In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 15 - Chapter 1

Chapter I: The Egret Emissaries 

“Strike true, Light! Sparkling Holy Lance: [Shining Javelin]!” 
The beam of light flew toward its target like an arrow. 
The stone statue shaped like a King Ape was completely obliterated. 
After that, several [Shining Javelin] shots were released successively, without any chants, headed toward their own targets. 
It didn’t take much time at all for all ten statues to fall apart. 
“How’s that? Not bad, right?” 
“Not bad at all. Good work, Sue.” Sue grinned and puffed her chest out, so I patted her on the head. Given that she was only 11, she was extremely gifted to pull it off. 
Sue had an aptitude for Light magic. Light spells were also known as Holy spells and tended toward the defensive or healing side. They were also used to purify corruption. 
But there were still plenty of offensive capabilities for that particular school of magic. There were spells like [Shining Javelin], [Light Arrow], and [Starbright] that could burn enemies with holy fire. 
Sue had been learning magic from Linze and Leen in her spare time and had already become adept enough to cast several high-tier spells. 
She’d also been learning more about self-defense from Yae and Lapis, our head maid. She’d also been learning about precision techniques and knife-throwing from Cecile, our other maid. Seemed like she’d been absorbing all that knowledge like an eager little sponge. 
She was definitely way stronger than the average adventurer, despite her age. 
It was possible that was because she was a beneficiary of my divinity, but I think she had a lot of talent in her to begin with. 
“Still, I’m not tough enough yet! I’m gonna be one of your wives, so I can’t fall behind! I’ll get strong enough to protect all of Brunhild!” She seemed determined. I smiled and took one of her hands into my own. 
“Thank you, Sue... But don’t push yourself, alright? Strong or weak, that kind of thing doesn’t bother me. I like you for you, Sue.” 
“I’m not pushing myself, don’t worry. You’re important to me, Touya. That’s why I have to work hard, so feel free to spoil me plenty as a reward!” Sue giggled and wrapped her arms around my neck. Spoil you, huh... I can’t do too much, now. 
I leaned in and hugged her back. 
“By the by, Touya...” 
“Hmm?” 
“Is it true you have another woman following you around?” 
“Huh?!” 
Wh... What are you talking about?! “Up in Babylon... There’s a new woman, right? Cesca told me. She wears glasses and has a cute dog, right?” 
“Wait! It’s not what you think! She’s just here for engineering and tech support!” You stupid pervert maid! Don’t tell Sue weird stuff! Sue released her grip on me and let out a small sigh. Then she shook her head and folded her arms together. I wondered where she even learned that kind of world-weary pose. 
“My father told me that you look like a man who’ll suffer many women problems, Touya. He told me to be careful that you don’t get in trouble with strange ladies, too.” 
“That isn’t what’s happening here!” Damn it, Duke Ortlinde! Don’t tell her weird stuff like that... What do you even mean by that?! Trouble with women... Huh...? No way, no way... That definitely can’t be the case. The trouble has to be over at this point, right? It won’t keep coming up, right? Please. 
Sue kept on lecturing me for a bit, despite my protests, and by the end of it all, I think she had been reassured properly. 
“You’re useless without us girls, Touya!” 
“Y-Yeah, sure am...” Sue was cheery again, so I let her hold on to my arm, and we started walking back to the castle. The skies above us were clear, despite the fact that there was a bad storm just a few days beforehand. 

I was able to ask the nature spirits to keep environmental disasters away from Brunhild, but I decided not to ask them to interfere unless it was something seriously dangerous. 
“How’s Ellen doing?” 
“Good! Her tummy got really big lately. I wanna have a little brother, I think.” Sue’s mother was heavily pregnant, which might have been one of the reasons she was so studiously working on her magic. 
Sue had even been spending time in the Belfast castle town clinic and healing people there with her own magic reserves. She was definitely a kindhearted girl. 
That didn’t mean she couldn’t be a little bullheaded and needy sometimes, though. 
“...Touya. There’s something weird up there.” 
“Huh?” Sue pointed out toward the sky above the castle. 
Something was flying this way, but it was too far away to make out clearly. 
“Is it a bird?” 
“[Long Sense].” I projected my sense of sight toward the object with my Null spell. 
Just as Sue suspected, it was a bird. But this bird was highly unusual... There was a person riding on it. 
It was a huge bird, too. A goddamn giant bird. It was so big that I wondered if it was some kind of Behemoth... And then I realized there were three of them, with one rider on each. 
I wondered maybe if they were trying to launch an attack on the town, but then they changed their course and landed in the plains north of the castle. 
“...That’s a big bird.” 
“Three of them, actually. Let’s check it out.” I used [Teleport] to immediately bring us to the plains. We came out right on top of a hill, in front of the people and their mounts. 
There were two men and one woman. They wore fairly tribal clothing, it kind of reminded me of the stuff they wore in the Sea of Trees, but it was a little different. 
They had feathered headdresses and feathery decorations adorning their shoulders, it kind of reminded me of an Aztec aesthetic. They seemed similar to Native American clothing as well... 
