Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 6

Search and Rescue 

Satou here. The phrase search and rescue makes me think of the mountains or the ocean. Fortunately, I’ve never gotten lost in such a place before, but I do remember being shocked when I read the high costs of being rescued in an article somewhere. Safety first, as they say. 

“Miss Lilio, please calm down. What happened to Zena?” 

As Lilio grabbed my arm so tightly it was almost painful, I quickly opened my map and chose Zena from the marker list instead of searching for her. 

Her location was…the labyrinth’s Lower Stratum? 

Why in the world is she down there…? 

“Zenacchi went missing in the labyrinth!” 

“She’s missing?” 

Even as we spoke, I manipulated the map and looked at Zena’s details in my AR display. 

I panicked for a moment when I saw that her status was Fainted , but her health bar hadn’t gone down. At the very least, she wasn’t seriously injured, poisoned, petrified, or any immediate danger like that. 

However, her stamina bar was drained, and her mana was almost empty, so this was no time to relax. 

“Zenacchi got abducted by monsters! You know a lot of people here, right? Please, you’ve got to find her!” 

Lilio pleaded desperately, tears streaming down her cheeks. 

I had to hurry. Zena seemed safe for now, but I didn’t know for how long. 

“All right. I’ll go track her down.” 

“Wait a minute.” 

Iona, who had come up next to Lilio, grabbed my shoulder. 

Her armor was cracked, too, and her shoulder was badly injured. 

“What is it?” 

I wanted to go save Zena as fast as possible. 

“Where were you going to go without even asking where or how she went missing?” 

“Right…” 

Oops, I got ahead of myself. That might’ve seemed unnatural. 

I needed an excuse, and fast. “Fabrication” skill, it’s your time to shine. 

“I was just going to gather some people—I thought I’d ask a friend who excels at search-related magic for help. I’ll come ask for details later, so please go to the temple branch office at the guild and have them heal you first.” 

“Please bring someone who can heal with you, too. Right before she was captured, Zena was seriously injured by a monster that looked like a black cloud.” 

Seriously injured? 

From what I could tell on the map, she was at full health. 

And I didn’t know of any monsters that looked like a black fog… 

Wait, I can worry about that later. 

I assured Lilio and company that I would save their friend, and I left the guild behind. 

“Sorry, Arisa, but I need a favor…” 

As I ran, I contacted Arisa with the Space Magic spell Telephone. 

“Can you gather everyone and get ready to go into the labyrinth?” 

“Okey-dokey.” 

Dependable as ever, Arisa promptly agreed without even asking the reason. 

I quickly explained that Zena had gone missing and asked her to form a dummy search party. 

Then I ducked into an empty alleyway and put on a transparency cloak, then teleported into the first section of the labyrinth with the Space Magic spell Return. 

I opened the map and looked for the shortest route to Zena’s location in the Lower Stratum. 

“…What’s going on here?” 

For some reason, her marker appeared to be somewhere in the ground within the Lower Stratum of the labyrinth. 

“Is she in a blank area?” 

I remembered the blank areas in places like Kuhanou County. 

But those were because of gatherings of spirits or monsters that weren’t controlled by Count Kuhanou… 

“I can think about all this later.” 

This time, I targeted Zena’s marker to use the Space Magic spell Clairvoyance. 

“…It failed?” 

For some reason, Clairvoyance wouldn’t work. This had never happened before. 

Was there an anti–Space Magic barrier around the area or something? 

If so, whatever had captured Zena was more powerful than I thought. 

“I have to get there as fast as I can.” 

Setting my target to the area closest to Zena’s location, I scrolled through the map of the Lower Stratum. 

“The only pit that goes straight to the Lower Stratum from the Upper Stratum is the deepest area that includes the elder root…” 

Muttering to myself, I searched through the Middle Stratum map for routes to the Lower Stratum. 

There were three pits in the labyrinth’s Middle Stratum that led to the lower one, so going down to the middle via the pit in section 1 seemed like the fastest option. 

