How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 1

by Dojyomaru

  He seemed startled. “Yes... Yes...!”

  Speaking through sobs, Robthor nodded again and again.

  Some time after that, the second relief team that Liscia had gone back to call for arrived. With the search for all missing persons completed, the advance team was relieved of their duties.

  For the reconstruction work, the more numerous and better-equipped second team would take over.

  After offering one last silent prayer for the fallen, the advance team returned to the capital. The mud-covered and exhausted members of the advance team were packed into the container cars like frozen tuna about to be shipped out. Right about now, Hal was probably resting his head in Kaede’s lap and taking a good rest.

  I was in a similar state myself, riding in the carriage with Liscia who had come to pick me up.

  We had left Aisha behind in the village. With her homeland in that awful shape, there was no way she would have been able to focus on her duties. For the time being, I had told her to wait in the God-Protected Forest.

  As I leaned against the window, dozing off...

  “I wasn’t able to do anything this time,” Liscia said sadly.

  “You went to call a relief party, didn’t you?” I asked. “Everyone worked their very hardest. Actually... if there’s anyone who was unable to do anything, it was me.”

  “Hardly. I hear you were a great help out there,” Liscia tried to reassure me, but I shook my head.

  “I’m the king. In times of crisis, giving commands in the field isn’t the king’s duty. A king’s duty is to prepare for a crisis before it happens. I... didn’t do enough of that.”

  “That’s not...”

  “I think the Forbidden Army worked well as a relief unit. Still, there were more places where I came up short. Means of communication, long-distance shipping, accumulation of aid supplies in each area, medical teams attached to the relief party, psychiatrists to treat patients with PTSD... I came up short on all of those things. Because I was so focused on the food crisis and the issue of the three dukes, I was lax in my preparations.”

  I looked at my reflection in the window, covered in mud and wearing an expression of exhaustion.

  Liscia was looking at me with concern, but I pretended not to notice.

  Epilogue

  The central city of the Carmine Duchy, Landel.

  In the center of that central city, in the meeting room in Landel Castle, in the residing castle of Duke Georg Carmine, right now, the three dukes who controlled the land, sea, and air forces of this country had gathered.

  First, at the head of the table was the lord of this castle, Georg Carmine.

  This lion-faced beastman had a burly, muscular build that was apparent even through his military uniform. He had the appearance of a warrior who had weathered many battles. Beastmen were no longer-lived than humans, but even at the age of fifty, he showed no signs of decline. His very presence was enough to make the atmosphere tense.

  Seated to Georg’s right was Admiral of the Navy, Excel Walter.

  Wearing a kimono that was similar in style to the ones worn in Japan, she was a beautiful sea serpent woman with antlers poking through her blue hair. Sea serpents were a race that could live for over a thousand years, and she herself had already reached an age of more than five hundred, yet she still looked to be in no more than her mid-twenties. However, contrary to her appearance, her command showed all the experience that came with that age.

  Sitting across from her was General of the Air Force, Castor Vargas.

  He looked like a gallant young man, but the two oni-like horns that grew through his red hair, the membranous wings that grew from his back, and the lizard-like tail marked him as a half-dragon, a dragonewt. He was close to one hundred years old, but as a member of a race that lived to five hundred years, he was still treated as a youngster. He, too, looked like he was in a foul mood.

  Looking at the other two, Excel sighed. “...I was under the impression that we were meeting here to avoid a needless conflict.”

  “What, Duchess Excel, are you afraid of that whelp?” Castor took an aggressive tone with Excel. “Has the once-feared sea serpent Duchess Excel grown old?”

  “Oh, me? And who was it who tried to seduce this old granny fifty years ago, hmm?” Excel asked.

  “Urkh.”

  “Also, when you address me, it’s not ‘Duchess Excel,’ it should be ‘Mother,’ shouldn’t it?”

  “...Right.”

  With that playful rebuttal, she deflated Castor.

  In truth, Excel had been Castor’s first love. Perhaps because he had been unable to forget her even after his attempts failed magnificently, when he had later met Accela, her daughter who was closer to him in age, he had fallen in love with her at first sight and they had married. In short, Castor was Excel’s son-in-law. She was not someone he was in a position to argue with and win.

  “Castor, do you still mean to oppose the king?” she asked.

  “Of course! I don’t care if he’s a hero, or whatever else they want to call him, that fake king usurped the throne, forced Princess Liscia into a betrothal, and unjustly seized power in this country! How could I serve a guy like that?!”

  “The only ones who tell it like that are the nobles being investigated for corruption,” she corrected him. “King Albert abdicated of his own will in favor of the man he felt would be a better successor. The king’s relationship with Princess Liscia is close, too.”

  “I don’t know about that! He may just be making it look that way! If he wanted to rebuild this country, he could have done it as a vassal! Was there some problem with the former king’s reign?” he snapped.

  Excel wisely said nothing.

  There were no problems with it, but there were no good points to it, either, and that was a problem, thought Excel, but to say so would be too disrespectful to the former king, so she refrained.

  Excel had found the speed with which Albert had abdicated dubious, but all signs since then had pointed to it being a wise decision. Excel didn’t remember Albert as a ruler who could make such a decision, but perhaps it merely meant he had grown as a person.

