Chapter I: The Reverse World
“It’s so hot...” Right after I settled the business in Sandora, summer had already made its way into Brunhild.
It wasn’t quite the heat of a scorching desert, but it was still pretty hot in its own way.
“Blow forth, Wind! Gentle Squall: [Cool Wind]!” I called a calming breeze along the balcony as Leen came along from indoors. Kohaku was sitting by my side. Paula came along with Leen, as was natural. As soon as she walked out on to the terrace, her silver twintails shook in the wind.
“Slacking off, are we? You’re gonna set a bad example for your subjects at this rate.”
“Keeping up appearances is a pain at times like this, you know? Hot things are hot, damn it...” I was surprised she was so calm and collected, given that her gothic lolita outfit looked pretty damn warm. As I pondered that, she walked closer to me, and the air began to chill. I figured out her trick, she’d used magic to wrap her body in the cool air. Leen was pretty tolerant of low temperatures, after all, so I wasn’t surprised she had a spell like that on hand.
“It seems we’ll need to bear with the heat a while longer. Even some of your townspeople have collapsed as a result of heatstroke.”
“Oh yeah? Guess we better stay hydrated, then.”
“A lot of people have been going through the portals to the dungeon islands lately. The environment is a lot cooler there. But there are still some magical beasts there, so we should really be careful about letting civilians through...” The islands had a windy breeze, so it was probably a lot more refreshing than the landlocked Brunhild. The nights were extremely unforgiving and cold, though.
“Anyway, that’s kind of why I came here... We should make a swimming zone on the islands.”
“Huh?”
“Lots of people wanted to cool off in the sea. It’d be a good chance to earn some income. Beverages, food, bathing suits, and general fees for teleporting there. It’d be a good chance, right?”
“Hoho... Sounds good to me.”
A voice called out from behind us. It was Kousaka.
“We have a lot of Sandoran immigrants now, right? So it’d be good to make as much money as we possibly can. Well then, Ms. Leen, what did you have in mind?” Leen suddenly pulled out a map and spread it across the table.
“Well, look here. Here’s a full map of the islands. This particular island doesn’t have a dungeon on it, see? I was thinking of altering its coastline with Earth magic, allowing us to create a big, sandy beach. We’d also set down a special barrier that would ward away dangerous wildlife. On top of that, we’d create a new separate portal that leads there.”
“Most fascinating... So you suggest we should create a separate portal from the ones that the guild manage?”
“That’s right. We’ll make the island impossible to access from the other ones, too. That way it can be completely self-sufficient, as well. After that, we’ll see about constructing restaurants, tourist shops, and maybe even accommodation...”
“Hm... I like this. We could make a decent bit of money.”
Hey, now! Don’t leave me behind here, you two... Don’t I get a say in this? It’s me who you’re gonna force into building everything, putting down the barrier, and terraforming the landscape, right? Right?!
“Don’t worry too much. I’ll help you out, it was my idea, after all.”
Tsk... Sure, but I can’t just leave everything to you and Doc Babylon, Leen... I’ll help, don’t worry.
“Kohaku... I think I’m gonna be working hard from here on out.”
“Don’t see this as them taking advantage of you, my liege. See it as them relying on your guidance and protection.”
I guess you have a point... I was kind of in vacation mode, though... Well, no point whining about it I guess, but I really wanted to enjoy a summer vacation.
“This ought to do it...” I muttered to myself quietly as I rested my feet against the sand.
The pure white, gritty sand felt good beneath my feet. I entered the sea, and the sand was washed away... That felt good as well.
I didn’t want people getting washed away from the shore and attacked by any monsters outside the barrier’s radius, so I set up buoys marking the safe zone.
The barrier was near-perfect, so there was nothing dangerous inside its effective range. Even kids wouldn’t have an issue swimming around. Accidents were still possible, though, so I decided that stationing a coast guard and medical team at the beach would be wise.
I had set up a similar beach on a smaller island nearby, as well. That was a private beach for me and immediate family.
I didn’t think wanting to have some private time was unreasonable.
“Alright, that’s that. Now all I’ve gotta do is build the portal.”
“Let’sss leave it be a little longer. It’ss been ssso long ssince I’ve enjoyed the ssea, darling.”
“Mh... I agree with Kokuyou. We’re aquatic creatures, in the end...” Kokuyou and Sango were swimming in the sea. It looked like they were having a fun time.
“I know how you feel, but we have stuff to do. You guys can use the private beach whenever, alright? Let’s head back for today.”
“That’sss a ssshame...” Kokuyou and Sango came up out of the sea.
Now all I had to do was think about what came after the gate building. I had Fashion King Zanac take charge of bathing suit sales, food stalls were entrusted to Micah from the Silver Moon, and the other general stuff like sandals, beach towels, parasols, beach balls, floats, and so on were all handled by Olba Strand.
All that came after that was assigning lifeguards.
Several members of our knight order were talented enough swimmers, so I decided to station them as lifeguards during the summer season. They’d be our lifesavers, after all.
