In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 12

by Patora Fuyuhara

  “W-Wait! Take me!” I was about to [Teleport] out when Linze asked to join me. I wondered if that’d be alright... but I was sure she could hold her own against one or two petty crooks.

  I took Linze, but wondered about the other three... I didn’t think going there in droves would help.

  “Alright, I’ll open up a [Gate]. We’ll have Mr. Mittens keep lookout... That way we can all go.”

  “Work hard... We’ll eat later, okay...?”

  “Gotcha... Get meow in there...!”

  The woozy little cat gave Sakura a little salute. We took away his bottle, and I cast [Recovery] on him.

  “Alright, let’s go.”

  We went through the portal and came out the other side. We came out to the outskirts of town, where some new houses had been put up. It was evening, so the smell of dinner wafted through the air. The place we were headed was the house right next to the portal. That’s where Linze’s puppets were... and maybe even the culprit.

  I was about to move on ahead when Sakura suddenly stopped me in my tracks. What did she want, I wondered...

  “...I can hear the words... Can’t you?”

  “What words?”

  “Someone is speaking the dialogue from our play...”

  “Huh?” Dialogue? What do you mean? I peeped in through a distant window and saw a young boy sitting in a room.

  Oh...? That’s the kid who was staring at the puppet show all the way through... I looked at his hands, and he was wearing a couple of Linze’s puppets. That meant he was the culprit... But why did he do it, I wondered.

  “I can’t make out what he’s doing properly from here... [Long Sense].” I used my smartphone to display projected senses of sight and hearing in the air. That would let us all see what was going on here...

  “Leave this place, you animals! Eeheheeeh!”

  I was surprised at the sudden exclamation. The phone displayed the boy in the room, holding up the witch puppet. He was showing it to a little girl, laying in bed.

  It looked like he was recreating the play for her.

  “...He’s doing our play?”

  “Sure seems like it... I saw him when the play was being performed... He was really focused on memorizing it all.” I was seriously impressed someone so young could commit all that to memory... He probably got a few details wrong but he was nailing the narrative on a whole.

  The girl had a damp towel on her forehead... She was probably his sister. Judging from her occasional coughing, I assumed she was sick as well.

  “I see what happened here... The boy wanted the girl to be able to enjoy the puppet show, too... That’s why he stole from us.”

  “Mmh... That doesn’t mean he was justified in stealing, but... it adds context...”

  Yumina and Lu nodded quietly. They were right. I didn’t have anything to add.

  Yumina turned towards me.

  “What do we do?”

  “I don’t really know...” He might have had his reasons, but stealing was stealing. Still... Renne was a thief once... And I took her in under my household as an employee. At the end of the day, context was key. I didn’t like to judge people based on snap-decisions or hard times. “Linze, Sakura? What do you think?” I decided to ask the two victims.

  “He should return the puppets, I think... They belong to the school, after all...”

  “Sakura...” Before I could speak up and get Sakura’s opinion, she had stood herself up and headed towards the door of the house.

  Whaaat?!

  “Ah...” Sakura walked straight into the boy’s room. He had proof of his crime in both of his hands. I didn’t think sorry was going to be enough...

  “...It’s wrong...”

  “Huh?”

  “...That line is wrong... It’s not ‘We’re gonna...’ it’s ‘We’re going to...’ okay? It’s different, see? This character doesn’t speak like that...”

  She gave him a little glare, then a nod. ...She’s giving him tips? Sakura took the dog puppet from the boy’s hand, put it on, and walked towards the side of the bed... She crouched down until she was out of sight from the bedridden girl.

  “We’re going to win against that mean old witch!” The dog puppet (Sakura) yelled out dramatically.

  Why are you... doing the show, exactly? Linze giggled slightly, before standing up and heading into the house after Sakura. She took out the squirrel puppet, fitted it on to her hand, and crouched down next to Sakura.

  “How could we leave our home?! This is our forest! We have so many memories here!”

  Uh... Linze, you’re doing it too...? Before I knew it, Yumina and Lu had vanished too. What the...

  “That witch can use magic, though! How can we fare against her?!”

  “It’s impossible to... We can’t defeat her... We have no way...!” They’d taken the fox and raccoon puppets and were going all-in as well.

  Linze’s puppet play kept on going, and the little girl on the bed seemed like she was having the time of her life... There was nothing else for it.

  I entered the house and sat down next to the boy, who was staring in shock and awe at what had just happened. I looked down at the puppets on the table.

  “That your sister?”

  “...Yeah.”

  “Wanted to show her the puppets, huh?”

  “She really wanted to see them... but this morning she started getting really hot... Mommy said she had to sleep, so... I-I was gonna put them back tomorrow, promise! I promise!” The boy stammered and looked as guilty as he could. I doubted he was lying. But a crime was still a crime, and he probably had to reflect on it.

  “These puppets were made for the children of the school. Even if your sister couldn’t see them, you shouldn’t have taken them. That girl over there worked really hard to make them. Do you know how sad she was when she learned they were gone?”

  “I... I’m... I’m sorry...”

  “Promise you won’t do this again?” The boy nodded his head slowly, a sincerely apologetic and sad look on his face.

  Well, seems like he’s reflected enough. I don’t really like being tough on kids.

  The little boy promised to apologize to everyone he affected, and we settled down to watch the next half of the show.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “That’s what happened, then...?”

  “Yeah. But all’s well that ends well. Everyone had a great time at the show, too.”

