“Hey now... You don’t get to pilot.”
Paula shook her head in denial, and even got on all fours to beg.
When the hell did Leen program that...
“No, I mean... your limbs don’t extend all the way to the pedals and the controls.” Paula fell over with a thud, as if realizing just that.
Did you really not know? Her acting skills were gradually getting more impressive. I thought maybe we could make a little money from putting her in a show or something. We couldn’t copy her, since the Workshop didn’t copy over enchantments, but if we could mass-produce Paula, we could make a theater troupe or something. They couldn’t talk, so we’d need a narrator...
As I entertained such silly thoughts, I left Paula behind. She was still continuing her act as I walked toward the castle.
Eventually, she noticed she was being ignored and tottered on after us.
Heh... Funny little thing...
Chapter III: The Golden Gourd
“This is pretty fast...¨
“Right?” Babylon’s Hangar had a super fast flying boat in it, so I decided to take it out for a spin. I was currently in the skies above Regulus. Monica was piloting for me.
The name I’d given to this flying boat was Gungnir. It was quite a long vehicle that almost resembled a bamboo reed. As it sailed through the air it kind of reminded one of a winged spear, hence the name.
Even though it was flying, I couldn’t really figure out how it worked in terms of science or aerodynamics... So I assumed it was powered by some magical source.
Much as the name suggested, the flying boat was capable of soaring through the air above the ground, or on the water. It was pretty darned fast, too, but I was pretty sure I could go faster by using [Fly].
It could carry a maximum of twelve passengers at a time, though. The spacious interior was definitely a positive.
Originally it was powered by Ether Liquid, but we remodeled it and added new engine functions so it passively absorbed magic from the surrounding atmosphere, much like the newer model Frame Gears.
“This thing can combine with Sue’s Frame Gear, right?”
“Um, that’s totally possible, yeah! The rear end can do the transforming part, and stuff. Our presence won’t be necessary, as it has a fully autonomous autopilot system.” Gungnir had an autopilot too, one we’d recently installed. It had full voice recognition as well. You simply had to hop in and state where you’d like it to take you, and then it would! Still, it was a rudimentary system that couldn’t adapt on the fly, so relying on it too much wouldn’t be wise.
“We’ve like, totally installed a stealth cloak around the flying boat, too. Though its noises can still be heard...”
“Is Gungnir equipped with anything?”
“Uhhm... Nope! But it’s a rather sturdy construction. You could easily shatter a Phrase by ramming into it.”
Maybe for a Lesser Construct... I don’t exactly want any suicide attacks done against Uppers or anything.
Gungnir passed over Roadmare and flew through the skies of Yulong.
“...This place is still a mess, huh?” I looked down and saw the remnants of the Phrase rampage. I saw scorched earth, ruined houses, uprooted trees, and charred devastation.
But even amidst the wreckage, I could see signs of life carrying on. I saw some villages well underway in their reconstruction efforts. It seemed that there were good and earnest people, desperate to live their lives in their homeland.
It almost made me a little sad to think that some of these people might consider me their enemy.
《My Lord.》
“Huh? Kohaku?” As I gazed down beneath me, a telepathic message came in from Kohaku. I wondered what she wanted.
《Lady Yae says she wishes to talk to y— Ghah! “Touya-dono, can you hear me?!”》
“Yeah, I hear you... Be gentle with Kohaku, okay?” Yae’s voice suddenly mixed in with Kohaku’s telepathy. Kohaku definitely yelled, which meant Yae had barged in. But what could have gotten her so worked up?
《I-I just received a letter from my mother through the Gate Mirror, I did! The Hashiba army is invading Oedo as we speak, it is! Th-The army has two-hundred-thousand men, and the Tokugawa-Date alliance has sixty-thousand! N-Not to mention the fact that Ieyahsu-sama was wounded during the initial assault, he was!》
“Wait, what?!” The army Tsubaki had warned me of was already making its move. It seemed he planned to forcibly unify Eashen before moving on Yulong.
