In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 1 Read online

  “...I feel just fine.”

  “Of course you do. It was just a glass of cheap wine. I’m sorry for forcing it down your throat, but...” I left a deliberate gap before asking the deciding question.

  “What made you think it was poisoned?”

  “Uh...“ The count’s face froze over. Checkmate. This man had outed himself with that little display. Fearful of a nonexistent poison that he believed he had been forced to drink, he writhed around on the floor for no apparent reason. Anyone who didn’t know the trick behind it would never have reacted like that. I had forced him to show his own hand.

  “...What does this mean, then?” The duke spoke up all of a sudden.

  “The poison wasn’t in the wine that Olga brought, it was coated on the inside of the glass itself.”

  “On the glass...? I see. No wonder we couldn’t find any traces of poison in the wine.”

  “I have a spell that lets me detect poison, so I found out the trick to it straight away. The perpetrator was most likely one of the chefs or waiters, I would imagine. They probably intended to dispose of the glass after the incident itself, but our good general here was quicker in securing the crime scene, meaning they couldn’t get to the glass without raising suspicion. All that was left for me to do was find a way to corner the mastermind... which ended up being way easier than I thought.” Then again, looking at the guy again, I really couldn’t picture anyone else as the mastermind. I’d thought to myself that all I had to do was create a situation that he couldn’t bluff his way out of, but having it resolved so easily was a bit of a letdown, really. After all, the trick, if you could even call it that, was so unbelievably simple.

  Heck, even if I hadn’t done a thing, someone would have eventually discovered the truth once they realized that the wine itself contained no poison. At the end of the day, I just really wanted to play the role of the detective at least once in my life, even if the culprit did happen to be a bumbling buffoon, you know?

  “...Gah!” The toad set his sights on the door and dashed for it. He really didn’t know when to give up. Really, all that meant was that he was an incompetent third-rate scoundrel of a man who never considered the consequences because he had deluded himself into believing he was better than everyone else. Nevertheless, that idiotic plan almost claimed the king’s life. The price for that crime would be a heavy one.

  “[Slip].”

  “Uohwhah?!” The count slipped with incredible vigor and bashed the back of his head against the floor.

  “You little...!” Almost as if she were channeling all of her resent for the man into her own strength, Olga slammed into the count with a fearsomely powerful kick straight to the gut. He lost consciousness instantly. Oof, that’s gotta hurt.

  Olga’s actions were rather unbecoming of an ambassador, but not a soul in the room felt like voicing any complaints.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “According to the general, there were two accomplices: The waiter and the poison tester. They also found poison of the same type that had been coated on the glass in Count Balsa’s residence. And finally, Count Balsa himself confessed to attempting to kidnap Sue. Looks like this case is closed.” The duke spoke happily as he sat on a chair in one of the rooms of the royal castle.

  We were accompanied in the room by His Majesty the King, Princess Yumina, Queen Yuel, and Charlotte, who all sat around the same table leisurely drinking tea.

  “What’ll happen to the count?”

  “A plotted assassination of the king is no less than high treason. The man himself will be executed, his residence and assets confiscated, and the grounds sealed off.” Well, that was only natural, really. Feelings of guilt... didn’t even cross my mind, for some reason. Probably because the guy got what was coming to him. It was hard to show sympathy for a man like him.

  “What about his family?”

  “Treating them as accomplices and executing them all... would be rather excessive. At the very least, they will lose their status as nobles and be banished from the country. That said, the man had no wife or children, and his other relatives were all actively opposed to letting demi-humans integrate into our society. With them gone now, things should be somewhat easier on my brother.” The duke kept up his cheerful tone as he spoke.

  I see. This incident can be used to set an example for any other nobles who are against the alliance with the beastmen, and keep them in check.

  “Honestly, my boy, I am truly in your debt. I should very much like to bestow a gift upon the man to whom I owe my life. Is there anything you desire?” The king almost seemed to be pleading, but honestly, I wasn’t exactly wanting for anything at the moment.

