Chapter II: The End of the Festival
“Your Highness, we’ve deployed them all.”
“Roger that. Keep on alert until the warning signs show up.” I gave my orders to Commander Lain and looked up to the sky. There were stars everywhere, and not a single cloud in sight.
Linze and I were sitting on the shoulder of her inactive Helmwige, looking up to the sky. Huh... Come to think of it, I don’t recognize any of these constellations at all.
We were in the eastern plains of Yulong, barren land that stretched out wide before us.
I sent out a report about the current situation to every world leader, just in case. Given where the emergence was occurring, none of them objected to me sending out a few Frame Gears.
Yulong had been left to rot after the last Phrase invasion and the civil war after that.
Most of Yulong’s citizens began migrating outwards towards the borders of other countries and establishing small towns there in order to rebuild their lives.
The majority of them headed west to Hannock’s border, or south to Roadmare’s border. Very few actually headed north or east.
That was because Xenoahs to the north was ruled over by the Demonkin, and they didn’t typically entertain the requests of migrants or other nations. Plus, the northern areas of the continent actually had pretty harsh weather conditions, so it was hardly what I’d call hospitable. Demonkin had far sturdier bodies, so it didn’t matter as much to them.
But then again... There’s the Nokia Kingdom to the east, right? Why didn’t the Yulongese migrants head there?
I voiced that question to Linze, who responded with a simple enough answer.
“Yulong and Nokia didn’t have friendly international relations. Actually, Nokia is said to have been founded when a group of people seceded from Yulong and formed their own independent nation to the east.” There was a steep mountain range along the border of Yulong and Nokia, which acted as a natural barrier to defend the Nokian people from Yulong.
Back in the day, Yulong had made several attempts to reclaim the land, but each excursion ended in failure.
I could understand why the Yulongese people hadn’t headed that way to seek refuge, given that relationship. The Nokians would probably be suspicious of anyone that came in from Yulong, since they might want to sabotage the place and claim it or something.
Still, it seemed that Nokia was another closed-off nation like Xenoahs was... They were similar to Elfrau, a cold northern nation with more isolated borders.
“The wind is pretty cold out here. I wonder if Yulong’s in the middle of its winter.” The seasons here didn’t work the same as they did back on Earth. The spirits made the climate generally unstable, but some countries did have cyclical seasons. Brunhild and Eashen had a standard spring, summer, fall, winter progression. It seemed like Yulong did, too. Brunhild’s summer had just about ended, incidentally.
Linze shivered slightly as she took out a small canteen and poured a hot drink out of it. She then passed it over to me.
Prepared as ever, eh? That’s certainly one of your strong points, Linze...
“Linze, do you think you’ll be able to handle the flying Phrase this time?”
“Of course. I have my Phrasium Blade and my Phrasium Scattershot, so fighting shouldn’t be a problem. Also, it only takes about half a second to transform, now.” Impressive. Guess Doc Babylon’s been working hard.
She’d been so focused on the Reverse World that I’d thought she’d forgotten all about the Frame Gears.
“Come to think of it, Touya... Your personal Frame Gear isn’t finished yet, is it?”
“Well, the design part is done... But honestly, it’s not urgent or anything. I can handle stuff without a Frame Gear for now... Plus the Doc would rather focus on the Reverse World research right now.” Saving that kind of stuff for later seemed fine to me. It wasn’t like I didn’t want her to make it, but she was only one person... Even if that person was a genius. It was still better to be safe than sorry, though.
“Your personal Frame Gear... What was it called... Reginleif?”
“That’s right. It’s basically following the same naming scheme as the Valkyries, so that sounds fine by me.” I was originally planning on calling it Odin, but I thought giving it the name of the Norse All-father might have been a bit arrogant... So I settled on Reginleif.
Reginleif meant “daughter of the gods,” so I thought that was appropriate, given that someday I’d succeed the gods and become one.
I sipped on the coffee that Linze had poured out for me when my smartphone suddenly began to vibrate.
