In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 4 Read online

  Ah, that makes sense.

  The foxboy was the only one who remained. He quickly bowed his head. He definitely seemed the overly-serious type. From looks alone, he seemed one or two years older than me. That much was clearer up close. He was really tall, too. His gold-blond fox ears twitched, and his tail wagged dutifully.

  “Nikola Strand. The pleasure is mine, my liege.” He stood at attention as he spoke, his posture firm and upright.

  Please don’t say “my liege”... I know I’m the head of this duchy, but apparently the term “duke” is a bit more flexible in this world. My title’s different from the “duke” in Duke Ortlinde’s title, too. Over here I guess it’s just something akin to “king of a nation.” Well, there’s no point sweating the small stuff. More importantly...

  “Did you say Strand? Are you related to Olga Strand?”

  “Olga is a cousin of mine from my father’s side. Her father, the famous merchant Olba Strand, is my uncle.”

  Aha, just as I thought. Wait, doesn’t that mean all of these guys have some kind of personal connection to me? Well, I guess that’s not unreasonable. I only just founded this country, so only people related to me, however tangentially, would bother coming to work for me.

  “These three are rather skilled individuals, so they’re more than fit to protect your castle.” After hearing out Leen’s recommendation, I looked over at Yumina. She looked back at me, giving nothing but a small nod and a silent smile. It seemed that her Mystic Eyes of Intuition hadn’t picked up anything bad about them.

  “Hm... well, nothing’s final just yet. I don’t have a formal Knight’s Order or a standing army, either, so I think your duties will mostly just consist of odd jobs for the time being. If that’s still fine by you, then I’d be happy to have you here.”

  “Thank you for having us!” All three of them exclaimed those words in unison. I was pleased by their response.

  Now, for the time being... where should they sleep? I should probably divide their quarters by sex. I guess they can just live in the castle for now... I decided to think about that more later.

  If they ended up becoming the foundation for a formal Knight Order, then I’d probably end up giving them a separate building.

  “Alrighty then, two men and one woman. It’s not quite enough to call a Knight Order yet, but I’m pretty sure we’ll e...ventually... get there... Uhh...?” The air around Lain grew heavy as I spoke. Norn smiled somewhat awkwardly and averted his eyes, while Nikola just looked at the ground as if he’d just heard something awful.

  Huh, what’s wrong? Did I say something stupid?

  “You absolute twit. Lain is a girl, you know.”

  “......What?” Leen suddenly shot those words out, and I noticed Paula put her paws to her own face as if to say, “Oh man, what are you doing?” Sweat began to spill from all of my pores as I started to process my mistake.

  Wait, seriously? I slowly turned my head toward Lain, who was now looking somewhat dejected, rabbit-ears dangling in resignation.

  But... that short hair... that handsome, androgynous face... I-I guess it looks a little womanly if I look close enough... Oh geez, oh no.

  “...She’s a woman.”

  “Oh no, I’m so sorry! Really!!!” I suddenly fell to my knees in apology. It was unprecedented for a sovereign to prostrate himself before his subordinate, but that was just how my country began.

  Afterword

  Hello again, it’s me. Patora Fuyuhara.

  Well, we’ve finally gotten around to releasing the fourth volume. Did you like it?

  In this volume, Touya technically became a sovereign ruler, but I don’t think that should change up the adventuring formula that much. He’ll carry on with his friends, just like he always has.

  One of the things you should look forward to is the kind of things that’ll happen in Brunhild. Naturally, it won’t just be a quiet country that sits there and does nothing, oh no. The surrounding countries will get involved, there’ll be riots, explosions, all the good stuff.

  As you may have been able to tell, Moon Reader was based on the general idea of a manga cafe.

  I used to work in one of those places, so I had some pretty fond memories as I wrote that section. I never expected the experience there to come in handy while I was writing, but here we are. In all honesty, I wish I had the [Paralysis] spell, since it would’ve made dealing with shoplifters a lot more convenient.

  Although it was a good job, I never really made use of the services because it was hard for me to feel settled there. I’m the kind of person who can only really settle down with a book he bought and took home.

  Honestly, my idea of how those venues work might be a little outdated. I only worked at one a long time ago and haven’t visited one since...

  But that aside, here are my special thanks.

  Eiji Usatsuka, your illustrations are as wonderful as ever. Thank you for so lovingly rendering the new characters that appeared in this volume. Your rendition of Lu is absolutely wonderful. She’s truly adorable.

  K, as always, thank you so much for what you’ve done for me. Please stay in good health, and I look forward to working together even more from now on.

  To everyone at Hobby Japan’s editorial department, it’s all thanks to you that we’ve reached four volumes. Thank you so very much.

  And once again, to all of those who supported me on “Shousetsuka ni Narou,” you have my deepest gratitude.

  — Patora Fuyuhara

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  Copyright

  In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 4

  by Patora Fuyuhara

  Translated by Andrew Hodgson

  Edited by DxS

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016 Patora Fuyuhara

  Illustrations Copyright © 2016 Eiji Usatsuka

  Cover illustration by Eiji Usatsuka

  All rights reserved.

  Original Japanese edition published in 2016 by Hobby Japan

  This English edition is published by arrangement with Hobby Japan, Tokyo

  English translation © 2017 J-Novel Club LLC

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.

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  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  Ebook edition 1.0: August 2017