Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 5

by Hiro Ainana

  In fact, there hadn’t been any in the entire duchy. He didn’t seem able to teleport, either, so someone had either summoned him or sent him here.

  Eventually, there were no more fleeing crowds at all, just abandoned carts and carriages littered around the street.

  When we turned the corner at the intersection of the main road, we saw the knights and warriors fighting the demon.

  The demon himself was quite different from the one in Muno City. He resembled a huge red gorilla with six arms and short horns.

  The remains of demolished carriages lay scattered around the battlefield, as well as several large holes in the buildings facing the street.

  A few warriors were slumped on the ground around the demon, unable to fight any longer.

  Miraculously, there seemed to be no casualties as of yet. But if this went on much longer, people would surely die.

  Judging by the situation, the injured were too close to the rampaging demon to be rescued.

  The demon’s powerful arms struck a few people fighting at the forefront, and they were propelled into the air, as high as if they’d bounced off a trampoline, toward us.

  If they hit the ground like that, even the heavily armored knights might lose their lives.

  “Mia! Use Balloon!”

  With the fairy sword, I slashed open a barrel of liquor lying nearby on the ground and flung it toward the area where the knights were about to land.

  “… Balloon Kyuubouchou!”

  Mia’s magic produced an explosive torrent of steam that canceled out the falling knights’ downward acceleration.

  That should keep them alive, at the very least. Hopefully they can just walk it off.

  One of the fighters was on a slightly different trajectory and also happened to be a beautiful woman. Quickly, I darted over to catch her.

  “…Wh-what?”

  The woman, clad in a dress, had squeezed her eyes shut in preparation for the impact and now blinked a few times.

  “Please try not to put yourself in harm’s way, Lady Karina.”

  “Sa… Er, Sir Pendragon!”

  Realizing who had caught her, Miss Karina flew into a panic.

  I got why she was stammering, but what was up with this ritual of alternately entwining and releasing her fingers over her chest? Was this her way of acting bashful?

  On top of that, she kept mumbling increasingly absurd comments in my arms, from “Heavens, to think you would hold me like this twice!” to “You’re surprisingly strong, aren’t you?” to, finally, “Perhaps we’ll go to the royal capital for our honeymoon…”

  Clearly, her inability to handle any physical contact with the opposite sex hadn’t changed since our last encounter.

  “I forbid you to princess-carry anyooone!”

  “Mm, forbidden.”

  Once they’d caught up behind me, Arisa and Mia immediately lodged their complaints.

  Meanwhile, Tama and Pochi were giving recovery potions to the knights who had just fallen.

  “Thank you for your assistance, Sir Pendragon,” said Raka, the sentient necklace blinking blue at Miss Karina’s chest. I responded by politely asking him to help his master stop throwing herself into danger.

  Even with Raka’s protection, Miss Karina had still lost about 20 percent of her health, so I asked Mia to heal her.

  As I put Miss Karina down, she grabbed onto my sleeve, but she appeared to have as little idea of why as I did.

  Mia narrowed her eyes, but she began casting the spell to heal Miss Karina nonetheless.

  “Master, the front lines are about to give way.”

  “We’ll heeelp!”

  “You can come, too, Karina, ma’am!”

  Tama and Pochi each patted one of Karina’s breasts in greeting, then stood on either side of Liza.

  Why do they get to do that…?

  “All right! I’ll take the lead. Liza, you and the others help the wounded first.”

  I could hardly imitate Pochi and Tama’s greeting, so I simply gave a light wave before dashing into battle.

  On the front lines, two more people had collapsed, leaving only the level-33 imperial knight Sir Ipasa and a level-29 warrior with a large shield.

  Both of them were bloodied and slowing down.

  The demon fired three shots of Flame Hand, which rocketed like bullets into the warrior’s shield.

  The stone paving broke beneath the warrior’s feet, sending up enough dirt to cover his ankles.

