How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 5

by Dojyomaru

  While I was drifting along in that dozing state, a light suddenly appeared before me.

  The light gradually grew larger, eventually reaching many tens of times my own size. The light that grew to a massive size eventually began to form into something. As it took form, the once strong light gradually weakened. And then...

  What appeared before my eyes was one massive silver dragon.

  Its sense of presence was overwhelming. It had curled horns like a goat. Claws and fangs that looked like they could rend steel. Powerful wings spread wide. Its body was covered with a smooth silver fur, and its blue eyes seemed gentle somehow. It was a dragon that was masculine, and yet felt motherly.

  I had been told that wyverns and dragons were completely different before, but... now I could understand. This creature was so dazzlingly divine that it felt absurd to compare it to a wyvern.

  “Could it be that you’re... Mother Dragon?” I asked.

  It was a hunch. I had heard of this before. They said there were sentient dragons living in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, and they were ruled by a beautifully massive white dragon. The dragon before my eyes was so beautiful I would have described her as a silver dragon, not a white one, but she fit the image of Mother Dragon perfectly.

  Mother Dragon neither confirmed nor denied, but her unswerving eyes that stared into mine told me the answer was “yes.”

  Then Mother Dragon stretched that long neck of hers. Even just her head on its own was incredibly big, and if she had felt like it, she could easily have swallowed me whole right there. I panicked a little, but my body didn’t move, as if it was sewn in place.

  Fortunately, Mother Dragon’s head didn’t open its mouth as it approached, and her large nose just came up close to my chase. Then she gently inhaled through her nostrils. We stayed like that for a short while, and then Mother Dragon slowly pulled her head away from me.

  “You who have a familiar smell,” she spoke.

  Huh?! I thought, shocked.

  I heard a voice. It had the tone of a gentle elderly woman. Was this Mother Dragon’s voice, maybe? I thought that it might be, but she hadn’t opened her mouth.

  “You who have a familiar smell.”

  I’d heard it again. Yes, I definitely felt like it was coming from Mother Dragon’s direction.

  “This... voice that seems to be speaking directly to my brain, is it yours?” I asked.

  Mother Dragon looked as if she had nodded. “This is the only way we can talk when in dragon form.”

  “That’s interesting...”

  What a mysterious ability it was. I didn’t know if it was communication magic or perhaps telepathy, but, well, this was a dream, so anything worked, I guess. But still... having a conversation with Mother Dragon in my dream was like something out of an old fantasy movie.

  “...Could it be that you’re showing me this dream?” I asked.

  “No,” she spoke. “This is a dream, yet it is not a dream. By synchronizing our consciousnesses, I gave birth to a pseudo-dream, and thus was able to create a space for us to talk like this.”

  Mother Dragon explained all that as if this were all very natural.

  Synchronization of consciousness, pseudo-dreams... The scenery was like something out of a fantasy movie, but the vocabulary coming up was awfully systematic. It was almost like she was familiar with science fiction.

  I had heard there were intelligent dragons in the Star Dragon Mountain Range, and I had assumed that intelligence was just enough that they could speak like humans, but maybe their intelligence far transcended that of the races of mankind. If that was the case, what an unfathomable country they were.

  “...So, Madam Mother Dragon, why is it that you’ve arranged for us to meet this way?” I addressed her as I would a queen, doing my best to feign composure.

  Even though I’d asked just to see what she’d say... I had some idea why she had contacted me.

  It had to be the Mechadra, the thing which Genia had gone and made out of the bones we’d excavated. If the Star Dragon Mountain Range got angry at us, saying, Don’t play with the remains of our kind, our country would have no choice but to offer an earnest apology. Meeting a real dragon for the first time, I was able to reaffirm one thing for myself: We had to be sure we never made enemies of them.

  It was said that the monster that a dragon’s remains could turn into, a skull dragon, was able to destroy an entire country, wasn’t it? That probably meant that dragons had that much potential to begin with. It helped me to understand why even at the height of their power, the Empire hadn’t been able to lay a hand or a foot on the Star Dragon Mountain Range. Or rather, it was reckless that they’d ever decided to pick a fight with beings like this in the first place.

  While I was feeling a cold sweat running down my back, Mother Dragon seemed to be smiling slightly.

  “I have nothing to say about that.”

  “Huh?!” Did she read my mind?!

  “I told you, this is a place created by the synchronization of your mind and my own. Even without speaking, you should be able to hear my voice.”

  “...” ...So we can communicate just by thinking, is that it?

  When I chose to think what I wanted to say, without putting it into words, Mother Dragon nodded.

  Well, damn. We weren’t just having a heart-to-heart; what was in our heads was open to the other party.

  There could be no fairer place to negotiate, but it meant that I couldn’t lie to her, either. No, maybe as great as Mother Dragon was, she was good enough to tell lies in her own heart? When I thought that, Mother Dragon shook her head.

  “Even I cannot do that. No creature can lie in their heart.”

  “Is that right?” I asked.

  “Yes. Also, you don’t need to say things out loud, you know?”

  “No... I find it a bit unsettling, so please let me speak out loud.”

