"It's so hot..." Right after I settled the business in Sandora, summer had
already made its way into Brunhild.
It wasn't quite the heat of a scorching desert, but it was still pretty hot in its
own way.
"Blow forth, Wind! Gentle Squall: [Cool Wind]!" I called a calming breeze
along the balcony as Leen came along from indoors. Kohaku was sitting by my
side. Paula came along with Leen, as was natural. As soon as she walked out on
to the terrace, her silver twintails shook in the wind.
"Slacking off, are we? You're gonna set a bad example for your subjects at this
rate."
"Keeping up appearances is a pain at times like this, you know? Hot things are
hot, damn it..." I was surprised she was so calm and collected, given that her
gothic lolita outfit looked pretty damn warm. As I pondered that, she walked
closer to me, and the air began to chill. I figured out her trick, she'd used magic
to wrap her body in the cool air. Leen was pretty tolerant of low temperatures,
after all, so I wasn't surprised she had a spell like that on hand.
"It seems we'll need to bear with the heat a while longer. Even some of your
townspeople have collapsed as a result of heatstroke."
"Oh yeah? Guess we better stay hydrated, then."
"A lot of people have been going through the portals to the dungeon islands
lately. The environment is a lot cooler there. But there are still some magical
beasts there, so we should really be careful about letting civilians through..."
The islands had a windy breeze, so it was probably a lot more refreshing than
the landlocked Brunhild. The nights were extremely unforgiving and cold,
though.
"Anyway, that's kind of why I came here... We should make a swimming zone
on the islands."
"Huh?"
"Lots of people wanted to cool off in the sea. It'd be a good chance to earn
some income. Beverages, food, bathing suits, and general fees for teleporting
there. It'd be a good chance, right?"
"Hoho... Sounds good to me."
A voice called out from behind us. It was Kousaka.
"We have a lot of Sandoran immigrants now, right? So it'd be good to make as
much money as we possibly can. Well then, Ms. Leen, what did you have in
mind?" Leen suddenly pulled out a map and spread it across the table.
"Well, look here. Here's a full map of the islands. This particular island doesn't
have a dungeon on it, see? I was thinking of altering its coastline with Earth
magic, allowing us to create a big, sandy beach. We'd also set down a special
barrier that would ward away dangerous wildlife. On top of that, we'd create a
new separate portal that leads there."
"Most fascinating... So you suggest we should create a separate portal from
the ones that the guild manage?"
"That's right. We'll make the island impossible to access from the other ones,
too. That way it can be completely self-sufficient, as well. After that, we'll see
about constructing restaurants, tourist shops, and maybe even
accommodation..."
"Hm... I like this. We could make a decent bit of money."
Hey, now! Don't leave me behind here, you two... Don't I get a say in this? It's
me who you're gonna force into building everything, putting down the barrier,
and terraforming the landscape, right? Right?!
"Don't worry too much. I'll help you out, it was my idea, after all."
Tsk... Sure, but I can't just leave everything to you and Doc Babylon, Leen... I'll
help, don't worry.
"Kohaku... I think I'm gonna be working hard from here on out."
"Don't see this as them taking advantage of you, my liege. See it as them
relying on your guidance and protection."
I guess you have a point... I was kind of in vacation mode, though... Well, no
point whining about it I guess, but I really wanted to enjoy a summer vacation.
"This ought to do it..." I muttered to myself quietly as I rested my feet against
the sand.
The pure white, gritty sand felt good beneath my feet. I entered the sea, and
the sand was washed away... That felt good as well.
I didn't want people getting washed away from the shore and attacked by any
monsters outside the barrier's radius, so I set up buoys marking the safe zone.
The barrier was near-perfect, so there was nothing dangerous inside its
effective range. Even kids wouldn't have an issue swimming around. Accidents
were still possible, though, so I decided that stationing a coast guard and
medical team at the beach would be wise.
I had set up a similar beach on a smaller island nearby, as well. That was a
private beach for me and immediate family.
I didn't think wanting to have some private time was unreasonable.
"Alright, that's that. Now all I've gotta do is build the portal."
"Let'sss leave it be a little longer. It'ss been ssso long ssince I've enjoyed the
ssea, darling."
"Mh... I agree with Kokuyou. We're aquatic creatures, in the end..." Kokuyou
and Sango were swimming in the sea. It looked like they were having a fun time.
"I know how you feel, but we have stuff to do. You guys can use the private
beach whenever, alright? Let's head back for today."
"That'sss a ssshame..." Kokuyou and Sango came up out of the sea.
Now all I had to do was think about what came after the gate building. I had
Fashion King Zanac take charge of bathing suit sales, food stalls were entrusted
to Micah from the Silver Moon, and the other general stuff like sandals, beach
towels, parasols, beach balls, floats, and so on were all handled by Olba Strand.
All that came after that was assigning lifeguards.
Several members of our knight order were talented enough swimmers, so I
decided to station them as lifeguards during the summer season. They'd be our
lifesavers, after all.
I also had no issue with the other knights coming to enjoy the beach during
their off-duty hours. And with that, the preparations would finally be complete,
and we'd be able to go ahead with opening the beach to the public.
And so, a few days later...
It was a complete and utter success. Leen and Kousaka's projections were
spot-on, and the beach was packed almost every day. There were so many
people, even folks from Regulus and Belfast had shown up. It sounded like word
was spreading fast.
It made sense that they'd come from there, though. They weren't really
spoiled for choice in terms of leisure destinations, and most citizens never got
the chance to enjoy the sea.
Naturally, a place with so many people would result in disputes and spats. Our
knights were generally on call to deal with any arguments that broke out
between the patrons. I'd ended up increasing their workload a fair bit... I made
a mental note to increase their salaries out of my own pocket.
"Alright, time for me to take it easy..."
"You've been working hard lately, Touya." I was resting underneath a parasol,
trying to get a little bit of relaxation in. Yumina was here too, talking to me as
she wore a frilly one-piece swimsuit.
We were at the private beach, an area of land restricted only to my
immediate family.
Elze, Yae, and Hilde were playing smash the watermelon with Moroha. Linze
and Leen were chatting beneath the shade. Lu was making lunch along with
Crea, while Sue and Sakura played pass the beach ball with Karen.
Karina was spearfishing off the coast, while Suika was wasting her time being
blackout drunk. I could hear a ukulele being played, so I assumed that was
Sousuke's doing. Kousuke wasn't here, since he was likely tending to his crops.
"My, my... We have a young harem master relaxing in the sun, do we? How
miserable... You should be doing naughtier things than that."
"Zip it."
Cesca prattled on as usual while she swilled around a tropical drink in her
hand. It wasn't a typical harem situation! There was another guy here! He just...
happened to be out of sight, playing the ukulele elsewhere.
I invited all the Babylon numbers over, but Rosetta, Doctor Babylon, and
Monica were too busy with maintenance. Noel was sleeping, and Liora couldn't
leave her alone. Fam said she didn't want to leave the library... Flora was
stationed in the medical office, so she had work to take care of. As for Parshe
and Tica... I didn't really want that klutz or that kiddy diddler hanging around us
on a relaxed day.
"Whatever happened to your youthful vigor? Shouldn't you be leering at
these bathing-suit-clad ladies? Or perhaps such a thing isn't necessary... Could it
be...?! You have a hidden sense that can see through our clothes?!"
"Like hell I do!"
Yumina covered her chest and groin with her hands, turning beet red in the
process.
Didn't I just say I couldn't?! Actually... I probably can with my divinity... But I
have no intentions of doing that. For now, at least.
I shooed Cesca away and reassured Yumina. I didn't want any weird rumors
going around about me. What a pain in the ass that'd be...
"We could've invited father over, couldn't we?"
"Ah... I mean... I think the other world leaders would probably get jealous if I
gave Belfast preferential treatment... They'd want to come, too." Things were
different now, there were a lot more world leaders in my social circle. If I only
called over the king of Belfast, then the others would probably complain... It'd
only be natural that they'd end up demanding to come over as well.
There was no way I'd be able to relax if all those guys were running around
my private beach. I'd invite them some other time, but in all honesty, I just
wanted a little relaxation time to myself.
"It's still pretty strange... Until you came along, gathering so many world
leaders in co-operation was considered just a pipe dream."
"I'm glad they're getting along, though. Still, not everyone can get along.
That's just how some people are." The king of Sandora came to mind.
The situation in Sandora was a little different to the situation in Yulong, since I
directly instigated the downfall in this case. Then again, they did shoot first.
