Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

“Shall we get going soon?”

I wanted to reach the next town before nightfall.

“Cat, Dog, put the dishes we used into this bag.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Yes, sir!”

The naming was pretty rough: the lizardman child was called Lizard, the dog humanoid child was Dog, and the catperson child was Cat.

I didn’t want to be rude about people’s names, but I’d been curious, so I asked them during the trip to the next town.

“—Our names? These were given to us by our previous master, Lord Woos.”

Apparently, the other slaves had similarly simple names: the bearfolk were called Bear, the snakehead tribe mother and child were named Snake and Little Snake, and the ratman was Mouse.

I couldn’t help but feel a slight empathy for their previous master’s lack of naming sense.

“Did you have names before becoming slaves?”

Surely they had better names than Lizard and the like.

“I do, but Dog and Cat were taken as infants and became slaves…”

The lizardman child looked down.

“Could you please give us names?”

They asked me, but I wasn’t confident in my naming skills.

By the way, Lizard’s original name was a long one with many hissing sounds, making it hard to pronounce as is.

“How about taking the first two characters and calling you Liza?”

“Yes, I’m grateful.”

The lizardman child, now renamed Liza, bowed happily.

“Exciting~” “Yes, sir!”

The catperson and dog humanoid kids looked at me with eyes full of expectation.

That much expectation was troublesome.

“I can’t just name you Tama and Pochi like pets.”

Maybe they misunderstood my muttering as naming—

“Pochi!”

“Tama!”

At those words, the two started dancing with broad smiles.

With them that happy, it was hard to say it wasn’t naming.

“—Ugh.”

Before I could protest, the name labels popped up beside the three of them in AR: Pochi, Tama, and Liza.

How did that work?

Was the system listening to our conversation…?

This world was still full of mysteries.

At this point, there was no choice but to let them use those as temporary names.

“Master, I see something.”

Liza pointed toward what seemed to be the top of a watchtower beyond a hill.

While we were chatting, it seemed we had arrived at the next town—Desolate Town.

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“Are those refugees?”

Outside the sturdy outer wall protecting Desolate Town, several tents and groups gathered around campfires formed a small settlement.

“Yes, probably. They likely couldn’t pay the city entry tax and have to spend the night outside.”

Liza answered my murmuring.

“How much is the city entry tax?”

“I don’t know well either, but I think it’s one Large Copper Coin for commoners and several Copper Coins for slaves.”

I didn’t quite understand the value of Large Copper Coins or Copper Coins, but it didn’t seem too expensive.

We lined up at the back of the queue formed in front of the outer wall.

“Next!”

The line wasn’t long, so our turn came quickly.

“Hm? From another country? That’s a surprisingly small amount of luggage.”

The gatekeeper eyed me suspiciously.

“They might be spies from another country. Show me your luggage and ID.”

—Spies?

Ah, “間者” (kanja)—a spy in that sense.

“Is this sufficient?”

I showed the gatekeeper my luggage and the letter I’d received from Lady Marienthal.

“Oh? A permit from the military forces? That’s rare. It says you’re a benefactor who contributed to the Count’s Domain, but what did you do?”

Did it say that? I hadn’t read it that closely.

“Probably because I provided ‘Dragon Scales’ to the Count’s Domain.”

“I see. A prospector traveling near the barrier of Dragon Valley seeking scales. That explains the beastman slaves. The lizardman as a guard, and the dog and cat kids as decoys if spotted by the wyverns.”

One of the gatekeepers spoke with a knowing but off-target tone.

I hoped Pochi and Tama weren’t too scared by this rude joke.

“There’s nothing unusual in the luggage. Pay the city entry tax and you may enter.”

With permission granted, I paid one Large Copper Coin and three Copper Coins as the entry tax and passed through the gate.