The Encroaching Mutants

Pirates, eh? That's no good."

"Quite... Right at the beginning of peak trade season, at that. If we end up

missing this opportunity, it'll be quite the financial blow... I'm truly irritated

right now, if I must be honest." Olba grumbled quietly to himself as his fox ears

twitched and swished.

I'd dropped by the Strand Company building in Brunhild, and Olba happened

to be there. We decided to have a small tea break in the back room.

The head office of the Strand Company was located in Berge, Mismede's

capital city.

Olba himself didn't conduct operations out of Mismede, though, and most of

their trade was primarily conducted via ships.

The Great Gau River connected Belfast, Regulus, Ramissh, Roadmare, Ryle,

Felsen, and Lestia... So the ships he sent out would proceed down that route,

which he called Route A. Lihnea, Refreese, Palouf, and Elfrau weren't connected

along the river, so there was a separate sea-based Route B for trade with those

nations.

The sea-based trade route had currently been falling victim to pirates. They'd

already lost several ships. That was a major cause for concern.

"We assume their hideout is on one of the islands along Refreese's coast, but

they've been pretty good at eluding us so far."

"Can't Refreese do anything about it?"

"Their naval forces have been keeping a keen eye, but... Well, it's not like they

can escort our ships all the way." I took out my smartphone and pulled up the

map of the sea from Refreese to Lihnea.

"Search. Pirate hideout."

"Searching... Search complete. Displaying." A few pings ran out as the pin

markers landed on several small islands. There were six results in total. I

wondered if that meant there were six hideouts that belonged to one band or

six separate pirate crews.

"Oh my..."

"Yep, here's the hideouts. I don't think they'd have bothered installing any

barriers, so this is probably the lot." I used my camera to screenshot the map,

then made a call to the emperor of Refreese.

"Ah, 'sup. Is this the emperor? Yeah, calling about the pirates. Yep... Yep...

Gotcha. Oh, sure. I've discovered their hideouts, so I'll send you a photo of the

map, alright? No, really... Don't worry about it. Oh, really? Well, maybe later

then... Alright, thanks. Glad I could help!"

And that was that.

"Refreese's navy is headed to the hideouts right away. That should help,

right?"

"Ah, I... Good grief... You just snapped your fingers and solved such a plague

on my company... You're really something else, young man..." Olba let out a

heavy sigh as he sipped his drink. I was getting used to this kind of thing, so I

just ignored it and sipped my own.

"By the way, Olba, I have a proposition for you."

"Hmm? Your ideas are always welcome, Grand Duke... What's on your mind?"

I picked up my smartphone and played a video of the Dverg that Rosetta and

the others had repaired the other day.

Rosetta was piloting it as it slowly walked toward a large boulder and picked it

up.

"Hm...? Is this a Frame Gear? No, it's smaller..."

"This is a magic construction vehicle created by the Dwarves. It's called a

Dverg. It's inferior to the Frame Gears, but more than capable of manual labor.

It's still in the testing phase but I wanted to know if you'd be willing to invest."

"Invest...? You wish for me to provide development funds?"

"That's right. In exchange, the Strand Company will have exclusive rights to

the machine and its sales. Not a bad deal, is it?" The Dwarves seemed fine with

those terms. They said they didn't care too much about profiting, they just

wanted to show the world the marvels of Dwarven engineering.

They probably didn't even give any thought to the problems that a national

monopoly of that kind of tech could cause.

They only had one condition, which was that Olba would sell the machines to

any country, all at the same price.

The raw material cost to construct one was definitely high, so it's not as if any

one nation would be able to amass too many. Not to mention the fact that I was

the only one with access to the Workshop, so mass-producing them would be

impossible anywhere else.

If the Dverg ended up becoming a globally-known product, it was possible

that other Dwarves around the world could try to produce more on their own,

so we needed a proper stake in the market.

"Hmm... I could certainly see this being profitable if my people had a

monopoly on it..." Olba leaned forward and muttered to himself as he watched

the video play.

"...Very well, then. I'm certainly interested, I just have concerns about the

investment cost..."

"If you want to talk it over with the inventors, you can. They're staying at the

Silver Moon right now. They know about you, so you'd just have to introduce

yourself." Olba seemed a little surprised they were so close, but he quickly

straightened himself up and smiled.

"My, my... You've already arranged so much. Did you not consider that I might

have said no?"

"Not in the least. A shrewd guy like you, Olba? You'd always be on the ball

with this kind of potential profit."

"Hoho, I see. Well, you were quite right." Olba grinned a little as his eyes

narrowed on me. All I wanted to do was mediate between him and the

dwarves, now all they had to do was iron out the rest. There was nothing in it

for me, but I had a feeling that the Dverg would end up becoming a useful

excavation and construction tool for those who couldn't use Earth magic. In

that regard, it would end up bettering the world.

