In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 3 Page 13

  “Cesca, out of curiosity, were there any males among those of you made by Doctor Babylon?”

  “Males...? No, none at all. The doctor never bothered making any males. There were a few with more masculine personalities, however.”

  More masculine, huh... Come to think of it, Ende did strike me as rather androgynous. Looking back, I can’t really say for sure that Ende’s really a “he” at all. I mean, I highly doubt that’s the case, but... Cesca watched as I became lost in thought and shot me an even more suspicious glance. What is it this time?

  “...So you’re a homos—”

  “Alrighty, that’s enough! Stop! Please, for the love of God, don’t go there!” That’s not what I was asking, and I certainly don’t swing that way! I’m straight as a ruler! Man, I just really love girls!!!

  “Do not worry, Master. Be it young boys or big, burly-armed men, I will try to adjust myself to better suit your tastes. Shall I wear short shorts from now on?”

  “Thou shalt not!” Man, why is she strangely knowledgeable about these things in particular? Is she just taking after her creator like kids take after their parents? Look. Go on, look at what you’ve done. Everyone’s confused now... Except for Linze. Why’s she blushing?

  Chapter III: Everyday Life in Another World

  The next day, we all headed off to the guild. I was thinking that maybe I’d be able to meet with Ende again, but I also thought that it’d be nice to raise our guild rank to the next tier.

  Yumina was Green, one step behind the rest of us, who were Blue. The ranking system worked in an ascending order; Black, Purple, Green, Blue, Red, Silver, and then Gold. I wanted to get up to Red, because then I’d be considered a veteran adventurer.

  We had already struck down a Black Dragon, which was the kind of thing that would’ve corresponded to a Red Rank deed if we had done it through the guild’s quest board. In short, we definitely had what it took.

  Plus, the bigger the jobs, the bigger the payout. I was still unsure about exactly what it was I wanted to do, but I knew I’d need cash regardless. I was betrothed now, after all. I had to become more responsible.

  Everyone was quite familiar with Kohaku at this point, but it seemed that Kokuyou and Sango were drawing quite a bit of attention with their swimming-through-the-air routine.

  «The two of you should’ve stayed back at home. You’re far too conspicuous.»

  «Poppycock! Where our good lord goes, I shall follow.»

  «Exactly. Bessidess, don’t you ssstick out jusst asss much asss we do, Kohaku?» The three of them spoke through the telepathic link, but I could clearly hear everything. To be honest, the only reason they were sticking out so much was because of their floating. It could easily be remedied if they’d just let me carry them. But, when I offered, they refused.

  They said it was a matter of personal pride, and that they couldn’t accept being carried around by me. Well, it wasn’t a huge deal. I decided that if anyone asked about their air-swimming, I’d just say “a wizard did it.”

  When we finally made it into the guild, I looked around, but I couldn’t see Ende anywhere in the crowd. I wondered if he’d already gone to another town.

  While everyone else went to check out the request board, I caught the attention of the receptionist that I had signed up Ende with yesterday. I figured I’d ask if he’d done much since then.

  “Ah, the boy with the scarf? Yes, he completed a monster hunting quest yesterday and was paid quite handsomely. He was hunting Lone-Horned Wolves, I believe.” Lone-horned wolves, eh... That means he’s progressing like a regular Black Rank should. Heh, that was one of my newbie quests, too...

  “Although...” sighed the receptionist.

  “Hm? Did something happen?” The receptionist had a clearly forced smile on her face, but she couldn’t hide the glint of trouble in her eyes. I wondered what Ende had done.

  “His hunting quest stipulated that he must bring proof of defeat for five Lone-Horned Wolves... but he went a step further than that...”

  “...You’ve gotta bring in a horn as proof, right? How many did have?”

  “Well, I’m not entirely sure, but it was well over fifty.”

  “Over fifty horns?!” I couldn’t contain my surprise. Talk about overkill.

  “The request was only for five, so he received the standard payment, but he sold the other horns at their going market rate. He was certainly proud of himself.” Over fifty... what a guy. Come to think of it, wasn’t he unarmed? Guess he’s a mage after all, then... At least that’s the only way I can rationalize the massacre.

