In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 4 Page 12

  “Come forth, Light! Calm of the Goddess: [Mega Heal]!” My advanced recovery spell created a beautiful light that wrapped around the emperor’s body. The stab wound on his side sealed itself up. Even so, that spell wasn’t enough on its own.

  “[Recovery].” I cast another spell just in case there were any unusual effects on him. Now there was nothing else I could do. It was all down to the man himself at that point.

  I had the emperor moved to a guest room, then quickly put him in bed. After that, I told Laim to contact the Royal Palace and bring Doctor Raul, then brought Lucia and Carol to the emperor’s room.

  While I waited for Raul to arrive, I gathered everyone together in the living room. Then, I gave them all a brief overview of the situation.

  “Geez, Touya... why do you keep sticking your nose into these crazy circumstances?” Elze sighed.

  It’s not like I’m sticking my nose into things! It’s more like things keep sticking to my nose!

  “Even so, disregarding the trouble in the empire... what about the prince?” Linze muttered her concerns, but all I could do was pray. I’d have preferred to teleport everyone out to safety, but I hadn’t seen the prince before, so I was unable to include him in the mass recall.

  “But this is terrible... What if the empire makes a move against Belfast soon?”

  “The demon army is the most important thing, here. We need to take care of that before anything else.” The easiest way to do that would be to defeat General Bazoar, but... Magic attacks did nothing, and I couldn’t think of a way to defeat him with physical attacks, either.

  If I were to use [Gate] and drop him from a great height, his Blockbracer would nullify the damage. Plus, it’s way more likely that he’d summon that Demon Lord before that. Then he could just fly off and make a retreat. [Gravity] would likely have the same lack of effect. Man, what a pain in the ass.

  Spells like [Slip] and [Mirage] worked fine, probably because they were indirect. It was pretty clear that I had to think of something, but more importantly than that... I obviously had to report this to the king of Belfast.

  A military coup in the Empire was an enormous deal, and the king had to be informed about the rise of a demon army, as well.

  But should I tell him about Lucia and the Emperor...? They do have a tentative peace treaty, but they’re former enemies as well...

  I briefly entertained the idea of what might happen if the king wanted them out of the country. I decided I’d just let them take refuge in Babylon. I didn’t want to ally myself with any particular nation, but I definitely couldn’t give up on an injured person just like that.

  As I was thinking, Laim brought over Doctor Raul. I figured it was best to leave the rest to the professional. In the meantime, I had some planning to do. I had to devise a way to defeat the Demon Lord, as well as the general controlling him.

  Can I get those Artifacts off that general and manage to beat him, too...? Actually... hold on, it might be easier than I expected... Definitely might need some prep time, but I think I can do it... I carefully mulled over my idea and came to a solid conclusion. Yup, that should do.

  I had formulated my plan. Harassing people wasn’t exactly the classy thing to do, but I suddenly imagined the face of the general, weeping and begging. It was hilarious. Before I knew it, a sadistic grin was spread across my face. Everyone that looked at me kind of backed off a little.

  What, do I look that weird?

  ◇　◇　◇

  “His condition is stable for now. He just needs some bedrest and time to recuperate. He’ll be awake soon enough, I’m quite sure.” Raul put his stethoscope down and gave us the prognosis. By all rights, the emperor should have been riddled with an illness, but apparently there was nothing symptomatic of that at all.

  I wondered if it was the effect of the [Recovery] spell I had used on him. But it shouldn’t have been able to purge sickness or disease from the body. I once tried to use it on Linze to get rid of a cold, but it did nothing.

  [Recovery] was one of those spells where the details were a bit obscure. I wasn’t exactly a medical specialist, though, so I didn’t have a handle on the intricacies of disease classification. Viruses and tumors might have been a whole other ballgame. I decided not to worry about it too much, since the end result was clearly positive either way.

