In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 11 Premium Read online

  “Wait, they’re behind us too!”

  “Oh shit, they’re coming in from the sides?!” The guardsmen all jumped into action, but the guys who were lazing around had delayed responses.

  The panicked examinees attempted to draw their weapons, but it was too late. They were bashed in the bellies by our stun rods. They were way too slow! That was why preparation was vital in cases like this.

  “Gwuh!”

  “Hgh!”

  “Hrgh!” The cowardly contestants were taken down one after one by a mere ten Oni.

  There were women around them, but that didn’t affect our behavior. We took them out fair and square. Well... I hit them a little softer than I hit the men. I made sure to smack the guys good, though.

  “Gh!”

  “Hm?”

  Wow... That guy actually took one of my hits, nice... He went down on the second strike, though. I made a mental note to memorize his badge number, then left him behind without ripping it off.

  As I was fighting on that side, Nikola was on the other edge of the camp, confronting the racist group. Nikola was wielding a two-meter stun rod that was shaped a bit like a staff.

  “Ghuh! Haaah!”

  “...Silence.” One of the charging men was promptly put down with a swift strike to the gut.

  “Ghaaaugh!” The man fainted on the spot, his eyes wide open in shock. Even without the stunning effect, a hit that hard would’ve knocked most men out.

  “Hnnngh...!” The men gradually drew back as Nikola came down on them like a ton of bricks.

  “...Something wrong, curs? I’m just one demi-human, am I not? Are you not going to stand against me, even when outnumbering me? Or were you all talk?” Nikola was clad in a mask and black clothing. His foxy ears were all covered up, but his bushy tail was proudly on display. There was no way the men weren’t aware they were dealing with a beastman.

  Nikola was the only beastman in Brunhild with fox-like traits. If they knew anything about our knight order, they’d know that. If you’re wondering what the point in the Oni costume was if our members could be identified by features like that, well... Uh... aesthetics.

  “S-Surround him, idiots! Swarm him!”

  “Heh...” Six of them quickly surrounded Nikola. Baba, Elze, and the other Oni noticed the attack. None of them moved to interfere. There was no reason to, after all.

  “HAAAAAAH!!!”

  “Wastrel!” Nikola outclassed all the men in terms of speed, deftly driving his stun rod staff into the ground, he used the momentum to propel himself into the air.

  He landed behind the men, outside their circle. Turning in place, he sped to strike all of them from behind, rendering them unable to fight any longer.

  “Ghah!”

  “Hughah!” One of the men was hit so hard that he vomited up his dinner in mid-air, then landed face-first into the splattered gastric mess. It was gross.

  Each man fell after the other, and not one landed a single shot on Nikola. He was truly like a brutal oni in terms of how he handled them. A true oni indeed...

  Eventually, Nikola stepped forward, facing the man who had barked orders before.

  “E-Eeek!”

  “Brunhild’s knight order is an equal-opportunity workplace. The bigoted are not extended that privilege, however.”

  “Gaaaaaah!” The examinee charged forward with a sword, but it was fruitless. Nikola struck him in the neck. The man sank to the ground, a spasming mess.

  I looked around and didn’t see many more targets, so I headed over to see Nikola.

  “Hey, good work.”

  “...I let my feelings get the better of me. I apologize for that. It seems I’ve much further to go in terms of composure and training...”

  “I wouldn’t worry so much. We’re Oni right now, right? If it was me, I’d have stripped them naked and strung them up from tree branches.” I meant to comfort Nikola with a little anecdote, but he ended up giving me somewhat of an awkward, concerned smile in return.

  H-Hey, don’t take me that seriously...

  “I am fairly certain you did that already, Touya-dono... did you not?”

  “Don’t you remember back when you dealt with those thugs by stringing them up along the road without their stuff?” Elze and Yae chimed in with a story from the past.

  C-C’mon... That’s old news! Those guys weren’t even worthy of being called people, anyway! I was just doing the natural thing.