I also had no issue with the other knights coming to enjoy the beach during their off-duty hours. And with that, the preparations would finally be complete, and we’d be able to go ahead with opening the beach to the public.
And so, a few days later...
It was a complete and utter success. Leen and Kousaka’s projections were spot-on, and the beach was packed almost every day. There were so many people, even folks from Regulus and Belfast had shown up. It sounded like word was spreading fast.
It made sense that they’d come from there, though. They weren’t really spoiled for choice in terms of leisure destinations, and most citizens never got the chance to enjoy the sea.
Naturally, a place with so many people would result in disputes and spats. Our knights were generally on call to deal with any arguments that broke out between the patrons. I’d ended up increasing their workload a fair bit... I made a mental note to increase their salaries out of my own pocket.
“Alright, time for me to take it easy...”
“You’ve been working hard lately, Touya.” I was resting underneath a parasol, trying to get a little bit of relaxation in. Yumina was here too, talking to me as she wore a frilly one-piece swimsuit.
We were at the private beach, an area of land restricted only to my immediate family.
Elze, Yae, and Hilde were playing smash the watermelon with Moroha. Linze and Leen were chatting beneath the shade. Lu was making lunch along with Crea, while Sue and Sakura played pass the beach ball with Karen.
Karina was spearfishing off the coast, while Suika was wasting her time being blackout drunk. I could hear a ukulele being played, so I assumed that was Sousuke’s doing. Kousuke wasn’t here, since he was likely tending to his crops.
“My, my... We have a young harem master relaxing in the sun, do we? How miserable... You sh
ould be doing naughtier things than that.”
“Zip it.”
Cesca prattled on as usual while she swilled around a tropical drink in her hand. It wasn’t a typical harem situation! There was another guy here! He just... happened to be out of sight, playing the ukulele elsewhere.
I invited all the Babylon numbers over, but Rosetta, Doctor Babylon, and Monica were too busy with maintenance. Noel was sleeping, and Liora couldn’t leave her alone. Fam said she didn’t want to leave the library... Flora was stationed in the medical office, so she had work to take care of. As for Parshe and Tica... I didn’t really want that klutz or that kiddy diddler hanging around us on a relaxed day.
“Whatever happened to your youthful vigor? Shouldn’t you be leering at these bathing-suit-clad ladies? Or perhaps such a thing isn’t necessary... Could it be...?! You have a hidden sense that can see through our clothes?!”
“Like hell I do!”
Yumina covered her chest and groin with her hands, turning beet red in the process.
Didn’t I just say I couldn’t?! Actually... I probably can with my divinity... But I have no intentions of doing that. For now, at least.
I shooed Cesca away and reassured Yumina. I didn’t want any weird rumors going around about me. What a pain in the ass that’d be...
“We could’ve invited father over, couldn’t we?”
“Ah... I mean... I think the other world leaders would probably get jealous if I gave Belfast preferential treatment... They’d want to come, too.” Things were different now, there were a lot more world leaders in my social circle. If I only called over the king of Belfast, then the others would probably complain... It’d only be natural that they’d end up demanding to come over as well.
There was no way I’d be able to relax if all those guys were running around my private beach. I’d invite them some other time, but in all honesty, I just wanted a little relaxation time to myself.
“It’s still pretty strange... Until you came along, gathering so many world leaders in co-operation was considered just a pipe dream.”
“I’m glad they’re getting along, though. Still, not everyone can get along. That’s just how some people are.” The king of Sandora came to mind.
The situation in Sandora was a little different to the situation in Yulong, since I directly instigated the downfall in this case. Then again, they did shoot first.
Ultimately, I was a little bit irritated that I ended up doing exactly what the other world leaders wanted me to. At the very least, I could rest easy with the knowledge that I wasn’t going to end up any more infamous as a result of what happened. The freed slaves scattered across the nations and had nothing but good things to say about what had happened.
《My liege, is now a good time?》
《Hm? Kougyoku? What’s up?》
Kougyoku should’ve been at the castle, so I wondered why she decided to send me a telepathic message.
《Well, you see... It’s related to that mysterious island. One of the barrier-protected capitals, the southern one, is under attack by Behemoths right now.》
《Behemoths? Don’t they have catapults and ballistas to ward them off? 》
《That would work under ordinary circumstances, but the city is being sieged by multiple types of Behemoths.》
That sounded pretty bad... I figured that the barriers probably had their own limits, and probably wouldn’t last against a sustained assault from multiple ends.
Ultimately, a defensive barrier was just a really big magical shield, so it would eventually run out of juice and go out.
It was still different from a conventional shield, though. Regular shields would eventually break if a single point was targeted by something weak for an extended period of time, even if it would take as long as it would for a drop of water to pierce stone.
That wouldn’t happen to a barrier. Let’s say a barrier had a power level, and this power level was ranked at ten. A person with a power level of nine could attack the shield forever and they would never actually weaken it. Barriers didn’t degrade over time, either. Not even a little bit.
