In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 11 Premium

by Patora Fuyuhara

  The Dominant Constructs couldn’t stay in the world for long. Even Gila could only remain for a total of thirty minutes. Even so, that’s enough time for them to wreak havoc, so I had to take care of this guy quick.

  “I don’t know what you aim to do, but there’s no way I can stand by and watch while you do it.”

  I used [Teleport] to warp behind him. Then, I brought my weapon down above his head with the aim of cleaving him in half down the middle, but he dodged and I only caught his arm.

  He turned to me from his new position, glaring at me in shock.

  “...I see, now. Gila truly had a reason to rave about you as much as he did.” His right arm began to regenerate itself before my eyes. The speed at which his body could recover was far faster than the other Phrase.

  “I am unlike Gila. I find no pleasure in war. I have no interest in you, either.”

  “...So you’re just here for the Sovereign?”

  “I was, once.”

  “Huh?” Before I could ask him what he meant by that, I noticed a flying hairtail fish Phrase heading in our direction.

  I got distracted, so I didn’t notice the Dominant Construct run up to me and attempt a palm-strike.

  “Guh!” I instinctively raised my left arm, but I was knocked back by the incredible force.

  Holy hell...! I shifted my position to prepare for a follow-up attack, but the Dominant Construct had already made his move. He jumped over me, landing on the back of the hairtail Phrase.

  “The recoil is coming, soon. I have no time to entertain your petty battles this day. You may call me Yula. We shall meet again, Touya.” Yula started soaring away on the flying fish.

  Like hell I’d let you escape! I invoked [Fly] and gave pursuit. Just as I was about to catch up to him, his body suddenly let out a blinding flash of light.

  “Hngh?!” My field of vision was reduced to a pure white. When I could finally see again, Yula had vanished.

  Was that a smokescreen tactic...?!

  “Search! Airborne Phrase!”

  “Search complete. Four results.” My smartphone displayed the results, and I saw that three of them were still on the battlefield. That meant the other one had to be the one Yula was aboard. It was heading west, tremendously fast.

  I made a beeline to intercept. I flew for about five minutes before finally catching up with it. It was facing me, and ready to fire a beam of light. However, Yula was nowhere to be seen.

  “Goddammit!” I angrily pulled out Divine Brunhild and shot a bullet straight through its core. It was just a measly Intermediate Construct, in the end.

  It fell down, pieces of it glittering as they smashed into the ground.

  “Search. Dominant Construct.”

  “...Search Complete. No Results Found.”

  Wait... nothing? What the hell? Did that recoil thing send him back already? Or can he block my magic somehow...? Just what was he going after, anyway?!

  Suddenly I felt a stabbing pain in my arm. I looked down and saw it was just about broken. I was so absorbed in the chase that I didn’t even notice. And so, I cast a recovery spell to relieve the pain.

  The Dominant Constructs were unable to stay in this world for long, not for as long as the backlash was active. They’d always get pulled back to the space between worlds, so the only question I had was just what that Phrase was trying to accomplish in so little time.

  I didn’t have an answer... but an ominous and foreboding feeling settled in my gut that day.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “Hrmph... Seems I’m back.” A victim of the recoil, Yula found himself back in the space between worlds. There was a small bump in the road, but he didn’t mind. He’d done what he set out to do, after all.

  “Yo! How was the other side? Anything interesting?” Gila’s voice echoed out from the dark. Yula looked at him, seemingly dissatisfied, then heaved a sigh.

  “I met with the Touya that you had so loudly spoken of. He’s a powerful creature. One of my arms was lost in a scuffle with him.”

  “Pfftahaha... See? Told you my most magnificent appraisal abilities were dead-on. Lemme just make this clear though, alright? Both that little punk and the Sovereign Core are my trophies to claim. Touch either and I’ll break you just as bad. Got it?”

  “If you say so. I have no interest in either the core or the Touya.”

