In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 13 Page 5

  All that was left now was the final match between Mismede and Belfast in stadium one.

  “I wonder who will win, I do.”

  “Mismede’s definitely better in terms of physical strength, but they’ll need more than that to win. Belfast has a pretty well-rounded team. They have a decent offense, defense, and speed.”

  The audience began filing out and heading over to stadium one, it seemed like most of them were planning to hit the final match too.

  We went that way as well, bumping into the Belfast party on the way. They were wearing their badges and probably looked like regular people to onlookers.

  Yumina was speaking to her father, who had apparently been at the shogi hall until recently.

  “You’ve come to see the finals, right?”

  “Yes, but I did want to keep on watching the shogi... Touya, my lad... Next time we do something like this, please adjust the schedules better. It’s been a rather hectic day for me.”

  I nodded quietly toward the king. Frankly, you should be thankful I managed this... It was a last minute plan I pulled outta my ass!

  Seemed like the king of Belfast wanted to see as much of the shogi as he could due to the fact that he’d be participating on the following day.

  Duke Ortlinde stayed in the shogi hall, since he’d be participating in the next day’s tournament round as well. I wondered if Sue would get bored of hanging around him and seek us out...

  Yae and Yumina were chattering together when suddenly...

  “Uncleee! Touyaaaaaa! Oh! Yumina and Yae too!” Sue came charging toward us at full speed, accompanied by the Ortlinde family butler, Leim. She scuttled up my back like a bug and held on tight.

  She definitely showed her more childlike side when she acted like that... Still, it was adorable.

  “So you came after all... Did you get bored of watching shogi?”

  “Yes, I did! It was just people doing boring stuff and clapping! Father was just watching the game board and mumbling to himself the whole time. No fun at all...!” Sue puffed out her cheeks and pouted. She was certainly more action-oriented. It was probably annoying for her that shogi was more of an analytical game. Either way, her joining us was fine by me. I was fine with us all checking the baseball out.

  Sue descended from my back and turned her attention to Yae.

  “That’s so pretty, Yae! Is that a key mono? Uh... Kim oh no?”

  “This is a yukata, it is! We wear them during festivals in Eashen.”

  “It’s certainly beautiful, though... Shall we all prepare yukatas of our own for the next festival?”

  “I like that idea, Yumina! I wanna wear one, yeah!”

  “Then I will learn more from my mother, I will. This one was made by her, it was. Linze-dono may be able to help in that regard, as well.” I idly listened to their girl talk as we walked toward the stadium.

  The final showdown was about to commence.

  ◇　◇　◇

  They dashed. Second base... then third... and a reckless charge for home plate!

  The ball was pitched like a laser beam as it hurtled its way toward the catcher. Mismede’s runner was contending with Belfast’s catcher, and it was looking close as hell...

  A cloud of dust was kicked up between the two as the runner slid toward home base... The entire crowd was ripe with tension, falling silent as they waited for the call. The silence was shattered by the referee’s voice.

  “SAAAAAAFE!”

  A cheer burst out from the crowd. The Mismede players ran off the benches and began to lift up the runner who had managed to reach home plate.

  The finals had been in a fierce tie for the last nine innings, with scores trapped at one each side. But now Mismede had finally brought it home with a final score of two to one.

  Thus, Mismede had won the world’s first international baseball tournament. Belfast came in second place, with Regulus in third.

  Confetti and silver tape streamers were launched overhead, celebrating the team’s victory.

  Man, that was a great match... Both teams really gave it their all.

  Thunderous applause rang out into the stadium, drowning out any other sound. After that came the awards ceremony.

  I was the leader of the host nation, so I presented a commemorative trophy and shield to the team captain, and then medals to the other players.

  I worked off a system similar to the Olympics, in that the type of medal differed based on rank. Third place received hihi’irokane medals, second received mithril medals, and first place received orichalcum medals.

