In a Different World with a Smartphone

Arc 24: The King is Busy in Many Ways

Chapter 214: The Railcar, and an Omen of War

A reaction showed up just a few days after I passed the detection board to the guild. Three lower classes had appeared. The place is a port town northwest of Reefrees. It seems adventurers in that country took care of them.

Oh well, a few red class adventurers can defeat a lower class after all. Although it may give them quite a hard time.

However, a problem still exists. There appears to be an issue with the time of appearance which considerably deviates even if the board can predict the location and the number to some extent. It’s quite tough to keep a 24-hour watch for 3 days.

On the other hand, the guild has purchased the crystal materials for quite a high price, so they should’ve reached a zero balance. It’s been decided that the guild would sell the materials to a merchant. So would I be buying the bought crystal materials in the country it has appeared?

Not everyone can accept those fraze subjugation requests since such requests are designation requests. They are the requests which are being passed to adventurers who can be relied on and who will keep working with the guild.

It will be unbearable if they just accept the request and then simply escape.

Anyway, it’s good to be able to confirm the performance of the perception board. There won’t be any problems apparently.

I’ve also distributed these boards to the tribes in the Great Forest Sea after borrowing the power of Pam’s Lauri tribe. An exchange letter bird (not a type of pigeon or anything similar) will fly to the Lauri tribe if something happens. Pam will then contact me through the gate mirror.

It’ll be problematic if the Frazes come out at the sea though, but there’s nothing I can do about that.

For now, I can only pray that at least there won’t be a big damage.

「With that said, is this alright?」(Touya)

「Hohou. Is this object called a rowing trolley?」

Currently, I’m in front of the leaders of each country, explaining the rowing trolley while in the middle of my thoughts. I’ve spread a straight rail in the wide plains of Brunhild, showing them a rowing trolley moving above the rail.

「As I’ve explained earlier, this wagon will move above the rail by moving this handle up and down. It’s a tool for transportation」(Touya)

「I see. Its construction is not particularly complex. I wonder, however, won’t it be unable to carry much cargo?」

「Right now, yes. But I’m also thinking of replacing the railcar with something else that can carry large quantities of cargo at high speeds. This wagon is just being exhibited to everyone for now and if it looks like there are no problems I’m thinking of going ahead with my plan」

If I make a steam engine or something similar all of a sudden, I would like to be excused from being blamed on the incidents like if someone who doesn’t know about railways or trains gets run over by that. I will first introduce the railway and have them realize that there’s something running over it. Then, an accident won’t be as disastrous if it only involves railcars.

It seems trains have normally existed in the ancient kingdoms, according to Shesca’s group. It would likely be more appropriate to revive the technology of this world rather than bring in a technology from another world. Oh well, it seems those trains were loud-sounding magic trains though.

「It should be easy to flatten the route when laying rails if a person uses earth magic. It will also be convenient to carry out the ores dug out from the mines with this」(Touya)

「Hmmm. You’re right」

「However, what I want you to abide by is the width of the rail. I would like it to be unified if possible. It will be considerably easier to circulate money or goods if the railway is able to extend from Reefrees to Rodomea one day. Remaking it will be troublesome, right?」(Touya)

Rail width...a gauge. It seems to be called “gauge”, and the most widely used width in the world is 1435mm which is called the [Standard Gauge]. The width in Japan is 1067mm which called the [Narrow Gauge] and it seems to be the most different from the [Standard Gauge]. It appears the bullet trains are using the 1435mm gauge, so I’ve also adopted that one here.

Actually, my grandpa’s job was walking and measuring the width of the railroad, and he often talked about how important that is. The rails may expand or contract due to excessive heat or cold. If you don’t notice this distortion and leave it unattended, it’s quite capable of causing the worst derailment accidents. I remember how many times he had told me that his work was that important.

「Our country doesn’t have borders with the countries of everyone else though...」(Rynie King)

The King of Rynie Cloud-san raises his hand. They are an island country so they only border with the Paluf Kingdom to the north.

