by Dojyomaru
We sat across from him in the same arrangement as when we’d visited Ginger. The elder’s white hair, white eyebrows, and white beard were all long and thick, reminding me of a Maltese. Except that inside all that hair, there was an old man.
The elder bowed his head deeply while still remaining seated. “We, the mystic wolves, are endlessly grateful to Your Majesty for your protection, the construction of this Kikkoro Distillery, and all of your other support. I thank you on behalf of my people.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “Little Tomoe’s done a lot for us, too. Besides, it was fortunate that people like you who knew how to grow rice and produce soy sauce, miso, mirin, sake, and more came along. I get to eat tasty food, and I can feed it to other people, too.”
“You are very kind to say that,” said the elder. “Now, sire, what manner of business have you come here on today?”
“Yeah... I was thinking it was about time we resolved the issue outside.”
“By ‘outside,’ you mean... the refugee camp?”
I silently nodded.
When I’d been summoned to this world, this country had been facing a large number of problems. The food crisis, corrupt nobles acting against the state, neighboring countries plotting to invade, how to deal with the Demon Lord, its relationship with the Empire— the list had gone on.
However, I felt like the vast majority of those problems had been resolved now. We had gotten through the food crisis somehow, and the domestic situation was looking good. Our foreign enemies had been swept away, and when it came to the Demon Lord, we had formed a secret alliance with the Empire to handle that matter together. I had worked through all those problems one by one, and the last one left was this refugee camp issue.
Outside the castle walls that surrounded Parnam, there was a village of refugees that had drifted here from the north after the appearance of the Demon Lord’s Domain.
I called it a village, but it was really just a group of tents and hovels concentrated in one place. Of the many races that made up the refugees, I had been able to lift up the mystic wolves in the name of putting their special talents to use, but they only made up a small percentage of the overall refugee population. Even now, many refugees still lived in that refugee camp.
Technically, even when things had gotten chaotic, basic food relief had been provided to them the whole time, but they couldn’t stay like this much longer. There were issues of hygiene, and if I supported them for too long, it was bound to create friction with the people of this country.
If possible, I wanted the rest of them to choose to live as people of this country, just like the mystic wolves had, but... it seemed that would be difficult. Their wish was to return to their homelands. If they accepted citizenship in this country, that would be the same as giving up on returning to their homeland.
To these people who wished for the threat of the Demon Lord’s Domain to someday be swept away, allowing them to return to their homelands, it was simply not something they could accept. I had sent my vassals to the refugee camp a number of times to negotiate, but they had always been rebuffed.
“We want to return to our homeland,” they said. Or, “Let us remain here until that time comes.”
I understood how they felt when they said these things, so I couldn’t be too firm with them. However, there was no time left now.
“The chill of winter will only grow more harsh from here,” I said. “If they stay in crude tents and hovels, the weakest among them, the children and the elderly, will be the first to freeze to death. Before that happens, I want to go there personally and press them to make a decision.”
“Sire...” said the elder.
“In order to do that, I’d like you to send a messenger to the refugee camp for me first. Have the messenger tell them I’m coming. It’s unlikely that chaos will break out that way.”
“I understand.” The elder rose from his seat and then knelt on the floor, bowing his head deeply to me. “We mystic wolves have already been saved by Your Majesty’s hand. If it is possible... we ask of you to save the rest of our fellows, as well.”
“Yeah... I plan to do everything I can to,” I said as the elder ground his forehead against the floor and beseeched me.
“How about you more clearly say, ‘Leave it to me’?” Liscia said, but that seemed like it would be taking the task on lightly.
“I’ll try to persuade them, but... the one who’ll make the final decision isn’t me,” I explained. “They are the ones who should decide their own futures. Once I receive that decision, that will decide how I’m going to deal with them. Even if that means forcing them to see the harshness of reality.”
“Souma...” Liscia had a worried look on her face, but there was no avoiding this.
Hopefully... they would look to their reality, not an ideal, when they made their decision.
Heading outside the castle walls that surrounded Parnam, the refugee camp was in a field about a hundred meters away. The tents and hovels were scattered around haphazardly, and there were crude vegetable fields in some areas. This was where the roughly eight hundred refugees were living.
There were various races here. Humans, elves, beastmen, and dwarves, too. That was just how many countries had been laid waste by the Demon Lord’s Domain and how many peoples had been forced to flee.
They had set up camp here, and had been living a nearly primitive lifestyle, sharing the resources and supplies the kingdom provided to them, then hunting and gathering to make up for what they didn’t have.
Normally, hunting and foraging required permission from the country, but the former king, Albert, had left them to their own devices. I had continued that approach after assuming the throne myself. I’d had a mountain of problems to deal with other than the refugees, so my only choice had been to give them a bare minimum of support while leaving them alone.
I couldn’t, by any means, call what they had proper living conditions, but they were at least receiving some support, which was better than nothing.
