In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 16 (Premium) Page 3
“The late king had the Mystic Eye of Ignition, but it wasn’t a very powerful ability. I’m not sure what kind of power the young prince has.”
“That’ll narrow my search down a lot... My world doesn’t have many people with Mystic Eyes, and I can only assume that this world will have even fewer.”
The running theory was that Mystic Eyes were the product of Null spells embedding themselves in the eyeball of its wielder. The Reverse World had barely any magic users to begin with, so it’d have even fewer Mystic Eye bearers than the regular world. Or maybe it was more like it’d be harder to even figure out who had a Mystic Eye or not.
“I don’t know how it is in your world, but in this one people with Mystic Eyes are feared and reviled. They often hide themselves. They’re rather hard to track down. The late king, unlike your ladyfriend over here, had eyes of the same color... I’m inclined to believe that the young prince would be the same.”
From what I recalled, the stronger the Mystic Eye, the higher the chance of heterochromia. Given what I’d just been told, it seemed like Lowe’s lineage had weak Mystic Eyes. But I was still able to tell a Mystic Eye holder apart based on how magic flowed through their body. That distinction meant I could search for him with my phone.
“Run search. Ten-year-old boy with a Mystic Eye.”
“Searching... Search complete. Displaying.”
A few markers dropped into my map. There were three in total. Obviously, only one of them could be the prince. Hell, it was possible that all three of them were just commoners, even.
“That bracer you mentioned... Is it something worn for life?”
“Oh, yes. It’s made of a special material that stretches in size over time. It looks like a regular old bracer, so it’s highly likely he’s still wearing it.”
Frankly, I was a little worried it might’ve been stolen or sold off. To the untrained eye, it likely was just a fancy piece of jewelry.
Since the bracer was a magical tool, I’d be able to sense the magic emanating from it. That meant I’d be able to include it in my search criteria.
“Filter results. Identify a boy with previous conditions, but wearing a suppressing bracer.”
“Search complete. One result matching criteria. Displaying.”
“What?!”
A single pin fell down on the map, eliciting surprise from the trio.
“The Gardio Empire... Why would he be in the very place that destroyed us?”
“Colonel... Look more closely.”
“...He’s within their capital, Gallesta... Right... Right in the middle? It can’t be...”
The three of them murmured uneasily. They probably never expected him to be found within one of the countries responsible for their homeland’s destruction, so this complicated things for them.
Hmm... Whereabouts is he? I zoomed in on the map, hoping he wasn’t in the slums or anything... It’d be bad if he’d ended up falling into slavery.
“Wait... Hold on a sec...”
As I zoomed in, I realized that the pin hadn’t shifted much at all. The pin stayed fixed on a large building right in the middle of the city.
Wh-What the...?
“Why is the prince of Lowe in Gardio’s palace?” Colonel muttered quietly, confused. I was thankful the palace didn’t have a barrier over it, or we’d have never found him... But surely this couldn’t be right. Was my search malfunctioning?
“What does this mean?”
“Don’t ask me...” Leen shrugged. And so did I. At the very least, we knew a few solid pieces of information. There was a ten-year-old boy in the palace who had a suppressing bracer and Mystic Eyes. It was entirely possible that this kid wasn’t the missing prince, and it was some kind of wacky coincidence, but...
“...A Gollem’s master stores their genetic material in the G-Cube, right? Do you have the former king of Lowe’s Gollem?”
“His Majesty’s Gollem? It was ruined, but... it is still mostly intact. It’s with a friend of mine. Why do you want it?”
“If I had something like the king’s hair, or fingernail, or blood... I’d be able to verify whether the child is his son or not.”
“...Understood, I’ll recover the Gollem.”
Alright! Now I need to head to the palace and get a sample from the kid who got caught in my search. Then, all I have to do is head to the alchemy lab and ask Flora for a little DNA analysis.
“Are you headed to the palace?”
“Yeah. I’m gonna use [Invisible] to pluck a couple of his hairs out.”
“I’m coming, then.”