Ultimately, I was a little bit irritated that I ended up doing exactly what the
other world leaders wanted me to. At the very least, I could rest easy with the
knowledge that I wasn't going to end up any more infamous as a result of what
happened. The freed slaves scattered across the nations and had nothing but
good things to say about what had happened.
"My liege, is now a good time?"
"Hm? Kougyoku? What's up?"
Kougyoku should've been at the castle, so I wondered why she decided to
send me a telepathic message.
"Well, you see... It's related to that mysterious island. One of the barrierprotected capitals, the southern one, is under attack by Behemoths right now."
"Behemoths? Don't they have catapults and ballistas to ward them off? "
"That would work under ordinary circumstances, but the city is being sieged
by multiple types of Behemoths."
That sounded pretty bad... I figured that the barriers probably had their own
limits, and probably wouldn't last against a sustained assault from multiple
ends.
Ultimately, a defensive barrier was just a really big magical shield, so it would
eventually run out of juice and go out.
It was still different from a conventional shield, though. Regular shields would
eventually break if a single point was targeted by something weak for an
extended period of time, even if it would take as long as it would for a drop of
water to pierce stone.
That wouldn't happen to a barrier. Let's say a barrier had a power level, and
this power level was ranked at ten. A person with a power level of nine could
attack the shield forever and they would never actually weaken it. Barriers
didn't degrade over time, either. Not even a little bit.
The issue would be that if something with a power level higher than ten came
along and attacked the barrier, then the barrier would collapse.
If we use this model and say that the shields on the island were set to a power
level of ten, then it wouldn't even matter if the magical beasts on the island
could attack with a power level of nine. But... if the creatures attacked at the
same time... Let's say two beasts with a power level of nine attacked the barrier
at once. It would create a combined power of eighteen, causing the structural
collapse of the barrier.
I had nothing but conjecture to go on, but it was probable that the combined
attacks of multiple Behemoths would be enough to break down the barrier.
I wondered if they were intelligent enough to coordinate their attacks... It was
probably just a case of poor timing, honestly.
"Why is the city being attacked by multiple Behemoths?"
"From what I understand, a Behemoth hunting trip went wrong. They were
routed back to the city and it followed. Along the way, they happened to run
into two other Behemoths, and those creatures gave pursuit as well." So it
really was just a case of bad timing. The hunters kept running into more
Behemoths, and instead of fighting each other, the monsters targeted the
humans. I wondered if they were provoked, or just naturally inclined to target
people...
There were three Behemoths, all different types.
The first was an ape-type, Heavy Kong.
The second was a pig-type, Grand Boar.
And the third was an ungulate-type, Power Bison.
That was it.
It seemed like the city was targeting them individually. They were trying their
best to repel them from the city. Still, it was surely something that would take
the sacrifice of many of their soldiers.
There were also those that believed they should wait it out, and merely let
the creatures whale on the barrier until they get tired and leave. That didn't
mean that the barrier would hold, though. If it broke, the people would surely
die.
It was a situation where they had to either kill before they were killed or
bolster their defenses and leave it all up to fate.
And here I was, not entirely sure what to do. If I was planning on making
contact with the island, I could see no better time than the present. I wasn't
going to pretend this wasn't slightly advantageous. If I saved them, they'd owe
me. That would come in handy during the negotiation phase.
The countries on the continent at large hoped for a trade arrangement, so all I
had to do was communicate that. Plus, if I removed the barrier around the
island, the Behemoths would likely decrease in quantity.
No matter how I saw it, there wasn't really a drawback to interfering.
There are three Behemoths, so I'll take Elze, Yae, and Hilde... Lu's Frame Gear
is still getting tweaked, so I can't take her over yet.
Lu's Frame Gear was a specialized unit built for guerrilla assault, which meant
that we had to make a lot of gear for it to truly take advantage of its versatility.
It meant that we had to wait a little longer until it could make its debut.
"Alright. Guess I should get ready... Well, my break was nice while it lasted."
"We can come back any time, don't worry!" Yumina comforted me as I turned
to Elze and the others, who were now tucking into their smashed watermelon.
Hm, come to think of it... I better call the knight order over, too... If we go in
with just three Frame Gears we might find ourselves in trouble. Don't want the
islanders thinking we're not all that tough, either.
I didn't like displaying our power in a flashy manner, but the incident in
Sandora showed me that it did have its merits now and then.
In the end, it was just laying the groundwork for the inevitable peace and
trade talks. If they attacked us without a word, we'd easily disable them.
I seriously hope that the people living on the island are reasonable...
◇ ◇ ◇
I tapped into the senses of the bird I'd sent to the island and used its sight to
generate a [Gate] there.
The amount of magic required to sustain the portal actually took over five
times as much power as it usually would. It was likely the effect of the barrier. It
was so bad that if I stopped channeling my magic for even a second, the portal
would've closed. If we had decided to go to the island on one of our magicpowered vehicles, we'd have probably crashed right into the island upon
reaching the effective range.
"Alright, did it..." I could see the southern city in the distance. It looked like a
fortress, almost. It had massive walls, with strategic ballistas installed along
several checkpoints around the sides.
And I could see the three Behemoths surrounding the city as well.
The ape-like Behemoth, Heavy Kong, was furiously smashing its fists against
the barrier. Each strike caused the protective dome to briefly materialize and
shimmer in the air.
The massive pig, Grand Boar, kept running away from the city before turning
and charging wildly into the barrier.
Lastly, the massive Power Bison kept jabbing and thrashing against the barrier
with its drill-like horns.
They were all attacking from different points, but the people inside were
focusing their fire on the Grand Boar in particular.
"Heh... So the barrier only prevents living things from coming in or out? Well,
I'm not too surprised..." If the barrier prevented the people from countering,
they wouldn't be able to repel invaders. There were a lot of similarly
constructed barriers protecting major cities in other countries as well.
Still, the ballista fire wasn't really doing all that much. There were several
projectiles stuck in the beast's body, but most of it was being deflected by its
thick hide. Its hide probably had some kind of magically boosted thickness going
on... Probably.
Hmm... I'm not entirely sure how long this thing's gonna hold up. If this thing
has a power level of ten, then my best guess is that the Heavy Kong has a power
level of three, Grand Boar is five, and the Power Bison is four...
That meant that the barrier would be fine so long as only two of the beasts
attacked it, but it'd go down if all three attackers connected their blows at once.
Heavy Kong was attacking constantly, but it seemed unlikely that Grand Boar
and Power Bison's attacks would come in at the same time. I didn't really want
to run the risk, though.
"Guess we won't be able to open negotiations before it's too late at this
rate... Let's just do what we can for now." I took out my smartphone and called
the others back in Brunhild, and then opened up a big [Gate] in the sky.
Hundreds of Frame Gears began filing out one by one, making the very
ground shudder as they landed.
"Alright. Elze, Heavy Kong is yours, Yae, you go for Grand Boar, and Hilde can
take the Power Bison. Everyone else remain on standby. Keep an eye out for
any other monsters in the area."
"Understood!" The red, purple, and orange Frame Gears all went off toward
their respective targets.
"Alright! Time to bust some heads!"
"I will do my best, I will!"
"Onward!"
Elze and the others reached the monsters and raised their weapons. The
Behemoths seemed to notice the new threat, and each took up offensive poses.
The Heavy Kong began attacking Elze's Gerhilde. But the scarlet Frame Gear
masterfully tanked the strike, launching a reactive cross-counter punch straight
toward the ape's stomach.
"Get wrecked!" With a resounding crunch, the pile bunker launched from
Gerhilde's wrist and penetrated the Behemoth's chest. Blood began to pour
wildly from the wound as the massive beast fell down, dead.
Yae began engaging the Grand Boar. She wasted no time, her Schwertleite
flying into the creature's side and slicing it cleanly in two with a single strike. It
all happened unreasonably fast. The massive pig simply fell to the ground in two
halves, dead.
As that happened, Hilde's Siegrune held its own against the Power Bison's
horns. Her shield completely blocked its attack, and she used the moment of
recoil as her chance to decapitate the vile creature.
The battle was over just as soon as it began. The three creatures were dead
within a mere minute of meeting the Frame Gears. I was honestly taken aback,
as I hadn't expected this kind of swift turnaround.
After beating the three Behemoths, the Frame Gears moved back a bit from
the city and lined up before the main gate. From behind them, a glimmering
white Frame Gear, the Shining Count, stepped forward.
