In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 29 - Chapter 4

 Chapter IV: The Secret of the Golden Crown

Shortly after Kuon defeated Graphite, the legion of gigantic Kyklops was taken down by Sue’s team. The demons, Fishmen, and Dragontooth Warriors that had been roaming the streets were taken down by Kohaku’s group and the Gardio knights. With that, the port town of Brenn managed to return to relative peace.

The damage was extensive, and the civilians were still racked with fear, but the presence of the knights served as a calming force. The knights led by Emperor Gardio took the opportunity to storm Papillon’s headquarters and arrest the leader while they verified the damage to the town.

The leader was originally arrested only under the pretense that they were the culprit behind everything, but in reality, that wasn’t so far from the truth. They had undeniably been the ones dealing with the wicked devout, and had been selling off the drugs around the continent.

We later discovered that Papillon had even been working on developing the drug further, turning it into a kind of stimulant that made people lose their minds and transformed them into monsters. Who knew just how bad the situation would’ve gotten if that had spread around the whole continent.

Regardless, that marked the end of this fight. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to pin down the location of the diver helmet guy, despite being thorough enough to cloak Kuon in [Invisible]. Guess I’d missed the mark.

We’d confirmed that the sacred treasure I had made had an effect on the wicked devout, at least, so it wasn’t all for nothing.

The Gardio knights remained in Brenn while we escorted the emperor back to the capital, and then we made our own way home. I was so exhausted that I conked right out the second we returned, no energy to even dream.

When I headed to the living room in the morning, I was met by some very grumpy children.

“You’re such a meanie, Kuon! I wanted to go too!”

“Steph, I wasn’t there just to play around...”

I was greeted by the sight of Steph angrily complaining to Kuon. Kuon was not immune to his little sister, so his only option was to timidly pull back.

“We wanted to defeat them too!”

“We’ll beat up all the baddies!”

And then Linne and Frei cornered me. Unsurprisingly, Yakumo didn’t follow her sisters, but she was still clearly upset, her hands on her hips and a frown on her face.

“All right, all right, that’s enough,” Leen admonished, clapping her hands. “This was a very spur-of-the-moment thing. We had no idea how dangerous the enemy was, so you cannot blame him, no? Plus, you were all fast asleep too.”

Right, I felt bad waking them up when they were sleeping so peacefully. Kuon just happened to be going to the restroom at the time, so I ended up asking if he could join me. Whoever came with me had to be cloaked with [Invisible] and Kuon was definitely the one most suited to the task... There was also the fact that it felt wrong bringing my daughters to an entertainment district in the middle of the night.

The kids still seemed a little upset, but that explanation seemed enough to placate them somewhat. Honestly, I hadn’t even wanted to bring Kuon at the time. The only real requirement to take down the wicked devout was to have someone who could wield the sacred treasure—that didn’t have to be the children. Surely it would be fine to bestow the weapon to the strongest person in this land beneath us gods and name them a hero.

Honestly, though, looking at the power of the wicked devout, I didn’t think a regular human would ever have any hope of standing up to them. And that wasn’t even taking into account that it would take time for the hero to be able to use the sacred treasure at will. One year, maybe even two... I couldn’t stand by and let people die and countries be destroyed while they trained.

No matter what options I thought of, I ultimately ended up at the conclusion that our demigod children were the most suited after all. I knew that. I knew that, but there was still a part of me that was frustrated about the whole situation.

I was pretty sure that the strongest human in these lands was Hilde’s grandfather, the king of two generations ago. Gallen was strong, but he was getting on in age, and I knew we couldn’t rely entirely on him—we’d confirmed that there was at least one woman within their ranks. If that skeevy old man laid eyes on her, there’d be no shortage of openings in his defense.

Once I finished with breakfast, I took the bird Gollem that I’d shot down up to Babylon.

“Hm, this appears to be a surveillance Gollem,” the professor said. “It is completely lacking in combat capability. They’ve made very sure that it’s lightweight, so there’s barely any defense to it. Anything this sees is sent to another paired bird Gollem, which means...”

I frowned at his explanation.

“The footage is already in the hands of the enemy, right?”

Man, if it was just the type that recorded the footage and stored it internally, it’d have been dealt with the moment I shot it down.

Then again, there was no guarantee that this was the only bird Gollem. We’d be better off assuming that the enemy was now aware of our sacred treasure.

Things might not go so easily next time.

“But if he was able to see what was going on, why did he not come and help?”

“Because this isn’t a model that allows simultaneous recording and playback. By the time the footage was sent, it would’ve been too late.”

They couldn’t watch the footage live? So it was basically a video camera on wings? That wasn’t like a surveillance camera at all.

“It is very easy for parts of a recording to end up blurry when sent back in real time. Perhaps they felt they were more guaranteed to get useful footage this way. That, or they had no intention of saving their comrade to begin with...” the professor mused to himself.

I thought that possibility was pretty high. Even if they had been able to view it in real time, what if they’d intended to leave Graphite to die from the start just so they could see what tricks we had up our sleeve?

They might have gotten intel on us, but we managed to take another of their leaders down. I didn’t like it, but we had no other choice than to slowly but surely rip off each of their limbs.

Suddenly, Doc Babylon spoke up. “Oh yeah, we’ve finished making adjustments to the Valkyries, so we’ll be able to start working on the Reginleif now. Though, I guess modifying it is the more accurate term here.”

“Huh? Are you planning to add on some random new features again?”

If it was to make it more suitable for water traversal, then fair enough, but if she was adding something unnecessary, I feared to know what it was.

“Ever since you defeated the wicked god, the quality of your mana has been steadily changing. The ether circuits built into Reginleif can’t hold for long anymore—the recovery just can’t keep up, so we were looking at trying to strengthen them. You don’t want it to suddenly stop moving on you at the worst possible moment, do you?”

The quality of my mana had been changing? Maybe because I reached true divinity upon defeating the wicked god. Of course the quality of my mana would change after that. It wasn’t that I couldn’t pilot Reginleif as it was, but it was probably best that I not use something that could break at any moment. It would suck if the reason I lost in an important battle was because I couldn’t fight at full power.

After giving Doc Babylon permission to work on the ether circuits, I exited the lab. It was then that my phone started ringing.

His Wickedness? What does he want?

He wasn’t going to beg for something concerning Sakura or Yoshino again, was he? He could be so stubborn once he started begging and it made him such a pain to deal with... Sure, he was my father-in-law, but I really didn’t want to pick up. Still, I had a bad feeling he would only be more annoying if I didn’t, so I reluctantly answered.

“Hello?”

“Grand Duke, hello there. I have something I wish to ask you.”

“And what is that?”

If you want me to help you dodge Sakura so you can play with Yoshino, you’re on your own.

“Not too long ago, something strange was discovered around our mountain ranges to the west. It appears to be ruins of some kind... We sent a surveillance team to investigate, but they came across a door that they couldn’t open no matter what they tried. When I took a look myself, I realized that the crest on it looked familiar. Let me send you an image.”

Ruins? A door that wouldn’t open? That sounded like ruins from the ancient magic civilization. If there was a crest, it might have been sealed with seal magic.

Just as I was thinking that, my phone beeped with the overlord’s message. When I opened it up, I wasn’t greeted by what I expected.

Is this...?!

“A crown?!”

“So I was right. This is the same crest engraved on the neck of your White Gollem, right?”

As His Wickedness said, that crest was the symbol Chrom Ranchesse engraved on his crown series of Gollems. What was going on here? Why were there ruins in Xenoahs with the crest of the crowns engraved on its doors? Was Chrom Ranchesse not from the Reverse World to begin with?

