Chapter III: The Phantom Thieves: ‘Red Cat’
“We’ve all had a formal discussion, and we’ve decided that we will remove the barrier that separates our island from the world. Thank you for your consideration.”
“Thanks for telling us. The Duchy of Brunhild will assist Palerius Island in any way it can, I promise.” I took Mentor Central’s outstretched hand and shook it firmly. They’d decided to formally make contact with the outside world, and I couldn’t be happier. I did, of course, already know about the decision they’d made thanks to Kougyoku and her familiars.
They’d investigated the Initializer I’d given to them and confirmed that it would do as I said. Then, they’d had several talks that all pointed toward a desire to join the world at large.
Now all we had to do was head down to the basement of the Central Temple and deactivate the artifact that was keeping the barrier in place.
We headed down the spiral staircase and finally came to the object. It was a large black monolith in the center of the room, with a seven-colored spellstone embedded in the middle.
The monolith was one meter wide and two meters tall, and it had to be at least twenty centimeters thick. It kind of looked like a massive door.
“So this thing controls the barrier...”
“There are other monoliths in each cardinal direction on the island. They interact with this one to maintain the barrier. If this one is disabled, then the others will cease functioning as well.”
I nodded along as Mentor Central explained the situation, and reached my hand out to touch the black slab. I found myself unable to touch it. A cushiony sensation surrounded it, preventing me from laying hands on it. It was an even smaller barrier. Made sense, this was something they thought needed to remain untouched.
The effect was likely produced by the monolith itself. That meant if I used the Initializer on the barrier surrounding it, then the whole thing would shut down.
I could easily use [Cracking] to disable it, but it wasn’t my job to do that. The right to take down the island’s barrier fell to Mentor Central. She took the Initializer and approached the slate.
She would be the one to release the barrier that had imprisoned and protected them for five-thousand years. As an outsider, I couldn’t even begin to comprehend what she must have been feeling. Either way, her will to put an end to all of this was astounding.
She brought the needlepoint tip of the Initializer toward the cushion-like barrier, and her thumb struck the injector’s plunger.
In a flash, the magic stored within the Initializer flowed into the monolith. The pure ‘nothingness’ that had been hardcoded into the Initializer began to overwrite the black slab’s other functions.
The barrier that had coated Palerius Island for the past five-thousand years was now gone.
I wanted to be sure, so I sent a telepathic message off to Sango and Kokuyou, who were waiting off-shore. I also sent a message to Kougyoku, who was airborne above the island.
“Did it work?”
It did. The magic-diffusing barrier above the island is completely gone.?
It has worked, yes. The fog around the island has gone. Ships will be able to freely navigate the area.? I passed on the message to Mentor Central. The island was finally free.
Now, all that remained was to mop up the monsters.
The hedgehog-like Behemoth fired out a spray of needles, but Lu’s Waltraute strafed left and right, easily dodging it all.
That was all thanks to the B-Unit strapped to its back. The B-Unit was composed of several multi-directional thrusters that allowed for rapid speed and maneuverability. The B stood for Booster.
Waltraute charged toward the Behemoth and detached the B-Unit from its back, quickly swapping out and equipping the A-Unit, which stored four blades on to its back and waist. The A stood for Attacker.
It took less than a second for the two units to swap out. Waltraute then immediately drew two of the blades from its left and right waist sides and began slicing off the spines from the Behemoth’s body.
The giant hedgehog suddenly curled up into a ball and attempted to strike back. Waltraute dodged the attack with little difficulty, but the hedgehog continued to roll onward. It was clearly trying to escape.
Lu responded quickly by ejecting the A-Unit and swapping it out with a heavy cannon on Waltraute’s shoulder. She propped it up with the Frame Gear’s arms and deployed the heel anchors. This was the C-Unit, specially designed for long-range shots. The C stood for Caster.
A massive bullet erupted from the cannon’s length, firing out at incredible speeds. It struck the fleeing hedgehog, causing it to tumble to the ground.
“Welp, she took it out...” I was using [Long Sense] to project my senses and watch what was going on. After I confirmed it was dead, the southern capital’s soldiers followed Dyent’s orders and went to retrieve the corpse.
The soldiers would be able to harvest useful raw materials. It was time-consuming work, but nobody from Brunhild was going to help them out with it. Why? Because we’d promised all the spoils to the islanders.
Lu warped the C-Unit back to Babylon and dismounted Waltraute.
“Yo, good job up there. How’d you find it?”
“It was very pleasant. I can change out the parts with little difficulty. I’m fairly sure I’ll be a good deal of help in the heat of battle.”
Lu’s Frame Gear, Waltraute, was a machine designed for fast-paced guerilla combat. It was a multipurpose jack of all trades built to adapt to any situation on the battlefield. The role of it in battle was to ride around the field and adapt to support others in any way it could. And so, despite its simple design, it had incredible potential in combat.
We’d dispatched Behemoth hunting squads to all four corners of the island, this corner included. Thanks to the removal of the barrier, we could easily use Babylon to track where the Behemoths were. It was only a matter of time before they were all gone.
The barrier was gone, but there were still a lot of magical wellsprings and hotspots on the island. It was never like all the Behemoths were going to immediately vanish when the barrier came down, anyways. Either way, after this cleanup they’d be a little more safe roaming outside their cities.
A merchant vessel from Elfrau was on its way, so all that was left to do was to see if both parties could reach a fair agreement with each other. I imagined that the early talks would be rough-going, but not impossible to handle.
I was honestly a little less concerned with this stuff and more worried about the wicked godbeast’s cocoon.
Weak or not, a god was a god. The beast had devoured the NEET god entirely and taken in his divinity. There was no telling what it would hatch into.
From what I was told, my body was a specially crafted vessel that had the capabilities to handle divinity. So the cocoon, being a rough and sporadic creation, would take some time to hatch...
My sisters were keeping watch on the situation, for the time being, so they were allowed to stay in the mortal realm a bit longer.
Apparently, their secondary duty was to train me as a newcomer god, and that was what they were reporting back to their higher-ups. Funny, since I didn’t remember them training me in any capacity at all. Well, either way, it was reassuring to have them nearby.
“Something on your mind?”
“Ah, no. Don’t worry.”
My sudden bout of introspection seemed to worry Lu. I needed to focus on the present instead of worrying about the threats of tomorrow.
I’d asked Mentor Central to show me Alerius Palerius’ research notes from the ancient era. His notes were extremely old, so it was unlikely that anyone on the island would be able to make heads or tails of the stuff... but Brunhild had someone who lived in that era, so we could’ve been able to make use of it.
Babylon did, in fact, find herself capable of understanding them, and she’d shut herself away in the research laboratory, frantically scanning every single copy of the documents that I’d sent her. I was surprised that texts so old were still in such a good condition, but apparently, they’d been enchanted with an effect similar to [Protection], so there was no wear or tear. More specifically, the spells he’d employed separated items from the flow of time entirely, preserving them in an eternal permanence. Given that he was a master of time, and the Sage of Hours, I wasn’t surprised he could do that.
As I thought about that, my phone started vibrating. It was the mad doctor herself.
“‘Sup.”
“Touya? I found something interesting in these old notes... I want you to take a look, are you busy?”
“Not at all. We’re just about done here, so I’ll swing by.”
I ended the call after giving my response. I wondered just what that interesting thing could be... so I headed to the lab.
“Come see this.”
The doctor showed me a notebook on the top of her desk. It was turned open to a page that had a sketch of what looked like some kind of armored suit. It had strange mechanical parts and clearly robotic joints.
“What is that... some kind of Frame Gear?”
