunan clan that they’d begun developing an alcohol-based bait potion.

  None of the other seasonings I tried did anything, not even mirin, so I’ll switch over to doing that, too, starting tomorrow.

  Research day twelve: My stomach feels strange. I really shouldn’t have eaten that tentacle.

  Some fibrous white thing is growing in my appendix.

  Itchy… Tast—

  I closed my research journal and put it away in Storage.

  I had better erase that last part. The fibrous white substance turned out to be the same crystallization that had occurred in the polluted sap in the World Tree, so the potion developed by the Beliunan clan got rid of it easily.

  “It’s unusual to see you outside the laboratory, Master Satou.”

  As I was stretching in the break room, Mr. Gillil appeared, carrying a pleasant-smelling package.

  He’d started out calling me “Sir Satou” when I first came here, but now he’d switched to “Master” for some reason.

  “Your friend Miss Lulu came earlier and left this for you.”

  I had checked in on the girls with the Space Magic spell Clairvoyance often and spoken with them via Telephone once a day, but I had used Return to actually go back and visit them only a handful of times.

  “Perfect, I was just getting hungry. Gillil, could you please make some tea? Let’s eat together.”

  “Certainly, sir.”

  There was a letter in the package, so I looked it over while Gillil made the tea.

  …Aha! This is great!

  For the first time in a while, I felt my mood brighten.

  “You must have received some good news, eh, sir?”

  “I certainly have. They’ve finally found turmeric and cumin!”

  The letter said that the leprechaun expedition party had located turmeric, while the spriggans had located cumin.

  They’d already found spices like coriander and cardamom, but these two had been the final hurdle.

  “Now we can make some real curry.”

  I knew this wasn’t the time for such a trivial matter, but my heart soared at the idea of finally tasting curry again after so long.

  “Curry is a legendary dish from the hero’s home kingdom, correct?”

  “That’s right. I got a letter that they’ve found all the ingredients we need.”

  I was sure Lulu, Nea, and the others could make a perfectly good curry, but I still wanted to help them.

  “I’m going to take a few days off.”

  I had been running on hardly any sleep for almost two weeks now.

  “Excellent, sir. With the other elves on the matter as well, there is no need for you to work so hard on your own,” Gillil said.

  “Thanks, Gillil. I’ll be back. Sorry, but would you mind delivering this sample bait potion and the recipe to the others?”

  “Y-you’ve already completed it?!”

  I handed the results of my research to the surprised Mr. Gillil.

  It was the first prototype. I’d made it the previous day, determined not to give up.

  I’d let the Beliunan clan perfect and mass-produce the bait potion. They liked research anyway, so surely they’d be up to the task.

  “I’m home. Smells great in here.”

  When I returned to the tree house, I was greeted by a spicy fragrance.

  “Masterrr?”

  “Welcome back! Sir!”

  “Satou.”

  Tama, Pochi, and Mia tackled me at once, rubbing their cheeks and noses against me.

  I guess I was gone a little too long.

  “Master, is the upgrade pack ready for installation yet? I inquire.”

  “Sorry, sorry. I’ve been so busy with research that I haven’t finished fixing up the cultivation tank yet.”

  As soon as I responded, Nana slumped down glumly. There was little change in her expression, but her disappointment would be obvious to anyone.

  Last time I’d come back, I told her that we might be able to upgrade her Foundation functions, so she must have been waiting excitedly this whole time.

  “Can you wait a little longer? I promise I’ll take care of it before we leave Bolenan Forest.”

  “…Master’s instructions registered, I report.”

  Nana still looked depressed, so I made a proposal to cheer her up.

  “In the meantime, could you consult with the rest of the group on what kind of functions you’d like to add and make a list for me?”

  “Th-that is a wonderful proposal, master, I commend!”

  While the younger kids were still clinging to my waist, Nana embraced me over them, her expression relatively cheerful now.

  “Guilty,” Mia grumbled as she was squeezed between Nana and me, but her complaint didn’t affect the excited homunculus.

  “Master, welcome back.”

  “It’s good to see you home, master.”

  When I went to the kitchen, I found Liza and Arisa watching the chefs from the doorway.

  As far as I could tell, their job was to keep the winged fairies from invading.

  “Let me gooo!”

  “It smells so good in there!”

  “Graaah!”

  Whenever the fairies got too close to the source of the smell, they lost their cool and started attacking.

  I told the pair to keep up the good work and then went to see how Lulu and the other cooks were faring.

  “Smells good.”

  “Welcome back! Master, sniffing the turmeric too much will hurt your nose, so please be careful.”

  “I will, thanks.”

  I nodded at Lulu’s grave warning.

  Her slightly reddened nose only made her cuter.

  Still, was turmeric’s smell always that strong?