《I... I will ride in on Schwertleite and take out the Hashiba army, I will!》
“Wait! Don’t get ahead of yourself!” I didn’t want Frame Gears to get involved in conflicts between humans. Yae was too panicked to think straight. That was only normal, though. Her family was in grave danger.
“Monica, set a course for Eashen.”
“Like, sure.” I didn’t know where the battlefield was, so we just headed straight for Oedo. It would take about ten minutes to get there.
“I’m opening a [Gate], okay?” I cast the spell, allowing Yae and Kohaku through to my location on the flying boat. It kind of felt like Yae had forcibly yanked Kohaku through with her, though.
“Touya-dono! I... Wait, where are we?” Yae let go of Kohaku and nervously looked around the inner room. Kohaku fell right to the floor and looked around dizzily.
“Guh...” Kohaku let out a little moan and grumbled quietly to herself. Poor little thing...
“We’re inside the flying boat right now. I was taking it on a test flight. We’re on our way to Eashen.”
“Th-Thank you... My father and elder brother have gone to the battlefield, they have.” This kind of reminded me of last time. But they were fighting a much smaller, Takeda-led army back then.
Still, I wondered what was happening. It would’ve been better if I was going to help an allied country, but this was an internal conflict. Ieyahsu was just a feudal lord... I didn’t really think Brunhild had any place in giving him formal support. If we used a Frame Gear in the fight we’d definitely be exposed, too...
It might end up being theorized that I was trying to make Eashen into a vassal state or something. Yulong would definitely spread rumors like that.
“Alright... I’ll disguise myself as a masked rider who happened to be in the right place at the right time.”
“...Masked?”
I took out some mithril chunks from [Storage] and made a crude mask. The mask only covered the top half of my face, kind of like the kind of thing you’d wear at a masquerade. I wondered if I should attach horns to the forehead or something.
Luckily for me, I had bought some Eashen-style clothing from Zanac. If I wore that stuff, I’d look just like a native Eashenese person. The outfit was made up of several parts, including white socks, wooden sandals, a haori jacket, along with hakama pants and an uwagi to cover my torso. I could’ve just used [Mirage], but that would’ve brought across its own set of problems.
I cast [Invisible] on myself and quickly got changed. Yae was my fiancee, but I was still a little reluctant to strip down in front of her.
I had a katana with me, too. It was a prototype made back when I was creating Yae’s Touka blade. I quickly nestled it into the obi sash about my waist.
I put the mask on to complete the ensemble, and with that I looked like a passing warrior in an oni-like mask. I thought I looked pretty damn cool.
“How do I look?”
“To me, Touya-dono... You look just like a person from Eashen, you do.” She said that, but she still gave me a funny look.
What? The mask a little too much? Well... I guess anyone wearing a mask would look a little suspicious.
“Master. We’re like, above the skies of Eashen and stuff.” Monica’s voice came in from the cockpit, making me look down from the windows. There were green plains and forests spreading far and wide, a stark contrast from the devastated Yulong I’d looked at earlier.
“I have heavy life signs detected in the northwestern plains o
f Oedo. It’s totally likely they’re uh, fighting right there.”
“Head there right now. Full speed ahead.”
“On it. It’ll take approximately one minute.” It wasn’t long before we saw a castle rising up from behind a hill. It looked mostly like a traditional Japanese castle, but I could see some western influence here and there. There was also a moat around it.
I could see tens of thousands of soldiers firing arrows at it. Some of the soldiers in the back row were carrying flags showing the symbol of a golden gourd.
This must be Hashiba’s army... There’s definitely not two-hundred-thousand here... Tens of thousands, sure... But these guys are probably just the initial wave.
Various soldiers charged across the moat’s bridge, carrying in their hands a wooden battering ram. They were smacking it against the inner gate. There were people inside the castle firing arrows at the attackers, but the wind suddenly picked up and diverted the flow of their shots. I bet there’s a wind mage amongst the enemy...
The wind continued to roar as the battering ram continued its work. Sitting around and watching wouldn’t help. I needed to move fast.
