In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 16 - Chapter 1

Chapter I: The Ruined Nation’s Prince 

“Ah... I wanna eat some sushi...” 
“Sushi?” Yumina raised her head from the book she’d been reading. Seemed like I’d been muttering out loud. 
I was absently browsing the internet on my smartphone when I came across the site of a famous chain sushi restaurant. I was relaxing in the castle, so I’d been taking it pretty easy. 
“What is it, exactly?” 
“Here, take a look.” I held up my smartphone and showed the images to Yumina. The gallery I’d pulled up had various little nigiri pieces on display. 
“That looks nice. What kind of meat is it?” 
“Fish, for the most part. Usually you vinegar some rice and eat the fish on top of it. It’s basically the representative dish of the country I come from. We often treat it as a celebratory kind of meal, it’s pretty good.” 
Hmm... I wonder if Eashen has much in the way of sushi. I haven’t really seen too much in that vein over there. I haven’t even seen any wasabi either. I was under the impression that Eashen was at least on the level of the Edo period, and they should’ve had nigiri in abundance by that point in history... 
Then again... this isn’t exactly the same world or anything, not everything needs to be similar. 
I looked it up online and discovered that nigiri had been invented during the Bunsei era. Those were the years 1818 through 1830... So it was late Edo, for sure. 
Since Eashen was still in the equivalent to the Sengoku period, it made sense that they wouldn’t have nigiri yet. Surely they have fermented zaresushi, though... Or maybe not, it’s not the same world... Culinary progression doesn’t have to be identical. 
I needed to remind myself that Japan’s history wasn’t necessarily Eashen’s future. 
“Oh, huh...?” As I was pondering, my smartphone started vibrating. I was receiving an incoming call. It was Silhouette from the Moon Parlor. 
Don’t tell me... 
“Hey, ‘sup? It’s Touya speaking.” 
“Oh, good! We have a response on our boards. Those mutants are going to show up soon.” 
“When? And how many?” 
“Around six hours from now, I’d wager. There are about a hundred. Most of them seem to be lesser ones, but we picked up three larger readings.” 
Hmm... A hundred Lesser Constructs and three Intermediate Constructs... If we’re using Frame Gears, that’s not much to worry about. But without them, we’d probably need about five times as many of them to stand a chance. Especially with the Intermediates. We’d be screwed without powerful Gollems in that case. 
This was a stroke of good luck. We’d be able to use them for live training practice. 
I had Silhouette mail me their emergence point, then I decided to call up Nia... Before quickly reconsidering that, and calling Est instead. The Red Cats had been practicing with the Frame Units, so they had a decent amount of people ready to fight. 
“How many are you gonna need?” 
“There are only three Intermediates. The rest are Lessers... So only around ten should be enough to fight. The main goal here is to wipe them out, but the live combat experience is also gonna be a plus.” 
I ended the call with Est, then looked upward. Yumina was staring into my eyes. 
“Are there mutants coming?” 
“In the Reverse World, yes. There won’t be many, so I’m using it as a chance to train Nia and the others.” 
“I’ll come with you, then. Better to be safe than sorry.” 
“Sounds good, thanks...” I nodded, and Yumina went off somewhere. 
Probably gonna go grab Lu, or something. Just as I thought that, she came back with Leen and Paula. 
“We want to support them from afar, right? That’s why long-range weapons should be prioritized. I’d have brought Lu, but she’s busy in the kitchen.” 
“This sounds fine to me. I was having a dull day.” 
Paula puffed out her chest as if to reassure me everything was fine. I didn’t exactly know what the little bear was intending to do, though. 
“Kougyoku, you come as well. We’ll want to borrow your birds for surveillance.” 
“Very well.” 
Kougyoku flew from the balcony railing to my shoulder. Kougyoku’s subordinates had been flying around the Reverse World and mapping it, much like they did in the regular world. By tapping into their eyes, I could use [Gate] to go anywhere they’d seen. 
I moved our custom Frame Gears from Babylon’s hangar to my [Storage]. 
“Alright, off we go.” I took Yumina, Leen, and Paula across to the Reverse World using my divinity. 
In a flash, we were at the Red Cat fortress hideout. I’d found an artifact in Babylon’s storehouse that strengthened barriers, so I’d applied it here in order to prevent any people from finding them. There was a chance animals and magic beasts would find them though, due to their heightened sense of smell. 
“Ohh, Touya? Boss, it’s Touya!” The ponytailed girl, Euni, spotted us and pranced into the main fortress area. 
Yumina had already been here before, but it was a first for Leen. The fairy quickly started inspecting the surrounding structure. Paula just kind of stayed near Leen, but she was definitely getting a lot of confused attention. 
The Red Cat grunts were staring at her with curiosity blazing in their eyes. They probably thought she was some kind of rare animal... In a sense, that was exactly what she was. 
Paula seemed to be relishing the attention, merrily waving at anyone who decided to look at her. 