  We were eating dinner and telling everyone about what had happened. The boy apologized properly to Linze and promised he’d say sorry to Fiana later on. I gave his sister a special medicine we’d produced thanks to Babylon, which would mean she’d be fine by morning. [Recovery] wasn’t capable of preventing stuff like colds and fevers, after all.

  “...I think I can understand the kid’s feelings... I used to worry about Linze when I was little, too...” Elze smiled softly. She seemed to understand the feelings of wanting to look after your sister.

  “Whenever I slept through things or missed things as a child, my sister would always bring me things...”

  “Aha...” I was glad to hear that. Elze definitely loved her sister a lot. Elze averted her gaze slightly, though... I wondered why...

  “One time I did take an apple from the garden without asking... Aunt Lana got really mad at me...”

  “Oh dear. But it was just one apple... Why’d she get mad?”

  “No, she, uhm... trashed a whole tree trying to get it...”

  “I-I didn’t have a choice! It was really high, so I couldn’t reach! I thought if I used [Boost] and hit the tree, it’d fall down... I didn’t know the tree would break into splinters!”

  I laughed slightly. It amused me that she thought of beating the tree up before she considered climbing it. Seemed Elze was reckless even at a young age. That didn’t surprise me at all.

  “Mmh... This is a shame... I wanted to see the puppet show... My father wanted me to stay and study, though...” Sue had come over for dinner, she hadn’t
been around for an evening meal a while. Usually, she ate at Duke Ortlinde’s place and came over in the evening instead.

  “Don’t worry... I had my mother record the show on my phone. That way, we can watch it later!” Sakura pulled out her smartphone and smiled. They were getting used to the phones, which was good.

  Elze scooped up some meat on to her fork and chowed down before turning to her sister.

  “Hey, what kinda story are you to make next?”

  “Ah, well... I’m still thinking, but... I wanted to do a story about family... Or maybe an adventure one...?”

  “A story of adventure?! That sounds good, it does! Will you require me to help you with swordplay advice, will you?! Please let me help!”

  “Adventure?! That means it should be a story about knights! Linze, you should do a story about a dragon-slaying hero!”

  Yae and Hilde suddenly rose out of their seats, excited. I wouldn’t have minded helping out with a more exciting story, either.

  “Oh, Paula? You wanna be in it too?”

  The stuffed bear waved her arms around as if to say “Yes! Yes!” Leen grinned slightly. She was way too big for a puppet show, though... Unless... Maybe we could have her play some kind of giant bear that guards a forest...

  “I’ll help you too, you know?! Liiinze! Let’s make a story full of love, you know?! I know all about love, you know?!”

  “Uwaaah!” Karen suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started yelling in Linze’s ear. The poor girl was so shocked she dropped her spoon into her soup. Calm down... You’re gonna give her or me a heart attack one of these days...

  If something interesting was happening, Karen had a habit of appearing out of thin air to get in on it. Her senses were way too sharp, honestly.

  After finishing the meal, we decided to watch the recording of the puppet show that Fiana had made. It was a show for children, but everyone really liked it. Linze and Sakura were especially proud.

  After that, the video switched to a clip of “Mr. Kohaku” being chased around by kids. Fiana... You were recording that?

  The next day, I was in Linze’s room again. She was frantically making puppets to match all the ideas everyone had given her. I felt a little sorry for her. It seemed like she’d be making more stuffed toys and puppets for a while. Still, she seemed happy, and she wasn’t pushing herself to the brink... so it was fine.

  Thanks to the whole incident, I got a little interested in embroidery too.

  I wonder if Zanac or Olba would be interested in marketing them with Linze’s advice... We could probably start a Brunhild brand of children’s toys...

  ...And so, Brunhild became known as a land where you could find high-quality stuffed toys. I didn’t expect them to be quite so popular... but this world was full of surprises.

  Afterword

  Heyo! Here we are again at the end of another volume of In Another World With My Smartphone. We’ve finally reached twelve, wow! And guess what, my afterword is only one page again! I was wondering whether or not to put Brunhild’s festival at the end of this volume... I didn’t want to bloat the volume or make my readers burn out or anything, so I’ve delayed it.

  In the next volume the festivities will begin. Look forward to it! Anyway, on to my usual thanks.

  Eiji Usatsuka, my dear illustrator! Your last illustration of Kohaku is just plain adorable. I wanna hug her...

  And to you, Tomofumi Ogasawara. Thank you for your incredibly cool Frame Gear designs.

  To K, everyone at Hobby Japan’s editorial department, and everyone involved in publishing my book, thank you so much!

  And, as always, thank you to everyone who read my work when it was just a web novel.

  Patora Fuyuhara

  Sign up for our mailing list at J-Novel Club to hear about new releases!

  Newsletter

  And you can read the latest chapters (like Vol. 13 of this series!) by becoming a J-Novel Club Member:

  J-Novel Club Membership

  Copyright

  In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 12

  by Patora Fuyuhara

  Translated by Andrew Hodgson

  Edited by DxS

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2018 Patora Fuyuhara

  Illustrations Copyright © 2018 Eiji Usatsuka

  Cover illustration by Eiji Usatsuka

  All rights reserved.

  Original Japanese edition published in 2018 by Hobby Japan

  This English edition is published by arrangement with Hobby Japan, Tokyo

  English translation © 2018 J-Novel Club LLC

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.

  J-Novel Club LLC

  j-novel.club

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  Ebook edition 1.0: January 2019