In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter SS

Bonus Short Stories 
Creative Urges 

Quite a long time had passed since I was transported to the new world. I’d gotten used to life here, even down to the odd inconveniences that had made me miss the modern culture of my old world. 
A large part of that was because I had my trusty smartphone by my side, which let me watch television or listen to the radio whenever I pleased. I could even read manga and novels thanks to the wonder of e-books. On top of that, I could even play games on it! Plus, I could still keep up on the current situation of my old world through news sites and such. I had already come to terms with the fact that I could never return to my old world, but still being able to retain a degree of contact with it was somehow comforting to me. I was glad that God had modified my smartphone in order to let me do these things. 
Ever since I’d picked up the [Modeling] spell, I’d been eager to try making all sorts of things with it. Things like those shogi sets and bikes and stuff. 
Whenever I needed reference for certain parts or designs, I could use the wonders of the internet to look up whatever it was that I wasn’t sure of. My only real complaint was that there wasn’t any plastic over in this world... But honestly, just making things was simply a fun pastime for me. 
“Touya, what are you making this ti— Wow! That’s amazing!” Yumina let out a surprised voice as she peeked over my shoulder at what I was constructing. It was a pale blue glass bottle with a sailing ship inside it. Basically, it was a ship in a bottle. 
Normally, to make something like this, first you would take the parts needed to construct the ship and then insert them into the bottle one piece at a time. From there, you would use long tweezers-like tools to slowly assemble the ship from outside of the bottle. It was a delicate task that pushed the bounds of human concentration and perseverance. 
Yumina seemed impressed at my handiwork, but I had to admit that I had cheated at making it. In my case, I built the model ship first outside of the bottle, then used [Modeling] to open up the base of the bottle, inserted the ship, and then cast the spell once more to seal the bottle again. It was a faux ship-in-a-bottle. 
I was certain that the ships in bottles that I’d sometimes seen being sold in shops for extremely cheap had been made by similar methods to mine. 
Still, it seemed as though the concept of putting a ship inside a bottle like this was completely foreign to Yumina, as she praised the workmanship. Even though it was just something I had felt like making on a whim, really. 
“I’d love to show it to my father. He’s rather fond of ships, you know?” 
“That so? In that case, you can give it to him as a gift from me. I’m sure it’d pale in comparison to one made by an actual professional craftsman, though.” 
“You’ll really give it to him? Thanks, Touya! I’m sure Father will be quite pleased with it!” 
Well, if it made him happy, then that was good enough for me. When we went to visit His Majesty the very next day, in fact, he was over the moon when I gave it to him. I was glad that I was able to make people happy like this using my magic, as well as the assistance of my trusty smartphone. 
Although, when the king’s younger brother, Duke Ortlinde, got wind of it, I ended up having to make another one for him, too. The duke was equally overjoyed at my gift, and that made it all worth the effort. 
Seeing my creations bring joy to the people around me only made my creative urges well up even further. I wanted to make things that would surprise people or make them happy, and seeing the successful results of that only made me want to keep on creating more and more new things. 
Right then, what should I make next? I thought idly to myself. Without a moment’s delay, I whipped out my smartphone and began surfing the web for more creative inspiration. 
The Child is the Father of the Man 
I’m sure that this is true not just of myself, but of all people, that things they’ve experienced or books that they’ve read, or even just little things that they’ve picked up in their childhood have sometimes left quite a deep impression on them. 
In most cases I imagine this to be the direct influence of their parents or siblings, but in my case, plenty of things have drawn my interests for as long as I can remember. Actually, my father was a man with a wide variety of interests and hobbies. At the same time, he was also a fickle person who lost interest in things rather quickly. 
This naturally lead to the remains of whatever my father had been fiddling with as one of his hobbies laying scattered around the house after he had tossed them aside, having lost interest. 
Off the top of my head, some of the remains of his past hobbies included fishing equipment, swords, replica guns, records, painting sets, woodblock prints, sculptures, postage stamps, various types of coins, stone tools, a car, a Buddha statue, model trains, tennis rackets, golf clubs, baseball equipment, cameras, watches, a guitar, a harmonica, spiritual texts, and gardening tools, just to name a few. 
Most of these sorts of things were just thrown into boxes and kept in my father’s closet, where they were undisturbed for a very long time. When I inherited that room, I suppose it should have come as no surprise that the boxes of treasures left a deep impression on me. 
Of course, there were plenty of things that I had no interest in whatsoever, but on the other hand there were a number of things that had left a deep impression on me. In particular, records... Or rather, the music itself had an effect on me that almost feels closer to having been brainwashed. 
My father mostly listened to a wide range of Western music, everything from classical symphonies to rock songs. The ones he listened to the most, though, were something he called the "oldies." As a result, I had been made to listen to musicians and bands such as Neil Sedaka, The Carpenters, Chuck Berry, and The Beatles ever since I was a baby. 