Olba said he'd visit the Dwarves the following morning, so I said goodbye and

left the building.

I opened up a [Gate] and headed up to the Babylon Garden. Doc Babylon and

Rosetta were there tuning up the Dimensional Disruptor.

There were new parts installed around the gate's arch.

"Did you finish the adjustments?"

"Basically, yeah. We can trigger it with a lot less magic than before, and we've

removed the weight limitations. If I had a little more free time, I'd make further

adjustments, but this'll do for now," Doctor Babylon said as she shrugged her

shoulders and stashed her gear into the toolbox.

I touched the disruptor to test out her claims, and the meter filled up with far

less effort than before. The new parts began to whir and spin.

"Did you finish making the mana tank for the other side, too?"

"That I did, yes. But that's no big deal. Both Dimensional Disruptors are

connected by Space-time magic, so improvements to one will be applied to the

other." Wonder if we should go to the other side, then... I did promise everyone

they could come.

I needed to cast [Translation] on everyone first, though.

That spell was useful because I could use it to teach others languages that I'd

absorbed.

I wasn't able to communicate with dragons using it, though. Apparently, they

communicated with some kind of unique telepathy.

To be honest, though, I didn't really want to learn the languages of monsters

and animals. I definitely didn't want to hear the opinions of chickens, cows, and

other livestock.

Either way, there was no point fretting. I had a trip to arrange.

I went to the Research Lab to pick up the new mana tank and reactivate the

three etoiles. I'd noticed that the three of them were wearing petite maid

uniforms, Tica had likely been responsible for it... But it did suit them, so it was

okay.

Once I got back to the Garden with the three etoiles, everyone was already

gathered and ready.

Even Sue had come, all the way from Belfast. With the professor included, I

wondered if all ten of us plus Paula and the etoiles would be alright over there.

I sent word to Kousaka and told him not to worry about our absence. Ideally,

I'd want to be back in Brunhild by the evening, but there was no way of

guaranteeing that due to the time dilation.

According to Doctor Babylon, her tune-up on the Dimensional Disruptor

reduced the amount of time it took to traverse worlds, but we wouldn't know

by how much until we went and gave it a go.

I channeled my magic through the tank, and the Dimensional Disruptor

opened up a portal.

"Well then... Let's go... Could you maybe let go of my coat, though?"

Everyone there was holding on to me tightly, except for Doctor Babylon. I could

understand their unease.

"T-Touya-dono... I am simply afraid that we might be separated, I am..."

"H-Holding on to you is fine, right?" Elze and Linze were clinging to my right

arm, while Lu tightly clasped my right hand. Hilde and Yae were on the opposite

side, seizing my left arm as Yumina grabbed my left hand. Leen and Sakura were

clinging to my waist on either side, and Sue had clambered up to my back...

Paula was sitting on my head. I felt like a heavily-armored knight.

Still, I only had to bear with it while we passed through, so it would be fine.

We passed through the Dimensional Disruptor, slowly but surely. The

sensation of walking through a rubbery material was there again, but it was

easier to move through. It was probably because of Babylon's improvements.

We made it through and came out into the garden on Drakliff Island. I looked

around and found myself rather surprised at what I saw.

There was a beautiful stone pathway leading from the portal and beautiful

flowers in bloom all around us. The garden had been decorated since I last left,

and it was clearly well-attended and gorgeous.

"Wow, this is so pretty!" Sue jumped down from my back and ran to the

flowerbed. Yumina and Lu followed suit as Paula clambered from the top of my

head.

Hm... Everyone seems fine, then... Guess the Dimensional Disruptor works

well.

"Yae, there are so many dragons..."

"You are correct, Hilde-dono..." Yae and Hilde stood at the edge of the cliff

and watched a group of wyverns fly by.

Well, this is a dragon island, so what do you expect? But... Who did that with

my garden? Oh wait, could this be that silver dragon's work...? "Greetings,

everyone. It's a pleasure to meet you." As if appearing to answer my question,

Shirogane suddenly came to greet us.

He was wearing a formal black butler suit with white gloves, and his long

silver hair was tied with string. What the hell, man! You look really hot!

Shirogane bowed his head to me. His posture was definitely on point. I

grumbled quietly about how jealous I was of his good looks before introducing

him to everyone.

"Everyone, this is Shirogane. He's in charge of this house while I'm away. He

might look like a beastman, but he's actually a Silver Dragon that can take

human form."

"My name is Shirogane, indeed. It's a pleasure." Everyone stared at him with

a look of confusion on their faces. Then I realized what I'd done. I'd forgotten to

cast the linguistic magic on them, so they couldn't understand a word he was

saying.

"[Translation]." I cast the spell and everyone was suddenly able to

understand him without any issues.

