In a Different World with a Smartphone Chapter 435: Nokias Princess, and Speculations.

Chestnut-colored hair cut shortly, almond shaped eyes, and a mouth formed into a smile overflowing with confidence. Its more accurate to describe her features as beautiful instead of cute.

The girl, who named herself Nokia Kingdoms Second Princess, Pafia Rada Nokia, stared straight at me without any signs of hesitation. Its the kind of gaze that feels evaluating. Shes by no means looking down on me so it doesnt make me feel repulsed, but its still not a good feeling to be looked at this way.

Weve heard what you have to say, Your Highness Princess Pafia. However, this matter is not one which can be decided by His Majesty the Sovereign alone. He will have to obtain the agreement of us nine fiances first.

Leen, who was standing by to my side, opened her mouth with a smile. Her choice of words is a bit different from usual; I wonder if this is her diplomatic mode.

Excuse my ignorance, but you are? Judging by your words, I presume you are one of His Majestys fiances?

Oh, pardon me for not introducing myself. I am the former chief of the fairy tribe, leader of Brunhilds court magicians, as well as His Majesty the Sovereigns fiance; my name is Leen.

Leen pinched her skirt in an elegant motion and greeted the princess with a curtsy. Leader of our court magicians, eh, I mean, shes the only court magician we have so, shes not incorrect.

Leen-sama. As Ive asked earlier, could you please consider adding myself to the lowest seat of the fiances? It will definitely not be a loss for your country.

Well Even if you say it wont be a loss for us, His Majesty the Sovereign is not marrying us with the goal of obtaining profit for his country, so Im not sure how to respond.

Then on what standard does he decide on his partners? Literary arts, martial skills, beauty, peerage, Im confident I wont fall behind in any of these categories.

That is, well. You definitely sound very confident. However, Ive heard that Nokia Kingdom does not communicate with other countries very much. The world is bigger than Your Highness may believe, you know?

Eh, what is this conversation. I can see sparks flying around between Leen and Princess Pafia since a while ago, is that just me?

As its a sudden request, we cannot give our answer immediately as well. Wed like some time to deliberate Is that fine with you, Ambassador Yanches?

Kousaka-san called out to the ambassador, whose watery eyes were darting back and forth between Leen and Princess Pafia all the while. Seeing the line thrown at him, Ambassador Yanches immediately began nodding his head at a furious pace.

O, o, of course! Please take your time and think about it! Well be waiting for a positive response!

Head maid, please guide the ambassador and the princess group to a guest room.

Yes. Please, this way.

Our head maid, Lapis-sanwho was standing by at the sidewalked up to the three of them and urged them away.

When they turned and walked away as directed by Lapis-san, Princess Pafia turned and looked this way for a split second; I sensed a form of determination from her gaze.

When the three of them left, I heaved a large sigh. Ahh, this is tiring.

What do you know, it turned out to be a request for a political marriage

I suppose it is quite surprising, yes.

While stroking his beard, Kousaka-san muttered. Well yeah. The countries that weve had relations with thus far would never ask for something like that.

Instead of Brunhild, this looks more like its something aimed at me personally

Well, think about it. A gold-ranked adventurer and the hero who saved the world. Commanding several hundreds of giant soldiers, and mediating between various different countries No normal person would refuse the chance to obtain that strength for themselves.

Just like what Kousaka-san said, its pretty normal to think that this is a marriage aimed at making use of my powers. Something like if we become tied by family bonds, then they can make me lend them my strength, I guess.

Thats why its weird, if you think about it like that. Isnt Nokia Kingdom basically completely isolated as a country? They only have the bare minimum amount of interaction with Demon Kingdom Xenoas, and theyve not shown up to the World Conference several times already even though we invited them to. Whys a country like that, which stayed completely quiet even during the fight against the variants, suddenly coming out and wishing for a political marriage with another country like this? And with us, Brunhild, at that.

Leen spoke in a monologuing fashion as she folder her arms. Huh, shes more calm than I expected.

Do they think we did not foresee something like this happening? Weve always thought that a honey trap like this might come our way one day.

A honey trap, you say I dont remember ever walking into one.

It could be later on, you know. When you go to sleep, make sure you lock your door properly to prevent them from trying to pull a night visit, okay. They might use a transfer-type magic or artifact, so prepare some interference barriers too. If you actually laid your hands on the princess, then it would be very tough for us to refuse, after all.