  “Goodness me... I never did think I’d be treating the emperor of Regulus... Life certainly comes at you fast.” Doc Raul gave a small wry smile as he spoke. I asked him to keep this matter a secret from the rest of the palace, just for the time being. The plan was to inform the king of the situation once the emperor woke up.

  From a medical perspective, he probably understood that we wouldn’t want to put any unnecessary strain on the patient. Yumina’s presence probably helped boost his confidence, at least.

  Lucia sat by her father the entire time, nursing him gently by the bedside. Naturally, Carol stood by the girl throughout all of this as well.

  “Princess Lucia... You should take some time to rest, If you end up passing out from exhaustion, your dad’ll get worried, won’t he?”

  “A-Alright, then... Erm, could you please call me Lu? I-If that’s okay, I mean.” The princess looked up at me with innocent eyes and a hesitant tone of voice. Well, if that’s what she wants, I don’t mind.

  “Alrighty then! Lu, was it? That’s nice.”

  “Y-Yes, thank you. That’s much better.” Lu looked up with a smile. I noticed someone staring right at me through a crack in the door. That someone was looking right through me. It was unsettling, honestly. Whoa, that’s scary! I-Is that Yumina? Why’s she glaring like that...?

  With that, the door opened and Yumina strolled in. She stood before Lu and bowed with decorum and grace.

  “A pleasure to meet you. I am Yumina Urnea Belfast, princess of the Kingdom of Belfast. Daughter of Tristwyn Urnes Belfast, king of the Kingdom of Belfast.” Carol and Lu both went stiff at the sudden introduction, but quickly snapped out of it. After a few short moments, Lu stood up and bowed in return.

  “Good tidings and a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Lucia Leah Regulus, third princess of the Regulus Empire. Daughter of Zephyrus Loah Regulus, emperor of the Regulus Empire.”

  Heh, so this is a formal greeting between royals, is it? It’s more adorable than beautiful or awe-inspiring, though. Probably because of their age, actually.

  “I’ve heard the news, how horrible. I’m quite glad you’re safe.”

  “Thank you. Thanks to the assistance of Sir Touya here, I managed to escape to safety.” Lu smiled like a flower in full bloom.

  “Indeed, that’s wonderful to know. It makes me happy that my fiance is so selfless. Touya is a wonderful fiance indeed.”

  “A-Ah... I-I see...” The flower wilted immediately.

  Is she okay?

  “My dear Lucia, would you please join me in my private quarters for a while? I think we have a matter to discuss.”

  “H-Huh? Right then, of course!” Lu hastily followed behind Yumina. After the door closed, Doc Raul muttered something under his breath.

  “...Catfight...”

  “P-Please don’t make jokes like that.” I personally didn’t find this to be a laughing matter.

  “Well, no matter how you look at it, you’ve swayed that little princess from Regulus. Two princesses enamored by the same man... It’s a recipe for trouble indeed.” Wait, seriously?! I thought she was just uneasy because I saved her life!

  “...You think Yumina noticed?”

  “Sorry kid, but she definitely has. She’s a little lady, but her ability to sense rivals is pretty well-honed, I think.” That’s... troubling. I hope those two’ll be okay. A sense of unease suddenly washed over me.

  It’s not like I can imagine Yumina yelling something like “Hands off, you hussy!” or something... I was still a bit worried, though.

  “...I don’t feel so good.”

  “Need a medical checkup?” That wasn’t what I mean
t.

  “Doc, if you wanna head back to the castle we can go through a [Gate]. I should probably report to the king, anyway.”

  “I’ll take you up on that offer, then.” I left the emperor in Carol’s care and headed through the [Gate] to the royal palace. Then, I immediately reported in to the king.

  “And that’s what’s going on in the Regulus Empire right now...” I explained most of the situation and proposed that a defensive line be drawn on the border closest to the empire. I also recommended that they focus on magical troops to prevent frontline casualties. After that, I made several Gate Mirrors for ease of communication.

  Gate Mirrors were small mirror pairs that I had enchanted with [Gate]. If a letter was sent through one, it would come out the other.