There are more people around than I expected. 

The route went through the Room of Trials where Jelil’s party had defeated the Middle Stratum floormaster. 

These explorers must be using their newly created safe area as a base for exploring the middle labyrinth. 

“Guess I’ll have to fly.” 

I kept hidden in the transparency cloak so that they wouldn’t see me, transformed into Kuro with my “Quick Change” skill just to be safe, and zoomed up to the ceiling with “Skyrunning.” 

I might’ve caused a bit of a breeze in the process, but that was the least of my concerns. 

As I sped through the Middle Stratum, I used Wind Magic to blow a hole through a giant slime that blocked my path, produced a barricade of Flexible Shields to smash my way through a forest of man-eating plants, and used the Holy Sword Claidheamh Soluis to slice my way through the webs of some giant spiders. 

I dealt with other giant monsters along the way, too, but that’s not important. 

“…A door?” 

The path down to the Lower Stratum was blocked by a mysterious metal door. 

On closer inspection, it appeared that you had to solve a riddle to pass. 

My “Decryption” skill couldn’t solve it, and I didn’t have time to stand around thinking about the answer, so I used the Holy Sword Durandal to cut my way through. 

A little violent, maybe, but there was no time to lose. 

“So now it’s a spiral staircase…” 

Layers of spiderwebs blocked the staircase, but I used Flexible Sword and Flexible Shield to barge my way down at high speeds. 

Finally, the map name in my AR display changed to Celivera Labyrinth: Lower Stratum . 

I opened the map and checked my shortest route again. 

The Lower Stratum was designed a little differently from the Upper and Middle Stratums. 

If I was to compare the corridors to a plant, it’d be like eight giant, bumpy roots underground, with a web of hundreds of smaller roots intertwining around them. 

And many of these smaller corridors were cut off unnaturally partway through. 

The empty area where Zena was located was at the end of one of these cut-off corridors. 

Should I try to get there by going to that dead end or take the nearest hall and use Earth Magic to dig my way through? 

…Hmm? 

As I hesitated, I noticed that Zena’s blue dot on my map was starting to move. 

Her status had changed from Fainted to None . 

Judging by her movements, she seemed to have woken up and escaped from the place where she was being held. 

I decided to take the shortest possible route, which meant finding the closest corridor and digging to her with Earth Magic. 

I found a place directly above my goal and used the spell Pitfall several times in a row. 

I’d used this spell to escape from the underground labyrinth in the old capital before, too. But in this labyrinth, there was much more resistance to creating new openings, so it cost even more of my magic. 

“…A cave?” 

I came out in a large underground cavern. 

At the same time, I felt myself breaking through some kind of barrier. 

According to the information in my AR display, it was the Eternal Night Castle Barrier . 

With my “Night Vision” skill, I could see a lake surrounded by forests and fields. There seemed to be a white castle in the middle of the lake. 

The sight wasn’t so much like an underground city as an “underworld.” Somehow, there was even a night sky with stars and a moon. 

Instinctively, I checked my map, but I was still in the labyrinth. 

The moonlight illuminated the enormous space. It was probably a spell or magic tool of some kind. 

“So that must be the Eternal Night Castle…” 

Feeling a growing sense of dread, I used my magic menu to select “Search Entire Map.” 

Sure enough, Zena was hiding in one of the empty rooms, probably to avoid the handmaidens patrolling the halls. 

I didn’t yet see any movements that looked like someone chasing Zena, so I decided to quickly check the information on the map. 

“You’re kidding me…” 

As soon as I searched the map for enemies, right away I identified the culprit who’d kidnapped Zena. 

It was a level-69 vampire—and a progenitor, at that. 

I wasn’t sure if vampires in this world were the same as the ones I knew from mine, but judging by this one’s many race-specific skills, they were definitely dangerous: “Mist Form,” “Shadow Walk,” “Binding Gaze,” “Bewitching Gaze,” “Control Undead,” “Servant: Bat,” “Servant: Wolf,” “Merge Animal,” “Blood Control,” “Blood Covenant,” “Blood Contract,” and “Blood Servant” all sounded like skills to be reckoned with. 

