How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 1

by Dojyomaru

  “As you see here, we will have to wait until autumn for a fundamental solution to the problem. It goes without saying that we intend to provide support, but there are issues of volume and geography preventing us from reaching every person in the kingdom with it. Not everyone lives in the flatlands, after all.”

  This was a country with many races living together. From the dark elves who lived in the forest, to the dragonewts who preferred to live at high altitudes like in the mountains, to the dwarves who lived in underground caves, there were those who lived in places supply lines did not pass through, and it would be difficult to deliver relief supplies. It was the same for those who lived in marginal villages deep in the mountains.

  “That is why I come to you, my countrymen, with a request... no, an order.” Here, Souma stopped. Then, after a breath, he said clearly: “Everyone, survive until autumn.”

  When they heard those words come from the young king’s mouth, the people gulped. The words’ meaning was simple. However, his intent behind them was inscrutable.

  “Because we have no cards to play, you will all need to survive for yourselves,” the king said. “Go into the mountains, into the rivers, into the sea, in search of food. Cooperate with each other and bow your heads to others if necessary, no matter how humiliating it is, because I want everyone to survive until autumn.”

  Those words could have been heard as an abdication of responsibility. He was telling those who were suffering to go work hard on their own, after all. However, it was also true that only those who worked hard would be saved.

  The young king bowed his head sincerely. “Please. When I say everyone, I mean every last one of you. Don’t lash out at others because you’re suffering; don’t send away children because you have too many mouths to feed; do not throw away the old and frail. I want you all to greet the bounty of autumn together. This broadcast is something we’ve put together in the hopes that it will be some help with that.”

  Souma went into the objectives of the current broadcast. As a means of buying time until the food crisis could be solved, they would introduce ingredients not commonly eaten in this country and show the ways to prepare them. These ingredients could be obtained cheaply (or freely where they grew in the wild). Furthermore, by eating those ingredients on air, they would demonstrate that they were edible.

  Even those citizens who had been indignant at his earlier statement, which had seemed to abdicate responsibility, felt their anger cooling as they listened to Souma’s explanation. Because this king truly was thinking about them. They could feel that keenly.

  “...So, there you have it. Now then, I’ll hand the show back over to your hosts, Poncho and Juna.” With his explanation complete, Souma returned to his seat.

  Souma couldn’t have known this, but at that moment, roaring applause erupted through plazas around the country. It was spontaneous applause from those citizens deeply impressed by Souma’s words. Without knowing it, Souma was slowly beginning to gain recognition as their king.

  The video returned to Poncho and Juna hosting once more.

  “Now then, let’s get right to it,” Juna said. “Poncho, what’s our first ingredient?”

  “Y-Yes! Our first ingredient is right here!”

  With that, Poncho brought over a cloth-covered box, placing it on the table where Souma, Liscia, Aisha, and Tomoe were seated like guest commentators.

  It was a box big enough to hold a largish aquarium.

  Pausing a moment for dramatic effect, Poncho pulled back the cloth.

  ◇　◇　◇

  We were in the cafeteria at Parnam Castle for the live broadcast.

  “Urkh...”

  “Eeeeeeeeek!”

  “Wai— What?!”

  When they saw what had appeared on the table, Aisha, Tomoe and Liscia each let out their own cries of shock.

  Juna, on the other hand, looked at it and seemed to be thinking, “Ohhhh, so that’s it.”

  “That’s an octopus.”

  “It sure is an octopus.”

  The thing in the box in front of them was the eight-legged wriggly soft-bodied creature you all know to be an octopus.

  While many of the creatures in this world had a touch of the fantastic about them, such as even the cows and chickens having armored carapaces, this was just a straight-up (though rather large) octopus. Well, even in fantasy worlds, giant octopuses are often a thing, so I guess it’s okay?

  By the way, in this country, they called octopuses “ocatos,” but that’s just confusing, so we’ll stick with octopuses. I mean, with my mysterious translation ability, the word sounded like “octopus” to me, anyway.

