“Work, huh...? What are you good at?”
“Back in Xenoahs, I was a member of the military, and I also performed private bodyguard work on occasion. If possible, I’d like to find similar work in Brunhild...”
Bodyguard, eh? That definitely means she’s pretty special. Not just anyone gets to be a bodyguard. She’s certainly got the mannerisms of a stoic soldier, too. But that just makes me more curious about why she doesn’t want to go back. Is she a criminal or something...? Nah, that can’t be it.
“Grand Duke... Can we not hire her?”
“Hm? Ah... It’s not like she can’t join our knight order, but...” It was quite rare to see Sakura so energized about something. She was the kind of girl who did things at her own pace, so it made sense she’d have particular interests. Spica looked over toward me.
“It seems I’ve asked the impossible, haven’t I...?”
“Well, maybe... you could join our knight order as a rookie? We don’t really have anyone who needs guarding right now. The wages won’t be great, but they’d be steady. How about it?”
“I accept. I shall become your strength, Your Highness.” Spica stared straight at me with stoic resolve in her voice. Her eyes too, lit up with confidence and strength behind them.
“Alrighty then. For now, we’ll have you take the basic test. I can’t just hire you on the spot, after all. It’s a committee decision.”
“Of course. Thank you.” She bowed her head once more.
Alright, c’mon... Enough bowing.
“...I’m pleased.”
“As am I! Thank you so much, Lady Sakura.”
“A-Ah... I’m just Sakura...”
“Hm? But you are a fiancee of the Grand Duke... I could never refer to you so casually.”
Nononononooo. Nope. That’s not it . Not a thing of it. No sir. No way, no how. I know I have a lot, but she isn’t one of them!
I explained Sakura’s situation, and Spica nodded slowly.
“Forgive me... I was unaware. Memory loss, is it? I’m so sorry, it must be a painful experience for you.”
“Not at all. In fact, this country is rather nice... Many good things happen here. You’ll grow to like it too, Spica. I’m certain of it.” Sakura spoke her words as if they were no big deal. Spica seemed puzzled at first, but her expression gradually turned into a smile. It almost looked like she was feeling something personal and precious.
“I was once told something very similar by someone else... Lady Sakura, you are a wonderful person, thank you... You actually remind me of a girl I once knew.”
“I’m no lady.”
“Apologies, but you are an honorable lady who saved my life. Should I forget the debt of gratitude I owe you, I would tarnish my honor. Even if the honor of my family is now low as mud, I still—” Spica suddenly closed her mouth. She put her hand up against it as if she’d said too much.
It sounded to me like something had happened in the demon kingdom to damage her family name. I neglected to press her for further information, though.
Her body was in good shape, so I decided to take her to Yumina. The first thing we’d do was make sure she was decent by having the Mystic Eye appraise her character.
I opened up a [Gate] and took us to the castle courtyard. Spica had never traveled like that before, so she looked around in wonder as I completely ignored her and had Kougyoku call Yumina over.
After a little wait, Yumina showed up. Spica immediately prostrated herself out of respect. Yumina wasn’t just my fiancee, she was also the princess of Belfast, so I decided not to freak out or anything. It was a standard show of respect.
“Please raise yourself. You are Spica, yes?”
“I am.” Spica stood up and looked directly into Yumina’s eyes. After a moment of silence was shared between the two, Yumina smiled.
“You seem wonderful. I’m certain you’re pure of heart enough to represent Brunhild as a magnificent knight.”
“Ah... Thank you?” Spica stood still and gave a confused thanks to Yumina. She didn’t fully understand what had just happened. Either way, she had the character approval.
“Let’s test your abilities next. Follow after me.” We exited the courtyard and headed toward the training grounds.
Everyone was training as usual, working their hardest. The knights who had been knocked down in their mock battles were stretching and doing cardio. Wait... Waiiit a second... There are way too many people here! Moroha! You beat down too many guys again...
Everyone stopped what they were doing when they saw us, but I told them to continue training and not to mind us, so they did.
Either way, I could feel all the knights looking over toward us. Probably because of Spica, I guess. Dark elves were rare, and she was particularly beautiful. I wasn’t all that surprised.
“Alrighty then... Hey, Nikola.”
“Yes? Need me for something, Your Highness?” I called out to Vice-Commander Nikola. He was seated on a nearby bench polishing his halberd.
It was a test for Spica, so I wanted to have him choose the most appropriate opponent for her.
After he chose the soldier, we headed to the weapon storage shed. Spica picked up a sword and shield. She balanced them both in her hands and got a good feel for the weapons, then we headed back.
She and the opponent that Nikola had chosen bowed to one another and prepared to fight. He was wielding a short spear.
The match began, and Spica found herself on the receiving end of a flurry of thrusts. She blocked each and every one with her shield and, finding a gap, jabbed her sword toward her enemy’s chest.
Not a single attack had managed to land on her. She smashed her shield forward against her enemy to stagger him, and then swept her foot against his legs, knocking him to the ground.
She held her sword down against the throat of her fallen enemy. Victory was hers.
“The Shieldguard technique, it is.”
