In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 29 - Chapter 4.5

Interlude: Monsters and Magical Girls

“I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Ack, how embarrassing. You really can’t fight the effects of old age.”

Emperor Regulus was sitting up in his bed, looking a little worn, but his pallor was healthy, so he was probably fine.

“I was really surprised, you know? The last thing I expected was to get a phone call telling me that you’d collapsed! And to think it was simply from food disagreeing with you! Be more careful about your health!”

“I-I will. I just couldn’t stop myself... Don’t be so mad.”

Faced with his angered daughter, the man couldn’t help but shrink back. Apparently, he’d tried some food for the first time—he found it delicious, so he kept eating until suddenly, his condition worsened. The doctor had said that his body wasn’t compatible with the food. Maybe it was an allergy. Allergy symptoms were different from person to person, but I was glad his symptoms were light.

“Please get well soon, grandfather,” Arcia politely said.

“Oh, but of course, darling. If you’re telling me to get better, then I have no choice!”

Watching her father go doe-eyed for his granddaughter, Lu sighed to herself, putting a hand to her head. The man always completely doted on Arcia. Which reminded me, the emperor was still alive in the kids’ future, though he appeared to have stepped down from the throne. Wouldn’t that mean he’d stay alive for quite a long time?

“I’ll cook your lunch today,” Arcia proudly declared. “Healthy food leads to a healthy body, after all!”

“You need to stop being so selfish, Arcia. You realize you’ll end up causing the chefs trouble, don’t you?”

“Oh, it’ll be no problem,” the emperor reassured. “It’s my grandchild’s homemade food. I’ll happily eat it.”

Did you forget food is why you’re bedridden right now?

Arcia was naturally aware of that, though, so I was sure she would make the meal easily digestible.

With that decided, we left the emperor’s room and headed for the castle’s kitchen. The head chef of Regulus Castle turned out to be a huge fan of Lu’s cooking app, so they were more than happy to let us use their space. Lu really was popular, wasn’t she?

Wait, she was originally a princess from here, anyway.

“So? What do you plan to make?” Lu questioned her daughter.

“I’m going to make something grandfather will be able to eat easily, of course. I was thinking of making some nyumen.”

I nodded.

“Nyumen, huh?”

“What is this ‘nyumen’?” Lu asked. I was immediately in agreement with Arcia’s choice, but Lu seemed to have no idea what nyumen even was.

Huh? Did I not tell them what nyumen is?

The fact Arcia knew what nyumen was meant that this was the moment that Lu would learn about it. Did that mean Lu told Arcia, who then came to the past and told Lu...?

Is this not a time paradox?

Well, it...would be fine, I was sure. The spirits working under Grandma Tokie would figure something out.

“To put it simply, nyumen is somen noodles cooked in warm broth. It’s easy to digest, simple to slurp up, and it puts less strain on the stomach,” Arcia explained.

“I see. It certainly sounds kind to the stomach.”

If I recalled correctly, nyumen was written with the characters for “boiled” and “noodles.” Noodles boiled to softness did sound easy to digest.

“Let’s keep it simple and avoid adding too many extras. Mother, could you boil the noodles?”

“Of course.”

Lu filled a pot with hot water, then put in some dry somen noodles she’d kept in [Storage]. Meanwhile, Arcia chopped up some kamaboko, shiitake mushrooms, mitsuba parsley, and spinach, and then made a soup using some dashi already in the kitchen. The boiled noodles were served in a wooden bowl, toppings were sprinkled over the noodles, soup poured in, and finally, yuzu peel was grated lightly over the top to finish it off.

As we were also permitted the chance to taste it, Arcia made four bowls of the nyumen, placed them on a cart, and wheeled it back to the emperor’s bedroom.

“Oh my, noodles? Is this somen?”

“Yes, grandfather. It is a dish called nyumen.”

“I had the opportunity to try cold somen noodles in Brunhild before, but this is the first time I’ve had them warm.”

Still sitting in his bed, the emperor picked up one of the bowls of nyumen from the tray that had been set on his bedside table. He scooped up some of the noodles with a wooden fork, blew gently on them, and slurped them into his mouth.

“Mmm... It has a very gentle flavor. The noodles are so soft that they’re very easy to slurp up. The soup is also delicious, and the smell is delectable.”

“You must be smelling the yuzu,” Arcia told him, a wide smile on her face. I took that opportunity to have my own bite.

Yep, it’s delicious. This would be easy to keep down even without an appetite, and it seems good for digestion. The soup and dashi pair well with the somen.

“I think this would be nicer if you added chicken,” Lu muttered as she tasted her own bowl.

“I-I didn’t include any this time because I was thinking about grandfather’s health!”

“I’m aware, don’t worry. You didn’t include chicken in ours either because you thought father would sulk, yes?”

“I’m not that greedy...?” the emperor said quizzically as he continued slurping away at his noodles with a hurt expression on his face. I agreed with what Lu said, though—this really would taste nicer with some meat in it. That said, it was still plenty nice without it.

Having enjoyed the warming taste of the nyumen, we left Regulus Castle. Though he looked much healthier by the time we left, the emperor still needed his rest. We gave the recipe to the head chef so he’d be able to have it again whenever he wished.

When we returned to Brunhild, we found Elze, Elna, Linze, and Linne sitting together in the castle’s living room.

“Oh, welcome back! Did everything work out okay with His Imperial Majesty?” Elze asked.

“Everything was fine, he just gave himself a bit of a stomachache,” Lu said.

Linne looked about ready to fall asleep on Elze’s lap, while Elna and Linze were doing some knitting. Or at least...it looked like knitting, but they seemed to be making some kind of doll.

