Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, siblings that don’t look alike exist anywhere. Even if they’re raised in the same environment, the differences are there ever since they’re born.”

 

The destination of the Sea Lion children is a square just ahead, it seems that there are some volunteers distributing food.

 

That’s good and all, but.

 

“Line up properly! Cutting the line is bad.”

“Line up, you ignorant people.”

 

“H-Hey, Tama!” Pochi looked surprised by Tama’s words, but the Catkin just smiled at her and rolled her eyes. She subtly glanced over at Arisa and pointing at her--causing her to look away and fake an innocent expression.

 

For some reason, the girls--other than Mara, who chose to stay back at the mansion to work on some projects--were distributing food.

 

“The last in line is here! Line up in three lines while carrying your own wooden bowl.” Arisa guides the children in the square.

 

“You there, I’ll put you at the end of the line if you keep quarreling.” Liza kept the children from being too boisterous.

 

The Sea Lion children begin lining up in accordance with Arisa’s instructions--Nana is going to line up with them, but I stopped her.

 

“Oh my, Master, what was Nana’s errand?” Arisa asked with a raised eyebrow.

 

“We helped save these children from a stuck-up Tigerkin man.”

 

“Mhm, I thought you two decided to go to a secluded area and have fun--I would have been disappointed to not have been invited!” Arisa spoke some rather kid-unfriendly words with a rather loud voice.

 

I gently bopped her on the head.

 

“What about you girls, how did you end up helping here?”

 

“Basically the same way as master, some ruffians who didn’t act their ages were cutting in line and making a fuss--so Pochi warned them, and then when the three ruffians went into a frenzy, Liza suppressed them.” Arisa’s mood changed on a dime, and she answered with a proud expression.

 

“I see. So why is Lulu helping to serve the food?”

 

“An old woman tried to stop the ruffians before Pochi got here, but they injured her.”

 

The injury was immediately healed by Mia’s and Arisa’s Magic, but she got shocked by the violence and went home. Because of that, Lulu volunteered to help.

 

“It seems wrong to stop halfway, so we will help for another hour, that’s okay, right?”

 

“Of course.”

 

I guess I will go help too--I was going to bring Nana along, but since she was obsessing over the Sea Lion children, I decided to let her have her fun.

 

“Lulu, is there anything I can do to help?”

 

“Ah, Master! Sera, this is my Master--Tek Felspar.”

 

Yes, it’s the same Sera that was the sacrifice for the golden Boar-Headed Demon Lord, the Priestess from Tenion temple--however, to start doing volunteer work after she was just abducted by an ‘evil’ organization. I thought that the Head Priestess, at least, would be worried about Sera.

 

Wait, no, there are some of the Duke’s people among the nearby crowds--so she’s here to lure out Wings of Liberty huh.

 

That aside, her and Lulu working closely together--well, it would make for a great picture, but I didn’t have a camera.

 

“Nice to meet you, Chevalier Felspar. I am a Priestess of Tenion temple, Sera--” She reflexively greets me when Lulu introduces her, but she suddenly stops--tilting her head, a look of curiousity on her face.

 

It seems that she’s doing well after being revived.

 

“Um, we’ve met somewhere, haven’t we? I’m sorry, but my memory is a bit vague--” She asks in a faltering tone, her eyes wide.

 

Don’t tell me, she has some of her memories remaining from when she was possessed by the Demon Lord. Well, if you were to just look at the words, and if it was a guy saying it to a girl--it could be mistaken for a pickup line.

 

I decide to try to deceive her, “No, this is the first time we’ve met, Sera.”

 

Well, it is technically the truth, since I never met her before her possession--so I never spoke to the real her.

 

“Is it so, I wonder--”

 

Looking puzzled is fine and all, but she keeps staring intently at me, like she is trying to see all my secrets--for some reason, when I look at this girl, she somehow reminds me of Princess Menea. But their looks are completely different, I wonder why I think like this.

 

“Sera, the people are tire of waiting for the food,” I try to distract the inquisitive Priestess.

 

“Oh my, I-I should get back to working.” Her attention finally snaps from me and back to the people waiting, who are beginning to get a little loud.

 

The food being distributed seems to be a simple soup comprised of meat and vegetables. From what I can see, one pot won’t be enough for all the people.

 

“I’ll help, if you need it.” I offered to one of the women who was chopping up the ingredients. I may not be the best chef--but I can cut meat and vegetables.

 

“No, it’s alright. I can’t let a noble dirty his hands with something this menial.” She refused with a sorry look--she sounded quite stressed for some reason, what a strange person.

 

Lulu, who’s serving out the soup, boasts, “Master is so kind.” to Sera beside her.

 

I explain to the older woman that I’m fine with a little menial work--and she agrees, after giving me an apron, so at least my clothing doesn’t get any blood on it.

 

Mia, who had been blowing a reed flute while looking bored since before I arrived--is now standing beside me and staring at my hands as I chop and slice. I don’t know what she finds so fascinating about watching my knife movements--I’m barely managing to keep from cutting myself alongside the ingredients.