The situation for refugees on this continent was harsh. The only nations that could afford to leave the refugees alone were countries like ours or the Empire, which had some national power to spare. I’d heard that in countries bordering the Demon Lord’s Domain they were forcibly conscripted and sent to the front lines, while other countries worked them like slaves as cheap labor in the mines under the guise of sheltering the refugees.
That refugees were drifting to a country as far from the Demon Lord’s Domain as ours only showed that there was no safe haven for them anywhere else on this continent.
I walked through that refugee camp, following after the young man the mystic wolf elder had sent as my guide.
The scenery here reminded me of the slums from not too long ago. One look at the state people were in was enough to make it clear how bad the sanitary conditions were. Their clothing was tattered and their bodies were caked with dirt and dust.
And yet, none of them had eyes that looked dead inside. Each and every one of them had eyes filled with vitality.
“It’s squalid, but... they all have this strange strength in their eyes,” said Hilde, who had been covering her nose and mouth with a cloth ever since we entered the village. It wasn’t an easy scene for a clean freak to look at.
Liscia and the others all had pained looks on their faces.
“They came here from far to the north with only the will to live,” I said. “I’m sure the people here are probably far hardier than we imagine.”
The people who face hardship they can do nothing about in times of war or natural disasters, yet still refuse to give in to despair, have a unique strength. Still, that strength... can also be a danger. While it strengthens their will to pull together and overcome the situation, the group consciousness can become too strong and weaken their sense of individuality.
If a strange leader figure appeared at times like this, the group as a whole could easily be swayed by that person’s opinions. I absolu
tely would not want anyone connected to the Papal State of Lunaria to come in contact with them.
While I was thinking about that, Liscia spoke up.
“By the way... Kazuya. You said you gave them support, but what did you do?”
She’d nearly called me Souma just now, but this being the sort of place it was, I had asked her to refrain from using my name (well, it was my family name, to be precise) as much as possible.
“It wasn’t much, but we provided foodstuffs and firewood, among other basic necessities, and we also commissioned the adventurers’ guild to guard this place as a quest,” I said.
“I understand providing food, but why hire the adventurers as guards?”
“These people aren’t citizens of this country. What’s more, they’ve lost their own countries, which would usually stand behind them and defend them. For instance, if civilians from our country were slaughtered without cause in a foreign land, and then the culprits went unpunished, I would submit a complaint to that country as king, and would place sanctions on them if the situation merited it. It works the other way around, too. In other words, it would create an international incident. The potential for something to cause an international incident is a restraining force that keeps our own citizens from suffering from crimes in another country. But...”
I paused and looked at the people in the camp.
I went on, “There is no such restraining force when it comes to people with no country of their own. You’ll have people who falsely think, ‘If it won’t cause an international incident, then it’s okay.’ Just because it won’t cause an international incident doesn’t mean they won’t be judged under the laws of this country, but it can still lower the psychological hurdles for committing a crime enough for some people to do it. That’s precisely why I want the refugees to hurry up and naturalize as citizens of this country.”
If they did that, I could offer them shelter and treat them as my own people. However, I was well aware that that wouldn’t be as simple as it sounded. Not everything in this world could be approached with reason.
“When people’s hearts are involved, things get really difficult,” I said.
“They do...” Liscia nodded.
We suddenly heard screams from inside the village. At the same time, there was the sound of metal on metal.
Liscia furrowed her brow. “It sounds like someone’s fighting. Multiple someones, at that.”
“Let’s go,” I said.
Everyone rushed toward the sound of the commotion.
When we reached the center of the commotion, there was a group of men and women that seemed to be an adventuring party who, alongside a handful of people from the village, were fighting against more than ten men who seemed to be mercenaries. The adventurers included a young swordsman, a macho brawler, a woman wielding a short sword who looked like a thief, and a beautiful mage.
...Hold on, those were a lot of familiar faces.
So, Juno and her group took on this quest, huh?
Dece the swordsman, Augus the brawler, Juno the thief, and Julia the mage. They were the members of the party I often worked with when I sent Little Musashibo out adventuring.
“What is all the commotion about, pray tell?” Owen asked a man who was quivering nearby.
“Th-Those men suddenly came, and they were trying to abduct the children! They even cut down the adults who tried to stop them! After that, they got into a battle with the adventurers who heard the noise and rushed over here!”
The adults had been cut down? When I looked off into the corner, I could see a bleeding man being treated by the priest, Febral.
I quickly gave orders. “Carla, Owen, back up the adventurers.”
“Understood, master!”
“By your will!”
“Hilde, I want you to help that priest over there,” I went on. “Liscia, you stand by for further instructions.”
“Fine, fine. I guess I’ll have to,” Hilde said.
“Urgh... okay,” Liscia agreed.
Carla and Owen immediately rushed forward, and Hilde headed over to the wounded. I was going to get one of my dolls ready, in case it became necessary, but then realized I hadn’t brought any dolls with me today. Right... I had left them behind because I’d figured they would be too much luggage for a trip outside the castle walls. I drew the sword I wore as little more than a decoration and took a fighting stance.
