In Another World With My Smartphone_Volume 5

by Patora Fuyuhara

  “Regarding the Phrase... there are things I can tell you, and things I cannot tell you. Are you still fine with that?”

  “...That’s fine. Just tell me what you can.” Ende leaned forward in his seat and began to talk to me.

  “You may find this hard to believe, Touya. But the Phrase are not entities native to this world. It would be more appropriate to call them visitors that came to this world from another.”

  “Visitors? They’re a little hostile for that, aren’t they? Seem more like invaders to me.”

  “I don’t think calling them invaders is quite apt. They have no invasive intentions. The only reason they’re in this world is to find their leader.”

  The Sovereign Phrase. That’s what Ende told me last time. That it was the goal of the Phrase to locate their leader.

  “Then why are they killing people?!”

  “...Please understand that from this point, there are details I’ll have to exclude. The thing that keeps a Phrase alive is the core. So long as the Phrase Core is intact, the creature will not die, and it will slowly absorb residual magic from the atmosphere until it can eventually regenerate its body. The Phrase are here to find the Sovereign Core. Because that core is somewhere in this world. They’re killing humans in an attempt to find and reclaim it.”

  “But that doesn’t make sense. What does finding the Sovereign Core have to do with killing people?”

  “The search is precisely why they’re killing people. Because the Sovereign Core is inside the body of someone living in this world.”

  That sounded insane to me. The Sovereign Core was actually inside a person?

  “It’s not only limited to humans, either. It could dwell within a beastman, one of the Monsterkin, any creature with a reasonable degree of intelligence could be housing the Sovereign Core. It’s currently in a dormant state. For all intents and purposes, it’s in a state of near-death. While the Sovereign Core is dormant, it latches on to a lifeform’s body and gestates within it, waiting for the next stage of its life cycle. The Phrase noticed the ‘waves’ being pulsed out by the dormant core, and that’s why they know it’s in this world. But they can’t discern the exact position, because there are too many noises drowning the signal out. They can’t hear the noise of the Sovereign properly over the sound of the beating of its host’s heart. Therefore, they slaughter humans with reckless abandon, all in the name of clearing the obstructive noise.”

  If what he was saying was true, that was insane! The Phrase would just keep killing until they eventually plucked their leader from a corpse.

  “Just what the hell are the Phrase?”

  “Originally, they were beings that evolved and lived on another world. But, after some time, their leader disappeared. Since then, they’ve been traveling across worlds in pursuit of the Sovereign Core, in order to regain their leader. The Sovereign has its own intentions and agenda, as well. They’re coarse, and unrefined creatures. Their methods are brutal, I know. But you have to understand, they aren’t acting out of malice, but raw instinct.”

  The situation reminded me of bee and ant hives, and how the colony moved according to the Queen. They were definitely gathering here like something was attracting them. But I wondered what Ende meant when he said that the Sovereign had an agenda. “When the Sovereign Core crosses to a new world, it will infest the body of someone who lives there. Little by little, it will absorb the life force and magic from that person, and then warp into a new host when its previous one reaches the end of their life. This process repeats until the Sovereign Core has absorbed enough power to travel to another world.”

  “...So that’s it? The Phrase come here seeking the Sovereign Core, killing indiscriminately in the process, and then they’ll follow the core to the next world along after it leaves?”

  “That’s about the gist of it, yes.” That was absolutely insane. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. They were like locusts moving from crop field to crop field, draining it of life. They recklessly traversed worlds, harvesting the people within and moving on. To make matters worse, they didn’t even seem aware of their destruction. They were just doing it because it was their job. It wasn’t even a case of good or evil to them. They were just running on instinct.

  “...Ende, you said you were hunting for the Sovereign Core as well. Does that mean you’ve killed humans?”

  “Don’t be silly, now. I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong impression. I’m simply waiting for the core to finish its cycle and transition to the next world, and then I’ll follow. Don’t lump me in with the monsters.” Ende’s intentions were completely confusing to me, I couldn’t get a read on him at all. I wondered if he was perhaps some kind of guardian assigned to the Sovereign Core... That didn’t change the fact that the Sovereign Core being here was the reason why everything was going wrong, though.

  “What was that thing about the boundary of the world?”

  “Hm... that’s a bit of a stickler to explain. Let’s try to think of it like a staircase. Each step is connected to the step immediately above and below it, right? You can take one step no problem, but going ten steps at a time isn’t possible, right? You can consider the height between steps to be the gaps between worlds. In order to get ten steps higher, you have to go up all the steps between the one you’re on and that ten-step goal... though you might be able to skip a step or two along the way. Worlds right next to each other have common features, but worlds far apart are vastly different. But that aside, usually there’s a barrier in place that prevents beings from crossing to other worlds. So you shouldn’t even be able to make a single step.” I felt like I understood his explanation for the most part. There were common features between my world and the world I now lived in, so they probably weren’t too many steps apart.

  “I might’ve mentioned something like this, I don’t remember... but the boundary is not like a wall. It’s more of a translucent membrane. Small and harmless things generally go unregistered and can pass through freely. That is the reason why the Sovereign Core expends all of its reserved power to travel, letting it float through in its death-like dormant state. It’s an ability only the Sovereign can make use of.” That made sense enough to me, at least with the information I had. I wondered what it physically felt like, to pass through to another world in your own body...