I stood on the shoulder of the white machine, using my magic to project
several sound amplifiers and speakers into the air. Then, I turned on my
microphone and began to address the people inside the city.
"We are members of the Duchy of Brunhild, a sovereign nation located on the
continent to the south of your island. We have no hostile intent. We seek an
audience with your political representatives. We will wait an hour for your
response, thank you."
We gave them an hour time limit because we didn't want them to waste a
bunch of time squabbling over who would represent who.
I didn't want them thinking it'd just be fine to ignore us because of their
barrier, I wanted to actually talk to someone. I did mention we weren't hostile,
but they would probably still be a little bit freaked out by what was going on.
Ideally, they'd have some kind of mayor or chief they could send, but I could
easily see that person being wary of a trap. It was possible they'd just send a
messenger out, but that'd be fine. That'd be enough to get the ball rolling, at
least.
"Think they'll come out?"
"I'm not actually sure... Well, if these guys don't come out we'll just go to
another city."
I shrugged slightly at Lain's question. Still, it'd be a pain if we had to go to
another city. We already saved this one from Behemoths, so they had the
highest chance of being grateful to us. I wouldn't be too surprised if the natives
of the other settlements ended up freaking out and attacking us or something.
Ideally, this city would become friends with us, then tell the other cities.
I called over Kougyoku and asked her what was going on in the city.
"The town's in an uproar. They're looking at us cautiously, and arming their
defensive weapons as best they can."
"Makes sense..." I didn't know what they'd agreed on, but it seemed like they
were pre-emptively prepping their defenses. Apparently, they hadn't made a
proper decision yet.
If we did anything weird, they'd probably shoot on reflex, so I decided the
best thing to do was just sit tight. It was a little tedious, though. I grumbled a bit
as I lay back on the Shining Count's shoulder and looked up at the sky.
"Your Highness, their gates are opening."
"Oh, seriously?" Lain had been in the Shining Count's cockpit and keeping an
eye out, so the moment she told me of the development I hopped down to the
ground.
A group of horse-riding knights made their way toward us. They were all in
full-body armor, and they looked pretty serious.
Their armor design was pretty wildly different to anything I'd seen before. I
figured they probably hadn't developed much since the time of the ancient
civilization. It was possible that they'd just technologically stagnated as they
tried to eke out a living on this small landmass.
I stood in front of the Frame Gears, and the knights stopped around ten
meters away from me. Then, a lone knight, who wore a particularly weathered
looking robe above his battered plate armor, moved forward.
He came a little closer and dismounted his horse, continuing his progression
on foot. His headgear kind of reminded me of an Ancient Greek, Corinthian
helmet. It had a decorative crest on the top and a small T-shaped gap for him to
see out of.
It wasn't the closed type you might see in anime or other tv shows, so his face
was fully exposed for me to see.
He was a large man and had a serious expression on his face. His eyes were
glaring right at me. I couldn't sense any hostility from him, but I felt that he was
anxious.
"My name is Dyent South, representative of Meridius, the Southern Capital. I
am one of the Four High-Brothers, and descendant of Freyend South. Thank you
for your assistance against the beasts. Now, who are you, stranger?"
"I am Mochizuki Touya. Touya's my given name. I am the grand duke of
Brunhild. It's a pleasure to meet you, Representative Dyent." His eyes went
wide when I introduced myself as royalty, which meant he recognized the title
at least... Regardless, he reached out to shake my hand. His attitude became a
little more relaxed after I took him up on the gesture. Little by little, we were
making progress.
"Grand Duke, you say? Is it true that you came from a landmass to the
south...? Do you mean to say that the world was not destroyed?"
"I see... It's just as we thought, then. Your ancestors must have cut off ties
with the outside world before Partheno was wiped out. No, the world was not
destroyed. There are many nations that exist peacefully even now."
I used my smartphone to project a world map. It was full and complete, even
including this very island.
"This is the world as it exists now."
"A-Ah..." Dyent looked up at the map with an awestruck expression.
"This is your island, here. And here is the Duchy of Brunhild. It's a small
country, but these giant warriors... the Frame Gears, are a legacy left behind
from Partheno. We're the only country on the planet that can operate them,
and other countries have steered clear of trying to attack us because of that."
"Incredible..." I didn't want him thinking Brunhild wasn't important just
because it was small, so I stretched the truth a little. It was true that Brunhild
had never been invaded, but we were also only about a year old. Well, we did
have that war with Sandora... but they didn't invade. It was over in fifteen
minutes.
"I-If I might be honest... we all truly believed that the outside world was
gone... that it was devoured by the crystal beasts and now belonged to them."
"From what I understand, the ancient civilization was destroyed. But the
people managed to rebuild. Here, let's sit down and talk things through, alright?
I'm sure we have a lot to ask each other."
"H-Hm... Very well."
I pulled a large table and a couple of chairs out of [Storage]. Representative
Dyent blinked in surprise at the sudden appearance of the stuff, but he
cautiously took a seat.
◇ ◇ ◇
The first thing I was told was the name of the island. The place was known to
its inhabitants as Palerius Island. It was named for the Partheno mage that
founded the civilization there. Alerius Palerius, The Sage of Hours.
He'd come to the island a long time ago, due to its reputation as a dangerous
place. It was here he'd discovered a structure that could naturally create
barriers. He took the territory and claimed it as his experimentation grounds.
His magic was so immense that he had no way of telling what kind of damage it
could cause, so an uninhabited mystery island was an ideal location for him to
test stuff out.
He eventually died in Partheno, and the Phrase invasion broke out. His
younger brother, who sensed the oncoming danger, evacuated their extended
family, many children, friends, and Palerius' disciples to the island, and then cut
it off from the outside world.
They'd used hidden treasures left behind by Palerius to further strengthen the
barrier so the Phrase couldn't get inside. But that also meant that, while the
invaders couldn't get to them, nobody could leave the island either.
Palerius' four main disciples were convinced that the devastation the Phrase
brought about would be enough to annihilate the entire world. They firmly
believed that everyone outside the island was gone.
"So you guys were sealed in here, huh?"
"Somewhat, but it didn't feel like imprisonment... We thought that the crystal
crea— er... the Phrase... had ruined the planet. We believed everything outside
had been conquered by them... We thought we were the only ones who were
safe. We had expeditions in the past, to the outside world, but every boat just
seemed to loop around through the fog and end up back at port."
That was likely the effect of one of the barriers. It caused the fog surrounding
the island to confuse navigation and bring you back to the start.
I was filled in on most of the stuff concerning the island, so I decided to
broach the actual topic at hand.
Specifically, I wanted to ask if they intended to interact with the outside
world. Also, if they wanted to take down the barrier and reduce the number of
Behemoths that developed in the area.
"Well, the only downside would be that if I take down your barrier, the Phrase
could appear on the island now and then..."
"Ah, actually... I don't think that would be an issue. These crystal beasts...
We've seen them on the island before."
"Wait, what?!" I asked him what he meant, and he went on to explain that
the Phrase had appeared twice over the last two years. Both appearances were
minor, some Lesser Constructs poking their heads around. The islanders
managed to subdue them. But even so, the people of the island were scared by
the sudden appearance of the legendary ancient monsters they were supposed
to be hidden from.
They could defend against an external Phrase invasion, but couldn't defend
against the Phrase manifesting on their island.
In other words, the Phrase in this world couldn't reach the island by
penetrating the barrier, but they could directly cross through to this world into
space that already existed on the island.
It really made me wonder what kind of use that barrier served to begin with.
It couldn't stop the Phrase entirely, it prevented the people from escaping, it
made Behemoths rapidly gestate... The more I learned about it the worse off it
seemed.
"What you say is true... but, well... Please don't take offense to this, Grand
Duke, but we can't fully accept what it is you've told us. We have no way of
telling if you've brought us truth or lies."
That wasn't really unreasonable. I'd just appeared out of nowhere with a
story that undermined the very basis of their existence... As loath I was to admit
it, I was highly suspicious here.
"On top of that, I cannot make a judgment call on behalf of the entire island. I
would need to talk with the representatives North, East, and West. I would also
need to talk to Lord Central."
"Lord Central?"
"Lord Central Palerius, yes. A direct descendant of Alerius Palerius' bloodline.
The barrier around the island is the legacy of his family, Lord Central is the one
that guards The Door."
"Uh... The Door?"
