The location changed, and we arrived at a certain room in the headquarters of the Rashiyu Trading Company. As expected of the headquarters in the commercial capital, it was an impressive stone-built structure.

“Uh, so… you two are… heroes summoned to the Arclight Kingdom?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“……”

Hearing our explanation, Fleur was left dumbfounded, mouth agape.

Knowing the true nature of something that even the so-called Magic Research Institute couldn’t figure out—of course, that would raise the question of “why?” We hadn’t planned on revealing it, but it’s not like we had been actively trying to hide it either.

Some guilds in the Arclight Kingdom, like the guild master of a certain guild, already knew. If someone really wanted to investigate, they could probably find out quite easily.

“Th-Then, that ‘sma—rt—phone’ you won at the auction is…”

“Yes. I believe it’s a device from our world.”

“It looks exactly like the ones we had.”

I nodded slowly at Rio’s words.

Come to think of it, what would an appraisal say?

====

Type: Tool

Name: Smartphone

Description: 6G-compatible Sony-made Xperia 3

Equipped with a Step Dragon 1082 processor

High-spec model with an 8K display and 32PB memory

====

“Pffft—”

It’s literally just a smartphone. And what kind of advertisement is this?

“What’s wrong?”

“Well, the appraisal says it’s a ‘6G-compatible Sony-made Xperia 3’…”

“Ehhh…”

“W-What kind of appraisal result is that…? The research institute never released any such findings.”

So that’s how it is. Maybe appraisals reveal more details if the person appraising it is familiar with the item? Or maybe their appraisals only showed the name and nothing more? The mechanics behind appraisal skills remain a complete mystery.

Also, what the hell is 6G? As far as I remember, 5G had just started rolling out recently. An 8K display on a smartphone makes no sense either, and what’s this memory unit ‘PB’? Is it bigger than gigabytes? I have no idea.

Maybe the timeline doesn’t match, or maybe this is a parallel Earth. Too many possibilities. Better not overthink it for now.

“So, what exactly can this ‘sma—rt—phone’ do?”

While I was struggling with the mysterious future-tech specs, Fleur excitedly raised her voice.

“Hmm, it can do a lot of things, but basically, it’s a device for long-distance communication.”

“I had one too. It was a widely used device among ordinary people.”

“Long-distance communication…? How far could it reach?”

“Pretty much anywhere. As long as you weren’t deep in the mountains or somewhere with no people, you could stay connected.”

“Wha—!? T-That’s incredible…”

“Well, it’s useless in this world, though.”

Her reaction was amusing. We ended up talking about other Earth technology too—like airplanes, which are basically metal lumps flying in the sky. No way she’d believe that.

“Still, I wonder if there’s a way to charge it.”

After finishing the conversation, I muttered absentmindedly. If I remember right, USB charging requires 5 volts? But this seems like a futuristic smartphone, so who knows if it’s the same.

I can use lightning magic, but controlling weak voltages would be extremely difficult. If I just zapped it, I could already see a future where the phone gets fried. Not that I even know for sure if the battery is just dead.

“That’s probably impossible.”

Rio’s voice reached me, but there’s no harm in practicing. Even though the smartphone cost me 1.2 million Fron, I still wanted to see if it would turn on.

“Well, I’ll just practice and give it a shot.”

“By the way, Fleur.”

“Yes? What is it?”

“About this smartphone—how long has the research institute been studying it?”

“I heard they started about five years ago.”

““Five years!?””

Our voices overlapped in surprise.

“That means this smartphone appeared in this world more than five years ago, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct. I don’t know how exactly the adventurer who brought it to the research institute acquired it, though.”

Ah, that makes sense. But the possibility of a smartphone being transported alone into another world isn’t entirely zero. In any case, this means Earth-made items can appear in this world even outside of summoned individuals like us.

“Does this kind of thing happen often?”

“Hmm?”

“I mean, like mysterious items appearing out of nowhere… phenomena like that.”

“Oh, I see what you mean.”

She seemed to understand, even though I wasn’t sure how to phrase it.

“It’s extremely rare, but not unheard of.”

“Huh.”

“The most common cases involve finding unknown objects inside dungeons. Rare magic tools get discovered occasionally, and sometimes, there are items whose purpose is completely unknown.”

“Dungeons, huh.”

No matter how many times I hear the word, it still piques my interest.

“And in terms of people from other worlds, there are also those known as ‘Lost Ones.’”

“…Lost Ones?”

“Yes. People who seem to have wandered into this world by accident. Their place of origin always has names no one’s ever heard of, and some of them don’t even speak our language.”

“I see…”

That sounds rough. Not speaking the language would be a nightmare. Actually, now that I think about it, the fact that we understand each other at all is weird. I guess I should just be grateful for my circumstances instead of questioning them.