“Me too.”
Yumina and Leen volunteered themselves to join me. Paula also raised her stubby arm, as if to say “Don’t forget me!” Following that, Kougyoku flew over and perched on my shoulder.
“Alright, we’ll go grab his hair, then return straight to our world. How long until you guys can get the sample from the Gollems?”
“Hm... You’ll have to give us two or three days.”
“Sure, then. Tell Nia when you guys have it.”
We waved off the Red Cats and moved to a forested area via a [Gate]. From there I cast [Invisible] on everyone, and used [Teleport].
My reasoning was that even if we were off a little bit, it’d be fine if we were all invisible before going there.
“Alright, huddle up.”
“O-Oh... Okay...”
“Fufu... This is a little intimate...”
...Don’t just say it. Geez...
Paula jumped onto my back, Kougyoku was perched on my shoulder, and the two girls were clinging to my sides. In a flash, I activated [Teleport] and brought us to the Gardio palace’s inner courtyard.
“Eep!”
“Ouch!”
“Hm? Who was that?!”
I screwed up a little, so we ended up about thirty centimeters off the ground. I held Yumina and Leen close so they didn’t trip after our brief fall, but I couldn’t prevent them from crying out. A few guards came over to investigate.
I’d already cast [Invisible], so we’d be fine so long as we kept quiet.
The soldiers were looking around in confusion, despite us being right there.
“Is something wrong?”
“Oh, no. Thought we heard a sound... Must’ve been nothing. Probably a bird!”
One of the soldiers chuckled as he answered an inquisitive young boy. I turned to look at the boy, and he seemed to be around ten years old. He was wearing some pretty gaudy clothing... I figured he must’ve been some nobleman’s son, but then I looked closer. He had long, brown hair tied up around the back. Despite his young looks, he seemed pretty well-poised. His left eye was brown, but his right was clearly a kind of hazelnut-green. He had a Mystic Eye.
“Touya... Isn’t that...” Yumina pointed at the boy’s wrist, which bore a golden bracelet-like object. It was the suppression bracer. That meant that this boy was the one I’d come to find.
Hmm... But the late king had two eyes of the same color, right? This kid has full-on heterochromia... Besides, how did the prince of a ruined nation end up the son of a nobleman in the very country that orphaned him? Then again, I guess the eye colors make sense if his Mystic Eye’s just stronger.
Hmm... Maybe we’re getting mixed up and this isn’t the guy...
Well, no biggie. The DNA test will answer all our questions.
“Kougyoku, whenever you’re ready.”
“Very well.” Kougyoku flew from my shoulder and sailed through the air. She passed the boy’s head and gently plucked a few strands from his hair.
The little guy must’ve felt it a bit, as he placed a hand on his head and looked around with a frown. Sorry, kiddo!
With that, our mission was complete. We just had to get out of there.
“Oh, Lucrecion. There you are.”
“Mother, father!”
“A-Ah, Your Excellency!”
Hold up... All the guards in the area kneeled down to the two individuals who appeared in the area. The little boy,
however, did not.
The two that had joined us were a scary-looking man in his forties and a gentle-looking woman in her thirties.
There was no mistaking it. The man was clearly the emperor of Gardio. He wore a regal cape, a fancy crown, and, despite his thin frame, he had menacingly serious eyes.
The woman wore a high-quality dress, and a royal, gem-encrusted circlet. These two were clearly the rulers of Gardio... which could only mean one thing. That boy was the prince.
“Are you heading out, Father?”
“Mm... That I am, my boy. To inspect the factories. I expect I may return late, so please take care of your mother.”
“Okay!” The emperor softly patted the boy on the head, then left the area with a few escorts. After that, the empress walked up to the young prince, the two of them started chatting merrily.
“Kougyoku... Sorry to bother you, but could you grab some hair from the emperor and empress as well?”
“Very well.”
Kougyoku flew off. I didn’t really have any idea what was going on, so that was roughly all I could do for the meantime.
