Man, this is totally unrelated to me, but... The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?
“Let’s see here...” I opened up the map on my smartphone. I didn’t want to attract too much attention or anything, so I didn’t project it. Though I had the feeling I stood out enough anyway.
“Search. Man with wounded shoulder.”
“Search complete. One in local vicinity.” Bingo. I didn’t know the guy, but it seemed like he still had a wound so noticeable that it was still showing.
I thought perhaps they’d have patched it up with light magic, but it seemed like there wasn’t anyone capable of casting it in their group. Nobody must have brought a potion, either.
I decided to go and track the guy down. I was a little guarded, however. I didn’t want to get suicide bombed right in the face again.
“Hmm...” I headed off from the street and found myself in a dense expanse of bamboo, there were few people in the area.
This place seems like the prime spot for a panda to live... Wait no, pandas probably aren’t normal in this world... They probably end up wisecracking and learning kung-fu or something.
I walked down the beaten path as such thoughts passed my mind, but then I paused.
They’re here. I felt the presence of two others. One felt different. The different one had already noticed me and was already coming toward me. Wait, from above?!
“HAAAAAH!”
“Augh!” The dense mass of bamboo provided the perfect cover for attack, and I just barely managed to avoid the strike. My attacker landed, launching a flurry of blows that I expertly parried, before sweeping out with a mighty kick that I just barely avoided by jumping back. They were wearing a dark black robe that covered their entire body, but they had a voice that reminded me of a woman’s.
We clashed again before jumping back and establishing a good distance. The hooded woman suddenly raised her palm and pointed it in my direction.
Wait a second...!
“Haaah!!” She blasted a shockwave toward me and I just barely dulled the impact with a cross counter. I knew that move! The attacker didn’t relent, closing the gap in under a second and unleashing a merciless barrage of fists upon my body.
I darted to the side and made a sweeping kick toward her legs. She fell off balance and immediately jumped back, flipping in mid-air as she moved. The jump caused the hood of her cloak to fall away, revealing her true identity.
“Aaaahaaa! I knew it!”
“Mh?!” The dragongirl retreated cautiously as I spoke, beady eyes trained on me.
She was none other than the woman I’d met in the Sea of Trees, the dragongirl who had furiously fought Elze during the pruning, Sonia Parallem.
“What’s going on here?! What’re you doing out in Yulong? Wait, does that mean the injured staff guy is Rengetsu?”
“...Who are you?”
“Huh? Oh, right! You can’t tell because of the outfit.” I was still wearing my mask, so I pulled at a string and let it fall to the ground.
“See? It’s me!”
“Who are you?!”
“Huh?” Sonia was startled by my face for some reason. That was when I remembered I’d forgotten to undo [Mirage], so I looked absolutely horrifying. I quickly dispelled the illusion on my face. Sonia had a Mystic Eye that allowed her to see through illusions, but it seemed like she had to actively invoke it. She was similar to Yumina and Her Holiness the Pope in that regard.
“See? It’s me. Mochizuki Touya.”
“Touya...?!” Seemed like she finally had a grasp of what was going on. I sure as hell had no idea why she was in Yulong, though.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Come forth, Light! Calm of the Goddess: [Mega Heal]!” I used one of my stronger restoration spells on Rengetsu. The cut on his shoulder was patched up in a matter of seconds.
“...Most incredible. It’s just as it was before.” Rengetsu stood up and smiled as he rolled his shoulder around.
“Still... Why are you here in Yulong, Touya? Or, er... Your Highness the Grand Duke of Brunhild...”
“Ah, don’t bother with the formal stuff. I’m traveling in secret, remember? Right now I’m just the Silver Oni, a wandering warrior from Eashen.” I very quickly intercepted Rengetsu’s attempt to bow down. I didn’t want my identity exposed or anything. Still, it seemed like Sonia’s interest had been piqued.
“Let’s put that aside from now, I have a question. I’ve heard about a group of three that attempted to assassinate the new heavenly emperor. Is that you guys?”