  “Besides, we three dukes have protected this country for many long years. I can’t stand the way he’s belittling us!” the man snapped. “The letter he sent me as soon as the throne was abdicated to him was ‘Serve me, or not, make your choice,’ you know?”

  “It was ‘If you will cooperate with my reforms, I will provide food aid and build roads for you’... Right?” she asked.

  The three duchies had a lower population than the crown demesne, and because they had armies to supply, they had reserves, so the food crisis had not been felt as deeply in them. However, when the food crisis had hit, the three duchies had opened up their reserves and begun rationing, so all of the merchants who’d dealt in foodstuffs had gone bankrupt due to lack of demand. Next, because of the rise in unemployment, shops had gone out of business because their wares wouldn’t sell. Then, in a chain reaction, the craftspeople who had supplied them had gone under, as well.

  On that point, Souma had weathered the crisis by providing subsidies only to the poor, not distributing more than necessary, encouraging people to eat foods there had been no custom of eating before, and increasing the country’s transport capacity by building roads. In doing this, he had managed to minimize the degree to which the economy shrank. Furthermore, of the three duchies, only the Walter Duchy had independent maritime trade routes and had been able to just barely stop the negative feedback loop by selling off their excess merchandise to other countries.

  But that’s something I was able to do because my duchy has a port city, Excel thought. Neither the Carmine Duchy nor the Vargas Duchy have inland trade routes. With his large army, along with the fleeing nobles and their personal retinues to care for, the Carmine Duchy must be suffering from serious economic problems. If that’s the case, why is Georg so adamant about opposing the king?

  As she was thinking that, Castor
roared, “‘I’ll feed you like a pet, so obey me,’ is basically what that means! He’s looking down on us!”

  “If it’s for the benefit of your people... what else is there to be done?” Excel asked.

  “I don’t like it! Does he think he can tame us with a little bait?!”

  “I doubt the king needs a pet with pride and little else,” Excel said.

  Castor slammed both his hands down on the table. “...What is with you today?! It’s like you’re defending the king! I know you don’t like him, either. That’s why you ignored the king’s requests for assistance!”

  “Kindly don’t act as if we’re the same,” she said tartly. “What the sea serpent race must prioritize above all else is the peace and safety of our beloved Lagoon City. If he will just guarantee me that, I’m prepared to obey him.”

  The sea serpent race, with Excel at their lead, had a unique system of values.

  Sea serpents always thought of the needs of their city, Lagoon City, first and foremost. Their ancestors had once lived on an island in the Kuzuryu Archipelago, but after losing in a power struggle within those islands, they had been driven out to sea, becoming wandering pirates.

  Then, at the end of their long years of wandering, their ancestors had finally built a base of operations at what was now Lagoon City. The sea serpents protected themselves on this land which they had finally gained for themselves with love and with pride. The sole reason they had participated in the founding war of this multiracial state, the Elfrieden Kingdom, had been to protect Lagoon City.

  “If it will benefit Lagoon City, I’ll wag my tail for anyone, and if they threaten Lagoon City, I will eliminate them, no matter how great they are in number. That is the pride of the sea serpents,” Excel explained.

  “Hmph, wagging your tail is something to take pride in?” he snorted.

  “Yes. I fight to protect the things I must. I’m not an infant who throws a tantrum just because he doesn’t like someone. If it can be resolved by talking, there’s no better outcome than that. It would be absurd to start fighting among ourselves now, when our neighbors are eyeing us for an opportunity to strike.”

  “...The Principality of Amidonia, huh?” he muttered.

  He was referring to the country which bordered Elfrieden to the west.

  When they had found themselves on the receiving end of the expansionist policies of the king who had been king before Albert, the Principality of Amidonia had lost close to half its land. Now, they were watching closely for any chance to regain their lost territory. Amidonia seemed eager to intervene in the dispute between King Souma and the three dukes, having already sent them a letter saying, “If you intend to depose the false king, we are prepared to dispatch troops to aid you.”

  “Honestly, what a stubborn bunch,” he snorted. “Their intentions are so transparent.”

  “I’m sure they’ve sent a letter to the king, too,” Excel said. “I doubt the king will take them up on it, but they may dispatch ‘reinforcements’ anyway. You see what I mean? About how foolish it is for us to quarrel now.”

  “Hmph. Fine, then why don’t you just go to the king’s side already.”

  “There are a number of things I want to see and judge for myself, and then I plan to do just that. Things about the king, and about you.”

  Excel turned a silent glance towards Georg Carmine. After some light pleasantries when she had first been brought into the room, he had closed his eyes and said nothing. Was he listening to Excel and Castor make their cases, or was he thinking about something himself? She didn’t think he was sleeping, but... Excel was beginning to become irritated with his demeanor.

  “Georg, what are you thinking?” she snapped.

  “...What do you mean, what?”

  “Oh, my. So you were awake after all,” she said. “Of course I’m asking why you, the one who is most patriotic and loyal to this country of all of us, would take hostile actions against the new king.”

  “Duke Carmine, you don’t like that fake king either, right?” Castor demanded.