  This was a space where nothing could be hidden. I decided to ask her about it straight out.

  “So, about the Mechadra... you were saying you had nothing to say about it?”

  “I have no intention of telling you what you can and can’t do with remains when the soul has already departed, and, on a physical level, the bone had been replaced by stone.”

  “...Even if they were the bones of one of your kind?”

  “You people put the fossilized remains of your own ancestors on display, too,” she said. “I can’t say I have no reservations about it, but it is unavoidable. All living beings eventually die, and then rot away. Animals, plants, humans, and dragons alike, we all return to the soil in the end. In that case, are we to lament that as we tread the earth, we kick those who were once our brethren?”

  I was surprised. Even though she was an object of worship, Mother Dragon spoke in realistic terms. Also, if her mention of returning to the soil was in reference to being broken down by microbes, I really couldn’t afford to underestimate the dragons’ knowledge.

  “If it’s not about issues with the Mechadra, why have you set up this meeting?” I asked.

  Mother Dragon narrowed he eyes a little. “You who have a familiar smell, King of Elfrieden and Amidonia, Sir Souma Kazuya. I would like for you to come visit the Star Dragon Mountain Range.”

  “The Star Dragon Mountain Range?” I asked.

  Mother Dragon nodded quietly. “In the near future, we will hold a ceremony for the young dragons of the Star Dragon Mountain Range to form ‘riding contracts’ with the knights of the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom. I would like for you to participate in that ceremony.”

  “Huh?”

  I was going to participate in the dragon knights’ ceremony? ...Wait, didn’t the Star Dragon Mountain Range have no diplomatic relations with anyone outside of the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom? When I tried to ask for more details, Mother Dragon’s body began to shine like when she had first appeared. It was so bright, I squinted my eyes.

  Just before her form vanished, Mother Dragon left me with these word
s:

  There is something I wish to entrust you with.

  ◇　◇　◇

  When I opened my eyes, I was on a bed in a dark room.

  I looked around with my mind still hazy. It was probably still night. It was dark, but the moonlight streaming in through the window allowed me to make out the inside of this neat and tidy Western-style room.

  This is... Oh, right. I’m in Liscia’s room.

  Last night... or rather, every night lately, unless I was especially busy with work... I’d gone to sleep and woken up in Liscia’s room. Of course... well... that was so we could do a lot of fooling around.

  When I looked next to me, as expected, I found Liscia’s sleeping face. It was hectic the next morning if we did it in the governmental affairs office, and when it came to my room, half of it was my doll-making workshop, and the other half was where we spent time as a family, which made it awkward; so, as a result, we were using Liscia’s room every night.

  “Nngh...” Liscia, who had been lying on her back next to me, asleep and naked, seemed to lift her head up, but then rolled onto her side. Then, slowly opening her eyes, she rubbed the sleep from them and looked at me. “Mmm... Souma?”

  “Sorry. Did I wake you?”

  “...No. It’s fine. What’s up?”

  “Oh... I just had a kind of incredible dream...”

  “A dream?”

  That was when it happened.

  Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

  Suddenly, there was a sound like that. It was a mysterious sound, almost like a siren, or perhaps the howling of some creature. We could hear it from a considerable distance, so it must have been at a very high volume, but it didn’t make our ears ring at all. It wasn’t going to wake those who were asleep, probably. I had never heard it myself before, but I imagined it was like the singing of whales.

  I put on my shirt, and pulled on a pair of pants, then got out of bed and went over to stand by the window. When I did, I saw a large shadow in the sky flying away to the northwest.

  “How unusual,” said Liscia. “That’s Mother Dragon on one of her sightseeing flights.”

  Liscia stood next to me, naked except for the blanket wrapped around her.

  “Sightseeing flights?” I asked.

  “It’s my first time seeing it myself. On rare occasions, there are times when Mother Dragon flies around the continent. She doesn’t do anything in particular, but the Mother Dragon worshipers say that good fortune comes to those who see her out on her sightseeing flights.”

  “Good fortune... huh.”

  Liscia seemed to think it was a coincidence, but when I considered the dream I’d just had...

  It was a dream, and yet not a dream... Is that it?

  I had a premonition that something was about to happen again, and I let out a small sigh.

  ◇　◇　◇

  The next day...

  While I was still concerned by the events of last night, I was working like usual in the governmental affairs office when an exhausted Prime Minister Hakuya came in.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. “You look horribly tired.”

  Hakuya walked over, and then said to me with a tormented look, “Your Majesty... Could I ask you to get away from the castle for a while?”

  “...Come again?”

  Get away from the castle? He was telling me to get out of the castle? I was kind of the king here, you know?

  “You’re overthrowing me?” I asked. “Really, Hakuya, if you want the throne, it’s okay, I don’t mind letting you have it.”

  “Don’t talk nonsense. I don’t want that thing.”

  “‘That thing’? Now listen...”

  “It’s fine. Just listen. Just recently, you announced the date of your wedding ceremony, right?”

  When Hakuya asked me that, I nodded.