I then introduced all the girls as my fiancees, except for Doctor Babylon. She

kept insisting that she was my mistress, but I refused to let that slide.

"So, what's up with the garden?"

"Ah, yes! I was told I could do as I wished, so I did some decorating."

So it was you, you sure are a dragon of many talents... I'm pretty surprised you

have such a green thumb... But I guess Silver Dragons are just weirdos.

"Now then, please come inside. Right this way sir, and madams."

They're not married to me yet... But they certainly seem happy with his

manner of address... Guess we've got ourselves quite the butler.

The interior was gaudier than it was when I'd left it. There was a Leylight

stone chandelier, a magnificent carpet, a cupboard, potted plants, paintings,

fully functional blackout curtains, and even several comfy beds. Everything had

been arranged perfectly.

"You sure had fun, huh..."

"I'd never had the chance to shop in a human town before, so... Well, I went a

little wild, but I thought your home would be best fitted with fine furnishings."

He certainly wasn't wrong about the fine part, since everything looked amazing.

I had nothing to complain about, at least.

"Touya, there's even a library!" Linze had discovered a book-filled room,

which certainly got her excited. Leen picked up a book and began flipping

through it with curious eyes... Doctor Babylon followed suit.

"You bought books, too?"

"Of course. I haven't had contact with humanity in over two-hundred years,

so I purchased enough to really get myself up to speed." That made sense.

There were a lot of different genres, too. He'd picked up history books,

technical manuals, war stories, and even academic textbooks. I even saw a

couple of cookbooks... Which made me wonder if dragons even needed to

cook. I left the library and headed to the living room. There was a big comfy

couch and a table with a beautiful flower vase on top. There was a nice-looking

clock on the wall, too. Not to mention the very fancy and expensive-looking

chest of drawers up against the wall.

I sat down on the couch and practically sank into it, it was really nice.

"Please, do relax. I'll bring tea." Shirogane bowed and left the room.

"He's a pretty good butler, huh? But I dunno if he's as good as mine!" Sue

grinned slightly as she sat herself down next to me. He wasn't as talented at

butlering as Leim, that much was sure... Laim would give him a run for his

money, too.

"So, what are we going to do? We wanted to leave by the evening, right?"

"That's right. I was wondering if you might take us to a capital city." Lu sat

down next to me as she answered my question.

Capitals, huh...? Well, there's Allen... Or there's Goldose... I guess I haven't

actually been anywhere except those places.

If we wanted to have a fun day out, then Goldose was the place to go, but I

felt uneasy about that place since the attack on the black market. That's why I

decided that Allen was the best place for us to go.

I didn't want to run into Nia or the Red Cats... So I hoped that they'd stay in

their forest hideout for at least today.

I didn't want my fiancees finding out that I'd peeked at her panties, after all.

"Is there something on your mind, Touya-dono, is there?"

"Ah, no... Nothing." I smiled over at Yae, who was eyeing me suspiciously.

Alright, we'll head off to Allen. The only people I know there are Mr. Sancho

and the Red Cats, so I guess just strolling around the place should be decent fun.

We drank the tea that Shirogane brought in (it was great) as I explained my

idea. Everyone except Doctor Babylon said they'd tag along. She wanted to

make some final tweaks to the Dimensional Disruptor Mk. II and install the

mana tank.

I also asked Shirogane to take care of the three Gollems. I didn't really expect

him to teach them anything weird, so I figured it would be fine.

They only followed orders given to them by their master, so I just ordered

them to listen to Shirogane as well.

"We'll be heading out, then. We expect to be back by evening."

"Very well. Have a pleasant and safe trip!"

"Ping."

"Pong."

"Pang." The three etoiles mimicked Shirogane's bowing motion. That's when I

was certain that leaving them with him was probably a good idea.

I opened up a [Gate] to the capital city, Allen.

We came out into the main street and saw people and their Gollems walking

by.

There was a man riding a Gollem that resembled a small Dverg, as it hauled a

cart behind it. Just as I watched them pass by, a massive, armored, two-and-ahalf meter Gollem walked past us alongside a young knight.

"Oh my... It really is another world..."

"...Wow..." Hilde and Sakura murmured quietly as they watched all the

different Gollems walk by.

The others timidly followed after me as I walked. We must've looked pretty

backwater.

Paula's tottering caught the attention of a few people, but they lost interest

relatively quickly. People probably just thought she was another Gollem.

Frankly, I was glad we weren't standing out too much.

"I guess we should go visit Mr. Sancho... I could do with some money, after

all."

"Is he the merchant that helped you, Touya?"

"That's right. I'll have him buy some gold and silver from me." The money I'd

made from the Red Cats had mostly been used to buy the three Gollems, after

all. We still had enough to eat well, but I wanted some more money so

everyone could buy themselves a nice souvenir. More money was always better

than less, in the end.

