In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 12 Page 16

  I met the little boy in the Palouf castle courtyard. He stammered out his sentence and then reeled backward, wheezing. It almost seemed like talking to me took everything he had. He seemed incredibly tense.

  “It’s a pleasure, Your Majesty. I’m the grand duke of Brunhild, Mochizuki Touya. Please forgive me for the sudden visit. I’m very pleased to meet you.”

  “N-No! No! D-Don’t worry about it!” As I made my greeting, the little king started shaking his head frantically. He looked terribly flustered. All of his reactions were incredibly child-like.

  He was ten years old, which put him at just a bit younger than Sue. They were around similar heights. He had neat, blonde hair that was perfectly trimmed. He also wore a blinding white cape and some ill-fitting fancy garments beneath it. Honestly, the look didn’t suit him. He looked like a little doll someone had dressed up all fancy.

  I’d brought Elze and Linze with me, and they introduced themselves to him. He wasn’t quite as flustered as he was when greeting me, but he certainly seemed a little out of his depth.

  I decide to bring the twins with me for a fairly good reason. The Silhoueska twins had a lot of little cousins, and they’d often bicker and squabble. Elze and Linze were good at handling little kids, so I thought they’d be the perfect two to bring over for support.

  I’d initially considered bringing one of my sisters, but that would’ve ended in tears.

  “The king of Palouf has been looking forward to meeting you, Grand Duke. He’s heard a lot from me, after all.”

  King Cloud stood next to me and spoke up, causing the little king to turn bright red in the cheeks. He quickly hid behind a woman who stood beside him.

  The woman smiled gently and bowed her head.

  “I’m sorry, dear Grand Duke. He’s a tad shy around strangers... Please don’t think him rude.”

  “It’s not a problem.”

  The woman was Princess Lucienne Dia Palouf. She was elder sister to the king of Palouf, and King Cloud’s beloved. Her hair was blonde, just like her brother’s. She wore it long and wavy. Her eyes were a beautiful jade green. If I was being honest, she wasn’t exactly the kind of person you would call beautiful at a glance. She definitely had a calming, gentle atmosphere to her, however.

  She wasn’t pretty as a rose and didn’t stand out like a sunflower, and she definitely didn’t have the refined grace of a Lily. I guess if she were a plant she’d be a... dandelion? She was very plain. She had that kind of girl-next-door charm. She wouldn’t turn any heads when she walked around a crowd, but she was sweet.

  “Come on, now... Didn’t you have something to ask the grand duke?”

  “Hmm?”

  The little king timidly walked up to me at his sister’s urging. I wondered what he wanted.

  “U-Uhm... C-Could I maybe see the big soldier man?!”

  “...The big what now? Oh! You must mean a Frame Gear. I could show you... But is it alright to make one appear here?”

  I didn’t want to suddenly make a giant robot appear in the castle courtyard of another nation, so I turned my gaze toward the royal retainers as if to ask permission.

  One of them started to walk a little closer. He was a calm-looking man who seemed to be in his fifties, he was clad in a white robe. I wasn’t quite sure who he was, exactly.

  “That’s Donovan Rembrandt. He’s a duke regent. He’s the younger brother of the former king, so he’s the current king’s uncle...” I was saved. Thankfully, Linze had recognized my confusion and whispered the answer to me. Even if I learned stuff, now and then I got a little forgetful... There were a lot of names and faces in this world, after all. I needed to get better at that.

  “I don’t mind it. If King Ernest wishes for it, then by all means, please show him the giant warrior. I’d rather like to see myself...” Rembrandt smiled, his robe crinkling a bit as he nodded his head. My permission granted, I snapped my finger and a portal opened above my head.

  An enormous tremor rumbled through the ground as the gigantic mech landed on the ground and shook the courtyard. It was a Chevalier, I didn’t think there was any point in bringing out any of the special ones.

  “Woooooow!” The little king stared up at the Frame Gear with stars in his eyes.

  I used my smartphone to make the Chevalier kneel down and open up its cockpit hatch. The wire hooks that allowed one to climb up there slowly descended.