  The other day, I’d announced that I, who was still just a caretaker who had not formally ascended the throne yet, would carry out the coronation ceremony which would make me the fourteenth king, along with my wedding ceremony with Liscia and the others, at the end of this year. I had decided to do it this way because handling the big events all at once would be easier on the national treasury.

  However, Hakuya said it was causing a problem.

  “The castle is now being flooded with proposals from nobles, as well as from the kings of medium-sized and small states in the Union of Eastern Nations, all of whom want to form marital ties with you, sire. They’re hoping to slide in now, before the marriage ceremony happens.”

  “It’s a last minute rush of suitors, then?” I said. “Can’t you just refuse them?”

  “We could, but... these are all houses whose position makes it hard to refuse when they say, ‘Even if you are going to refuse, we would like to meet with you at least once before you do.’ Recently, the number of marriage proposals brought to the castle has been on a rising trend, and the section responsible for them is about ready to burst at the seams.”

  “...There are that many people sending me marriage proposals?” I asked trepidatiously.

  “No, they aren’t just for you, sire. The single men at your side who are seen as having promising futures, every one of them, have been receiving a fairly large number of marriage proposals, too.”

  So if they couldn’t marry into the royal family, they at least wanted to marry a retainer with a promising future. That was probably an easier challenge for them to clear than becoming a member of the royal family, after all. Honestly... if you were to say that this was all nobles ever did, it would be true, but... still, it was impressive that they could keep it up like this.

  “Incidentally, the most popular of your retainers is Sir Poncho,” Hakuya said.

  Poncho? Now there was a surprise.

  “Not Ludwin, the handsome captain of the Royal Guard?”

  “It’s true, Sir Ludwin is incredibly popular, but the House of Arcs is a great house, and the only people who can propose to him are of the nobility and the knightly class,” said Hakuya. “On that point, Sir Poncho is of low birth, and so even common mercantile families send marriage proposals to him. Furthermore, while Sir Ludwin feels out of reach, many women seem to think they could easily seduce Sir Poncho.”

  “...He’s being taken lightly, huh.”

  If the marriage proposals were piling up for Poncho, that meant he was popular, too. Though he was pudgy and rotund, he was also a gentle and considerate young man. More than that, his food was delicious. On top of that, he had led the country to a solution for its food crisis; and if you considered the way he was almost worshiped as a god of food in the Amidonia Region, there had to be a lot of women who would want to marry him.

  Poncho was known for giving ground when pushed, which they had seen from his appearances on the broadcast programs. For any woman even slightly confident in her appearance, it might not have been unreasonable that they thought they could push past his defenses with sheer momentum. In point of fact, Poncho was not very good at fending off those sorts of advances.

  Hmm... I was happy to hear that a good retainer like Poncho was a hit with the ladies, but I was hoping he would continue doing good work for me in future, so I didn’t want anyone too weird catching him.

  “Have you taken countermeasures?” I asked.

  “Yes. I have already asked Madam Serina to act as Sir Poncho’s assistant. She attends arranged marriage meetings with him, and drives off women who approach him purely out of personal ambition.”

  Oh... No need to worry, then. If Serina was there as Poncho’s assistant, it would probably be fine.

  There were some issues with Serina’s personality, but she was extremely graceful and beautiful. If she was at his side, the women who were only a little confident in their appearance, and who thought they could seduce him, would back down.

  I had often asked her to serve as Poncho’s assistant before this, but Serina always said things like, “When I go to such efforts on a gentleman’s behalf, I hope he will get his act together a
little more. I am working very hard, so please, treat me to a meal again sometime.”

  Though she complained, and it was obvious she was only doing it because she wanted his food, she seemed to be proactive about looking after Poncho. Poncho loved both to eat and to cook, and Serina was hooked on the junk food from Earth that he and I were developing together.

  Serina seemed unaware of it because she had let her sadistic tendency to bully cute girls get out of hand, but it felt like he had completely tamed her with food. He was a timid man you couldn’t leave alone, and she was a strong-willed woman who tended to meddle, so they got along well and... Wait, huh?

  “Serina attends Poncho’s marriage meetings, right?” I asked.

  “Yes. I hear that many women excuse themselves when they see what the woman standing next to him looks like.”

  “Isn’t that like... Serina’s unconsciously ‘sheltering’ Poncho?”

  “...”

  ...

  We looked at one another, awkward looks on the faces of liege and vassal alike.

  ...Yeah, it was best we not get involved in this matter. It would be uncouth for us to butt in and say anything. For the moment, I decided to change the subject.

  “Ahem... Anyway, I’ll bet it’s not just Ludwin and Poncho, is it? You must have a significant number of proposals coming your way, too, don’t you?”

  Hakuya was handsome, and he was the closest of all the men close to me. I couldn’t imagine the ladies and nobles of the world would let him get away. When I brought it up, Hakuya got a look on his face like he had bitten into something unpleasant.

  “I... have no intention of taking a wife just yet.”

  “It’s not that you aren’t interested in women, though, right? Are you one of those guys who thinks marriage is too much of a hassle?”

  “No,” said Hakuya. “I do intend to have a wife and children some day, but I want to find and choose a partner for myself. I wouldn’t want someone else to force a marriage on me.”