In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 8 Page 14

  “Well, regardless of-a that... Let-a me show you around. Onwards!” Parshe skipped off without a care in the world. Then she fell flat on her face. I figured this was just normal for her.

  I saw a large dome-shaped building as I came out from the undergrowth. Well, it wasn’t extremely large. It was about the size of an above-average house. It also looked just like an igloo, one of those Inuit homes made from snow. At least that was the closest approximation I could make.

  I passed through the gates and came to a pure white room full of equally white cubes. They were about fifty centimeters tall, and they were that long as well. There was one black monolith in the middle of the room, too.

  “You know... I kind of imagined there being... Stuff here. It’s a storehouse, isn’t it?”

  “The artifacts, personal funds, raw materials, public and private records, and other such matters are-a stored in the basement. At one-a point we had a minor breach in an outer wall, but it was-a quickly repaired.” That’s probably when the jewel and the other stuff fell out... At least it’s patched up now.

  “You can use-a this machine to call up items. Look here...” Parshe put her hand on the monolith and it began to whir. One of the cubes on the ground in the distance fell through the floor, and a similar cube rose from the floor in front of me.

  I looked closer and found small lettering on the surface of the cube. It seemed to be written in ancient Parthenese. It looked like every cube had a unique identifier.

  Parshe touched the cube and it opened up like a treasure chest. To my amazement, it was filled with golden coins.

  “The boxes can’t-a be opened by anyone but you or myself. Even Doctor Babylon wouldn’t-a be able to do it.” Huh, I see... So I effectively have the keys to the treasury. So then... All of this is mine? That’s great. I’ll use it well.

  I took out one of the golden coins from the box. It had a shape I didn’t recognize. But then I remembered seeing something similar when I’d first met Ende. That must’ve meant these were coins from Partheno.

  That made sense, in all honesty. The Storehouse was five-thousand years old, after all.

  But that made the money worthless to me. I thought about smelting it all and selling the raw product. Taking it to an antique dealer was out of the question. They wouldn’t believe something from so long ago would be in such incredible condition. It’d just get written off as fake.

  “Ohh, right! Are there any Frame Gear blueprints in here?”

  “Oh, the Frame-a Gears... Yep. We have-a those...” Parshe touched the monolith again and the box of coins sank into the floor. Another box quickly rose in its place. They looked identical. Without the serial codes I wouldn’t be able to distinguish them at all.

  I did what Parshe did earlier and touched the box. It creaked open. I stared at the contents, horrified. I closed the box.

  “...Parshe... Send it back... You made a mistake. Now. Send it back. Now. Please.”

  “Huh? Ah, that’s-a my bad... I got the number wrong.” Parshe touched the monolith once more and the box sank into the floor. I turned away from her. My face was beet red and I was sweating bullets.

  If you want to know what was in the box... It was just toys... Just... Adult... toys... I quietly reaffirmed my hatred for Doctor Babylon. I... didn’t even know they made ones like that...

  I opened up the new box and found a bunch of weird cylindrical containers. I tried popping one open to see what was inside.

  What I found definitely resembled a blueprint. There were lots of different pictures and fine details and annotations.

  I couldn’t read it. The solution was to use translation magic, of course. But I still couldn’t read it... It was way too complex to understand. Either way, this was a victory. We could finally create stronger Frame Gears. We couldn’t modify the Frame Gears we already had, but now we’d be able to make them from scratch. In short, we could make custom Frame Gears.

  Heheh... Should I make one with a tank as its lower half? I wonder if I can... I should search online for different robot designs... I can’t think of much other than heavy armor units, mobile suits, and backline support ones right now... Hehehe... I’m getting excited?! I can’t help it! I’m a guy, it’s too cool!

  ◇ ◇ ◇

  “So, can you do it?”

