In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 9 Page 2

  “How shall I put this, dear doge... I wonder if your wooden puppets will truly be up to scratch when it comes to protecting your people. They’re not being piloted by anyone, after all. They lack the human touch.”

  “Aha... Then you mean to say Brunhild’s giant warriors are superior to my Golems?”

  Huh? W-Wait a minute... Don’t you get hostile too, Emperor! I can understand where you’re coming from, but still...

  The Bowman guy seemed to be impossibly smug when it came to his Golems. He didn’t seem to have much social sense, either. He was glaring right at the Emperor of Regulus. He had to be stupid. Nobody in their right mind would look at a monarch like that.

  Gaspar was staring at him with intensity in his eyes. Naturally he wouldn’t forgive him for speaking to his leader that way. The Roadmare guardsmen were silently staring at the Regulus guardsmen. The atmosphere had suddenly gotten a whole lot more tense. It was all that Golem freak’s fault! He couldn’t read the atmosphere at all.

  He probably had his ego massaged every day by the people of Roadmare, which meant he had an inflated sense of importance.

  In all honesty, this guy was far from a genius. He’d just taken the Golems from the Rivet Tribe and the collars from Sandora, then mixed in a few other things. You could barely call it his own work, since he just cobbled together a bunch of other ideas.

  “Touya, my lad. Here’s a thought... Why don’t we show them the power of the Frame Gears?”

  “...You think that’s a good idea?” The King of Belfast muttered toward me, keeping a keen eye on the two sets of tense guards. I replied in turn.

  “Can’t really be worse than what’s happening now. It’d be better to fix their naive understanding of the Phrase, no?” He raised a fair point. They were definitely sure of their Golem’s strength, but there’d no doubt be fatalities if they ended up taking that route.

  I decided I’d teach them once and for all just how pathetic their secret weapon truly was.

  “[Gate].” I opened up a portal, allowing my most basic of Frame Gears, a Chevalier, to fall through.

  It landed in the plaza with a noisy thud.

  The sudden appearance of the “giant warrior” caused the Roadmarians to look on in shock.

  “This is a Chevalier. It’s the type of Frame Gear that I mass produce. It’s the weakest Frame Gear in my country, and the only positive it has over other Frame Gears is how easy it is to control.”

  “What...” All the Roadmarians looked up at it. The Wood Golem was definitely larger, but that was about it. Either way, from appearances alone it did seem like the Golems could punch a Frame Gear into the stratosphere. I wondered if they felt the same. I noticed Bowman grin slightly out of the corner of my eye. What’s so funny?

  “I propose a mock battle between my Frame Gear and your Golem. We’ll accept that as proof of the Golem’s capabilities in combating the Phrase menace. Is that fair, Doge?”

  “Goodness me... I don’t mind at all! What about you, Mister Bowman?”

  “Most interesting... Yes, I’d quite like to see a Frame Gear in action. I approve.” Bowman sneered slightly as he adjusted his glasses. Then, before walking away, he whispered to the guardsmen.

  The mock battle was scheduled for ten minutes later. Bowman and the doge spoke quietly while I turned to Nikola.

  “Alright, let’s prepare... Are you good to pilot, Nikola?”

  “That I am. More than good, in fact.” Vice-Commander Nikola had come along as my escort, and I had full confidence in his ability to win. As I was thinking about the details, I heard a sudden voice.

  “Grand Duke, might I have the honor of piloting the Chevalier?”

  “Gaspar?” Knight Commander Gaspar walked over to me. His eyes had a piercing level of intimidation behind them.

  “A mere puppet could never make a mockery of me. On the pride of my Emperor, I swear it to you. I will win.” The other knights of Regulus were looking my way as well. It seemed that they couldn’t stomach how Bowman had disrespected their leader.

  I glanced to the Emperor of Regulus, and he gave me a little nod of affirmation. Gaspar was pretty damn strong, so I had no issues with letting him pilot. It wasn’t like the pilot actually had to be from Brunhild or anything. Plus, he was from an allied state, so it was more about the power of the Frame Gear itself than my country.

