Interlude II: Doctor Babylon’s Strange Love
Brunhild was getting bigger every day.
The country itself was only a small Duchy, but it occupied enough space that it still took several hours to walk through.
Still, the castle town was steadily expanding and the citizens were slowly flowing in as well.
Children ran around the town, from east to west, as construction operations constantly saw the town increasing in size. Old man Kousaka was dutifully overseeing the expansion, putting his experience as one of the Takeda Elite Four to use.
“Hoho... It’s getting pretty lively. I like it!” A little girl muttered as she walked through the castle town streets, her white lab coat trailing behind her.
This girl was none other than the creator of Babylon, the creator of the Frame Gears... Regina Babylon.
Today she wanted to see the surface world, so she was looking around.
“Is that white coat of yours alright?”
“Yup, don’t worry about it. It’s enchanted with [Protection], so it can’t get dirty. It’s all good!”
Uh... That’s not really what I was worried about... It’s kind of dragging, someone could step on it!
“The doctor is not interested in conventional clothing, master. It’s better not to bother her with such matters.” Cesca, the Terminal Gynoid of the garden, stood next to us both and talked to me.
The doctor was her former master, so it seemed like they had a good understanding of each other. I didn’t really question it.
“Ohh, what’s that?!”
Doctor Babylon suddenly pointed towards a group of children playing with spinning tops. Huh, didn’t they have those in the ancient world? Oh wait, I introduced them to this world, didn’t I...
“Heh, you seem like one of the kids when you’re like that.” Linze smiled softly as she watched the doctor run over and investigate the situation. I didn’t think it was so sweet, though. I knew she was a devil in disguise.
The doctor quickly lost interest in the spinning tops and charged off in another direction. She must have found something else.
She approached a young woman who was browsing vegetables at a nearby grocery stall. She slowly snuck up to her, and then did the unthinkable.
“Whoosh!”
“Eek!”
“What?!” Before I knew it, the doctor flipped up the girl’s skirt. We were treated to a dazzling view of white.
“The hell are you doing, you idiot?!” I charged over to the doctor and thwacked her on the head. It’s not child abuse if she only looks like a child! Linze and I apologized to the young woman before trying to move on. The girl dismissed it as the behavior of a naughty child, but I still felt pretty bad since I knew the truth. We quickly left, as Doctor Babylon had found another thing to look at.
“That hurt, you know. I’m just an innocent kid, gimme a break.”
“Liar! You’re a fully grown adult, you witch!”
“Now now, don’t get mad. You’ll end up all tense...” Before I knew it, the doctor’s tiny hands were cupping my butt.
“Enough!”
“What?!” I pushed away the pervy doc in a flash. I didn’t like how deft her motions were. It was like she was used to it.
“Any more crap and I’ll send you straight back to Babylon!”
“C-Come on now... It’s just a little bit of fun.”
“I’ll let you know what’s fun or not... GWAH!” I felt a pressure on my behind once more.
“Oh, how nice...”
“QUIT IT!” I snapped in frustration as Cesca, the pervy maid, was doing just what Doc Babylon had been doing a moment ago. I forgot that she was a facet of that old perv’s personality. I had to keep my guard up around her, too!
“.........”
“...Linze... Please stop squeezing your hand like that.”
“Huh? O-Oh, ahaha...” I noticed that Linze’s hands were subconsciously clenching open and closed. I didn’t want her sexually harassing me too, that’d be too much.
The doctor pulled out one of the mass-produced smartphones from her breast pocket and pointed at the screen.
“The map here says there’s a bar, but where’s the brothel?”
“We don’t have one... And even if we did, you wouldn’t be allowed in.” In this world, you were considered an adult once you turned fifteen. You could drink sake, you could gamble, you could even go visit a brothel.
This world didn’t have much in the way of gambling. It had betting on races and stuff, but in terms of card games it was pretty limited. I didn’t really play cards anyway, though. I liked to do the one where you flip them and match the pictures.
