Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

※9/1 Typo correction made.

This is Satou. When I was little, the shoujo manga I read often depicted scenes of tea parties, but I have never seen one in real life. Maybe modern tea parties these days are just the drink bars at family restaurants.

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From the day after that ball, busy days began.

I kept the schedule for the planned workshop tours as is, but I accepted as many tea party invitations as I could from noble young ladies and visited them.

Of course, the purpose wasn't to meet the young noble girls in their early teens. If that were the case, I wouldn’t have brought Arisa along.

That prince gave off a surprisingly petty vibe, so I have a feeling he might cause trouble again in the future.

Therefore, when Arisa suggested increasing connections with people who might be on our side if some strange conspiracy involved us, I went along with it.

For the tea parties, instead of crepes, I chose something delicious even when cold. I decided to make and bring a Western-style red bean roll sandwiching thin pancakes with fresh cream and Grylian's coarse or smooth red bean paste. We introduced the roll as a new confectionery from Muno City. The recipe was written in a letter addressed to Baron Muno and entrusted to Miss Karina. Mr. Gelt should be able to reproduce the recipe. For ingredients hard to obtain in Muno City, I hired peddlers to deliver them.

Since bringing the same thing every time would be boring, I wrote down sweets from my and Arisa’s memories, tried making those I could, and picked the ones that turned out well. The taste testers aren’t just Arisa and the girls we’re helping but also the family of Former Count Wolgock, whom we owe a lot. The feedback has been quite positive. However, I’m a bit worried that Arisa has gotten a little chubby from all the tasting.

I had thought about bringing Miss Karina to the tea parties, but she was immersed in training with Liza and the others, leaving no chance to approach her. I had hoped she’d make some noble friends, but things don’t always go smoothly.

For Karina and Liza’s training, I hired a female instructor in her thirties introduced by Tolma who had been doing military drills. It’s more effective than random sparring. I sometimes observe the training too. Of course, not in Karina’s specific parts, but rather how the training is conducted.

One unexpected benefit of the tea parties was that they helped arrange visits to workshops that had previously refused us and allowed us to receive rare ingredients as thanks for the sweets.

The workshop tours have been going well; only two remain — the scroll workshop and the barrier pillar workshop.

Yesterday, we visited the Kingfisher Silk workshop, where they produce silk thread from caterpillars as big as puppies. The silk thread these caterpillars spin has a greenish sheen, as the name suggests, from reflections of light, and the fabric woven from this thread apparently has cut-proof performance comparable to iron chain mail.

When I secretly analyzed it using AR display, it seemed the secret was in the caterpillars’ feed. Their staple is ordinary leaves, but they were also fed mithril slag — the dross left after refining mithril. The green component of Kingfisher Silk may come from the mithril. The same type of caterpillars can be found fairly deep in the forest, so it might be worth trying once.

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“Hmm, this is quite a nice seat.”

“Yeah, judging by how crowded the general seats are, the VIP seats must be heaven.”

Since I was given VIP seats but never used them, I decided to use them for the first time today. The arena is bigger than expected — probably about twice the size of the Tokyo Dome. They sometimes hold group jousting matches, so the space is necessary.

Normally, a servant comes with the VIP seats, but I declined, saying I already have my own servants.

“Master, I have confirmed the sniping target. Permission?”

“No.”

“I request reconsideration.”

Following Nana’s gaze, I saw one of the contestants entering the arena.