In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 4 Read online

  “Well, I won’t know until I try. And there’s a good chance nothing’ll even happen, so...”

  “Try it, please! Please free Wendy!” Wendy? Will suddenly went over and grabbed one of the slaves by the hand. He brought her over.

  She was about thirteen or fourteen years old... probably around Will’s age. Her skin was tanned, and her hair was dirty blonde, hanging down in braids over each side of her chest. She was clearly the youngest of the slaves in the group. She hid herself behind Will’s back, nervously peeking over at me. She seemed frightened, perhaps in shock. Then again, I had just completely massacred a sandcrawler in front of her, so that might’ve had something to do with it.

  Well, whatever. Let’s give it a go.

  “[Apport].” To prevent her from getting any more scared, I tried to call her collar to me without any more bravado.

  And there, in my hand, the black collar shone beneath the sun. It had worked.

  “Wha—?! Huh?! Ah?!” Will stared at my hand, and then turned to look at Wendy. Naturally, there was no collar clasped around her neck.

  “He did it, Wendy! It came off!”

  “Eh...?” Wendy rubbed at her neck slightly. When she realized she was no longer beholden to the cold grip of the collar, she put a hand over her mouth and started to cry.

  Will pulled her into a tight embrace. Oh, so it’s like that, is it? No wonder he was so desperate. What an adorable little couple.

  “...Hey, how’d you do that?”

  “I used my Null spell, [Apport]. It lets me pull things into my hand when I’m in range.” Ignoring Logan’s astonishment, I continued to remove the other collars. Eventually, I held seven collars in my hand. I promptly incinerated them with a basic fire spell. Rebecca stared at me blankly as the little fire raged, only able to mutter a few words.

  “Just what are you?”

  “Just a simple adventurer. Here’s my card.”

  “You’re a Red Rank?!” The trio noticed the color of my Guild Card and seemed quite surprised. I handed it over to them, and their surprise reached new heights.

  “You got the Dragon Slayer and Golem Buster titles, too?!”

  “No wonder you could cleave through that sandcrawler like it was butter...”

  “Wow...! I’ve never seen anything like this before!” Each of the three gave me their earnest, if not perplexed, words of gratitude. I took my card back and asked Rebecca what their next course of action was.

  “Even without their collars, they’re still registered as property within Sandora. It’d be bad to keep them here. I’m thinking that bringing them to another country would be the best plan.”

  “How about Belfast? It’s quite nice there. You guys can stay at my place for a while if you want.”

  “Well, hold on a moment. I’m not sure how far away Belfast is from here...” I answered Logan by opening a [Gate]. I poked my head in, then called Yumina to come join me.

  “Huh?! Who are you?!”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Yumina Urnea Belfast, daughter of Tristwyn Urnes Belfast, king of the Kingdom of Belfast.”

  “WHAT?!” The trio echoed their disbelief at once. They stiffened up immediately, too. But then again, that was only natural.

  Sometimes I forgot it, but Yumina was royalty after all. Even without the regal attire, her decorum and attitude were on point. All of us paled in comparison to the presence she emanated.

  “I’ve heard of your unfortunate circumstances. My country would be happy to take you in, but what do you wish to do?” Yumina looked over them one-by-one, smiling all the while. She was definitely using her Mystic Eyes. If any of them had impure thoughts, we’d still take them to Belfast, just in a position where they could be monitored for a while.

  Yumina finished looking over them all, gave a small smile, and turned to me with a nod. I figured that meant they were all clear.

  Rebecca suddenly got on her hands and knees, prostrating herself before the princess.

  “Y-Yes, Milady! Th-Thank you... Thank you so much!” One after the other, Logan, Will, Wendy, and the others all bowed in the same position.

  Geez, guys. Ease up on the old-timey genuflecting any time you want.

  “Well then, everyone’s off to Belfast! After you, Touya.”

  “No problemo.” It would be a hassle to have everyone just go through a [Gate] one by one, so I huddled everyone together and created one above them. The exit would start one centimeter above the ground outside our house at Belfast, and slowly move upward as the entry portal moved downward.