“Welcome back! Oh hey, who’s this?” Nia came walking over, but paused when she saw Leen. She tilted her head, causing her twintails to sway. The red crown, Rouge, appeared from behind Nia’s back. 
“I’m Leen. I’m one of Touya’s fiancées, it’s a pleasure.” 
“Oh, one of Touya’s brides-to-be, huh? Heh... Heh...” Nia looked over Leen, then she started staring at Yumina. Then, she turned to me, grinning wildly. “So, Touya... You’re into that kinda thing, huh?” 
“What exactly do you mean by that?” 
I wasn’t going to let her get away with comments like that. What kind of misunderstanding are you having, huh?! 
“Well, you know... That Lu girl the other day was a lot younger than you too, riiight?” 
“Hey! Leen may look young, but she’s actually way older than me! Don’t just go making assum— Augh! Ow! Owowow!” 
“Now now, darling... Please don’t go leaking my personal information like that, okay?” Leen suddenly lashed out and grabbed me by the wrist. Tightly. 
That hurts! Why’s your age such a big deal now, huh?! Damn it, ow! In terms of appearance, Leen certainly didn’t look that far off Yumina and Lu, but I wasn’t exactly fond of Nia implying that I liked them young or anything. That was an irritating misunderstanding on her part. 
“I’m a fairy, sweetheart. We’re a race that live for a very long time.” 
“Oh, I see. I wondered if you were like black, that’s all.” 
“Hm? Are you referring to Elluka’s sister? Norn?” I quickly cut in. 
Hmm... Red and black... If I remember right, Euri said something about them having a rivalry. 
“Hm? You know her? That’s a surprise.” 
“I’ve met her, yeah. She came to my world when she was seeking out her sister. She’s staying in my country’s castle town right now.” 
“What?! How come she gets to go to the other world?! No fair, let me come too!” 
“Aha...” 
Please shut up... Can Est come save my ass already? 
“...Are you saying something idiotic again, Nia? Have I not told you? Think before you open that trap!” 
“O-Ow! Ow! Oof! Owie!” 
Est appeared with impeccable timing and began karate-chopping Nia over the head, over and over again. Her twintails flailed as she was dutifully pummeled. 
“Hey there, Est. How goes the combat prep?” 
“I have the ten people you requested. Nia, myself, and Euni will be accompanying them. Euri and Rouge will be standing by at the base.” 
Est cast a disdainful glance toward Nia, who was rolling around on the floor and quickly rattled off her current plans. 
Paula approached Nia and tilted her head to the side, as if curious about her pain. 
“...What’s with this bear? Is it a Gollem?” 
“This little one is named Paula. She’s... similar to a Gollem, but was made through magic.” 
Paula saluted Nia and readily stood to attention. Nia responded to that by picking up Paula by the leg and inspecting her on all sides. Paula began to wriggle in an attempt to escape her grasp. I could almost hear the little bear yelling “Save me!” 
“...This thing is really interesting. It’s almost like it’s alive.” 
“Thank you. Paula is the product of two hundred years of modifications.” 
“How long?!” Nia stood frozen in shock, and Paula took the chance to escape from her hands. She then toddled toward Leen and clung to the fairy’s leg for dear life. Seemed like she’d really been afraid. 
I shrugged, then started talking to Est again. 
“We have a good amount of time left before the actual fight, but we should move to the area. You never know just how accurate the emergence reports actually are, so we better not take any chances.” 
I had a reason for wanting to go early. According to the report, they were going to be emerging in a place called the Magitechnocracy of Isengard. More specifically, they’d be coming out near a little town there called Zeen. In terms of map placement, Isengard was around the same location as Lestia in the regular world. 
If the mutants appeared earlier than expected, the people of Zeen would be in great danger. 
While the regular Phrase attacked humans to find the Sovereign Core, the mutants attacked humans for a more sinister purpose. Any human in the path of a Mutated Construct would have their soul consumed, and their bodies would be reborn as crystal skeletons. 
The crystal skeletons were just a byproduct of the process, though. The mutants were gathering human souls to feed the wicked god, which would use the harvested material as an energy source. 
They were basically like worker bees, gathering resources for their needy leader. 
“We’re all here, then!” I turned at the sound of Euni’s voice and saw eight people, including her, standing in a row. With Nia and Est added on, that was a grand total of ten. 
They looked pretty diverse in terms of age and style, the only unifying symbol on them was the red bandana worn on parts of their bodies. I’d seen some of them in the underground hideout back in the capital... 
But there were three who looked completely new to me. 
The first was a man in his thirties. His eyepatch and mustache made him seem like a grizzled combat veteran. The second was a dark-skinned woman in her twenties. She had long black hair. If this was Earth, I would’ve assumed she was from India. The third was a young-looking man who had narrow eyes. He looked like he’d be fast on his feet. 
Before I could do anything, the one-eyed man spoke up. 
“Excuse me, lad. I hear you have magic that can locate anyone or anything in this world. That the case?” 
