How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 8 (Premium)

by Dojyomaru

  “Oh...”

  While she was in the castle, the sadistic head maid, Serina, had been taking “good care” of Carla. Working under Lady Elisha, who always wore a gentle smile, surely was easier on her.

  “You know, there’s a request from the production team on Overman Silvan saying they’d like you to make an appearance as Miss Dran again sometime soon...” I mused.

  “Urgh... I-If you order it, I must obey,” Carla said with a truly displeased look on her face.

  She seemed to have adapted to the short skirt on her maid dress (Serina’s idea), but apparently, she still couldn’t get used to Miss Dran’s sexy costume (also Serina’s idea).

  “They’re apparently getting a lot of letters saying, ‘Bring back Miss Dran.’ The senders...are mostly full-grown men, I hear.”

  “This entire country should fall to ruin...” she moaned.

  “Don’t say that in front of the king!”

  Her eyes looked quite pretty serious, but it would probably be best for Carla if I just laughed it off as a joke. It wasn’t a direct insult to me, so her slave collar hadn’t responded to it, but if anyone overheard, I would have to try her for lèse-majesté, so I hoped she’d cut it out.

  The subject seemed dangerous, so I decided to drop it there.

  “Let’s get straight to the point, Carla. Show me to where Liscia is.”

  “Ah! That’s right. But first, why not go pay your respects to the former king? He’s been waiting in the parlor for you to arrive.”

  “Yeah, that’d be the polite thing to do, huh. Okay then, take me to see Sir Albert first.”

  “Understood. This way please.”

  Carla led the way into the mansion, and Naden and I tailed after her. Then, once we were shown through to the parlor, we were greeted by Sir Albert and Lady Elisha.

  “Why, son-in-law,” greeted Sir Albert. “How good it is of you to come see us.”

  “You must be Naden,” Lady Elisha said, smiling. “You’re just as cute as Liscia’s been telling me.”

  Sir Albert took my hand, and Lady Elisha took Naden’s.

  “It’s been a while,” I said. “Father, Mother. I’m glad to see you seem to be as well as ever.”

  “I-I’m Naden. Nice to meechu.” Naden was tense and slurred her words.

  Seeing Naden like that, Lady Elisha giggled and hugged Naden’s head tight in her ample bosom.

  “Whuhwhuh?!”

  Suddenly finding herself in an embrace, Naden panicked and flailed her arms. She had to be feeling shy too.

  Elisha gently patted Naden on the head. “My daughter will be marrying Sir Souma too. So, Naden, if anything should happen, please rely on me as a mother. I’m happy to have gotten another cute daughter like Tomoe.”

  “Your scent reminds me of Lady Tiamat.” Naden wrapped her arms around Lady Elisha’s waist. She’d been tamed in an instant.

  A scent like the holy mother dragon...? Was it the smell of motherhood, or something like that? As a ryuu, Naden had no relatives. Ruby was the only friend she had left from her homeland now too. If Lady Elisha could be her mother in this country, nothing would make me happier. It’s a happy thing to have someone who will indulge you like a child after all.

  While I watched the two of them with a smile, Sir Albert began speaking.

  “Son-in-law, we will take care of Madam Naden here, so please go be with Liscia. She is on the terrace in the courtyard, eagerly awaiting your arrival.”

  “Thank you. I’ll do just that.”

  I gave my regards to the them both, then left Naden behind and exited the parlor. Then, with guidance from Carla, I headed to the terrace facing out on the courtyard.

  On the sunlit white terrace, there was a table with tea already prepared, and a lone woman was seated at it. The woman had her back to me, and she was watching the trees sway in the autumn wind.

  When I gave Carla the sign indicating she’d taken me far enough, she bowed then turned on her heel and returned to the mansion.

  I silently approached the table, taking a seat where I could get a glimpse of her face. The woman turned to me and smiled softly.

  “It feels like it’s been such a long time, Souma.”

  “Yeah, I feel like we haven’t met in forever. I wanted to see you, Liscia.”

  “Hehe! Me too.” Liscia’s smile was like a flower blooming.