Hm... They have red-brown skin... What country has that kind of population? Don’t tell me they’re from the Reverse World... “Your Highness!” As I was pondering to myself, Vice-Captain Nikola and several knights came charging in from behind me. They’d probably seen the birds. 
Before approaching the visitors, I waited for Nikola to catch up. 
“Hello there. What brings you to my country?” 
“I am an emissary from Egret! Our mission in this land is to bring a letter from our king to the grand duke of Brunhild.” The tallest of the three, a man with white feathers on his head, spoke up clearly. 
Egret was a country to the south-west, it was a relatively small island in the ocean that bordered Mismede and Belfast. 
From what I recall, the nation of Egret was founded by a tribe from the Sea of Trees that sailed out to find new land. Seemed like my initial assessment wasn’t too far off. 
I’d been there once, too. Back when I was looking for Babylon pieces, I found the access point for the research laboratory there. I hadn’t really done any sightseeing, though. I only touched down in that one Dragon’s territory. 
Egret’s a pretty nice place to live, as far as I know... Wonder why they came all the way out here... 
I stepped out toward the three people and cleared my throat. 
“Very well, I’ll accept your letter. I am Mochizuki Touya, Grand Duke of Brunhild.” The three of them ran as pale as their skin tones would let them after hearing my introduction. After a few moments, they knelt down and presented a scroll to me. 
Guess I don’t have much of a royal aura to me, huh... Gimme a break, guys... I know I’m young, but the Palouf Kingdom has a ten-year-old in charge! Should I grow a beard or something? Nah... Probably wouldn’t suit me. 
I opened up the container and popped out the scroll, then I broke the wax seal and started reading what it said. 
Let’s see here... Hm... Hmhm... Ah... 
“What’s it say?” 
“Well... It’s a request for help.” Apparently, the recent storm had caused massive issues in Egret territory. Their crops had been destroyed by flash floods, they’d lost almost all their fishing and naval ships, and their food reserves were obliterated. There weren’t many deaths, but a lot of people were seriously injured. 
They were unable to ask for help from places like Belfast, Refreese, or Mismede because they didn’t have any ships in good enough condition to make port there. 
That’s why they used their giant birds to come to me for help. 
To be honest, Brunhild couldn’t exactly give them much in the way of supplies. We were a small nation, so it wasn’t like we were rolling in food. We needed to prioritize our own people first, even if that seemed harsh. 
But I didn’t see why I couldn’t ask the members of the League of Nations to offer a small offering to Egret each. If they did that, then I’d be able to warp it all to Egret with my magic pretty quickly. 
It would probably take a while, though... Every country in the world had something or other going on. Wasn’t like they could just pause their important operations for foreign aid. 
“Would you be able to come to the castle with me? I’ll contact the other nations about this, but it may take some time. In the meantime... Would it be okay if you leave your birds here?” 
“Very well, thank you.” The white-feathered man nodded and stepped forward. The woman, adorned with red feathers, walked behind him. The young man with the brown feathers elected to stay behind and tend to the birds. 
I asked, and I was told the birds were called Luphus. They’d been selectively bred for their gigantism. Apparently, they were domesticated by the Luphu tribe, despite their Behemoth status. 
The entire tribe only had five of these birds, though. 
The leader of the three emissaries was the white-feathered man, who introduced himself as Totola Luphu. The red-feathered woman was Lilicala Luphu. Apparently, the two of them were brother and sister. The other man was named Locha Luphu, and he was their cousin. 
Sue wanted to ride one of the Luphu birds, but I told her it wasn’t the right time or place for that. Plus it could’ve been dangerous. She had no training. 
I introduced her as my fiancée, which caused Totola and Lilicala to stare at me in wide-eyed disbelief. They didn’t say anything, though. 
 
I ended up asking the other countries in the League of Nations for support, and they all chipped in... Unfortunately, there still wasn’t nearly enough. 
In the end, I decided that making sure Egret had a self-sufficient food supply would be better than just giving them a band-aid answer. Their primary source of food seemed to be from fishing, so it was just a matter of replacing the fishing boats that had gotten all wrecked. 
I’d be able to mass-produce replacement ships for them using Babylon’s Workshop, but I’d expect adequate compensation. 
But it seemed like even with that solution available, the situation wasn’t quite as simple as that. 
“Even with ships, we can’t go out and fish right now... There’s a Tentacular in the ocean.” 
“Oh... Right, that magic beast that’s kinda like a giant squid.” If I recalled correctly, the giant squid was among the largest invertebrates on Earth, and there had even been recorded claims of caught specimens as long as eighteen meters. According to what I’d read in the Guild’s bestiary, the Tentacular was a magical beast far larger than that, though. 
Apparently, it was capable of using its limbs to drag entire ships into the murky depths. I couldn’t even begin to picture how big it was... Especially because this particular Tentacular was said to be a Behemoth even among its peers. 
I’d summoned a Kraken once, but even that thing wasn’t quite as scary as a Tentacular. 
“Wait, doesn’t Egret have the serpent’s protection?” I remember when I met with the Dragon around Egret, that the sea serpent was like a protector of the coastline. He was a kindhearted sort that protected the waters, and he was one of Luli’s kin as well. 