“That’s not it, no. The Frame Gear is a design of my own making, and it never formally came into the public eye during the ancient era. This thing is human-sized, see? Far too small to be a Frame Gear.”
What? Like some kind of power armor? Sounds like something a billionaire might build in a cave with a box of scraps... But I digress, did the Sage of Hours make something like this...?
The doctor shook her head as if answering my thoughts.
“If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, then no. There are too few notes about this strange armor. If he was the inventor of this suit, then why would he write notes like ‘it presumably draws power from atmospheric magic particles,’ and ‘I could potentially design an autonomous variant if I studied this more...’? These seem to be notes about something he hasn’t personally observed. Also, there’s more...”
The doctor pointed at a scrawled sentence written in the margin of the notebook. It was in ancient Parthenese, so I couldn’t understand it without magical assistance. The doc seemed to realize that, so she read it out loud to me.
“It says ‘The Gears of Time and the Gate of Dimensions, information from the adjacent world.’ The old man was studying how to traverse other worlds, remember? While he was unable to travel there himself... it’s highly possible that he managed to glimpse that other world... Or perhaps he even managed to summon someone over from it.”
Summoned someone over? Was he really capable of that? I mean, I guess it’s possible... but it would’ve taken a hell of a lot... I wondered if he’d been able to muster up enough power to bring someone over.
“Another possibility is that a traveler simply came to this world from another of their own volition.”
“Mhm... That’s definitely possible, yeah.”
There were others out there like Ende, after all.
“It’s possible that he tried to build that Door after meeting an otherworldly visitor and realizing there was a potential escape route.”
It was possible, sure... but I wondered if the armored suit was the person he’d met. Perhaps it wasn’t a human in a suit, but a robot. There was a lot of potential for diversity out there, so a planet of machine lifeforms definitely wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. Some part of me hoped there was a world out there filled with robots in disguise that could transform into cars and other cool things... but I had a feeling I’d never encounter anything like that.
Either way... if it was a visitor from another world, then maybe it came from the Reverse World... But would they have had a robotic lifeform five-thousand years ago...? Actually, come to think of it, there was that crab bus thing... I kind of assumed it was a vehicle, but it could be a living creature or robot... I guess things like that are just normal to the people in that world.
Whatever the case, I knew I wasn’t going to get any answers in this world.
“By the way, are you any closer to making your Dimensional Disruptor work?”
“As a matter of fact, it works now. Cesca let me put it in the garden. Your mana tank is there, too. My version of the portal will draw magic from the tank whenever you’re not nearby, so please top it up when you visit. It has incredibly high capacity due to my pioneering magic condenser tech, so don’t worry about it running out too quickly. Plus, it’s being amplified for efficiency thanks to the tower.”
That made sense. The tower did seem to improve other Babylon functions. I was glad to have a tank with enough capacity to keep my magic running if I was away. Not that I really expected to be away very often... Still, having enough to sustain Kohaku and the others was a relief to me. I decided to fill it up with enough magic to last a few decades... Not that I ever wanted to be in a situation where I was stranded elsewhere for that length of time.
“So yes, I’d like you to test its activation and go through it... but I’d really like it if you could bring me as well...”
“That’s out of the question. If I brought you, you’d have no way of getting back. If I manage to construct a similar thing on the other side that safely leads back to this world, then I’ll bring you along. How about that?”
“Tsk... If that’s really how it has to be, I can exercise my patience a tad more.”
It was easy for me to return home by using the divine realm as a stepping stone, but a regular person like the doctor wouldn’t be able to take that path. Only gods or those summoned by God Almighty could travel across worlds like that. Well, not including people like Ende, anyway.
However, if I could acquire a plot of land in that world, gather enough raw materials, and cobble together a version of the portal that leads back to this world, then the two would be more freely connected. That was still a ways off, though. And so, for the time being, I decided to go up to the garden and channel magic into the cylindrical mana tank.
It could definitely hold a hell of a lot. I drained about half my total capacity into the tank, and it still had a bit more space left inside. After that, I connected a pathway to it that would keep Kohaku and the others maintained. I was relieved to have that little problem sorted out.
She wanted me to test the activation, so it’s not like I had to go to the Reverse World or anything... Though, at the same time, I wanted to verify a couple of things like if there was a difference in the way time flowed and stuff. I was in a hurry last time I went, so I didn’t have time to focus on details like that. I didn’t even get much of a grasp of the local area.
Before I went, I decided to call Yumina and the others to make sure they didn’t get worried. I had a habit of just going off on solo adventures without telling them, and I had a feeling it was a little bit irritating. I gathered them all in the garden and Yumina spoke up.
“I don’t mind if you go, but please don’t go over there alone. Could you take Kohaku with you? I think that’d be smarter.”
“What, you don’t trust me over there...?”
Yumina’s gripe was a little frustrating. Although, she had a fair point about Kohaku. Kohaku was a Heavenly Beast, and my summon, so she’d be able to come back to the divine realm with me.
“It’s not a matter of trust, Touya. You tend to go all-out and charge into danger. Having Kohaku with you might help temper things a little.” I couldn’t deny that, but if I didn’t rush headlong into danger I might never have met my fiancees.
“We would like to come with you this time. You often take Kohaku and Luli.”
“Indeed, you should take us this time instead. Sango and Kokuyou are adept at defense, and I can scout from the skies.”
“Mmm... I agree this time. You should take them instead...” Kohaku nodded to what Kougyoku was saying.
Hmm... Those three?
Kokuyou was definitely inconspicuous, but the other two kind of stood out... They were about as obviously noticeable as Luli and Kohaku... but it was already agreed, so I decided to take them.
Thankfully, all my fiancees were fine with me leaving. I was a little surprised they were so willing to just go along with it... Well, it was probably because I’d confirmed to them that I was a god a few days prior. Plus, I promised to bring them all a souvenir.
I’d be staying for a full day. Though because it took some time to actually transfer, it’d be more like a day and a half.
I’d met someone in the other world. It was only one guy, but it was a start. He was a trader, so ideally I’d be able to get a start on making a foothold there with him.
Either way, I was kind of looking forward to investigating the place... Testing the doctor’s door was a convenient excuse. My sisters would be able to contact me if anything really bad happened, too.
I began pouring my magic into the Dimensional Disruptor. It actually took a hell of a lot out of me, especially since I had already dumped a considerable amount into the tank. Still, I knew it wouldn’t take too long to regen, so I wasn’t worried.
The tachometer display hit 100%, and I saw an image appear through the structure’s arch.
Oho? It’s not the forest like last time. Looks like some rocky mountains... Guess it’s because I’m entering from Brunhild instead of Palerius... Ah well, let’s do it.
“Alright, I’m off.”
“Make sure you get something to eat, okay?”
“Don’t talk to any weird women, either!”
Linze and Elze gave me some... parting advice as I passed through to the Reverse World. Just like before, it felt like I was walking through solid, squishy air. It felt extremely unpleasant.
I came out into a rocky area near the coast. There was the loud sound of a rushing tide, and some cicadas chirped in the distance.
As expected, I was in a completely different location.
“The ocean looksss nice. I’m glad to sssee that...”
“Mhm... I’d like to go for a swim...”
Sango and Kokuyou were pleased to see salt water, but we weren’t headed for a beach vacation.
“First things first, gotta figure out where the people are... Run Search, Human Beings.”
Oh. Crap.
I hadn’t entered any information about this world into my smartphone. I had no map. I was an idiot... I completely forgot to ask Mr. Sancho if I could use my phone to copy his...
“Should I call my kin to inform us of the local area?”
“No need for that, let’s just walk and take it easy for a while...” I declined Kougyoku’s offer and walked along the coastline. After a short while, we came across a lone fisherman angling near some rocks.