  ...Well, I had no idea and there was no point dwelling on it. It wasn’t my style to butt into other people’s business anyway.

  I decided to head toward the quest board, and the four girls who were waiting there.

  “So, find anything good?”

  “Ah, Touya... We did see this one, but...” Yumina pointed toward a Red Rank quest on the board. Hmm? We can only take quests up to Blue Rank, can’t we? This one’s a notch above us.

  I decided to read the notice anyway.

  “Mithril... Golem? What is that, a golem made of mithril? Located in the Melicia Mountain Range... and a reward of five platinum coins? Isn’t that a little cheap for a Red quest?”

  “It is a tad low, yes, but that’s because the foe is a Mithril Golem. Its body is a very precious material, an extremely valuable one at that. Depending on the chunks that you manage to salvage, it can sell at an exceptionally high price.” That made sense to me. So in effect, the monster itself was the reward. That was quite the juicy scoop... But it wasn’t like we could accept this quest anyway... or could we?

  “Any adventurer with a B-Rank title or higher is permitted to take this quest, bypassing rank restrictions?” Title...? Like the Dragon Slayer title I received a while back? As far as I understand it, there are other titles like Demon Killer and Griffin Buster.

  “Dragon Slayer is an A-Rank title, so that means...”

  “Hm? We can take this quest after all?” I tore off the quest form and brought it to the front desk. Come to think of it, while most of us have it, Yumina doesn’t have the Dragon Slayer title... Are we gonna be able to take this as a group, or not?

  A low rank wasn’t necessarily a great indicator of personal skill, anyway. A veteran soldier with brilliant battle prowess could always just decide to take a career change and start at the bottom ranks in the adventurer’s guild, after all. Holding a title was an easy way to get recognition independent of your Guild Rank.

  “No worries, the majority of your party hold the title, so you may take the quest as a group. Would you like to learn more?”

  “Yes, please.” The quest was at the base of the Melicia Mountain Range. A group working out of Stir Mine could no longer continue their excavation efforts due to a Mithril Golem settling in the middle of their operation.

  The creature seemed to have exceptionally tough armor. Furthermore, it was abnormally fast for a golem due to its material composition. It was made of mithril, so it was both lightweight and sturdy. It seemed as though many miners had already fallen victim to its rampage.

  Golems were viciously territorial, so they wouldn’t allow anyone to intrude on their territory. That was one of the reasons golems were the preferred method of defense for mages and their treasure hordes.

  “Well, those are the details... You guys wanna take this?” I figured I should confirm with everyone, but we all unanimously agreed. The part that needed to be destroyed was the Golem Nucleus. Apparently when that thing was trashed, the Golem couldn’t maintain its form and would die out. It would be pretty hard to reach the middle of the damn thing though, since golems were sturdy and all. A mithril one even more so.

  “Couldn’t we just make this another sure-win with your [Apport] spell? It worked last time.” Elze brought up an interesting idea as soon as we left the guild, but it didn’t seem feasible to me. Unlike the Phrase, the golem wouldn’t be transparent, so the nucle
us wouldn’t be on display. It wouldn’t work on the golem, that’d be too easy. Linze seemed to have the same idea, and she quickly shot down her sister’s hope.

  “A Golem Nucleus is about... this big. [Apport] wouldn’t be able to seize something of that size.” Linze held her hands out and mimed the shape of a volleyball. She was right. [Apport] was a spell that only worked on something you could grasp in one hand. Things of a large size were off-limits.

  Seems we had no choice but to confront it head-on... It definitely wouldn’t be easy. Up until that point, the Phrase had been my toughest foe, but perhaps the golem would give it a run for its money. Well, I’d be more than happy fighting a golem instead of something that could regenerate itself.

  Linze had destructive magic like [Explosion] and [Bubble Bomb], which would surely come in handy. Yumina had the Earth spell [Rock Crash] as well, and that could also prove valuable.