  “Sounds fine to me. If you think you can, go for it. You want a spear?”

  “Aye. I’d appreciate it.” I opened up another portal to the Hangar, and a Frame Gear-sized spear came out.

  I took the initiative and told Gaspar the location of the Wood Golem’s core, and also gave him a basic rundown on its strengths and weaknesses. It seemed fair, given that he’d be fighting a souped-up version of the ones you’d find in the wild.

  The time came to begin. I looked over at Bowman, and he had a shit-eating grin on his face as he watched Gaspar board the Frame Gear.

  I made sure to keep an eye on his face. The moment it shifted to a look of despair would be priceless.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “What is this?! What the hell is this?!” Bowman was sweating bullets as he screamed. All he could do was watch as the Chevalier nimbly evaded all of the Golem’s attacks and slowly shaved away at the creature’s arms.

  The Frame Gear managed to slice faster than the Golem could regenerate its lost biomass, cleaving the left forearm right off.

  The Golem was terrible. It was slow. It was dumb. It had considerably less strength than I expected it to have. In some ways it actually felt like its natural strength had been reduced due to the modifications.

  The Golem glowed a faint red about the throat as its regeneration speed increased a bit. It didn’t take long for both arms to fully restore themselves, but it couldn’t regrow the armor plating, so it was considerably more vulnerable.

  It started to lash out again with its reformed arms, but it couldn’t lay a single strike on the Chevalier.

  “Guh! H-Hit it! Just land a hit...!”

  “Hm? Think that’ll make a difference? Heh, let’s see, then.”

  “Wha—?!” As I smirked over at Bowman, the Chevalier was promptly smacked by the Wood Golem. But it wasn’t as he would’ve have wanted.

  The Chevalier tanked the hit and brought its spear up, piercing the throat of the Golem. Gaspar had cleverly ascertained the location of the core thanks to the red glow earlier, and the spear was more than strong enough to break through.

  The Golem’s core was annihilated, making the lumbering beast fall to the ground with a thud. It crumbled to pieces, sending flakes of dying bark scattering around the area.

  Bowman fell to his knees in shock, unable to process what was happening.

  “I-Impossible... M-My masterpiece...” A masterpiece, he called it. I was really glad we’d held this mock battle. One of those Golems would be ripped to shreds in seconds if it went all-in against the Phrase. It’d lose to a swarm of Lesser Constructs easily, and anything higher than that would be able to take it one-on-one without a hitch.

  “Doge. A single Intermediate Phrase is strong enough to give multiple Chevaliers a hard time. There’ll also be countless numbers of them, and I haven’t even mentioned the Upper Constructs which have an even more obscene amount of strength. Those things will soon be making landfall in Roadmare. For the sake of your people, I’d suggest a mass evacuation.”

  “G-Goodness... I-I’ll discuss it with the other heads of state... We’ll let you know our decision once we’ve reached it.”

  “We look forward to hearing from you, Doge.” Bowman was glaring at the floor in shock, and the Doge seemed pretty surprised too. We turned from them and walked over to Gaspar.

  “Perhaps I overdid it a tad...”

  “No, you did well. The citizens’ lives were at stake. We can’t have them take it too lightly. They had better reconsider the evacuation now.” An evacuation was necessary, but it wouldn’t be simple. There was even the chance that the citizens wou
ldn’t believe the news. Plus, they’d have to leave their life-long homes.

  Obviously we’d aim to keep collateral damage to a minimum, but if a town ended up becoming a battlefield then it likely wouldn’t survive the fallout. Intermediate and Upper Constructs would cause considerable damage with their beam attacks, too.

  Phrase wouldn’t specifically target deserted towns, but they’d definitely end up trampling any buildings that ended up in their way. Their wild march would mean the end of any buildings on their warpath.

  It wasn’t just houses, either. Stores, fields, and other sources of livelihood would be devastated. It was easy enough to tell someone they should be thankful for getting away with their life, but they’d still be throwing away everything they’d built.

