In Another World With My Smartphone_Volume 6 Read online

“I will get right to the point, dear subjects. I have called you to voice my intentions of abdication. I will soon relinquish the throne.” The king of Lihnea spoke loudly and clearly, causing the nobles to begin chattering amongst themselves. Only three people in the room were unsurprised. Naturally, those three were Wardack, Dacia, and Zabune. The three of them gave a subtle knowing glance to one another, sick smiles plastered to their faces.

  “Now, to all of you gathered here, allow me to formally announce the next king of Lihnea. I am transferring all obligations, power, and duty to my son. I am formally resigning. The heir to my throne is, of course, none other than the first prince...” All eyes fell on Zabune. The bowl-cut idiot prince smiled gleefully as the expectations of the upper classes washed over him. But... it was not to go as he expected.

  “...Cloud. I will be abdicating the throne to First Prince Cloud Zeph Lihnea.”

  The nobles all let out astonished voices. However, the most shocked and terrified voices belonged to the malicious trio.

  It was at that moment that I shoved Prince Cloud in the back, deactivating the [Invisible] spell.

  Marquis Koupe followed after him, almost as though he were the young man’s escort. I kept myself and the others invisible, however. We were outsiders, so it was best to just observe.

  “What...? Cloud, you little...!” Prince Cloud completely ignored Zabune’s flustered words, making his way over to the king. Once he reached the foot of the throne, he got down on one knee and bowed respectfully.

  “Thank you, Father. I humbly accept the responsibility. I will do you proud as king, I promise you that.”

  “Aye, my son. I trust you.”

  “Wait just a goddamn minute! What the hell is happening here?!” Prince Zabune couldn’t stop himself from yelling. The surrounding nobles became restless due to the sudden declaration, but calmed again as Wardack stepped out toward the throne.

  “Your... Majesty! Pardon my rudeness, but... going by the very laws of this nation, the successor must be the first prince. Even you cannot shatter such tradition, surely...”

  “Yes, you’re quite right. That’s why Prince Cloud is ascending, instead of Zabune. I said I was abdicating to First Prince Cloud, did I not?”

  “You—! But... Don’t be foolish! The first prince is Zabune, not Cloud! Enough of this farce!” Queen Dacia completely lost her composure, yelling at the king. The king began to laugh after hearing her speak, and soon enough his bellowing laughter rang out all through the throne room. It didn’t take long for Dacia to become unnerved by the king’s odd behavior.

  “Farce, Dacia? Farce? How dare you.” King Schlaf of Lihnea rose from his throne with the eyes of a hawk. They were trained right on his wife. The complacent, weak-looking king was completely gone. All I saw in him was fury unbound.

  “Now... my dear gathered nobles, please listen. There is a nation nestled between Belfast and Regulus. It is a recent one. A Duchy. The Duchy of Brunhild. It is presided over by a grand duke. This man defeated a black dragon that terrorized Mismede. This man is a Silver adventurer. On top of that, he prevented a dangerous coup in the Regulus Empire, saving many lives. The man who saved that country has come to save us too.”

  “Grand Duke, please step forward.” Prince Cloud called us up, so I deactivated the cloaking spell. Elze and Yae were to my left and right respectively, while a full-sized Kohaku strolled leisurely in front.

  “Grand Duke Touya, would you kindly show all of the people here just what it is you showed me?”

  “...Are you sure?”

  “I am, boy. Even if it makes me look like a miserable old man who was deceived for three decades... it is a truth that must be revealed.” The king of Lihnea laughed in a self-deprecating manner.

  “Very well, then.” I took out my smartphone and used it to project a video into the air. It was quite a large display, clearly visible to everyone in the room.

  “And what will become of the king once he hands it over?”

  “He will be disposed of. I wouldn’t normally want to do it so quickly, but this Cloud business means...”

  “W-Wait, that...!” Wardack and Dacia both began sweating bullets the moment they realized what they were seeing. They were fools... They should never have spoken of assassinating the king so brazenly.

  “Yes, after all these wasted years, our son will rise as king...”

  “Ahaha! It’s the birth of a whole new royal line, I’m so excited...”