Wait, what kind of development is that!? Why do you sound like its guaranteed for me to be assaulted and lose!?

No no no. I wont be laying my hands on her, and if she does come to my room, I can just restrain her, right.

In this case, the truth can be anything for all we care. All you need is for her to be found in Darlings room in the middle of the night, and the world will immediately start to believe theres a relationship between you two. Of course, that includes that ambassador. Thatll be the last straw. Since its common knowledge that you can use transfer magic, the people will just think youre the one who called the princess to your room no matter what.

Scary!?

Thats just crazy. Something as stupid as that wont happen I think, right?

Well, even if they tried to do us in like that, we can turn it back upon them by framing them as the aggressor instead, though. All you need is a knife in her hands, and shed turn into a splendid assassin aiming for His Majesty the Sovereigns life.

Scary!?

Because there are risks like that, I dont think the chances of her actually carrying out a night visit are high. Im just asking you to keep an eye out just in case. The possibility of them using a charm-type artifact and actually trying to assault you isnt zero, after all.

Eh, Im already technically a divine so things like that wont work on me, but still, that just makes me uneasy

I guess for the moment, it would be safe for me to put a [Prison] on the inside of my room. You wont be able to enter unless youre wielding a sacred treasure or something like that, so even if they did try something, there would be nothing they can do.

On a side note, what did Darling think about that girl?

Nn I cant deny that she is a beauty. But honestly, I wasnt really moved. Those eyes of hers werent really looking at me; a large part of it was directed towards my power or position, things like that. Theres no way she came and asked to be married to me out of a sense of affection. Id definitely not want to sell myself out like a tool.

I dont think that was all that girl was, but in any case, she didnt leave me with a good impression. At least, I definitely did not fall for her.

In the cases of Luu and Hilda, I could feel the affection they had for me. That wasnt a sense of longing they directed towards my position or titles, it was to myself as a person. Different from Pafia.

Also, how should I say this Before talking about love or affection, I get the feeling shes already burdened with some heavy emotions, like a responsibility or a mission she had to shoulder. I dont think shes a bad person, overall.

I felt the same. That girl has already failed to fulfill the minimum condition required to join us, to feel dearly about Mochizuki Touya. Shes already out at that point. Sorry to say it, but I wont acknowledge her.

Leen said that and took out her smartphone, before beginning to tap on her screen rapidly with her fingers. Whats she doing?

We have our own meeting to do, after all.

By meeting, you mean that? That Bridal Conference thing you did during the time Pam came from the Great Sea of Trees?

Its that one which rejected Pam who wanted to have children with me, yeah. Leen wasnt around at that time yet, though.

Leaving Leen, whos still sending out messages, aside, I waved Tsubaki-san closer.

For now, we need information. Can you investigate Nokia Kingdom for me for a bit?

Yes. Ill send a few people there immediately.

After answering thus, she disappeared on the spot.

The knight orders intelligence corps, led by Tsubaki-san, have been lent various artifacts, including transfer-types. With those tools, it probably wont take more than 2 days for agents to go to Nokia and come back.

No matter how impenetrable the geography of that area is, it wont be a challenge to our knights who have been trained by Moroha nee-san and Takeru ojii. Theyll definitely come back with useful information.

Well, rather than bringing information back, all they need to do is place a call, though.

Its easy to just refuse the proposal, but theres something bothering me there. I should ask around a bit myself too.

Sorry, but I dont know too. We really only have little interaction with Nokia ourselves. Even if something like a coup dtat happened there, we wont know about it unless they come and tell us themselves. Its a bit bad-sounding, but weve had no reason to be interested in Nokia all this time, after all.

Is that so

I tried calling His Majesty the Demon King of Xenoas, but the reply he gave me was about what I expected.

Although theyre neighboring Nokia, their borders only touch at a small section, and both of them are countries with few diplomatic relations. Its natural for the both of them to pay no attention to each other.

A while ago, when we sent the invitation for the Two-World Conference to them, they replied with something along the lines of theres a bit of a situation in our country and were busy dealing with that, so well pass this time, but

Could a coup dtat really have happened?

That would definitely not be a bit of a situation for them But, its true that after Yulong perished, many Yulong citizens moved to the smaller countries bordering it. Nokias geographical conditions are harsh like us, and the people of Nokia hate Yulong, so there shouldnt have been many who went to Nokia; but its definitely not zero. Its not unthinkable for those people to cause some troubles there.

Uun Its sad that I cant really deny that.

