Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku

◇

"You’ve heard what I said from awhile ago right mister? Even among dwarf blacksmiths, the only ones who could work on first class stuff like mithril are the personal pupils of the old master. An ordinary working-class dwarf like me only makes sword from normal iron at best. I don’t do mithril."

The dwarf man who has been pressed for an answer declares so while shrugging his shoulder as if spitting it out.

"That can’t be.... Then where should I buy it. I’ve especially come here from Gururian city."

"I dunno such thing even if you ask me."

It seems that even the dwarves don’t know how to deal with the man who’s lamenting exaggeratedly.

"There’s a lot of people like that during this season. With the month changing in 8 days, the once-in-three-years martial tournament will open in the capital, so people are coming here looking for mithril weapons."

After explaining it, Jojori-san says, "I’ll go for a bit", and goes to quell the dispute. There are a lot of hidden bodyguards, so she should be alright.

If the tournament is next week then I don’t think that he’d make it in time, but since the preliminary is held in every city of the dukedom, it looks like it’ll be alright. Unfortunately, the preliminary isn’t happening in Bollhart city.

The guy is the fourth son of the viscount, level 6, has sword skill. I don’t think that he could do well in the tournament even if he has mithril sword.

"Gobler-san, what seems to be the problem?"

"Ah, Jojori sis. These people insist on buying mithril swords."

"What’s this? Are you selling it?"

"I’m very sorry, but mithril weapons are made by reservations. Moreover, it requires letter of introductions from duke-sama and viceroy-sama."

"What... you say, the I won’t be able to get mithril sword..."

The noble man mutters and collapses onto the ground--he’s fainted.

Judging from the states of his clothes and mantle, he’s probably been through a long journey.

Jojori-san comes back while shouldering the man. As expected of a dwarf to easily carry a big grown man.

The cafeteria’s caretaker comes out, and the man is laid on the bench at the corner of the cafeteria. She sure is kind, it’d be fine to leave him on the shade of the tree over there.

"Looks like he’s overworked. Among second son of nobles and below and fallen nobles, there are a lot of case where they collapse after arriving here in strict schedule."

It has become a tradition huh?

However, even if he use a mithril sword, I think it’d still be hard though?

The one who answers that doubt isn’t Jojori-san, but a woman dressed in armor who seems to be the attendant of the noble man earlier. She’s a 16 years old blond woman with childish face. Her eyebrows are big. I don’t know her proportion due to the armor, but it looks relatively good. Her level is 7, she has one-handed sword and shield skills. It looks like she serves the viscount house.

"I’m sorry for the trouble young master has caused. We’d like to get mithril swords no matter what, isn’t there any way?"

"Even if you say that. If you bring the raw material, the mithril ingot, yourself, then there would be several people who could help, but since they’re reserved for the duke and the viceroys beside that, it’s impossible."

The woman warrior is more constructive than the noble man from earlier, but Jojori-san’s answer isn’t favorable. By the way, the viceroys seem to be nobles who are governing cities beside the dukedom capital. It looks like the office’s term ends in five years and the seat will be changed to a different person.

Still, if the system is so tied with reservations, I wonder if it’s alright for me to receive such an excellent sword?

As the two’s conversation is of no concern to me, I wipe Pochi’s mouth which has gotten dirty from the meat soup, but the argument turns toward here.

"The personage there. I assume that your sword is made from mithril. It’s an impudent wish, but would you be willing to hand it over?"

"I refuse."

She could know even without appraisal skill huh.

I’ve declined in a flash, but the woman warrior press on without giving up. But, even if I’m selling it, I don’t think that they could pay the compensation.

"You won’t sell it no matter what?"

"In the first place, you wouldn’t able to pay it anyway you know?"

"We’ll pay no matter how much, if we can’t, I’ll give you anything you want."

Everyone glances at my face with that words from woman warrior. No, I’m not thinking something perverted you know.

"Even if you say no matter how much, a dagger sized mithril cost 40 gold coins you know? For a straight sword of this size, it’d be at least 120 gold coins."

"Wha, even though an iron sword only costs one gold coins, one hund, 120 you say?!"

I think that iron sword is more expensive though, but when I check on the woman’s sword, just as I thought, it’s of poor quality. Still, it’s bad for her to try to buy something if she doesn’t even understand market price.