  Usually, in the Olympic Games, the participants would receive a cash bonus from the host nation, but I left that up to their home countries this time.

  The trophy and medals were all engraved with “First International Tournament” on them. Even if there were nations that didn’t participate, it was still the first one... I was hoping that more countries would participate in any future celebrations like this.

  The audience was still excited, and they continued to lavish praise in the form of a standing ovation to the participants. I decided that as a special bonus, the winning team would be allowed to celebrate their victory in Brunhild Castle. I’d bought food and alcohol out of my own pocket, and decided to treat them to a lavish feast. I hoped that they wouldn’t pop the corks off the champagne or anything... I didn’t want the room becoming a mess. Then again, I didn’t think this world had that kind of custom, so it would probably be fine.

  Thus, the baseball tournament came to a close without any major incident.

  It was almost four in the afternoon, and the shogi placement matches were still in full swing.

  Yae, Yumina, and Sue tagged along as I headed back to the shogi hall.

  There weren’t as many people in there as there were in the morning. Most of the winners and losers had probably already been determined.

  “Oh, Father!” Sue quickly singled out Duke Ortlinde and headed toward him.

  “Well, seems Mismede won the baseball tournament, hm? Word already spread here.”

  “Bit of a shame for Belfast, indeed.”

  “Well, there is meaning in both victory and defeat, Brother. Second place is more than enough reason for us to be proud of our homeland.”

  The match really could’ve gone either way, and everyone watching the finals knew that as well. It was a well-earned victory and a close match.

  “And how are things here?”

  “Rather well, I must say. There are some formidable players in the running here... Frankly, people I’d rather avoid matching up with, even.”

  It was interesting to hear him express concern like that. Including the invitees and the people who had passed, there were a total of thirty-two participants in the third day’s games.

  Provided all went smoothly, a winner would be determined by the evening... Still, I was curious about how the pressure of playing several consecutive rounds would affect peoples’ performance. It would’ve been good to increase the time between matches a little, but we had way more participants than I had expected... They’d just have to put up with it.

  Our plan was to use a screen to broadcast the matches, so more people could get to see it. I’d be helping Monica and Rosetta out with the screen installation before the matches started.

  It was gonna be tough work, but it had to be done. My smartphone began to vibrate, so I took it out of my breast pocket.

  “Ah, please excuse me...” I waved off Yumina and the others before using [Teleport] to reach a church on the outskirts of town.

  “S-So he’s coming tomorrow?! Wh-When?”

  “Midday, I think. Could be sooner or later though, it really depends.”

  I was talking to the pope about the message I’d received on my phone. Her breathing suddenly became ragged and unhinged... She was really freaking out. She gonna be okay? She’s pretty old, so I’m scared she’s gonna have a heart attack or something... Isn’t she like... sixty, at least? Well, it’s not like I’m
gonna ask... That’d be rude.

  “Wh-What shall we do, Your Holiness?”

  “Calm yourself, Phyllis. There’s nothing to be gained by getting ahead of ourselves...”

  The templars accompanying them had no idea what we were going on about, so they just kind of stared blankly for a bit. Only Cardinal Phyllis understood the implications of what was being discussed, which caused her to lapse into an anxious set of motions. I guess it made sense. I was the outlier here for treating a visit from God Almighty so casually.

  Karen muttered to herself as the two Ramissh ladies fussed with each other.

  “This is kind of strange, you know? The god of worlds coming down into the mortal realm... That hasn’t been observed in millions of years, you know?”

  He came down once already, though... Well, technically that was more like an avatar... so it would be more appropriate to say that the last couple times I encountered him in this world, it was just a portion of him... His power must be seriously immense.

  I didn’t know if he was going to do the avatar thing again, or actually hop into a human body and come down like the other gods did.

  “I-I hope we don’t upset him... If we wound up being responsible for the apocalypse, I...”

  “That’s not gonna happen. He takes a non-interference policy, remember? Please don’t get worried about him coming down, he’s just here to relax a bit.”

