In Another World With My Smartphone_Volume 5

by Patora Fuyuhara

  In the game room, the Blitz family maid and the Strand family employees had come to provide assistance for the guests.

  They had already prepared mountains of food and drinks on the tables for all the guests, in preparation for the afterparty.

  Normally the afterparty of a wedding would only include close friends and relatives and the like... Although I’d already learned time and again that relying on common sense from my old world was useless over here.

  “Oho. So this is Brunhild’s rumored game room, is it?”

  “There are many things of great interest all around me. Truly a fascinating place.” And so, the bride and groom’s parents came to join in the afterparty.

  General Leon looked ready to play until he collapsed, meanwhile Olba’s instincts as a merchant were thrown into overdrive at the sight of it all.

  What followed was an explosion of merrymaking hijinks as everyone present ran around having the time of their lives. Between all the drunken antics and folks playing games, the whole place was as lively as it ever could have been.

  After a while, a number of guests left for home through my [Gate]. Most of them were young women. As they were leaving, a number of men came forward saying that they would ‘escort the ladies home.’ One such man was Shyon — Lyon’s older brother — who came forward to escort a particularly beautiful young lady home. He was a smooth player.

  As the clock struck ten, the bride and groom decided to rest for the night. I had already prepared a guest room for them further away in the other end of the castle. It was the first night of their marriage, so, well, even I knew the implications of what came next. A number of the guests wished to spend the night in the castle, too, so I directed them to a different area of guest rooms. Naturally, aside from family members and married couples, I made sure that the men and women’s guest rooms were set apart from each other for obvious reasons.

  After partying well into the early hours of the morning, a number of the guests woke up with hangovers. I had made a tactical retreat the moment I saw my chance, but apparently General Leon and Olba had kept drinking with each other for the longest time, until they retreated to their own guest rooms where they immediately collapsed into their beds and fell asleep in no time at all. Lyon and his new wife left early in the morning to their family home. I wished them well.

  It was a tense time setting it all up, but it all worked out. After a while, I was surprised to learn that a trend in Belfast began where people partied far into the night and had fun after a wedding.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “Let us deepen our love.”

  “Come again?” I froze at Yumina’s sudden exclamation. What in the world was she thinking, saying something like that out of nowhere? I would’ve at least liked to eat my breakfast in peace and quiet for once.

  “The thought came to me after seeing that wedding ceremony the other day. I would like our wedding to be just as beautiful and display our overflowing love for each other. For that, I believe we need to get to know each other better, connect with each other on a deeper emotional level, and deepen our love for each other.” In contrast to Yumina whose eyes were sparkling with a spellbound gaze, all I could do was give my best effort to return her gaze with a forced smile. I understood what she was saying, and I also believed that it was an important step in furthering our relationship, but, well, my embarrassment was the foremost emotion that seized me in that moment.

  Ignoring my feelings completely, a certain person leapt up from their chair at the dining table. That person was none other than Lu.

  “A wonderful idea, Yumina! I had been thinking the same for the longest time! We really must deepen our bonds of love with Touya!”

  “Exactly!”

  “Indeed!” The two princesses leapt up and embraced each other in their mutual understanding. It should, by all rights, have been a charming scene to watch, but something about the whole situation made me feel very anxious and uneasy.

  “Err... What, exactly, did you have in mind?” Linze, her face completely red, inquired this of Yumina, while keeping her gaze locked onto me. Elze and Yae had both stopped eating their meals partway through and were also gazing over at the princesses.

  “Why, a date, of course!”

  “A date?! I know of dates! It’s where a man and a woman who are close to each other go around many places outside together!”

  “That’s right. It mainly involves going around having meals together, going shopping together, watching plays in theaters together and such. By which it’s an event which deepens the intimacy and emotional bonds of those who are on the date together.” Yumina gave the excited Lu a brief explanation of what a date would entail.

  Deepen our intimacy...? I mean, I’m already engaged to everyone, so I don’t really know if a date’s gonna do anything to deepen our intimacy any more than it already is,

  “As a matter of fact, Touya has been neglecting us far too much lately. Are you that type of person? The kind of man who would catch and keep a fish without ever feeding it?”

  “Erk...”

  “I-I feel the same! Like yesterday, I didn’t get to see Touya even once after we’d finished our breakfast meals.”

  “I, too. That is... I have been feeling rather... Lonely, lately... I have.” Urk. It was true that I’d been running around all over the place doing this and that, not having much time to spend with the girls. I felt like I should reflect on that and try to make it up to them somehow.

  It may very well have been true that I’d been taking advantage of their good will and running off doing my own things instead. Still, I did love these girls. I wanted to be with them forever, and I wanted to make them all as happy as I possibly could. In spite of that, I hadn’t been putting in enough effort for that.

  Still, a date? A date... Even if we went on one, there still weren’t many places in Brunhild where we could go out and enjoy ourselves on a date... I could take them to the Silver Moon Inn, or a cafe somewhere, but that was about all I could think of on that front. As for clothes shopping, there was always Zanac’s store or Olba’s Company.

  Even if we went shopping, we could only really visit three or four stores. Would they really be satisfied with just that?

