How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 1

This was because, over the water, the use of other elements was limited, so they’d been developed as a means of making long-range attacks.

This world’s magic was said to come from mixing special waves emitted by people with a substance called magicium in the atmosphere to produce a variety of phenomena. Magicium had an elemental alignment (with the exception of darkness), and the composition of the magicium in the atmosphere was greatly influenced by the terrain. Over the water there was mostly water magicium, meaning magic from the other elements was weakened there… and so on for other areas.

Because of this, if they were to use magic in naval battles, all elements but water would be weakened, and they would end up in a situation where water elemental magic didn’t have a long enough range. (But it could still be used to control the currents for steering, so water mages were assigned to the navy).

Which was precisely why cannons had been developed as a way to attack ships. Ultimately, technology only develops where there’s a demand for it.

End of digression. Now let’s get back to the Battleship Albert.

When I saw the Albert, here is what I thought:

What am I supposed to do with one ship? It’s only when they’re defended by destroyers and cruisers that a battleship or carrier can exhibit their true power. What I have here is no more than a scarecrow.

“Well, you know, it was assumed it would be operating alongside the navy.” Liscia’s words only made it sadder. Clearly, this thing was a white elephant.

“In that case, if we leave the flagship to the navy, don’t you think that would save us some of the upkeep costs?” I asked.

“B-But… we were able to use it to transport materials, weren’t we?” she asked.

“Well… Yeah, I guess…”

We had used this needlessly big battleship to transport materials for the coastal city. Once we had removed the armaments from inside it, that had freed up a good amount of carrying capacity. With the transportation network not in place yet at this stage, it had allowed us to ship the materials here many times faster than we could have sending them by land.

“But, in that case, it would have been even more effective if we’d built it as a transport ship to begin with,” I said.

“Ugh! Don’t be so negative about everything!” she protested.

“I’m fighting with the budget, so when I see something gobbling up funds, I can’t help myself…”

Then Aisha came along, bringing Ludwin with her.

“Your Majesty, I’ve called Sir Ludwin for you,” she said.

“Your Majesty, Your Highness, I welcome you to the planned site of the new city.” The handsome captain of the Royal Guard, Ludwin Arcs, saluted with a smile. At the castle he always wore silver armor, but here he was dressed more casually. With the white shirt and leather vest he was wearing, he looked like a handsome sailor who might show up in a pirate movie.

I was using the Forbidden Army to work on constructing the city. Of course, I was hiring a large number of craftsmen from the civil engineering and construction guild, too, but with the scale of the project, they couldn’t handle everything.

That’s why I was using the Forbidden Army, thinking I would wrap this up quickly with human-wave tactics. After I’d gone to the trouble of teaching the soldiers combat engineering skills, it would have been a waste not to use them. I had two-tenths of the Forbidden Army’s standing forces here, with the remaining eight-tenths building the transport network that would connect all of the cities.

“So, how is progress on the construction?” I asked.

“We’ve already finished roping off the site. Work is going steady… or was…” Ludwin said hesitantly, a bitter smile on his face.

“I keep telling you, you need to stop construction!” one person shouted.

“Listen, old man. We’re building this city on the king’s orders, get it?” another answered.

I heard voices arguing inside the tent that served as the construction office.

“I’m telling you this for the king’s sake! You mustn’t build a city here!”

“You just don’t get it, do you, old man? It’s not like we’re trying to evict you or anything.”

“You’re the ones who don’t get it!”

…No, it wasn’t an argument, it was more like this old man was one-sidedly yelling at them.

I spoke to Ludwin. “So, basically, an old man who lives in the area is vehemently opposed to us building the new city?”

“Yes. A local fisherman. Mr. Urup.”

“…I did tell you not to aggressively buy up land or anything like that, didn’t I?” I asked.

“Of course. We’re looking for residents to apply anyway, so the prior residents can stay right where they are. We won’t charge them for the land, either. When we work on the landscaping, we plan to rebuild their houses at no cost.”

“Hmm… Those sound like good conditions to me,” I said.