“Yep, it’s Shieldguard.” Yae and Hilde began murmuring to each other. They caught me off-guard. I didn’t even know they were nearby!
Shield...guard...? I mean, sure she’s guarding, but what’s special about that...?
“It is a special technique employed by guardsmen. It is different from standard swordplay, it is. The focus is on defense and parrying, it is. That, and preventing the enemies from advancing. It is a technique that prioritizes control over attack.”
“Yeah, it’s amazing... She shifts her body to block all the attacks, and completely renders the hits useless. She totally ruins the enemy’s posture and causes him to stagger. It’s a difficult technique to master, for sure.”
Hm, so she makes her enemy waste energy and effort. Something like that, huh...?
So long as she maintained her defenses, she could guide her enemy into a situation where battle would be favorable for her. After driving her foe into a corner, she’d have free control over his movements. It was a way of incapacitating without killing, all without dropping one’s guard. Even killing the enemy would be easy after closing the gap, though.
“So she needs to wield a shield, or...”
“Or her power is diminished, it is. Considerably so.” Parrying with a sword was possible too, but it would be a lot more difficult to control the flow of battle. A technique built around shields... I had to admit, I was intrigued.
“Sword techniques that make use of shields are uncommon. The Frennels are one of the demonkin families that have mastered the art. They’re one of the five families that act as advisers to the overlord of Xenoahs.” Sakura spoke up as she watched Spica’s success. She sure was well-informed.
“Or at least, that’s what I read in a book. The Frennel family is renowned. It seems she’s related to them.”
“Ooh, I see. But why would someone from such a noble house come all the way out here?” There were likely reasons why she couldn’t talk about it, so I didn’t want to pry. Regardless, she was definitely a good person at heart, Yumina had proven that. If she was
trying to start a new life in Brunhild, then I wasn’t going to stand in the way of that.
I looked toward Nikola, and he nodded in affirmation. Spica was inducted to our knight order that very day. Here she’d find a new beginning, and a new life.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Hm... So she’s from the Frennel family, is she? Sss...”
“You know them?”
“Naturally. They’re one of the five military adviser families of Xenoahs, and their Shieldguard technique is well-known. Sss...” The two lamia sisters, Mulette and Charette, were clearing up a little in the castle, so I’d stopped to talk to them a bit. They were working directly underneath old man Naito. He was in charge of agriculture and construction, so they handled documents, planning permission, and blueprinting.
Spica had been on my mind lately, so I decided to ask them a bit about her. After all, they were demonkin like her.
She was clearly from a prestigious household, and her ability was nothing to scoff at either. It had me curious about why she’d leave Xenoahs, even if I didn’t want to pry about it directly.
“The Frennel family are direct bodyguards to the royalty of Xenoahs. Sss... Each member of royal blood, including the overlord, has a member of the Frennel family attached to them like a personal shadow guardian. At least that’s how the rumors go. Sss...”
“So Spica might’ve been a bodyguard for one of the royals in Xenoahs?”
“I’m not sure. Sss... As far as I know, male members of the Frennel family are assigned to male members of the overlord’s family. Same for females. But from what I understand, there are no female members of the royal family right now. Sss...” Mulette crossed her arms and furrowed her brow, as if she was trying to think hard. Her tail lightly rapped against the ground.
Wait... That is Mulette, right? Or wait, is that Charette... These two look way too similar...
Elze and Linze were twins, but they weren’t identical. When I asked the two lamias about being identical twins, they looked at me like I was an idiot and said their scale patterns were completely different. I didn’t notice, though.
“So wait... That means the overlord doesn’t have a wife or anything?”
“If I recall correctly, his first and second wives died of sickness. Sss... Each of them birthed a prince, but no princess. Sss...” That made sense enough. So in other words, there were no female royals to assign female Frennels to, which meant that Spica probably hadn’t served as a royal bodyguard. That didn’t really answer what she meant when she talked about her family being disgraced, though...
“Do you know of anything that might’ve disgraced the Frennel family lately?”
“No clue. Sss... We left Xenoahs long ago, after all. Sss...”
Hmph. My investigation didn’t really bear any fruit in the end. Still, that didn’t matter too much. I didn’t want to invade her privacy too deeply.
I said goodbye to the lamia sisters and headed to the training grounds. Spica was there, breathing heavily and dabbing her forehead with a towel.
“Yo.”
“Y-Your Highness? Do you require my services?” Spica got up from the bench and bowed down to me. I really hated dealing with military-minded people like her. I told her to stand up right away.
“How are things? Settling in okay?”
“I am, thank you. Everyone’s been treating me very kindly. They don’t care that I’m demonkin, nor that I’m a woman... It’s very refreshing.” There were definitely more female knights in Brunhild’s order than there were of other nations. We had a lot of demi-humans in comparison, too. Not including Mismede, of course.
“Still, the might of this nation’s army is certainly a wonder. I was caught by surprise.”
Well, that’s because we work so hard... Kinda like Sparta. They all get worked to the bone. Frankly, I’d have been surprised if my soldiers weren’t especially strong.
“A-And Lady Moroha’s power is, well...” Spica shuddered slightly, as if she were reliving something unpleasant.