  “All finished here.” I turned to Hilde and saw a bunch of fallen contestants near the fire. The stun rod didn’t necessarily rob people of their consciousness, it just paralyzed them and prevented further motion. It was capable of knocking people out, though. The effectiveness of the item depended on individual magic resistance, physical fitness, and so on.

  The Oni all took the badges from their fallen targets. We overlooked the skilled guys, though... Still, there were only around ten good enough people out of the hundred that had gathered.

  They’d wake up in around thirty minutes. Some of the Oni retreated to the forest and kept an eye on them, making sure that none of them accidentally lost their badges.

  “I’ll keep an eye out, Your Highness. Please go and deal with the others.”

  “You sure? Alright, then.”

  “We’ll return to the castle, as well. I don’t want the staff getting worried.” Hilde had a point. I opened up a [Gate] for her and the other girls to get back through. And after that, I parted with Nikola and left the area.

  I jumped from tree to tree, branch to branch. I briefly wondered if my night vision had always been so good. I could see pretty far if I focused my sight. It was a strange ability, but I wondered if this was another awakening of my divinity...

  That night, I killed a lot of magical beasts that were threatening the examinees. I also defeated the examinees that couldn’t defeat the monsters, though. I helped out examinees who got caught in traps, and then promptly defeated them for getting caught in traps. After a while, morning came.

  ◇　◇　◇

  All three days had come and gone. Every badge on the contestants suddenly rang out with Commander Lain’s voice.

  “The examination is now over. Congratulations for making it. All of you with badges have passed the second examination phase. Please remove your badges now, and you will be teleported to the starting point.” All the contestants began to remove their badges, one by one. I removed mine, too.

  After teleporting back, they had to report their full name and badge number. The interview was scheduled to take place two days later.

  I paid attention to the long line of applicants who had succeeded, and I saw the ninja guy, the commander guy, and the plant guy. I was surprised the plant guy survived... He looked pretty battered though, so I figured he found a place to hide and stayed there for the whole three days.

  I noticed the lioness woman, the winged man, the wardog, and the arachne. They’d passed too, apparently. I was glad to see that.

  I used my search magic to make sure there wasn’t anyone left in the forest. Thankfully, there was not.

  Tsubaki, still disguised as a contestant, approached me and covertly informed me of how many people succeeded.

  “There are four-hundred-and-sixteen successful applicants. The interview portion should reduce this number to a hundred-and-fifty or so.”

  “Yumina’s helping, so she’ll be able to knock any suspicious or questionable guys out of the running... but I wonder if we’ll end up having enough guys after all of that... Well, even if it leaves us understaffed, I’d rather that than have bad guys in my knight order.”

  The real tests began here. We’d carefully analyze every last member and make sure we knew what kind of person they were.

  The doctor provided me with a polygraph test, as well. A pretty accurate one, too. Alongside Yumina’s Mystic Eye, I was pretty confident we’d be fine.

  When I showed the polygraph test to my fiancees, they hooked me up to the damn thing and started firing
questions at me. I didn’t wanna answer their cursed questions, though! It was a powerful artifact that could tell true from false, so it wouldn’t react if you didn’t reply! I had the right to remain silent, after all!

  They asked me terrible things, like my preference on breast size, and which color underwear I preferred... That was terrifying! They couldn’t ask me questions like that... Though they did make me answer whether or not I truly loved them, and they were happy with the result.

  “Wasn’t there a ninja amongst the successful applicants? Was he one of your guys?” I asked every high-ranking member of the knight order to tell any talented people they knew to try out for the test. If they were talented, then they’d have no trouble joining up, and we’d have reliable and powerful people swelling our ranks. The interview phase would go much more smoothly, too.

  “That is possible, yes. I reached out to many shinobi from Eashen. The recent incident with Hideyooshi caused several smaller clans to collapse, leading to a lot of wandering soldiers. I called out particularly talented ones and invited them here.”

  “Hm? Several people? I only saw one... Are they all ninjas?”

