Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

by Hiro Ainana

  “He told us not to move.”

  “I’m terribly sorry. Our master, Urs, told us not to move from this spot… If we disobey, our enslavement collars will tighten completely. Please, forget about us and go.”

  The dog-eared girl and the scalefolk girl, whose back was bleeding, shook their heads almost apologetically.

  At that moment, help came from an unexpected source.

  “Charge! Defeat the hell demon!”

  The same people who’d been chucking “holy stones” at the beastfolk girls were now throwing them at Urs and the arms sprouting from his chest. The man shouting the orders was the loudmouthed guy I’d bought over to my side earlier.

  With a crack, Urs’s neck twisted at an unnatural angle. Instinctively, I looked away.

  They sure value lives cheaply in this world. To think they’d try to kill the demon, Urs and all, without a moment’s hesitation…

  Maybe I’m just too much of a pacifist.

  “Ah! The demon’s getting up! Everybody hide!”

  I turned my head upon hearing the loud man’s shout, and I saw that what had been the crumpled corpse of Urs was rising back up without bending its limbs, like a video being rewound. He looked like a zombie.

  Black mist oozed out of Urs’s body. I glanced over at the young priest, but he was still in the middle of his chant. That incantation is way too long.

  “You worms… You’re doing me a favor by smashing up my host’s head. I, grateful!”

  Maybe it was just because of the strange way the demon spoke, but for whatever reason, I didn’t feel as afraid as I probably should have been.

  “… Circle of Anti-Evil Fuuma no Enjin!”

  “How clever. I, amused!”

  The young priest finally finished invoking his spell, creating a circle of light that sealed in the demon. Despite his snickering, it didn’t seem like the creature could escape the magic circle. Without pause, the young priest started a second chant.

  “Grrr… Cannot use magic with a human’s voice! I, frustrated.”

  The people on the street peered nervously in our direction from the shadows of nearby buildings. Tearing through Urs’s body, the real form of the hell demon emerged.

  He was a strange creature, like a large eyeball that had sprouted arms and wings. Just looking at him was chipping away at my sanity stat.

  “Hur-hur-hur-hur. There, can speak more easily now. I, delighted!”

  This way was actually even harder to understand.

  And the thing didn’t seem to have a mouth, so where was he even speaking from? Was he making the giant eyeball vibrate like a speaker or something?

  …Wait, that’s not important at all.

  This had to be the “disaster” the Oracle predicted. The riot from earlier was just an opening act.

  I turned toward the demon. His AR label had changed from Urs to Lesser Hell Demon. His name was there, too, but in phonetic symbols instead of normal characters.

  Without taking my eyes off him, I checked and saw that the beastfolk girls were now Masterless after Urs’s death. Doesn’t that mean the kids can move now?

  “… Sacred Javelin Seinaru Yari!”

  A javelin of light flew from the young priest.

  “I, amused!”

  The fiend howled, and an inky-black barrier formed around him, diverting the path of the javelin. So not only could he speak now, but he really could use magic, too.

  With another howl, the demon destroyed the magic circle at his feet.

  “All that panic…the anxiety and fear…the prejudice and conceit… It suits my needs perfectly! I, content!”

  This is bad. If he attacks with magic now, I won’t be able to protect these kids.

  Should I try to beat him to the punch? But if I didn’t defeat him in one blow, I’d be putting the girls in more danger.

  I heard another cry from the monster, this one noticeably longer and louder.

  “And thus, will now create a nesting hole in this ground for my lord. He will be most pleased! I, hardworking!”

  His “lord”? Don’t tell me he means a demon lord?!

  A dark circle of magic spread out with the eyeball demon at its center. Shit. This is definitely some kind of attack magic. I picked up the three girls in my arms, ready to make a break for it. The young priest, too, carried an elderly person as he ran for safety.

  At that moment, with the worst timing possible, Zena returned leading a group of soldiers from the count’s army.

  “Satou! I brought reinforcements!”

  I could see steam rising from Zena’s skin; she must have run like crazy. Judging by how fast they’d arrived, this group had probably been sent to suppress the riot the fat priest had been stirring up. Their metal armor clanking loudly, the army detachment readied their huge shields to try to surround the hell demon.

  “Zena, wait! He’s is casting some kind of spell! Stay back!”

  I hesitated for a moment between whether to repeat my warning to Zena or to carry the kids immediately to safety, but I never had a chance to decide.

  The ground under my feet warped like an effect from some old movie. Though still solid, it suddenly glowed a dark violet, bent, twisted around, and pulled us under. In a flash, the world around me was plunged into darkness.

  When my vision returned, we were in some sort of cave. A faint purple glow rising from the ground meant I could more or less see. Though the ground was still mostly the same, everything else around me was made of sheer rock. There was a single exit in one of the walls of the thirty-square-foot space.

  The only other people in this place besides me were the three beastfolk girls still held in my arms. No Zena, of course, and no sign of the eyeball demon. The troops she’d brought were nowhere to be seen, either.

  “Welcome to my lord’s labyrinth. It has no name yet, but it will soon produce demons to play with you. You should be grateful! I, diligent!”

