Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku (LN) - Volume 23 - Chapter 5.2

Lulu and Roro really looked like twins when they stood next to each other. It was a miraculous coincidence.

“Master, could you quickly store all of our items? My Garage is filled to the brim. It’s a little rough on me.”

“Sure, let’s do it in the garden.”

Arisa opened her Garage just enough so I could reach in with the Magic Hand and retrieve all the items. There were a lot of small monsters and various types of Tauruses. However, this time there were also a lot of brontosaurus-like ancient land beast carcasses in there taking up most of the space. The size of the brontosaurus-like creatures completely dwarfed a T. rex.

“Each of the smaller ones is separately frozen.”

Before they had put all of the smaller items into one large ice cube, however, this time they had chosen to freeze them all separately.

“That was all thanks to Ms. Liza.”

“Liza?”

“Yes, thanks to the ability of the Frostbane Bone Spear you bought.”

Liza responded from behind me.

“When we defeat the monsters, they freeze, so it’s good for hunting smaller creatures.”

“Yeah, it was really helpful.”

It seemed Liza had come to help us move their spoils, but there wasn’t much else to help with, so I asked about their time in the labyrinth.

“We went to a new place this time. There were a lot of enemies popping out of unexpected places, which made for a good challenge.”

“Oh, it was a challenge, all right. It’d been a while since we had such tough fights.”

“Was it that difficult?”

I thought it would be a piece of cake for them, with the levels they were.

“It was rough in the Castle town. There were champions that would just burst out of walls, champions that would jump down from buildings, a completely red champion that jumped down from a tower on the inside wall… They all just came at once.”

“So, it was all just champions, huh?”

They were large and fast, so it must have been difficult dealing with them.

“Once, we were chased by four units all led by leaders, I report.”

I turned around and noticed everyone else was there, along with Nana who had the hamsterfolk children in her arms. They didn’t seem to like being lifted, as they were struggling and trying to push away from her.

“Oui, oooui? I did my best with Reverse Stooone?”

So she did it with stones, and not with a rug. She’s turning out to be a brilliant ninja.

“Yes, you helped us a lot.”

“Nye-hee-hee. Tama helpeeed?”

“Pochi, too! I did my best with Mr. Fallinks, sir!”

“That’s right. Your reactions were great.”

Pochi and Tama squirmed with embarrassment in response to Liza’s compliments.

“Mia’s spirits helped us with one group, and my Labyrinth spell stopped one group in their tracks, while Nana helped with the champions. After that, we whittled their numbers down as Lulu shot at them and Liza and the others fought them off.”

It seemed some of them ignored Nana’s “Provoke” skill and charged for the rear guard.

“We managed to escape a hairy situation, thanks to Lulu’s ‘Air Cannon.’ Right, Lulu?” Arisa asked Lulu, wearing a cheeky grin.

“Ugh, Arisa, I told you to keep that a secret from Master.”

“Ah-ha-ha, my bad, my bad. I forgot about that.”

“Ms. Lulu, that’s amazing! Even golden lion–rank adventurers avoid fighting champions—they’re so strong! I think that’s so cool!”

“Um, ah, thank you?”

Roro got excited and clasped Lulu’s hands while waving them around, though Lulu just looked troubled. It was cute seeing them like this.

“Pochi was in a bit of a pickle, too, sir!” Pochi declared, jumping up and down.

“Were you injured?”

“No, sir, sir. Mr. Egg appeared and protected me, sir!”

Pochi spoke, lifting her White Dragon Egg to show me.

“The egg protected you?”

When I thought about it, I remember the egg jumping out of the Fairy Pack back in the Pialork Kingdom, too.

“Yes, sir! Mr. Egg knocked the champion out with an uppercut, sir!”

“That’s amazing.”

“Dragons were impressive as always. Even as an egg, it’s looking for a fight.”

“Yes, sir. Pochi and Mr. Egg have a strong bond, sir.”

Pochi embraced the egg and rubbed her cheek against it.

“Pochi, while it’s fine to thank the egg, you should think about what got you into that dangerous situation in the first place.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll do some thinking on it, sir.”

Having been scolded by Liza, Pochi put the egg back in its usual spot and sat down for reflection, with both her ears and tail tucked in.

“Roro, you here?”

“Oh, sorry, a customer is here. I’ll be right back.”

“Ms. Roro, I’ll come help.”

Roro and Lulu both headed to the storefront.

“Roro, help.”

