In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 2

by Patora Fuyuhara

  “Gotcha. He has my permission. Let him do whatever he wants.”

  “As you wish, sir.” With that settled, I soon realized that I couldn’t see Lapis or Cecile anywhere. What’re they up to...? I asked Laim, who said that Lapis already went to sleep due to business in the marketplace early in the morning, while Cecile went to see a friend who was visiting the capital.

  “Is there anything you wish for me to tell them, sir?”

  “Nope, I was just curious. Alright you two, let’s go.”

  “Okay!”

  “Indeed.” I opened a [Gate] and traveled back to our carriage with the girls. It only took a moment for me to realize that something was off. The forest was overflowing with the cries of countless animals. It was completely different from when I left. The sounds were on another level entirely. I ran out of the carriage, quickly finding everyone else. The soldiers and knights were brandishing their blades and looking out for any hint of danger. What the hell did I miss?!

  “Touya!”

  “What’s going on here?”

  “We don’t know. The animals in the forest suddenly started panicking.” Yumina ran up to me, completely perplexed. Soon after, the rabbit beastman, Lain, looked upward.

  “U-Up in the sky... S-Something huge is heading our way!” Everyone followed his gaze. As sudden gusts of wind rustled the treetops, I saw something large glide through the night sky. What on not-Earth was that? I could only make out a dark silhouette, but the beastmen, having eyes that could see in the dark, clearly saw what it was.

  “A dragon... Why is it here of all places?!” Garm spoke words that conveyed his evident confusion as he stared straight up into the sky. His eyes were open wide, clearly showing his lack of understanding.

  A dragon? A giant, winged... lizard? A dragon flew over us just now?

  “B-But why would there be a dragon here?!” Olga rushed to her sister, speaking in a frantic voice as she cradled the little girl.

  “Huh? Is it not normal to see dragons in this area or something?” Arma looked scared beyond belief, but I had to get an answer from her sister.

  “D-Dragons... They normally inhabit the Sanctuary Grounds in the middle of this country. That’s their territory. No one’s allowed to go there, and dragons don’t terrorize the people as long as no one intrudes on their land. That’s how it’s supposed to work, but...”

  “Did someone enter the Sanctuary?!” Olga’s words made Garm’s voice turn rough. So this might be the dragons’ reaction to trespassers in their home... This is bad. In their eyes, it’s probably justified anger. If they believed their land was being invaded, they were only acting how you’d expect them to...

  However, Olga shook her head, clearly denying that idea.

  “No, that’s not the only explanation. Every few years, young dragons appear in our settlements and wreak havoc. Even if we cut down the adolescents that leave the Sanctuary, the others never come over to avenge them. That’s because they are the intruders in that situation. That being said, though...”

  “Can you beat a dragon?” Garm turned to answer my question.

  “If we had a hundred of our best, like the elite royal soldiers, it might be possible. But any attacks that don’t critically injure them only make them even angrier.”

  What? A hundred of Mismede’s best soldiers? And even then, it “might” be possible...? Are dragons really that strong? That aside, if this dragon really is just some teenager running wild, it means that even the proud flying lizards have unruly brats among them, huh? I can’t think of anything more irritating. It’s basically a living natural calamity, right next to tornadoes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions in terms of disaster potential.

  I took out my smartphone, started the map app, and ran a search for “dragon.”

  A number of pins dropped down somewhere in the middle of Mismede on the map. Guess that’s the Sanctuary Grounds, then... So that means this lone pin over here is the dragon that was just above us. Hm... it’s gradually moving toward... Oh. Crap.

  “Hey! The dragon’s flying straight for Eld...!”

  “What?!” Everyone was shocked at my words.

  “Why’s it heading to Eld of all places?!”

  “There’s a large pasture south of the village. Is it aiming for the cattle, maybe?” I had the thought that maybe if the dragon ate some cows or sheep, it’d be satisfied enough to spare the village. Garm quickly dispelled that theory with a harsh truth, however...

  “Once it gets itself a taste of meat, the dragon will just strike again. And when it comes to dragon food, we’re as good as any cattle. Well, I’m sure some dragons have individual preferences, but my point still stands.”

