In a Different World with a Smartphone Chapter 425

Even after defeating the evil god, the variants around the world did not disappear. Even while the evil god's protection disappeared from their bodies, turning them into a dull lead color and rendering them unable to release divinity, they still lived.

While the variants have been released from Yura's and the evil god's controls, it seems that the order of “attack humans” have been deeply ingrained in them, and they continued to fight without stopping.

However, having lost their regeneration powers and their ability to harden themselves, the current variants are just opponents on the same level as stone golems. The remaining variants around the world are being hunted down steadily by the knight orders and adventurers of various countries.

We also flew around the world and cleaned up variants all over the place. In the end, it turned into something like a chore for us. Pest removal work, so to speak.

While there are countries in which variants appeared in several locations, there are also countries in which they didn't appear at all. Some countries ended with only minor damage, while others had several villages or towns devastated.

The world had been saved, but it's not like there were no losses at all. Thinking about if I could've saved everything is nothing but arrogance, but still, I couldn't help it.

In the end, it took us 2 more days before we were able to completely remove the foreign invaders known as variants from this world.

Everything is wrapped up, and Brunhild sent word of it coming to an end to the other countries; at least for the moment, peace had returned to the world.

After that, I returned to the castle and slept like a log. I didn't even see any dreams.

“Nu…?”

When I woke up on the bed, it was still dark. I checked my smartphone; it's only 5 in the morning.

The distributed “Mochizuki Touya” app had already ended its service. While it did contribute greatly to our victory this time, Babylon's magic tank were apparently nearly squeezed dry in

the process. Everyone did use it without reservation, after all. Well, that also contributed to the speed at which we were able to wrap everything up, though.

“Nn~”

I stretched greatly on the bed, put on my coat, and went out to the empty balcony.

The sun was just beginning to rise, and the sky started to brighten up.

I sat down beside the round table placed on the balcony, and took out a pot of coffee and a mug from [Storage].

After pouring myself a cup of coffee that's still steaming, I took a sip. Mm, delicious.

“Mind giving me a cup too?”

“Of course.”

I took out a new mug and poured coffee into it for World God-sama, who suddenly appeared in front of me. I then placed two containers, with sugar and milk in them respectively, on the table for him to take.

“You're no longer surprised even if I show up all of a sudden, aren't you.”

“I've somehow become able to tell when you would show up. Is this because I awakened as a god too?”

“Also because I'm the other party in question here. You're my dependent in essence, and we both have divinity with similar characteristics. That's probably the reason. If it was the Love God or someone else, I don't think you would've had the same reaction.”

And here I thought I wouldn't be surprised by Karen nee-san's group's elusiveness anymore with this, but guess I was too naïve.

“First, I suppose I should congratulate you. You have defeated the evil god which appeared in this world. As per promised, myself, the World God, officially recognizes you as a member of

the divine. While your divinity is that of an upper-ranked god's, your own position would be above the subordinate gods, and at the very bottom of the lower-ranked gods; something like that.”

“So I'm starting from the very bottom, huh.”

“Of course you are. I can't show too much favoritism to you just because you're my dependant, you know. Well, the other gods all know that that's just me trying to save face, so you'll probably become an upper-ranked god quickly enough. I'd say in around ten thousand years.”

“That's quite the long period you're talking about…”

“It's nothing; once you're past two, three thousand, it'll go by in the blink of an eye.”

Ah, that “Janet's Law” thing, isn't it. I saw it once before on TV. When you're a kid, a day can feel like eternity; and yet when you turn into an adult, a whole year can pass in the blink of an eye. It's a theory about that. (Note: weirdly, I couldn't find any simple definitions on google. The guy's name is Paul Janet, and his niece Pierre Janet wrote the book that publicized it. Google yourself to know more.)

To a 50-year-old man, one year would be 1/50th of his entire life. To a 5-year-old kid, that same year would equate to 1/5th of his entire life. Basically, one year to a 5-year-old would feel about as long as ten years would feel to a 50-year-old; that's what this law theorizes.

