How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 1

Also known as the great horned lizard, this super-sized lizard was distinctive for the two great tusks which grew from atop its nose. (If Souma had been describing it, he might have described it as, “Take a rhino, add a Komodo dragon, divide by two, then multiply the size by ten.”) They were omnivorous and gentle, easily becoming attached to people, so they were used in big cities to haul large volumes of cargo like this. When they were enraged, they had an unstoppable charge, so I had heard of them being used to assault castles, as well.

“It’s so tough that even if that rhinosaurus rammed it at full speed, it won’t crack,” Souma explained.

“That is incredible,” the princess said. “It’s that hard?”

“No, actually, it’s flexible where it needs to be, so it distributes the force that’s put into it. In the world I came from, there were buildings made with this concrete over 2,000 years ago that were still standing.”

2,000 years? Four times longer than this country’s existed? I thought. Wow, that’s amazing.

“Moving on, the street lamps he’s setting up on either side of the road are the same as the ones in the capital. There are a lot of wild creatures, so I doubt people will move by night often, but with these, they won’t get lost if they do. As for the roadside trees he’s planting, they’re ‘warding trees’ from the God-Protected Forest.”

“Warding trees?” the princess asked.

“Aisha, you explain.”

“Yes, sir! These warding trees constantly emit waves that monsters and wild animals dislike. They probably do it to keep giant boars from eating them. In the God-Protected Forest, we plant these warding trees densely around our villages in order to prevent incursions by monsters and animals.”

“I see,” the princess mused. “They’re like a simple barrier, huh.”

When he heard the princess’s response, King Souma gave a satisfied nod. “Now that’s what I call local know how. Anyway, if we planted them densely over a wide range like a road, there’s no telling what that’d do to the ecosystem. So rather than fully block them off, we’ll leave a reasonable number of gaps so that we’re just discouraging them from approaching.”

“Why? Wouldn’t it be better to stop them entirely?” the princess asked.

“Okay then, Liscia. If the ashen wolves and red bears, which change their hunting grounds seasonally, can’t migrate because of the road, so they stay where they are instead, run out of prey, and then start attacking livestock and houses, what will you do? Or, what if giant apes and giant boars, which will end up staying in one place the same way, come down to the villages to tear up the fields and, in so doing, spread leeches that previously only existed in the mountains to the village… What if that happened?”

“I get that we absolutely shouldn’t do it, but why are your examples so specific?!” she asked.

“Because coping with dangerous animals is a problem that all local self-governing bodies must face,” Souma said, an exhausted look on his face.

What’s a “local self-governing body”? I wondered.

Unlike me, Kaede seemed to understand, and she was thoroughly impressed.

“Wowwie… You’ve thought it through that far. I should have expected no less from our king, you know,” she said.

“Hmm. Well, all I did was bring along a bunch of knowledge from the world I was in before,” Souma said.

Kaede’s eyes sparkled, and Souma blushed a little as she stared at him.

As she watched those two, the princess seemed a little miffed.

“Um, Princess?” the dark elf asked.

“What?” the princess demanded.

“That’s one scary look you’ve got on your face.”

“I–Is it?…Well, you’re not one to talk, are you?”

“Huh?”

Then, at that moment…

“No!”

…there was a sudden cry. Wondering what it was, I turned to look in its direction and saw the dark elf looking at a letter, her face distorted with emotion. There was a white bird perched on her quivering shoulder.

Was that a messenger kui?

Using a kui’s homing instinct and ability to pick up on waves emitted by its master at a long distance, it was possible to communicate between an individual and a fixed location. With the exception of the Jewel Voice Broadcast, which almost felt like cheating, this was the fastest method of communication. So, did that mean someone had contacted her?

“What is it, Aisha?” Souma asked.

The dark elf spoke through quivering lips. “I’ve just received word from the God-Protected Forest that there’s been a major landslide!”

◇　◇　◇

“I’ve received a message from my father, the chief of the dark elf village,” Aisha said. “‘Last night, a sudden landslide swallowed up around half the village,’ it said. There had been a lot of rain in the God-Protected Forest lately… Yes. There are… many people missing… Ohh…” Aisha’s voice caught.

Her homeland and family had just been hit by a terrible disaster. It had to have been quite a shock to her.