In Another World With My Smartphone_Volume 5 Read online

  Guess I’ve got no choice, then. I’m gonna have to look through those dusty old magic books. I’d bought a ton of encyclopedias about Null magic from various bookstores, and gotten them together in the castle’s library. The books had records of Null magic from all over the world, and from various periods in time. But, since it was a comprehensive list, the spells ranged from useful... to absurdly useless. One of the spells allowed you to make ants walk in a straight line. I couldn’t even think how anyone discovered that, or why. “Touya, bruv... you’re really gonna look through all of this?” Renne was free, so I asked her to help out. But after looking at just one book, she seemed intimidated. I guess she had a point...

  The worst thing about all of these books is that they were all published independently of each other, and at different points in time. Therefore I saw a lot of repeated spell names in each book. [Gate] was apparently pretty well-known. It was listed in every one.

  “Yep, I think so. Gonna scour them all. Let’s have Lain and Cesca help us out later on.” Renne sat on a chair and began to look through the books. While we were ostensibly searching for magic that’d allow me to fly, I also asked her to keep an eye out for any spell that might seem useful as well.

  I thought maybe the spell would be called [Fly], or [Flight], but even if I invoked those names, nothing happened. I wasn’t entirely sure why that was the case, but it was probable that I needed to fully understand the effects of the spell before I could visualize and use it.

  I wondered now and then, but my power felt more like a copy ability than anything else. I replicated magic that already existed, and made it my own. I never really created my own.

  I decided thinking about stuff like that was a bit pointless, though. As I flipped through the books, I found some interesting spells now and then. Like [Taboo] a spell that censored certain words and made it impossible to speak them. That was interesting, but I didn’t know exactly how useful it’d be. For example, I could forbid the use of the word [Fireball], and that might prevent my enemy from casting that spell, but it looked like the effect was limited to one word per person.

  “Oi bruv, what about this one?”

  “...Nope, don’t need that one.” What Renne had found was a spell named [Mosaic]. I wasn’t sure about it... Apparently it was a kind of spell that interfered with the visual spectrum and allowed you to blur certain objects in people’s field of view, but... all it made me think of was something sexually obscene. It confused me, because mosaics were supposed to be a pattern-based art form! I had no idea why it created that kind of effect.

  Other spells included [Silence], a spell that made things quiet. [Speaker], which made everything noisy... and [Shield], which created an invisible barrier to defend the user.

  Luckily it hadn’t been a complete waste of time, I’d found a few useful spells. [Silence] didn’t actually prevent spells from being cast, like I’d thought it might. It just made the chanting inaudible, they could still be cast even under the effects of the spell.

  Regardless, we still hadn’t found what we were looking for to begin with...

  “Oho.” My hand stopped on a certain page.

  [Levitation]. It was a spell that allowed objects to float. But it seemed to only make things float within arm’s reach of the caster. I figured it’d be around two meters, then. Meaning it’d be a useful spell for carrying stuff, but I already had [Storage] for that anyway. Then again, I couldn’t use [Storage] on living creatures, so it could end up being useful after all.

  “[Levitation].” As a test, I decided to use the spell on the book. The heavy old tome started floating up in the air. Whoa, it really is floating! I tried moving it around in the air. Yup, it can move, but... As I’d expected, it couldn’t move any further than my own reach.

  I applied [Levitation] to Renne as another test, but it looked like she couldn’t move freely in the air. She motioned like she was swimming, but only budged a tiny bit. I wondered if propelling her with a fan or something would work... Renne seemed like she was having fun, but it wasn’t really something you could call flying. She couldn’t go beyond two meters, and she was crawling at a snail’s pace. But seeing her did make me wonder if I could enchant it into a rug and make a flying carpet like in Arabian Nights. “I guess I’ll memorize this one for the time being.” The magic seemed like it had potential, I just had to learn how to apply it properly.

  When the afternoon rolled around, Cesca and Lain came to help us. With the power of four, our speed was increased considerably. After just two hours, Cesca finally found it.

