In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 2 Read online

  “If we’re going to the capital anyway, there was this store called Berkut... I remember seeing an enchanted “Gauntlet of Demi-God Strength’ there.” Berkut was the name of the shop I’d bought my enchanted white coat from. This coat was enchanted to offer resistance to all elemental magic that the wearer was proficient in — which, in my case, meant all of them. The catch was that it reduced the wearer’s resistance to any elements that they weren’t proficient in — in my case, none of them. It was a real steal.

  “What’s this about a Demi-God gauntlet?”

  “I dunno, something about a muscle-enhancing enchantment on it, I think.”

  “Well, now you’ve got my attention!” Elze looked at me with new life in her eyes, grabbed me by the hand, and dragged me out to the inn’s back garden.

  “Okay, let’s go! C’mon, no time like the present!”

  “Hold your horses! Do you even have any money on you?!”

  “I withdrew some from the guild earlier. Now let’s go!” This girl really did take action the moment something sprang to mind! I remember thinking to myself that it wouldn’t hurt for her to slow down a little sometimes...

  “Hello, and welcome to Berkut.” We were greeted by the same girl who had served me the last time I came to this shop. Unlike last time, though, she didn’t ask for any form of ID. If she really remembered me from that one time we met, then that was pretty incredible customer service.

  She must have judged at a glance that Elze was with me, because Elze wasn’t asked for any ID, either. Elze herself cast her gaze all around the store, evidently surprised by how high-class the place was. Come on, it’s not exactly amazing enough to drop your jaw at...

  “What can I help you with today?”

  “Right, er, the last time I was here I saw a gauntlet on display, something about Demi-God strength? You wouldn’t happen to still have that, would you?”

  “I’m very sorry, I’m afraid we sold that item some time ago...” That was a shame. Elze let out a dissatisfied groan when she heard the news. Just went to show that enchanted items could only warm shelves for so long unless there was some kind of odd quirk or two about them like with my coat.

  “Are you searching for arm guards?”

  “Sort of. We’re actually looking for attack-oriented gauntlets.” Since they were a type primarily designed for punching rather than guarding, they were technically weapons, but at the end of the day gauntlets were still primarily classified as defensive equipment. It wouldn’t be strange for an armor shop to stock them. If anything, it would make more sense than looking for them in a weapon shop.

  “Attack-oriented gauntlets, correct? We do have some other available pairs of enchanted gauntlets, if you would like to see them.”

  “Oh, you have other enchanted gauntlets? Yes, please let us see them.”

  “Understood. Right this way, please.” The lady said that and then led us toward the back of the store. Right around the place where I’d found my coat, actually.

  She took two pairs of gauntlets down and placed them on the countertop.

  One pair was a beautiful pair of streamlined, metallic green gauntlets.

  The other was a set of angular, red-and-gold colored gauntlets.

  “These gauntlets here are enchanted with a type of wind magic. They will blow away any incoming arrows or other ranged attacks. Unfortunately, they do not block magic attacks, but still offer fairly high magical resistance.” The employee explained the pair of metallic green gauntlets to us. Physical attack-blocking enchantments sounded pretty useful. It was a shame they wouldn’t block magic attacks, but high magic resistance was still pretty good.

  “This pair here, on the other hand, are capable of storing up the wielder’s magic before unleashing it in one extremely powerful attack. It takes time for the magic to accumulate within the gauntlets, but they’re also enchanted with a hardening spell, so they’re unlikely to break even with heavy use.” Next up she explained the red-and-gold gauntlets. Unlike the metallic green ones, these ones seemed to place much more emphasis on raw strength. From the sounds of things, they also let you use something like a “Focus Punch” move you might see in video games.

  Basically, the choice came down to one of attack or defense. It was a difficult decision. I preferred to tighten my defenses and keep myself safe long enough to come up with a strategy to defeat the enemy, so I’d have gone with the metallic green pair, but knowing Elze, she seemed more likely to go for the red-and-gold pair that emphasized pure offensive power.