“Assassinate? Is that what they’re saying? It’s certainly true that we broke in and attempted to take his life. But that was no mere assassination attempt. That was justice.”
“Guh... That damned Xiaofah! We got so close, but his guards were stronger than we expected...” Sonia spoke with anger backing her words.
“Xiaofah?”
“The new heavenly emperor, or so he claims. Chieh Xiaofah. Even though he claims divine heritage, he’s nothing more than a weaselly adventurer who became an even slimier thief.” Rengetsu spoke with bitterness behind his voice.
Thief, you say? What’s that mean?
“Ever since the great Phrase invasion of Yulong, there have been a lot of people who showed up claiming they held the rights to the throne. The late heavenly emperor definitely slept around a lot, so him having a large number of successors isn’t all that surprising, honestly. But the concubines and their children, as well as his legal wife, all died when Shenghai blew up. Even his directly known sons that escaped the blast ended up being killed a while ago. That’s why it’s almost impossible to verify who’s lying or not in their claims nowadays.” That all made sense to me. If a person fabricated a story, all they really had to do was show some kind of object that backed it up, and that would be enough for the foundation of a reasonable claim.
But there were no longer any items in the world that people could use as solid evidence, especially since the capital city was gone.
And so, naturally it just came down to talent or strength. By displaying his might, the candidate could receive powerful support.
But that too wasn’t without risk. The others claiming to be the heirs wouldn’t just roll over and accept defeat. If anything they’d be galvanized to attack each other in order to assert dominance.
“Xiaofah is one such candidate asserting his dominance. He brought out a rare item known as the Heavenly Seal. He claimed that it was definitive proof that he was part of the previous leader’s bloodline, as it’s a royal treasure from the Yulong imperial family.”
“So he’s actually related to the previous guy?”
“Absolutely not. The Heavenly Seal is a precious item that was excavated from a ruin. He coldly murdered the adventurer who found it, and is now trying to claim he’s had it all his life.”
So he swiped it, huh...? Then that means the item he has might not even be legitimate, either.
“The adventurer that he killed was a man who did a lot for the two of us. He looked after us when we were young and inexperienced. We must murder Xiaofah and avenge his death!”
“Normally a guy like him wouldn’t be recognized, even with the Heavenly Seal... But he managed to obtain a frightening force from somewhere else. I’m referring to his—”
“His Steel Battalion, yeah.” Rengetsu nodded at my words.
So a man suddenly appeared with Yulong’s Heavenly Seal, and a battalion of mechanized soldiers. It certainly seemed enough to assert one’s dominance in the rat race.
But I definitely wondered where he’d obtained his technology. I really didn’t want to find out Gordian was pulling the strings here, but I had a bad feeling in general about it. “By the way Tou... Oni Warrior, why are you here?”
“Ah... His Steel Battalion is based on technology stolen from my country. I just came here for a little bit of payback.”
“Oh, interesting... They certainly are a technological marvel. But I believe that the Frame Gear I saw fig
hting those Wood Golems was much more powerful than the Steel Battalion I’ve seen fighting so far.” That much was obvious. The ones in Yulong were reverse-engineered pieces of crap in comparison. But I still couldn’t afford to make light of them, they were based on serious tech.
Hm? Who’s that...
“Sonia! Rengetsu! Are you alright! Who is this masked man?!”
“It’s okay, Jesty. This is a friend of ours. He healed Rengetsu’s injury.” I was worried we’d been found by the city militia, but I’d been mistaken. It was another fellow wearing the same robe as Sonia and Rengetsu. From what I understood, the two of them had stayed behind to let him escape, but he ended up coming back for them.
“Touy— Oni Warrior... This is Jesty Parallax. He’s the son of the adventurer we mentioned just before.”
Damn... This really is a revenge mission. The man referred to as Jesty Parallax took his hood down. His hair was short and brown, and his eyes seemed to be hazel in color. I estimated his age at around twenty-one or twenty-two. He was roughly a hundred and eighty centimeters tall.
