In Another World With My Smartphone_Volume 5 Page 6

  “Ah, actually... Well... I made it. Crea said you liked Eashen cuisine, so I had Tsubaki teach me some of it... It’s my first attempt, so it might be somewhat awkwardly done, though...”

  “Hoh.” It was pretty well done considering it was her first time. I used my chopsticks to try some of the beef and potatoes. Yup, it tasted just about right.

  “It’s good. I can’t believe it’s your first attempt.”

  “Really?! That’s great!” Lu was bursting with joy. She was kind of overdoing it, honestly. She had a pretty wide range of expressions, come to think of it. But that part of her was cute. Yumina and Lu were usually quite elegant and dignified, so it was charming to see them act like girls their age from time to time.

  “...Is something wrong?”

  “Hmm? Nah. Just thinking about how cute you are.”

  “Hweh?!” Crap. I’d said it out loud. I kept eating, trying my best not to look at Lu’s blushing face. I was just kind of embarrassed, but the food was good. The fish and other dishes had quite a pleasant taste.

  “U-Uhm, Touya, is there any food that you hate?”

  “Hmm? Not particularly. Oh, but I’m not really good with really spicy things, I guess.” Elze’s super spicy chicken was hell to eat... I didn’t think anyone but Elze could stomach it.

  “What about foods you like?”

  “Hmm... It’s gotta be Japane... I mean, Eashen food, I guess. Anything that goes with rice, really... Ah, I really like the taste of this beef. It’s the best.”

  “Th-Thanks...” Her face turned red again after I praised her cooking. Must be tough.

  “I’ve had an interest in cooking ever since I was little, but the castle workers never let me try... Every day has been just so much fun ever since I met you, Touya.” Well yeah, I mean, she was a princess. There was no way they’d let her cook. That said, it was a shame to let such talent go to waste.

  After I finished eating, I put the table and chairs back in [Storage] before we headed out back to the castle.

  Lu kept glancing my way as she walked beside me. She’d reach her hand out and pull it back in, reach it out, and pull it back in. And so, I reached out and took her hand instead.

  She twitched in surprise, but then clasped my hand back.

  “Eheheh.” Lu smiled shyly as we returned to the castle, hand in hand. We probably looked just like siblings. Well, we weren’t in any hurry. I was sure that one day we’d look like lovers, or even husband and wife. Because I wanted to live with her in my country, forever.

  Construction began on the Brunhild branches of Zanac’s clothing store and the Silver Moon inn, so the shopping district started looking more and more like a shopping district. Materials were running short, but I knew we’d find some way to cover it.

  Fortunately, the dearth of citizens meant there wasn’t much to worry about concerning the food supply. The forest had edible plants like berries and mountain yams to be picked, as well as wild animals like boars and rabbits. There were plenty of fish in the river, too. Just as the Belfast and Regulus royals had said, this land appeared to be rather fertile. Though I guess that was why the place had a monster problem.

  Well, you could say the place was, for the most part, suitable for establishing a new nation. Tsubaki suddenly came in with some new information.

  “My lord, I have received word that something resembling those transporters you mentioned was found in the Elfrau Kingdom, which spreads north of the empire to the frigid tundra of the east.” That was interesting. Sounded like that information came from a merchant from Elfrau. There seemed to be a mysterious cylindrical object hidden in a cave blocked off by ice, just as it was with the desert ruins. Though, the shape was different this time.

  If that doctor had only been consistent, it would’ve been simple to look for them using search magic. I mean, I did try using the search keyword “transporter.” Since the outer appearances changed each time, these things would only ever be recognized as “ancient ruins.” I was starting to think the doctor just hated me.

  Well, it wasn’t as if the thing in the cave was guaranteed to be one of those teleporters.

  Still, it must’ve been tough to have noticed it. Ninjas are really great. Information gathering was probably their specialty.

  “Now you can obtain another doll for your collection, Master.”

  “...It’s depressing to think that I might get more like you.” I wryly cracked back at Cesca’s utterance.

  I had always thought this, but I got the feeling her personality was a slice of the doctor’s personality. After all, some of the ones like Rosetta seemed to have some pretty artificial attitudes. Cesca, on the other hand, liked to make dirty jokes.

