How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 1

One looked distinguished, but in a different way from Liscia, a beautiful blue-haired girl with a gentle air about her.

One had little fox ears sprouting from her head, a rustic-looking girl of around ten.

And, finally, one was a fat middle-aged man drenched in sweat.

“Your Majesty. The many gifted people of this country who came in response to your summons have been recorded in a ledger. These people here are those possessed of especially rare gifts.”

When Marx said this, the fat man prostrated himself before me, jumping to do so with the speed of a grasshopper. The blue-haired pretty girl did the same, her every move filled with grace, and the fox-eared little girl awkwardly followed suit. The black-robed young man watched them all sleepily, prostrating himself before me last.

The elf-eared girl remained standing. Everyone present was shocked.

“You are before the king. Will you not prostrate yourself?” Ludwin cautioned her in a quiet but forceful voice.

The elf-eared girl seemed not to care. More than that, she looked me in the eye and said this:

“I ask your forbearance, as this is the custom of my tribe. The warriors of my tribe do not lower their head before any but their master. And, for our women, to not lower your head before any but your husband is proof of your chastity.”

“Still…” Ludwin argued.

“I don’t mind.” I held up a hand to stop Ludwin from arguing with her. “We’re the ones asking them to help the country. There’s no need to be so uptight.”

“…As you wish, Your Majesty,” Ludwin said, backing down easily.

…He did that knowing what would happen, I’ll bet. He acted in a way that keeps people from taking us lightly, while still showing how tolerant the king is. He’s an impressive actor. In that case, I’ll have to live up to expectations and play the tolerant king.

I rose from the throne and turned to face them.

“Please, do not prostrate yourselves before me. It is I who am in the position of asking you for a favor. Do not stand on ceremony. Go ahead and be at ease.”

The four of them rose quietly. I looked to Marx, indicating that he should continue.

Marx nodded, beginning to read from some sort of scroll. “We will now announce the gifts held by these individuals and carry out the awarding of prizes! Madam Aisha Udgard, dark elf from the God-Protected Forest, step forward!”

“Yes, sir!”

This time, the elf-eared girl meekly obeyed.

She looked less than twenty years old, but I had heard dark elves remained youthful for a long time, so their appearance and age didn’t match. She had brown skin and an attractive silver ponytail. Wearing chest armor and gauntlets, she was dressed like a warrior. Her slender legs peeked out through the slit in her waist cloth. They were moderately muscular and looked quite healthy.

Dark elves, I thought. One of the minority races of Elfrieden, they are a race with a high-level of combat ability. Instead of cities, they reside in the God-Protected Forest and are granted autonomy as protectors of the forest. They have a strong sense of racial unity and reject outsiders… huh.

While acting like nothing was out of the ordinary, I manipulated the gloves I had left imbued with my consciousness in the other room to flip through the Elfrieden Children’s Encyclopedia (since it was aimed at children, the entries were short, which made it useful when looking up information quickly) to read the article on dark elves.

The dark elves in this country weren’t fallen elves that had lost the blessing of the gods, like you might see in a lot of fantasy settings. It seemed it was just that the pale-skinned blonde elves were called “light elves,” and the brown-skinned, silver-haired elves were called “dark elves” to distinguish between the two.

“This one has shown herself to be remarkably gifted with martial ability. She was the winner of the Best in the Kingdom Martial Arts Tournament. That achievement shows she truly is fit to be called the greatest in this kingdom, and for this, we praise her!” Marx declared.

Huh, so she’s the winner of that martial arts tournament. She must be pretty tough, then. There was just one thing that concerned me. “I put out a call for capable people who will help the kingdom, but will you help me when the time comes? I’ve read that dark elves are loyal only to their own kind.”