“Yae. Get inside the castle. Find Jutaro and Jubei and tell them that I’m here. Don’t let anyone else know, okay? Kohaku and I will stop the people outside the gate.”
“I understand, I do! ...Will it be okay if I go down there unmasked, will it?”
“It should be fine. Unlike Yumina and the others, our engagement was never formally announced or anything. Why? You want a mask?”
“This is no time for jokes, it is not. That would cause my family to worry, it would.”
...How? I used a [Gate] to send Yae down to the castle tower. Then I took Kohaku, waited for her to turn into her true form, and opened my own portal to the top of the castle gate.
“Huh?!”
“What’s that?!”
I jumped down from the gate, paying no attention to the bewildered men. Both sides were briefly surprised by the sudden appearance of an enormous white tiger and a silver-masked man.
“Outta the way, trash!” One of the commanding members of the army began yelling. Seemed like he wanted us out of the way alongside the gate.
The log came smashing toward me, and I held out my hand toward it.
“[Power Rise]... [Gravity]!” A thudding sound echoed through the courtyard as I stopped the log single-handedly. Then I lifted it, and the people holding on to it, high into the air. They were cast into the moat. I made my own body heavy with [Gravity], and fortified my physical strength with [Power Rise].
“What in the hell?!” The allied Tokugawa-Date army had been cautiously aiming their bows at me, but it seemed like they finally realized I wasn’t their foe. They turned their weapons back toward the invading army.
Kohaku let loose a monstrous roar, blasting away the Hashiba soldiers that remained on the bridge.
“This is a warning. Leave this place. Or else.”
“O-Or else what, huh?!” The commander barked hostility at me as he slowly walked backward. I calmly took my smartphone from my breast pocket, and checked if the targeting lock had been completed yet. It had. Naturally, my target was the enemy army.
“[Slip]!”
“Waugh!” In a flash, what felt like a light earthquake slowly rumbled beneath my feet. That made sense, given the vast number of people I had made fall over at the same time. I sort of wished I had a birds-eye view, because I bet it would have been hilarious.
The soldiers on horseback were fine, though. That was probably because the specific target of the spell was “The ground beneath the feet of the Hashiba soldiers,” and not anything else. That was fine by me, though. It wasn’t like their horses had done anything wrong.
“The hell are you doing?! Get up, idiots!”
“It’s a battle here, people! Come on!” The superior officers were all on horseback, screaming in anger at their own men. These idiots didn’t even seem to realize what was going on. People like those, who had no sense for danger, deserved to be hit the hardest.
“Guess I should move about a bit.” I took out an Eashen-styled Naginata from [Storage], then removed the blade. After that, I cast [Power Rise] on myself again.
It’d be fine to paralyze all of them (except the ones with talismans), but that’d lead to problems. There were way too many to take as prisoners as war, and I’d not feel so great about allowing the Tokugawa-Date army to easily murder immobilized men.
My plan was to beat them so thoroughly that they’d be forced to retreat. And so, I hopped on to Kohaku’s back.
“Ready, Kohaku? We’re heading right into the belly of the beast.”
“As you command.” I spun my spear around and gripped it tight.
“Get ready for the Silver Oni, Eashen! Let’s rock and roll!”
Man... This is so cool.
◇ ◇ ◇
We charged through the enemy camp. I brought down countless foes with my spear. Kohaku made a shockwave with her roar, blasting enemies away by the dozens. Then, we cut through a crowd of them with ease.
After that, we made a U-turn and I took a combat pose once more.
Damn... There’s a whole bunch left. A whole damn swarm of these guys!
A sudden rain of arrows came whistling through the air toward us.
“[Shield].” I deployed defensive magic, which made all the arrows bounce off me. They fell to the ground with a clatter.
Guess I’ll charge them again. Just as Kohaku prepared to make another run, a young warrior appeared on horseback.
“Greetings to you, I am one of Hashiba’s retainers. You may address me as Fukushima Massanori! Be warned, stranger! My prowess with the naginata is unmatched. I say to you, dark and mysterious Oni, that I shall not bow to the aura of terror you have cast upon our fine—”
“[Slip].”
