Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

"Breeze"

"Kyah!"

"Nooo!"

With the boy’s voice, our skirts were flipped up.

A riot of colorful underwear appeared, drawing cheers from the children standing behind the boy.

Honestly, you little brats.

"Ugh, Arisa’s wearing shorts under her skirt!"

The spell the boy was desperately practicing was called "breeze," and with the boys snickering beside him, there was no doubt about their intent.

I didn’t expect him to succeed in the chant so quickly, but as a lady, it was only natural to prepare some minimal protection just in case.

Yet, the mischievous boys were quick to complain.

"That’s unfair!"

"Not cheating!"

Honestly, men are the same everywhere... I wish our Master would learn a thing or two. Even though such a beautiful girl sleeps beside him, he never pulls any pranks.

The pillow with "YES" written on both sides must be crying out.

Ah, but more importantly—

I landed a fist on the mischievous boy beside the one who used life magic and pointed at me.

Of course, I also struck the ringleader next to him.

"—Oof!"

"Ugh!"

The two writhed in pain as I crossed my arms and glared down at them.

The other boys were surrounded by the girls whose skirts had been flipped, being scolded.

Just deserts.

◇

"Now, do you understand why you were called here, boy?"

"After being beaten up that badly, can’t you just forgive me already?"

The boy pleaded with a pitiful look.

That sight stirred a hint of sadism in me, but I endured it, picturing my beloved Master’s smiling face.

Phew, handsome boys really are the best.

—Back to the main story.

"There are two paths for someone like you who can use life magic."

I spoke seriously to the boy.

One is to become a life magic user, a sort of curse practitioner who earns a stable income.

The other is to learn arcane magic or elemental magic and become a proper magician.

The boy’s answer was—

◇

"The first Power Leveling Tournament hosted by teacher Arisa~!"

"H-hey, Arisa, you never said anything about going into the labyrinth."

"I never said it~"

I ignored the boy’s worried words.

There’s no way the upper 11th section is dangerous with Nana and me here.

"Don’t let your guard down~"

Whoa, Tama, since when were you here?

At Tama’s feet remained the fading humanoid stain of a crawling shadow stalker that had turned to dust.

Whoa, that’s the kind of monster that should only be deeper inside.

That was close. Good thing a ninja like Tama is here.

"Hey, Tama, will you come with us?"

"Okay!"

"Thanks. When we get back to the surface, I’ll treat you to your favorite meat skewers."

"Yay!"

Seeing Tama so happily innocent made me feel a bit guilty.

From there, with Tama’s enemy detection and Nana’s protection, we easily continued power leveling.

The boy went silent partway through, but it wasn’t from drinking too many magic power recovery potions. It also wasn’t because I forced a quick cure on his level-up sickness with magic potions.

By evening, a magician capable of earth magic and water magic was born.

Though we spent some time studying on the surface, now the "Pandora" group could finally fill their long-awaited magician slot.

"But, I get water magic, but why earth magic?"

You’d think a kid would choose light or fire.

"Because, Ilna-sensei said there’s a lot of ‘demand’ for it."

"You’re surprisingly practical for a kid~"

"Yeah. Besides, Lord Noble wanted an earth magic user. I want to repay him somehow."

Cheeky little brat.

But still, boys are boys, no matter how small!

After patting his head thoroughly and praising him, I treated him and Tama to meat skewers on the surface.

Nana said something about “Arisa’s sayings” and didn’t ask for anything in return, but next time, I’ll find a little gift she’d like.

Later on, since just meat skewers felt insufficient, I gave the boy a pair of shorts as a reward—but he refused.

Shorts are the uniform for boys, after all. It’s puzzling.

By the way, the colorful underwear of the orphans is thanks to Arisa providing the fabric.

This might be useless info, but Arisa also taught them how to sew, so the designs are modern-style.