Retrieve...? Lying around the mortal realm? Was that a god, maybe? I asked the two of them to excuse me for a moment, then made a quick call to God Almighty. I explained to him the gist of the situation, and he merrily replied.
“Ooh, that was the god of battle! He has been talking about that encounter, he said he would like to take on that young man as his apprentice since he is so very promising. Ah, also... You may keep the swords. Just make sure not to lose them, please!”
Well. That answers that.
It was honestly pretty amazing Ende had survived against a god like that... But at the same time, he almost died and lost his memories as well. So it was just barely surviving.
I told Ende who he’d faced up against, and he smiled wryly.
I could understand his feelings. He’d gotten his ass beat by the twins, gotten his ass beat by the god of battle, and then gotten his ass beat by me. It was three major losses in a row. I felt sorry for him, it wasn’t as if he was weak or anything.
I put the Sacred Treasures back into my [Storage] for the time being.
“Well... Now I know what happened to you. But what about Lycee?”
“I sent her to Ney. I asked her to explain a few things, like the mutants and so on... They are sisters, you know.” I didn’t know that. They hardly looked alike.
I wondered how family relationships even worked with the Phrase. Hell, I didn’t even know how they reproduced. I decided it wasn’t the time to ask about that, so I left it be.
“So what are you planning on doing with us, Touya?”
“Well... As crummy as it is, I can’t let Melle out of here. Not for the time being, at least. I don’t want the Phrase launching a full invasion against my country. And as for you, Ende...”
He wasn’t exactly our ally in this situation, he was more on Melle’s side. The situation was stickier than I’d have liked.
“I’ll work with you, Touya, so long as you guarantee Melle’s safety. Now that we’ve come this far, we might as well put an end to this madness once and for all.”
“I... I wish to speak with Ney and Yula. I would like to face them head-on... And tell them to put an end to this. I know it may be difficult, but still...” Melle looked down at her hands as she spoke. Before we could do that, we needed to wait and hear back from Lycee. Still, it was unusual that neither Ney nor Yula had made a visible move in a while.
“So for now we’ll live our day-to-day lives until something new comes up. You’ll both be in my care until then.”
“Whaaat, me too?!”
“You’ll keep her company as punishment for letting her be alone for so long. Don’t worry, we won’t check on you all that often, so feel free to get handsy.”
“Wh-huh?!” I grinned and turned to leave the room. Ende was flustered, and Melle was glowing red in the cheeks. Before I left, I noticed that Ende and Melle were holding hands under the table. I had a feeling that Ende being there would do a lot of good for the poor girl’s mental health.
“Have the talks finished, have they?” I headed into the rampart’s living room, and Yae greeted me. There were many empty bowls filled with crumbs on the table. I wondered just how many cutlets she’d eaten...
“Yeah, pretty much. If things go well, we won’t have to fight the Phrase again. We’ll probably have to fight the mutants, though.”
“That is excellent news, it is. Oh also, a letter came from my elder brother, it did. He says he wishes to have a rematch with Moroha, he does. He wishes to know when a good time would be.” A rematch? Huh? When did those two ever fight? “It was during the martial arts tournament, it was. My brother won, he did. So Moroha fought against him afterward, she did.” Ahh... Back then. That was the last day of the festival, so I was out cold because of the fight with Gila.
I asked more about it and obviously, Moroha won without any difficulty. That came as no surprise to me. From what I was told, she also went all-out against the hapless bastard. She was more of a demon than a god, really.
“I feel kinda sorry for the guy, but I’m pretty sure he’ll just lose if he tries again...”
“He himself believes that as well, he does. But he wishes to use the opportunity to train.”
If it was just that, then it’d be fine. I was glad he seemed to be a pretty upbeat guy. I’d have felt guilty for bringing Moroha down here if she ended up crushing his resolve.
My smartphone started ringing, so I pulled it out of my pocket. It was a call from Kousaka. For some reason, I had a bad feeling...
“Yeah, ‘sup?”
