Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku

◇

"Fumu, reproducing it was harder than I thought...."

I stare at the prototype [Float Core] floating in the air.

"As expected of my Satou."

"No, Tina-sama. He’s our Satou."

The Princess and Sera who came to watch said some strange things behind me.

I feel like I’m seeing illusions of a tiger and a dragon on them even while they’re smiling.

I’d be glad if someone said I belong to Aze-san instead.

"--By the way, Satou. Is this magic device different from aerodynamic engine?"

"Yes, it has a completely different theory--"

Since the princess asked, I taught her about the result of my research.

Aerodynamic engine’s approach is by changing magic power into wind element to create buoyancy.

This Float Core is made from a high purity Darkness Stone, making use of its [Absorption] effect to suck the gravity at the place where the Float Core is situated at, showing a fantasy power.

If a physic teacher were to hear this, they would narrate a long lecture about how unscientific it is for gravity.

Further, it doesn’t seem to be an anti-gravity where the directional is reversed.

The Darkness Stone which had no use besides for making a darkroom or for counterbalancing magic is in the limelight of this.

"Kyaaaa"

"Tina-sama!"

The Princess who lost to her curiosity and approached the [Float Core] seemed to have gotten too close and entered the effective range.

Sera jumped out to save the Princess who was floating in the zero gravity but she bumped against her and began to rotate wildly.

I think they’ll go out of the range before long, but letting the skirts of these girls of marriageable age out in the open like this is probably bad.

I tell them, "I’m coming to help you", and then I gently catch them with [Magic Hand] and put them on the safe ground.

"--Did you see?"

The Princess asked with upturned eyes while blushing red.

"The rotation was too fast, I wasn’t able to."

Of course it’s a lie.

The Princess was wearing a white pant with snow crystal-like embroidery on the side, Sera’s was a close-cut G-string you wouldn’t have thought she was a former priestess. Truly ni--I mean. Truly, outrageous.

The former was made from common silk, the later was made from the jade silk from the Duchy Capital.

Previously the Princess and Sera wore the standard Shiga Kingdom’s drawers and breast sash, but then they got influenced by Arisa and the others once they started living in the solitary island’s palace and now they’re wearing modern underwear.

I think they’re Echigoya Firm’s items, I’ll tell the firm to add garter belt in the lineup.

"Please take--the responsibility."

"Please don’t worry, I didn’t see it you know."

Sera who’s bright red despite her light tone is saying something that’s hard to judge whether it’s serious or a joke.

I varnished over that lightly and took the two’s hands to go the other area.

"Master~?"

"Master, nanodesu!"

Tama and Pochi found and jumped to me.

Since the two are wearing the golden armor, they’re probably going to play in the blue territory or the labyrinth.

"Are you going out?"

"The usual, picnic~?"

"Lulu made us bento nodesu."

When I asked, the two took out their bento from their magic bags and showed them to me.

"Meatt meat meat~ meat burger~?"

"Today it’s a wonderful meat burger with hamburg steak put in between nanodesu!"

I stopped the two from opening the bundles, and then I sent them off at the blue territory gate after reminding them to wear the Scout Monocles to judge the enemy’s strength.

The [Scout Monocle] is my magic tool creation that can roughly tell the enemy’s strength, showing [Weak], [A bit Weak], [About Equal], [Strong], [Absolutely can’t Win] in accordance to the enemy’s level.

The reason why there’s only a few information is because they’re tuned for Pochi and Tama.

Arisa insisted it to show numerical value, but I think something easy to understand is better.

We went to the living room, Arisa and Mia had opened a thick book there.

Arisa who noticed us turned around.

"Master, Aze-tan contacted us just now. She said something about the high elves of Beriunan Clan protesting."

"Ah, that huh--"

They probably heard about how I requested only Burainan Clan, who likes researching, to analyze the building material I got from the Shadow Castle.

Since Beriunan Clan and Burainan Clan are rivals, they must have complained it to Aze-san whom they could contact directly.

