In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 17

by Patora Fuyuhara

  Silhouette smiled as she stroked Shade’s head. That made sense enough to me.

  Sakura and Sue joined in on the Shade petting. Eventually, Silhouette turned toward me and clasped her hands together.

  “Oh, right. There’s actually someone I want you to meet. She’s in the city right now. Could you perhaps come with me?”

  “Who, exactly?”

  “This country’s most important woman...” Silhouette grinned, eyes brimming with mischief. We returned her expression with blank stares.

  ◇　◇　◇

  Silhouette took us to a high-class restaurant, one that was clearly more for nobles than commoners. There wasn’t really such a thing as a dress code in the Reverse World, but I didn’t feel comfortable going inside a place like that in my adventurer getup.

  When I saw the venue, I took a brief detour back to Drakliff island. Yumina, Sue, and Sakura each took some formalwear out from the [Storage] in their rings, while I got changed as well.

  I changed into a blazer, shirt, and pants based on the uniform I’d first worn upon arriving in the other world. Zanac, who I had sold that uniform to, had designed the one I was wearing now. He said it wasn’t one of his best works, but I couldn’t see that at all. It was almost indistinguishable from the original, and was definitely more durable due to the difference in base materials.

  It was nice to wear a necktie as well, since I hadn’t really had a chance to wear one since I originally died. I decided to keep Brunhild hanging around my belt, just in case.

  “Are those new clothes? They suit you really nicely.”

  “...You look handsome, Grand Duke...”

  “That’s our Touya for you!”

  My fiancees all sang my praises. I thanked them, but I felt a little bit too flattered for my own good. That reminded me of the fact that Zanac was the only person who ever saw me in my school uniform.

  Once we returned to the restaurant, Silhouette raised an eyebrow.

  “What strange garments. Are they what you wear during formal meetings in the other world?”

  “Uh... Not exactly. They’re worn in the place I come from, though.” They were common in my original world, but there was no way I was going to explain that I was from ANOTHER another world. Students in Japan wore blazers and uniforms for certain formal events, so it was suitable enough...

  Once we finally entered the restaurant, one of the members of staff went wide-eyed and ran over to Silhouette.

  The black panther, Shade, was with us. It was clearly causing some kind of confusion.

  The staff was obviously concerned, but Silhouette simply patted Shade on the head and explained its status as her bodyguard. We did have Kohaku with us, too, so they just rolled with it. Then again, Kohaku looked more like a cat than a tiger in her mini-form.

  Also, if I had to make a guess... I’d say that this restaurant was probably affiliated with the Black Cats. That also probably meant there was no need for us to dress up... But then again, we didn’t want to look bad in front of this other person we were here to meet.

  Speaking of which, they were apparently already there. We were brought up to the restaurant’s second floor and entered a small room within the inner area. Inside the room was a single large table, with a woman seated at it. There were two silver-colored knight-like Gollems standing behind her.

  The woman seemed to be around forty years old, with blue eyes slightly obscured by a pair of glasses. She smiled softly and gave off the same gentle air that Yumina’s mother, Queen Yuel, did.

  Her hair was light brown, brushed aside and held in place by a clip. She also wore a silver tiara on top of her head. It gleamed ever-so-slightly in the dim light of the room.

  This woman was clearly of noble birth, but she also didn’t seem obnoxious enough to flaunt that.

  “Forgive our lateness, Your Highness. Did we keep you waiting?”

  “Not at all, I’ve only just arrived. Who are these people?”

  “Ah, right. This is Mochizuki Touya and his fiancees.”

  The woman nodded at Silhouette, and then stood up to bow in our direction.

  “It is a pleasure to meet you. I am the ruler of the Kingdom of Strain, Margarita Twente Strain. I’m glad I finally got the chance to speak with you. I’ve heard much.”

  “...Nice to meet you, I’m Mochizuki Touya. You’ve heard of me?”

