In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 16 (Premium) Read online

  “That’s right. Isengard invented long-distance communication, but it’s not as good as these devices you gave us, Touya.” Nia casually waved around her smartphone. I made a mental note to never let Isengard get ahold of my technology.

  “Is Isengard the best in the world when it comes to Gollem tech, then?”

  “I’d say so, yes. But in terms of Gollem masters, not so much. They almost exclusively use Panzers and Soldats, so they don’t have any special abilities.”

  “They believe in quantity over quality. They’d rather use regular weapons that can be wielded by many, than special weapons that can be wielded by few.” In other words, they were a mass-production culture. That definitely meant they’d be capable of making a lot of things at once... Quite the industrious nation, even if its leader was a weirdo.

  I wondered what the central government thought of him... He certainly sounded like a whole handful of trouble.

  “And what about the Gardio empire?”

  “They’ve been working on their own infrastructure lately. The former emperor was a bit of a tyrant, and they’d often fight with the Strain Kingdom, and the Steel Nation of Gandhillis. But since the new emperor took over, relationships with both nations have improved a fair bit. On the other hand, its relationship with Isengard has declined...” That made sense. A change in leadership often meant a change in policy.

  That reminded me, it was almost time for the League of Nations to meet. I needed to tell everyone back in the regular world about the existence of the Reverse World. Right now the only country that knew was Palerius.

  A lot of things would change once the two worlds unified... So I needed to explain things in order for them to prepare. I wondered if I should bring them over to the Reverse World for a little look. I couldn’t just bring them to Drakliff Island, though... All they’d see is Shirogane and a bunch of dragons.

  In the end, I decided that Primula or Triharan would be the best bet, if they’d co-operate. If the world leaders from the regular world saw Gollems and Reverse World city streets with their own eyes, they’d probably grasp things a lot better.

  I opened up my smartphone and started flicking through the contacts.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “...Slow down, Touya my lad... This story’s a little much...”

  “I understand. I know it’s hard to believe. But I promise you I’m not taking you for a ride here.” The world leaders were looking at me like I’d just flipped their entire worldview on its head. Because I had.

  Projected on the conference room monitor was a map of a world much like the one we were in. The only difference was, it was flipped.

  I’d also invited Relisha to this meeting as a representative of the guild, and I’d brought in Pam as a representative of the Sea of Trees, too.

  Of the roughly twenty or so countries in the world, the vast majority were participating in the League of Nations. I wasn’t really counting ruined places like Sandora and Yulong, though... And the Sea of Trees barely qualified as a country.

  The following countries were represented at my meeting:

  ■ The Kingdom of Belfast

  ■ The Regulus Empire

  ■ The Refreese Empire

  ■ The Kingdom of Mismede

  ■ The Ramissh Theocracy

  ■ The Roadmare Union

  ■ The Lestia Knight Kingdom

  ■ The Kingdom of Lihnea

  ■ The Divine Nation, Eashen

  ■ The Demon Kingdom of Xenoahs

  ■ The Kingdom of Palouf

  ■ The Magic Kingdom of Felsen

  ■ The Kingdom of Elfrau

  ■ The Kingdom of Ryle

  ■ The Kingdom of Hannock

  ■ The Kingdom of Egret

  ■ The Kingdom of Palerius

  ■ The Duchy of Brunhild

  I’d assembled representatives of all these listed nations to tell them about the Reverse World.

  Not only that, but I told them all about the future event that would merge the two worlds together.

  To be honest, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they thought I was crazy. But on the other hand, everyone here had a faint understanding of the concept of other worlds. That was all thanks to the Phrase, extradimensional invaders they’d seen with their own eyes.

  “Even though the worlds are merging, I can promise that nothing cataclysmic is going to happen in terms of the environment. I’ve already made the necessary precautions.”

  “Then... Tell us. When this other world joins ours, how exactly will that work?” The Queen of Elfrau raised her arm and spoke directly to me.

  “I’d compare it to discovering a new landmass across the sea. Nothing in terms of our existing environment will change. We’ll just be bridged to a new one over the water.”

  The worlds were joining together, they weren’t overlapping with each other. Thankfully, the landmasses weren’t going to fuse or anything, they’d just be connected via the sea that already exists in both worlds. However, it was possible for some level of underground overlap as far as land beneath the waves went, so it wouldn’t have been too unusual to see new islands appear here or there.

  “I can’t wrap my head around this... Touya, what are the people of this other world like?”

  “I haven’t visited many countries over there, so I can’t tell you how they are across the board. But for the most part, they’re similar to us. The only difference is that magic isn’t all that established over there. It’s not like they don’t have it at all, but they don’t really need it.”

  “How can they not need magic? What is that supposed to mean?” The king of Felsen looked at me in sheer confusion. Given that magic was central to Felsen’s society, it was obvious a statement like that would worry him.

  “They have more of a focus on magitechnology than magic. Do you guys remember the ether vehicle I showed you guys a while back? They have things like that over in that world, that kind of thing is more commonplace, if not a bit expensive.”

  “Then their society is more advanced than ours?”