Wait, no! Of course! Ranchesse used the power of the white and black crowns to go from the Reverse World to the Upright World!

Albus had told us that he had been doing his research in a small village somewhere. If I remembered correctly, it was the United Kingdom of Pillaisula, a country that was destroyed upon the attack of the Phrase, but that existed where Xenoahs was now situated.

Did that mean those ruins were the ruins of the laboratory that Chrom had used after coming to the Upright World?! Maybe that was where the golden crown and Silver were made?

“Your Wickedness, please tell me where those ruins are!”

The moment the overlord told me the exact location, I teleported to the Val Albus, where the white crown was observing the Ark.

◇◇◇

“There is no mistake. This is Chrom’s laboratory. Gold and Silver were both created here,” Albus confirmed after we took him to the ruins in Xenoahs.

“Is this true, Silver?” Kuon asked.

“Couldn’t tell ya, kiddo, sorry. I was kept locked inside, remember? Was never awake for long, since I kept gettin’ put back to sleep shortly afterward. I’d have to take a look inside to say for sure.”

The silver crown on Kuon’s waist had been kept confined while in the lab, so an external view wasn’t enough. In front of us, half buried by a pile of rubble, were two large metal doors, and next to them was a crown crest about the size of one’s palm.

“What’re your thoughts, Gold?” This time, I questioned the gold crown accompanying Steph. However, the Gollem shook his head.

“I have no information from before I met my master, so I cannot answer your question.”

Right, I forgot that Steph had reinitialized his data without realizing it. All of his past memories had been completely erased.

“Does it seem like it will open?” The one who asked that question was the second prince of Xenoahs, Sakura’s brother and by extension my brother-in-law, Prince Farese. He was the one in charge of the survey team for the ruins, and he had come here together with a knight squadron.

On my side, we had the white, silver, and gold crowns, myself, Yumina, Kuon, Steph, Sue, and Leen. From the Babylon development team, we had Doc Babylon, Doctor Elluka, the professor, and Quun.

There was no way our magitech maniac squad could pass up the chance to see such a coveted target as Chrom Ranchesse’s laboratory firsthand. Because of that, though, we’d arrived as a much larger group than I had intended.

Sorry about this, Farese...

“To open the doors, two crowns must touch the crystals on either side of them.”

I looked where Albus had stated, and right enough, there were two small diamond-shaped crystals beside each door. Did that mean these doors were impossible to open without two crowns? It would make sense, given Chrom came to the Upright World with Albus and Noir. He just used the crowns instead of regular keys. Thinking about it, you needed a crown to get into the Ark as well, as both a bodyguard and a key.

We had three crowns with us, but it seemed like it would be a hassle to use Silver for this, so we had Albus and Gold touch one crystal on either side. There was the sound of something activating, and then the two metallic doors creaked open.

“Whoa! It...opened?”

What started as voices of excitement from the Xenoahs people morphed into confusion.

Beyond the doors was nothing more than an empty small circular space.

“This is the laboratory...?” I asked in confusion.

“Incorrect,” Albus responded. “This is the elevator. The laboratory is underground.”

Oh, this is just the entrance, then.

We left around half of the Xenoahs knights aboveground just in case something happened, then closed the doors again once we were all inside. I thought it would turn pitch-black, but the entire wall was actually slightly lit.

Albus messed with some panel at the side, and with a jerk, we felt a sensation similar to going down an elevator on Earth.

Wow, it’s really moving!

We were used to it, but for Farese and his knights, it was their first time experiencing something like this, and they were completely frozen to the spot during the journey down. I couldn’t blame them, really. Not like you could expect them to get used to it right away.

After a bit less than a minute, the lift clunked to a stop.

Are we finally here?

On the other side of the doors was another room dimly lit in the same way as the elevator. It was a fairly wide space with a bunch of random objects scattered about. A desk, chair, some unknown devices, a glowing blue-white capsule, a bunch of cables... It certainly seemed to be a lab, but there was dust and sand piled up absolutely everywhere, making it impossible to make out anything.

“What a state this place is in...” the professor lamented.

“Is this really Chrom Ranchesse’s lab? It may as well be a ruin,” Doctor Elluka said after him.

Doc Babylon pinched something on the ground between her fingers, but it crumbled right away.

“None of the objects here have had preservation magic cast on them,” she said. “The building itself has, so I don’t know if there was a reason he couldn’t cast any on this stuff, or if he cast it once and then it got dispelled by something...”

“The most likely cause was me and Black losing control and using our crown skills. Time wound back to before the preservation magic was cast,” Albus explained.

So because they rewound this space’s time to before the preservation magic was cast, they essentially canceled it out.

“And that’s why there’s a mixture of objects that are still fine and those that have completely decayed,” Quun mused to herself, lightly kicking something that looked like a book with her foot that immediately turned to dust.

The rampage of the black and white crowns five thousand years ago must have been the storm of contradictions that Doc Babylon had mentioned once. It resulted in the timelines ending up in one big tangled mess. Though, thanks to that, we were able to chase the Phrase into the dimensional gap, allowing the world’s barrier to repair itself and prevent it from being destroyed.

“Still, it’s not like absolutely everything is useless. Like this here is...” Doc Babylon trailed off as she picked up a thin book that was still managing to stay together and opened it up. She immediately frowned when she realized it was in an unfamiliar language. “Never mind, I can’t read it. What language even is this? Is this an ancient alphabet of the Reverse World?”

Chrom was a resident of the Reverse World, so it would make sense that he was more comfortable writing with their letters rather than ours. And besides, it would serve as a better way to keep his work secret.

“Let’s see here... Is this Ancient Palpa Engineering Script? There’s a lot that’s indecipherable, but I think I could work it out with some time.”

“Here, translation glasses.”

I took out a pair of glasses enhanced with [Reading] from [Storage] and passed them to Doctor Elluka after she had given it a shot and failed.

“Wow, this is amazing! I can read all of it!”

“Touya, me too.”

“And me, son.”

“Father, me too!”

All of the dev team, including Quun, were begging me for their own glasses, so I handed them some of the spares I’d kept.

Why are all four of you fighting over the same book? There are tons of other books around the place.

“Perhaps we should start by separating the books still intact from the ones that have decayed?” Farese suggested.

“Sounds like a good idea.” I nodded. Thankfully, it was very easy to distinguish which were falling apart and which would hold up, so it wasn’t something that took too much time.

For now, I’ll start with the books... No, wait, I guess they’re research notes.

“These are definitely notes documenting the foundations of Chrom’s Crown Gollems. They’re of incredible value,” Doctor Elluka remarked.

“Hmm, but it seems like he’d only just learned how to use magic at this point. He appeared to struggle with controlling the mana output,” Doc Babylon said.

“Oh? This ether line coils all the way to the other side...but whatever for?”

“Professor, I think it might be to collect mana from the generator here. Any excess is then recycled over here...”

Hey, you four, stop messing around and come help us.

“Touya, it looks like there are more rooms over there,” Yumina said, pointing toward several more regular-looking doors. I turned the knob on the metal door closest to us. The interior was exactly the same as the room we were just in: sand, dust, and objects falling apart. On top of what appeared to be a desk was a massive pile of more sand and more remains of crumbled objects. Had he placed some documents here or something?

“Huh?”

I saw something rectangular sticking out amid a bunch of the rotting objects. I picked it up and batted it free of any sand. It was a transparent board akin to acrylic that was a little bigger than the palm of my hand.

“That is ether film. If you run mana through it, it will show the recorded data.”

“Wow, so it’s like a picture, then.”

