Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

Satou here. While I can go along with things in a visual novel, I just can’t obediently comply with forced events in an RPG that requires freedom of choice. Now that I’m on the creator’s side, I understand that’s the easier way, though.

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After finishing dinner with Ms. Zena’s group, I was at the Echigoya Trading Company in the form of Kuro.

By the way, the feast prepared by the former royal court chef was marvelous.

The taste itself wasn’t much different from what Lulu or I can make, but he adorned the steamed fish with salted flowers to provide small pleasures, and inserted small dishes with bitter and sour flavors at key points to refresh the palate and prevent taste fatigue.

Such subtle ingenuity and consideration must stem from his experience as a court chef beyond the scope of mere skills.

It was truly a valuable experience—

“Kuro-sama, is there something good happening?”

The manager, who looked even happier than me, asked.

Tifaliza, flipping through documents beside the manager, didn’t break her usual composed expression.

“It’s nothing special. More importantly, please give me a report on the second day of the auction.”

“Yes, understood.”

The items exhibited on the second day of the auction were various magic potions.

“This time, we put up 64 bottles of hair growth tonic, 288 bottles of energy tonic, 24 bottles each of intermediate-grade stamina recovery potion and magic power recovery potion, 144 bottles of nutritional supplement, 20 bottles each of back pain relief medicine and stiff shoulder relief medicine, and 144 bottles of headache relief medicine, totaling 952 bottles.”

The popular hair growth tonic was sold in one-month units, so the number of bottles was small. The energy tonic was sold by the dozen.

“Did you really put up back pain and stiff shoulder relief medicines?”

“Yes. We distributed four bottles each as ‘monitors’ to civil officials who have a high workload year-round, and since we received quite favorable evaluations, we included them in the auction.”

Those medicines were made as a joke before and had no real use; I could have just given all of them to the civil officials.

The ingredients were common materials from the upper labyrinth layers, and the manufacturing effort was minimal, so I might make them if there are repeat customers.

I used to suffer from stiff shoulders in my previous world, so I understand that pain well.

“The total auction price came to 3,592 gold coins.”

Hmm, that’s about right.

A bit over 10% of a magic sword’s price—wait, hold on.

Something’s off.

While I am the only one who can mass-produce magic swords, magic potions are items anyone can make if they have the materials and recipes, right?

“That’s a higher price than I expected. What happened?”

“Yes, we anticipated that the hair growth tonic and energy tonic would be hotly contested, but—”

If you had told me earlier, I could have produced them overnight.

“This time, agents of Duke Bistal and Marquess Lloyd fought fierce battles early on, which seemed to encourage others to bid as well. Also, both are popular products with reservation waiting lists exceeding a month.”

I see…

Still, neither Duke Bistal nor Marquess Lloyd is bald—why would they need hair growth tonic?

Maybe someone in their family needs it?

“The stamina recovery potions were bought by families of knights scheduled for deployment, and the magic power recovery potions were purchased eagerly by the Shiga Thirty-Three Staff.”

“—Apparently, there was an appraisal certificate circulating claiming these potions have recovery effects equivalent to high-grade magic potions.”

Tifaliza added this to the manager’s report.

High-grade magic potions are not generally available, so competition makes sense.

Even if you want to commission a famous alchemist for synthesis, nobody takes the job because collecting materials is a pain.

Above all, to obtain the "Blood Orb" ingredient, it’s said one must go to the “Labyrinth of the Dead,” a nest of undead, and defeat vampires.