  “Mm... No, I wouldn’t say so. For example... if there was a job that we could take care of in under a day with a couple Earth mages, it’d probably take them about a week using their Gollems. Oh right, Gollems are kinda like little golems that can do a variety of things for people. There are different areas where they excel and fall behind in.” I began sharing all that I knew about the implications of the merging worlds. It was in motion now, and there was nothing that could be done to stop it. And given that we’d be a fresh world, that also meant attacks from the mutants would increase until the wicked god was dealt with.

  “...I don’t get it. Sea of Trees won’t be affected, right?”

  “Other than the mutant attacks, no.”

  “Fine by us, then. If Touya needs help, Touya gets help from we tribes. Just ask us and we’ll come.” Pam shrugged and smiled in her chair. Seemed like the tribes really didn’t care about international matters. To them, the world might as well have ended at the woodland’s border.

  “Central-dono, you went to the other world, did you not? How would you describe it?” The Mikado of Eashen, Shirahime, turned to the Queen of Palerius and posed her question.

  “I was only really in a castle of this country called Primula, so I’m not sure... It wasn’t really all that different to the world I’ve seen here. Even their food was pretty ordinary.” Millie, who’d come along as an escort for Central, ended up taste-testing the food for poison. It was all pretty standard over there, really. There wasn’t much of a difference between the worlds when it came to cookery.

  “Touya... I’m a little concerned about the other world potentially taking military action against us. Would they use those, uh... Gollems? Against us?” The King of Lihnea’s remark was met by nods and muttering from the other leaders. That was a natural fear.

  “There’ll be a large ocean separating us, so I don’t think they’ll be able to mobilize. If they did, I wouldn�
��t just sit around either. Neither would anyone else. That’s the purpose of our alliance.” In truth, I hoped the Reverse World would join our League of Nations as well. All the other member-states seemed to agree with that sentiment. Ultimately it was down to the Reverse World’s co-operation.

  If they didn’t want to interact with us, I’d be fine leaving them alone. If they came trying to fight, I’d put a stop to it. I wanted the two sides to get along, I didn’t want either side being oppressed by the other.

  “Well... It is Touya we’re talking about here.”

  “I hope for their own sake that the other world has smart leaders.”

  “Yeah... I wonder how many countries he’ll wipe from their map when this is all over?”

  “Hm... Hard to say... Over here it was just two countries, but you never know...” The leaders of Belfast, Regulus, Mismede, and Refreese all started talking amongst themselves. It was annoying. I wasn’t the one that destroyed Yulong! And I hardly took down Sandora all by myself, either...

  They weren’t wrong that I had some negative feelings about Isengard, though.

  I didn’t think it was good to judge them solely based on hearsay, so I wanted to meet the witch-king myself. For all I knew, he could just be a ditzy old man... Though the idea of a ditzy old man having full national authority was concerning too.

  It was entirely possible that just the head of state was bad, while the cabinet was okay. It’d be bad if they were completely rotten all the way through, like Yulong or Sandora... But then again, if they weren’t corrupt, then surely they would’ve stopped the old guy’s crazy stuff.

  “The world merge isn’t coming any time super soon, so don’t worry for now. Even when it does happen, not much will change in terms of our landmass. I think for now, we shouldn’t tell the general public, either...”

  “That’s fair. I think it’ll only confuse people. Actually, wait... Do we want to bring Nokia and Horn in on this?” The Doge of Roadmare spoke up.

  I’d definitely been thinking about that.

  The Kingdom of Horn and the Kingdom of Nokia were the only two nations left in the regular world that hadn’t joined the League of Nations.

  Horn had been in contact with Felsen fairly regularly, however. They had an excuse.

  The nation was currently undergoing a struggle for leadership. There was presently no head of state available to lead them into the alliance. The old king had died without naming an heir, and several arguments erupted about who’d be the new ruler. Until all that died down, the country wasn’t making any treaties with the outside.

  As for the Nokia Kingdom, Xenoahs had tried several times to make contact... To no avail.

  Nokia was built up by people who’d escaped from Yulong’s oppression, and they were dug deep inside a mountain range. They kept to themselves, mostly. Xenoahs was pretty isolated until recently as well, so there wasn’t much precedent for contact between the two lands. It was kind of a pain.

  “We’ll leave Horn and Nokia for the time being. Even if we told them, it’s not like they’d be able to do much.”

  “That’s true. It’s not like we can even do much with this information, either.” The Doge nodded slowly. If they didn’t wish to communicate with us, I wasn’t going to force them to.

  “Does this other world have a guild connecting it?”

  Guildmaster Relisha raised a question of her own. Knowing her, she was probably thinking of expanding the guild already.

  “Not in the countries I’ve been to, no. Monsters exist in that world, but they’re usually taken care of by the state and their Gollems. Villages also pool their resources to buy Gollem guards. There are also a few Gollem masters who make money by roaming around and killing monsters for people.”

  “Hm... Interesting...” Relisha was already planning something. I could practically see her drawing up intense calculations in her mind. She was an elf, so she had a long life ahead of her. That meant it’d be easy for her to make a slow, crawling plan to get the Reverse World to adopt the guild structure.

  I was fine with that, personally. After all, I was an adventurer.