“Gwaugh!” His introduction was way too long-winded, so I cut it short. I’d cast slip on his saddle, so he slid right off and fell on his butt.
What kind of idiot monologues in the middle of a fight anyway? I think people might have named themselves on the battlefield in the distant past of my world, but I wasn’t really so sure about that.
I heard murmurs around me, some calling me a coward, some saying that I fought unfairly. However, I didn’t really care.
Personally, I thought I was brave! I’d charged headlong into battle and scattered the enemy army, making them go “Waaah! Save us!” and everything. They were the cowards! They had no right to call me names when they were way worse.
Even though I’d been sending them flying, more of their soldiers still rushed at me.
That Massanori guy got back up and lunged at me, so I dodged his attack and knocked him over. I was a little irritated at how crowded it was becoming, but I had a solution...
“Spiral forth, O Wind! Raging Sweeping Gale: [Cyclone Storm]!”
“Gaaaaaah!!!” A tornado kicked up in the enemy camp, blowing several soldiers into the sky. I kept my eyes on the storm as I continued to beat down more of Hashiba’s soldiers.
“Wait, wait! I am Katou, one of Hashiba’s vassals! You cannot—!”
“[Cyclone Storm].”
“Nooo!” Katou, or whatever his name was, flew away into the skies. I didn’t really give a damn about anyone here, or their monologues.
“What are you idiots doing?! It’s just a man and his animal! Skewer them! Stab them!” The enemy commander, atop a brown horse, ordered the foot soldiers to surround me at all angles. They all thrust out at once.
Kohaku was much faster than them, though. She jumped high into the air and avoided their spears.
“Come forth, Sand! Obstructing Dust Storm: [Blind Sand]!”
“MY EYES!” The soldiers clutched at their eyes and collapsed, Kohaku then released another shockwave and blasted them away.
The moment she landed, she began to run. I matched her pace by swinging my spear at the enemies.
“[Come forth, Wind! Helix S
pear: [Spiral Lance]!” I blasted a spear of wind ahead of us, and it mingled with the storm to blow through the entire Hashiba army in a line.
“I-It’s an Oni! There’s an Oni here to kill us!”
“Run away! It’s here to take our souls!”
Don’t jump to conclusions... They look dead, but I’ve taken great pains to paralyze them all or knock them out.
Suddenly, I heard a roaring of voices from the castle gate.
“The Tokugawa army is advancing! Hold fast!”
“It’s no use! The right flank is crumbling! We can’t intercept!”
Aha... Did Yae tell her dad already? The once-unified Hashiba army was rapidly becoming a disorganized mob. Demoralized, too. I could hear it in their voices.
“Retreat! Fall back! Fall back, damn it!”
“Run away!” The commanders could barely be heard over the clip-clop of their horse’s hooves. The foot soldiers ran after them in fear. Only the paralyzed soldiers on the ground remained of Hashiba’s army.
I heard cheers of victory from the Tokugawa-Date army. They had decided not to chase the fleeing soldiers.
“Seems like we’ve fought them off for now, huh?”
“So it would seem, my liege.” I jumped down from Kohaku’s back and slipped the spear into [Storage]. Then, I noticed Yae and her father rushing toward me from the castle gates.
“Tou—”
“Shhh!” Yae was about to carelessly yell my name, so I told her to quiet down. The two came closer, and I spoke to them in a hushed tone.
“It’s been a while, Jutaro.”
“Touya-dono, thank you for your aid. We are truly in your debt.” Yae’s older brother bowed down to me. He was stiff as ever.
“But what is this you’re wearing...?”
“It’d be a problem if Brunhild was involved with this officially. That’s why I’m not Touya. I’m the mysterious Oni.”
“Ah... Very well. But what should we call you?”
“Uhh... Call me Shirogane.” It was a simple name, but maybe not quite fitting, given the silver-platinum connotations. Everything except my mask was black, after all.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 9 Page 13