  For the time being, I had Tsubaki show me the object’s location on the map... It was pretty far. It was almost all the way up north. It’d probably be cold up there.

  “Rosetta, Cesca, go on ahead with Babylon. If it gets cold, just go inside the house on the garden, okay?”

  “No need to worry. Babylon deploys a barrier that maintains a moderate temperature, so heat and cold are no concern.” I thought about it, and it wasn’t that hot when we were in the desert, either. Seemed Babylon had multipurpose air conditioning. That sure was convenient.

  Perhaps it was a vital function for the plants in the garden, actually. I mean, there could be seeds sensitive to the heat or cold.

  After I sent out Cesca and Rosetta, I passed on the news about the transporter to Leen, who jumped for joy. I didn’t need to tell her about it directly, but if I didn’t, it would’ve surely proved to be scary later on.

  Everyone went back to their rooms to prepare for a trip to an extremely cold area. I was fine since I had my coat. After all, my coat was imbued with anti-cold, anti-heat, anti-blade, anti-fist, and anti-magic attributes. It wasn’t really that hot in the desert either, so I figured I’d probably be fine.

  We brought Kohaku with us this time, but Kokuyou and Sango requested to stay on house duty.

  “We’re weak to the cold. It’s not that we freeze completely, but we’d rather pass.”

  I see. It’s understandable since they’re a snake and a tortoise. Poor things. Good thing humans aren’t that frail.

  ...I was too naive. I underestimated the extreme cold. How could it even have been so cold? Had the coat’s anti-cold attribute worn off?! I started shivering as soon as I set foot on the snow-covered territory of Elfrau. Just how many degrees below zero was it? Meanwhile, everyone else calmly looked around. What was the meaning of this?!

  “H-How are you all okay? A-Aren’t you cold?”

  “I’m using warmth magic. We’re all at room temperature except for you.” Leen gave away the trick to her little prank. It was so unfair. Why would she single me out?

  “Weren’t you the one who said you were perfectly shielded from the cold?”

  I know, I did! I’m sorry I overestimated myself! So put your magic on me too, please!

  “Come forth, Fire! A Cozy Cloak Scatters Down: [Warming]!” Leen’s magical light enveloped my body. The chill calmed down immediately.

  To test the magic, I picked up some snow. It didn’t feel all that cold, but it didn’t rapidly melt, either. It seemed that the magic didn’t simply raise body temperature, but perhaps acted more like a defensive barrier against the cold instead.

  Now that I was no longer distracted by the cold, I started to look around. Hidden by the pine trees was a large icy hole in the side of a mountain. The ice-covered cave continued endlessly underground. The ancient ruins we were looking for were apparently back there.

  We stepped into the cave. Despite the effects of [Warming], I could almost swear I felt a chill run through my spine. We illuminated the cave with [Light Orb] and slowly made our way deeper.

  “Watch your footing...”

  Take it nice and easy...” The very moment I reminded everyone to be careful, I slipped and fell on the ice. It hurt like hell. I guess it could be considered divine punishment. Perhaps I h
ad slipped my enemies one too many times.

  “What are you doing, Touya?”

  “Are you okay, Touya-dono?” Elze and Yae reached out their hands and helped pull me up. If only I had shoes that would never slip. If I did the reverse of slip magic, would it let me stand on ice without slipping? Despite the slippery footing, Paula hastily descended into the icy hole. She tripped and tumbled along the way, so I couldn’t help but wonder what she was even trying to do.

  Afterward, we paid even more careful attention to the cave. We almost slipped again and again, but eventually made it safely to the bottom without tumbling.

  “...Sure is deep.” Linze muttered as she looked up. Inside the icy hole was a tall and wide cave, with icy stalagmites and stalactites clinging to the floor and ceiling. The cave was so dark that we couldn’t tell where anything was. Kohaku led the way, alongside the orb of light. I put the tiger up front to detect any sort of scent or sound ahead.

  “My liege... Something is up ahead. I believe it is the ruins, but it looks like there’ll be some trouble...”

