Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, I’ve heard that you sometimes see fragments of your memories inside your dreams.”

Our time of watch is up, Pochi and the others come to change place with us--when I lay down to sleep, Arisa snuggled close to me; since she saw the baby, she had been staying closer--most of the girls had.

Other than Nana asking outright for a child, I was pretty sure that most of the others wanted something similar. Liza seemed uneffected, but had explained that Beastkin and Humans were incompatible--I wouldn’t be able to produce children with non-humans apparently; well, Elves and Humans were close, so it was technically possible--but very rare.

I was drawn out of my thoughts as Lulu snuggled up on my other side, soft, warm girls on either side--I really liked this, they also smelt surprisingly good; I never had this back on Earth, it really made me glad that I had been summoned here.

Before allowing myself to drop off to sleep, I check on the Demon’s movements. As usual, it seems to be loitering around both the castle and the massive group of thieves; but sometimes, it produces a level 1 split body and wanders around in the city--since it didn’t kill anyone, or raise any massive mobs, it seemed to use the split body for information gathering.

The thieves around Muno City are streaming away from the city and merging with the massive group of thieves near the forest. There are also serfs who have escaped from nearby villages also mixing with them--they’ve grown from around 200 all the way to 500, if the smaller groups joined, they may reach 700.

Furthermore, from the northwest, armies of Goblins and ‘Goblinkin’ are entering the territory--yesterday evening there were only around 50 of them, but they’re nearing 1,000 now and still increasing from outside the territory.

They seem to be called Goblinkin because while most of the group are comprised of Goblins, there was a Hobgoblin leader. They weren’t a threat right now, because they were still a week or two out, and I made a memo to keep an eye of them.

The woman that the knight called Eral was looking for, was probably the Baron’s second daughter.

Why would I think so?

Because she is currently at the base of the massive group of thieves, she might have been kidnapped and become a hostage.

Well, it looks like tomorrow our journey should be peaceful--the nearest groups of thieves are moving in another direction; so, hopefully, we should reach Muno City around the morning of the day after tomorrow.

Since that completes the general investigation--I close my Menu and allow sleep to overtake me.

***

I had an unusual dream.

In my dream, I’m playing with the girl who was my first love--we ran around and played ‘Heroes and Demon Lords’ in the empty lots near where we grew up.

But, what makes it unusual--is that the surroundings seem subtly different, in a way that I can’t quite figure out; and her personally is a bit different, but I’m sure that she is the same girl.

For some reason, I can’t remember the girl’s name--almost as though static appears in my head when I try to think of it.

***

Arisa mumbled something that I can’t quite hear. She’s been grinding her teeth since a while ago, and she is grasping my arm so tightly that her fingernails are digging into my skin--maybe because it isn’t counted as a proper attack, my skin doesn’t harden like it does when something attacks me.

But, it does hurt.

“Arisa?” I gently stroke her hair, and block her nose to wake her up.

“Master?” She wakes up quickly, and then slams me with a powerful hug--she rubs her face on me, “Never leave us--even if it is to return to Earth--’kay?”

“I won’t, I will take you guys with me, if I ever choose to return.” I promised her, kissing her on the forehead.

She nods, but still doesn’t let me go.

Turning my head, I see that Lulu is hugging me tightly. When her eyes meeting mine, she stare intently into them, there are traces of tears on her face.

When I lower my line of sight, Pochi and Tama are asleep, curled into small balls, laying their heads on my stomach.

They are saying things like, “I hate cold.”, “I hate hunger.”

Since everyone seems to be having nightmares, I wake them up in turns--even as I move, neither Arisa nor Lulu release me.

“Master!” Pochi wakes up, and seeing me rubs her head on my chest, letting out a quiet whining sound.

“Morning? Nya, it’s warm.” Tama copies Pochi.

I’m worried that maybe there is a Monster with powers over dreams nearby, so I search the map.

There it is, a type of mushroom--it seems to have the skill Dream Manipulation--it’s called ‘Never Forget’. Strange name for a mushroom, but on Earth there is a flower called a ‘forget-me-not’.

When I leave the wagon, I ask Mia and Liza if they had nightmares when they slept--they said that they dreamed of their hometowns--in Liza’s case, when it was destroyed; for Mia, it was of when she was kidnapped.

Nana didn’t seem to dream, she said.

During breakfast, I asked everyone about a mushroom called the ‘Never Forget’; none of the girls knew, but Toruma suddenly showed an understanding expression, and his eyes met Hayuna’s.

“That explains it! I was wondering why I would have that dream--Never Forgets are a very rare mushroom, they sell for a lot of gold. When they grow naturally, they let off a skill that makes people remember their worst memories--but when properly harvested and used in a Potion, it is incredibly expensive; selling to old people, so they can remember their past--it’s also illegally traded in academies, for helping with studies.”

Oh, so that’s what it does--good, it wasn’t dangerous, merely a natural plant.

