In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 16 (Premium)

by Patora Fuyuhara

  “About time! I can’t wait to kick their-”

  “Nia. What did I say about getting too excited? This is serious.”

  “Uwaah, I’m totally worried...”

  Everyone sounded ready to go. Nobody sounded too scared, so it seemed fine to me.

  “Leen, Yumina. You’ll be on support duty. I want Nia and the others to handle the Intermediate Constructs as well, but if it gets too dangerous, you should step in.”

  “Understood.”

  “Got it.”

  Yumina and Leen climbed into their Frame Gears. I also saw Paula get into Grimgerde’s cockpit... I was fine with it, so long as she didn’t interfere with anything. Before long, a crack rippled through space itself. The sound of splintering glass rang out. The crack, lined up right in front of the Red Cats, began to expand like lines on a breaking eggshell.

  “Ooh... A crack in the sky?”

  “So that’s what it looks like...”

  “Eeep! My heart’s beating a mile a minute!”

  After one final shattering sound, the crack opened up. Following suit, several smaller cracks opened up near it, and the muddy-gold creatures began pouring out. As I expected, the majority were Lesser Constructs. Some looked like snakes, while others looked like rhinoceros beetles. Still, there were three of them that distinctly stood taller than the rest. Three Intermediate Mutated Constructs. I used [Long Sense] to project my sight closer toward them.

  ...They’re bigger than usual, aren’t they? Though, given the size variation in Lesser Constructs, I guess this isn’t too unusual.

  Crap, one of the big ones is an airborne type... What is that, a sunfish? Well, I shouldn’t assume it’ll act like the animal it resembles. It’ll probably be faster than the real thing. Hell, it doesn’t even seem to have eyes or a mouth... It’s just kinda shaped like one. If it was a little more angular, maybe I’d see it as an angelfish instead.

  The Red Cats definitely couldn’t handle an airborne foe. They weren’t even equipped with anti-air measures.

  “Yumina. Snipe the flying one, Nia and the others can’t take it out.”

  “Alright.”

  Brunnhilde, laying prone behind me, brandished its sniper rifle. Since the mutants weren’t see-through, it was harder to tell where their cores would be. But we were still able to guess and infer based on prior experience.

  The sunfish Phrase was relatively thin compared to others of its type, too. Still, relatively was the keyword here. It was still several meters in diameter.

  A sudden cracking sound rang out, and the sunfish began shattering. Yumina had taken her shot.

  I nodded along with a smile, marveling at her work... when suddenly the sunfish exploded from within! I was taken aback before I realized what had happened. Yumina must have used a bullet enchanted with [Explosion]. Apparently, Phrase were adept at absorbing external sources of magic, but if magic affected them internally, then there was nothing they could do against it. That was how I managed to use [Apport] to grab their cores, too.

  The explosive blast appeared to have taken care of the core. The sunfish fell to the ground and began to melt into tar-like goop. Off-putting smoke emanated from its remains, as well.

  The disgusting sight served as the marker of the battle’s true beginning. The ten red Chevaliers, wielding swords, maces, and spears, charged forward and began making short work of the Lesser Constructs.

  The sunfish was down, but there were still two Intermediate Constructs left. One was long-legged, kind of like an ostrich... while the other was, well... a goddamn dinosaur. More specifically, an iguanodon. They were massive, too.

  Leen stayed behind and launched her assault on a group of mutants. Grimgerde was specialized for long-range bombardments, so situations where our allies were in close combat with the enemy didn’t suit her too well. The chance of friendly fire was too high. That was why Leen continued her dutiful support work, and only blasted areas that were devoid of Red Cats.

  Yumina kept up her supporting fire, too. She expertly dispatched any mutants that were attempting to close in on unsuspecting Chevaliers.

  One of the red Chevaliers dashed out of formation and faced the ostrich Phrase head-on. Based on the identifying number on its back... it was Nia.

  “Come get some!”