Searching the documents I had on hand, I saw that “Blood Covenant,” “Blood Contract,” and “Blood Servant” were all ways of creating more vampires and servants. 

“Blood Servant” was specifically used on corpses to make monsters called Vampire Servants. 

The one for turning people into vampires was “Blood Contract,” which required three rituals on the night of a full moon. If the rituals were successful, the victim would get the status Blood Contract: Active . 

Immediately, I double-checked Zena’s status, but she didn’t have anything of the sort. 

According to the notes in my documents, the average “Analyze” skill wouldn’t be able to identify this status, but my menu’s information was more accurate than even a maxed-out “Analyze” skill, so surely it was true. 

There wasn’t much information on “Blood Covenant,” except that it was used for making higher-class vampires, but since it could only be used after a successful “Blood Contract,” I probably didn’t need to worry about it as far as Zena’s safety. 

Feeling a bit more relieved, I decided to look a little closer at the vampire’s information before rescuing Zena. 

Judging by his skill setup, he was probably a magic soldier–style fighter leaning toward magic. 

The progenitor vampire had a lot of skills, even for his level, and even had a Unique Skill called Concentration. 

According to my map, the vampire’s name was Ban Helsing —not unlike the name of a certain famous vampire hunter from Earth legends and stories, although that seemed like a strange name for a vampire. 

If anything, it definitely seemed like the sort of name a reincarnation would choose. The detailed information in my AR read Founder of the House of Count Helsing , meaning he had probably chosen the family name himself. 

Throw in the knowledge that he had a Unique Skill, and the possibility that he was a reincarnation became even higher. 

For a second, I thought that I might be able to get vital information about Arisa’s situation if I was to contact him, but they say “If you run after two hares, you will catch neither,” so I decided to focus on the information I needed to save Zena first. 

Because the progenitor had titles like Day Walker and skills like “Sunlight Resistance,” it was safe to assume that he could deal with the sun, unlike my usual concept of vampires. 

Aside from the progenitor, the Eternal Night Castle held seven other high-class vampires, a plethora of poltergeists, and seventeen human women, including Zena. 

Strangely, there wasn’t a single lesser vampire to be found. 

Ten of the human women had the job title Handmaiden of the Eternal Night Castle; those ones must be employees here. 

The other six were slave girls, who were sitting quietly in the room that Zena seemed to have left. 

The lake that surrounded the castle was full of monsters like ghost fish and skeleton fish, and the forest was populated by many undead monsters like ghost birds and skeleton wolves, but they were all single-digit levels, so they wouldn’t be any threat. 

I used my “Telescopic Sight” skill and Clairvoyance spell to investigate the castle and the surrounding area. 

Near the castle, some skeleton peasants were hard at work in a large vineyard, and living dolls were stiffly carrying the harvested grapes to the castle. 

There was a zigzag bridge from the shore to the castle, which was guarded by gargoyle-like figures. 

On top of that, my AR display informed me that there was a detection barrier above the lake. 

Talk about tight security. 

“Now, how should I rescue Zena…?” 

I could theoretically charge in through the front door, but I decided to sneak in instead, since I didn’t want to risk Zena being used as a hostage. 

Of course, I could try talking to the lord of the castle directly to get him to let Zena go, but I wanted to put Zena’s safety first. 

Knowing that he had apparently healed Zena’s injuries, he might not be a bad guy, but still—he was a vampire. What if he had captured Zena as food or to make her his bride or something? 

I wanted to try checking on her with Clairvoyance, but I was afraid that would trip the detection barrier, so I held off. 

Instead, I tried setting Zena’s marker to Active , meaning her location would constantly be shown in my AR display. 

This feature was originally intended so players could navigate toward NPCs for quests and stuff, but I guess it had other uses, too. 

Just then, Zena’s marker on my AR display began moving again. 

