In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 4 Read online

  “So you donned the guise of a vengeful spirit to protect your own life.” The woman from the frame nodded her head and gave a small bow.

  “Who even created something like you?”

  “A briiilliant doctor from a long-dead civilizaaation. She was a true geniuuuus, but certainly a little off-beat and eccentriiic.”

  “...Wait just a damn minute.”

  Doctor, woman, eccentric, and genius...? When all those keywords line up, I can only picture the smug grin of a certain individual...

  “...What was the name of that doctor?”

  “Doctor Regina Baaabylon!”

  “That bastard!” Well, I guess bastard isn’t quite right, but why her again?! Why does she keep causing trouble, and why does that trouble always come to me?! What sorcery is this?! I’ve had enough, damn it! Ugh...

  I decided that freaking out wasn’t wise, so I calmed down and resolved to approach the situation sensibly.

  “So, you’re something that Doctor Babylon created, but why are you here?”

  “Uhmm, weeeell... for the longest tiiime I was floating up in the storehouse in the skyyy, but the administrator up there is suuuper clumsy, and about three-hundred yeaaars ago she totally broke part of the wall in theeere! So by accideeent, me and a few other items of intereeest fell aaaall the way down to the ground. Luckily, we were at a looow altituuude, and I fell on to a snooowy mountain, so I made it out intaaact.”

  “Wait... do you mean the Storehouse of Babylon?!”

  “Oh myyyy, do you know of it?” I felt like I was repeating a lot of old events.

  First that damn jewel that Kansukay had, then the Blockbracer and Drainbracer combo that General Bazoar had, and now this. The culprit has to be the administrative gynoid running that place. I’ll have to find her and mete out justice.

  “I’m just a picture fraaame, so it’s not like I could do much. I waiiited around until a hiker found me, and from there I was treated like an antiiique. I just went with the flooow, y’know? For whatever reason, once this old looord put a portrait of his dead wife inside my fraaame, I gained the ability to use magiiic! So I would waaalk around in the dead of night, but slooowly that guy went crazy...”

  Oh no... Anyone would go insane if they saw their dead wife walking around every night, wouldn’t they?

  “So eventually, he started to research reaaaally weird stuff. And just when I thought I’d enjoy some peace and quieeet, the royal army came in and killed hiiim! After that, a new lord moved in. I waaaanted to see what kind of peeerson he was, so I went into his rooom in the middle of the niiight. When he saaaw me, he suddenly stopped moving and dieeed! Then, the next lord saaaw me while he was riiiding his horse. As soon as he did, he lost control and fell oooff!! The lord who came after, well, his wife must’ve been craaazy. She ran around yelling about how he was a cheaaaater, and hiding another woman in their hooome! Then she stabbed hiiim!”

  “But that means—”

  “Elze, just don’t.” I cut off Elze, who was trying to state the obvious. This picture frame person was clearly the source of everything and she didn’t even realize it.

  The first lord went insane at the supposed phantom of his dead wife roaming his halls. The second clearly went into shock or had a heart attack when he thought a spirit was approaching his frail, ill self. The third obviously went into a panic on his horse after seeing her and lost control. And the wife of the last lord here must’ve mistaken the frame-woman as her husband’s secret lover.

  This was most unpleasant.

  “Is there something wrooong?”

  “No, not really... But now at least we know the story, so I can demolish the castle without any worries.”

  “Wait, whaaat?! How could you be so wickeeed?!”

  “At least hear me out first. I’m offering you alternative accommodations. If you come with us, you can live freely and not have to worry about being trashed. How does that sound?”

  “Oh, really? Is that trueee?! I’d definitely be happy with thaaat!” With that, the negotiations were complete. I had her return to the picture, then unfastened the frame from the wall. As I did so, I was struck by some curiosity and wondered why the lords after the first kept the painting of the first’s wife around. Typically, one would expect a painting like this to be removed during the redecoration process.

  “Uhhm, they were gonna toss me out a few tiiimes, but it turns out the guy who painted this thing is really faaamous, so they kept it because of thaaat!”