  Nia’s Frame Gear leaped up in the air and slashed a blade down at the ostrich’s neck. The neck was cleanly sliced, and the great beast’s head came crashing to the ground. However, a new head simply grew back from the decapitated area.

  “Niaaaaaa... I told you. They’ll just regenerate if you don’t take out their cores.”

  “I-I knew that! I-I was just testing it out!”

  Liar. You totally forgot. Don’t ignore the Lesser ones, you idiot.

  All the other red Chevaliers were slowly but surely mowing through the mooks. Things were going well... Over half of the mutants were dead.

  Est’s Chevalier arrived to assist Nia against the ostrich. She opted to go for its legs. Looked like Est was planning on immobilizing it, then aiming for the most likely area for the core. The chest.

  The iguanodon one was engaged against a lone Chevalier. Based on the number, it was the one-eyed man. Frame Gears often reflected the finesse and skill of the people piloting them... and this guy was handling his in an extremely dexterous manner. His spear had no issues keeping the beast at bay.

  Two other Chevaliers suddenly entered the battle by his side. If I had to guess, they were probably piloted by the pretty young lady and the narrow-eyed guy. They moved pretty proficiently as well... I had confidence they’d be able to handle the situation.

  I looked back to Nia’s situation and found that Euni had also joined Est in supporting her.

  Both Intermediate Constructs had a group of three Chevaliers on them, while the other four mopped up the Lessers. They had a pretty solid formation going on.

  The iguanodon lowered its head, and light began to gather there. It was clearly charging up one of those laser attacks I hated so much. I’d already taught the Red Cats about how the Phrase fought, so the three pilots scattered and tried to draw its attention.

  The beam was released and missed the pilots.

  “Oh crap.”

  However... as it soared through the air, it was clearly going to hit the far-off town. An Upper Construct’s beam was enough to blast away an entire city, but an Intermediate Construct was only really strong enough to ruin a house or two.

  That wasn’t really a good enough reason for me to ignore it, though.

  “[Reflection].”

  I set up a reflective wall that was angled upward, which made the laser fly off into space. Fighting near a town was really quite annoying.

  “Take this!” Nia thrust her blade into the fallen ostrich’s torso, and it began to melt into tar-like goop. It was over.

  The iguanodon was also melting. The one-eyed man had run it through with his spear.

  The ostrich mustered the last of its power and began pecking at the ground with its beak. It kept on pecking, over and over, until its beak had melted into goo as well. What’s that all about?

  I was a fool, and would later regret not paying more attention to what I had seen happening. It was the first sign of things to come.

  Either way, the Lesser Constructs were mostly dead, and the battle was ending.

  “Seems like we’re done.”

  “I’ll say...” Yumina’s voice rang out from Brunnhilde’s speakers. Given it was ten Frame Gears against a hundred Lesser Constructs, I wasn’t surprised it was so simple. We didn’t even have any injuries.

  If this was a battle against the regular Phrase, I would’ve been able to collect the Phrasium... but I wouldn’t be getting that as a reward anymore. Fighting the mutants didn’t really give us much in terms of rewards.

  Ordinarily, Isengard should’ve dealt with this on their own, and our interference could’ve been seen as unwanted meddling... But I was of the opinion that if we hadn’t stepped in, the peop
le of that town would’ve died. We definitely needed to make more countries aware of the threat.

  I decided to use Papillon... or rather, the Black Cats, to spread appropriate rumors and stories through their inn and brothel network.

  I pondered my future plans as the red Chevaliers gathered around.

  Nia jumped from her cockpit with the poise and grace of an actual cat.

  “What’d you think of that, huh?!”

  “...Could be better. You’re overdoing it, which results in a lot of wasteful motions. Look at Est and Euni. They weren’t wasting a second. You’re clearly not used to group fights.”

  “You’re right about that.”

  As I pointed out Nia’s flaws, Est nodded along. Given that Nia likely relied on Rouge’s massive damage in the past, I wasn’t too surprised she was rusty in a group battle situation.