  “Tsk. You’re as hard to read as ever, y’know? I ain’t got any idea what your plan’s all about, but I don’t give a shit so long as you keep outta my business.” Gila once again sank into the black. Gila was a person who thought simply, and only considered two things. Enemies to fight, and foes to subdue.

  Yula, however, was cut of a different cloth.

  Yula sought power, it was true. But it wasn’t the raw physical strength that Gila desired. Yula sought absolute domination, the ability to make any other cede to his will.

  Yula once sought absolute power over the Phrase, the power of the Sovereign Core. It was an ability that would give him control over the entire race. An ability that would even let him dominate other Dominant Constructs. That was why he worked so hard to discover the method to forcibly travel worlds. That was why he shared it with his species.

  But the more he traveled, the more he fought, and the more worlds he razed, he began to feel a growing emptiness inside him.

  If he were to take the Sovereign Core... If he were to take that power into him, he would have dominion over the Phrase. That much was true, and yet... It wasn’t enough. He would only rule over one world. Slowly, he realized the diversity of life. The vastness of the cosmos. Simply ruling the Phrase was no longer an option. He wished to rule all life, in every form.

  But how could he manage such a feat? The conclusion was simple. He would need to become an existence beyond the Sovereign.

  In his travels through the various worlds, Yula had become aware of vague existences. Something he couldn’t quite comprehend, but could undeniably sense. What he was sensing was divinity, something that belonged to creatures called gods.

  He couldn’t see them. He couldn’t really feel them. He’d never met one, and he had no way of proving they even existed. But he had seen glimpses of their divinity here and there, across the myriad worlds he had traversed. The evidence he had found wasn’t really all that much. Sacred treasures, holy blades, items of mysterious rumor and strength. But as small as his evidence was, he still sensed the faint divinity hidden within.

  Yula had sensed something before the rip opened up and he descended upon this new world. It was a pulse, similar to the wavelengths emitted by the Phrase, but also quite different. The pulse carried with it the scent of Divinity. There was surely a god in this world, Yula could feel it. It was calling out to him.

  The moment he felt it, he raced toward the boundary. An Upper Construct had broken through not long ago, giving him the perfect opening. After he had broken through and dealt with the Touya, he headed toward the source... and obtained it. Despite the obstacles, he had managed to acquire it just as the recoil brought him back into the space between worlds.

  The nature of the item he had acquired was simple enough. It was a tiny egg that shone a brilliant gold.

  “Hm...? What...?” The egg began vibrating and shivering, before dissolving into a muddy substance and slipping through Yula’s fingers.

  Slowly, the amoeba-like blob solidified and changed color, until it took the form of an old, human male.

  It took the form of a skinny older man with white hair. The old man stared around the area, and then at Yula himself.

  “This is... the space between worlds, hm? Oh, lovely. They won’t find me here...”

  “...Identify yourself.”

  “Me...? Er, well... I’m a god, of course.”

  Yula felt the muddy divinity emanating from the old man, and he believed his words immediately. A crooked grin began spreading across the crystal creature’s face as his plan swung into motion...

  Chapter V: Sandora, Burning Ki
ngdom of Slaves

  “This is bad, sir...!” Rosetta grumbled slightly as she looked over the Helmwige and Grimgerde chassis in the hangar.

  “The damage to both Frame Gears is serious, sir! The Brionac really does pack a punch!”

  “Should we, like... swap out the parts and stuff? And need I remind you that it was your idea to create that thing, Rosetta...”

  “Aw, c’mon, Monica! That giant cannon was the centerpiece of the battlefield, yessir it was! Even if it was overpowered, even if it was messy, and even if it was dangerous, it had passion and style!” Rosetta and Monica were about to start bickering, so I snuck away.

  Frankly, I was happy to have had the Brionac on our side. The tortoise Phrase would’ve been a huge hassle without it.

