In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 30 - Chapter 3.2

The building was in the middle of the forest at the foot of Mount Paparika, near the border with Rephan in the northern part of Triharan. It was a tower that appeared to be around thirty meters tall, roughly the height of Ortlinde Overlord. It was shaped like a rectangular box until around the second or third floor, and then a tall tower curved upward from the left-hand side. In a way, it resembled a lighthouse.

“This is the Maestro’s lab? What a lonely building.”

“Indeed. It doesn’t appear to have changed much since the last time I visited.”

“What boring taste. He should add more spice!”

Doctor Elluka, the Professor, and Doc Babylon all threw in their opinions after I brought them here. I agreed about the bad taste, at least—it felt like some abandoned old ruin. There was even ivy running all over the walls. Still, the Professor said it hadn’t changed much since the last time he’d been here. Did that mean it always looked like this? Did the Maestro just never clean the place?

“He’s never cared about his living conditions,” he elaborated. “Nothing was more important to him than his research and development. All he cared about was the facilities he had access to inside.”

It seemed that was why he ended up with this abandoned tower. Honestly, the foundation seemed stable, so it would definitely serve as a functional place to live.

“What’s the plan? Gonna break in?” Doc Babylon asked, but I didn’t actually have an answer ready. If this really was the enemy base, they should’ve realized we were here by now, yet there hadn’t been a peep. Being aware that there was the possibility they were waiting inside to ambush us, I used [Search] to check for the presence of any of them, but got no results.

Guess I’ll take this opportunity to act out one of those detective dramas.

I took out Brunhild and slowly sidled toward the wooden door with my back against the wall, and then I kicked it at full force, my foot going right through it.

“Whoa, it’s all rotten!”

I really just broke the door itself. The only thing left hanging there was my leg through the hole. That door wasn’t even acting as a door any longer.

Ow, ow, ow, the wood’s sharp...

As I hopped backward in pain, the part I kicked split in two and the door fell inward.

“That door looked about ready to break the last time I came here too. I suppose he never fixed it,” the Professor said, as the only person here who had ever visited this place before.

“Tell me that before I kick the door, please...” I groaned.

We peeked past the destroyed door and saw a place so desolate that it looked completely abandoned. Actually, upon further inspection, there was at least some furniture like tables and chairs around, but beyond that, it was basically empty.

The Professor led us through the dusty, empty space to the area that should’ve been the Maestro’s lab, but there was nothing there either.

“It seems he took everything with him.”

“Aw, does that mean we came out here for nothing?” Doc Babylon asked, disappointed.

It wasn’t completely devoid of things, but it surprisingly lacked much. The place probably would’ve been left to rot without anyone knowing it ever existed if we hadn’t shown up.

We made sure to check the tower too, but he’d taken absolutely everything from there. The top floor seemed to be the Maestro’s bedroom, but all that was left was a simple desk and chair, as well as three empty bookshelves.

“Not gonna lie, when I hear the title ‘great gollemancer,’ this is not the kind of room I expect,” I commented.

“He was very picky with his work, you see. You could try to tempt him with all the money in the world, but he still wouldn’t do anything he had no interest in. On the other hand, if he thought the work would be informative for him, he would even do it for free. He ultimately ended up chasing away most of his potential clients, though, given his thorny personality...”

One of those picky craftsmen, huh?

Maybe a little too picky, if you asked me. Then again, it was because of how picky he was that he managed to get his hands on the gold crown, so he was probably happy in his own way, even though achieving that goal meant giving up his humanity...

“Hm?”

Doc Babylon was looking at the bookcases from all different angles, pressing her hand against different parts of it.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Does it not look like there’s a bit of a scrape mark here?”

“Let’s see...”

She was pointing at the rock wall beside the bookcase. Right enough, it looked as though something had been dragged across it.

Wait, are these marks from the bookcase being moved?

“Did you not think it a little strange that we had to climb up some really steep stairs just to make it up here?”

“What’s strange about it?”

This tower was four floors, and we’d climbed up stairs that were practically vertical to get up here to the top. The only thing I thought was strange was that it felt like a Gollem engineer should be smart enough to build an elevator.

“Did you not notice? Pay attention to the size of this room, then think about the size of the tower. The room itself is rather small. What do you think that means?”

“Huh? Uh...the walls are really thick?”

“Good answer. But two meters thick seems a bit much for a simple wall, no? It’s not like the place is a fortress.”

Now that she mentioned it...compared to how the tower looked from the outside, this room did feel a little too small.

“Aha, now I see. What you want to say is that this room has empty space surrounding it, don’t you?”

“A space between the inner and outer walls? Could it be...?”

The Professor and Doctor Elluka seemed to have realized something.

Wait, don’t leave me in the dark. What are you guys talking about?

“This has to be it. If I just press along here...”

The small scientist pressed the side of the bookcase, and there was suddenly a little thunk! Then, the bookcase itself started to slide to the side. What appeared on the other side was a flight of stairs that was heading downward. It was a spiral staircase going around the sides of the tower; this had to be what was hiding between the inner and outer walls.