  Plus, Elze and her damage-bolstering right gauntlet would definitely be able to keep the pressure on the enemy. The only issue I could think of was Yae. She only had slashing attacks with her blades. She was fundamentally ill-equipped to deal with hardened foes.

  “Fret not, I will act as a diversion this time, I will.” I made a mental note to use some of the mithril to have a new katana forged for her after we finished the quest.

  “So, how do we get to the Melicia Mountains? We gonna rent a carriage again? Or maybe we should just buy our own already.” Elze rose a fair point. Traveling by carriage would definitely be the comfiest method, but I had another idea in mind. After all, I had gone through a lot to obtain this new mode of transportation.

  “We’re about to depart. Please remain in your seats until the seatbelt light has turned off.”

  “There are no seats. Or seatbelt lights.”

  “This kind of talk is necessary to the aesthetic. Please learn how to read the mood, Master.” It took a few days, but it was worth having the Hanging Gardens of Babylon move to the skies above Belfast. We’d be able to go anywhere we wanted in a matter of hours if we flew there on it.

  We were currently around two hundred meters up in the air. We weren’t even as high as the Tokyo Tower, but it was just fine due to the general lack of large structures and mountains in the area. Plus, we had a stealth field up, so nobody could even see us. The stealth field really was amazing. We didn’t even cast a shadow due to it. I had no idea how that was possible, but just wrote it off as another application of lost ancient magic.

  “Estimated arrival; one hour.” Cesca was monitoring the central control panel in the middle of the garden, and she told me how much longer our ride would be. The panel was pleasant to look at, as it was simply a large jet-black slate. I suppose you could call it a monolith. There was a basic map and some language that I couldn’t possibly begin to understand. I assumed that the moving, blinking light on the map was the garden itself.

  I left Cesca and the monolith, then wandered into the garden area to see that the girls were all sitting on a blanket. It seemed like a picnic was underway.

  “We’ve got about an hour before we touch down.” Yae passed a sandwich to me as I sat down between her and Yumina. It was just a standard ham and cheese, but I cocked my head in confusion after taking a bite.

  “I-Is something wrong, is there?”

  “No... nothing’s wrong... It’s just, uh, different from usual. It tastes better, actually.”

  “I-It does?!” Yae patted her own chest in relief. Weird, though... it has more salt and pepper in it than Crea usually includes... Wait a second...

  “Yae... did you make this?”

  “Y-Yes, I did... C-Crea-dono was teaching me, she was... I-I decided that i-if I was to be your wife, T-Touya-dono... then I should master the kitchen, a-alongside mastering the sword...”

  I see, that makes sense. Glad I didn’t say anything careless, then... I happily munched down on the sandwich, thanking Yae for her efforts.

  “Here. I made this! You should try it.”

  “Hmm? You made something too, Elze? Sure, I’ll give it a go.”

  “W-Wait, that’s...” I reached out for the fried chicken that Elze had offered to me. Linze tried to mutter something, but it was too late. The fork was already in my mouth.

  “Hh...”

  “Well? Tasty, right?”

  “Hhhhhhoht! Ugh! Sspischey! Mai thounghe! Hohthohthohthoht!!! Iht hurthts!” Yumina quickly passed me some water, but it wasn’t nearly enough to help. Linze managed to produce a block of ice about the size of a basketball, so I rested my tongue on that. Crisis averted.

  “I can’t believe what you’ve given me... I can’t believe it...” There were tears flowing down my face, but they sure as hell weren’t tears of joy. Just what was with that spicy chicken?!

  “Huh? Is it that hot?” Elze nonchalantly chowed down on the chicken, popping another piece into her mouth. While I was wondering how that brazen maniac was still breathing, Linze started to apologize on her behalf.

  “My sister has a... freakish resistance to any kind of spice. When she cooks, she tends to make the hottest kinds of dishes imaginable... She wasn’t permitted in the kitchen back at home for this reason.” Damn it, Linze, why didn’t you speak up sooner? I didn’t expect to feel this crippling sense of defeat before we even reached the golem...

  At that moment, I resolved that Elze would never be allowed to cook in our household. It was simply too much of a health and safety hazard to let her near anything to do with cooking.