  “S-Stop! Stop this at once!” Wardack lunged at me furiously, only to find himself held down by Kohaku’s forceful mass. The gathered nobles began murmuring amongst themselves again.

  “This is a recording of what happened during a private meeting between Wardack and Dacia. It’s a Null spell of my own design. I watched the whole thing through the eyes of my familiar.”

  “Th-This is preposterous! Your Majesty, surely there’s a mistake here...” Wardack sputtered and was clearly wracking his brain for an excuse. And the king might have believed him, had he been a loyal and honest man. However, Wardack was nothing but cruel. He used threats and deceit. The king had no reason to believe his lies.

  “A mistake? Hm... The only mistake was buying into your story. I must’ve seemed quite the fool in your eyes, eh? Your son was treated as the first prince. I had nothing I could do to prevent that, for I was ignorant. Did you find it funny, Prime Minister?” Wardack piped down as the king’s words battered him. His eyes darted around the room as torrents of sweat ran down his brow. He had nothing more to add.

  In the end, Wardack’s power was just a stolen version of the king’s power. With the loss of Erya, they intended to swap out the puppet king for Zabune. And now all of that was over, in mere minutes. He was crushed.

  “Now that my dear Erya is safe... I’ve no reason to be merciful. Wardack, you are stripped of your position. I was a fool. I let my worry for Erya’s health take over my mind. I should have cared for my country, but you took advantage of my feelings to usurp power from me. I am filled with naught but regret, but I cannot change the past. It may be true that I was a worthless king, but that is true tenfold for you, you bastard. You are a worthless prime minister.”

  “Father...” The king looked at the ground in shame as his son quietly stared over at him. Queen Dacia simply fell to her knees in stunned shock.

  This whole situation began because of her infidelity. As miserable as she looked, I had no sympathy for her. This woman had no conscience. She was more than willing to betray her husband, continually deceive him, and then have him killed. As I thought about such things, the idiot spoke up.

  “What’s with this nonsense?! I am the first prince! I am the next king! That stupid little whelp can’t take my rightful position! Wardack and Mother planned your death, I had nothing to do with it! It wasn’t me! It’s not fair!”

  “...You’re a stupid bratty man, and there’s no redeeming you.” I could do nothing but sigh at Zabune’s antics. All he was doing was distancing himself from the accused. Selfish. That was all he was. Not two minutes had gone by and he was immediately trying to save himself. He was an idiot beyond compare.

  “Stupid?! How dare you! What are you? You’re nothing! You’re a grand duke, big deal! Your country is nothing, you hear me?! Don’t get all high and mighty with me just because you get to stick it in Ortlinde’s daughter!”

  “[Gravity].”

  “Ghaugh!!!” My weight-alteration magic made the idiot prince slump to the ground. Ah wait, he was no longer a prince. Just an idiot, then. The idiot was so pressed against the floor that he looked like a piece of roadkill.

  Once the shock wore off, he began yelling even louder. He really didn’t understand his position. Prince Cloud came over and spoke to me with a sigh.

  “Your Highness, please disable that spell.”

  “Huh? But...”

  “Please.” I did as Prince Cloud asked of me. Zabune leaped to his feet and threw a courteous little smile in Cloud’s direction.


  “Good boy, Cloud! You know well enough that I’m the only one out of us with the right stuff to be the new king. I’ll forgive your transgressions, don’t wor—”

  “Silence.” Prince Cloud quietly spoke to Zabune. He was shaking. Zabune’s chattering ground to a halt, and a single bead of sweat ran down his face. Slowly, Cloud raised a fist into the air.

  “...Hey now, what are you doing there? You really want to hit me? I’ll never forgive you. Brothers shouldn’t each other, understand?”

  “You. Are. Not. My. Brother.” With a ferocity I never expected to see in him, Cloud brought his closed fist down upon Zabune’s face. The impacted party flew backward, did a little flip, and landed in a crumpled heap on the ground. Well, that takes care of that.

  “Z-Zabune!” Dacia ran over to her son. The idiot was bleeding profusely from his nose. The king of Lihnea simply watched all of this unfold. With cold eyes trained on Dacia, his lips parted.

