In Another World With My Smartphone_Volume 6 Page 16

  Her armor looked to be Mithril, as well. It had golden adornments here and there, and if I wasn’t mistaken I thought I could sense some enchantments on it as well. The other Lestian Knights didn’t have the marking hers did, either. What appeared to be the emblem of the Lestian Royal Family was engraved on her breastplate. I did recognize the symbol, since I’d looked a little into the country. She was telling the truth, as far as I knew.

  Welp, guess I better introduce myself properly then.

  “No, I was the one being rude. I didn’t realize who you were. I hail from the west, a country located between Belfast and Regulus. Allow me to formally introduce myself. I’m Mochizuki Touya, Grand Duke of Brunhild.”

  “Brunhild?! I-I know of such a place... Ruled over by a just adventurer who climbed the ranks from rags to riches... The genius mediator who dabbles in the affairs of the western nations, solving all their woes...” Once my tone changed and I introduced myself formally, Hildegard seemed absolutely bewildered.

  Huh, a mediator? Is that how I’m known, now? I mean, I guess I do whatever I want no matter where I go, and I host the western alliance meetings... But I’m also pretty impartial. It’s not like I pick and choose who I help based on personal ties.

  She asked to see my guild card, just in case, so I took it from my pocket and handed it over.

  “A-Astounding... This is indeed the same type of golden card as my grandfather’s... Please, forgive my impudent request. I profusely apologize for harboring even the slightest doubt.”

  “Don’t mention it, honestly. More importantly... Were you referring to the former king just now? I’d actually quite like to meet the man who holds the same rank as I.” I wanna know what kind of guy he is. He’s probably an amazing fighter. When I mentioned wanting to meet him, the princess made an awkward little smile. It made me feel a tad uncomfortable.

  “W-Well... I’d only ask that you... Reel in your expectations if you do happen to meet him...”

  “Huh?”

  “No, don’t mind my idle musings. You’re quite amazing, honestly. Our entire band could do nothing against those wretched beasts, yet you struck them down in a single blow...” The princess muttered as she looked at the broken Phrase fragments. You stupid? It’s more amazing that you parried them without any magical aid, and you were managing to hold them back. You guys are the real heroes here!

  “These creatures are called the Phrase. They absorb magic, and their physical resistance is unmatched. Despite their tough bodies, they’re still dangerously flexible. They also have the ability to regenerate. In order to kill them, you need to destroy the controlling core within their bodies.”

  “The Phrase...” The princess knight began to tell her story. Apparently she and her band were headed to training. But all of a sudden, she heard news of a town coming under attack by monsters that had just appeared from nowhere. They took a detour and arrived at the town posthaste. But, they found their weapons did nothing to harm the creatures, so they decided to stall them and at least let the civilians get to safety. As she told me her story, her fists clenched just a little bit.

  I only saw a glimpse, but Hildegard was clearly adept at swordplay. I wasn’t so sure she’d lose to someone like Yae, even.

  What happened here was that her opponent was simply too much for a single human to handle. That was all there was to it.

  “Oh right, would you mind if I collected up the pieces of the Phrase?”

  “Hm? Ah... Yes, that’s quite fine. You are the one that killed them after all, Your Grace...” An unspoken rule amongst adventurers was that to the victor go the spoils. Parties often divided their loot up, but solo fighters didn’t need to worry about such things. I gathered up all the broken Phrase fragments at once, and sucked them into [Storage]. A bunch of knights jumped up in surprise as the dead monsters sank into the ground.

  Great. This was an unexpected boon! Sure they’re low-level, but there’s twelve so I can definitely make a bunch of stuff with this. Though... There were twelve. The fact that so many appeared at once is definitely troubling.

  “That blade of yours... Is it perhaps made from the same material as the Phrase?” Hildegard motioned towards the crystal sword. She seemed quite interested. She certainly had a keen eye. But I guess it was kind of obvious, as both my blade and the Phrase corpses were made out of identical crystal.

