How a Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom

— One day in the 12th month, 1,546th year, Continental Calendar —

The royal capital was thoroughly wrapped in a wintery atmosphere, and there had been enough cold days in a row that it felt like the snow might start to fall soon. It was a morning where I didn’t really want to get out from under a warm blanket.

“I have some important business to attend to in the castle town today...” I said, bringing up the topic while eating breakfast with my four fiancées, as usual. “It’d help to have a woman come along. Would one of you mind?”

“Is that for work? It doesn’t sound like you’re heading out to play.” Liscia asked as a representative of the group, to which I nodded with a wry smile.

“Sadly, it is. It’s an important matter this time, so I have to head out personally.”

“I see... I can go. How about everyone else?” Liscia asked, turning the topic to the other three. It felt like she already had the dignity of the first queen, bringing all of the others together under her.

Roroa was the first to raise her arms above her head in an X. “I’m afraid you’re gonna have to count me out, sadly. Darlin’s already asked me to negotiate with the merchant’s guild.”

“About making the slave traders public servants, you mean?” Liscia asked.

“That’s right. Darlin’s already made the used metal dealers into public servants and has them workin’ in the recyclin’ industry, or somethin’ like that, but this time it’s not gonna go so easily. The used metal dealers were like trash pickers, so they weren’t part of a guild. Slave traders, on the other hand, while they may be looked down on, they’re proper, registered members of a guild. If we’re takin’ them away from the guild and puttin’ them under the control of the state, that’s effectively creatin’ a monopoly on slaves.”

Roroa picked up the salt shaker as she said this, then continued.

“If it were metal or salt, there’d be some precedent, but I ain’t never heard of anyone creatin’ a monopoly on slaves before. Slaves aren’t somethin’ you produce locally for local consumption. Naturally, they come in from other countries, too. If we’re nationalizin’ the slave trade, we’ll also need to stop those flows from other countries. As public servants, their wages’ll be stable, but they’ll never make money hand over fist. That’s why the slave traders who want to make the big bucks will go to other countries. There’ll be some pushback, too.”

“I’m ready to accept some pushback on this,” I said.

I was fine with convict slaves being sentenced to hard labor, but I wanted to put an end to the era where women and children were sold off so there would be fewer mouths to feed, and where it was taken as a given that the child of a slave was also a slave. That wasn’t only from a humanitarian point of view, it was also to make this country more prosperous as a whole.

However, Roroa, who had been tasked with the negotiations, had a grim look on her face. “I’m sure your aim is to downsize the system of slavery, Darlin’... but I’m not sure there’re enough convict slaves and economic slaves in this country alone to meet demand. It’s a real problem.”

“Is it going to be too difficult?” I asked.

Roroa shook her head. “I’ll do it. I want to see this world after slavery that you’ve been tellin’ me about, after all. One where everyone earns money, everyone uses money, and everyone makes the economy turn... That’s the world I want to see.”

I had told the clever Roroa a bit about the economic history of my world. I had told her about that era of technological revolution where goods had begun to be mass-produced. There had been a demand for markets to sell those goods to, and so there had been a movement toward freeing the slaves who’d held no assets in order to create that market.

Naturally, I knew there were people who had fought under the ideology that all people should have equal rights. I couldn’t deny the hard work of the slaves who’d fought to win their own freedom, or the efforts of those who’d wished for them to be free. However, with any system, it always came down to whether or not that system was suitable for the time it existed in.

The war between the North and South United States had been called a war of emancipation, but it was more that the North had held up the ideal of freeing the slaves in order to gather support against the forces of the South, which had included many plantation owners. What had once been considered an impractical ideal was accomplished the moment it aligned with the facts of the situation.

Conversely, no matter how wonderful an ideal is, if it’s not in line with the times, it will be trampled underfoot.

In the end, it’s a matter of the times in which we live. I mean, even when slavery ended, we would have conflict between the capitalist class and the laborers waiting for us in the next era. However, in the story I told her, Roroa seemed to see a new frontier.