I suppose it's something along the lines of a kid having few experience in life, and thus seeing everything as a new experience, therefore lengthening the amount of time he feels have passed. And, as more experiences are piled up as he grow older, he becomes used to the things he sees, and as such the passage of time would feel faster to him. Well, the fact that we're talking about a few thousand years here is still quite bizarre, though.

“For now, what should I do?”

“Let's see… Well, for the first hundred, two hundred years it's fine to continue living on the ground like a normal human. And, at a good time, you would move into the Divine Realm, and manage the world while coming down from time to time.”

“What should I do for the managing part?”

Can I even manage an entire world when I'm barely getting by managing this small country?

“It's fine if you don't do anything normally. Well, if the world was on the verge of being destroyed, or if it's going down a mistaken path, then you should start to do something about it.”

“And by something, you mean?”

“Granting someone in the world a holy sword and making him the hero that would save the world, or giving divine revelation to priests, things like that. Direct intervention are technically breaking the rules, after all. Having said that, though, there is the backdoor technique of the manager god descending into the world himself via turning into a human.”

I'm happy to not have to do anything most of the time, but to be honest, I'd really not want the world to progress into a state where a hero would become necessary.

“Well, we can leave that aside for now. For the moment, this world is left in your charge. At the same time, I've talked about this before, but I want this world to become a resort for the gods. This is only between us, but there's actually quite a substantial number of applicants already. Everyone wants the chance to stretch their wings without restrictions on the ground, I guess.”

“Will it be alright? It'd trouble me a lot if people come down here and start rampaging around.”

“We'll do the selection regarding that on our end, so it's fine. We'll have them descend after turning into humans, so even if they do start something it won't turn into the world getting destroyed; you can rest easy about that. Basically, they just want to live a normal… Well, it's probably not going to be normal, but they just want to live like a regular human and enjoy that. It's like those virtual experiences you can gain in those TV game shows on your former world.”

Ahh… Yeah, I get what he's trying to say. Things like playing the role of a hero in an RPG, becoming a popular man in dating sims, or solving cases as a great detective in adventure games… Basically, they want to experience a different life to their current one. It's quite the mundane thought for gods, to be honest.

I wonder. Did they become jealous of Karen nee-san and the others due to them having a lot of fun down here?

“The Love God, Sword God and others will also stay as your support and mentors like the Agriculture God. You'd feel better about it that way too, won't you?”

“This already feels like quite a bit of favoritism to me though. Isn't this different from what you were talking about earlier…”

“Hohoho, nobody would mind as long as it's not expressly stated out in the open. The last time I had a dependant was a few billion years ago, too. Think of it as a parent's love… Or rather, a grandparent's love for his grandson.”

I'm extremely thankful for it. Although, I wonder why is it I keep feeling that my supports will continue causing troubles for me in the future as well.

“Well, the things after this will come by themselves. One last thing; this is something I want you to remember. No matter the world, it will come to an end one day. This world won't continue to exist forever. Of course, your former world as well. What's important, I believe, is the way that world had existed. Work hard, so that other gods can say ‘that was a fantastic world' when the time comes for it to disappear. And no matter what, please don't make the Destruction God come here on a business trip, you hear me?”

“Yeah, that's an ending I'd very much like to avoid too…”

“I believe that you can avoid it. Well then, until another time.”

Like morning mist dispersing under the sun, the figure of World God-sama disappeared. The sun was already completely up, and its rays illuminated the world around me.

The world's manager, eh… As expected, it hasn't really clicked in me yet. Well, he did say it's okay to live normally for a hundred years or two, so for now let's just go back to doing my normal duties.

First—

“Maybe this one is better after all… How about Luu-san?”

“Uun… I myself prefer something with more frills, to be honest. I also want it to have Regulus' colors on it too.”

“Uwa, this is pretty flashy-degozaru na… But then again, maybe something like this is just right-degozarou ka?”

“This one looks to be easier to move in, Yae-san. There's something similar in Lestia as well.”

“Too many. It's hard to decide like this. I'll just randomly…”

“Sakurchan… It's a once-in-lifetime event, so you should choose carefully, alright. You might regret it later, you know?”

“Pola? You're not going to wear one, okay?”

“Ah, mou. This is difficult.”

