“A tavern, huh...” I grimaced a little at what Kohaku had said. I was worried about Sango and Kokuyou getting all amped up on booze. That being said, they did seem to enjoy hanging out with Suika... I had heard stories about snakes being able to drink a lot...
“Goodness gracious... That lot certainly likes to take it easy...”
“And you don’t, kitty-cat? Were you not lazing around like a fat cat during the festival? Do you have any right to admonish anyone else for being too slovenly?”
“What’d you say?! Like you’re one to talk! I know you’ve been sneaking snacks from Mistress Crea in the kitchen!”
“...I was just testing the food. I had to be sure it was appropriate for our master.”
“Sounds like an excuse to me!” I sighed quietly as the two of them squabbled when two flaming feathers floated in through the window and landed on Luli and Kohaku’s heads.
“Yeoooowch!” They both cried out in pain and tended to themselves as Kougyoku fluttered in through the window. She perched herself on a nearby desk.
“Our master is in need of rest, and yet you two argue? Be more aware of your surroundings, you fools.”
“She started it!”
“And I’m finishing it.” The two of them were about to argue again, but they were silenced by Kougyoku’s glare. She was certainly scary.
Kougyoku was the most gentle and refined of my summons, but she could also be explosively frightening.
“Welcome back Kougyoku, how’s the town?”
“Quite fine. The people are tidying now that the festival is over. The stores were all cleaning up this morning, but they’ve returned to standard business operations now.”
That was good to hear. I was sure that the after-party would’ve left a bunch of garbage lying around... We needed to put measures in place for that starting with the next festival. Installing more garbage cans would probably be enough, but a large incinerator might help as well.
“The hotel guests are all beginning to leave as well. Within a few days, we should be back to our usual ways.” I was glad to hear the Silver Moon would be a little less hectic, Micah would have some space to breathe.
Lanz was probably still helping her, come to think of it... He’d done a lot to help her as a waiter during the festival, so I decided to give him a little pay bonus... Maybe enough money for him to buy something nice as a present for Micah.
“What about crime? Everything ok?”
“Those that were arrested were released after the festival was over. No major crimes were committed, it was mostly just rowdy drunkards.” In this world, drunkards often had weapons on them... It wasn’t uncommon to see someone die due to a drunken dispute. I was glad none of that had happened during the festival.
“Thanks for your hard work, guys. How about all three of you take the day off, my treat.”
“...So you can sneak out unsupervised?”
“Guh...”
I’d been figured out. Kougyoku’s scrutinizing gaze was a little much for me to handle. It was pointless to struggle, I’d already been read like a book.
“We are your humble servants, master. If you wish to sneak out, we will have to comply with that wish. But even if we turn a blind eye to it... Are you prepared to deal with the consequences if one of your esteemed brides-to-be finds out?”
“Ghuhh...” I... I guess you have a point...
Yumina and the others had recently developed an innate skill that allowed them to pinpoint my general location... If I sneaked out, I was sure they’d just end up finding me.
“Guess I got no choice... I’ll sleep.”
“A wise choice, my liege.” I’m basically under house arrest, geez... This sucks... I don’t wanna sleep, damn it...
Instead of napping, I fired up my smartphone and browsed some online news from my old world. Oh... that actor died? That’s a shame... Oh, a snap election? I never even got the chance to vote...
I decided to send out some apologetic texts to the guests, since I wasn’t there for the last parts of the festival. I’d make proper phone calls or greetings to them later, but this would suffice for the time being.
I made a mental note to send letters through Gate Mirrors to apologize to people who didn’t have smartphones.
That was kind of inconvenient... The better thing to do would be to induct more countries into the alliance, that way I could give everyone smartphones and coordinate a lot better.
I probably wasted a good chance... This festival had every world leader in the same place, we could’ve done talks... I later learned that the world leaders had gotten a good chance to talk to each other during the after-party proceedings, so things might have gone just fine even without me.
The Demon Kingdom of Xenoahs formally declared its intentions to join the alliance, so there was that at least.
I had time to spare, so I opened up [Storage] and pulled out the books I’d bought in the Reverse World. These were actually duplicates I’d made in the workshop. I’d put the original copies in Babylon’s library. The ones I had were translated from the language they spoke over there, too.
The first book I started reading through was called Redia’s Guide to Magic.
It was a book on magic written by someone named Redia, evidently. The information in it was sparse compared to what was known in this world.
Apparently, in the Reverse World, only people born with special qualities were capable of using magic, and those people were very rare.
I wondered why there wasn’t much magic in their world, but it was probably due to their reliance on technology. The Gollems probably started the decline to begin with.
Rather than honing one’s natural skill to cast [Fireball], it would be much easier to operate a Legacy Gollem that could cast it at the drop of a hat.
There was no training necessary, no fuss or difficulty.
That being said, Gollems were still terribly expensive. The good ones were also hard to obtain. Plus they had limited functionality. If a Gollem had the ability to set a fire, then that was the only ability it could actually trigger.
That was kind of the same as a mage who only had the Fire attribute, though.