I didn’t think someone as nice as him would just ignore the presence of a fierce Tentacular in the region. 
“The serpent did fight with the Tentacular... But he vanished shortly after. We don’t believe he died, but... We believe he was defeated.” 
Yikes... He lost? Guess the Tentacular must be all kinds of gigantic, then... Wonder how it tastes... If I go kill it, then that might solve the food shortage! Hell, we could dry it out for long-lasting snacks. 
I muttered the suggestion, but the siblings simply frowned and shook their heads. What... C’mon. You guys don’t eat squid? I thought Egret’s main food source was fishing! Bah, I guess it’s just cultural differences. It isn’t like I’m gonna force you guys to eat it or anything, I don’t even know how it tastes! 
Personally, I didn’t enjoy eating squid. The squishy texture was uncomfortable along my tongue, and if you boiled it or fried it, it basically retained its consistency the same way. I only really enjoyed dried squid, because at least that had a bit of crunch to it. 
I shrugged my shoulders and decided I’d take care of it, either way. 
I didn’t really want to fight it underwater if I could avoid it, so I hoped I could come up with some kind of solution... 
I used [Recall] on Totola to gain location information on the capital city of Egret, Retrobamba. Then I opened up a [Gate]. Just as I was about to walk through, Sue opened her mouth. 
“Hold it! I don’t wanna stay home all the time. Take me with you this time, Touya. A husband must listen to his wife’s demands now and then, right? That’s the rule.” 
I sighed quietly, muttering something about how I wasn’t exactly going there to goof around. My other fiancées, who had made their way into the greeting room individually at some point, also decided they wanted to come. 
I didn’t exactly think it was proper to bring an entire entourage of my betrothed when meeting the king of Egret for the first time, so I managed to convince them to reduce the number of people to just two others plus Sue. Three was a crowd, but it was unavoidable... 
Thus, a heated match of rock-paper-scissors began between the remaining eight girls. 
The Luphu twins just stared in confusion at my overenthusiastic fiancées. 
I get it... I really do. This is entirely ridiculous. I know. But just keep quiet, please. 
“I did it!” 
“I won... V for Victory...” Linze and Sakura ended up winning. 
The girls who lost demanded we bring back souvenirs. They really were treating it like some kind of vacation... 
Given that it was a beautiful tropical island, it would’ve been a perfect vacation destination, though... 
I decided to bring Sango and Kokuyou with me as well, just in case. I didn’t want an underwater conflict to break out, but I couldn’t discount the possibility. 
“So... How big is the Tentacular?” 
“We don’t know. We’ve only really seen the head and some of its limbs above water. Most eyewitness reports put it around the same size as our guardian serpent, though.” ... That means it’s at least fifty meters! How am I supposed to deal with that, dang it... If I try to use [Gate] to warp it on to land, that might work... But I could end up causing another flood if I accidentally warp seawater with it. 
Maybe a Frame Gear...? No... That’s not how it works... Or maybe, hm... I guess I could craft some orichalcum into a rod and twine with [Modeling]... Yeah, let’s go fishing... 
Hm... How does squid fishing even work? I grinned softly to myself as I took out my smartphone and began searching for some how-to guides on catching squid with a rod. 
The Kingdom of Egret was formed out of two separate islands. There was the longer Egrand island that stretched from north to south, and the smaller Mallet island that was more enclosed, and around a third the size of the other one. 
Sue, Linze, Sakura, Sango, Kokuyou, and I all warped to Mallet island. 
The three Luphu tribespeople had walked through the [Gate] to Retrobamba ahead of us, while my group went to Mallet island to check up on the sea serpent. 
The sea serpent’s home was also the cave that contained the teleporter that took me to the Babylon Research Lab, so I just opened up a portal straight there. We came out into the open area. The whole place felt like a secret base, complete with an underground lake. 
“Touya, look...” Linze pointed across the water, right toward the sea serpent. He was laying there with wounds covering his entire form. 
His upper body was prone against the ground, while the rest of him was beneath the surface. Blood was oozing from his wounds, and his magnificent sapphire-blue scales were shredded and peeling in places. 
His breathing was hoarse and ragged, and it seemed like he used all of his energy just to open his eyes and look at me. I placed my hand against him and closed my eyes. Hold on, buddy... 
“Come forth, Light! Calm of the Goddess: [Mega Heal]!” 
A wave of light began to ripple across the Dragon’s body, healing him in a matter of seconds. His scales regained their sheen and luster as well. 
“You okay?” 
“I am. You have my gratitude, o Mochizuki Touya, he who stands above Mistress Luli. Forgive me for showing to you my disgrace.” 
“I heard about what happened from the Egret guys. You fought the Tentacular and lost?” 
“That I did. They intruded upon my domain, so I saw fit to deal with them... But their tentacles were stronger than I could’ve imagined... Strong enough to pulverize my organs and shatter my bones.” ...Strong enough to break a Dragon’s bones? I wonder if the Tentacular has a bit of octopus in it as well... I heard that octopus bodies are mostly made of muscle. 