  “Yessir I can. I might be able to make Ether Liquid unnecessary, sir! Or, uh... Rather... I can probably make it so we don’t need to change the Ether Liquid ever again, sir!” We were in the workshop. Rosetta was explaining certain blueprints we’d found in the Storehouse.

  Ether Liquid amplified the magical power of a Frame Gear’s pilot and spread it throughout the mech. Up until now we’d been using it as a raw fuel, but the cores of the new models took magic from sunlight and the surrounding atmosphere. It was kind of like transitioning from cells to solar panels.

  But we needed crystalline material from dead Phrase to make the new power devices. It seemed like Doctor Babylon had noticed the unique qualities of the Phrase and figured out how to harness them for our benefit.

  Either way, it allowed Ether Liquid to circulate through the machine without losing any of its magic. We wouldn’t have to change out the fuel anymore.

  “Well, sir! This new system is a conceptual one! We can assemble various parts and put them on Bone Frames. It should allow us to assemble unique varieties of Frame Gear, sir! In other words, sir! The new way of making Frame Gears has no predetermined form!”

  “So we can build them as we want...? Or uh... It’s more like if we can’t figure out what we want, we won’t be able to make it?”

  “That is correct, sir. We could hypothetically slap anything we want together, sir! But it’d just create an ill-functioning hunk of scrap!” I didn’t want us to waste our resources like that. But at the same time, I was eager to start experimenting with what we could put together.

  “We must consider strength, armor, magical output, precision, mobility, and equipped weaponry, sir! This may be obvious, but if we make it heavily armored, it will have impaired speed! If we increase the output, it’ll drain magic faster! If we consider your positively ridicu— Er, incredible mana reserves, sir, then we may be able to make whatever the hell we want! But that won’t work for everyone, sir!” Well sorry for having a ridiculous magic pool... But geez, what do I do? I have a lot of magic, yeah... But it’d be best to make Frame Gears that others can use. I should probably think about making specialized Frame Gears that fit specific people. Elze’s should have a focus on power and speed, for example!

  Still, the specialized Frame Gears wouldn’t be usable by anyone but the person they were designed for. Plus there was the fact that gradually using a Frame Gear made it accustomed to you and vice-versa, so they’d really just be personal units in the end.

  “First thing’s first, sir! We’ll call the Mini-bots to the Storehouse! Monica and myself are insufficient for this task, sir.” That was fair. I noticed two of the helper robots wandering around the workshop. They were incredibly skilled, despite their weird looks. They lacked the ability to think for themselves and could only obey rigid commands, but their versatility was nothing to scoff at.

  I temporarily halted production of the Chevaliers so the workshop would be able to start building these new Frames. We’d made a lot of Chevaliers over the last few months, so I didn’t mind putting it on pause for a little while.

  “Alright, then... Let’s try making a Frame Gear for Elze. I want you to prioritize speed and power. Make the limbs heavily armored, too. Don’t worry too much about conserving magical power. We can always tweak that later.”

  “Sir yes sir!” I decided to start with Elze’s Frame Gear because her fighting style was the simplest. Punching and kicking the enemy until they were down. It was a tried and tested method. It wouldn’t need to be balanced or tweaked too much thanks to that. It was basically a model specialized for a single purpose.

  I left Rosetta to it and headed to the Storehouse.

  �
�Oh, Master. It’s-a you.” I entered the building and found Parshe there. She was wearing traditional shrine maiden’s clothing, a red hakama over a white robe. I had never seen a shrine maiden who had her hair in a ponytail before, though... Well, it wasn’t fair to apply the logic of my old world to this one anyway.

  I had forgotten about all the stuff I’d passed over to Zanac, so I was surprised to see her in such a culturally familiar garb. It was an odd choice... Having someone this clumsy as a shrine maiden was a little much... I wasn’t entirely sure that God would be okay with it.

  “I’ve-a cataloged everything in the Storehouse for you. There are-a one-thousand-and-ninety-three items in total, Master.”