  The voice echoed from some unknown source. It didn’t seem to be telepathy, but…?

  The cat-eared girl was pointing up at a corner of the ceiling. Apparently, the voice was coming from an air hole up there.

  “Now amuse me with all your fear! Kill each other! Steal from each other! I, pleased!” The demon paused for a moment before speaking again. “…Resignation will hollow out your souls. I, disgusted!

  “Thus, have made it so all the rooms are connected to the exit. I, fair!

  “Looking forward to the moment your hope gives way to despair. Fight to survive, you worms! I, excited!”

  …I see.

  So this is the start of the “Escape from the Labyrinth!” mandatory mission, huh?

  > Title Acquired: Labyrinth Explorer

  Labyrinth

  Satou here. I think I first took an interest in getting into the gaming business when I was a kid and got obsessed with one of my dad’s games, a dungeon-crawler where you explored a labyrinth. I’ll never forget my excitement when I found an ultrarare sword in that game.

  Checking the map, I saw our location was now marked as Demon’s Labyrinth: Bottom Floor, with no displayed paths.

  …I guess I knew it wouldn’t be that easy.

  Still, this transition from a light city adventure to a sudden dungeon encounter had been way too sudden; if this were a tabletop RPG, I’d be worried about the game master’s mental health right about now.

  …Oh dear. More important, the beastfolk kids seemed pretty scared. I should check in with them first. Might as well start with introductions, right?

  “My name is Satou. I’m a peddler.”

  “Cat!”

  “I’m Dog, sir.”

  “And I am Lizard.”

  Are those really their names?

  Their previous masters, not just Urs, had called them that. The dog-eared and cat-eared girls had been slaves since they were little, but apparently, the scalefolk girl had been enslaved as an adult, so she had a name at least. But it sounded like a raspy, scraping sound, so I couldn’t pr
onounce it.

  In the end, they wanted me to give them names that would be easy to say, so I decided to call them Pochi, Tama, and Liza. I half expected them to get mad at being given such pet-like names, but I was pretty confident that if I gave them normal ones, I’d immediately get them mixed up. I figured this would at least work until we got out of the labyrinth.

  Liza didn’t actually come from lizard but from the first two syllables of her mostly unpronounceable real name. And Pochi and Tama are popular names in Japan for dogs and cats, respectively.

  Now then—before our escape began, some first aid was in order.

  I took out some towels and the Well Bag, plus the shells that held that salve. I had picked these up as souvenirs for Martha and the others, but I could always buy more once I got out of here.

  “Use these towels and the Well Bag water to disinfect any open wounds. Then you can put on this salve and wrap them in cloth. Don’t use the same cloth you cleaned them with, though.”

  I handed some new towels to the three of them, but they just looked perplexed. Right… Whenever I tried to talk to them normally, at least at first, they got confused unless I used a more commanding tone. It was like I was babysitting my younger relatives all over again.

  “What’s wrong? Don’t worry—I’ll look the other way while you’re doing it.”

  But apparently, it wasn’t so much that they were being shy—it was just unusual for slaves to be given high-quality towels and salves and the like, so they were taken aback.

  “Thank you, sir. You don’t need to look the other way, sir.”

  “What pretty cloth. I’m so happy!”

  “Um…young master, mightn’t it be better to hold on to such things…water and medicine, that is…for your own use…?”

  Pochi and Tama undressed without hesitation, untying the hemp cord around their sack dresses and beginning the first aid treatment. If it weren’t for their ears and tails, they’d be indistinguishable from normal human children.

  Pochi had bobbed brown hair, while Tama’s hair was short, white, and choppy. Liza’s waist-length red hair was tied near the bottom. She was still hesitant, perhaps the type to overthink, but when I phrased it as an order, she began to use the supplies like the other two.

  Liza, too, would have looked like a normal female human if she didn’t have such a splendid tail and orange scales that covered part of her body. The scales extended a ways from her tail as well as from her neck to her shoulders, her elbows to her fingertips, and her knees to her toes. From what I could tell through her clothes, her chest was pretty flat.

  When it seemed enough time had passed for them to finish their first aid, I turned back and offered them some baked goods. They were the honeyed pastries I’d bought as souvenirs when I was walking around with Zena. They were only about the size of my palm, though, and I had just three for each girl. Still, it should be enough to fill their stomachs for a while.

  Pochi was visibly drooling as she looked at the pastries, but none of them moved to eat anything. So they needed permission to eat? Slavery was even worse than I’d thought.

  “No need to hold back. Just go ahead and eat them.”

  “Yummyyy!”

  “It’s so sweet and tast—”

  Pochi started choking, so I handed her the Well Bag.

  “Take your time, okay? I won’t ask for them back or anything.”

  This was weirdly like being a babysitter.

  “Baked pastries made with honey… I…” Liza was at a loss for words. That seems like a bit of an overreaction for a handful of pastries.

  I looked at the map again, but it still didn’t show anything outside this room.

  Maybe magic didn’t work here, or its effects were limited somehow.

  I opened my menu and selected the Search Entire Map spell. If that didn’t work, I was going to have to carefully map this all out myself.

