“...Touya, I actually know the person who wrote the story. That’s how I came to know about the tale myself, I promise. The author is a public figure, so the stories were published under a pen name.”
“Huh? For real? Anyone I’d know?”
“No, I don’t believe you’d know her. You mustn’t tell anyone her identity either... The author of that work is Reliel Rehm Refreese. Princess of the Refreese Imperium.”
......What. Hold on, hold on, hold on just a minute! Is she trying to tell me that the heir to an entire nation writes that kind of weird book?!
“The royal bloodlines of Refreese and Belfast have mingled since the olden days. I know Rili quite well, too. She’s like an older sister to me. Before anyone could see what was happening, she developed... a certain kind of interest, and began writing things herself, that’s all.
This is... unpleasant to hear about. I don’t think I’ll go to Refreese much, if I can avoid it. I wouldn’t want to meet her by mistake and have her base one of her characters on me or anything... But I still have to get the damn book series, this sucks!
Well, I figured there’d be no way a member of the Imperial Royal Family would be in a regular old bookstore, so I thought I’d be fine.
Still... the receptionist and a lot of my customers are quite... into this stuff now. I’m a little worried I might’ve introduced a certain subculture to this nation. If this is what I end up going down in history for, I quit. I decided to stop thinking about that nonsense and focus on the Bloody Crab. I opened up a [Gate] and dragged Yumina off with me.
◇ ◇ ◇
The Bloody Crab was said to live in a habitat a good deal south of the Steer Mine, the place we had slain the Mithril Golems so long ago. I stepped out of the portal just outside the mine, leaving us with no choice but to head south on foot.
“It’s not far enough for us to bother using the garden, so let’s run instead.”
“H-Huh? Eek!” I picked Yumina up and held her with both of my arms. Naturally I princess-carried her. With that, I began to dash down the road.
“[Gravity]!” I reduced my own weight and Yumina’s weight by about half. If I brought our weight to anything close to zero, we’d be way too light and I wouldn’t have good control over our balance.
“[Accel Boost]!” I stacked my acceleration magic and my body fortification magic on top to produce an extreme level of speed. But despite that, I didn’t feel any resistance or drag. No headwind either. This was part of [Accel], of course.
It sort of felt like I was in one of those VR games. I was clearly running at tremendous speed across the landscape, but it almost felt like I was in another world entirely.
Yumina seemed to feel the same, as she didn’t respond to the intense speed with fear, but curiosity. She gazed at the flowers as we quickly passed by them.
After running for a short while, the habitat came into sight. I set Yumina down after stopping.
“Run search. Bloody Crab. Radius: three kilometers.”
“...Search complete. One Bloody Crab located. Southwest. Displaying.” A map of the area was projected before my eyes. The crab’s location was marked on the map, about one kilometer away.
“Touya, just now... was that Cesca...?”
“Hm? Ah, right. I decided to use her voice for my programs here. To be honest, I chose hers because it’s pretty emotionless and cold, don’t you agree? Less of a distraction, at any rate.” I took my smartphone out of my pocket and explained the functions to Yumina. After that, I picked her back up and ran in the direction of the crab.
We located it soon enough. It was enormous and red-shelled. It had a pair of pincers on each side of its body, and carried its lumbering form on eight legs.
Man it’s big. Around the size of a garbage truck, I guess. It had a rugged, blood red shell covered in various rock-like outcroppings and lumps.
It sort of gave off the image of a king crab that had been grossly mutated or warped. Its pincers were extremely large, too. Almost disproportionately so. If you got caught in one of those, you’d be finished for sure. It would easily snip you in half.
The Bloody Crab suddenly noticed our presence. It turned to face us. There was a large foam of bubbles on its mouth, but I was fairly sure that was an indicator of a land-locked crab beginning the first stages of oxygen deprivation. However, I quickly disposed of that thought because it was rooted in the sense of another world. To begin with, the fact that there’d be a crab out here in the wild was nonsensical enough by my standards. I couldn’t think with the logic of my old world, or I’d be toast for sure.