  Small villages didn’t have the luxury of buying efficient Gollem security or even any at all. So it’d be good to make that world a bit safer.

  Even the villages that did have guard Gollems weren’t guaranteed to be safe. It wasn’t like one or two Gollems could fight back against an entire horde of goblins or anything.

  In terms of fighting power, the regular world had the edge over the Reverse World. The people over there relied on technology and Gollems to do the fighting for them, so there weren’t as many people with individual or special talent.

  “Hm... I’d like a chance to go to this other world. Is that possible?”

  “I mean, you could... But it’d be dangerous. You wouldn’t be protected by your reputation, as you wouldn’t be considered a king over there.”

  “...Come on now, lad. You can handle most threats no problem, right?”

  “...I guess.” The Beastking grinned widely in my direction. He was counting on me a little too much. To be fair if I cast a [Prison] around us, we’d be safe from just about anything except the wicked god. But I would need to take care to avoid poisons or natural hazards.

  I decided to ask Triharan or Primula to act as hosts for the royals at some point. Having them all go at once would be bad, but I could definitely take them in groups of three or four. Though once you factored in their escorts, the party would be pretty big...

  After the meeting, we all moved to the game room, and the various world leaders unwound together. Now and then we’d get small disputes between countries that I’d merrily mediate in person, as well.

  I sincerely hoped that I’d be able to deal with issues like that in the Reverse World in a similar way.

  At this point in time, I only had connections with Primula and Triharan... Although there was also that guy from Panaches, too... He was the weirdo prince who had the blue crown... Frankly, he was too freaky for me to handle.

  But still, he’d be able to introduce me to his parents.

  Please, please let his parents be normal people... Please...

  ◇　◇　◇

  The day of the meeting between the Gardio emperor and the remnants of Lowe had come.

  The air in the room was tense from the start.

  We were in the Gardio empire’s imperial palace. The room we’d chosen had been secured by my [Silence] spell, so nobody outside could hear what was going on.

  I sat on a little chair in the corner of the room with Yumina and Leen. Paula was also nearby.

  There were two sofas in the middle of the room, each facing the other. On one was Colonel, First Lieutenant, and Sergeant. They were here representing Lowe. On the other couch was the emperor, Falchion Lig Gardio, and his wife Asteria. To their left sat the prime minister of Gardio, Lancelo Olcott.

  Lancelo was actually the man who originally found Prince Lufredin and reported it to the emperor way back.

  It’d be wrong to say that things would’ve gone better had the little prince died, but it was also true that the small action made by that man on that day spiraled outward into the future and created this messy situation.

  “...To think I’d meet with that knight again after all this time. Tell me, that eye wound...”

  “It was war. I have no grudge surrounding my lost eye. I’m alive, so that’s all I care about.” I couldn’t imagine what Colonel and the Emperor must have been feeling, meeting with an old foe like this after so long. I was, however, pleased to see they were being cordial.

  “Goodness... Even so, I must extend my apology to you... For so much more than your injury.” The emperor lowered his head to the trio, expressing his profound apologies. His wife followed suit.

  “I beg your forgiveness. For the loss of your homeland, for my weakness in stopping my father... For the fact that I took the child, you’d been so faithfully searching for... This was all brought about by my own
weakness...”

  “You dare ask us forgiveness?!” First Lieutenant glared at the bowing couple before standing up. Her body was tense.

  “How could we forgive you?! You took our home! You killed the people we love! You took away our honor, our happiness, and then took away our very hope! How could we think to forgive you?!”

  “...I know you can’t just forgive us as if nothing happened. But I still wish to say I’m sorry. Even if you don’t forgive me, I am sorry. I wish I had the courage to stand up to my father... If I’d done things differently this wouldn’t have come to pass.”

  His fervent apology fell on deaf ears. No matter how he phrased it, the truth was still that the three had lost their home for petty reasons. I could understand their feelings.

  Prime Minister Lancelo suddenly opened his mouth.

  “The Empire intends to liberate all former Lowe territories and grant it independence.”

  “What?”

  “Ex...cuse me?” Sergeant and Lieutenant stared in disbelief, while Colonel’s eyebrow raised slightly.

  Huh... Independence? It’d kinda be like Brunhild, then? A small country with start-up backing from a larger one? Colonel glanced toward Lancelo and spoke up.

  “Would everyone in Gardio’s government really be fine with that decision? That place is fulla riches, you know.”

  “Ever since the previous emperor died, Lowe’s former territory has been placed under direct imperial authority. The resources and revenue taken from that area has only ever been used for the betterment of that area. Therefore I have no reason to believe anyone would oppose the decision, as it wouldn’t affect the rest of the empire. However... Isengard still owns the territory around the Azure Ruin, and we would be unable to return that plot of land.” Isengard had taken control of all territory around the Azure Ruin, but that land barely made up twenty percent of Lowe’s total territory. I’d also heard that many of the people living there had fled to Gardio after being unable to handle the Magitechnocracy’s oppressive practices.

  “Then... Lowe can come back?” First Lieutenant muttered quietly to herself, but Colonel ignored it and spoke directly to the emperor.