  “You’re correct. The knights of my country all bear crystal blades and shields as their default equipment. I’m the only one who can make them, using my Null magic.” I decided to throw in that last little comment to subtly suggest that they couldn’t bother trying to replicate it. I didn’t want them suddenly asking me to return the pieces I’d gathered up just now or anything. Even though [Modeling] is needed to create the shapes, you also need a ton of magical energy to make them firm and sharp enough, not to mention the fact that [Gravity] is also needed to make them more lightweight... I was definitely the only one who could manufacture gear like that.

  “Incredible... I’d be lying to you if I said I did not envy you slightly. I hope someday I’ll be able to wield such a magnificent blade as well.” Heh... So she likes the sword that much, huh... Guess it’s why she’s staring so intently.

  Hmm... There’s an idea. I certainly wouldn’t lose anything if I made a good gesture towards the Lestian Princess right about now.

  I activated [Storage] and produced another two sheathed crystal swords. I took the two of them, and the third I’d just wielded, and used [Modeling] to carve the Lestian Royal Emblem into the handles. Then, I passed all three to Princess Hildegard.

  “Here. A way of remembering our chance encounter. One for the Princess, one for her esteemed father, and one for her esteemed grandfather.”

  “No— Wha— Truly?!” Hildegard seemed dumbfounded. She really didn’t expect to ever hold one of these things, let alone three. When I passed them to her, she adopted a really flustered expression. It was cute.

  “A-Are you sure this is quite alright? Are these weapons not a matter of national confidentiality for Brunhild?”

  “Nah. Doesn’t really matter who knows about them since I’m the only one who can produce them. The materials aren’t that common, but every one of the knights in Brunhild wields one. But these three are special. They’re ones I made for my personal use, so they actually outclass the ones my knights wield. Just pour a little bit of magic into them and they’ll operate at their peak. If you place the edge of the blade faintly on something even like a chunk of iron, it should cut through it like butter. Also they shouldn’t ever break. If the rare event comes that they do get broken or cracked, they’ll regenerate in an instant.” The Knight Princess unsheathed one of the blades and held it up to the light. She stared at the shimmering sword, quietly channeled a bit of magic into it, and very weakly hit it against the ruined wall of a nearby crumbling house. The brick wall was indeed cleaved as smoothly as butter.

  “A-Astounding... I can’t even feel its weight in my hand. Th-Thank you so much... If another of these Phrase creatures appears... I will defeat it.” I smiled a little when I saw the princess’ happy face, but a nagging thought at the back of my mind told me it wouldn’t be so easy if she fought a Phrase even one rank above the ones I’d killed today. I killed that thought the moment it surfaced, for I didn’t wish to see her happiness go away.

  Okay, I better make a move on. Don’t want anyone questioning why a foreign monarch is here. Better get outta here before that inevitably happens.

  Maybe I should appoint someone to take care of state affairs while I’m out doing stuff like this... So long as they give the throne back when I get home, I mean.

  Maybe I should see about drafting a law that makes it easy to concede the throne to someone else. Only active while I’m alive, though... Heh, I could even appoint Kohaku as the state leader in my stead. I wonder if people would end up calling Kohaku King Tiger, or something... Like that one German tank.

  I’ll talk to Kosaka about this when I ge
t home... But maybe I shouldn’t... A-Actually you know what? Nevermind. He’ll yell at me.

  “Now, I have business to attend to, so you’ll have to excuse me. It was a pleasure to meet you, though. I’d love to meet again.”

  “The pleasure was all mine, Your Grace. Thank you for your gift to my family. I promise you that I will return the favor to your duchy someday.” I didn’t really mind either way... But I was kind of curious about what she had in mind, regardless.

  I invoked [Fly] and the princess looked even more surprised. I grinned at her, let out a small laugh, and blasted away into the heavens.

  Well, that was fun... But now I’ve gotta focus. Babylon, here I come!

  ◇　◇　◇

  After separating from Princess Hildegard, I moved southwards. Eventually, the ruins came into sight. It looked like a bunch of abandoned buildings. There were a bunch of crumbling stone walls, and rocky pillars here and there.