  “It shouldn’t normally be possible to break through the boundary line, but... making a rip is possible, and an individual creature could force its way through. If that happens several times, eventually the rip will get bigger and bigger, until the boundary falls and can no longer do its job, allowing anything to spill out. That’s what happened five thousand years ago.” That was the Phrase Invasion that Doctor Babylon had told me about. She said the world was on the verge of destruction... Now it all made sense.

  “Back then, the boundary line was somehow repaired, and the threat of the Phrase vanished. The remaining Phrase were all vanquished, and this world was spared the fate of many others. I also aided in hunting the remnants.” It was then that I knew Ende was not human. He was absolutely not an ordinary person, and he spoke so lightly and familiarly of events that transpired five thousand years ago.

  But his words made me wonder just what it was that had restored the boundary line, it seemed Ende wasn’t sure either, and that made me all the more curious.

  “I thought I’d be able to take it easy a while, but things started getting noisy again. The boundary line barrier is starting to come unfurled again. It’s barely holding, but it’ll only be a matter of time before the high-tier Phrase break through it. I can’t tell you if that’ll happen in a year or fifty years, though...”

  “Ende... are you an ally or an enemy of humanity?”

  “Hm... I wonder about that one. I’ve been hunting the Phrase, but it’s been more of a way to kill time than anything else. If the boundary breaks down, I might sit it out and let nature take its course. That being said, I don’t much feel like being an ally of the Phrase.” I couldn
’t understand Ende’s intentions at all, much less his motivations. I decided to let it go, because at the very least he wasn’t sleeping with the enemy.

  “I have something I need to take care of, now. Can we consider our chat concluded?” Ende stood up and made for the exit.

  “...Just one last question. Ende, who or what are you?”

  “Me? You can just call me a ‘drifter’. See you around, Touya.” Ende walked out of the guild, leaving me only with those words.

  The Phrase’s mission, the Sovereign Core... the Boundary Line...

  I learned a lot of crazy stuff from Ende that day. When the reality of the situation set in, I realized that things were actually pretty dire. Five thousand years ago, the crisis was averted because the boundary barrier was repaired... But what about this time? Could the Phrase even be stopped? They were clearly going to kill humans indiscriminately in their search for the Sovereign Core. It’s not like this world had much in the way of opposition for them, either. We didn’t have any of the advanced technology that the world had back then, so if they appeared in waves we’d be completely screwed.

  As these uncertain, uncomfortable truths milled around in my head, I received my money from the receptionist and left the guild.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “And that’s the situation. Do you know much about it?”

  “No, I cannot say that I do. As I said earlier, I am not always keeping an eye on all places. But there are indeed races that travel across worlds. Naturally I do not interfere with those species, either. Though, it would be another story entirely if another God was causing trouble or something...” On my way back from talking to Ende, I tried calling up God to ask about what I’d discovered. But, as I’d expected, he didn’t really know anything at all. As usual, the people of this world would have to solve their own issues.

  The situation was by no means dire just yet, but I knew that I’d have to start making preparations should the worst come to pass.

  I reasoned that the most efficient way to the deal with the issue would be using the power of Babylon. Doctor Babylon had prepared a final weapon, the Frame Gear, for the final clash against the Phrase. I had a feeling that the weapon would be necessary if I wanted to repel their resurgence.

  That course of action left me with two methods. I had to either procure the blueprints from the Storehouse, or the product itself from the Hangar.

  As I recalled, the parts of Babylon remaining were the Hangar, the Library, the Storehouse, the Rampart, the Tower, and the Research Laboratory. I had a one in three chance of getting the one I wanted if I found them at random.

  “I should probably start picking up the pace of my search, huh...” I flew back to Colette village as I pondered my next course.

  “A Frame Gear, sir?” After returning from the village, I immediately went up to the Workshop to talk with Rosetta. The Doctor had created the Frame Gear, so I was certain that Rosetta had to at least be slightly familiar with it.

  “Yeah, how do they work exactly?”

  “Just about anyone can operate it, sir! The proficiency is determined by both the pilot’s magical affinity, and their personal affinity for the Frame Gear model, sir! That being said, it’d be a challenge to get it to move very well without any training, yessir!”

  Makes sense... That means if I can mass-produce them, we’d definitely be looking good. I mean, she raises a fair point about the individual skill of the pilots, but... we’d definitely be able to repel the Phrase if we had a giant robot army to oppose them.

  “Mass production of the Frame Gears would prove difficult, sir!”

  “Huh? Why’s that? Can’t we just copy it in the Workshop?”

  “The amount of materials needed is pretty crazy, I won’t lie. On top of that, creating a single, very basic model Frame Gear in the Workshop would take an entire day at least.”

  That sucks... A whole day for one robot? That’s only thirty Frame Gears in a month. I mean, thirty giant robots is definitely a lot, don’t get me wrong, but... According to the Doctor, there were like tens of thousands of Phrase during the attack back then! I don’t feel so good all of a sudden...