I used translation magic to talk to him and ask if he could give me my current location... I was glad to have met someone so helpful. He looked at Sango and Kokuyou floating in the air beside me and gave a strange look, but he didn’t say anything.
As it turned out, I was a long way from my original landing point... It was probably because of the fact that Brunhild and Palerius were far apart on the map. Either that or the destination was just randomized every time. If I recalled correctly, Mr. Sancho was headed toward the Allent Theocracy’s capital city, so that was where I wanted to go.
The directions kind of threw me off when I looked at the map the guy provided me with, but I was currently located about where Felsen was in the regular world. Allent was located in around the same area as where Roadmare was.
If I used [Fly] it wouldn’t take long to reach it at all.
“Alright, let’s fly.”
I used [Invisible] on myself and the others, just to be safe.
Looking down from the sky, this world looked pretty similar to the regular one. But I was in for a real shock as a massive airship sailed right past me. It looked kind of retro, like a steampunk style airship with a balloon. I wondered what the deal with the robot arms coming out of the sides was...
No, this world was not all that similar at all. There was a lot different here. It seemed like this world’s technology had advanced a lot farther, at least.
Either way, I’d learn more once I made it to the theocracy. And so, I zoomed off, ready to find out more about this brave new world...
I arrived at the Allent Theocracy’s capital city, but found myself in a bit of a predicament. Apparently, in order to enter the city, you needed to pay the toll or present identification... There was a long line in front of the city gates.
I wasn’t too surprised that a system like that was in place, but I had a sinking feeling that my guild card wouldn’t cut it in this world. Obviously, I didn’t have any of this world’s currency either. I wondered what to do.
“...We’re invisible, aren’t we? Can’t we just bypass all this?”
“...Good point.”
Kokuyou reminded me of the obvious, and I felt like an idiot. I didn’t actually have to do anything. I was invisible, so I could just saunter on through.
I passed right by the security checkpoint at the gate. To be honest, I could’ve just descended into the city the whole time.
Anyway, once I got in, I quickly stepped into a back alley and undid [Invisible] on myself. Then, I stepped out into the streets and could almost feel the hustle and bustle of the busy town in the atmosphere. The buildings and paved roads didn’t look too different from the ones I’d seen in the regular world... Plus, there were streetlamps dotted around that would be more at home on Earth. People’s clothing seemed pretty standard too, but the most noticeable distinction was that there wasn’t anyone around that I’d really consider a fantasy-style adventurer.
No, hold on a second... That’s a neon store sign over there, right? Yeah, I’d recognize that kind of tubing anywhere.
It wasn’t dark so the sign wasn’t turned on, but it seemed to be a typical electrical sign. Then again, it could’ve been magic-powered.
“Hmm... I guess there are quite a few differences here...”
My liege, look at that...? I walked around aimlessly when I suddenly received a telepathic message from Kokuyou.
I stopped to look, and I saw a merchant cross an intersection riding some kind of clunky ostrich-like machine. I had no idea what I was looking at. It was ostrich-like in that it had a long neck, but it didn’t really have much of a torso. It was kind of like a walking pogo stick.
Over there, too...?
I turned and looked across the road... to see a spider-like machine with eight legs attached to eight wheels glide down the path. The eight legs jutted from a carriage, and I could see a man and woman sitting atop a seat, merrily chatting to each other and enjoying their ride.
It went by as I stared. The culture shock was starting to get to me.
I guesss magitech ssstuff is common in thisss world, hm??
I’m not entirely sure if these devices are magic or artifacts... Everyone seems to be treating it as rather commonplace, however...?
Kougyoku was correct. Everyone seemed pretty much used to the weird and wacky robots roaming around town as if such a thing was the norm here. I wondered if you could buy them somewhere...
“This really is another world...” I honestly felt like I needed to sit down with a cup of tea, but I didn’t have any money.
Still, I knew what I needed to do. Thanks to my encounter with Mr. Sancho, I could use magic to read the local language, Allentese. I looked over the street signs and made my way toward what seemed to be a general store. I thought I could probably sell something to make some cash.
“Howdy there, friend.”
The store I’d wandered into was a little place called Catan General Supplies. There were all kinds of miscellaneous goods lined up here and there. Sewing needles and thread, scissors and cloth. There was an abundance of recognizable stuff, but also some unusual things like glasses filled with liquids I didn’t recognize.
“...Are you after anything in particular?”
The shopkeeper wandered over and offered his assistance. He probably thought I was suspicious. I did have some weird animals with me, after all.
He was a bearded, ginger-haired man who looked to be about thirty.
“Ah, no actually... I’m short on cash, so I was wondering if I’d be able to sell anything to you...”
“Sell to me? Hm...If you have any Rukugy Yarn or Leylightstones, then I’d be interested.”
I had no idea what either of those things were. But given that he mentioned a stone, I thought perhaps he’d be willing to buy gold or silver ore.
“What about silver or gold?”
“What, you mean like ore? That’s no good here. You’d be better off taking that to a jeweler, son. I don’t know the value, so I’d just give you a rate that rips you off.”
He was a surprisingly honest guy. I decided to find a jeweler. That was at least one method of getting some cash. While I was here, I decided to ask about Mr. Sancho.
“Excuse me, but do you know anyone named Pedro Sancho? I believe he lives in this city.”
“You’re a friend of Sancho’s? His shop is a little bit up the street from mine. He’ll probably be able to buy that gold and silver from you. The store’s named Sancho Shipping.”
Apparently Sancho was fairly well-known. I was a little surprised by that fact.
I smiled at the shopkeeper and made my way out. When I stepped outside, I saw a small robot that somewhat resembled an armored knight following after someone who vaguely resembled an adventurer.
None of the citizens really batted an eye at it, suggesting that something like that was just the norm in this world.
Even though there was a technological aesthetic and the presence of sophisticated robotics, the people hadn’t really moved past Victorian-style carriages. I found it a little odd.
It felt like there was a weird technology gap somewhere. But that was probably just the nature of this new, unusual world. I walked up the street, marveling at the mechanical mysteries around me. Eventually, I spotted the sign I was after.
“Ah, this must be Sancho Shipping.”
It was three times as large as the shop I’d been in earlier. There was a space nearby that somewhat resembled a parking lot, and the crab bus was neatly parked right in against the wall. There was no doubt. This was his place.
I climbed up the surprisingly short stairwell and opened up the extremely fancy door. A door chime chirped as I opened it up, and an apron-clad woman in her late twenties turned to look at me.
“Ah, welc— Oh? Oh, ohhh! It’s you! From the other day!”
“Huh?” The woman, who had chestnut hair all clipped together by a fancy decoration, walked right over the moment she saw me. She gently bowed her head to me.
“Thank you so much.”
“For... What, exactly?”
“Ah, forgive my manners. You only spoke with my husband at the time. I’m Mona, Pedro’s wife! I was inside the Gollem Carriage when you saved us.”
“Gollem?”
“Yes, see? The vehicle right outside.”
She pointed out the window toward the crab bus. From the looks of things, the whole area was just being used as a parking garage.
Still, I wondered what a Gollem was. Something like a Golem, maybe?
“I simply must call my husband! Please sit tight!”
“Oh, sure.”
Mona trotted off inside the store and headed down some steps.
I moved aside slightly so I could look out at the parking area without bothering the other customers. There were a lot of things on sale in this store. They all looked pricey, too. It made the place feel a cut above the store I’d been in not too long ago. I had nothing else to do, so I stared out toward the crab bus outside... Or, er, that weird thing they were calling a Gollem.