The issue would be that if something with a power level higher than ten came along and attacked the barrier, then the barrier would collapse.
If we use this model and say that the shields on the island were set to a power level of ten, then it wouldn’t even matter if the magical beasts on the island could attack with a power level of nine. But... if the creatures attacked at the same time... Let’s say two beasts with a power level of nine attacked the barrier at once. It would create a combined power of eighteen, causing the structural collapse of the barrier.
I had nothing but conjecture to go on, but it was probable that the combined attacks of multiple Behemoths would be enough to break down the barrier.
I wondered if they were intelligent enough to coordinate their attacks... It was probably just a case of poor timing, honestly.
《Why is the city being attacked by multiple Behemoths?》
《From what I understand, a Behemoth hunting trip went wrong. They were routed back to the city and it followed. Along the way, they happened to run into two other Behemoths, and those creatures gave pursuit as well.》 So it really was just a case of bad timing. The hunters kept running into more Behemoths, and instead of fighting each other, the monsters targeted the humans. I wondered if they were provoked, or just naturally inclined to target people...
There were three Behemoths, all different types.
The first was an ape-type, Heavy Kong.
The second was a pig-type, Grand Boar.
And the third was an ungulate-type, Power Bison.
That was it.
It seemed like the city was targeting them individually. They were trying their best to repel them from the city. Still, it was surely something that would take the sacrifice of many of their soldiers.
There were also those that believed they should wait it out, and merely let the creatures whale on the barrier until they get tired and leave. That didn’t mean that the barrier would hold, though. If it broke, the people would surely die.
It was a situation where they had to either kill before they were killed or bolster their defenses and leave it all up to fate.
And here I was, not entirely sure what to do. If I was planning on making contact with the island, I could see no better time than the present. I wasn’t going to pretend this wasn’t slightly advantageous. If I saved them, they’d owe me. That would come in handy during the negotiation phase.
The countries on the continent at large hoped for a trade arrangement, so all I had to do was communicate that. Plus, if I removed the barrier around the island, the Behemoths would likely decrease in quantity.
No matter how I saw it, there wasn’t really a drawback to interfering.
There are three Behemoths, so I’ll take Elze, Yae, and Hilde... Lu’s Frame Gear is still getting tweaked, so I can’t take her over yet.
Lu’s Frame Gear was a specialized unit built for guerrilla assault, which meant that we had to make a lot of gear for it to truly take advantage of its versatility. It meant that we had to wait a little longer until it could make its debut.
“Alright. Guess I should get ready... Well, my break was nice while it lasted.”
“We can come back any time, don’t worry!” Yumina comforted me as I turned to Elze and the others, who were now tucking into their smashed watermelon.
Hm, come to think of it... I better call the knight order over, too... If we go in with just three Frame Gears we might find ourselves in trouble. Don’t want the islanders thinking we’re not all that tough, either.
I didn’t like displaying our power in a flashy manner, but the incident in Sandora showed me that it did have its merits now and then.
In the end, it was just laying the groundwork for the inevitable peace and trade talks. If they attacked us without a word, we’d easily disable them.
I seriously hope that the people living on the island are
reasonable...
◇ ◇ ◇
I tapped into the senses of the bird I’d sent to the island and used its sight to generate a [Gate] there.
The amount of magic required to sustain the portal actually took over five times as much power as it usually would. It was likely the effect of the barrier. It was so bad that if I stopped channeling my magic for even a second, the portal would’ve closed. If we had decided to go to the island on one of our magic-powered vehicles, we’d have probably crashed right into the island upon reaching the effective range.
“Alright, did it...” I could see the southern city in the distance. It looked like a fortress, almost. It had massive walls, with strategic ballistas installed along several checkpoints around the sides.
And I could see the three Behemoths surrounding the city as well.
The ape-like Behemoth, Heavy Kong, was furiously smashing its fists against the barrier. Each strike caused the protective dome to briefly materialize and shimmer in the air.
The massive pig, Grand Boar, kept running away from the city before turning and charging wildly into the barrier.
Lastly, the massive Power Bison kept jabbing and thrashing against the barrier with its drill-like horns.
They were all attacking from different points, but the people inside were focusing their fire on the Grand Boar in particular.
“Heh... So the barrier only prevents living things from coming in or out? Well, I’m not too surprised...” If the barrier prevented the people from countering, they wouldn’t be able to repel invaders. There were a lot of similarly constructed barriers protecting major cities in other countries as well.
Still, the ballista fire wasn’t really doing all that much. There were several projectiles stuck in the beast’s body, but most of it was being deflected by its thick hide. Its hide probably had some kind of magically boosted thickness going on... Probably.
Hmm... I’m not entirely sure how long this thing’s gonna hold up. If this thing has a power level of ten, then my best guess is that the Heavy Kong has a power level of three, Grand Boar is five, and the Power Bison is four...
That meant that the barrier would be fine so long as only two of the beasts attacked it, but it’d go down if all three attackers connected their blows at once.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 12 Page 1