  Since this was a parallel world and all, it might just be a different spice with similar properties.

  “Mr. Satou, we’ve gathered all the spices from the recipe. We’re following the preparatory steps now.”

  Nea was crushing spices in a hand mill as she gave me a progress report.

  The spriggan and leprechaun expedition teams who’d found the spices were washing away their exhaustion in the elves’ public bath.

  I wanted to give them a little thank-you, too.

  “Liza, would you mind running an errand for me?”

  “Of course, master.”

  I had Liza bring some light-blue carbonated ice-cream snacks to the fridge in the public bathhouse.

  Liquor might have been good, too, but I figured I’d go with something that tasted extra-good after a bath.

  “…Shoot.”

  Looking through my food stocks, I let slip a groan.

/>   “What’s the matter, master?”

  “We don’t have fukujinzuke. And the only leeks we have are pickled in regular oil.”

  Fukujinzuke is a side dish made from daikon radishes pickled in soy sauce, and it’s an indispensable topping for curry back in Japan.

  And if you’re going to have leeks with curry, they’ve got to be pickled in sweet vinegar.

  I’d given all my radishes to the orcs living beneath the old capital, so I didn’t have any left to pickle to make fukujinzuke, either.

  “Wow, and you looked so serious. That’s not what I expected…”

  Arisa rolled her eyes.

  As if she wasn’t complaining that the pickled ginger wasn’t red when I made beef bowls…

  Once we’d finished fine-tuning the five-spice mix for the curry, I left Bolenan Forest to acquire the final missing pieces.

  I must get my hands on fukujinzuke!

  “Leeks? We just pickled the lot of them, so they won’t be ready to eat for a while… Erm, are you all right, sir?”

  I’m too late…

  This was the only place in the Ougoch Duchy with untreated leeks, but I’d arrived just a few moments too late.

  But if they’d only just started pickling them, I could probably wash them off, so I determinedly bought up all the pickling leeks anyway.

  None of the proper shops in the old capital had any pickles like the kind I wanted, so I went to an area with a bunch of stalls selling pickled foods.

  “Fukujinzuke? Never heard of it.”

  Since the name alone wasn’t getting me anywhere, I tried describing it, but…

  “Pickled radishes? We would never carry such a nasty product.” The stall owner shook her head brusquely.

  I’d forgotten that people in the old capital didn’t like radishes.

  “Graaannny, give me something to eat, pleeease…”

  “You haven’t eaten again, child? You mustn’t send all your money home to your folks if it means you starve yourself.”

  As I slumped down in despair, I heard a voluptuous lady of the night asking the old woman at the stall next door for food. The contrast between her sultry appearance and childish whining could only be described as “gap moe.”

  “Oh, I know. A merchant from Kuhanou County brought by some rare pickled delicacies earlier. Since that’s your hometown and all, I suppose I could let you have a few.”

  “Yaaay, Kuhanou pickles! I love you, Granny!”

  The woman dug in to the snacks, which were brown pickled cucumbers and eggplants.

  “Would you like to try some, too, young man?”

  “If you don’t mind…”

  The old woman caught me staring and offered me some Kuhanou pickles. The combination seemed to consist of cucumbers, eggplants, melons, and such pickled in soy sauce and mirin.

  Pretty good… And actually, very close to the taste of fukujinzuke.

  The sourness was a little strong, but other than that, it was just about right.

  “Ma’am, are there any radishes pickled in a similar way to this?”

  “Radishes? As I believe my neighbor mentioned, you won’t find such a foul thing anywhere in the old capital.”

  The old woman cut down my hopes mercilessly, but the woman happily eating the Kuhanou pickles gave me a ray of hope.

  “The ones in Kuhanou County do include radishes.”

  “Really?” I asked excitedly, and she nodded.

  “Kuhanou pickling is used to preserve all kinds of scrap vegetables. I bet you’d find places in Sedum City or Kuhanou City selling just Kuhanou pickled radishes.”

  That was all I needed to know.

  Now I just had to use a map search—perfect, there were a few shops in those cities that specialized in pickled goods.

  “Thank you very much. Here’s something for your troubles.”

  “Ahhh! Are you sure?!”

  I pressed some gold coins into the woman’s hand to express my gratitude, then bought a bunch of different kinds of pickles from the stall that had given me the clue to find fukujinzuke.

  Just as I was about to leave for Kuhanou County, I heard a few familiar voices nearby.

  “When’s Nana coming back, miss?”

  “What about Nana’s mashter, miss?”

  “They’re both far away on a journey, so they won’t be back for another year or so.”

  It was the shrine maiden Sara of the Tenion Temple and the sealfolk kids Nana had cared for.

  The kids were helping her give out food to the needy.

