by Dojyomaru
“...I... I understand... Souma.”
“That’s good. I was just thinking I’d like a guy my age who I can chat casually with,” King Souma... Souma... said, seeming satisfied.
What the hell, man? Seriously? I thought. Well, if he’s requesting it himself, fine. I don’t feel much respect for his authority, anyway.
“So... why are you here, Souma?” I asked.
“For an inspection, that’s all. I want to see how the roadwork is progressing.”
“You don’t need to tell us to take our jobs seriously. We already are,” I said.
“So it seems. I took the road coming here.”
“You’d better be grateful,” I said. “We’re breaking our backs to build it for you.”
“And I reward you with good food and wages, don’t I? You’re receiving plenty of compensation.”
I got used to talking casually with him in no time. Souma’d never felt like a king to begin with, anyway.
When he saw we were finished eating, Souma rose from his seat. “Now then, you two, why don’t you join me for the road inspection? I’d like to explain road construction for Liscia.”
“...What, isn’t Kaede good enough for that on her own?” I asked. “She’s the one in charge here.”
“I want to show her the actual work of making the road, you see,” he explained. “Besides, it’s at times like this when you should do what your superiors want and take the chance to build connections. It’ll come in handy later, you know?”
“How is it going to help me?” I demanded.
“Well... we’re studying how to make instant gelin udon right now,” he said. “Just add water and anytime, anywhere, even out in the field, you’ll be able to enjoy gelin udon. I might be able to arrange for some of the samples to make their way to your unit...”
“Right this way, sire. I’ll show you around.” I rose to my feet and saluted Souma.
Instant gelin udon. Now we were talking. I wasn’t going to let this chance to add some variety to our already-limited selection of field rations slip away.
The princess and Kaede seemed amused by my sudden change in attitude, but I didn’t let that bother me. Food was my number one priority, after all.
The five of us — me, Kaede, Souma, the princess, and the dark elf guard — arrived at a section of road that was currently being paved. There, Souma asked me to demonstrate the work procedures for everyone.
First, I piled up dirt to create the road’s sides.
“Once he’s piled up the dirt on both sides, we pour that gooey stuff over there in the middle,” Souma said, explaining road construction to the princess.
“What is that gooey stuff?” she asked.
“Roman concrete... It’s a mixture of volcanic ash and lime. It will harden as time passes. It also has a unique viscosity, so it doesn’t crack easily. If you want to see how tough it is... Well, if you look at that over there, I think you’ll understand.”
After saying that, Souma pointed to a giant lizard that was larger than many buildings. The giant lizard was towing a number of wheeled container cars behind it. The container cars were packed full of construction materials and provisions for the soldiers.
The giant lizard, rhinosaurus.
Also known as the great horned lizard, this super-sized lizard was distinctive for the two great tusks which grew from atop its nose. (If Souma had been describing it, he might have described it as, “Take a rhino, add a Komodo dragon, divide by two, then multiply the size by ten.”) They were omnivorous and gentle, easily becoming attached to people, so they were used in big cities to haul large volumes of cargo like this. When they were enraged, they had an unstoppable charge, so I had heard of them being used to assault castles, as well.
“It’s so tough that even if that rhinosaurus rammed it at full speed, it won’t crack,” Souma explained.
“That is incredible,” the princess said. “It’s that hard?”
“No, actually, it’s flexible where it needs to be, so it distributes the force that’s put into it. In the world I came from, there were buildings made with this concrete over 2,000 years ago that were still standing.”
2,000 years? Four times longer than this country’s existed? I thought. Wow, that’s amazing.
“Moving on, the street lamps he’s setting up on either side of the road are the same as the ones in the capital. There are a lot of wild creatures, so I doubt people will move by night often, but with these, they won’t get lost if they do. As for the roadside trees he’s planting, they’re ‘warding trees’ from the God-Protected Forest.”
“Warding trees?” the princess asked.
“Aisha, you explain.”
“Yes, sir! These warding trees constantly emit waves that monsters and wild animals dislike. They probably do it to keep giant boars from eating them. In the God-Protected Forest, we plant these warding trees densely around our villages in order to prevent incursions by monsters and animals.”
“I see,” the princess mused. “They’re like a simple barrier, huh.”
When he heard the princess’s response, King Souma gave a satisfied nod. “Now that’s what I call local know how. Anyway, if we planted them densely over a wide range like a road, there’s no telling what that’d do to the ecosystem. So rather than fully block them off, we’ll leave a reasonable number of gaps so that we’re just discouraging them from approaching.”
“Why? Wouldn’t it be better to stop them entirely?” the princess asked.
“Okay then, Liscia. If the ashen wolves and red bears, which change their hunting grounds seasonally, can’t migrate because of the road, so they stay where they are instead, run out of prey, and then start attacking livestock and houses, what will you do? Or, what if giant apes and giant boars, which will end up staying in one place the same way, come down to the villages to tear up the fields and, in so doing, spread leeches that previously only existed in the mountains to the village... What if that happened?”