The man, who I’d initially judged to be a hard-ass, looked at me with a pretty serious gaze. The other two were looking at me curiously as well. I didn’t know what they wanted from me, exactly... but I decided to go along with it. 
“It’s not perfect, but yes. If you want me to find a person, I’m going to need a picture of them. Failing that, access to someone with memories of them. If they’re located within a magic-blocking barrier, then I can’t find them either. But to be honest, barriers aren’t exactly common in this world so I think it should be okay.” 
“...Gotcha. Alright, then. After all this is over, can you look for someone? We’d owe you a great debt.” 
I looked toward Nia and Est, and they lightly nodded at me. Seemed like they knew what was going on. 
“I can do that, yeah. So long as it’s nothing illegal, or shady.” 
“I promise it isn’t. Thank you so much.” 
The three of them looked toward one another and let out a collective sigh of relief before falling back into line. I wondered who it was they were looking for. I quickly tapped into the eyes of Kougyoku’s birds and opened up a [Gate] to a field near the town of Zeen. 
We all moved through the [Gate]. 
I looked over the horizon and very faintly saw a collection of buildings. We were actually pretty far from the town itself, so there’d be no issues with going all-out in the fight. 
I opened up [Storage] and pulled out ten Chevaliers, Yumina’s Brunnhilde, and Leen’s Grimgerde. A total of twelve Frame Gears graced the landscape. 
“Ooh! Incredible!” 
Nia and the others excitedly ran toward their mechs. 
...Y-You guys know you can get them to crouch before entering, right? You’re really just... climbing the sides? Well, it’d be dangerous to make them move now, so whatever... 
I decided to let them practice moving around in the real thing for a while. Every little bit of extra practice would help, in the end. 
“I’m putting you two in charge, okay?” 
“No worries, we can handle them.” 
“That’s simple, darling.” 
Yumina and Leen climbed into their own Frame Gears, at which point the silver and black mechs began powering up with a deep rumble. 
“Kougyoku, keep eyes on the skies.” 
“As you command.” 
Now I’ll set up a tent and stuff... A recreational area would be good, given we’ll probably be here for the next ten hours or so. I should set up a dining area, too. 
Ah... I wanna eat some sushi... 
 
“Heh, this is more our style!” Nia grinned a satisfied grin, her body brimming with enthusiasm. The ten chevaliers stood before us, painted red with cat markings etched into their shoulders. 
She asked if we could redesign the Frame Gears while we were waiting for the fight to start. 
Given that they were basically for the Red Cats to use, I didn’t exactly mind. But I was amused by how blatant the design ended up being. 
Apparently one of the prospective pilots from the Red Cats had quite the artistic streak, so he readily crafted the design in no time at all. The Frame Gears ended up painting each other using giant brushes I made from scratch... I was a little impressed by how dexterous their movements were. 
I didn’t actually have any paint in my [Storage], so I needed to quickly pop to Babylon for it. 
“They’re really bright red... I guess it makes them easy to identify.” 
Frankly, I was worried it’d conflict with Elze’s Gerhilde, but the red was a bit different. Gerhilde was a clear crimson, while this red wasn’t quite that intense. To be honest, though, it wasn’t exactly like people would get the two confused. A Chevalier was shaped differently, after all. 
I checked the time on my smartphone, and it was already late afternoon. That meant our enemy was set to appear before long... 
“I hope they don’t end up showing up at nightfall...” 
“Don’t the Chevaliers have night-vision, though?” Yumina quickly replied to my muttering. Ever since we fought the Phrase at night that one time, I made sure to install night-vision sensors on all Frame Gears. 
All these Chevaliers had those functions as well, as did the Valkyrie Gears. Even in the darkest of nights, they’d be able to see plain as day. 
“Sure, but those cameras are ultimately pieces of external equipment. They can be broken. If that happened, they’d lose their sense of location. I wouldn’t want people crashing into each other. That’s why it’s better in general if they appear while the sun’s up.” 
We still had a bit of time before night, so I was hopeful. But there was also another reason I wanted this dealt with sooner rather than later. 
“We’re not super far from the town. They’ve already noticed we’re here.” The townspeople had been made aware of our arrival a little while ago. From their perspective, we probably looked like a group of suspicious people setting up camp with giant Gollems. 
There was a group of them in the distance, hiding in a rocky area. They’d be impossible to see under regular circumstances, but I had Kougyoku and her many sets of eyes. 
One went back to the town. It’s likely he’s serving as a messenger.? 
I doubt they’ll be much of a threat, but keep an eye out for them. We don’t want their guardsmen rushing into the crossfire.? 
As you command.? 
They’d probably come to see if they could gain information on us. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the town was worried about us being potential invaders. I also had a feeling they wouldn’t accept our explanation at face-value. 
The Magitechnocracy of Isengard was foreign ground as far as my intel was concerned. Given that they had no idea who we were, they could easily mistake us for an enemy invasion force. But we were far away from their capital, so it’d take a long while for their knights to reach us. I was hoping to be done and gone before anyone reached us. 