We didn’t have any casinos or gambling tracks, but I saw groups gather together in the corners of the bar to gamble now and then.
There were a few brothels and gambling dens in the bigger cities in other nations. Money and women tended to pile up a lot there, and it was typically a recipe for trouble.
As far as my knights went, I didn’t really want to make too much trouble for them. But maybe a place to gamble responsibly would be a good idea.
“Oho. I can tell by the look on your face that you’re thinking about building a brothel now, right? Or a gambling den? Something fun, for sure...”
“Don’t put words in my mouth! Don’t try to read my mind, either!”
“Touya...?” Linze gave me a cold stare in response to the Doc’s words. She was a girl with a pure heart, so she took nonsensical things at face value sometimes.
“Wait, Linze. Don’t believe her lies. You really think I’d plan something like that?”
“Sigh... N-No, I don’t. I trust you...”
Guh... I’m glad she believes me, but she still feels oddly distant about it.
“How miserable...”
“You truly are spineless, Master.”
“Pipe down, you idiots!” Shut your mouths! You caused this trouble to begin with!
“Linze is your fiancee, isn’t she? Why aren’t you being more touchy with her?”
“What?” I stare down the malicious doctor as she started spewing nonsense again.
Guh... Enough of this. You’re gonna sour my mood.
“Are you two gonna be alright? You’re not flirty at all. Do I have to get worried about you two?”
“Damn you... There’s not a problem here!”
“U-Uhm... I-I wouldn’t... I wouldn’t mind if we flirted a bit more! Just a bit, I mean...” Linze’s face was beet red as she sputtered out the declaration.
I-I feel the same, you know?! I was just trying to be polite! Linze shuffled up to my side, and took my arm into hers. Didn’t take long for her to cling on to me. U-Uh, Linze...? You’re getting pretty close there...
“Ohohoho... That’s more like it.”
“Uhuhu...”
What’re you two muttering about? Well, whatever... This isn’t so bad.
We walked like lovers as we continued on our stroll.
“Ah, milord. Enjoying your stroll?”
“Oh, Linze. Seems you’re having a nice time.”
“Hey, you two! Wanna buy some apples? I’ll make ‘em cheap!” This was a small country. We were already well-acquainted with the people and surroundings. Linze’s face remained red as we walked; seemed like she was still feeling pretty shy.
“Don’t worry too much. We’re engaged, you know? This is only natural.”
“...Yeah. I’m happy.” Her face was still red, but she flashed a gentle smile. Doing this was nice from time to time. The road was long and winding... Or at least that’s how it felt. We were just slowly walking together.
“Hmm... I’m a little bored, though... Brothels aside, what do people do for fun around here?”
“We have a baseball field. There’s a racetrack nearby, too.”
“A what?”
Oh, right. She won’t have any idea what that is, huh. I thought about explaining it, but it’d be faster to show her. If I recalled correctly, there was a match scheduled between the knight order team and the shopkeeper team.
Seeing is believing, after all. Let’s head over there.
A loud thwack resounded throughout the air as the bat hit the ball.
“Run, run! Wait, stop!” The running man stopped at second base.
The game was proving entertaining enough. It wasn’t a big match like Belfast vs Regulus, but it was still plenty enjoyable.
“Hm... A ball game, eh? This is quite interesting, quite interesting indeed. Is it perhaps from the other world?”
“Yeah, it is. It was a popular competitive sport in the country I was born in. But it originated in a nation that was across the sea from me.” I personally had only played baseball as part of mandatory physical education. One of my friends was part of the school team, so sometimes I asked him for pointers.”
“There was a popular game back in Partheno... You’d get this big ball, and throw it at the enemy team.”
The doctor held her arms out, emulating the size of a volleyball. Throwing...? Like dodgeball? “You had to keep the ball balanced, because if it ran out of magic charge it’d explode. You got points for making the flashiest kind of explosion. You’d lose if you couldn’t stand up again after ten seconds.”