We arrived at Mr. Sancho's store when I saw the man himself talking to a few

merchants. Their faces looked a little dire.

"Ahh, it's you, Tohya! Did you need something?"

"Good day to you, Mr. Sancho. I was looking to see if you'd buy, but... Is

something wrong?"

"Ah, well... We were just discussing the incident, you know? They say

someone got away from Geore Village just in time..."

"Hm? What incident?" I was confused, but Mr. Sancho just looked at me like

he was surprised.

"You don't know? But everyone's been talking about it! It's even in the

newspapers..."

"Ah, sorry... I haven't been here for a while."

There are newspapers in this world? Oh, the Red Cats did have a comms

device, so maybe this world has decent information technology... The regular

world only has communication artifacts and horses...

Oh, I guess the other world does have bulletin boards for general news,

though.

"Ah, I see... If you weren't around the city, then it makes sense you wouldn't

know! Look here."

Mr. Sancho showed me the paper. I looked at it with some surprise. It was

stiff, and the paper quality wasn't exactly very good. The printing looked neat,

but the paper itself was about half the size of the newspapers back on Earth.

I looked down at the main headline and instinctively caught my own breath.

'Golden Monster Sighted In Geore!' There was an illustration beneath, a

realistic likeness of the creature that had been spotted. At a glance, it kind of

resembled a ladybug, but it was clearly well-rounded and had various limbs.

There was no mistaking it, I'd seen this creature before.

"...One of the mutant Phrase..." It was a golden monster alright. There was no

mistaking it, this was a drawing of one of the metal devils. One of the wicked

god's dependents.

◇ ◇ ◇

The newspaper had the following to say about the incident:

A golden monster appeared all of a sudden in Geore Village, not far from the

Holy Capital. The monster attacked the villagers and began ripping them apart,

one by one.

A few survivors escaped, but only barely. The Knight Order responded to the

summons and charged in with their Gollem Enforcers.

What they found when they arrived at the village was the golden monster and

several crystal skeletons shambling around the streets. The knights engaged the

creature and met success against the skeletons, but even the Skills of the

Gollems were ineffective against the golden creature, and so they had to go on

the defensive.

The prince of the Panaches Kingdom just happened to be passing by, and he

used the power of his crown Gollem to destroy the golden creature.

Then the monster completely dissolved into a liquid, leaving behind the

mystery of just what it was. The Allent Theocracy was now developing

countermeasures in case another decided to appear.

"...Well, isn't that just fine and dandy." I had Mr. Sancho buy a few more

ingots from me, said my goodbyes, and took the girls with me to a nearby cafe.

"I understand how you must feel, but it's bad manners to read while eating.

Could you not, for now?"

"Hm? Ah... Sorry..." Leen scolded me lightly because I was holding a sandwich

in one hand and a newspaper in the other. Apparently, I'd been reading longer

than I thought because everyone else was done eating.

Yumina, having finished her food, took the newspaper from me.

"Hm... It really is one of them, isn't it?"

"I'm pretty sure, yeah... And judging from what the paper says, it must've

eaten its victims' souls."

"But why wasn't it a regular Phrase? Why did one of the mutants come to this

world?" Lu tilted her head to the side. I had a general idea, though.

"The Phrase exist to seek out their Sovereign, right? That's why they came to

our home. Because the Sovereign lives inside a living person in that world.

That's also why they've been killing people in our world. But the metal devils

don't play by those rules." I remembered how they even attacked a Dominant

Construct like Gila. Those creatures couldn't even be called Phrase anymore.

"Basically, it would be stupid to expect regular Phrase in this world. There's

no reason for them to come here, after all. But those mutated versions... Maybe

they have an objective here." That was the best kind of conclusion to make for

the time being. They were probably obeying orders from the wicked god, the

creature that had consumed that NEET god.

That made sense, but there was still part of this whole thing that concerned

me.

The regular world, the one I'd come from, was freely invaded by the Phrase

due to the damaged world barrier... But the Reverse World should have had a

fully functioning barrier. The appearance of a metal devil meant that it was

potentially no longer intact.

Either way, they were here. At least one of them. They'd appeared in our

world first, and now this one... I wondered if something had happened in the

gap between worlds, but I had no way of telling.

I was worried that Yula and the wicked god might have been planning

something dangerous, but it wasn't like I could do anything about it.

Still... What are they playing at with covert actions across two worlds...?

"...Touya?"

"Hm? Ah... What?" Crap, I ended up getting lost in thought again. I apologized

to Yumina for worrying her, and quietly resigned myself to fate for the time

being.

I wolfed down the remains of my sandwich and washed it back with my nowcold tea.

I was curious about this crown that had killed the metal devil. It wasn't Nia's

Red Crown or Luna's Purple Crown... The paper had mentioned some prince.