  This was my fiancée, who I hadn’t seen in over a month since going to the Republic of Turgis. Seeing her for the first time in a long while, Liscia looked far more like an adult than she had before.

  While my heart was racing at the sight of her, I opened my mouth, feeling like I had to say something. “Your hair... Has it grown?”

  “Yeah. I haven’t cut it recently after all.”

  Liscia’s hair, which she had cut short when issuing the ultimatum to Georg, was now about halfway back to the length it had been when I’d first met her.

  “Will you grow it out to the length it was before?” I asked.

  “I’m still deciding. I’m fond of the shorter hairstyle now. Which do you think looks better on me, Souma?”

  “I like both.”

  “Geez, you’re so indecisive.”

  “So long as you don’t become a skinhead, or do anything else too extreme with your hair, I’m sure I’ll love it.”

  “I won’t do that with my hair.”

  Liscia and I looked at one another and smiled. We had a good laugh, then I scratched my head hard.

  “Why’d I start off talking about your hair? There’re a ton of things I want to ask and tell you, but...I can’t find the right words.”

  “Go through them in order,” she directed. “You have time to relax today, right?”

  “Yeah. That’s right... Well, first...” I turned back to face her, bowing my head to Liscia with her swollen belly. “Thank you for making a new member of my family, Liscia.”

  “Hehe! You mean our family, don’t you?” Liscia said, correcting me with a gentle smile. “With this, I’m a bona fide member of your family now.”

  “I’ve thought of you as family all this time, but...I feel it even more strongly now.”

  Blood ties. Soul ties. It seemed like putting it into words cheapened it, but I felt certain there was a firm bond between Liscia and I now.

  Liscia giggled. “So now Aisha, Juna, and Roroa need to become part of the family too.”

  “They’re all waiting for this child to be born,” I said, placing my hand on Liscia’s belly. “Before, we held a family meeting, and decided that when a child was born, no matter who it was to, we would have them call all the queens, primary or secondary, their mother. So, we’ll raise all the children together. I’m sure Aisha and Naden, being from long-lived races, will have theirs later than everyone else after all.”

  Liscia laughed happily. “So our children will suddenly have five mothers!”

  The children would grow up surrounded by mothers, including Liscia, who had a lot of personality. Who would influence them, and how would they grow...? I was a little worried, but also looking forward to it.

  From there we updated each other on recent happenings and had a generally aimless conversation. Liscia spoke gleefully of her days of rest here.

  “Lately, you know, I’ve been learning to cook from Mother.”

  “You, Liscia? Why?”

  “I want the baby to be able to eat my homemade cooking of course. Besides, you can cook, right? It wouldn’t do for me to be less able to cook than their father.”

  To think Liscia, who spent every spare moment joining the guards for training, would take learning how to be a proper bride seriously... It was moving, somehow.

  “So? How are the results so far?” I asked.

  “I baked those snacks over there.” She gestured to a large plate on the table filled with scones and cookies.

  Homemade by Liscia, huh? They didn’t look bad, so they probably tasted good.

  I took a cookie and chucked it in my mouth. “Let�
��s see... Nom.”

  There was a hard sensation as a sweet taste spread through my mouth. She’d put in too much sugar. That, and she’d probably kneaded the batter as hard as she could. Also, the butter had fully melted, making them hard when baked.

  I looked at Liscia, sweating hard. “Errrrm... I’d love to say it was good, but...considering you want to feed them to our child...I can’t lie to you.”

  “I know that. I can tell when I’ve messed up at least.” Liscia smiled wryly, but her fist was clenched tight. “This is what I can do now. But someday, I’m sure I’ll be able to make them more delicious.”

  “Yeah,” I said, nodding. “I’ll be looking forward to it.”

  “Yeah... But the thing is, Carla started learning at the same time, and she’s improving so much faster. I thought we were the same, so I’m having a hard time accepting it.”

  “Well, I mean, Carla does have Excel’s blood in her.”

  Carla’s mother, Accela, was Excel’s daughter. She was also related to Juna, who was like a walking mass of big sister power, so maybe she had a strong latent ability for domestic tasks.