"The Door is a mighty artifact that Alerius constructed during his lifetime. He
created it with the hopes that, upon completion, we would be able to use it to
migrate to a new world. His four disciples tried as best as they could after he
died, but they could never get it to activate." I immediately thought of my own
portal spell from the way he was describing it. I wondered if he planned to
escape the island by using this door thing... But if he had started creating it
during his lifetime, then that meant he must have started making it before his
disciples came to the island... And before the Phrase invasion, even. Something
didn't quite add up. I wondered if his disciples had tried to make something of it
but just hadn't been successful after he died... It was hard to say for sure.
"Then... could you talk to the other town representatives and this Lord
Central? If they refuse us, that'll be fine. Should that happen we'll leave the
island and never come back, promise. The other countries won't be able to
come here with an intact barrier, either."
"...Very well. If you ask my personal opinion, however, I would like to be rid of
the barrier. Every day, humanity on this island receives a grim reminder. We live
in fear of the Behemoths."
"Ah, that reminds me... We'll go around and take out a bunch of Behemoths
while we're here. We'll take most of their resources as payment, though. I'm
sure you understand."
I scheduled to meet up again with Representative Dyent two weeks later and
absconded from the island shortly afterward.
I was pretty satisfied with how things had gone. It didn't make me feel bad
like Sandora had.
I still wondered who it was that had repaired the boundary of the world all
those years ago. Initially, I thought it was the Sage of Hours, but apparently, he
had died before that managed to happen.
It could've been his four disciples, but clearly, they had tried their best to
keep the island secluded from the rest of the world, so it wouldn't add up if
they'd done it. Ende didn't even know, either... What a pickle.
I had no choice but to figure out how to fix the broken seams myself. But I
required more finesse and fine-tuning of my own divinity before I could do that.
God Almighty told me that it'd require the same level of precision it would take
to repair a spiderweb by hand... What a pain in the ass that would be.
It would probably just be easier to kill all of the Phrase. But even if they
vanished, there'd be other negative effects of the world's boundary having
holes in it. The Phrase weren't the only creatures that could pass through, after
all. I didn't really want a villain-of-the-week situation coming through the
dimensional holes all the time.
I wondered if Central Palerius would be able to teach me anything about how
the island barriers worked.
It wouldn't be too unreasonable to expect he'd know something. Plus, I was
interested in seeing just what Palerius' legacy was...
Almost two weeks had passed since my encounter with Representative Dyent.
I'd been watching them through Kougyoku's birds, so I was fairly aware of
how the situation was developing on their end.
The Representative from the north seemed hesitant, but he calmed down
once central spoke up in favor of meeting us and learning our intentions. They
didn't necessarily believe me, but they wanted to hear it straight from my
mouth.
I was just glad they were willing to listen. Talking was preferable to the
alternative.
I'd spoken to the members of the alliance about my meeting with the people
of Palerius. The alliance all seemed fine, but I also made sure that they
informed Palouf, Elfrau, Hannock, and any other nations that might be curious.
For trade purposes, they had to be aware of how things were going to work.
I didn't want any renegade traders going to Palerius and causing havoc.
"Still... This is old man Palerius' legacy, huh? I'm pretty curious... Wonder
what it is."
"Were you friends with him?"
"Well, kind of. He was a bit of an eccentric. You know that artifact that I used
to view you in the future? That was his doing. Well, the theory at least. Old man
Palerius' writings were the basis for a lot of my research."
Damn... This freaky doctor thinks he was a weirdo? He must have been off the
scale in eccentricity... Apparently, the old man hated doing anything for his
country, and he didn't obey state orders. He simply liked to go off and research
with his disciples.
"Touya, can you take me along to the island with you? I really wanna know
what this thing is that he left there."
"Uh... I guess? Just don't do anything weird, okay? The situation's pretty
tenuous as it is."
"Oh please, don't sweat the small stuff. I know the situation well enough not
to do anything dumb. How about you have a little faith in your mistress?"
"I don't remember allowing you to be my mistress."
Babylon and I were in the hangar's garage area, talking about the situation.
Monica suddenly called out from atop an overhead crane.
"Listen, you two... Can you like, totally get outta here?! I cannot concentrate
when you're prattling on..."
"Ah, sorry about that. I'll go check on the vehicles or something..."
"That's like, done already and stuff. I'd suggest you look into the vocal magic
regulators for Sakura's Frame Gear. The upload isn't quite complete yet."
"Sounds good to me." We left the garage and Doctor Babylon clambered up
to the cockpit of a stationary Frame Gear in a separate garage nearby. It was
cherry blossom-colored with twinges of white mixed in. The Frame Gear was
named Rossweisse, and it was Sakura's support-type unit.
It had two large trumpet-like horns that extended from the back and rested
on each shoulder. They kind of looked like cannons, honestly... It was newlydeveloped tech that was designed to amplify Sakura's music. They had offensive
purposes too, though; they could amplify sound waves using air pressure... Or
something like that, anyway. They could also retract out of the way when they
weren't needed. That would stop the massive things from impeding the Frame
Gear's movement when it was time to run.
I left that garage and went to another one opposite. This one had a dazzling
emerald Frame Gear inside.
Rosetta was seated in the cockpit, and there was a small legion of mini-bots
scuttling around it, helping her with this and that.
This Frame Gear was Lu's. It was a high-spec Frame Gear designed for
guerrilla operations, Waltraute.
It was capable of using various different kinds of gear, depending on the
situation. It had close-quarters weaponry, long-distance weaponry, heavy
weapons, or stuff to help with speed. Naturally, that meant that while it was a
jack of all trades, it was master of none.
It wasn't as strong as the other Frame Gears, but it was still a Frame Gear. It
had the strength to survive in battle against the Phrase, of that I was certain.
Provided things went alright on the island, we'd be able to test out these
Frame Gears by having them kill a couple Behemoths there or something. Either
way, we'd be talking with them soon...
I set off to meet with the Representative, and he was waiting there with a
group of armored knights much like last time.
I, in turn, just like last time, had brought around a hundred Frame Gears with
me.
"Good day, Representative Dyent. Have you spoken to the others?" I already
knew the situation on their end thanks to Kougyoku, but I needed to feign
ignorance.
"I have. Everyone wishes to meet you, including Lord Central. We've also
decided upon how we wish to handle our relationship with you. It may cause
you some trouble, but would you kindly come to the Central Temple on the
island with us?"
"The Central Temple? Very well. We can go there with my magic."
"Hm?" I opened up a huge [Gate] to swallow up everyone in the area. We
came out on a hill close to the temple. Kougyoku's birds acted as my eyes for a
while, so I'd seen the vast majority of the island. Therefore it was easy for me to
open up a portal to anywhere on it.
"Th-This...?"
"We're at the Central Temple...?! But how?!" The native knights looked
around in confusion. They had seen my portal magic when I brought the Frame
Gears over, but they mustn't have ever expected to experience it themselves.
Dyent looked a little unsettled as he ordered a messenger to walk to the
temple. The other representatives had already gathered in there, apparently, so
there was no issue for us to all go inside and begin negotiations.
I sent about half of their knights back to the Southern capital with another
large [Gate]. I didn't want their citizens freaking out about their warriors
suddenly vanishing or anything, after all. That would've been a pain.
I left behind Lain and the other Brunhild knights and headed toward the
Central Temple. I was going there with Doctor Babylon, Yae, and Kohaku. The
latter two were ostensibly with me as guards, but I didn't really need them.
Doc Babylon rode on top of Kohaku's back, her baggy white lab coat fluttering
in the breeze. You should've asked Zanac for a better-fitting outfit...
Eventually, we made it to the temple, a large cylindrical structure about six
stories high. It kind of looked like a straight version of the Leaning Tower of
Pisa. The one on Earth was a little taller, though.
Dyent led us up a stairwell and inside the main temple area. It kind of felt like
an ancient ruin in terms of atmosphere. It must've been built during the ancient
civilization's heyday, around five-thousand years back.
"This place is in excellent condition, it is."
"It's likely enchanted against age and wear, much like my Babylon
installations. Stopping the effects of time on an object wouldn't have been
much trouble for that old man..." Doctor Babylon gave a simple reply to Yae's
bewildered reaction. She raised a fair point. If the Sage of Hours had mastered
Space-time magic, there was no reason to assume he wouldn't be able to easily
do something like this.
We passed a couple of guards and headed up a spiral staircase, then walked
down a long corridor. We opened up a large door and came out into a spacious
room. It seemed to be a meeting room.
There were two men and two women seated in the room. They were around
a circular table, smack-bang in the middle of the place. There were also a few
guards dotted around, too.