  I would have loved to go say hello, but it would be strange for me to show up in the old capital right now, so I had to satisfy myself with the sight of their happy faces.

  Seeing Sara’s expression reminded me to drop a bag of gold coins into the offering box at Tenion Temple.

  While I was at it, I sent out a few letters, including one to Sara and one to Zena in Seiryuu City.

  Should I send one to Karina, too? She wasn’t back to the Muno Barony yet, but it shouldn’t be a problem if the letter got there before she did.

  I didn’t send one to Princess Menea in the royal capital, though. That could wait until we got to Labyrinth City.

  Now, Kuhanou County was a little far away.

  It was even farther north than the Muno Barony, the territory north of the Ougoch Duchy. Kuhanou was the home of Sedum City, where I helped the witch’s apprentice thwart a few small-time officials’ conspiracy.

  It was easy enough to get to the old capital within about ten minutes by repeatedly using the Return spell, but I didn’t have any Return seal slates any farther than here.

  I would have to get there by using “Skyrunning” and place some Return seal slates while I went.

  While I was at it, I might as well check in on some of the people I’d met on my journey.

  I removed my disguise in an alley and switched into Hero Nanashi mode by donning my black clothes and silver mask, then I used Return to get to the pit I’d made near the old capital.

  The pit was located in a forest far from even the hunting trails, so no one would see me teleporting.

  Most of my Return seal slates had been set up in a similar manner.

  They were waterproofed, too, of course.

  Once I confirmed on my map that no one was around, I jumped up with “Skyrunning,” then sprinted through the sky just above the trees, heading north along the great river.

  I crossed the treacherous Grapevine Mountains, home of the orcs’ Dreamglow Cavern, then passed by Gururian City and the dwarf city of Bolehart, leaving seal slates a safe distance away for later use as I went.

  Before long, I’d left Ougoch Duchy and entered the Muno Barony.

  “Good, things seem to be going along well.”

  Muno City’s reconstruction was coming along smoothly, and the former slums had been rebuilt with tenements and gabo-fruit fields.

  Other crops had also been planted outside the city; fresh vegetables were already starting to pop up from the ground.

  I left Muno City behind and gazed at the former ghost fort, which had been renamed Fort Pendragon. From what I could tell from far away, the kids were happy and healthy, raising goats and orange chickens.

  Since this was technically my villa and the kids were in my employ, I checked in with Clairvoyance from time to time to make sure they were doing all right.

  As I flew through the sky toward Kuhanou County, I heard some bustling down below.

  It looked like a gang of thieves was fighting against the Muno Barony soldiers. Fighting bravely on the front lines were Zotol, the reformed thief, and Hauto, the former false hero and current knight.

  They seemed to be winning the fight, so I just cheered them on silently and kept moving.

  Aside from such minor incidents, I reached Kuhanou County without a problem and arrived at Sedum City with time to spare before sunset.

  At a glance, the owner and catfolk kids at the pottery studio who had helped us out before seemed to
be doing well.

  Now, time to head to the pickle shop.

  A lot of the stalls seemed to be closed, but the shop I had in mind was still open.

  “I’d like some Kuhanou pickled radishes. Do you have any in stock?”

  “Yes, we do! How many shall I wrap up for you?”

  The girl at the counter opened the lid of a pickle jar with great vigor.

  It was brown, like the Kuhanou pickles I saw in the old capital, but there was no mistake: These were the fukujinzuke I’d been looking for.

  I requested a taste test just to be sure, then bought the store’s entire stock of them.

  “Whoa! Never sold out like this before. Are you sure you don’t mind buying these other ones, too? They’re not all radishes.”

  “Of course. They were all delicious.”

  That wasn’t just lip service. It was the truth.

  The fukujinzuke from that shop was perhaps the best I had ever tasted. My favorite was the kind that had seven different varieties of vegetables in all.

  With my goal accomplished, I went around buying up a bunch of other kinds of radishes as well, then used Return in rapid succession to get back to the Bolenan Forest before the sun finished setting.

  Magic really was the best.

  The evening ended after we put the finishing touches on the curry powder and tasted the fukujinzuke, so we started preparing for the curry feast early the next morning.

  I’d already asked Nea to get us permission to use the plaza in front of the tree houses.

  If we did it in the kitchen of our own tree house, the whole place would smell like curry, even the bedrooms.

  In addition to my party, the cooking elves, and some helpful brownies, Miss Aaze showed up early in the morning.

  She’d been working way too hard, so she had the entire day off.

  She told me that all the elves who’d been working in the void were taking days off in turns until the mass-production of the bait potions began.

  Since that meant this curry feast was also a send-off meal before an epic battle, I wanted to make it a success for Aaze’s sake, too.

  “Nana, help the brownies peel the vegetables, please.”