I wondered what price the prince needed to pay in order to use his crown...

Defeating a Phrase definitely required some incredible power, after all...

He must have had to pay some kind of appropriate compensation. But I

remembered what Nia had said, that aside from the Purple Crown, all crowns

could be used without risk of death...

But if the cost was something like making your feet permanently smell worse

with each use, that would still be really bad.

I looked on my map and found that the Panaches Kingdom was located

around the area where Palouf and Lihnea were located in the regular world, on

Palnea Island. The whole island seemed to be unified as one nation in the

Reverse World.

I then used my map to run a search for any Phrase or metal devils, but

nothing came up.

I felt crappy, but there was nothing to be done... I decided to change the

mood a bit. "We came this far, so how about we do some shopping? We might

even find something rare or unusual! We have money, so let's give it a shot! I'll

hold the bags, too!"

I didn't want the girls feeling uneasy, so I shifted gears. Even though I said I'd

hold the bags, I was actually just gonna toss them into [Storage].

"Oh, that's right! I wanna buy souvenirs for my father and mother and the old

man as well!" Sue grinned broadly, but I reminded her not to tell anyone where

she got the gifts from.

"Sounds good to me. Shall we go?"

"I would like to find a new drinking cup, I would."

"And I'd like to visit a bookstore."

"I'd like to see what armors I could find in this world." Everyone brought up

what they were after, so I used my smartphone to find various stores of

interest. Then we all set off.

But I underestimated them... Or rather, I underestimated the terrifying power

of the female shopper.

The carrying part was fine, thanks to my [Storage] spell, but I was waiting

around forever. They also kept asking my opinion... I didn't want to be too

blunt, so it was a lot of agonizing and me just telling them what they wanted to

hear... It was a hellish experience, multiplied by nine...

Plus this happened with every store we went into. They didn't ask my opinion

about everything, but it kept happening nonetheless. It was even worse in

clothing stores.

We went to shoe stores, hat stores, accessory stores, weapon stores,

bookstores, grocery stores, furniture stores, general stores, musical stores,

jewelry stores, makeup stores, bakeries... I ended up losing count of how many

stores we hit.

I finally found myself at a store that specialized in ladies' undergarments.

Naturally, I wasn't going to go in with them, and they weren't going to ask for

my thoughts... So I was stuck waiting outside.

I didn't want people mistaking me for some kind of pervert, so I moved away

from the storefront and stood on a street corner near a blacksmith's.

The blacksmith was hard at work repairing some armored plating on a

Gollem, which led me to assume that kind of thing was standard in this world.

The Gollem's upper body was that of a minotaur, but its lower body had

tracks like a tank. I'd have probably called it a Minotank. It was tough and

rugged, which meant it was probably built for power. It also had a weapon on

its person, a massive double-edged ax.

The blacksmith gave me permission to watch him work, so I decided to spend

time watching him do his job.

"Do you get many Gollem repair jobs?"

"Well, sonny. We ain't exactly Gollem Engineers... I'd say the most we can do

is fix the outer plating. The factory models are also pretty simple to tweak if

their arms or legs get messed up. Oh, we make weapons an' armor for them,

too." That's pretty cool... I guess I didn't think about how Gollems would

interact with blacksmiths.

I looked around and saw an object in the corner of the room.

It looked like a vaguely familiar piece of equipment. It was about forty

centimeters in diameter... It sure looked like a mana furnace to me.

"What's that...?"

"Hm? Oh, the Magic Motor? It's part of a Gollem Carriage that I recently

dismantled. We didn't need it, so I was thinking of selling it fer cheap. It's old."

I used [Analyze] to confirm the information. It was pretty much identical to

the one we used in the Dverg. Except it was a lot more compact and had a

relatively smaller magical output due to the fact that it didn't incorporate

spellstones. I wondered if that meant we could make our own Gollem-like

creations, we could probably use Spellstones and Ether Liquid to make up for

the lack of a G-Cube.

I tested the device, taking care not to break it like I did last time, and it

whirred slightly.

"Hey, can I buy this from you?"

"Hm? Sure... If you like." He was planning on selling it for cheap, so I got it at a

decent price... Supposedly. It wasn't like I knew the going prices or anything.

It was possible that I could use this thing to make something like a motorized

car.

We had an armored car in the Babylon Hangar, but I didn't really want to

mass-produce something with such insane levels of speed and power. It could

only be made in our Workshop, too.

If I managed to get the magic motor mass produced, then other nations

would be able to make them. It would probably only be powerful enough to

make a one or two-seater vehicle, though.

I left the blacksmith's and looked across the street to see the girls walking

toward me.

"Please forgive us, Touya-dono. We left you waiting, we did."

