Heavy Kong was attacking constantly, but it seemed unlikely that Grand Boar and Power Bison’s attacks would come in at the same time. I didn’t really want to run the risk, though.
“Guess we won’t be able to open negotiations before it’s too late at this rate... Let’s just do what we can for now.” I took out my smartphone and called the others back in Brunhild, and then opened up a big [Gate] in the sky.
Hundreds of Frame Gears began filing out one by one, making the very ground shudder as they landed.
“Alright. Elze, Heavy Kong is yours, Yae, you go for Grand Boar, and Hilde can take the Power Bison. Everyone else remain on standby. Keep an eye out for any other monsters in the area.”
“Understood!” The red, purple, and orange Frame Gears all went off toward their respective targets.
“Alright! Time to bust some heads!”
“I will do my best, I will!”
“Onward!”
Elze and the others reached the monsters and raised their weapons. The Behemoths seemed to notice the new threat, and each took up offensive poses.
The Heavy Kong began attacking Elze’s Gerhilde. But the scarlet Frame Gear masterfully tanked the strike, launching a reactive cross-counter punch straight toward the ape’s stomach.
“Get wrecked!” With a resounding crunch, the pile bunker launched from Gerhilde’s wrist and penetrated the Behemoth’s chest. Blood began to pour wildly from the wound as the massive beast fell down, dead.
Yae began engaging the Grand Boar. She wasted no time, her Schwertleite flying into the creature’s side and slicing it cleanly in two with a single strike. It all happened unreasonably fast. The massive pig simply fell to the ground in two halves, dead.
As that happened, Hilde’s Siegrune held its own against the Power Bison’s horns. Her shield completely blocked its attack, and she used the moment of recoil as her chance to decapitate the vile creature.
The battle was over just as soon as it began. The three creatures were dead within a mere minute of meeting the Frame Gears. I was honestly taken aback, as I hadn’t expected this kind of swift turnaround.
After beating the three Behemoths, the Frame Gears moved back a bit from the city and lined up before the main gate. From behind them, a glimmering white Frame Gear, the Shining Count, stepped forward.
I stood on the shoulder of the white machine, using my magic to project several sound amplifiers and speakers into the air. Then, I turned on my microphone and began to address the people inside the city.
“We are members of the Duchy of Brunhild, a sovereign nation located on the continent to the south of your island. We have no hostile intent. We seek an audience with your political representatives. We will wait an hour for your response, thank you.”
We gave them an hour time limit because we didn’t want them to waste a bunch of time squabbling over who would represent who.
I didn’t want them thinking it’d just be fine to ignore us because of their barrier, I wanted to actually talk to someone. I did mention we weren’t hostile, but they would probably still be a little bit freaked out by what was going on.
Ideally, they’d have some kind of mayor or chief they could send, but I could easily see that person being wary of a trap. It was possible they’d just send a messenger out, but that’d be fine. That’d be enough to get the ball rolling, at least.
“Think they’ll come out?”
“I’m not actually sure... Well, if these guys don’t come out we’ll just go to another city.”
I shrugged slightly at Lain’s question. Still, it’d be a pain if we had to go to another city. We already saved this one from Behemoths, so they had the highest chance of being grateful to us. I wouldn’t be too surprised if the natives of the other settlements ended up freaking out and attacking us or something. Ideally, this city would become friends with us, then tell the other cities.
I called over Kougyoku and asked her what was going on in the city.
“The town’s in an uproar. They’re looking at us cautiously, and arming their defensive weapons as best they can.”
“Makes sense...” I didn’t know what they’d agreed on, but it seemed like they were pre-emptively prepping their defenses. Apparently, they hadn’t made a proper decision yet.
If we did anything weird, they’d probably shoot on reflex, so I decided the best thing to do was just sit tight. It was a little tedious, though. I grumbled a bit as I lay back on the Shining Count’s shoulder and looked up at the sky.
“Your Highness, their gates are opening.”
“Oh, seriously?” Lain had been in the Shining Count’s cockpit and keeping an eye out, so the moment she told me of the development I hopped down to the ground.
A group of horse-riding knights made their way toward us. They were all in full-body armor, and they looked pretty serious.
Their armor design was pretty wildly different to anything I’d seen before. I figured they probably hadn’t developed much since the time of the ancient civilization. It was possible that they’d just technologically stagnated as they tried to eke out a living on this small landmass.
I stood in front of the Frame Gears, and the knights stopped around ten meters away from me. Then, a lone knight, who wore a particularly weathered looking robe above his battered plate armor, moved forward.
He came a little closer and dismounted his horse, continuing his progression on foot. His headgear kind of reminded me of an Ancient Greek, Corinthian helmet. It had a decorative crest on the top and a small T-shaped gap for him to see out of.
It wasn’t the closed type you might see in anime or other tv shows, so his face was fully exposed for me to see.
He was a large man and had a serious expression on his face. His eyes were glaring right at me. I couldn’t sense any hostility from him, but I felt that he was anxious.