(Note: a few sentences are hard to tell, so from the top: Yumina, Luu, Yae, Hilda, Sakura, Linze, Leen and Elze. Suu's missing for some reason…)

Currently, my fiancées were looking through the mountain of wedding dress photos that I've placed on the table and worrying over their choices.

It's a once-in-lifetime event for them. I knew that, but still, I'm a bit amazed at how much they're worrying over this. However, I'm not stupid enough to say that out loud.

“It's fine if you just use your guts for this-no. It's useless to worry about it that much-ja.”

Sitting beside me on a sofa a bit away from that table, Suu let out a straight ball like that.

She had decided almost immediately, and passed the photo for that design to the head maid, Lapis-san. I had the urge to tell her to worry about it a bit more, but well, that straightforward decisiveness is also quite Suu-like.

“It's finally the wedding-jana. With this, I can finally call myself Touya's wife-ja. How joyous- no.”

The girl who said that and then hugged me with a *gyuu* was definitely the one who had changed the most since I first met her. Her height didn't really rise a lot, but her womanly traits are gradually beginning to make themselves known.

I had still thought of her as a kid, but nowadays there are times when my heart would skip a beat with her from time to time.

Well, back on our world she's at the age where she would go into middle school next year, and considering the age of adulthood in this world is generally thought of as 15 or older, she can be said to be already nearly at the end of her child years. I mean, I'm not exactly an adult myself yet, on that topic.

“For me, I'm actually a bit apologetic to Duke Ortlinde for receiving Suu as my bride this early, to be honest.”

“Don't mind it-no ja. Father and mother are head over heels for Ed currently, anyway. Well, I myself is head over heels for him too though-no.”

Ed. Full name, Edward Ernes Ortlinde. Suu's younger brother, and the Ortlinde ducal house's heir. He's not even one year old currently. My younger brother-in-law, basically.

Once I marry Suu and everyone else, I'll gain a whole lot of older brothers- and sisters-in-law, but the ones who are younger than me are only Ed and Yumina's younger brother, Prince Yamato. I guess in time, the two of them will call me “aniue” or something like that as well.

I hope Ed would show brilliant work as someone who would eventually become the right-hand man of the next king of Belfast, Prince Yamato. Still, Yamato and Ed, they both have pretty Japanese-like names. It's just a coincidence, though. (Note: Ed = Edo in this case, I guess.)

“Once we marry each other, I can stay here all the time-no ja. I'll be with you from morning til night, Touya. Aren't you happy?”

“Right. I've been with Suu for quite a bit less compared to everyone else, after all.”

“I've been at home doing bridal training all this time-no jazo. I learnt things like cooking and sewing-no ja. They said nobles don't really need to learn them, but I want to have Touya eat my handmade cooking, and my children to wear clothes I sewed for them. That's why I worked really hard, you know?”

She's a strong-willed girl who would finish something she decided on no matter what. She's simply straightforward to the end. When I thought about how that emotion of hers was all for my sake, I felt glad all over again, and hugged Suu back.

“Unfair if it's just Suu.”

Sakura came this way while pouting. Seems like she decided on hers too.

“Have you already finished?”

“Nothing'll come out of worrying over it. Rather than the outside, the inside's more important. Rather than that King-sama, me too.”

Sakura then spread out her arms with a “Nn.” With a wry smile on my face, I hugged Sakura like I did with Suu earlier.

She has a part about her that comes at me asking to get spoilt like this. She would deny it with all her might, but I kept thinking that the feeling of “wanting to be spoilt by her father” was at the bottom of such a trait of hers.

Sakura was raised without ever knowing her biological father. That's why, she might be holding feelings of adoration and longing for a fatherly figure.

To be honest, there's nothing I want more than to tell her to direct at least some of those feelings at her actual father, though. His Majesty the Demon King is so pitiful I can't watch sometimes.

If someone has a father complex but doesn't actually point those feelings at her father, is that still a father complex?

Well, at least I know that the feelings Sakura has for me isn't just that.

“Sakura's a spoilt child-ja no.”

“Nothing wrong with acting spoilt with the husband who's older. A natural right.”