Without a clue as to the meanings of the lyrics, or even knowledge of who had sung that song in particular, these songs still get stuck in my head from time to time... Even now, I can hum the tunes or sing the lyrics to entire songs, a lot of the time without even a clue as to the artist or song name. 
There were also a great many books in my father’s closet. A good number of them quite dubious-looking. He had everything from occult-like spiritual texts or books on prophecies, to books on Shintoism, Buddhism, books on art, books on wildflowers, all the way to things like books on mythology or books about ancient ruins. He also had some books by Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, but those ones were a bit too difficult for me to try and read as a child. 
Speaking of things too soon for a child, I recall once being forced to watch the movie "Alien," and I’ve never been able to deal with horror movies since then. I realize that movie was Sci-Fi and not Horror, but it just left me terrified the entire way through. I still haven’t forgiven him for that experience. 
I can stay perfectly calm when it’s about ghosts or paranormal phenomenon, but when it comes to films with "a horrifying creature designed for the sole purpose of scaring the audience," I just can’t bring myself to watch it. Try to force me to, and I will cry. It’s only since becoming an author that I’ve begun to feel that these experiences or interests that I had as a child have both greatly helped and influenced my own works. 
Whoever came up with the phrase “The Child is the Father of the Man” really knew what they were talking about. At the end of the day, right here, right now, my childhood memories are proving to be of help every now and then, so even my bad memories weren’t completely in vain. 
I highly doubt that my father ever had any such intentions in mind, though. 
The Light of Ramissh 
The darkness that had veiled the Ramissh Theocracy had finally been cleansed away. The curse that had bound the theocracy for over a thousand years had finally been lifted. And by the hands of a real god, at that. Although, the deed itself had been carried out at the hands of a savior sent by God, not quite God himself. The pope of Ramissh, Elias Altra, gave her thanks to God as she watched the sunrise shine its gentle light upon the cathedral. 
That boy was unmistakably a savior sent by God. He had power that defied common sense and a wealth of knowledge, yet he did not flaunt this as others would, but instead believed that he should make use of his powers for the sake of the people. And that just so happened to be the very thing the pope herself had been chasing after all those 60-odd years. 
“So this is where you were, Your Holiness?” 
“Whatever is the matter, rushing here so early in the morning, Phyllis?” 

The pope turned around to face the young girl, who was dressed in a brand new cardinal outfit. The girl was none other than Phyllis Rugit, soon to become the youngest cardinal in the history of Ramissh. After all, she was the girl whom the pope trusted above anyone else. This fact alone made her fitting for the role of cardinal. 
Just like the pope, the young girl had also met face-to-face with God himself. Eventually, this girl would grow up and inherit the position of pope herself, going on to lead the country into prosperity, or so Elias Altra believed. 
“Actually, umm, yesterday we received some gifts from the grand duke of Brunhild. This one was given to me, and this one was to be delivered to you.” 
“Is this... some sort of staff...? No, wait a moment... Could this be a scepter?” The object that she had been handed was, indeed, a finely-sculpted and delicately crafted ornamental scepter made out of gold. At the end of the scepter was something akin to a transparent gemstone, sparkling in an almost divine way. 
Phyllis’ scepter was much shorter and made from silver rather than gold, plain in appearance yet similarly divine in its radiance. Both were absolutely amazing to behold. Their beauty was such they could have easily been mistaken for luxurious art exhibits. 
“Supposedly both of these scepters have been imbued with the spells [Cure Heal], [Mega Heal], [Area Heal], [Recovery], and [Refresh].” 
“Wha...!?” The pope was taken completely aback after hearing this. Such powerful magical items were literally unheard of. They were so valuable, in fact, that they may eventually be passed down through the generations as national treasures. 
“Apparently these scepters are also capable of storing a vast quantity of magical energy as well as amplifying its output, meaning that if we provide them with magical energy on a daily basis, they should prove extremely useful in dangerous situations. For a more detailed explanation, please read this.” 
Phyllis presented a letter which contained instructions on every function of the scepters. Some examples included a way to bind the use of the scepter to oneself so that nobody else may use it; a way to call the scepter forth to teleport into one’s hand should it ever be dropped or stolen; a way to transfer the usage rights of the scepter on to another person. The letter had all of this noted down to the finest detail. 
“Is it truly alright for us to accept such a valuable thing...?” 
“His Highness said that they would be necessary things for the theocracy to have in the days to come. He also said that they would certainly prove useful in saving any people living in suffering.” 
It would appear I’ve gotten Touya worrying about me now. Although it is true that even now, having lost my aptitude for Light-type magic, I will still be able to use healing magic to help those in need. 