 

One of the nearby women, who is stirring the second pot of soup, calls out, “You’re pretty good at that, despite being a noble. If you don’t succeed your house, how about working in our shop? I’ll let my daughter become your bride.”

 

I wonder why this woman is offering her daughter to marry me.

 

“No.” Mia rapidly shook her head in denial.

 

““N-No, don’t.” Master is” For some reason, when Lulu spoke--Sera blurted out a synchronized denial. Lulu isn’t the only one who’s surprised, even the person who said the words is. She looks quite cute as she covers her mouth while looking surprised--but since the expressions of the people waiting in line are starting to get annoyed again, I urge her to go back to work.

 

It can’t possible be love-at-first-sight, so there might be some fragments of memories remaining from when I saved her from the Demon Lord, even if she can’t precisely recall them.

 

I have no idea why all these attractive girls fall for me, since it never happened before I came to this world. Maybe I gave off an aura, or maybe I’m the real life version of a much hated creature--a Mary Sue.

 

***

The food distribution ends without any large disturbances.

 

Apparently, according to the conversation of the older women when we were cooking, they seem to be housewives and cleaning ladies from the Tenion temple, from around here. It seems that the five temples in the downtown are all taking turns to distribute food.

 

They run the food distribution every second day, since they can’t do it every day because of the lack of funds,

 

There’s the Tenion temple, with the Head Priestess, in the noble district, but there’s also another temple in the downtown. It’s actually very close to the square.

 

The clean-up ends in a very short time, and then I help carry the equipment back to the temple together with Pochi and the others.

 

““Clean-up.”” Pochi and Tama look surprisingly cute as they carry a long table overhead. I always like how tiny girls with clearly inhuman strength look, it is somehow adorable--

 

Arisa walks along, leading them.

 

“I’m sorry. You are even willing to help with the clean-up.” Sera says, still glancing curiously at me now and then.

 

“It’s nothing difficult, so don’t mind it.” I reply to her.

 

Lulu is walking along beside us, carrying the pots and cutting boards, etc.

 

Hmm?

 

It looks like there are several people belonging to Wings of Liberty are coming this way, riding horses. They’re still quite a distance away, so we will probably arrive at the temple before they reach us.

 

Since the girls are carrying things, Sara, Arisa, and I are the only ones who enter the main gate empty-handed. Well, Nana seems to be hallucinating that she’s carrying the two Sea Lion children--perhaps she’s tired--or perhaps her ‘Cuteness Observation Circuit’, as she calls it, has overloaded.

 

“Sera!”

 

“B-Big sister?!”

 

The one waiting for Sera in the courtyard of the temple, is the girl who fell from the sky, the granddaughter of Duke Oyugock--the member of the hero’s party--Ringrande.

 

Wait?

 

Big sister, she said?

 

Since Sera only has ‘Priestess of Tenion Temple’ as her title, I didn’t even consider the thought that she could have been a blood relative of Duke Oyugock.

 

Their conversations, “Are you healthy?”, “You’ve become big.”, etc; sound like normal siblings that haven’t seen each other for a long time--they don’t really look like siblings, but they seem to get along well.

 

Now then, I’ll take this chance to give a very quick ‘goodbye’ and leave. If Ringrande is here, she could mow down something like a few members of Wings of Liberty with one hand.

 

However, before I can find the right time to interject, the conversation suddenly steered toward me.

 

“You, which house are you from? This girl hates that kind of thing, she left our house and entered the temple, you know? Do you think that you can woo her without relying on your house name?”

 

Hmm?

 

For some reason, she’s hastily lumping me together with nobles who try to woo Sera--of course, I understand that Ringrande loves her sister, but I don’t like it when people jump to conclusions like that.

 

“N-No, it’s not like that. Rin, this person is --” Sera follows up by being too upset, making the misunderstanding become more viable in her sister’s mind.

 

Arisa and the others have finished cleaning up and come to join me, so I said farewell to the sisters, Sera who seemed sad to see me go, and Ringrande who was looking at me with belligerence.

 

As we leave the temple, I ignore the scene of several nobles and ruffians getting arrested.

 

Sera is quite an excellent lure.

 

Various other things happened, like Karina, who had gone out on the town with her maids, met up with us--or that there weren’t any restaurants that sold meat--which is very strange, considering how much protein the people here should eat--resulting in Pochi, Tama, and Liza being upset.

 

But it was general peaceful shopping.

 

It was hard work to make Nana leave downtown, since she had somehow managed to get her hands on some more Sea Lion children at some point, which I didn’t notice--I convinced her by asking Arisa to make her a stuffed toy that looked like them.

 

During the dinner, that night, Karina caused the misunderstanding that I’m her fiance--so I have to explain it, dispelling the misunderstanding without causing her to lose face. And then I had to stop Karina from sulking, cheering her up.

 

I’m looking forward to seeing a fantasy workshop.