  Huh? Found them already? Kohaku was pretty useful in the dark. I was surprised that big cat had such acute senses... But what sort of trouble did he mean? After a little cautious walking, I found out exactly what Kohaku was talking about. The black cylindrical object was covered in an enormous amount of ice. It seemed to be a wall of permafrost. A wall of ice inside a cave, and inside the ice was a black cylindrical artifact.

  “It’s frozen solid... Can we even put a dent in this...?” I tried shooting one of Brunhild’s bullets into the ice, but it simply bounced right off. Typical. It figured it was going to be tough to crack this cold one open with the girls.

  “Leen... Can you melt this with magic?”

  “Hmm... I’ll try, but...” Flame spewed out of Leen’s finger like a flamethrower, but it was not enough to melt the ice. Why?

  “Guess it’s really not going to work. This isn’t any ordinary ice. It’s magice.”

  “Magice?”

  “Ice that naturally accumulates magic. It can’t be broken without immense force, and not even magic can melt it easily.” Well, that was a pain. I was thinking of using [Gravity] to smash it, but it could’ve broken the artifact inside, too. Couldn’t use [Gate] to move just the ice, either, since it was stuck to other places.

  So perhaps melting it really would be the best option? No, but melting it with heat could’ve made the cave itself collapse. The main question among us was what to do next.

  “Hmm, is there no good way?” I tried putting my hand on the ice wall. It was cold. And that was even with the mitigating effects of [Warming]. Normally, it would’ve probably been enough to freeze my skin off.

  “Man, and it’s right there, too.”

  “We could reach it easily if we could dig a tunnel...”

  “A tunnel...? Ah!” The word Yumina muttered sparked a flash of inspiration. I focused magic power into the palm of my hand. That was always an option, after all.

  “[Modeling]!” The ice warped and caved in front of me. It spread out past my sides, forming a tunnel.

  If we couldn’t melt it or smash it... then all we needed to do was reshape it. After all, our goal wasn’t to remove the ice. It was the same trick I used to bust the old guys out back in Eashen.

  I reshaped more and more of the magice. Eventually, the cylindrical object appeared from within the ice.

  “Now then, let’s take this back to Babylon and figure out if it can teleport...”

  “It sure is big.” Lu was right. The cylindrical artifact was about six or seven meters in diameter and three meters tall. It was almost like a giant tuna can.

  I tried spinning the object by reshaping the ice with [Modeling], but I couldn’t find an entrance or anything. There was nothing that looked like a door, and unlike the desert artifact, it didn’t look like there was a way to slip into it by touching it.

  I wondered what it could be... Since the shape reminded me of a tuna can, I recalled how tuna cans were opened. It’s from the top, right? I transformed the ice into the shape of stairs and carefully made my way to the top, telling everyone to wait at the bottom.

  There was nothing on the top of the artifact except for a single cavity in the center that was about one meter in diameter. Is that it? I cautiously stretched my foot out to check, and sure enough, it slipped through. So that really was the entrance. That mysterious wall that only I, master of all six elements, could pass through.

  “I found the entrance. I’m going in. Everyone stay on alert. If anything happens, contact me through Kohaku.” I instructed everyone down below before cautiously leaping in through the top. I pierced through the ceiling and landed inside. There I found a dim, pale light, and a magic circle with six stone pillars. It seemed this was indeed a remnant of Babylon.

  I poured magic of each of the six elements into each of the six stone pillars. After all six elements had been poured, the circle began emitting a faint light. Finally, I stepped into the center and poured out some Null magic. A dazzling light engulfed me, and I vanished in a flash.

  ◇　◇　◇

  Spread before me was the standard scene I’d grown accustomed to. A beautiful expanse of trees, a bright blue sky overhead, and luscious green grass as far as I could see, with a pure stream of water running through it. It seems that I had successfully warped to a new place.

  I was hoping that it’d be either the hangar or the library. The storehouse would also be quite welcome, because I’d finally be able to punish whoever was responsible for all the trouble I’d been through so far.

  I walked by the water, and eventually a building became visible through a clearing in the trees. The building was around three stories tall. It was fitted with stained glass windows, and had a regal air about it, somewhat like a church. It didn’t have any religious iconography on it or anything, though.