  I saw what appeared to be various dilapidated castles and fortresses, which certainly caught my eye. All their walls were in a serious state of disrepair.

  When I landed, a tiny blue songbird flew over from the surrounding trees. It was one of the scouts I’d sent out some time ago.

  The songbird flew over my head and went off in the direction of the ruins’ center, chirping as if beckoning me to follow.

  “Huh... What is this?” In the middle of the ruins, there was an unusual object similar in composition to the previous objects I’d encountered at Babylon ruins... But the shape was weird.

  The first was a cylinder, the second was a pyramid... But this one was a ring. It was a huge ring, about four meters in diameter, just sitting there in the middle of the ruins.

  The foundations and bottom half of the ring were completely buried, so it might’ve been more appropriate to call it an arch. The ring’s material itself was around 50 centimeters wide... It was also about 30 centimeters thick.

  I tried walking through it, but nothing happened. I tried touching it, but I didn’t pass through, either.

  “What’s up with this thing?” I wondered if, perhaps, it was just coincidentally similar to the other places I’d been to and didn’t actually have anything to do with Babylon at all.

  Come to think of it... Wasn’t there something like this in a movie I saw once? I remember the ring in that movie was like a dial-based portal that could take you to other planets.

  I thought that might be the key, so I tried turning the whole ring like a dial. It didn’t turn. I was beginning to run out of ideas.

  I walked around the ring, looking at it. Then I spotted a red stone lodged in the side. What’s this, a spellstone? I looked up, and saw a blue spellstone lodged in the side as well. I used [Fly] to check out the ring from all angles, and found even more. Green, brown, yellow, and purple. There were six spellstones lodged in this thing.

  Heh, I get it. So the circle itself is like a gate, and I just have to trigger it in the usual way.

  I poured fire magic into the portion of the circle with the red spellstone, and the space between the two sides up to the stone became red. I repeated the process of pouring magic into each stone, until the entire ring was now a beautiful six-colored rainbow.

  Lastly, I poured out Null magic at my feet, and the six colors were mingled together with the seventh addition. I was enveloped in light, and all went white.

  When I opened my eyes, I found myself surrounded by the ever-familiar scenery of Babylon. A ring, much like the one in the ruins, was behind me.

  “Hoh.” I could see a similar-looking ring nearby, too. This place seemed bigger than a standard Babylon island, for whatever reason.

  I looked up in the distance, and saw an enormous white tower soaring way up past the trees. Well, at least it’s not the Dark Tower.

  Hm... Does that mean this is the Tower? I’d kind of prefer it to be the Storehouse, though...

  Even though I called it a Tower, it didn’t have any visible windows, decorations, or protrusions. And the lower part of it was swollen outwards, so it kind of resembled an Erlenmeyer flask.

  “Welcome to the Babylon Tower. And welcome to my Rampart.” A sudden voice rang out, and I turned around in a startled frenzy. A girl stood there, just a bit shorter than me. She was around Flora’s height... But her breasts were nowhere near as impressive. She was flat!

  She wore an outfit much like the one Cesca was wearing when I first met her. A big difference was the pinstriped jumper skirt. From below said skirt were two slender legs wrapped in tights. Her hair was short, somewhat wavy, and very faintly blue.

  “Indeed I am the Terminal Gynoid tasked with managing the Rampart. My name is indeed Preliora. You may indeed refer to me as Liora.”

  “The Rampart? I thought this was the Tower.” Maybe she was defective: I was clearly looking at a tower. As I stared, I let my surprise be known to her.

  “Indeed, that is the Bayblon Tower. But it’s also true indeed that the Rampart is stationed here as well. The Tower’s transfer ring was indeed annihilated by an exploding volcano around five hundred and twenty-seven years ago. After that I, the Terminal Gynoid of the Rampart, did indeed meet with the Terminal Gynoid of the Tower around three hundred and seventy-four years ago. Indeed it was our chance encounter that led to us docking together, and waiting together for the person with the proper attributes.” Liora bowed her head slowly as she spoke. Hm... So the Tower and the Rampart docked together, huh... That’s super damn convenient for me! Two in one.