“Master, we’ve-a confirmed the signal. They’ll be-a coming-a in about five-a minute.” I was being called by Parshe, who was aboard the Gungnir.
She’d been put in charge of support and intel for this skirmish, but she was technically being advised and guided by Cesca.
It wasn’t as if I could give full intelligence control to a moron like her, even if she did have some redeeming qualities... That being said, the pervy maid was hardly any better.
“Gotcha. Tell everyone to start firing up their Frame Gears.”
“Si, si!” There was no moon up in the sky tonight. The only thing illuminating this battle was the pale starlight. The Valkyries had night vision, so Yumina and the others would be able to see fine. But the standard Chevaliers didn’t have any functions like that...
That’s why I went to the Storehouse and picked up some external equipment that the regular knights could use. It kind of looked like the Chevaliers were wearing visors, which was a little funny... But it did the job and gave them the necessary low-light vision.
I originally thought of casting [Light Orb] to illuminate the place, but that would’ve just made us easy targets in the night, so I scrapped that idea pretty fast.
Anyone outside of a Frame Gear would find it incredibly hard to see in the dark, but I could easily use my own divinity to grant amplified vision to myself. I was slowly becoming less human, that much wasn’t in dispute.
Linze slowly headed towards Helmwige’s cockpit, as the sound of mechanical whirring echoed out from various spots in the dark.
I hopped down from Helmwige and looked ahead into the dark, until finally, I started hearing a sound like splintering glass.
“They’re here.” Space itself began to divide as sparkling, shimmering beasts filed out of the very air. The Phrase were here.
Yep, just Lesser and Intermediate Constructs.
“Try to remain as a group, and don’t let a single one escape. Leave the airborne ones to Linze, Yumina, and Leen. Lu, you act as the situation demands, alright?”
“A-Alright!” Leen’s Grimgerde, Yumina’s Brunnhilde, and Lu’s Waltraute were all capable of long-range combat. Though in Lu’s case, she needed to swap out gear for it.
“Alright... Guess I’ll start off with a good old bout of Meteor Rain... Then I... C-Can...” Just as I thought about opening a portal in the sky, I noticed something weird going on.
The Phrase were moving irregularly. They weren’t charging at us, like usual.
They hunted people instinctively... I knew that they chased down heartbeats and sought to end them... That’s why they headed towards the nearest population centers they could find and targeted all the people there. In other words, they were meant to come right at us. We were the nearest gathering of people.
So why in the hell were they scattering in all four random directions? Some were coming towards us, but others were running in the complete opposite direction.
“The hell? Are there actually civilians in the area?!” I was worried about that. It reminded me of when the wrecked Frame Gear was stolen... Back when that organization had taken it to make their inferior replicas.
They’d used an artifact to make themselves invisible when they stole that Frame Gear, it was entirely possible that something similar was being employed here to hide people... But that wouldn’t mask their heartbeats.
I decided using Meteor Rain wasn’t a good option right now.
Still, we couldn’t afford to let the Phrase escape.
“Linze! Take out the ones that are fleeing! Yumina, take down the stragglers!”
“Got it!”
“Understood!” Helmwige soared up into the sky after transforming.
I looked down and saw Phrase shattering to pieces as their cores were expertly sniped from afar.
Yumina’s Brunnhilde was located in the back, wielding a sniper rifle. She was expertly dispatching many Phrase mooks at once with precise shots.
It was definitely doing a fine job as a vanguard support unit.
“Still... They’re acting really weird. They don’t have a leader or anything, so I guess they’re just wandering around and dying... Almost makes me pity them.” As the melee continued on, I could see the crack in space start to close, signaling the end of this weird mess. Alright, now I just gotta...
“Master! Grosso problema! Big trouble! Another wave incoming!”
“What?!” Parshe, who was analyzing the battlefield from Gungnir, delivered some devastating news.
Right on cue, the opening in space began to spread apart.
