In a Different World with a Smartphone Chapter 383: Destruction of the Hideout, and the New World.

The fort that was surrounded by steep rock formations had a distinctness to it that could be likened to the one from The Hollow Needle. The parts that were dug out of the rocks and the parts that were made out of wood were mixed together. Its as if a multistoried building had slipped in between the rocks seamlessly.

I can see a man, whos standing on top of a wooden watchtower-like scaffold, looking at us who appeared suddenly with his eyes wide open. A tough-looking door made from wood resembling oak stood in front of the fort imposingly and blocked our advance, but

Funn!

The tough-looking door was blown away easily by a straight punch from Takeru ojii.

Couldnt we have, like, dealt with that a bit more smartly?

If youre a man, you charge in from the front. All other methods are heretical!

Should I call that easy-to-understand or Well, I was going to destroy it anyway so I guess it doesnt matter.

E, enemy attack! Enemy attack!

The lookout on the watchtower I saw earlier started ringing a bell with a wooden mallet like crazy. In response to that, men wearing black masks began pouring out from all over the fort.

Mu? Although their masks are similarly Chinese opera-esq, theirs have gold shadings on them. Are they the cadres of [Kurau]?

Well, doesnt really concern me anyway.

I drew out the gunblade Brunhild, and began shooting down the men in front of me one by one. Of course, with paralysis bullets.

Takeru ojii and Ende also jumped into the midst of the masked group, and began blowing them away.

I couldve taken care of them altogether by locking onto them with my smartphone, but in that case I might let someone whos not wearing a mask get away, and it also wouldnt be good training for Ende; as such, Im sticking to the straightforward elimination approach.

Bring out the Iron Machine Soldiers!

N? Large magic circles formed on the ground to our sides, and two somewhat glittering Iron Machine Soldiers appeared within them. Yep, definitely made by those [Gordian] dudes.

The excessively gaudy-looking, gold-colored Iron Machine Soldier took one step out of the magic circles, before it was blown away to the rock walls behind it and smashed into pieces. Are?

When I reflexively looked towards the other Iron Machine Soldier, the only thing I saw was the figure of Takeru ojii with his fist thrusted high up towards the sky.

I followed that fist and looked upwards. Over there was the figure of the other Iron Machine Soldier, becoming smaller in the sky after being blown upwards.

And like that, it fell down after a while, scattering its parts all over the place as it crashed. Rest in peace.

Looking at that sure makes you lose your confidence, eh

Ende muttered to himself. I understand. Thats what I thought every time I have a match with Moroha nee-san. The act of comparing ourselves was a mistake in the first place, though.

Mo, monster!

Ru, run away!

Futile struggles. Ive already casted a [Prison] over this area, so you guys wont be able to escape. Ah, wait, since its thin an Iron Machine Soldier might be able to break through it.

Since I can feel any breakage in the barrier instantly, though, I can just repair it right there.

O-tto.

I turned my body to dodge the dagger strike that suddenly came at me from behind. I couldnt sense its presence until the very last moment.

When I turned around, a man wearing a pitch-black mask and holding two daggers was standing there. The others had it too, but from this man, I can perceive a far stronger stench of blood. Without a doubt, his was the presence of someone who lives on killing others.

I suppose youre the leader of [Kurau]?

Exactly The shadow that lives within the darkness of Yulonggufuoa!?

Ah.

The leader, who was arrogantly saying something, ate a strike from Ende in his side and flew away with his body bent in the shape of the <">

You

Are? Were you planning to listen to it all?

Nope, was planning to shoot him halfway.

Alright, no problem then.

Theres no problem, yeah, but Im a bit unsatisfied with this, but oh well.

I sent a paralysis bullet towards the leader, whos rolling on the floor in agony while holding his side. When I pulled off his mask after restricting his movements, the face of a man in his forties without any special characteristics showed itself.

He looks like a regular uncle you can find anywhere, but I guess thats an advantage when your job is an assassin.