  We needed to think of more strategies for the Upper Constructs, though... Just using Brionac every time would be a little much. The fact was that it would damage itself and the bracing Frame Gears after each shot... Repairing that stuff wasn’t cheap, so I figured we’d be better leaving it as a last-resort option.

  The major issue was standard weapons couldn’t hit an Upper Construct’s core. Realistically, we’d need something like a spear, or a long and powerful weapon... The only issue then would be that only something like Sue’s Ortlinde Overlord could wield it.

  And honestly, I wanted Sue to remain on the defensive as far as battles went. It really did seem like we could only use something long-ranged like the Brionac.

  I had to think about stuff too. My Meteor Rain clearly wasn’t ideal... I didn’t want a repeat of what happened today, after all.

  Sue was all like “Get me a hammer! A hammer! A giant hammer!” or whatever, because apparently she saw a really cool one that obliterated enemies in an anime. But that was fiction, and completely unfeasible for us...

  I tried thinking it over for a little while. I fired up my smartphone, surfing sites focused on mecha anime.

  “Hm... Some kind of photonic disturbing gravity wave...?”

  I wonder if I can fashion something like that using [Gravity]... I’ll ask the Doctor about it, but still... she’ll probably end up making something horrific.

  I decided to save talking about that until later. In the end, we needed more versatility on the battlefield. It was the key to victory, after all.

  I also needed to get better at alternating attacks.

  I returned to the ground and found myself face-to-face with the three kunoichi recruits in my castle hall. If I recalled correctly, they were Sarutobi Homura, Kirigakure Shizuku, and Fuma Nagi.

  “Uhm, milord! We have a request!” Homura and the others suddenly knelt down and bowed toward me.

  What’s the big idea...?

  “Please grant us the same communications device that Lady Tsubaki has!”

  “We beg of you, milord!” Shizuku and Nagi began speaking after Homura.

  What were they asking for? I wondered. Then, I realized they must’ve meant her smartphone.

  “...I’ll ask to be sure, but why do you need one exactly?”

  “Ah, well. We will need to travel far and wide for the sake of our missions, and we will need to perform many infiltrations. That tool allows communication with allies regardless of distance, which is why we thought we could make use of it...”

  Hmm... I see. Well, it makes sense enough. Plus, it’d be handy for infiltrating. They could take photos and video evidence of stuff, come to think of it.

  “Where exactly are you headed this time?”

  “The Burning Kingdom, Sandora. We heard unusual rumors from that region, you see. The three of us will be headed there tomorrow.”

  Sandora... Now that Yulong was gone, Sandora was the only nation left that still employed slavery.

  They had a strict caste system, and it was a case where if someone was of a higher social order than you, then you couldn’t ignore their commands. They had an isolationist culture and didn’t generally interact with other nations.

  The country made widespread use of the magical artifacts known as the Submission Collars. That was how they created a labor force of slaves that couldn’t rebel against their masters.

  Sandora didn’t have a huge population compared to its landmass, and about a third of those people were enslaved.

  More interestingly, a lot of these slaves were people from all over the world. There was a saying in this world that went something along the lines of “If you can’t find your daughter, check Sandora first.” Elves and dwarves were sold there for a hefty profit, too.

  Sadly, slaves were seen as simple tools and were often worked until they broke. After that, another slave would be purchased to replace them. It was a trivial matter for the people of that nation, as they considered it the same as changing out a worn pair of shoes for some new ones.

  In all honesty, it was a country I didn’t want to deal with at all. Their Submission Collars also caused problems in other nations, though. Those guys who were trying to enslave people on my dungeon islands used them, too.

  “Hm... Well, I guess so. They’d be useful for intelligence officers... Please give me a little while.” I didn’t want those girls getting enslaved due to them slipping up or anything... And so, I contacted Tsubaki and had her come to the courtyard.

  I arrived there with the three girls, and Tsubaki was already there. Her speed was impressive, even by ninja standards...