Three of the people seated wore similar armor to Dyent. The people in that
clothing consisted of a young man, an old man, and a young woman with red
hair.
They were likely the representatives of the other capital cities.
The last person was clad in white robes. She leaned against a rough and
knobbly wooden cane. Her hair was auburn and wavy, it went down to her
waist. My best estimate was that she was in her late twenties. She smiled gently
in our general direction. She looked a fair bit older than the other woman
present.
Yae and I entered the room, followed by Kohaku with Doctor Babylon on her
back. Everyone looked surprised, but they calmed once no hostility was shown.
That was only natural, really.
The white-clad woman extended her arm toward me after standing up.
"Good day, Grand Duke of Brunhild. I am Mentor Palerius, descendant of
Alerius Palerius. I'm the one who guides the island. Their mentor, if you will."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Mochizuki Touya, Grand Duke of Brunhild."
I shook her hand firmly. She seemed to be the island's general representative.
Then, three others began to introduce themselves. The old, grey-haired man
was the representative of the eastern city, Morgan East.
The young, brown-haired man was the representative of the northern city,
Sagitta North.
Last but not least, the red-haired woman was the representative of the
western city, Millie West.
Including Dyent South, that made four cardinal directions, which their
surnames happened to signify pretty clearly.
It was possible that they were ancient titles that had slowly morphed into
family names. I had no way of telling for sure, though. It was a little bit amusing,
since their surnames were in plain English, but I didn't really pay that any heed.
I sat down at the table and began to explain to them all exactly what it was
that I'd told Dyent.
I projected the map up into the air and began to explain current affairs, global
events, the Phrase invasion, why their island had so many Behemoths, and how
to negate their barrier.
"I told Dyent this already, but you can freely reject what I'm saying here. We'd
like to co-operate with you all, but we don't want to force you into an
agreement. If you representatives ask that we withdraw, then we will leave and
we won't come back any time soon."
"Can I ask a couple of questions?" Representative Millie raised her hand. I
nodded toward her.
"Should we decide to reject your proposal, will other nations leave our island
alone?"
"Your island's protective barrier is extremely powerful. The only reason we've
been able to make contact with you at all is due to qualities unique to the
Duchy of Brunhild. There's no reason for you to expect any other visitors."
"And if we accept your proposal, if the barrier comes down... might we be at
risk of invasion from other nations?"
"They'd need a fairly large fleet of ships to even try taking this island,
honestly... Let's assume that a country did wage war on your island and invade.
I don't believe they'd be able to penetrate the barriers protecting your major
cities. The Behemoth presence on your island would also make a land invasion
difficult. I can't say for certain, but I don't believe you'd be at any immediate
risk." There'd be fewer Behemoths after the collapse of the barrier, but it would
still take the efforts of a traitor from within to take out the defenses of this
island.
That was just hypothetical, though. I didn't believe the island had much in
terms of worth. There wasn't much in the way of farmland, and there was
almost no productive capability going on either. They had mines, and such, but
not enough to justify waging war.
It was true that Behemoths were valuable, dead or alive, but fighting them
would incur considerable losses.
There was no nation around that had enough national power or naval power
to invade the island to begin with. Well, it was possible Yulong might have tried
it, but they were gone. Still, if they were around and they had tried it, it
would've just been an excuse to trash them.
I didn't know much about Xenoahs, but I felt like they'd try to mop up Yulong
territory first if they wanted to expand.
Still, if the island truly had so little worth, I could understand people being
confused about why I was reaching out to them. In truth, I just wanted to
connect with them and find out more. It was ultimately up to the islanders
whether or not they wanted to reach out to the world, though. I was of the
belief that such a unique culture could offer a lot to the world, and vice versa.
Plus, it'd be good for the people who were currently living in fear of
Behemoths that roamed around freely.
"Grand Duke, I've heard you'll exterminate several Behemoths on our island if
we remove the barrier. Is that true?" Morgan, the eastern representative,
lobbed a question my way. I looked out the window shutters to my left. There
was a Frame Gear standing by there, I began to speak as my gaze remained on
it.
"We fight against the Phrase with our Frame Gears. In terms of fighting,
Behemoths make good target practice for the newer models. We'll also take the
carcasses back to Brunhild with us when we're done, but we'd happily give you
a cut. That's because we're asking you to allow us to hunt on your land..."
Morgan began to think to himself as he slumped down in his seat. This time, it
was Mentor Central who raised her hand.
"Grand Duke, you spoke of removing the barrier around this island, but I must
ask... Just how do you intend to do that? The barrier erected by Sage Alerius
covers the entire island. There is an artifact in the basement of this temple that
controls it, but the artifact itself is surrounded by several impenetrable barriers
of its own..." I had expected as much. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a
small magical tool. It somewhat resembled a syringe.
"This is an artifact that can nullify the effects of other artifacts. To be blunt, it
can completely negate those smaller barriers protecting the basement artifact.
If we use this item, we can completely strip the barrier around the island, and
it'll never return. This item can only be used once, though." I put the Initializer
on the table, and everyone seated craned their necks to look a little closer at it.
I took it back, then held it out to Mentor Central.
"You can have this. Whether or not it's used is down to you." I understood
their apprehension. They still believed the barrier to be the only thing keeping
them safe. It was only natural that they'd need time to think about it, they
probably needed time to process what I'd told them.
Mentor Central silently gazed at the item in her hand.
"Hypothetically... could you use your abilities to emigrate only those who
want to leave the island, Grand Duke? Would there be a nation out there that
would accept migrants from this place?" That was interesting, I wasn't sure if
they'd ask that. What Mentor Palerius was suggesting was a situation in which
the barrier was maintained, but those that wanted to leave could still choose to
do so.
"I could do that, yes. And I'm fairly sure there'd be nations willing to accept
them... But I don't suggest taking that approach. The people you send out there
would have to start their lives again with nothing." The threat of Behemoths
would be gone, but they'd have a hard time adjusting to life off the island.
They'd have no contacts out there, nor would they know what skills they'd
need. It'd be even harder if they brought families.
"Whatever you suggest to me is irrelevant, now. You have the Initializer tool.
Whatever is decided will be your decision. You can choose to bring the barrier
down, or you can choose to keep it up. We will respect your choice in the end.
Please think it over."
"...Thank you. We will deliberate on this subject once more, I believe!"
Mentor Central bowed her head to me.
I decided it would be best to leave it there for the day. If they wanted to
remove the barrier, we'd help them. If they didn't, we'd leave them alone. Even
if they decided to do it dozens of years down the line, that was their choice. But
if they waited that long, I probably wouldn't be able to help them as easily.
Doc Babylon suddenly tugged at my sleeve.
Oh, right. I totally forgot.
"Actually, I wanted to ask you guys something."
"What is it? We'll answer if it's at all possible."
"The Sage of Hours, Alerius Palerius... I understand he left something behind?
Something known as the Door? I'd like to see it, if possible."
"The Door, you say? That won't be an issue. I will allow you to see it as thanks
for granting us that magical tool. It isn't exactly a state secret, so you should be
fine..." Mentor Central smiled in my general direction, but Sagitta North
suddenly butted in with a flustered look on his face.
"Lord Central. There's quite a risk in bringing an outsider to see Lord Alerius'
legacy, don't you think...? If it were to be destroyed..."
"We barely understand it ourselves, don't be silly. It's a five-thousand-yearold artifact. What would they have to gain by destroying it? In fact, I feel as
though the grand duke may even have some insight as to what the Door does."
Central's words silenced Sagitta fairly quickly. She was right, though. Doc
Babylon and I had a spell called [Analyze], which allowed us to fundamentally
understand how stuff worked. I probably wouldn't be able to wrap my head
around something so complex, but I had a feeling Babylon would know what
was up.
"Please, follow me. The Door is at the very top of the temple." We began
ascending the spiral staircase upward.
I was curious about this Door. It was said to be something that would guide
them to a new world, but I was curious to see if it was related to how the
world's barrier was repaired. I had no idea what it could be...
We finally arrived at the top floor of the temple, it was an open-air atrium
with no roof. It was raining outside, but it seemed that there was a barrier
preventing any of it from hitting us.
Several unusual geometric formations and shapes were scrawled into the
ground, creating a massive magical circle that I didn't recognize at all. The lines
and formations all converged on one point in the middle of the atrium, that's
where the Door was.