Both the clans’ abilities aren’t different, but since I only had a few of the material on hand, I had to choose only one.

Thus, I prioritized Burainan Clan that was closer and didn’t have the tendency to be impatient with result.

"I know what they want, so I’ll personally go to Beriunan Forest after contacting Aze-san."

"Must be difficult to even have to go to the other continent.... Can’t you just contact them?"

I probably have to personally go for this business.

◇

"Is this the specimen?"

After apologizing to Aze-san with Telephone, I came to Beriunan Clan alone.

I’m currently talking with a high elf of Beriunan Clan, Salisaize-san.

She’s an intellectual girl wearing a white robe, but since her face looks exactly the same as Aze-san’s, it feels very odd.

Since the high elves were created by the Creator God from nine archetypes, a lot of them have the same appearance.

There are five high elves in this Beriunan Clan, I’m amazed that they don’t mistake them since two of them have the same faces.

Leaving that aside--.

"Yes, according to my analysis magic, it’s a type of artificial substance composed of the force magic 『Shield』 and 『Cube』--"

"Whoops there, please don’t say some unnecessary information before I begin the inspection."

I made my analysis magic from Hikaru’s hint and [All Map Exploration], it can draw up information from the Dragon Vein to see the original material and the structure of a specific item.

I don’t want to use it that much since it needs a throughput so large I can’t open the Menu during the magic, on top of that, the gotten information is so minute.

Simply put, it’s painful for my brain and it makes me tired.

Salisaize-san who got the material starts up the analysis device while humming.

When I was staring at the hip line of a gleeful intellectual beauty, two high elves came in from outside.

"Satou! So you were here!"

"Geez, you didn’t come no matter how many times we called you, I got tired of waiting!"

I was taken by high elves who had the same faces like a twin toward the observatory deck in the top of Beriunan’s World Tree.

Further, Salisaize-san who was absorbed in her experiment didn’t pay any attention to me at all.

"Now, look at the artificial spirit exclusively for the void sky from your idea, the 『Nautilus Three Full Burnern』!"

"Unlike the 『Nautilus Two』 that disappeared in the distant void sky, this time its mobility is extraordinary."

I watch the artificial spirit at the observatory deck the two guided me to.

Unlike the unbranded [Nautilus] before, the [Nautilus Three] that appeared in front of my eyes looks far apart from a real Nautilus.

If I have to say, it looks more like an Auger Shell.

"That’s some great mobility."

It certainly lives up to their bragging as it has splendid acceleration and orbit adjustment capabilities.

"Isn’t it, isn’t it."

"Now we can win against Burainan Clan’s 『Vulgtmm Ai』!"

The two who are in good mood throw up their chests like children.

Burainan Clan’s [Vulgtmm Ai] is an artificial spirit shaped like an eyeball, it puts more importance to long ranged attack through laser than mobility.

They said that they made it after being influenced by the laser I used to exterminate the jellyfish back then.

Since I copied the artificial spirit summoning spell of the [Nautilus Three] earlier, perhaps I should try making an artificial spirit summoning spell that has high offensive power and high mobility by combining it with the [Vulgtmm Ai] spell I heard back then.

"--Alright, we’re having a match!"

Using World Phone magic, the high elves who were happy with my praise immediately challenged Burainan Clan’s high elves to a match.

I guess it’s inevitable for me to be the referee for the new artificial spirits match?

Well, I’m borrowing both clans’ power to analyze the material after all, I’ll do this much as many time as they want.

◇

"--And then, who was the winner?"

"It was a draw."

After finishing my work as the referee, I went back to the tree house in Boruenan Forest and had a talk with Aze-san and the others about the situation while having some tea.

The highly mobile Nautilus Three evaded all of the lasers, but it couldn’t break through the barrage of the pulse lasers, so the match ended in a draw with both running out of gas.

It seems their next target is exploring the way to improve the fuel consumption without cutting down the spirit’s ability.

I feel that the High Elves from those two clans are living a frantic life considering elves have a long life.

When I was thinking that, I felt a warm softness on my right arm.