“How did the prince of a destroyed country become the imperial prince of the empire that orphaned him?”
“We still don’t know if the boy is the prince we’re looking for. It’s possible that this imperial prince just happens to match up with all the features of the missing boy.”
Yumina and Leen spoke amongst themselves. Is this gonna be a situation like Lihnea, where the queen had a child from an affair? No... I doubt it.
Man... This is complicated... Do I really have time for another complex situation?
Chapter II: The Witch-King of Isengard
“Well, you see. The results show he is not that couple’s biological son, you see.” I was in the Alchemy Lab, and Flora was plainly telling me her findings. Her busty curves were threatening to free themselves from the strained confines of her nurse outfit, but they remained in their prison nonetheless... The sight was a deadly trap laced with sweet honey for my eyes.
Almost as if she could read my thoughts, the wicked nurse slowly reached to her breast pocket and pulled out a glass container with a strand of hair in it. It was the hair that Colonel had brought me, the hair from the dead king. Technically it wasn’t just a hair. It also had the hair follicle and roots, because it was a comprehensive sample used for Gollem DNA registration.
“The child’s sample did match with this one, you see. That means they’re definitely father and son, you see.”
“I-I see...” I listened to her, but my mind was elsewhere. I had to look away. I decided to focus on the ceiling. The nice, sterile... White ceiling.
Hmm... That means the Gardio Empire’s prince is not the child of the emperor and the empress... He’s actually the prince of the Lowe Kingdom, which was destroyed.
“What do I do with this info...” I couldn’t even begin to imagine how this had happened. The biggest question here would be whether the Gardio emperor and empress were even aware.
The empress surely knew, since she’d have to have given birth... Did she even give birth in the first place? I didn’t understand at all. That meant the emperor might’ve been the only one who didn’t know... Which was honestly kinda sad. By some bizarre fortune, the prince looked pretty similar to the man assumed by everyone to be his father. The prince had the same hair color as the emperor, and his eyes were the same color as the empress’s, for the most part. They definitely looked like a simple family at a glance, and it seemed they got along well.
Part of me was hesitant to let this go any further, I didn’t want to break up a happy family.
Ugh... This whole thing sucks. How am I supposed to know what to do here? It’s a little bit heavy a plot point, isn’t it?
“I’d like to hear out what you guys think about this...” I gathered all my fiancées in my room that evening and explained the findings. Sue was staying over for the night, too. She was wearing cute yellow PJs and sitting as close to me as she could get.
We were all spread out on the unnecessarily large bed that I brought out whenever I had the girls staying over, all the girls were wearing differently-colored pajamas.
Whenever Sue visited, everyone stayed on this bed in my room. It had slowly become an unspoken rule. Obviously I didn’t lay a hand on anyone, or anything... I didn’t exactly have the stones to make a move like that... Either way, that was irrelevant to the situation at hand.
“Hmm... I think that the key information here is whether or not Gardio’s emperor knows if the boy is his son, I do.”
“I think he doesn’t know. It seems like they’re close, too...” Yae, sitting cross-legged in her purple bedclothes, spoke up. In response, Hilde, sitting around in her orange pajamas, replied to her.
“I’m not sure of the details, but I think the main issue is how the Prince of Lowe became the Prince of Gardio. If we figure that out, everything else should fall into place.”
Lu, sitting comfortably in her green pajamas, let out a small sigh as she spoke. She was definitely right. All we knew was that the prince, along with his wet nurse, escaped the ruined nation, and somehow became an imperial prince in the very nation that orphaned him. Knowing exactly how that happened would help answer a lot of other things.
“...Putting that aside, should we tell Colonel and the others?” Linze turned to look at me, she looked adorable in her light blue pajamas. She had a point, though... I wasn’t sure what to do there either.
“For now, I think I’m gonna tell them the truth. They have a right to know about the safety of their prince. Given that he’s living safely, it’ll probably be a relief for them.”