  “I’ll take both sets.”

  “Huh?!” I couldn’t hold back my surprise when, in contrast to my trying to weigh the merits and demerits of each pair, Elze simply skipped having to make that choice altogether.

  “You’re really buying both pairs?”

  “Well, they both seem useful. If I mix and match, I can get the best of both worlds.”

  “Sure, I guess, but then what happens to the leftover mismatched pair?”

  “I’ll keep them as spare, duh. There’s always a chance I could break one of them like what happened with my old pair.” Elze made a good point. As long as they were being used as weapons and not just armor, there was no telling when they might get damaged or broken. I was concerned about the spare pair being on opposite hands, what with people generally being more comfortable throwing punches with their dominant hand, but Elze told me not to worry about that.

  To begin with, her fighting style didn’t place preference on one hand over the other. In boxing terms, she would’ve been what was known as a switch-hitter.

  “Very well, please equip each pair and let me know if anything feels out of place. I’ll make any necessary adjustments for you.”

  “Thanks, but they feel fine to me as-is.” Elze tried on each pair of gauntlets and confirmed that both sets were comfortable enough on her hands.

  “Well then, this green pair is fourteen gold coins, and this red-and-gold pair is seventeen gold coins.” Thirty one gold in total. Three million, one hundred thousand yen, huh. They were pretty expensive... Or, wait, was that cheap for two pairs of enchanted weapons...? This shop never failed to toss my sense of monetary value right out the window.

  “...Touya.”

  “What’s up?”

  “...Could you lend me one gold? I came up a little short.”

  “This is why I told you to make sure you had enough money before we came here...” I took one gold coin out of my wallet and gave it to Elze.

  She paid for the gauntlets with three platinum coins and one gold coin. She got the gauntlets placed in bags, but they were huge and bulky so I ended up carrying them for her. Seemed that the man was naturally expected to carry the lady’s bags in this world, too...

  “Thank you for your patronage, we hope to see you again.” The employee lady saw us off as we left Berkut behind us.

  “Guess I should’ve expected the capital to have a good selection of equipment, even though it did turn out a teeny tiny bit more expensive than I’d planned for.” Elze seemed pleased with her purchase as she walked alongside me. I sort of understood the feeling of having found exactly what you went looking for at the shops.

  Unsurprisingly, though, the four gauntlets really were heavy. I looked around for an alley so that I could open up a [Gate] to take us back to the inn.

  “Elze, let’s find an alley somewhere so I can—” I turned my head to talk to Elze, but she was gone.

  “Elze?” I turned around to look for Elze and saw her standing in front of a shop a fair ways back. She was looking at something in the window. What could’ve hooked her attention like that? I walked back up to Elze and peeked over her shoulder to see what it was. Hoho, so that was it.

  A black top adorned with white frills, and a large ribbon on the chest. Plus, a black mini-skirt with three frilled layers.

  It reminded me of a goth-loli style dress, with slight differences.

  Elze simply stood there, completely entranced by it.

&nbs
p; “...You want it?”

  “Huh? Whawah?! T-Touya?!” She drew away from me with a bright red face like I’d just given her the fright of her life. What was with that reaction?

  “Err, uhm, th-this is... yeah! For Linze! I thought that Linze would look really good in it! She seems like she’d like these types of clothes, doesn’t she?! Unlike me, of course! Hahaha!” The moment Elze opened her mouth, she started rambling. Seemed like she was always thinking of her little sister.

  “I think it’d suit you just as well as it would Linze, though.”

  “Wha...?!” Elze’s face turned even redder, and she started flapping her lips like a fish out of water. Seriously, calm down. Why was she acting so weird, anyway?

  “What are you talking about? It’d look way better on Linze than it would on me...”

  “Y’think so? You’re both cute enough to pull it off. You are twins.”

  “C-C-Cute...?! What are you saying all of a sudden?!” Elze’s fist crashed into my side with a painful thud. Augh! That really hurt, you know!