When breakfast finished, I tasked the girls with picking all the nearby mushrooms, drawing a map with all the locations marked--Toruma told me that the mushroom wasn’t poisonous, so even amateurs could pick them.

With all the nearby mushrooms picked, and placed in my Storage, where they shouldn’t be able to affect us--we continued our journey; though Tama and Pochi were clingy, sitting next to me the whole time, whether I was driving or sitting in the wagon--they would hang off me, or rub their faces on me.

Their nightmares must have been really bad.

 

 

***

Before camping that night, I made sure that there were absolutely no ‘Never Forget’s around.

But I still had a continuation of the dream from yesterday--though I was curious as to why my dreams weren’t bad. In the dream, I was offering to play the Demon Lord, but the girl laughed--she smacked me gently on the head with a stick, and made me play the hero. Then she changed the script, so the Demon Lord and Hero fell in love, and toppled the ‘corrupt gods’--she had done this quite a few times in our games, stating to dislike the normal ‘templates’; she is the one who introduced me to light novels and mangas.

In the morning, I asked--and luckily, no one had bad dreams this time.

Oh, the gathered thieves who used to be composed of more than 700 people, suddenly decreased to a single digit number. At first, I didn’t understand how the number could decrease that quickly, but when I saw a horde of zombies nearby, with the Demon in the center--I understood what had happened.

The Goblinkin army are rapidly approaching the zombies--it seems that their number has capped, reaching around 3,000 with nearly 100 Hobgoblins: some of which are Warriors, Mages, and Shamans.

Sometimes, some of the disappear from my map, and skeletons appear instead.

The Baron’s daughter seems to have successfully escaped the thieves and is running deep into the forest alongside a man with a strangely high level, who had been among the thieves, I don’t know if he’s charmed, or if they were acquaintances from the beginning.

It seems that the Territorial Army has started moving towards the forest since early in the morning--it seems that the rescue operation has officially begun.

There are around 1,000 of them.

Apparently, they’ve also employed local mercenaries and slaves.

The ‘hero’ isn’t among the army, it looks like he is still inside the Baron’s castle.

Seeing all of these events, quickly gathering towards each other, showing that big changes will probably happen soon--I need to evacuate the girls to a safe place, as soon as possible.

***

We’ve finally arrived at Muno City, but the gate is sealed shut, they won’t let us in.

When we negotiate by showing Toruma’s dagger, but for some reason--none of the guards are familiar with the seal--so they invited us to the castle to talk to Baron Muno.

This doesn’t make sense--gate guards should be informed about common house seals, especially that belonging to the cousin of their own Baron; this reeks of the Demon, or political corruption.

“I will go with Toruma and Hayuna to meet the Baron, I’d like everyone to go to the village up ahead with the wagon, to do something.” I say to the girls.

Even though I’m going to meet the Baron face-to-face, I will mention some of the trouble that I have seen around, if I get the chance--I won’t be forceful or try to force changes or anything like that. I feel sorry for people like the elders and children, and the children who are sold as slaves to allow their families to survive--but I won’t cause a commotion and have my girls and I put in danger for it.

I won’t directly bring up the fact that the hero here is fake, since he is very unlikely to believe me.

“Master, what should we do?” Liza asked me.

“There’s a village up ahead--I want you to ask the chief of the village to request everyone to collect those stones. Offer money, or food, whatever is needed in exchange.”

 

“Tama will gather!”

“Pochi will work hard too.”

 

I continue talking, while stroking the enthusiastic Tama and Pochi’s heads, “Mhm, I’m happy that you are so eager--but we should also give some work to the villagers.”

I explain the details to the girls, the villagers should gather 100 of those stones, and I will buy them for 1 copper coin each. Tama will judge the stones, making sure they are the right ones, using her Gathering skill.

Arisa will calculate the money, and negotiate with the chief--Liza will just stand by the wagon and look intimidating, so no one would underestimate them and try to attack.

Nana will pretend to be their master, and Lulu and Mia will pretend to be her servants.

Being careful not to not shake off my hand, Pochi looked up at me, “What should Pochi do?”

“You will act as Arisa’s bodyguard, making sure nothing happens when she exchanges the money.”

“Roger.” Pochi saluted.

To the disappointment of the two girls, I stop stroking their hair and step back--with that sorted out, it’s time to join up with Toruma and Hayuna.

Suddenly, Arisa tentatively grabs my hand before I can get off the wagon.

“Please, no.” Tears accumulate in Arisa’s eyes as she speaks in a scared, begging tone--one I had never heard her use before.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to let, M-Master go alone--” She stares imploringly into my eyes.

“It’s not like I’m going to a battlefield--I’m only accompanying Toruma and his family to the Baron’s castle.” I tried to sound reassuring, “I’ve thought of talking about the problems that I have seen, as long as he’s a person who is easy to talk to--not some stuck-up noble. I will prioritize my safety, it’s going to be alright.”

However, I forget how perceptive Arisa is; she presses me, “That’s a lie, the fact that you try to send us away is proof of that.”

Impressive.