As the name implied, Isengard was pretty heavily involved with magitechnology. They were also a major military power in the Reverse World. Apparently they even had things like Gollem tanks, and I didn’t really want them bringing those out against us. 
As I pondered the situation, Leen came into the tent holding one of the detector plates. 
“I’ve got a solid reading. They’ll be here in around ten minutes.” 
“Got it.” 
I was relieved to know we’d be able to get it sorted before nightfall. I hooked up my smartphone to the speaker system inside each Chevalier. 
“The mutants are inbound. All hands, prepare for battle. ETA: Ten minutes.” 
The red Chevalier cockpits closed tight, sealing their pilots safely inside. Then, they all began whirring to life. 
“About time! I can’t wait to kick their-” 
“Nia. What did I say about getting too excited? This is serious.” 
“Uwaah, I’m totally worried...” 
Everyone sounded ready to go. Nobody sounded too scared, so it seemed fine to me. 
“Leen, Yumina. You’ll be on support duty. I want Nia and the others to handle the Intermediate Constructs as well, but if it gets too dangerous, you should step in.” 
“Understood.” 
“Got it.” 
Yumina and Leen climbed into their Frame Gears. I also saw Paula get into Grimgerde’s cockpit... I was fine with it, so long as she didn’t interfere with anything. Before long, a crack rippled through space itself. The sound of splintering glass rang out. The crack, lined up right in front of the Red Cats, began to expand like lines on a breaking eggshell. 
“Ooh... A crack in the sky?” 
“So that’s what it looks like...” 
“Eeep! My heart’s beating a mile a minute!” 
After one final shattering sound, the crack opened up. Following suit, several smaller cracks opened up near it, and the muddy-gold creatures began pouring out. As I expected, the majority were Lesser Constructs. Some looked like snakes, while others looked like rhinoceros beetles. Still, there were three of them that distinctly stood taller than the rest. Three Intermediate Mutated Constructs. I used [Long Sense] to project my sight closer toward them. 
...They’re bigger than usual, aren’t they? Though, given the size variation in Lesser Constructs, I guess this isn’t too unusual. 
Crap, one of the big ones is an airborne type... What is that, a sunfish? Well, I shouldn’t assume it’ll act like the animal it resembles. It’ll probably be faster than the real thing. Hell, it doesn’t even seem to have eyes or a mouth... It’s just kinda shaped like one. If it was a little more angular, maybe I’d see it as an angelfish instead. 
The Red Cats definitely couldn’t handle an airborne foe. They weren’t even equipped with anti-air measures. 
“Yumina. Snipe the flying one, Nia and the others can’t take it out.” 
“Alright.” 
Brunnhilde, laying prone behind me, brandished its sniper rifle. Since the mutants weren’t see-through, it was harder to tell where their cores would be. But we were still able to guess and infer based on prior experience. 
The sunfish Phrase was relatively thin compared to others of its type, too. Still, relatively was the keyword here. It was still several meters in diameter. 
A sudden cracking sound rang out, and the sunfish began shattering. Yumina had taken her shot. 
I nodded along with a smile, marveling at her work... when suddenly the sunfish exploded from within! I was taken aback before I realized what had happened. Yumina must have used a bullet enchanted with [Explosion]. Apparently, Phrase were adept at absorbing external sources of magic, but if magic affected them internally, then there was nothing they could do against it. That was how I managed to use [Apport] to grab their cores, too. 
The explosive blast appeared to have taken care of the core. The sunfish fell to the ground and began to melt into tar-like goop. Off-putting smoke emanated from its remains, as well. 
The disgusting sight served as the marker of the battle’s true beginning. The ten red Chevaliers, wielding swords, maces, and spears, charged forward and began making short work of the Lesser Constructs. 
The sunfish was down, but there were still two Intermediate Constructs left. One was long-legged, kind of like an ostrich... while the other was, well... a goddamn dinosaur. More specifically, an iguanodon. They were massive, too. 
Leen stayed behind and launched her assault on a group of mutants. Grimgerde was specialized for long-range bombardments, so situations where our allies were in close combat with the enemy didn’t suit her too well. The chance of friendly fire was too high. That was why Leen continued her dutiful support work, and only blasted areas that were devoid of Red Cats. 
Yumina kept up her supporting fire, too. She expertly dispatched any mutants that were attempting to close in on unsuspecting Chevaliers. 
One of the red Chevaliers dashed out of formation and faced the ostrich Phrase head-on. Based on the identifying number on its back... it was Nia. 
“Come get some!” 
Nia’s Frame Gear leaped up in the air and slashed a blade down at the ostrich’s neck. The neck was cleanly sliced, and the great beast’s head came crashing to the ground. However, a new head simply grew back from the decapitated area. 
“Niaaaaaa... I told you. They’ll just regenerate if you don’t take out their cores.” 
“I-I knew that! I-I was just testing it out!” 
Liar. You totally forgot. Don’t ignore the Lesser ones, you idiot. 
All the other red Chevaliers were slowly but surely mowing through the mooks. Things were going well... Over half of the mutants were dead. 