  “Wow, that’s a lot.” I flipped through the list she’d given me. There were things in there that I recognized, and some things that I didn’t. There was also stuff on the list I knew I’d never want to look at. I decided that we didn’t need the “Ultimate War Panties,” the “Deadly Swimsuit,” or the “Bikini Armor,” for example. It would be better to separate them off entirely. Some things were better left sealed away.

  What’s this...? “Breast Enlarging Medicine”...? Better not let anyone ever find out about this... This could destroy nations.

  “Parshe. Don’t show anyone else this list, got it? And don’t tell anyone about things available in the Storehouse unless you have my express permission. Got it?”

  “Got it!”

  Breasts... Big.... Little... Everyone has them. Bigger, smaller, we needn’t worry about such things. Bread is delicious. Rice is delicious, too. Neither invalidates the other! That being said, some people did prefer rice over bread... The other way too. I personally enjoyed both. I was a little saddened, though. Because I knew too many men in this world had eyes only for those big, round things.

  Either way, I was getting off-topic.

  “That reminds me. There should be Ether Liquid in storage here. Have it delivered to Rosetta at the workshop, and Monica at the hangar.”

  “Roger!” Parshe touched the monolith and nine cubes came out of the floor. I checked over them and, sure enough, they were all five-hundred milliliter bottles of the familiar fluid. It really did look like soda...

  The mini-bots lifted them up over their heads and left the Storehouse.

  “Parshe, what’re these items with slashes through their names?”

  “Ah! These are items that-a we’ve lost...” She muttered in quiet disappointment. I saw the Blockbracer and Drainbracer on the list, but I didn’t see the immortality jewel on there at all...

  Oh, is it maybe this one...? The Eye of the Grave... I guess the guy who found it didn’t know its actual name.

  “Then that means Lestia’s Holy Sword is this Recovery Blade... And Ripple is the Living Frame. Neat.” Even excluding the items I’d seen, there were a few unaccounted for artifacts. Searching for them would be a pain in the ass. Plus it wasn’t likely that the people who had them would just give them up if I asked...

  As far as I knew, there was no way for me to find them. Even if I knew what they were called, it wasn’t like my search magic could find stuff I wouldn’t recognize at a glance. It was unfortunate, but the list sorely lacked images to go along with the names.

  “There really is a lot of stuff, huh...”

  “Doctor Babylon was a genius, but-a her organizational skills were subpar... She invented many-a things, and ultimately put them all in the Storehouse. She could’ve made a lotta dough if she’d spread her creations into the world.”

  “Doesn’t exactly seem like she’d been hurting for cash.” I thought back to the golden coins.

  “She-a wasn’t especially interested in money. The Doctor just-a did what it was she wanted to do.” I didn’t fully understand the Doctor or why she did the strange things she had done, but I couldn’t help but wonder sometimes...

  Doctor Babylon had used an artifact to look into the future and see me... And she decided to leave me the floating fortress of Babylon as her legacy. I wondered if there was more to it than that.

  “You don’t happen to have the item the Doctor used to see into the future in the Storehouse, do you...?”

  “To-a see into the future... Mm... You mean the Foresight Jewel? We-a have it, yes.” Parshe touched the monolith, and another cube-box sprung up from the floor. It opened up to reveal a beautiful glimmering orb about the size of a volleyball. It was on a masterfully crafted pedestal.

  “This is a uh... Foresight Jewel, was it?”

  “That’s-a right. If you focus your-a magical power, then a person in the future with a similar magical biorhythm to you will be shown in the orb. The person is-a completely random, though. And the future isn’t always-a on a stable track. It doesn’t-a usually reflect the same person twice, but when the Doctor used it, it always showed you. She must’ve been-a focusing hard on you.” It was probably because I was the only person it could reflect for her... Though knowing I have a similar biorhythm to that ancient perv isn’t really reassuring.

  I tried pouring some of my magic in, but nothing came up. Huh? “Is it broke?”