“I’ll pop out and get dinner made. I left lunch entirely to Crea, so I should really help out.”

And with that, Lu was immediately off to the kitchen.

Wasn’t Crea the head chef? That was literally her job. Lu was a grand duchess—she didn’t need to be in the kitchen in the first place. Still, Lu did like to cook, and it sounded like Crea had been a big help, so I chose not to say anything.

“Mother, allow me to help! I’ve thought of a good idea,” Arcia exclaimed as she followed her mother out of the living room. Did she mean the nyumen? As nice as it was, I wasn’t sure how I felt about having it for both lunch and dinner...

“And I’m done!”

“Good job, Elna. It’s very cute.”

Elna excitedly showed off what she had knitted to Linze, who immediately praised her. It was a plush toy in the shape of a rabbit.

“You were making some soft toys, huh?” I asked.

“You call them knitted toys,” Linze explained, showing me her...knitted toy? “They don’t use any fabric, just wool yarn. They’re much simpler to make and customize than normal soft toys.”

Linze’s creation was also a bunny, but it had a very hard-boiled look to it. Why was it wearing a black suit and white scarf? Was it the boss of the bunny mafia? In contrast, Elna’s was cute with its little blue shirt. Peter seemed like the perfect name for it.

“Here, mommy! A present!” Elna exclaimed as she thrust her bunny toward her mother.

“What, for me? Wow, thank you, Elna!” Elze responded with glee, her face melting into a smile. Elze unconsciously went to hug Elna in the spur of the moment, but she suddenly remembered that Linne had fallen asleep in her lap and began waving her hands in frustration.

Fine, I’ll give you a little hand.

“[Levitation].”

“Mnyah...”

I floated Linne off the sofa and levitated her over toward me. Now that she had been freed from being used as a pillow, Elze gave her daughter a massive hug.

Elze, known lover of all cute things, had just been given a cute present from her cute daughter—of course she’d be happy. I set Linne down on the opposite sofa and gave her an actual cushion to lay her head on before then peeling Elze off of Elna.

“You’re hurting her, quit it.”

“Noooooo!”

Elze flapped her hands around in frustration at being made to let go of her daughter, while Elna sighed in relief at being freed. This mother really had to learn to not be so aggressive with her affection.

“You’re gonna make her hate you if you keep being overbearing, you know?” I whispered from behind so only Elze could hear. That immediately put a stop to her struggling.

“E-Elna, I’m really sorry, okay? I was so happy, I just...”

“No, it’s okay. I’m happy it made you that happy.”

What followed was Elze’s excited squeal.

“Eln— Gwuh!”

I grabbed Elze by the collar the moment she tried to jump on her daughter again.

Why is the mother so much more of a hassle than the daughter?

Linze was chuckling awkwardly at our exchange, before her phone started vibrating in her skirt pocket.

A phone call? From who?

“Hello?” Linze answered. “What? They’re ready?! Yes... Yes, I understand. I’ll go pick them up right away!”

Elze and I looked at each other in confusion at Linze’s sudden joy and excitement. Linze ended the phone call and looked over at us.

“It was from Doc Babylon. They’ve finished the transformation items for the kids! Touya, could you take me up to Babylon?!”

Was this to do with that whole magical girl thing we were talking about before? Had she been serious?!

“Come on, let’s go, let’s go! Hurry!” Linze said, yanking my arm.

“Wait, hang on! Ow, ow, stop pulling so hard! I’ve got it, I’m going!”

I couldn’t fight against Linze when she was this worked up.

This girl’s deadly serious.

After being somewhat forced to open a [Gate], we teleported up to Babylon.

◇◇◇

“So the transformation item is that bracelet?”

“Yup. We considered the idea of a compact mirror or a perfume bottle, but we decided on this. Those kids’d probably lose ’em otherwise.”

I couldn’t argue back against Doc Babylon’s words. Quite a number of them had dropped their phones when they arrived in this world.

“How do they use them?” Linze asked.

“If they say the key phrase while flowing mana into it, the clothes stored inside will be swapped with the clothes they’re wearing at the time. I made sure the requested effects will also happen when it’s used.”

Effects? What kind of effects? This really was a transformation item. So many people could only dream of having something like this. If you stored your pajamas, formal clothes, and casual clothes in here, you’d conveniently be able to change your outfit as you needed.

“I’m surprised you were even able to make something like this...” I muttered.

“We happened to have a fast-change artifact in the storehouse, so we took that and modified it a little. It works similarly to the girls’ pilot suits.”

Having something to base it on would make it easier. It would be easy to duplicate using the workshop, as well.

“What should we have the incantation be, then?” Linze asked excitedly, practically huffing as she zoomed up toward me with one of those bracelets in hand.

Is this something to get that excited over...?

“Uh...why not just something like, ‘Transform!’ Short and sweet, no?”

“No, that won’t do.”

“Won’t do at all.”

Linze and Doc Babylon both sighed in disappointment at my answer.

Come on, it’s not that bad!

“Listen here. That may be okay for a boy, but for a girl, it completely lacks impact. We have to make it something flashier,” Linze lectured me.

What impact? Who are you trying to impact with it? Us?

“What about ‘Twinkling Heart Babylon Wave!’?”

“Oooh, so you went for the cool route. I think something that imitates the sound effects works too. Like ‘Pimupimu pipirun! Pirurururu! Pamupamu papareru! Parurururu!’”

Pimu...what?

Help, I think something’s wrong with my wife. She’s starting to sound crazy.

“Your daughters will be the ones transforming, so why not just ask them directly?”