  Liscia sighed. “By that same token, Mother is good at cooking too...”

  “Maybe you were influenced too much by Georg, your teacher in the Army?”

  “Urkh... I can’t deny that.”

  We kept having an aimless conversation like that. Talking about nothing... It was incredibly fun.

  Then, suddenly, Liscia put on a serious expression. “Souma. You didn’t come here today just to see me, now did you?”

  My heart skipped a beat as she hit the nail on the head.

  “...You could tell?”

  “Yes, I could tell. This is you. While we were talking, it felt like you were hiding something that was hard to say.”

  “...”

  “Did you find a new candidate to be queen?” Liscia stared at me, and I shook my head hard.

  “No, no! It’s just, well... It looks like we’ll be sending troops north.”

  “By ‘north,’ you mean to the Union of Eastern Nations?”

  “Yeah. It seems like attacks from the Demon Lord’s Domain are on the rise. If the Union of Eastern Nations falls, this country will be affected too. In line with our pact with the Empire, we have to dispatch reinforcements.”

  When I perfectly relayed the content of my earlier talk with the Empire, Liscia put on a worried face. “Will you be going with the troops?”

  “Yeah,” I admitted. “So...it’ll be a while before we can see each other again.”

  “Why? This is different from when you were fighting the forces of Amidonia.” Her tone didn’t blame me, but I could tell she didn’t want me to go. “Back then, you had just been given the throne, and the troops wouldn’t have trusted you if you hadn’t led them yourself. But now everyone sees you as king. Can’t you leave this to a commander like Sir Ludwin?”

  “To prepare for unanticipated events, I want to bring powerful fighters like Aisha and Naden,” I said. “It’s better if I’m there to lead them. There’s also the fact that I want to see the situation in the north for myself too.”

  The detail about Julius would only cause her to worry, so I could probably omit it.

  I stood up, walked behind Liscia, and gently embraced her. “It pains me not being able to be by your side when you’re about to give birth, but today, when I saw you with the baby so large in your belly, it made me even more sure I had to go north. I want to leave my children the best country I can after all.”

  “Souma...” Liscia closed her eyes as I kept hugging her tight.

  There was a quiet moment between us, then eventually Liscia lightly laid her hand on my arm and smiled.

  “I understand. But make sure you come back.”

  “Yeah. If things get dangerous, I’ll come running back. I can’t die without seeing my child’s face after all.”

  She chuckled. “Make sure you do. I’ll be waiting for you with these kids.”

  “Yeah!” I nodded firmly, but then got caught on the wording of what Liscia had just said. “...Huh? These kids?”

  When I parroted those words back, Liscia had a blank look on her face and said, “What? Didn’t Hilde tell you? I’m pregnant with twins.”

  “Huh...? Whahhhhhhhhh?!”

  What a shocking fact! I was suddenly going to be a father to twins!

  Now that she mentioned it, Liscia was looking awfully big for where she was in the pregnancy. But still, twins, huh...

  The feeling that I had to come back home safely grew even stronger.

  Chapter 3: Assignment of Personnel

  —10th day, 10th month, 1,547th year, Continental Calendar—Parnam Castle—

  On this day, the audience chamber in Parnam Castle was packed full of people.

  Even without including the guards, there were more than thirty people gathered, and the supposedly large audience chamber felt cramped.

  There was a lot of variety in the faces assembled too.

  Most were members of the National Defense Force like Excel or Ludwin, but there were bureaucrats like Poncho and Colbert too. There were also those from abroad like the bishop from the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State, Souji, and Kuu, the son of the Republic of Turgis’s head of state. Even the former General of the Air Force, Castor, who was supposed to be in Excel’s custody, was in attendance, causing those present to buzz with excitement.

  Here was a scene in which nearly all of Souma’s main vassals, irrespective of position, were present.

  There were some people here who hadn’t seen each other in a while, and here and there people could be heard getting reacquainted.