When I did as Albus explained, an image did in fact appear on the board.

Wait, is this...?

What was shown was three people: a man, a woman, and a child.

It must be...

“That is Chrom, his wife, and their daughter.”

After Albus confirmed my suspicion, I looked at the picture again. The girl standing in the middle was smiling and holding her parents’ hands.

It’s a family picture...

When I looked closer, I noticed there was writing on it—writing from the Reverse World.

Edda and Ryuuri. These...must be the names of his wife and daughter.

Had Chrom Ranchesse looked at this exact photo in order to motivate himself in his work? After the black and white crowns went berserk, though, he should’ve lost his memories. He didn’t lose them all at once, but rather, he slowly lost more and more of the memories of his family... It was terrifying to consider.

If that rampage hadn’t happened, though, his family would have remained killed by that bastard Gila. The reversal of time saving their lives would have been a satisfying end for him, I was sure.

“Father, may I show you something?” Kuon, who had been investigating a different room, asked by the entrance, beckoning me over with his hand.

“Did you find something?”

I put the ether film away in [Storage] and followed to where my son was taking me.

“What is this?!”

It was a large room with countless swords scattered over the floor. They were all damaged or shattered, like a sword graveyard. What surprised me wasn’t that, though, but rather that the weapons before us looked exactly like the sword Kuon wielded.

“Silver, is this where you were kept confined?”

“Yeah. No doubt about it, kiddo. This was where I was created,” Infinite Silver, the silver crown hanging by Kuon’s waist, told us with a heavy voice.

◇◇◇

Every one of the swords haphazardly strewn across the floor was chipped or shattered, and there were still more hiding in the corner buried under a bunch of sand in the exact same condition.

“These swords are the same as you, right, Silver?” I asked.

“Aye, indeedy, sir. Guess they’re like my siblings in a way. Felt a whole truckload of memories come back to me once I saw this place... The silver crown was originally made as equipment for other crowns, y’see.”

Weapons were made to be wielded, so that wasn’t necessarily strange, but they were for the crowns and not the masters?

“Chrom was researching how to use crown skills without paying the price, remember? One of his proposed solutions was forcin’ someone else to be the substitute.”

A substitute? As in, they would take the price for their master?!

“You mean, all of these swords here are...?”

“They’re the ones who couldn’t take it.”

The price one had to pay for using a crown skill differed depending on the unit. For example, the red crown required blood, the green required hunger, and the blue required sleep. If it didn’t require too much, then you would be fine, but it could be fatal if the price became too steep, leading to death by blood loss, starvation, or a coma, respectively. Chrom had tried to pull out the power of a crown skill with no harm to the master by having the silver crown take it all.

“This is pretty darn obvious, but Gollems can’t bleed, and they sure can’t get hungry either. We don’t have anythin’ like human desire. Given that, we naturally can’t pay the price we’re bein’ expected to pay, and that means we can’t go round activatin’ those crown skills neither. What if he made a Gollem with those desires, though? ’S what Chrom was thinkin’.”

Someone suddenly clicked their fingers.

“And that’s why he considered trying to combine a crown with an Artificer.”

It was Doc Babylon, having appeared out of nowhere.

An Artificer... Taking Slimes as an example, they would prey upon other living creatures to survive. They at the very least had survival instincts and an appetite. That was what Chrom had tried to take advantage of, then.

“Yeah, but that ain’t as simple as you make it sound. ‘I wanna live,’ ‘I wanna eat,’ ‘I wanna sleep’—all those desires put too much strain on Artificers. All the ones who couldn’t handle it, well...”

“They turn out like this.”

I picked up one of the swords lying about and gazed at it. Rather than it being destroyed by an outside force, it did seem to have shattered from the inside. It couldn’t handle the strain and imploded.

“Does that mean you were a success, then? That you can act as the substitute for a crown skill?”

“I guess? Doesn’t mean I don’t got my limits, though. If I even dared try to use Albus’s Reset, my spirit circuits would go blank and that’d be it for me.”

In other words, he had a onetime use. But that would mean...

“All of you silver crowns were just disposable sacrifices, then. All so the crown skills could be activated without the master paying the price.”

Doc Babylon, with absolutely no tact at all, said exactly what I was thinking without hesitation.

Yes, disposable was exactly what they were. Like wooden chopsticks you’d use for only one meal or vinyl gloves you would use to not dirty your hands for a single occasion.

Quite the expensive disposable object, though. Maybe the value of getting to use the crown skills without the price was even higher, however.

“Either way, I was the only one who was perfected to such a level that I became the best disposable Silver. Even then, I’m not to the level that Chrom wanted. ’S why the development came to a halt.”

Whether from decisiveness or a lack of obsession, Chrom Ranchesse decided to make something else entirely from scratch rather than continue his trial and error with the silver crowns. Was that what made a genius a genius? He wasn’t ever caged in by a single concept. The moment he found a new method, he’d instantly swap to that instead. Not that I thought there was no value in obsessing over one thing and perfecting it—personally, I thought that was a talent in and of itself.

“And so, once he finished with the silver crowns, he moved over to the gold?”

“Seems that way. I was left here, so I haven’t a clue what the intended concept for gold was. Most I heard was any of his mutterin’ that happened to pass through from the other room.”

Honestly, I felt bad for thinking it, but it kind of seemed like Chrom had seen the silver crown as a failure. His ultimate goal had been to be able to use the white and black crown skills without having to pay the price, and escape this world that was being invaded by the Phrase. In the end, though, he didn’t make it in time, and the sudden activation of the white and black crowns led to him paying the price anyway...

Hang on a second. Does that mean the gold crown is incomplete?

Thinking back, Gold did say he had no crown skill. But if it turned out the gold crown was created for the sole purpose of taking on the price of the other crown skills, perhaps that would make sense... Ugh, I had no idea.

“Then Gold was made here too...” Kuon mused to himself. “Gold, do you remember anything?”

“Negative. I retain no memory of this location.”

The reinitialization process really seemed to have completely wiped his memory bank. Though he could remember his specs, all of his other memories were completely erased.

“A Gollem’s memory data is split into the data baked into their Q-Crystal, and then the memories that are simply put into their memory drawer. The fundamentals behind their existence, like what they are and that they should abide by their master’s wishes, come under the permanent memories that aren’t erased, but simple everyday memories are completely wiped in the initialization process,” Doctor Elluka explained as she examined the discarded Silver remains.

“Why not just burn them all in, then? That way, nothing would get erased.”

“Do that and the chain of command would get all messed up. The Gollem wouldn’t be able to function properly. If you have the order to not cut down trees baked into its memory, then it would conflict with an order to cut a tree down in the future, even if you want it to do so in that moment.”

So the difference was writing an order in pencil or writing it with permanent marker? It was fine to write down any vital orders in marker, but if it was an order that you might want to revoke later down the line, you should write it in pencil.

At the request of Doc Babylon, who thought they might be useful as a reference later, I placed the remains of the silver crowns in [Storage].

After leaving that room and peeking in a different door, I was met with a slightly larger room. It also seemed like a laboratory, with a large work surface in the middle surrounded by unfamiliar machinery. Just like the other rooms, it was nearly impossible to find anything of use with the accumulation of sand and dust everywhere. When I tried opening the drawer in a nearby desk, all that was inside were the remains of something that had crumbled apart.

“Father, look.”

“What’s up?”

Kuon picked up something from a box filled with sand and held it out to me; it was a round mechanical part with a golden glow.

Wait...

“Gold, could you come here for a sec?” I called over Gold, who was happily waddling around as Steph’s bodyguard, and held the part against his shoulder.