“We going?” Doc Babylon asked. Everyone nodded. We had no idea what was down there, but turning back wasn’t a choice anymore.

Using [Light Orb] to see where we were going, we descended the staircase. I was pretty sure we were already under the first floor by this point. Just what was hiding in the basement?

What awaited us at the bottom was a large room like a warehouse. Stored inside were about thirty or so dusty Gollems—stocky headless humanoid Gollems that were simply left there. They mostly looked adult-sized, though there were some smaller ones mixed in.

“They must be the Gollems that assisted the Maestro,” the Professor observed. “They’re older models, so he probably abandoned them here once he was done with them.”

“I absolutely despise the side of him that is so willing to just abandon things the moment he thinks he’s done with them.”

Though the Professor was calm, Doctor Elluka was clearly furious. I couldn’t blame her. The only reason you’d be able to so easily abandon creations that had spent so long looking after and helping you would be if you truly saw Gollems as nothing but tools. As an inventor who viewed her Gollems as her partners, Doctor Elluka couldn’t see his actions as anything but deeply cruel.

We did a thorough investigation of the place, but found nothing of use. We were definitely looking at a scene from after the Maestro had already grabbed everything he needed. He likely never intended to return here. I could sense the man’s conviction because of how empty the place was.

“Turns out this was all just a wild-goose chase, huh?”

Left with that dismal conclusion, we turned and left the Maestro’s laboratory. A tower to which its master would never return was a lonelier sight than I would’ve thought.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Hyah!”

Moroha smoothly dodged Yakumo’s powerful strike before then dashing right up to the girl in an instant.

“Watch your toes, kid.”

“Whoa!”

Yakumo’s legs were swept out from under her. Though she lost her balance, she managed to recover and roll to the side, gaining distance from Moroha. Moroha never continued into a follow-up attack, however.

“Kokonoe Secret Style: Bee Stinger!”

Yakumo leaped up and unleashed a piercing thrust. Moroha calmly dodged back.

“[Gate]!”

“Hm.”

The tip of Yakumo’s blade moved into a tiny [Gate] and disappeared before reappearing in the space behind Moroha. Everyone watching thought it would be impossible for the goddess to dodge.

“Not so fast.”

“Huh?”

As if going to scratch an itch with a backscratcher, Moroha took her sword and maneuvered it around her back, stopping Yakumo’s blade with the flat of her sword. And she managed all that without even turning around once.

Does this woman have eyes on the back of her head?!

Having deflected the tip of Yakumo’s blade, Moroha leaped forward and thrust the tip of her sword at the young girl’s neck.

“You’re still thinkin’ too simple, kid. If your opponent can predict where you’re sending your attacks with those little gates of yours, it’s nothing better than a parlor trick. Even aiming for the feet would give you a better chance of success.”

“Ngh... I concede...”

Once Yakumo raised her hands in surrender, Moroha lowered her sword.

Apparently, Yakumo had asked Moroha for more strict training because of feeling her own inadequacy during the raid on the Ark. From where I was standing, she had put up a good fight, but to her, there must have been something that left her feeling humiliated. I didn’t see any problem with it, so I granted her my permission, but I hadn’t expected them to go at it all morning.

“Yakumo, I feel like you should take a break.”

“Yeah! It’s not fair that you get to hog all the training time! It’s my turn!” Frei yelled from beside me, clearly desperate to get out on the field. I guess she was at her limit after having to hold in all her energy for so long.

“I feel so close to figuring this out. Please, just one more round!” Yakumo pleaded.

“That’s what you said last time!” Frei angrily shouted back.

If I don’t force them to stop, this is gonna turn nasty.

“[Gate].”

“Ah!”

Frei and Yakumo fell through the gates at their feet as they reappeared back where the other had been standing.

Take a look at my all-powerful swap-no-jutsu...! Just kidding.

“But, father, I can still...!”

“I dunno what’s got you so worked up, but right now, you’re so exhausted that you can barely move right.”

“Y-You could just cast [Refresh] on me and...”

“Absolutely not. Just rest.”

I immediately rejected her request, and Yakumo sat herself down in defeat.

The girl was right, I could have cast [Refresh] on her and she’d have gotten her stamina back right away, but something like that could have adverse effects on one’s growth. If you had two runners training every day, one casting [Refresh] on themselves every time, while the other let their body recover naturally, the latter would acquire the most natural stamina. Using that magic prevented one’s muscles from developing.

It was one thing to do it to an adult who had already finished their growth period, but using it too much on a child could stunt their growth, and I was certain Yakumo wouldn’t want that either.

“Here I go!”

Having been left to wait for so long, Frei’s first strike toward Moroha was explosive. They were both wielding spears, Frei’s being the sacred treasure. The long reach of the spear put a swordsman at a clear disadvantage, but such knowledge didn’t work against the goddess. She was humming away to herself as she deflected Frei’s barrage of attacks with the spear in one of her hands.