"No, don't worry... I managed to pick up something good, too." I smiled

toward Yae as I put the magic motor into [Storage]. I offered to put their bags

in as well, but the girls said no. It was probably because it was underwear...

They didn't want me peeking. "Man, there was a hell of a line in there... Plus,

Linze spent ages deciding whether to go for something more proper, or

something more daring... But in the end, she just went for bo-"

"S-Sis!! Please don't blabber so needlessly!" Linze turned bright red as she

clamped a hand over Elze's mouth.

"Elze-dono was also troubled in deciding, she was. In the end, it was a onecup fits a—"

"Auuuuugh!" Elze suddenly slammed her palm over Yae's mouth. Those girls

sure could be silly sometimes.

I decided to keep quiet since I felt like I'd lose no matter what I said in this

situation. I just need to become like a stone... Focus, Touya... Turn your mind to

steel...

"...Grand Duke, do you want to see...?" Sakura's words pierced me through to

the core as I tried to remain stoic. I was placed into checkmate. If I said no,

they'd be upset. If I said yes, they'd be upset. I had no options!

"Something wrong, Touya? Don't you wanna see our underwear? I don't

mind. What about you, Lu?"

"Wh-What?! D-D-Don't drag me into this, Sue... Ah... N-Not that I wouldn't

show you, Touya... B-But... Uhm... W-Wouldn't you rather see Hilde's?!"

"Huh?! Me?! Wh-Why me?! I bought striped ones, but... Ah... Wait! I didn't ssay that!" Sue lit the fuse on a bomb and then passed it along to Lu and Hilde

respectively.

Her words were completely innocent, of course. But she definitely had no

filter when it came to stuff she was unaware of. Her mother, Ellen, was blind for

a long time... It made me wonder if her condition meant she hadn't taught Sue

about basic social cues.

"Okay, okay. Enough already. This isn't the kind of thing to discuss in the

middle of the street. We'll leave it here." Leen clapped her hands together and

ordered everyone to stop. I was glad that the eldest of them was taking charge,

even if she looked around the same age as Yumina or Lu.

The girls noticed that they were drawing attention and started walking down

the street. I sighed and expressed my thanks to Leen.

"They're all a little shy, you know. You need to be a little more commanding,

darling. After all, you'll be able to see us in our underwear whenever you want

soon enough."

"Gimme a break..." I groaned quietly as Leen took my arm and began to walk

alongside me.

"By the way, I chose a frilly black lace set... Would you like to see?"

"...C'mon..." How would that kind of adult lingerie even look on someone with

such a child-like body? Though I guess it doesn't matter what Leen wears, she's

still Leen. I'm sure she'll look amazing in any type of clothing she chooses.

"Well? Want to?"

"I'd be lying if I said no. It's not like I'm not interested... I'm just hesitant to

say so outright. If you want to force me to see, then I won't stop you... I just

don't have the guts to outright say I want to see yet, that's all."

"Goodness grief, darling... You're quite the handful." I was lying. My

intentions weren't even nearly that pure. I just didn't think I'd be able to control

myself if I saw someone I loved in clothes like that! Don't tempt me, you wicked

witch! You're always such a tease, Leen! Auuugh!

"Fufu... You're always so fun to play with, Touya." Leen grinned as she clung

tighter to my arm. Sakura turned around and noticed this, before quickly

running back and clinging to my other arm.

"No fair... Don't hog all of him..."

Oh geez... This feels nice, but I'm still shy... Knock it off, Paula! Don't make

that kind of 'ooh la la' gesture!

She was really full of life, despite her status as a stuffed toy... I was honestly

curious about the sheer extent of the programming that had been put into her.

We walked into a back alley and I opened a portal back to Drakliff Island.

"Welcome back."

"Oh, you're finally done." Shirogane bowed his head to us. The Professor lazily

waved, lying back on the couch as she looked up from her book.

◇ ◇ ◇

"I call it the Ether Vehicle, it's basically a magical automobile."

"Oho..."

"It looks like a carriage..." I was in a small plaza to the north of Brunhild

Castle, showing my new invention to the other world leaders. I didn't exactly

invent it, but that was just a fine detail.

It had four thin wheels and an open roof, two leather seats and two

headlights on the front.

It was outfitted with a steering wheel and a basic horn, as well as accelerators

and brake pedals. There was also a sunroof installed that could be manually

pulled back.

Specifically, I'd based the Ether Vehicle on a car model from Earth. The Fiat 4

HP. It was a four-wheeled gasoline-powered car produced by the Italian car

company, Fiat, way back in 1899.

I brought the magic motor back from the Reverse World, then tasked Rosetta,

a group of craftsmen, and the town's blacksmiths with building the car from

scratch.

