Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku (LN) - Volume 13 - Chapter 2

Omen 

Satou here. I’m not sure I love the phrase “the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” but I do think using some kind of profit as a “carrot” to dangle in front of someone is a tried-and-true technique. It’s a lot easier to work hard when you can see the goal just ahead of you. 

“This is a bigger turnout than I expected.” 

A few days after I forged a contract with the City Core in the great desert, I went to see how things were going at the guild training grounds, where we were offering classes for aspiring explorers. 

“Yes, indeed.” 

The person who led me there was a female guild clerk who was taking care of arranging for lecturers, recruiting students, and other such things for the class. 

Thanks to her, all I had to do was provide operating expenses and help work out the initial lesson plans. 

“It helps that many kids are hoping to get rich quick by collecting crafting recipes these days, but I think a lot of them are after the food that’s served following the lesson, too.” 

There were some adults among the students, but the vast majority were middle-school-aged kids. 

Many of them really did appear to be excited about the food: As the aroma of soup began to waft in from the guild’s galley, they immediately started to get restless. 

“Looks like we’d better wrap it up.” 

As soon as the instructors declared the class over, the children all stampeded toward the back wall, forming three perfect lines. 

“Are those the lines for receiving food?” 

“Yes, that’s right. The children seem to be very good at forming orderly lines these days—perhaps thanks to your soup kitchens, Sir Knight.” 

I guess my group’s hard work corralling the kids when we first started the soup kitchen had paid off. 

“There’s meat today!” 

“Gosh, what a feast.” 

“I’m gonna get the question right and earn an extra helping for sure this time.” 

“Me too! I’ve taken this lesson twice now.” 

The kids chattered excitedly as they watched the guild chefs bring out pots of soup and grilled meat. 

As for the “extra helping” they were talking about… 

“What’s the one thing you should do when you use a flash bomb?” 

“Tell your comrades that you’re gonna use it first!” 

“That’s correct. I see you were paying attention. Here, have an extra piece of meat.” 

“Yaaay!” 

…If the kids could answer a question about the day’s lesson correctly, they got a little more food. 

Many of the kids tended to doze off during class, so Arisa had proposed this as a countermeasure. 

“The instructors love it, too, since it means the kids listen carefully during class.” 

“Are most of the instructors on the older side?” 

“Yes, we try to employ retired explorers who are good with children.” 

“Then is the amount of money we budgeted for personnel enough?” 

I’d been planning on employing younger explorers with at least two or three years of experience, so the amount of money I gave the guild for hiring wasn’t very high. 

“Oh, it’s more than enough. We have so many applicants, it’s been difficult to narrow down.” 

The guild clerk looked over at the instructors, who were all smiles as they ate, surrounded by their students. 

Maybe they were happy to have their wisdom passed down to younger generations. 

Satisfied with what I’d observed of the class, I returned to the main guild hall along with the clerk. 

“Is it just me, or is it livelier than usual around here?” 

The guild hall was always crowded, but today many of the explorers seemed to be in high spirits, especially the younger ones. 

“It’s thanks to the veria potions.” 

Veria potions were magic healing potions made from a succulent plant that grew in huge numbers around Labyrinth City. 

It was originally popularized by the elf sage Trazayuya, but the recipe had been lost over the years, and it was on its way to becoming the stuff of legend and a common form of fraud. 

“You mean those recipe fragments that were found in the labyrinth?” 

“Yes, the explorers’ guild and the alchemists’ guild are both offering rewards for the fragments, so there are many explorers hoping to strike it rich, including some of the aspiring students from our classes.” 

Part of the reason the guild was so lively was that people were exchanging information on areas they’d already explored and stuff. 

Incidentally, I was the one who had distributed those recipe fragments in the labyrinth. 

There was an obvious need for cheaper potions to be widely available in Labyrinth City. Thanks to that, I’d developed a recipe usable by humans based on the original recipe made for elf seal slates, divided it up, and hid the pieces in treasure chests inside the labyrinth. 