“There’s a part that kind of looks like a cockpit, but I don’t see anything like a handle or a lever... Is it automated, maybe?”
I took out my smartphone and snapped a picture of it. There were probably stores that sold stuff like it, presuming it was some kind of generally available vehicle. Doc Babylon would go nuts if I brought one back for her, but I had a feeling they’d be pricey.
“Ooh! So you decided to visit, Tohya! I’m so glad to see you again!”
“Ah, Mr. Sancho... It’s nice to see you.”
I turned to greet the booming voice and found him standing there with a huge smile on his face. Everything about him, right down to the appearance and grin, resembled Ebisu, the Japanese God of fishery and luck.
I grasped his outstretched hand and gave it a firm shake, then began to speak.
“As it happens, I was looking to earn some money. I was wondering if your store purchased gold and silver, Mr. Sancho.”
“Just Sancho is fine, and purchasing is no problem! Can I take a look?”
I took out a gold ingot from my [Storage], and Sancho started staring at me like he’d just seen me, well, produce gold from thin air.
“Are you alright?”
“Just fine... I’d assumed you were an irregular person, Tohya, given how you dispatched that beast... but to think you would know magic as well? This is most unusual...”
It seemed magic wasn’t a common thing in this world.
“The fact that you could use a storage spell without a card is incredible...”
“Sorry, what’s a card?”
“See here. You’ve never heard of this before? This is a Storage Card. You must really have come from afar, Tohya...”
Sancho took out a small card from his breast pocket and held it above the countertop. A few coins then tumbled out of the flat surface afterward. Whoa, this card must be enchanted with something similar to my spell.
“This is a necessary item for merchants, you know? The cards have various tiers. There’s common, uncommon, rare, and legendary. Anything legendary tier can store the most, while commons stores the least. This one here is uncommon.”
“Wow... First time I’ve ever seen one.” I looked down at Sancho’s card. The idea was novel, but definitely useful. If I could make something similar, it could be useful back home. I asked for a few more details and found that unlike my [Storage] spell, things put inside these cards were not suspended in time.
“Still... to have such curiosity over something so common... Just who are you, Tohya?”
“Dear, you shouldn’t ask so much of him. He did save us.”
“I suppose you’re right. Please accept my apologies for prying. Now, let me look over your goods.”
Sancho looked at me a little curiously, but quickly went on with his work after his wife gave him a glance. He began measuring it out on scales and weighing it against some cylindrical object, and then wrote down a few quick calculations on paper.
“Hmhm... Well, it’s pure gold. You really want to sell this?”
“That’s right.”
“Hmm... In that case... would five plat suffice?”
“That sounds fine to me. Let’s do that.”
I had no idea of the value of anything in this world, so I just went along with him. Still, they had platinum coins. That gave me hope that the value of money was at least similar to how it was back in the regular world.
Then again, I had no way of telling if I could buy a loaf of bread or a house with one platinum coin. Though, the value of a metal coin was usually determined by the scarcity of the material used to represent it.
There was once a time when aluminum was worth more than gold, and another time when platinum wasn’t considered very valuable at all. Gold typically kept a standard and stable value, but that was only on Earth.
The shopkeeper from the store I’d entered earlier seemed to consider silver and gold to be precious metals, so the rule was probably the same here.
Either way, I had a question to ask my new friend.
“That machine outside... I’ve been seeing similar ones around. What is it, exactly?” I asked as I pointed out to the crab bus through the window.
“You mean the Gollems? We’re in the capital city, so it’s only natural that there’d be a ton of different types. There are the factory types like mine out there, but there are also legacy types.”
“Sorry, but... can a normal person like me buy one of these, uh, Gollems?”
“I don’t see why not. But you won’t be able to buy a very good one for just five plat.”
Seemed like these things were pretty expensive. They were probably around the same equivalent price as a fancy car back home. It didn’t seem like the standard person would be able to afford one, and it seemed like they were priced based on quality and utility.
“You don’t seem to know all that much about Gollems, Tohya. Would you like me to explain a little more of their history?”
“If you could, I’d appreciate it. Thanks.”
In response to my request, Sancho began explaining all he could about the Gollems.
A long time ago, there had been a great war. It started as a small dispute between two great nations, but the conflict escalated and consumed the entire world. Mechanical automatons were created. They fought on behalf of people, and war became more of a resource management exercise. Those automated drones were what the modern era referred to as the Gollems. A wide variety of them were created, and the war began to escalate. More complex machines were designed to keep up with the war effort. Eventually, both sides lost control of their drones. Masterless, the automatons did all that they were designed to do. Fight.
The world, as a result, was completely ravaged. But slowly, mankind rose up once more from the ashes of the annihilated civilization. They excavated the old world and rediscovered the secrets of the Gollems. They managed to reactivate and research some of these ancient machines, referred to as legacy types. From research into the legacy types, they learned how to produce inferior copies of the ancient technology. The mass-produced, downgraded models were referred to as factory types, and they were the most common Gollems seen in the world today.
“So the stuff I saw outside were factory types?”
“Correct. Legacy models are rather hard to come by. That’s mostly because they very rarely appear on the market. You’d have better luck going to the ruins of the old world and trying to excavate one yourself.”
Legacy Gollems seemed pretty rare, overall... Though, they were definitely obtainable if a person was determined enough.
“So is there a major difference in performance between factories and legacies?”
“That is one part of it, but the main draw of legacy types over factories is that the legacies have what we call Ability Charges. Each of them can wield different powers. Some could shoot electricity, while others might be able to manipulate ice, and so on. Given that you can use magic, Tohya, I doubt they’d be as useful or as much of a help to you.”
That made sense. The abilities were what made legacy types more valuable than factory types. That made sense, since they were left behind by a more advanced society. What people on the other side referred to as artifacts, were probably referred to as legacies here. What mattered was that a legacy was an ancient magical device with a wide range of effects.
Sancho smiled and took out my five coins.
I briefly asked him to explain basic currency value while he was at it, by asking how much he thought a loaf of bread would cost. It turned out that the cost was mostly the same as what I was used to. Since a platinum coin was worth so much, I asked him to split one of the five into ten gold coins.
The gold coins were smaller than the ones used in the regular world, but they seemed to be made of the same stuff. I used [Analyze] on the coin and found it wasn’t pure gold, but an alloy with about a tenth of it being mithril. I wondered if mithril was common here.
Either way, I’d finally acquired my much-desired cash. I decided I wanted to learn a little more about this strange reverse world. If I could get more info, I’d learn more about these Gollems as well.
“Sancho, do you know where I could find a bookstore?”
“There’s a bookstore three doors down. It’s not that big, though.”
That was close enough, so I decided to start my search there. I thanked Sancho and Mona, then headed out. Once outside, I looked to the right and saw a bookstore sign about three doors down.
The atmosphere inside the bookstore was very different, somewhat more antiquated. There were a lot of books on both the first and second floors.
An old man with a long white beard sat behind the counter. He reminded me of a certain headmaster of a certain school for witchcraft and wizardry.
“...Welcome, my boy. How may I help you today?”
“Uh... Do you have any books on history or culture?”
“History? National history, or global?”
“Both, ideally.”
“Second floor, then. On the shelving to the right. Second and third from the top. Feel free to peruse, but try your best not to dirty or damage.” I bowed my head to the old man and went up the old creaky stairs. I made it to the second floor and headed toward the rightmost shelves.
“Hmm... Let’s see... The Beginner’s Guide to Allent... The Theocracy and You... The Western Frontier... The Legend of Matlack...”
“There’sss a lot, huh?”
“Yeah... But it seems like all of these combined aren’t even one silver coin... I guess I’ll get them all.” I kept on looking through the shelves, picking out books that caught my eye. Books sure were cheap in this world...