  Well, that made sense. So the artwork itself was actually quite valuable. I wondered if I shouldn’t just remove the picture and sell it off, then. Wasn’t like I wanted to keep the portrait of a long-dead lord’s wife laying around, anyway. I could just put another picture in the frame and the frame-person would be fine, probably.

  We returned to the entry and reunited with the others. I roughly explained the circumstances and let them know the truth behind the ghost story. Remnant of the ancient civilization or not, it was a pain in the butt to me. Still, it was hardly something I could change at this point.

  Now that the problem was sorted, I opened up a portal and sucked the whole castle back to Brunhild. As you might expect, I was a bit nervous moving something so huge for the first time, but it turned out just fine.

  After that, I went to the workshop and spoke with Rosetta. According to her, we still didn’t have quite enough materials. The missing material wasn’t much, though. Just some lumber, glass, and cloth. I had no choice but to cover the cost for that stuff myself. Glass would be easy enough to acquire from old structures, but cloth should’ve probably been bought new. It seemed you could only recycle and reuse fabric up to a certain point.

  “Alright, sir! Bring the relevant materials to the workshop whenever you can! They’ll automatically hop to it and be added to the build site based on my projection data, sir! Ah, a query, sir! Where do you want the castle?!” I pointed to the dead center of my territory on the map. That was only natural. Brunhild had a fairly level terrain, so it would be easy to get around and expand for the most part. In my opinion, it was most sensible to put the castle in the middle. After all, we had no other building plans at the time. If it caused an issue, I’d be able to move the castle again using a [Gate].

  The castle should take three days to complete, so I should get to work finding the remaining materials...

  ◇　◇　◇

  “It really only took three days...”

  “Yessir! That’s the power of my workshop, sir!” Rosetta pridefully puffed out her chest. Not that there was really anything to puff out.

  I looked at the monitor in the workshop. It was displaying my brand new, white castle. Though it was rather small for a castle, it was still considerably larger than my mansion in Belfast.

  Apparently worn-out fabrics and cloths couldn’t have their integrity restored even if we recycled them, so I ended up buying most of that stuff brand-new. I could’ve gone out and harvested from silkworm cocoons, but it was easier to just buy it. Making stuff out of raw materials was a pain in the ass anyway. I’d rather spend money than time and effort.

  That being said, I chopped a lot of oak and hinoki for the lumber. That was faster and easier than buying.

  So, with a bit of elbow grease, the castle was finally built.

  We brought down the drawbridge over our vast moat and advanced on toward the inner walls. The water in the moat was crystal clear, and was being sourced from a nearby river. The water purifier was similar to the one employed in the Hanging Garden of Babylon.

  It was also possible to manipulate the flow of the water by using floodgates situated both up and downstream. That would be handy during flash floods or heavy rain.

  We passed the castle walls, through the sturdy castle gate. We made sure to take time to admire the defensive buildings in the area. There was a station for guardsmen, as well as some well-built towers for men to be stationed inside. There was a trail that led around to a fully-equipped training field
around the back, as well.

  We continued on toward a fine marble staircase that opened up into a magnificent garden with a water fountain in the middle.

  We crossed through the garden until we finally came across the double doors to the castle interior. We opened up the large doors and went inside. What greeted us was a magnificent hallway with a high ceiling. A beautiful chandelier was suspended in the middle of the room, just above a vast staircase. The staircase split off to the right and left partway through, leading to two other entrances. The stairs were also covered by a beautiful red carpet.

  That smoothly curving staircase really reminded me of the royal castle in Belfast. That shouldn’t have really been surprising, though. This place used Belfast Castle as a base, after all.

  “Ah, how wonderful. There’s just something calming about this place.” Yumina seemed to feel the same. It was probably because the place was based on the place she had called home most of her life.

  We went up to the second floor and came to an enormous door that opened out into a vast room. There was a huge skylight fitted on the ceiling, which seemed to focus the light down in a single ray on to an extremely beautiful elevated chair. Is this the royal audience room?