Est’s Chevalier arrived to assist Nia against the ostrich. She opted to go for its legs. Looked like Est was planning on immobilizing it, then aiming for the most likely area for the core. The chest. 
The iguanodon one was engaged against a lone Chevalier. Based on the number, it was the one-eyed man. Frame Gears often reflected the finesse and skill of the people piloting them... and this guy was handling his in an extremely dexterous manner. His spear had no issues keeping the beast at bay. 

Two other Chevaliers suddenly entered the battle by his side. If I had to guess, they were probably piloted by the pretty young lady and the narrow-eyed guy. They moved pretty proficiently as well... I had confidence they’d be able to handle the situation. 
I looked back to Nia’s situation and found that Euni had also joined Est in supporting her. 
Both Intermediate Constructs had a group of three Chevaliers on them, while the other four mopped up the Lessers. They had a pretty solid formation going on. 
The iguanodon lowered its head, and light began to gather there. It was clearly charging up one of those laser attacks I hated so much. I’d already taught the Red Cats about how the Phrase fought, so the three pilots scattered and tried to draw its attention. 
The beam was released and missed the pilots. 
“Oh crap.” 
However... as it soared through the air, it was clearly going to hit the far-off town. An Upper Construct’s beam was enough to blast away an entire city, but an Intermediate Construct was only really strong enough to ruin a house or two. 
That wasn’t really a good enough reason for me to ignore it, though. 
“[Reflection].” 
I set up a reflective wall that was angled upward, which made the laser fly off into space. Fighting near a town was really quite annoying. 
“Take this!” Nia thrust her blade into the fallen ostrich’s torso, and it began to melt into tar-like goop. It was over. 
The iguanodon was also melting. The one-eyed man had run it through with his spear. 
The ostrich mustered the last of its power and began pecking at the ground with its beak. It kept on pecking, over and over, until its beak had melted into goo as well. What’s that all about? 
I was a fool, and would later regret not paying more attention to what I had seen happening. It was the first sign of things to come. 
Either way, the Lesser Constructs were mostly dead, and the battle was ending. 
“Seems like we’re done.” 
“I’ll say...” Yumina’s voice rang out from Brunnhilde’s speakers. Given it was ten Frame Gears against a hundred Lesser Constructs, I wasn’t surprised it was so simple. We didn’t even have any injuries. 
If this was a battle against the regular Phrase, I would’ve been able to collect the Phrasium... but I wouldn’t be getting that as a reward anymore. Fighting the mutants didn’t really give us much in terms of rewards. 
Ordinarily, Isengard should’ve dealt with this on their own, and our interference could’ve been seen as unwanted meddling... But I was of the opinion that if we hadn’t stepped in, the people of that town would’ve died. We definitely needed to make more countries aware of the threat. 
I decided to use Papillon... or rather, the Black Cats, to spread appropriate rumors and stories through their inn and brothel network. 
I pondered my future plans as the red Chevaliers gathered around. 
Nia jumped from her cockpit with the poise and grace of an actual cat. 
“What’d you think of that, huh?!” 
“...Could be better. You’re overdoing it, which results in a lot of wasteful motions. Look at Est and Euni. They weren’t wasting a second. You’re clearly not used to group fights.” 
“You’re right about that.” 
As I pointed out Nia’s flaws, Est nodded along. Given that Nia likely relied on Rouge’s massive damage in the past, I wasn’t too surprised she was rusty in a group battle situation. 
Well, Nia would be using the Gollem-based Frame Gear in the future, so I figured chastising her any further would be useless. 
I returned all the Frame Gears to [Storage], and called Kougyoku back down from above. 
“Kougyoku, have some of your birds flutter around for a while. I wanna keep an eye on the situation here a bit.” 
“As you wish...” Kougyoku screeched into the air, and a few birds began circling the sky above. 
“These little ones should suffice.” 
“Thanks.” 
“You have a talking bird...?” Nia stared at us in a mixture of confusion and awe. I wasn’t sure why she was so surprised. She had a talking Gollem, for goodness’ sake! 
Alright. Time to get outta here. 
I opened up a [Gate] to the fortress hideout, and we walked through to the same courtyard we’d been in a few hours back. 
“Whew... We haven’t been out long, but I’m plenty sleepy...” 
Euni sleepily leaned herself against a wall. The other Red Cats seemed happy to see our return. They quickly lined up several tables and put food and drinks down atop them. What is this, a feast? 
I looked over the scene as the three individuals from before approached me. It was the one-eyed man, the dark-skinned beauty, and the narrow-eyed guy. 
Nia came walking over as well. 
“Oh, right. Lemme introduce you to these guys, Touya. These guys are veteran members. The older guy is Colonel, the lady is First Lieutenant, and the younger guy is Sergeant.” 
“Colonel?” 
“Codenames. We’ve decided not to use our real names. Not until we achieve our purpose.” 
Colonel grinned widely. It made him look scarier than he usually did... The three of them definitely reminded me of military-type folks, though. 