“Oh right, gotta find some on those Gollems, too.” There weren’t any formal books about Gollems, so I picked up a couple of books about the ancient civilizations.
I picked up a few assorted books on magic and technology and piled on a couple of romance novels for Linze as well. Kokuyou helped carry some of them as I piled them up.
“That’ll do, I think.”
I used [Levitation] in the end because there were over a hundred books. The old man at the counter looked like he was about to faint when he saw the massive pile of books float down from the second floor. Either way, he began calculating the total cost.
In total, the cost came to nine gold coins, so I paid with a platinum. I decided that instead of getting the one gold coin in change, I’d look around the first floor and make up the difference by buying books from there, too. I then opened up [Storage] and shoved every last book I’d bought inside.
“Th-Thank you...” The dumbfounded old man muttered his goodbyes as I headed out the door.
“Getting kinda hungry... I should probably eat.”
Yeah, I’m hungry as well.?
Me too, darling. I’d love to eat sssome eggsss...?
I walked around town looking for something to eat. I could’ve gone back to Sancho and asked what he might suggest, but this time I wanted to walk around and see what stood out. One of the best things about a trip to a new place is finding out things on your own, after all... Or well, that was what Elze told me, anyway.
Eventually, I found a small cafe. They welcomed me inside and I sat out on their terrace. They didn’t even mind me bringing my summons inside.
I did know Allentese thanks to my magic, but that wasn’t always helpful.
For example, I could read the menu just fine... but that didn’t necessarily mean that I had any idea what a “Snicken Sandwich” or a “Grabe Juice” was. I was a little excited when I made the order... But when it arrived, I got what resembled a chicken sandwich and grape juice.
It tasted good, though. Actually, it was really good. There was no point getting hung up on the ingredients. Good food was just good.
The trio with me were also enjoying their food. Kokuyou was tucking into some eggs, Sango was eating some fish, and Kougyoku was eating some mixed veggies.
I looked down across the streets as I slowly relaxed and ate. I liked looking at the different types of Gollems as they passed by on the street.
Come to think of it, I haven’t seen any demi-humans... No elves or beastmen. I wonder if that’s just because there aren’t any around here... I hope they aren’t persecuted in this world, too.
I drank what I thought was grape juice, but it actually tasted like tomato juice... Wasn’t bad.
“Someone help! Stop that thief! He has my bag!”
I suddenly heard someone yelling from across the street, and I saw a young man sprint past the terrace. He was clutching a bag in his hands.
“[Slip].”
“Gwuuugh?!” He suddenly fell backward and smacked his head hard on the pavement. Then, he screamed and immediately passed out.
A blonde-haired young man suddenly came up from behind him and restrained the fallen man.
Fine work, my liege.?
“Big cities tend to have more crime...”
I shrugged quietly and sipped at my juice, watching the citizen’s arrest unfold. Soon two silver-armored guardsmen came by, seizing the criminal violently. They walked off with the blonde guy. I was pleased to see this city had guards, at least.
I decided I’d had enough people-watching, and went on to pay the bill. And after that, I decided to go around the city, checking various stores. I wanted to get souvenirs for my fiancees and God Almighty. I raised my brow in surprise when I came across a gun in a weapon shop. But interestingly enough, it didn’t use gunpowder. Apparently, it was called a “Spellcaster,” and it shot out bullets from channeled magic.
I wasn’t too surprised to learn that this world didn’t have much in the way of mages. People in this world were aware of magic, but those who could actually make use of it were extremely limited.
It was probably the Gollems that hindered magic development. After all, if a Gollem could launch lightning from its fingers, what reason would an unaware mage ever have to learn something like [Thunder Arrow], for example?
You didn’t have to pay an automated machine a salary. You didn’t have to worry about it betraying you for selfish needs. It was probably that magic was only nurtured by a few select nations or people, so the gene pool just wasn’t as populated with magic aptitude.
It might not have been that way in the olden days... But I’d know better after I had these books thoroughly analyzed. Not by me, though. Doc Babylon could take care of that.
Still, it seemed like there was danger in the Reverse World as well. From what I gathered, there were gangs of people who thought tourists were easy targets.
“There’s two... No, three...”
Yes. They’ve been stalking us for a while.?
They’d been following since I stopped the thief with my spell. They weren’t doing too badly, to be honest, but compared to Tsubaki they were rank amateurs.
“Wonder why they’re aiming for me...”
You’ve been going around a lot of shops today. Perhaps they think you’re some rich idiot.?
That was probably it. I pretended to do a little window shopping as I confirmed that my stalkers were behind me in the window’s reflection. They were wearing hoods and looked like typical thugs.
Alright, let’s get this over with.
I picked up the pace a little and entered a back alley. The moment I got around the corner, I cast [Invisible] and waited for my pursuers. And when they began walking down the alley, I slipped in behind them and blocked their escape.
The three hooded individuals jumped in shock when I revealed myself.
“You guys need something?”
Two of the panicked stalkers glanced toward the third. That was their leader, presumably.
“I’d appreciate it if you spoke up or stopped following me. Or what, do I have to teach you a lesson?” I peppered in a light threat because I had no time for their nonsense. I didn’t know if they’d take me seriously, though.
“P-Please wait a moment. I’m sorry that we had to follow you, but could you please hear me out?”
The leader spoke up, revealing the face of a woman as she unfastened her hood. She looked to be in her twenties, with red hair and sharp hazel eyes. She exuded the aura of someone trained in combat. The fact that she had a short haircut only increased that sense of masculinity.
“The bag-snatcher on the terrace. You used magic to incapacitate him, didn’t you?”
“And if I did?”
That was interesting. She knew I’d used a spell despite the fact that it was just a brief invocation. Then again, there were people out there who were attuned to magic use even if they couldn’t use it themselves.
“Can you cast other spells?”
“Somewhat, yeah.”
“Curse-breaking spells...?”
“Depends on the curse. If the curse has come along too far, then removing it could hurt or kill the person with it.”
The term “curse” covered a great many effects, like confusion, petrification, lethargy, illusion, bewitching, and so on. A lot of those effects changed over time, too.
My [Recovery] spell was capable of ending these for the most part, but it wasn’t always so simple. For example, if a curse effect strengthened someone’s body, and that curse was then removed, their un-empowered body wouldn’t be able to handle the new strain, and they’d die.
[Recovery] was also ineffective against more complex curses. For example, the curse I’d put on those slavers a while back.
Every time a person with that curse knowingly committed a crime, a part of their body would be paralyzed until it eventually stopped their heart.
The spell only cured abnormal bodily conditions, for the most part. The paralysis effect could be cured with [Recovery], but the curse itself would still remain. Another crime would result in another paralyzed limb, so it wasn’t a perfect solution.
That was why it was important that I knew exactly what curse someone was suffering from...
“You have a friend who has a curse, or something?”
Thessse people are rather ssstrange. Are they really Phantom Thievesss??
I have my doubts about their capabilities, too...?
I could do nothing but shrug as Kokuyou and Kougyoku let me know their thoughts.
“Anyway, come this way. We’d like you to examine her...” We headed into a small passage along the side of the room, and came to another large metal door. Euni and Euri stayed in the command room. That left myself, Nia, Est, and my summons.
I glanced around the new area and saw someone in a bed along the side of the wall. Laying down next to the bed was what I thought at a glance was a dog, but it actually seemed to be a wolf. It was staring right at me.
“Lady Nia, Lady Est. Who is this man?”
“It can talk?!”
