In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 11 Premium Page 17

  Hallowed grounds, graveyards, and toxic bogs... All these places were associated with Zombies. It was just part of the aesthetic.

  Apparently, souls that died in places like that found it harder to reach heaven, which meant they were likely to infest corpses and become Zombies.

  Zombies and Skeletons belonged to the same general undead category. The only difference was whether or not flesh remained on the bones. Skeletons also tended to move faster than Zombies. I wondered if that was because there was no meat to weigh them down.

  “I guess I can get why they’d be scared to live there.”

  “It’s entirely possible that if the people living here become afraid, the negativity could rise again and attract whatever’s eating them up.”

  Hmph... That’s true enough. Cesca raised a fair enough point.

  Fear was one of the most basic negative emotions a human could possess. If repeated incidents occurred, they would pile up and intensify a person’s anxiety. That anxiety would ultimately invite more fear, creating a vicious cycle that traps people. That accumulated fear would then summon whatever was feeding on it, which would, in turn, leave a wake of more fear.

  I needed to destroy the root of the issue before a cycle of anxiety and fear took over the people in this place. Ultimately, I needed to catch the Seed of Evil and crush it before it could germinate.

  “Touya, your eyes are twitching again...”

  “Ah, sorry.” I’d been getting more irritable lately for some reason. It was frustrating that we kept on showing up late to these disasters and that so many innocent lives were lost. I felt like I was being bullied by the universe.

  “Geez... I could really do with a change of pace around here...”

  “Heheh... So you’ve finally decided to do naughty things with us, hm?”

  “H-He has?!”

  “If she speaks, there’s a ninety percent chance she’s speaking nonsense. Ignore her.”

  Goddammit... I’m gonna go bald due to stress one of these days...

  ◇　◇　◇

  “Terrible news!” The dining room door flung open loudly, and Tsubaki charged into the room.

  Gah! Knock next time! Linze almost choked on her tea. Tsubaki’s cheeks flushed red with embarrassment as she realized her rudeness.

  “Calm down, calm down. What’s the problem, here?”

  “We received a message through the Gate Mirror! It’s from Pam in the Sea of Trees. The tribes of the region are under attack by Sandora, they’ve sent in their Magic Beast Knights!”

  “What did you say?!” Why the hell would Sandora be invading the Sea of Trees? Didn’t they have an unspoken peace arrangement going on...?

  “The invading army has been capturing tribespeople alive and dragging them back to the capital city one by one. They intend to enslave the general population and have them serve Sandora. Pam and her tribe are currently preventing the other tribes from angrily charging into Sandora territory, but the situation is dire...” I was disgusted by what I was hearing.

  This isn’t just a goddamn slaver run, this is an organized assault on a group of people with the express purpose of enslaving them... What the hell is this?! If Sandora kept this up, it’d be an all-out war between the regions.

  “Then I guess those rumors of Sandora producing more Submission Collars was true...”

  “It seems so...” I tried sending the three kunoichi there with the intent of discovering credibility, but this was clear proof enough.

  It would be meaningless to have more collars without necks to put them on. They needed a good source of fresh slaves to subjugate. It seemed like Sandora was aiming to get as much out of the Sea of Trees as they could. The more warriors they enslaved, the bigger their army could grow. No matter how talented the tribesmen were, they’d have a major problem facing off against tamed magical beasts.

  I wondered if they intended to bolster their numbers, and then take over the whole region. “It wouldn’t be good if Sandora and the Sea of Trees get into a scuffle. It could erupt into all-out war.”

  “So, what are you gonna do?” Elze muttered in my general direction.

  “Fortunately for us, Brunhild has a good relationship with the Rauli tribe, the tribe in charge of the Sea of Trees. We will negotiate between the two sides, and demand that Sandora return the captured people.”

  “Do you think they’ll return the slaves?”

