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

by Dojyomaru

  But Roroa said, “Nothin’ doin’,” and shook her head. “I like seein’ my big sis get all embarrassed, so I’m gonna keep callin’ you Big Sis.”

  “Augh!”

  Unable to watch any longer, Julius intervened by flicking Roroa in the forehead. “Roroa. Don’t tease Tia too much.”

  “Ouch!” Roroa bent backward in exaggerated pain.

  “L-Lord Julius!” Princess Tia hid behind Julius’s sleeve to hide her face, which was red with embarrassment.

  Roroa held her aching forehead as she stuck her tongue out at Julius. “What, Big Brother? We’re just havin’ some good sisterly fun, okay?”

  “It’s your fault for being so quick to get carried away. I do think your endless cheer is a virtue, but if you don’t take the time, place, and person you are with into consideration, you’ll only annoy people.”

  “Oww... darlin’, Big Sis Ai, my big brother’s bullyin’ me!” Roroa rubbed up against me with a fawning voice.

  “No, Julius is totally in the right here, isn’t he?” I said.

  “I agree with His Majesty,” Aisha put in.

  “You’re stabbin’ me in the back?!”

  Roroa made a backward falling motion so exaggerated that if this were a manga, it would be accompanied by a sound effect.

  Watching Roroa overreact, Princess Tia giggled, and seeing her smile made Julius’s expression soften a bit too.

  Roroa really was amazing. I had agreed with Julius: Roroa’s cheer wasn’t annoying, but rather made everyone around her smile.

  The five of us talked together for a while, and then Julius said, “Souma. Could I have a word with you?”

  Princess Tia looked worried for a moment, but Roroa clapped her hands down with a smile, she nodded, and they left us alone.

  Aisha, Julius, and I left the room where the banquet was being held and moved to a small room.

  “Here is fine,” I said.

  As we entered the room, my bodyguard Aisha showed some consideration, and waited with her back to the door.

  It was probably a position meant to let her listen for eavesdroppers, while still being able to handle Julius immediately if he tried anything funny.

  Julius poured wine from the one bottle we had brought with us from the banquet hall into my glass.

  Once he was done pouring, I took my turn pouring for Julius.

  We raised our glasses together, and said in unison, ““To victory,”” clinking our glasses together.

  Once we had drank all the wine in our glasses, Julius smirked. “I’d never have expected a day would come when we would drink together.”

  “I could say the same,” I said while pouring fresh drinks. “And it’s a drink celebrating our shared victory too.”

  Drinking with Julius...huh.

  “Come to think of it, Serina drank you under the table in no time in Van, didn’t she?” I added.

  “That’s...a bitter memory. That maid was at the banquet today too, wasn’t she? The moment I saw her, those unpleasant memories came back to me.”

  “Hahaha! That head maid of ours is feared by the princess of a nation and the daughter of a former General of the Air Force.”

  “...You’re sure she’s just a maid?”

  “I’m not sure about that myself sometimes,” I admitted.

  We were shooting the breeze about inconsequential things when, suddenly, Julius got a serious look on his face. “I’m really grateful for the reinforcements you brought.”

  “I keep getting told that,” I said. “I’ve been thanked enough.”

  “Still. If you and Roroa hadn’t come to our aid, I might not have been able to protect Tia. And so, I thank you.” Julius gave a deep bow.

  Looking at how different Julius’s attitude was from before, I slapped him on the shoulder with a wry smile. “You say that like everything’s been resolved, but the real difficulties for this country start now, don’t they? You lost more than a few men in the battle up until now, right? Can you recover?”

  “We will. We protected the women and children. The population will grow, and we can build a future. Besides, after the war, our population and territory will grow.”

  “Your territory too?” I asked.

  “In the Union of Eastern Nations, the gain or loss of territory is decided in parliament. There are many lands that lost their lords in the demon wave, so land will be redistributed. When that time comes, those countries that behaved poorly by failing to send several reinforcements proportionate to their nation’s power will be stripped of territory, and countries that distinguished themselves will gain it.”