“Your Highness. I would like for you to get through all of your work for the day, else there may be complications down the line. Where are you?”
“Ah, right... I’ll be right there...” The recent issues in the Reverse World had been distracting me, so I had a lot of affairs to catch up on in relation to Brunhild.
Ultimately my work as grand duke mostly came down to approving or denying planning proposals. Guildmaster Relisha had recently agreed to build a school for adventurers, so I needed to get on looking at that.
Apparently, a lot of newbies had come to Brunhild because of our dungeon islands. That meant there were a lot of cases where untrained or inexperienced adventurers were pushing themselves to the point of injury or even death. A school would help teach the skills to prevent such tragedies.
There was no downside to enrolling in a school that could teach you how to stay alive, that’s why I wanted to keep enrollment fees down as well.
I decided to do my job and go help out Kousaka.
“I’ll go take care of work for now. Later, Yae.”
“Be safe, Touya-dono.” Yae waved me off as I opened a [Gate] to Brunhild castle.
◇ ◇ ◇
Leen was riding in Grimgerde. The massive Frame Gear raised its right arm and began firing its Gatling gun.
Hilde’s Siegrune lifted its shield and deflected the attacks. She attempted to charge forward, but a grenade detonated at her Frame Gear’s feet, causing it to stumble.
“Hold out a bit longer, Hilde!” Lu’s Waltraute stood atop a nearby hill, taking aim with its shoulder-mounted cannon. Its target was Leen’s Grimgerde.
It was currently equipped with the C-Unit, meant for long-range shots. Its heels had it anchored into the ground. A mighty roar echoed through the air as a huge bullet came out of the barrel, headed straight for Grimgerde.
“Gah!” Leen switched to evasive maneuvers, dodging just in time for Lu’s shot to make a massive crater in the ground where Grimgerde had been standing.
Debris and dirt ended up being kicked up into the air, blinding the surrounding area. Hilde used that to her advantage, charging head-on with Siegrune toward Leen. Leen’s Frame Gear wasn’t built for close-quarters combat, so getting too close would mean the end for her.
“You’re mine!”
“Not so far, Hilde-dono!” Hilde’s blade was blocked by a katana. Yae’s Schwertleite revealed itself from the clouds of dirt.
Hilde’s Frame Gear was very similar to Yae’s, except Siegrune was more defense-oriented, while Schwertleite was more offense-oriented.
The purple samurai and the orange knight continued to trade blows, but both were at a stalemate.
Leen and her Grimgerde had gotten a good distance away and were now engaged in a long-range battle with Lu’s Waltraute.
Leen’s Gatling gun suddenly stopped spinning, it had overheated due to being used too long. Leen ejected the smoking weapon from her Frame Gear and carried on. Seemed she’d rather drop dead weight than carry a gun that she could use later.
Lu used the cooldown period to switch from her C-Unit to her B-Unit, charging in toward Leen with the heightened mobility granted to her.
Grimgerde opened up its shoulder missile pods, but by that point, Waltraute was already in too close. Grimgerde had been stabbed straight through the torso.
“Not bad... But I’m gonna take you with me!” Grimgerde extended its arms and held Waltraute tight,
then opened up its damaged chest to reveal two surprise Gatling guns. Waltraute was practically hugged up against the weapons, which immediately began to spin up and fire a slew of bullets.
“Wh- No! No fair!” Waltraute was riddled with more holes than swiss cheese. It fell to the ground and exploded into pieces, causing Grimgerde to detonate as well.
“Kokonoe Secret Style: Flying Swallow Rend!”
“Lestian Sacred Sword: Fifth Swirl!” Siegrune and Schwertleite continued to clash, ending it by striking each other through the chest at the same time.
“...It seems we have assured mutual destruction, we have...”
“What a shame.” The two Frame Gears exploded into pieces, leaving nothing behind but wreckage. The battlefield was completely abandoned, all that remained was a smoldering waste.
