In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 13 Page 12

  Let’s see...

  It’s in that direction... So... Let’s do this...

  “[Teleport].” Immediately the desolate plains around me became a lush forest. My feet were about ten centimeters above ground, so I briefly stumbled... But I managed to catch myself.

  “Wow... So I really could cover that amount of distance in one go...” I looked at the map and found the fort was still a few kilometers away.

  It went well, but not as well as I’d hoped. It was kind of like throwing balled up trash into a garbage bin. If you were used to it and practiced, you could probably hit the target just right. But you needed to practice.

  Still, that wasn’t a big deal. The fort was close enough that another teleportation burst would bring me into it.

  I didn’t want to alarm them, so I decided teleporting right in front of Nia was probably the smartest move to make. I opened up the map and checked on Nia’s location. She was alone, in a place that looked like a courtyard on the map, that was ideal.

  I shrugged my shoulders and cast my spell once again.

  I didn’t realize the horrible mistake I had made. I should have thought about it more deeply. I should have reconsidered. But I didn’t. And now I can tell you what happened.

  “Huh?” She wasn’t in a courtyard. She was in a small room. It wasn’t really a room, it was more like a green, circular tent.

  Before my eyes was Nia, leader of the Red Cats.

  “......Ah.” Her eyes were wide in shock as she glared down at me. Her red hair, usually up in pigtails, flowed freely down.

  Her hands were in the middle of lifting up her shirt, but were now frozen in place. Her pants were at her feet. Her lower body was only covered by some tiny red underwear...

  I’d teleported in on her changing her clothing.

  “...Why you...!”

  “Ah, no, wait... Please understand. This was an accident!” I felt an impending sense of dread ripple through the air as her cheeks became just as red as her underwear.

  This tent had clearly been erected in the middle of the courtyard. She’d clearly stepped into it to get changed. My map was too limited to show temporary structures like that.

  I looked up at Nia, who was now clenching her fist and glaring at me with an awkward half-smirk on her face.

  “Any last words, punk...?!”

  “Well...”

  “Well?”

  “Red’s a little mature...” The moment I dared to speak, Nia’s right hook got me clean in the jaw. I could’ve dodged it, but I had to man up and take it. I deserved it. Her punch was hard enough to rattle my brain around in my head. I collapsed right on the spot.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “...I see. So that’s how it is. You really should’ve just walked here normally...!”

  “I’m sorry, really...” I was bowing down in the tent, apologizing to Nia.

  “My liege, don’t worry about it.” Kohaku tried to reassure me about it, but her way of doing so was a little... Simplistic.

  Still... They did look nice... But I couldn’t find myself sinking into the pitfall that was that line of logic.

  “It’s probably a good thing you accidentally stumbled on Lady Nia, rather than Est. She would not have let you off with a mere punch.”

  “Est certainly shows no mercy... She works people hard and doesn’t so much as care a bit about it.” Euri, a member of the Red Cats with soft and wavy hair, spoke in a calm and casual manner. Nia nodded along with her.

  It seemed like their second-in-command, Est, was absent. The ponytailed girl, Euni, wasn’t present either. They were currently in Allen, the capital of the Allent Theocracy. I wondered what they were investigating... Still, it was clear that I had been saved from a grim fate.

  “That doesn’t mean I’ll just forgive you, though!” Nia grinned sadistically in my general direction.

  I had a bad feeling about that expression of hers.

  “...What do you want from me?”

  “What I demanded when we last met. Teach me magic. Something simple is just fine!”

  “Ooh! Teach me, too!”

  Oh come on... Is this seriously happening? Magic is known about in this world, right? It can’t be that hard to find a teacher. Hell, I was reading a book about magic earlier! How come I’ve gotta be the one to do it?

  Bah... Fine, I guess I can teach her something basic.

  “...Fine, then. But you gotta promise not to abuse the power.”

  “Abuse?! When would I ever?”