  Before the dirt hit the ground, the demon spun around and hit the warrior with his tail, knocking him away.

  The warrior rolled over two times, then three, finally crashing through the wall of a nearby house and landing somewhere inside.

  Contrary to his heavy-looking appearance, the demon was very light on his feet.

  Sir Ipasa’s sword slashed at the demon but was blocked by his tail, and the demon prepared to shoot a Flame Hand at the defenseless imperial knight.

  Just as he released the shot, I used the Pit spell right beneath his feet to throw off his balance.

  The spell rocketed off course, grazing Sir Ipasa’s armor and sending him tumbling across the ground a few feet.

  As the knight attempted to rise, I saw a trail of burn marks across his chest plate. It looked painful but probably still a lot better than a direct hit would have been.

  Sir Ipasa attempted to stand up but finally toppled to the ground, gushing blood.

  The demon slowly approached the pair to finish them off.

  Both of them had less than 10 percent of their health left.

  And their position wasn’t looking good.

  I had no choice.

  I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, but I could at least shield the fallen fighters until they recovered.

  “Liza, fight from a distance! Make evasion your top priority!”

  “Understood!”

  After giving Liza her orders, I double-checked the information displayed in the AR next to the demon.

  This guy was tough. He still had almost 90 percent of his health left.

  “Over here! You ugly gorilla!” I shouted, using the “Taunt” skill on my voice.

  The demon immediately charged at me, leaping over the heads of Liza and the others with ease as they tried to attack.

  As he dropped toward me from the sky, he pulled back his arm.

  Then, in the next instant—

  He came down at me like a cannonball.

  I dodged him at point-blank range by twisting my body to the side.

  The Fire Hand flew past me, hot air brushing by my cheek.

  “Sir Pe— Satou!”

  “Master!”

  “Satou!”

  I thought I heard Miss Karina, Arisa, and Mia shout from behind me.

  The demon’s burning hand plunged deep into the ground in a spray of rock and earth.

  Looking up, I saw the demon’s eyes distorted with hatred.

  I guess he hadn’t been expecting me to dodge.

  The limb shriveled up and vanished into the earth.

  Meanwhile, three of the demon’s arms on his other side came flying at me with the same force as the previous attack.

  It looked potentially painful, so I avoided it with a light jump.

  Drawing my fairy sword, I infused it with just enough magic to strengthen it without invoking “Spellblade.”

  Moments later, the demon’s short tail stretched out from behind and lashed at me like a whip. It was the same surprise attack that had knocked out the warrior not long ago.

  I narrowly avoided giving in to the instinct to slice off the tail. Instead, I hopped back to avoid it and its cloud of dust, waited for the right moment, and nailed the demon directly in the face.

  With an incomprehensible gurgling shriek, the demon stopped moving for a moment.

  It was a perfect opening, so I decided to give a light slash to the demon’s ankle with the fairy sword.

  It took a lot of effort not to carelessly
lop his leg off in the process.

  “Ooh! It cut through the demon’s super-tough pelt!”

  “Even the knights couldn’t get anywhere with it! That’s crazy!”

  “What a beautiful blade…”

  “It’s gotta be a dwarven mithril sword!”

  “He must be some famous swordsman, then. Who is he?”

  What’s with all the comments from the peanut gallery?

  Springing lightly aside to avoid another tail attack, I searched my surroundings.

  In a nearby alleyway, five or so well-dressed children were peeking around the corner. I had an audience. I’d drawn the demon away from the previous battlefield, and people who’d been hiding in the nearby buildings worked together to carry away the injured, including Sir Ipasa and the warrior.

  By now, hopefully they were getting recovery potions in the safety of the buildings.

  Suddenly, a clear ringing echoed through the street, and the demon’s movements slowed mid–Fire Hand.

  The AR display next to him showed the words Power reduced by 30 percent.

  Turning to the source of the sound, I saw Arisa ringing the demon-sealing bell, which was emitting a pale-blue light. Miss Karina had probably handed it off to her.