  “[Fly]. The method to propel oneself with magic. Indeed, this must be it. It seems that the spell consumes a considerable amount of magical power, but I doubt that’ll be an issue.” According to the book, the person who originally used this spell could freely fly for a maximum of three minutes. But apparently when it was over, he came crashing towards the ground. I doubted that’d be an issue for me, I had the convenient power of teleportation portals, after all. Three seconds were enough to regain enough magic to create one.

  Either way, I’d have to test it out. That was the first step.

  I arrived at the training field and began to concentrate my magical energy. Renne, Cesca, Lain, Nikola, and Elze were all watching me. The latter two took a break from their training to come over and watch. Old man Yamagata and company also came over. It was a little distracting. But regardless of the attention, I had to focus.

  “[Fly].” My body suddenly began to float about one meter above the ground. It was awesome. My body turned without me actively willing it, so I figured it was operating on my most basic thoughts, like moving a limb. I decided to try going up a little higher, but the moment that thought entered my mind, I shot several meters up in the air! Uwaaah! The fine-tuning left much to be desired. It kind of felt like I was operating one of those RC Helicopters, but without a controller. After a while, I was up way too high for comfort, though. I’d tried seeing how high I could go, but had to stop when the air became so thin and cold that I started losing feeling in my limbs. I thought I was gonna suffocate!

  The next test was working out my maximum speed. But again, I had to stop. The wind on my face was extreme, way too extreme! I had to close my eyes and fly blind for a while.

  Hrmph... maybe this’ll be tricky to deal with. Should I use [Shield], maybe? I put up a barrier, and it worked as a makeshift windscreen. Yup, that works.

  After that, I decided to try turning around. I started zig-zagging, stopping suddenly, nosediving, somersaulting! It was actually really fun. Alright, let’s try three spinning somersaults!

  I got a little carried away...

  “...You tried spinning around in the air and you’re surprised you got queasy?!”

  “I-I don’t really have an excuse.” I was completely exhausted, lying down beneath a tree with my head on Elze’s lap. I’d calmed down some, but the incident itself was still a little extreme for me.

  I didn’t even know why I’d done it, I hated riding stuff like rollercoasters. High-speed stuff like that definitely wasn’t my scene. Come to think of it, the Great Gau River ride left me feeling kinda seasick, too...

  For whatever reason, [Recovery] didn’t alleviate queasiness like this. When Baba got drunk on sake, I tried using that spell on him as a sort of field test. It sobered him up right away, which I found hilarious. Then again, I guess being drunk on sake and dizzy on motion sickness are two different things. Incidentally, old man Baba started drinking booze right after he sobered up.

  “Were there any other problems?”

  “Nah, it was pretty much fine. I did get super cold when I went way up high, though...” Come to think of it, I could probably use [Warming] to negate the cold. But the atmosphere’s way too thin up there, and it’s not like I was looking to explore space anyway.

  I raised my head and sat up properly, I didn’t intend to use her as a lap pillow forever. Hm, stuff like this has gotten less embarrassing lately. We probably look like one
of those annoying lovey-dovey couples at this point, huh...

  “Hey, Touya... Do you think you could use that magic on me? Would I be able to fly then?”

  “No, I don’t think it’s possible. I can’t use my magic in that way. You can’t put [Boost] on Linze, right? It’s the same thing.”

  “I guess so...” Elze let out a sad sigh. I think she wanted to fly with me.

  “You should be able to fly if I hold you in my arms, though.”

  “A-Ah, that’s... p-pretty embarrassing.” Elze turned beet red and looked down nervously. So lap pillows are fine, but being held isn’t? I don’t get the criteria here!

  “You might be able to fly by my side if I used [Levitation] as well, but you wouldn’t be able to fly freely in that case.” I tried to make Elze float using one of my newfound spells. She was caught by surprise and tried to flail around, which was a little funny. After she calmed down, I tried levitating her around. As expected, she stopped around about where my arms could reach.