  I tried doing the classic “beam me up!” routine from a certain sci-fi show, but it didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. I had to stop myself. I looked like a moron.

  I felt a strange sense of vertigo as we teleported in that way, like the feeling you get when you think there’s another step at the top of the stairs when there actually isn’t. It felt gross.

  Well, that feeling probably only applied to Yumina and I. Everyone else was simply too stunned due to the sudden scenery change.

  “Wh-Where are we...?”

  “You’ve arrived in the Kingdom of Belfast, friends. The Royal Capital, to be exact. My home. You guys can stay here as long as you need. Hey, Laim!” I called right away for our resident super butler, and he appeared on the terrace. Our maid squad, composed of Lapis, Cecile, and Renne, appeared alongside him.

  “Please take care of this group until we come back.”

  “Very well, sir.” Laim bowed deeply, then shot a glance to the maid trio. Lapis began to lead everyone into the house. Rebecca looked around a little restlessly, but shuffled in line with the others into the house.

  “For now, we need to continue our course. Let’s head back to the garden.”

  “You’re right.” Rebecca and the other two were adventurers, so they’d be able to earn money and find a home through the guild without much of a fuss. But as for the others... I definitely couldn’t afford to hire seven more staff. Hopefully I’d be able to help them find work.

  《My lord!》

  “Huh? Kohaku?” I was startled by the sudden telepathic message. I wondered what was wrong.

  《Kohaku? What’s going on?》

  《An unussual creature hasss appeared in the desssert. A crysstal creature, with a beautiful ssshine...》 The one that replied was Kokuyou, rather than Kohaku.

  Wait, crystal? It can’t be...! I opened a [Gate] and dashed out before the garden’s monolith. Everyone was looking at the screen. On it, an enormous crystal being was flying high above the desert, emitting a high pitched scream.

  The one we had encountered in the ruins was shaped like a cricket. The one Leen had encountered was a snake. The form this devil took... was that of a manta ray.

  It’s huge... That was all I could think when I saw it. The Cricket Phrase I had fought before was about the size of a small car, but this one was easily larger than four buses.

  At the tip of its body, there were two round protrusions, and within each was an orange-looking nucleus, similar to the core we had encountered within the previous Phrase.

  But, unlike the Cricket Phrase, the core on this beast was about the size of a basketball. Scaled up to match the rest of its body, I supposed.

  Crap... I don’t think [Apport] is gonna work here.

  “What should we do?” Leen turned to me, expecting an answer. We could easily escape without a fight if we wanted to. In truth, we had absolutely no obligation or loyalty to this region, or the nearby kingdom.

  Still, it was possible that this creature could pass through the Sea of Trees and attack Mismede. Even worse, it could attack Belfast after that! There’d be a lot of injuries, maybe even casualties. People could get hurt, people we owed debts to, and people we’d met over the course of our travels. I couldn’t accept that.

  “We fight. I can’t leave this creature unchecked.” I had made my decision.

  Luckily we were in a barren desert. That meant we didn’t need to worry about collater
al damage.

  “But how are we gonna hurt this thing? It’s huge! It’s probably the same as the last one, too, so not only does it absorb magic and have a stupidly hard shell, but it can fly in the sky as well!” Elze had a point. Yae had mithril weaponry now, but I still wasn’t sure how much that was going to help. I didn’t even know where to begin with the flying part, too.

  “We’ve no choice, so we should use indirect magical attacks. [Ice Rock] and [Rock Crash] should work, I think.” Linze and Yumina nodded at Leen’s comment. After they took it down to the ground using those spells, it’d give Yae, Elze, and myself the chance to attack it with our weapons. We didn’t really have much of a choice when it came to strategy, anyway.

  “Alright, it’s time!” I opened a [Gate] and we hopped through to the desert below.

  The Manta Phrase was high above us now, calmly soaring through the air as its body gleamed in the sunlight. Seeing it in person only made my dread and awe deepen. The behemoth was looking down upon us, intimidating us with its very presence.

  I pulled out Brunhild and let off a few shots. They simply bounced off the Manta Phrase’s body with little to no effect.