  I transferred the Frame Gear back to the Hangar, then started thinking that we should probably take our leave when two women approached us.

  One of them was a gray-haired woman who looked to be about forty years old. She wore a shawl and seemed fairly serene. The other was a tall, knightly woman with brown hair. She looked about twenty.

  “A pleasure to meet you. Grand Duke of Brunhild, Emperor of Regulus, and King of Belfast, allow me to introduce myself. I am the governor of the Roadmare Union’s Highland State, Audrey Leliban. And this is the commander of the highland knights, Limit Limitex.”

  “...Uh, hi...” I was so caught off-guard that my reply ended up coming off as less than sincere.

  Highland... That’s one of the seven states that make up Roadmare, I think. If she’s the governor there, then that means she’s actually pretty important!

  “I’ve come to ask something of you, if possible. May I borrow your ear for a time?”

  “Uh, sure! Yeah. What’s up?”

  “I would like for you to tell me precisely where these Phrase will appear. And then I would like to know their anticipated movements.” I projected my map in the air to show Audrey. The two of them seemed surprised at the sudden display, but I ignored that. I pointed out the location Ende had shown me earlier.

  “Right here. It might not be this precise area, but the Phrase should pop out around here in a week or so.”

  “Oh goodness...”

  “Lady Governor...!”

  Hm? Something funny about the map? What’s going on?

  “...Forgive my sudden shock. It’s true this area is located in the central state, but it’s particularly close to the highlands. Grand Duke, if the Phrase appear here, what will they do?”

  “Well, that’s simple enough. The Phrase hunt down any intelligent creature with a heartbeat. If they appear here, they’ll go straight for any nearby populated areas. So... they’ll probably head here first.” I zoomed the map out to show more of Roadmare. The Phrase would emerge in the central state, but the nearest village was actually within the highlands. In other words, her territory would come under fire first.

  “Ah... Here. Rimroad town. They’ll likely head right there.”

  “Just as we’d suspected...” Audrey let out a deep sigh. That was only natural. Her people were going to be attacked if nothing was done.

  “And if we evacuate the citizens of Rimroad? Will that change the Phrase’s course?”

  “In that case the Phrase will head straight for Emynas in the highlands, or Recept in the central state. I can’t be certain though, since the marker here isn’t completely precise.”

  “I see... And your alliance intends to fight the emerging Phrase? What is it you’re looking for, exactly? What will it cost?”

  “It’ll cost nothing. I’m not interested in asking you people for stuff. If we don’t do all we can, then the world will collapse in a similar manner to the ancient civilizations of yore. We didn’t manage to save Yulong, but this time we have the edge of foresight. I’d like to reduce damage to an absolute minimum this time.” I nodded firmly as I spoke to Governor Audrey. I didn’t want to invade Roadmare, or ask them for anything. They really had no option but to believe my intentions were benign.

  If the Phrase rampaged here, there’d be nothing left after a while. If I didn’t care about the people or the world, I’d have kept quiet. After all, it was the business of another nation. However, I couldn’t just sit by while so many perished.

  I decided that if Roadmare’s government didn’t call for an evacuation, then I’d at least give the citizens the choice by telling them the truth. They’d be able to choose whether or not they stayed or left. It could well result in mass panic, but I had to at least give them a fighting chance.

  I wasn’t about to let selfish governmental decisions result in the deaths of innocents.

  “...Very well, then. The highlands will independently evacuate. I don’t have permission from the doge yet, but we will leave even if he says not to. I will also freely allow your alliance access to our land for this battle. That is the decision I’ve come to.”

  “Lady Governor... Is that really okay? Depending on the doge’s choice, you may end up rebelling against him.” Limit seemed nervous as she spoke to Audrey. She had a right to be, since Audrey’s proposition would have her opposing Roadmare’s government. A deed like that could end up having long term consequences.