「It’s better to have the same rail width from the beginning so that you can reuse the railcars used by other countries when they give those to you. I don’t think there’s a need to bother making a different width」(Touya)

「Ah, is that so?」(Rynie King)

Basically, disasters like collision accidents from the front won’t likely to happen if they lay out the rails in two’s with one rail going in one direction while the other rail going in the opposite direction. After talking about various considerations, the rulers rush to the merry time same as usual.

They are merry traveling by going back and forth on a 200m straight rail, steering the handle up and down while happily enjoying it. Are you kids?

As expected, the two women, her eminence the Pope and the statewide governor, didn’t get on board and get merry.

They were instead looking at the railcar instructions and drawings I had given everyone with intense concentration. It seems they’ve already come up with a way to utilize them.

Rodomea and Ramisshu are next to each other across a large river, and I think the trade will blossom quite a bit if a bridge can be built across.

Incidentally, the Monarch of Reefrees and the Beast King of Misumido have become excited and raised the speed too much. Because of that, they couldn’t stop close enough and were blown away even though they had used the brakes. It became a good example of an accident. Naturally, I’ve cured their scratches with recovery magic. That’s what happens when you speed up too much like that.

++++++++++++++++++++Scene Change+++++++++++++++++++

The season is going to be spring soon. Even the cold days are getting fewer, and the warm days are increasing.

It seems the number of travelers has increased along with that. The castle streets became lively as well, reaching the point of being crowded.

Adventurers aiming for the dungeon have gathered, while arms merchants and others aiming for the adventurers have also lined on the streets.

I’ve thought about what would happen at first, but this country has developed quite well.

『Your Majesty』(Tsubaki)

「Ha? Tsubaki-san?」(Touya)

A cat on the fence speaks to me as I walk through the town. It’s not a summoned beast. It appears to be a Ninjutsu of Takeda Shinobi, and it looks like a technique that allows you to emit a voice from other directions. Tsubaki-san is probably hiding nearby.

I think that it will be fine if she just talks to me directly without even purposely doing this. Rather, is it something done for its stylistic beauty?

『I’ve received a little bit of news which you would like to hear. It seems a war has started at Ishen』(Tsubaki)

「In Ishen? Where and to what extent?」(Touya)

『Among the eight lords consisting of Oda, Hashiba, Chousokabe, Mouri, Shimazu, Tokugawa, Uesugi and Date, I’ve been told that Chousokabe has lost to the Oda/Hashiba allied forces and had their territory taken away. Soon after that, the feudal lord of Oda, Oda Nobunaga, was assassinated. The feudal lord of Hashiba, Hashiba Hideyoshi, has taken over Oda and has become the largest power. Tokugawa has formed an alliance with Date and they are resisting him』

Huh? Oda-san and this Nobunaga(信長)... Nobunaga(信永)? Was he killed? Guess it was expected.

「The one who killed the feudal lord of Oda was Akechi-san, right? Was the feudal lord of Oda attacked at the temple during midnight?」(Touya)

『... Yes. A person called Akechi Mitsuhide rebelled against him while he had been staying in his lodgings in the temple called “Honnoji”... Why do you know about it?』(Tsubaki)

「Mn, I had a feeling it would be like that 」(Touya)

Just as I thought. The events in Ishen doesn’t look like they follow the history of our world entirely, but they look similar in some respects. I haven’t really heard about the alliance between Tokugawa and Date though.

「And, what about the Hashiba army?」(Touya)

『They are governing over Mouri and Shimazu with force at the moment. The remaining powers are Tokugawa, Date, and Uesugi. However... 』(Tsubaki)

「What’s wrong?」(Touya)

『The Hashiba army is moving towards the eastern parts of Ishen, while they’re building warships on the other hand. It appears like they are also thinking of crossing the sea and invade Yuuron...』(Tsubaki)

What’s this? If I’m not mistaken, there was a period in our history called the Bunroku-Keicho campaign.... Ara? Won’t it be dangerous for Yuuron if they are attacked now under their current circumstances?