  “They better... And then we’ll make them pay reparations for their damages, too. It will definitely have negative political repercussions, but it might be the only way we can avoid war. We don’t want the tribesmen launching their own guerrilla attacks, either.” Their goal was to obtain slaves, so I doubted there’d be mass murder... But if they’d already killed any of the captives Pam told us about, then war could be inevitable.

  The tribespeople in that region put their familial pride above anything else. It was doubtful they’d forgive Sandora for so brutally wounding it.

  “This might be a good chance for us to learn more about Sandora... Send a message to Pam, and send a message to Sandora. We’ll have their king and his men talk to us directly.”

  “We can send a messenger, but... Who? We cannot send Commander Lain... Nikola, perhaps? Or me...?”

  “Nope.” I shook my head toward Tsubaki’s words, and then grinned broadly.

  “I’ll be going.”

  “Eh?!”

  “Won’t be a problem, right? I’ll change my appearance and go in as Brunhild’s messenger.” I didn’t want to send the important people of Brunhild to such a dangerous and horrid place. It was a country with nothing redeeming about it, as far as I understood. Hell, a lot of people started calling it ‘kidnap country’ because of how many visitors ended up going missing.

  I could’ve sent my sisters or cousins... They definitely wouldn’t die or anything... But they weren’t exactly fit for negotiations. Kousuke could probably do it, but he didn’t exactly look the part.

  Mostly, I just wanted to find out just what the hell was going on in Sandora.

  Plus, the new secret weapon that had been developed in collaboration with the research laboratory and the library was finally complete, so I had that as a backup.

  If Sandora ended up speaking cruelly to my demands, then I’d ensure that the kingdom never collared anyone ever again.

  I had a personal problem after Sandora infiltrated our dungeons and tried to pick away at newbie adventurers.

  Sure they were independent, but Sandora was the buyer. It meant that they had information about my country, too. They probably thought they could take people covertly without dirtying their name directly.

  I talked to the other world leaders and discovered that slavers in their respective territories all reported to a higher authority, one linked to Sandora on the administrative level.

  The slavers were effectively employees of the state. They were government workers. They, working for Sandora, kidnapped people from other places. In my eyes, that made the country accountable.

  I couldn’t tell whether Sandora’s king was actively in charge of all this slavery nonsense, or if he was just being manipulated by the people around him. Regardless of the situation, I felt only negative things about the nation.

  I wanted to get to the bottom of it all. Depending on what I found, I was prepared to come down on them with a vengeance.

  ◇　◇　◇

  The carriage rattled through the streets of Kyuray, the Sandy Capital of Sandora. The roads weren’t exactly of the best design. Luckily for us, Rosetta had designed a shock-absorbent carriage, so it wasn’t as bad.

  I looked out at the old, worn streets from outside the window. There were various collapsed walls around the place and sunken roofs. There were wooden huts mixed in amongst ruined houses of red mud-brick.

  This was a place where the lower-classes lived. The second-class citizens.

  “The people here aren’t exactly cheery...”

  “Are you surprised? They don’t
exactly lead the happiest lives.” Lanz, the newbie knight who sat next to me, muttered quietly as he looked out the window.

  I told Kousaka that I intended to go to Sandora and talk to the king, so he had Lanz come with me as an escort. He didn’t believe I was just trying to talk it out... I found that a little unpleasant given that I typically had a non-violent policy so long as they didn’t attack me first.

  He actually wanted Vice-Commander Nikola to come along with me, but I didn’t want someone with such a high status coming along on a mission like this, so Lanz was a good fit.

  There were four other soldiers with us aside from him, but they were in another carriage following behind us.

  I wanted to immediately shoot off to Sandora by using [Fly] or something like that, but right now I wasn’t being Mochizuki Touya, I was being an envoy from Brunhild on behalf of the united tribes of The Sea of Trees. I did end up using a [Gate] to get to the outskirts, though.