  “If we delay, we won’t be able to arrange an evacuation in time. We can’t sit around any longer and wait. The doge will make his decision, but it won’t affect our course of action. I will take full responsibility.”

  “Oh, hold on. If you give me your permission to try something, I think I could evacuate you all really fast. I can use my transportation magic...” I came up with an idea. I’d open up a [Gate] and let the citizens spend a couple of days in a safe space. And then...

  “Well... I could probably move every town.”

  “What?!” The King of Belfast, the Emperor of Regulus, and the governor of the Roadmare Highlands all yelled out in surprise.

  I’d never tried a large-scale portal before. The biggest thing I’d ever moved was the castle that Ripple lived in.

  Instead of transporting the town directly, I’d transport the town and the terrain it was on. Otherwise I’d have to move the buildings somewhere with identical ground.

  It was a matter of precarious balance. A bowl of soup on a tray is fine, but if you suddenly move that tray halfway off the edge of a stair, it’d flip over easily. I just needed to move the town to a safe place and maintain the balance properly. It’d be bad if I moved the town along with the people and something went wrong, though. I decided to just have them evacuate for the meantime. After that I’d move the town to a safe location if possible, but I didn’t want to get their hopes up.

  Plus, the Phrase’s path would change if the humans in the area were relocated, so I might not even have to move some places.

  Either way, the primary focus was to make the place uninhabited. If just one stubborn person stayed behind, the Phrase would lock on to his heartbeat and damage the town. It was important that people understood that.

  “Moving people forcibly won’t be an issue if it comes down to it. Just how big is this battle expected to be?”

  “Smaller than the battle at Yulong, at least... It shouldn’t be as devastating, either. I’m just glad we managed to talk to you guys before the invasion ended up happening.” There weren’t any excuses for failure this time. We had time to prepare. No point in squandering it.

  I decided to have Audrey talk to her citizens in the meantime. I could easily transfer them last-minute, but it would be better to have them out of the way sooner rather than later. Then it would only be a matter of me using magic to sense people in the vicinity, and we’d be golden.

  All we needed to do after that was continue producing new Frame Gears. We’d only be able to create Elze’s Frame Gear and repair Ende’s Dragoon before the battle, though.

  If a flying Phrase showed up like the manta, I’d have no choice but to bring it down. It meant that, once again, I wouldn’t be fighting in a Frame Gear. That totally sucked! I started thinking about making a flying Frame Gear
or something.

  Maybe I could create one that can fly with a pack or something... One that can swap out parts to deal with various situations.

  Well, I won’t be able to make one in time for the upcoming fight anyway, but I can at least ask Rosetta about the idea.

  ◇　◇　◇

  We returned from Roadmare and immediately began a meeting of the allied nations.

  Even though we’d settled on a rough outline of what was going on in Roadmare, we still needed to run it by the other leaders.

  “Has Lestia gotten used to using the Frame Unit simulations yet?”

  “We have. I can safely say that all of our knights can use the simulation with a degree of proficiency. Whether or not they’ll manage in real combat remains to be seen, however.” The newly-crowned King of Lestia gave me a little smile as he replied. Just as it was last time, I believed that once a person had a degree of control over a Frame Unit, they were capable of operating a Frame Gear properly.

  Either way, our alliance consisted of eight nations. Brunhild, Belfast, Regulus, Refreese, Mismede, Ramissh, Lihnea, and Lestia.

  The Frame Gears I’d be supplying to them wouldn’t be new models, since that honor was currently only held by Elze, but I had confidence we’d be able to make do.

  “Similar to last time, I’ll be lending out twenty Frame Gears to each nation. Each will have two Knight Barons and eighteen Chevaliers. Make sure you’ve selected your commanders and pilots properly beforehand. Brunhild will have sixty Frame Gears, making two-hundred in total.” It was about ten units less than the Yulong invasion. I was still confident we’d be able to manage with that amount. The only worry on my mind was what kind of Upper Construct would show up. It’d be extremely bad if an airborne one showed up... I had no choice but to pray for good fortune.