“It may take bein’ a little heavy handed, but if we move together with the Empire, it can be done,” she said. “If half of the territory ruled by mankind on this continent is movin’ to reduce slavery, it’ll be hard to push back against us. Then, when there’s a shortage of labor, though this is reversin’ the cause and effect from your story, Darlin’, technology’ll have to advance to fill the gap.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’ve got a path toward that. You can leave it to me.”

“I’m countin’ on that. Because I’ll be doin’ what I can myself.”

I nodded. “I’m relying on you.”

“Mwahaha. Say it again.”

Roroa and I locked arms firmly. I really was counting on Roroa to handle the economic front.

Now, if Roroa couldn’t make it today, what about Aisha or Juna?

“I am sorry to have to say this, but I have a meeting for our next music program, so I won’t be able to accompany you,” said Juna.

“I-I was asked to join the new recruits for training...” said Aisha. “Of course, if you insist on it, sire, I will cast aside my prior engagement to be with you.”

“No, I’m not going to insist,” I said. “Hm... But, well...”

I don’t really want to bring that large of an entourage this time. If I had a lot of people with me, I would put the other party on guard. Though, that said, I didn’t feel entirely safe going without bodyguards. I mean, Liscia was going to be with me, too, after all.

Although Liscia does have more combat prowess than the average guard.

The Black Cats were currently dealing with clandestine operations in many other countries, so they likely couldn’t spare the people to serve as guards. If possible, I had wanted either Aisha, who had the greatest individual combat strength, or Juna, who could also gather intelligence, to accompany us. As I was thinking about that...

“Your Majesty, might I offer a suggestion?” The head maid Serina, who was standing ready by the wall, gave an elegant bow.

“Serina? Did you have an opinion on this?” I asked.

“Yes. If you are looking for a guard, there is an individual I might like to recommend.”

“Who might that be?” I asked.

“Your Majesty’s personal trainer, Sir Owen.”

“Urgh... Old Man Owen, huh...”

She was referring to the old general and head of the House of Jabana, Owen Jabana. He was a hearty old man whose personality was serious and honest to the point of being excessively passionate. I had liked his willingness to express an opinion and had taken him on as my sounding board and educator.

True, he’s a capable warrior, and given his post, he wouldn’t have much to do while I’m gone. He’s always noisy, and I don’t think he’s suited for going out discreetly, though.

While I was considering the idea, Serina continued. “You should also take Carla from the Maid Corps with you.”

“Huh?! Me?!” Carla, who was standing beside Serina, cried out in surprise.

“Carla is enlisted with the Maid Corps, but she is Your Majesty’s slave,” said Serina. “At times like this, you really must use her as your meat— work her like a horse.”

“Were you about to say meat shield?!” Carla protested. “Wait, even now that you’ve corrected it to horse, that’s still pretty bad!”

Serina whipped out her maid training crop.

“Ah! Yes, ma’am! I will serve with sincerity and devotion!” Carla hurriedly saluted.

She’s been completely broken in, huh...

“Anyway, Carla, I’ll be counting on you,” I said.

“U-Understood, master,” she said.

So for now, it was decided that four people of Liscia, Owen, Carla, and I would be going to the castle town together.

I already felt exhausted just from having come to that decision.

And so, we came to the castle town of Parnam.

Liscia, Owen, Carla, and I were walking down the shopping street in the middle of the day. Because we were here in secret, we were traveling on foot and not by carriage.

“Gahaha!” Owen laughed. “I am pleased that you would choose me as your bodyguard, Your—”

“Shh! Owen... How many times do I have to tell you not to call me Your Majesty in the middle of town like this?” I hissed.

“Oh, my apologies.”

The way Owen laughed it off without looking the least bit guilty made my head hurt. Owen seemed to be in a good mood over being chosen as my bodyguard, so he was even more high-strung than usual.

“We’re here in secret this time... so, please, I’m begging you,” I said.

“But of course, I am aware of that,” boomed Owen.

Was he really? For a group that was trying to be discreet, we stood out to a strange degree.