  When Pam handed over the written list of demands, she had a fierce expression on her face. She didn’t even have to say it, but I knew she wanted me to smack the king hard in the face if I actually got to meet him.

  Her tribe and the other tribes of The Sea of Trees would go to war with the Kingdom of Sandora if we weren’t careful, so it remained to be seen if I’d actually do any punching. She wanted to come with us, but couldn’t due to her status in keeping the tribes tentatively at peace.

  “There are about as many slaves as I expected. Many of them look malnourished, too... It seems you were right, Your Highness. They’re not being fed well at all. That being said... the fighting slaves do look like they’ve been eating well.”

  “That’s because they’re fighters, Lanz. You can’t have someone fight on an empty stomach, or they’ll just be meat shields.” I saw slaves dotted around as we passed by, which meant that even second-class citizens could own them. There were strong-looking slaves standing by the entrances of stores, likely keeping guard for their shopkeep masters.

  There were beastmen and other demi-humans amongst the slaves, too. They’d likely been brought to Sandora from other parts of the world. The ones I saw wore crude, ragged clothing, and their arms and legs were fully exposed.

  “Oh, that’s another thing. You can’t address me as if I’m the grand duke, Lanz. I don’t want anyone overhearing you, or you could blow our cover.”

  “A-Ah... Please forgive me. What... What should I call you instead?” Lanz looked at me with a mortified expression, and I realized I hadn’t given much thought to my fake name. Hmm...

  “How about Dolan? That’s Micah’s dad’s name, right? You should have met him by now.”

  “Wh— Ah! Y-Your Highness...! M-Miss Micah and I a-aren’t like that, I assure you!”

  Lanz squirmed in place as his cheeks reddened. You fool... You fool! I know all about your visits to the Silver Moon! You can’t stop my all-seeing gaze! Or er... Karen’s all-seeing gaze!

  I decided to stop teasing him, though. I’d thought of a name idea.

  “Robin Hood... Or, er, no. Robin Loxley. That’ll do.”

  “Robin... Loxley? Then I should call you Ambassador Loxley, sir?”

  “Yep. I’m not really good at using bows, though.”

  “Hm?” I was wearing light green clothes, so the name just sprang to mind.

  I hadn’t changed my whole body using [Mirage] this time. All I’d done was change my hairstyle, my eye color, and my hair color. That was enough to trick anyone who’d only seen me at a glance. I didn’t really expect there to be anyone in Sandora that knew me well enough anyway.

  The coach went on through the second-class district, and finally reached the gates to the first.

  A couple of armor-clad soldiers suddenly walked over and blocked our path with crossed blades.

  “Identify yourselves! This area of the city is for authorized individuals only!”

  “Goodness me... We’re an envoy from the Duchy of Brunhild. Did you not receive a notice about our arrival in advance?”

  “Brunhild...? Tsk... Wait there and shut up. We’ll ask our superiors.” The soldier peeked through the window, sneered at us, and grumbled off into the gates.

  “To act so rudely to a foreign envoy... Just what kind of training did they have? If this were Lestia, he’d have been stripped of his rank immediately.”

  “Sandora doesn’t really do foreign relations, so these crappy manners are probably just a result of inexperience.” I still got a little annoyed, though. Sometimes you have to do a little extra work as part of the job, no reason to get upset about it.

  They kept us waiting for a while, but we were finally allowed inside.

  “Go on. But don’t you dare cause a fuss.” He was still being rude despite confirming who I was. I got the feeling he didn’t think too highly of us. Sandora was geographically isolated, which meant it had pretty much been free of outside invasions in the past... It was possible that he was simply smug and satisfied knowing that outsiders could do nothing in his nation, but it could also just be the fault of his upbringing. He didn’t know any other way, after all.

  The coach started to move again, and I was immediately surprised by how smooth the roads were compared to the ones we’d been on before. The second-class road was bumpy, coarse, and uneven. This one was smooth, flat, and perfectly maintained. The houses around were all pristine and white, too. Everyone in this district looked extremely gaudy and well fed, as they walked around with their slaves.