A new batch of Phrase came crawling out in the same horrifying manner as usual.
“Wait... Hold on...” Size-wise, they were no different to standard Lesser Constructs... But something was different.
Their bodies were not transparent or crystal-like, as the other Phrase’s bodies had been. They were more of a muddy-gold... Shaped kind of oval-like. I wondered if they were some kind of mutated subspecies... Their forms also seemed to shimmer and distort in the air.
But that’s when it hit me. When I realized what I was looking at. When I saw the light emanating from them.
No matter how you looked at it... They were emitting divinity.
They had an aura proving they were blessed by a god.
“Son of a bitch... What the hell has that thing created?!” These Phrase were clearly not normal... They were probably created by the wicked god, the one that had eaten the servile god some time ago. They were clad in divinity, but I didn’t sense massive power in them. That being said, they were several degrees stronger than a standard Phrase. I could tell that much.
But that meant that the wicked god must have already emerged from its cocoon... I started to gather my thoughts, but had no time to complete them. The Divine Phrase were on the move. “Wait... What?!” They did something I didn’t expect. Something nobody expected. They started attacking their own. They extended their crystalline limbs and pierced the cores of the Lesser Constructs around them... Then they plucked the cores out of the other Phrase’s bodies.
For whatever reason, the Lesser Constructs did not break to pieces... They started to... Melt.
It looked like ice turning into water... But it was a bit more viscous than water. They melted into what seemed like a sticky syrup.
The Divine Phrase then began to slurp up the goop that was once their allies, until only the cores remained. They didn’t seem to care much about the cores, which were tossed to the ground and shattered. I had no idea what was unfolding before my eyes.
They ate their own kind... Something about that shook me to the core.
I had just witnessed Phrase-on-Phrase cannibalism. And then it clicked in my head. The Phrase in the first wave weren’t running because they sensed human heartbeats. They were running to escape. They might have even been running in fear if they could feel it. At the very least it was something instinctive that told them to move away. As I tried to gather my thoughts on the situation, the Divine Phrase continued to devour their own kind. They completely ignored the Frame Gears surrounding them.
The Phrase species attacked human beings in order to find the Sovereign Core. That was their instinctive mission, and it was all they did. But these Divine Phrase didn’t seem to care about that at all.
Which meant they served a new cause and were probably devout apostles of the wicked god.
“Touya... What is this?”
“I don’t know. But it doesn’t mean our mission is over here. Yumina... Can you try to hit one of those things from here?”
“Uhm... Yes, I can. I’ll do it.”
“Take the shot.” Yumina fired a sniper round at one of the Divine Phrase as it was slurping up one of its kin.
Its dirty-gold body completely tanked the shot, save for a tiny crack. My divinity-laden eyes caught the moment of impact clearly. Its exterior was monstrously hard.
The surface began to regenerate quickly, but Yumina wasn’t done. A second shot, and then a third, began penetrating through the broken area. Yumina was shooting it faster than it could heal.
The Divine Phrase wasn’t letting its core be exposed without a fight, it kept on forcing its own metallic material back into the impacted area, desperate to cover it up. But Yumina kept on shooting into the precise area she thought the core was located.
If we called the regular Phrase the “crystal creatures,” then calling these things “metal devils” would probably be more apt. The fourth bullet pierced it, and it began to change its behavior.
Its round body began to melt away, black fumes rising from its form. Gradually it turned into a goop that resembled mushy ice cream, and its busted core lay on the ground among the mess. Yumina’s bullets had really done a number on it...
Seems like damaging the core can stop the metal devils, at least. But I gotta say, melting instead of shattering is a hell of a lot creepier.
“That means they can be defeated, then... Alright, everyone! Approach them in groups! Sakura, handle the support.”
“Got it...” Sakura’s Rossweisse began blaring a song that acted as a passive support spell.
Oh... That song... If I remember right, a four-man rock band from England played this... They were from Liverpool, I think. My grandpa really liked their music... I guess I have more of their songs than anyone else’s...