I could’ve simply brought it to the explorers’ or alchemists’ guilds as myself or Kuro, but I thought it would be better if the explorers were able to bring the recipe to Labyrinth City with their own hands. 

Treasure hunts are always fun, after all, and it gives people something to be hopeful about. 

“Along with the recipes, real veria potions have also been found in treasure chests, so many young explorers are selling them to buy new equipment.” 

Thanks to that, business in the shopping districts was improving as well. 

Looking around the guild, I could see that there were a lot more youngsters with newer-looking equipment than before. 

…Purple? 

A flash of violet went past my eyes. 

For a second, I thought it must be Arisa, but the face peeking out from the hood appeared to be that of a dogfolk child. 

The figure had already disappeared into the crowd, so I tried searching my map for reincarnations or demons, but nothing came up. I guess having purple hair or fur didn’t always mean someone was a reincarnation. 

Curious, I tried using Clairvoyance to search the guild and the surrounding area, but I couldn’t find the child again. 

“Is something the matter?” 

“No, I just thought I saw a dogfolk child with purple fur, which struck me as unusual…” 

“The cursed color? Yes, that is quite rare.” 

Judging by her tone, the clerk had never seen this person before, either. 

I asked that she inquire after the child’s name if she happened to see them around. If I knew their name, I could search my map more easily, and then I could figure out if this was someone we needed to worry about. 

I parted with the clerk on the first floor and went to the guildmaster’s office. 

“Hey there, Satou. I heard you beat an areamaster?” 

“Nothing gets past you.” 

My group had already defeated more than twenty areamasters, but I reported only one of them to the guild. 

If I sold the areamaster cores to the guild, I could get a pretty hefty reward, but instead we held on to them and declared that we’d defeat a floormaster next. 

“I should hope not! I am the guildmaster, y’know.” 

That’s not very convincing when you’re here lazing around on the sofa while your lackeys do the work. 

Evidently, the guildmaster’s usual babysitter—her secretary, Ushana—was away on business. 

“Still, we haven’t seen such a small party beat an areamaster since Miss Ringrande’s heyday.” 

Looking wistful, the guildmaster relayed some stories of the old days. 

Miss Ringrande was known as the Witch of Heavenly Destruction. Before she joined up with Hayato the Hero, she’d apparently brought down an areamaster within her own party and even defeated a floormaster with the help of a band of Holy Knights from the royal capital. 

Come to think of it, I thought I remembered hearing a similar story back in Muno Castle from some Ougoch Duchy Temple Knights. 

“But surely, you aren’t planning to try to take down a floormaster with a single party, are you? I can talk to Zarigon or some other famous garnet parties for you if you want.” 

“I appreciate your concern, but we won’t be challenging a floormaster for a while yet, and I already have a party in mind to ask for help. There’s no need to worry.” 

It was nice of the guildmaster to look out for me, but it would be problematic to expose my group’s super-advanced equipment in front of others. I’d created their armor to keep them safe, so if letting people see it put them in danger, it’d defeat the purpose entirely. 

“I see…” 

The guildmaster frowned, looking deep in thought. 

She wasn’t the type of person to get all bent out of shape over someone refusing an offer of kindness, so it was probably unrelated. 

“Satou, I don’t want to steal the credit for any of your achievements. Keep that in mind and hear me out…” 

I nodded. 

“The guild would be willing to take on the classes you’ve been sponsoring.” 

She must mean the class for aspiring explorers I’d just been visiting. I nodded for her to go on. 

“I can use my discretionary power to get funding for the rest of the year, and after that, we’ll have the kingdom pay for it.” 

“That sounds wonderful.” 

“Are you sure?” 

“Of course. It was a bit meddlesome on my part to start them in the first place.” 

If the classes could run without my help, I could think of nothing better. 

No doubt it was beneficial for the kingdom to train personnel who could eventually provide valuable cores. 