  Ugh... my tongue hurts so much... A-Are my lips swollen, too?!

  ◇　◇　◇

  We arrived at the Melicia Mountain range and headed north. Before long, we came to a halt in the air directly above the Stael Mines. I peered down at the mining area directly below and opened up a [Gate] to drop us off at the surface. Cesca was left to hold down the fort on her own at the garden. From the moment we touched down, we noticed the whole area was wrapped in an almost eerie silence.

  “Do you think everyone abandoned the area?”

  “With a golem roaming about, just about anyone’d do the same. Once those things take to an area, they tend to wipe out anyone or anything careless enough to get close. No need to go looking for it, I’m sure it’ll come for us anyway.” Yumina and Elze chatted a little while I ran a search on my map for “Mithril Golem.” I found it pretty quickly. It was dead ahead, deep within the tunnels. In fact, it was heading in our direction.

  “Okay, we should be good. Looks like the golem’s willing to bring the fight to us. I was worried about the possibility of a cave-in, but it looks like we’ll be fine. Once it pops out, should I start throwing it around a bit with [Slip], maybe?”

  “That wasss hell...”

  “I could go without experiencing that ever again...” My idea seemed to have touched on a recent point of trauma for both Kokuyou and Sango.

  “But will that work on a golem? Unlike these two, a golem won’t beg you for forgiveness with tears in its eyes.”

  “You tryn’a ssstart sssomethin’, fuzzball?”

  “Kohaku... I would advise against that. We are not to be trifled with.” I had to take a moment to calm those 3 down, or they’d have been at each other’s throats for the rest of the day.

  Still, Kohaku made a valid point. The actual physical damage I could deal with [Slip] wasn’t that great, and I doubted I could beat a golem relying on that alone. Even against Kokuyou and Sango, that strategy only worked because the fight was on a time limit.

  So, if I have to come up with something else... then there’s something I’ve been wanting to try out.

  “I’ve gotta go grab a couple things. I’ll be back in a sec.” I left these words behind as I opened up a [Gate] to regroup with Cesca in the garden.

  Upon finishing my preparations and returning to the mining area, I found that the golem’s footsteps had already come within earshot.

  “Where the hell’d you run off to?! The damn thing’s practically on top of us already!”

/>   “Sorry, took longer to prepare than I thought.” As I apologized to Elze, I ran over to Linze and Yumina and handed them each 50 rounds of [Explosion] bullets. I also gave my New Model Army to Yae along with a few bullets. She wouldn’t be doing much in terms of firepower since her sword was useless, so you could never be too careful.

  If things went as planned, then it shouldn’t have to come to that anyway, but the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, or so it went.

  The golem’s thudding footsteps approached in tremors. It was about to take center stage any minute. I kept close watch on the tunnel entrance, only at that point noting how huge it was. I began to wonder if that tunnel had been dug by the golem itself, rather than the miners. If so, then the golem could well have been scraping its head along the ceiling of that trail.

  The closer it grew, the stranger its footsteps sounded. It was almost as if there were two pairs of legs walking toward us...

  “It’s here, it is!” A giant silver body shot off reflections from the sunlight as it stepped out from within the darkness of the tunnel.

  It was like a bunch of boulders all piled on top of each other, except for that brilliant metallic sheen to the whole thing. It had to be at least 6 meters tall. It stood on short legs and had large, long arms. Its face was blank and featureless, save for two small holes for eye sockets. Glowing, sickening red eyes glared at us from within.

  “T-Touya, look!” Yumina pointed at the second golem that steadily made its way out from the tunnel, just behind the first one. The second also shone silver in the sunlight.

  Two Mithril Golems? That’s not what the information said! Guess this explains the second set of footsteps, though. Didn’t even notice when I checked the map earlier... The two pins must’ve been overlapping each other at the time... They’re sticking together like husband and wife! If I’d only zoomed in on them at the time, I’d have known beforehand that we’d have to deal with a pair of them... Hell, at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if a little tiny golem kid came running out from behind them.