  “Even a pig like you loves her own son, hm? I empathize. My own son is dear to me, after all. I think I understand how you managed to treat Cloud so poorly. I wasn’t upset in the least watching Zabune fall down.” Wardack and Dacia managed Zabune’s education, so the king was actively prevented from participating in his life for the most part.

  They met a few times in a year, and the king only really knew Zabune through rumors of his bad deeds. Wardack even prevented the king from telling Zabune off. Thus, the king of Lihnea never fostered any paternal affection toward Zabune.

  The sad truth was that if the king was allowed to raise Zabune properly, he might have raised him with love in his heart. Then, his eyes would not have been so cold, even if he had learned Zabune was another man’s child.

  “Gah!” Wardack wriggled from his confines and attempted to leave the room, but I wasn’t about to let that happen.

  “[Gravity].”

  “Ghaaaah!!!” The bulldog-faced man fell where he stood. Amusingly, he reacted in much the same way as Zabune did. That was to be expected, since they were father and son.

  “We’ve searched your manor. Very gaudy, isn’t it? Certainly extravagant for a man serving his country. Bribery, embezzling... smuggling, blackmail... Lucrative business, eh? Ah don’t worry, the king has all the evidence.”

  “And we’re aware of all the nobles who worked under you. They will not escape our grasp, either.” Marquis Koupe looked over at the crowd of noblemen. Some of them looked panicked, while others just looked at the people around them in surprise.

  “I truly am a pathetic man. This... is all my fault. You supped upon my weakness, doing whatever you like due to my inability to act. Truly, the people would be better off with Cloud as king than I... Yet even that act may seem like I’m simply shifting responsibility.”

  “Father, don’t be foolish. There’ll be times I need guidance in the days ahead. Do not hesitate to guide my hand when I make a wrong turn.”

  “C-Cloud... I’m so sorry...” The king took his son’s hands in his, tears welling up in his eyes. It was a touching sight. Finally, after years in the shadows, Prince Cloud could finally join his father in the light.

  “Enough of this! Don’t you fuck with me! This is my country! Guards, kill them! Cut them down! I’ll give you money, status, anything!!!” Zabune started babbling like a madman. He looked like one too, since blood was still streaming down his nose. I wonder if “them” also included the king... Naturally, nobody obeyed him, so all that remained of his order was a faint echo that miserably petered out.

  “I almost feel bad for him now, I do.”

  “Seriously... When you raise kids, you need to make sure they’re raised right... or they’ll turn into, well... this.” I agreed with the two of them. If this guy was my son, well... Just the thought disgusted me.

  “Enough of this disgusting display, boy. You are neither a prince, nor are you my son. Who would listen to you now? No... it’s time you sat down, for once. Sat down and reflected on your heinous behavior.” Zabune’s teeth came together in a dull grind, and his face turned a furious red. That heinous behavior came up when we were looking into Wardack’s crimes...

  We’d learned about all the women he’d toyed with, all the peasants he’d killed for entertainment’s sake, and all the many people he’d had kidnapped and enslaved... Not to mention the people he had raped in front of their parents. It seemed he especially enjoyed hearing their parents beg for mercy.

  This man, who had done all manner of wicked things, had no regrets. He never sat down and reflected on himself, so he simply didn’t care. Even when faced with the evidence, he’d be the type to just double-down on the fact that he was right and everyone else was wrong.

  At the end of the day, Zabune was beyond a spoiled brat. I didn’t think he needed to be shown any mercy.

  “Your Majesty... What do you plan to do with the three traitors?”

  “As far as charges go, they’ll all be put to death. It’s the only logical thing to do in order to save face. Word will eventually get out of what happened, so we must deal with the perpetrators swiftly.” The queen’s affair and deception, the fake prince... the prime minister who held all the real national power. It would go without saying that this would reflect poorly on him to outsiders. Still, it seemed as though he’d already accepted it, so at least he was prepared to mitigate damage.

  “E-Execution?! Have you gone mad! Don’t you dare!” Zabune was still wriggling around like a worm, screaming like a banshee. Honestly, I was getting pretty sick of him. I wished he’d just shut up.