  At the rate things are going, the village is gonna be wiped off the map. Hmm, my Smartphone Strike has a limited range... With this much distance between us, nothing I try will work.

  “What do we do? Our mission is to protect the ambassador. We cannot allow ourselves to let any harm come her way.”

  “Khh...” Lyon’s words made Garm grit his teeth. To a man that serves his country, orders from higher-ups were absolute. If we were to go to the village and something happened to Olga, it would become an international incident. However, having half of our guards stay behind and making the others go save the villagers wasn’t a great idea, either. And I’d never visited Eld, so I couldn’t create a [Gate] to fast travel there. What am I supposed to do?

  “Do you not have something you can do, Touya-dono...?”

  “The problem is exactly that, Yae. I don’t.” I folded my arms and began thinking. Unlike the soldiers here, we aren’t obligated to do anything. We aren’t under any orders; we simply took a quest from the guild. And protecting Olga wasn’t a part of that arrangement at all. Our only role here is to deliver the fake teleport mirror to Mismede...

  “Wait...!” Right, that’s our task! I took the mirror from the inner carriage and leaned it against the outside of the carriage. The mirror itself was as big as the door, so it was hard to pull out quickly.

  “Touya, what’s this?” Lyon looked at it with a puzzled expression on his face. In fact, just about everyone was tilting their heads in confusion.

  “Err... right. This is my Teleport Mirror. It’s one of two. The other is in the royal palace back in Belfast, and you can get there in an instant by using this one as a door. I was thinking of letting Olga and Arma take refuge in the palace while we deal with this situation. What do you think?”

  “I had no idea you had something so powerful...” Olga muttered.

  “Our job is to get it to the Kingdom of Mismede. King Belfast himself gave us permission to use it in emergencies.” I spoke all the lies I could think of. I told them that it could only be used for one round trip per day and that it couldn’t handle crowds of people. I spent most of my rant trying to talk about how safe an item it was. Most of my appeal was directed toward the Mismedian soldiers.

  “Understood, then. We will use this to take refuge in the royal palace. While we’re gone, please do your best to protect the villagers in Eld.”

  “Very well, ma’am. Touya, do what you have to.” Garm gave a nod upon hearing Olga’s decision.

  “Got it. Now, Olga, Arma, Yumina, and... Garm, would you like to confirm what’s on the other side with your own eyes?”

  “M-Me? I don’t know if I, uh...” Garm sounded a little concerned. I placed my hand on the mirror.

  “[Gate].” Careful that they didn’t hear me, I spoke my magic word. The portal of light appeared a few centimeters in front of the mirror. This is actually a much better method than having to use [Enchant] on the thing so soon. We’re not at the Mismede Palace yet, after all.

  The first to enter was Yumina. She was followed by Garm, Arma, Olga, and myself, after which the portal silently closed. Standing in Yumina’s room in the palace, I turned around to see the connecting mirror. Good thing we prepared this in advance.

  “So... th-this place is...?”

  “Belfast’s roya
l palace, yes. Alright, Yumina. Go and explain the situation to His Majesty.”

  “Very well. Be careful, Touya...” I briefly clarified where we were to Garm, who was so dumbfounded his mouth was hanging open, and told Yumina to handle the rest.

  “Hey, Garm. Did that ease your mind a little? We’ve gotta hurry back now.”

  “Ah... y-yes. Time’s wasting, you’re right!” Just as I did the first time, I created a [Gate] a few centimeters in front of the castle’s mirror and passed through it.

  By the time we returned to the woodland, everyone was ready to move out.

  “Alright, you lot! The ambassador is safe now! We will now move to protect the villagers of Eld from the dragon!” Seeing that their captain had returned safe and sound, the beastmen let out an enthusiastic roar in response to his orders. I watched them as I walked over to Lyon.

  “What about you and the knights, Lyon? There’s no obligation for Belfastians to help out here...”