“Good point! They can choose from a list!”

Linze pulled out her phone and started typing what looked like incantations into it. Were there really that many options to choose from? The two were completely ignoring me as they kept coming up with new ideas, while I remained there greatly perplexed.

◇◇◇

“[Twinkling Heart Babylon Wave]!” Steph cheerfully chanted the transformation incantation and thrust her arm with the bracelet up into the air.

So we went with Doc Babylon’s idea after all?

A ball of light jumped out of the bracelet and enveloped Steph. The light around her neck burst into a ribbon, then shoes, then a skirt. Steph’s outfit changed with every burst of light. Even her hair morphed from her side ponytail into pigtails. One last big flash of light was emitted, and Steph was standing there in a yellow magical girl outfit, holding a small staff.

“You look adorable, Steph!”

“Hee hee hee hee!” Steph giggled and bashfully fidgeted at Sue’s unrestrained praise. She definitely was adorable, no denying that.

“Do those clothes do anything special for the wearer?” I asked Doc Babylon, who was looking satisfied beside me.

“They come equipped with both physical and magical resistance. It’s way better than your average suit of armor. We also infused it with cognition disruption, so acquaintances won’t be able to recognize who they are.”

“Hm? But can’t we tell that it’s Steph perfectly fine?”

“Hey, you do realize you’re comparing your and your wives’ magic resistance to that of normal people, right? Even the court magicians of other countries are affected by cognition disruption, but it barely has any effect on you guys.”

I hadn’t realized it was so difficult for cognition disruption to affect us. In fact, it didn’t affect us at all. It would have to at least be on the level of my or Quun’s [Mirage].

I looked over at Allis and her ice-blue outfit, and Leylle in her similar mint-blue outfit. Ende was taking pictures from afar, his face the picture of frustration as he watched the three Phrase girls praise the two—he wasn’t able to approach because Leylle was there. It was clear that the cognition disruption wasn’t working on him either.

While I was lost in my thoughts, the other kids began transforming one after the other.

“T-[Twinkling Heart Babylon Wave]...?”

The embarrassment was practically radiating off of Yakumo as she said the magic words. Her costume was the same as Steph’s, but was a light purple instead. Her usually straight hair had changed into loose waves.

A change of hairstyle makes for a fresh look, after all.

“It suits you, Yakumo, it does.”

Yae nodded approvingly. Yakumo’s face turned red as she nervously pulled at the bottom of her skirt.

“I think this skirt is a little short, though...” the girl muttered.

“Don’t worry about it. The cognition disruption will stop anyone from remembering if you happen to flash your panties,” Doc Babylon said as she gave her a smooth thumbs-up.

“That doesn’t make it any better!”

Yakumo usually wore a hakama, so she might have felt a little uncomfortable wearing something like a skirt.

“If you really don’t like it, I did make sure to install leggings as additional equipment. Just tap the blue crystal on the side of your bracelet.”

“Tell me that sooner!”

When Yakumo did as Doc Babylon said, the area around her waist momentarily sparkled before revealing some short leggings sticking out from under her skirt. The girl let out a sigh of relief. As her father, I also felt better about this. Even if there was cognition disruption, that only worked if the person didn’t have high magic resistance, right?

I wasn’t so bothered by the thought of my wives or the Phrase girls seeing, but the thought of Ende seeing them...!

Maybe I should gouge his eyes out while I’ve got the chance.

Apparently, having had the same thought, Ende sent a message to Allis telling her to put on the leggings too, especially because she was way more active than any of the other kids... She was much more likely to leap around everywhere.

Ten new magical girls were finally born. Though technically, they were already magical girls even without transforming. Everyone was wearing a similar outfit, but the details were what distinguished each of them.

“If we just gave them all the same outfit with the color being all there was to differentiate them, it would be like any old uniform, so I made sure to obsess over the details,” Linze proudly stated.

“You did, huh?”

I felt the passion in her words, but I wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about it. It was fine, though. Everyone looked cute, after all.

“I kinda want to see the kids try them out for real now, honestly.”

Those words of Doc Babylon’s were exactly what I didn’t want to hear.

Look, now Linne, Allis, and Steph have all latched on to the idea...

“If you really want to, why not have a practice match with the knights?” I suggested, making sure to suggest a safe option right off the bat. Linze looked less sure of it, though.

“Touya, can you not call out some monsters or something?”

“Are you crazy?”

If I called out monsters, I’d be the mastermind!

Just as I was still reeling at Linze’s unreasonable suggestion—though I was sure she’d been joking when she said it—Doc Babylon said something just as casually that led me to being no less exasperated: “I can call some out.”

So you’re the mastermind.

It fit her, honestly. She was like some evil scientist, after all.

“Remember that digital space I used with you guys once before? It can call out fake monsters. It was originally a training tool for security officers, but if I mess around with the settings, I could probably turn the intruders into regular bad guys.”

“Is this that amusement park experience you made us go through once? Is that really safe?”

“Of course it’s safe—you saying it wasn’t safe when I let you experience it before? If things really get dicey, it’ll forcibly eject you. You can manually set the training stage and scenario too.”

Linze was nodding along to the scientist’s explanation. She was totally into the idea.

“In other words, you can adjust the location somewhat as well? So you could make the scenario that they have to defeat the bad guys who are infiltrating the castle, or to defeat the bad guys messing up the town?”

“Sure can. I can make it both safe and thrilling. This was originally designed for training, after all.”

“I see. In that case...”

Suddenly, an impromptu meeting began between Doc Babylon and Linze.

This is gonna take a while...

