How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 1

“Have the women evacuate to a place that doesn’t look like it will collapse. Consult with Wodan to decide where is best. You will escort them and ensure they’re delivered there safely.”

“Yes, sir! Understood!”

“Good,” I said. “Starting now, the Forbidden Army will begin operations to search for those whose safety is unconfirmed. You guys have a lot of skill at digging, I’m sure. Listen closely, and if you hear voices calling for help in the dirt, carefully rescue them!”

“““Yes, sir!”””

“However, be absolutely sure that you don’t do anything you can’t handle. If it looks like there may be another collapse, retreat even if you’re in the middle of saving someone. The rescuers cannot be allowed to take even a single loss. Understood?”

“““Yes, sir!”””

Nodding at the Forbidden Army soldiers’ response, I shouted an order. “We will now commence relief operations!”

The relief effort was an all-out battle.

Everyone came together, doing everything they could. They called the names of the missing, listened closely, and if there was even the slightest response, they would carefully move the dirt and sand aside.

It didn’t matter who was a soldier and who was a man from the village, they worked together moving the earth and cutting apart fallen trees, then pulling out the people trapped underneath. Kaede was using her magic to move huge rocks, too, while the women from the village were feeding the displaced and tending to the wounded.

As for me, I had teamed up with Hal, and we were carrying out search operations.

“Hal, under that thick tree! Someone’s still breathing!” I called.

“Huh?! I don’t hear any voice,” he said.

“Well, they’re there! Just dig!”

Hal had a doubtful look on his face, but when he dug where I told him to, he found a little girl’s hand. “Seriously…? Just you wait, we’ll have you safe soon!”

Hal moved the earth aside, pulling the dark elf girl out.

She already had brown skin, so it was hard to tell, but her complexion was looking bad. After being trapped in the moist earth for all this time, that was to be expected.

It was a good thing that the summer heat was still lingering. Were it a little later in autumn, she might have died from the cold while she’d been buried.

When I came back with a blanket, Hal was holding the girl and patting her on the back. “You did well. You’re going to be okay now.”

“…Wah… Wahhhhhhhhhh!”

“It’s okay! You’re okay now!” Hal desperately tried to calm the wailing girl.

If you ask me, men are useless at times like this. Hal and I were both at a loss for what to do, just repeating “It’s okay,” over and over.

I wrapped the girl in a blanket, waiting for her to calm down before calling over a nearby Forbidden Army soldier. “Take this girl to a safe place.”

“Yes, sir! As you command!” the soldier said.

Once we had seen the girl off, Hal said to me, “I’m amazed you knew she was there. I couldn’t hear her voice at all.”

“Even while we’re talking, I’m searching,” I said.

“Do you know some sort of searching spell?” he asked.

“Not quite… This is what I’m using.” When I stretched my palm out to Hal, a little thing burrowed out of the ground and jumped up onto it.

Hal looked at it, blinking. “Is that… a mouse?”

“A wooden one, yeah.”

It was a mouse carved out of wood, about 10 cm long. I had been manipulating it with my Living Poltergeists ability to search for survivors under the rubble. My ability was able to operate at long distances if I used dolls, but it seemed they only needed to be shaped like a living creature, not necessarily a humanoid one. Even as I was showing this one off to Hal, there were another four wooden mice moving around almost like real mice and looking for those in need of rescue.

“It’s a wonder that you were carrying around something like that,” he said.

“I found them in a shop while I was on my date with Liscia,” I said. “I thought I might use them for something, so I put them in the rolling bag with my other self-defense items.”

By the way, that bag had also held two small-sized Little Musashibo dolls which I now had on patrol in the area. Even in places where the landslide had damaged the roads, those lightweight little guys could jump around easily enough.

“Your ability is more amazing than I’d ever have thought,” he said.

“Yeah. I feel like this is the first time outside of administrative tasks that I’ve gotten some use out of… Urkh!” I crouched over and started vomiting.

“Whoa, what’s this, out of nowhere?!” Hal called out to me, sounding concerned. “H-Hey, Souma.”

“Blech…” I managed, then coughed violently.

“A-Are you all right? Why’d you suddenly start puking?”

“…S-Sorry. While it was searching, one of my wooden mice… it suddenly found a really badly damaged body…”

“Damaged…?”

“The eyeballs were—”

“No, stop! I don’t want to hear it!” Hal looked away and plugged his ears.

I looked at the dirt in front of us.