I’ll give her a warning once again to make her give up.

"Even if you get yourself a mithril sword, you won’t suddenly get stronger you know. Rather than coming here to buy one, you should use that time and labor to hunt monsters instead."

"It is not so. For the sake of entering the imperial guard of the dukedom, the young master needs either a mithril sword or a magic sword."

I ask for the detail since I don’t quite understand the relation. According to her story, it seems that the people who possess mithril swords or magic swords are able to pass the first preliminary round. And then, there’s a story circulating among the young nobles that if you clear the "People who participate on the second preliminary round" condition, you’d get accepted into the dukedom’s imperial guards.

It seems that entering into the imperial guards is the most popular course to be successful in life beside being the first child, so the noble man earlier has participated in the martial tournament since he’s 15 but he’s never passed over the first preliminary round. It’d be the third time he’s entering this year.

To be frank, I don’t really care since it’s a stranger’s problem.

Since Liza’s spear is wrapped in cloth, it’s fine, but it’d be troublesome if she notices that it’s a magic spear.

Yet, Arisa who has just finished her meal repulses the woman who’s persisting.

"You’re being rude to our master even though he’s being humble you know? This person is a respected noble with peerage, Chevalier Pendragon-sama."

After hearing that, the woman says, "I earnestly apologize for my rudeness.", and lowers her head while turning pale. What’s this, I should have show her my peerage from the start. As expected of Arisa.

"Please be careful as there are a lot of frauds who are selling weapons made from monsters as though they’re magic weapons recently."

Jojori-san advises the woman warrior.

I don’t have obligation to keep them company forever so when Liza and the others have finished their meal, I give them sign to leave.

After we leave, some weasel men that looks like merchants approach the woman, but I decide to not care about it. It’s her own responsibility if she gets scammed after ignoring Jojori-san’s advice.

◇

The magic shop above the ground is managed by Jojori-san’s childhood friend. The product line-up seem to be inferior compared to the underground shop, but since it’s in the middle of the way to the waterwheel tourist attraction, I decide to visit it.

"Hey Jojori. That’s unusual for you to come to this shop! Are you finally fed up with that muscle-brain idiot Zajir? That’s good! That’s really good."

"Hello Galhar. Please don’t say such thing about Zajir-san."

Galhar-shi speaks like a machine-gun when he sees Jojori-san. Jojori-san lightly reproves that. Even though he’s a dwarf, he’s not exposing his stomach, and his beard is carefully set and waxed. Is he perhaps, a dwarf hunk?

Introduced by Jojori-san, I ask the magic shop to show me their magic books and scrolls, and although the magic books are mostly the same as the ones from underground magic shop, there are two books with different authors, so I buy them. The scrolls line-up is different, the ones here are suited for nobles and merchants.

"What do you think, I’ve deliberately stocked them from Daregan city. Aren’t they unusual?"

He takes out some life magic scrolls.

They’re insect repellent, anti-itch or deodorant, etc. Things that the wealthy would buy. There’s even scroll for clean drinking unboiled water. Those scrolls are quite interesting, but I think the costs don’t balance out.

Sure enough, when Jojori-san sees the line-up, her face becomes clouded.

"Hey, Galhar. How much are these scroll each?"

"Fufuhn, normally it would be 1 gold coin for one, but for you, I’m fine with giving it for 3 silver coins."

"These scrolls, perhaps they’re not selling even one?"

Galhar-shi is boasting until his nose expands, but when he hears Jojori-san’s words, his face freezes. Furthermore, Arisa delivers the decisive blow.

"That’s right isn’t it, rather than carrying around such expensive scrolls, it’d be more convenient to just hire an attendant who can use life magic instead, it’s more effective financially too."

So it seems they’re bad stocks that aren’t selling at all ever since they’re stocked half a year ago. With the support from the girls, I buy them cheaper than their stocking prices. Coupled with three other well-selling scrolls, the total becomes three gold coins.

The scrolls that I’ve obtained are as follow.

>Scroll, Life Magic: Bug Wiper

>Scroll, Life Magic: Anti-Itch

>Scroll, Life Magic: Deodorant

>Scroll, Life Magic: Pure Water

>Scroll, Nature Magic: Short Stun

>Scroll, Nature Magic: Sonar

>Scroll, Nature Magic: Fence

Beside Short Stun, they’re all questionable magic, but I’ve bought them all since my collector’s soul grows excited.