  “Would you like to sit up in the cockpit? We won’t be able to move around, but I can show you inside.”

  “Ah...! Y-Yes please!”

  I carried the little king in my arms and ascended up to the cockpit. He sat down in the main seat and grabbed the control systems, his little head bobbing around with child-like wonder.

  Heh... I guess little kids in this world love giant robots too...

  “So this is how you beat those gross crystal things and the big Behemoth guys?! I bet I could do it if I was riding one of these!”

  “Mmm... Don’t take this personally, but I don’t think you can pilot one of these just yet. It takes a lot of training to become a proper Frame Gear pilot. You need more than basic piloting, too. You need to have some kind of combat experience to do well in it.”

  “Aw...” Frankly, the king of Palouf looked like a meek kid. He seemed like the type who stayed inside and read books instead of playing outside.

  He was a king, so it wasn’t like he had to go out very often, and it wasn’t necessary for him to be especially tough. I still believed it’d be better if he was able to defend himself, though. My grandpa was the one who taught me how to look after myself... It was pretty rough.

  “Grand Duke... Isn’t it frightening to hurt others? Don’t you get scared when others hate you or come after you for things you did? I think it’s really scary... Whether I’m hurting or being hurt.”

  “Well, I agree. I’d like to get through things without hurting people. But there are things I need to protect, you know? I’d be more scared if I failed at doing that. If you don’t have strength when you have to fight, then you can’t do anything... And I think you can’t get through life like that. You have something you want to protect, don’t you?”

  “Mhm...” The boy looked down and nodded a little. He was looking through the monitor display at his sister, who was chatting casually to King Cloud.

  “She means a lot to you, doesn’t she?”

  “...Yeah. I really want her to be happy. I know King Cloud wants to make her his queen, too... But I get scared, you know? I don’t want my sister to go away... I don’t know if I can be king if she isn’t here to help me.”

  Well I’ll be damned, this kid’s more attentive than I gave him credit for. He’s a little more mature than he looks, at least.

  He was probably uneasy due to a lack of self-confidence, and I was hardly in a position to help him that way. He was a child, and it was normal for a child to be insecure. A king couldn’t afford that, sadly.

  I could’ve easily solved the problem by connecting Lihnea and Palouf’s royal castles with a permanent [Gate] that only Princess Lucienne could enter, but that would cause problems.

  The two nations were definitely friendly these days, but they had a long history of small-scale conflicts and skirmishes, one that spanned hundreds of years. If it became public knowledge that Princess Lucienne could freely pass through to either nation in a matter of seconds, then they’d be in big trouble.

  It was possible that rumors would begin that she was spying for one of the countries or something like that. Brunhild had plenty of rumors, so I couldn’t discount the possibility of it happening here.

  The real issue here was teaching the little king how to be more independent, but I didn’t think I was close enough to him to broach that kind of subject.

  He had a lot of retainers he could rely on, at least, so they could probably handle most affairs when he was too shy. He was probably just adjusting to life as a king, and all the meetings and new people that position brought. At the very le
ast, he seemed to trust his Uncle Rembrandt who was standing as Regent for the time being.

  If he started believing in himself a little more, I had no doubt that he’d become a capable king.

  “Hey, do you have any kind of specialty? Are you good at magic or maybe swordplay?”

  “U-Uhm, well... I’m not very good at using weapons... a-and I only have the aptitude for one element...” The boy’s shoulders sagged slightly as he muttered.

  Aw crap! I might have just gone and damaged his confidence! I started thinking about how to make him feel better when the boy suddenly turned his gaze to the camera feed again.

  “Oh...”

  “Hm?”

  In response to his murmuring, I turned to see what he was looking at. He seemed to be looking at Duke Rembrandt, and a small girl standing by his side.

  Hmm... Was she always there? Actually, why’s she glaring up here so intensely?

  “Who’s the little lady?”