The wolf spoke in a deep, masculine voice. I wondered if he was a summoned beast or something. I turned to Kokuyou and the others, but they shook their heads at me, as if to suggest that this wolf wasn’t.
“This is Mochizuki Touya. He might be able to dispel Elluka’s curse. Touya, this is Fenrir. He’s Elluka... the curse bearer’s, Gollem.”
“This thing’s a Gollem?!” I raised a brow at what Est had told me. I had no idea that this thing was a Gollem, especially given that it looked just like a real wolf... Plus it could talk! I was learning a lot.
“Aha, I see! Wonderful. My mistress won’t be able to continue her pilgrimage if she can’t wake up, so please help her.”
The wolf Gollem began wagging his tail merrily. He was pretty much indistinguishable from the real thing. It was entirely possible that the people in town hadn’t thought too much of Kokuyou and the others because they assumed they were just weird Gollems.
“...Let me take a look, then.”
I wanted to learn more about the wolf, but I had to attend to the bedridden girl first. She looked around twenty years old. She had long, unkempt hair. It was silvery, and tucked gently beneath her blanket. There were thick, round glasses on the table by the bedside. I assumed they belonged to her.
The flow of magic through her body seemed fairly normal, so the curse wasn’t affecting her on a psychological level.
“You said that she got this way after touching an artifact?”
“Ah, yes. The curse was placed on a jewelry box that belonged to a noble. Apparently anyone who opened the box would be cursed by it...” Fenrir quickly answered my question. He had a nice, confident voice. Very manly. It was weird to hear it from a wolf.
“Do you guys have this box?”
“Yeah, right here!” Est opened up a drawer and took out a jewelry box. It was gaudy and bright, definitely some kind of high-class item. It was tightly bound with string, likely to prevent anyone else from opening it up.
I had her place it on the side table, and fired up my magic.
“[Analyze].”
Hmm... Yep, this is a coma-related curse. It’s pretty simplistic, but I guess given that this world doesn’t have much in the way of recovery skills, it could have caused trouble if I wasn’t here. Yeah... Hm... This curse makes the victim sleep until they die. That’s rough. It seems like the curse is activated when a keyword is recited, and disabled when it’s recited again. So it’s an anti-theft measure. That makes sense. The people in this world must use curses instead of locks, that’s pretty crafty. I guess the noble was the one who set this to begin with... I can probably undo it with [Recovery], I think.
“Alright, no problem. I’ll be able to solve her curse.”
“Seriously?!” Nia blurted out her surprise, and I gave her a sidelong glance before reaching out my magic to the bedridden girl.
“[Recovery].” A gentle light descended upon the girl, and slowly faded away. With that, the curse should have been lifted.
“Hngh...”
“Mistress! It’s me, do you hear me?”
“Mmh...? Fenrir? Lemme have five more minutes...”
“Don’t go back to sleep at a time like this!”
“Gwugh!” Fenrir jumped up into the air and hit the bedridden girl with a body slam. ...Just how much do Gollems weigh, exactly?! The bed totally creaked just now! You dumb dog, you might have broken something!
“Oho! You did it! Good job!” Nia grinned and gave me a firm thwack on the back.
Ow...
She kind of reminded me of General Leon from Belfast... What freakish strength. Elluka, who was apparently something called a “Technologist,” said she’d get changed, so we walked back into the command room.
Euni and Euri sighed in relief when they learned that Elluka was safe.
“We owe you a great debt for this. I suppose we should reward you, but what would suffice?”
“Hrmm... A reward for solving a curse, huh...? Kind of reminds me of that time with Duke Ortlinde... I don’t suppose you guys have enough money as the king of Belfast, though...”
“Belfast?”
“Ah, no, nothing...” I gave a vague response to Est. Technically speaking, it wasn’t really a curse I’d solved back in Belfast, or the king’s incident either.
When I helped the duke, I got some money and a medal. That helped me out socially. For the king, I got money and a home. I was a little reluctant to receive a reward from a group of thieves, since they probably pilfered it.
“Hm, well... I guess there’s nothing I really want right now. How about I just let you guys know if there’s anything I need next time we meet?”
“Oh? You know, we’ll be changing bases soon, so we won’t be here forever.”
“Oh, really...?”
“Yes. We originally came here so that we could fix my Gollem, and that’s why we have this little base. Our actual headquarters are in the northern mountains. The knights of the kingdom will likely learn about that location soon, though, so we’ll have to flee at some point.”
Mm... Phantom Thieves of justice or not, they’re still criminals. Getting caught would be dangerous for any of them... That being said, I didn’t know Nia had a Gollem.
“Elluka is an expert Technologist, and her specialty is Gollems. Currently, she’s been working on repairing mine. Only a person of her renown, hailed across the world as the Restoration Queen, could be capable of repairing a crown unit. Though, she said she’d only be able to fix it up a little.”
I didn’t really understand what a crown unit was, but the gist of the situation was that Nia had called Elluka over to repair her damaged Gollem. During their search for the necessary materials, the Technologist opened up the jewel box and contracted the curse.
“I’m capable of using tracking magic, so I should be able to find you if I ever want to see you guys again.”
“...Just what kind of things can you track with that magic?”
“Just about anything that I can recognize. For example, Est, I couldn’t search for your mother if you asked me to. But I’d probably be able to find her if you had a good picture of her.”
Even though I said that, my spell was a little limited in this world since I hadn’t finished updating the map to work with the new world. Currently it only covered the capital. If I used Kougyoku to summon a couple thousand birds it would only take a few days to map the whole world, though. I didn’t know much about the climate of this world, though... Plus I didn’t have any reserve mana tanks here. They’d end up vanishing the moment I went back to the other side.
“You certainly seem plenty capable... Have you considered joining up with Red Cat?”
“No thank you.”
“No need to answer so fast... So meaaan... Oh, oh. How about you teach me magic? Show me a spell that can blast my enemies away like ‘Kablammo!’” Nia grabbed on to my arm and began shaking it around. She was beginning to annoy me.
“You can only learn magic if you have an elemental aptitude. There are a lot of people in the world who just can’t learn it no matter how hard they try.”
“Then test me on this aptitude stuff! If I don’t have any, I’ll give up!”
“Maybe next time.” Magic wasn’t exactly well-known in this world, so I had mixed feelings about teaching its workings to a group of outlaws, Phantom Thieves or not.
“Whaaat? No waaay! So meaaan! Teach me magic! Magic! C’mon! It’s not gonna hurt you to— Owww! Owie!” Est swiftly delivered a karate chop to Nia’s head, stopping her whining .
“Please learn from what I say to you, Nia. Act in a way that befits your position. Because you act so childishly, I’m the one saddled with repairing Rouge. Perhaps you should consider the consequences.”
“But if I know magic, then I’ll be able to do better! I won’t make another mistake like that again, duh! Teach me magic, Touya! Teach me!” Nia began yanking at my arm again. Just as Est was about to smack her again, the nearby door opened up.
“Quite the interesting conversation you’re having. Perhaps I can join in?”
I turned toward the voice and saw the wolf Gollem, Fenrir, and his mistress Elluka. She looked... Special.
Frankly, she looked like a mess. Her unkempt silver hair straggled out in a messy tuft. She wore a bedraggled old robe, and her glasses were... Round, and thick. Like the bottoms of glass bottles. It wasn’t like she wasn’t pretty, but she definitely wasn’t concerned about her looks. She resembled a mad scientist, basically. She kind of reminded me of a certain other mad scientist I knew, only somewhat more mature. And a tiny bit less stylish.
“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Elluka Patolakshe. I’m a Technologist, specifically a Gollem Engineer. Thank you for helping me.”
“I’m Mochizuki Touya. Don’t worry about it.”