  “If I were to claim that this was no concern of mine, my father would surely strike me with a fiery fist. We’re helping too, naturally. I am certain His Majesty would will it as well.” Lyon declared his resolution with not a hint of hesitation in his voice. Apparently, the soldiers had already discussed the matter at hand. Works for me.

  My map showed that it would still take a while for the dragon to reach the village. Nonetheless, we had to hurry. Lucky for us, this beast seems to be a bit slow. If we go as fast as our carriages can manage, we’ll get there about an hour after the dragon makes contact.

  Desperately hoping that we’d be able to avoid any fatalities, we jumped into the carriages and rode off at full speed.

  ◇　◇　◇

  The village was a sea of flames. People were running, screaming, and stumbling in a panic. A black dragon was flying above the carnage, vomiting fireballs upon the settlement like the place was some kind of playground.

  It had mighty, robust limbs, a long, scaled tail, and large, menacing wings that sprouted from its back. Its red eyes, shining in the darkness of night, made it seem as though the dragon was deriving some kind of sadistic pleasure from the destruction below.

  “Prioritize saving the civilians! Carry those who can’t move to safety!” Garm barked orders to his men. The beastmen hastily began helping those who couldn’t move due to injury and pulling out people buried under support beams, burning wreckage, and other such debris.

  “You heard him, men! Let none be left behind!” By Lyon’s command, the Belfastian knights joined the beastmen in helping the villagers.

  “Alright, we have to lure that dragon away from the village.” I’ll get that scaleface’s attention and have him glide away from here. With any luck, that’ll give Garm, Lyon, and their men all the time they need to evacuate the villagers. It’s a basic plan, but that’s probably for the best right now... The men’s mission was to protect Olga. They couldn’t afford to lose their lives to some random dragon attack. Also, our target was high up in the sky. Standard weapon attacks wouldn’t reach it. It was all up to magic users like me and Linze.

  “Strike true, Light! Sparkling Holy Lance: [Shining Javelin]!” A single ray of light tore the veil of night asunder. However, the black dragon gracefully evaded it and puked out another fireball.

  “Ghh! [Boost]!” I buffed my physical abilities and hastily switched positions. The fireball hit the ground and created an explosion that only served to spread more flames.

  This is bad... If we keep fighting here, it’s only going to result in more damage.

  “Kohaku!”

  “Very well!” In response to my call, Kohaku reverted to its true form.

  “Linze, hop on!”

  “O-Okay...!” I climbed on to Kohaku’s back, pulled Linze up to me, and made her sit up front. With that, we sped off away from the village.

  I turned around to see the dragon spew a number of fireballs in our direction. We rode Kohaku through the grove as the tiger skillfully evaded the onslaught. Good, we’ve got that brat’s attention now.

  I brought Linze with me because she and I were the only ones capable of fighting the dragon while it remained in the sky. We just need to take out its wings... Once we manage that, the real battle will begin.

  We came out of the grove and entered a wide pasture. A good place to fight. There was nothing to block our sight or hinder our movements. The collateral damage would be much smaller here, too. It didn’t have any good cover, but beggars couldn’t be choosers...

  “GRRrrRrraAaaAaAAGGGHhhH!!” The dragon let out a deafening roar. In response, Kohaku suddenly began to snarl furiously.

  “Impudent whelp! You dare insult my master?! You are naught but an airborne newt!”

  “Huh? You can understand that noise?” Surprised, I dismounted Kohaku as the tiger began translating the dragon’s words.

  “It said ‘How dare you try and spoil my fun, you insolent worm. I’ll rip you to shreds and eat the gristle off your charred bones.’ What a disgraceful creature... You snot-nosed brat, you cannot even speak a civilized language! I swear, this is among the many reasons why I so despise the Green Monarch’s kin!” Expressing more fury through expression than I thought a tiger capable of, Kohaku glared up at the black dragon in the sky.

  “...‘Spoil my fun’? So you’re telling me it attacked the village as some kind of prank? What a selfish little...” I could totally understand if it was looking for something it needed to survive, or if it was exacting revenge for the defilement of the Sanctuary Grounds. If it was something like that, I had planned on chasing it off with a little pain. But now it turns out that this thing came and attacked the people for nothing but its own amusement?