  “It’s a bit more than just that. I want to go out with Touya, and make precious memories together so that one day, when we’re older, we can happily look back on those memories, on things like ‘We did do something like that, didn’t we?’ or ‘Something like that did happen, didn’t it?’, and I want to be able to reminisce about such things with Touya as we grow older and older and make more and more wonderful memories together.” That was right... Yumina was absolutely right. Besides, my [Gate] wasn’t just limited to Brunhild, it could take us just about anywhere we wanted now, be it other countries or wherever. If I didn’t make use of that ability now, then when would I?

  “...Alright, then how about this. For today, we’ll all go out together on a date. We’ll visit lots of places and do a whole bunch of fun things together.” The moment I spoke those words, everyone’s faces lit up in smiles. In that very moment, I decided I wanted to protect those smiles forever.

  “Now that that’s decided, we must make suitable preparations!” Lu’s announcement seemed to have flipped a switch in everyone, as they began devouring their breakfast at an amazing speed before clearing away their plates and heading straight back to their own rooms. I could understand that they were excited about it, but if you eat your breakfast that fast it could be bad for your digestive system.

  As for me, I went to visit Kousaka to let him know that I had to change our planned schedule to another day as an important matter had come up. Fortunately, the work we’d had planned only involved things like marking the districts of the town and inspecting land that could be used for farming, so I figured it should be fine.

  I sat out on the terrace enjoying the wonderful tea that our butler Laim had prepared as I waited for the girls, when suddenly I heard a stampede of f
ootsteps heading right in my direction.

  “Sorry for the wait.”

  “...” Gazing upon the sight of the girls before me, I very nearly spilled my tea everywhere.

  Everyone’s outfits were drastically different than usual.

  Yumina was dressed in a cardigan with a large collar, a tiered skirt, and black tights.

  Lu wore a jumper skirt, and a blouse with a ribbon on the front.

  Elze had decided to go with a blouse, with a long, knitted cardigan over it, as well as a culotte skirt and black tights.

  Now Linze, she had gone with a classic dress with an embroidered flower pattern around the collar, wearing a cardigan over the top, and kneesocks for her legs.

  Amongst all of this, Yae’s outfit was the one that surprised me the most. She kept her ponytail as it was, but she wasn’t in her usual hakama, or in fact any Eashen clothing at all — Yae was outfitted in a hooded blouson jacket and knee-length trousers. She wasn’t wearing her usual zouri either, but rather fashionable shoes instead.

  None of their outfits looked like fashion that was common in this world at all.

  “Those clothes...”

  “We each had Zanac make them for us specifically for this sort of occasion. We ordered them specially once we learned that you’d come up with the designs for them, Touya.” I certainly had given such clothing designs to Zanac by way of my [Drawing] skill, but I honestly hadn’t expected the debut of those designs to happen like this.

  “So... H-How do I look?”

  “Eh? Ah, yeah. You look really beautiful. Those outfits actually look really great on all of you. They really suit you.” Elze asked me while blushing, and I just answered reflexively. But it was true that I thought they all looked really cute in those clothes. I never would’ve thought that a simple change of clothes would leave such a deep impression on me.

  “Well then, let us depart on our date! Oh, but before that...” As if taking the lead for something, Lu turned to face the other girls and clenched her fist.

  Following her lead, the rest of the girls also each clenched one of their fists with a sharp look in their eyes.

  “Rock, paper... Scissors!”

  “That was a draw, so... Go!”

  Umm... What exactly are you refined ladies up to, playing rock-paper-scissors...?

  “I have won!”

  “I-I won, too!” It seemed like Lu and Linze had won at something, but... What was this all about? Just as I was wondering that, the answer came to me without warning. Rushing up to my side, Lu and Linze each wrapped themselves around my arms.

  “Just remember that we’re going to be switching after a while, you two.”

  “Such regret, regret indeed...”

  “Hey! Aren’t you clinging to him a bit too much?!”

  Oh, now I get it. Hrmm... On the one hand this is a very pleasurable experience, but on the other, it’s pretty damn embarrassing... Meanwhile, Laim was laughing at the sight. Yup, definitely pretty embarrassing...

  I somehow managed to convince the two ladies to just link arms with me instead. It was still embarrassing, but it was better than having them wrapping their entire bodies around me in public. Though I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a pleasant experience either way.

  “Now, where should we go first?”

  “Let us visit Refreese first! I have never been there before, and I would like to see it at least once.”

  “Alright, if that’s what you want. Refreese will be our first stop, then.” Everyone was on board with Lu’s suggestion, so I whipped up a [Gate] to Refreese’s Imperial City, Bern.

  Bern was a beautiful scenic city surrounded by wonderful sights of nature. It resembled the towns of Santorini with their overlooking view of the Aegean Sea, as the blue of the sea and the sky merged together into the horizon blending together into a single world of blue. The white walls of the stores and buildings of the street on the hill road only helped to enhance the beauty of the scenery.

  Perhaps it was because we were in a high place, but we were embraced by a gentle and refreshing breeze.

  “What a lovely city this is!”

  “The breeze is so refreshing, it is~” Being their first trip to Bern, Lu and Yae were enraptured by the wonder of the beautiful scenery around them.