“Yumina.” 
“On it.” 
I had Yumina use her Mystic Eye to make sure the people talking to me were pure of heart and intent. Her eye had the perfect intuition when it came to judging people. She could identify those who seemed evil, and maybe even acted evil, but were actually good at heart. I didn’t think there’d be anyone really bad with the Red Cats, but I wanted to make sure. 
Yumina smiled and nodded my way. They’d been given the all-clear. 
“So, about that request of ours...” 
Colonel took an old bound book from his coat and passed an old black-and-white photograph my way. The photograph depicted a woman cradling a baby. She was wearing really fancy clothes. She couldn’t have been much older than twenty-three. She sat in a gaudy rocking chair and wore a necklace with a big gemstone embedded in it. From looks alone, she seemed to be a noble. 
“You want me to find this woman?” 
I wondered if she was Colonel’s wife or something. But... honestly, I couldn’t see them together. There was just no way. 
“Sadly, that woman is already dead. I want you to locate the person in her arms.” 
“...The kid?” 
I looked down at the photograph, focusing my gaze on the baby. ...There’s no way in hell I can tell the difference between babies. It won’t work like that. 
If they told me to find a baby, the map would just get hundreds and hundreds of hits. 
“When was this photo taken?” 
“A bit over ten years back. The child should be ten by now.” 
Ten?! How am I supposed to know what this kid looks like after ten years?! I can’t even tell if it’s a boy or a girl! 
“The boy’s the last son of the late king of Lowe. Lowe was a kingdom destroyed by the Gardio Empire and the Isengard Magitechnocracy. In short, he’s a lost prince. Prince Lufredin.” 
 
The Kingdom of Lowe was a tiny nation that existed about ten years ago, nestled between Isengard and Gardio. 
The nation was able to maintain its independence thanks to an army of powerful Gollems, and a mountain range that served as a natural bulwark. 
The main backbone of their military might came from their twelve special Gollems and their twelve powerful masters who served as generals. These Gollems were referred to as the beast emperor series. 
Apparently, the territory had an ancient ruin within it, and it was such a hotspot that several dozen legacy Gollems had been found there. The beast emperors were just another example of the incredible treasures they’d found. 
Naturally, that made them a prime target for greedy countries. They’d been invaded several times, but each time the enemies had been fended off by the beast emperors of their respective generation. 
Lowe was rich in mithril veins. Apparently mithril had the effect of reducing a Gollem’s strength. Most Gollems within Lowe’s territory could barely function. The beast emperors, however, did not suffer from this reduction in performance. 
If they left Lowe’s territory, that benefit wouldn’t mean as much. But in terms of defending the country, they were ideal. 
Gollems made up the bulk of most armies in the Reverse World, so the invaders were always at a disadvantage. Any opposing army would find itself operating at half its potential, while Lowe could defend at full strength. 
But... ten years ago, the country fell during the reign of their thirteenth king, Maximillian Gran Lowe. 
They were betrayed by one of the twelve generals. Apparently he fled to Isengard, where he allowed his beast emperor to be reverse-engineered and researched by the scientists there. They then teamed up with the Gardio Empire to develop a technology that completely negated the mithril weakness. And using this new device, they marched upon Lowe. 
With that, Lowe lost the home-field advantage. The tiny country was utterly annihilated by the combined might of the two enemy armies... 
“We three are former soldiers from Lowe...” Colonel spoke as he pulled a small card from his breast pocket. He gently tapped it, and a Gollem appeared by his side. It seemed the thing in his hand was a storage card. 
The Gollem was a large one. It was two and a half meters long and was covered in a yellowy-orange armor. The most interesting thing about the Gollem, however... was the shape of its head. It had the head of a leopard. 
As I looked at the Gollem, it turned to look at me. Our eyes met. 
“This is one of the beast emperors. It’s the thunder leopard. It’s been a while since I’ve last unsealed it... I’ve often been worried about Isengard or Gardio finding out about us.” 
“Hold on a second... If that’s one of the beast emperors, then...” Yumina suddenly spoke up. She was right. That could mean only one thing... The dark-skinned woman, First Lieutenant, took a step forward and answered. 
“That’s right. Colonel was one of the twelve generals. He served Lowe with his thunder leopard.” 
“That’s right... Well, I was actually just a kid back then, though.” 
Given that it was ten years ago, that wasn’t too surprising to hear... Though, I was a little surprised that he’d have been that young. I figured he was in his forties, but perhaps he was just deceptively older-looking or something. Assuming he was in his early thirties, that’d make him just over twenty... which seemed reasonable. 
“Prince Lufredin was born just three days before the nation was annihilated. He was the child of the king’s newest mistress, and not many knew of his birth. We managed to find out that the boy fled the country with his wet nurse before Lowe fell, but we don’t know what became of him after that.” 
“We became displaced after the conquest of Lowe and met with the old leader of the Red Cats. For the last ten years, we’ve been trying to gather information on the prince and where he could be, but nothing has come up.” 