Im sorry to say this, but your plans would all end in vain. If you really wanted to help Yulong, you shouldve switched those daggers of yours out with a hoe or something.

Leaving the leader, whose face was twisted from either regret or painI dont know which behind, I went deeper into the fort.

As I swatted away the ones who came at me without mercy, I found the transfer formation leading underground.

This hideout was originally something that [Gordian] made in pursuit of their goal, creating an empire of magic, Magia Imperium. Similar pieces of magic technology can be found here and there inside the fort.

Leaving the other two to deal with the situation aboveground, I poured magic power into the formation and transferred myself underground.

The place I transferred to looked like a giant limestone cave, with a whole bunch of materials like wood and metal scattered around; it gave off the impression of a hangar of some sort. At a glance, I can already see several things lying around that are obviously made from Reverse World technology.

There are some Iron Machine Soldiers mid-assembly here too. No doubt about it, this place is the production facility. The only Iron Machine Soldiers left here are all incomplete; guess they sent all the completed ones out to fight.

Around ten men wearing the [Kurau] masks came towards me and pulled out their swords; theyre probably the guards of this place.

Youre in the way.

Gofu!

Goha!?

With Brunhild, I swiftly incapacitated them. Rather than the men with swords who attacked me, I was far more concerned about the prisoner-like group wearing ragged clothes who were standing around the Iron Machine Soldiers.

Theyre not wearing masks. I was convinced that theyre not part of [Kurau]. Not because theyre not wearing those masks, but because they had [Collars of Subordination] around their necks.

From within the group, a single elderly man walked towards me. He looks to be over sixty. His white beard flowed freely down his face, and theres a pair of small round glasses on his nose. While his gait was a bit unsteady, I can sense a definite force of will within the eyes behind those glasses.

We, follow, you. Please, do not, kill.

While making motions with his body, the elder talked to me with broken sentences. So they really are people from the Reverse World.

Still, do not, kill, huh. Well, thats what happens when you shoot guns right in front of them.

[Translation].

I casted translation magic on all the men in front of me. With this, they should be able to converse with me properly.

Are you all golem engineers?

! Can, can you understand our words!? Yes, we are golem engineers. On the way to deliver golems to the Magicraft King of Eisengard, we were suddenly lost in a place weve never seen before. And after that, we were caught by those masked men and forced to wear these collars!

They were delivering to the Magicraft King? If they dont know about the fact that

Eisengards Magicraft King is already gone, does that mean they drifted here since before that?

Ill listen to the details later. How many people were brought here in total?

There were eighteen at first, but now theres only the fifteen you see here. Three were killed when we were caught. Um, could you tell me where we are? Words weve never heard and magic technology weve never seen before, its almost like weve wandered into a different world

Thats exactly whats happening to them, but Ill leave the explanations for later.

I took off everyones [Collars of Subordination], and freed them from their restraints. Some cried in joy when their collars were taken off; they mustve suffered quite a bit.

For now, well be moving from here. Is there anything youd like to bring with you?

Sorry, but please wait a bit.

The elder began digging at a spot near the feet of an incomplete Iron Machine Soldier, and dug out a card-like thing after a while.

That is?

My personal Storage Card. This alone is something I would never allow to be taken, after all. Ive buried it there all this time.

Quite the prudent grandpa. With age comes wisdom, I guess.

Alright, first Ill bring them to Dr. Elka, whos a fellow resident of the Reverse World and a golem engineer as well.

I connected this place with the top of the hill Dr. Elka and Professor Babylon were at using [Gate].

When the two of them, who were looking at the battlefield, turned around and saw us who came out of the [Gate], Dr. Elka opened her eyes wide and pointed at the elder.

Eh? [Professor]!?

Nn!? The [Restore Queen] girlie!?

The two of them were speechless as they pointed at each other.

Acquaintances?

Eh, yes. Hes a famous golem engineer in our world. Could it be that the golem engineers that were caught

Ah, un. Its them.

Girlie, just what is going on? We cant understand anything. In the first place, where is this place?