Elluka smiled at me. Helping her was no big deal, I was just a little curious.
“I’m glad that you helped Elluka out... but would you be able to help Rouge, too?”
“You little brat... Why don’t you listen? He helped Elluka, but that doesn’t mean he’d do that!”
“O-Owie!” Est unleashed another deadly strike to the top of Nia’s head.
I wonder how many times this has happened.
Elluka looked over at the two before beginning to speak.
“We still lack materials. We’re in dire need of orichalcum. The leader of this nation should have some, but...”
“No buts, we should steal from the wicked to help the needy.”
“Aw geez... We gotta find more of that stuff, huh?” Nia grumbled as she flopped out on to the command room’s table.
“I have some orichalcum...” I muttered, and Nia suddenly jolted up in her seat. She stared right at me.
What?
“You really have the divine gold? You have orichalcum? No way...”
“Uh... Yep. Here, look.” I opened [Storage] and took out an orichalcum ingot. I plopped it on to the desk. Elluka took it into her hands and began tapping it with a small cylindrical object.
If I recalled correctly, Sancho had one too. It must’ve been some kind of tool for measuring purity.
“It’s the real deal. I’ve never seen orichalcum this pure, either. Do you perhaps have hihi’irokane or adamantite as well?”
“I do... but not as much. Here.”
I used [Storage] to pull out some more ingots for her to inspect. She used her little tool to confirm what they were.
“Touya, I apologize if this sounds rude but... could we purchase this? We’ll pay the proper price, we promise.”
“Sure, no problem. Selling this little is fine.”
“Just who are you...? Some kind of noble?”
Hahah... Actually I’m a grand duke. I laughed a little and deflected the question.
“This should be enough to repair Rouge. I’ll need about a day, but—”
“W-We have a situation!”
The door Akagane was guarding suddenly flung open, and a man charged into the room. His breathing was ragged and sweat ran down his brow. He looked as though he had sprinted here.
“O-Our mountain hideout is under attack! The knight order is heading there in droves!”
“What did you say?!”
“Was the messenger we sent out caught or something...?” Nia stood there in shock. It seemed like information about their headquarters had been leaked.
“Gh... We can’t do anything with Rouge right now, but Akagane should be able to help them... Est, what do we do?”
“I don’t know if we can make it in time... It’d be wisest if we fled this place and left them to fend for themselves...”
“None of that! A Red Cat does not abandon its family!” Nia slammed her fist into the desk.
Guess she really cares about her comrades... Then again, she is the boss.
“I could help.”
“Huh?!” Nia shot me a weird look. But I could understand why.
“Display Map. Allen City Outskirts.”
“Displaying.”
“Whaaat?!” Nia and the others stared wide-eyed at the map I projected into the air.
Damn... the map’s only showing places I’ve been or flown over. I knew it wouldn’t be that easy. In the other world, God Almighty filled up the map for me... but there’s no way I can ask him to do that for me again.
“Look, I have a form of magic that allows me to instantly travel to any place I’ve been to before. This is my first time in the capital, so I can’t go anywhere except the places shown on the map.”
“You can do that...?! You mean to say you can instantly move anywhere on this map?! How many can you take with you at once?”
“I can basically take as many as I want. I’ve moved hundreds with this, before.”
“Euni! Gather everyone here! We’re preparing for a fight!”
“R-Roger that, ma’am!”
Est barked orders to Euni, who charged out of the room in a hurry.
“You really can do anything, huh...? Are you a crown, perhaps?”
“Just what is a crown, anyway?”
“A crown is a Gollem from the specialized crown series. They’re ancient machines with unique powers, that stand one or several tiers above the rest. In this world, they are considered the apex of Gollem potential...” Elluka leaned in and explained.
Huh, that’s pretty wild... As I thought to myself, Est carried on.
“Nia’s Gollem, Blood Rouge, is one of the crowns. However, we had a clash with another of the crowns, and Rouge was rendered immobile.”
“Tsk... That bastard hit us with a surprise shot... I won’t forgive that purple asshole! We’ll get them back next time!” I didn’t really understand what Nia was yelling about, so I chalked it down to a personal grievance.
I wanted to learn more about the crowns, but that would have to come later.
“All troops assembled, ma’am!” Euni leaned into the room and yelled to us. Est turned to face her in response, seeing the two rows of soldiers ready to mobilize.
“Squad A will standby here in case of attack! Squad B will come with us to save the fortress! We’ll be moving there immediately thanks to our new friend’s magic! Prepare for immediate conflict!”
“YES MA’AM!!!” Est looked over my projected map and pointed at a specific area.
“Can you send us to this mountain area?”
“I can. Will it be Squad B and the rest of us going?”
Based on what I was told, it seemed I’d be bringing along Nia, Est, Euri, Euni, Elluka, Fenrir, and Akagane.
“No, actually. I want Fenrir and Elluka to remain here. Truthfully I want Nia to stay behind, as well...”
“I’ll go!” Nia clenched her fists and spoke resolutely.
“Frankly, you’re more of a liability to us without Rouge.”
“What?! Don’t be so mean! Even without Rouge, I’m tough!”
Are you...? You look kinda frail to me. Man... I might have made a mistake here. I’m fine helping them out if they need me, but they are criminals... I’m not so sure I want to become a wanted man in this world... I guess I can easily escape it by going home, but still... I just need to go unrecognized, I suppose.
That being said, I can’t bring myself to kill someone who probably isn’t even bad. Isn’t there some way I can get through this without fighting? Like sneaking out the Red Cat members, or...
“Map, trigger markers. Knight order in blue. Red Cats in red.”
“Displaying.”
“Whoa! What’s with those colors?”
Several colored markers appeared on the map, surprising Nia and the others. The red dots were practically surrounded by the blue ones. They were losing, little by little.
It was easy for me to use search magic to identify members of Red Cat, and members of the knight order due to their respective outfits.
“The blue markers represent knights from the kingdom. The red markers are your guys. The battle hasn’t started yet, but they’re being circled. I guess I could try plan B...”
“Plan B?” Est didn’t quite understand what I meant.
“If I can ensure the safety of the people inside your base, would you be fine with abandoning it? You said you were planning on moving eventually anyway, right?”
“Hm? Well, it’s not like we have any attachment to that particular base or anything... Did you have something in mind?”
“I was thinking of going inside the fort and personally teleporting every Red Cat member out of there, and send them here. I’m wondering if it’d be okay if I destroyed the fortress in the process.” That would be a perfect pacifistic solution. The knights would just assume they abandoned the place and blew it up.
Why didn’t I think of this sooner...? I guess I’ve been fighting a little much lately. I should be using my head more than my fists.
“Is that really possible?”
“Easily, yes. But I’ll need someone to come with me. I don’t expect your comrades to believe me if I go alone.”
“I’ll go!” Nia shot her hand up immediately. I didn’t have a problem with it, but I looked towards the others. Est let out a long, drawn-out sigh, and issued a command to her Gollem, Akagane.
“Akagane. Go with Nia. Your current orders are to keep her safe from harm.”
The huge red Gollem slowly nodded its head with a mechanical creak. It seemed that, unlike Fenrir, this one couldn’t talk. Or maybe it just didn’t want to talk. I had no way of telling. It was probably more common to have a non-vocal Gollem, anyway.
Either way, we needed to hurry. We were sitting around chatting while the soldiers were marching onwards. We needed to execute this plan before the battle actually began.
“[Gate].” I opened up a portal next to Nia, who lazily stared at it with curiosity in her eyes. Akagane, on the other hand, slowly and cautiously made its way through. I wondered if it was trying to determine how safe it was before Nia went in. Seeing Akagane’s successful trip, Nia followed right after.