  “I was only saying... that you’d look good... in these clothes, too...”

  I explained myself to Elze while clutching my aching side. Looking closely, I noticed that she had broken out in a cold sweat.

  “There’s no way an outfit like this would suit me...”

  “I’m telling you, it’d look great on you.”

  “You don’t need to flatter me. I know fully well what kind of outfits I could or couldn’t pull off.”

  “Now see here, you...” Why was she trying so hard to deny it? I felt like she didn’t think I was being sincere with her, even though I honestly did think she’d look great in that outfit. The fact that she was putting up so much resistance to the idea started to annoy me, even.

  “For one thing, I’m not the type of person to wear clothes like that in the first place, and...”

  “If you won’t believe me, then fine! We’ll just have to go in and get them to let you try it on!”

  “Huh?! Wait...! Touya?!” I grabbed her by the hand and half-dragged her into the shop. I got the lady at the counter to bring the clothes over from their display in the window, and then forced them into Elze’s hands and led her to the changing rooms.

  “Hang on a second! What are you thinking?!”

  “Look, we’ve already come this far. Just get in there and try those clothes on. Trust me.” I drew the curtain closed from outside and went to take a look around the rest of the shop. I killed some time browsing through the belts and accessories they had. Before too long, Elze timidly drew the curtain open.

  “Very nice.” Elze looked fairly different from usual in those clothes.

  She actually looked pretty great in that goth-loli style outfit, especially with her long silver hair. See? I knew I was right. Not just anyone can pull that kind of look off.

  “See...? I told you! I-I told you it doesn’t suit me at all...”

  “Huuuh?! How can you even still say that?!” By that point, I was at my wits’ end trying to convince her, so my voice rose in pitch a bit. Her self-confidence was remarkably low. How hard was she squinting to think that she looked anything but amazing dressed like that? Now that I’ve come this far... I’m not gonna back down until you give up and see some sense!

  “Like I said, it looks great on you. Don’t you think so, ma’am?!”

  I turned to the lady at the counter.

  “I agree. I think it looks lovely on you, miss.” This time I even got the shop employee to chime in along with me. Hell, the changing room even had a mirror in it. Had Elze completely overlooked that fact before stepping out, or what?

  “Y-You really think so...?” Elze blushed, pinched the front of the skirt in her fingers, and did a little twirl. It really did look great on her. She was adorable.

  Right then... I went to talk with the employee.

  “Excuse me, we’ll take these clothes.”

  “What?!” I paid for the clothes without giving Elze a chance to resist. Three silver, pretty expensive for regular day-to-day clothes.

  “Touya, wait a minute! I wasn’t planning on actually buying these!”

  “You’re not buying them, I am. And I’m giving them to you as a present.” I wasn’t about to let Elze leave without buying those clothes when she looked so great in them. Plus I wanted everyone else to see how cute she looked, too. I got a paper bag from the counter, and gave it to Elze for her to put her old clothes in.

  We left the shop, and Elze bashfully raised her head to thank me.

  “Thanks...”

  “No problem. Now let’s get back so we can show off your new clothes to everyone else!”

  “Huh?! No, wait, that’s maybe a bit too embarrassing for me...!” I grabbed the now-dressed-up Elze by the hand and set off running.

  The other girls all complimented Elze when they saw her wearing her new outfit. See? I knew I wasn’t wrong. Everyone else agrees, too.

  There was only one issue. When the girls learned that I had bought the clothes for Elze as a gift, they suddenly displayed slightly more mixed feelings on the matter. In the end, it was decided that I was to buy new clothes for each of the girls in the name of fairness.

  ...Seriously, why do these things keep happening to me?

  ◇　◇　◇

  A while later...

  “It’s a letter from my father. He says to read this and head over to the royal palace immediately.” A letter arrived at the Silver Moon, delivered by a horse-drawn carriage. Yumina explained what it was after looking it over. Something’s giving me a bad feeling here... but I guess I can’t just ignore it.