“Simulation over. No survivors on either side. Draw. Opening hatch.” The Frame Units all opened up at once.
As I looked around the Babylon facility and then back up at the monitor, the four girls hopped out of their VR pods.
“So yeah, that was a Frame Gear battle. Or rather, a simulation of one.”
“Wow...”
“Really wow...” Elluka and Fenrir were still staring with their mouths agape.
“Good job!” I called out to the girls.
“It was another mutual kill, it was...”
“We keep doing that.”
“I really thought I had you that time... Didn’t expect you to take me out like that.”
“You can’t afford to be careless. The moment you’re sure of your victory is the moment you need to be the most careful, Lu. You still have a few things to learn.” I figured it was likely they’d end up drawing with the team matchups being what they were.
After looking at the battle footage, I realized we probably needed to improve Grimgerde’s close-range abilities. If she couldn’t deal with nearby enemies, that’d be bad. I decided to ask Rosetta about it later.
“So, what exactly do you think she can help with?” Doc Babylon stood by my side and motioned toward Elluka.
“Well, first of all, I’d like you to bring her up to speed on the magitech stuff this world has, but then I’d like to see if we can get some kind of communication device going.”
“A communicator?”
“Yeah, but a special one. I want an object that can communicate between the regular world and the Reverse World. If you employ the same kind of Space-time magic used in the Dimensional Disruptor, it should be doable.” I figured that’d be useful. That way we’d be able to know immediately if any mutants showed up in the Reverse World.
“So you mean to create an interdimensional smartphone?”
“Pretty much. Yeah. I think if we can set up some kind of relay station on either side, it’d help. There’d probably be a slight message delay, though.” In that case, I’d probably need to give a smartphone to Nia from the Red Cats... Or maybe I’d be better off giving it to Est instead.
“When the two worlds become one, there won’t be any need for a relay, you know.” Even if that was true, we still needed one in the interim. As the scout motto goes, “Be prepared.”
In other words, you always had to be ready to face any kind of threat in any kind of situation.
“I’ll leave it to you, anyway. Let me know when it’s finished.”
“Sure. No problem. Oh, right... Whatever became of those magic trains in Felsen?”
“Uhh... I think they’re almost done? The first two trains should be deployed in Belfast and Refreese respectively soon. We’ll be informed when they’re done.” I was the one who had to transport the trains to the two countries, anyway.
The construction of a train line between Refreese and Belfast was well underway. They were using earth mages to flatten out the land.
If the Refreese-Belfast line worked out, then the next project would be a line between Lestia and Felsen. After that, we’d move to connect Belfast and Mismede.
It’d likely be used for hauling freight to begin with, rather than passengers. But who knew what the future would bring? I just hoped it’d work out.
I went down from Babylon and headed over to Olba’s store. I was always fond of the Strand Company, since they dealt with things as small as capsule toys, to things as big as the Dverg mechas.
There were a few kids gathered in front of the store, playing with various little toys and trinkets.
“Ah, Your Highness! Greetings!”
“Hey, mister!” One older kid greeted me, which prompted the younger ones nearby to wave in unison.
“Hey there. I hope you’re doing well!” I took out some snacks and candies from my [Storage], making some small talk with the kids before handing them over and heading indoors.
There was a benefit to staying in touch with kids. They often kept their ears to the grounds and knew subtle differences in the town. They heard the complaints of their parents and other rumors. Most of the stuff they said was completely useless, though.
When I entered the store, Olba greeted me and brought me to a back room.
“How’s the progress on the Ether Vehicle going?”
“Ah, yes. I’ve given out several to various royal families. I’m just waiting for the various nobles to catch interest, now.” Ether Vehicles were not cheap purchases. They were definitely not something you could just frivolously purchase, so Olba’s idea was to plant them as some kind of status symbol.
“What about the model magic trains?”
“We’re preparing a good number of them. We should have a great deal prepared by the time the real railways open.” The benefit of selling toy versions and model versions of the trains was that we could use them to increase public awareness of the actual trains.