  “Please, don’t worry about it. I just happened to be passing by on my way to see the duke while all of this was going on. It was just a stroke of luck for Your Majesty. Simply chalk it up as a coincidence.” I really didn’t do much with my own power, that much at least was true. The only reason I could even use the [Recovery] spell was thanks to God. If I tried to take advantage of an unfair skill like that, karma surely would’ve found its way back to me...

  Hmm? Hang on, I thought, weren’t things like that God’s area of expertise? Just spare me another lightning bolt incident. Seriously. Please never do that again.

  “A man lacking in avarice as always, eh, young Touya?” The duke said, while returning his teacup to the saucer on the table.

  “Isn’t it only natural to help a friend in need? It’s not like I did any of this because I wanted a reward. I wanted to do it. No more and no less.” That was genuinely how I felt about it all. If, on the other hand, Count Balsa had come to me asking for help, I wasn’t sure I would’ve done anything for him. In the duke’s case, I knew the type of person he was, and seeing him in trouble made me want to help him to the best of my ability. That was all there was to it.

  “You truly are one curious person. The ability to use two Null spells, both [Recovery] and [Slip]... That’s quite the rare gift indeed.” Charlotte spoke to me with a bright smile. Being praised for my magic by the court magician herself made me turn a beet red.

  “Two? Heavens no, young Touya can use far more than just two unique spells. Even as he came to visit me, he did so by way of the [Gate] spell. Then he used yet another to detect the poison, and I seem to recall him telling me that the shogi sets he brought as gifts were crafted through non-elemental spells as well.”

  “Wh-What?” Charlotte grew visibly tenser the more the duke spoke. Hmm... Guess the best course of action here would be to just be honest about it, I concluded.

  “Er, well, about that... See, it seems like I can use every non-elemental spell there is. Though there’s always the chance that some won’t work, I’m not sure on the details.” At the very least, I had never failed to learn any of the spells that I’d tried to acquire so far. Well, excluding that one time where I failed to cast [Apport] properly. Even then, I did eventually manage to add the spell to my repertoire, though.

  “All of them...?! If that’s really true, then this could be a momentous occasion...! P-Please, excuse me for just a bit!” Charlotte burst her way out of the room, clearly in a frenzy... I hope I didn’t just say something I shouldn’t have just now...

  “So, you were the one who crafted that shogi set, Touya my boy? Al brought it over and praised it greatly, and upon taking to the board, I was absolutely enthralled with it! It truly is an interesting game. So then, what’s this about it being constructed by way of magic?”

  Yup, just what I’d been worrying about. The king got hooked on it too. These brothers really are cut from the same cloth.

  To demonstrate, I took a glass from the table and cast [Modeling] on it. The glass gradually changed shape, and within thirty seconds I had completed my glass figure rendition of the king himself. It was a ten centimeter tall glass sculpture, which, if I said so himself, really captured his majestic aura.

  “And, well, that’s pretty much how it works.” I handed the figure over to the king.
Since the model for the piece had been sitting right in front of me, I was able to capture even the tiniest of detail. The only real problem was that, being made of glass, it would still shatter if dropped.

  “Th-This is incredible... I seem to recall there being someone from Refreese who could use similar magic, but to see such affection poured into one’s creation to the smallest level of detail...” Refreese... The Refreese Imperium, was it? If memory served, they were one of the neighboring countries. Non-elemental, Null magic was primarily comprised of unique, personalized spells. It was entirely possible for several people to share similar, yet subtly different forms of their personal non-elemental spells.

  The king held his little figure up in the sunlight and marveled at how it sparkled. Seeing that, I felt that I should really complete the set since just the king alone would be somewhat lonely, so I took two more glasses in hand and set to work.