“Still... Why that song of all things?” To be honest there was no point speculating. Sakura couldn’t understand the English lyrics, so she probably picked it based on melody and rhythm.
The Phrase began to slow down as the soundwaves washed over them. It seemed like this song had the effect of decreasing their speed.
“Brunhild knight order... Charge!”
“HOO-RAH!” Commander Lain led a charge in her Shining Count.
Elze and the other frontliners began contributing to the melee themselves until it was an all-out brawl.
“Take... This!! Pulverizer!” Elze’s pile bunker smashed into the side of a metal devil’s body, but it countered using its bladed limbs... She hadn’t managed to penetrate its core.
After three strikes, she finally managed to take it down, then she jumped back from its melting body.
“Eww... It looks gross.” I agreed with her on that front. These metal devils were both Phrase and not Phrase at the same time, and frankly, I hated it.
Still... If they were apostles of the wicked god, why were they consuming the Phrase? I thought the wicked godbeast that ate the servile god was under the control of Yula, that Dominant Construct. Something didn’t add up.
“I wonder if that means something’s going wrong on the Phrase’s side...” If they were having a bunch of in-fighting, then I wasn’t exactly going to complain... But it did make me feel a bit uneasy.
Still, the stronger metal devil subspecies is going to be a pain... I had no problem with fighting both groups at once.
“Master! It’s another-a fissure!”
“Huh?!” A third fissure suddenly opened up out of nowhere, and a lone creature jumped down from it.
It was a humanoid crystalline creature with a coarse body.
“Oh hell no...!” I was face to face with a Dominant Construct. One of the apex of Phrasium life, superior to even the Upper Constructs.
To make matters worse, I remembered who this asshole was. It was the one I fought back in Xenoahs... Gila, if I remembered right. Gila grinned wide as he shot me a fierce glare. His piercing red eyes almost looked right through me.
He was a true scumbag... From what I remembered of the Xenoahs incident at least. He was a war-loving monster. He reveled in slaughter and didn’t care who he killed.
Gila glimmered softly in the starlight as he looked me down.
One of the metal devils reached out a bladed limb and tried to attack him. Gila simply showed a look of displeasure on his face as he caught the handrail-wide limb in his hand, and dug his claws hard into it.
The sound of straining metal rang out as Gila’s fingers dug deep into the metal devil’s limb... Then he began to tug at it, pulling the creature’s body towards him... Then he swung it and threw it into the air.
The metal devil soared into the sky before crashing into a nearby woodland area. Gila’s power was immense as ever...
Still, that confirmed my suspicions. A Lesser Construct would never fight against a Dominant like Gila... It meant they weren’t allies. I was honestly a little relieved to find out the power-hungry bastard in front of me hadn’t sided with the wicked god.
He looked in my direction and extended an arm, then stuck out his index and middle fingers. Slowly, light began to gather between his fingertips. OH CRAP! A whooshing sound bellowed out as Gila fired a laser beam right at me.
“[Reflection]!” I created a deflecting shield at an angle in front of me.
“Ghah!” The beam hit the barrier and launched off into the night sky. The very air around it seemed to reverberate.
It was a hell of a shot, but I knew not to back down. Gila clearly hadn’t gotten serious. He’d fired a beam like that before, and it was stronger that time.
He probably just sent the attack as some twisted way of saying hello... He really liked to mess with people, so I decided to fight fire with fire.
I opened up [Storage] as I cast [Power Rise] on myself, and then took out a warhammer made out of Phrasium.
“[Teleport]!”
“Wh-?!” In the blink of an eye, I appeared next to Gila and swung the hammer like a baseball bat.
Just as I made impact, I invoked [Gravity] to massively amplify the weight of the hit.
Then I released the hammer, sending it smashing into the Dominant before me. Gila and the hammer both went flying into the air.
The Phrase hit the ground and began rolling several meters along the plains. It was satisfying to watch.
