In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 12 Page 14

  Hmm... I’ve never gambled before. I mean, I’ve never been old enough to gamble, you know? It’s not like I’m not interested, though.

  I guess I have the money for it, so... why not?

  “Alright, let’s do some gambling.”

  “You can if you like... But I fear that your fiancees may not approve of this.”

  “Little Kougyoku isss jussst a sasssy old ssstick in the mud... If you win it big here, darling... You can get lotsss of good presssents’ for your girliesss!”

  “Mm... It looks pretty fun, Kokuyou is right.”

  Alright, well... They seem to be down with it. I’m gonna do it! It’s an experience at the end of the day.

  I puffed up my chest with confidence and stepped into the gambling city.

  “G-Gambling sure is scary, huh...?”

  I played game after game until the sun came up, and in the end I walked out with nothing.

  I should’ve just used magic to cheat... But they had eyes all over the place... H-How could I let this happen?!

  It would appear that I had no talent at all for the art of the gamble.

  “A-At least I managed to win that one time...”

  I ended up betting more so I could recoup my losses, but as I lost more and more, that pit only dug itself deeper.

  “D-Don’t be dissscouraged, darling...”

  “...You really should’ve quit while you were behind. I would’ve.”

  “O-Oh well... I guess these things happen.”

  “Let’s... Let’s just go home via the divine realm already... I have to give god his souvenir...”

  With a heavy heart, I opened up a [Gate] to the realm of the gods.

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  Chapter IV: The Little King and the Prodigious Girl

  It had been three days since I came back from the Reverse World.

  I gave everyone their souvenirs, and right after Leen and Doctor Babylon retreated to the research laboratory. Linze and Fam holed themselves up in the library as well.

  That left only Rosetta and Monica working in the garages. They had their mini-bots to help them out, at least.

  The two gynoids each picked up a mini-bot and took a look at them.

  “So the Gollems are kind of like these guys, huh?” The little minibots tilted their head as if to ask “What’s wrong?” Once they were set back down they ran back to join their brethren, dashing in a cheery manner. According to Doc Babylon, they were mindless automatons that obeyed in a similar manner to summoned beasts.

  Compared to the Gollems, the mini-bots weren’t quite up to spec. The Reverse World seemed to be superior in terms of autonomy.

  “My Frame Gear certainly looks nice...” Yumina stood next to me, looking up at the Frame Gear being constructed nearby.

  It was incomplete, but you could see it coming together fairly nicely. It was clearly a well-armored silver Frame Gear.

  “Did you think of a name for it yet, Touya?”

  “Yes, I did. Brunnhilde.” The long-range attacker Frame Gear, Brunnhilde. It was designed to deliver powerful sniper shots from afar. It was outfitted with silver armor, designed to help camouflage it against its surroundings. It was basically what we’d use for a more subtle kind of assault.

  “Brunnhilde... Shouldn’t it be you with the Frame Gear named after the country?”

  “Ah, it’s just... Everyone else’s Frame Gears are named after the nine warmaidens, right? I think you should have this to complete the set... Besides, Brunnhilde is close to Brunhild, but it’s not quite the same.”

  The names of all the Frame Gears were taken from the names of the Valkyries in Richard Wagner’s famous opera, “Der Ring des Nibelungen.”

  ■Brunnhilde

  Yumina’s Frame Gear. Sniper type

  Primary Color: Silver

  ■Gerhilde

  Elze’s Frame Gear. Melee type, specialized in hand-to-hand combat

  Primary Color: Red

  ■Ortlinde

  Sue’s Frame Gear. Defensive type

  Primary Color: Gold

  ■Waltraute

  Lu’s Frame Gear. Guerilla-type, specialized in adaptive combat

  Primary Color: Green

  ■Schwertleite

  Yae’s Frame Gear. Melee type, specialized in swordplay

  Primary Color: Purple

  ■Helmwige

  Linze’s Frame Gear. Aerial support type

  Primary Color: Blue

  ■Siegrune

  Hilde’s Frame Gear. Heavyweight melee type, specialized in swordplay

  Primary Color: Orange

  ■Grimgerde

  Leen’s Frame Gear. Heavy bombardier type

  Primary Color: Black

  ■Rossweisse

  Sakura’s Frame Gear. Support type, specialized in area-of-effect skills

  Primary Color: White

  All the knowledge gained from the creation of these Frame Gears would be incorporated into my own personal machine, which was set to be created after Yumina’s was done.