That meant that the body of the car didn't use technology from Babylon, nor

the ancient civilization. Which in turn meant that any country with enough

money and skill could produce one. They would have to buy the Ether Liquid

fuel from Brunhild, though... But that would be fine. The Frame Gears didn't run

on it anymore, after all.

The back of the car had a 500ml plastic bottle of Ether Liquid installed. It just

looked like melon soda, chilling in the back.

I hopped into the front and fired up the car. The steering wheel started

draining some of the magic reserves. It was pretty responsive due to my magical

affinity.

After that I hit the accelerator, causing the vehicle to start slowly moving

around.

"Ooh!"

"It's moving!" The motor was operated by magic power that was amplified

not only by Ether Liquid, but also spellstones installed into the car. That meant

that it ran quietly and didn't exhaust the driver. That being said, if someone

drove for a full day it would probably wear them out.

Plus, it was good for the environment because there were no gas emissions.

There was an exhaust that shot out a steady stream of glittering steam, but that

was just waste residue from magic and Ether Liquid and was completely safe.

It could go a little faster than a horse-drawn carriage, but if the horses were

galloping then it would probably lose. I had a feeling that future model

developments would improve speed and efficiency, though.

I turned the wheel and made an effective U-Turn, and once I was back in front

of the other world leaders, I hit the brakes.

"Hmm... It seems to go about the same speed as a carriage, with less of the

stress. You won't need to feed or maintain horses, after all..."

"You'll still need to maintain the vehicle itself. Anyone can drive it with

enough practice, though. Just uh... Try not to let children drive it, that would be

dangerous." I planned on incorporating a lock system that analyzed fingerprints.

I didn't want to hear about some five-year-old kid going for a joyride, after all.

"It's certainly less flashy than a Frame Gear, but a lot more convenient as

transportation." The King of Lihnea nodded slowly. I felt comparing it to the

Frame Gear was unfair, but I figured after they'd been introduced to giant

robots, something like a car would seem a little plain.

"Touya, my boy. May I take it for a spin?"

"Go ahead. I'm hoping to introduce these worldwide, so it'd be good if you all

got a feel for it." I nodded to the beastking and pulled out four more Ether

Vehicles from [Storage].

The king of Belfast and the emperor of Regulus got into the one I'd been

riding, the beastking and the overlord got into another, the king of Lihnea and

the knight king of Lestia got into the third, the pope of Ramissh and the doge of

Roadmare got into the fourth, and the king of Felsen and the young king of

Palouf got into the last one.

It was kind of funny seeing the tiny king of Palouf next to such an oversized

man.

The cars began to start up. We'd installed safety teleportation features much

like the Frame Gears, so I wasn't worried about crashing.

They all slowly began to drive their cars as I looked on with the emperor of

Refreese.

"That reminds me, Touya... You really helped out with that pirate matter the

other day. The merchants in my region are all thankful."

"Did you take them all out?"

"We did. However... Of the ships that headed out to take care of the pirates,

one went missing... We're searching for it, but would it be within your power to

locate it?"

"I should be able to do that... Can you describe the ship at all?" I heard a brief

description from the emperor and ran a search of the Refreese coastline on my

map. There were no hits. That meant it had likely sunk... If it had fallen apart to

debris and sank to the bottom of the ocean, then my spell wouldn't be able to

pick it up.

"Hmph... I suppose it must have been destroyed by a beast of the sea...

Forgive me, Grand Duke, for wasting your time... I shall call off the search." Sea

monsters that were capable of sinking ships were usually limited to Krakens and

Sea Serpents.

Adventurers were generally fine with taking out monsters on the land, but the

world didn't have much it could do against sea-dwelling nasties.

The ship was called The McClane, which made me slightly amused. But it

wasn't like the bald-headed emperor next to me would know anything about

famous Hollywood movies... It was just a coincidence.

But still, for the ship to bear the name of the world's unluckiest detective... It

was a bad omen from the start. If only it had as much will to survive as John

McClane had in his movies.

The world leaders were all so pleased with the Ether Vehicles that they asked

to buy several each. I was satisfied with how things had gone.

The Ether Liquid that came with the cars would last over half a year, but I

gave them all an extra bottle as a bonus. I also threw in some spare tires and

off-road wheels. Mismede and Xenoahs had rougher areas, after all.

I also informed them that the cars could be reverse-engineered. If they

dismantled them they'd be able to make their own changes. I didn't plan on

directly profiting, so I just wanted to see what each country could make of the

vehicles in the coming years.

The money earned from the Ether Liquid would be enough, anyway. To be

honest, it was possible for the other nations to produce it themselves after

enough research, so I was waiting to see if they'd manage it.

"I think we might need to pave the roads a bit more if these vehicles become

more commonplace, though..."