Sakura replied to Suu like that with a straight face. Well, not just Sakura; everyone else is younger than me except Leen.

Yae and Hilda are one year younger, Elze and Linze two, Sakura three, Yumina and Luu four, and Suu six.

I had decided to throw away the common sense of my previous world, but still, is it really fine for an 18-year-old man to marry a 12-year-old girl…

Well, since a year in this world is longer than a year on Earth, if we calculate using the actual time and Earth's calendar, Suu would be 16, though… No matter how I look at her, she doesn't look 16. I can't really tell if it's because the people in this world grow comparatively slower or if it's because she became my dependant, though.

On a side note, the girls, who became my dependants, would grow to a certain age before stopping their growth and becoming immortal, apparently. Basically, they would become similar to Leen who's from the fairy tribe. For Leen herself, she would unfortunately stay the same forever since her growth had already stopped.

After a few years, Leen's probably going to be the one who looks the youngest among the group, I suppose.

“And have you decided on when to hold the ceremony?”

“The world's still pretty chaotic currently, so. It's probably going to be after at least half a year or so. There's a bunch of things we have to do before that, too.”

I replied to Sakura, who switched to hugging my arm.

The plan is for the marriage ceremony preparations to proceed slowly in the middle of all that. However, right now, I'm a lot more concerned about what to do with Eisengard.

Its function as a country had completely ceased, and it's a barren land on the level of Yulong right now. The only saving grace… Calling that might be a bit too much, but anyway, the fact that the Sacred Tree is there is also a factor to be considered.

The spirits that escaped the country due to the Godslaying Poison were also drawn back slowly by the now-huge Sacred Tree. Eventually, it'll become a land with far more spirits inhabiting it than before.

The problem is, just who will take charge of that land…

Nothing's happening right now, but it'll trouble us quite a bit if people started rising up here and there and proclaimed themselves to be the rightful owner of those lands, just like what happened in Yulong. In that regard, we're somewhat better off thanks to the Magicraft King having no children.

Nothing strange should happen there as long as the three large countries nearby, Raze Martial Kingdom, Strain Kingdom and Garudio Empire continue to keep an eye on that territory.

“Muu. You're thinking of something complicated again, aren't you? Touya's already worked more than enough, so for now, ignore the other things and pay more attention to us-no ja.”

“I agree with Suu on that. More attention.”

The two then began chanting attention-, attention-, like that. I don't know if I should be happy or pressured…

It's true that I havn't really had time to spend with everyone else these days due to how busy we are.

Since the problem with the evil god is cleared away, I want to keep the girls company as well, but… There's a lot of things that have piled up as well, so…

“Well, it's fine for today, I suppose.”

Since it's not like we can go out to some place right now, I took out my smartphone and projected a screen into the air.

“Is this that thing called a movie from your world? Touya?”

“Since it seems like the others will take a bit more time to finish. Anything you two want to watch?”

“No to scary things. Yes to funny things.”

Such was Sakura's statement. There was a time before this when I showed everyone a horror movie and they all went into panic mode; it's a bitter memory for me. Although, it's a weird

feeling to see the people inhabiting a world with actual zombies and wraiths and stuff like that to be scared so easily.

“I guess something easy to understand would be good.”

This smartphone, which is a sacred treasure for a god's exclusive use in a sense, can translate any dubbed movies to this world's common language. However, even if the language barrier is cleared, if the content is too far out of this world's common sense, it's inevitable for the viewers aside from me to be unable to understand it. Even if I showed the girls a movie about the money games of Wall Street, I doubt they'll understand it at all. Although if it's the professor or someone from that group, I feel like they'll understand more than me.

I guess it'll be a comedy film then. And a simple story which is interesting at the same time… Un, this is good.

It's a film about a piglet that becomes the first “shepherd pig” in history. It's a simple and heartwarming story that's rated quite highly by critics.

“Ohh, it's begun.”

“Looking forward.”

While sandwiched between Suu and Sakura, I also settled down and started watching the movie, my first time in quite a while. This is nice, too.

The fact that everyone else saw us later and also asked to watch the movie, so I replayed it once more from the top was also a good memory to me.

– Pixel

Chapter end