According to the guildmaster, they had attempted to run these classes once before, but since they had resulted in only a slight increase in explorers progressing from wooden badges to bronze badges, the classes were discontinued to cut costs. 

“We’ll get the details squared away when Ushana comes back,” the guildmaster said, and that was the end of that topic. 

From there, she shifted the conversation to a progress report on Jelil’s ongoing attempts to defeat a floormaster. 

It had been over a month since we saw his party set out into the labyrinth, and yet they still hadn’t started their battle against the floormaster, according to reports. 

“They’ve been attempting to clean up the Room of Trials, and it seems their garrisons are attacked by wraiths and wights every night.” 

The lack of sleep was affecting morale, leading to mistakes in battle and other issues that were heavily impeding their progress. 

“Fortunately, they requested aid from a wraith-extermination specialist in the royal capital, and I’m told they’ve finally finished cleanup there.” 

“I’m glad to hear it.” 

I was wondering if I should go help get rid of the wraiths, but it sounded like that was no longer necessary. 

“You look genuinely relieved about that… How very like you, Satou.” The guildmaster shook her head, but she was smiling. “Most people would be happy to hear that their rivals have been slowed down, no?” 

“I’m not particularly trying to compete with them.” 

We were aiming to defeat a floormaster only because it was a good goal for my group’s training. 

“I can’t tell if you’re unselfish or just unambitious… And yet, you’re the most talented young explorer we’ve got. Go figure.” 

That sounded like an insult, but the guildmaster didn’t seem to mean it in a bad way, so I simply smiled and nodded. 

“Oh, right. We’ve had some kids around, like the princess from that little country and the viceroy’s third son, to ask when we’re planning to start classes for nobles or a young explorers’ school.” 

From the sound of things, Princess Meetia of the Nolork Kingdom and the viceroy’s third son, Gerits, had paid visits to the west guild. 

They must have heard rumors about the explorers’ school while we were in the labyrinth. 

“I’ve been considering making a school to raise kids into explorers, but that’s still in the idea phase—I haven’t made any concrete plans just yet.” 

“It’d basically be like the classes on a bigger scale, right? You should go for it. I’ll grant you permission from the guild, and I’m sure you can get permission from the viceroy in no time flat, knowing you. I’ll even look for teachers for you, hmm?” 

That was a pretty kind offer. 

“Why would you do all that?” 

“’Cause I’ve got high hopes for you, kid.” 

The guildmaster gave my frank question an equally frank response. 

“Do you realize how much you’ve done for Labyrinth City in the short time you’ve been here?” 

“I mean, I just opened a soup kitchen and founded a private orphanage, didn’t I?” 

“Don’t make it sound so simple. There’ve been plenty of people before you who’ve had similar ideas and couldn’t make ’em happen. And I know how hard it was to get permission from the viceroy to start the soup kitchen, too…” 

She went on to talk about the canal cleaning, the plunderer incidents, and so on. 

“It was you and the Hero’s follower Sir Kuro who dealt with the plunderers, not me, remember?” 

“Only after you initially caught Ludaman.” 

Oh, right. I forgot I’d caught the Plunderer King Ludaman as Satou. 

Things can get confusing when you’re disguising yourself as various personas and acting in secrecy. 

“Anyway, just think about it.” 

“I will.” 

An explorers’ school… The classes for explorer hopefuls were pretty broad; it would probably be good to have a place where people could get a more well-rounded education, delving into things like martial-arts basics and field training. 

If we did open a school, it’d be best to start small—have a few scholarship students attend for free while we determined what direction the school should take. 

I decided I would get opinions from Arisa and Liza when I got back home. 

“This is terrible, Guildmaster!” 

As I was chatting with the guildmaster, her secretary, Miss Ushana, burst into the room. 

She was usually very composed, so whatever was going on, it was probably a big deal. 

“Calm down and tell me what’s wrong.” 

“A demon lord!” 