Etto, where should I start with this

For now, the talk should go faster if they know each other. I left them in the care of Dr. Elka and the others, and went back to the fort.

The fort was almost completely suppressed by Takeru ojii and Ende already, and I can see fighters belonging to [Kurau] lying about here and there. I one-sidedly teleported these guys all to the prisons back at Horn.

I have to send them all there without missing anyone. These guys are like weeds, if you dont pull their roots out theyll grow back again soon enough.

After using [Search] to confirm that there are no other humans left inside the fort, we walked out of the gate.

Apparently, Takeru ojii will do the finishing-up.

Pay attention, alright. [Ki] is present everywhere in nature. One can find ki in the air, in the ground, and in the light of the sun. To take that ki into yourself and refine it, is what it means to turn the power of nature into your own. And if you can properly control that

Takeru ojii thrusted his hands out in front of him, and swayed them around as if trying to gather something.

After a while, a large mass of energy, different from magic power, gathered densely in front of him to a degree where it can be perceived by the naked eye.

That mass grew to the size of an exercise ball, and the surrounding air was visibly shaking with its existence.

Haaaa!

Together with a yell filled with spirit, the mass was fired out from its position before Takeru ojii.

In the next instant, a loud boom and a severe impact assaulted our bodies. It felt almost as if a bomb had exploded right next to us.

When the dust cloud had cleared, the fort that was in front of us was gone. All we could see was the gouged-out wasteland extending outwards; even the rock mountain that was behind the fort was gone as well.

Even the rocks and mountains far off in the distance had pieces scraped off along the trajectory; it was almost as if an advanced-class Phrase had fired its particle cannon there. That was some unbelievable firepower.

Can someone really do this with just his body, without using either magic power or divinity?

With the underground factory gone as well, the [Kurau] hideout had completely disappeared off the face of this world.

What can I say I suppose Im still lacking in training

No, I think that falls under the category of things youre not supposed to try and imitate

As Ende muttered with a blank look on his face, I replied absentmindedly while looking at the blown-away rock mountain.

The members of [Kurau] were all handed over to Horn Kingdom, and the Iron Machine Soldiers

+wood golems army was annihilated. With this, their ambition to take over Horn Kingdom had failed completely.

The leader of [Kurau] as well as its cadres were all publicly executed. The rest were given life sentences, otherwise known as being sent to the mines. They will never step on the ground outside again.

Several days later, a new king was crowned in Horn Kingdom. Cuo Da Horn. A one-year-old king.

At the same time, the prime minister of Horn, Schwein Adante announced his intention to resign. And the one who he recommended to become the next prime minister was the younger brother of the former king, Ganossa Da Horn.

And like that, the uncle became regent in place of his nephew, taking care of national matters in his stead. Thinking normally, this mightve been the safest option from the beginning.

Horn Kingdom had decided to abandon its isolated state until now, and for starters, sent out its youngsters to other countries to study.

By taking in the cultures and customs of other countries through those young people, Horn Kingdom would surely be able to embrace a new stage of progress.

They would do well to work hard, in order to not become like their former neighbor Yulong, who only pursued the glories of their past while neglecting their essence.

Its fine to be proud of your past. However, if you focus too much on that, youd be no different from a foolish son who looks down on others due to his parents achievements.

I can only believe that there are still people who can properly look at the future within Yulongs young generation.

Now then, regarding the rescued golem engineers.

They were, with one exception, originally engineers who server in the [Factory] in Eisengard.

The highest authority for the important [Factory] belonging to a country would obviously be its king.

However, the king of Eisengard, the Magicraft King is currently missing, and no one knows whether he is even alive. Furthermore, with the Magicraft King gone, Eisengard, without a leader, had delved into chaos.

Even after I relayed that information to them, most of the engineers still wanted to return home; as such, I used the [Dimensional Gate] and returned them back to Eisengard.

As most of them had families back there, I can understand how they feel.

However, they were treated as dead in Eisengard and had lost their jobs regardless, and theres a possibility that they might be