  I bowed my head to Queen Margarita, but I was certainly curious how she knew of me. Perhaps Silhouette had been telling her things.

  “Strain has its own group of intelligence operatives, I’ll have you know. You’ve been the talk of our spies for quite some time. You’re an adept mage who stopped a war between Primula and Triharan. You felled the golden beasts that appeared in Isengard’s territory, as well as returning later on to defeat an ancient superweapon. You fought off the purple crown and took leadership of the Red Cats. You also seem to live on an island populated by nothing else but dragons! Plus, it seems you’ve made considerable inroads with the Black Cats, as well.”

  “...That’s sort of right, but you’re off on a few points...”

  I didn’t lead the Red Cats, nor did I actually live on the dragon island... Though I guess my holiday home was there, so it wasn’t really wrong.

  “Could I ask what your relationship with Silhouette is?”

  “She’s a client of our kingdom... so to speak. She informs me of things that I need to know. Obviously she won’t sell me information on other nations that I could use for political gain, but her information network on the affairs within my own realm is enough for me. She helps me nip potential threats in the bud before they become issues.”

  Threats, eh...? Guess it’s rough being a ruler, so I won’t pry. Honestly, I think if I ask any more I’ll just get roped into helping out... Interesting to know that the Strain Kingdom has an insurgency issue, though...

  I looked over at Yumina for a small second, to which she replied with a small nod and a smile. Seemed like her mystic eye hadn’t picked anything bad up, so this queen was fine in my book.

  That being said, she didn’t necessarily have to be a bad person to be trouble... The world leaders back in the other world were nice people, but a handful. Personally, this queen seemed sly as a fox.

  “Let’s sit down and enjoy the food for now. I’m sure you’ll find it to your liking.”

  We all sat down at the table. Shade trotted over by Silhouette’s chair and lay down on the floor next to her.

  Kohaku had taken the liberty of hopping up on to Yumina’s lap. Personally, I thought that’d make it a bit difficult to eat. As I pondered to myself, a carpaccio dish was brought out to the table. The herb sauce looked especially tasty.

  I bit into the thin slices of meat, mixing it with the veggies and sauce in my mouth. Oh man, this is great... If this is what we’ve got for the appetizer, then I can’t wait to see the main course...

  The only thing throwing me off is I don’t know what kind of meat this is... It tastes kinda like beef, and I guess it can’t be weird if a queen’s eating it...

  “Touya, have you ever heard of a country named Belfast?”

  I just about spat all the meat in my mouth all over the table in response to the queen of Strain’s sudden statement. I hurriedly wiped my mouth and downed a glass of water.

  I turned to Yumina and saw that she’d slightly choked on some of her food as well.

  “It seems you have, then.”

  “...I have, yes. But where would you have heard of this country before, Your Highness?”

  I would understand if she asked about Brunhild, I’d already mentioned that country to Nia and the king of Primula... But I had never once mentioned Belfast in this part of the world. Not ever.

  “Over the last few months, there have been incidents of strange people appearing in the kingdom. Originally, we believed these bizarre refugees who cannot speak our language to be from the far-off frontier nations. But gradually, they began to learn our language, and we realized we w
ere wrong. Some of them were capable of wielding magic, which was unusual in itself. But they also mentioned hailing from nations such as Belfast, Roadmare, Regulus, and Felsen. Do you know anything about this?”

  “Wh...”

  What?! There are people who slipped through the seams of the world barrier over here again? Are you kidding me?

  “We’ve certainly never heard of these nations before. We asked them if they weren’t confused, if these countries were actually smaller towns or cities. They were adamant that was not the case. And there was one interesting common thread amongst these people. When we showed them a world map, they all insisted that it was backward.”

  Silhouette remained silent as the queen talked to us. I’d already briefed Silhouette about where I was from, so I wouldn’t have been too surprised to learn that she’d informed the queen about it.