  “[Fly].” I used my flying spell after that. As I rose, Elze rose with me. I’d figured it out. I’d be able to raise people up and down based on my own location in the air. So long as I paid attention, I could use [Levitation] to make people fly alongside me.

  I took care to maintain everything, and flew up to the castle balcony. Yup, no problem! Elze staggered around and put her hand to her chest, letting out a sigh of relief.

  “That was scary! I-I’m still not used to it. M-Maybe I don’t need to fly after all...” Heh, that was amusing. But I could understand. Her movements were beyond her control, and if she fell from that height she’d definitely die.

  That aside, my mission was complete. This new spell changed the game for me. Creatures like the Manta Phrase no longer had air superiority over me.

  “I’m gonna go fly again.”

  “Okay, don’t get sick this time.” Elze waved me off, and I circled the castle a few times. After that, I flew across the highway. Looking down on the town from above, it was easy to see it’d been expanded considerably. It was quite an emotional sight, if I’m honest.

  Still, it did look more like a shopping district than a full town... I touched down in a back alley, where I’d noticed a few children playing with spinning tops.

  “Uwaaah?! M-Milord?! Wh-What a surprise!”

  “Did you just come out of the sky?!”

  “Th-That’s amazing!” It was a little heart-warming to see the kids look up to me. I didn’t want them to revere me too hard, though.

  “What?! Do you dare think a goddamn sorry is enough? After treating a customer like this?!” A crude male voice echoed from across the street. I looked over from where it came from, and there seemed to be a commotion going on in a coffee shop.

  Two large men stood on the shop patio. They looked like military-types. More importantly, they were hassling a waitress.

  “Lookie here! There’s a goddamn cigarette butt in my food! How can you expect me ta pay for that?!”

  “You better compensate us, bitch! What if we ate it?! What if we got a tummy ache?! Good thing we’re so goddamn attentive, understand?!” Those guys were assholes. They totally looked like crooks. I had no doubt they were lying.

  I walked over to the shop and spoke to the waitress.

  “Something wrong here?”

  “A-Ah, these two gents say there’s a cigarette butt in their food, but... Nobody who works here actually smokes, so I don’t understand!”

  “Hear that, boys? Sounds like you’re mistaken. Sure neither of you dropped it in the food by mistake?” The waitress stood behind me, and I puffed out my chest. The two men glared daggers at me.

  “Huh? What’s it ta you, fuckface? You looking down on us, brat? Who the hell’re you?”

  “Yeah, you little shitbird. Want a first-class ticket to paintown? Step right up, bitch.” The two men loomed in closer as they cracked their knuckles. Well. Let’s have a little fun, then.

  I touched the men on their arms, pushed them, and they fell back easily. They flew away from the shop and landed in the middle of the road.

  “Ghuh!!”

  “Aghagh!!” They flew pretty easily, but that was because I’d reduced their weight with [Gravity]. Neither of them seemed to understand what had just happened, but they charged at me regardless. One brandished an axe, the other held a broadsword.

  “[Slip].”

  “Augh!”

  “Eek!” The two men went tumbling down. Then, I used [Gravity] to keep them down. They were completely immobilized by their own increased body weight, so I strolled over, grinned, and squatted down near them.

  “A-Augh... h-how...!”

  “I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t cause trouble in my country. I can’t really overlook things like this, given that I kind of run the show around here. Understand?”

  The two men looked at each other in shock, their expressions shifting in fear. The surprise coating their faces acted as proof that they understood who I was. Bah, these guys are a real pain in the ass. What should I do with them?

  Actually, we don’t have a prison or anything yet, do we... Guess I should take this opportunity to set one up.

  I took out several iron pieces from [Storage] and created a decently-sized prison room. After that, I applied a few enchantments, and a [Program]. Then, after stripping them of their gear, I tossed the two men inside.

  I called it a prison, but it was just an iron box with one see-through wall. There were no bars, either. I wasn’t a monster, though. I’d put airholes in the ceiling!