  I refuse to hold back against something so sinister.

  “Linze. I’ll bring it to the ground. Get ready to slice off its wings.”

  “U-Understood, then...” Linze gave me a slight nod. I focused my magic and cast a Null spell.

  “[Multiple]!” Several magic circles appeared around me, all aimed at the dragon. One became two, two became four, four became eight... Once the number crossed the triple digits, I cast my next spell.

  “Strike true, Light! Sparkling Holy Lance: [Shining Javelin]!” In a flash, the black dragon was assaulted by a barrage of one hundred and twenty-eight sparkling lances. I couldn’t use high quality magic yet, but I was unmatched when it came to quantity. It was much like not being able to use bazookas, but being skilled with machine guns.

  “GRrrYyYAaaAaAGGhH?!” The black dragon tried evading the shining onslaught, but dodging a hundred and twenty-eight of them seemed far too tall an order. Many of the projectiles dug into its body, drawing blood from its wounds and causing it to slump to the ground below.

  Unfortunately, it quickly got up and spread its wings in an attempt to rise again, but Linze didn’t allow that to go through.

  “Come forth, Water! Feel My Blade, Both Cold and Clear: [Aqua Cutter]!” A sharp edge of compressed water went flying toward it. With a slicing sound, about half of one of the dragon’s dark wings was sheared off, and it fell to the ground with a crash.

  “GHhhrRRraAaAHHhH!!!” The dragon released a louder roar this time, one I assumed to be out of pain instead of an attempt to speak. It tried to get up and fly again. But alas, unable to balance itself, the dragon fell to the ground moments after taking flight. We had taken its ability to fly away.

  The black dragon suddenly glared at us with those intense red eyes. I could feel hatred swirling and brewing within them as it opened its maw. The motion was unlike the times it launched fireballs at us. I had no idea what it was trying, but I knew it was bad news. Taking Linze into my arms, I double-checked that [Boost] was still active before speeding across the ground on my enhanced legs.

  Seconds later, the black dragon opened its mouth, unleashing a flow of burning crimson that quickly engulfed the area. It spread from its mouth like a flamethrower’s nozzle.

  Guess it has different types of flame breath. We were unable to g
et closer to the dragon, and that new menacing blaze was doing a good job of keeping us at bay.

  Linze tried launching another [Aqua Cutter], but the wall created by the beast’s fiery breath reduced its power and dispersed any damage it could’ve done.

  Suddenly, a silhouette dropped from above the dragon.

  “Hyah!” It was Yae. As she fell, she sliced into the dragon’s right eye.

  “It’s [Boost] time!” Following Yae’s display, Elze jumped out of a grove, gathered all her might, and launched a fortified strike into the black dragon’s side.

  “GHhRRraAaAHhH?!”

  “Ow... damn it! Its hide is way too tough!”

  “At least this one does not regenerate as the crystal creature did, it does not!” Complaining here and there, Yae and Elze distanced themselves from the dragon.

  With its eye lost, the beast became enraged and released an onslaught of fireballs and blaze flows at the two.

  “Whoa?!”

  “We must get back, Elze-dono!” Yae and Elze hastily retreated. The fire that appeared behind them lit up the whole area.

  With the dragon’s attention shifted to the girls, I looked for an opening, took out my katana, and closed in on it. With a quick jump, I landed a katana drop strike on the head of the repugnant reptile.

  What followed was a snapping and clanging sound... Even with the effects of [Boost] amplifying my body, my attack did nothing but let out a metallic sound and break my katana in half.

  “Gah...!” This guy’s tough as nails... I should’ve followed Yae’s example and taken out its other eye.

  The black dragon bent its head in my direction, its sole eye fixing itself on me and narrowing. Moments later, the raging beast gaped its maw and readied itself for another blast of flaming breath.

  Well... shit. Just as I thought my end was nigh, a knife flew in out of nowhere and dug deep into its left eye.

  Screaming in pain after losing its second eye, the dragon threw its head backward and released an unrestrained flow of flame.