  “Huh? You people don’t eat octopus in this country?” I asked.

  “We do not! Hold on, Souma, have you actually eaten one of those creepy things before?!” Liscia looked at me incredulously.

  Come on, it’s just an octopus, you know? I’m having a hard time accepting this reaction.

  “Well, considering how they look, I’m sure they’re only eaten in some coastal regions. My hometown is one of them, though,” Juna gently explained.

  Well, even back on Earth, in Europe (excluding Italy and Spain) they’re called “devilfish,” and in some countries people refuse to eat them... I guess? I thought.

  “But they’re so tasty...” I said.

  “A-Are they?” Liscia asked.

  Once she heard they were delicious, Aisha was ready to dig in. Her being my bodyguard meant we often ate together, so I already knew this, but this girl was quite the glutton. She had a special weakness when it came to sweet foods (like the snacks that came as offerings for the king and maids), and she would munch away at them to the point that the maids jealously grumbled, “How does she eat so much and still maintain that figure...?”

  “Yeah. There are divergent opinions about how good it is raw, but if you just rub salt into it, wash off the mucus, and boil it, it’s good like that. Cooked, fried, served with rice, it’s delicious any way you like it.”

  There was silence.

  “Aisha, you’re drooling,” I added.

  “Whoops... Pardon me.”

  “Honestly, it’s high-protein, low-calorie, so it’s great if you’re on a diet, too.”

  “High-pro? I-I’m not sure what that is, but my ears pricked up when I heard the word ‘diet’...” Liscia seemed to be ready to dig in now, too.

  Honestly though, I thought Liscia could stand to put some more meat on her bones. Maybe it was because she was in the army, but she was pretty slender.

  “I don’t think you need to worry so much about your weight,” I told her.

  “Souma... A girl stops being a girl the moment she stops caring about her weight,” Liscia admonished me with eyes that seemed to be staring off into the distance.

  Since Juna and Tomoe gave firm nods as well, I guessed that was just how it was. Aisha was the only dissenter, with a face that seemed to say, “Forget that, I want to eat already...”

  “Okay, then... For now, shall we get to cooking?” I asked.

  We moved to the kitchen attached to the cafeteria and began to prepare the octopus. The cooks who worked there protested, “If you had just said something, we would have done it for you ourselves...” but I liked cooking, so I decided to do it.

  First, I put the octopus in a large bowl, cutting out the guts, ink sack, and eyeballs with a kitchen knife. (This elicited an “Uwah...” from the girls, but I ignored them.) Then I rubbed salt into it, waited for the slimy surface to harden, then washed it well with water. I cleaned the suckers thoroughly, as well, because there can be mud in them sometimes.

  After that, I brought water to a boil, dropped it into the pot legs first, and then that very octopus-shaped creature (I mean, it was an octopus) boiled up. Watching until its yellowish-brown flesh turned a firm reddish-purple, I pulled it out, and a fine example of a boiled octopus was ready. After it had cooled a little, I cut the legs into bite-sized pieces. It would already be delicious like th
is.

  “Eh, good enough. Time to eat,” I said.

  “Wha?!” Liscia and the others were shocked to see me nibbling at it already with zero hesitation.

  When I popped a bite in my mouth, yep, it sure tasted like octopus. That slightly salty taste was great. And because it was so great, I couldn’t help but lament that there was no soy sauce in this world yet!

  “...Is that really edible?” Liscia murmured.

  “Come on, Liscia. You could just try it and find out, you know?”

  “Uh, no... I’m not emotionally prepared just yet...”

  “You sure? It’s delicious.”

  Ignoring the hesitant Liscia, Juna popped a slice in her mouth.

  “Ahh, no fair, Madam Juna!” Aisha cried. “Fine then, me too!”

  Seeing that, Aisha went chomp, and—

  Hey, wait! Don’t just bite right into the head! Just how much of a glutton is this dark elf?!

  “Oh! It’s crisp and delicious!”

  “...Is it now?”

  ...Okay, time to get back in control of things.