  “How many robots were in the Hangar when you lost contact?”

  “Let me think... I must confess, sir. I was not involved with the other Babylons as much as my own. But, as far as I understand it, there should be seven completed Frame Gear models within the Hangar.”

  “Seven, seriously? How did they plan on taking out the Phrase with so few...?”

  “We were about to begin mass production of the Frame Gears, sir... but the Phrase vanished just as soon as we had drawn up plans to build a second and third Workshop.” Rosetta spoke up, disappointment evident in her voice.

  Huh, so there were plans to make the Workshop bigger? Well, that at least explains why there aren’t many Frame Gears. The crisis resolved itself entirely before they even had a chance to start responding properly.

  All I could do in the meantime was gather the necessary materials. As I exited the Workshop, Cesca and Flora came walking over from the Alchemy Lab. The two of them carried a basket that held several medicine bottles.

  “What’s that, medicine?”

  “Uhuhu... these are some general-use medicines for colds, headaches, stomach aches, and other common ailments, see? There wasn’t much in the way of medication in the castle, so I whipped up a batch, you see?” Flora, still clad in her nurse outfit, answered cheerily.

  I’m still not used to seeing this kinda thing outside of a hospital...

  So she was making medicine. Even with my restorative magic and utilities like [Recovery], there was still stuff I couldn’t quite relieve.

  Wait a second...

  “Flora, do you need the Alchemy Lab to make medicine?”

  “Heavens no. This is just regular medicine, you see? I don’t need such complex facilities for this. I used the facilities here to refine them and increase their potency, see? I can still make them the regular way, but they’d be less effective and it would just take me a little longer.” That meant other people should be able to make use of the Alchemy Lab facilities too... If we could produce medicine, then that was another export we’d be able to use for trade.

  Headaches, digestive problems, sinus blockages... these kinds of issues affected people the world over. Selling remedies probably wouldn’t make us obscenely rich, but it would definitely help us race in some extra income. I decided that we should dedicate some resources to harvesting the raw materials for the medicine, so that they could be refined within Babylon.

  I told Flora my idea, and then instructed her to teach some of Tsubaki’s subordinates about how to refine the ingredients and make the superior medicine. They were ninjas, so they obviously would’ve had a basic medicinal knowledge already, so I picked out the most medically inclined of them and assigned them to the Alchemy Lab. With that, we were ready to begin mass production of refined medicines.

  I headed back to the castle with Cesca and Flora, and immediately went to see Leen so I could consult with her about what Ende had told me.

  If we wanted to get technical, Leen was only the ambassador to my country from Mismede, but I considered the Phrase to be an issue that transcended national borders.

  “...So there’s a Sovereign Phrase... an invasion from another world... and a world boundary, you say?” Leen sat back in her chair, letting a heavy sigh escape her mouth. She was clearly surprised. Paula stood next to her, arms folded.

  “I’ve lived a very long time indeed, but this is the first I’ve heard of such things... Usually I would ask you to stop joking around, but... the evidence here is overwhelming, so I’ll unhappily concede that you’re telling the truth.”

  “Well, there’s always the possibility that Ende fed me a bunch of lies. I’m still trying to figure out if that’s the case.”

  “Regardless, there’ll be people that won’t believe it even if it is true... Right up until the Phrase begin tearing their families apart,
that is.”

  She was right. There’d definitely be some who, even if they acknowledged that the Phrase existed, would only view them as a new species of monster. We’d only met three types, after all. The Cricket Phrase in the ancient ruins, the Manta Phrase in the Rabbi Desert, and the Spider Phrase in the Sea of Trees... Ah, there was also the snake one that Leen and the soldiers had encountered in Mismede.

  It was possible that there were more Phrase in the world that Ende had killed already, though.

  If we sat around twiddling our thumbs then we’d be dead the moment the boundary failed. We’d need to make preparations before it was too late.

  Those preparations currently hinged on searching for the remaining Babylon pieces, and collecting the raw materials required to build a Frame Gear.

  “We’ve been trying to find information on ancient ruins, that much is sure. Please allocate more resources to the hunt. I’ve found many structures, but most of them are just abandoned buildings without anything of note within them. It’s somewhat disheartening to constantly fail, understand?” Whoops... right... in the end, only Leen’s subordinates had been sent out to look. I should probably actually send some guys out to do that too.

  After bidding goodbye to Leen, I went to visit Kohaku and the other beasts to ask if there’d be a creature suited to summon for scouting operations.

  “If you assk me, it ssshould be the oness that fly up in the sssky, no? They’re very fassst, and can go to a great many placess.” Kokuyou made an interesting proposal. I hadn’t considered summoning birds for the hunt, but they were definitely versatile enough.

  “Master, it would take quite some time to contract with each and every bird individually. Might I recommend forging a pact with the one that governs the entire race instead?”

  “Hm. Sango... You’re proposing our liege summon that one?” Kohaku cut in on Sango’s speech. I wondered just what they were referring to. “The Flame Monarch. The same as us, a monarch with wings. One that controls fire. If you summoned and successfully contracted with the Flame Monarch, you’d have thousands of birds immediately at your disposal.”