In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 1 Page 16

  Staaare...

  Staaaare...

  Staaaaare...

  Staaaaaare...

  ...Now, who does that burning, intense gaze that’s been honing in on me this entire time belong to? Why, the princess, of course.

  She had completely wrapped me in her sights with those mismatched blue and green eyes of hers, and showed no signs of relenting. It was like she had locked onto me as some sort of target. Had I done anything to rub her the wrong way...? Actually, it seemed like her face was a bit red...

  Her visual assault came to an end all of a sudden. I cast a glance in her direction, and she had risen from her seat. She was now standing facing her parents, the king and queen.

  “What’s the matter, Yumina?”

  “Father. Mother. I have made my decision,” Princess Yumina declared.

  I wonder what this decision she’s talking about is, I thought to myself as I took another mouthful of my cold tea, watching the conversation with a sidelong glance.

  The princess’ face turned bright red as she spoke once more.

  “I-I would like to... I would like to take Mochizuki Touya as my husband!”

  Pffffffft!!! The princess dropped a bomb that detonated in the form of cold tea soaring through the air. Ah, what a graceful display.

  What’d she just say? Husband? Hundred? Huntsman? Oh, it must’ve been hostage. “I would like to take Mochizuki Touya as my hostage.” Yup. That makes absolutely zero sense.

  “...Sorry. Yumina, could you say that one more time?”

  “As I said, Father. I would like to take Mochizuki Touya as my husband.”

  “Oh my, oh my,” the queen muttered, clearly amused. Yumina repeated herself for the benefit of her father, His Majesty the King. Queen Yuel, still sitting next to the king, opened her eyes wide and took a good look at her own daughter.

  Watching all this from the side, the duke was utterly gobsmacked as his gaze drifted between his brother and niece repeatedly.

  “Your reasons?”

  “Well, him saving your life, Father, does indeed factor into it... But more than that, my Touya has a strange charisma that brings smiles to all those around him. Even just from his interactions with Uncle Alfred or Charlotte, he has done nothing but bring them joy. I find his kindness appealing beyond words, and for the first time in my life, I thought that... I would be happy to live out the rest of my days by a person’s side.”

  “...I see... If that is your decision, then far be it from me to stop you. I wish the two of you nothing but happiness!”

  “Thank you, Father!”

  “Hooold it right there!” I raised my hand to interject for a moment. If I didn’t cut them off, things would’ve sure spiraled completely out of control. Actually, it was already well beyond any kind of control already.

  “Excuse me, but I would really love to have a say in all of this!”

  “Ahh, my apologies, son. I’ll trust you to take good care of my daughter.”

  “No, no, no, no, hell no. This is all messed up! Your Majesty, you’ve gone mad!” I understood fully well that I’d just said some outrageous things to the king, but I didn’t exactly have the time to care about manners. My entire future was on the line!

  “You barely even know anything about me! Are you really fine with just marrying your daughter, a princess at that, off to some complete stranger?! I could be the baddest brigand in all the lands, for all you know!”

  “No, there is no chance of that. Yumina has approved of you, so at the very least it is certain that you are not a bad person. My daughter has an ability which lets her see the true nature of a person in that way.” Huh? She could grasp a person’s nature? What did that even mean?

  “You see, Yumina was born with Mystic Eyes. They allow her to see the true nature or personality of anyone she lays her eyes on. I would say it’s somewhat similar to intuition, but in Yumina’s case, she’s never been wrong.” The duke explained the situation to me along those lines. So put simply, she could instinctively tell whether someone was a good person or a bad person? I had no idea her odd eyes held such a power. Well, in Count Balsa’s case, even I could tell that he was a rascal at a glance, but if that power of hers was genuine, then Yumina would never be taken in by any shady fellows.

  Being recognized as a good person by a girl like that didn’t feel half bad at all, but that was completely irrelevant to the situation at hand.

