Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

Satou here. Living in Japan, where religion is not deeply ingrained, I always found it strange that countries would go to war over religious differences. I wonder if there are also religious wars in this another world?

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The ship carrying us is anchored at a spot where you can see the night view of the Duke's Capital. The port is crowded because of the tournament season, so we're waiting in line. Apparently, the duke has ordered that supply ships be given priority, so many other ships are also anchored here.

The captain managed to secure the right to dock first thing tomorrow morning, so it looks like we won’t have to wait in line then.

Up until a moment ago, everyone was admiring the night view, but the younger ones started dozing off, so I sent them back to their rooms first.

I heard light footsteps and turned around to find Arisa there.

“So, you’re really going?”

“Yeah.”

I gave a short answer to Arisa, who was giving me a strange vibe.

“I don’t think you’ll fall behind against a shorthorn demon race opponent, but absolutely don’t let your guard down, okay?”

“Yeah, I know. If anything, I’m going to take care of things before the shorthorn demon race even shows up.”

If there are terrorists carrying bombs like that, I can’t calmly enjoy sightseeing in the Duke's Capital. Plus, I won’t let them interfere with my much-anticipated visit to the scroll workshop.

On top of that, the people carrying the short horns have suspicious backgrounds. They’re part of a secret society called the Wings of Freedom, and most of its members seem to be children of nobles. None of them hold noble titles, but even direct descendants of the duke are among them. I suspect the weasel tribe is conducting undercover operations behind the scenes, but the members are all from the human tribe.

“Listen, you have to come back without any injuries, okay? You’re not a hero, so no reckless moves! If you come back with even a scratch, I won’t let you go alone ever again!”

“I get it, I won’t overdo it. If some weird strong enemy shows up, I’ll play it safe with the ‘value your life’ approach.”

Arisa kept worrying overprotectively, so to reassure her, I told her about a famous gameplay policy from a game we both liked. She finally nodded and said, “That’s right, that’s good,” so I decided to set out.

“Arisa, there might be attacks from river pirates or something tonight. Make sure your group keeps a night watch. If you want, you can even invite miss Karina and the others. If she comes, Laka will follow too.”

I can’t really call Arisa overprotective. I’m quite the same.

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Now, there’s a little I haven’t told Arisa yet.

First, the Wings of Freedom who possess short horns are nearly 300 members strong if you include those who don’t have horns. Especially, none of them seem to be above level 10. I thought the Yamato Stone might reveal them, but all of them have affiliations with two or more groups, so their official affiliation probably takes priority.

Their base appears to be in a mysterious space several hundred meters underground beneath the Duke's Capital. Someone I marked suddenly appeared outside the map’s scope, and when I expanded the map, it turned out to be treated as a separate area. Could it be a geo front or a labyrinth?

Of course, besides underground, there are also several office-like buildings on the surface.

Also, there were about three people suffering from status ailment: demon possession. Two were executives of the group, and one was a clergyman from the Tenion Temple. I wonder how the latter got possessed. All three seem to be in the underground space, so I’ll have to deal with them after collecting the short horns.

Thanks to my spy skill, I managed to infiltrate the Duke's Capital without being spotted by patrolling members of the bat tribe.

Of course, I didn’t come through the gate but crossed the outer wall using the skystride skill.

Since this was a night infiltration mission, I wore the Black Mask set instead of the silver mask set. As for clothing, I chose not to wear a robe but instead a knight-like uniform with decorations removed. Since this was a theft, not a demon hunt, I thought it would be better not to stand out.