Deciding to leave them to their own devices, I joined the other parents, who were taking part in a photo shoot with all the girls dressed up in their magical girl outfits. Those smiles were as wonderful as ever.

◇◇◇

“Wait, this is actually pretty cool...!”

Seeing Doctor Babylon’s garden diorama up in the lab, I couldn’t help but be amazed. Brunhild’s castle town was perfectly recreated—the only thing missing was the townspeople. Well, there were people, but the vibrancy of the real thing was missing. I wasn’t sure why—maybe they were holograms—but they looked like actors in a black-and-white film.

“There can be issues if you make things too realistic. Though if I’m honest, I just didn’t have the time to get around to it. Thinking about how long it would take to put in the data for each individual civilian gives me a headache.”

I could imagine, and really, I wasn’t going to ask her to do that much for something that was only intended to be a children’s training exercise. Color aside, the townspeople were walking around the town and having fun, just like the real deal. As fake as they might have been, it was easy to mistake them for actual living human beings.

“What kind of training are you even going to make them do here?” I asked the girls.

“We thought up a lot of scenarios, but we feel it might be best to teach them restraint,” Linze said.

“Restraint?”

At my confusion, Linze and Yumina both started explaining.

“Their power is not the same as a regular person’s, so they need to learn how to hold back.”

“If they go too far against a monster, the most they’ll do is render parts unusable, but if they were to accidentally go too far against a human, then the result could be much worse.”

“Oh...”

I understood what they meant now. Our kids were definitely strong, but one wrong step and things could go very wrong very fast.

If it were against criminals who had committed heavy crimes, like bandits or raiders who would plunder and slaughter, I didn’t personally think they needed to hold back—but then what if they accidentally killed someone who had committed only a minor offense like running off with someone’s stuff or leaving a restaurant without paying? We had healing magic in this world, so as long as they didn’t die, we could do something about it—ignoring the fact that the medical fees could be pretty high, that is. But that still didn’t make it okay for them to go all out.

“I see. So you want to teach them how to arrest criminals?”

Hilde nodded in understanding.

“I think Yakumo would be able to disarm an opponent with the back of her sword, I do... Or, wait, perhaps she would end up breaking their bones, she would...”

Yae simply frowned at her inability to find a defense for her daughter.

“Linne could most likely apprehend them with [Gravity], but...I can also see her putting too much force on them and squishing them...”

“Steph too, even though I think she could use [Accel] for more than just tackling people...”

Linze and Sue both looked just as conflicted as Yae did. Theirs were certainly the kids that seemed the least likely to be able to control their strength.

“If they’re learning how to capture criminals, do their outfits have something special installed?” I asked.

“Beyond the cognition disruption, the clothes themselves also have slash resistance, blunt resistance, heat resistance, cold resistance, and magic resistance. Oh, and also has an effect that lets your body feel lighter. As for the staff...”

Doc Babylon took a short pastel pink staff and pushed it into Tica. A small noise was emitted, and a ring of light captured the gynoid.

“Master?”

“As you can see, you can also capture people like this. You do have to be able to touch them, though, so if the target is moving, they might easily escape your grasp. It means it becomes necessary to immobilize them first.”

Damn, that seemed like it would be great for our patrolling knights to have on hand. It could become a replacement for handcuffs.

“You can also hold the perpetrator up against the wall and use it, and it’ll secure them there.”

A second ring of light wrapped around Tica and attached her to the wall.

That’s useful.

She tried to escape, but she couldn’t budge an inch.

“Master, why are you capturing me?”

“Because we’re about to go visit the kids. Dangerous creeps need to be secured.”

“You set me up!”

Tica began wildly moving her head back and forth to try to escape.

Jeez, she’s desperate.

No wonder Doc Babylon set her up like she did. Weren’t the Sisters developed using fragments of her personality, though? Wouldn’t that mean she was just as bad deep down...?

◇◇◇

“Let me explain the rules,” Linze said as all the children gathered around her in the courtyard. “A group of suspicious people will be released into this makeshift Brunhild. The villains will vandalize the town and carry out all manner of crimes, so your mission is to apprehend them. If you kill...or, well, eliminate them, you’re out.”

After the explanation, Linne immediately raised her hand and asked, “We’ve just gotta capture them, right? Don’t need to hand them over to the knights?”

“Yes, we’ll deal with them after you apprehend them. You just need to capture them and then leave them there. If you don’t capture them properly, though, you won’t get points, so be careful.”

“There’s a point system?” Quun asked this time, also raising her hand. Linze hadn’t even mentioned a point system until now, so of course the kids were confused.

“The training will work on a point system, yes. Your points will decrease if you damage the town in any way, inconvenience the citizens, or eliminate the bad guys. They’ll increase if you successfully capture them.”

“What happens if we get lots of points?”

“They’re like reward points. The one with the most points will have any wish granted by Touya.”

“Any wish?!” the children’s voices all harmonized. Any was maybe a bit far. I wasn’t some big Green Dragon or anything. I prayed they didn’t ask for anything that went way beyond what I was capable of—the last thing I wanted to have to do was tell them I couldn’t grant their wish. Oh, and I wouldn’t take any wishes to give them more wishes.

Now that the talk of a reward had pumped the kids up, Linze explained the rules again. Catch the bad guys and you’d get points. Kill the bad guys and you’d get them taken away. Destroying the town in any way would also deduct points. If the bad guys successfully carried out any crimes, they’d all lose points. If their point total went below a certain threshold, there would be no reward. That would become the incentive for the kids to keep capturing the bad guys even if their personal total was high.