“My name is Dyent South, representative of Meridius, the Southern Capital. I am one of the Four High-Brothers, and descendant of Freyend South. Thank you for your assistance against the beasts. Now, who are you, stranger?”
“I am Mochizuki Touya. Touya’s my given name. I am the grand duke of Brunhild. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Representative Dyent.” His eyes went wide when I introduced myself as royalty, which meant he recognized the title at least... Regardless, he reached out to shake my hand. His attitude became a little more relaxed after I took him up on the gesture. Little by little, we were making progress.
“Grand Duke, you say? Is it true that you came from a landmass to the south...? Do you mean to say that the world was not destroyed?”
“I see... It’s just as we thought, then. Your ancestors must have cut off ties with the outside world before Partheno was wiped out. No, the world was not destroyed. There are many nations that exist peacefully even now.”
I used my smartphone to project a world map. It was full and complete, even including this very island.
“This is the world as it exists now.”
“A-Ah...” Dyent looked up at the map with an awestruck expression.
“This is your island, here. And here is the Duchy of Brunhild. It’s a small country, but these giant warriors... the Frame Gears, are a legacy left behind from Partheno. We’re the only country on the planet that can operate them, and other countries have steered clear of trying to attack us because of that.”
“Incredible...” I didn’t want him thinking Brunhild wasn’t important just because it was small, so I stretched the truth a little. It was true that Brunhild had never been invaded, but we were also only about a year old. Well, we did have that war with Sandora... but they didn’t invade. It was over in fifteen minutes.
“I-If I might be honest... we all truly believed that the outside world was gone... that it was devoured by the crystal beasts and now belonged to them.”
“From what I understand, the ancient civilization was destroyed. But the people managed to rebuild. Here, let’s sit down and talk things through, alright? I’m sure we have a lot t
o ask each other.”
“H-Hm... Very well.”
I pulled a large table and a couple of chairs out of [Storage]. Representative Dyent blinked in surprise at the sudden appearance of the stuff, but he cautiously took a seat.
◇ ◇ ◇
The first thing I was told was the name of the island. The place was known to its inhabitants as Palerius Island. It was named for the Partheno mage that founded the civilization there. Alerius Palerius, The Sage of Hours.
He’d come to the island a long time ago, due to its reputation as a dangerous place. It was here he’d discovered a structure that could naturally create barriers. He took the territory and claimed it as his experimentation grounds. His magic was so immense that he had no way of telling what kind of damage it could cause, so an uninhabited mystery island was an ideal location for him to test stuff out.
He eventually died in Partheno, and the Phrase invasion broke out. His younger brother, who sensed the oncoming danger, evacuated their extended family, many children, friends, and Palerius’ disciples to the island, and then cut it off from the outside world.
They’d used hidden treasures left behind by Palerius to further strengthen the barrier so the Phrase couldn’t get inside. But that also meant that, while the invaders couldn’t get to them, nobody could leave the island either.
Palerius’ four main disciples were convinced that the devastation the Phrase brought about would be enough to annihilate the entire world. They firmly believed that everyone outside the island was gone.
“So you guys were sealed in here, huh?”
“Somewhat, but it didn’t feel like imprisonment... We thought that the crystal crea— er... the Phrase... had ruined the planet. We believed everything outside had been conquered by them... We thought we were the only ones who were safe. We had expeditions in the past, to the outside world, but every boat just seemed to loop around through the fog and end up back at port.”
That was likely the effect of one of the barriers. It caused the fog surrounding the island to confuse navigation and bring you back to the start.
I was filled in on most of the stuff concerning the island, so I decided to broach the actual topic at hand.
Specifically, I wanted to ask if they intended to interact with the outside world. Also, if they wanted to take down the barrier and reduce the number of Behemoths that developed in the area.
“Well, the only downside would be that if I take down your barrier, the Phrase could appear on the island now and then...”
“Ah, actually... I don’t think that would be an issue. These crystal beasts... We’ve seen them on the island before.”
“Wait, what?!” I asked him what he meant, and he went on to explain that the Phrase had appeared twice over the last two years. Both appearances were minor, some Lesser Constructs poking their heads around. The islanders managed to subdue them. But even so, the people of the island were scared by the sudden appearance of the legendary ancient monsters they were supposed to be hidden from.
They could defend against an external Phrase invasion, but couldn’t defend against the Phrase manifesting on their island.
In other words, the Phrase in this world couldn’t reach the island by penetrating the barrier, but they could directly cross through to this world into space that already existed on the island.
It really made me wonder what kind of use that barrier served to begin with. It couldn’t stop the Phrase entirely, it prevented the people from escaping, it made Behemoths rapidly gestate... The more I learned about it the worse off it seemed.
“What you say is true... but, well... Please don’t take offense to this, Grand Duke, but we can’t fully accept what it is you’ve told us. We have no way of telling if you’ve brought us truth or lies.”
That wasn’t really unreasonable. I’d just appeared out of nowhere with a story that undermined the very basis of their existence... As loath I was to admit it, I was highly suspicious here.