The narrow-eyed Sergeant followed up with a small explanation of how they got here. I wasn’t shocked they hadn’t made much headway. Finding one child in the whole world was a tall order. 
“The other generals fell in battle, and most of the beast emperors were scrapped. However, the people of Lowe live on, dotted here and there. To those survivors, the prince represents hope. Just the thought of the little prince living a destitute life, not knowing his honorable birthright... It makes me too sad. We must help him... Could you help us achieve this?” 
“It’s not like I don’t want to, but...” 
I looked at Colonel, then the photograph. I didn’t exactly have much to work with. 
“...Does the boy have any particularly distinguishable features? A mole in a weird place, maybe? Or a star-shaped birthmark on his body?” 
“I wouldn’t know about anything like that, but all males of the royal lineage manifest Mystic Eyes. It’s customary for them to be fitted with a suppressing bracer at a young age, in order to prevent the eyes from fully awakening. After all, some abilities are dangerous if not handled properly.” 
I was shocked upon hearing that term, and my gaze instinctively met Yumina’s. I looked back at the photo and noticed that the baby was indeed wearing a bracer on his little wrist. 
I’d met some people with Mystic Eyes before. Yumina had ones that allowed her to see through people’s character, the pope of Ramissh had ones that allowed her to sense lies, while the dragon girl, Sonia, had ones that allowed her to see through illusory things. 
The baby in the photo had his eyes closed, so I couldn’t identify much about his face. 
“The late king had the Mystic Eye of Ignition, but it wasn’t a very powerful ability. I’m not sure what kind of power the young prince has.” 
“That’ll narrow my search down a lot... My world doesn’t have many people with Mystic Eyes, and I can only assume that this world will have even fewer.” 
The running theory was that Mystic Eyes were the product of Null spells embedding themselves in the eyeball of its wielder. The Reverse World had barely any magic users to begin with, so it’d have even fewer Mystic Eye bearers than the regular world. Or maybe it was more like it’d be harder to even figure out who had a Mystic Eye or not. 
“I don’t know how it is in your world, but in this one people with Mystic Eyes are feared and reviled. They often hide themselves. They’re rather hard to track down. The late king, unlike your ladyfriend over here, had eyes of the same color... I’m inclined to believe that the young prince would be the same.” 
From what I recalled, the stronger the Mystic Eye, the higher the chance of heterochromia. Given what I’d just been told, it seemed like Lowe’s lineage had weak Mystic Eyes. But I was still able to tell a Mystic Eye holder apart based on how magic flowed through their body. That distinction meant I could search for him with my phone. 
“Run search. Ten-year-old boy with a Mystic Eye.” 
“Searching... Search complete. Displaying.” 
A few markers dropped into my map. There were three in total. Obviously, only one of them could be the prince. Hell, it was possible that all three of them were just commoners, even. 
“That bracer you mentioned... Is it something worn for life?” 
“Oh, yes. It’s made of a special material that stretches in size over time. It looks like a regular old bracer, so it’s highly likely he’s still wearing it.” 
Frankly, I was a little worried it might’ve been stolen or sold off. To the untrained eye, it likely was just a fancy piece of jewelry. 
Since the bracer was a magical tool, I’d be able to sense the magic emanating from it. That meant I’d be able to include it in my search criteria. 
“Filter results. Identify a boy with previous conditions, but wearing a suppressing bracer.” 
“Search complete. One result matching criteria. Displaying.” 
“What?!” 
A single pin fell down on the map, eliciting surprise from the trio. 
“The Gardio Empire... Why would he be in the very place that destroyed us?” 
“Colonel... Look more closely.” 
“...He’s within their capital, Gallesta... Right... Right in the middle? It can’t be...” 
The three of them murmured uneasily. They probably never expected him to be found within one of the countries responsible for their homeland’s destruction, so this complicated things for them. 
Hmm... Whereabouts is he? I zoomed in on the map, hoping he wasn’t in the slums or anything... It’d be bad if he’d ended up falling into slavery. 
“Wait... Hold on a sec...” 
As I zoomed in, I realized that the pin hadn’t shifted much at all. The pin stayed fixed on a large building right in the middle of the city. 
Wh-What the...? 
“Why is the prince of Lowe in Gardio’s palace?” Colonel muttered quietly, confused. I was thankful the palace didn’t have a barrier over it, or we’d have never found him... But surely this couldn’t be right. Was my search malfunctioning? 
“What does this mean?” 
“Don’t ask me...” Leen shrugged. And so did I. At the very least, we knew a few solid pieces of information. There was a ten-year-old boy in the palace who had a suppressing bracer and Mystic Eyes. It was entirely possible that this kid wasn’t the missing prince, and it was some kind of wacky coincidence, but... 
“...A Gollem’s master stores their genetic material in the G-Cube, right? Do you have the former king of Lowe’s Gollem?” 
“His Majesty’s Gollem? It was ruined, but... it is still mostly intact. It’s with a friend of mine. Why do you want it?” 