“Ah... So you’ve already faced her?”
“If I might be honest... she completely shattered my confidence as a soldier. My Shieldguard technique was entirely useless. It made me realize just how much I relied on it succeeding...” Moroha wasn’t exactly a fair measure of strength to compare oneself to, though. If humanity treated her as the standard, then they’d be taking on a challenge they’d never be able to surpass.
Spica bringing up her technique had reminded me of something I’d been told by Sakura, though. She said that the Frennel family used a unique kind of shield.
“Ah, it’s a dome-like shield with a slight curve. There’s a sharp protrusion in the center, too. It’s primarily used to stab.”
“Hm, I see.” I took out some phrasium from [Storage] and promptly used [Modeling] as well. Let’s see here...
Spica was taken aback by my sudden usage of the spell, but quickly regained her composure.
“Sorry to trouble you, but the curve is a little less steep... And could I trouble you to make it a little smaller, as well...?”
“Hm...” I made the adjustments as she requested. Then, I used [Gravity] to reduce its weight, and put on a few generic strengthening enchantments for good measure as well.
Spica took the completed shield into her hands and lightly dusted her fingers over it. After that, she took a combat stance and began to thrust and swing it here and there.
“The shield’s crystal-like material means my view isn’t obstructed... It’s also exceptionally light and easy to handle. Thank you, it’s wonderful.”
“That’s not all. The material is extremely durable, so it’s not likely to ever be damaged by an enemy weapon. I’ve also given it an enchantment that slightly absorbs and counters magical attacks that hit it.” I hadn’t given Spica a complete set of standard Brunhild knight equipment, so I took the opportunity to make her a sword and a suit of armor. I didn’t do anything special to those, though.
“This armor... This blade... If only I had something so powerful back... Back then...” She muttered something sorrowful. Though I heard her words clearly, I decided not to pry any deeper on the subject.
“Master.” Someone suddenly spoke up behind me. I turned to find Cesca, clad in her usual maid outfit.
“A priority message has come from Rosetta. The current project is complete.”
“Oh, wow. Faster than I expected.” I really thought it’d take quite a bit longer than that. But that was good timing. I’d be able to debut it during the afternoon’s alliance meeting.
I said a brief goodbye to Spica and headed off to Babylon with Cesca.
“Interesting, Touya... This artifact can detect the presence of Phrase activity?”
“Bet your butt it can, Relisha. I call it the Sensor Plate.” It was a kind of liquefied crystal that had been solidified and turned into a black tablet.
The tool could predict how many of the Phrase would appear, exactly what type they were, approximately what time they’d appear, and their exact location.
It didn’t have much of a broad range, but one was enough to cover Brunhild. Larger countries like Belfast, Regulus, and Lestia would need multiple to cover their full territories, though. Even Lihnea would need a little more than Brunhild’s one.
“I’d like to have these installed in every guild in the registered nations. We can have adventurers handle the lesser types that appear. If any intermediate ones appear, we’ll notify the government and have the Frame Gears deployed. If an even stronger one appears, we can call on the alliance for aid. Provided there’s enough of them to handle, at least.”
“The guild wholeheartedly approves of this plan. We’d like to avoid another Yulong incident, after all.” Guildmaster Relisha smiled as she spoke. She was seated around the alliance round table with the world leaders.
I sought out the guild’s cooperation, because they were prominent in every nation. That included nations that weren’t part of the alliance. Their informatio
n network was also something to be desired.
The current plan was to request cooperation of the government of any nation we get an alert from, if they weren’t in the alliance we’d try to open up fair diplomacy and convince them our Frame Gears were necessary. Of course, they could still choose not to believe us. But they’d have a hard time denying the truth when it stood in their country and made mincemeat out of their citizens.
“Hmph... Wonderful. We’ll be able to prepare for them well in advance now.”
“That reminds me... Those fragments of the broken ones... Phrasium, was it? Sounds like a pretty useful resource to have.” The Emperor of Regulus gave his approval as the beastking mused about how to make use of the crystal debris. Naturally, I’d told the other leaders about what made phrasium so unique. They’d noticed the material used by our knight order and some of our Frame Gears anyway, so I had to.
We also decided that the country that ‘hosts’ the Phrase invasion would receive eighty percent of the material, and I’d receive the remaining twenty as a rental fee for the Frame Gears. Obviously I wouldn’t get any if they took out the Phrase without using my power, though.
Phrasium had three qualities that made it especially useful.
It increased in density and hardness directly proportional to how much magic was poured into it.
It regenerated itself constantly until its magic reserves were depleted.
It could amplify spell power if it was used as a magical catalyst.
That last point was especially interesting. The body of a Phrase acted much like a spellstone, but had no particular type affinity and was much more conductive to magical amplification.
The only issue was how much it weighed, and mass producing them. I couldn’t reduce their weight with [Gravity], and I couldn’t get them to change form on the fly with [Modeling], either.
The material could be cut, so that wasn’t the issue. The problem was in reforming it. Still, it seemed like the other nations would be able to make a scalemail-like armor out of it by combining smaller pieces and looping them together.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 9 Page 9