Uh-oh. 

There was another dot in the direction she was headed—the progenitor vampire. 

He must be trying to recapture Zena. 

Shoot! 

There was no time to be stealthy now. 

I pulled out the Holy Sword Durandal from Storage and jumped straight over to the castle with “Blink,” stopping right in front of the wall. Then I used the Air Curtain spell behind me to dispel the gust of wind produced by my full-force “Blink.” 

There were three walls between Zena and me. 

The wind that had escaped the Air Curtain rustled my hair lightly. 

“…Now!” 

I cut through all three walls in one blow and put the rubble away in Storage. 

There. Now I could see Zena’s face in profile. 

She was standing still, facing the direction she’d been moving in—probably in point-blank range of the vampire—so I used “Blink” to pop next to her immediately, lifted her onto my shoulder before she could exclaim in surprise, and promptly used Return from my magic menu. 

As we teleported away, Zena stiffened on my shoulder, probably from shock. 

I’d been a little worried that Return would be blocked like my Clairvoyance spell before, but it worked without a problem. Either my passage had caused the barrier to break, or it only prevented things from entering, not leaving. 

I’d cut it a little close there, but my mission was complete. 

> Title Acquired: Rescuer 

> Title Acquired: Runaway 

Once we teleported to the labyrinth vacation home, I set Zena down from my shoulders. 

But something was wrong—Zena seemed to be frozen in place. 

Checking my AR display, I saw that she had the status condition Bound . 

My log confirmed that right before we used Return, I’d also been hit with a “Binding Gaze” attack from the vampire. 

I was surprised he’d gotten in an attack at all. 

There were only a few seconds from the time I’d broken through the wall to when we teleported away. 

Although, considering the timing, I might’ve just been in range when he was trying to bind Zena in place. 

I didn’t get any new resistance skills, so one of the ones I already had must have deflected it. 

At any rate, it would be good to find out whether the Practical Magic spell Break Magic could get rid of status conditions. 

Since this was my first time meeting Zena while disguised as Kuro, speaking first was probably the right move. 

“Calm down. I came to rescue you.” 

This seemed to relax her a little bit. 

She was probably staying silent because the Bound effect was preventing her from speaking, not because she was wary of me. 

The Practical Magic spell Bind Person only made it difficult, not impossible, to speak, but I guess a vampire’s race-inherent abilities had slightly different effects. 

“We’ve escaped the place where you were being held. I’m going to dispel your status condition now. Give me a minute.” 

With that, I selected Break Magic from the magic menu. 

I felt a slight resistance, but it managed to get rid of the condition without a problem. 

“Wh-where are we?” 

“My base in the labyrinth,” I responded to Zena’s cautious question. “Just to be sure, you are Zena, are you not?” 

“Yes, that’s me.” 

“Good. I came to rescue you on request from some kid named Pendragon.” 

“Pen… You mean Satou?!” 

On hearing my name, Zena’s face brightened. 

“I don’t know his full name. We’re going to teleport to the Upper Stratum now. If you see Pendragon, tell him this makes us even for the carts.” 

I decided to make the cover story that Kuro had rescued Zena to pay back Satou for helping with the food carts for Neru and the others. 

“So Satou sent you… Oh, I’m sorry, where are my manners? Thank you very much for saving me.” 

“Don’t worry about it. You can thank the kid.” 

I responded gruffly to Zena. 

“M-my name is Zena Marienteil, magic soldier of Seiryuu County. Might I ask your name, since you saved my life?” 

“I’m Kuro, attendant of the Hero.” 

“A-a Hero’s attendant?!” 

Ignoring Zena’s surprise, I started making arrangements for our escape. 

It would be unkind to Lilio and the others waiting aboveground to take my time coming back. 

“Arisa, is everything ready?” 

“We’ve all met up and changed into our for-show equipment. We can go into the labyrinth anytime.” 

“No, that won’t be necessary. Just wait outside the west guild, please.” 