  Hmm... So that was the system in the Union of Eastern Nations, huh. It was like a union of multiple nations, but also like a single feudal state.

  Julius smirked. “We have the accomplishment of having held off tens of thousands of lizardmen until reinforcements could arrive. We can expect to be showered with honors after the war.”

  “Hey, you’re starting to look like your old self,” I said. “If Princess Tia could see you, wouldn’t that worry her?”

  “That wouldn’t be good.” Julius slapped his own cheeks. “Well, fortunately, monster parts sell for a high price. There are lizardman and monster corpses lying around everywhere. The merchants will come to deal in them, so we should have no trouble with finances.”

  “Hahaha! Now you’re sounding like Roroa.”

  “I am her brother after all.”

  “That you are... Oh! That’s right. About the lizardman corpses, do you mind if we take some of them back ourselves? I’d like to do research on them.”

  “They’re going to be used to finance the reconstruction, so it would be a problem if you took too many.”

  “They’re strictly for research, so two from each general category will be enough.”

  “I don’t see a problem with that,” he nodded. “Take what you like.”

  The time went by slowly.

  Julius looked at the wine in his glass as he spoke. “Now that the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom is here, this country will be fine. Souma, what will you do? Pull back to the Kingdom of Friedonia?”

  “I’d love to, but...”

  Julius put down his glass, glaring in the direction of the door. “Ah! Who goes there?!”

  Had he sensed someone? But Aisha, who was by the door, seemed unconcerned.

  A folded white piece of paper was slipped under the door.

  Having figured out the situation, I put a hand on Julius’s sleeve. “Calm down, Julius. If Aisha isn’t getting ready to fight, it means whoever it was was one of ours. Right?”

  Aisha said, “Yes,” with a nod. Then she collected the paper from under the door and passed it to me. “Sire, it’s a report from Kagetora and his people.”

  It was a letter from Kagetora, the head of the Black Cats, the secret intelligence unit that reported directly to the king.

  I had the Black Cats investigating every nation in the union.

  I took the letter and looked through its content then...looked up to the ceiling and let out a sigh.

  “Looks like I won’t be going back to the kingdom any time soon...”

  I was starting to get the feeling I wouldn’t be able to be there when Liscia gave birth, and it was depressing.

  Epilogue: The Friedonian Military, Eastward

  The report from Kagetora was regarding the other area seeing heavy fighting as a result of the demon wave, the Duchy of Chima.

  The Duchy of Chima was a small country in a region populated with many small and medium-sized states, and it was an old one that had survived through skillful diplomacy.

  In this most recent demon wave, the current Duke of Chima had, in a way, used his children as bait to round up reinforcements from around the Union of Eastern Nations.

  “For countries which send us reinforcements, in response to your performance, I will give each of you one of my six children, other than my eldest son, who is my heir, to serve as your retainer.”

 
; The Duke of Chima had seven children who each had one special talent, and they were all said to be beautiful.

  The eldest daughter, Mutsumi Chima, was a beautiful woman known for her ingenuity and martial ability, so she was particularly sought after.

  Hearing that six of the brothers and sisters who were always sought after as retainers or marriage partners were being offered up, many countries sent their armies to assist.

  Incidentally, I knew of this through Maria already, but the Kingdom of Lastania, where Julius and Jirukoma were, was in greater peril. The Duchy of Chima had plenty of countries already coming to their aid, so I figured it wouldn’t fall any time soon.

  Though I wanted as many capable people as I could recruit, I already had three beautiful warriors just counting my fiancées, so I didn’t bite at the offer of one more. Those, among other reasons, were why we didn’t end up sending reinforcements.

  Meanwhile, in case something happened, I sent Kagetora and many of his Black Cats out to gather intelligence.

  Now, as for the actual situation in the Duchy of Chima, it didn’t look good, according to what was in Kagetora’s report.

  Unlike in the Kingdom of Lastania, there wasn’t a concentration of one type of monster (like the lizardmen); instead a variety of monsters had pressed toward them en masse.