But then he simply stopped and stood up as if nothing had happened. I should’ve known it’d take more than that.
“Hey now, Tooya! Ain’t you rough-housin’ me a little hard there?!”
“I don’t need your nonsense today, Gila. You should’ve just stayed down.” I grinned right back at him before drawing my weapon, Brunhild, from [Storage]. I switched it to Gun Mode.
“Sounds like yer plenty busy in this world, huh. It’s the same on our side. I gotta rip that Yula bastard limb from limb, y’know? Honestly, I don’t think y’got him, but I gotta ask... Y’all ain’t harboring that guy, are ya?”
“What?” What does he mean by this? Yula...? He was hanging out with the NEET god before the stuff went down with the wicked godbeast... But what the hell did he do? Why would we be sheltering him?
“...What did you mean by that? Are you saying Yula came through to this world?”
“Y’all really don’t know, huh? Tsk... That’s a real goddamn pain. The hell is he, then...?” Gila furrowed his brow and growled at the ground. It seemed like he was trying to locate Yula. I didn’t understand if they were enemies or allies.
But if what Gila had said was true, and Yula had seriously come to this world, then things were gonna go from bad to worse.
Even if the recoil sent him back, he’d gradually become acclimatized to being here until he’d be able to maintain a permanent presence... And if that happened...
“...What happened to the wicked god’s cocoon, Gila? Did Yula do something? Those muddy-gold Phrase look similar to it.”
“Oh? Y’know about the Shining Egg? Tell me what’cha know about it, bastard! We don’t got any idea of what it is... It’s creepy as hell! Nobody can break it! It sucks in the footsoldiers that goes near it and turns ‘em into weird shit!” Gila looked pissed off as he spoke, but he looked pissed off most of the time anyway. I was relieved either way. It seemed like the cocoon was still on the other side... I was worried it had hatched, or that Yula might have brought it over with him.
From what I could gather it seemed like Yula had abandoned the other Dominant Constructs and left the cocoon behind... But something felt fishy. There’s no way he’d just abandon the wicked god for no reason... Something felt really wrong, and it was irritating me.
“Pssh... Well, I don’t give a shit what that freak’s been plannin’. All I gotta do is kill him, right?”
“Aren’t you guys both Dominant Constructs? I thought you were allies.”
“That’s pretty racist, kid. We don’t all gotta stick together. At the end of the day I, the great Gila, will designate anyone who gets in my way an enemy. That goes fer you too, twerp.” Gila grinned as his arm morphed into a spear, then he came lunging at me.
“[Slip]!”
“Ghaugh!” Gila’s glorious charge turned into him falling flat on his face. I tried to shoot him with a couple of Phrasium bullets while he was down, but he managed to avoid them.
He extended the tip of his spear-like arm and embedded it into a rock before using it to pull his body out of my spell’s effective range.
“Bastard! What’d I say about playin’ dirty?!”
He glared at me, but I was getting sick of his attitude. I was pretty pleased that not even he was safe from my slippery ways, though.
“How about I make you fall over forever, you crystal loser.”
“Tsk... Think again, bitch. I ain’t gonna fall fer that again.” As he spoke, his heels began morphing slightly, small fragments of crystal began to protrude from his feet. When the transformation was finished, he began to hover above the ground. No fair, that’s cheating! But I guess since there are flying Phrase, it makes sense that a Dominant would be able to do that...
“Can’t slip me now, you little bastard! Time to pay ya what yer owed!” Gila came charging towards me. It looked like he was running still, but he was clearly levitating.
I used Brunhild to fire off several rounds at him, but they did nothing. He tanked every shot and continued hurtling towards me at a breakneck pace.
“Gh... [Accel]!” Just as his spear arm was about to smash into my ribcage, I managed to jump out of the way.
I let out a sigh as the divinity flowed from my body. In a mere matter of moments, fatigue and dizziness wracked my body. I had no strength to even stand.