  I tried to calm Phyllis down before she got ahead of herself again. I wondered if she’d really be alright... She definitely wasn’t behaving how I’d expect a cardinal to behave.

  “Besides, my sisters and I are gonna be here, okay? Nothing will go wrong.”

  “A-Ahh... Actually, that whole matter with the servile god is still up in the air, so... I hope he’s not mad at me, you know?” Karen sighed and folded her arms.

  He might be... It was your job to take care of that NEET god, wasn’t it? And now he’s gone and gotten himself absorbed by that wicked godbeast, and he’s completely out of our hands...

  They might’ve been able to help me defeat it during the last encounter, but Karen wound up making her and Moroha late to the rendezvous...

  The wicked godbeast hadn’t done anything since then. That was good news in some regards, but it was also concerning. The weak Phrase constructs were coming through here and there and were typically defeated by high-ranked adventurers.

  But yeah... I was dawdling too much. I really needed to find a way to repair the world boundary.

  It was technically possible, I was sure of it. The Reverse World that Old Man Palerius was studying was likely the key to it all.

  My current running theory was that one of the Gollems from the Reverse World might have been brought to this world by one of Palerius’ experiments... And it might’ve had some kind of special power.

  It was possible that by using that power, Palerius could’ve repaired the barrier. But I had nothing but a hypothesis to go on, there.

  As I pondered to myself, I suddenly heard a loud noise... Like an animal yowling in the distance. Is that a cat?

  I turned around and saw dozens of cats stampeding towards the church. Wh-What the hell?!

  They continued to meow over and over again as they leaped at me. It wasn’t as if they were attacking me, it felt more like they were trying to get me to follow them... But to where? I used a [Gate] to grab Kohaku from the castle. She could understand the cat’s language, after all.

  The cats immediately calmed down in the presence of the White Monarch.

  “So, what’s up?”

  “Ah... It seems that Mr. Mittens is engaged in a duel... They’re asking that you stop him and break up the fight.”

  “That cat’s having a duel?! With who?!”

  “...The overlord of Xenoahs.”

  YOU’VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!

  The saber and rapier clashed, sending sparks flying. Mr. Mittens unleashed a flurry of blows toward the overlord. But the demonkin would not be so easily beaten. He used his saber to parry the jabs and moved in for a horizontal slash. However, Mr. Mittens was an agile cat, and he deftly avoided the blade.

  “Enough of this, Sir Cat!”

  “No way I’m putting this fight on paws! I can’t at all say I’m fit to guard Lady Fiana if I can’t even manage this much!” Mr. Mittens grinned a Cheshire grin and narrowed his eyes.

  Both of them approached each other on the empty school grounds as the sun set in the distance behind them. They kicked off the ground in tandem, shortening the distance between them... They were both poised to land killing blows, when...

  “[Slip]!”

  “Gwah!”

  “Meow?!”

  My magic made them both fall on their butts instead. Those two were completely stupid.

  I let out a sigh as the two people... Or rather, person and animal, rolled around and nursed their wounded tailbones.

  “Just what do you think you’re doing, Overlord?”

  “A-Ah! Grand Duke?! I-I promise you there was no ill intent, I was merely trying to ascertain the strength of the cat defending Fiana!”

  Fiana was the headmistress of the Brunhild Castle Town School, and Mr. Mittens was a cat that had been summoned by Sakura in order to act as a helper.

  He said he wanted to gauge the cat’s might, but something about that seemed fishy to me. It was more likely that he was just jealous of the fact that Mr. Mittens had the attention of the daughter and former lover that spurned him.

  Still, he didn’t seem to be going all-out. He didn’t even use any magic.

  Sakura’s magic was intensifying rapidly, probably due to the divinity she was receiving due to her proximity to so many gods. I hadn’t been able to verify it, but I strongly suspected that she outclassed the overlord now in terms of magical potential. It was possible that Mr. Mittens, being one of her summons, was also becoming unnecessarily powerful due to association with her magical biorhythm.

