In Another World With My Smartphone_Volume 6 Page 19

  “GOOAAAAH?!” The catoblepas raged around, swinging its long neck everywhere.

  “Come forth, Ice! Binding chains, [Ice Bind]!” Linze’s magic steadily froze the catoblepas’ legs. It tried to free itself, but Linze’s magic ice wouldn’t break that easily.

  I used that opening to jump towards the catoblepas and swing down my sword as hard as I could right at its neck.

  “[Gravity]!” The weight of my swing increased tenfold thanks to my magic, and thus my blade decapitated the catoblepas like it was nothing.

  Its head hit the ground and rolled away while its giant body sank to the ground, blood gushing from its neck.

  “Whew. That was a little close.” I let out a tiny sigh and collected myself. Ouch. Walking in the forest with no shoes on is pretty rough. I took out some new shoes from storage and put them on. The bottom of my pants turned to stone a little, but they were mostly fine. I could keep them on.

  “Are you alright, Touya?”

  “Yup yup, I just let my guard down for a second.” I smiled wryly at Yumina.

  That was a pitiful display if I do say so myself. I told everyone else to be careful, but I ended up being the one nearly getting turned to stone.

  “Kyaaah?! R-[Recovery]!”

  “What’s wrong?” Lu fell back onto her butt and hurriedly cast magic from her ring. Looked like she went to check out the catoblepas’ decapitated head.

  “I-Its eyes are open, a-and I made eye contact with them! E-Even though it’s dead, its mystic eyes, c-can still cause petrification!”

  “Please calm down, Lu. The catoblepas’ mystic eyes remain dangerous for a while after their owner dies.” Lu clinged in terror to Linze, who proceeded to explain what was up.

  Apparently the mystic eyes petrification power would wear off before long, but they’d retain the power to cause paralysis when charged with magic power. The eyes were therefore very valuable as magical tools and could be sold for a high price.

  Yumina looked a little sad after hearing that. Probably because she destroyed one of its eyes.

  I shut the catoblepas’ eyelids so nobody would accidentally make eye contact with it again. I figured it’d be fine like that.

  “Lu, are your legs okay?”

  “Y-Yes. Somehow. It seems that my shoes are a lost cause, though...” It looked like Lu’s feet were still petrified, but it was probably just her shoes that remained stone. Same thing that happened to me.

  While sitting, Lu took her short sword and smashed its hilt against her petrified shoes, causing them to shatter. And as expected, the tights beneath her shoes were turned to stone as well.

  The thin stone tights broke easily from Lu moving around just a little bit, causing her feet to become completely exposed.

  “Do you have any spare shoes?”

  “Yes. In my ring’s [Storage]...!” Lu stood up, causing stone chunks to noisily fall to the ground by her feet.

  “Eh...?! N-No way...!” Lu blushed bright red and pushes her skirt down.

  “Huh?”

  “T-Touya! P-Please turn around!”

  “Huh? What?”

  “Oh...? Ah! T-Touya. Please do as she says. Hurry!”

  “G-Got it.” I wasn’t not sure what was going on, but I turned around just like they wanted me to. What the heck is going on? “Lu, did your...?”

  “Uuuh... Yes, they did...”

  “Eh? Even your panties got turned to stone? But why? Do you know, Linze?”

  “I-It probably has something to do with how petrification is earth-type magic. I would bet that the petrification process starts from whatever body part is closest to the ground or something like that... After all, you had just fallen onto your butt, Lu...”

  “Aha. So that’s how it is. This is a tragedy, it is.”

  Wh-Wh-What?! Her panties? Her panties turned to stone? Then those stone fragments that just fell to the ground used to be her panties?

  “Do you have a spare pair?”

  “I do have one in storage, but...”

  “You want to change all of your clothes, I bet. Since your tights and skirt both got pretty messed up too...” I heard the sound of rustling clothes from behind me. The gentlemanly thing to do here would be to close my ears, I thought

  I looked around aimlessly, heart beating quickly... And suddenly heard loud rustling in the nearby forest.