“Um, so for example, if I used a paralyzing bullet and it missed and hit a wall instead, I’d have points deducted?” Quun asked.

“Not by a lot, but yes, that would count as a point deduction,” Leen answered. “If you’re able to catch the bad guy with that, though, it might end up being a net positive.”

Unfortunately, even as professionals in this kind of thing, accidents did sometimes happen, no matter how much you tried to avoid them.

Incidentally, magic attacks being used in populated areas would also lead to a deduction in points—you were essentially being a nuisance to the civilians in that scenario. It was terrible for me to feel this way, but I would be pretty thankful if the kids racked up so many minus points that none of them got a reward... Though, if I wanted them to grow, we needed them to learn restraint. What a dilemma...

“Shall we begin?”

“Yeah!” The children all cheered in unison as they were sucked into the little diorama. At the same time, a bunch of hologram windows opened up around the device, showing what was going on inside. It really was identical to the real thing. The only difference was that the citizens were all black-and-white.

The kids appeared right in the middle of that fake town. They were all looking cautiously around them, surprised by the familiar location stretched out before them.

“Release the bad guys!” Doc Babylon exclaimed as she swiped a finger across the screen and a different window showed the bad guys tied up. Or at least, what she called the bad guys. Their whole bodies were covered in some tight black fabric, and they had masks over their faces... More than bad guys, they looked like certain Combatmen who would yell, “Yee!”

“Heh heh heh, let the games begin!” she cackled, an evil smile spread wide on her face as she tapped the screen again and screams erupted from the town. The enemies had begun wreaking havoc.

“You really are the evil mastermind...”

Though, really, the worst they were doing was eating fruit from stalls without paying, or arguing with shopkeepers, or chasing girls around. No large-scale crimes. Not that that changed the fact that they were crimes that shouldn’t be overlooked, of course.

“You do know these are the types of crimes currently plaguing many towns, right?”

“Exactly. Many dropout adventurers will commit acts such as these.”

As Leen and Yumina said, rougher towns tended to be crawling with these types of crime, and it wasn’t as if Brunhild was free of it either. Naturally, the citizens themselves didn’t carry out such crimes, but thugs from outside sometimes would. Honestly, those were the types that you had to be able to hold back for—bandits and wanted men were the ones it was fine to cut down.

“Th-Then let us split up and take down the bad guys,” Yakumo called out.

“Heh heh, I’m not gonna lose!” Steph enthusiastically responded, clenching her fists.

“Let’s do this! [Twinkling Heart Babylon Wave]!” Linne was the first to call out the magic words, thrusting her bracelet toward the sky, resulting in her being wrapped in a cocoon of light. With little pops of light, she reappeared in her blue magical girl outfit. “If you’ll excuse me!”

Like a rabbit, the girl leaped up and across the roofs.

“Hey, that’s not fair! Leylle, we’re going too!”

“O-Okay, Allis.”

Allis and Leylle transformed into their own outfits and followed suit.

Could you at least use the paths? You know, on the ground?

Linne running across the roofs was displayed on a different screen. Apparently, there were cameras automatically following each one of the children.

“Found you!”

“Nyee?!”

From atop the roofs, Linne spotted a bad guy rampaging through a market, sending vegetables flying everywhere.

They really did make their cry so familiar...

“Take this!”

“Nyee?!”

Linne jumped down and kicked the bad guy as they picked up another wooden box filled with vegetables. The fact that she didn’t use her special [Gravity] kick to increase the weight was probably her own way of showing restraint.

The vegetables scattered everywhere as the bad guy collapsed to the ground. At that same moment, they vanished into balls of light.

I see. Guess this is what happens when they commit overkill.

“What?! That was too far?!”

“Oh, did I forget to tell you? The bad guys have high physical strength, but I’ve set it so they’re real squishy in contrast. If you don’t control your strength, they’ll drop dead super easily, so better watch out.”

“You could’ve told us sooner!” Linne howled up at the announcement. Even if the villains hadn’t been set to be so squishy, if a regular person had taken that kick, they would have definitely broken some bones. Breaking bones was a bit far for simple disruption of business, no? Or...maybe not? For the shopkeeper, their business was a matter of life and death, so...

“Since you eliminated that bad guy, that’s minus points for you, Linne. Oh, and since you ruined the vegetables too, that’s another slight deduction.”

“Oh no, I’m so sorry!” Linne exclaimed, then immediately bent down to start picking up the vegetables and return them to their boxes. Some were so bruised that there was no way they would sell anymore.

Definitely worth a point reduction. It’s not good to cause a hassle for the townspeople.

Though the point reduction likely wasn’t by very much.

“Oh, Linne...” Linze quietly sighed. One of Linne’s problems was her lack of consideration for the small stuff, but if she was made to consider her actions, I was sure she would improve with time. Maybe.

“Nooo, you can’t just send them flying like that, Steph!”

I looked over in Sue’s direction and saw Steph in her yellow magical girl outfit, tackling a bad guy into the distance. He went so far that he collided with the far wall, disappearing into light at the impact.

Man, over here too? Our kids are so bad at holding back...

“Yes! Good going, Elna!”

On the other hand, Elze’s daughter was the first to successfully capture a villain. She had immobilized them with [Icebind] and then simply tapped them with her staff to deploy the light ring.

Elna got the first point, huh?

On the neighboring screen, Quun was confronting a villain, not with her staff but with a weirdly shaped gun.

“Capture!”

“Nyee?!”

A throwing net blasted out of the gun toward the bad guy. It landed right on top of them, sealing their movement, allowing Quun to walk up and tap them with her staff to capture them.

“Heh, that makes one point for me!”