Squids were also the fastest sea-dwelling invertebrates. They could even use waterjet propulsion to reach speeds of forty kilometers per hour. 
The situation seemed a lot direr than I first expected. 
“I’ve been tasked with taking care of the monster, so please rest up a bit. Once I kill it, you can continue looking after Egret.” 
“Thank you... I am unworthy.” The sea serpent bowed its head to me, which was quite a human trait... 
But still, something the Dragon had said worried me. 
“...You said ‘they,’ didn’t you? I thought there was only one Tentacular.” 
“I’m afraid not. There are multiple. I fought two of them at once and was forced to flee when a third entered the fray. I am not entirely sure if there are more than that.” Three at the very least...? This situation’s sounding worse by the minute. 
I sighed quietly and shook my head, then dispelled my bad thoughts before waving goodbye to the Dragon. I opened up a [Gate] to the capital city, prepared to deal with this situation and then get out. 
 
“So this is Retrobamba, eh? Quite aesthetically pleasing, isn’t it?” Sue looked around as she spoke. She was right. The city was situated on a hillside by the ocean, and we had a good view of the white sandy beach lined with palm trees. The water looked clean and inviting. 
If you were to look to the sky, you’d see tropical birds flying overhead. If you were to look around the ground, you’d see vibrant greenery. The stone buildings in the city all looked beautiful, as well. There was a tower in the distance, and some kind of well-constructed shrine as well. I could also see something that resembled an Aztec pyramid. 
There was a mountain range a little bit away, and it was covered in lush greenery. The sight of the blue sky and the blue sea really made me feel like this place was the definition of natural harmony. 
But looking a little more closely, one could make out broken tree branches and a few collapsed buildings. It must’ve been from the storm. As beautiful as this place was, it had clearly been scarred. 
The massive building I saw in the center of Retrobamba was probably the king’s castle. We decided to head down the streets toward it. 
“The citizens seem... Demoralized?” 
“That’s not exactly surprising. There are Tentaculars circling their island, there’s a famine going on, and they can’t even go to the mountains due to mudslides.” Linze had pointed out the lifeless people around us, but I’d already taken note of just how miserable everyone seemed. 
Not every town was hit this badly, but it seemed like morale was down across the board. 
The capital was still presentable, but apparently, the mountain towns and most of their fishing-centric towns had suffered catastrophic damage. There were landslides and flooding all over the place, which caused congestion on the roads between cities as well. They couldn’t even organize relief along their sea routes due to the Tentacular problem. 
I saw a horse-drawn carriage coming down the road ahead of us. Although it wasn’t exactly right to call it horse-drawn. It was being pulled by birds. The birds resembled ostriches, except they were a hell of a lot beefier. Their necks were thick. 
The bird-drawn carriage stopped right in front of us. It didn’t have a roof, so I identified the one in the driver’s seat immediately. It was Lilicala. 
“We’ve come to bring you to our king, he’s waiting for you.” Nice, we got a free ride to the castle. Thanks, lady! 
Just as we were about to board the carriage, we heard a loud commotion from the nearby beach. Then things descended into a full-on uproar. 
We looked down on to the sandy shore and saw a massive squid-like creature. It was mostly submerged, but I could make out part of its head, and it was using its tentacles to attack people down there. 
They can get this close to shore?! One of the tentacles reached down and wrapped itself around a man, plucking him from the ground. Tentaculars were carnivores, and mostly fed on the meat of shark and whale-like magical beasts, but now and then they were known to eat humans. 
“Come forth, Water! Feel My Blade, Both Cold and Clear: [Aqua Cutter]!” Sakura summoned a blade of water, which cleanly sliced through the tentacle that was wrapped around the poor man. 
He fell to the ground and ran away in a panic, the tentacle piece spewing blue blood. Linze immediately followed up with an attack of her own. 
“Come forth, Fire! Purgatorial Sphere of Flames: [Fireball]!” The massive fireball she summoned exploded against the exposed head of the Tentacular. 
“Prrrgyaaaaah!!” The Tentacular let out a hideous shriek and retreated into the waves below. I followed it up with a couple Fire spells of my own, but the Tentacular completed its descent before any of them landed. 
“It got away... Shame...” 

“That one was smaller than I thought.” 
“Maybe it was a baby?” Child or not, it was still a monster to me. 
The tentacle that Linze had sliced off was still writhing on the beach. Looking at it made me feel sick. 
I could understand why going out on a boat would be an issue with those things around. ... Wait, I should check if we’re dealing with three of those things, anyway... If I’m unlucky then there might even be five or something. 
“Run search. Tentaculars in the ocean around the Kingdom of Egret.” 
“Searching... Search Complete. Fifty-three Tentaculars Found.” 
“You what?!” I could barely even find words. I had to check again to see if my smartphone was busted. 
Even if that counted the young ones, that was far too many... Squids laid thousands of eggs at a time, but according to the bestiary, Tentaculars only laid clutches of a few dozen, and of those eggs under ten typically survived childhood. 
I wondered if this was another unintended effect of the two worlds merging together... 
I hopped down to the beach and switched Brunhild to Blade Mode. I slashed at the tentacle on the sand. 