  “What does it say, then?

  “In gratitude and recognition of how Touya Mochizuki handled the incident some time ago, I would like to bestow a noble title upon him.”

  “A title?!” Elze and the others raised their voices in surprise. Oh, so it’s that, then... Well, I’m not entirely surprised it came to this.

  It makes sense that the one engaged to Princess Yumina should be one of noble lineage. Given that her engagement hadn’t yet been announced to the public, they were likely arranging things behind the scenes in order to project the proper image for me when I was finally revealed to the population.

  “Hey, uh, can I refuse the title?”

  “Yes, you can refuse if you truly wish. I merely ask that you formally refuse it in person.”

  “Refuse?!” The girls raised their voices in alarm once again. Sheesh, you girls sure make a racket.

  “Marriage aside, you shouldn’t refuse the title! It’s a total waste!” Elze spouted her opinion, honest as always. But honestly... taking that title would make me head of a noble house, right? That didn’t really suit me at all...

  “If you join the ranks of nobility, it means you’d be serving the country... You’d have duties and responsibilities to attend to, like governing a plot of land.” Linze quietly mumbled while running her hands through Kohaku’s fur. As I thought, it’s a total drag... Definitely gonna refuse it.

  “Touya-dono, what reason will you give when you refuse?”

  “Uh... I’ll probably say that the adventurer life suits me better.”

  Putting it like that even made me think I was lying about it. Still, I wanted to avoid the wrath of Yumina’s parents, so this was probably the best way to go about it.

  “That will be fine, don’t worry. My father won’t want to force your hand, either.”

  “Alright, let’s get going.” Seems he wanted Elze and the others to come to the palace as well. Not as formal attendants to the title ceremony or anything; it seemed more like he wanted to meet and thank the girls who were so diligently looking after his daughter. The three of them were too terrified by the prospect to accept at first, but after thinking it over they realized the benefits of meeting the king himself.

  “Oh, Kohaku. You wanna stay behind this time?”

  “If you command it, I will stay—”

  “Nope.”

 
Oh. Unanimous rejection by the girls.

  “We can’t leave Kohaku behind, moron!”

  “Yes, it’d be too sad...”

  “Kohaku is our valued companion as well, Kohaku is!”

  “Don’t worry Touya, Kohaku can come with us. I’ll keep an eye out.” Geez, Kohaku sure is popular. I was a little bit jealous, but in truth, even I understood that Kohaku’s fluffiness had no equal in terms of appeal.

  I opened up a [Gate] right away, and we were at the royal palace in a flash. Yumina’s room to be exact.

  Well, I said Yumina’s room, but it wasn’t a bedroom or sitting room. It was a room made to welcome guests. The king had given me permission to use this room for my [Gate] spell whenever I brought Yumina to visit.

  As we left the room, the guardsman outside looked puzzled for a second, then his expression shifted to one of suspicion, but he quickly grew calm after he saw Yumina.

  We walked for a while, then Yumina opened a door at the end of a hallway. Through the door we saw the king, General Leon, and Olga the Mismede Ambassador all enjoying tea together.

  “Father!”

  “Oh, Yumina!” Upon seeing his daughter, the king rose up from his chair and rushed over to embrace her.

  “You seem happy and healthy, I’m pleased.”

  “I’m by Touya’s side, Father. There’s no way I could be unhappy.” Agh... you’re embarrassing me...! My cheeks flushed red as Yumina spoke, then the king turned to me.

  “It’s been some time, young Touya.”

  “It has.”

  “Are the people with you your companions? You needn’t worry about formalities here, friends. Raise your heads.” I turned around to see what the king was talking about, and saw that the girls behind me were all bowing profusely, heads on the floor. Geez... it’s worse than the time you guys met Sue. I noted that they hadn’t bowed for Yumina, however. But that was probably because they were so shocked she’d willingly come back to the inn with me.