That’s nothing like dodgeball at all... Is that seriously a ball game? Seems more violent, like boxing. As we chattered, the player at second base made it to home plate. The audience cheered joyfully.
We rented out the stadium for a fee. It was a small fee, mind you. Everyone shared it, so people typically chipped in a little bit each to rent it out for games.
There were some kids playing in a nearby dirt lot, too.
“I’m glad that civilization is still flourishing. After the Phrase invasion, things looked pretty bad back in the day.”
“How much damage did they do, exactly?”
“Mm... I don’t know the details because I fled to the sky, but... Most of the countries were wiped out. The bigger the nation, the harder it was hit. The Phrase flocked to where people were, after all.”
That made sense. The Phrase would go towards areas with more people due to being able to hear the beats of their hearts. We were sitting in a VIP box and it was just us, so we didn’t have to worry about talking about sensitive matters. Linze spoke up.
“Doctor... What about your home country?”
“Oh, yeah. Partheno was totally busted. It was a massive nation that occupied about a third of the continental territory, but it died out relatively fast. I was safe. I took the few people I cared about up to Babylon and called it a day.”
“Partheno was doomed from the start. That idiot king made a stupid request. He just wanted to escape and leave his subjects to their fate.” Cesca added on a little bit of commentary.
He tried to run away? What idiot king?
“He asked us to hand over Babylon as an emergency evacuation shift for the royal family and aristocracy. Can you believe that crap? He seriously thought I’d hand over my most amazing life’s work just like that. I was more disgusted than angry at him, honestly. I had no time for his nonsense.”
“That king was nothing but a coward. He ended up abandoning his people and running away. He was absolute filth.” It was rare to see Cesca get annoyed about something. She seemed to really have a distaste for him. Then again, I’d also hate a cowardly king who’d just leave his people to die.
It seemed like Cesca and Babylon both hated the king for trying to steal the floating fortress away, but their feelings seemed more like disgust than anything. I wondered if that disgust that Regina had felt was an emotion that flowed into Cesca when she was born.
“Well, I used transportation magic to evacuate a large number of Partheno civilians. The problem was that we were a magic civilization. The Phrase were our natural counter. Magic was ineffective against them. Most of our weapons were magic-based, so we couldn’t put a scratch on them.” Well, they still had dwarven power armor and artificial lifeforms like Golems, so there were still some ways they could fight back. It just didn’t seem like it was enough.
That kind of power was fine for Lesser Constructs and maybe even Intermediate, but it wouldn’t do anything to Upper or Dominant Constructs.
“That’s why I started creating the Frame Gears to begin with. But the Phrase retreated before the first proper one was created. I ended up scrapping the project and sending the completed ones to the hangar, but I’m happy to see that they’re seeing use nowadays.” She didn’t know the Phrase would come back five-thousand years later, but she still had enough foresight to keep the Frame Gears she’d built as a just-in-case precaution.
“The future is more important than the past, anyway. Five-thousand years ago, the nations of the world were very hostile towards each other. It wasn’t a situation where we had a chance. Hell, some world leaders actively tried to route the Phrase into the territory of other nations. There was a lot of blame going around about who was responsible for them, too. The countries in this era are way more calm in comparison. I think they might even be able to fight back against the Phrase if they all unite.”
Well... There’s a certain country that still thinks I summoned the Phrase, so it’s not all that different... Although it’s not like you could call it a functional country anymore. As I pondered quietly, the doctor pulled her smartphone out from her breast pocket. Hm? You got a message?
“Seems like we’re done tweaking Sue’s Frame Gear. I’ll head back to Babylon at once.”
“Aright. Let’s go check it out.” I opened up a [Gate] within the VIP box and let Linze, Cesca, Doctor Babylon, and finally myself pass through to the hangar. The Doc and Cesca both had the ability to warp back to Babylon within a limited range, though.
When I walked into the hangar, I immediately saw Sue’s special Frame Gear, the Ortlinde. It was shining golden and standing right in the middle of the place.