  “I-Isn’t this a little bit too extravagant?”

  Who’s supposed to sit there, me?

  “This is surely the room where you will entertain visitors from other nations and so on. If it isn’t a little gaudy, you may be looked down upon. My dear Touya’s magnificence must shine on display at all times!” I could understand what Lu was getting at, but I still found it embarrassing. After a bit of coercing, everyone eventually convinced me to try sitting on the chair. I felt extremely uncomfortable. But everyone said stuff like “Wow!” and “Incredible!” without considering my feelings.

  Who’s going to send representatives to a country that has nothing in it, anyway? We don’t have any vassals, either. This room’ll probably go unused for a good while.

  After we left that room, everyone scattered off to look around the castle at their own leisure. I tried to look around too, but wasn’t able to see every single specialized room in one go. The ones I did look at included a ballroom, a dining hall, a library, a music hall, a training hall, and a nice courtyard.

  Isn’t this place a little big? I thought the plan was to make it small-ish and manageable...

  After everyone finished looking around, we all gathered together to relax in a large room with a balcony attached to the outside.

  “It certainly is spacious here, it is. Cleaning it up will be quite the feat, it will...”

  “Nope, we’ll be fine. The whole castle is enchanted with [Protection], so dirt and wear won’t affect it. Well, dust will still pile up, I guess...” As I answered Yae, I looked out to the balcony and saw Yumina and Lu happily chatting with each other and looking out across the landscape. Ah, youth... Such an energetic time. Wait, that makes me sound like an old man.

  Lapis, Cecile, Renne, and Cesca came into the room bearing tea and cakes. Laim dutifully followed behind them, as well.

  “Ah, sir. This is a magnificent castle. I didn’t think that I’d be serving inside a castle again just one year after re-entering service.”

  “Ah, I’m sorry, Laim. You stopped working in a castle, finally became a mansion butler, and then I went and did this...”

  “Think nothing of it, sir. Youngsters nowadays certainly seem more hot-blooded. I’m sure things will get even more exciting as the days go by.” Laim let out a small laugh as he spoke. Well, if he didn’t mind working in a castle again, then I wouldn’t mind either.

  “Master, there is a garden here with a fountain, but I’d like permission to restructure it.” Cesca made a curious request as she poured my tea. She managed the floating garden of Babylon, so it went without saying that gardening was her specialty. Julio was in charge of the courtyard, so I decided to let Cesca do what she wanted with the general garden area.

  “By the way, where can I find the naughty training room?”

  “Enough!”

  This girl really doesn’t know when to stop! As I picked up my teacup, Renne brought a selection of cakes to me.

  Renne was slowly becoming a very proficient maid. She was helping out a lot more compared to when she started out. Sometimes she messed up, but that really wasn’t a big deal. As an aside, it seemed that Renne was happily exchanging letters with her grandmother in the empire almost every day. She was making good use of the Gate Mirror.

  “Heyyy, sir. Isn’t it a little inconvenient for us to live heeeere? It’ll be difficult for us to go and buy stuff, you knoooow?” Cecile spoke up with her usual soft, elongated tone. She had a point. There was nothing but this castle in this country, so no shopping could be done here at all.

  “Well, the current plan, at least for the time being, is to connect the castle to our Belfast home with a [Gate]. It’s not perfect, but it should help.” I intended to create a special [Gate] that could only be used by certain people. By combining [Search] and [Gate], it should have been simple enough to create a portal that only opened for certain people. Better to be safe than sorry, after all.

  “I’ll ask Tom and Huck to continue being the gatekeepers at the mansion. That way, if anything happens over there, they can contact us about it. As for the guard here... should I just summon Cerberus and let him live in the garden?”

  “He’s definitely the strongest watchdog we could ask for.” Elze chuckled. The Hound of Hades was now my watchdog. I was fairly sure he’d be able to sniff out any intruders with that powerful nose of his.