“It fits perfectly.”

I nodded at Kuon’s words. They were the exact same parts. In other words, it was the same as what was used for the armor on Gold’s main body. Were they spares or were they defective parts?

“Was this where Gold...or the gold crowns in general were made?”

“Unknown. I retain no memories of this.”

He gave the same answer as he had before. Guess there was no jogging them back after all. But the possibility that this was where he was made was quite high. It would be good for us to see if there was anything of note here.

I found several notebook-like objects, some kind of weird ring with a cord attached, and a large capsule that seemed to be cultivating something, and stuffed them all in [Storage]. We had an agreement with Xenoahs to jointly manage anything found here, so everything we discovered today would be reported to them.

I swear I’m not trying to hog all of these.

“Hm...?”

I was suddenly hit by a strange sensation. Though faint, it was a flow of mana. Mana that was silently flowing much deeper than where we were now. I hadn’t felt it before, though... What was it?

“Touya, something the matter?” Doc Babylon asked.

“No, it’s just...I’m suddenly feeling some sort of mana flow. It’s like it’s all gathering into one place deeper underground.”

“It’s all gathering into one place...?”

Suddenly, she gasped before frantically yelling, “Shit! Touya, we’re getting out of here NOW! The place is gonna self-destruct!”

“Huh?!”

The place is gonna WHAT?!

“Target lock... Confirmed.”

“[Gate]!”

The ground beneath our feet disappeared and our bodies landed with a large thud on the ground. We were immediately thrown into the wilderness outside as we heard a massive explosion in the distance that vibrated through our whole bodies.

“Is everyone okay?!”

I wasted no time in checking on everyone who had been thrown through the [Gate] with me. All of my friends were fine, and it looked like the Xenoahs team were safe as well. I had Prince Farese confirm his numbers for me, and only once he confirmed that everyone was accounted for could I let out a sigh of relief.

“That was so close...! What kind of lunatic was that dude? Why’s he installing self-destruction devices inside his own laboratory?!”

“Is that not natural?” Doc Babylon asked quizzically. “Though I’ll admit I was a bit slow on the uptake myself.”

Doctor Elluka, the Professor, and Quun were all nodding in agreement.

Were they serious? Were research labs and self-destruct mechanisms meant to come hand in hand or something? The thought of that was terrifying...

Hold up...

“Don’t tell me you’ve got something like that installed in Babylon.”

“Of course I do. Oh, whoops, did I not tell you? I have them installed in all nine— Ow, ow, hey, that hurts!”

I noogied both sides of her head with my knuckles as she nonchalantly confessed to such an insane idea.

You have something as dangerous as that floating in the airspace above my country?!

“The second we get back, you better get rid of those!”

“Oh, come on, what if Babylon ends up in some villain’s hands?”

“Can’t Babylon only be controlled by its current master and the sisters? Shouldn’t it be fine to disarm them?”

“The facilities themselves, yeah, but not anything inside of them. It’d be more than possible for someone to steal the Frame Gears or our panacea.”

My immediate question would be how the hell someone would sneak up there in the first place, but it was true the possibility wasn’t zero. Surely there was a better option than blowing them up, though.

“This is just a scientist’s mindset, to be honest. We’d rather our research be destroyed than stolen, and Chrom Ranchesse was clearly no exception. It’s just the way of a magitech researcher.”

It wasn’t like I couldn’t understand where she was coming from, but I still felt like blowing the whole place up was going a little too far.

We returned to the lab with [Gate] after we had confirmed everyone’s safety. The rocky hill where the entrance had been was completely blown to bits, and there was wreckage all over the place.

It’s been completely destroyed, huh?

“The lab has been completely buried...” Prince Farese remarked as he kicked at the debris by the doors.

“What’s the plan?” I asked.

“It wouldn’t be impossible to dig it back up, but it would take an incredible amount of time, energy, and resources... We managed to examine all of the rooms, so we might have to be content with what we have,” the prince said in disappointment.

I couldn’t rule out there being a hidden room that we didn’t find, but there was no point wasting resources just for that. Plus, preservation magic had been cast on much of the lab, but that was to protect from dirt and rot, not an explosion of such a magnitude. Notebooks enhanced with such magic could still rip and burn. They could last for centuries and look untouched, but it wasn’t an invincible barrier.

“Hopefully we can learn something about the gold crown with what we found. It might help us prepare against the one the wicked devout have,” Doc Babylon said.

Right, we still have that to deal with.

I had forgotten about that until now. Given all the parts left lying around in the laboratory, could it be that multiple gold crowns had been created?

Don’t tell me we’re going to end up with a third gold crown on our hands.

“What I’m questioning is if their gold crown still has the memories that would’ve been wiped from the one that Steph put through the initialization process. They managed to take the Ark way easier than it feels like they should’ve under normal circumstances. Could it be because they had info on the Ark before they went ahead with the plan? I think their Gold might have access to Chrom Ranchesse’s research notes.”

And that meant chances were high that they were aware of this research lab as well. The fact that they didn’t take over it the way they did the Ark made it seem possible that they deemed the lab worthless. Did they leave it alone because they felt they didn’t need it? We’d managed to retrieve a lot of what was inside, but that train of thought wasn’t instilling me with much hope in terms of its usefulness...

Regardless, it wasn’t a waste of time to make efforts to understand what Chrom had been thinking. In fact, our own magitech team was clearly fascinated...

I guess we shouldn’t expect to see them show their faces for a while again.

Still, if the wicked devout has access to Chrom’s research notes, they might have used that in their development of the Kyklops. Doctor Elluka and the professor had suspected that the maestro, one of their fellow great gollemancers, was involved in their development, but if he had access to such pivotal research, who knew what kind of insane thing he could build given enough time? It was scary to think about...

Whatever came our way, though, we just had to beat it to a pulp.

Just as I’d resolved myself, my phone started ringing.

Sakura?

“Hello?”

“Grand Duke, please return immediately. There is a hole in the sky.”

Excuse me? There’s a hole in the sky? Is her head on straight...ish? Wait, as in, a distortion in space-time?! In Brunhild?!

After sending the Xenoahs men back home through a [Gate], we immediately dashed back to Brunhild. The knights had already been deployed from the castle, standing at attention around the hole in the sky. Several Frame Gears had also already been deployed.

The black hole, which was around three meters in diameter, was roughly three kilometers out from the castle town. Its surroundings were distorted and it almost looked as if it were slowly rotating. There seemed to be little sparks coming off of it as well.

The center of the hole was nothing more than a pitch-black space. Quite literally like a black hole, except it didn’t suck things in, it spat them out.

“So that’s a distortion in space-time?” Linze asked, looking up at the distorted hole.

“Yup. It’s a hole connected to a different time and space,” I explained. Well, really, I just stole Grandma Tokie’s explanation. They were opening up in our world and wreaking havoc. Usually, they ended up causing stampedes because of the powerful monsters that would end up traveling here from the past, but according to Tsubaki, there was at least one case of a distortion that had sent through a whole truckload of water that washed a village away. It must have connected to the ocean or a river from the past.

“Is there no way to get rid of it?”

“If Grandma Tokie were here, then she could get rid of it with a snap of her fingers, but...apparently, with a distortion of this size, we can just wait for the world’s natural regeneration to kick in and close itself. So long as nothing comes out during that time, we should be fine...I think.”

As I gave Linze my response, I began to feel the anxiety creep in as it sunk in that a distortion had finally appeared in Brunhild. I was pretty sure that many distortions had already opened across the land and we just hadn’t realized it. Since nothing came through them, they closed naturally and without incident, so we never knew they had even happened. I could only pray that this one was the same... But how long would it take? One day? Three? I couldn’t just leave the knights stationed here forever.