Demon lord? 

Ignoring the guildmaster and Ushana, I searched the map. 

Nope, no demon lords here. My “Sense Danger” skill wasn’t reacting, either, so it mustn’t be an emergency just yet. 

“That doesn’t tell me anything. What, did a demon lord appear somewhere?” 

“No, it’s a prophecy.” 

The guildmaster had jumped to her feet, but now she settled back onto the sofa. 

“Just a prophecy? Didn’t we already get one of those a while back?” 

Indeed, Labyrinth City Celivera had been mentioned among the prophesized demon-lord revivals I’d heard about at the Tenion Temple in the old capital. 

“This is a new prophecy.” 

“Who’s on duty this month?” 

“The Karion Temple.” 

“Ah, the place with the newbie priestess?” 

Each month, one of the priestesses of the six temples (excluding Zaicuon Temple) was to use the “Oracle” skill to receive a prophecy from their respective deities. 

“So what did it say?” 

“A mighty king shall appear who reigns over the sea of sand.” 

…Oh. 

That’s probably about me, huh? 

The timing was a little too spot-on, and the revived City Cores kept calling me “King,” too. 

“A king…? The ‘sea of sand’ must be the great desert to the west, right? Nobody would be crazy enough to try to settle such a barren land, and I doubt any kingdom would try to attack us from there. Which means…” 

“Yes, the head priestess of the Karion Temple suspects that it means a demon lord will be revived in Celivera Labyrinth, since it extends beneath the great desert.” 

“That does make sense…” 

“Are you scared, Lilian?” 

Without so much as a knock, the elf Sebelkeya, a counselor of the guildmaster’s, entered the room. 

Despite her graceful, young features, her words were as harsh as ever. 

“I keep telling you not to call me that.” 

“All right, Zona the Crimson Devil. What’s the guild going to do?” 

“We’ll have to smoke out the demons. They always start scheming behind the scenes before a demon lord is revived. Labyrinth City was even attacked by demons not long ago. To think they would flaunt their presence so boldly and still try to continue their plot… They’ll regret underestimating me.” 

They were still assuming a demon lord was going to be revived. 

It was true that the green greater demon had been trying to revive a demon lord in Labyrinth City, but I had already put a stop to that plan. 

More likely than not, this prophecy was about me awakening the City Cores that had slept beneath the great desert. 

But I couldn’t very well just tell them that. What now? 

“There are four demon lords who have appeared in Labyrinth City before…” 

“…Doghead, the Scorpion Lord, the Bug Lord, and the Tempestuous Lord.” 

The guildmaster began talking, and Ushana continued the tale. 

“The oldest of all demon lords, also known as the Devil, is the Dogheaded Demon Lord. According to ancient records, even the Hero and the seven gods could not defeat him. He was driven away only by the Dragon God and the sky dragons.” 

So even all the other gods except the Dragon God couldn’t beat him? 

For some reason, something about that stuck out to me as odd, but I couldn’t determine what. 

“Then there is the Scorpion Lord, who tormented the Orc Empire with endless armies; the Bug Lord, who wiped out several small nations with plague and famine and even halved the population of the Saga Empire; the Tempestuous Lord, who controlled tornadoes and destroyed many Shiga Kingdom cities. All horrible villains who caused great pain and difficulty for the Heroes of their times.” 

As Ushana finished describing the demon lords, her face was pale and shaken. 

“Hmm? Hasn’t Celivera Labyrinth had the Bone Lord, the Abyss Blood Lord, and the Steel Lord, too?” Sebelkeya asked. 

“Those are fictional demon lords. They’re not recorded anywhere in history.” 

I was curious about those works of fiction, but it would probably be in poor taste to ask about them right now. 

“Well, if I see any demons, I’ll be sure to let you know right away.” 

“Please do. And if any demon lords pop up, go ahead and defeat them for me.” 

“Yes, of course.” 

I returned the guildmaster’s joke with one of my own. 