  It should be fine to summon lizardmen and werewolves to guard the castle, right...? Wait, no... if I go that far, people might start thinking this is some kind of monster territory or something...

  “Hm...? What’s that...? Is it a puppy? No, wait, it’s... a bear? Is that a stuffed bear...? Lu, who was out on the balcony, suddenly spoke up. A stuffed bear? It can’t be...

  I ran out on to the balcony and shifted my gaze over to where Lu was looking. Sure enough, there was a little stuffed bear toddling along through the castle gates. A little stuffed bear accompanied by its master, who was strolling along with a black parasol...

  “Goodness me, I look away for a moment and you end up becoming a grand duke or whatever... That’s quite the step up, isn’t it? Color me surprised.” Leen sipped tea and commented on my situation as she reclined on a couch. Paula was nearby, prostrating herself and rubbing her paws together in my direction. The programming of that bear never ceased to confuse me.

  “Not to mention the fact that you’ve claimed the Regulus Empire’s princess, too... What a carefree life you’re living now.” The sardonic nature of her sentence did not go unnoticed. It wasn’t like I’d claimed anyone, if anything I got a princess and a country as a package deal.

  “Well, I won’t bore you with the details, but here’s the short and long of it. Starting today, I’ll be living here as the ambassador for Mismede. Yep, yep. Nice serving you, Your Dukeliness.”

  “What?! Hold on a second, aren’t you serving as the ambassador to Belfast right now?”

  “I already delegated that role to another. This place is far more interesting.”

  Are you for real...? It’s not like I mind, but changing your place of work on such a dumb whim isn’t exactly good... Well, if the beastking is fine with it, I guess it’s alright.

  “There’s one final, personal matter. There are a few youngsters who asked me if they could work here... Could you possibly allow it?”

  “They want to work here... in this country?”

  “That’s correct, yes. They want to serve the Duchy of Brunhild.”

  H-Hrmph... it’s true we don’t have a lot of staff right now, but I don’t want to needlessly employ anyone. I don’t want anything to get complicated, or for bad people to end up being employed by me. Oh, Yumina has her Mystic Eyes, at least. I guess I can use that to see if anyone has any bad intentions.

  “Well, I
may as well meet with them. Where are they?”

  “They’re waiting for you outside the gates.” I took Yumina and Leen along with me to the end of our drawbridge. There were three young people there. Well, I said young people, but it wasn’t like I was old or anything. They were around my age, maybe younger. When the three of them saw me coming, they bent down to their knees and lowered their heads in reverence.

  Augh, stand up! That’s not comfortable for me or you!

  All three of these people are beastmen... There’s a rabbitboy, a foxboy, and a wolfgirl... I think. Hold on a sec... this rabbit, don’t I know him from somewhere...? Oh, I know!

  “Excuse me, you’re Lain, right?”

  “Ahaha... it’s been quite some time, but I’m glad you remember me, Sir Touya.” The short, redheaded boy grinned at me.

  He was one of the subordinates of the wolf beastman Garm, from the excursion to Mismede. But wait, shouldn’t he be in service to the Kingdom of Mismede, then?

  “I’ve retired from the employ of my country, so I’ve come to ask if I may serve your nation instead.”

  “I see... But why? Garm definitely seemed fond of you, so I’m sure you were going places in that army.”

  “Sir Touya, when I saw you strike down the Black Dragon, I... I was moved beyond words. When I heard you had founded a country, I knew I had to serve you here. I asked Lady Leen for your details immediately.”

  Wow, talk about dedication. I don’t deserve that kind of devotion at all... As Lain spoke, the wolfgirl next to him gave a short giggle.

  “Now now, Lain, calm down a little. You’re gonna scare Sir Touya off!”

  “A-Ah... Forgive my overzealous tone.” Lain turned beet red and bowed his head in shame. The silver-haired wolfgirl glanced sidelong at me, bowing her head.

  “The name’s Norn. You worked with my big bro some time ago.”

  “Your bro?”

  “Norn is Garm’s younger sister, Sir Touya.” Lain piped in with a brief explanation.