If other countries began their own railway projects, then demand for the Dvergs would also rise. Felsen had a lot of mages, though... It was unlikely they’d need many.
I spoke with Olba about a few more basic ideas like adding more toys to the capsules, different Ether Vehicle models, and so on. After that, I left.
It’d been a while since I just walked around town. It was certainly livelier than it was last time, and there were more buildings popping up here and there. That also meant there was a slight increase in crime, so we’d increased our patrols. Fortunately, nothing major had happened, so I wasn’t too worried.
I headed away from the town center and walked toward the school. Fiana, the principal, came out to say hello.
Everything seemed to be going fine at the school. I asked her if they needed anything, and she said that they lacked instruments for their music classes, so I gave her a grand piano as a gift.
Apparently, they were just having Sakura come in to sing, or Sousuke come in to perform. I decided it’d be best if the teachers themselves could play the instruments on demand, too. Sousuke would be able to teach them the basics. If he couldn’t, I’d certainly wonder why he had the divine position he had.
I also gave them some recorders and castanets for the students. They were pretty vital for elementary music class.
I spoke to Fiana for a bit about official matters, then headed outside. I found Mr. Mittens waiting for me at the door. I wondered what he wanted. “Meowlord! Halt fur a moment and hear my humble propawsition!”
“...I can’t ban the Overlord from Brunhild, I’m sorry.”
“Tsk... That’s not what I want! I want companions!”
“Huh? Don’t you have like... A whole army of cats?” Mr. Mittens had streetcats and housecats galore. There wasn’t a feline in town that wasn’t under his heel, and they were all working for the good of this town and its people.
Hell, there were more incidents where people annoyed the cats than the other way around.
“Those are my stalwart soldiers, sir! But I need equals! Understand?! I need Cat Siths, like me! Furry feline friends for fighting ferocious foes! I can’t keep on managing this menagerie on my own!” Mr. Mittens ran up to me and clung to my leg. You have your claws out
, asshole! “Isn’t Sakura your master? You’re... Meowing up the wrong tree, buddy.”
“Sakura can’t specifically call Cat Siths when she tries to summon familiars! I have three buddies that I need brought here! I’m begging you! I swear on at least three of my nine lives that I need this!”
“...Fine, whatever! I’ll do it.” For the first time in my life, I had witnessed a cat bowing. It was weird. To be honest, asking Mr. Mittens to manage every cat in town was unreasonable. Especially since he was meant to be helping Fiana every day, as well.
“I’ll need to borrow your memories, then. Visualize those three friends of yours.”
“Gotcha!” I grabbed Mr. Mitten’s paws and pressed my thumbs up against his little pawpads. Then I pressed our foreheads together. If someone saw us now they’d probably wonder what the hell I was doing.
I saw the image of the three Cat Siths in my mind. I drew back and let go of his paws.
I set down the summoning circle in the school courtyard and poured my magic into it. A black mist began to form in the air until it condensed and finally dispersed.
Three small figures appeared in the middle of the circle where the black mist once was. Just as Mr. Mittens had done when he was summoned, the three felines pulled out their swords and raised them high into the air.
“All for one, and one for all!” One of them was an American shorthair. His face seemed stoic and serious. The other seemed like an elegant Siamese cat. The last one was a large, stocky Persian kitty.
They all wore the same stuff that Mr. Mittens did. They had feathered hats, big boots, capes, and rapiers. All three were clearly model cat knights.
“Good day to you, milord. Please grant us names.” The American shorthair knelt down and spoke. He wasn’t appending any stupid cat jokes to his dialogue, fortunately.
Thanks to Kohaku, I didn’t need to fulfill any conditions to make a contract with summoned creatures like them, so all I had to do was give them names... I knew exactly what to call them.
“You’re Athos. You can be Aramis, and you’re Porthos.”
“Very well!” Athos was the shorthair, Aramis was the Siamese, and Porthos was the Persian.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 14 Page 20