“If I had something like the king’s hair, or fingernail, or blood... I’d be able to verify whether the child is his son or not.” 
“...Understood, I’ll recover the Gollem.” 
Alright! Now I need to head to the palace and get a sample from the kid who got caught in my search. Then, all I have to do is head to the alchemy lab and ask Flora for a little DNA analysis. 
“Are you headed to the palace?” 
“Yeah. I’m gonna use [Invisible] to pluck a couple of his hairs out.” 
“I’m coming, then.” 
“Me too.” 
Yumina and Leen volunteered themselves to join me. Paula also raised her stubby arm, as if to say “Don’t forget me!” Following that, Kougyoku flew over and perched on my shoulder. 
“Alright, we’ll go grab his hair, then return straight to our world. How long until you guys can get the sample from the Gollems?” 
“Hm... You’ll have to give us two or three days.” 
“Sure, then. Tell Nia when you guys have it.” 
We waved off the Red Cats and moved to a forested area via a [Gate]. From there I cast [Invisible] on everyone, and used [Teleport]. 
My reasoning was that even if we were off a little bit, it’d be fine if we were all invisible before going there. 
“Alright, huddle up.” 
“O-Oh... Okay...” 
“Fufu... This is a little intimate...” 
...Don’t just say it. Geez... 
Paula jumped onto my back, Kougyoku was perched on my shoulder, and the two girls were clinging to my sides. In a flash, I activated [Teleport] and brought us to the Gardio palace’s inner courtyard. 
“Eep!” 
“Ouch!” 
“Hm? Who was that?!” 
I screwed up a little, so we ended up about thirty centimeters off the ground. I held Yumina and Leen close so they didn’t trip after our brief fall, but I couldn’t prevent them from crying out. A few guards came over to investigate. 
I’d already cast [Invisible], so we’d be fine so long as we kept quiet. 
The soldiers were looking around in confusion, despite us being right there. 
“Is something wrong?” 
“Oh, no. Thought we heard a sound... Must’ve been nothing. Probably a bird!” 
One of the soldiers chuckled as he answered an inquisitive young boy. I turned to look at the boy, and he seemed to be around ten years old. He was wearing some pretty gaudy clothing... I figured he must’ve been some nobleman’s son, but then I looked closer. He had long, brown hair tied up around the back. Despite his young looks, he seemed pretty well-poised. His left eye was brown, but his right was clearly a kind of hazelnut-green. He had a Mystic Eye. 
“Touya... Isn’t that...” Yumina pointed at the boy’s wrist, which bore a golden bracelet-like object. It was the suppression bracer. That meant that this boy was the one I’d come to find. 
Hmm... But the late king had two eyes of the same color, right? This kid has full-on heterochromia... Besides, how did the prince of a ruined nation end up the son of a nobleman in the very country that orphaned him? Then again, I guess the eye colors make sense if his Mystic Eye’s just stronger. 
Hmm... Maybe we’re getting mixed up and this isn’t the guy... 
Well, no biggie. The DNA test will answer all our questions. 
“Kougyoku, whenever you’re ready.” 
“Very well.” Kougyoku flew from my shoulder and sailed through the air. She passed the boy’s head and gently plucked a few strands from his hair. 
The little guy must’ve felt it a bit, as he placed a hand on his head and looked around with a frown. Sorry, kiddo! 
With that, our mission was complete. We just had to get out of there. 
“Oh, Lucrecion. There you are.” 
“Mother, father!” 
“A-Ah, Your Excellency!” 
Hold up... All the guards in the area kneeled down to the two individuals who appeared in the area. The little boy, however, did not. 
The two that had joined us were a scary-looking man in his forties and a gentle-looking woman in her thirties. 
There was no mistaking it. The man was clearly the emperor of Gardio. He wore a regal cape, a fancy crown, and, despite his thin frame, he had menacingly serious eyes. 
The woman wore a high-quality dress, and a royal, gem-encrusted circlet. These two were clearly the rulers of Gardio... which could only mean one thing. That boy was the prince. 
“Are you heading out, Father?” 
“Mm... That I am, my boy. To inspect the factories. I expect I may return late, so please take care of your mother.” 
“Okay!” The emperor softly patted the boy on the head, then left the area with a few escorts. After that, the empress walked up to the young prince, the two of them started chatting merrily. 
“Kougyoku... Sorry to bother you, but could you grab some hair from the emperor and empress as well?” 
“Very well.” 
Kougyoku flew off. I didn’t really have any idea what was going on, so that was roughly all I could do for the meantime. 
“How did the prince of a destroyed country become the imperial prince of the empire that orphaned him?” 
“We still don’t know if the boy is the prince we’re looking for. It’s possible that this imperial prince just happens to match up with all the features of the missing boy.” 
Yumina and Leen spoke amongst themselves. Is this gonna be a situation like Lihnea, where the queen had a child from an affair? No... I doubt it. 
Man... This is complicated... Do I really have time for another complex situation?