How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 1

“No? Nothing in particular.”

“Are you sure? It felt like everyone was rushing to do something…”

“I am. Ah, but, perhaps it is our new king’s influence. When we see how that man works, it makes us feel bad if we don’t work, too. I couldn’t stand to be slow myself, either… Ah, I’m in the middle of something right now, so I will take my leave!”

“I–I see… Do your best.”

As she watched the maid speed off, Liscia was dumbfounded.

For him to make even the maids feel this way, just how hard does the new king work?! Just what kind of guy have I gotten myself betrothed to?!

Liscia found herself wanting to bury her head in her hands all the more.

At last, she came to the king’s governmental affairs office. When she opened the door, the first thing that she saw was a mountain of paperwork. On a desk large enough that two fully-grown adults could have slept atop it, the papers were piled high and looked ready to spill over. That was not all. When she looked around, she saw a number of bureaucrats sitting at another long table, fighting a losing battle with yet more bundles of paperwork.

As Liscia stood there, dumbfounded, a young man spoke to her from the other side of the mountain of paper.

“You, whoever just came in.”

“…Huh?! What?!” Snapped back to her senses, Liscia had let out a strange cry, but the speaker didn’t seem to care at all.

“Can you read? Can you do math?”

“D-Don’t mock me! I’ve certainly been taught that much!”

“Well, perfect. Get over here and help me with the work.”

“Just who do you think you are, asking me to help…?”

“Just do it. That’s a royal order.”

Saying this, the person behind the paper mountain stood up.

Now, finally, for the first time, the two came face to face. This was the first meeting between the new king, Souma, and his betrothed, Liscia.

Liscia would later describe her first impression of him as “a young man with tired eyes.”

◇　◇　◇

In stories where a hero is summoned to another world, the hero sometimes gains powers as a result of being summoned. It seemed the people in this world all had some ability to use magic, and so where was the harm in hoping I might have gained the ability to use magic, too? Technically, I had been summoned here as a hero.

So, right after I had had the throne ceded to me, some priestly-looking guys carried out an inspection of my abilities.

Apparently there were various types of magic that people could use, and they had devices that could test it. This one looked kind of like a stone slate. When a person touched the slate, that person’s magic type and abilities were displayed in that person’s head. Not even the people of this world understood the principles behind how it worked, but it seemed there were a fair number of these sorts of out-of-place artifacts in this world.

So, I got my diagnosis, and here was the power I’d gained:

[The Power to Transfer Consciousness Into an Object and Manipulate It]

It was an ability that let me transfer my consciousness into objects I touched, and I could manipulate up to three of them simultaneously.

It sounded more like a psychic power than magic, but the lighter the object, the more freely I could control it. I could get an overhead view of whatever I was controlling, as well. What was more, in addition to my own consciousness, I could have that object move under an independent consciousness, as well. Using an object as a medium like this, I could think about multiple things at the same time.

While there was the limitation that I could only move around things close to me, being able to make things move around at will was neat. Like I was triggering a poltergeist effect.

So, that was why I named my ability “[Living Poltergeists].” Sounds like I have a case of middle school syndrome, maybe?

Having gained my [Living Poltergeists], one thing immediately came to mind:

“This is going to be so useful for doing paperwork!”

…Yeah. Copying my consciousness into three pens, I could review multiple documents simultaneously with parallel thinking, and by manipulating those three pens, I could sign off on them. Man, ever since I learned I had this ability, I’ve gotten so much more work done. Actually, without that ability, the giant mountain of paperwork that had piled up in the confusion since I had been given the throne would probably have buried me in an avalanche by now.

…Yeah. I know what you want to say. I get an ability, and it turns out to be mostly good for handling deskwork more smoothly?

While I was getting good use out of it, whenever I thought about it as a hero’s power, I could only think, “How did things turn out like this?” I mean, even if I hadn’t gotten super powerful magic that would let me take on hordes of enemies at the same time, I’d have liked some defensive magic that would at least let me protect myself.