In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 24 - Chapter 4.7

“Hmph!”

“Gyah!”

A Fishman with metallic blue scales fell to the ground, defeated. Another Fishman appeared from the side, but Yakumo brought him down with a swift horizontal slash.

This was the port city of Zagant, west of the Gardio empire. On a map, it would be opposite the coastline of the once-great nation of Isengard. This usually quiet port town was suddenly overrun by mysterious fishlike attackers...

Yakumo had jumped in to save an old man who was about to be torn apart by the beasts. She’d hoped to take a carriage to what remained of Isengard...though the land couldn’t really be called a state any longer. It was more a haphazard collection of suffering cities than anything else.

In order to gain clues about the wicked devout, Yakumo had thought it logical to travel to the place where the wicked god had first made landfall. She’d stopped over in Lassei, but it was easier to get to her destination via boat from Gardio’s shores. It was during this search for a boat that she found herself amid the Fishman attack.

“Hm?” Yakumo muttered as she glanced down at the baseball-sized octahedron that had sprung from the body of the Fishman she’d killed. It glowed a dull blue. She wasn’t sure why, but she knew at a glance that it was something profoundly wrong. Something that shouldn’t be here.

She acted on that impulse and promptly shattered it with her sword. There was no hesitation on her part. Yakumo had been born a demigod; she instinctively sensed the foul emanation of the muddied divinity within the octahedron.

She cut down two more of the Fishmen, prompting the rest to turn tail and flee into the sea. Yakumo didn’t give chase. Instead, she simply sheathed her weapon. Thanks to her efforts, nobody in town had been afflicted by the curse the Fishmen had carried.

“Something strange is going on here, it is...” Yakumo sighed quietly as she looked at one of the dead Fishmen.

It was likely that the golden medicine she’d been looking into was connected to these Fishmen, and that they were both tied to the wicked devout. She began to ponder this deeply, only to suddenly remember that she’d been aiding an old man. She snapped out of her trance and reached down to help the fallen man.

“Are you okay?”

“O-Oh, yes... Sorry. Thank you so much...”

Yakumo helped the man to his feet, only to turn at the sound of approaching soldiers. They all brandished their blades.

Yakumo instinctively reached for her own sword, but the old man intervened, saying, “D-Don’t worry, my lady. These men are my guards. I sent them all on an errand, though I see now I should’ve kept one by my side.”

Yakumo felt that it would’ve taken more than one guard to fend off the Fishmen, but she held her tongue.

The old man reached a hand out to shake Yakumo’s, saying, “My name is Roger Wilkes. Though the world knows me as the Professor.”

“Huh?!” Yakumo shouted in surprise, which was only natural. After all, the Professor was the alias held by one of the five great gollemancers of the western continent.

Yakumo wasn’t exactly familiar with Gollems or their technology, but she’d heard that name from her sister far too many times. Had Quun been here, she’d have likely exploded with joy.

“Then these knights of yours...”

“Yes, they’re all soldat Gollems. They’re not human.”

That explained why none of them had said anything, though it wasn’t like no Gollems could speak. Yakumo had spoken to the wolf Gollem and the white Gollem in her family’s castle quite a few times.

“Why are you here, of all places?”

“Hm? A matter of curiosity, I suppose. I heard the witch-king of Isengard had unearthed a massive Gollem. I wanted to see it, even if it had been destroyed. Just looking at its parts would’ve been enough.”

The Hecatoncheir was an ancient Gollem that had been unearthed and reactivated by the witch-king of Isengard. It had been defeated by Yakumo’s father, though pieces of it still remained beneath the ruins of Isenberg. Though honestly, the catastrophic damage the wicked god had done to the area had likely caused even more damage to whatever remnants were still hanging around.

“I see... What a terrible waste. That’s most unfortunate.”

“Elluka may have recovered some of the more interesting parts, she may.”

“Oh? You’re acquainted with her, of all people?”

“Well, somewhat...” Yakumo mumbled, trailing off. She hadn’t actually met Elluka in this era yet, but she did know the one from the future. She’d created a Gollem for Yakumo to spar with when she was a toddler, though it had only lasted three days against the little samurai-to-be.

“Good grief... And she didn’t think to tell me... I’ll have to give her a good scolding next time I see her. But no matter! I’m still curious as to what has become of Isengard.”

“Er, sir... Isengard is quite dangerous lately, it is. There’s a greater number of bandits, monsters, and wild animals. It might not be wise for you to travel alone, it might not.”

Yakumo had been attacked several times on the road, though her attackers rarely lasted long against her. After she’d beaten them down, she always tossed them through a [Gate] that led directly to the nearest knight order.

“Now, now, girl. I have my tools. I’ll be just fine,” the professor grinned and patted his armor, but Yakumo couldn’t help but be concerned. The man had nearly just been Fishman food, after all.

Yakumo knew how much this man meant to her sister Quun, so she offered to escort him across Isengard. They were going the same way anyway, and the Mochizuki family always had the habit of being kind to those in need.

“Oh, really? You’d go with me? Well then, thank you...”

“Yakumo Mochi— Er...just Yakumo.”

Yakumo almost gave away her family name before thinking better of it. This man was one of the greatest Gollem engineers in the world. Even if he didn’t have a smartphone, he could’ve had access to some kind of comms device. If she revealed her identity, she could risk him contacting someone back in Brunhild.

It’d be fine if he got in touch with her dad. He’d maybe give her a few stern words and a slap on the wrist for traveling around without permission. But the real issue was her mother. Her mother was never one for lectures... She was the kind of person to punish without words. To be specific, Yakumo feared she’d get a hell of a spanking. It had happened to her a lot as a child, and she didn’t exactly feel like being spanked at her current age.

Yakumo had initially traveled around in the past to get in some general training, but now she felt obligated to return home with some kind of lead on the wicked devout. The longer she spent away, the more she felt her mother Yae would be angry at her, so she wanted to come back with valuable information to lessen her rage.

The professor unfurled a map and ran his finger over it before saying, “If we wish to travel to Isengard, we’ll have to take a boat from the next town over. See?”

“Oh, that seems right.”

Thus began a peculiar journey. One led by a girl, an old man, and five Gollems.