“Alright, we’re off. We’ll try and have everyone back as soon as possible.”
“Good luck out there.”
Est bowed her head and I walked through the portal, coming out into a forested area. Nia was looking around uneasily, and Akagane was carefully surveying the area.
“Where’s the fortress from here, then?”
“A-Ah, well... This way!” Nia began to guide us through the area. After a short while, she stopped and pointed toward the mountainside.
“Look here, you should be able to see it. Right there.”
“Huh?” I looked to where she pointed, but could see nothing but rocks and trees. I used [Long Sense] to project my field of vision, and saw that there was a fairly rudimentary base built out of logs. It was hidden between the trees. It was well camouflaged, but certainly smaller than I expected. Either way, you wouldn’t notice it at a glance.
Frankly, from a distance it couldn’t be seen at all.
“Alright, I can see it now. That means we can jump there. Hold on.”
“Huh?”
“[Teleport].”
Sango and Kokuyou planted themselves on my head, while Kokugyoku perched on my shoulder. I grabbed Nia and Akagane, and warped all of us toward the wooden building in the distance.
The men in the area suddenly drew their weapons in surprise, but stopped once they noticed Nia.
“B-Boss?! Why are you here?!”
“A-Ah... I-Is everyone okay?!” Nia looked around uneasily due to the sudden shift in scenery, but quickly called out to ask after everyone. The Red Cat members all came out to greet her after hearing her voice.
“Everyone! We need to group up! Get everyone here, now! We’re escaping from this base, you hear? We need to get out of here!”
I opened up a [Gate] next to Nia, and the Red Cat members began filing in one after the other.
Everyone except Nia and Akagane safely made it to the hideout beneath the underground. I used my map to double-check that nobody had been left behind. I also noticed that the blue markers were gradually getting closer.
“Oh boy... The knights are closing in... I need to get rid of this place before they’re close enough to get hurt. Nia, you and Akagane need to go back to Est now. This is where we part.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“There are things I need to do. I have to be home by tomorrow. I’ll ask you for my reward next time we meet, okay? So I promise we’ll meet again.”
It was possible that I might need to count on them at some point, so I was glad I’d helped them out. This Red Cat group of chivalrous thieves seemed to have some notoriety, so having them on my side was probably a plus.
“...Alright, I understand. Thanks so much for all you’ve done. Next time we meet I’ll introduce you to my Gollem, alright? Rouge is awesome!”
“Haha, I’m sure... Next time maybe I’ll show you my Frame Gear, a special giant Gollem that a person can ride inside.”
“Pfft, this isn’t the time for jokes!” Nia giggled to herself, assuming I was making something up. It wouldn’t be difficult to use [Storage] to stash a Frame Gear, so I could probably bring one across to the Reverse World with me... But it would probably cause some kind of international crisis if it was seen.
“Until next time, then. Teach me magic, alright? Later, Touya.”
“Yeah, later. Tell everyone bye from me.”
I waved Nia and Akagane off as they passed through the portal. Now all I had to do was trash the place... Even if it felt like ruining such a well-built building was a waste.
I used [Invisible] on myself and then soared up into the air with [Fly]. Then, I looked down on the fortress from above, and cast a spell I’d been wanting to try out.
“Burst forth, Fire! Purgatorial Roar: [Mega Explosion]!” A thunderous roar echoed through the mountain as the fort was blasted to splinters... along with part of the mountain... Whoops...
“...M-My lord, is that not perhaps what they call... overkill?”
“Ah, well... I didn’t really expect it to be that strong... B-But this is fine, right?”
Maybe I need to get a handle on my own strength... I do have Divinity boosting me now, as well. I should probably take it slow with the more extreme spells, yeesh...
The surrounding knights flew into an uproar and charged toward the fortress. Well, there weren’t any corpses in the area, so the knights would assume the thieves had fled. In fact, the Red Cats were likely fleeing from the underground base right at that moment.
Either way, I’d made quite the detour on my little excursion, but I had also learned some interesting things along the way.
The robot-like thing in Palerius’ notebook, for example. I was pretty sure I knew what it was. It had to have been some kind of Gollem.
I was beginning to suspect that one or more Gollems, created in this world, developed the ability to travel to another world... The one I lived in. At that point, old man Palerius probably met with them. It was possible that they were the ones that gave him the knowledge about traveling to other worlds.
After all, I knew that there were Gollems capable of speech, so it wasn’t impossible for them to teach things. It was also possible that a Gollem could’ve been the one that repaired the world boundary.
From what I understood, the legacy Gollems had special magic-based abilities. And there was a specific sub-type of legacy Gollems, the crown series, that had abilities far beyond even those extremes.
Given that knowledge, it was possible that one of these crowns passed over to the other world five-thousand years ago, and used its insane power to repair the barriers between dimensions.
“I’ve got nothing to go on but that assumption for now, at least...”
The sun was starting to set, so I decided to do what little things I could do before the morning came.
I landed in the middle of the forest, quite a distance from the soldiers, and undid my invisibility. I had Kougyoku call upon thousands of her bird dependents. We then sent them out to scout the world for map data, and to find a place suitable for hiding out away from others. After all, I needed to find a safe place to build a static portal that could lead back home. I didn’t think we’d cover much ground, since we only had until morning, but it was better than nothing.
To be honest, this forest would probably be fine if I just applied a barrier similar to the one Palerius had put around the island. But that would probably cause too much suspicion, and we’d get people trying to investigate the anomalous nature of the place. Ideally I wanted to find a place on the outskirts of civilization, far away from people, and monsters.
After sending off the birds, I soared back into the sky and picked a random direction to fly off into. Gradually the sun set, and the night sky became darker and darker.
Even though it was a gloomy night, and I couldn’t even see the light of the moon, my field of vision wasn’t too badly affected. I wondered if night vision was another perk of my budding Divinity.
I could see a bright building in the distance. Or rather, it stood out a little bit too much.
“What’s this...?”
It was a sparkling whirlpool of neon. Frankly it started hurting my eyes. There were bright, flashing lights all over the place.
Just what kind of gaudy place is this? Is it an amusement park?
“Ca-si-no... Casino... Oh snap, it’s a casino!”
There were giant flashing letters advertising exactly what kind of gaudy place this was. I’d landed in some kind of gambling city.
Hmm... I’ve never gambled before. I mean, I’ve never been old enough to gamble, you know? It’s not like I’m not interested, though.
I guess I have the money for it, so... why not?
“Alright, let’s do some gambling.”
“You can if you like... But I fear that your fiancees may not approve of this.”
“Little Kougyoku isss jussst a sasssy old ssstick in the mud... If you win it big here, darling... You can get lotsss of good presssents’ for your girliesss!”
“Mm... It looks pretty fun, Kokuyou is right.”
Alright, well... They seem to be down with it. I’m gonna do it! It’s an experience at the end of the day.
I puffed up my chest with confidence and stepped into the gambling city.
“G-Gambling sure is scary, huh...?”
I played game after game until the sun came up, and in the end I walked out with nothing.
I should’ve just used magic to cheat... But they had eyes all over the place... H-How could I let this happen?!
It would appear that I had no talent at all for the art of the gamble.
“A-At least I managed to win that one time...”
I ended up betting more so I could recoup my losses, but as I lost more and more, that pit only dug itself deeper.
“D-Don’t be dissscouraged, darling...”
“...You really should’ve quit while you were behind. I would’ve.”
“O-Oh well... I guess these things happen.”
“Let’s... Let’s just go home via the divine realm already... I have to give god his souvenir...”
With a heavy heart, I opened up a [Gate] to the realm of the gods.
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