  It wasn’t as if I wasn’t capable of fighting on my own, or anything... But going up against Upper Constructs or stronger creatures quickly tired me out. I wanted to have a suitably powerful machine just in case the day came that the Phrase were able to freely pass through the ruined world barrier.

  That was why I decided to create the masterwork Frame Gear and have it assigned to me. Plus, to be honest, who wouldn’t want their own personal giant robot?

  “So, Brunnhilde is equipped with a sniper rifle for long-range attacks, but also has four flying Fragarach blades for mid-range interception. You can also go more covert with this one due to the stealth function built into the armor. Though the armor kind of stands out a little when it hasn’t got its stealth function activated...”

  “Y-Yes, it is a tad gaudy.”

  “Well, this is the best color for getting the most out of the stealth function, so it’ll be fine. I’m sure you’ll get used to it.” It would only stand out at the start of the battle, once it was active it’d blend in really well.

  “The other world has something similar to Frame Gears, right?”

  “Ehh... They’re more like the mini-bots. They’re also similar to summoned creatures, in that they obey commands given to them by their masters. There are even some with special, magical powers!”

  “I’d like to see them at some point.”

  “I just need to build a portal door on the other side, then we can come and go as we please. After I do that, I’ll take you around the city.”

  “It’s a promise, then.” Yumina smiled and wrapped her arms around one of mine.

  Still, I had to establish a plot of land in the other world to make a place to house the portal. I definitely needed a few more trips there, it seemed.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “So the matter with Palerius Island is going well. Once the proper proceedings are done, our ship will go out and— Oh, no!”

  The king of Lihnea stood up and grumbled. We were at the baseball stadium, watching a match between Lestia and Regulus. Regulus had just scored a double.

  It was a friendly match since we’d just got done with our alliance meeting. The leaders were relaxing here and there, taking in the game.

  Apparently, the king of Lihnea was good friends with the knight king of Lestia, so he was supporting the Lestian team.

  The king of Lestia himself was down at the bench, since he was the team’s coach. The ladies of the alliance, those being the Ramissh pope and the Roadmare doge, were hanging out with my fiancees back at the castle.

  “Don’t be naive... Regulus won’t fall for that, I’m sure. I wonder if they’ll win or lose during this next inning...”

  “No, you need to keep an eye on the pitcher. He hasn’t changed his speed at all.” The king of Belfast and the emperor of Refreese were both looking down on the pitch with folded arms. Boisterous laughter came out of their mouths as th
ey made their own personal predictions.

  You guys sound a little ominous there...

  The king of Lihnea headed over to console the Lestian team.

  It seemed like Cloud and Reinhard had become quite good friends.

  “Matches are a good place to vent out stress and have a grand old time! It’s just as the lad, er, Touya, said! This kinda sport is a cultural exchange! Bwahaha!”

  The beastking merrily spoke as he sat in the VIP area, eyes completely transfixed on the game. His leopard ears were twitching with anticipation.

  “There’s not just baseball, you know? We could do other sports. Oh, I wonder if we could organize something like the Olympic games...”

  “The old lipid game? What’s that?”

  “Ah, no. The Olympic games. It’s an event that happens every couple years. Teams from various countries around the world gather together and play sports and games over the course of several days. It’s a way of determining the best athletes in the world. Like uh... the winner of the Olympic baseball game would be the world’s best baseball team.”

  “Hoho! Best in the world, eh? Sounds good to me! I’m interested in this!”