It was coated in a sticky liquid that partially deflected the slash, so my cut wasn’t as deep as it should’ve been. I tried thrusting the tip of the blade into the tentacle and was met with more success. 
The tentacle started writhing again after I stabbed it. I felt like I was gonna barf. 
A sword-wielder as talented as Yae would easily be able to slice its tentacles off, but it’d become harder with the really big ones. Magic-crafted blades seemed to be better here, for whatever reason. 
“What schools of magic are the Tentaculars weak to, Linze?” 
“Fire, Light, and... Oh, Lightning spells from the Wind school! If we’re talking Water, then slashing spells like [Aqua Cutter] also work wonders. Something like [Maelstrom] would basically do nothing.” That made sense. The only issue was that offensive Lightning, Water, and Fire spells were a lot less useful in the water. Light magic would also be diminished, due to water refracting it. 
Maybe I really should drag them out on to land, then... Am I really gonna end up fishing? As I pondered to myself, a dark-skinned man with a golden feather plume on his head walked toward me. He was accompanied by a few soldiers. Totola and Lilicala were standing by his side. 
He seemed to be in his thirties or so. He wore thin garments that felt very native American, and he had intricate tribal tattoos all over his chiseled abs. 
“Thank you for fighting off the beast, Grand Duke of Brunhild. You have my gratitude.” 
“Who are you, exactly?” 
“I am Lefang Letra, son of Lelaure Cocha. I preside over the Kingdom of Egret.” It was the king himself. He seemed like some kind of war veteran, so I hadn’t expected him to be royalty. 
I reached out my hand to shake his. His shake was firm and tight. He clearly had the look and grip of a warrior who spent every day working toward self-improvement. 
“I am Mochizuki Touya, grand duke of Brunhild. It’s a pleasure to meet you, King Lefang.” I introduced the girls standing behind me. Instead of introducing them just as my fiancées, I stressed that they were competent mages. I didn’t want him to think I was treating his country as a family resort. 
There were many witnesses that corroborated the story of the girls casting strong magic, so he didn’t seem suspicious of us. 
“I’ve cast a spell to calculate exactly how many Tentaculars there are around the island, and... There are over fifty of them.” 
“Fifty?! Impossible... How can we ever hope to begin fishing again?” 
“My country has prepared an entire new fleet of ships for you to use, all that’s left is to kill the monsters... There’s only one issue. I’d find it a lot easier if I could drag them out on to land...” The king told me about a small coastal area away from the capital that we’d be able to go nuts on, so I decided that’d be the area we’d reserve for wiping out the Tentaculars. 
Now, for the other matter. 
“Kokuyou. Can you eat this?” 
“I’m not sssure, darling. It isssn’t exactly poisssonousss, ssso you ssshould be able to eat it. I can’t guarantee a good tassste, though.” Kokuyou shrugged. At least it felt like a shrug. He was a snake and didn’t actually have shoulders. 
I used [Analyze] and confirmed that it wasn’t poisonous. It was safe to eat, but I wouldn’t know about the taste until I actually tried it. 
I used my smartphone to look up if raw squid had anything nasty in it, and apparently, some species contained an unpleasant amount of ammonia. Thankfully my use of [Analyze] had confirmed that the Tentaculars didn’t have any nasty surprises inside. 
The tentacle stopped writhing, so I rubbed off the slimy stuff and applied liberal amounts of salt. I then took a plate out of [Storage], and sliced off a thin bit of the tentacle. 
I took out some Eashen-bought soy sauce and ginger from my [Storage] as well, then I ground up the ginger into a paste and mixed it all up on the plate. Behold, mortals. I have brought squid somen unto the world. 
“Grand Duke... Do you really intend to consume that?” 
“If this goes well, it could put an end to your famine. I don’t personally like it all that much, but in both Eashen and my homeland, there are squid-based dishes similar to this... That’s why it can’t hurt to try.” Eashenese cuisine featured octopus and squid as staple parts of the diet. Besides... It wasn’t poison, so it was edible. Sort of. All I needed to do was determine the taste... 
Here goes nothing... The Egret natives all backed up, and I took up my chopsticks. Then I shoveled some of the Tentacular somen into my mouth after dipping it in the ginger-soy mixture. Huh. 
“H-How is... It?” Linze nervously spoke up. 
“It’s... Okay? I don’t like the texture, but everything else about it seems fine. It actually tastes okay. I think people who like this kind of stuff will be happy.” 
“Let me try...” Sakura tried some of it right after me. Sue, Sango, Kokuyou, and then Linze followed suit. 
“Surprisingly yummy...” 
“Not quite to my tassstess.” 
“I quite like the texture on this one. I think if you swap out the sauces, it would end up being pretty nice in a lot of different ways.” They all seemed to think differently, but that confirmed that at the very least, someone out there would probably enjoy it. It kind of tasted like a combination of squid and octopus, and it was a little sweet. It would probably work if I cut it up into sashimi, as well. 
The Egret natives looked at us uneasily, but Totola’s curiosity got the better of him. He took a bite, and then his sister did as well. 
“...It isn’t exactly delicious, but it seems fine.” 