  The building looked to be built with red brick, all the way to the roof. Alongside it, an octagonal building jutted upward. It looked a bit like a pagoda.

  “Pretty sure this is a piece of Babylon, but...”

  “You’re quite right, you see. A very warm welcome to you. Welcome to the Alchemy Lab.” I turned toward the sudden greeting and found myself face-to-face with a golden-eyed young girl. She was fairly tall, had pale white skin, and beautiful pink hair that flowed to the side in a ponytail. She looked older than Cesca, physically at least.

  She wore a dark top, with a large pink ribbon about her chest. On her lower body there were black tights, and a fairly standard white skirt. Her outfit wasn’t really different from the ones worn by the other two when I’d met them. There was one thing setting her aside from the other two Gynoids, however. The size of the mounds beneath the ribbon on her outfit. She was on Cecile’s level at the very least...

  “I’m the Terminal Gynoid of the Alchemy Lab of Babylon, you see. My name is Bell Flora. But please, call me Flora.” If her name was Bell Flora, then I thought it’d make more sense to call her Bell, but... it was her call. That reminded me, Cesca’s full name was actually Francesca. Maybe in their culture it was normal to call people by the latter part of their names or something.

  But still, she had said we were in the lab. That meant it wasn’t any of the facilities we were looking for.

  “You’ve arrived here, you see. That means you have the same attributes as the doctor. But only a person deemed worthy can become the administrator of the Alchemy Lab of Babylon.”

  “I know all this already. I’ve already been recognized by the Terminal Gynoids from both the garden and workshop.”

  “The garden and the workshop? That means you’ve met Cesca and Rosetta, you see? My, it’s almost been five thousand years... How nostalgic.” Flora smiled happily and put her hands to her chest. Jiggle, jiggle... They both jiggled...

  My eyes darted downward, staring without my consent. In that moment, I knew what had happened. She’d used magic on me! That was it. That must’ve been it. She’d cast a w
icked hex on me!

  “For those two to have accepted you, you must have the required qualities, you see... But even so, you must pass my test!” Her test? Oh, that suddenly reminded me that Cesca and Rosetta both had tests for me as well... a thought that drove a cold sweat to my brow. But it was already too late. As I was lost in thought, my body was taken advantage of. Flora grasped me by the hand, forcing my digits and palm against her spongy orbs.

  S-Soft... A soft sensation spread across my hand. The sponginess, the springiness... I couldn’t stop myself. Flora’s sudden action had scared me, so I instinctively flexed my fingers. I’d unintentionally groped her. It was inevitable, it was unavoidable! It wasn’t my fault, but even so, the deed was done. I had given her a firm squeeze.

  “A-Ahh, y-you see...?” Flora’s lovely voice snapped me back to reality, so I quickly realized what was going on. She had violated me, somehow!

  “Wh-Wh-What the hell?!” I was in a very compromising position, so I yelled out in a flurry, but... I had to be calm, I had to be composed.

  “Ufufu... You’ve passed the test! If you had turned into a savage beast and bent my knees back here and now, you’d have been disqualified for sure, you see!”

  Beast?! What the hell is wrong with you, lady?! You just sexually harassed me, in reverse? I guess? I don’t get it, but this doesn’t sit right with me! Flora suddenly began to undo her ribbon, then started unfastening the buttons on her blouse. I had no idea what I was even looking at.

  “Now for level two, you see... Let’s see if you can hold back much longer...!”

  Her breasts heaved and shuddered as they sprang forth from her blouse. My eyes couldn’t process what was in front of them. Fully nude, fully uncensored, up close and personal. My eyes instinctively darted away. Why the hell wasn’t she wearing a bra?

  “H-Hey! Put them back in already! I’m not gonna jump you, quit it!”

  “Are you sure? You could squeeze them, rub them, tweak them all you like, you see...”

  “I’m quite fine, thank you! I’ve had my fill!” I didn’t even know what I meant by that. My mouth just moved on its own, so I was spewing confused garbage. I could almost hear the doctor laughing at my flustered panic... If I had a time machine, I was sure I’d have used it to go back and show her a thing or two...