How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 1

“Yeah. In addition to the ‘Don’t build houses where the tsunami can reach’ lesson from earlier, work in ‘If you feel an earthquake, assume there will be a tsunami,’ and ‘Because a tsunami is coming, evacuate to high-ground,’ as well. You can blame the sea god’s wrath, just make sure the tale is one that’s easy to hand down.”

“…Understood! I shall spend the rest of my life on it!” he cried.

“Good. By the way, about the castle wall that will surround the city…”

Three men talked enthusiastically about the plan for the city. Liscia and Aisha watched them with wry smiles.

“His Majesty… looks like he’s enjoying himself,” Aisha commented.

“He is enjoying himself,” Liscia nodded. “Compared to hunting for funds, at least.”

“I wonder why it is, but I think I’ve finally seen the youthful side of His Majesty.”

“Youthful… huh. The reason Souma doesn’t seem youthful is almost certainly because…”

“Hm? What is it, Princess?” Aisha asked.

“No. It’s nothing…Hey, Aisha.”

“What is it?”

“Aisha, do you… like Souma?” she asked hesitantly.

“Yes! I have great respect and affection for him!”

“…I see. Well, then. Let’s work to support Souma so he can keep smiling.”

“Yes! But of course!” Aisha cried.

At the time, I didn’t realize at all that a conversation like this had taken place.

◇　◇　◇

Thirty years later, an earthquake and unprecedentedly large tsunami struck this area.

The land was inundated by turbid waters and many boats were washed out to sea, but surprisingly few lives were lost. Because everyone in the area had grown up hearing the Legend of the Sea God from the storytellers, they were able to begin evacuating as soon as they felt the earthquake.

After the disaster, a statue titled “The King and the Old Man” was built in the seaside park.

It was a statue to commemorate the old man who, at the time of the new city’s construction, had risked his life to make a direct appeal to the king and tell him how to prepare for the tsunami, and the wise king who had listened to his plans. If the two of them could have heard, they’d have laughed wryly, saying, “That’s over-embellishing it.”

Particularly for old man Urup, who had once been the storyteller, but now appeared in stories of his descendants as the Legendary Old Man, what sort of expression did he have on his face while he watched over them from the next world?

Chapter 6: Relief

I’m Halbert Magna, age 19.

I’m the eldest son of the Magna family, well known within the Elfrieden Kingdom land forces. I myself used to belong to them, but after some stuff happened, I was forced to transfer to the Forbidden Army.

To add insult to injury, my commanding officer was my childhood friend, the earth mage Kaede Foxia, who liked to end her sentences with “you know.” To think, now I had to take orders from her… I wished it was all just a joke.

On top of that, what was I doing now? Right now, rather than a sword, I was swinging an entrenching tool (a round-edged shovel which can also be used in close quarters combat) instead.

Marching orders had come for the Forbidden Army, and when I arrived on the site, I was tasked with piling up dirt, hollowing out the middle, pouring in a gooey liquid (?), reinforcing the sides with gravel, then planting saplings on either side. After that, I would set up the street lamps filled with the lightmoss that are common in the capital, the kind which absorb light during the day and are phosphorescent at night, repeating these same tasks over and over.

To sum it up simply, I was doing roadwork.

Summer had ended, but the sun was still hot, and I was digging up dirt and making piles with it over and over.

“Why… does the Forbidden Army… have to do… roadwork?”

“You there. Stop prattling and get to work, on the double.”

Wiping the sweat from my brow, I looked over to see Kaede standing on top of a simple scaffold, smacking the railing with her megaphone as she gave orders. She must have been feeling the heat pretty badly herself. Her trademark perky fox ears had drooped down like dog ears.

“Hey, Kaede, is this really…?” I began.

“You can’t do that!” she protested. “Hal, you’re my subordinate, you know. You must address me properly as the site foreman.”

“…Foreman, is this really a job for the Forbidden Army?”

“This is the sort of work that the Forbidden Army does now, you know,” she answered.

“Surely we could leave this stuff to construction workers.”

“There just aren’t enough of them, you know. This is part of a plan for a kingdom-wide road network, you know. We’ve hired unemployed people from the capital as well, I hear, but we’re still so short of hands, I’d even ask a warcat to help.”

Even so, would you normally have the military do this sort of work? I thought.

“Besides, we can’t have just construction workers come here alone, you know,” she said. “The further you go from a settlement, the more powerful the wild creatures get, after all. And if we hired adventurers to protect them, it would cost a fortune.”