“Sounds like you were able to rescue Zena, then.” 

“Yeah, we’re heading back now.” 

I used Telephone to let Arisa know that Zena was safe. 

“Here we go… Teleport.” 

With a brief word to Zena, I used Return to teleport us to one of the teleport points I’d set up in section 1. 

“Ch-chant-less?!” 

Zena exclaimed in surprise as we arrived. 

“Lord Nanashi the Hero, whom I serve, gave me a legendary artifact that allows me to do so.” 

Thanks to my “Fabrication” skill, I offered a similar excuse to one I’d used in the past. 

Right, I should give Zena something to protect her. 

“I’ll bring you to the entrance of the labyrinth. Carry this for your protection.” 

There was no real need for this, since the only monsters between here and the entrance were weaklings like maze moths and maze rats, but it was a good chance to give Zena some magic equipment and a high-powered staff. 

“What a simple but elegant short sword… Wait, is this made of mithril?” 

Zena looked in surprise at the sword I’d given her. 

“No, it’s only coated in mithril on the outside. Don’t worry about it.” 

“Goodness, it’s so sharp. It feels even stronger than Commander Delio’s Magic Sword.” 

The short sword was a mass-produced Magic Sword I was planning to sell at the Echigoya Company. 

“Looks like you have nowhere to put it. Use this sword belt.” 

As Zena pulled the sword out of its sheath a few inches and gazed at the blade, I handed her a stylish sword belt, a product I’d been working on to sell to nobles. 

Instead of the leather jacket she’d been wearing when she entered the labyrinth, Zena was now wearing a thin dress with heels and didn’t have a belt to hold the sword. 

“Erm, I’m terribly sorry, but could I borrow a staff as well? I’m a magic soldier, so a staff is ideal for defending myself…” 

“Sure. Use this.” 

I was already planning on giving her one anyway: I produced a staff from my Item Box and handed it to her. 

It was made from a branch of the Mountain-Tree, so it was extra effective at absorbing and using magic power. I’d also designed it for long battle situations in the labyrinth with minimal friendly fire. 

Zena promptly used a buff spell on herself to test out the feel of the staff. 

“What a remarkable staff. It conducts magic more smoothly than any I’ve ever used and wastes so little when you cast a spell.” 

I was glad that Zena seemed to like it. The staff would probably be happier getting use than sitting around in my Storage anyway. 

Besides, the creator name field was blank, and since Kuro had given it to her, she probably wouldn’t get too worried about where it came from. 

We continued down the passage toward the exit. 

“Lord Kuro, there’s a light up ahead. Could it be other explorers?” 

“No, that’s the barracks of the labyrinth army.” 

We had reached the start of the safe area. 

“Once you go through the door, take the passage on the right and go up the stairs, and you’ll be at the labyrinth gate.” 

Zena looked at me. 

“What? Want me to escort you there?” 

“No, it’s all right. Thank you very much, Lord Kuro.” 

Zena bowed formally and offered the sword and staff back to me. 

“Keep them. If anyone asks, you can say they’re the newest products from the Echigoya Company.” 

With that dismissal, I used Return to teleport to the basement of the mansion, then went to catch up with Arisa and the others. 

“Ah! Zena’s boy!” 

When I arrived at the guild, I saw the Silverlight members gathered around Lilio. 

The other Seiryuu City elite were there, too. Their wounds were healed, though of course they hadn’t had time to replace their damaged equipment. 

“I happened to run into Sir Kuro on my way to the Echigoya Company, so I asked him to take care of Zena,” I reported to the concerned group. 

“…Kuro?” 

“He’s a Hero’s follower and knows flight and teleportation techniques.” 

“Is he dependable?” 

“Yes, he’s very strong. He wiped out all the elusive plunderers who were infesting the labyrinth in a matter of days.” 

It felt a little weird, since I was technically praising myself, but I exaggerated because I wanted to reassure Zena’s friends. 

“And you know this guy somehow?” 

“Yes, we’ve got a few connections.” 