“I quite like it, actually... I like this sauce...” It seemed like quite the divisive meal. After a short while, the king ended up trying the food. 
“...Hmph. It isn’t as bad as I expected. I hated the idea, but... Actually trying it kind of dispelled the fear. Yes, I could see myself eating this again... But personally, I prefer a stronger kind of taste.” He didn’t especially enjoy it, but that didn’t surprise me too much. 
Guess I can try out other squid recipes, then. I began concocting other recipes. Fried squid in batter, sweet and sour squid stir fry, grilled squid with garlic sprouts, butter squid in soy sauce, and fried squid with ginger... After they watched me making a few things, it seemed like the Egret natives around me started coming to the realization that Tentacular could be used as an ingredient. A few professional chefs from the castle were called out and began making Egret-styled food out of the meat. 
The pros definitely did a much better job with the food than I did. I especially enjoyed whatever the hell “Tentacular stir-fry with parse grass” was. 
It was pretty easy to make long-lasting preserved food out of squid, too. So the same rule probably held true for Tentaculars. 
...Yep, I’m gonna have to fish the rest of them out. 
Using the Frame Gears of the girls with me would probably make it trivial. Sue’s Ortlinde Overlord was the strongest of all the Valkyries, after all. We’d definitely be able to pull the Tentaculars out of the ocean using that. 
Since we wanted to use them for food, we needed to take care not to damage their bodies. Wait, that reminds me... My grandpa told me the best way to kill a squid or octopus, once... Something about a one-hit killer blow... 
I searched it up on the internet. 
Let’s see here... Wait... ‘Thrust an icepick straight into its forehead’? Ugh... That’s so gross! 
 
“This should be fine, sir!” 
“Hm... Not bad at all. This ought to work perfectly, I think.” I sat in the Babylon Workshop, looking over a ship that had recently been made. It was shaped like a sailboat, but was completely lacking in sails. Not to mention the fact that the rear of the ship had been remodeled into a thin needle shape that pointed downward into the water. 
The ship would serve as a lure for the Tentaculars. Since it was just a lure, it was basically hollowed out. It was still reinforced to prevent it from being broken, though. 
Typically you fished for squid in the open ocean, but Tentaculars attacked the boats. That was why we made the ship itself into bait. The moment the monsters latched on, Sue’s Ortlinde Overlord would drag them to shore. 
There were a few issues that prevented me from using [Gate] underwater, and I’d have to touch them directly to use [Teleport], plus I couldn’t actually use [Teleport] on something so huge. 
Once they were dragged to shore, Linze would penetrate their hearts with her Fragarach. Assuming they were the same as squids in terms of organ structure, their hearts would be located between their eyes. 
According to my research, severing the nerves at those key points would be enough to kill the squids. 
Either way, a stab between the eyes should be enough to kill them... In theory, at least. If their hearts were located elsewhere, we’d just have to make do. 
It was time to see if it’d work out. 
A crashing sound reverberated through the air as the golden giant made landfall on Egret’s territory. 
Sue’s Frame Gear stood tall at thirty meters in height. 
Its orichalcum and phrasium-coated body caused it to shimmer beneath the tropical sun. The massive fishing line in its hand was threaded through the lure boat. 
I’d used [Modeling] to reduce several pieces of orichalcum to strands, and then bunch them together. It was thicker than my own body, several times over... So I couldn’t imagine it breaking easily. 
“Alright, let’s give it a go.” Sakura and Linze stood by in their Frame Gears behind Ortlinde Overlord, prepared just in case. 
The lure ship we were using was connected to the mainland via the fishing line, so I couldn’t use [Gate] to send it out to the deeper parts of the ocean. 
Instead, I used [Gravity] to reduce its weight, then had Linze carry it out to the depths. 
I hopped on to the ship and had Linze carry both me and the ship out to the ocean. 
The ship was just bait, so it had no means of moving around, that’s why Sue gently tugged on the fishing line to make it move around. 
The Tentaculars wouldn’t have seen a ship in the area for a few days, so I hoped they’d take the bait. 
I looked down at the emerald-green surface below the water. 
The seabed was typically pure white due to the sand and coral residue, but water absorbed more of the red spectrum in our light perception which resulted in our eyes seeing the water and anything beneath it as emerald green. 
The deeper the water, the bluer the surface would be, but at the point, I was at, it was barely green-ish. The coastline nearby was a little too shallow for that. I probably needed to go out deeper to see the surface turn bluer. As I pondered to myself, a tentacle suddenly whooshed out of the water and wrapped itself around the lure. 
“It’s time!” More tentacles shot out of the water, wrapping themselves around the ship entirely. 
“Sue!” I used [Fly] to blast into the sky and yelled into my smartphone. 
“On it!” 
The lure ship suddenly began hurtling toward the coast, and the needle installed into the structure dug into one of the tentacles. 
From what I’d read, invertebrates apparently didn’t suffer pain, but I wondered if that was the case for the Tentaculars as well. 
I mused about that as I watched the first of many being dragged toward the shore. 
“Skraaargh!” The Tentacular’s massive body finally surfaced. 