  The shallow crossing at the Dabicon River, which was their northern border like in the Kingdom of Lastania, was wider than the one in Lastania, and it didn’t serve to impede the monsters.

  It looked like an overwhelming number of monsters had pushed against them in force. If that had happened to the Kingdom of Lastania, they wouldn’t have lasted long. However, like I mentioned earlier, the Duchy of Chima’s unusual methods of diplomacy had gathered reinforcements from all over the Union of Eastern Nations. There were many monsters, but also many soldiers defending, so they were managing to hold the line somehow.

  The war had turned into a stalemate where they hadn’t been broken, but couldn’t turn back the invaders, either. That said, if the situation worsened and the line was broken, there would be countries and villages laid waste by the monsters’ southern advance. That would create more refugees like Tomoe’s family, or like the siblings Jirukoma and Komain. That would inevitably influence our country too.

  In order to prevent that, Kagetora had written his view that, “We must send reinforcements to the Duchy of Chima, and work with local forces to swiftly exterminate the monsters.”

  I adopted that proposal, and I decided that the reinforcements from the Kingdom of Friedonia would advance east to the Duchy of Chima.

  The day after the banquet, while the forces of the kingdom made hurried preparations to set out, I was saying my goodbyes to Sill, the princess knight of the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom.

  “Well then, Sill. We’ll have to excuse ourselves. I leave the rest to you.”

  “Yeah. It was only a short time, but I am glad we could fight together, and that we could become acquainted like this. If any remnant lizardmen try to attack this country again, this time, we will handle it as their allies.”

  “I’ll be counting on you,” I said. “Come to our kingdom to play sometime too. You’re welcome there.”

  “If the opportunity arises, I would be glad to. Sir Souma and Sir Hal, come visit us riding Madam Naden and Madam Ruby sometime too. We welcome those who have dragon partners like us.”

  “Sure. Someday, we will.”

  We exchanged a firm handshake.

  Though the Kingdom of Friedonia and Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom shared no border, it was easy to form a friendly relationship. Naden, who would be my wife, and Madam Sill’s husband-to-be, Pai, were friends too.

  Beside us, Naden, Ruby, and Pai were saying their goodbyes too.

  “Later, Naden, Ruby,” Pai said. “Take care, okay?”

  “You too, Pai. Take care of your husband...er, I mean wife.”

  “Give my regards to Saphie and Emerada too,” Ruby said.

  “Sure. Will do. Bye now.”

  With Pai waving goodbye, I took Naden and Ruby back to the camp where our companions were waiting for us.

  In addition to our major companions, Julius and Princess Tia were there too.

  I exchanged some pleasantries with those two, who had come to see us off, then spoke to my companions.

  “We will be heading to the Duchy of Chima now, but I’ll be having a number of you return to the kingdom. Roroa, Poncho, Serina, Komain, you need not accompany us any farther.”

  I was saying that to these four because there were people related to them in the Kingdom of Lastania. I had only brought Roroa because of Julius, and Komain because of Jirukoma. Poncho, who oversaw logistics, and Serina, his assistant, were supposed to support us from the rear normally, so there had been no need for them to come to the front line. The reason I had forced them to come was to make it easier for Komain, who served under Poncho, to meet her brother Jirukoma.

  With the family members having been able to meet, and Julius and Jirukoma’s safety secured, there was less need to bring these four along.

  “Roroa, please head back with Excel,” I said.

  “Uh, yeah, I’m not sure bringin’ me along’d be much help anyhow.” Roroa seemed a little disappointed, but she accepted she would be returning to the kingdom.

  “Poncho and Serina, I want you to continue managing the supply train from the rear. Komain, you can stay in this country for now, but...”

  “No, I serve Sir Poncho. I go wherever he goes,” Komain said without the slightest hesitation.

  “You’re sure? You haven’t seen your brother in a while, and you could spend some time together...”

  She laughed. “It’s fine. The one who needs quality time with my brother right now is Madam Lauren. I’d just be in the way.”