It certainly looked somewhat like a Door, but it was clearly not a standard
one. More specifically, it more resembled a marble arch, except not made of
marble. It kind of reminded me of a tinier version of the Arc de Triomphe in
France. It was more person-sized. Above the arch was a what shockingly
resembled a wattmeter, and elsewhere on the arch was a display unit that
resembled a tachometer.
Is it made of metal? It's so majestic that I have a hard time believing it's
ancient... I guess it could have a protective enchantment like the rest of this
place, though.
"May I touch it?"
"By all means." I got permission from Mentor Central, then reached out to the
object. It was cold to the touch, confirming my suspicions of its metallic
composition. I could also feel the unusual streams of magical energy flowing
through it as well.
"It looks extremely sturdy, it does..."
"Yeah... But it's not mithril or orichalcum. I have no idea what kind of metal
this is." I shrugged towards Yae, who had also taken it upon herself to touch the
weird arch. I tapped it a bit with my knuckles. That's metal, alright.
"Hmhm... It's made out of chronium. I've never seen such a pure sample,
though..." Doc Babylon hopped down from Kohaku and gave it a few caresses.
As she spoke, Mentor Central's eyes went wide.
"What an incredibly discerning eye... Grand Duke, just who is that girl?" Her
response was natural, given that Babylon looked like a literal ten-year-old in an
oversized coat.
"Her name is Doctor Regina Babylon. She's Brunhild's primary magitechnician.
Would you allow her to analyze the Gate with her Null magic? She'll likely learn
something new about it."
"Oh?! A-Ah... Y-Yes, of course!" She was probably more surprised about such
a small looking girl being a foremost researcher than anything else. The four
representatives behind her were just as bewildered, and they all trained their
eyes on Babylon as she began to do her thing.
She completely ignored their watchful eyes and laid both hands upon the
Door. Her own eyes closed as she focused her magical power.
"[Analyze]." She began trying to process the information in her head. Or at
least, that's what I assumed she was doing from all the muttering and
mumbling that was now going on.
I tried to use [Analyze] as well, but it took only a few seconds for me to give
up trying to wrap my head around what I was seeing. I understood a few things,
like how it was built and what it was made of, but that was about the extent.
Ultimately my knowledge wasn't specialized enough. I couldn't make good use
of the information. It was like having a regular old person see the schematics
for an electrical appliance.
"I certainly don't recognize the magical formulas here. It goes without saying
that it's an incredible device, however. From what I understand here, it
functions similarly to a [Gate], in that it functions as a space-time transfer
device... I'm somewhat confused by the lack of coordinates, though. Or rather, I
simply can't sense the coordinates for the destination at all. The amount of
magical power required to turn it on is also obscene, which effectively means..."
I stopped listening to the rambling doctor and turned to ask Mentor Central a
question.
"Alerius Palerius left this behind, right?"
"That is correct. My ancestor used this island as his personal testing grounds.
This very temple was built solely to house the Door inside of it, but
unfortunately, Palerius left the island before he could finish it. His four disciples
took over operations afterward, but even they were unable to comple—"
"No, it's already complete. Pretty sure, actually." Doctor Babylon completely
butted in on Central's talking, wiping the sweat from her own brow as she
finally took her hand off the door.
"We won't know exactly where it goes unless we start it up, but it has
definitely been completed. The formula allowing magic to channel into it is
done and everything."
"...Then why won't it trigger? We've tried for years, generations, to pour
magic into it."
"Ain't that obvious? The magic your people provided wasn't enough."
...Seriously? It wasn't enough? Are you telling me this door needs more magic
than generations upon generations of people? It's such a small door, though!
Wait, don't tell me the door is a metaphor for the whole island or something,
and you actually need to charge up a whole lot more. Is the door just a fake?! An
illusion?! Was the real door the friends we made along the way?
"...How can that possibly be? I am a person with incredible magical power
compared to the standard individual, and even mine isn't enough to make this
Door do a thing." Central frowned as she probed the Doc for answers.
"You're not wrong, you do have a hell of a lot of magic energy going on. Still,
your magic is around equivalent to two or three people, I'd wager. It's not
enough. If I wanted to lowball estimate it, I think this door needs the magic of a
hundred-thousand people to turn on."
"Wh—?!"
"Also, that magic would turn the door on for about a split second. There's no
way any normal person could activate it. It would probably take about threehundred years for a regular person to activate it, provided they exhausted their
magic into it every single day." That was absolutely absurd, this thing had no
energy efficiency at all!
Mentor Central and the four representatives were completely taken aback.
Yae, on the other hand, just kind of tilted her head in confusion. She couldn't
quite grasp the scale we were talking about, but she couldn't use magic to begin
with anyways.
"It seems like Palerius' disciples tried to etch in a magical efficiency formula
that would've reduced the amount of power needed... but they failed to finish
it in time. It would've only taken about a hundredth of the time, had they
completed that part."
"Then, you mean to say if that formula is completed, we could open the door
in a mere three years?"
"Yeah, that sounds about reasonable."
Three years... That sounds more reasonable, I guess. I wonder if using three
people would make it go faster, like reduce it to one year... Or maybe they could
use thirty-six people to have it done in a month!
My idea was shot down. Apparently using magic from multiple people just
wouldn't cut it. That was a shame.
Every human had a different magical wavelength going on... It would be
easier to think about it in terms of colors. A canvas painted over a long period
of time with the same color would end up looking completely different to a
canvas that had a bunch of colors splashed all over it for a short period of time.
When it came to devices that required concentrated magic, it was better to
have one person take care of it.
"So it's incomplete, then..."
"Well, it's still usable. Touya should be able to turn it on right now."
"Ahaha... We're really resorting to using me, Doc?"
She flashed a grin in my general direction. I sighed.
"Sorry, I understand that the Grand Duke possesses a great amount of
magical energy... It must take a vast amount to bring those giant warriors over,
but... how much does he have, exactly?"
"I'm not actually sure. My magical pool runs pretty deep. I have hundreds of
summoned creatures active right now and none of them have put much of a
dent in it."
"Wh—?!" Even after summoning Kohaku and the other Heavenly Beasts, and
their related creatures, I hadn't felt like it had gone down much at all. In fact,
after my divinity came out, it felt like I had more magic to play with. I was in a
league of my own these days, though it felt a little late to say it.
"I believe I may be able to activate this Door, but... I'll ask you for permission.
Would you let me try?"
"Y-Yes, of course. If it would help us understand exactly what Alerius Palerius
was preparing all those years ago, then I'd gladly..." Mentor Central gave me
permission, so I shrugged and began preparing to turn it on.
Based on how it worked, it seemed to work pretty similarly to my portals. The
only issue was I had no idea of the destination.
I didn't want this thing opening up under the sea or anything... That would be
a major pain in the ass.
"I am here to guard you, Touya-dono. I cannot allow you to come to danger, I
cannot."
"It's me we're talking about, Yae. If it's a bad place, I'll just warp right back. If
it's not too bad, I'll take care of any trouble there." Yae didn't want to let me
go, but I persuaded her otherwise. I didn't want to expose her to any potential
dangers on the other side, after all. After that, I set up a protective barrier
around the Door. That was a preventative measure in case it led somewhere
under the ocean. The barrier would block the flow. Then all I'd need to do is
close the Door.
"Alright, let me try this..." I had everyone step back, and then I laid my hands
on the Door. My magic began to flow into it, and the mechanisms on the door
all began to spring to life. The tachometer started to stir as well. It was as I'd
suspected, the meters were to measure the magic channeled into the object.
The design had a bit of a retro-chic feel in that regard...
I sped up the transfer rate, and it began to whir and hum tremendously. The
tachometer's reading began to rise rapidly as well. The magical formation on
the ground beneath the Door also began to light up.
"Oh, wow!"
"It's doing it!" Everyone around me seemed surprised by what was
happening. I was surprised as well, but for an entirely different reason. Despite
the vast quantities of magic I'd channeled into it, it still wasn't finished. It just
kept absorbing. Gradually the entire temple was enveloped in a faint glow of
light. The tachometer had hit around eighty percent on its meter.
The space between the arch began to contort and light up. It would only take
a little more for the portal to appear. I stepped up my game, pouring even more
magic into it.
The tachometer finally reached a full hundred percent. I looked through the
arch to see trees and an open sky. The other side didn't look dangerous, which
was a relief.
"Seems like it worked..." I didn't want the Door to close because my
connection to it was severed, so I walked through the frame with my hand still
on it.
"Alright, see you guys soon." I smiled to the others, and then went on through
the Door.
This is weird...
The feeling was unusual. It was almost like I was walking through warm
molasses, or my entire body was gently pressing itself into yielding rubber.