  “Uhm, she’s from my uncle’s... uhm, Duke Rembrandt’s house... H-Her name is Rachael... A-And she might be my fiancee? Sh-She’s a candidate, at least.”

  Ohoho... So even a little guy like this can score a fiancee, huh...? Well, I guess he is royalty so it’s not that out of place... Still, getting engaged to your cousin? Well, I guess I’m not gonna judge.

  The girl on the monitor had blonde, wavy hair held back with a black hairband. She actually strongly resembled a younger version of Lucienne. Looking between the two one might think they were sisters. They were cousins, after all.

  They definitely carried different auras, however. Lucienne had a warm-hearted nature to her, while Rachael seemed incredibly sharp-edged. The air around her was straight-up tense. Not to mention the fact that she was glaring right up at the cockpit with her hands on her hips.

  “How old is she, exactly?”

  “S-Same age as me...” She was even younger than Sue, but the intensity in her eyes was something else... Willful, tomboyish, brash... Seemed like she was all of those things and more, just at a glance.

  “Rachael’s really cool... She can use four magic elements, and she can even beat grown-ups in sword fighting... Th-They were calling her a, uh, prodigy... A once in a lifetime kind of person...”

  That certainly sounded impressive. It was probably her prodigious nature combined with her noble blood that made her a candidate to marry the king. Given such traits, it was no surprise that she seemed so intense, it would’ve been strange for her to seem like a normal little girl, even. However...

  “Why is she glaring up here...?”

  “Ah... Uhm... th-that’s my fault. I-I was planning to have tea with her today... b-but when I heard you were visiting, uhm... I-I canceled...”

  Wh-What?! Oh no, then she’s looking up here like that because she’s angry! She’s probably angry at me because I’m the reason for it, too! Alright... Think here, Touya... She’ll get even angrier if we keep staying up here, so it’s time to go back down...

  The girl narrowed her eyes and stomped her foot into the ground. She looked really damn mad. We descended to the ground again with the wire hook, at which point the young girl began a quick walk in our direction. She stood in front of me, delicately pinched the hem of her skirt, and briskly curtseyed. She certainly knew her manners.

  “It is a pleasure to meet you, Grand Duke. My name is Rachael Rembrandt of the Rembrandt household, and I am King Ernest’s fiancee.”

  “Oh, how polite. It’s a pleasure.”

  Just calling yourself fiancee, huh? Ernest said candidate... Still, I guess your little mind’s already made up.

  “Please forgive us for failing to provide a warm enough welcome, but you did arrive rather quickly. In the future, perhaps you could go by standard procedure and schedule a meeting with some leeway.”

  “Ah... Ahaha... Y-Yes, I’ll be sure to do that next time.”

  She was smiling, but I could see the poison on her tongue. She was absolutely angry with me. She was probably upset that I’d suddenly butted in on the afternoon date she was looking forward to... Guess prodigy or not, she was still a little girl.

  “R-Rachael... Y-You should speak a little more...”

  “Oh? You’re siding with the grand duke, Ernie?”

  “U-Uhm... n-not exactly, but...”

  Oh boy... If these two get married, I can already tell who’s gonna be wearing the pants in that relationship. Maybe she’s the reason the little guy’s so spineless.

  She was definitely the textbook definition of a pushy rich girl. I didn’t exactly want her trampling all over the king of Palouf.

  She frowned quietly before dusting her hands together and turning to face me once more.

  “Well then, if I am correct, you are a Gold-ranked adventurer, are you not? I would very much like you to show me.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I would like you to display this alleged strength of yours that is so fondly spoken of in rumor. Would you care to oblige?”

  The girl began to grin menacingly toward me as if she were issuing a challenge.

  She’s not seriously trying to pick a fight, is she?

  ◇　◇　◇

  “I didn’t really expect this to happen today... Are you sure you’re fine with this?” I was walking to the Palouf Knight’s Training Grounds with Duke Rembrandt when I asked him if he thought this was alright.

  Honestly, I wanted to know what Rachael’s dad truly thought about the idea of me fighting her.