“Can you fight if you have to?” Liscia asked me, her rapier at the ready.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Owen’s been putting me through the wringer lately, but he says I’m still little better than a fresh recruit.”
“That’s not very reassuring,” she said. “Still, from what I can tell, they have numbers on their side, but none of them are particularly strong. I doubt any of them are below the level of a fresh recruit. If it comes to it, hide behind me.”
“Pathetic as that is, I guess I’ll have to,” I said.
I didn’t like being weak, but if I butted in, I was probably just going to cause trouble for my own people. I was in a position where I couldn’t afford to take getting injured lightly. That was what I was thinking, but...
“Ah!”
“Hold on!” she shouted. “What are you moving forward for, right after we talked about it?!”
I heard Liscia’s voice behind me, but I didn’t stop. Juno had been unlucky and caught her leg on a stick that was thrown at her and tripped. That’s when one of the men who had his hair in a cockscomb tried to attack her. As I ran toward them, I picked up a scrap of wooden board that had fallen on the ground.
“Get down! Juno!” I shouted and threw the board at the man like a discus.
“Huh? Uwah!” Juno yelped and ducked.
Cockscomb slashed at the flying board. Because the attack took him completely by surprise, he couldn’t cut the board cleanly and ended up half-pulverizing it. Thanks to that, it looked like the splinters of wood had gotten into Cockscomb’s eyes.
“Ow! Damn it!” Cockscomb Head pressed on his eyes, flailing his sword around wildly as he backed away.
I took that opening to step into the gap between the two of them. His vision must have recovered, because Cockscomb came at me.
Calm down! One exchange of blows! I only need to hold out for one exchange, and then Juno will have regained her footing! Just remember the basics that Owen’s beaten into me!
Cockscomb raised his sword high over his head. He was going to try and smash my head open.
I brought my left foot forward diagonally and took a stance with my sword up above my head horizontally, the cutting edge angled slightly toward the ground. In the next instant...
Clang!
The sound of metal striking with metal echoed, then, with a scraping sound, Cockscomb’s sword slid down my blade and was diverted to the ground to the right of me.
I did it... I did it! My hands were numb, but I had somehow managed to block!
““Don’t just stand there!”” Liscia and Juno screamed.
As Cockscomb tried to regain his footing, Liscia and Juno pounded their swords into him simultaneously. Cockscomb collapsed.
Once she had confirmed her opponent was no longer moving, Liscia grabbed me by the front of my shirt. She pulled me in close to her face. “What were you thinking, charging out like that?!”
She seemed furious, but up close, I could see tears in Liscia’s eyes.
“Oh, um... sorry...”
“No, not ‘sorry’! You almost gave me a heart attack. If anything were to happen to you... what would I... what would all of us do...?”
When I heard Liscia’s voice gradually breaking with emotion, I could feel how much she had been worried for my safety. The mixture of happiness and guilt made my chest hurt.
“No, really, I’m sorry!” I said. “Someone I know was getting attacked, so I moved without thinking...”
“Hey, you!”
I was suddenly grabbed by the scruff of the neck and dragged in the o
pposite direction. When I turned around, Juno was glaring at me with a super suspicious look in her eyes.
“You called me Juno, didn’t you?” she snapped. “Why do you know my name?”
“No... That’s, um...”
“Hold it, So— Kazuya.” Liscia glared at me, looking upset for a different reason from before. “Who is this girl?”
She’d almost called me Souma for a second there, but with Juno right beside us, she’d switched to my undercover name.
Yeah, that had been a nice bit of quick thinking. Now, I just wanted her to not glare at me quite so hard.
I was sandwiched between two cute girls, both of them glaring at me. Some people might be jealous of this situation, but unfortunately, I was not equipped with the right fetishes to appreciate it fully.
This situation... How exactly am I going to explain it? I wondered.
Or rather, where was I even to start? Should I start by outing myself as the person inside Little Musashibo (or, more precisely, remotely controlling him)?
Juno’s glance shifted to Liscia. Something must have caught her attention, because she was inspecting her closely. “Hey, I feel like I’ve met you somewhere before, too.”
“Huh?” Liscia asked. “Ah!”
Liscia pulled hard on my arm, then whispered in my ear, “This girl, she’s the one who was at that banquet, right?”
Huh? Oh! Now that I thought about it, Liscia had met Juno, hadn’t she? Liscia had recognized Juno, but judging by Juno’s reaction, she didn’t realize who Liscia was. Probably because Liscia was lightly disguised right now.
Juno put her hands on her hips, making an angry face. “What’re you two whispering about? Seems suspicious.”
“No, it’s nothing suspicious at all, really...” I said.
When Juno stared at me with her unyielding eyes, it was kind of awkward to be there. That was when Carla and Owen, who had finished wiping out the brigands, returned.