  “Aim for his legs.”

  “Aye-aye, siiir!”

  “Roger, sir!”

  Tama and Pochi jumped in under Liza’s instructions.

  The beastfolk girls darted around, jabbing at the backs of the demon’s knees.

  Irritated, the demon tried to drive them away by swinging his tail around, but by that time all three of them were already out of his range.

  So they were going with the same “attack once, then retreat” strategy we’d employed in monster battles in the Seiryuu City labyrinth.

  “Over here! I’m your opponent!”

  I used “Taunt” again to draw the demon’s attention.

  Just then, two Flame Shots struck the demon’s body and exploded. Arisa and Mia were using the Fire Rods we’d confiscated from the thieves.

  “Magic won’t work…”

  “His fur must be resistant to flame.”

  “Maybe if you hit inside his mouth?”

  According to the peanut gallery, the Fire Rods wouldn’t have any effect here.

  “I shall assist you! Sir Pendragon!”

  Miss Karina, rushing in like a whirlwind as usual, sent a flying kick square into the side of the demon’s face.

  I wish she hadn’t shouted my name. Is she deliberately trying to advertise my identity?

  She was glancing this way as if hoping I would call out her name, too, but I stoutly refused.

  I couldn’t spoil her like that.

  Realizing that the Fire Rod wasn’t working, Mia instead used the Water Magic spell Irritation Mist, burning the demon’s lungs.

  I shot her an accusing glare when my lungs started stinging, too, but she carefully avoided my eyes.

  While I was distracted, the demon came at me with a Fire Hand.

  “You mustn’t look away during a battle, you know.” Miss Karina diverted the incoming attack with a kick and looked at me with a triumphant grin.

  “Lady Karina! Do not let your guard down!”

  Raka’s advice came too late, as a Fire Hand from the demon’s opposite side promptly flung her across the battlefield.

  Maybe next time you shouldn’t look away, either.

  Luckily, Raka’s powerful defense protected Miss Karina, so she would be fine.

  Even after receiving such a fierce blow, she was almost entirely unharmed. It would probably just leave her head spinning for a moment.

  The defense of the multilayered “scales” that Raka produced around her was far stronger than the comparable Practical Magic spell Shield, so much so that I wished I could equip my own kids with such a durable automatic self-defense mechanism.

  That little incident aside, our battle continued steadily. It was tedious, but I just had to deal. I couldn’t become distracted and let one of my kids get hurt.

  WHOOOOSH!

  Fed up with his inability to hit me, the demon swung his arm around and around in the air above his head.

  “Get back!”

  The beastfolk girls jumped away on my command, and seconds later the earth exploded into clouds of dust under the demon’s attack.

  “““Waaah! My eyes, my eeeyes!”””

  The kids in the alley shrieked and covered their faces. So the dust got into their eyes, did it?

  No one could see me in the debris, and I took this opportunity to circle around behind my foe and incapacitate his other leg with a slash.

  While I was at it, I got in a few jabs at his shoulder joints.

  I didn’t manage to hold back as much as I intended, though, and the demon’s health was cut down by about 70 percent.

  I hurriedly shook the blood off the sword and wiped it clean before the dust cleared.

  “Look, look!”

  “We’re winning now!”

  “There’s blood all over his legs and back!”

  “It must’ve been the Scalefolk lady with the magic spear!”

  “Did those little kids do the legs, then?”

  The noisy onlookers had already recovered, but luckily they seemed to have fallen for my trick.

  As blood dripped from his wounds, the demon chased after me, fists raised, whipping his tail at me.

  Then, a blue light shimmered from the roof of a nearby building.

  “Karinaaa Kiiiiiiick!!”

  Calling out a silly-sounding attack name, Miss Karina rained flying kicks down on the demon’s head.

  The demon was starting to dodge when I kicked his jaw upward, trapping him between me and Karina’s barrage of attacks.