  “Just remember that a good person won’t use magic in a way that’ll bring regret down the line.” I thought it was probably futile talking about ethical magic use to the leader of a band of merry thieves, so I just opened up [Storage] and took out a couple of spellstones.

  I placed them on a table in the middle of the tent, next to a dimly lit lantern.

  “Ohh... What are these pretty little rocks?”

  Mm... I had a feeling spellstones didn’t exist here. Come to think of it, that could be why magic didn’t develop as much in this world. They’re kind of necessary to determine aptitude and stuff.

  This world did have something they called Leylight stones, which could’ve possibly been some kind of equivalent to light-type spellstones. It was entirely possible that there were other elemental stone equivalents I just hadn’t come across.

  “These are spellstone fragments. We can use them to determine the types of magic you have an affinity for. But don’t be surprised if it comes up with no results. There are a lot of people who can’t use magic, after all.”

  This world especially had a low amount of magic users, and I had a theory that even the mages in this world didn’t have much magical power in them, either. If you think about it in the analogy of a faucet, water won’t flow out unless you turn the handle. Perhaps the tap was never turned due to the handle being too stiff.

  Then, after several generations of being unturned, the handle would begin to rust. However, that meant the potential for water flow would still be there. It would just be even harder for later generations to turn the rusted handle and activate the faucet.

  From what I’d heard, there were magic schools in the Reverse World, but they weren’t exactly common institutions. Unlike the world I’d traveled from, the world with Yumina and the others, magic wasn’t considered anything particularly important here. That was probably thanks to the fundamental reliance on Gollems that this society had.

  Honestly, Nia becoming so fascinated by magic was a rare instance, too.

  That was probably because she’d gotten interested in all the weird stuff I could do with my own powers.

  “So, what should I do?”

  “You just need to chant an incantation while holding the spellstone. If the stone reacts, then it means you have an affinity for the magic type related to the stone you’re holding.”

  I wanted to show her an example, but I remembered what happened back with Linze at the Silver Moon when I was testing my own aptitude and thought better of it...

  My magic power was a teensy tiny bit too immense for practical examples in a casual setting.

  I told them the incantations they needed to know, and the results were in. Nia had an aptitude for Fire, and Euri had an aptitude for Light.

  Wow, I’m surprised... Didn’t expect them both to have an affinity. To be honest, though, I wish they’d both just turned up without any aptitude at all so I could forget about this... I better not tell them that, though.

  “Do you know about how to direct magic flow?”

  “I do, yes. You need to use the flow of magic power to manipulate a Gollem. Actually, that reminds me, Rouge is late today... Where did he go, I wonder.”

  Rouge was the name of Nia’s Gollem, if I recalled correctly. I’d never actually seen it myself. I hadn’t considered that it’d be an autonomous unit, I wondered what it was off doing by itself.

  Seemed like that orichalcum I gave them for repairs was more important than I’d thought.
/>
  Still, I had to focus on magic lessons. I was glad they already knew how magical flow worked, since explaining that was the hardest part... According to Linze and Leen, at least.

  Even when Sakura studied magic, it had taken her a while to grasp the basics of magical flow.

  “Alright, so... You need to gather the magic power in your body, visualize what you want to happen in your mind, and then chant the incantation.” Imagining the result made it easier for the spell to be cast.

  “Come forth, Light! Tiny Illumination: [Light Sphere].” A small orb of light appeared out of my fingertips.

  “Oooh! Amazing! It’s all shiny!”

  “Wooow... It’s so pretty...” I made it float around the tent and then snapped my fingers, ending the spell.

  “Can I do that spell, too?!”

  “You can’t, no.”

  “Whaaat, how come?!”

  “Remember what I said. There’s a reason we checked your aptitude. That spell just now was a light-element spell. You only have an affinity for the fire element, Nia. So you can only use Fire spells.” Nia sulked a little, then Euri raised her hand.

  “Does that mean I can...?”

  “It does, yes. Gather your magic power and imagine a little ball of light, just like the one I made. Say the same incantation I did, and you should be able to cast it.”