There was me wearing the Kitakaze Kozou-esque traveler’s clothes that had become my go-to outfit when undercover; Liscia wearing the same student’s uniform she’d worn when we’d first gone into the castle town together; Carla the dragonewt in a maid uniform; and an old, macho man in light adventurers’ armor. All of us were walking together. What was with this completely mismatched ensemble? I couldn’t blame passersby for turning their heads to take a second look at us.

“Even a hastily assembled adventuring party would look more like a unified group than we do...” I murmured.

“If you had just worn a student uniform like last time, wouldn’t that have been fine?” asked Liscia. “It’s not like Sir Owen couldn’t pass for a teacher in his outfit.”

“By the same token, if you had dressed like an adventurer, we might have looked like an adventuring party,” I said.

While we argued back and forth, we both looked back at the dragon maid behind us.

“Wh-What?! Why are you both looking at me?” Carla cried.

“Either way, Carla was going to stand out, huh,” Liscia nodded.

“I mean, yeah, she’s wearing that highly revealing maid dress, after all,” I said. “She’d be out of place no matter how we dressed.”

“Aren’t you being awfully mean when I don’t even wear this by choice?!” Carla protested loudly, but... I mean, it was a maid dress.

Of course, we had proposed that she change into something else, but Serina hadn’t been willing to hear of it. Carla’s maid uniform wasn’t the classic type with a long skirt; it was a frilly dress type (or, to take it a bit further, a maid cafe type). Serina was a total sadist to make her walk around town in it. Carla had been bright red with shame for a while now...

“By the way, Your... Sir Kazuya, is this really the road you want to take?” Owen asked somewhat confusedly.

“Hm? Yeah, it is... Why?” I asked.

“No, it is just that, if I recall, this way leads to...”

“Ah! ...That’s right.” Liscia seemed to have realized something, too, but didn’t seem to want to say it. “If we continue down this road...”

...Oh, so that’s what it is, I realized. “If we keep going, we’ll hit the old slums, huh?”

“Indeed,” said Owen. “It is not a place I would want to take the two of you.”

Even in the royal capital Parnam, there was a dark side. Because of the large population, there were those who succeeded in business, those who earned a middling profit, and those who failed outright. The slums were a place where those who had failed, but who hadn’t fallen far enough to become slaves, would drift to and work for their daily wages.

Many of the homes were shanties. It was unsanitary, and prone to outbreaks of disease. The people who gathered here were of questionable origin, and the crime rate was high.

That was the sort of place it had been, anyway.

“That’s all in the past now,” I said.

“It’s changed?” Liscia asked.

“It’d be faster to just show you. I mean, when I was considering what to do about the future of the slum town...” I made a gesture like I had something like a hose in my hands as I spoke. “...I met someone who was strangely enthusiastic, going around saying, ‘Filth will be sterilized!’”

As we arrived in the former slum town...

“Huh?” Liscia tilted her head to the side in confusion.

“Hm?” Owen did the same.

When she saw their reaction, Carla did, too. “Is there something strange here, Liscia?”

Even after she had fallen to become a slave, Liscia had forced Carla to keep talking to her the way she had before. They were still good friends. It would be an issue if it happened in public, but I wasn’t about to tell Liscia how to behave herself in private.

Still with a blank look on her face, Liscia responded to Carla, “Huh? ...Oh, yeah. I’ve never been to the slums before, but I’m surprised at how different it is from everything I’d heard.”

“What had you heard?” asked Carla.

“That it’s a dark, dank, moldy place with poor public order. I’ve heard the same,” Owen explained.

He was right. The slums had been like that before.

“It’s true that they look sparse, but the place looks pretty clean to me, you know?” said Carla.

What we saw before us now was a scene of houses that just looked like white blocks of tofu lined up. To put it in terms that a modern audience will understand, imagine the sort of temporary houses that are set up in the affected area after an earthquake. While they were spartan, they got a lot of sun and were bright. They also were well ventilated, so they weren’t dank. Admittedly, they could get a bit too dry in winter. Even so, when we saw children drawing on the ground and playing, it was hard to imagine that public order was bad here.

