Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

Satou here. The first time I went to Huis Ten Bosch in Sasebo, I was amazed by the exotic atmosphere of the theme park. I was a little shocked when I saw the ladies wearing traditional Dutch costumes during the day, but at night, at an izakaya, they were dressed casually in T-shirts and jeans.

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How far are we going?

“Just ahead.”

Following behind Mia, I took in the view of the elves’ town that blended naturally with the surrounding forest.

“This way.”

Mia beckoned me toward a plaza where colorful mushrooms were planted in a perfect circle. The circle consisted of two concentric rings.

The AR display labeled it as a “Fairy Ring.”

“What is this?”

“A ring.”

Is this some kind of ritual site? Hopefully not related to marriage or anything like that.

“Relocation.”

At Mia’s signal, the two mushroom rings began to blink alternately. I had no idea where we’d relocate to, but knowing Mia, it couldn’t be anything bad.

As the blinking sped up, beams of light shot up from the ground, growing stronger. When the alternating blinking stopped, the relocation activated.

The next moment, we found ourselves on a hill overlooking a town with neatly arranged single-story houses.

Looking up, I saw a transparent canopy supported by what looked like tree branches, covering the entire town.

Is this underground?

“A real city.”

Mia pulled my hand as we headed to a place that looked like a tram station a little distance away. Floating there was a board resembling a self-propelling “Floating Board” powered by arcane magic. Though transparent, it had some color tinting, making it slightly different from typical arcane magic devices.

Shortly after we arrived at the station, a young man riding a similar board showed up. He looked like a boy, but since he had an unlikely beard, I took him as a young man. Hmm, that old trauma—well, it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t suit him.

“Welcome back, Mia. You already brought someone along? Hey, I’m Tsutoreiya. Please call me Tsuya. Until about a hundred years ago, I was studying abroad in the human tribe’s land.”

The young man cheerfully spoke to me.

According to him, the area we had just left was a city constructed as a performance to impress visitors—a stereotypical elven town.

But this wasn’t some malicious scam; it was made solely to welcome and entertain guests. The story goes that about 400 years ago, a saga hero, tired of war, lived out their remaining days here and led this project.

Mia tugged my hand, annoyed at the young man’s long story, so we promised to meet again and politely excused ourselves.

Skillfully, Mia jumped onto a floating board at the station. The board sank slightly before returning to its original height. Following her lead, I jumped onto the adjacent board. After she announced what sounded like an address number, the board took off. My board silently followed behind.

The houses all sat on roughly 200-tsubo plots, with slate roofs and white resin-like material as outer walls. However, vines covered most of the walls, leaving only small patches visible. Instead of fences, hedges and flowerbeds divided the properties, with flowerbeds being more common.

Still, no one was around.

Maybe everyone was attending a party in the upper town?

The boards slid through the town at about 20 kilometers per hour. The roads looked like asphalt or a hard tennis court surface—made of a brown material resembling compacted fine beads or small stones.

I asked Mia about it, but she wasn’t interested and just said, “I don’t know.” She seemed well-informed otherwise; I’ll ask Tsuya next time.

Eventually, the board gently stopped in front of a house, quietly descending until it vanished into the ground as if being absorbed.

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The house Mia guided me to looked more modern than fantasy.

What gave me that impression was clear immediately.

The windows.

In this world, windows were mostly small wooden panels made for ventilation and light.

But Mia’s house had large, highly transparent glass windows and sliding glass doors. In Duke’s Capital mansions, some used orc glass, but nowhere near this amount, and most were fixed panes. Here, the windows slid open like in modern houses on rails.