“Roro, together.”

“Roro, wait.”

“Larvae, I want you to wait, I say.”

The hamsterfolk children escaped Nana’s grasp and ran after Roro.

“You fussed over them too much, and now they’ve run off,” Liza noted as she watched it unfold.

Mia, with a face that said This has nothing to do with me, played a tune for the game of tag.

Tama had curled up in a ball and fell asleep in the shade of a tree. I had taken all of the items out of Arisa’s Garage, and the cooler seemed to be working, as all of the frozen foods were still cold.

“I’ll come help, too.”

“Master, we’ll come as well.”

“You just got back from the labyrinth. You should go rest,” I said as I headed back onto the store floor.

“Ah, so this is the hidden gem of a store!”

“Look at this bone sword. Although it’s that sharp, it doesn’t feel weak at all.”

“Not to mention that’s a decent price.”

“What’s even better than that are those delicious preserved foods that guy had!”

“And the candles that don’t stink!”

“You idiots, don’t forget the insect repellent and magic potions!”

Both Lulu and Roro were seeing the influx of customers in the small shop. The hamsterfolk children who were helping out were so busy, they kept bumping into one another, falling over and making themselves dizzy.

“There’s so many customers here.”

“I wonder if it’s because word got out about our new products?”

Recently, the store had been packed from morning until night.

“Is the person who made this bone sword here?! Please let me study under you!”

“Sorry, I don’t think they’re taking on students.”

Roro rejected the hopeful necromancer—like always. Since I was already at maximum level, it seemed my craftsmanship was a lot better than that of other crafters.

“Master, have you been keeping up with the accounting?”

“All sales and expenditures should be in the account books.”

Roro dealt with all that stuff, so honestly, I wasn’t too sure.

“Ugh, what’s this? All that’s been noted down is the date, the item, and how much it costs. I’m not asking for perfect bookkeeping, but at least manage it with a bit more organization.”

Arisa grumbled as she flicked through the book.

“Tonight, I’ll drum some proper account-keeping skills into Roro.”

“Go easy on her.”

Arisa used to work in a finance office in her past life, so she was pretty serious about bookkeeping.

“Ohhhh-ho-ho-ho!”

A villainess-like laugh reverberated through the busy store. Arisa and I made our way to the storefront. Lulu was talking to the owner of the high-pitched laugh with a complicated expression on her face. Roro was nowhere to be seen. It seemed she had gone inside to bring more products out to the front.

“Why, it’s rather busy here for a backwater store.”

A young girl with blond hair and twintails spoke in a curt tone. Slightly curious about her pointed ears, I checked my AR display. The young woman was a type of fairyfolk, a leprechaun. And just as the stories on Earth went, leprechauns were fond of playing pranks on people.

“Backwater store? Are you lost, by any chance?” Arisa responded in a very unfriendly tone.

“What was that?”

The young girl flinched a little, before puffing out her chest and wearing a smug look as she introduced herself.

“Is that how you think you can speak to me, Kerina Gure, the eldest daughter of the owner of the Ussha Company, one of the biggest stores here in Arcatia? I’ll have you know—”

“Karina Gray? I remember a commercial with an actress like that.”

Sorry, Arisa. I’ve no idea what commercial you’re talking about. It was probably some old commercial.

“Please, have some respect! My name is Kerina Gure!”

Arisa gave in, apologizing to the young lady who had gotten rather riled up.

“Our Ussha family is such a distinguished house that in my great-grandfather’s time, we were granted the title of ‘Merrymaker’ in the Kingdom of Blybrogha!”

I also received the title of “Merrymaker” when I was in Blybrogha Kingdom from Prince Smartith. Was it that important of a title there?

“Ah, uhm! So, Kerena Gure—”

“Again? Ke-ri-na Gu-re! My name is Kerina Gure!”

The young girl scolded Lulu for her honest mistake. She looked a little teary-eyed, too. I felt sorry for her. She reminded me of Lelillil, the Ivy Manor’s house fairy in Labyrinth City Celivera.

“So, may I ask what brings the daughter of the Ussha Company to the Hero’s Rest?”

Since the conversation wasn’t going anywhere, I decided to ask what brought her here.

“Hmm, hmph! You should have asked me that in the first place!”

The young girl wiped the tears from her eyes as she pointed at me and declared we were in a contest. Just then, Roro returned with the hamsterfolk children.

“…Huh? Keri, long time no see.” Roro addressed her casually.

