How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 1

Horse dung had been left lying out in the streets as if that were perfectly normal, and people had just poured their domestic sewage into ditches along the roadside. I’d heard it had smelled absolutely foul in summertime.

Because the concept of hygiene hadn’t existed, these problems had just been left alone. But when horse dung dries out, it turns into dust which is lifted into the air. When that gets into people’s lungs, it causes a variety of respiratory diseases.

That was why the first thing I had done was set up an aqueduct and sewer system.

“An aqueduct and sewer system,” Liscia gasped. “When did you have the time to make those?!”

“Actually, there wasn’t that much effort involved,” I shrugged. “There were underground passages running all over Parnam to begin with, you see. All I had to do was run water from the river through them.”

“Wait, those were escape tunnels for the royal family!” she cried in outrage.

As Liscia had said, in the event that the capital came under attack, and the fall of the royal family became unavoidable, those tunnels had been meant for the royal family to escape through. Even if the enemy discovered them, they had been built like a maze in order to hinder pursuit, and they covered the entirety of Parnam. What was more, they had been built in three layers. All of that had been very convenient for repurposing them as an aqueduct and sewer system.

First, water from the river that ran near Parnam had been drawn into the first layer, which served as an underground aqueduct. That water was now being used in wells and public bath houses that once relied on underground water. The third layer was used as a sewer, ultimately emptying out into sedimentation ponds outside the capital where the sewage would be filtered before being returned to the river once more. The system had been designed so that the water that made the full trip around the city in the first layer would ultimately drain into the third layer. We had filled in the second layer and set things up in a way that bad smells from the third layer wouldn’t rise up into the first.

“If you’ve turned them into an aqueduct and sewer system, what do you plan to do if there’s an emergency?!” Liscia demanded.

“If we get to the point where the royal family needs to flee the capital, the country’s already finished, isn’t it?” I asked. “If it were up to me, I’d probably surrender at the point when the enemy was closing in on the capital.”

“That easily?” she exclaimed.

“Liscia, so long as a king has the people on his side, he’s safe.”

This was another lesson from Machiavelli. According to him, The best possible fortress is not to be hated by the people.

A prince has two types of enemies. Traitors within, and foreign enemies without.

If you have the support of the people, traitors can’t gather supporters or incite the people into rebellion, so they’ll just have to give up. On the other hand, if you’re hated by the people, there will be no shortage of foreigners willing to assist them in your eventual downfall. So Machiavelli says.

“Even if I lose my title, so long as the people are still there, there’s a chance for revival,” I said. “On the other hand, if the king is the only one to survive, without any people left to support him, he’ll just be eaten up by another foe himself.”

“…It’s a hard world, huh,” Liscia murmured.

“That’s reality. Well, anyway, the aqueduct and sewer systems were easy enough to make, but when it came to the sedimentation ponds… Ah, let’s go sit over in the shade.”

There wasn’t much point standing around while we talked, so we went over to sit in the shade provided by some trees in the park.

Not long after we sat down, Aisha was leaning against a tree and beginning to nod off. She probably couldn’t keep up with the complicated subject matter. I had to question whether it was okay for someone who was supposed to be my bodyguard to be doing that, but, well, knowing Aisha, she could probably protect me in her sleep. I kept talking.

“I couldn’t let raw sewage drain into the river. Domestic sewage often has pathogenic bacteria and parasites in it, you see. In order to protect against those, we need to let the water sit in a place where it can filter through sand and pebbles… in other words, a sedimentation pond.”

“P-Pathogenic bacteria?” Liscia cocked her head to the side. It seemed those were unfamiliar words for people in this world.

Well, there was probably no need to get too sensitive about it just yet. The people of this country had no concept of pollution. That was because, with this country’s standards of living and level of technology, even if they dumped untreated sewage into the river, it wouldn’t make much of a difference.