Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

Correction made on 2016/7/4.

This is Satou. Trends in fashion and popularity have always been cruel in any era. The post-apocalyptic stories that once swept through my student days are now a thing of the past. Nowadays, the only ones you might still see are tales about post-nuclear war overlords.

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“—Are you pretending not to hear me?”

At the end of our journey by the smoke carriage, at Mogeiba City Station, Lady Ritdilt of the Long-Eared (Buchi) Tribe, a palace knight (Templar Knight), glared at me with challenging eyes.

“Then I’ll say it again—you are no ordinary person, are you?”

Watching her dignified profile, I cast a glance toward her entourage.

The accompanying knights, about level 30, looked confused but were in a battle-ready stance, ready to support her at any moment. The other guards and attendants were simply stunned by the sudden turn of events.

“W-who, me?”

“It’s useless to play dumb. Even if you try to blend into the crowd, my dragon’s eye never misjudges a strong person.”

Lady Ritdilt pointed sharply at Miss Karina, who was flustered, and declared triumphantly.

From the expressions of everyone else except Karina, an indescribable atmosphere hung in the air.

Tama and Pochi’s mouths were quickly covered by Arisa and Mia, so no one tried to dispel the tension.

“It seems you’re using an excellent magical artifact with recognition interference to prevent appraisal. But that’s useless. My dragon’s eye accurately captures the presence of the strong.”

She was kind enough to explain her skill herself.

I wasn’t sure what criteria her so-called dragon’s eye used to judge strength.

Judging by appearances alone, Liza had looked strong ever since we left the Seryu City labyrinth, while the younger group including Tama and Pochi still didn’t look particularly strong.

Besides, except for Pochi and Arisa who wield the “Thief God's Equipment,” everyone else wore top-notch magical artifacts with disguise and recognition interference functions, so Miss Karina and the others were under roughly the same conditions.

Among the members present here, Karina was the only one who hadn’t acquired the "magic power manipulation" skill, so I guessed that the dragon’s eye might be detecting the amount of magic power leaking outside the body.

By the way, the reason Karina hadn’t gotten the “magic power manipulation” skill was probably that Laka was just too convenient.

Only a few seconds had passed, but I decided it was time to throw her a lifeline.

“Palace knight, don’t you know this person’s true identity?”

Using my deception skill, I tried to confuse Lady Ritdilt.

“True identity?!”

“Lady Ritdilt—”

She only furrowed her brows suspiciously, but one of the accompanying knights seemed to recall something and rushed over to whisper into her ear.

“—The king’s younger brother faction?!”

It seemed they interpreted my suggestive words as referring to the “king’s younger brother faction.”

Is he the emperor’s brother and yet called “king’s younger brother”? I wondered about that, but from what I heard from the weasel merchants, despite being the “king’s younger brother,” his honorific was “His Majesty” instead of “His Highness.”

There seemed to be a deep rift between the emperor and the king’s younger brother.

“Why would the king’s younger brother faction be in such a rural city?! Could it be related to the ‘seed of calamity’—”

Hey, hey, don’t keep blurting out dangerous words.

We already have more than enough troubles from that kind of incident!

“Again!”

“Hmm.”

See, Arisa and Mia looked exasperated and exchanged looks... even if it’s through rat and rabbit costumes.

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“Well then, what is this ‘king’s younger brother faction’? We are carefree travelers enjoying a journey by smoke carriage. Please don’t mistake us for people involved in important imperial matters.”

When I said that, Lady Ritdilt gave me a glare of “Grrr,” as if she wanted to protest.