  “I guess you have a point.”

  Well, if she was fine with it, then it was fine.

  “Next, Excel.”

  “I’m right here.” Excel came forward quietly and bowed to me.

  “You really saved us in the battle at the Dabicon River,” I said. “If you hadn’t come, we’d have had a much harder time putting them down. Thank you.”

  “Hehe! I only did what any retainer should. Besides, there were perks, like having you hold me. I think it gives me a nice story to tell the princess and Juna when I get back.” The way Excel said that with a smile gave me a headache.

  “It’s fine to tell them what happened, but don’t embellish too much, okay?” I said wearily.

  “Hehehe...”

  “That aside, you did well. Return to the kingdom and resume your duties protecting the country in my absence.”

  “I’d prefer to accompany you, though, sire.” Excel made a sidelong glance in my direction.

  Aisha took my right arm, and Roroa took my left, and Naden jumped on my back to try and intimidate Excel.

  I sighed. “I’d rather not upset my fiancées any more than they already are, so please, no.”

  “Oh, my, I don’t see the harm. You call me the commander-in-chief of the National Defense Force, but all I’m doing is staying in the center of the country and holding down the fort. I could accompany you...”

  “That’s enough, Grandmother.”

  Turning in the direction of the sudden voice, there stood Juna, who was supposed to be back in the kingdom.

  Huh?! Why was Juna here?!

  Excel’s eyes were wide too. “Juna? Why are you here?”

  “We thought you might drag your feet about coming back to the country, Grandmother, so Sir Hakuya sent me to bring you back. It looks like we were right.”

  “Oh, my, you think you can stop me?” Excel shot her a defiant look.

  Juna didn’t back off one little bit. “Yes. I’ve brought the ultimate weapon for getting you to come home.”

  “An ultimate weapon to use against me, you say?” Excel’s brow twitched.

  Juna pulled something from her pocket. It seemed to be a letter in an env
elope. It was stamped with the Walter family crest.

  “Th-That’s!” Excel was clearly flustered. I had never seen the usually aloof Excel this disturbed before.

  Juna smiled and declared to Excel, “If you won’t be a good girl and do as you’re told, I’ll reveal the contents of this letter, you know?”

  “Urgh... You win. I’ll comply.” Excel kneeled in front of me and bowed her head. “Well then, sire, I will be returning to the kingdom ahead of you.”

  “Uh, yeah...”

  I gave an empty response, unable to follow what just happened, and Excel departed as if her stubbornness from before was all a lie.

  While everyone was still dumbfounded, I asked Juna, who was the only one smiling, in a small voice, “Um, Juna? What exactly is that letter...?”

  “Hehe! It’s a love letter that Grandmother wrote to my grandfather.”

  “L-Love letter?!”

  “Yes. It’s veeeery syrupy and sweet. I suspect the House of Vargas has something like this in store too, as a measure against Grandmother.”

  Ahh, she wouldn’t want that getting out. I could understand it now.

  Whew... I’m exhausted...

  Excel really was a tempest of a woman. She made all the waves she could, then left.

  Well, that was all the people returning to the kingdom decided.

  To be honest, I wanted to send Tomoe back too, but depending on the situation in the Duchy of Chima, I might need her ability, so I decided to bring her and her bodyguard Inugami along with us.

  When I was finished giving orders, Roroa and I stood in front of Julius and Princess Tia. Julius extended his hand, so I took it firmly.

  “Souma,” he said. “You really helped us this time. I’m sorry that this country has nothing to give you as it is now, and we can only offer our words in thanks.”

  “No need to worry about it,” I said. “This dispatch of reinforcements was requested by the Empire, anyway. Besides, I was able to forge relations with this country, which is inside the Union of Eastern Nations and has ties to the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom. That’s not nothing to show for my efforts.”

  “It’s the same for us. We were able to forge friendly relations with the Kingdom of Friedonia after all.” Julius smiled a little. He had the expression of a man who had been set free from his demons.