“On top of that, I cannot make a judgment call on behalf of the entire island. I would need to talk with the representatives North, East, and West. I would also need to talk to Lord Central.”
“Lord Central?”
“Lord Central Palerius, yes. A direct descendant of Alerius Palerius’ bloodline. The barrier around the island is the legacy of his family, Lord Central is the one that guards The Door.”
“Uh... The Door?”
“The Door is a mighty artifact that Alerius constructed during his lifetime. He created it with the hopes that, upon completion, we would be able to use it to migrate to a new world. His four disciples tried as best as they could after he died, but they could never get it to activate.” I immediately thought of my own portal spell from the way he was describing it. I wondered if he planned to escape the island by using this door thing... But if he had started creating it during his lifetime, then that meant he must have started making it before his disciples came to the island... And before the Phrase invasion, even. Something didn’t quite add up. I wondered if his disciples had tried to make something of it but just hadn’t been successful after he died... It was hard to say for sure.
“Then... could you talk to the other town representatives and this Lord Central? If they refuse us, that’ll be fine. Should that happen we’ll leave the island and never come back, promise. The other countries won’t be able to come here with an intact barrier, either.”
“...Very well. If you ask my personal opinion, however, I would like to be rid of the barrier. Every day, humanity on this island receives a grim reminder. We live in fear of the Behemoths.”
“Ah, that reminds me... We’ll go around and take out a bunch of Behemoths while we’re here. We’ll take most of their resources as payment, though. I’m sure you understand.”
I scheduled to meet up again with Representative Dyent two weeks later and absconded from the island shortly afterward.
I was pretty satisfied with how things had gone. It didn’t make me feel bad like Sandora had.
I still wondered who it was that had repaired the boundary of the world all those years ago. Initially, I thought it was the Sage of Hours, but apparently, he had died before that managed to happen.
It could’ve been his four disciples, but clearly, they had tried their best to keep the island secluded from the rest of the world, so it wouldn’t add up if they’d done it. Ende didn’t even know, either... What a pickle.
I had no choice but to figure out how to fix the broken seams myself. But I required more finesse and fine-tuning of my own divinity before I could do that. God Almighty told me that it’d require the same level of precision it would take to repair a spiderweb by hand... What a pain in the ass that would be.
It would probably just be easier to kill all of the Phrase. But even if they vanished, there’d be other negative effects of the world’s boundary having holes in it. The Phrase weren’t the only creatures that could pass through, after all. I didn’t really want a villain-of-the-week situation coming through the dimensional holes all the time.
I wondered if Central Palerius would be able to teach me anything about how the island barriers worked.
It wouldn’t be too unreasonable to expect he’d know something. Plus, I was interested in seeing just what Palerius’ legacy was...
Almost two weeks had passed since my encounter with Representative Dyent.
I’d been watching them through Kougyoku’s birds, so I was fairly aware of how the situation was developing on their end.
The Representative from the north seemed hesitant, but he calmed down once central spoke up in favor of meeting us and learning our intentions. They didn’t necessarily believe me, but they wanted to hear it straight from my mouth.
I was just glad they were willing to listen. Talking was preferable to the alternative.
I’d spoken to the members of the alliance about my meeting with the people of Palerius. The alliance all seemed fine, but I also made sure that they informed Palouf, Elfrau,
Hannock, and any other nations that might be curious. For trade purposes, they had to be aware of how things were going to work.
I didn’t want any renegade traders going to Palerius and causing havoc.
“Still... This is old man Palerius’ legacy, huh? I’m pretty curious... Wonder what it is.”
“Were you friends with him?”
“Well, kind of. He was a bit of an eccentric. You know that artifact that I used to view you in the future? That was his doing. Well, the theory at least. Old man Palerius’ writings were the basis for a lot of my research.”
Damn... This freaky doctor thinks he was a weirdo? He must have been off the scale in eccentricity... Apparently, the old man hated doing anything for his country, and he didn’t obey state orders. He simply liked to go off and research with his disciples.
“Touya, can you take me along to the island with you? I really wanna know what this thing is that he left there.”
“Uh... I guess? Just don’t do anything weird, okay? The situation’s pretty tenuous as it is.”
“Oh please, don’t sweat the small stuff. I know the situation well enough not to do anything dumb. How about you have a little faith in your mistress?”
“I don’t remember allowing you to be my mistress.”
Babylon and I were in the hangar’s garage area, talking about the situation. Monica suddenly called out from atop an overhead crane.
“Listen, you two... Can you like, totally get outta here?! I cannot concentrate when you’re prattling on...”
“Ah, sorry about that. I’ll go check on the vehicles or something...”
“That’s like, done already and stuff. I’d suggest you look into the vocal magic regulators for Sakura’s Frame Gear. The upload isn’t quite complete yet.”
“Sounds good to me.” We left the garage and Doctor Babylon clambered up to the cockpit of a stationary Frame Gear in a separate garage nearby. It was cherry blossom-colored with twinges of white mixed in. The Frame Gear was named Rossweisse, and it was Sakura’s support-type unit.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 12 Page 2