“Darling, why not put a [Prison] around the distortion? That way, you could stop there being any damage if anything ends up coming through.”

“Oh, of course.”

I bumped my fist against my palm at Leen’s suggestion.

“That’s a good idea. If I just put a barrier around the rip—”

“Or perhaps not. We appear to be a little late.”

“Huh?”

Just as I was about to put up a [Prison], the rip distorted even further...and suddenly, a wave of very familiar monsters began pouring out of the hole. They were sparkling as they reflected the light from the sun, circling around our heads.

“What?! Isn’t that...?!”

“It’s the Phrase!”

There was no way for us to mistake those crystalline bodies. There were currently several sharklike Phrase swimming about in the air above us.

◇◇◇

I saw dazzling crystalline bodies and round, see-through red cores. It was unmistakable—those were Phrase slowly circling our heads, and all four were sharks. Judging from their size, they were probably Intermediate Constructs.

“Why are there Phrase here?!” Linze exclaimed. “Didn’t the wicked god turn all the Phrase into mutants?”

“No. The only ones he turned into mutants were the few that had come to this world. There should still have been Phrase left in Phrasia,” Leen calmly explained. As she said, only a fraction of the Phrase had actually invaded our world, and that meant only a fraction of them had been mutated; they hadn’t gone extinct or anything. “That said, these Phrase have not come through a dimensional tear, but rather through a space-time distortion, so the chance that they are actually Phrase that have come from the past like the other extinct species we have seen is quite likely.”

In other words, they would have been pulled through from the great Phrase invasion five thousand years ago. Why was it so precise?! Could it have chosen a worse time?! Actually, I guessed it could be possible that they were from the time that we were fighting them too...

“Touya, do those Phrase look...kind of strange to you?” Yumina pointed out.

“Hm?”

I looked up at the sky. Nothing looked unusual to me, but...it wasn’t as if they were mutated either.

“We’re right here beneath them, yet they’re showing no signs of attacking.”

“Wait, you’re right.”

Phrase would usually attack humans indiscriminately, given that their original objective was...

Oh!

“Please do not worry. They will not attack us.”

Just the people I was thinking of.

When I turned around, Melle had arrived together with Ney, Lycee, Leylle, and Allis. Hiding underneath a tree in the distance was Ende, unable to come any closer with Leylle present. If he showed himself, the personality of Halle would no doubt take control and attack him...

“Did you stop them, Melle?” I asked. She was the previous Sovereign Phrase and a Dominant Construct, at that. There was no way Intermediate Constructs could defy her command.

“No, it is impossible for me to do so while you have sealed our echo with [Prison]. I imagine they are actually responding to Allis’s echo.”

Allis’s? True enough, I hadn’t sealed Allis’s echo at all, and I remembered Ende and some of the others saying that Allis’s echo sounded similar to Melle’s.

“So...what does that mean, then? Are they confused because they can’t tell if Allis is the Sovereign or not?”

“Put simply, yes.”

The shark Phrase were still aimlessly floating around up in the sky, almost as if they were dogs who had lost their owner.

“Allis, why not try calling them?” Kuon suggested.

“Mmm, I dunno if this’ll really work, but... Heeey, over heeeeeere!”

The moment Allis shouted, the four sharks swam through the air and gathered around her.

Is this really all right...?

Despite Melle’s reassurances, I couldn’t help but be wary due to our experiences thus far, but the sharks showed not a single hint of hostility and instead began circling in the sky above her. They were swimming a little faster compared to when they’d looked lost, so much so that I couldn’t help but think they almost seemed happy.

Ney leaned down and whispered something into Allis’s ear.

The next moment, Allis shouted, “Into line!”

As commanded, the sharks uniformly got into line one after the other.

“Up!”

Up they zoomed.

“Down!”

This time, they descended.

“Spin in a circle and then stand up straight!”

In a circle, they swam before then whipping their tails down so their bodies were vertically straight. Everyone present inadvertently let out sounds of amazement at the sight as they applauded.

Are we at an aquarium now or something?

“Definitely no mistaking it now—those Phrase are viewing Allis as their Sovereign. You don’t need to worry anymore. They won’t be attacking anyone anytime soon without her orders,” Ney said. All of us sighed in relief. The opinion of a Dominant Phrase could definitely be trusted with matters like this.

Allis began to cheerfully pat the shark Phrase that were now under her command. They really were like her pets...

“Leylle, here, you pet them too! They’re so cute!”

“Huh...? O-Okay...”

Cute?

I could understand someone saying they were all pretty and sparkly, but “cute” definitely wasn’t the first adjective to come to mind.

Leylle did as Allis said and pet a nearby Phrase. Watching a Phrase calmly float there and be pet without struggling was a bizarre sight. Thinking about it, Leylle would share an echo with Halle, who was Melle’s brother and the current Sovereign Phrase, so it made sense they would obey her as well. But what about a regular person? Just as I thought of that question, Kuon and Steph joined the girls in petting the shark Phrase without any hesitation.

I...don’t know if I like how trusting they are.

Though I didn’t think there was much an Intermediate Construct could do to either of them.

“Touya, the hole!” Linze suddenly shouted.

“Huh?”

I looked up and saw the hole was starting to close. The hole continued rotating as it got smaller and smaller before finally disappearing completely with a small spark.

Phew, at least this ended without incident.

If it had opened up in a different town, there was a good chance they would’ve been attacked by the Phrase... Or perhaps not. They likely would’ve come straight to Brunhild, chasing after Allis’s or Leylle’s echo, regardless of where in the world the hole had opened.

Was the dimensional distortion opening up here really just a coincidence? Was it possible that the will of those pulled into the timestream affected where it would open?

“So...what do you intend to do with those Phrase?” Leen asked as she watched over the children playing with them.

“That’s a very good question.”

It hadn’t been long since the Phrase had last attacked. With those memories so fresh in everyone’s minds, I could only hope that the people wouldn’t panic at the sight of them.

I brought up my concerns to the Phrase girls, but they instantly reassured me.

“You don’t need to worry about that. We can keep any Phrase that we own in a different dimension.”

That’s at least a better option, but, uh...‘own’?

“At risk of creating a misunderstanding, we Dominant Phrase, as our name implies, exist to dominate the Phrase beneath us. Worded in a bit of a worse way, you could say they’re nothing more than tools for us. It isn’t so different from the pets and livestock of this world,” Ney explained.

Hey, pets and livestock aren’t just tools!

Thinking back, Gila had called forth Lower Constructs from a different dimension too, so it must have been normal for Dominant Phrase to store away lower-ranked Phrase like tools. Looking at Allis now, though, I couldn’t imagine her ever doing something like that. She wasn’t quite the same as a regular Dominant Phrase, though, so perhaps that was to be expected.

“Mom, can we ride them?!”

“Of course. Don’t fly them above the town, though.”

The moment Melle gave permission, Allis was off like a light jumping onto the back of one of the shark Phrase, dragging Leylle and Kuon up with her. Steph jumped up by herself.

Seriously, guys, be careful!

“Steph, at least put up a [Prison] around you!” I shouted.

“Got it, daddy!”

At least with the [Prison] deployed, even if they were to lose their balance, it would break their fall. It would be like they were flying within an invisible box.

“Up, up, and away!” Allis cheerfully called out as the Phrase flew off into the air. They really were treating those Phrase like mounts. Or honestly, probably more like a roller coaster.