“Who are you calling ‘Keri’? I’m always telling you to refer to me properly!”

“I call you Keri because if I get your name wrong, you get mad at me.”

“Of course I do! We Blybroghaian leprechauns take pride in our names! You’re not allowed to shorten it or get my name wrong! Absolutely not allowed!”

Lady Keri continued to get really riled up in response to Roro’s sulky response.

“Ms. Roro, is she an acquaintance of yours?”

“Yes, Ms. Lulu. Keri—Kerina Gure—is a childhood friend of mine.”

Roro responded to Lulu’s question. My legs felt a little weird, so I looked down. The hamsterfolk children were hiding behind them.

“Mashter, don’t look down.”

“Mashter, she’ll see us.”

“Mashter, hide us.”

The hamsterfolk children whispered to me. It seemed even they didn’t like her.

“Bah, I’ve long forgotten all of that. I’m too busy working as the vice-representative of the Ussha Company, the number one store in Arcatia! We don’t concern ourselves with the likes of this trifling, insignificant store!”

Keri swatted one of her twintails, which was resting on her shoulder, with enough force to make a plonking sound. Arisa mumbled about how much Keri’s smug expression matched her twintails and about how much she wanted Keri to have drill curls instead, but I ignored it.

“Is that true?”

“Yes, ever since Keri was young, she worked hard for the sake of her company. She’s amazing.”

Roro replied to my question, praising her childhood friend.

“I—I said, don’t shorten my name!”

Lady Keri shouted, though there was a touch of crimson to her cheeks.

“Master, the store is frozen, I declare.”

“Hmm, inside.”

Nana and Mia appeared and brought my attention to all the customers we had left waiting.

“Master, leave the store to us.”

“We heeelp?”

“Pochi is a pro at helping, sir!”

The girls took over managing the store for us, while Roro, Lady Keri, and I moved away from the counter and headed toward a meeting room. Arisa came along, too.

“What are these fried sweets? Why are they so delicious?”

Although she remained polite and ladylike as she did so, she practically inhaled the fried sweets. She seemed to really like them. The hamsterfolk children were hiding behind Roro’s couch, sharing some of the fried sweets among themselves as they chomped down on them. Tama and Pochi seemed curious about the fried sweets, too, so I gave them both one each.

“That reminds me, didn’t she say something about a contest?”

“I wish she’d forget about it and leave.”

I was having a secret chat with Arisa, using the Space Magic spell Telephone. Ever since moving to the reception room where Lady Keri was offered both tea and homemade cookies, she seemed entirely occupied by that instead. I made the cookies with local ingredients back when I was developing sweet recipes when I had some time away from the store.

“Madam, did you run all the way out here just for a tea party?”

“Tomali!”

A beautiful woman called out from the store. Liza had blocked them from going any farther, not letting them come into the room. I signaled to Liza that it was okay to let the girl through, and a short beautiful woman came into the room. Judging from her pointy ears that resembled Lady Keri’s, I assumed she was also a leprechaun.

“Nice to meet you all, I am Lady Kerina Gure’s secretary and Ussha’s salesclerk, Tomali Toloole.”

Do all female leprechauns have names that are difficult to say?

Lady Keri kept making a point of us not shortening her name, but I wondered if people of the same race could do it.

“Madam, if you’re finished with your conversation, shall we head back? All the golden lion–rank adventurers are anxious to meet you.”

“What?! I’m not finished! They trapped me with their delicious baked sweets, and I almost left without doing what I came here to do.”

Damn. She remembered what she had come here for.

“It’s a contest!” Lady Keri jumped up from her chair and declared.

“I’ll let you join the special request from the Great Sorceress! If you can complete this task, this store will also receive the Great Sorceress’s seal of approval!”

“Her seal of approval?”

Roro shouted out—something unusual. It seemed like a big thing.

“Madam, even though multiple trading companies have agreed to join the contest, isn’t it a bit reckless to increase the number of competitors for no good reason?”

“It’s fine! If you lose, I’ll have you teach me your trade routes for Hero’s Rest’s special preserved foods! That’s the wager for participating in the contest!”

I see, if we win, we gain the Great Sorceress’s seal of approval, and if we lose, we have to give up our trade routes.

Well, we wouldn’t have to give anything up. I was the one behind it all. It would be different if we were talking about delivering a certain percentage of the incoming shipment.

“Before we accept, could you let us know what it’s all about? While I don’t think this is the case, you haven’t already finished collecting all the materials for the contest, have you?”