It was over twenty meters long, almost rivaling Ortlinde Overlord in terms of sheer size. Still, it wasn’t like it could stand up on land or anything. 
The Tentacular tried to grab for Sue’s Frame Gear, but Sakura came in with her vocal magic to immobilize it entirely. 
Without missing a beat, Linze’s Helmwige rushed down and pierced the area between the monster’s eyes using a Fragarach blade. 
“Prauuuuuuuaaaaah!!” The Tentacular hissed and let out what seemed like a harrowing death rattle. 
Its body suddenly changed from a fleshy color to a pale white. It was pretty similar to the videos of squid hunting I’d seen on the internet. I was relieved to see that the Tentacular had its heart in the same place. 
Even if the heart was huge, the three girls could take care of it no problem. 
Now all we had to do was take care of the rest. I watched Helmwige take the lure ship back out. I opened up a [Gate] and called down Reginleif. 
I used my Frame Gear to carry the dead Tentacular a little bit away and switched my Fragarachs into two large blades. 
“Uhh... Think I gotta gut it first.” I sliced open the creature at its sides and took out its eyes and internal organs. The organs might have been delicious, but I wasn’t keen to try them. Trying to handle such a huge ingredient was definitely annoying. 
I used [Gate] to warp the organs back int the sea, where they’d probably feed some other creatures. Then I washed the Tentacular’s corpse in salt water. 
Sango and Kokuyou helped using their magic to increase the concentration of salt in the water, and then I sliced up the Tentacular’s body into large chunks. I then strung the chunks up from some nearby palm trees. 
The sun was strong in this nation, so it’d only take a few days for the meat to dry out... Probably. I also had no idea if the dried stuff would even taste good or not. 
Our main mission here was killing the Tentaculars, the whole thing about making them into food was a thing on the side. Once they were all gone, the people would be able to fish again, so they wouldn’t be forced to eat the monsters. 
“Prauuuurgh!” They’d caught their second one already. 
I’d kind of forgotten that I’d be doing this fifty times or so in a row... Little did I know just how tiring an effort it would become. 
 
“I’m pooped...” It took an entire day to kill all the Tentaculars and string their sliced corpses up along the Egret coastline. 
Some of them were pretty far off, so I used [Gate] to transport them (and the surrounding seawater) into our fishing spot. 
The stink of fish was heavy in the air, so I asked the Wind Spirits to cast the smell toward the ocean as much as possible. 
I didn’t want any wild animals eating the drying food, so I cast a large-scale [Prison] that prevented wild beasts from entering the area. Given that it was such a broad application of the spell, it made it pretty easy to break, but I didn’t think animals would be strong enough to smash it. 
I didn’t just make fried squid, either. I ended up making shredded squid and rolled squid... And I passed on the recipes to some of the local chefs as well. They’d probably be able to use those recipes to make stuff way better than an amateur like me could. 
The sun began to set overhead as a delicious smell wafted over the beach. The king of Egret had his personal chefs cook up the Tentaculars that I hadn’t put out to dry, and distributed the dishes to everyone in the area. 
This island didn’t seem to treat squid as a viable food until now, but the people seemed to easily come around to the idea. 
The grilled Tentacular skewers looked especially yummy. 
“...We truly owe you a great debt for saving our country... We can’t believe how many ships you provided us with, as well.” 
“Eh, no biggie. You guys are paying us for the ships, so it’s not all charity. The supplies from the other countries should be here soon, too. I guess that’s the end of your famine.” I forced a smile as I asked the king to raise his bowed head. 
We looked off the coastline at the hundreds of ships I’d manufactured in the Workshop. We’d actually mostly taken trees and lumber from Egret’s territory to construct them. That coupled with the Tentacular extermination pay was more than enough compensation for me. 
I didn’t want to take too much from a country that was recovering from a natural disaster, so instead, I worked out an arrangement. I used my search magic to find a gold mine on a small island off the Egret coastline, and I told them about it. Once they had it operational, I’d have them pay Brunhild a cut of whatever was found in there. 
The extra income from the mine would help them rebuild their towns, too. 
Sue was piloting Ortlinde just off-shore, casting a wide net into the ocean and dragging back a large haul of fish. The fish were then taken by the nearby Egret citizens, who either took them home or started cooking them there and then. 
Before long, there was a wide variety of food laid out on the sand. 
“That looks good...” 
“Please, eat to your heart’s content. Most of these were caught by your fiancées, after all... Ahaha...” 
There were lots of tasty-looking fish dishes lined up in front of us all, from sashimi to grilled skewers. It seemed like this place had similar cuisine to Eashen in some regards, maybe because it was an island nation as well. There wasn’t any soy sauce here, though. They had mustard, vinegar, garlic, and other condiments instead. 
I wanted to be sure that the fish had been seared properly, and that there weren’t any parasites. I subtly used [Analyze] to check it out, and there were no issues. 
I dipped a bit of fish into the mustard, and it tasted amazing. It was way better than the Tentacular stuff I’d cooked earlier... It would’ve gone even better with some white rice. 
Once Sue came back to shore, we all began a lively meal. The Tentacular threat was gone, so all the locals celebrated by singing and dancing around the beach fire. 