“How much training do I have to put in to reach such a level...?” Yakumo wondered.

“Uh, an impossible amount,” I immediately shot back. Reaching the same level as Moroha? No human could attain that. “That woman is insane on more than one level. At least have Yae as your goal.”

“I doubt I could even win against mother either...”

As much as it was my fault for becoming a god, Yae had halfway stopped being human herself. Then again, Yakumo was a demigod—maybe it wasn’t out of the question? As her father, though, I didn’t really want her to become my strongest child... Marriage proposals would practically disappear.

Wait...maybe this is a good thing.

“Well, just watch yourself, okay? It was thanks to you that our mission in the Ark succeeded, so don’t take it too hard.”

“But the sacred treasure had its divinity stolen...”

So that was what she was hung up on. There was nothing she could have done in that situation. In fact, I was the one more at fault here—I was so distracted by the idea of the fallen god that I’d completely forgotten to create a counter for the Gluttony Slime. I’d already refilled the sacred treasure with divinity and made some adjustments so it wouldn’t ever get its power absorbed from it again, so Yakumo really didn’t need to blame herself.

This girl was the kind of person who beat herself up over the tiniest of mistakes; she was exactly like Yae in that respect. Both were usually very straightforward, but they tended to be too strict on themselves and overthink things. They were always so stubborn when they got something in their heads, but they could afford to be a bit more carefree sometimes. Well, so long as they weren’t as airheaded as Steph was, at least.

Now, what would I do if Yae was in a slump like this?

“Oh, right. Food.”

“What?”

There was nothing better to help clear one’s head than something tasty. The moment I thought of that, I sent a message to both Lu and Arcia.

“And so, you decided to have a curry party?” Yumina muttered in slight disbelief as she looked out over the large carts lined up with all different sizes of curry around the courtyard. That wasn’t a mistake, by the way—what was being served wasn’t the Mismede cully, but actual curry from Earth. Though to the residents of this world, it just seemed like we’d arranged cully into something better.

The aggressive smell was permeating not just the courtyard, but all throughout the castle. It might be a bit tough on everyone having such a strong, mouthwatering smell hanging in the air right before lunch. I was pretty sure I heard a very loud tummy rumble from somewhere.

“They really made a lot, didn’t they?”

“To the surprise of no one, Lu and Arcia had both gone crazy with it... Through trial and error, they continued their search for the ultimate curry...”

The curries on the menu ranged from the usual pork, chicken, and beef curries to the all-familiar seafood, katsu, and veggie curries, and then stranger ones like curry udon and curry ramen. I could also spy some keema, green, and soup curries off to the side. There really were all kinds present.

In fact, it didn’t stop there—Lu and Arcia had their own original curries on display as well. It was absolute chaos. There was a bright red curry among them all, but...

I value my life, thanks...

The moment it became time for lunch, everyone, from the castle’s knights to the maids, impatiently made their way to the courtyard. Usually, they’d all eat in a separate mess area, but today, they all flowed to where we were waiting.

Hang on, don’t some of these people usually bring their own lunch boxes? Is this the true power of curry?

Next to Yae, who was wolfing down some katsu curry, was Yakumo doing the exact same thing. Had she managed to cheer up a bit? My grandpa always said that eating food helped your mood by making your worries feel a little lighter.

I should try some too.

“Oh, father! Try this black curry I made! I simmered the ingredients for days and also added a secret spice!”

“No, you should have my golden curry! It’s made with a mix of golden spices I concocted myself!”

“Um...”

I’d just gone to grab some chicken curry, but Arcia and Lu slid in and held out a plate each toward me.

So, um... Do I have to eat these? Well, just one or two bites shouldn’t kill me...

What? I had to eat it all?

“Which was more delicious?!”

Here we go again...

Somehow, I’d finished both plates and now the two were hounding me for an opinion. They were both delicious! So delicious that I couldn’t decide which was better!

To be honest, I wasn’t so culinary-minded that I could determine the small differences. If I had to pick, Arcia’s was easier to eat, but that could also have been because I had Lu’s curry second, so I might have just been full. If I’d eaten Lu’s first, I’d probably have felt the opposite. Though, the idea of it being easy to eat had nothing to do with whether it tasted nice or not.

“Umm, I’d say this is a draw...”

“Then I’ll decide it with this pineapple curry!”

“I’ll decide it with this dry-curry-stuffed squid!”

They each whipped out another plate of curry.

Hang on, I don’t have to eat more, do I?

Perhaps I made a mistake asking them to prepare this curry party when all I wanted to do was cheer up Yakumo.

I should’ve asked Crea...

If there was no real conclusion to this, then I’d be stuck eating curry forever, but if I chose one or the other, things would definitely get messy.

In the end, I ate so much curry that I felt ill and fell right asleep. The result of the match? I was unconscious, so I have no clue.