  “Regular bullets are useless, I guess...” Its smooth, streamlined, and firm body was clearly well designed to repel physical attack.

  “Come forth, Ice! Grand Frozen Mass: [Ice Rock]!” Linze invoked her spell, and an enormous chunk of ice appeared above the crystal creature.

  The ice chunk smacked against the Manta Phrase, but it only succeeded in making the creature bob downward slightly. The ice slid down the smooth surface of the creature and simply crashed to the desert below. It didn’t really change the Manta Phrase’s course at all. It was a total waste of effort on our part. That was all there really was to it.

  It was about as futile as throwing rocks at styrofoam floating on water. It would always just bob back up to its default position.

  The crystal creature finally noticed us, though. It turned in our direction. Suddenly, light began to gather between the two core nubs on the Manta Phrase’s head. Something doesn’t feel right here!

  “Everyone! Split up!” At my call, everyone spread out in different directions.

  At the next moment, missiles of light blasted from the Manta Phrase and rocketed toward the spot where we’d been standing. An enormous wave of sand erupted from the area it impacted. Honestly, it was a shocking display of power.

  “You’ve gotta be kidding me... If one of those hits someone, I doubt there’d be anything left!” Looks like it has to wait a while between shots, though. That’s a relief, at least. We’ll be able to dodge it so long as it keeps up like that.

  As if to mock me, the Manta Phrase extended its tail, bending the tip beneath its belly. The tip began to spin up like a Gatling gun, continuing the assault and firing yet more projectiles.

  “Oh, what the hell?!” I dashed out of the way and looked toward the sand. I had to see what had just been launched at us.

  It looked like a thin crystal arrow, no, closer in shape to a bo shuriken. Several thin, piercing projectiles. Regardless of what they were, that attack was definitely dangerous.

  I looked over to check everyone else was okay, and saw Linze clutching at her ankle.

  “Linze!”

  “I-I’m okay. It was just a graze...” Linze cast some healing magic and staggered to her feet. But then I noticed that the crystal Gatling tail was pointed directly at her. Oh shit!

  “[Accel]!” Using her engagement ring, Elze sped up and headed toward her younger sister.

  Elze raised her gauntlet covered fist high against the oncoming barrage of blades. Because of her wind enchantment, all of the projectiles were repelled and dispersed.

  “Touya-dono! Put me above it with a [Gate]!”

  “G-Got it!” I hesitated for a second at Yae’s suggestion, but quickly opened up a portal beneath her, sending her a few meters above the Manta Phrase.

  “Take this!!!” Yae came down upon the Manta, mithril blade in hand. But the damage she did was far from fatal.

  Yae kicked against the creature’s back and jumped off. Hey, wait! You’ll hit the ground hard if you fall from that high! “Touya-dono, please create another [Gate]!”

  Y-Yep! On it! I created a portal just below Yae in the air, and then placed the exit about 1 meter above the ground near me. She disappeared and reappeared in a flash, safe and sound. What a relief...

  “Don’t do things like that, it’s bad for my heart...!”

  “I am sorry, I am!” Still, it helped us figure out how effective mithril was on this thing. Not effective at all, actually. I had no idea how to go about hurting it. I knew we’d have to target the cores like with the Cricket Phrase, but they were the size of basketballs and there were two of them. I couldn’t use [Apport] to grab them.

  The Gatling tail turned to face me again. Crap, not again!

  “Whirl, O Wind! Bulwark of Storms: [Cyclone Wall]!” Yumina spoke an incantation, creating a wall of wind around Yae and myself. The piercing shots from the Manta Phrase were deflected away in an instant. Thank goodness...

  But as the sand subsided, I noticed the creature had shifted its attack. It was preparing another barrage of light missiles.

  “Tch, [Accel]!” I held Yae in my arms and moved away with my acceleration spell. Seconds later, a massive explosion crashed into the area we were just at. This is dangerous... It’s a lot smarter than I thought!

  “Rumble forth, Earth! Pulverizing Boulder: [Rock Crash]!” Leen conjured an enormous rock and smacked the Manta Phrase in the head, but the effect was the same as Linze’s earlier spell. Not much.