  “I wasn’t asking you, Castor,” Excel said. “Answer me, Georg. Setting aside his legitimacy, his reign has been a stable one. Why would you go out of your way to cause turmoil like this?”

  With Excel pressing him for answers, Georg opened his mouth gravely. “I judged him incapable of ruling this country. That is all.”

  “And why is that? What is it about his abilities, with which he will soon overcome the food crisis and economic difficulties that were pushing this country to the brink, that dissatisfies you?”

  “In order to accomplish that, that king cast aside many things without hesitation.” Georg opened his eyes. That alone was enough to make the atmosphere in the room tense.

  Excel and Castor both gulped. He was the youngest person present, yet in appearance and mentality, he was the most mature of all of them. This was the imposing presence of the greatest warrior in the country.

  “I’ve heard that that king was summoned from another world,” he said. “Because of that, he has no attachment to things and can discard them without hesitation. If he deems them inefficient, then be it history, traditions, soldiers, or vassals, he’ll throw them away. Am I wrong, Duchess Excel?”

  “That’s...” Excel found herself at a loss for words. It was true, she could see that King Souma’s reign had that side to it.

  “Vassals who’ve served this country for many long years were abandoned by that king,” he continued.

  “Yes, that was because they were corrupt.”

  “Will you still say that, even if they turn on him as a result? I believe you yourself just spoke of the folly of endangering the country at this time. That king is the one who sowed the seeds for it.”

  “You say that, but you’re the one who’s sheltering those nobles,” she said.

  “Those with a grudge against the king will be useful pawns in defeating him,” he responded. “Of course, I have no intent of reinstating those people once the war is over.”

  Excel shuddered at the way the corners of Georg’s mouth rose as he spoke those words. Does this man mean to work the corrupt nobles to death in a war?!

  He would strike down the king, work the corrupt nobles to death, and even if he couldn’t dispose of all of them that way, he would find some excuse after the war to execute them. These were people for which any number of reasons could be found.

  Then, with the current king’s faction and the corrupt nobles having vanished from the capital, only an empty lot on which he might build whatever he wished would remain. He could reinstate King Albert as his puppet, if he so wished. Or he could rise to become king himself.

  Excel stood up. “Have you been driven mad with ambition for the throne?!”

  “H-Hey now, calm down,” Castor intervened, trying to smooth things over. “This is Duke Carmine you’re talking about. I’m sure he’s not planning to usurp the throne, right?”

  Georg gave a nod. “Of course not. Once King Souma is removed, I will have King Albert take the throne once more, and we will support him.”

  “...I’m not convinced.” Excel lowered her posture. She was feigning calmness, but she was actually quite flustered.

  The situation is worse than I anticipated. This is the worst possible scenario... Perhaps I need to act on the assumption that Georg already has undisclosed ties with Amidonia. Ugh, if Castor was any judge of character, we might have worked together to reign in Duke Carmine... Excel cursed her son-in-law for his short-sightedness.

  Her daughter had married into his house and had since borne her two grandchildren. She was worried what might happen if she let Duke Carmine win, but if Excel were the only one to join the loyalist faction and King Souma were then to win, as the wife and children of the traitor Castor, what would become of Accela and her children? Under this country’s laws, when a serious offense was committed, relatives of up to three degrees of consanguinity were guilty of the same crime. If she cut ties with the House of Castor,
the House of Walter would avoid that chain of responsibility, but if she did that, Accela and the children would...

  “Castor,” she said.

  “What?”

  “Cut your ties with Accela, Carl, and Carla.”

  “Are you trying to say we’re going to lose to that whelp?!” he shouted.

  “It’s in case the worst should happen. If you intend to face the king, at least be prepared for the possibility.”

  Excel glanced over at Georg, but his eyes were closed, as if to say he had no intent of intervening. Even though she was discussing what would happen if he lost... Was this a show of confidence, perhaps?

  Castor who had been asked to cut ties with his wife and children, on the other hand, had a troubled look on his face. “Accela and Carl, maybe... But Carla, I can’t.”

  “Why not?!” Excel demanded.

  “...Because she’ll never listen to me.”

  At that moment, the doors to the conference room slammed open.

  Through the open door, a beautiful young girl entered. Her flaming red hair and shining golden eyes were quite distinctive. She was sixteen or seventeen years old. She wore heavy armor in a metallic red color, and from her back and rear protruded the wings and tail of a dragon.

  “Carla...” whispered Excel.

  This was Castor’s daughter, Carla.

  She had gotten her facial features from Excel and was a fair young beauty, but when it came to her temperament, Castor’s blood seemed to have won out. Instead of doing anything feminine, she had joined the air force unit led by Castor, training day in and day out.

  Because of her beautiful face, many sons of the nobility and gentry had sought her attentions, but she had said in no uncertain terms that “I will never take a man weaker than me as my husband.”

  In fact, she was the second strongest in the air force after Castor, and so she had handily trounced every one of her suitors. As a father, Castor was relieved, but as a parent, his feelings were more complicated, and he worried she might wait too long and never be able to get married.

  Seeing Carla appear here, Excel had a bad feeling about what was going to happen.