  “Uhm... Come forth, Light! Tiny Illumination: [Light Sphere]! Aaah!” A teeny tiny ball of light, around the size of a small coin, appeared at her fingertip.

  She was so surprised by its appearance that her concentration lapsed, and it vanished. But she’d still succeeded. It was a basic type of magic and wasn’t really hard at all, but a win was a win.

  I was glad to see that this world had people in it who were capable of picking up magic at a decent pace.

  “It vanished...”

  “That’s because you lost your concentration. When you get used to it, you’ll be able to cast the spell even without concentrating. That being said, you could use it to generate a blinding blast if you create an intense light and then immediately turn it off.” I was talking like a wise and knowledgeable teacher, but really I was just regurgitating what Linze had told me. If employed creatively, even basic spells could become invaluable tools.

  “Wow... I was able to use some magic, that’s so amazing!”

  “No faiiir! Let me do it! Hey, teach me some fire stuff!” Nia started to grumble, so we stepped outside the tent. We couldn’t exactly have her setting off fires while we were surrounded by cloth.

  We couldn’t have her setting off fires in the nearby forest, either...

  And a lot of the stone walls in this old fort were overgrown with dry ivy and other plants. In the end, we settled for a relatively safe-looking corner of the courtyard.

  “Come forth, Fire! Hail of Red Stones: [Ignis Fire].” A small bundle of fire dispersed from my fingertips. The flames hit a collapsed beam near a stone wall and wrapped it in flames. I’d held back a bit, so the heat wasn’t enough to melt stone. Some of the moss ended up burning up, but the flame burned itself out after a small while.

  “Whoa! That was a fire alright!”

  “It’s not enough to kill, but it’s a valuable tool in itself. It’s the most basic Fire spell there is.”

  Nia seemed excited to hear my explanation. She faced the same stone wall I’d faced and chanted the incantation herself.

  “Come forth, Fire! Hail of Red Stones: [Ignis Fire]!” Nia’s chant caused a small ball of fire to come out from her fingertips, blasting at the wall much like mine did. Hers seemed to pack quite the punch, destroying a tiny bit of the wall’s face on impact. I was surprised to see that kind of power from a novice.

  “I did it! Yahoo!” Nia began to cheer as multiple bundles of fire-like shots volleyed from her fingers. Seemed like she had quite the reserve of magic power. And then I realized what I should’ve been paying attention to the whole time. Wait a goddamn second. How’s she casting the spell again so quickly without chanting?! I-I mean, it’s possible to do that, but that’s an advanced technique! You can’t just keep doing it right off the bat, what the hell?!

  Nia only had an aptitude for one element, and it was true she knew how to flow magic already thanks to her Gollem... But to cast like this required an extremely experienced degree of magical control. Her skill was honestly unreal.

  “Touya! Do you know any other spells?”

  “Hm?” There were plenty, but Fire magic was mostly made up of offensive spells. Something small like [Ignis Fire] was fine to show her, but I didn’t want the entire forest going up in smoke. Still, maybe I could teach her something else...

  “Rise thus, Fire! Flaming Defenses: [Fire Wall].”

  “Wow! It’s a wall of fire!!” I showed her a more defensively-oriented Fire spell, but that spell was definitely more advanced, so I knew she wouldn’t be able to use it herself. “Rise thus, Fire! Flaming Defenses: [Fire Wall]!”

  SHE CAN USE IT?! Nia effortlessly repeated the spell I had just cast. Okay, no way... This is seriously a little much.

  I was beginning to feel how Linze must have felt when I was first starting to learn magic from her. In my case, it was because of god’s blessing... Well, more because I’m incredibly overpowered, but what about Nia’s? I wondered if maybe every human in the Reverse World actually had incredible magic potential. To test that theory I had Euri try a more advanced Light spell, but she couldn’t muster it at all. She had a good aptitude for magic, and she’d be able to do it after a bit of practice... But she couldn’t hold a candle to Nia.