  “Mmm... I think this is quite fine. She’s a very strong girl, though any father would speak well of his child. That being said, her strength has given rise to arrogance as of late. I’d very much appreciate it, Grand Duke, if you could break her spirit a little. I think it would be better for her in the long run to suffer some humiliation.” I wondered if the other knights had just been going easy on her due to her young age and noble blood, but apparently, that wasn’t the case at all.

  It seemed that this world, just like my home, had prodigies as well. One of the biggest things to look out for with prodigious kids is their egos. You didn’t want to risk them becoming overconfident.

  What can start as simple confidence can very easily mutate into arrogance or even disdain. Then again, the opposite was also an issue. The young king had little to no confidence in himself.

  The duke himself didn’t seem to have an issue with the fight, but... Beating up on a little kid would probably make me look bad. At the same time, I could hardly afford to lose on purpose. I’d look worse!

  “You okay, Touya?”

  “Yeah, I guess... I don’t really have a choice here. Did you see the look on her face? She seemed pretty damn self-assured.”

  “Little kids always have that period where they think they’re the best... Even I had something like that.” Elze muttered quietly. I could definitely imagine her being like that. Linze suddenly let out a gentle sigh.

  “You were definitely like that for quite a while, sis... I could hardly even keep up with you...”

  “Ahaha... Well, like I said, most kids have that kinda thing, right? I bet you had a period of time where you acted funny too, right Touya?”

  “...No comment.” I knew if I lied Elze would be able to see right through me. I didn’t want anyone to know about my edgy phase...

  “Still, a confident kid can still be capable... But that doesn’t mean she’s not vulnerable. Make sure she learns during the fight with you, alright? Just don’t lose, and don’t try to make it look like it was close. You might feed into her ego.”

  Mm... I guess... But I don’t wanna completely thrash her. She’s still a little girl, I don’t wanna make her cry.

  We arrived at the field and found Rachael already doing her warm-up routine. She’d changed into a tracksuit-like training outfit and was swinging her wooden sword around. She looked extremely enthusiastic.

  Welp. There’s nothing else for it... Even if it makes me look bad, I can’t hold back. It’s time to dunk on a litera
l child. Her dad said I can, so it’s fine, right?!

  Still... She’s a little girl... I’ll try my best not to actually injure her.

  The training field was surrounded by a magical barrier that prevented magical attacks from escaping, so the audience wasn’t at risk.

  I headed toward Rachael and picked up a small tree branch that was on the ground nearby.

  “...What’s with the stick, Grand Duke?”

  “It’s my weapon. Should be more than enough for someone like you.”

  “Tch...! D-Don’t say I didn’t warn you when this is over, then!” Oh boy... She’s mad. Not that I really care or anything... Besides, her anger will prove to be her downfall if she doesn’t focus. Looks to me like she’s pretty easily provoked.

  A young member of the knight order stood between us to act as referee.

  “Both sides ready? Very well, fight!” The moment the signal was given, Rachael thrust herself toward me. She was surprisingly agile. However, I easily dodged the attack by stepping to the left, and I followed the movement up by lightly tapping her on the head with the stick.

  “Tsk?!”

  “You shouldn’t recklessly leap into battle, Rachael. You need to understand how your foe moves before you do anything. And when you do leap? Make sure you prepare a follow-up attack.” Rachael suddenly leaped backward with a thudding sound, before raising her left hand and quickly chanting a spell.

  “Come forth, Fire! Crimson Javelin of Flames: [Fire Spear]!” The girl shot a flaming lance at me from her left hand. I was pretty impressed she could do that at a young age... But it wasn’t good enough.

  I stepped to the right, and the spear whizzed right past me. It hit the barrier and swiftly dispersed.

  “Spear spells are extremely easy to track. You’d be better off using that on an incapacitated opponent, or as part of a combo attack. Maybe you could use it on someone who was running in the opposite direction. Either way, it’s pointless to use in a battle like this.”

  “Guh...!” The girl furrowed her brow before preparing her weapon and charging toward me again. The moment she moved, I cast a spell.