  “...Plus, I mean, just how old is Princess Yumina?”

  ”She turned twelve years of age not long ago.”

  ”Don’t you think it’s a little bit early for her to be thinking about marriage...?!”

  ”Not at all, it is quite a common thing for the royal family to find their life partners by age fifteen. I recall that I was fourteen when I got married to my wife.” Gah... This was the problem with other worlds... As I made a face like I’d just swallowed a bug, I felt a hand tugging at the sleeve of my coat.

  “Touya, do you dislike me...?” Princess Yumina clung to my sleeve and gave me the sad puppy eyes routine. Hold up, stop right there! Foul! Red card! Offside! Anyway, that’s just unfair!

  ”Well... I don’t really... dislike you or anything, it’s just...” This isn’t even a question of like or dislike! I just don’t even know you very well.

  “In that case, it shouldn’t be a problem!” Yumina’s face immediately returned to a blissful smile... Man, she sure is cute... No! Pull it together, dumbass!

  What should I do? True enough, I didn’t have any real reason to dislike her as of yet, and it wasn’t like I had anyone I was in love with, either. Her parents had approved of it, and I’d never struggle for living expenses ever again. Wait, what? Hang on. Thinking about it, I had absolutely no reason to decline at all!

  No! Marriage is where your future goes to die! My older cousin said so! He accidentally got a lady pregnant, so he got married to her, only to be slapped with divorce papers just three years later! He had no idea why! And then, after having taken out a huge loan under her impossible demands for a house, he was driven out of it without a say in the matter. As a final nail in the coffin, he ended up having to pay child support for a kid he wasn’t even allowed to visit. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it turned out that his ex-wife had mainly been using the child support payments for her own sake instead of the child’s. It was so bad that whenever the relatives got together at New Years, everyone would try to cheer him up as he comforted himself with alcohol.

  I couldn’t ever shake the image of my cousin’s withered face from my mind...

  Okay, I’ve decided! I’m going to live like royalty as a bachelor for the rest of my life! I’ll never become a member of royalty, mind you! “...Where I come from, men can’t get married until they turn eighteen, and women can’t get married until they’re sixteen. Besides, I don’t really know the first thing about the princess, and certainly not enough to make any decisions about marriage!”

  “How old are you right now, Touya?”

  “I’m fifteen. Soon to be sixteen, I guess.” I answered Queen Yuel’s question. If I remembered right, my birthday should have been in around two months’ time. Of course, that was all assuming that the dates in this world matched those of my old world. I didn’t know enough about the world yet to say for sure.

  “Which means the wedding ceremony will take place in two years’ time. Until then, you can just remain betrothed to give you time to think. Those two years should give you ample time to get to know my daughter Yumina better.” Hey, I see you trying to trick me, you know?! Even after two years, Yumina’ll still only be fourteen! Man, this queen is off her rocker too!

  “Touya, boy.”

  “Whahyyes?!” I almost jumped out of my skin and ended up letting out a weird voice when the king called out to me. I can’t help it, alright?! Just look at this situation! Even I can tell that I’m working myself up into a panic over it!

  “Why not take the two years to get to know my Yumina a little better? If, after those two
years, you still cannot consider marriage, then we will give up on the idea. How does that sound for the time being?”

  “Er, well... I guess that sounds like a more reasonable idea...” It was many times better than considering something like marriage right off the bat. I was sure that, after enough time passed, Yumina might calm down or possibly even find someone she really did love... And besides, maybe if she looked at reality a little bit she’d realize how ridiculous the idea of marriage at her age was. It didn’t seem like I could bargain with them any further... And so, I decided to resign myself to these plans for the time being.

  “Good for you, Yumina. Now, you’ve got two years. Give it your best shot and steal that boy’s heart, you hear? If you fail to snatch his heart even after two years, then prepare to live out the rest of your days as a nun!”

  “Of course, Mother!”