  But given how this conversation was going, it seemed like the queen hadn’t been informed of anything in advance.

  “I’ll cut to the chase. Where are you from?”

  She went right for the main issue at hand. Her eyes didn’t seem sharp or accusatory, though. She seemed genuinely curious.

  I didn’t exactly want to hide the truth, so I figured it would be best if I just came out and told her. She was a world leader, so she could probably be trusted.

  “...You’ve probably already guessed it, but we’re visitors from another world. The world we came from is a neighbor, or a twin, to this one. I’m royalty, albeit a bit of a newcomer. I rule as grand duke of a nation called Brunhild. This girl here is Yumina, and she’s the princess of the aforementioned Belfast.”

  The queen’s eyes went wide with shock. Not at the mention of us being from another world, but more at the fact that she was in the presence of a royal princess.

  Yumina simply smiled over at her and nodded softly.

  I decided to brief the queen of Strain over the key points that’d happened since I came to the Reverse World.

  The appetizer plates were removed from the table, and a tasty soup was brought in. I spoke while savoring the meal before me.

  By the time we finished the main course, I had roughly wrapped up the basic gist of the situation. Ordinarily, it’d be pretty hard to actually buy a story like this, but the appearances of the mutants, the refugees from the other world, and even me being there in front of her all added credibility to the tale.

  I also showed her videos of the other world, including Frame Gear battles.

  I also informed her about the battle we’d just had against the giant tree.

  “I’d heard that Isengard was undergoing a crisis, but I had no idea it was that bad... You’re saying the peculiar incidents there weren’t caused by a disease?”

  “That’s right. The spores sent out by the mutant tree... Or maybe they were seeds? I dunno. Either way, they reacted with the negativity in the people they landed on and blossomed into flowers that took over the person. We’ve killed the tree now, so everything affected by it should’ve died with it.”

  I couldn’t say for sure that similar trees hadn’t been planted elsewhere in the world, though.

  “...Is it true that our world will be merging with yours in the future, then?”

  “It is. There may be small earthquakes and other strange natural events while things settle. There might even be more of those people who appear out of nowhere. In fact, it’s probable that people from your world will end up appearing in ours here and there, too. We need to do our best to keep these unfortunate people safe.”

  Not including criminals, though. If someone comes through into my world and starts a killing spree, I’m not exactly going to treat them with kindness and compassion.

  “Very well. We’ll endeavor to protect those that appear in our kingdom.”

  I was thankful for her co-operation. Hopefully we could send the poor bastards home.

  “I wish to inform the neighboring theocracy of this. There’ve been various individuals who have appeared in their borders, as well. The holy king has been quite concerned as of late.”

  Ah... The Allent Theocracy? That’s the first nation I ever arrived in over here.

  According to the queen of Strain, one of the cross-world refugees appeared in Allent. He had the ability to use recovery magic, which caused quite a stir. He couldn’t communicate with anyone, but was formally welcomed because his talent was exceedingly rare in the Reverse World.

  Given his propensity for magic, he was probably from Felsen.

  He apparently just appeared in Allen, the holy capital, one day. Speaking of that city, I hoped Mr. Sancho and the others I met there were doing well. That was also where I met Nia and the Red Cats for the first time.

  “I’m planning on hosting a summit meeting between the leaders of the other world, and some of the leaders from this world. Would you be interested in joining that?”

  “Let me see... From what I understand, Primula, Triharan, and Gardio would be participating? In that case, the Kingdom of Strain would be happy to participate. Our allies in the Allent Theocracy, the Lassei Military Kingdom, and the Panaches Kingdom should be happy to join as well.”

  “Panaches... Ah, I’ve met the prince of that nation. It was a while ago during a fight against some mutants. He’s certainly a colorful character...”

  If I recalled correctly, he was the blue crown’s master. His name was Robert or something.

  He had that silly little crown atop his blonde bowl cut and wore those weird pumpkin puffy pants with white tights... Even if you hated his style, there was no doubt it left an impression on you.