“Of course not! The contest was only issued this morning! No other trading company has it in storage, hence the request from her!”

Feeling insulted by Arisa’s suspicions, Lady Keri got riled up again.

“What are the items?”

“They’re written here.”

There were three items written on the scroll that Lady Keri opened up: masher’s frog tongue, underground lily pulp, and three parasitic mushrooms that grew on the back of a giant ancient land beast. I checked the map, and none of them were available in the city. The young girl was telling the truth.

“I’ve never heard of them before. How about you, Master?”

“I know where to find them, at least.”

According to the map search, the frogs were located in the advanced area, the Sewage Ruins, to the west of the jungle; the lily bulbs could be found in the intermediate upper area, Bloodsucker Wetlands, to the south of the jungle; and the parasitic mushrooms seemed to be in the Castle, designated for the highest-level players.

…Hmm?

I remembered seeing some of the parasitic mushrooms somewhere, so I checked my Storage, and there they were.

“What’s wrong?”

“Wait a moment.”

I pretended to head into the store’s stockroom, took the mushrooms out of my Storage, and returned to the reception room.

“Th-those are the parasitic mushrooms!”

“I thought this was them.”

“How do you have those?”

“The girls got them from the monsters at the Castle.”

“Whoa, so that’s the first objective done already!”

“Wa-waitwaitwaitwait—!”

“What’s wrong, Keri? You sound like a broken record.”

Arisa tilted her head at Lady Keri, who was stuck staring at them.

“Wait!”

Lady Keri tried to reach for the parasitic mushrooms, so I moved them higher out of her way.

“You can’t do that! That doesn’t count!”

Lady Keri seemed very flustered. It didn’t seem she expected me to already have one of the hardest items to get.

“Huh, isn’t that a bit too convenient for you?”

Arisa stood in front of Lady Keri.

“W-well then, I’ll share one of our supply routes with you.”

“Hmm, that doesn’t sound that appealing.”

“Then what do you want?!”

Arisa shot a look at me. It was time for me to take over.

“In that case, whenever Roro or the Hero’s Rest needs help, will you come help at least once?”

“Deal! Let’s agree on that!”

She responded immediately. It didn’t take her too long to decide.

“After all, you’re no doubt in tons of debt. Do you want me to lend you some money or something?”

Lady Keri looked at Roro. Roro blinked in surprise, as if she hadn’t expected to be brought into the conversation.

“Ah, actually, we’ve been making a profit!”

“A profit? The Hero’s Rest? That said, you did have a lot of customers before.”

Lady Keri closed her eyes, deep in thought.

“It’s you, isn’t it? You’re the one making a profit here!”

She pointed right at me.

“I just help Roro out a little.”

“What? That’s not it at all! We make a profit because you keep thinking of new products!”

Roro looked a little mad.

“Hmm.”

Lady Keri had a devilish smile.

“I’ll hire you at the Ussha Trading Company, then.”

“Y-you can’t do that! He works here at the Hero’s Rest!”

Roro clung to me as if trying to hide me. Seeing Roro so desperate, Arisa looked like she was having trouble deciding whether to use her “Iron Wall” or not.

“You’ll make three times more than you do here. Can you start today?”

“Three times more? Mr. Satou?”

Roro continued to cling to me as she looked up.

“Don’t worry. I don’t plan on leaving the Hero’s Rest.”

Roro nuzzled her head into my chest, relieved at my response.

“Tch. You’re not like the horse. So loyal.”

Ms. Keri looked disappointed at her failed attempt at a trade.

“…Horse. Wait…”

“It’s not what you think. I only heard about the Gorgoru Trading Company poaching them. You borrowed money from them, didn’t you?”

I see, so that trading company was planning to take over the Hero’s Rest as collateral for the debt?

“Madam, you’re going a little off the topic at hand.”

The secretary whispered in Lady Keri’s ear.

“Hmph, okay, Tomali. Make a request, but no parasitic mushrooms this time. We’re down to the last two chances—let’s go!”

Lady Keri spoke as she pointed at Arisa. Shouldn’t she be pointing at Roro, the owner?

“Would you like an introduction to the Adventurers Guild?” Lady Keri asked Arisa.

“We don’t need one. Roro has us, after all!”

“You? What level even are you?”

“We’ve not long been in Arcatia, so we’re still silver tiger rank, but we’ve managed to keep up with those at golden lion rank!”