  That concern was quickly put to rest. When I used the spell, the entire Demon’s Labyrinth was immediately revealed to me. The combination of this magic and my map was just entirely too convenient. What is this, easy mode?

  Though I could see every path in the dungeon, it was difficult to understand the labyrinth’s layout from the 2-D display, so I switched over to 3-D. In war games like WW, the land’s height variations could become a major factor, so 3-D maps were indispensable.

  The map could even be rotated now, so I looked at it from various angles. From this vantage point, the place seemed less like a labyrinth than an ant farm. The paths branched out like the roots of a tree to form various rooms, then diverged back into more pathways.

  There were areas that crossed through multiple levels and shortcuts connecting other rooms, too. It was all decidedly dungeon-like.

  By my estimates, about 159 people were in the labyrinth. Seven of these were demi-humans, and the other 152 were humans, with about a quarter of the total being slaves. The troops sent to suppress the riot consisted of about 50 people, split up into three groups.

  It looked like Zena was in one of those groups, too. Going by the map, it didn’t seem likely that we’d run into each other, but she should be all right if she was with her fellow soldiers.

  If anything, I wished they’d come to my rescue.

  The young Garleon priest was even farther away from me than Zena. If we were going to come together, it would most likely be near the exit. He seemed like a capable person who I’d prefer not to die, but he also could probably take care of himself, so I guess I’d just count myself lucky if we ran into each other.

  If only I could contact them somehow, I could lead everyone to the surface. Somehow, a player chat function wasn’t among all the usually useful features of the menu.

  For some reason, though, the eyeball demon didn’t show up in my map search. There was one room that was particularly deep in the heart of the dungeon, so I figured maybe he’d be there, but…

  It definitely wouldn’t be fun if I stupidly beat him too early only to have the whole labyrinth collapse because he’d been defeated, so I’d leave him alone, too.

  Most of the enemies seemed to be bug-type demons from levels 10 to 20. When I first searched the map, there were only about twenty of them, but each time I searched again, there were more, and by then it had reached around a hundred. More varieties were appearing, too, such as frogs and snakes. Each had the title Primitive Demon. Did this mean they’d been made when the dungeon was generated? I didn’t think the wyvern I saw before had a title like that.

  This room was a dead end with only one exit; it’d be bad if we got attacked as we tried to proceed. Should I give these three weapons, too? Okay, I’ll just pretend I found them in the shadows of a passageway and give them some spears or javelins out of Storage.

  Once I started heading toward the first passage, the three girls panicked and chased after me.

  “Don’t abandon us! We’ll do anything, sir!”

  “Don’t leave us here!”

  “Young master, please bring us with you, even if just to use me as a shield. I beg of you…”

  They were imploring me desperately, yet none of them attempted to grab at my clothes. Was this because of their experience, or training, as slaves?

  “I’m sorry I scared you. I was just going to try to take a better look at the passageway. I won’t desert you, so don’t worry.” I spoke as gently as possible. I was pretty sure they’d be upset even if I told them not to be, but I still felt it was better to say it than not.

  As I waited for the three girls to finish eating, I took out a short sword and the Magic Gun from my bag and equipped them. The latter was about the size of a handgun, and it fired magic as bullets instead of lead. I could also adjust how much magic it used without limitations, even if I wanted to fire the smallest bullets possible for just one MP each, so its cost performance was highly effective.

  In my case, my MP regenerated at a rate of about three points a second, so I essentially had unlimited ammo. It reminded me of the
early days of FPS weapons, but since there was a tenth of a second’s delay when I pulled the trigger, it was a bit difficult to use.

  Of the three beastfolk, the only one with any combat skills was Liza, who had the “Spear” skill. I couldn’t very well just pull a spear out of my bag, though, so I gave her a short sword for now. She hesitated a little—maybe it was unusual to give a slave a weapon—but I insisted.

  I went ahead as the advance guard and put Liza in back to take care of any surprise attacks from behind, despite her protests that she could go in front. I have the radar, so there won’t be any surprise attacks, but I bet having a role assigned will make her feel a little better.

  So the marching order was me, Tama, Pochi, then Liza. I firmly commanded them not to jump into battle unless I told them to do so. They were only around level 2 or 3, so if they took a hit from a monster, it’d probably kill them.

  I guess this was an escort mission now.

  The passageway walls were made up of the same stone as the floor. There was no more luminescence from below, so it was quite dark. Luckily, there were glowing stone pillars every couple of feet, so while the shadows of the cave were certainly disconcerting, walking wasn’t a problem.

  The posts were about waist height, but the light reached only as far as my chest, so it was unfortunately impossible to see the ceiling. This was probably a deliberate design to cause more anxiety. How very pleasant.

  Maybe they were there because if the passageways were completely dark, we would just want to stay in the rooms and hide.

  “Tama, if you see anything ahead of us on the path, please tell me quietly. Pochi, let me know if you notice any strange smells or noises. And Liza, I’m counting on you to watch our backs. Just don’t get so occupied with it that you fall behind.”

  “Okies!”

  “Yes, sir!”

  “Understood!”

  They still seemed anxious, but their responses were solid.

  > Skill Acquired: “Direction”

  > Skill Acquired: “Organization”