  Well, Nia would be using the Gollem-based Frame Gear in the future, so I figured chastising her any further would be useless.

  I returned all the Frame Gears to [Storage], and called Kougyoku back down from above.

  “Kougyoku, have some of your birds flutter around for a while. I wanna keep an eye on the situation here a bit.”

  “As you wish...” Kougyoku screeched into the air, and a few birds began circling the sky above.

  “These little ones should suffice.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You have a talking bird...?” Nia stared at us in a mixture of confusion and awe. I wasn’t sure why she was so surprised. She had a talking Gollem, for goodness’ sake!

  Alright. Time to get outta here.

  I opened up a [Gate] to the fortress hideout, and we walked through to the same courtyard we’d been in a few hours back.

  “Whew... We haven’t been out long, but I’m plenty sleepy...”

  Euni sleepily leaned herself against a wall. The other Red Cats seemed happy to see our return. They quickly lined up several tables and put food and drinks down atop them. What is this, a feast?

  I looked over the scene as the three individuals from before approached me. It was the one-eyed man, the dark-skinned beauty, and the narrow-eyed guy.

  Nia came walking over as well.

  “Oh, right. Lemme introduce you to these guys, Touya. These guys are veteran members. The older guy is Colonel, the lady is First Lieutenant, and the younger guy is Sergeant.”

  “Colonel?”

  “Codenames. We’ve decided not to use our real names. Not until we achieve our purpose.”

  Colonel grinned widely. It made him look scarier than he usually did... The three of them definitely reminded me of military-type folks, though.

  “Yumina.”

  “On it.”

  I had Yumina use her Mystic Eye to make sure the people talking to me were pure of heart and intent. Her eye had the perfect intuition when it came to judging people. She could identify those who seemed evil, and maybe even acted evil, but were actually good at heart. I didn’t think there’d be anyone really bad with the Red Cats, but I wanted to make sure.

  Yumina smiled and nodded my way. They’d been given the all-clear.

  “So, about that request of ours...”

  Colonel took an old bound book from his coat and passed an old black-and-white photograph my way. The photograph depicted a woman cradling a baby. She was wearing really fancy clothes. She couldn’t have been much older than twenty-three. She sat in a gaudy rocking chair and wore a necklace with a big gemstone embedded in it. From looks alone, she seemed to be a noble.

  “You want me to find this woman?”

  I wondered if she was Colonel’s wife or something. But... honestly, I couldn’t see them together. There was just no way.

  “Sadly, that woman is already dead. I want you to locate the person in her arms.”

  “...The kid?”

  I looked down at the photograph, focusing my gaze on the baby. ...There’s no way in hell I can tell the difference between babies. It won’t work like that.

  If they told me to find a baby, the map would just get hundreds and hundreds of hits.

  “When was this photo taken?”

  “A bit over ten years back. The child should be ten by now.”

  Ten?! How am I supposed to know what this kid looks like after ten years?! I can’t even tell if it’s a boy or a girl!

  “The boy’s the last son of the late king of Lowe. Lowe was a kingdom destroyed by the Gardio Empire and the Isengard Magitechnocracy. In short, he’s a lost prince. Prince Lufredin.”

  ◇　◇　◇

  The Kingdom of Lowe was a tiny nation that existed about ten years ago, nestled between Isengard and Gardio.

  The nation was able to maintain its independence thanks to an army of powerful Gollems, and a mountain range that served as a natural bulwark.

  The main backbone of their military might came from their twelve special Gollems and their twelve powerful masters who served as generals. These Gollems were referred to as the beast emperor series.

  Apparently, the territory had an ancient ruin within it, and it was such a hotspot that several dozen legacy Gollems had been found there. The beast emperors were just another example of the incredible treasures they’d found.

  Naturally, that made them a prime target for greedy countries. They’d been invaded several times, but each time the enemies had been fended off by the beast emperors of their respective generation.

  Lowe was rich in mithril veins. Apparently mithril had the effect of reducing a Gollem’s strength. Most Gollems within Lowe’s territory could barely function. The beast emperors, however, did not suffer from this reduction in performance.