“I get that we absolutely shouldn’t do it, but why are your examples so specific?!” she asked.
“Because coping with dangerous animals is a problem that all local self-governing bodies must face,” Souma said, an exhausted look on his face.
What’s a “local self-governing body”? I wondered.
Unlike me, Kaede seemed to understand, and she was thoroughly impressed.
“Wowwie... You’ve thought it through that far. I should have expected no less from our king, you know,” she said.
“Hmm. Well, all I did was bring along a bunch of knowledge from the world I was in before,” Souma said.
Kaede’s eyes sparkled, and Souma blushed a little as she stared at him.
As she watched those two, the princess seemed a little miffed.
“Um, Princess?” the dark elf asked.
“What?” the princess demanded.
“That’s one scary look you’ve got on your face.”
“I-Is it? ...Well, you’re not one to talk, are you?”
“Huh?”
Then, at that moment...
“No!”
...there was a sudden cry. Wondering what it was, I turned to look in its direction and saw the dark elf looking at a letter, her face distorted with emotion. There was a white bird perched on her quivering shoulder.
Was that a messenger kui?
Using a kui’s homing instinct and ability to pick up on waves emitted by its master at a long distance, it was possible to communicate between an individual and a fixed location. With the exception of the Jewel Voice Broadcast, which almost felt like cheating, this was the fastest method of communication. So, did that mean someone had contacted her?
“What is it, Aisha?” Souma asked.
The dark elf spoke through quivering lips. “I’ve just received word from the God-Protected Forest that there’s been a major landslide!”
◇ ◇ ◇
“I’ve received a message from my father, the chief of the dark elf village,�
� Aisha said. “‘Last night, a sudden landslide swallowed up around half the village,’ it said. There had been a lot of rain in the God-Protected Forest lately... Yes. There are... many people missing... Ohh...” Aisha’s voice caught.
Her homeland and family had just been hit by a terrible disaster. It had to have been quite a shock to her.
...I’m concerned, but I don’t have time to comfort her, I thought. In this situation, as the king, what moves should I be making?
While I was silently thinking that, Hal said, “Hey, you could at least comfort her...” but Kaede was already pulling him away by the ear before I could say anything back in response.
“The king is thinking right now,” she lectured. “You mustn’t interrupt him, you know.”
I watched her drag Hal off. What a good childhood friend she was.
...Okay, I’ve sorted out my thoughts. I raised my face, taking action immediately.
“This unit will go to aid the dark elf village!” I declared.
Hal held his ear and blinked at me repeatedly. “This unit? There are only around fifty of us.”
“Disaster relief is a battle against time,” I told him. “We don’t have time to turn back to the capital. Fortunately, the God-Protected Forest is closer to here than to the capital. First, I’ll dispatch this unit as an advance team!”
I gave each of them their orders.
“Liscia, return to the capital and request they dispatch a relief unit. Also, talk to Hakuya and have him send food, clothing, tents, and other relief supplies to the dark elf village.”
“I understand, but... Don’t you have a ‘consciousness’ working back in the capital? If you do, wouldn’t it be faster to contact him through that?” Liscia asked.
“I can’t. Living Poltergeists only has an effective range of 100 meters or so. Dolls can ignore that range limitation, but they can’t do paperwork, so I didn’t leave one behind.”
If I’d known this was going to happen, I would have left at least one doll behind. If I had, I might have at least been able to communicate that something had happened.
...Too late for regrets now, I guess, I thought.
“So, there you have it,” I said. “Someone needs to go make the request in person.”
“I get it,” she said. “Leave it to me.”
“When you go, bring the bodyguards we brought here with you! It’d be no joke if something were to happen to you on the way there.”
“I think I’ll be fine, but... Understood. You take care of yourself, too.” Liscia immediately ran off.
If I stopped to think about it, it was pretty amazing that I was making the princess of a nation play messenger girl, but Liscia probably didn’t mind. We were of the same mind on these things.
“Aisha, how far is it from here to the God-Protected Forest?” I asked.
“Half a day on a fast horse,” she said. “At a normal march, it’ll take two days no matter how we hurry.”
“Two days... When did the disaster strike?” I asked.
“It was during the witching hour, from what I gather.”
“It’s already been nearly half a day, then? The soonest we can arrive is two and a half days after the disaster... Having only half a day before we reach the 72 hour mark is going to be rough.”
Hal looked confused. “What’s that? What do you mean by ‘the 72 hour mark’?”
“In natural disasters like this, that’s the line after which the death rate for those in need of rescue shoots up. It’s three full days after the disaster strikes. It’s called the ‘72-hour wall.’”
“Sorry. Could you say that in a way that’s easier to understand?” he asked.
“It means that a lot of lives can be saved in those 72 hours.”
“I get it now... Wait, in that case, we can’t dawdle here! Shouldn’t we be getting our butts to the God-Protected Forest, pronto?! It’s gonna take a full two days, isn’t it?” he demanded.
“I know that,” I said. “Do we have a carriage?”
“The original plan only called for us to use carriages when we came here and when we left. If we need to get enough carriages for fifty people, that’s going to take time.”