  I felt an unpleasant crunch under the sole of my foot as the demon’s skull cracked open.

  His health gauge was draining with incredible speed now.

  “Liza! Now!”

  “Understood!”

  Liza’s magic spear drew a red arc of light in the air as it drove into the demon’s neck. “Ha!” She twisted it in deeper.

  For just a moment, the tip of the spear glowed red.

  Liza herself didn’t seem to have noticed, but she’d used “Spellblade” just now.

  His health drained to zero, the demon crumbled into black dust. The wind swept the chaff away, erasing the traces of his existence.

  Stooping, Liza picked something up from the ground where the dust had been.

  “Master, I’ve collected a core and what appears to be a horn.”

  “A horn?”

  The objects Liza handed me were a small core about the size of my thumb and a tiny red horn.

  The core was normal enough, but when I looked closer at the other object, the AR display showed the name short horn. The detailed description read, Transforms an intelligent creature into a demon.

  So that was why a demon had suddenly appeared in the city.

  I searched for other similar items on the map, but I couldn’t find any.

  However, I couldn’t search inside other people’s Item Boxes, Garage Bags, and so on. I couldn’t say for sure that they didn’t exist.

  Well, I could think about that later.

  After putting the thing away in Storage, I set out to rescue the wounded.

  First, I headed back to where Sir Ipasa and the others had been fighting—specifically, the area where three or so carriages had smashed together.

  The blue spot on my radar was close now.

  I jumped onto a simple temple carriage and entered the open door.

  “…Lady Sara.”

  I called out to her, but her eyelids remained closed, trembling in pain.

  Her HP was down by about 40 percent, and her status conditions read Unconscious and Internal Injuries, so I produced a magic potion to pour into her mouth.

  However, the potion simply trickled back out of her lips, making it difficult to get her to swallow it.

  Though I fe
lt bad about it, I had no choice but to convey the potion to her mouth-to-mouth. This time, I felt the magic potion pass through her soft lips and flow down her throat.

  Miss Sara’s eyes opened weakly.

  I drew my face away from hers, waiting for her to wake up completely.

  “…Sir Pendragon?”

  “Are you awake now?”

  “Y-yes…”

  I lifted Miss Sara in my arms and carried her out of the carriage.

  I wasn’t sure when exactly Miss Sara regained consciousness. She had her head down and kept pressing her fingers to her lips, so I couldn’t read her expression.

  But I did what I did only as an emergency treatment method, so it didn’t count, all right?

  Just because we rescued Miss Sara didn’t mean the chaos was over.

  Once we had brought her and the other wounded parties to the temple, we parted ways with Tolma and his family there. We were then summoned to the viceroy’s castle, where I received his thanks, a medal, a hundred gold coins, and an invitation to stay for a banquet.

  Only Miss Karina and I were able to enjoy the superbly delicious dinner, so I decided to do my best to reproduce the dishes for the rest of the group later.

  Once the banquet was over, we moved to the salon for some friendly conversation.

  Courtly ladies who were indulging in some romantic gossip surrounded Miss Karina.

  “Lady Karina, is Sir Pendragon your fiancé?”

  “…N-no, he is not.”

  Miss Karina answered the viceroy’s wife after a suspicious pause.

  She acted haughty but was actually quite shy, so she was having a hard time interacting with all these new faces.

  I would’ve liked to throw her a lifeline, but I myself was being besieged by men with questions about the defense of Muno City and the battle with the demon earlier that day.

  “If you can defeat a demon, surely a swordsman like yourself could even aspire to victory at the martial arts tournament!”

  “Thank you, but as I said before, all we did was deal the finishing blow after the knights and warriors had already brought the demon near death. And without the help of my comrades and the protection of magic, I am certain I would have fallen in battle myself.”

  One of the nobles was insisting that I should enter the tournament, so I repeated my explanation while politely declining.