“Sure about that? Their prince is now the heir to the throne that killed their king and people, right? If I was a survivor from Lowe, I wouldn’t know whether or not to be happy or sad.” Elze, wearing red pajamas, spoke casually as she chomped a couple snacks down. Don’t eat on the bed...
“Doesn’t that mean the best one to ask is the empress? We should just speak with her directly.”
“Maybe not. It’s possible that her child was swapped out with her own at some point, and she doesn’t know. She might be raising a son she believes to actually be hers.”
“I guess that’s possible...” Leen nodded along to what I said. She was wearing black pajamas. Kohaku and the other Heavenly Beasts were next to her, asleep. Paula was nestled in with them, sleeping as well... If a stuffed toy could even do that.
“Grand Duke... Darkness Magic is an option... You could hypnotize her...”
“...Oh, I totally could’ve done that, huh.” Sakura, wearing pink-ish pajamas, raised a valid point. With my hypnosis magic, I could easily figure out who knew what without raising any alarms.
All I’d need to do is put one of the royals under hypnosis and ask them if the prince was their biological son. If they answered positively, they’d be ignorant of the truth. If they said no, then they’d know the truth.
“...Touya, do we need to go to that extent? Perhaps this is a little cruel, but all those three asked us to do was confirm the prince’s location and safety, right? What happens with them from here on isn’t really our concern, is it?” Yumina, sitting nearby in her white pajamas, spoke up with a little hesitation. She wasn’t entirely wrong. If we messed up anything here, we’d be tearing apart what seemed to be a nice family. It might have just been best to leave it all alone.
But that still left Colonel and the others. We needed to tell them everything. The three of them seemed trustworthy enough, but any other remnants of Lowe might not be so reliable.
If a group of people randomly popped up and started saying that the Gardio prince was of a ruined country’s lineage, I doubted anyone would actually take it seriously... But it’d be a problem if the rumors ended up reaching the boy himself. I doubted he’d believe it, but he’d probably be hurt by it nonetheless. I didn’t want careless murmurs to cause him any undue stress, or damage his relationship with his parents.
Sue, who’d been listening so far, climbed into my lap and leaned her head against my chest.
“This stuff sure is complicated...”
“I guess so... Sorry, was it boring?”
“Nah. I just realized how much you seem to like meddling in other people’s business.” ... She was harsh but fair. I couldn’t exactly say anything to refute what she’d said.
“Still, you wouldn’t be you if you didn’t act that way. And when you’re in trouble, it’s up to us to help you, isn’t it? So don’t worry about boring us. I’m happy just being with you like this. I’m sure everyone is.” Sue smiled and took my hands in hers. She pulled my arms forward until we’d shifted into a position where I was hugging her from behind. G-Geez, Sue... This is a little embarrassing.
“Sue... You shouldn’t monopolize the Grand Duke...”
“Mm?” Sakura suddenly stood up and picked up Sue by her underarms. She then moved in to sit on my lap in Sue’s place, facing me and hugging me straight-on. Aaauugh, S-Sakura! This is even more embarrassing than before!
“H-Hey, Sakura! That’s no fair! I want a turn!”
“Eep...” Lu untangled Sakura from my front and took her place. G-Girls? Please calm yourselves...!
“...We must enter the battle, Hilde-dono, we must.”
“You’re right, Yae. Let us march forward to our victory.”
“S-Sis, we gotta get in there too!”
“H-Huh?! O-Okay!”
“H-Hold it, please!” The girls suddenly started chasing me around the room. The ruckus was quite unreasonable... Where were their manners?! If this was a regular apartment we’d be inconveniencing our neighbors. In the end, Elze used [Boost] to tackle me onto the bed, and then everyone dogpiled me. All I could do was focus on not saying anything like “You’re heavy!” That would seal my doom.
A-Ah... What’d I just touch?! This can’t keep up, augh... I have no choice here... [Teleport]! “Bwuh! O-Ouch!”
“Gh... It’s heavy...” Yae and Sakura were directly above me, so they became the bottom layer after I warped out. They cried out in discomfort, casualties of war...