  The world wasn’t quite unified or globalized enough for the Olympics yet, though. Many of the countries wouldn’t be ready for it, and there was still a lot of poverty worldwide, as well as the risk of magical beasts and monsters. Hell, there were even areas of the world with dangerous bandit gangs or freaky cults. We’d have to make the planet a safer place first.

  Yulong and Sandora were gone, so that prevented any threat of a large-scale world war, but the petty criminals who had been kept in check by those two nations were now free to run rampant.

  Yulong’s assassins, for example, became contract killers, robbers, or thieves. Meanwhile, those that used to capture slaves for Sandora ended up turning to other black market pursuits.

  And now the ones that had to deal with them were the countries affected. In a sense, I had destroyed two large problems and spread several small problems across the map. That was why I was more than prepared to fully co-operate in the event that any of these criminals became a major threat.

  “That reminds me, lad. You showed us that uh... cully rice, right? It was really, really good. I’d like to see more of that stuff in Mismede, but the rice can only be grown in Eashen, right?”

  The meal known as “cully” originated in Mismede in this world. They didn’t have access to rice, so they ate it by soaking bread in it and eating it alongside the bun. Then, when I “came up with” the idea of adding rice to it, it became a taste sensation. When the meal finally got to Mismede, people couldn’t get enough of the stuff.

  “I have a contact in the upper echelon of Eashen right now. I’ve asked him if he can see about exporting rice to Mismede. If we could send a few Eashenese farmers over, perhaps they could start cultivating the stuff in Mismede as well.”

  Mismede’s climate was a lot hotter than Brunhild’s, but rice could still be grown there. After all, there was the Great Gau River as a freshwater source. The only foreseeable issue I could think of was dangerous insects from the Sea of Trees or the possibility of magical beasts attacking the paddy.

  Then again, such risks could happen in any kind of farmland, and I was sure that professional farmers knew more about it than I did. In the worst case scenario, I could just ask Uncle Kousuke for help. He was the god of agriculture after all.

  Eashen was still recovering from the incident with the monkey... or rather, Hideyooshi. Ieyahsu had settled in at the center of Eashen’s government to take care of affairs, and they’d finally managed to set up the exporting of goods.

  In fact, Brunhild was set to harvest its own batch of rice in the fall. I was looking forward to it.

  Oh, three outs.

  Lestia’s team was definitely more offensively-oriented than the other team.

  Lestia was a country of knights, so it made sense that they’d have keen eyes. Still, what they had in finesse they didn’t quite have in brute strength, so there were no heavy hitters amongst them. They didn’t take risks with potentially dangerous hits, either. They just took shots they were sure of.

  Regulus had a pretty balanced team, so their players were pretty versatile. Their lineup was good enough to match with any opposing team, honestly.

  I felt a little sorry for the king of Lihnea, but it seemed like Regulus had the best team.

  The audience was going wild for the match, which was good. The people in the stands were mostly people from Brunhild, but it hadn’t taken them long to decide which teams they each preferred.

  This world didn’t have much in the way of fun ways to pass the time, so they were just enjoying the game itself instead of getting too heavily into the competitive aspect.

  Even if their favorite team lost, I noticed everyone in the audience seeing off the winners with smiles and a full round of applause.

  They never once jeered, threw anything, or generally got angry if their favorite players messed up. I was glad to see good sportsmanship from everyone in the area.

  The players were all good sports too, but that kind of made sense. Their main job was working in the knight order, after all. They weren’t professional baseball players who relied on it for income. That was why even though they were official national teams, the games always had a very casual vibe.

  I was just happy to have created a space where everyone could enjoy themselves.

  I looked over and suddenly saw Sue barreling toward the VIP box. Hm? What’s got her in such a hurry?

  She whizzed past the men guarding the box and flung open the door before yelling at the top of her voice.

  “Touya! We have a child!”

  All the world leaders in the VIP box suddenly turned in place and stared right at me.