A bunch of wires were coming out of the cockpit and leading into an egg-shaped device on the ground in front of it. It was a Frame Unit, a high-tech simulator.
The screen above the Frame Unit was displaying the current simulation. Ortlinde had just joined together with its supporting vehicles to form the Ortlinde Overlord.
“Tsk... This isn’t ideal...” Monica nodded slowly as she watched the screen. She seemed to be operating a console via a nearby touchscreen.
“Hm... It’s faster than manual mode. Does that mean we can do it with Sue alone, now?” The Doc stood behind Monica and commented on what she saw. There were a lot of things being displayed, but I didn’t get it.
“Are you perfecting the auto-combo?”
“Mhm. We’re like, totally almost there thanks to the data from the recent fight, and stuff. We should be able to combine without manual riders in the vehicles.” Monica pushed another button, and the Frame Unit egg popped open. Out hatched Sue herself.
“Woo! It was perfect!”
“Understood. I’ll like, totally set it to auto mode and stuff, then. Come back again when I’ve finished the tweaking.”
“Sure thing! Thanks, Monica!” Monica stood on a nearby lift and ascended towards Ortlinde’s cockpit.
“Good work.”
“Yeah, good job.”
“What the, you two’re here?!” Sue came charging over toward us. Sue was showing startling promise in terms of Frame Gear piloting. She was a kid, so it was probably getting wired into her development.
“Doctor... Are-a you in here...? I wanted-a to talk about... WHOH” Parshe suddenly appeared out of nowhere and she immediately tripped over. Over nothing.
That’s a talent! As she tripped, a few bags she was carrying sailed through the air. Cesca caught every one.
Parshe almost completely tumbled, but just about managed to right her balance at the last moment.
“Classic Parshe. But man, even I’m not that bad... How’d you turn out like this?”
“Ehehe... I guess it’s-a one of those things.” Parshe smiled sweetly and scratched the back of her head.
I don’t think that was meant to be a compliment...
“What brings you here, did you break something again?”
“Huh?” Yumina’s face got further flustered, but I had no idea what she was talking about.
“L-L-Look... Please just return them... That kind of thing is private. You’re the ruler of a nation, y-you can’t just go... s-stealing pairs...”
“Wait, seriously! What are you talking about? What got stolen?”
What?! Why are Sue and Linze staring at me now?!
“Touya... Did you seriously steal them? You’re that brazen...?”
“You wanted to do something that badly, huh...?”
“Th-That’s wrong! I’m innocent here!” What the hell?! Why would I steal underwear from my fiancee! I’d never need to stoop that low!
“Wh-Who else but you could steal my underwear while I was wearing them...?!”
“What?! They came off you while you were wearing them?” Yumina, who was somehow becoming even redder, stared me down. I couldn’t escape from her piercing gaze.
Stealing underwear from underneath the clothes... It was definitely possible if I used [Apport] or something...
“Oh, I see. Touya’s [Apport] could do it, huh. When were they stolen, Yumina?”
“A little bit ago. I decided to head to the dining room... O-Only Touya could do something like that, right?”
“Touya’s been with us the whole time, though... And no underwear appeared in his hands.”
“H-He could’ve stashed it in [Storage], no?” I was unable to prove myself innocent against that allegation. I was the only person who could use [Storage], so I was the only person who could see what was in there.
“Eeep!” Just as I tried to profess my innocence again, I heard a shrill shriek from down the hall. It was Lu’s voice. Don’t tell me...
Lu suddenly hunched over and charged over towards me.
“T-T-Touya! You can’t just steal a woman’s underwear, you know?! Even if you love them that much, you could’ve asked me! You can’t just take them off me while I’m wearing them!”
“Stop! It’s not me! It wasn’t me, damn it!” Why do people immediately assume it was me?! I know I’m the most likely person to perform weird feats, but don’t assume I’m like that! I’m innocent! Yumina continued to stare me down. Her gaze was focused on my hands, for some reason. I flailed my arms in response.