  “Master, it’s good to see you again.” The current head of the air division of the National Defense Force and former steward of House Vargas, Tolman, was bowing to his former master, Castor.

  Castor hurriedly made him stop bowing. “Don’t call me ‘master.’ I’m no longer head of the House of Vargas. I left the headship to Carl and am in the custody of the House of Walter now. If you bow your head to me, it looks bad.”

  “Ah... I see. Then what am I to call you from now on?”

  “You can just call me Castor for all I care, but...if you must call me something else, make it ‘captain.’”

  “Captain...you say?”

  “That’s right!” Castor nodded, then put the captain’s hat that was in his hands back on his head with the brim low over his eyes. “I have a ship and her crew at my command now. It’s nowhere near as many men as I once had, but I like this job more than you might think.”

  “Now that you mention it...you’ve developed a tan. Like a man of the sea.”

  As Tolman had pointed out, Castor was a lot more tanned than before. He was thin, buff, and looked young, so he looked like a surfer on the beach in summer.

  As Castor rolled up his sleeves to show it off, he gave a jolly laugh. “Compared to the high altitude of Red Dragon City, Lagoon City is hot and humid. I dress lightly all the time, and this is what happened.”

  “You look so strong and dependable. Why, if the lady of the house could see you, I do believe she would fall in love all over again, wouldn’t you agree?”

  “Is Accela...doing well?” Castor asked hesitantly.

  “Yes. Both she and Carla are doing fine. However, unlike Carla who appears in Jewel Voice Broadcasts, I don’t hear much of you, mas...captain, so I’ve been somewhat worried. I have a message I was asked to convey if I had the opportunity to meet with you.”

  “A message?” Castor asked.

  “Lady Accela told me this: ‘I am a dragonewt myself, so I will live a long life. Therefore, I can wait for as long as I must.’”

  Lady Accela was the child of Excel and a dragonewt man.

  “I see... Accela will wait for me, will she...?” Hearing the message from his separated wife, Castor smiled a little sadly.

  It was a somber atmosphere, but...Tolman’s message didn’t end there. “Um... There was one more thing. ‘How
ever, if it takes too long, I will seek permission from His Majesty to come see you. If I find you living a slovenly life when I get there, Mother and I will lecture you together, so be prepared for that...’ That was the other message.”

  “Urgh...”

  The somber mood was wrecked in an instant, and Castor began sweating profusely. He must have had something to feel guilty about, because his eyes were darting about furtively.

  “A-Accela shouldn’t be receiving any information about me, right?”

  “She shouldn’t, but...does something come to mind?” Tolman asked.

  “No, that wasn’t my fault! Yes, I went to a place of wine and women with my fellow sailors, but only as a means of socializing!”

  “Captain...” Tolman pressed on his forehead and shook his head in exasperation.

  It was a conversation between master and servant, no different from the ones they had once had in Red Dragon City.

  While the former master and servant were having that exchange, the current master and servant team, Kuu and Leporina, were meeting again for the first time since in the Republic of Turgis.

  “Ookyaya! It’s been a little while, Hal!” Kuu cried.

  “Hey, Kuu! It has been a little while!”

  Kuu and Halbert, who had fought together in the republic, exchanged a firm handshake. Beside them, Kaede and Leporina were shaking hands.

  “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you too, Leporina.”

  “Good to see you again, Kaede.”

  “???” Ruby, who was standing beside Halbert with Kaede, was left with a blank look on her face, looking completely out of the loop. She tugged on Halbert’s sleeve for an explanation. “Who are these people, Hal?”

  “Oh, right. This is your first time meeting them. This is the son of the current head of the Republic of Turgis, Kuu Taisei, and his follower Leporina. Kuu, this is Ruby, the dragon I formed a contract with in the Star Dragon Mountain Range. That makes her my second fiancée.”

  Following that, they introduced themselves to each other. Kuu and Leporina were smiling, but Ruby was confused about what to do after hearing Kuu was the son of the head of the Republic of Turgis.

  “The son of their head of state?!” she exclaimed. “He’s the son of the leader of a neighboring country! Is it okay to be so casual with him?!”