  Before long, I had completed two more glass figures: One of the queen, and one of the princess. I gave them to their respective owners. They accepted the figures with beaming smiles, then chatted joyously as they compared each other’s figures before lining up all three on the table. Yup, I knew it was a good idea to trust my instincts. The completed set really paints a lovely picture with the whole family together in one place.

  “This is truly a wonderful gift.”

  “Nah, the glasses I used to make them were yours to begin with. If anything, I’m sorry for using them as crafting materials without asking first.” I lowered my head to the king to show my small apology. When I raised my head back up, the duke’s pleading little face caught my attention immediately. He really was the type who made no effort to hide his emotions.

  “...I’ll make some figures of the duke’s family too, the next time I’m around for a visit. Promise.”

  “You truly would not mind?! You have my gratitude!” If I was going to make more figures anyway, it’d be much easier with the models themselves in front of me as I crafted them.

  I gave a wry smile at the duke’s calculated assault on my generosity, when all of a sudden a loud crashing sound resounded through the room and the door flew open as Charlotte charged in, carrying a large number of things in her arms. She approached me with the appearance of some terrifying apparition and held out a parchment with something written on it.

  “Child... c-can you read this?!” Charlotte loomed closer and closer. What? What is this, what’s going on? Why do I always end up in these scary situations?! Giving in to Charlotte’s sudden compulsive behavior, I ran my eyes over the parchment. Whatever was written on it was in a language I’d never seen before. I couldn’t make out a single word.

  “...Can’t make heads or tails of it. What is this, exactly?”

  “So you can’t read it, right? Alright, how about this non-elemental spell? Do you think you can use it?” This time she took out a bulky tome and turned to a specific page. I could read this one. Let’s see... Null magic spell... [Reading]? According to the book, it was a spell that allowed one to read a number of different languages. The one stipulation was that the caster had to at the very least know the name of the language he was trying to use the spell on. Oh, that made sense. It was possible I’d be able to decipher the parchment with that spell.

  ...Wait a minute. If I’d had this spell earlier, then I wouldn’t have had to rely on Linze to teach me how to read and write...

  “I think I can probably use it now, but... do you know what language that parchment is written in?”

  “It’s written in Ancient Spirit Script. There’s almost nobody in the world who can read it.” Hmm... Well, it was worth a shot.

  “[Reading]: Ancient Spirit Script.” I activated the spell... My eyes darted back toward the parchment. Uh... Mm...

  “This is...”

  “Y-You can read it?!” Charlotte locked her gaze on me as I noticed stars in her eyes. In comparison, I probably had something more like a cloudy night sky in mine.

  “Sorry... I can make out the characters now, but I have no idea what’s actually written here.”

  “You can read it... but you don’t know what it says?! Wh-What do you mean?!”

  “Well, let’s see... By taking a Degment, which lacks any meaningful arts to access the Origin Magic, and introducing that to the nature of the Soma-arts’ method of blasting magic in order to cause a change in the Edos... And well, it’s all stuff like that. I can’t really make heads or tails of it.” I really didn’t understand a single word. In the first place, reading something and understanding it were two different things. Whatever that parchment had written on it, it was far too difficult a subject for me to ever hope to grasp.

  “So you really can read it! Touya, that’s amazing! With this, our research will begin making progress by leaps and bounds...! Sorry, could I get you to read this one, too?”

  “Wait, wait, just hang on a second!” I broke Charlotte’s barrage of demands off even as she made her way toward me once more with yet more documents. Evidently, she was so excited that I could almost see steam coming out of her nose! Geez, lady! Calm down a little! “Charlotte, would you calm down for a moment?”

  “Y-Yes, of course! I-I-I’m very sorry about all of this! I appear to have gotten caught up in the moment...!” Having regained her senses, Charlotte hung her head as a huge blush spread across her face.

  “I’m well aware that you’ve been passionately studying the field of Ancient Spirit Magic for the longest time, so it’s not as though I don’t understand your feeling on the matter.”