  Either way, Mr. Mittens was probably at fault here for agreeing to duel a world leader.

  Sure, the overlord was stupid for fighting too, but the whole situation was just so messy I didn’t wanna think about it.

  “Wanna explain yourself, pussycat?”

  “M-Meow! The princess told me not to hold back my claws when the overlord appeared! I was only following orders! She told me to try and break his legs!”

  “Whuh?!”

  The overlord clutched at his chest and fell to his knees. ...C’mon man... Melodrama much?

  Clearly, he’d been emotionally damaged by his daughter’s lack of care. But this guy was a total wreck, honestly... I was a little bit frightened by the sway Sakura seemed to hold over him.

  If Sakura and I ended up providing a grandchild for him... Then, that child might someday turn to him and call him “annoying”... He’d probably die of a heart attack there and then.

  “...Did you finish him, Mr. Mittens?”

  One of the classroom windows opened up and Sakura poked her head out. She seemed pretty nonchalant about the fact that she’d just ordered a supercharged cat knight to break her dad’s legs, but... well... she did have the blood of the overlord in her, and she was technically a demon...

  The moment she appeared, the overlord sprung up from his slumped position and charged toward her.

  “Farneeeeeese! I’m finally here, please! I won’t be here much longer! Let me talk with Fiana just for a little!”

  “Mother is busy right now. Leave, Overlord!” Sakura slammed the window shut with a thud.

  Couldn’t you have put that in kinder terms...? The guy’s basically gone pale from shock!

  “Grand Duke... Does... Does my daughter hate me, perhaps?”

  “Nah... I’m sure she’d have been a lot crueler if she really hated you that much... I can’t say it for sure, but... I don’t think she despises you.”

  “You dare say that this isn’t cruel?! My very heart threatens to burst forth from my chest!”

  To be honest it was hard to tell what
Sakura was thinking most of the time. She probably didn’t hate him so much as she just didn’t care all that much about him. She definitely didn’t seem to want to speak to him. They didn’t have a father-daughter relationship when she was growing up, so she didn’t have any time to form a bond with him. She didn’t really view the overlord as her dad, more of a weird old man that just started following her around.

  There was definitely a vast distance between the two of them... And I wondered if I’d be able to close it at all.

  “I know how the situation looks, but Fiana and Farnese... It broke my heart to abandon them, I promise you... I did it for the sake of giving them a happy, safe life... She was born without the horns of my lineage, you understand? Even though she had the overlord’s blood, she didn’t have the horns... There was simply no way the nobility of my country would allow her to take a seat in my palace... They would’ve made her life a living hell. Fiana’s, as well. I wished for her to stay an arm’s length away, as a regular girl... If I could turn back time, do it all again... I would be a stronger man, and I would’ve let them stay... I would’ve protected them! But it’s beyond my control now, what’s done is done.”

  Geez... That’s pretty rough... Surely Sakura can understand that there was more to it than him simply abandoning her and her mother...

  To be honest, Sakura probably wasn’t avoiding the overlord out of scorn for what he did, she probably just didn’t want to dig up painful memories for herself and her mother.

  Even if that was the case, it made it no less difficult to deal with him. Plus, I was often put in the awkward position of getting him to leave.

  I sighed quietly, wondering how to usher him away when Fiana walked out from the school with Sakura in tow.

  “A-Ah! Fiana...! It’s been so long...”

  “Indeed it has, my overlord. I hope you find Brunhild to your liking...” Fiana greeted the glum demon with an earnest smile, causing Sakura to do a shocked double-take.

  Sakura, your jaw just totally dropped open.

  “I’m sorry for the trouble and grief my daughter must have caused you. Please find it in your heart to forgive her.”

  “Ah, n-no... It’s okay... It was really my fault, I showed up out of nowhere... I came here earlier, but Farnese turned me away...”