  The queen smiled wryly in response to my words.

  “I can’t say much about his fashion sense, but he is a splendid young man with a firm sense of justice. As it happens, he’s engaged to my niece.”

  Oh, huh... He’s engaged? Guess that means Strain will have a blood connection to Panaches, then. Neat.

  “The blue crown of the Panaches royal family is a mighty force, it has come to our aid many times in the past. Most crowns and their masters don’t care for serving individual nations, so Prince Robert and his blue crown have been a godsend for us.”

  That made sense enough to me. The black, red, and purple crowns all had pretty problematic masters... In that sense, the sleepy prince was definitely a strong force for good.

  Oh, right.

  “We’ll probably need to get in touch with each other going forward, so take this.”

  I pulled out a mass-produced smartphone from [Storage], along with a basic users manual. I passed it over to the queen. This particular manual was written in the common tongue of the Reverse World.

  “What is this?”

  “It’s a magical tool we can use to communicate with each other. Silhouette has one too. It can do more than just communicate, too. It’s a handy little device.”

  I motioned to Silhouette, who reached over and started teaching the queen some basic functions. The queen seemed pretty surprised at just how much it could do.

  The Reverse World certainly was more advanced than the regular world as far as science went, but they had clunky and user-unfriendly communication devices. Most of them were microwave-sized. They also didn’t really have very good communication ranges.

  The smartphone, on the other hand, would connect no matter what, so long as there was magic in the atmosphere. It probably wouldn’t work deep in the ocean, though...

  “This map is certainly helpful... It shows the city streets so clearly! I can already think of how to use this to facilitate developmental planning and trade routes!” The queen wasted no time working out useful ways to operate the smartphone. She was a true and shrewd politician, looking out for the best interests of her nation.

  “Could we not make hundreds of these?”

  “Right now, I’m reserving them only for world leaders and important individuals. We wouldn’t want them to be misused, though we do have contingencies in place for events such as that.”

  Each and
every mass-produced smartphone had a unique serial number that I could track and trace with my own phone. They were all programmed with teleportation magic that could return them to my hand at any time. They were also virtually indestructible, so they couldn’t be taken apart and reverse-engineered. Even if they did find themselves in a situation where they were going to be broken or taken apart, they were programmed to warp back to me.

  We continued eating as I leisurely answered more questions from the queen. For dessert, we had a crepe-like construction with whipped cream and an orange sauce. We also had a cup of black tea on the side. I was happy to find that it was as delicious as the previous courses.

  “Yummy!”

  “Mm... I’m glad I came with you, Grand Duke... This meal is good...”

  The establishment was truly befitting royalty. Sue and Sakura seemed especially impressed.

  “I’m thankful for this time you spent talking to me, Grand Duke of Brunhild. I’ll return to the capital and inform the other nations of this upcoming conference.”

  We left the restaurant, only for the queen to be picked up by a fancy-looking Gollem-drawn wagon. Several knights stood by it.

  The Gollem-drawn wagon was pretty unique since it wasn’t an automatic vehicle, it was physically pulled along by a large, wheeled Gollem. There was also a platform behind the cart for the little Gollem knights to stand on.

  “Until then.”

  “Indeed, stay safe.”

  The queen boarded the wagon and it slowly started pulling away.

  I was glad for the opportunity, too. I’d secured a meeting between important leaders in both worlds. Also, the food was really good.

  I turned to Silhouette and bowed my head slightly.

  “Thanks a lot. This’ll help us all, big-time.”

  “It’s not like I just did it for you or anything. Those golden beasts have been appearing all over the world recently. It’s clear to me that you’re the only one with the means to deal with them properly, so I need to rely on you as well. You can consider this whole thing a token of thanks for showing me how to summon Shade.”

  Silhouette smiled as she patted her panther on the head. Shade purred in satisfaction.