“Should that count...?” Leen questioned, tilting her head.

“Hmm... I feel like it’s moving away from the idea of learning restraint, but she did apprehend the criminal properly, so maybe...” Quun wasn’t learning to hold back her own strength like this, she was entirely relying on her weapons. Though there was no denying that anyone could apprehend criminals with ease using that gun. For now...I’d accept it. I mean, she wasn’t cheating or anything.

“Oh.”

I suddenly heard Yakumo and Frei’s voices in unison from a different screen. Yae and Hilde were standing in front of it, the latter with her face in her hands, the former looking up to the sky in despair.

“She is putting too much strength in, she is...”

“She doesn’t need to thrust so hard that she sends the enemy flying...”

Apparently, Yakumo and Frei had misjudged their strength entirely. Of course, that was enough to defeat them, deducting points from their total. I was kind of surprised. Both of the girls would often spar with the knights, so I had assumed they knew how to hold back their strength.

Actually, was their training with the knights the kind where you stopped right before you hit them? In that case, I guess it made sense that they never really learned how to control their strength from there.

The girls ended up annihilating many of the bad guys after that, but they gradually got the hang of it, finally learning how to reduce their strength to a level where they merely knocked the enemy unconscious.

“Arcia’s really managing to take down bad guy after bad guy compared to the rest.”

“That’s because control in cooking is essential, after all,” Lu proudly stated. “From controlling the heat to controlling the level of spices, this is nothing new for her.”

Could those really be called the same thing? Did she mean because you had to toe the line for both? I wasn’t sure...

“Grand Duke, would Yoshino lose points in this case too?” Sakura asked as she watched her daughter take out her keyboard and begin playing a lullaby.

“Hm? Ahhh... Yeah, probably a bit.”

Due to Yoshino’s performance magic, the bad guys fell asleep right on the spot, allowing her to capture them with ease. There was nothing wrong with that. The problem was that she had put the other townspeople to sleep in the process. That would come under disrupting the people. But it was difficult for anyone to capture large numbers of criminals without accidentally causing a bit of a commotion, so I couldn’t see her getting too many points deducted.

“Leylle, he went over there!”

“Y-Yeah! Prisma Wall!”

“Nyee?!”

The bad guy running in front of Leylle suddenly bumped into something and fell. When I looked closer, I noticed that there was a transparent wall. Was it a crystal wall? He must have slammed right into it. Allis caught up and used her staff to apprehend them.

Nice, they caught them without any minus points.

“We did it, Leylle!”

“I’m so glad...”

The girls cheerfully gave each other a high five. They really were like sisters.

“I’m glad it looks like they’re having fun.”

“They’re both so cute. I’ve gotta record this.”

“Yeah. We should preserve it forever!”

Melle, Lycee, and Ney were all overjoyed at their achievement. Even Ende was recording the screen with his phone. I already told him I’d give him the edited footage later, though...

“Everyone seems to be getting used to it now. They’re capturing the bad guys much easier than when they started,” Yumina commented as she watched the screens.

Even Yakumo and Frei, who had been completely unable to control their power before, succeeded in knocking them unconscious at least half of the time. Linne seemed to be learning as well. Quun, Arcia, and Elna were all safely taking them down as they had been, and Yoshino... Well, she was still accidentally getting the townspeople wrapped up in her performance magic...

With Allis and Leylle still successfully taking the bad guys down, that left only one problem child.

“Grrrrrr, why did they disappear again?!”

“Steph...”

Steph pulled out yet another [Prison] tackle and annihilated another bad guy. Sue remained worried as she watched her daughter.

A tackle would be pretty hard to control the strength of.

Steph was light, so if she didn’t add some force with [Accel], she couldn’t quite make her tackle strong enough to do anything significant.

Kuon, who was currently standing beside Sue, called out to Steph.

“Steph, can you hear me?”

“Kuon! The baddies keep disappearing! I can’t catch them!” Steph wailed. It was a lot to expect of such a small child to know how to control their strength. It might have been best if I’d asked for the settings to be adjusted a bit...

“Listen to me, okay? [Prison] itself was intended as magic to capture enemies. There’s no need for you to tackle them.”

“OH.”

“Huh?”

His words were so obvious, yet even me and Sue couldn’t help but let out a noise at the realization. Steph didn’t quite seem to understand, though.

A bad guy chasing a girl down the street just happened to pass by Steph at that moment.

“Um... [Prison]?”

“NYEEEEEE?!”

A rectangular [Prison] that looked almost like a coffin materialized around the bad guy, and then they both fell with a bang. Steph bounced over and tapped him with her staff, capturing him in the ring of light.

“I did it!”

“Congratulations, Steph.”

“Thank you, Kuon!”

That tearful face from only moments before had completely changed into a wide smile as she cheerfully charged into the next bad guy. Kuon couldn’t help but give a satisfied smile at the sight.

“What a girl... Hm? Why are you looking at me like that?” Kuon frowned in our direction. Our big grins had been caught.

“Oh, nothing at all! I was just thinking how good of a big brother you are.”

“Yes, exactly. I’m so proud to have you as my son. You’re so kind, always thinking about your family.”

“Indeed. You gave splendidly precise advice! You make a good older brother, Kuon!”

Showered in our praise, Kuon turned bright red as he whipped his face away from our direction. Was he embarrassed? He was usually so composed. I was happy he was a big brother who cared so much for his sister too, especially ’cause I couldn’t do anything for my own little sister...

I wanted to bring my kids to Earth once we’d dealt with the wicked devout, and I hoped I could introduce them to Fuyuka then. Though it would be a bit weird—their aunt would be younger than them. Then again, the kids were from the future, so did that technically still make her older? Time shenanigans really were convoluted.