  “Wait, what?!” I knew that accepting that proposal was a bad idea! I was too hasty! Heavy! The burden of it all was way too heavy for my poor soul! Now I see! They’re trying to cut off all my escape routes one at a time! Why would me turning her down equal her becoming a nun? Surely she could just search for someone better!

  “I’ll be in your care from now on, my Touya...” The Princess flashed a smile worth more than a bag of priceless jewels. The best I could conjure up in response was a hollow smile of my own.

  Aaahh, I can hear my cousin calling out to me. He’s saying “Don’t you ever end up like me.”

  “Geez... what in the world have you gotten yourself into this time?”

  “You know, I’ve been asking myself that same question all day...” Upon returning to the Silver Moon Inn, I relayed the tale of my exploits to the rest of my party. Elze sounded exasperated right away.

  “So Touya-dono is going to be getting married, is he...”

  “It’s a real shock, isn’t it...?” Both Yae and Linze aimed their dumbfounded gazes at the girl who seemed to be affixed to my left arm.

  Yes. This is exactly what it looks like. I brought her along with me. I brought the gosh-darned princess of this country back with me.

  Yup. Princess Yumina Urnea Belfast, the one and only. Great.

  “A pleasure to meet you all. My name is Yumina Urnea Belfast.” Minding her manners, Princess Yumina bowed before everyone as she introduced herself. Her beaming smile was a deadly weapon that made my chest feel heavy.

  “So, Princess, whatever are you doing here right now, pray tell?”

  “Yes, well. My father has decreed that I live together with my Touya as a part of bridal preparation. I’m sure that my ignorance of the outside world may cause problems every now and then, but I would really like to get to know all of you better.” And that was the situation. The princess had basically been handed right over to me. What in the world was that loopy king thinking?

  I seemed to recall that he went on about how being close to someone was the quickest way to get to know them better or some nonsense. He could have at least assigned a guard or two! Wasn’t he worried about his daughter’s safety in the slightest? No, wait. What if she did have a guard assigned to her, and it was some ninja hiding up above the ceiling this whole time? Right as that thought crossed my mind, I heard something clatter above me. It was probably just a rat... right?

  “Live together? You mean, like, here? I mean, you’re a princess and all. Are you gonna be... Will you be okay in a place such as this?” Elze was the only one speaking any sense here. I agreed with her wholeheartedly. I simply couldn’t picture a princess, who’d been surrounded by servants that met her every need, suddenly adapting to a life where she had to do everything on her own.

  To be completely honest, a little part of me had been hoping that the difficulties of single life would hit her hard enough to convince her to scurry along home...

  “Please, you needn’t be so stiff when you’re talking to me, Elze. For the time being, I’ll try to do my best at what I can do, and if I ever require assistance, I’m sure I can rely on my Touya to help me out. I’ll do my best to ensure that I do not weigh everyone down!” The princess made two small fists and held them up to her chest, striking a pose that showed she was brimming with motivation... Gosh, she’s such a darling little thing... QUIT THAT! Snap out of it!

  “...Uhm, did you have something in mind?” Linze raised her hand and asked a simple question.

  “Why yes. I was thinking I could get registered with the guild for a start, and try to reach the point where I can be of assistance during any requests we take on.”

  “WHAT!” “Uhm...” “Huh?!” “Pardon...?!” Our surprised reactions were growing more harmonious by the day. For the princess to say that she wanted to get registered with the guild... Was she planning on living the life of an adventurer?!

  “Excuse me, Princess? You do realize what it means to get registered with the guild, right?! There are any number of dangerous situations we could wind up in, and...”

  “I’m well aware of that. And please, don’t call me Princess all the time. I’d like it very much if you would call me Yumina, my darling.”

  “Well, I’d like it very much if you’d cut out the my Touya and my darling stuff!”