“I guess it wasn’t you, Touya...”
“Thanks for finally believing me...”
“...It wasn’t Touya?” Yumina turned to Lu and nodded. If it was me, then Yumina would’ve surely noticed a pair of panties materialize in my hands.
“You didn’t use [Mirage] or [Invisible] to mask them, did you?”
“No, I didn’t... Throw me a bone here, Linze?”
“W-Well, it’s true that I didn’t sense any magic use.”
Obviously you didn’t... Because I didn’t use any! Gaaah! Do you guys seriously believe I’m at the center of some convoluted panty-stealing plot?
“Hm? Elze and Yae are running over here too?”
“What?!” I turned in response to Sue’s words and saw both Yae and Elze hurtling down the hall at mach speed.
“Don’t you move, Touya! I’m gonna get you!”
“T-Touya-dono! You have infringed upon my honor, you have!”
“Wait, no! You’re misunderstanding!” They’re not listening at all!
“Gah... Come forth, Wind! Softening Enclosure: [Air Sphere]!” I used a wind spell to wrap myself in a cushion of air. Elze and Yae, upon making contact with the bubble, had their reckless charge reduced to a slow meander. I was safe.
“Elze, Yae, please calm down! Touya isn’t the underwear snatcher.”
“How do you explain my disappearing stuff, then?! Only Touya could possibly do that!”
“I-It happened at the training grounds, it did! How did you do it from such a far distance?!”
“Lu’s underwear was also stolen right in front of us. Touya isn’t the culprit, we promise.” Yumina gave the necessary evidence to prove me innocent. The two incensed girls gradually calmed down and came to accept that I wasn’t the criminal here.
“Then... Where did our underwear go...?” Every girl here except Linze and Sue had lost their undies.
Wait... There are four girls here without any underwear on, huh...? H-Heh...
“Wait, did you just imagine something weird?!”
“Huh?! No! I promise!” Elze was turning red either out of anger or shame. She was getting pretty aggressive. Naturally, I couldn’t admit what I had been thinking of. Not if I valued my own life.
“Wait. Can’t you use your smartphone to search up the stolen underwear?”
“Oh, you’re right.” Even if the criminal had hidden them, I’d be able to track them so long as a barrier hadn’t been erected around them.
I took out my smartphone and opened the map app. I specified the entire local region in my search.
Huh...?
“......”
“Where are they, Touya?”
“No, I haven’t searched yet... I need to narrow down the terms first.”
“Isn’t searching for stolen underwear good enough?”
“It has to be something I’d recognize at a glance. So I couldn’t do that.”
How am I supposed to know if underwear is stolen or not at a glance?
“Oh, then how about Lu’s underwear?”
“What are you saying, Sue?!”
“Won’t work either. I can’t recognize Lu’s underwear from anyone else’s at a glance.”
Maybe if her name was written on it... But man, if I could recognize Lu’s underwear at a glance I’d probably get in trouble.
“Hmph... Then what about Yae’s? She wears that Eashen underwear, right?”
“S-Sue-dono?!”
“No dice. There area lot of Eashenese people in this country, after all...”
Plus, even men wear fundoshi. It’s too broad.
Hmm... Underwear that vanishes, let’s see... Was someone trying to lower my reputation? Or... Maybe they just wanted underwear. Wait... WAIT.
The gears in my brain began to turn, and I suddenly remembered something.
“That bag... It wasn’t a magic bag of holding at all!” I opened up a [Gate] to Babylon immediately. I knew who the culprit was.
“Ohoho... Leen sure wears adult underwear... How lacy. I’m not surprised, given her age.” I watched as Doctor Babylon put her hand inside the alleged magic bag and plucked out a small, lacy pair of black underwear. She gently set it down on the hangar’s console desk. There was a variety of other underwear pairs there, too.
The little girl gleefully stared at her collection, but she truly emanated the aura of a dirty old man. The same vibe came from the pervy maid standing next to her.