  I coated the bite-sized pieces of octopus in wheat flour, egg, and white flour, putting them on skewers three at a time. Then I put the whole skewers into a pot of hot oil. I let them fry until the batter was light brown and crispy. I pulled them out of the pot, and once I had put on the finishing touches with Worcester sauce, which they had even in this world, and a homemade mayonnaise I had made with eggs, vinegar and other things, they were done.

  “‘Fried octopus skewers’... is what you’d call them, I guess. Go on, try eating them.” I offered each person one skewer.

  Liscia and Tomoe timidly brought them to their mouths. The moment they took a bite...

  “What is this?! It’s delicious!”

  “It really is... very delicious, Brother.”

  Their eyes went wide at how good it was.

  Nice! I thought, giving myself a mental thumbs up.

  “It really is delicious. The octopus hidden inside the crispy batter is very juicy,” Juna said.

  “I-It really is! Even I didn’t know octopus would go this well with Worcester sauce!” Poncho cried.

  “This white sauce goes well with the octopus, too. Splendidly done, sire,” Juna added.

  “Y-You can cook, too, sire! That surprised me, yes.”

  Juna and Poncho gave commentary like professional food critics. Since both of them had eaten octopus before, they could both take the time to properly savor it. Meanwhile, Aisha was chomp, chomp, chomping away and producing a massive pile of empty skewers.

  ...There’s nothing more I can say about that.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “It really is delicious,” the broadcast said. “Wrapped outside in a crispy batter, the octopus inside is very juicy.”

  “...Hey, Daddy?” a child asked.

  “Yeah. If you want octopus, a lot of them got caught in our nets today,” the father answered.

  “Really?! I want to try it!”

  “Sure thing. Normally I throw them back, but let’s try it.”

  It seems there were a lot of conversations like this one in many villages by the sea.

  ◇　◇　◇

  “Our next ingredient is this.”

  After we had finished eating the well-received octopus skewers and returned to our seats, Poncho opened a new box in front of us. When we saw the thin brown ingredient covered in dirt inside...

  “Are these... roots?” Liscia said.

  “I think they’re roots...” Juna added.

  “They don’t look so good... Are they really edible?” Tomoe asked doubtfully.

  Liscia, Juna and Tomoe all acted like they had question marks floating above their heads. Aisha and I, on the other hand, were completely unsurprised.

  “Oh, burdock root, huh?” I said.

  “That’s burdock root,” Aisha agreed.

  Well, I had heard burdock root was seen as a strange thing to eat in the West, so I didn’t find it strange that it wasn’t eaten here, but that Aisha, who looked like a Westerner, knew about it surprised me.

  “In the forest, we have to eat everything we can, otherwise we would succumb to malnutrition in no time,” Aisha said, staring off into the distance.

  Perhaps that food situation was what had made her the hungry dark elf she was today.

  “Since they’re being introduced here, that means you can eat them, right?” Liscia asked, to which I nodded.

  “You can eat them. But rather than enjoy them for their own flavor, you enjoy the flavor of the broth they were stewed in, or their texture. They’re mostly dietary fiber, which you can’t digest, but they have a medicinal effect and can help keep your bowel movements regular. They’re a good friend to those who are constipated.”

  “...I wish you wouldn’t talk about bowel movements and constipation while we’re eating,” Liscia said.

  “It helps expel waste products from the body. Of course, it’s good for your health and beauty.”

  “Urkh. When you say that, it sounds tempting, but...”

  Well, now that Liscia’s been talked into it, shall we get down to eating? I thought.

  This time, I kept it simple. After scraping off the dirt using the back of a knife, I cut the burdock into long, thin shavings, coated it with potato starch, and put it into the pot of oil we had used earlier. Once it was properly fried, I took it out of the pot and split it into two bowls. One of these, I sprinkled salt on, while the other I sprinkled with sugar. With that, the burdock chips (potato chip-style and rusk-style) were complete.

  As for everyone’s reactions after eating them...