  “Yes, they are. One from the Kouga clan, one from Iga, and one from Fuma.”

  Kouga, Iga, and Fuma, huh...? They’re pretty different ninja schools. If I remember my history right, weren’t Iga and Kouga on bad terms in general?

  I posed the question to Tsubaki, but she said no such thing was true in this world. They had somewhat of a rivalry and were of similar levels, but there wasn’t any bad blood. They originally served the same clan and began drifting in service after it collapsed. It seemed like the clan they served was closely connected to the Hashiba clan.

  “Hmm... I ended up causing that indirectly, didn’t I...? I have mixed feelings...”

  “The two of them left the Sanada clan and decided that Brunhild was the best option to continue their service. I don’t think you need to worry, it’s simply the natural course of life and war.”

  “I guess so, but... wait, Sanada?” Sanada...? The Sanada Clan? Wait, the Kouga and Iga ninjas in the service of Sanada... No way...

  “Th-Those two ninja... They aren’t called Sarutobi and Kirigakure, are they...?”

  “Hm...? Why, yes... But how did you know?”

  Oh sweet lord.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “Alright, then. Results will be posted outside the castle, the day after tomorrow. You may leave now.”

  “Yes ma’am!” We’d just finished an interview with five people, and they left the room at Commander Lain’s order. And once they all filtered out, Yumina began talking.

  “Those three on the left were no good at all. Their intentions were clear to me, at least. Two of them planned to rise through the ranks until they could push people around. The third one had far too much of a rebellious streak. It didn’t seem like he’d listen to orders well. He’d be the kind of person to disobey a commander he had a personal problem with. We can’t allow people like that into the knight order, as it would throw us into disarray.”

  “I think I understand where you’re coming from, I felt similarly based on my gut instinct. Every word they spoke was laced with arrogance, as well. There were some lies, too.” Lain replied to Yumina, and I gave a little shrug as I crossed out the names of those three individuals. That was it for them.

  “And the other two?”

  “They stammered a bit, but I didn’t feel any malice and they weren’t lying. I’d be fine with them. They seemed fine.”

  “Indeed. They had a very serious demeanor, but they passed as far as character goes in my eyes.” Those guys ended up passing just fine.

  We’d been interviewing people for two days at this point.

  The people conducting the interview were me, Commander Lain, and Yumina. I’d changed my appearance with [Mirage], though.

  We conducted interviews in groups of five. It took around ten minutes to interview a group, so that meant there were around eighty interviews to be held in total. Even after splitting it across two days, it was pretty intensive work.

  I couldn’t afford to be lazy about this matter, though. If we let any bad eggs through the cracks, the people of Brunhild would suffer for our negligence.

  That was really the key feature I was looking for in a knight. I wanted knights who would readily be champions of the people rather than champions of the nation. I didn’t need people who were fighting for me or fighting for honor. I needed true defenders.

  I wanted knights who would readily fight against me if my reign became corrupt. Not that such a situation would actually come about, though...

  “Alrighty then. Bring in the next five.”

  “Of course.” Spica the dark elf was minding the door, and she called out to the next group of examinees. The lamia siblings, Mulette and Charette, were standing nearby as well.

  I felt a little bad for using them, but they were important for the test, too.

  The moment the next five entered, I saw three of them adopt a sour expression in the direction of the three demonkin. The other two seemed surprised, but didn’t seem offended or angry. They seemed more interested than anything. Spica was a beautiful woman, while the lamias had half-snake bodies, after all.

  We pretty much knew off the bat that the judgmental three were no good. We’d still ask them the standard questions, though. The questions were engineered to get a good grasp of their attitudes and personalities, and we had the polygraph in place to tell if they were lying, too.

  We had liars come in, and honest people as well. I didn’t really expect any candidate to be a hundred percent honest, either. A few lies now and then was something normal in life, after all. People might be hesitant in divulging certain details; they barely knew the interviewers. We’d fairly judge them based on the lies and truths they decide to mix together.