When I look there, Aze-san is leaning on my shoulder.

"Ehehe~"

I put my head on Aze-san’s head who looks overjoyed.

Lua-san who’s sitting in front of us is glaring at us while looking like she’ll vomit sugar, but I’m ignoring her since it’s just the usual.

I move to the main issue as to why I’ve come here after I’ve replenished my Azenium supply.

"Aze-san, are you familiar with floating castle?"

"The place where Satou fought an apostle that looked like shadow recently?"

"Yes, I’m wondering if there’s more of that--"

Aze-san puts her index finger on her chin, and then she probes her memory while looking up.

"U~n, I don’t know."

’Tehehe’ while laughing awkwardly, she muttered ’you should ask my memory in the world tree’.

Asking about legend really should be with demi-god mode Aze-san after all.

I went to the world tree with Aze-san.

"--Floating castle? Around 30.000 years ago, they started being distributed to religious countries in order to collect believers for the gods."

Aze-san who’s connected to her memory in the world tree answers my question.

"The gods caused many disasters such as floods and eruptions on the ground, and the people of the floating castles were able to gain followers from the countries on the ground which were on the verge of destruction."

That’s too harsh for something they orchestrated themselves.

"The few people who survived on the ground were treated like slaves by the people of floating castles, they were exploited and exhausted to the limit."

The high elves who investigated the world at that time couldn’t stand the painting of hell, thus they decided to sleep in the world trees.

"I heard the first demon lord 『Dog-Head Ancient King』 that appeared at that time knocked down many floating castles to the ground and sea."

Ah, so this is the reason why Dog-head was extremely contempt with priests.

"There were many that escaped from the demonic hand of the 『Dog-Head Ancient King』, but they were persistently knocked down every time the 『Dog Head Ancient King』 was revived, the one that fell near Saga Empire capital city 2000 years ago was the last in the record."

"Is there any information about the floating castle that fell in Rumooku Kingdom?"

When I asked her, Aze-san closes her eyes to search for info.

Revolving lantern-like images of Aze-san memories are floating around.

"I referred the memories of the other high elves, but there is no record about it."

--No record.

"Most likely, it didn’t crash but descended on the land by itself."

"Jet black floating castle is a characteristic of something created by the Demon God, but since it’s said that 90% in the golden age were created by the Demon God, it might be hard to identify it."

"There was that much?"

"Yes, I do not know about it directly, but it is said that the Demon God agreed to make the floating castles in exchange for divinity and authority from the gods."

Fumu, so the Demon God was like a craftsman or an expert huh.

Its position is probably like the weaselkin right now.

As the result, humanity decreased sharply, and according to its subordinate, the Dog-Head, humans were even about to go extinct.

"Could I ask one last thing?"

I asked Aze-san whether the Demon God had ever lived in the floating castle.

The answer is--no.

At least, as far as the high elves know, "Gods never lived in the floating castles."

◇

"Have your lolicon awakened?!"

Arisa joyfully shouted when she saw the photograph floating in the air.

That’s quite a terrible rumor.

"No. It’s the photograph of a body I found on the way to help Arisa."

It’s the body of a pink-haired little girl that was in a mysterious floating matter we found in the room with glass pipes before we saved Arisa.

It should be a body from more than 2000 years ago according to the story I heard from Aze-san, yet there’s no degradation or damage at all.

I’m thinking of researching the preservation liquid used on the body to see if I can reproduce it.

"It might be surprisingly in a state of apparent death."

"That can’t be--"

I can’t exactly deny it seeing the fresh-looking dead body in the photograph.

I’ll go to Head Miko-san in the Duchy Capital and see if she can be revived.

Putting her in the royal grave of Rumooku can be done after trying that.

"By the way, Master has--"

Arisa hesitated and bit her lips.

"--never time traveled before right? Like maybe you traveled to the present after mass producing pink-haired little girls in Rumooku Kingdom in the past?"

"Nope, never."

I negated Arisa’s nonsense with a light tone.