  “Huh, they’re crunchy and delicious.” said Liscia.

  “These... would probably go well with beer,” Poncho said.

  Liscia and Poncho were munching away at the salted ones like a snack.

  “The oil that comes out when you bite into them melts the sugar, and the sweetness spreads through your whole mouth,” said Juna.

  “I’d sure like to let both my moms try this,” said Tomoe.

  Juna and Tomoe, who were eating the ones with sugar, gave comments that were worth full points as a food critic and a child respectively.

  As for Aisha...

  “If you eat them together, they’re salty-sweet and delicious!” she announced, munching away at both.

  Yeah, sure, I guess it’s okay to eat them that way, too.

  The next edible ingredients were red bear’s paw (bear paw), sword tiger’s liver (tiger liver), and whole cooked salamandra (whole cooked giant salamander), but we only went as far as introducing them.

  It was true that they weren’t customarily eaten in this country, but rare delicacies that only an adventurer could hope to catch weren’t something I wanted people going out of their way to acquire. If they happened to get their hands on them by some chance, I just wanted them to know to please eat them, not to throw them away. Besides, even I don’t know how to prepare bear paw.

  Ah, by the way, at the ingredients selection stage I removed blowfish, poisonous mushrooms, and anything else poisonous from the list. I knew they could be eaten if prepared properly, but if starvation-stricken amateurs were to try their hand at them, it was clear it would only end badly.

  Mind you, even the poisonous parts could be eaten if you really wanted to. In Ishikawa Prefecture, there’s “blowfish ovaries pickled in rice-bran paste,” and in Nagano Prefecture, there are regions where they eat the famously poisonous fly amanita mushroom.

  ...The human appetite sure is something, huh?

  Getting back to the story, the next ingredient shocked all of us.

  “This here is our next ingredient, yes.”

  “““““Th-This is...”””””

  This time, all of our eyes went wide.

  Inside the box Poncho opened, there was a bluish-green gelatinous object.

  “That’s... a gelin, right?” I asked.

  It was one of the soft-bodied slime creatures that cou
ld be found in fields everywhere. They looked and acted just like the enemy from RPGs. Their defining characteristic was how weak they were. If you cut them, they’d die. If you smashed them, they’d die, too. They attached themselves to living (or dead) creatures and sucked nutrients from them. There was no male or female: they multiplied by division. They were probably what you’d get if you had an amoeba or other single-celled organism grow to a gigantic size.

  Huh? We’re eating that? Or, rather, can we even eat that?

  Then I noticed Aisha seemed to be cocking her head to the side in confusion.

  “Hold on. Is that gelin dead?”

  “Yes. This gelin has already been finished off,” Poncho said.

  “That can’t be. I’ve never heard of a gelin corpse before.”

  “Oh, that’s right. Now that you mention it, it is strange,” Liscia agreed, seeming to have noticed something.

  I, on the other hand, didn’t get it. “Liscia, could you just tell me what’s up already?”

  “What’s with that tone...? Gelins are weak. They have a thin membrane, and if you cut them just a little, gush, out flows all their bodily fluids. It’s the same if you splatter them with a club. All you have left is a bluish-green puddle.”

  “Is that how it is?”

  Aisha nodded, as well. “Yes. That’s why such a neatly preserved corpse seems impossible.”

  I see... Aisha as a warrior and Liscia as a soldier have experience fighting gelins, so they noticed something was odd here.

  “So, what did you have to do to get the slime like this?” I asked.

  “Well, you see, there’s a slight trick to it. This is a technique I learned from a tribe that lives far to the west, in the Empire. They use a thin pole-like object to strike the nucleus without breaking the membrane. If you do that, the gelin will maintain its shape in death. In that area, they called it ‘ike-jime for gelins.’”

  Ike-jime? Come on, this isn’t like draining blood from fish... But, still, that makes sense now. It looks like I wasn’t wrong to think of them like single-celled organisms.

  “The fluids of a gelin gradually lose liquidity and harden once the core is destroyed,” Poncho added.