Galhar-shi brings more bad stocks from the back since he seems to have judged that I’d buy them. Looks like he’s bought them from a weasel merchant at the neighboring city called Daregan.

"How about it? They’re quite rare y’know."

They’re certainly rare, maybe.

The first is [Nature Magic: Signal] which Nana also has, but it’s useless since there’s no one who could receive it. It’s probably usable as beacon.

The second is [Nature Magic: Cube]. This is like a magic in between [Shield], and [Floating Board], the practitioner could create cubes of arbitrary size that float in the air.

It’s mainly used to keep off rushing enemies, but it could also be used like a chair. On top of having short effective time, it would also disappear when it’s separated away from the practitioner. It’s not like it’s completely still in the air as it’d move when it’s overloaded. Looks like I could use it to create invisible stairs in the air.

I wonder if it’s an unexpectedly usable magic?

"The lowest level cube is about this much see?"

Arisa creates a floating cube of about 10 centimeters wide in the air. Moreover, it seems that it could only hold 500 grams of weight. In case of scroll, since it could only invokes magic of the lowest magic, I understand why it becomes a bad stock.

The third is [Fire Magic: Furnace Flame]. It seems to be a magic for melting ores into ingots. It’s actually a very dwarf-like scroll, but it couldn’t even be used for melting iron core if there are less than 10 scrolls, it also needs strong vessel to use, and the melted iron will flow to the ground, so it’s difficult.

Furthermore, the activation range is short, so the practitioner would get burnt, it’s a defective product.

In short, it’s better to just use normal furnace. Since there’s no meaning for its own blacksmithing purpose, there’s no demand for it at all. He’s only noticed it after he’s bought it.

"How did you end up with all these weird scrolls..."

Arisa and Mia looks amazed. Pochi and Tama are sleeping beside Liza’s feet. They’re tired after all huh.

"Y, you can use it as attack magic."

"If you attack with this, you’d only hurt yourself. Something like fire bullet is more efficient."

So it seems.

The last one is [Light Magic: Condense]. Galhar-shi desperately tries to sell it by saying things like you could use it for drying laundry during cloudy days, or you could use it to read in dim room. I’m told that he’s mistaken it for [Luminescence(light)].

He seems to have thought that I would not buy it since it’s been thoroughly disapproved by Arisa and the others, so he looks really dumbfounded when I begin negotiating.

Certainly, normally one would think that they’re nothing but trashes, but as for me, I think that they look more attractive than the scrolls from the underground shop. With the help from Arisa and Jojori-san, I buy them all for dirt cheap one silver coin, far from even half the prices.

It was a good shopping.

I’m keeping in mind to sell him scrolls for cheap when I’ve become able to create scrolls my own someday.

◇

The great waterwheel that Jojori-san has lead us to is smaller than I’ve thought, but I’m glad that it looks like a tourist attraction.

Even though we’ve just eaten so much just now, everyone heads to the sweets stalls instead of the waterwheel. The stalls are selling famous specialty pastry around here in style of prawn chips. It seems that they’re in promotion.

"Master, aan nano desu."

I get one baked sweet that Pochi is presenting to me. Arisa and the others who are queuing in front of the stalls are clamoring, but I taste the sweet without minding it. The taste and smell are like prawn chips.

While tasting that nostalgic flavor, we go around visiting blacksmiths from various tribes, starting from the dwarves, on the craftsman district, and then we go back to the guest mansion.

Evening of that day, losing to the pleading gazes of Pochi and Tama, I decide to stand in the kitchen. The dining room aunty who gives me permission turns out to be the wife elder Dohar. I’ve brought 20 type of meat from the wagon as ingredients, but it’s not enough at all in the end. I’ve prepared many large plates, but after the dwarven blacksmiths are coming after getting enticed by the smell, the dining room becomes battlefield. The line of sights from Pochi, Tama and the dwarves who are seriously competing for the meat that look at me when I’m refilling the platters are scary.

Jojori-san is unable to remain indifferent to this, so she divides the children from the adults, but since the dwarf children have also come for the meat, the contest hasn’t ended. Since friendships seem to be budding from the meat contest, I let it slide.

It wasn’t until late in the night that Lulu, Nana, and me who have been refilling the meal were able to have meal ourselves.