  After the five left, Yumina and Lain began to talk about them. We pretty much agreed we didn’t want the trio. Yumina said she could sense their overabundance of pride and their self-righteousness. Of the two others, one of them told a lot of lies, including about where he was born. I didn’t really wanna employ a guy like that, since it was a little shady. And so, I crossed off four of the five and allowed the one regular guy to pass.

  Spica ushered in the next fivesome. It was time to go again...

  I was pleased to see that, of the next five, one was the plant guy and another was the commander guy.

  They both expressed curiosity and surprise at the demonkin as they walked in, but nothing beyond that. The plant guy’s demeanor got a little stiffer. He seemed nervous in their presence, which wasn’t entirely unreasonable.

  They sat next to each other on the left, which meant they must’ve had similar entry numbers.

  Hmm... So the blonde in the armor is Lanz Tempest, and the plant guy is Charon...

  Lanz Tempest. Born in the Knight Kingdom of Lestia. Third son of a renowned knight. His elder brothers were Lestian knights.

  “Why Brunhild?”

  “Ah, well. I’ve been hearing stories about the grand duke and his knight order for quite some time now. The stories of the grand duke and his valiant knights fighting against a horde of dragons moved me. I decided there and then that I wanted to commit my power, however meager, to such a valiant order.” He wasn’t aware that the grand duke was sitting right in front of him, which I found amusing. I had a follow-up question.

  “You want to become a knight of Brunhild, then... But is it alright to leave your home behind and not become a Lestian knight?”

  “The grand duke of Brunhild is engaged to our venerable princess, Hildegard, which means that Brunhild is as honorable to me as my homeland. I have decided that my sword will be another link in the chain that binds our two glorious nations.” He wasn’t lying. The guy was extremely serious, if not a little wooden. But he was from a knight family, so that was to be expected.

  The next guy was Charon, the plant guy.

  Charon. Born in the
Kingdom of Belfast.

  “...According to the Oni report, you gathered various edible plants and herbs in the forest. Where did you learn this set of skills?”

  “I-I, uh... I-It’s not e-exactly a set of skills, b-but, uhm... I-I come f-from a family of herbalists, s-so I’ve been g-g-gathering such things since I w-was little...” He was jittery. His words were a little interesting, too.

  Having a pharmaceutical background was good, though. He probably knew a lot about plants and remedies. That’d be a good asset.

  “So, why a knight order?”

  “U-Uhm, well... I heard that Brunhild’s knight order d-does farm work, too... I-I thought I’d b-be able to help in that r-regard, I-I can farm, a-and I can clear out areas. M-My combat pr-proficiency isn’t t-terrible. I-I can k-kill bears and stuff...”

  Huh, kind of reminds me of the matagi, the winter hunters of northern Japan. He passed the survival game, so I’m sure he’ll be just fine. I get the feeling he’d do well with a nata machete.

  He wasn’t lying, either, so I felt he and Lanz were a good fit for the order.

  After they left, I asked Yumina and Lain for their opinions on the men. They seemed to agree with me.

  “We’ll have Lanz assigned to the castle guard patrol. Charon should be fielded under Naito to help tame the eastern territory for farmland.” Lain suggested exactly what I was thinking. The two of them were recruited right away.

  Next up were the people I saw being driven away from the fire during the forest trial. The lioness beastwoman, the winged beastman, the wardog guy, and the arachne girl. The fifth member of this interview group was a leather-clad man. He looked like a generic adventurer, and I immediately lost all interest in him on account of the haughty way he was looking at his demi-human companions.

  The lioness woman was named Ashley.

  The winged man was named Baris.

  The wardog was called Dingo.

  Lastly, the arachne girl was named Lifon.

  Apparently, they headed straight for Brunhild after hearing rumors that we recruited anyone for the order. They were in two groups originally, Baris with Ashley and Dingo with Lifon, but they ended up meeting on the way.