  “How dare he? How dare you? Aren’t you long overdue a punishment, you miserable little whelp? You’re no prince. You’re nothing more than a common criminal. Nobody is coming to save you. Nobody is coming to protect or represent you. Accept it and be a man for once.”

  “Shut up! Shutupshutupshutup!!! You piece of shit! I’ll kill you! You better remember me, understand?! Remember this face! Your country, your women, I’ll fuck them both to pieces!”

  “...Excuse me?” What the hell did you just say?

  Slowly, I pulled Brunhild from its holster. Then, I took aim at Zabune’s right leg and fired. The live ammunition penetrated his flesh, making blood bubble up around the point of impact.

  “Gyaaaaaaaah!!!” Zabune crumpled in a pathetic, writhing heap, clutching at the wound. His voice was beyond disgusting. I wanted him quiet.

  “Wh-What did you...?!”

  “...You’ll do what to those I hold dear? You vow to do what to my home? Do you really think I’d let you live, you monologuing little shit? After you dare threaten everything I care about?” I shot out another round, firing at his left leg.

  “A-Ahgh!!! S-Stop, p-pleahss...! I-I’m sohrry! D-Don’t kill me...! I-I don’t wanna dieee!!!”

  “...Those innocents you tortured didn’t want to die. You laughed at them. You took pleasure in their suffering. Why shouldn’t I do the same to you?” I stomped Zabune’s arm with my foot, holding it in place beneath my shoe. After that, I brought Brunhild’s muzzle to the palm of his right hand. Then, I pulled the trigger.

  A beastly, animalistic roar of pain forced its way past his lips. Either due to fear of death, or just plain torment, the miserable animal in human clothing known as Zabune... passed out.

  I quickly used restorative magic to patch up the wounds I’d made. I never intended to kill him, after all. He pissed me off, so I just wanted him to hurt. There was nothing more to it. Punishing Zabune wasn’t my burden to bear.

  It went without saying that the bastard was going right to hell, but the people whose lives he had ruined wouldn’t be satisfied if he was given such a quick death. What happened to him now depended on Prince... er, King Cloud’s judgment.

  “...Sorry. Think I went a little overboard.” I apologized to Cloud’s father.

  “No, this can simply be considered another form of atonement. Though I did declare the death penalty, what happens to him is in Cloud’s hands. I have abdicated the throne, after all.”


  “Guards, take them to the dungeon!” At their new king’s command, the royal guards came in and apprehended the villainous trio. Funny, given that they completely blanked Cloud the other day.

  “Are you okay, Touya?”

  “...Yeah, I just got a little upset.” The moment he said he’d do things involving my duchy, Elze, and the others... I lost composure. It wasn’t like he’d be capable of doing anything, but just the thought made my blood boil.

  It was similar to when those bratty knights picked a fight with me back in Belfast. I didn’t really seem to mind when it came to me, but I couldn’t keep my cool when the people I cared about were slandered. It wasn’t my intention to have such a short fuse. I definitely needed to learn a little more self-control...

  As I pondered such things, I watched Wardack, Dacia, and Zabune get dragged off to the dungeons, kicking and screaming all the while.

  Right after succeeding the throne, Prince, or rather, King Cloud, began to make his mass reforms.

  His first course of action was reinstating Marquis Koupe as prime minister. After that, he had the authorities go through all evidence of Wardack’s embezzling and bribery. The evidence was then used to arrest the merchant houses that had conspired with the wicked man.

  He also made sure to purge the royal capital of noble families that had supported Wardack’s campaign of terror.

  Furthermore, he reduced taxation on the general public. And on top of that, he used the ill-gotten gains that Wardack had stockpiled and redistributed them to the people, creating several public works projects to improve quality of life in Lihnea.

  The mansion that Zabune called home was also raided, and a dungeon was discovered in the basement. Several enslaved people were living there, all collared. I promptly removed their bindings with my magic, freeing the abused innocents there.

  Wardack had been abusing his position for over ten years. It seemed he’d focused all national budget and resources into strengthening the military. His goal all along was clearly war.

  By declaring war on Palouf and reuniting the island of Palnea under a single banner, Wardack would have gone down in history as an amazing man who had accomplished the impossible.