“Damn!” I said. “Is there no other way to move around...?”
I noticed something. Hal and the others looked to see what I was looking at, then gulped.
I was looking at the beasts pulling the container cars. If you take a rhino, add a Komodo dragon, divide by two, then multiply the size by ten, you would have these giant lizards, the rhinosauruses. They were big, but they could run continuously at high speeds comparable to a steam locomotive.
“...Hey, Hal, Kaede,” I said.
“What?” Hal asked cautiously.
“What is it?” Kaede asked.
“It’ll probably make us all nauseous, so will you be okay?” I asked.
“I’m quite resistant to motion sickness, you know,” Kaede said.
“...I’ll deal with it,” Hal muttered.
“You will? I’ll tough it out, too, then.”
I immediately gave the order to fifty members of the Forbidden Army.
“Unload all the freight from the container cars! Fortunately, the road runs near the God-Protected Forest, but once we get into the woods, we’ll be traveling on foot! The lighter our load, the better! Leave the materials where you unload them! Even if they’re lost, you won’t be blamed for it! I’ll give a written apology to Hakuya and get off with a little scolding! Also, bring all the food with us! We can’t do something lame like show up to offer aid, then have to sponge off the locals for food!”
“““Yes, sir!”””
Following my orders, the Forbidden Army soldiers speedily unloaded the container cars.
As you might expect from people who’d been doing nothing but construction work, they moved fast. The way they efficiently worked together to carry off the materials made them look like skilled movers. They really did feel reliable.
“No, we’re soldiers, remember?” Hal complained.
“Stop prattling and get to work, Hal,” Kaede said.
Kaede was using her magic to easily move materials that would normally have taken a few big strong men working together to lift.
Earth magic was, in the end, the magic of gravity manipulation. It didn’t create earth or stone from nothing: it manipulated what already existed. That was probably why she could do tricks like this. It was a huge contribution.
...Right now, I was probably the least useful person here. Since I had below-average strength, even if I joined in with the soldiers, I would probably just be in the way.
As I stood there watching them work for lack of anything better to do, Aisha came up to me. “Your Majesty...”
She looked weak, as if she might break down at any moment.
Ever since I’d recruited her, Aisha had been at my side as a bodyguard, so I felt like I had seen a lot of her expressions. Her determined face when she made a direct appeal to me, her imposing warrior face, her childlike face when she was eating something, the face like an abandoned dog that she made when she had to wait for that food... I had seen many expressions from her, but this one was new.
To see a girl who was so much more powerful than me looking so weak pained my heart. Aisha was always protecting me as my bodyguard, but now it was time for me to protect her. I placed my hand atop her head, which was roughly the same height as mine.
“S-Sire?” she asked.
“Leave this to me.” I pulled her in, resting her forehead on my shoulder. “I have no power, and I’m far weaker that you, Aisha, but I’m in a position to make a lot of people move. So leave this to me. If there are lives that can be saved, I’ll save all that I can.”
“Sire... Siiiiiiiiire!” Burying her face in my shoulder, Aisha began to cry.
I gently patted her head.
Until we were ready to go, I comforted the crying Aisha.
The God-Protected Forest was a forested area to the south of th
e country.
The name apparently came from the legend that a giant god-beast that took the form of a goat-antelope protected this forest.
That said, there had been no claimed sightings of it in recent years, and now the only proof of its existence was that its divine protection kept locusts from attacking the forest, kept droughts from drying it up, kept cold waves from freezing it, and kept the trees green at all times. This god-beast that only showed it existed through its divine protection... did it really exist?
The dark elves were the ones to claim their forest was under the god-beast’s protection.
The forest had to be approximately as big as the Sea of Trees around Mt. Fuji. They called it a forest, but it was actually the autonomous domain of the dark elves, and that xenophobic race had never let the other races enter their forest. Even Aisha had come to appeal to me for a crackdown on trespassers.
This time, there were close to fifty (hundreds once you considered the units to follow) humans coming to provide relief, and we would be entering the forest, but this was by request of the chief’s daughter, Aisha, so it would be treated as a special case, apparently. The dark elves lived in the forest, defended their independence, and hated outsiders.
As a matter of fact, despite the catastrophic landslide they had suffered, they apparently hadn’t sent a request for aid to the capital. If Aisha hadn’t been contacted, we might never have known the disaster had happened at all. It was admirable of them to try to solve their problems on their own, but it was stupid for them to let the number of deaths shoot up because of it.
“They’ve become hardheaded because they don’t even try to look at the outside world,” Aisha spoke sadly as we walked through the God-Protected Forest. “Because I made contact with you, sire, and you listened to my opinions, there were signs of that beginning to change, but...”
Her voice became indignant.
“This isn’t an era where we can live in the forest alone. With the threat of the Demon Lord’s Domain, we never know when they’ll begin to move south! If we shut ourselves away in our forest, do they believe the god-beast will really save us when the time comes?! The god-beast is the protector of the forest, it’s not the protector of the dark elf race!”