  The slaves in this area looked extremely well-dressed as well, but their faces were just as miserable as the faces I’d seen in the second-class district.

  “I’d heard living conditions between the classes of Sandora were stark in contrast, but this... this is extreme...” Lanz shook his head in disbelief as he looked outside. There was an absolute world of difference in terms of quality of life.

  The end of the road took us to a magnificent castle, constructed of smoothed-out stone. It was largely an angular, square castle, with four cylindrical towers that rose up out of the ramparts; it certainly inspired awe and majesty.

  However, I also knew that this castle was also the product of slavery.

  We arrived at the gates and were let through with little issue at all. Seemed like the news had already gotten this far in, but we were still met by the same disdainful scowl from the gatekeepers.

  We were let out of our carriage before meeting up with a grumpy-looking robed man who came out of the castle. He was clearly not happy to see us. We followed after him into the gaudy halls of the castle.

  Lanz and I had all our weapons stripped after a thorough search. They were exercising caution, but that wasn’t unreasonable. We were meeting with their king, after all.

  We were brought into the meeting hall and forced to kneel down. There were other men in the vicinity, generals and retainers. Naturally, they were accompanied by their warrior slaves. There were a lot of them, too. They wouldn’t go down with just a couple of weapons, so I wondered why they even bothered stripping us. Then again, it was better to be safe than sorry.

  “So... this is the envoy sent by Brunhild? I’ve heard it said that he carries with him a request from the tribes in the Sea of Trees. My, my... What an interesting situation.” A bald man wearing a red-and-black robe spoke up in a sardonic tone. He seemed to be the country’s prime minister.

  In the middle of the room sat a plump little man, smoking a long pipe. He looked like he was dozing off on his glimmering throne, half-lidded eyes surveying me lazily. At a glance, he honestly resembled a pigman orc, the kind of fat monster you’d see in certain anime.

  Next to the throne sat a girl wearing a Submission Collar. She wore clothing so thin she might as well have been completely nude. She was kneeling by his side, her body completely still. I realized she was holding up an ashtray.

  The pigman was wearing a golden crown, which meant that he was the king, Abdul Djerba Sandora III. He certainly didn’t look like a good guy. Though I was tryin
g not to judge people at a glance. It was entirely possible that this disgusting, crude-looking man was completely fine, and not at all like the several disgusting, crude-looking villains I’d taken out in the past.

  His throne was accentuated by a beautiful golden armor on one side, and a gaudy golden blade on the other. The sword had way too many gemstones encrusted into it, but I got the feeling that it might actually be usable. As for the armor... I didn’t think the pigman would be able to use it at all... He was the wrong size entirely.

  I looked directly at the King of Sandora, careful not to say any of the rude things I was thinking.

  “My name is Robin Loxley, my liege. I am here today on behalf of the Sea of Trees, to request that you release the tribespeople captured from—”

  “Denied.” He completely cut me off mid-sentence, using his chubby fingers to flick ash from his long pipe. Then, he made his slave girl refill the leaves and light his pipe back up. Then he began smoking again without a care in the world.

  He ran his fat, greasy palm over the slave girl’s cheek, licking his lips in a disgusting manner as a grin crept over his face. He continued this motion, but then began to speak, tracing her skin inappropriately without even looking at us.

  “We don’t have enough slaves yet. Why would we return the few we caught?”

  “...Then you expressly launched an assault on The Sea of Tress with the intention of capturing the people there as slaves?”

  “Is that a problem? You have no authority over us, little man. Brunhild is a little country, it is barely even worth a second thought. You would do well to mind your own manners.” The king of Sandora turned his face in my direction, grinning madly as he spat out vitriol.

  That was all the proof I needed. The country itself was responsible for the cruelty of the slavers.