  “I do indeed take note of the fact that you are indeed a person with all the proper aptitude for all elements. However, that does not indeed mean you are the proper person.”

  “You sure? The girls at the Garden, the Workshop, the Research Lab, and the Hangar all recognize me as proper.”

  “If it is indeed the case that you have mastered Four Babylons, then... There is no problem indeed. The Rampart is yours.” Huh? That was... Easy. Not gonna flash your panties, or make me touch your chest? Not gonna lob a pipe wrench at me? I suddenly recalled all the stupid things I’d done, and wondered if there was even a point.

  ...I can’t help but feel a bit unsatisfied, though. N-No, calm down... You didn’t want a weird pervy trial. It’s better this way.

  “Indeed then. Airframe Number Twenty, Preliora, will now be transferred to your care. Make sure you take care of me indeed, master.” Liora bowed towards me. Number twenty? Guess that makes you older than Flora. Or... younger? Monica’s number twenty-eight, so I’m not sure about the rules. I guess the numbers go from twenty to twenty-eight, though.

  “Indeed then, master. I’ll take you towards the Tower’s terminal. Right this way.” I followed after Liora, and saw someone sleeping in the shade of a tree.

  For a split-second I wondered if she was injured or incapacitated, but she was definitely just taking a nap.

  She wore a large ribbon similar to Liora’s, and the same kind of uniform as the other gynoids. She was a good deal shorter than Liora was, but her breasts were a bit more developed. They heaved as she snored. She sure was sleeping deeply.

  Her amethyst hair almost reached her waist, and was bunched in two places around the front of her body with little clasps.

  And, there was another matter...

  “Er, her skirt...”

  “Indeed. I wouldn’t mind it. It’s how she usually sleeps.” No I definitely do mind it! Her skirt is completely rolled up, I’m getting a face full of panties here! They’re striped! She’s wearing striped panties! The girl was lucky that only the two gynoids lived here, otherwise she’d be putting herself at risk. “Alright, well uh... Wake her up or something.”

  “Indeed I will. Noel. It is time to wake up. Pamela Noel, wake up.” Liora gently shook the sleeping girl by the shoulders, but she didn’t stir. Liora then placed her hands under the girl’s armpits to lift her up, but she still didn’t stir.

  “...Is she usually like this?”

  “Indeed. We Terminal Gynoids of Babylon had aspec
ts of Doctor Babylon’s personality split across us. Those personality traits manifest and amplify within us, becoming the core of our being. This one... Noel... Is indeed the perfect amplification of the Doctor’s lazy, apathetic, and procrastinatory tendencies.” Oh, so it’s like that, huh... So their personalities are dictated by aspects of the Doctor’s own, and they developed based on those. That explains why they display that wicked pervert’s attitude every so often...

  Liora actually seems pretty good, though... Wonder if she contains the only good part of that good-for-nothing woman’s personality.

  “Master... Do you perhaps have any food?”

  “Huh? I don’t really have anything on me... Why? You hungry?”

  “It is not for me, no. It may indeed be necessary to provide food to this girl.” What? Food to wake her up? I took out some grilled skewers from [Storage] and passed them to Liora. They were still piping hot, since I’d put them into the storage space immediately after cooking them up.

  Liora held them in her left hand, moving her right hand in a fanning motion, wafting the scent over in Noel’s direction.

  The sleeping girl’s nose started to twitch, her head unconsciously craning towards the scent. Eventually she rose to her feet, staggering over in Liora’s direction. ...Her eyes were still tight shut, though.

  “Wake up, Noel. You’ll indeed have some skewers to eat if you wake up.” As if responding on cue to Liora’s words, Noel’s eyes shot open. Her eyes were fierce, locked on to their target. The target being the skewers in Liora’s hand, of course.

  “...Mmh... I’m huNgry... HaveN’t had a good meal in Four thousANd nine hundRed and seven years... Mind if I grab a biTE?”