  “What?!” I looked towards the noise and saw a catoblepas significantly larger than the one we just took down. It was glaring in our direction with its mystic eyes. There’s another one?! C’mon Cesca, pay more attention up there! Wait, I should have too, I guess! Crap! I made eye contact with it! I lost the feeling in my feet just like before and I saw my shoes turning to stone again. “GAAAH! I just changed theeem!”

  “Ngh! [Recovery]! Be careful, everyone! There’s another catoblepas!”

  “EEEH?!”

  “W-Wait just a second! My skirt is still! MY SKIRT!” I looked away from the catoblepas and, after smashing my stone shoes, started casting magic to distract the beast from my companions.

  “Come forth, wind! Helix spear, [Spiral Lance]!” I morphed a whirlwind of air into a spear and launched it at the catoblepas, destroying one of its horns in the process.

  Yeah. This thing is definitely way bigger than the last catoblepas. This one has horns that look like a buffalo’s more than a bull’s. The shape is totally different. Maybe that last one was actually a girl? And this one is her mate or something? “GRAAAAAAAHHH!!!” The catoblepas roared and charged in my direction. I saw that out of the corner of my eye and ran in a direction away from everyone else.

  I snuck a peek at Lu in the process, but it looked like she somehow managed to put a skirt on in time. ...Not that I was hoping for her to have failed, or anything.

  “Pierce, o ice! Frozen point, [Ice Needle]!” Linze summoned a ton of ice needles which rained onto the catoblepas. Her best magic was fire-based, but since we were in the middle of a forest, she couldn’t use any of it. Since she wasn’t so good with light magic, water was the only element left for her to use here.

  “GRAAAAAAHHH!!!” The catoblepas shook off the ice spears that shallowly pierced its body and spewed poison gas in my direction.

  “Woah, gotta dodge that! [Fly]!” I cast my flight spell and avoided the poison gas by soaring into the air. I couldn’t run without my shoes on, after all.

  “R-[Recovery]!” Linze cast [Recovery]. She must have made eye contact with the catoblepas after it turned around. What a shame, her shoes were ruined.

  I flew towards Linze, picked her up, and took her to safety.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Y-Yes. I was a little... A little scared.” Linze hugged me close as I princess-carried her through the sky. It wasn’t the time to be thinking about such things, but I couldn’t help but notice how soft she was and how nice she smelled. Get a grip, man.

  “Ngh, this one’s more aggressive than the last.”

  “And its mystic eyes are preventing us from making a solid attack, they are...” This catoblepas was smarter than the last one. If we looked away just a little, it craned its neck to petrify us anyway. If I looked away a lot, it exploited my lack of visibility to launch a surprise attack.

  “If we could just cover its eyes they wouldn’t be a problem, but...” Linze murmured to herself in my arms.

  This is tough. Not like it’ll just put on a blindfold for us. If only we could put a black bar over its face like they do in magazines. Or maybe mosaics...

  “Ah!”

  “Wh-What is it?”

  “There’s a magic that can block one’s line of sight! I read about it when searching for the flight spell! [Mosaic]!”

  “Guoooh?!” The catoblepas lets out a roar of confusion after having mosiacs suddenly appear before its eyes. This “mosaic” spell wasn’t about the art style. It was a real-life application of the blurring technique.

  “Fuoooh?! Guoooh?!” The catoblepas started to panic due to the mosaics blocking
its vision. It began rampaging around the forest wildly, swinging its head everywhere.

  This thing was definitely going to be harder to take down than the last one, but we didn’t need to worry about its mystic eyes anymore.

  “Now!”

  “Ah! Hayaah!”

  “GRAAAAH?!” Elze rushed forward and punched the catoblepas in the side of the head.

  “Rupture, o wind. A thousand gale blades, [Cyclone Edge]!” Yumina launched a wind blade towards the catoblepas, cutting deep into its body. Yae then followed that up by rushing the catoblepas down with her Touka in hand.

  It sensed her approach from the sound of her footsteps, or possibly her smell in general, and spewed poison gas in her direction... But she was no longer there.