Now that Steph had learned how to capture the bad guys, everyone was managing to build up their points. In the interest of fairness, only Doc Babylon was aware of their scores. We didn’t even know how many points you received for a successful capture, or how much you’d lose for eliminating the villains. If it turned out the points lost for eliminating the bad guys were greater than the points for catching them, that would mean Steph would have a hard time catching up after all those points she lost at the start.

Still, it didn’t mean it was impossible for her to win. [Prison] was the most suitable Null magic for capturing enemies. She could completely turn the whole match around.

“But, you know...while I know that all the crimes these bad guys are committing are meant to be considered light crimes...”

“I know exactly what you’re thinking right now. How severe is peeking or groping girls?”

“I don’t think killing someone who did that should result in a point deduction even if they were to hit them as hard as they could.”

Leen, Linze, and Sakura were all narrowing their eyes at a bad guy who was running around peeking into public baths and feeling up girls before then running away. Why did I feel like I was being criticized as a man even though I had nothing to do with this? I’d never even peeked or felt up a girl before... Wait, that was a lie. I’d peeked multiple times before, but not because I was trying!

Realizing I shouldn’t let my panic show, I concentrated on watching the kids capture more of the bad guys.

“By the way, how does this all actually end?” Lu suddenly asked.

“Hmm... Maybe it’s about time for me to release the big bad,” Doc Babylon muttered to herself. What big bad? They weren’t about to suddenly become gargantuan and attack the town like in a good ol’ hero show, were they?

A new villain appeared in the main street.

Oh, they look different this time. They’re wearing a white coat. Hang on...

“Hey, that’s the exact same coat as mine.”

“I wanted to make them feel like a boss character. I stopped at just the coat ’cause I realized it’d be kinda bad for your image if I made it look exactly like you.”

This was already bad enough for my image! Was she saying I looked like a final boss just because of my jacket?!

“Unlike the previous villains, this one will fight back, so you better watch out. Catch the big bad and the game will come to an end. Good luck out there!”

“It retaliates? You made sure this’ll be okay, right? It’s safe, yeah?”

“I mean, this is an experiment to test this all out, isn’t it? C’mon, don’t look so worried. I made sure that it wouldn’t actually try to injure anyone. Just watch.”

How was she meant to pull that off? Was its weapon some silly paper fan or something?

“There he is!” The first to come face-to-face with the big bad was Linne. She made a mad dash for him, swinging her staff. The moment he saw the girl, the big masked bad with his white coat pulled something out of his pocket.

Is that...a gray Brunhild?

When he pulled the trigger, some glowing cobweb-like thing shot out of the gun, covering Linne.

“Huh, what is this?! I can’t move!”

Linne, now stuck to the ground with the web, desperately struggled to break free.

Honestly, she, uh...kinda looks like a bug caught in a web...

The fact that it was my own daughter in there didn’t help how bad it felt to watch.

“That glowing web won’t disappear until a set amount of time has passed. Linne, you’re on the bench for now, I’m afraid.”

“Nooooooooo!”

So that was what she had meant when she said that it was programmed to attack in ways that wouldn’t hurt the kids: it was using a more advanced form of Quun’s net gun.

The capturer becomes the captured... A little ironic, really.

The big bad left Linne struggling on the ground and began his escape.

Hey, he totally just felt up a girl’s butt on the way out.

“He just felt up a girl like it was normal...”

“It almost feels like I’m watching Touya do it...”

“Hey, don’t drag me into this!”

Linze and Elze were suddenly subjecting me to unjustified defamation. For some reason, the big bad was doing the exact same crimes the smaller bads did. Why would you not make it do something more dramatic? Actually, wait, that would spell even worse trouble for me...

My feelings were left in a complicated mess as I watched the big bad causing a ruckus in front of shops, starting fights, and peeking into all the baths it wanted.

“He even peeked...”

“I swear it looks just like Touya...”

“Hey, I’m starting to feel like this was created maliciously.”

“Nahhh, you’re just imagining things!” Doc Babylon said, laughing like crazy to herself all the while.

I’m not stupid! I can see who you modeled that after!

“[Prison]!”

While I was getting mad at Doc Babylon, it was suddenly Steph’s turn to take on the big bad. She instantly went for her signature magic. There was no way it could escape a whole prison! Or at least, that was what I thought, but all it took was a headbutt and the thing shattered.

“No way?!”

“He can destroy a [Prison]?!”

“He’s the final boss! It’d be no fun if he got caught too fast, right?”

That damn scientist made some weird setting, didn’t she? The garden was essentially a pseudo-space—the scenery and people could be considered illusions. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to think she could set the parameters so that a [Prison] could be broken.

The big bad fired his Brunhild once more, sticking Steph to the ground just as he had Linne.

“Noooooo!”

Steph had the exact same reaction as Linne; they really were sisters. The big bad swiftly made his escape, but he made sure to not forget to look up a girl’s skirt as he went.

C’mon, dude, you’re gonna make me want to run away...

“Found you!”

“We won’t let you escape!”

It was Yakumo and Frei’s turn this time. Stepping in front of the big bad, they gripped their staffs in their hands just like swords and dashed for the villain. He bounced back before shooting a web right where he had been standing. The moment both girls set foot on the glowing web, they were stuck in place and toppled forward.

“I can’t move!”

“Grnnnnnngh!”

Was that light net basically like birdlime? You know, why did they even charge into something that was clearly so suspicious, anyway?

“Prisma Rose!”

“Nyee?”