  “That’s exactly right! Until now, we’ve been struggling to piece it all together one word at a time, sometimes taking many months or even years, our research riddled with problems such as the occasional mistranslation or whatnot... But Touya, he read it in an instant! Touya, I beg of you, please assist us in translating these scripts for the sake of our research!” Huh? She wants me to keep on reading this stuff...? Without end, for all of the foreseeable future?

  “About that... Roughly how much is there that needs translating?”

  “Let’s see... Well, there are countless documents which still need to be translated... If we were to start with the documents pertaining to the ancient civilization of Palteno, then...”

  “That’s enough! Thanks, but no thanks!” From the moment she uttered the word “countless,” I had already mentally thrown in the towel. I didn’t mind helping out every now and then, but I had zero intention of making a career out of it! I had no plans to work as a translator anytime soon.

  At my rejection, Charlotte made a face that could easily have convinced anyone that the end of the world was nigh. I couldn’t live with myself if I left her like that...

  Oh, there was an idea...

  “Excuse me, Your Majesty. Could I borrow one more glass?”

  “I do not mind, but what are you planning to craft with it this time?” That took care of the glass part, which only left the metal... I supposed some silver coins would suffice.

  Taking my silver coins and placing them next to the glass, I cast my [Modeling] spell and began reshaping the materials. I crafted the frame out of silver coins, then inserted two glass discs into the openings on the front. With that, my creation was complete.

  Humbly designed though they were, I had, indeed, just invented glasses. Well, the lenses were made from regular glass, so they were just mock-glasses. For now...

  Charlotte was the only one who was truly amazed by what I’d just done, but I was still just getting started.

  For the next step, I cast [Enchant] on the glasses in order to imbue them with a special effect.

  “[Enchant]. Imbue with [Reading]: Ancient Spirit Script.” The glasses glowed faintly for a moment before the light gradually dissipated. I took the completed glasses and wore them on my face before taking another look at the parchment from before. Yup, a resounding success. I could read it again. Having confirmed that fact, I took the glasses of and gave them to Charlotte.

  “Please try we
aring them just like I did.”

  “Hm? Well, alright...” Charlotte put on my special mock-glasses as I’d instructed her. Oooh, this is beyond my expectations! They suit her perfectly! On this day, this world bears witness to the birth of the bespectacled beauty!

  Finally, I handed the parchment back to Charlotte.

  “Now, please read exactly what you see written here.”

  “Eh...? Umm... By taking a Degment, which lacks any meaningful arts to access the Origin Magic, and introducing that to the nature of the Soma-arts’ method of... I-I can read it! I can really read it!” A job well done, then. And so, on that day translation-vision glasses were brought unto the world.

  Seeing Charlotte grow happier and happier as she quickly glanced over several more of the documents made her look so adorable that it was hard to believe she was an adult woman.

  “The effect should at the very least be semi-permanent, I think, but if it does wear off, then please don’t hesitate to bring them back and I’ll enchant them for you again.”

  “I will! I-I mean, wait, does that mean you’re giving these to me?!”

  “Of course. They’re all yours now.”

  “Thank you so much! Really, thank you!” Good grief. Well, at least I’d managed to escape the wicked fate of having to go through a class change to Translator of all things.

  Charlotte was in such high spirits that she blurted out something like “I’d like to put these to work on my research immediately!” and left the room like a brisk summer gale.

  “My apologies for that. Once something catches that girl’s interest, she tends to tune out everything else around her... She is the most talented magical researcher we have, as well as the pride of our research team, but even so...”

  “Oh my, I would rather say that that is precisely what makes her so appealing, do you not think so?”

  “...Well, I’m just glad she was pleased with my little gift.” The king and queen made an amusing image at that moment, him shaking his head as if to say “What am I to do with that girl?” and her giggling at his side due to the whole exchange. The sight made me relax in my chair once more, which in turn made me bring the chilled tea to my lips for a drink. Even lukewarm, it tasted quite delicious. I supposed that was probably part of what made it first-class.