  I decided against showing her stronger magic spells for that session at least. If she could cast something like [Mega Explosion] there’s no telling what kind of horrors she could unleash.

  I decided it might be wise to talk to Est about how to proceed here.

  “Say, Touya... Why’d you come here, anyway?” Euri turned to me and asked a fairly simple question. Oh, now you ask me? “I wanted to get myself a Gollem, but I don’t have any money. I came by to get the payment for the orichalcum and other stuff I sold you guys last time.”

  “Aaaagh! I completely forgot about that!”

  What.

  I didn’t expect her to try and skirt on paying me, but saying she forgot already was a little much...

  “It’s true we haven’t paid you yet, but we can pay! Euri, fetch Touya’s money from the safe.”

  “Yes’m!” Euri saluted and marched into the fort. ...You forgot about paying me, but you still had the money prepared and locked in a safe? Well, whatever... I guess that whole deal was a while ago.

  Euri returned with a small sack in her hands, which she promptly dropped into my palm. It certainly felt heavy, and I could hear the coins rattling around inside.

  “Uhhm... That should be about... A hundred and fifty royals? That’s totally gotta be enough... It took a lot to get that much!” I wasn’t sure about the exchange rate, but I learned the money I held in my hands was roughly one and a half billion yen.

  I couldn’t believe a band of thieves would have this level of money on them... Or maybe they had this much precisely because they were thieves.

  “Can I get a Gollem with this, then?”

  “You can buy a factory model, sure. I don’t know if you’d be able to get a legacy, though... They’re pretty special.”

  “It’s pretty rare to even see a legacy model on the open market.” That was interesting. I’d have personally preferred a legacy model, but a factory model would also end up sufficing for my purposes. After all, I planned on having Doctor Babylon inspect and upgrade whatever Gollem I ended up getting.

  “Then again... We could find you a legacy model... If we go there, I mean.”

  “Ah... That’s right. We could definitely find one there...”

  “Where?” I looked at the nodding duo in front of me in confusion, and Euri opened her mouth to explain.

  “Legacy Gollems are discovered by adventurers that delve into ruins, for t
he most part. There are places where they’re sold without going through the proper legal channels... There’s also a place where you can buy Legacy Gollems you wouldn’t ordinarily find for sale... Maybe because these Gollems were stolen from somewhere else, or maybe because they’re unusual and just not wanted anymore...”

  “There’s a place like that? Would I seriously be able to get a Legacy Gollem there?”

  “I think so, yes. We’ll be able to take you there, okay? It’s... A dangerous place, to be sure. But I’m sure that’s no problem for you, Touya.” Dangerous? That certainly sounds foreboding... Before I could ask for more details, Nia grinned and opened her mouth.

  “We’re off to the black market.”

  “The black what now?” That’s certainly an ominous name... It certainly conjures up a clear enough image of what kind of place it is... But I wonder if we’ll be able to go there without any trouble. “It’s a great place for underhanded dealings. You can buy anything and everything there. There’s far more than just Gollems for sale there.”

  “That sounds dangerous... Is it connected to some kind of underground organization?”

  “That’s correct, yes. The black market is operated by an underground organization called the Black Papillon. They’re different to us, there’s nothing they won’t do for money. Someday my goal is to use the Red Cats to bring them down... Wait, you could help me defeat them, Touya!” Nia started to concoct a plan without any of my consent at all.

  “Hold it, don’t get any funny ideas. Don’t drag a kind and upstanding man like me into your plans.”

  “The type of kind and upstanding man who peeks on a girl when she’s changing?”

  Ugh... That’s completely irrelevant here...

  “Well, let’s put that aside for now... If you want a legacy model, then we’re going to have to go down to the black market. Ruins don’t always yield them, after all.” Exploring ruins was certainly an option... But I decided to just go along with this idea for now.

  Plus, I was somewhat intrigued by what I’d been told about this place. It was possible I could get my hands on something weird.