  “Then please call me Yumina from now on.” The princess... No, Yumina, declared so with a sugary sweet smile. Hrmmm... The girl could be unexpectedly stubborn about things. I realized that I couldn’t afford to underestimate her just because she was younger than me.

  Anyway, I got her to stop calling me “my Touya,” and of course “my darling” was right out of the question. We settled on just Touya and Yumina for each other, respectively.

  “I’ve learned the basics of magic from Madame Charlotte, and I’m also well trained with a bow. I’ll have you know that I’m actually rather strong, despite my appearance.”

  “Bows and magic... Indeed, more long-range offensive power would be a wondrous asset to our current party, it would! What might be your magical alignments, then?”

  “Wind, Earth, and Dark. I can only summon three types of contract beasts, however.” Wind, Earth, and Dark. That certainly would fill in the gaps perfectly, since those were all elements that Linze had no affinity with. Although we still didn’t know just how capable with magic Yumina really was...

  “Hmmm... So, what’s the call?” Elze crossed her arms as she spoke to Linze and Yae. What she was really asking was “Do we let this girl into the party or not?” and checking with the others about that.

  “...For now, why don’t we accept a request... and see how things go...?” Linze slowly muttered.

  “I see. A trial by fire then, is it to be?”

  “Guess so, yeah... Well, if it gets dangerous, then I’m sure Touya will just leap to her rescue. So that settles it, then.” There were so many things wrong with the situation, but I felt like trying to argue back would be like poking at a hornet’s nest, so I obediently decided to abide by the party’s decision. Though, hell, something in the atmosphere told me that I had no right to voice my opinion to begin with.

  The girls decided on their plan of action, and so we would be heading to the guild office the next day to get Yumina registered.

  With that out of the way, we went to talk to Micah to see about getting Yumina her own room. She insisted that she would be happy to share a room with me, but I very much had to draw the line there for a whole variety of reasons, so she was booked into her own separate room. After that, we all had dinner and went to bed in order to prepare ourselves for the next quest.

  I returned to my room, alone at last, and collapsed right into bed. The day’s events had left me utterly exhausted... So very, very exhausted...

  Just as I felt that I was being dragged into the murky depths of sleep, I heard my smartphone’s ringtone for the first time in a while. It was set as Suppe’s Leichte Kavallerie. An upbeat little tune, which, at present, served only to irritate me somewhat.

  I removed my smartphone from my pocket and saw the words on the phone’s screen: Caller ID: God.
<
br />   “...Hello?”

  “Aaah, it certainly has been a while. Congratulations on your engagement, Touya my boy.”

  “...Why do you even know about that...? Oh, but I guess it wouldn’t be all that strange for God to know about these things, huh...?”

  “Ha ha ha. It was a mere coincidence, I promise you. I had thought to check in on you, only to find you in quite the amusing state of affairs.” I could picture the jolly old man’s face even as he spoke.

  “There’s nothing amusing about it... I just can’t bring myself to think about marriage at this age.”

  “She seems like a good girl. What more could you possibly want for?”

  “It’s not like that. Yeah, Yumina’s really cute, and I’m sure she’ll grow up to be a really beautiful woman. Her honest, straightforward personality also makes her my type, too. But that’s got nothing to do with all of this marriage stuff.”

  “How stubborn you are. You know, in that world polygamy is perfectly normal and widely accepted. That being the case, you should take any girl who strikes your fancy and make wives out them!” Huh, I didn’t know that... The duke and the king each only had one wife, so I thought for sure... No, no, that wasn’t the real problem. I had absolutely no intentions of turning my life into a harem story.

  “At any rate, everyone is looking forward to how things go for you from here. Do your best out there, yes?”

  “That’s easy for you to say... Wait a sec... What do you mean, everyone?”

  “Why, all the gods of the Divine Realm, of course. When I showed you to them, they all took an interest in you, you know? Although I am sure most of them are only checking in on you every now and then for a bit of amusement.” Wait, huh? What did that mean? There was more than one God?