He was certainly taller than average. Rengetsu was about my height, but Sonia was taller than the two of us. Apparently the draconic clan had many tall women.
Hm... I’m only around a hundred and seventy centimeters right now. I-I’m still growing, right? I’d like to get at least five centimeters more... W-Wait, hopefully my body doesn’t stop growing entirely if I fully awaken as a God or something...
“A pleasure. I’m Jesty Parallax. Thank you for healing my friend.”
“Hm? Oh, seriously. It’s no problem.” As I was lost in thought about height, I was greeted by the newcomer. He seemed to be a pretty kind and cheerful young man.
“Alright, staying here isn’t gonna do us any good... [Gate].” I opened up the same portal that I’d connected to the former capital a while ago.
“Let’s go.” I ignored the triple assault of stunned faces and walked through my portal. After a brief period, all three of them followed through. Sonia came first, followed by Jesty and then Rengetsu.
“We’re...”
“We’re in the former capital of Yulong, Shenghai.”
“Seriously? That’s way far...”
“Incredible... This is the power of transportation magic...”
The three of them looked around with wonder, when Sonia suddenly adopted a combat stance. Seemed like she noticed something.
“Hooh... Boys... Leave your money, leave the girl. If you do that, we’ll let you live. Scram.”
“...Again, really?” The gang I’d encountered earlier came scuttling out of the shadows, like cockroaches.
Seriously guys? You’re doing the exact same thing you did before.
They didn’t seem to realize it was me, probably because of the mask and the different getup.
“[Paralyze].”
“Gwaugh!” I quickly used my smartphone to incapacitate the entire group of dumbasses. Seemed like scaring them wasn’t enough, so I wanted to humiliate them and hope that would drive the message in a bit more.
“So, back to what you guys were saying earlier. If this guy becomes the heavenly emperor, what’ll happen?”
“We’re unsure, but we doubt anything good. You saw his town, right? The lack of women and children? That’s because his men are unreasonably violent. They’re also extorting money from the stores and businesses within the city walls. A lot of merchants have left the city entirely, so trade is largely stagnating. Even if their goods did come back, they’d just be diverted to the castle. The people shuffle around lifelessly because they’re just waiting to die. He doesn’t care.”
Hmph... Was that shitty ramen caused by this, too...? Maybe not.
“Why is he collecting so much money, then?”
“It’s for his Steel Battalion. He’s trying to improve them further, and mass produce them. According to our sources, a vast amount of raw construction materials were brought to his castle a few days ago.” Jesty answered me quickly. It seemed like they were producing the units inside the castle itself, then.
I did wonder where he was getting such vast quantities of materials, though. If he had connections with the Golden Order, then it was probably from Felsen.
“If we leave him be, he will surely use his Steel Battalion to wage war on other nations in the future. He doesn’t want Yulong, this is just a convenient place for him to flex his muscles. He’d much rather focus on more prosperous nations. And there are some countries bordering Yulong that are doing very decently.” Sonia was probably right.
Which country would he attack, though... We’ve got Roadmare and Xenoahs... That’d be bad. Eashen’s a possible target, but it’s across a lot of water.
If I were him, then... I’d target Hannock. It might be protected a bit by a river, but a united Yulong could easily stomp it to pieces. There are also a lot of mines in Hannock, so taking it would be strategic. He could bolster the numbers of his Steel Battalion if he conquered that place.
His intentions were probably to conquer Hannock with the Steel Battalion, and establish a new kingdom using that place as the base. He probably viewed Yulong as a lost cause, something that would cost far too much time, money, and effort to rebuild. That would explain why he was hoarding money and goods, and letting the people suffer and die. He was going to abandon Yulong as soon as he found a better piece of land.
He was proclaiming himself the heavenly emperor so he could have a legitimate excuse for building his army, but it was all a temporary measure to him.