“In some ways, it might have been for the best that it was only Intermediate Constructs that appeared. We’d have been in trouble if the Phrase that had come through had been Dominants from five thousand years ago,” Leen muttered to herself as she watched the kids take flight.

Oh, for sure.

“There’s no Dominant Phrase recorded as going missing five thousand years ago or anything, right?” I asked Ney, just to be sure.

“I hate to break it to you, but several of them did go missing. Their echoes suddenly disappeared, so we assumed they had died, but...I see. They probably ended up in this world.”

Hang on, there actually could be Dominant Phrase here from the past?!

“Don’t forget that many Dominant Phrase died in the battle against the heroes of the ancient magic kingdom. I don’t think you were wrong to think they died,” Doc Babylon reminded us. Apparently, the tales told of heroes who had made sure to bring the Dominant Phrase down with them, resulting in parts of the Yulong coastline being gouged out.

Just what kind of self-destruction magic did they use?

Honestly, they probably would’ve struggled to defeat the Dominant Phrase if they hadn’t gone so far. Phrase, especially Dominants, had incredible resistance against magic. That was why the ancient magic kingdom had stood no chance against them, leading to them finding a method that wouldn’t involve directly attacking them with magic.

“How many died in that attack?”

“Three. All were young, selfish fools,” Ney spat out.

Guess she didn’t like them very much. And no wonder, given they never particularly viewed each other as comrades. They must not have gotten along with Ney very well. Not that that was a surprise when it seemed she didn’t get along with any of that group other than Lycee.

So to sum up, does that mean that the Dominant Phrase who attacked our world five thousand years ago were Yula, Gila, Ney, Lycee, Leto, Luto, and three unknowns?

“I only heard that two had died, though,” Doc Babylon said. “The numbers don’t add up.”

“Hey, I really don’t like the sound of this!”

“Well, things were pretty hectic back then. We could barely even contact other countries, though that was partly because of how many had been completely destroyed... It wouldn’t be strange if another had died somewhere and we just weren’t made aware of it.”

The world had been one step away from total destruction during that war, so it made sense that there would be no reliable source of information. But was the third truly destroyed or...?

“Hmph, no matter who comes our way, they won’t last against us. We simply need to bring them under our command. If they don’t obey, we destroy them,” Ney confidently proclaimed.

“There’s a chance they’d actually obey you guys?”

“Probably not. They were always hanging around Gila, after all.”

I had felt the slightest bit of hope after Ney’s words, but then Lycee came in and sunk me into the depths of despair again.

Yeah, no, if they were hanging around with Gila, then they’re immediately out. No way they’re anything but trouble.

While I was left worrying, the shark Phrase began doing somersaults off in the distance. Trust Allis to put the kids through something so crazy... Steph was no doubt having the time of her life, but I felt sorry for Kuon and Leylle having to deal with her whims.

At least with this incident, I had a more thorough understanding of how the monsters came through from the past. If this was happening all across the world, then they must be causing a hell of a lot of issues. Just because a distortion opened up a wormhole, that didn’t always mean that a monster would jump out of it, but Grandma Tokie did say that they tended to open up next to things that moved. If those happened to be small animals or bugs, everything would be fine, but any bigger than that, well...

Grandma Tokie would help close any large distortions or potential time tunnels, so I’d prefer if we could do something to assist with the smaller ones.

“Grandma Tokie said that these distortions aren’t actually caused as aftereffects of the timequake, but by the wicked devout...”

Did that mean that the enemy had some kind of ability or tool that could interfere with space-time? Or maybe they’d used the gold crown’s knowledge to recreate the black crown’s crown skill? In theory, they’d be able to cross worlds or timelines if they had managed that, given the black crown controlled time and space. But the price for such a skill was so large that Chrom Ranchesse had apparently turned back into a boy after crossing worlds.

...You know, if a long-lived species like elves or fairies were to use it, what would happen? Could they use it almost at will? Maybe not endlessly, but they’d be able to time travel a few times before hitting their limit.

Unless the way it worked was that it took a percentage of one’s lifespan as the price. Even a long-lived organism couldn’t survive being reversed all the way back to before they were a fetus. Magic that could interfere with time was naturally so advanced that it was difficult to use at will, but it wasn’t impossible to make use of it in a limited scope.

Hell, even [Accel] fell under the umbrella of time magic. When you got used to using it, it felt like time around you slowed down, and by extension, your thought process would speed up. You could easily argue that was equivalent to messing with time, if even just a little. It was only one’s own time in that case, though.

There was the Spatial Translocation ability as well. Apparently, you could use that to not just cross worlds, but even time to some degree if you were experienced enough. I didn’t quite know how to do that yet, though...

I had actually been thinking that I’d like to bring my kids to Earth with Spatial Translocation to meet my mom and dad before they had to go back to the future. At least that way, my parents could see the faces of their grandchildren.

They might be a bit surprised at how early it happened, but...I think I have the duty to do that much, at least. I wonder how big Fuyuka’s gotten? Not even a year’s passed, so maybe she won’t be all that different. Don’t babies grow quite fast, though? Maybe she can nod her head now.

Getting the opportunity to check on my little sister was another reason for me to work on taking down the wicked devout, however tough parting with our children would be...

◇◇◇

“We’ll be back soon!”

With a farewell, Kuon, Allis, Leylle, Steph, Linne, and Frei rode the shark Phrase high up into the air from the castle’s courtyard. Those Phrase had truly become Allis’s cars. Actually, would it be more accurate to call them horses, since they weren’t mechanical?

After being told by Melle not to fly above the town, Allis took the Phrase around with her and thoroughly covered every part of the castle town to show the citizens that they weren’t dangerous. What started as the people being a little afraid turned into them slowly but surely becoming so accustomed to them that the local children would even beg Allis to let them ride the sharks. They sure had become popular.

Flight wasn’t without its dangers, so I made sure to tell Allis in advance to only allow extremely low flights—around fifty centimeters off the ground—for the kids. Before I knew it, Quun had used [Modeling] to develop little passenger seats that attached to the back of the Phrase.

Is it really okay to do this?

They had already given the four sharks names: Gin, Tequila, Rum, Vodka... There was no way that wasn’t the influence of that no-good goddess of alcohol. What was it they were called again? The four greatest spirits of the world? It sounded like the name of some elite assassin squad—but you know, that was similar enough to sharks and Phrase.

I took a call from Doc Babylon in the middle of all that. As it turned out, they’d found something new among what was salvaged from Chrom’s laboratory. When I made it up to Babylon, she, Elluka, and the professor were all present. A cylindrical glass container was placed on a large table. It was about the size of a plastic bucket, and it was filled with some green liquid that looked like melon soda. Floating in the liquid was a single mechanical gold part.

“Is that what I think it is? Is it that spare part of Gold’s that we picked up?”

“Well, we couldn’t tell you if it’s a spare or not, but it’s very likely made from the same material. We’d considered the possibility before, but this seems to be an Artificer.”

An Artificer? This lump of metal? Well, there were Gargoyles and Metal Golems made of stone and metal, so it wasn’t entirely out of the question, but...

“Gold’s chassis is made to hold the same characteristics as Slimes and orichalcum. It can morph into any shape, is sturdy, and yet also elastic.”

“Slimes? Is this related to those Orichalcum Slimes you mentioned once before?”

Slimes were Artificers from long ago, and they held many special properties. The world had so many varieties of Slime because of how quickly they evolved. There were Slimes that evolved based on their environment, such as the Magma Slimes you would find in volcanic areas or the Marine Slimes you would find in bay areas, but there were also those like Sludge Slimes and Metal Slimes, which would evolve through whatever they consumed.