  Now, let’s begin the punishment! The moment the door closed, the two of them began to scream and yell. At least, it looked like that’s what they were doing. I’d soundproofed the cell. The two of them were running around the interior of the prison, clutching at their ears and roaring in what looked like extreme discomfort. Despite the commotion going on in there, not a single sound leaked out. I’d enchanted the cell with [Silence] after all.

  “M-Milord... what’s going on in there?”

  “Mm, just a little crash course in white noise.”

  “Err, noise?”

  “There’s a sound blaring in there at a similar frequency to nails coming down a chalkboard, and a fork scratching against a plate. Over, and over, and over again.”

  “O-Oh goodness me...” The waitress slinked back a little, a dash of fear clouding her eyes as she looked at me, and then the floor. What’s her problem?

  Eventually the guardsmen came running over. I set it so the sound would stop when the door was opened, so I handed the key over to them, placed the jail in a good position, and told them to let the guys out whenever they felt it appropriate.

  Seeing that commotion made me realize that there was a lot more to work on in my country. I definitely need to improve defenses and public order infrastructure... Maybe I should finally get around to establishing my knight order.

  I flew off towards the castle, pondering my next course of action.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “...And that’s why I think we need to establish our Knight Order.” Everyone sat around the conference table, but only Kousaka stood up after I made my case.

  “Given our current national interests, I believe I have a reasonable plan set out, then. For our knights, we shall start with thirty ex-Takeda troops. They were originally our subordinates, so we’ve already vetted them extensively. Fifteen of Baba’s men, fifteen of Yamagata’s. On top of that, we will integrate ten former Takeda ninjas, commanded by Tsubaki, to create our intelligence corps. In addition, we should take sixty new recruits, giving us a nice round one hundred. What are your thoughts?” Sixty new recruits sounded good to me. The town wasn’t especially large, so it sounded like a good start.

  Aside from myself, the conference room was occupied by Baba, Yamagata, Naito, and our chief ninja Tsubaki. Lain, Nikola, and Norn were also present. Kousaka, Naito, and Tsubaki weren’t really knights, but it made sense to include them on military matters.<
br />
  “So what are the qualifying traits we want in a recruit?” Old man Baba spoke up with a question, to which I replied immediately.

  “Well, let’s see... I’ll reject anyone with a criminal background right off the bat. Sex doesn’t matter. Race doesn’t matter. Neither social standing nor age matter, either.”

  “Isn’t that a tad broad? Won’t we get a swarm of candidates in that case?” Yamagata had a point, but I decided that taking a ton of applications gave us a better chance of finding talented people.

  The mission here was to separate the wheat from the chaff, and find the diamonds in the rough.

  “Who’s going to be the commander, anyway?” Naito raised his hand and let out an innocent enough question. Oh, I never thought about that. I cast a cursory glance over at Yamagata and Baba. “I’m sorry, my boy, but... I won’t be taking that role. Squad captain’s more than enough for me.”

  “Same here. It ain’t in my nature to take such a demanding job.” Welp, it was worth a shot. I had hoped that one of them would accept, since they had served as generals for Takeda and all, but... I guess they’d had enough of that life. Well, that just leaves...

  “I’ll have to pick one of you three, then.”

  “Wait, us?!” Lain’s rabbit ears perked up rapidly. Norn and Nikola just stared, dumbfounded. I didn’t know what they were so surprised about. The wolf, rabbit, and fox trio were formal knights of my kingdom, after all.

  “Well, there’s nobody else.”

  “B-But we can’t be commanders, that’s impossible!” Lain waved her hands in a fluster all of a sudden. The two behind her nodded in unified agreement.

  “Well, I mean, in the case of emergencies you three band up with me anyway, right? I just think it’s necessary to have a commander while I’m absent. Plus, it’s only a company of one hundred.”

  “That’s true, but...” Having a commander was necessary. Even if it didn’t have that many members, I needed to maintain a hierarchy. But the issue was which of them to choose. They were all talented, but all had their drawbacks too.