I started crumpling to the floor when suddenly, someone appeared from nowhere as if to catch me.
“You did a good job, you know? We’re proud of you, little brother...”
“That was quite the fight, Touya. I’m really impressed.” My eyelids were heavy but I opened them up anyway. I saw two familiar girls supporting me.
“Late as ever... What terrible sisters...” Karen and Moroha. They’d probably come after sensing the metal devils and their divinity. Then they probably picked up the pace when they’d sensed my own.
“Now now, Touya my boy... I wished to see how far you had come with my own two eyes, so it was I who asked them not to interfere.” Yet another familiar face appeared before me. Even you came...? Ah well... I guess you would... You are visiting... The other gods aren’t here, though...
I didn’t know about Uncle Kousuke, but I had no doubt in my mind that Suika would be either blackout drunk or sleeping.
“Ah... It’s bad... World barrier... Gotta...”
“Now, now. Everything is fine. Once things are cleaned up here, I promise I will get everyone back home with my magic. Rest for now, my boy...”
“Oh... O-Okay... Then I’ll sleep... Thank you...” I was fatigued beyond measure and ultimately submitted to unconsciousness.
The festival was over by the time I came to.
I’d been sleeping for over a day... Thirty-six hours, to be more specific.
The fatigue brought on by my Apotheosis was far more intense than I’d expected, leading me to fall unconscious for quite some time.
Yumina and the other Valkyries, as well as the knight order mopped up the remaining Phrase after I passed out. Even Moroha chipped in.
The metal devils were definitely blessed by the wicked god. I was worried their divinity would make them unkillable, but thankfully they didn’t have much coating their souls.
The gods weren’t allowed to use their divinity, but my sister managed to dispatch the metal devils without any real issue.
After the battle, God Almighty used [Gate] to send everyone home to Brunhild. From there I was put straight to bed. Flora confirmed I was only fatigued, so they let me sleep it off... For a full day and a half...
As such, I slept through the end of the festivities. The knight king of Lestia and Jutaro ended up clashing with each other in the final round of the fighting tournament, and Yae’s brother ended up winning just by a hair’s breadth.
Lord Ieyahsu was in the audience, and he along with the Eashen delegation were reportedly delighted. All the former Eashen-dwelling immigrants who lived in Brunhild were also happy that Jutaro won. It only made sense that they’d be proud.
Since I was asleep, Kousaka hosted the awards ceremony in my stead. The winner was Jutaro, and second was the knight king. He’d been using “Rei Hard” as a fake name. The third-place winner was Sonia, which came as a small surprise to me.
There were also interesting battles like a father-son clash between Leon and Lyon, a fierce fight between old man Baba and the beastking, and many other action-packed fights. It was a shame I completely missed all of them while napping.
Kousaka also officiated the closing ceremony, and apparently, the town was lively all through the night as the partying continued on until dawn.
The festival came to a close just like that, everyone was home before morning, and I opened my eyes just before noon.
The only people in my room were my nine fiancées and Paula the stuffed bear.
“Crap... Seriously?” I sat in my bed, sighing softly as they explained the situation to me.
There’s no way... There’s just no way I slept through all of that and left our guests alone...
The other world leaders had the situation explained to them and thus weren’t offended. In fact, the people that governed the nations bordering Yulong expressed their deepest gratitude. But I still missed a lot, and that sucked.
The world leaders and their parties were returned to their homes via several [Gate] spells called on by god himself.
They were initially confused as to how someone else was using my magic, but once the pope explained that he was my grandfather, that seemed to satisfy their curiosities.
“I’m a mess...”
“That’s not true! You were in a life-or-death fight! It’s only normal you collapsed!” Lu tried to reassure me, but it only made me feel even more impotent.
I took on the risks when I activated my Apotheosis, but I never expected this. I definitely caused trouble for a bunch of people...
Ugh... The timing for all this seriously sucks. Gila, you rat bastard...