I didn't really like the feeling, so I stepped all the way through the Door in one
go.
In a flash, I felt the ground beneath my feet. I looked up to see a woodland
area.
I turned to look behind me, but there was nothing there. Just as I'd expected,
the trip was one-way.
I felt pretty damn exhausted, which was only natural given how much of my
magic had been drained. Fortunately, it was already starting to recover.
Now... lemme get my bearings... Am I in the Sea of Trees...? For some reason, I
don't feel like it... Place seems like a regular forest, I guess.
I took out my Smartphone and tried to project the map.
"What the...?"
It refused to open. I wondered if this area had a barrier around it, or if this
was Alerius Palerius' doing. The latter wasn't likely, since he'd never managed
to finish the Door during his lifetime. It was still vexing.
I took out my phone and tried to call Yae, but the call refused to connect. I
couldn't contact Kohaku through telepathic means, either. I took that to mean
there was some kind of interference barrier blocking me.
My magic was still fine, though. I invoked a little wind as a test and it worked
fine. I wondered what that meant. As I pondered to myself, I suddenly heard
screaming from the forest. It was accompanied by the sound of falling trees.
What's going on here?! I ran through the forest until I finally came out on
what looked like a large road. There were trees in the area, but they'd all been
pulled out at the roots. I was extremely confused.
It was at that moment that I saw a two-headed dinosaur attacking a metallic
passenger carriage.
"What...?!" The tyrannosaur-like creature was clearly a species of magical
beast that I didn't recognize at all. Or perhaps a Dragon... I frowned a bit at
that.
But then I noticed something that confused me even more than the monster.
To be blunt, the metal carriage... wasn't exactly a conventional kind of
carriage you might find being pulled by horses or anything like that.
Curiously it was more like... a crab? The carriage itself had metal legs jutting
from its left and right sides, giving it a crab-like appearance. It didn't have any
pincers, though.
Simply looking at it was freaking me out a little, in all honesty. I'd never seen
anything quite like it.
It wasn't exactly a small carriage, either. It was long enough to be called a
bus... That was why I settled on calling it a Crab Bus. Or maybe Crab Wagon
would have been apter. It definitely looked like an old-style mechanical device,
it had rivets and round screws visible here and there, too... Kind of steampunk,
even.
"Is it an artifact, or something?" I muttered quietly in confusion as the twoheaded Dragon body-slammed the crab carriage. I heard several screams from
within as it made impact. I didn't have time to sit around and postulate. If I sat
by and watched the whole thing, then the people inside would be in a heap of
trouble.
"Come forth, Fire! Purgatorial Pillar: [Inferno Fire]!" I produced a magical
flaming spiral, and it enveloped the twin-headed beast. It recoiled in pain as I
activated [Storage] to produce Blade Mode Brunhild, which I promptly used to
lop its head off.
It fell to the ground with a crash, and that was that.
The mechanized crab steadied itself, and several people peeked out of the
carriage. They were safe, that was a relief.
One of the people, a man, came over to me with a broad smile on his face.
Then, he began talking.
「.ｓｕ ｄｅｖａｓ ｙｌｌａｅｒ ｕｏＹ .ｌａｐ ,ｔａｈｔ ｒｏｆ ｓｋｎａｈＴ」
"...Excuse me?" That was bad. I had no idea what he was saying. I wondered if
the common tongue I spoke didn't exist in this place.
"Do you not speak common?"
「...ｅｒｏｆｅｂ ｅｇａｕｇｎａｌ ｔａｈｔ ｄｒａｅｈ ｒｅｖｅｎ ｅｖ'Ｉ ?ｓｐａｈｒｅｐ ,ｒｅｎｇｉｅｒｏｆ ａ ｕｏｙ
ｅｒＡ ?ｈｕＨ」
That was futile. The merchant, a mustachioed older gentleman, let out a
confused sigh. Neither of us was getting through to the other.
There was nothing else for it, he couldn't understand my words, so I had to
use other methods.
I began to make a series of gestures to communicate my lack of hostility. I
extended my hand out to him, and he took it. We found ourselves in the throes
of a firm handshake. I was immensely relieved. Wherever I was, they knew what
handshakes were. After all, I needed to touch his hand for my particular spell to
take effect.
"[Translation]."
My magic flowed from my body and into his, after a brief moment, it flowed
back.
"How's that, understand me?"
"Ahhh, you speak Allentese, wonderful. I was a little confused, as I thought
you'd hit your head or something..." The spell I had just cast was a handy little
number. It would melt into the target's memories, absorb all necessary
information on a language, and then pull it back to the caster.
The language I had just learned was called Allentese. I'd never heard of it.
"My name's Pedro Sancho, I'm a traveling trader. I'm indebted to you, sonny."
"Please, don't worry about that. Oh, right. My name is Mochizuki Touya."
"Towya, huh? Pretty weird name... Where do you come from?" If I wanted to
be honest, I'd tell him Earth, but obviously, that wasn't an option here.
"I was born in Eashen, but I live in Brunhild right now."
"Eashen? Brunhild? Never heard of them. They frontier villages or
something?"
Wait... he hasn't heard of either of those places? Just where the hell have I
wound up...? I sighed quietly, then asked Mr. Sancho a question.
"Uh... This may sound a little weird, but where are we right now? I think I've
gotten a bit lost."
"This is a main road that spans east from Allen, the capital. We're about a day
out by carriage."
"Allen...? It's a capital? What country is it part of?"
"Which...? Come now, lad. It's Allen, so obviously it's the capital of the Allent
Theocracy. Here, hold on a sec." Mr. Sancho went back to his carriage and came
back. Then, he passed a small paper into my hands.
"Here's a map. See right here? The Allent Theocracy. And here's the capital
city, Allen."
"...What in the world..." I looked at the map with frantic, confused eyes. It
was absolutely the map of the world that I knew. It wasn't all that different
from the map I could pull up on my smartphone. There was just one key
difference.
On a standard map, Eashen would be located to the far east. But on this map,
it was to the far west. Not only that, but it was upside down.
Incredibly enough... The world map I was looking at was... reversed. Flipped,
as if held up in front of a mirror.
◇ ◇ ◇
What could this mean...? I guess that Door wasn't an ordinary portal... Don't
tell me I've been sent to another world! It wasn't unreasonable to suppose that
Alerius Palerius could've done something like that. Then again, it was only
thanks to my near-infinite magic that it actually worked... This was still
concerning, though.
"Tohya? You okay?" Mr. Sancho turned to me, wondering why I'd gone silent.
"Ah, yeah. I'm fine. It's just that I landed a little further from home than I
expected..."
"Landed? Oh, tell me, Tohya. Did you use transportation magic or
something?"
"Mhm... I did..." I gave a rather curt reply to the concerned merchant. It
seemed that this world had magic too, which was a relief.
He offered to take me to the capital, but I politely declined his offer. I needed
time to process what was going on. Plus I could use magic to get around faster.
He told me to check out his store if I ever visited the capital, and went on his
way in the mysterious crab carriage.
I wondered what to do...
"[Gate]." I tried opening a portal, but it refused to connect.
...What. H-How am I gonna get home? This is bad, this is really bad... They're
gonna start panicking on the other side if they can't find me...
I began freaking out a little, but then my phone suddenly started to ring. The
caller was none other than God Almighty.
A message from above! Literally!
"H-Hello?!"
"Ah, it connected. Hello there, Touya?"
"Hey! I'm a little panicked right now, but I'm okay... What's up?"
"Ahahaha... I never expected you to go to yet another world on your own. But
at least you kept your smartphone. Please hold, I will send someone to come
and get you."
Get me? Before I could even process what was going on, a great flash of light
erupted out of thin air. Then, a person stepped from the blinding blitz.
"Goodness me... You made us worry, you know?"
"Karen..." It was the god of love, my sister Karen. She stood there pouting,
hands on her hips.
"It was awful over there, you know?! Little Kohaku suddenly faded into thin
air! Nobody could locate you, you weren't picking up your phone! We thought
you could have been hurt! Yae called me on the phone while crying!"
Yikes... I guess my magic got cut off from all my summoned beasts. Obviously,
that would've scared everyone, too.
"Not I nor the other gods in Brunhild could sense you, you know? That's why
we contacted God Almighty."
"I'm sorry for the trouble..." Apparently, it had been ten hours since I entered
the Door, but it felt to me like it had been less than an hour.