  If one was sent out to a fort or the front lines, it would allow near-instant contact with the capital.

  “Hmph... to have such good news and bad news all in a short timespan... What a day this has been,” His Majesty the King muttered with a small sigh.

  Hm? I only brought bad news, though... What’s the good?

  “Well, I’ll be blunt. Yumina is going to have a little brother or sister.”

  “Whuh?” I exclaimed.

  The king gave me a small grin. He seemed a bit embarrassed.

  “Heheh... congratulations! I hope your wife gives birth to a strong successor.” If it’s a boy, the likelihood of me having to take the throne’ll go way down. That’s just fine by me.

  “Hm... my feelings are somewhat mixed. If you succeeded me, Touya, I’d be quite happy.”

  “But if you have a boy, he’ll take the throne, right?”

  “Hoho, so you’re saying if we have a girl, you’ll be taking the throne?”

  “...No, that’s not what I meant!” The king’s argument was a little irritating. He shouldn’t have been assigning roles to people who hadn’t even been born yet.

  “So, what does the emperor intend to do...?”

  “Uhh... I’m not sure what’s going on there. He either fled with his daughter or was executed, the details are hazy.” I gave as vague an answer as I could. I wanted to wait until the emperor was at least stable and conscious before explaining everything.

  “For now, the general has an army and something needs to be done about that. If I defeat him, then the invasion should be prevented.”

  “Hoho... you seem quite confident, lad! I trust you have a plan, then?”

  “Well, I won’t know until I give it a shot...” I left the royal palace after giving yet another vague answer as to my intentions.

  The Demon Lord nullified all magic, but I still felt I could take it out with physical force instead. I couldn’t use [Gravity] on it, but maybe dropping something really heavy from above would do the trick...

  But even if I defeated the creature itself, the general would probably still have that passive magic resistance. On top of that, his Drainbracer would just absorb all the magic in the area and call the Demon Lord back immediately.

  Everything in this world had magic in it, no matter how miniscule. Animals, plants, tiny insects... all of these things had magical energy. Alone they were nothing worth noting, but combined they were great. If his bracelet could passively absorb magic from everything in the vicinity, then it gave him a fearsome power indeed. It was the very nature of magic that made the Drainbracer something truly formidable.

  The Blockbracer was another matter entirely. At first I thought it was preventing my bullets, but it was a bit different. The barrier generated itself depending on what hit the general. If his whole body was hit, then it’d deploy across his whole body.

  It didn’t seem to fully block damage when I made him slip over, though... He continued to fall regardless of whether or not he was hurt. In general, it was a troublesome automatic shield, though. I had to do something about it.

  There was nothing else for it, I’d have to use that.

  Well... it definitely won’t be fun for him. He certainly won’t like it one bit. Hey, at least it won’t kill him! There’s one positive for him. Heheh... I’m looking forward to it already.

  I decided to get ready for the battle ahead. I went home and asked Linze about a certain item that I hoped existed in this world. As it turned out, the item did not exist here, but there was something similar and considerably more powerful. It would be my ultimate weapon against him if magic proved impossible. I decided to head off and arrange it.

  I scoured the marketplace in Sandora, and was finally able to obtain it. The old merchant begged me not to open it anywhere nearby, so I put it in [Storage]. I wanted to test it out before the big day, but I didn’t want it to go wrong or anything. I decided there was no need to get ahead of myself.

  I headed off to the workshop and had Rosetta create several thick iron plates. I then enchanted them with [Invisible] and made them completely transparent. I had basically created reinforced metal with the visible properties of glass.

  I didn’t really understand the technical aspects of the spell that Leen often tried to explain to me, but it was good enough as glass for me.

  I was amazed to find that no matter how thick I made the sheet, it was completely see-through. I could probably set up some kind of aquarium through this method.

  Instead of getting sidetracked, however, I focused on my goal. I put the item I had bought in Sandora right in the middle, then finished the whole thing off with [Modeling].