In order to throw them off the trail, I briefly explained that Kuro had helped me out in the fight with the demonified Plunderer King Ludaman and that I’d thanked him by helping his subordinates set up shop. 

“So you are Sir Pendragon? Thank you for looking out for my soldier.” 

The young knight Sir Hence, commanding officer of the Labyrinth City Celivera’s Elite Training Corps, came over to greet me. 

As I was speaking to him, my map informed me that Zena had passed through the labyrinth gate and was making her way through the Path of Death. 

As her marker came closer to the west gate, I wrapped up the conversation and started walking in that direction to greet her. 

“Z-Zenacchiiii!” 

“Lilio! I’m back…!” 

As soon as she saw Zena come out of the west gate, Lilio ran over and hugged her. 

Iona and Lou were right behind her to celebrate their friend’s safe return. 

“Zena, I’m glad you’re all right.” 

“Satou!” 

As her squad clung to her, Zena managed to sneak one pale hand free of them and reach toward me, so I clasped it and joined the celebration. 

Arisa and Mia stomped their feet a little, but I didn’t think it was in good taste to be jealous when I was just rejoicing a friend’s safe return. 

“…A Hero’s attendant named Kuro?” 

“Yes, that was the name of the person who saved me.” 

I was with Zena in the guildmaster’s office to accompany her during the debriefing. 

I’d already sent my group home, since they’d been helping me set up an alibi for saving Zena. 

“And did he defeat the black fog monster that captured you?” 

“No…” 

As she explained to the guildmaster, Zena had been severely injured and had woken up in the vampire’s castle, where she found that her injuries had been healed. As she was wandering the unfamiliar area, the Hero’s follower Kuro came to her rescue. 

Zena didn’t mention that I’d asked Kuro to rescue her. 

The guildmaster seemed aware that Zena was hiding something, but she didn’t press the matter. 

I could probably just go talk to her about the vampires and Kuro later. 

“Zenacchi, sounds like we’ve got a few days off while they fix up our armor.” 

After the debriefing, we returned to the guild hall, where Lilio relayed information to Zena from the Labyrinth Elite commanding officer. 

“That’s right—your armor looked seriously beat-up when you got back. What in the world did you fight anyway?” I asked. 

“Ahhh, what was it called again? That stupidly big, fast monster—” 

“A sword ax mantis.” 

Instead of Lilio, an explorer from the Silverlights who had accompanied them answered my question. 

Judging by the name, it must be a giant praying mantis monster with some combination of swords and axes for arms. 

Come to think of it… 

The monster that had wiped out the noble kid Bowman’s party had been something taller than humans with bladelike weapons, too. 

Maybe they were attacked by the same monster as Zena and company. 

“It’s quite common for other monsters to come out of the spawnhole while you’re fighting maze beetles, but I’ve never seen something as dangerous as a sword ax mantis show up like that.” 

It sounded like the Labyrinth Elite hadn’t been beaten up from a vampire encounter, then. 

They went on to explain that Zena had been severely injured while fighting the mantis, then got captured by the black fog-like monster right after. 

“I thought for sure that we would die, but we survived thanks to the bravery of the fighters from Seiryuu County, who chased off the sword ax mantis. One often hears rumors of the strength of the Seiryuu County army, but now I know they are even stronger than I heard.” 

“Aw, shucks, you’re makin’ me blush. Right, Zenacchi?” 

Lilio seemed pleased to be complimented by the Silverlight member. 

Since Zena had been injured in the battle and captured by a vampire, though, she looked uncomfortable. 

“Zena, about our plans for dinner…” 

I had promised to take her out to eat when she got back from the labyrinth, but Zena must be exhausted, so I suggested that she rest for the night instead. 

“I’ll come to your lodging house to pick you up tomorrow, then, if it’s all right.” 

“O-of course! I’m looking forward to it!” 

Once I returned to the mansion, I teleported back into the labyrinth. 

It was time to reinvestigate the vampires’ castle.