  “Kokonoe Hidden Style — Rising Phoenix!”

  “Guoooh?!” She had jumped up into the air and came plummeting back down with her Touka aimed at the catoblepas’ neck. Naturally, she decapitated it easily.

  It smacked its head and hit the ground with a heavy sound. There were still mosaics around its eyes, so honestly it looked pretty weird. Eugh. I can’t just remove the mosaics right now, though. It’s still dangerous...

  “Wah... I was unable to do anything...” Lu murmured to herself in vexation while fixing up her skirt. I could see tears forming in her eyes. Nobody could expect her to fight in the situation she was in.

  “Speaking of which, something like this happened in the past too, didn’t it?”

  “Oh yeah. You’re talking about when we fought the mithril golem, right? A second one came out of nowhere back then too.” Linze and I chatted after we settled back down on ground. Huh. We fought those Mithril Golems in the Melicia Mountain Range too.

  The guild paid us double back then since they didn’t investigate things thoroughly enough. Hopefully they do the same this time too. Can’t help that the monsters in these higher-ranked quests are way stronger than normal ones.

  In return for our struggles, we should get paid more. Makes sense to me.

  Afterwards, we returned to Brunhild and I used my [Recover] spell to free the petrified adventurers.

  I didn’t think things through, though, so they all ended up naked after their armor and clothes broke apart instead of going back to normal, just like my shoes.

  Nobody was happy to see a group of confused older dudes standing around naked.

  Needless to say, Yumina, the other girls, and all the female guild employees’ screams nearly burst my ear drums.

  I didn’t plan on doing so, but I ended up casting [Mosaic] on the older adventurers to cover what was typically covered by a mosaic in my world.

  Sorry, guys.

  Interlude: A Tour Through Brunhild

  By acquiring Babylon’s Hangar I finally got my hands on Frame Gears.

  Giant robots were the real dream machines. Though, excited as I was, we couldn’t really ride them due to a shortage of fuel — the Ether Liquid.

  Besides Frame Gears, the Hangar also had things such as high-speed flying boats, armored trains and multi-purpose subterranean tanks.

  However, they also ran on Ether Liquid and were nothing more than decorations without it.

  I could transfer some of the stuff from the Frame Gears, but the things would still need some maintenance to function. That would require the expert hands of Rosetta and Monica, but since they were busy with the robots, I left it for later.

  Subterranean tanks could probably dig some really good tunnels. Opening up a hole in the Melicia Mountain Range to the north of Brunhild might make it easier for Regulus and Belfast to trade and communicate.

  Wait, wouldn’t that reduce the flow of people to my land...? I should probably think this through first.

  Today, I decided to have a look around my bustling castle town.

  I was accompanied by Kohaku and Sue. Since she couldn’t be with us most of the time, I prioritized her whenever she came to visit. After all, though small, Sue was still one of my fiancees.

  She sat on divine beast-mode Kohaku and looked at all the houses being built.

  “This is starting to look like a real town.”

  “Well, everyone’s doing their best.” The castle town already had a network of stone roads with brick houses built around them.

  Most of the new inhabitants were either merchants wanting to work here, their families or employees.

  There were also the families of our knights. Though we had knight barracks in the castle, most of the ones living there were bachelors, while those with families chose to be with their families in the castle town.

  Of course, I was the one who loaned them enough money to let them build the houses. Anyway, thanks to an increase in such families, the town was now filled with all sorts of people, young and old.

  The town occupied the area south of Brunhild castle. To the east, there were the farmlands, the north had the training grounds, while the west had our entertainment facilities.

  So far, there was just a baseball area, but still. Provided they had the money, even our common folk could rent the place, and we had frequent team matches going on there. And since just watching was free, the games were often observed by children and the like.

  “Touya, Touya! This store has so many things I’ve never seen before!” Upon seeing the goods lined up beyond the window of a shop we passed, Sue made Kohaku stop.

  The building was two-storied and was among the bigger ones in the townscape. On the front, there was a sign saying “The Strand Company,” meaning that it belonged to the Mismedian trader, Olba.