  “Anyway, I’ll be giving smartphones to these three.” Tsubaki heard my explanation and shot a glare toward the trio behind me. She was probably mad they went over her head and asked me about it directly. They shrank back in absolute fear.

  “Hey, now. I was planning on giving phones to everyone in the knight order eventually. Plus, given the nature of their jobs, it makes sense the intel corps would get them first, right?”

  “...If you wish it, my liege. Thank you very much for your generosity.” I cast an enchantment on the smartphones that allowed them to return back to their owner’s hands if they ever dropped or lost them. In a worst-case scenario, if a knight ever tried to steal one, I could use the enchantment to bring the phone into my own hands as well. Nobody was stealing from me again.

  Each smartphone had its own serial number, too, so I knew which belonged to who.

  I opened up [Storage] and took out about ten smartphones. They were more rudimentary models than the ones Tsubaki and the world leaders had, and they were colored lime-green.

  “Alrighty. You can check your own numbers if you look in the phonebook.” I handed over smartphones to the girls. They were gazing at their smartphones with stars in their eyes, glee overcoming their faces. Tsubaki still ended up shooting them another death glare.

  “In addition to that, I’ll give you guys something to help with mobility.”

  I took out three magic carpets from [Storage]. I thought the intel corps could benefit from it, due to the fact that it rendered people invisible during flight.

  Hell, they could do a stereotypical ninja thing and back it up really close to a wall and hide behind it! Though they’d get found out if anyone walked too close to the wall.

  I’d send them to the outskirts of Sandora with [Gate], and they’d be able to make their own way back with the carpets.

  “Thank you so much. We owe you a great debt.”

  “No, I just want to be more prepared than I was when we dealt with Yulong. I’ve heard really bad rumors about Sandora. I think if anything happened, it’d be too late by the time I found out.”

  That Submission Collar they made use of just didn’t sit right with me. It was ultimately part of how their country fundamentally worked, though.

  The fact remained that I was capable of safely removing them from people, but I didn’t want that becoming public knowledge. That would’ve caused some serious trouble.

  Rumors could start spreading, stuff like “go to Brunhild to be freed from bondage.” That’d be troublesome. I could see Sandora sending assassins in response, much like Yulong did.

  That being
said, if an attempt was made on my life, I’d respond without mercy.

  “If you had to sum it up... what kind of place is Sandora?”

  “Well, I can only give you my opinion, but... The king of Sandora stands at the top, and everyone else is just different levels of less valuable than him. The rich become richer, and the poor have no opportunities to rise up. Their place in life is determined the moment they are born. No matter how talented, one born to a slave will always be a slave. No matter how lazy or miserable, the child of a citizen will be a citizen. But if your social rank lowers, then there is no way back.”

  In the allied nations, it was true that nobles were often separated from commoners... Still, it was still possible for someone to reach their potential through hard work, natural talent, or simple perseverance.

  A person with nothing could become an adventurer, gain a reputation, and even end up becoming a knight or something beyond that. My own story was like that, even.

  “It might be possible for citizens to abandon their homeland and leave for other lands, but slaves cannot. They often die working, barely fed enough to keep going.”

  “That sounds horrid...” They seemed to be treated as completely disposable.

  “So what about the king of Sandora?”

  “There is very little to say about him. Few people speak openly or honestly about him, after all. The people of Sandora simply say stock sentences such as ‘He is wonderful,’ ‘We are thankful for his protection,’ or ‘He is the very sun in our sky.’ There is no honesty when it comes to him.”

  “Why, though?”

  “Who knows... It could be that the upper class of Sandora actually feel this way, but it’s likely that most citizens just don’t want to get socially penalized for speaking ill of him to the wrong person.” It seemed like the people of the upper class in Sandora were immune to criticism, too... Subordinates couldn’t speak out against their leaders, either... Sounded like a pretty sweet deal, when I considered how much I was bossed around.

  “We cannot forget to underestimate their military might, either. Their Magic Beast Knights are extremely dangerous.”