  Yumina had apparently been here a few times with her family due to royal affairs, meanwhile Elze and Linze were born and raised in Refreese. I’d heard from them that they’d been to the Imperial City a couple of times before. After admiring the scenery, next we took off to go wander around the fancy accessory shops and general goods stores in Bern, enjoying our little shopping trip.

  When all five of the girls asked me to pick out something that suited each of them, I at first struggled to think of what would be best for each of them. After a lot of thought, I went for a selection of five brooches, each styled after the design of the flower that best suited each girl, and gave them to the girls as gifts.

  I also picked up a few souvenirs for the people back at the castle. They were always helping me and looking out for me, so I wanted to thank them in some way. I hoped they’d be happy with what I got for them.

  Our next stop was a cafe at the top of a small hill, where we decided to have a bite to eat. Apparently the time to switch had come, so now Yumina and Elze were linking arms with me.

  Assaulted by their “Say aaah” attacks as they fed me by spoon, my shyness began to reach critical levels. Yumina was pulling off this advanced move like it was nothing, while Elze on the other hand let out her little “S-Say aaahhn” attack while blushing to her ears.

  God dammit, why are you so cute, you little rascal?!

  “Wherever are we going next, then?” Yae asked as she took my arm. Lu had taken my other arm once more.

  “Ah, Touya, look! It seems like there’s a theatre troupe putting on a display down in the town plaza.” Yumina pointed to a poster on the wall. It was an advertisement by a theatre troupe for a play called “Bakram the Mighty Dragonslayer.” By the title alone, it didn’t feel like the kind of performance you’d usually go to watch while on a date.

  “Bakram the Mighty Dragonslayer is a love story about a certain woman. In order to gain approval for the marriage of her beloved, she goes on a quest to fight an Evil Dragon, but the Dragon...”

  “STOP! If you spoil the story, it won’t be nearly as interesting to watch!” As the older sister, Elze stopped Linze before her explanation went into spoiler territory. Still, a love story, eh? If that was the case, maybe everyone would enjoy seeing it, after all.

  “So, you wanna go see it?”

  “Yes!” Right as we were about to head to the location of the plaza listed on the poster, our path was blocked by four men.

  “Yo, buddy. Popular guy, ain’t ya? Makes me real jealous, y’get what I mean?” One of the men called out to me with a vulgar smile staining his face. The guys were all dressed like adventurers, but not a single one of them seemed to have any decent equipment on them at all. If anything, they just looked like a group of halfwit thugs. They didn’t even look that much older than me. Though in this world, that was still old enough to be considered an adult.

  “Do you have some business with me?”

  “Nah, nothin’ that important. Y’see, we ain’t got much cash right now. Then we come across a dude who’s trailin’ a bunch of women all wrapped ’round his arms, an’ we figured y’might be able to spot us some cash with the virtue of that wide ol’ heart a’ yours. Get it?” So they were just decorating extortion in pretty words. It was a sad sight to see such human trash loitering around in such a beautiful city. The Emperor sure must have his hands full already, and now this...

  “Look, buddy, don’t you think it’s a bit shameful to be trying to extort money, even from a guy like me? You’re old enough to be responsible for your own livelihood, so just go out and get a job like everyone else.”

  “The fuck you say?! Look, brat, d’ya even get what’s goin’ on here?!”

&n
bsp; “We ain’t lookin’ for a priest, we’re lookin’ for a profit. Now hand over yer wallet if ya know what’s good for ya.”

  “Hell, if ya ain’t gonna hand over yer wallet, we’d be fine takin’ them girlies ye’ve got with ya. We’ll make sure to take reeeaaal good care of ’em in yer place.” The thugs all burst out into a vulgar display of laughter.

  One of them reached out his hand towards Lu, so I figured I should at least give him one good punch to set him straight and took a step forward. But before I could do anything, two people made their move before I could.

  “Gnuogh?!”

  “Ahgyaaagh!” Yae grabbed the laughing thug by the wrist and threw him straight down onto the ground.

  Elze swept the legs of another one of the thugs and then sent him flying.

  “Wh-Whaddya think you’re doin’ you bitch?!”

  “I don’t want to waste my precious time dealing with human garbage like you. Would you get the hell out of my sight, right this instant?”

  “I very much agree, I do. I very much would not care to dirty our precious day dealing with the likes of you, I would not.” Elze and Yae shot the thugs a glare so cold it could freeze the very air itself.

  When I glanced to my side, I noticed that Lu, Yumina, and Linze were all shooting the same ice-cold glare at them. The atmosphere was so tense I could barely move. My instincts were telling me that the girls were even sending me the message “Don’t you dare lift a finger here.”

  “Crazy bitches, don’t fuck with us! Ya’d best be ready now that ye’ve done that to us!” The two thugs that had been knocked down stood back up, and the whole gang whipped out knives from their pockets. They must’ve thought we’d be easy to take down, judging by the disgusting smiles on their faces.

  “They must surely believe that they could intimidate us if they came at us in a group all armed with knives, I suspect.”

  “I suppose I should have expected this. They truly are little more than a group of petty thugs.”