Given how easy they were to work with, many mages and alchemists would create whole new Slimes—those Slimes were often the ones that caused all kinds of trouble, though. We’d had our own experiences with such man-made Slimes, like the Bust Slimes that would latch onto girls’ chests or Basin Slimes that loved falling onto people’s heads like those stupid school pranks.

“Unlike a lot of Slimes, this thing here doesn’t really have a sense of free will. It’s stuck in a state of following its master’s order to retain its shape.”

“Man, doesn’t that mean it’s more like a slave or a tool...?”

“That’s what Artificers are. They’re artificial existences made to obey their master. You’ve seen how Golems and Gargoyles act, haven’t you?”

She was right. They came under that category too. Slimes were often mistaken for monsters because they were comparatively free creatures, but no, they were artificially made.

“According to Silver, Chrom Ranchesse was carrying out experiments in order to create an Artificer that could take the price of using a crown skill instead of the wielder, but he realized that Artificers weren’t suitable vessels for such a thing. So what was there left for him to do? Touya, if you had to put a whole bucket of water into a tiny cup, what would you do?”

“Huh? Uhhh, take it in multiple goes? Oh, wait, I’d take it using a bunch of cups.”

“Yes, exactly.”

That told me nothing! So basically, the bucket of water was the price of the crown skill, while the cup was the Artificer. Pouring the water into the cup over several goes...would mean you’d need to figure out what to do with the full cup first. Maybe not that, then. Pouring the water into several cups instead... Several cups?

“He made multiple Artificers to pay the price, you mean?”

“Yup. Usually, Gollems have only one master, so it would be impossible to split the price between multiple people. But he managed to succeed with the idea of having a contracted Artificer take the price with Silver. In that case, what if he were to make use of several Artificers at once? The answer is this Slime here.”

Was she saying that Chrom had several Slimes take the price of crown skills? That each of the Golds he created were made of Orichalcum Slimes?

“You know about Big Slimes, yeah? At a glance, it looks like one, well, big Slime, but in reality, it’s a bunch of smaller Slimes fused into one. That’s basically what this Orichalcum Slime is.”

“Huh?! This one part is made of a bunch of Slimes?!”

I turned to look back at the gold shoulder part floating in the green liquid. It was so small, yet it was really made of a bunch of Slimes? I thought this would be one Slime at best... Maybe they were all mini Slimes.

“Exactly how many Slimes are in here?”

“There’s one core per Slime, and based on our analysis, there are about three hundred million cores inside of it.”

“HOW MANY?!”

I was rendered practically speechless by the insane number. This tiny little shoulder piece was made of three hundred million Slimes?! They had to be even smaller than regular cells by that point.

The amalgamation of Artificers that had become Chrom Ranchesse’s long-sought answer sat there in that green liquid, emitting a strange light all the while.

◇◇◇

I couldn’t believe that this Gollem part was made up of three hundred million Slimes. It looked like it was made of gold, nothing like a Slime. Then again, if it was one of the Metal Slimes, they could be pretty sturdy, and there were plenty of Slimes that would camouflage themselves as other substances. Like Doc Babylon had said, if you made a compound Slime hold the properties of orichalcum, you could make it imitate a metallic part like this.

“Can it go back to being a bunch of small Slimes?”

“Nope. Now that they’re joined together, there’s no going back for them,” Doc Babylon answered. “They will continue to live out their lives as an Artificer that simply exists.”

Could you even call that living? The idea of existing while being unable to budge even a single inch, not even allowed to have your own free will, gave me the shivers. I’d gotten a really similar feeling from a sci-fi film I watched a while back. In that movie, humans were only allowed to live because they served as an energy source for the machines that ruled the world. They would die never knowing that they were really living in a cyberspace made to imitate the real world.

Could you really say that those people were living happily? What did the Slimes that were turned into this mechanical part feel about this?

“Of course, since they’re alive, they have the natural primitive desire to live, and they do that by taking in what they need to survive—in this case, the magical element in the air. That’s why if they end up sealed inside a space that lacks any of that element, such as your [Prison], it would simply fall apart within a few years.”

Right. If they’re alive, then if you cut off their food source, of course they’ll die. “They’re troopers to have survived five thousand whole years, though...”

“I mean, they’re Artificers. Think of them a little like Cesca.”

Cesca, the terminal gynoid of the garden, had been put into cold sleep several times over her lifespan. So it was kind of like that? In fact, wasn’t Doc Babylon’s body also an Artificer? Her brain matter was the same as when she had been alive, so she had a shorter lifespan than the gynoids, but she would still live for thousands of years.

Ugh, does that mean I’m gonna have to deal with her for thousands of years too?

“Hm? Why are you staring at me like that? Finally open to the idea of cheating on your wives, are you? I’m always prepared, so I don’t mind, but I’d appreciate you setting the mood a little first...”

“This Orichalcum Slime can take the price of a crown skill, right?”

I ignored Doc Babylon, who was squirming in feigned embarrassment as she said complete nonsense again, and instead turned to Doctor Elluka for an explanation.

“I think it would be possible, yes. It is a mass of hundreds of thousands of living beings, so I don’t think it would have any issue taking the price. But if it did take the price, those Slimes would be put in a critical state, if not outright killed. The master may be safe, but the same couldn’t be said about the gold crown,” she explained. In other words, the Gollem would act as a substitute for the master. That was basically the same concept as the silver crown.

“Sacrificing a Gollem for your own selfish goals isn’t a style I’d particularly like to consider,” the professor chimed in, sinking into deep thought as he started stroking his white beard. “Though I suppose that is simply the sign of just how badly Chrom Ranchesse wished to cross worlds.”

Chrom had tried to escape to his own home world and away from this one being invaded by Phrase. It was no doubt in order to save his family; if I had been placed in that situation, where the world was two steps away from ruin, I would’ve likely tried to find a way to teleport even just my family to Earth. I didn’t find it that strange that he would’ve gone to any lengths to make that possible.

“There is something that I’m still a little curious about,” Doc Babylon said, joining back into the conversation. “Touya, do you remember that Gluttony Slime we saw? The Slime that was in the Ark when we had Val Albus’s probe infiltrate it?”

“The Gluttony Slime? Oh, that Slime that had turned into a red liquid...”

Hang on. Another Slime? Is this just a coincidence?

“The Gluttony Slime was originally made to dispose of waste, but it was so gluttonous that it ended up going out of control, consuming everything it came across, and evolving into a Slime capable of swallowing a whole small country whole. Its attachment to life far surpasses most Artificers. This is just a possibility, but...”

“Was he trying to make something more out of the Gluttony Slime by fusing it with orichalcum?” I asked. This was a Slime that could swallow a whole country we were talking about here. Its appetite was probably bottomless. What if that could take the whole price?

“Or maybe he was trying to make some extra equipment for the gold crown so he could use multiple crown skills?” Doctor Elluka suggested.

“It’s definitely possible. I think you could use Gluttony Slimes as a mana tank for using crown skills.”

“Hmm, Gluttony Slimes would definitely be of a much higher quality than just fusing a Slime with orichalcum. But in that case...”

I let the geniuses discuss among themselves while I stared at the golden part. Even all this time later, I could still feel Chrom Ranchesse’s obsession.

◇◇◇

Watching Steph play with Gold in the courtyard, I wasn’t sure how to feel.

So Gold’s just a big amalgamation of Slimes...

Well, I didn’t think all of him was made of Slime. It was probably only the chassis, while the inner frame was made from regular materials.

Armor made up of several life-forms that contained the characteristics of orichalcum, something that served as a shield so its master didn’t have to pay the price of the crown skill. That meant that even Steph could use a crown skill without endangering her life. Gold would have to be sacrificed in the process, however.

