In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 10 Page 6
I took out a ring from my pocket and passed it over to Sakura. She took it without any hesitation.
“There’s magic power stored in this ring. You can use it to keep Mr. Mittens here manifested. It should be enough to last about half a year. Lemme know when it runs out, alright? I can recharge it immediately.”
“Alright. Thank you very much.”
“It’s D’Artagnan!” Heheheh... He’s pretty funny, so I guess we can keep him. He could probably be like Spica and work as our bodyguard. I’ll toss him over to Moroha. Doesn’t really matter if he’s a human or not, we’ll rank him up into a super cat knight.
As the cat fussed and whined, Paula gave him a gentle pet on the shoulder.
Just as I amused myself with the image of those two working together, Kougyoku appeared and perched on my arm.
“What the heck?! Even the Flame Monarch’s here too?! What a cat-astrophe...!” Kougyoku looked at Mr. Mittens for a moment, and then back at me. She began talking, completely ignoring him.
“My lord. We’ve found the final ruin, we believe.”
“For reals?!” Holy cow, if it actually is a Babylon ruin, then that’ll be it... The research laboratory will be mine at last.
After I discovered the storehouse I wasn’t as motivated to explore and find Babylon ruins. As far as I understood it though, the research laboratory was the place where Cesca and the other gynoids were born. It was supposed to have a bunch of experimental facilities.
Man, in the end I never found a single gynoid who wasn’t a hassle in some way... Well, whatever. Time to finish building my castle in the sky.
◇ ◇ ◇
There were two islands directly west of the Sea of Trees, just off the southwest coast of the Continent.
The larger of the two islands was called Egrand.
The smaller of the two was called Mallet. Combined, the two of them made up the territory of a single kingdom, Egret.
Egret didn’t have anything that made it stick out at all. It was a lovely nation surrounded by water, so it was largely unspoiled and beautiful though.
The country didn’t have much in the way of culture, and as a society they were behind most of the other nations. They did, however, have one thing other nations did not.
A Sea Serpent.
This great aquatic dragon lived around the shores of Egret, and was revered as a guardian of the islands. Around a hundred years ago, Sandora attempted an invasion of Egret. The legends say that this Sea Serpent sank the invading ships.
Another legend stated that if people saw the Sea Serpent, they were guaranteed a bountiful catch of fish.
“Have you heard of this Sea Serpent, Luli?”
“I have. It’s one of my children, after all. It’s the kind that enjoys the company of humans, so it’s likely protecting the people of that island on purpose.” I’d heard about the dragon, so I went to Egret with Luli in tow. She turned into a huge azure dragon, and I peacefully rode on her back all the way there. It was nice and comfy. I’d still deployed a shield though. The wind was a pain.
“Oh, I see it.” There was a small landmass visible in the distance. That must’ve been the Kingdom of Egret.
“My liege. The Sea Serpent is here.”
“Huh?” I looked down in response, and saw the face of a large dragon peeking out of the sea. It swam like a pro, causing waves to crash in its wake.
It was huge. Bigger than Luli, even. The sea was probably the perfect environment for it, since it would’ve taken care of most of its weight. That was probably why there were so many large things in the sea.
“It’s been some time, Sea Serpent.”
“It is wonderful to see you again, Azure Monarch. It is a pleasure to meet with you as well, Mochizuki Touya. Welcome to Egret.”
“You know me?”
“That I do. The incident upon Dragoness Island is known across our entire kind.” Ah, that makes sense... From what I understand, what I’d done was basically a ghost story at this point. We did end up slaughtering half the dragons there, after all. The only reason there wasn’t a grudge was because I had Luli on my side.
Dragons typically avoided fighting humans. They didn’t want to run the risk of humans seriously banding together for an offensive. The young dragons and their reckless behavior ended up causing a headache for a lot of people in the end. But ultimately the problem was that they hadn’t been taught how to behave properly.
“So you knew we’d be coming?”
“I heard about it from the Flame Monarch’s kin. The ruins you seek are within the depths of a cave that I’ve been sleeping in.”
“Aha, is that right? Then you’re going to show us the way?”
“It would be my pleasure.” The sea serpent began swaying side to side. We followed.
He headed toward the islands of Egret, and entered a relatively narrow cavern near Mallet’s bay. We followed afterward and ended up coming out into a wide open space.
It was basically like a secret base. I hopped off Luli’s back and clambered around some slippery rocks.
“The ruins you seek are at the end of the cave, toward the back.” I followed the serpent’s motions, and nodded a little bit. It seemed pretty deep inside.
They had some catching up to do, so I left Luli and the sea serpent to talk with one another, pressing on alone.
The rocks were a little too wet and slippy for my liking. It was probably because of how high the tide rose depending on the time of day.
I kept on going until I found the object. A bona-fide sphere. At a glance, it looked like a pure black globe. Five meters or so in diameter. But on closer inspection, I saw the spellstones embedded in its side.
“Let’s pour some magic in, then.” I poured fire magic into the red spellstone. A red glow began to shine and spread across the surface of the globe, lighting up strange geometric patterns.
The light gradually ran around the sphere until it made a complete rotation and returned to the spellstone.