“Don’t feel bad about it, Touya. The festival was great!” Elze definitely raised a fair point, but I still wanted to see it through myself.
“I wish to participate in the tournament next time, I do.”
“Me too. My brother probably wishes for a rematch with Yae’s brother, as well.” Yae and Hilde grinned to one another as they planned the next festival. It seemed like this was going to become an annual event... I made a mental note to prepare better for the next one.
“Wait, where did God-pa... Godpa... Grandpa go, anyway? Did he head home?”
“This morning, yes. He used his magic to head back.” Damnit... I didn’t get to thank you, old man... Well whatever, I’ll call him later.
I started rising from the bed since my body felt pretty normal, but everyone suddenly crowded around and pushed me down on my back.
“Your plans for today have been called off, understand? You are to have proper bedrest and relaxation. If you don’t rest, then the people around you will be concerned for you.” Leen was putting her foot down, and I didn’t have it in me to argue.
I sighed and leaned back into my bed, causing everyone to leave the room with smiles on their faces. Kohaku and Luli came forwards and stood by, it seemed they were going to be keeping an eye on me.
“Master, rest is important for your health.”
“Fine, whatever... But seriously, I’m not even sleepy at all. I feel good.” To be honest my body felt a little heavy due to inactivity. I wanted to stretch my legs a bit.
Using a teleportation spell would make it easy to escape, but I didn’t want to get caught out.
“Where are Sango, Kokuyou, and Kougyoku, anyway?”
“Sango and Kokuyou are with lady Suika in a tavern, while Kougyoku is surveying the affairs of the castle town.”
“A tavern, huh...” I grimaced a little at what Kohaku had said. I was worried about Sango and Kokuyou getting all amped up on booze. That being said, they did seem to enjoy hanging out with Suika... I had heard stories about snakes being able to drink a lot...
“Goodness gracious... That lot certainly likes to take it easy...”
“And you don’t, kitty-cat? Were you not lazing around like a fat cat during the festival? Do you have any right to admonish anyone else for being too slovenly?”
“What’d you say?! Like you’re one to talk! I know you’ve been sneaking snacks from Mistress Crea in the kitchen!”
“...I was just testing the food. I had to be sure it was appropriate for our master.”
“Sounds like an excuse to me!” I sighed quietly as the two of them squabbled when two flaming feathers floated in through the window and landed on Luli and Kohaku’s heads.
“Yeoooowch!” They both cried out in pain and tended to themselves as Kougyoku fluttered in through the window. She perched herself on a nearby desk.
“Our master is in need of rest, and yet you two argue? Be more aware of your surroundings, you fools.”
“She started it!”
“And I’m finishing it.” The two of them were about to argue again, but they were silenced by Kougyoku’s glare. She was certainly scary.
Kougyoku was the most gentle and refined of my summons, but she could also be explosively frightening.
“Welcome back Kougyoku, how’s the town?”
“Quite fine. The people are tidying now that the festival is over. The stores were all cleaning up this morning, but they’ve returned to standard business operations now.”
That was good to hear. I was sure that the after-party would’ve left a bunch of garbage lying around... We needed to put measures in place for that starting with the next festival. Installing more garbage cans would probably be enough, but a large incinerator might help as well.
“The hotel guests are all beginning to leave as well. Within a few days, we should be back to our usual ways.” I was glad to hear the Silver Moon would be a little less hectic, Micah would have some space to breathe.
Lanz was probably still helping her, come to think of it... He’d done a lot to help her as a waiter during the festival, so I decided to give him a little pay bonus... Maybe enough money for him to buy something nice as a present for Micah.
“What about crime? Everything ok?”
“Those that were arrested were released after the festival was over. No major crimes were committed, it was mostly just rowdy drunkards.” In this world, drunkards often had weapons on them... It wasn’t uncommon to see someone die due to a drunken dispute. I was glad none of that had happened during the festival.
“Thanks for your hard work, guys. How about all three of you take the day off, my treat.”