Given that Kohaku had probably evaporated in front of Yae, it made complete
sense that she'd be distressed. She probably thought that I was in trouble.
"So, how do I get back?"
"We have an ability called Spatial Translocation, you know? But that would be
too much of a toll on you... Let's head back to the realm of the gods and take it
from there." It sounded a little weird that going to the divine realm took less
effort than hopping to my world, but I didn't question it.
That being said, when you took the world barriers into account it probably
was easier for a divine entity to enter a space made only for the divine. Nobody
else would be able to go there, after all.
I opened up a [Gate] and stepped through it. I came out right in front of God
Almighty.
"Man, I really am sorry about this..."
"Not at all, my lad. This kind of thing happens now and then."
Hm... I guess? Apparently, it wasn't too rare across the countless worlds to
have people slip through now and then. Apparently, some Gods slipped through
to various worlds now and then just to hide around.
"I would love to talk, but I think you should get home quickly. Your family will
be quite worried."
"You're right. Thanks a lot." I bowed in apology to god, then opened up a
[Gate] again. Come to think of it... Didn't it get mentioned once that I could open
a portal to get back home...? Guess I can't, after all. Shrugging, I appeared with
Karen in the temple on Palerius Island.
I saw Yae bowing deeply in front of the Door, and Doc Babylon was frantically
examining it. The representatives of the island were nervously watching them
from afar.
"I'm home."
"T-Touya-dono?! It is you, it is!" Yae scrambled to her feet, yelled with joy,
and began squeezing me tight.
Oof... That was almost Sue-tier...
"I-I was so worried about you, I was... K-Kohaku vanished, she did. And then
the call did not connect! I-I thought, sniff... I thought you had returned to your
old wooorld, I did... Waaaaaah!"
I'm sorry I worried you... I gently brushed Yae's hair with my hand. She was
sniffling and crying.
"Hey now... There's no way I'd abandon you... Hey, would I?"
"Sniff... Y-You're right..."
"Hey, lovebirds. Sorry to break up a nice thing, but she wasn't the only one
who was concerned." Doctor Babylon was glaring at me, fire in her eyes.
"My bad. Sorry for the trouble."
"...That apology felt a little different to the one you were giving Yae just now.
Did you really have to speak so monotone? Well, whatever. What kind of place
did the Door take you to?"
"Oh, right..." Mentor started to approach from the stairs. I had no idea what
to tell them.
Hmm... What should I say...
"Another world...? The Door truly led to such a place?"
Doctor Babylon went wide-eyed and shocked, so did Central and the four
representatives.
Ultimately, I decided to tell them the truth. It didn't matter that much, since
there was nobody but me who could activate it. Whether or not they believed
me was a different matter, though.
"I guess you could call it a Reverse World. It's similar to this world, but has a
few differences." I'd taken a photo of Mr. Sancho's map with my smartphone. I
then used [Drawing] to create a printout.
"So this is what Alerius Palerius meant when he was referring to the new
world..." Dyent muttered quietly to himself. He was likely correct. Though,
more accurately, it was Alerius' disciples who attempted to use the Door to
reach a new world and escape the Phrase.
But none of them, not even all of them combined, were as talented as the
original sage. They were unable to finish it, and that was why their descendants
were trapped on the island.
"So now you guys have even more options. You could stay on the island and
continue your struggle against the Behemoths. You could remove the barrier
and join with the outside world... You could mix up both, and send out those
who would like to leave while keeping closed off from the world. Or, as a final
option, you could pass through the Door to the new world instead." The room
went completely silent. I continued talking.
"Let me make one thing clear, though. If you go to the new world, you can't
come back. I was lucky to return, but that was a one-off. You won't get the
same chance. The people on the other side don't speak the same language, and
I don't know anything about their geopolitical affairs. If you guys come to a
decision, I'd like to hear it soon enough."
It was a world with weird creatures in the wilderness, so it wasn't exactly safe
like modern-day Japan or anything. That being said, it was probably safer than
this world. There wasn't a Phrase threat to contend with over there, at least.
"We can't make a decision right now... May we consider it over the next few
days?"
"Alright, that's fine. We aren't in a rush or anything, just take care to consider
all the factors."
I nodded toward Mentor Central after I said that. Their choice would have
wide-reaching ramifications, so I understood why they needed time. A proper
discussion was only natural.
I decided that the best thing I could do for the time being was go home. I was
totally pooped.
◇ ◇ ◇
I returned to Brunhild, only to be accosted by everyone. I understood they
were scared, but they didn't need to squeeze so tightly...
I summoned Kohaku and the other beasts and apologized for having them
suddenly vanish. They were pretty shocked by what had happened.
I also summoned Snow, the little rodent that belonged to Lop and his friends.
"Sorry about this... Go back to your buddies, okay?" I sent Snow back with a
little apology note, and he quickly ran off into the darkness.
Hrmph... I don't want this to happen again, so... maybe I should prepare some
kind of reserve tank with my magic in it? If I can make some kind of mana
battery that stores my magic, it should work as a reserve if I ever go out of
range again...
"So that Door took you to another world...? Given the Phrase, and your own
story about where you come from, I understand, but... it's still strange..."
Yumina, clad in white pajamas, rolled around on my bed as she muttered.
It wasn't just her, either. All my other fiancees had invaded my room and
were making my bed their new nest. They said they wanted to punish me for
making them scared, so they'd all be sleeping with me... Not in that way, of
course. It wasn't time.
The bed was a specially-made item for such situations like this, so it was extra
big. Big enough for ten people to sit on it, at least. Even with the addition of the
stuffed bear, there was plenty of space left.
To be honest, the bed was way too big, in my opinion. That was why I usually
slept on a smaller bed by its side, most nights.
"Hey Touya, how was it on the other side?" Sue, wearing her own cute little
yellow pajama ensemble, clung to my back, and asked a question. She was
pretty stressed about the ordeal, so she was allowed to stay over tonight.
"Mmm... I didn't stay very long. I didn't see much. I wanted to get home as
soon as possible because I knew you'd all be worried."
"You were right, we were all worried."
"Extremely worried..." Linze and Sakura stared a hole into me with their eyes.
I'd already apologized a ton, so I wished they wouldn't blame me so much.
"When Kohaku disappeared, I felt as though my heart was going to give out, I
did."
"Me too! I didn't know what to do when Yae called saying you were gone."
"We're just glad to have you home safe."
Yae, Elze, and Hilde all expressed their fears as well. It wasn't like I was
responsible, though...
"I'm confused, Touya... You managed to return to our world safely, but...
Didn't you say you couldn't cast [Gate] at all?"
"Ah... Well, Lu, uhm... about that..."
"...What are you hiding from us?"
I was hesitant to answer Lu's question, and Leen had zeroed in almost
immediately.
Hrmm... Should I seriously tell them? I mean... It's not like I'm not allowed to
tell them, and frankly not telling them might just cause more trouble.
I decided to tell them my biggest secret. All about how I came to this world,
all about god, and all about what I was going to become. They thought I was
joking at first, but gradually their expressions softened as I continued talking.
They sighed slightly and looked at me with puzzled expressions on their faces.
"I don't even know where to begin here..." Elze looked shocked.
"So you're telling me that... not only are you from another world, Darling...
but you're also a god? Why do you never cease to surprise me...?"
"This... honestly explains quite a lot..." Lu nodded to Leen, accepting my story
entirely. I was a little surprised by how readily they were accepting it.
"Then, does that mean your sisters are..."
"Gods, yes. They're not allowed to use their divinity down here, but they are
from the divine pantheon."
"...This country really is rather crazy, isn't it? I wonder if we'll ever be
defeated at this rate..." Leen let out yet another sigh.
"Well, it doesn't matter what Touya is. He's still our husband at the end of the
day!" Yumina put it bluntly, and the rest of the girls nodded in agreement. I was
pretty amazed by my fiancees. They had a lot of guts to just accept it like that.
I was embarrassed, even though it was nice to be accepted, so I curled up into
my bed and tried to sleep.
Yumina and the others were giggling amongst themselves, but I pretended
not to hear. Sleepytime was calling.
I was going to visit the gods after I woke up, to express my gratitude to them
for rescuing me. I wondered what gift would be best to bring...
According to Karen, I'd be able to use the Spatial Translocation ability if I
focused my divinity, but I couldn't do it just yet. Using it would allow me to
jump to other worlds, apparently. Still, I wanted to get some kind of magic tank
or reserve before even making another attempt.
I began to ponder those things as sleep claimed me, and the darkness set in
across the corners of my vision.