But hadn’t Gold himself said that the gold crown itself had no crown skill? That would mean they needed something else to activate one first. Could the distortions in space-time that had been happening so frequently recently be the result of the second gold crown using a crown skill that allowed for the manipulation of those axes?

“What’s with the frown?” Sue asked, suddenly sitting in the chair opposite me.

“I was just thinking about how to send the kids safely back to the future,” I replied as I watched Kuon, Allis, Leylle, and Steph all playing together. If I wanted to manage that, we had to take down the wicked devout. We were slowly but surely finishing our preparations to cage them in, but we had to be extra careful that we didn’t end up alerting them to our presence and having them escape.

“That’s not fair. Need I remind you that Steph arrived here last? I wanted the chance to spend time with her for longer like I got to with the other girls.”

I could understand her disappointment. If Steph hadn’t dropped her phone, we’d have been able to find her immediately and they could’ve spent more time together.

“I wonder when we’ll get to meet again once they go back to the future... Even when Steph is born in our timeline, it would take another five years before we could talk to them about all of this,” Sue said as she turned her gaze to the kids.

The oldest of our children was Yakumo at eleven. Steph was only five. It would take over ten years before we reached this point of their timeline. Still, our future selves managed to wait that long. We needed to make sure to send their kids back.

“Better make as many memories now so we have plenty to talk about in the future, huh?” I said.

“You’re right! I should play with Steph more too! Then we’ll have plenty to talk about when she’s born in our timeline!”

After saying that, Sue stood up and ran over to Steph. Given they weren’t even ten years apart right now, they seemed more like sisters than mother and daughter.

“Equip!”

BWUH?!

One second, Sue was chatting with Steph; the next, she was holding her phone up to the sky as her body was enveloped in a yellow light that transformed her into her battle suit.

“Wow! You’re so cool, mommy!”

“Aren’t I just!”

The mother was standing with her hands on her hips, puffing her chest out proudly while the daughter was gazing starry-eyed up at her. Was this really the kind of memories she wanted to create...? Even Kuon was smiling awkwardly at them from behind. Wait, but Allis and Leylle were watching Sue with the exact same starstruck look as Steph...

Come on, Touya, they’re kids. It’s normal for them to be fascinated by a transformation sequence.

Even I’d played with one of those fake transformation belts when I was younger. Was it just a fact of life that boys would admire the heroes in tokusatsu, and girls would admire magical girls? It wasn’t as if they’d ever seen magical girl shows on TV, though... Maybe I’d shown them those kinds of shows in the future. I mean, my daughters were all literally magical girls. Just without the transformation sequence.

“Everyone has a desire to have their own transformation.”

“Whoa?! Where’d you come from?!”

Linze was suddenly standing beside me. The gods already did that to me all the time, but I didn’t expect Linze would start too. I would often forget that my wives could hide their presence as well... It was kind of frightening.

Wait, did she just read my thoughts?

“‘I want to become a different me,’ ‘I want to look like the person I look up to most.’ Nothing is strange about having a desire like that. By changing your appearance or putting on makeup, you can turn your personality and feelings in a more positive direction, and by extension, you can live your life more positively as well.”

“Did you...read a cosplay magazine or something?”

As I listened to Linze speak so passionately, I suddenly remembered there being something like that in a magazine I had brought from Earth. Linze made costumes on the regular, but she’d been especially big on making outfits of anime and manga characters as of late. This world was already a fantasy world to begin with, so most of the outfits fit right in. Honestly, rather than anime and games, I’d say a police officer or office worker would look more like a cosplay here. Well, maybe that was just me.

“I want the kids to live life with that kind of positivity as well. And so...I made this.”

“Whoa, what’s this?! Why are you so good?!”

In the sketchbook Linze was showing me were costume designs for all the kids. She was amazingly good at drawing. Was she always this good?! This would definitely hurt his feelings if he heard me say this, but she was even better than my dad and he was a mangaka...

Realism was the norm in this world, but what Linze had drawn here was more akin to a manga style. She’d probably been influenced by the manga from Earth that she had been reading. Linze said that she had never drawn before back when we first met, which meant she’d gotten this good after only a few years. Was she a genius?

There were a bunch of magical girl drawings in the sketchbook as well. They were incredible.

“They really can transform if we make use of the system that Doc Babylon created. I wanted to make these for them before they have to return to the future.”

I wasn’t doubting that we would be able to give them transformation sequences, since the girls already had their own for the pilot suits, but was there any reason for them to wear the outfits in the first place? They didn’t strengthen them in any way, right? And they weren’t supposed to be disguises either. In fact, did they need an actual system in order to transform? Couldn’t they just get dressed normally?

“Do you not want to see the children in these outfits?”

“I do,” I replied immediately. What parent wouldn’t? They were all adorable, so there was no way they wouldn’t suit them.

Linze pointed at one of the costumes in the sketchbook.

“I’ve made nine pairs of this design here for now. Though honestly, it’s still lacking some of the details.”

“Cool... Wait. Nine pairs?”

As in, Kuon had one too? These were magical girl costumes, right?

“There’s no need to worry. Kuon will pull it off,” Linze declared with full confidence.

“Stop right there! Don’t put him through that!”

Yeah, Kuon had a feminine face because he’d inherited Yumina’s features! But as small as he was, he was still a boy. There was no way he wouldn’t get embarrassed about having to wear girls’ clothes. I knew for sure as his father.

“The most important thing when deciding on a costume is whether or not it suits the person. Gender has little to do with it. In fact, aren’t there boys in Earth books who are known as ‘femboys’?”

Crap, Linze’s eyes were serious. If I didn’t do something fast, Kuon was going to be forced to dress up as a girl. I had to stop my son from being traumatized at such a young age! Though...if Kuon wanted it, maybe it would be fine? Even putting the idea of cross-dressing aside, it wasn’t that strange for a boy to want to dress up in something cute. If that was the case, then I had to learn to be more understanding as his parent. I would make my decision after confirming his thoughts on the matter.

I wasted no time in calling the boy over and explaining the situation.

“So, do you want to wear these kinds of clothes?”

“No.”

Oof, an immediate shutdown. And with such a huge frown too. Linze immediately tried to persuade him, though. “I think you’d look adorable in this, Kuon!”

“I do think the clothes are cute, but I do not particularly wish to wear them myself.”

“Yumina would be overjoyed to see you in this! Think of it as a way of showing your love for your parents!”

“Oh, I’m certain she would be happy, but I still do not particularly wish to wear it myself.”

Kuon retaliated against Linze’s fervent persuasion with his usual polite smile. There was absolutely no room for debate here.

Linze finally gave up and let out a dejected sigh.

“I made nine whole costumes too...”

“Then why not give mine to Allis? Wait, then we’d need one for Leylle as well. You can make just one more, can’t you, mother?”

“Of course I can!”

Linze might have lost Kuon, but this new suggestion had filled her with gusto. She was fine with anything so long as it involved making outfits, huh? I wouldn’t deny that I wanted to see our kids in the costumes as well. I was starting to understand the feeling of parents that wanted to dress their kids up.

Clearly wanting to strike while the iron was hot, Linze grabbed Allis and Leylle, pulled out a measuring tape from somewhere, and began taking their measurements. She was way too used to this.

“Hmm, what would make for a good transformation item? A magic staff? Or maybe we should make it more girly and go for a compact mirror? We could also go for a curveball and have it be a perfume bottle...” Linze muttered to herself, completely lost in her own world.

I closed my eyes in despair. This was going to take a long time.