“...So you can sneak out unsupervised?”
“Guh...”
I’d been figured out. Kougyoku’s scrutinizing gaze was a little much for me to handle. It was pointless to struggle, I’d already been read like a book.
“We are your humble servants, master. If you wish to sneak out, we will have to comply with that wish. But even if we turn a blind eye to it... Are you prepared to deal with the consequences if one of your esteemed brides-to-be finds out?”
“Ghuhh...” I... I guess you have a point...
Yumina and the others had recently developed an innate skill that allowed them to pinpoint my general location... If I sneaked out, I was sure they’d just end up finding me.
“Guess I got no choice... I’ll sleep.”
“A wise choice, my liege.” I’m basically under house arrest, geez... This sucks... I don’t wanna sleep, damn it...
Instead of napping, I fired up my smartphone and browsed some online news from my old world. Oh... that actor died? That’s a shame... Oh, a snap election? I never even got the chance to vote...
I decided to send out some apologetic texts to the guests, since I wasn’t there for the last parts of the festival. I’d make proper phone calls or greetings to them later, but this would suffice for the time being.
I made a mental note to send letters through Gate Mirrors to apologize to people who didn’t have smartphones.
That was kind of inconvenient... The better thing to do would be to induct more countries into the alliance, that way I could give everyone smartphones and coordinate a lot better.
I probably wasted a good chance... This festival had every world leader in the same place, we could’ve done talks... I later learned that the world leaders had gotten a good chance to talk to each other during the after-party proceedings, so things might have gone just fine even without me.
The Demon Kingdom of Xenoahs formally declared its intentions to join the alliance, so there was that at least.
I had time to spare, so I opened up [Storage] and pulled out the books I’d bought in the Reverse World. These were actually duplicates I’d made in the workshop. I’d put the original copies in Babylon’s library. The ones I had were translated from the language they spoke over there, too.
The first book I started reading through was called Redia’s Guide to Magic.
It was a book on magic written by someone named Redia, evidently. The information in it was sparse compared to what was known in this world.
Apparently, in the Reverse World, only people born with special qualities were capable of using magic, and those people were very rare.
I wondered why there wasn’t much magic in their world, but it was probably due to their reliance on technology. The Gollems probably started the decline to begin with.
Rather than honing one’s natural skill to cast [Fireball], it would be much easier to operate a Legacy Gollem that could cast it at the drop of a hat.
There was no training necessary, no fuss or difficulty.
That being said, Gollems were still terribly expensive. The good ones were also hard to obtain. Plus they had limited functionality. If a Gollem had the ability to set a fire, then that was the only ability it could actually trigger.
That was kind of the same as a mage who only had the Fire attribute, though.
I idly read the book and pondered to myself, when a call from Doctor Babylon came in. She’d been busy in the Research Lab for a while.
“Oh, ‘sup?”
“Touya? I did it, Touya! I built the thing! Now you can freely travel to and from the other side!”
“You what?!” Wait, you seriously did it?! You built up a gate I can use in the Reverse World?! The Dimensional Disruptor installed in Babylon was a one-way trip, there was no way back. I had to bypass through the Divine Realm every time if I wanted to come back to this world.
In order to combat that we needed to build up another portal that could be installed on the other side, to allow free travel between worlds. And it seemed like she’d finally done it.
All I had to do was shove it into [Storage] and bring it over to the Reverse World, then find a safe place to install it over there.
“However, activating it still requires a horrifically immense amount of magic power... I don’t think anyone would be able to pass through either side without you, Touya.”
“To be honest, that’s fine. It makes it less likely to be abused.”
“I suppose that’s true... I’d like to begin testing right away! Are you ready?”
“Ah... Sorry, but I can’t. I’m sorta under house arrest...”
“Huh?” I explained the whole irritating situation to her as she grumbled along to my words. Finally, we agreed that we’d do the testing the following day.
It seemed like I had a busy day ahead of me.
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