  What? Hold on. Yumina said Sue hadn’t even started her period yet... No, wait... I haven’t even touched Sue, what the hell?!

  “Okay just, hold on a second, Sue. What do you mean by child, exactly?”

  It can’t be mine... right? That makes no sense.

  “Father and mother’s child! I’m gonna have a little brother or sister!”

  Oh... OKAY. Phew... G-Geez... I don’t even know what... Oh man...

  I let out a heavy sigh of relief as the king of Belfast walked up to Sue.

  “Sue? Al’s going to have another child?”

  “It’s true, it’s true! Mr. Raul said so!” Sue was referring to Doctor Raul, the royal physician of Belfast. That meant it was probably true. It seems like Sue learned the news through the Gate Mirrors in Brunhild castle, and then ran straight here.

  That meant that the king of Belfast would get a new niece or nephew. If it was a boy, then that kid would become the head retainer of Prince Yamato when he ascended to the throne.

  Still, if Duke Ortlinde was going to have a kid... then there was only one explanation. It had to be thanks to the item I’d loaned him.

  The Elfrau royal family had granted me a special artifact after killing the Snorra Wolf Behemoth.

  The artifact was said to make it easier for women to become pregnant if they wore it during sex, so I lent it to Duke Ortlinde to see whether or not the claim actually held up... and apparently, it worked.

  I waited for the game to end then sent all the world leaders home. I sent Sue, the king, and his guardsmen to Duke Ortlinde’s home with a [Gate]. Then, I sent a message addressed to the duke along with Sue, asking him to return the artifact now that he was done with it.

  I guess the Doctor’s vision of the future is becoming a lot more clear each day, huh...? But... nine kids? Maybe more than nine? That’s just... insane.

  Well, I was marrying nine women, so it was just one of those things. I guess in the end, I had to be prepared to give each of them at least one child. But if I married them at eighteen, that meant that I’d be a dad of nine by the age of nineteen... Oh, no, there’d still be a few more years before I married Sue... But the thought of eight children h
ardly made me feel any better than nine.

  H-Hrm... For some reason, the thought of this is a lot scarier than the Phrase ever was. Honestly, I’m gonna end up having a ridiculous amount of kids... Though they’re not all going to be born at the same time, right? It’s not like I’ll be sleeping with them all at the same time or anything... Right?

  ◇　◇　◇

  “Good morning, Touya.”

  “...Morning, Yumina. What are you doing here?” I woke up from my slumber to see a heterochromia-eyed girl straddling the blanket I was laying under.

  “...Didn’t I lock the door from the inside last night?”

  “You did. I just unlocked it.”

  I stared at Yumina as if to ask her how the hell she managed to do something like that, but she just winked back and gave me an angelic smile. “It’s one of my seven special abilities, that’s all.”

  What kind of answer is that?! Come on! And what are the other six supposed to be?! I didn’t exactly mind being woken up by a cute girl, but it was definitely bad for my heart. Plus, Yumina looked totally innocent and cute in her pajamas, so it was an extra-powerful attack. It’d been two years since we met, and she’d certainly grown. She was definitely a lot more feminine in terms of physical appearance, but she didn’t stop surprising me with weird stuff like this, either.

  Either way, she was still only fourteen. I didn’t think doing anything beyond cuddling was quite appropriate.

  “Don’t worry, Touya. I’ve seen your sleeping face a lot, so I’ll be satisfied with just this for now.”

  “Wait, what?! How long have you been in here?”

  I didn’t even notice you... I asked Yumina to leave the room and quickly got changed.

  Before breakfast, I walked out into the training grounds and saw Yae, Hilde, and Elze doing their regular morning training sessions.

  I couldn’t see Lu anywhere, so she was probably in the kitchen making breakfast. That meant we’d be having a Japanese-styled meal... I was looking forward to that.

  “Yo, Touya. Morning to you. Hey, would you mind sparring with me a little?” I was greeting everyone when suddenly Moroha appeared from nowhere.