Yulongs population has the general trait of exaggerating things. They would count thousands as millions, and argue that the millions are actually billions. Theres even a common saying that if a person from Yulong tells you a number, expect it to be 10 times more than the actual one.

If those kinds of people moved into Nokia, whose residents know next to nothing about the outside world, and started spreading baseless rumors, it wouldnt be weird for some degree of panic to break out in the country I think?

There have been some who came into Xenoas too, hasnt there?

Yeah, we had weird rumors flying about in our territories for a while, but they died down quickly. Most of the time, when they heard that the information came from a Yulong person, us demon races would refuse to believe a word of it.

Theyve sure got no credibility. Well, I would think the same way, honestly.

The eastern continents east Excluding Eashen, literally every issue that had happened in the countries there, Xenoas, Hanock, Ferzen, Horn, Lestia, etc., have had some connections with Yulong. There is no way they would still have any credibility left after that.

However, Nokia had the background of being a country founded by people who escaped from Yulongs tyranny. They should hate Yulong from the bottom of their guts. Its hard to imagine such a country getting swayed by baseless rumors spread by Yulong refugees.

Well, with the information we have right now, its hard to come to any conclusion.

After our talk about Nokia finished, I casually gave some answers to His Majesty the Demon King, who kept incessantly asking about every little detail regarding his daughter Sakuras life here, before ending the call.

Its not like Sakura is ignoring his calls, but apparently the conversations are completely one- sided and blunt.

Ahh, Farnese. Are you

Fine.

And Fiana

Mom is fine.

Next time, how about

Busy. No way. See you.

And it ends there. Sakura is as merciless to the Demon King as usual Although the fact that she even bothered to pick up the call can be said to be an improvement.

Sakura is working in a temporary staff-like position at the school in which Fiana-san serves as principal. Putting it simply, shes teaching the kids things like songs and playing instruments. One of our knights, the dark elf Spica, is also with her as an escort.

Right. Normally, around this time, Sakura would be at the school together with Spica-san.

However, today isnt the same. As for why, its because everyone should be gathered for their conference right about now.

Well, this feels like the time with Pam, so I guess the talk will progress in the direction of refusing

That girl (Pafia), without a doubt, holds no romantic feelings towards me. I can say that with conviction.

Why, you ask?

Its because the Love God, who would jump out with a cutesy smile on her face at the first opportunity if that girl actually had something like that, isnt showing herself at all.

Could she have gone to the Bridal Conference Saying she want to be a facilitator or something. Itll make things more complicated so I wish shed not do that.

As I was thinking about things like that, a call came in from Leen.

Yes, hello?

Ah, Darling? For now, weve decided that tomorrow, well meet Princess Pafia with all of us. Since nobody besides myself have directly spoken with her, we dont really have a concrete basis upon which we can make a decision. So we decided well meet her first, then proceed from there.

I feel like you girls are around 90% set already, though.

Still, we mustnt be rude to her, and should at least meet and talk with her properly once. Shes still the princess of a country who came here herself, so.

Well, thats true. As an response, flat out rejecting would indeed be a bit inappropriate. If were not concerned about that, we wouldve just told her right there during the audience.

In any case, dont contact that girl until tomorrow, okay, Darling? Since it might lead to a lot of problems. It would be best for someone to be with you tonight Fufu, want to come to one of our rooms?

No that is well.

While having my heart skip a beat because of Leens sudden teasing voice, I somehow managed to reply.

Its true that if I stay in the room of one of the fiances tonight, whatever honey trap tactics they may try would end up meaningless, though.

Well, its not like I have no ways of dealing with that on my own, though.

I ended my call with Leen, and selected a new number from my address book.

Oops, thats pon.

I picked up the iiman His Majesty the Regulus Emperor threw. Alright, just a bit more until I get chinroutou.

Still, of all the things, to think you would invite us out for Mahjong Well, I was free so it helped me, to be honest.

His Majesty the Mismede Beast King picked up a tile from the central pile, and threw it. The people surrounding the desk is myself, the Regulus emperor, the Mismede Beast King, and the Refreese emperor. His Majesty the King of Belfast declined because he still has to take care of Prince Yamato. I wonder if he still cries in the night.

Hey, accompanying me once in a while isnt bad, right. I actually cant go back home for tonight, so.

What? Did you get Lushia and the others angry or something?

That wont do, you know. In marriage, the beginning is the most important. If you dont come out strongly in the