  Through the window, I saw baseball bats, balls, gloves, plush toys, shogi, hula hoops, spinning tops, and many other entertainment products, making it look less like a general store and more like a toy emporium.

  Of course, that wasn’t the case. The place also sold everyday items such as needles, cloth, fabric, nails, hammers, kitchen knives, candles, and mirrors.

  Looking further, I saw Olba, so I decided to let myself in and say hi.

  “Good day to you! Welcome to The Strand Company!” A dog-eared female employee noticed and greeted us. By the way, Kohaku was back to the usual mini form.

  “Greetings, Your Majesty. You humble us with your visit. Do you have any business here?” Upon seeing us, Olba came to greet us, too. Sue — who rarely got a chance to visit such stores — was just giddily eyeing the goods.

  “Hello, Olba. It’s not something I’d call ‘business’. Sue invited me inside, so I thought I’d come in and say hi.”

  “Well now. Thank you, Lady Sushie. Please look around to your heart’s content.”

  “I will! Thank you, too, Olba!” With a smile beaming on her face, Sue began picking up various goods as the dog-eared employee explained to her what was what.

  Guess I’ll just buy her whatever she likes and give it to her as a present. But wait, getting something for Sue, but not any other girl would probably make them upset, so... Should I just buy five more? Man, having six fiancees sure takes a lot of consideration.

  I left Sue to the employee and Kohaku and talked to Olba about the recent events.

  The Strand Company’s main branch is in the capital of Mismede, Berge. The reason why Olba could show up here in the faraway land of Brunhild so casually was thanks to the artifact known as the “Warp Circle.”

  From what I heard, it was a cushion-sized sheet with a smaller version of the circle used in the ruins of Babylon. It allowed travelling from point A to point B by simply standing on it.

  However, it also had a few disadvantages, starting with the fact that it could only transfer whatever was fully on the sheet, meaning that large objects and multiple people at once weren’t an option.

  Then, there were the limits on the weight of the objects transferred and how far they could be taken. I didn’t ask for specifics, but from what I could tell, these restrictions were pretty strict.

  The last and biggest issue with it was the fact that it needed a whole day before it could be used again. />
  Despite all this, however, the Warp Circle was a highly valued artifact that had been in the Strand family for generations and could only be used by the current head of the family.

  Not even I had the honor of getting a glimpse at the thing. Honestly, I could probably make similar things, but I refrained, since things could get nasty if society found out. My Gate Mirrors were more than enough.

  “How are things lately?”

  “Our profits are growing rapidly, and it’s all thanks to you. You are much like a god of wealth to us, milord. We are so busy in Brunhild that I hardly have time to sleep.”

  Good to know.

  As we were talking, I saw a bunch of children buy some caramels and spinning tops.

  Those are some nice smiles.

  Leaving it all to Olba wasn’t a mistake, after all.

  “However...”

  “Did something happen?”

  “Yes. How should I put this... Having a good business can attract the jealous sorts. We had someone spread false rumors about us. Something about us bribing you and getting the other kings to give us an unfair advantage.”

  What the hell? Those were clearly just stupid rumors by people just as idiotic.

  That was pretty much the opposite of the truth. A lot of Olba’s success came from the commercialization following his presentations to the kings.

  “Well, this isn’t exactly uncommon. The bigger problem these days are the counterfeit goods.”

  “Counterfeits, huh? Well, yo-yos and kendamas aren’t exactly hard to make.”

  “This here is one of the counterfeit kendamas. Take a look...” Olba took an object out from below the counter and showed it to me. At first glance, it looked like just a normal Japanese-style kendama cup-and-ball.

  I took it in hand and attempted to get the ball to enter the large cup on the side.

  I failed, so I tried it two more times, only to fail again.

  Something’s wrong here. I couldn’t claim that I was all that good at playing with kendamas, but I certainly wasn’t bad enough to not get it in the large cup.

  “Ah. Wait, what?” I then tried to put the ball in by hand, but the balance was off and the edge of the cup was bent. Even when I placed it there, the ball just shook a little and fell off.