  “No. It’s-a not broken. It’s more likely that a person with your biorhythm won’t be born for over five-thousand more years. But of course the future isn’t-a fixed. You could always try again later.”

  “Wait seriously? A person with every magical affinity won’t come around for another five-thousand years at least?”

  “No. That’s-a only one of the factors. Even if-a they have all of the affinities, you won’t see them unless you match their magical rhythm closely.” I see... But still, having every magical affinity massively reduces the number of people I can look at. If I had no magical aptitude, I’d probably be able to see multiple people. That sucks.

  I was disappointed since I wanted to look into the future. Parshe mentioned something about being able to roughly estimate how far into the future you looked, so I was hoping to see what became of Brunhild down the line.

  “So you just use your magic on it?”

  “Yup. It didn’t do anything for me.” Linze was reading in the living room when I showed up with the Foresight Jewel. What happened next wouldn’t be hard to guess.

  “It sounds interesting, though. Could I try next?” Elze was on the couch cleaning her gauntlets, but she seemed interested. Yae and Hilde, who were sat next to her, also seemed curious.

  Yumina and Lu entered the room with some tea. Sue was busy at home, and Leen was immersing herself in books at the Library of Babylon.

  “R-Right then, let’s see...” Linze let her magical power flow into the Jewel, and it suddenly turned a jet black. Little lights flickered inside the orb, sparkling now and then. It was like gazing into space.

  The next moment, the image of an old man in a straw hat appeared in the ball. He had a white beard, and was tilling a field. Huh... What’s this? “Oh... Let-a me tune it...” Parshe lifted up the orb and turned a knob on the back of the pedestal. The image began to fade a bit.

  “What’s that about?”

  “Uhm... It was showing about-a fifty to a hundred years into the future. It seemed-a to be somewhere between Refreese and Regulus. I think.” That’s quite far in the future. I wonder if that old man’s a little kid right now... Or maybe he hasn’t even been born!

  “So... That old man and I have the same biorhythm...?” Linze seemed somewhat disappointed. I could understand, so I was at least a little sympathetic. But at least she had someone tuned to her wavelength.

  “I’ve-a reset the parameters. Now it’ll only show up-a to ten years in the future, and the region is limited to-a the local area.” Parshe put the Foresight Jewel back down on the table. The discouraged Linze let her shoulders sink a bit, and Elze was the next to touch it.

  Once again the beautiful space-like image appeared, and it came into focus on an elderly woman walking through town.

  “Huh, is this the castle town?”

  “I can see a big clock tower, but... Brunhild doesn’t have one of
those, does it?”

  “Ah... I only saw it for a second, but that was definitely the Silver Moon! It’s our town!” Indeed it was. As Yumina said, I had briefly saw the sign for the Silver Moon Inn. Just as I’d thought, it was Brunhild’s castle town.

  Huh. Wonder if I’ll build a clock tower soon, then... The image is only covering the immediate area around the person, so it’s a little hard to get a full view of the place.

  “Uh... D-Did anyone else hear that voice just now? I thought I heard a woman say ‘That’s a good price.’...” Lu moved slightly closer towards the crystal orb. The woman in the image was buying some apples.

  “It’s-a making a connection to the targeted person, sometimes it picks up voice. For the most part there’s-a too much interference for good audio, but sometimes it comes through well.” As everyone listened to Parshe’s explanation, the image grew darker until it faded completely.

  “Aaaah... The link has-a gone and expired. That-a usually happens a while after you take your hand off.”

  “We can’t see what comes next?”

  “That’s almost impossible. The target is-a completely random within a scope of ten years, after all.” It seemed like the artifact could only be set within a range of decades, it didn’t get more precise than that. Even if you were lucky enough to connect to the same person, you’d have to have insane fortune to see a continuation of where you left off last time.

  Even Doctor Babylon only saw dotted fragments of my life. Though the fact that she could view me from five-thousand years in the past was incredible enough.