As the big bad tried to escape from the scene, Allis and Leylle attacked from above. The crystal vines that emitted from their hands wrapped around him and caught him tight.

But the next moment, he disappeared into particles of light and rematerialized elsewhere.

“Did that not count?” I asked.

“They probably squeezed him too tight,” Linze said.

This was so difficult. Personally, I didn’t care if they beat up that defaming asshole.

Having reappeared right beside where it had been taken down, the big bad aimed his Brunhild at Allis and Leylle, who had failed—or in some sense succeeded—in their surprise attack, and fired another sticky net. The two girls ended up stuck to the nearby wall, and the villain went to make his big escape.

Until suddenly, he fell to the ground as if he’d suddenly lost all his power.

What just happened?!

“Down we go.”

Yoshino suddenly appeared and lightly tapped her staff on the big bad’s back, capturing him in the ring of light.

Of course, Yoshino’s lullaby!

It turned out Allis and Leylle had fallen asleep too. To think the final boss wasn’t resistant to sleep.

“Good job, Yoshino. You did good,” Sakura proudly said, a smug look on her face. Yae and Hilde on the other hand were giving their biggest angry frowns.

C’mon now, friendly competition only.

“And that marks the end of that. Game, set, and match. Good job, you guys.”

A buzzer suddenly rang out, and the kids were all returned to the courtyard. The game was finally done. I wasn’t sure if I could confidently say that they had learned how to show restraint, but at least it looked like they’d enjoyed themselves.

The biggest problem now was that I had to listen to the wish of the victor. Who’d actually won in the end? Yoshino, since she caught the final boss?

“I’ll start from third place, then,” Doc Babylon began. “In third place, we have Yoshino. You caught the big bad, but you racked up too many negative points to steal the win.”

She was third, huh? I was surprised. Though, it was true that Yoshino kept putting the townspeople to sleep when capturing the villains. If that had been a real mission, that could’ve been dangerous. A thief could very easily sneak into a shop while the shopkeeper was unconscious. Figuring out how to put a specific target to sleep instead of indiscriminately affecting everyone present would be something for her to work on.

“By the way, Quun was in fourth place. You were doing great at the start, but you started observing the garden halfway through, didn’t you?”

“Mngh... Once I started thinking about it, I just couldn’t stop...”

Rather than catching the villains, Quun had been much more preoccupied with understanding the garden’s systems and had swapped to observing the location in the second half. The fact that she still got fourth despite that was incredible if you asked me.

“Second place was Elna. You took your time, slowly but surely catching a lot of the bad guys—you had no point deductions either.”

“Great job, Elna!”

“Hee hee...”

Elze hugged the bashful Elna tight. Even when the big bad had appeared, Elna chose to steadily focus on whatever villain appeared in front of her rather than ignore them to chase after the final boss. A steady pace had planted her in second, but then what about first?

“And the winner is...Arcia! Not only were you precise, but you were fast, pulling you into the lead at a good pace. Even when the big bad appeared, you kept catching the small fry. The thing that really separated you from Elna was the speed at which you moved from one bad guy to the next.”

“Saving time is a key part of cooking, after all. You have to always consider how to move efficiently.”

Arcia was relating it to cooking, but were they even connected? Like, at all? Then again, if you weren’t efficient with your methods, cooking anything could take forever and you’d just end up with something that tasted bad instead. In the sense of being efficient, it was the same idea.

Still, the champion was Arcia, huh?

I’m a little afraid of the kind of request she’ll make...

◇◇◇

“Whoooaaa! It’s so shiny and new! It’s amazing!”

“I’m glad you like it.”

Arcia’s wish had been to get her own kitchen, so I worked with Doc Babylon to create a small compact kitchen that she could keep in her smartphone’s [Storage]. It was a kitchen cabinet in the shape of an L, with a large table attached to it. It also had three magic stovetop burners, a magic oven, a stainless mithril sink, and marble countertops layered with [Protection] so dirt never had to be a worry.

A large water spellstone capable of taking in the mana in the environment served as an endless water source, and it was made so that you could use teleportation magic to funnel the tap to wherever you wanted. We had also installed a magic ventilation fan that would absorb any smoke and convert it into clean air, allowing her to cook even when inside a building.

The pièce de résistance were the premium cooking utensils made of a mix of phrasium and mithril. The chopping board was made of phrasium so the phrasium knives wouldn’t slice straight through.

This whole kitchen could be called from Arcia’s [Storage] anytime, anywhere. Personally, I think we did a fantastic job.

“Ugh... I want one too!” Lu muttered in envy. I thought she would say that, so we’d actually prepared one for Lu as well; I just wasn’t giving it to her today. Why not, you ask? Well, because my daughter now had the opportunity to look so incredibly smug in her new kitchen. It was meant to be her reward, after all.

“I’m going to make something right away! Father, do you have any requests?”

“Hmm... How about gratin? And gyoza? And maybe...roast beef?”

I kept glancing over at Lu, deliberately requesting food that would take far too long to prepare alone.

“Gratin, gyoza, and roast beef... Mother, could you help me out?”

“W-Well, since you asked so nicely! All of those take so long to make, right? Working together would be much more efficient!”

Lu excitedly entered the little kitchen space. She seemed really happy about getting to try out a new kitchen. I’d give it about a week before I gifted her with one of her own.

“Let’s start with the gratin! Mother, the white sauce if you please!”

“Leave it to me!”

I couldn’t help but smile at the sight of the mother-daughter pair having fun in the new kitchen as I sat down on one of the nearby chairs.

Gratin, gyoza, and roast beef... Would I even be able to eat it all...?