"Actually, the Dwarves have recently created a magical construction vehicle

that might make that easier. It should allow you to terraform without the use of

Earth magic." The development was proceeding as scheduled, and would soon

be available on the market. That was all up to Olba, though. He was the one

deciding the points of sale and the price. I wasn't really profiting from that,

either.

The others continued to ride their cars for a while. It was obvious they were

having fun, even if they were trying to pretend it was all formal testing. They

even started a little race.

For what it was worth, the young king of Palouf was faster than all the others.

It wasn't a matter of skill, though. He was just the lightest.

The next day I made sure to deliver the Ether Vehicles to each nation. They

were only allowed to order a maximum of five each. I collected the payment

and then took it to Kousaka.

I was looking down at the castle courtyard from my balcony. Lapis and the

maids were practicing how to drive the cars.

We'd built a simple race course in the courtyard. It was simple, kind of like the

tutorial level in a racing game.

The head maid sure got excited as she hopped into the car, but it didn't really

need as much finesse as a bicycle so I was sure she'd be fine.

The controls were simplistic, really. Much like a go-kart. Even a kid could do it,

honestly. I probably should've made the controls a little more complex, but it

wasn't like we had driving schools or anything.

Lapis started up the car and started to drive slowly. She made a single lap

around the course and gradually got used to it. She was driving safely, for the

most part. She'd probably be able to take the car out to town, it'd help with

shopping runs... Then again, the head maid wasn't really tasked with going out

and shopping.

I continued to watch them practice in the courtyard when my smartphone

began to ring. The display said it was the overlord of Xenoahs. I wondered if

there was an issue with the cars I'd delivered.

"Hey, 'sup?"

"Ah, Grand Duke?"

"Something up? If you're calling to ask about Sakura, I don't really have time."

"Hold on a moment! She's my daughter, and I... Wait, this isn't the time for

that..."

"So, what's wrong?"

"That information you gave us some time ago! The mutant variation of the

Phrase... Those metal devils? One appeared in my country!"

"What...?!"

A mutant in Xenoahs?!

"It was in a town called Radom. The town was known for being a hive of scum

and villainy, crime there happened often... It's the kind of place where negative

emotions gather, so it fits the bill for their target."

"What happened to the citizens?"

"All dead. Turned into crystallized zombies. There was only one of the

monsters, thankfully. I dispatched the Ogre Squad and they managed to kill it,

but not without suffering losses."

Ogre Squad, huh...? I guess one Ogre has the strength of ten men, so it makes

sense they'd be able to take it out. Still, it couldn't have been easy...

The fact that crystal skeletons appeared meant that souls had been

consumed. The wicked god appeared in Sandora and Lestia to strengthen itself

by eating souls... So I was worried that it was another case of that happening.

First the Reverse World incident, now this... Clearly, the wicked god was up to

something.

It could probably happen again, too. The sensors that the guilds were

equipped with could only pick up regular Phrase signals. If we captured a metal

devil alive and researched it, we could probably make a separate scanner.

"The dead mutant melted into goop, as we were informed... The skeletons all

collapsed once their cores were shattered, too. We collected the pieces, just in

case. Are they made of that, er... Phrasium material?"

"On a base level, yeah. They'll harden if you pour magic into the fragments,

and they're purer than spellstones. You can't put the fragments together,

though, so they'll be largely useless in such small chunks."

"They're valuable, at the very least... But we are hesitant to make use of

them, given that they're the remains of the victims... They won't be able to rest

in peace, either."

The overlord knew that those who had their souls devoured couldn't reach

salvation. They weren't allowed to pass on to the other side, being effectively

obliterated and removed from the cycle of reincarnation. It was a pretty horrific

fate.

Maybe the wicked god is collecting the soul energy and using it to create the

metal devils... I'm honestly getting a little scared of the power it's gradually

building...

Either way, Xenoahs had taken care of it, so they were free to do what they

wanted with the Phrasium. They would probably trade it for money and pay it

out to the families or relatives of the deceased. Alternatively, they could

improve their own weapons or armor. Even small fragments could be made into

something similar to scale mail.

I ended the call with the overlord. The conversation made me wonder if I

needed to start gathering allies in the Reverse World in case any incidents like

this happened again.

I sighed and shook my head...

Looking down at the courtyard, I noticed Lapis driving a car at insane speeds

toward a corner.

Whoa, holy shit! You're going too fast! You're gonna... What the?! Lapis was

somehow making the car glide on its side, causing the vehicle to lean as it

cleanly changed its direction without compromising any speed.

She's drifting... Or, wait... She's hanging off? Holy crap! That's crazy...!

I stood, dumbfounded, by how insane her technique was. Frankly, I was

getting worried about the tires... She was definitely damaging them.

I started wondering if we could do some kind of street-based grand prix like

the Circuit de Monaco.

Either way, the maids of Brunhild were clearly a force to be reckoned with.