I idly read the book and pondered to myself, when a call from Doctor Babylon came in. She’d been busy in the Research Lab for a while.
“Oh, ‘sup?”
“Touya? I did it, Touya! I built the thing! Now you can freely travel to and from the other side!”
“You what?!” Wait, you seriously did it?! You built up a gate I can use in the Reverse World?! The Dimensional Disruptor installed in Babylon was a one-way trip, there was no way back. I had to bypass through the Divine Realm every time if I wanted to come back to this world.
In order to combat that we needed to build up another portal that could be installed on the other side, to allow free travel between worlds. And it seemed like she’d finally done it.
All I had to do was shove it into [Storage] and bring it over to the Reverse World, then find a safe place to install it over there.
“However, activating it still requires a horrifically immense amount of magic power... I don’t think anyone would be able to pass through either side without you, Touya.”
“To be honest, that’s fine. It makes it less likely to be abused.”
“I suppose that’s true... I’d like to begin testing right away! Are you ready?”
“Ah... Sorry, but I can’t. I’m sorta under house arrest...”
“Huh?” I explained the whole irritating situation to her as she grumbled along to my words. Finally, we agreed that we’d do the testing the following day.
It seemed like I had a busy day ahead of me.
Chapter III: The Bloodstained Market
“I call it the Dimensional Disruptor Mk. II! It’s completely identical to the first, though.” Doctor Babylon and I were in the Garden. She was pointing right at an uninstalled portal device right next to the one that was already installed.
It was a silver archway that v
aguely resembled France’s Arc de Triomphe. Just like the first edition that was installed, it had several small meters installed around it.
“These two objects are linked by chronomancy, space-time magic. They’re fixed to each other no matter where the other one goes. Basically, they’re connected. If you install the Mk. II on the other side, then we’ll have an anchor to the Reverse World.”
“Makes sense... So I just need to find a safe place over there, right?” The Dimensional Disruptor wouldn’t activate unless it had vast quantities of magic poured into it, so I wasn’t really worried about visitors from the other side coming in... But on the other hand, I didn’t want it being in a dangerous place where it could get trashed.
I thought putting it in the middle of nowhere and erecting a protective barrier would probably be the safest approach.
It’d be even better if I could get my hands on a Gollem over there. I could task it with protecting the portal.
“Then that means... We’ll be able to visit as well?” Linze spoke up quietly, causing Doctor Babylon to shift her eyes a little.
“Well... Mostly, I guess? It still needs some adjustments, honestly... If someone wants to go with Touya, there are limitations in place right now.”
“Do you mean the number of people that can go, do you?” Yae tilted her head. Crap, I can only take a certain amount of people? But I wanna take everyone!
“There’s no limit to the number of people... The limit is actually weight-based. People other than Touya need to weigh no more than 48kg each. Probably 45kg just to be safe...” Doctor Babylon’s words caused the girls to freeze in place. Yikes... That’s uh... Weight’s a sensitive topic...
I’d made a changing room in the castle with an accurate scale, so everyone should have had a vague idea of how much they weighed.
I didn’t really want to pry, but I had no doubts that Sue and Doctor Babylon would be lower than 45kg. Leen, Yumina, and Lu were probably petite enough to meet the standards as well.
Sakura was expressionless as ever, but Linze, Yae, Elze, and Hilde were all looking around in a small panic.
The girls were around fifteen to sixteen years old... It would be weird for them to weigh over 50kg, wouldn’t it? I realized I didn’t actually know. I had no standard to compare.
It seemed that even in this world, girls were conscious of their bodies. Men didn’t really seem to care so much in general, I noticed.
“Come to think of it, I need to locate the safe space on the other side first, right? You guys shouldn’t all come with me right away... Something bad might happen, and you don’t want to be stranded over there!” I smiled over at the girls to try and give them a little way out, and suddenly the girls all started speaking at once.
“Y-Yes, Touya-dono! You are right, you are! We cannot say that the world over there is safe, we cannot!”
“Yae’s right! We can’t make assumptions!”
“Yeah! It’s not like we’re in any rush! That world ain’t going anywhere!”
“Y-Yes, I don’t mind waiting a little longer for our group trip...” I could tell what they were really thinking, but I decided to let it go. There were some matters that a man had no business intruding on.
Yumina and the smaller girls raised no real objections. They probably couldn’t argue with the fact that it was a bit soon to bring them anyway. Sue got a little grumbly, but she soon settled down.
“That makes safe sense to me, really. I’ll make some fine adjustments while we wait for a better setup on the other side.” Doctor Babylon nodded in agreement. You should’ve just said that from the start!
I shrugged my shoulders and shoved the Dimensional Disruptor Mk. II into my [Storage]. Then I started channeling magic into the active portal. Even though I’d completely filled it last time, just one trip drained the reserves entirely.
We needed to improve the energy conservation features on the portals as well... It was true that it meant I was the only one who could really use it, but I wondered if that was actually safe enough. The meters filled up on the arch as the inside of the structure began to shimmer. The image of a wide-open plain fell into clear view.