I set Yumina down, and we prepared our weapons. I set Brunhild to Blade Mode and Yumina pulled out her Colt M1860 Model Army.
The battle began, a barrage of bullets flying at the crab. It was completely unaffected, likely due to its tough shell. It seemed that this creature had a naturally high magical defense. Magic probably wouldn’t be too effective, either. This was a Red Rank quest though, so I wasn’t too surprised.
“Snare, O Earth. Invoke the Ground’s Wrath: [Earthbind]!” Yumina chanted a spell, and the soil at the feet of the Bloody Crab came alive, twining itself around each of its armored legs and impeding its movement. It seemed that indirect magic would work just nicely.
Yumina shot her bullets at the immobilized Bloody Crab, targeting the joints and hinges of its legs. The girl went after the naturally weak points with expert precision. She certainly had the makings of a sniper.
To my surprise, Yumina shot through the joints one after another. The crab’s movement became even more impeded with each new blast.
“[Accel]!” Not wanting to miss my chance, I used acceleration magic to leap above the crab and land atop its rugged back. Even though the spell I intended to use was direct magic, I had a feeling things were going to work out well. I squatted down and touched the crab’s exoskeleton before uttering a single word.
“[Gravity].” With a mighty creak, the crab’s legs bent and groaned, bringing it crashing to the ground. I jumped back down to the ground and looked over the beast, who could now barely move at all.
Heh, now that I’ve invoked that spell, your weight will change to suit my whims!
“What did you just do?”
“I increased the weight of his body several times with my new spell. His body’s way too heavy now, so he can’t even move!” Even though it should have been far too heavy to move, the Bloody Crab still tried to make an attack. I added more weight to stop it in its tracks. The pincer that it had somehow managed to raise came crashing to the ground and didn’t come back up.
Hmph... I added an absolute ton of weight, but its shell didn’t crack at all... This guy’s annoying.
“...Touya? I-I think it’s dead.”
“What?” The foam around its mouth had already begun dispersing. Bodily fluids were leaking out of various parts of its body, too. I could only conclude that, while it had a hardy shell, the creature’s internal organs couldn’t handle the sudden weight shift.
I canceled [Gravity]. The Bloody Crab didn’t move at all. I got close and smacked it around a bit with Brunhild. It didn’t react at all, so I knew it was dead.
“That was a tad easier than I expected.” Yumina holstered her weapon and looked over the dead crab.
“One of the best parts of this spell is that once I invoke it, I can manipulate the weight from a long distance.” I tried to lighten the mood a bit and picked up some small pebbles from the ground. I cast [Gravity] on them and tossed them into the air. I then multiplied their weight a hundred times or so while they were in flight. Soon enough, there were holes and dents in the ground all over from my scattered pebbles.
“...It’s an incredible spell, isn’t it.”
“Yeah, I could probably even smash a Phrase up with this. The only drawback is I have to touch an enemy to apply it, but I might have found a way around that, too.” I took my smartphone out of my pocket. I’d been able to use [Paralysis] on people without tou
ching them using this method in the past... so I wondered if I might be able to do the same with [Gravity]. I thrust Brunhild into the ground, burying the blade partially into the soil.
“Run search. Brunhild. Target lock. Invoke [Gravity]. Let’s see... double its weight.”
“...Search complete. Target locked. Invoking [Gravity].” I took a hold of Brunhild. It was heavier than usual. Apparently the test had been a successful one. It had worked exactly as I wanted it to. I had no doubts in my mind that this application of magic would become one of my greatest weapons. Still, I had to remind myself not to get cocky. There was magic that could negate magic in this world, after all, so it wasn’t infallible.
I canceled the spell and put Brunhild back on my waist.
“Alright, all that’s left is bringing the crab back.”
“The proof of the deed is only one claw, but they said that the guild purchases other parts of it, too. Should we bring all of it?”
“Sure, why not? We’ll keep one leg though, for Crea. I feel like crab stew today.”