  Damn it... we really don’t have an ace in the hole here. I’ve got no idea what to do. There’s a chance someone could get hurt, too... Just thinking about that makes my blood run cold.

  “Should we just fall back with a [Gate], maybe? There’s nothing we can do here.”

  “Er... Touya-dono? Do you know who that person is, do you?”

  “Hm?” I turned around at Yae’s remark, confused.

  Even though we were in the middle of a burning hot desert, there was a boy there. A boy wearing a long, white muffler.

  “Ende...?”

  “Yo.” The monochrome boy I had met in town suddenly appeared. He was smiling and gave a small wave.

  What’s he doing here? Wait, why is he even here in the first place? No, more importantly... how did he get here?! It’s barren desert for miles around, we would’ve seen him.

  “Long time no see. I came here because I detected the presence of a Phrase, but I didn’t expect to find you, Touya.”

  “Ende... you know about the Phrase?”

  “Hm? Well, I suppose you could say that... So far I’ve only encountered Intermediate Constructs... I guess this world’s ‘Dimensional Boundary’ is close to the breaking point, though...” Intermediate Constructs? Dimensional Boundary? What’s this guy talking about?

  “Could you hold on a moment? I have a mess to clean up.”

  “Huh?” With a laugh, Ende turned to face the Manta Phrase. The creature turned its aim to the boy, but he vanished from his spot entirely before the piercing shots met their mark.

  “What?!” I looked around, but Ende had completely disappeared from sight. Did he use invisibility magic? Wait, no... that just stops you from being seen, so the attacks still would’ve hit him.

  “Over there, Touya-dono!” Yae suddenly pointed overhead, straight at the airborne Phrase. Ende was there, standing atop the flying beast. How did he...?!

  “Alrighty...” Ende raised his leg high into the air... And casually brought it down upon the Manta Phrase’s back. A splitting sound rang out, like someone had dropped a wine glass.

  A tiny crack appeared at the point of impact, which then spread across the entire colossal body, shattering it into pieces in an instant.

  What the hell?! How did he do that?! Ende descended to the desert surface alongside a rain of glittering crystal.

 
He found the two basketball-sized cores amidst the debris, took one in each hand, and smashed them against each other. They were obliterated instantly. His work done, Ende dusted his hands off.

  “What the hell was that?!” I stared at Ende, dumbfounded. That was all I could say.

  “Hm? I just attacked it by attuning my own magical oscillations to the wavelength of the creature.” Magical oscillation? Like in the resonance phenomenon? Wait, it’s magic, so it’s probably a bit different...

  “Ende, earlier on you mentioned something about a Dimensional Boundary... What is that?”

  “I guess you could consider it a kind of net that prevents entities from their own worlds crossing over into other ones. For whatever reason, there’s a small hole in it that opened up recently... This Manta Phrase came through, and the other ones as well. But luckily it’s only the small-fry for the time being.” Ende muttered an explanation while looking over the shattered fragments of the former crystal creature.

  “These ones are just mooks, pawns working together for a common goal. They’re not the real threat.”

  “So what’s their goal?”

  “To find the slumbering Sovereign Phrase, their leader. It’s a goal I share, actually...” What the hell?

  “Oh, I have to go now. I have a prior arrangement to tend to. I do hope we meet again though, Mochizuki Touya.”

  “Wai—!” Ende ignored my protest, gave a small grin, and vanished in the blink of an eye. What the hell kind of magic is that? Teleportation?

  “The Sovereign Phrase...?” I could do nothing but stare blankly as I pondered the mystery Ende had left behind.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “That’s way too suspicious,” Leen concluded, folding her arms. Well, I figured much the same thing.

  After that I returned to the garden and told everyone about Ende.

  “He had this currency from five thousand years ago, and he was able to take down a creature that we couldn’t even scratch in just a single hit. Also, he knew a lot about the monster and was wearing some stupidly hot-looking scarf. Even that attack he did was super huge and dramatic, too.” I didn’t feel like that last point was particularly important, but it didn’t change the fact that it was suspicious. Just what in the world is that guy?