“...Yeah, that sounds about right.”
“You agree, then? Even if it doesn’t have anything directly to do with us, we can’t simply turn a blind eye to this situation! Lives are at stake, we must do something!” Jesty clenched his fists, the determination on his face was palpable. He was pursuing the man that killed his father, so such a reaction was only natural.
“We cornered him a long time ago, you know? This was before he was doing his whole heavenly emperor thing, too... But we failed and he escaped. If only we’d managed to kill him back then...” I didn’t think that lamentation was going to do us any good. What mattered was what we could do going forward, not what we couldn’t do in the past.
“I should get some information from my friends soon, they’re investigating the situation in the capital right now. Incidentally... have you guys heard of the Golden Order?”
“Not ringing any bells here... Rengetsu, Jesty? What about you.”
“Not I.”
“Nope, never heard of them.” All three of them shook their heads.
I wasn’t too surprised, it was a secret society. Information on them wasn’t supposed to come easily.
“What is this Golden Order, exactly?”
“It’s a secret society that might be behind the Steel Battalion’s creation. They might be backing Xiaofah as well.”
“Ah, well... Now that you mention it... Two of the men guarding him were wearing unusual golden pendants around their necks.” Sonia seemed to remember something all of a sudden.
“Pendants?”
“It was a six... No, seven-sided shape. One with a golden circle in the middle of it, that’s what I recall at least.” Sonia used a stick to draw out a basic image on the ground.
Interesting... The pendants being gold was suspicious enough, but it being seven-sided made it even more curious. From what Leen had told me, I understood that in this world the heptagon was a shape that represented magic. Or, more specifically, the seven pools of magic. Fire, water, wind, earth, light, dark, and null.
The Golden Order was a group built around magic, so it was likely that this pendant could’ve been their symbol.
I better ask the king of Felsen about this... Wait, that reminds me, I never gave him a smartphone! I had no choice. I pulled out my phone and started scrolling through my contacts list. Eventually, I came to Laim, our household butler.
“‘Sup, Laim. You hear me okay?” I asked him to use the Gate Mirror to s
end a letter to the king of Felsen. It was a simple enough message, asking for him to send over any picture of the Golden Order’s emblem if he knew about it.
I figured it’d take a while to wait, so I took out a couple tables and chairs from [Storage], seated us all, and then pulled out some tea and donuts.
I should’ve just eaten these to begin with... I’m never gonna get the taste of troll off my tongue. But I guess I shouldn’t close myself off from new experiences... This one just happened to be really, really bad.
The other three were surprised at my sudden inexplicable production of a full table and chair set, but they quickly shrugged and began devouring the snacks I’d set out. They must’ve been hungry. Sonia seemed especially starved. I wondered if draconians needed to eat more than humans. I didn’t mind though, there were plenty of donuts to go around.
I started munching down on the donut I’d picked up. It was tremendously good. But that was to be expected, it was baked by none other than Crea, after all.
Most of the donuts were gone by the time I received a text message from Laim. He’d attached an image to it and sent it without any trouble. He was surprisingly adept with the smartphone for a man his age.
I looked at the image I’d been sent.
“Guess I was right, then.” A heptagon with a golden circle in the middle.
With that, I had my definitive proof. This new heavenly emperor absolutely had ties with the Neo Golden Order.
◇ ◇ ◇
“I see... So the Steel Battalion is located in a storage hangar beneath the castle?”
“That’s right. I was unable to infiltrate, but the approximate number down there is around a thousand.”
“There’s seriously that many...?” I was more than a little surprised by what Tsubaki was telling me over the phone. Approximately a thousand? That was incredible. Even Brunhild’s Frame Gears only numbered around four-hundred.
Do they just have more raw materials to work with? Or does it take that much less to produce one? Hell, maybe it’s something different... Could they seriously have a place that rivals the Workshop, though? I guess at this point their Steel Battalion is too different from my Frame Gears, so I shouldn’t compare.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 10 Page 10