“I see. So the bag gives you ability to replicate my [Apport], huh?”
“Well, it’s slightly different in principle. It was originally designed to pick fruits in orchaaaugh!” I grabbed her by the scruff of her labcoat and picked her up. I picked her up and made her look at the red faces of all the girls she’d wronged.
“Ah... Ahaha... Hey there... Y-You’re not mad, right?”
“Of course we’re mad!” The girls angrily gathered their underwear from the desk. I turned away as this happened. I kept my eyes tight shut. There was apparently quite the collection of underwear on the table, so it was evident she’d gone after more fiancees than the girls in our immediate company.
“Ah, well... I was just doing some research, you know?”
“What kind...?”
“Uhm... My capitalistic hypothesis on the idea of a futuristic economy built on color and forms of girls’ underwear...?”
“Liar.”
“You’re in big trouble.” I wasn’t sure where to look.
I focused my glare on the pervy maid.
“I had no part in this. It was all Doctor Babylon’s idea.”
“You’re selling me out?! Traitor!”
“My master is Mochizuki Touya. Sorry. I don’t speak this language. Who are you?” Cesca clinically responded to the friend she had so evidently betrayed. She sure was impressive in how cold she could be...
“You watched and didn’t stop it?”
“I wasn’t ordered to stop it.”
Damn... I guess that’s fair.
Ah well... This isn’t my business. They can deal with her. I left Doctor Babylon’s fate in Yae’s hands, handing the girl over to her.
“This is how we have punished bad children since ancient times, it is.”
“Hey, I’m mentally older than you, you know! What are you even gon... What?!” Yae pushed down Doctor Babylon against the console desk and deftly rolled up both her labcoat and her skirt. Then she rolled the girl’s underpants down her legs, exposing her bare behind.
“W-W-W-Wait a second now! You don’t need to pull down my underwear, what are you doing?!”
“Without shame there is no punishment, there is not. I hope you take this lesson to heart, I do.” Regina struggled desperately, but Yae was holding her down in place.
Yae raised her hand and firmly brought it smacking down against the doctor’s rump.
“Hyah!”
“Argh!” The punished doctor let out cries of anguish. She was being hit a bit harder than I expected. I thought the point of this kind of punishment was humiliation instead of pain.
“Hyah!”
“Gngh!” Are you trying to hit her one time for every pair of underwear she nabbed? Not that I care, but this is going pretty far...
“Hahhh... Mh... D-Don’t worry... Her body’s the... Mmh... S-Same as us Babylon Sisters... She’s plenty s-sturdy... S-So don’t... Mmfh... Worry...!”
“Uh... Sure...” Tica appeared next to me, dabbing at the bloody fountain leaking from her nose. She was staring at Doctor Babylon’s behind. I wondered how she knew what was going on, but I assumed they had some kind of information sharing network. A pervert like her was hardly gonna pass up on the chance to see this kind of thing.
Sue instinctively hid behind Yumina’s back when she saw Tica. I was glad she knew real danger when she saw it.
“Hyah!”
“Ooof! Mmh!”
Hey... That noise was a little weird. Is this seriously a punishment... Or is it a reward?
“A little girl getting humiliated by an older, more mature girl?! It’s perfect, oh yes... Oh baby, mfh...! Wooo!” Tica suddenly yelled out, causing everyone to freak out. I freaked out too. I wanted out of this hellhole.
Doctor Babylon sat on the edge of her chair, liberally applying a few bags of ice to her red rump. Even if her body was sturdy, pain and damage could still pile up on it.
“Gaaah... Don’t hit me again...!”
“Are you done with this nonsense now? I’m getting pretty tired, honestly.”
“I had good intentions! I was going to give them all to you as a present, Touya!”
“Stolen underwear is a terrible gift!” I found myself yawning. It had been a busy day.
I felt like I should’ve spent the day resting instead of... All of this. Still, it seemed like this was my life now.
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