  If they left Lowe’s territory, that benefit wouldn’t mean as much. But in terms of defending the country, they were ideal.

  Gollems made up the bulk of most armies in the Reverse World, so the invaders were always at a disadvantage. Any opposing army would find itself operating at half its potential, while Lowe could defend at full strength.

  But... ten years ago, the country fell during the reign of their thirteenth king, Maximillian Gran Lowe.

  They were betrayed by one of the twelve generals. Apparently he fled to Isengard, where he allowed his beast emperor to be reverse-engineered and researched by the scientists there. They then teamed up with the Gardio Empire to develop a technology that completely negated the mithril weakness. And using this new device, they marched upon Lowe.

  With that, Lowe lost the home-field advantage. The tiny country was utterly annihilated by the combined might of the two enemy armies...

  “We three are former soldiers from Lowe...” Colonel spoke as he pulled a small card from his breast pocket. He gently tapped it, and a Gollem appeared by his side. It seemed the thing in his hand was a storage card.

  The Gollem was a large one. It was two and a half meters long and was covered in a yellowy-orange armor. The most interesting thing about the Gollem, however... was the shape of its head. It had the head of a leopard.

  As I looked at the Gollem, it turned to look at me. Our eyes met.

  “This is one of the beast emperors. It’s the thunder leopard. It’s been a while since I’ve last unsealed it... I’ve often been worried about Isengard or Gardio finding out about us.”

  “Hold on a second... If that’s one of the beast emperors, then...” Yumina suddenly spoke up. She was right. That could mean only one thing... The dark-skinned woman, First Lieutenant, took a step forward and answered.

  “That’s right. Colonel was one of the twelve generals. He served Lowe with his thunder leopard.”

  “That’s right... Well, I was actually just a kid back then, though.”

  Given that it was ten years ago, that wasn’t too surprising to hear... Though, I was a little surprised that he’d have been that young. I figured he was in his forties, but perhaps he was just deceptively older-looking or something. Assuming he was in his early thirties, that’d make him just over twenty... which seemed reasonable.

  “Prince Lufr
edin was born just three days before the nation was annihilated. He was the child of the king’s newest mistress, and not many knew of his birth. We managed to find out that the boy fled the country with his wet nurse before Lowe fell, but we don’t know what became of him after that.”

  “We became displaced after the conquest of Lowe and met with the old leader of the Red Cats. For the last ten years, we’ve been trying to gather information on the prince and where he could be, but nothing has come up.”

  The narrow-eyed Sergeant followed up with a small explanation of how they got here. I wasn’t shocked they hadn’t made much headway. Finding one child in the whole world was a tall order.

  “The other generals fell in battle, and most of the beast emperors were scrapped. However, the people of Lowe live on, dotted here and there. To those survivors, the prince represents hope. Just the thought of the little prince living a destitute life, not knowing his honorable birthright... It makes me too sad. We must help him... Could you help us achieve this?”

  “It’s not like I don’t want to, but...”

  I looked at Colonel, then the photograph. I didn’t exactly have much to work with.

  “...Does the boy have any particularly distinguishable features? A mole in a weird place, maybe? Or a star-shaped birthmark on his body?”

  “I wouldn’t know about anything like that, but all males of the royal lineage manifest Mystic Eyes. It’s customary for them to be fitted with a suppressing bracer at a young age, in order to prevent the eyes from fully awakening. After all, some abilities are dangerous if not handled properly.”

  I was shocked upon hearing that term, and my gaze instinctively met Yumina’s. I looked back at the photo and noticed that the baby was indeed wearing a bracer on his little wrist.

  I’d met some people with Mystic Eyes before. Yumina had ones that allowed her to see through people’s character, the pope of Ramissh had ones that allowed her to sense lies, while the dragon girl, Sonia, had ones that allowed her to see through illusory things.

  The baby in the photo had his eyes closed, so I couldn’t identify much about his face.