Some performers ended up showing up, playing the pan flute and singing folk songs by the bonfire. Whenever they finished, they were met with roaring applause. 
After a while, Sakura stood up. She was probably unable to contain herself any longer. She wanted to sing. That meant it was my job to accompany her. I used [Storage] to pull out a piano and played the tune she requested. 
This song, huh... Guess I’m the only one who realizes how out-of-place it is. Still, it’s a western song, so it’s not like anyone but me actually knows the lyrics. This song’s one about missing your home, though. 
Even though she was singing about it, Sakura had no idea what or where West Virginia even was. But apparently the original singer of the song hadn’t even been to the state of West Virginia when he wrote the song, so that was a little funny to think about. It was written by someone else, so that wasn’t too weird, though. 
The Egret natives were enthralled by her song, so it didn’t really matter if the lyrics weren’t fitting with the current situation. 
That reminded me, there was an anime movie that heavily featured the song in its plot. But the movie ended up adapting the lyrics so the teenage heroine could sing it in Japanese. Much like the title of the film, it was like everyone in the crowd was hooked on every whisper of Sakura’s heart. 
Once the chorus ended, and the song began its second verse, a string instrument began playing further accompaniment to the tune. I turned to look at who the artist was, and it was none other than Sousuke. He was sitting on the nearby sands, strumming his guitar. 
“Huh?!” I nearly stopped playing, but quickly recovered from the stumble. I wondered when the heck he got here. I looked around at my surroundings and suddenly saw Karen eating some sashimi with a group of Egret women. I also saw Moroha and Karina lining up for some grilled squid, while Suika and Kousuke started chugging booze with some merry locals. 
Oh my gods... What are you all doing here?! I was in the middle of playing, so I couldn’t go and give them the third degree. I had no choice but to continue my performance as sweat beaded on my brow. 
They were gods, so they could teleport wherever they wanted, it wasn’t even technically a use of magic, just a small display of their divinity. 
After the performance ended and I bowed to the wave of applause, I walked straight over to Karen. She was chowing down on some fried fish. Sousuke began playing another tune, and Sakura began singing, but my time on the stage was over. 
“This stuff’s delicious, you know? You should eat some, you know.” 
“I know it’s good, but why the heck are you guys here?!” 
“Heard about the whole tentacle-whatever situation from Rosetta, you know? Seems like it’s a good party, so we all wanted to swing by.” Karen pointed off in a direction and I saw Linze, Sakura, and Sue, but there was also Yumina, Elze, Yae, Lu, Hilde, and Leen all sitting around and enjoying the food. Even Paula was there. She was pretending to eat. 

You basically came here with everyone?! I walked over to the king of Egret and bowed my head in apology. He just laughed it off. 
“I have seven wives, my friend. There’s nothing to worry about here! If anything it’s nice to see them all getting along so well... I’m a little jealous, ahaha!” 
“O-Oh, really...? I guess it must be tough if your wives squabble, huh...” I chuckled softly and turned toward my fellow polygamist, but his face had taken on a sullen expression. 
“It’s like... Walking on eggshells... But the eggshells are made of knives and poison. L-Listen to me, Grand Duke... The nation prospers if your family prospers, be sure that you alleviate any concerns your women might have. If you don’t... You’ll suffer a fate worse than death, I promise that.” He stared at me with glassy eyes, coming off like some kind of scarred veteran. H-Hold on, what the hell happened to you?! A few nearby soldiers flashed me a wry smile. It didn’t seem like anything too serious had happened to him, but clearly whatever spousal conflicts he’d had ended up leaving an impact on him. 
I decided to change the topic because the king looked extremely depressed all of a sudden. I decided to offer him the opportunity to bring Egret into the League of Nations. His expression immediately brightened up, and he responded positively. 
Apparently, he’d heard good things about the alliance from the Emperor of Refreese, so he’d been hoping that we’d pass on the opportunity for him to join us. 
As part of his thanks for our extermination of the Tentaculars, he said that we could use the royal beach whenever we wanted, so I decided to host a vacation event after the next League of Nations meeting. 
It was rare to have a sea so beautiful as the one I was gazing out upon, and I was sure the other world leaders would love to see it, too. It’d be a prime opportunity for a beach vacation. Obviously, I’d have to make the area safe, but that could easily be handled by casting a [Prison] around the area that forbade dangerous marine life. 
I decided that Eashen, Hannock, Ryle, Elfrau, and Palerius should be formally inducted into the League of Nations as well. 
There was an issue with Eashen, though... While the Tokugawa house, run by Ieyahsu, was technically in charge of everything... The formal figurehead leader of Eashen was still the Emperor. That meant I’d probably need to meet with them and ask permission, first. 
Basically, the Emperor was the one who I’d need to talk to about international relations. Ieyahsu might have been the dominant one of all the feudal lords, but the Emperor still sat above them. 
... Come to think of it, I don’t know a thing about the Eashen Emperor. I don’t even know if they’re a guy or not, or how old they are. Guess I’ll ask Yae later. 
Our banquet continued long into the night, stars twinkling overhead.