  After it was complete, I quickly stashed my secret weapon in [Storage].

  “Hmm, you said something about the Drainbracer and the Blockbracer...” Rosetta suddenly tilted her head and folded her arms.

  “Hm? Do you know something about them?”

  “I’m pretty sure those things were meant to be inside the Storehouse of Babylon, yessir!”

  “Wait, what?” Seriously? Did those bracelets just fall out of the sky into his hands or something?!

  “Well, sir! It’s been thousands of years, sir! There’s no guarantee the storehouse is even still intact, sir! It may be that various artifacts and other such things fell out and are now all over the place, sir yessir!”

  “Wait a second... have you ever heard of an artifact that grants its owner immortality and control over the dead?”

  “Yessir! That’s definitely in the storehouse! Doctor Babylon sealed that one in there good and tight, sir!” I knew it! So the crisis in Eashen was caused by that, too? Wait, doesn’t that mean the storehouse might’ve crashed, or burst open, or something? That also means there might still be a ton of dangerous artifacts out there being spewed out even now, doesn’t it...?

  “If it crashed, what about the gynoid managing the place?”

  “We have short-range emergency teleportation capabilities, so it’s possible she escaped, sir! However... The one in charge of the storehouse is quite a careless and unruly girl, sir! So it’s also possible that the artifacts fell to the ground through other means...”

  Sounds like a troublesome robo-girl... Though, Cesca and Rosetta are just as bad, really.

  Oh well, no point worrying about it right now. Not like I can do anything.

  All that aside, my weapon against the general was ready. Evening fell, so I returned to my home with Rosetta, and it was here that Carol told me the emperor had finally woken up.

  I was glad he’d woken up, but I was still a little concerned. Carol set those fears to rest, however. She said he looked better than ever and was even ready to talk.

  She followed behind me as I entered the spare room with the emperor in it. He was there having a casual conversation with his daughter. He actually looked very well.

  “T-Touya, my father has awakened!”

  “Oh? This is the fabled Mochizuki Touya?” Lu turned around with a huge smile plastered on her face, while the Emperor regarded me quietly. He had a gaunt face and a long, white beard. He almost looked like a mountain hermit.

  “Please accept my most sincere words of thanks. You saved my daughter, you saved me... Words
alone are not enough, but even so...!” He bowed his head to me. Honestly, it was all a tad embarrassing.

  “Don’t mind it, Your Highness. I happened to be in your capital on a shopping errand.” No matter how you looked at it, it was just a coincidence. If I was there a day earlier, it would’ve been a very different story.

  “Regardless, I am thankful. To have had such a horrible thing happen, it indeed fills my heart with regret.”

  “So, what do you want to do now? I haven’t informed the Belfastian government of your whereabouts just yet. If you have somewhere you’d prefer to escape to, I can open up a [Gate] and take you there instead.” The emperor suddenly stopped and stared at me.

  Is there something on my face?

  “Touya... are you not an agent of Belfast?”

  “I live here, so I guess I could be called a citizen. But aside from that, I don’t serve the country formally or anything. I’m friendly with the king, but I don’t like to get involved in political affairs.” I figured he should go seek asylum in a safe place away from any political issues. Maybe he could go and see his second daughter, who was studying abroad or something.

  The emperor took a small while to think, then finally gave me his conclusion. “I would like to meet with the king of Belfast. Ideally, I’d like to meet him confidentially... Could you arrange this, perhaps?”

  “I mean, I could probably arrange that, but... Is that really fine with you?”

  “I think so, yes. It’s about time I spoke with him anyway, about the past, and our future together.”

  Hm... it’s not too late, so the king is probably still available... I decided that I’d take Yumina with me and speak to her father. I left the emperor and went off to find her.

  “Excuse me, can you repeat what you just said?”

  “Er, well... I’ve been granting political asylum to the Regulus emperor and his youngest daughter. I, er... I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” The king was completely surprised by what I had told him. He wasn’t entirely sure how to take it.