Sebelkeya looked satisfied, but I was pretty sure this was a misunderstanding stemming from my contract with the City Cores, so she probably wouldn’t get the adventure she was hoping for. 

Because the Oracle date was publicly announced, and there were government officials and labyrinth army officers in attendance, I decided there was no need to run and inform anyone. 

For now, I would only warn my comrades not to be alarmed. 

“Whaaat? So the demon-lord-revival rumors aren’t real?” 

“Too baaad?” 

“Sir.” 

“Mrrr.” 

When I returned to the mansion and told the others about the Oracle prophecy and my conjecture, the younger girls seemed disappointed. 

Did they actually want to fight a demon lord? 

I had no intention of ever letting my group do that, since demon lords were far too dangerous. 

“Master, you received a delivery from Viscount Siemmen while you were out.” 

“Thank you, Miteruna.” 

I accepted the package from Miss Miteruna and looked inside to find scrolls. 

When I’d developed Nana’s new Flexible Sword technique, I sort of wanted to try it for myself, so I asked Viscount Siemmen’s scroll workshop to create one for me. It was ready sooner than I expected. 

Foundation and Practical Magic were closely compatible; it didn’t take much tweaking. 

The package also contained the lesser Wind Magic spell Speaker. I’d created it to replay sounds recorded with the Sound Recorder spell. 

“Hmm? There are five in here.” 

Aside from the ones I’d ordered, I also found the intermediate Water Magic spell Tidal Wave, the intermediate Ice Magic spell Ice Field, and the intermediate Lightning Magic spell Call Thunder. 

According to the enclosed letter, they’d discovered some rare scrolls while taking inventory, so they sent them along as a present, a thank-you gesture for the original Light Magic spell Pixie Light I’d developed for them, which was selling like hotcakes among royal-capital nobles. 

“How was the class you visited, master?” 

After waiting for me to look over the scrolls, Liza approached me about the class. 

“Oh, it’s going great. The guildmaster even said they’d take it over for me and get funding from the government.” 

“Awww, but then they’ll keep all the profits, too!” 

“What’s wrong with that? They’ll be taking on all the difficult work, too.” 

Arisa looked dissatisfied. 

“Well, at least make sure they keep using the course’s name.” 

“Name?” 

“Sure, I registered it in the guild records as Pendragon Explorer Candidate Course.” 

But that made it sound like we were recruiting the students to join our house or our party… 

“Is that really the name…?” 

“Pretty great, right?” 

Arisa grinned proudly. I reached over and mussed her hair. 

“Heeey, you’re messing up my hair!” 

Despite her complaints, Arisa looked a little bit pleased. 

“Me too!” 

“Pet Pochi, too, sir!” 

“Mm. Next.” 

I patted each of the younger kids on the head in turn as I relayed what the guildmaster had suggested about the explorer school. 

“Sure, why not? If they’re that eager to help, you should go for it. Besides, I thought you were having Kajirocchi train the Lovely Wings so they could teach at the explorers’ school.” 

I’d hired the Lovely Wings duo to teach the classes, but since the guildmaster had gone so far as to supply teachers, now they had nothing to do. 

I didn’t want them to be stuck sitting around, bored, so I had Mr. Kajiro start teaching them basic martial arts and anti-monster techniques while he was rehabilitating his newly healed leg. 

“We’ve got plenty of room in our budget, and if the guildmaster’s offering to help with the hiring, you oughtta take her up on it.” 

That was true. As far as my personal finances were considered, I was still in the black, but with all the materials and cores we’d been selling while the rest of the group leveled up, our party had raised a considerable amount of money, too. 

“Fair enough. We shouldn’t just keep all the wealth to ourselves, so maybe we’ll use some to start training future explorers.” 

“That’s the spirit!” 

With no objections from the others, we decided to work on opening the explorers’ school in our spare time. 

There was no rush, so I figured I could start after making arrangements in various places.