The pope held her scepter aloft toward the rising sun, and offered up her gratitude to the grand duke of a far-off foreign land as well as the god whom she believed had sent him to be their savior. 
“It would appear as though we’re about to become rather busy indeed. Phyllis, let us both do our best together. For the sake of a brand new Ramissh.” 
“Of course, Your Holiness!” Silver scepter in hand, the young cardinal bowed with a bright smile on her face. 
And so, the sun rose. 
As though to declare that a brand new light was about to be born, in a brand new Ramissh. 
The Life of Brunhild’s Prime Minister 
How did things end up like this? 
There were plenty of reasons that I could think of, but at the end of the day I could only put it all down to my own incompetence. I was sullying the name of Kousaka Masanohbu, as a member of Takeda’s Elite Four. 
My former lord, Takeda Schingen’s orphaned son Katsuyohri-sama, was completely incompetent in all matters of the state. The natural thing to do would have been to leave all such tasks to retainers who were competent in such fields, which may have assured our survival as a clan at the very least. 
Alas, Katsuyohri-sama was blinded in his desperation to surpass his father. We naturally couldn’t help comparing him to Schingen-sama, and I was sure he had caught on to that fact. 
As a result, he put us, who had served the Takeda since the times of our previous lord, down as disloyal retainers, and kept us by his side in name only. From there, he instated one unnecessary policy after another as though he were a raging bull. 
As to be expected, all of our funds were exhausted in no time at all. Our Lord’s ‘solution’ to this was to raise the taxes to an unfair degree for all the people of Takeda, to essentially steal from them however much he needed. This only caused further strain on the citizens under us. In no time at all, this led to violent uprising from the farmers and the peasants, and news of this chaos was quick to reach the emperor’s ears. 
Considering Yamamoto Kansukay’s attempted revolution not so long ago, combined with the current state of affairs, the emperor came to the natural conclusion that the Takeda Clan has shown no signs of reflecting upon its past misdeeds, and ordered that the clan be disbanded, with its land confiscated. 
Katsuyohri-sama himself was also exiled from Eashen as punishment. You could say that he’d merely reaped what he had sown, but from time to time I couldn’t help but think to myself that I should’ve attempted to stop his rampage even at the cost of my own life. Such regrets had weighed on my mind ever since coming to Brunhild. In spite of this all, I had been granted such a critical role as prime minister in my new homeland. 
To be frank, when the youngster in front of me first assigned me this role, I almost wondered if he were naught but a fool after all. I couldn’t believe that he was essentially ready to give up full decisive authority on all political matters to a man who was little more than a complete stranger to him. 
As such, my new lord, Mochizuki Touya-sama was the very polar opposite of our previous lord Katsuyohri-sama. He made no move to directly intervene in the politics of the country. So long as he thought it a good idea, he was willing to seriously consider anyone’s suggestions, regardless of who had come forward with them. By nature, he managed us under the philosophy of ‘live and let live,’ and essentially left us to manage affairs as we saw fit. 
I was happy that he had placed so much trust in us, but it had still left me worried about whether things would really turn out fine for our country under the rule of someone with such a personality. It didn’t take very long for me to figure out his reasons for this, however. 
Touya-sama was very rarely at rest, always on the move doing who knows what. If I took my eyes off him for even a moment, he would vanish off to somewhere with little notice, if any at all. If he were just wandering around within our duchy’s borders, then that would not have posed much of a problem, but I had quickly learned that he was the type of man to take off to some country on the other side of the world without giving it a second thought. It hadn’t taken me very long at all to learn that having a lord capable of using transportation magic would be such a handful to deal with. 
If we were ever to leave the final decisions on everything to Touya-sama, then we would never make any progress at all. As such, his closest retainers had no choice but to make many of the decisions between ourselves. 
That said, there were many matters in which Touya-sama himself was the only one who could make the final decision. Partially because of that, it had become somewhat of a routine of mine to go searching for our whimsical grand duke at least once every few days. 
The documents have really begun to pile up these days... Honestly, just where is our grand duke loitering about this time? 
“His Highness? He said he was going out to check up on the paddy fields in the castle town.” 
“Hrm, I see. I may still make it in time if I hurry.” Having gained valuable information from Tsubaki, one of our former Takeda shinobi, I set out swiftly after our lord. Were my prayers to be answered, he may very well have still been in the duchy, at the very least. 
Troublesome as it was, I did not dislike my job. Ours was a small country, yet founded by a renowned hero. I was most curious to see how far we could go, and to what extent we could influence the state of the very world itself. I was looking forward to the day that I could witness such greatness with my own two eyes. 
Right now, though, my top priority was to grab our grand duke by the arm and have him sort through his paperwork. My own personal hopes for him and our own internal political affairs were two different things, after all.