What she really wanted to ask was probably about the [Painting that looked like me in the Shadow Castle].

Arisa must have wanted to ask whether my real identity is the Demon God or not.

"--You’re mistaken. We simply look alike."

"Y-yes, that’s it isn’t it."

I pat Arisa’s head who clings to me, and then I hug her to relieve her.

Arisa’s worry is understandable, but based on the things I heard from Aze-san’s memory, it’s possible that a king who summoned me from a parallel world or perhaps his relative let him manipulate the royalty’s gene to produce pink-haired children.

If you think about it normally, Demon God has no reason to do such a thing after all.

◇

--nyanyan nyanyanyan.

When Arisa who was being hugged loosened her shoulders, the alarm of the emergency terminal on the wall rang.

--nyanyan nyannyanyan.

That’s--.

"--Did something happen to Tama?"

I separated from Arisa who looked up, and invoked [Telephone].

The two are in a mountain slightly away from the blue territory’s city.

"Tama! What’s wrong."

『In a desperate pinch~?』

With that words I moved to the blue territory with Unit Arrangement and then I opened a gate on their location.

I didn’t directly pull them with Unit Arrangement since their health shown on the map is in safety zone.

"Master~?"

"I-I’m sorry nanodesu. Po-Pochi killed it nodesu."

Pochi looks up at me with her tail between her legs and flopped ears.

There’s a white lesser dragon about 30 meter big that’s in tatters, playing dead near Pochi.

A lot of lesser dragons have brown or ultramarine color, so this dragon is probably an albino.

"It’s Pochi’s fault for not checking even though it was written don’t hunt it nanodesu."

"It’s awright~, Stopped it at the last moment~"

Tama pats the dejected Pochi’s head.

The [Scout Monocles] I gave to the two will show [Hunting Prohibited (Don’t hunt it)] when they look at dragons.

Pochi probably rushed into battle without checking it.

"Pochi used high and elixir from Master, but it won’t get up nodesu."

The medicines for Pochi are probably not enough to heal the big body of a lesser dragon.

"I’ll heal it real fast."

From the magic column, I pick and use the advanced water magic [<>].

There should be no need to use the forbidden spell [<>].

For some reason, there’s a lot of spells that use dragon name among the highest water magic spells. It’s strange considering I’ve never even seen a water dragon.

Healing water heals the dirtied scales and wounds on the lesser dragon’s body.

Its torn arms and wings return to normal, but its broken horns, fangs and cut tail aren’t growing back.

I regenerate these loss with magic power overcharged elixir.

"It woke up nodesu!"

The dragon looked at Pochi who raised her voice, and then it takes a surrender pose by putting its stomach upward.

It’s probably really scared from the match with Pochi.

"Pochi won’t attack you, so please get up nodesu."

--ＬＹＵＲＹＵＲＹＵＵＵ?

"Pochi is satisfied since she was able to fight with all her might nanodesu."

--ＬＹＵＲＹＵＲＹＵＵＵ.

Looks like they’ve mysteriously established a conversation.

Lesser dragons don’t have language, so it must just be the feel.

--ＬＹＵＲＹＵ.

The lesser dragon submits its neck before Pochi, and points at its head.

"You’d let Pochi rides nodesu?"

"Tama wants to ride too~?"

--ＬＹＵＬＹＵ.

Pochi and Tama rides on the dragon who showed affirmation and then they fly in the sky.

The lesser dragon’s title becomes [Pochi’s Dragon Ride].

I thought perhaps Pochi also got [Dragon Knight] title so I checked hers, but it was something I never expected instead.

--The title of hero is at the point between life and death.

The [No-Life King] Zen said that.

Pochi defeated a lesser dragon alone and obtained the title Hero.

I should talk to Liza, it’s probably better to keep the title a secret from Pochi until she grows up a bit more.

Let’s decide about that in the family meeting with Liza and Arisa.

For now, I’ll make a lesser dragon’s nest in the mountains of the solitary island.

I have to make sure that the infant dragon in Echigoya Firm’s garden doesn’t notice it.