“Very well.” I put the crab into [Storage] and opened up a [Gate] to return to the guild.
The receptionist went wide-eyed with shock as she saw us come in with the proof of the kill, but she understood well enough after I explained my portals to her. Guild staff were meant to keep individual abilities like this confidential, so I had no real worries about telling her what I could do. That being said, there were still people who’d doubt my feats as a result.
I took the Bloody Crab out of [Storage] in the guild’s courtyard and had it assessed. One leg was kept aside for personal use, of course.
All-in-all, shell and meat included, it was worth a pretty penny. We received the reward for the quest at the reception desk, as well as the pay for the sale. Our guild cards were stamped with the mission seal, as usual.
“With this, Yumina’s Guild Rank has increased. Congratulations.” Yumina smiled with delight as she picked up her guild card, which was now a full red.
“Thank goodness, now I’m the same rank as everyone else.” Heh, was she that worried about being left behind? How adorable... She didn’t want to be the odd one out.
Now all that was left to do was to go to a bookstore in Refreese and acquire the goods. We earned a ton more money than we expected, so I wondered if we should buy other books... Books of that specific type, I meant.
Sales were dictated by the customer base, after all. And luckily enough, I had someone in front of me who was quite well-versed in that field.
“Er... receptionist lady?”
“Ah, you can call me Prim. Can I help you?” I told her that I was off to make the purchase of that series, and asked if there were any others in that genre she’d be interested in as well.
“W-Wait, you’re going to go and buy a lot of these?!”
“If they’re in stock, sure. The money I made today should be more than enough to cover it.”
“W-Wait j-just a moment, please?!” In a flash, Prim got up and headed to another female member of the guild staff. She spoke to her about something and jotted down stuff on a notepad. Then, she went to another female staff member and scribbled down some more notes. She repeated this process in a cycle, then even asked some female adventurers for their input, too. C’mon lady, your job’s on hold here...
“I-If you can acquire all of these, I promise you that all of the women I spoke to will definitely come to Moon Reader tomorrow! Please take note!” “R-Right... I’ll definitely... make a note of that.” I took the torn piece of note paper from her and suddenly looked up to see several women staring at me. They had stars in their eyes.
...Is this really something to get that worked up over? I left the guild and headed home. I planned to go to the bookstore after taking Yumina home, but in a stroke of maybe-good luck, I encountered Linze, who was eating on the terrace. I showed her the note that Prim had given me.
“...A-And you plan on buying... all of these?”
“If they’re in stock, sure.” Linze took out a pen from her pocket and started scribbling some titles down. Please stop adding to the list, Linze. Please. Please stop.
“These are must-buy titles. The last volume of this one in particular just came out, so missing it would mean trouble. If it became available at Moon Reader, people would go wild, I promise.” I didn’t really understand any of that, but I decided to trust Linze’s judgment regardless.
I thanked her and decided to look over the various title suggestions.
“The Order of the Rose” - 15 Volumes
“The Butler’s Secret” - 5 Volumes
“The Disgraced Slave Prince’s Oath” - 8 Volumes
“Cage Boy” - 6 Volumes
“Saccharine, Deadly Embrace” - 12 Volumes
“The Red-Hot Night Between The Two Who Couldn’t Turn Back” - 5 Volumes
“The Magician’s Sweet Trap” - 12 Volumes
“Immorality! On His Wedding Day!” - 17 Volumes
“Rose-Tinted Magic” - 9 Volumes
“Beneath My Master’s Gaze” - 18 Volumes
...Is this okay? Is it really okay if I buy these? My heart is breaking already. But I already said I’d get them... so I have no real choice.
I felt I should probably separate those books from the others and give them their own section. I’d include a curtain, too, to stop people snooping in. And a waiver to refuse entry to those under eighteen. W-Wait, actually, no, that makes it the same as an adult corner in a DVD rental store. Ugh... I don’t want to have such a seedy image. W-Well, it’s not illegal or anything, and it doesn’t promote anything bad, so... I guess it’s fine, and wholesome, yeah! I headed through a [Gate] to Refreese, all the while seriously grappling with the idea of just handing the place over to Linze and washing my hands of it entirely.