The blue, green, yellow, purple, and brown stones all reacted the same way. The white of the null stone joined the rest at the end, and caused the patterns to shift. A small entrance opened up.
I stepped inside and immediately saw a strange pattern drawn out on the ground. It was glowing in formation.
“The heck is this... What...?” The pattern was a series of square tiles. Each was separated from one another, and could be moved around freely.
A sliding puzzle. Clearly one that was meant to line up in a certain order.
[01][02][03][04]
[05][06][07][08]
[09][10][11][12]
[13][14][15][16]
It was kind of like one of those, but the space where the sixteenth would be was blank, and I had to slide all the pieces of the teleportation circle together to get it shaped up right.
It was likely that the puzzle would be complete when the teleportation sigil was matched up to its original form. Then it would probably activate or something.
The problem was the number of panels. I counted, and it was a ten by ten space. There were a hundred pieces in total. Except there were actually only ninety-nine because one of the pieces was missing to allow for sliding. It would’ve been better if they were actually numbered though, because making a picture without a reference was a huge pain in the ass.
“This sucks...” I sighed quietly and started sliding pieces on the ground.
My grandpa had given me a trick to this kind of sliding puzzle, though.
[01][02][03][04]
[05][06][07][08]
[09][10][11][12]
[13][14][15]
If they were lined up like this, then you just had to get them like this...
[01][02][03][04]
[05]
[09]
[13]
Then the ones on the outside... Could be aligned with their inner parts like this.
[06][07][08]
[10]
[14]
Then afte
r that, it was just a matter of...
[11][12]
[15]
Just like that! No matter how large the puzzle was, it could be put together simply like that.
The problem was that this wasn’t numbers, it was a picture. I couldn’t confidently move them unless I knew which part was going to fit into the whole.
I wish I had a frame of reference...
I spent a long time fiddling with it. It was getting late, so I telepathically told Luli to head home.
Ninety-nine pieces was just tiring, really. It wasn’t even a picture, it was a big old ground pattern. I had no idea of knowing if something was right until two parts lined up just right.
Either way, I continued the mundane task. Eventually, I somehow got it... And I was swallowed up by light.
I was sucked up into the usual swirling motion of light, and I saw the familiar sights of Babylon as I came to my senses.
I was a pure white building nestled in between some trees. It must’ve been the research laboratory.
As I went over to the building, someone came out and headed straight for me. It was the terminal gynoid of the research laboratory.
She had brown, triple-braided hair, and was walking pretty darned fast. She looked to be about two or so years younger than me.
“Mmh... Welcome to the research laboratory. I am the Terminal Gynoid and central manager here. My name is Atlantica, but you can call me Tica. Aah...” The girl was strange. Strangely polite. Her movements were swift and formal, like a business secretary. Her manners were extremely nice, too. She also spoke rather politely, too. Monica had warned me about her, but I figured it was just a case of contrasting personalities.
“Tica, is it? Nice to meet you. I’m...”
“Mochizuki Touya, mmh... Doctor Babylon has told me much.”
“You heard about me from her?”
“Aah... Yes I did. She saw you visiting the garden and the research laboratory thanks to her foresight artifact.” Oh yeah, that thing was in the Storehouse... I tried to use it, but didn’t get much out of it. It would only let me see someone with the same wavelength as me, and there wasn’t anyone around in the future with all elemental attributes, apparently...
That basically meant that for the next five-thousand years, I was the last guy with every elemental affinity. Unless history changed, or something.
Not like it mattered all that much, Parshe smashed it to bits.
“How many pieces of Babylon have you acquired so far, Touya?”
“This is the last, actually. All the rest are docked together.”
“Mmh... I-I see. Ah, that’s more than enough to qualify then. The research laboratory is all yours. As am I.” Tica pulled what appeared to be a slightly large cotton bud from her pocket and passed it over to me.
“Mmh... Please put this in your mouth.” I held the swab in my mouth for a little while, just as instructed.
After she took it out, she put it into her own mouth.
“Mmh... Registration complete. Your genes have been stored, master. The ownership of I, Babylon Airframe Number Twenty-two, Atlantica... And the research laboratory, have now been transferred to you.”
“Th-That’s it?”
“Ah... Something wrong?”
“No, it’s just... Forget it.”
No kiss...? I mean, wait! It’s not like I wanted a kiss! Right? Why do I feel disappointed?!
The girl seemed to be a bit more straight-laced than the others. I was glad to have a more sensible one hanging around.
“Well then, this way. Before I explain the facility to you, you have a mission.”
“A... Mission?” Tica showed me inside the building.
The complex was divided into various buildings and facilities, each with a different purpose.
We entered the Primary Lab, apparently it was the place that Cesca and her sisters were all born.
There were a lot of objects lining the walls much like the ones in the Alchemy Lab. Some sleeping pods and capsules lined the walls, too. The tubes all seemed to be empty, save for the mysterious liquids that I couldn’t even begin to identify. Some of the tubes contained strange, flesh-like things floating in what was most likely formaldehyde. This was the definition of a creepy, suspicious lab.