The Mk. II was in my [Storage], so it had just connected to some random location in the Reverse World again.
That was fine, though. I could easily use [Gate] to warp to Allent, that capital city I’d visited.
Last time Kokuyou, Kougyoku, and Sango came with me, so I decided to take Kohaku and Luli with me this time.
“Are you fine taking those two with you, Master?”
“I do hope they don’t squabble...”
“I certainly worry...”
“We won’t fight!!”
“Enough, let’s go.” Kohaku and Luli were grumbling at the other Heavenly Beasts, but they reassured them it’d be fine. I didn’t have time to deal with the fuss, so we just headed off.
“Alright, I’m off. I’ll be back either tomorrow or the day after.” Time dilation often happened during the teleportation process, so it’d probably take at least a day to find a safe spot. I was sure it’d be fine.
“Don’t do anything insane like you usually do, Touya...” I felt like Yumina had stabbed me right through the heart with her words. It wasn’t as if I meant to do all those crazy things... They just happened to end up that way.
“It is not just the fault of Touya-dono’s surroundings, it is not.”
“He always takes spur-of-the-moment actions.”
“Don’t go poking your head into any unnecessary trouble, alright?”
“A-Alright. I’m off!” Yae, Hilde, and Elze all performed follow-up attacks to Yumina’s words, so I escaped by jumping through the portal.
The weird sensation of passing through a rubbery membrane overcame me again, but the plains I’d seen through the arch finally came into proper view.
I saw a rocky cliff face not far ahead, and the area behind me seemed dusty and dry. The place kind of resembled the American wild west. I wondered if horse-mounted gunslingers would appear...
“So this is the Reverse World...”
“Interesting seeing it with my own two eyes.” The two of them looked around with curious gazes. It wasn’t like the whole world looked like this... I’d been to cooler places.
“Alright let’s see... Wow, I’m a ways off from Allent.” I looked up my location on the map and I was far to the south-east of the Reverse World... The adjacent location to where I was in the regular world would be around Sandora. Allent was approximately located in Roadmare’s territory if we were mapping equivalents.
Not like it mattered, I could easily open up a [Gate] and warp over to civilization.
“Hmm... Now then... I could always just install the portal here... There’s not a soul around.” I could only see vast, dry plains. There was no trace of human life in this place. It kind of seemed like a place that no human would ever visit. It was basically a perfect spot.
“My liege, this place isn’t necessarily safe. There may be wandering beasts around...”
“Good point...” Kohaku was right. I remembered that two-headed monster I’d encountered when I first came to the Reverse World, there could easily be similar creatures.
I could always set up an invisible barrier by casting [Shield], or disguise the portal as a rock or something by using [Mirage], but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Having a piece of land or a house would be the best bet. That way I could safely install the portal in the basement or something.
Having someone mind the house would be useful, but probably not practical.
I could always call a summoned beast to act as a guard... But it’d vanish the moment I went home. That was unideal, too... I should’ve asked Doc Babylon to make another magic storage tank...
“It might just be in my best interests to get a Gollem after all...” Thus I decided my next course of action. Sancho told me that anyone in this world could get a Gollem, so long as they had the absurd amount of money required to buy
one.
I’d seen Gollems acting as bouncers or bodyguards in town. I could maybe pick up a cheap one and upgrade it or enchant it so it’d be stronger...
“Guess I need to earn some money, then.” I didn’t have any money to my name in this world. I’d sold some gold ingots to Sancho, but I ended up betting all of those earnings away at a casino...
Wait... I helped the Red Cats with that orichalcum and adamantite... They still owe me!
The last time I’d seen them, I’d helped them escape from the knights attacking their hideout. I had no money right now, so I knew what to do. I just had to collect what I was owed!
“Uhm... Let’s see here... Search... Red Cat...” I searched for Nia, their leader. She was currently in a place the map referred to as the Kingdom of Streign. Specifically, a town named Carne.
She wasn’t directly in the town, though. They called themselves chivalrous, but they were still a band of thieves. It was only natural they’d want to keep things on the down-low.
I checked the location further and found they were in a forest. The marker on the map showed that there was a stone-built structure there... It was called the Douze Fort Remnants... So they were probably using that place as their current forward base. My map app wasn’t sophisticated enough to show me more than basic info.
I searched for other members of their group, but there weren’t even thirty there. That seemed like too few, so I wondered if they were on a mission.
Well... Nia’s gonna be able to help me, I’m sure. I guess I know where to go.
I couldn’t use [Gate] since I’d never been before, and [Teleport] was an unstable choice since the place was too far away to get an accurate destination in mind. If I used it without proper care, I could end up in the middle of someone’s house, or a lake. Luckily the spell didn’t let you phase into existing solid matter... That was a small relief.
[Teleport] really wasn’t suitable for long-distance travel.
But I rationalized that it was a forest location, so I probably had room for some margin of error. I checked the map once more, and none of the Red Cats were in the forest other than the ones at the fort. It wouldn’t have been a problem even if they saw me, though. They should’ve been informed of my abilities. Thus I decided teleporting was the best idea.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 13 Page 11