「Say, what’s going on at Yuuron right now?」(Touya)

『Power disputes are happening wherein influential nobles are putting up people whom they claim be the illegitimate children of the Heavenly King into the position of the new Heavenly King. It resembles Ishen from some time ago』(Tsubaki)

I wonder, won’t it be bad if the Hashiba army invades Yuuron at a time like this? They probably won’t be able to rule all of Yuuron, but they might be able to conquer a part of it.

Honestly speaking, I don’t care about what might happen to Yuuron...

Yuuron hasn’t been invaded by other countries thus far considering the state they are currently it. One reason for that is due what has happened with the frazes.

The other countries are worrying whether the same mass killings might happen again in that country where it has already happened once. They also have no means to oppose the frazes in addition to that.

Naturally, there are also countries who aren’t interested in invading Yuuron in the first place like the Horn Kingdom or Demon Kingdom Zenoasu. This also includes the countries which don’t want to hold any relation with Yuuron like the Hanock Kingdom, so I cannot say that for certain.

Rodomea seems to have no intention to invade them as well, to begin with. In that case, there’s uneasiness whether the Ferzen Kingdom and the Nokia Kingdom won’t be influenced by the movement in Ishen and start a similar march on Yuuron.

A war will likely happen between those three countries with Yuuron being made the staging grounds in the worst case scenario. Speaking of power, it appears that Ishen is considerably falling behind the other two countries, but I wonder what they will do.

「What are the movements of Ferzen and Nokia?」(Touya)

『There are none at the moment. With regards to Ferzen however, it’s being restrained by large countries like Rodomea to the west and Restia to the south, so I don’t think they will move that easily』(Tsubaki)

I see. It’s just as I thought. In that case, are those movements by the Hashiba army due to foreseeing that things will be like that? Or do they have some sort of goal in here...

Despite that such an island country won’t be able to gain total control by itself, why are they embarking towards other countries?

「Say, what type of man is Hideyoshi?」(Touya)

『I don’t know him that well. He buttered up to Oda after he has unexpectedly received a position of the feudal lord from the emperor. A civil war then broke out just when I thought that they had formed an alliance. It’s said that he’s a small man with face of a monkey who raises a battle standard with a golden gourd, but no one has seen him except the people from Hashiba』(Tsubaki)

Has no one seen him? Is he being careful of being assassinated? Hideyoshi has been a show-off in my memories, but it looks like he’s different here. When I’ve heard the story in detail, it was said that he was moving like a shadow of Nobunaga, but that’s definitely how Hideyoshi is.

Furthermore, there’s an emperor or something. I’ve heard that the King of Ishen doesn’t have the power to restrain the feudal lords, but what if this Hideyoshi is emperor’s person of ability. If he’s not, then there’s no way he would’ve been able to be something like a feudal lord so easily.

「What is Ieyasu-san doing?」(Touya)

『He has tied his hands with Date and it seems that now he’s trying to do the same with Uesugi. It might be that he wants to prepare for the Hashiba army by getting allied with Uesugi who’s holding arms rivaling that of our Takeda... no, former Takeda 』(Tsubaki)

Yep, now what can be done about this? I’ve surely thought that Ieyasu-san would be unifying Ishen very easily though.

『What am I am to do?』(Tsubaki)

「Let’s wait and see for now. Contact me again if it looks like the Hashiba army is really going to invade Yuuron or attack Ieyasu-san」(Touya)

『Ha』(Tsubaki)

The cat sitting on the fence is yawning same as usual even though Tsubaki-san’s indicator has vanished.

It appears that a lot of places are getting suspicious. It might be better to go to Ieyasu-san’s place and have a talk with him just in case.

I have absolutely no relation to anyone there whatsoever with the exception of Yae’s family living in their hometown.