◇ ◇ ◇
The Imperial City, Bern. The Refreese Imperium’s shining star. To say that “white” was the theme of the city would be an understatement. The entire place was bleached white. From the walls of the buildings to the paving of the road and stairs, all was white. It brought to mind places like Mykonos and Santorini in Greece.
The center of the port city featured the magnificent white Refreese Castle. The blue sea and the white architecture mingled together to create a beautiful atmosphere. It was a little too bright if you asked me, though. Some sunglasses would’ve come in handy.
I didn’t come for sightseeing this time, so it’s off to the bookstore for me. Luckily, I came here before Moon Reader even opened, so there’s no need to worry about getting lost either.
I leaned on the heavy door and pushed it open, entering the building. The bookstore was pretty sizable, so it had a wide selection ranging from old novels to new releases. A lone black-haired woman sat there at the desk in the middle.
Darn it, it’s a lady... Well, even if it was a guy at the counter I’d be pretty nervous. No point worrying about it, just gotta ask her already.
“Excuse me, ma’am. I’m looking for some specific books.”
“Yes, sir? Please tell me the titles so that I may look them up for you.”
“R-Right, here you are.” I took out the note from my pocket and handed it over to the woman at the countertop.
“Let’s see here... The Order of the Rose, The Butler’s Secret, the...” Her voice slowly grew quieter, and she started to look more closely at my face. I didn’t dislike it, but her eyes started to take on the same luster as the eyes of the women who were going to be at Moon Reader the next day. There were stars in there, stars for sure...
Do you seriously think I’m that kind of person?
“Uh, well... give me a little while. I’ll need to locate all of the books you requested just now.”
“...Got it. Alright, I understand, thank you.”
Wait a sec... What am I being understanding and thankful for here? It’s not like I’m requesting anything unusual! I’m not trying to make excuses for myself, this is a regular request!
> “Thank you for your patience, I’ll go and take care of the order now.” The woman gave me a gentle smile and made off toward the book inventory. I couldn’t understand why she was treating me like that.
Since I had no idea how long I’d have to spend my time waiting, I decided to pick up a basket and look for more books. After all, I needed some more genre variety. If I just let things run their course, my precious business would be corrupted by that kind of literature.
I went to the fiction section and put adventure stories, military epics, real love stories, and unusual tales into my basket.
After I was done gathering stuff up, I returned to the counter to find a pile of books waiting for me. I figured they were mine. But that wasn’t the only thing I found there. There appeared to be a small commotion going on, with a female customer getting quite fussy with the lady at the desk.
“I-I’m sorry, ma’am... We’ve just sold the last one in stock, and I’m unsure when the next shipment will come in.”
“No way... what the hell...” The customer leaned on the counter with a look of absolute defeat on her face. She looked to be about twenty years old, with a youthful face. Her long, chestnut hair was tied up into a single braid that was held together with a fancy-looking barrette. She was wearing a cardigan and skirt combo that looked plain, but was clearly high-quality. I briefly wondered if she was a noble or something. The lady at the desk finally noticed my presence, then smiled in my direction.
“Ah, hello there, dear customer! I’m just putting together your order now. Do you want to buy those books as well?”
“Yep, sure do. Add these on to the current total.” I piled up the books I had chosen along with the others on the counter.
“W-Wait, are you the person that bought the last volume of RoseMag?” The defeated girl at the counter suddenly rose up and challenged me with a question. RoseMag? The hell is she talking about? Wait, does she mean that “Rose-Tinted Magic” book from my list?
“What is going on, exactly...?” I turned to the lady at the desk.
“Ah, well... this young lady came to purchase the final volume of ‘Rose-Tinted Magic,’ but the last of our stock is included in your bulk order, you see...”
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 4 Page 6