“Is that so?”

The young girl spoke as she looked at Liza and Nana, who were working on the shop floor, almost as if she was sizing them up. She then mumbled a “Well, good luck” to us before leaving the store. Her secretary had been trying to urge her to leave for a while at that point.

Once we saw them off, Roro looked at us apologetically.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get you all involved.”

“No need to worry about it. With conditions like that, even if we fail, we’ve nothing to lose. Plus, it’s not like these girls will lose.”

All the girls smiled confidently as I complimented them. I asked Roro to look after the store while I took the girls into the reception room to let them know where we could find the other items.

“So, what do we need to find?”

“Give me a moment.”

I used “Search Map” to find the item and target it, and then activated the Space Magic spell Clairvoyance to observe it and sketch its appearance. I noticed that the range on Clairvoyance had improved. It was probably due to me getting used to using it.

“The masher frogs that live within the Sewage Ruins look like this. When predators appear, they all hide in the sewage to escape, so be careful when hunting them.”

I made sure to warn the girls.

“Frog meat, karaageeee?”

“Pochi likes frog meat steak and teriyaki, sir!”

Both Pochi’s and Tama’s appetites ignited at their seeing the sketch.

“Girls, this is a contest that puts Master’s dignity on the line. Please take it seriously.”

“Yesh.”

“Okay, sir. Pochi is maximum-level serious, sir!”

Pochi pointed her fingers to her cheeks and smiled.

“As for the underground lily pulp, which is located in the Bloodsucker Wetlands—”

I tried sketching it like I did the masher frogs, but as they were underground lilies and were in the actual ground, I was unable to faithfully recreate them. The more I concentrated, though, I managed to work out the outline and was able to draw that.

“The outside of the lily pulps look like this. They’re all low-level and mostly roam about a few yards underground.”

I showed them my sketch as I explained.

“Their stems are underground? I thought lily bulbs were like plant bulbs. Why do they grow like potatoes?”

“No idea. Isn’t it just because that’s the kind of plant monster they are?”

Arisa had a good point, but I didn’t know the answer to it. I thought if you cut it open, it would probably grow like a potato, yet it looked and tasted like a lily bulb.

“Lily bulb, delicious.”

“If we get a lot of them, I’ll make us savory steamed egg pudding and other dishes with them.”

“Mhm, excited.”

Unfortunately for Mia, according to the recipe book I received from Ms. Tia, lily bulbs were highly poisonous. I wasn’t sure if there were any recipes for them, but I decided I’d look for a way to enjoy them.

“Both locations are pretty far from each other, so would you like me to go to one of them?”

As I suggested that, Arisa and Liza looked at each other for a while before nodding.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind. There’s no way we plan on letting Roro lose this one.”

“Both are new hunting grounds to us, with new monsters, so we won’t do anything unreasonable.”

I felt relieved that they both chose to let the more important matters take precedence.

“All right, which one do you guys want to take?”

“Froooogs.”

“Pochi wants to take the frogs, sir!”

“Lily bulbs.”

Tama and Pochi chose the frogs, whereas Mia chose the lily bulbs. The rest of the group were fine with either. I figured the lily bulbs would be harder for them even with Arisa’s Space Magic and Mia’s Genomos, so I decided to go with that.

“All right, I’ll be in charge of getting the lily bulbs.”

“Hmm…”

Mia didn’t look pleased.

“Why don’t you come with me, Mia?”

“Mhm, go.”

“W-wait!”

“Mew!”

“Pochi also wants to go with Master, sir!”

“I would also like to travel with Master, I declare.”

The girls all got excited when I invited Mia to join me. I had planned to kill two birds with one stone—gather materials and gather some levels for Mia, but it seemed that would have to wait until another time. In the end, because of that so-called no-jumping-the-gun rule, I ended up going alone. As I would be leaving the store for a while, I made sure that the storage was stocked sufficiently and even put a security golem in place, just in case there was any trouble while I was gone. I also made sure to summon a Shadowdive Bat and hide it in Roro’s shadow. It was perfect. I returned Nana’s golden armor that I had borrowed to work on. I had since installed the Castle function onto her armor, but I had yet to try it in an actual battle, so I told her not to try it when I wasn’t around. I had done trial runs with it, but that wasn’t to say there may have been issues in actual battle.

We left Arcatia the next morning, with Roro waving us off.

And on the day we set out, a massive army of the undead attacked Arcatia.