The place kind of gave me the vibe of a human experiment freakshow... It definitely fit the aesthetic. I figured they probably had the capability to change the human body... Though in a sense they already had. Still, the gynoids weren’t exactly humans. They might as well have been, though.
Tica showed me to a cylindrical pod in the center of the room. She pointed toward a small window on a chamber that vaguely resembled a coffin.
A faint green light shone through the glass, and I could make out a girl’s face. She was floating in the tube with her eyes closed. She had long, beautiful hair. It was blonde. I couldn’t quite see all of her face, though. She vaguely resembled Tica in a sense, but there was something about her that reminded me of all the Babylon gynoids.
“This is...”
“The final Babylon Number, yes. Twenty-nine. Our littlest sister.” Ten in total, then...? Wonder if she was abandoned mid-development or if she’s asleep for a reason, then. Just as I was pondering, Tica dropped the bombshell on me.
“Mmh... This is our mother, Doctor Regina Babylon. I’d like for you to wake her up, aah...”
... You gotta be kidding me.
◇ ◇ ◇
“What do you mean... Doctor Babylon?”
“Mmh... In layman’s terms, this is a relatively fresh body with the Doctor’s original brain transplanted into it. The body and brain were then synchronized, and had their magic potential tuned properly. The process took a long time, but she’s still the Doctor. Ahh...”
Gross. So she’s not a clone, she’s a straight-up new body... With a brain jammed into it?! “But she looks like she’s ten... Why?” She had to have at least been in her twenties. The woman I saw on Cesca’s video message was that age. Unless she went and fulfilled the dream of women everywhere... Eternal youth. Isn’t she a little too young, though?
“If she’d been aged any further, there was a... Mmh... chance of magical rejection, and the tuning process could’ve failed. Her memories would’ve also been at risk, aahh...”
“...You jammed an adult brain into a kid’s head?”
“It’s there, yep. Whole thing. Mmh... Squished in with magic.” Tica squeezed her hand as if she was groping something soft. I shouldn’t have asked. This is honestly freaking me out. Scientific sense just doesn’t apply to magic at all. I should’ve quit while I was ahead. Applying logic is fruitless here.
I listened to the whole story, and apparently the Doctor didn’t pass away from old age, she had her brain shunted into the new body while she was still in the prime of her life.
The body of a Babylon Gynoid was much more durable than a human body, after all. Fam had been operating for five-thousand years without a hitch, after all. It was almost like immortality. I wondered if she’d cultivated cells from elves or something.
“So what am I supposed to do?”
“Mmh... Just pump her full of magic energy to wake her up. You have the same biorhythm as she does, master... You’ll be able to wake her up, surely. Aahh...” Guh... What a pain. Wouldn’t it be better if I kept her sleeping? This woman’s gonna be a real pain and I know it.
According to what I’d heard, genius or not, she was a grade-A pest. I had no idea what to do. If I woke her up, she’d likely get me in a ton of trouble. Surely it wouldn’t be an issue if I kept her floating in there.
“Mmh... Sorry to bother you about it, but there isn’t much time left, aah...”
“Huh?” I was deep in thought, but Tica quickly dragged me back to reality.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Mmh... Master, when you got here, a countdown started... Her capsule’s life support started shutting down. I’d say that she has about five minutes before she finishes, e
r, is finished...”
“Wh-What the hell?! Why would something like that get installed?!”
“A-Aah... It was her choice. She, mmh, said that living on would be pointless if you never wanted to wake her up.” Oh that old hag! She knew I’d be reluctant so she put this in place! Gaaaah! I can’t just let her die! She knows me way too well, this isn’t fair. This kind of shit makes you wanna scream out “She played me like a damn fiddle!” I’ll refrain, though.
“...Where does my magic go?”
“Place your hand on this spellstone on the capsule, and slip your throbbing energy inside. Mmh...” I put my hand on the crystalline spellstone and started pouring magic into it.
After a while the machine began to clank and whir. The capsule began to open up like a clamshell, but it wasn’t quite exposed to air yet.
A strange liquid began pouring through the capsule. It sparkled and shone, but was ultimately drained away.
“Biorhythm, nominal. No issues with magical synchro. Bodily functions, also nominal...” Tica was fiddling with a control panel, pulling levers and pushing buttons. She pushed a huge button and the capsule finally popped open, the top of it sliding away cleanly.
A naked little girl, about ten years of age, exited the capsule. Her long golden hair flowed down to her waist. I didn’t feel the slightest bit turned on or anything. But that was normal, this was a literal child. Tica, on the other hand...
“...Why’re you breathing so heavily?”
“M-Mhh... Ohhh... Hhah... N-No reason, mh... D-Don’t worry about it!” The gynoid next to me was completely red in the face. Her breathing was going haywire, and blood was dripping from her nose.
Don’t worry about it?! Of course I’ll worry about it! You’re no good too!
The little girl opened up her light green eyes. She then rubbed at them and started looking around. Eventually she noticed me, grinned broadly, and hopped down from the drained capsule.
“Nice to meetcha, Mochizuki Touya, Touya being your given name. I used my foresight to see you a lot in the future, so it doesn’t really feel like I’m meeting you for the first time ever... Even so, howdy.”