“Is this really the slums?” Liscia asked.

“Yeah. It’s gotten a lot better, hasn’t it?” I responded, puffing up my chest proudly. “When I was addressing the sanitation problem in the city, I worked hard to get everything in shape here.”

“The sanitation problem?” asked Liscia. “If I recall, you mentioned that when you were banning carriages from going down all but the largest roads, and when you set up the water and sewer system, right? Was reworking these slums a part of that, too?”

“I’m glad to see you remember,” I said. “Yeah. It’s easy for pathogenic bacteria to grow in dark, dank, places that are poorly ventilated. On top of that, this being a slum town, the residents don’t get proper nutrition, so it’s easier for them to get sick. If an epidemic had gotten started, this would have been fertile ground for it to spread rapidly.”

“Pathogenic bacteria... I feel like I may have heard that word before,” said Liscia.

She and the others were looking at me with faces that seemed to say “What are those? Are they tasty?”

“Huh? Didn’t I explain last time?” I asked.

Ah, come to think of it, I used the word when talking about the sedimentation ponds, but I didn’t explain it in detail, I thought. In that case... I guess I have to start by explaining how people get sick.

“Well... In this world, there are little creatures too small for the eye to see, and they exist in numbers far too great to count in the air, the ground, in our bodies— everywhere you can imagine. These tiny creatures make things rot and cause illnesses. On the other hand, they also cause foods to ferment, and there are some with positive effects, too.”

Using my meager knowledge of science (I was a humanities student, remember), I explained to Liscia and the others about bacteria and microorganisms. I didn’t feel like they were getting it all that well, but for Liscia, who knew that my knowledge could be far ahead of this country’s academia in some places, she seemed satisfied that “If Souma says they exist, they probably do.”

The study of medicine and hygiene wasn’t particularly well developed in this world. One large factor in that was probably the existence of light magic. Light magic heightened the body’s ability to heal, even allowing it to recover from serious wounds. It could even reattach severed limbs if administered quickly.

It seemed that, because of that, the study of medicine and hygiene hadn’t developed. That was why, in this world, there were very few who knew of the existence of bacteria and microorganisms.

Light magic only activated the natural ability of the body to heal, so it had the shortcoming of not being able to heal infectious diseases or the wounds of elderly people whose natural ability to heal had declined. Because of that, until just recently, the use of shady drugs and dodgy folk remedies had been rampant when it had come to the treatment of infectious diseases. When I’d addressed the issue of hygiene, I’d thought something needed to be done about this situation posthaste.

But before I could do that, I had first needed people to become aware of the existence of bacteria and microorganisms they couldn’t see.

“But how can people be aware of something they can’t see?” Liscia asked.

“In this world, there are people who know about bacteria and microorganisms... or rather, a race that does,” I said. “When that race focuses with their ‘third eye,’ they can see microorganisms that you wouldn’t normally be able to see. I enlisted their help.”

“A third eye... Do you mean the three-eyed race?” Liscia asked, and I nodded.

The three-eyed race. They were a race that, as you would expect from their name, had three eyes.

They lived in the warm lands in the north of the kingdom. Their defining trait was that, in addition to the standard left and right eyes, they also had a third eye in a slightly higher position in the middle of their forehead. It would be fine to imagine them looking like Tien Shin*** or ***suke Sharaku, but it wasn’t really an eyeball like that. That eye was small and red. At a glance, it looked like a jewel was embedded there.

Liscia let out a sigh. “I’m amazed they agreed to help. I’ve heard their race hates having contact with outsiders.”

“The reason for their xenophobia actually stems from that third eye, it seems.”

The three-eyed could see things other races couldn’t. It seemed that had been the reason they’d grown to reject outsiders. The three-eyed could tell if someone had good hygiene or not at a glance. That made them natural neat freaks, and they had started to avoid contact with other races as much as possible.

On top of that, with that third eye, the three-eyed had learned of the existence of bacteria. They knew them to be the cause of illnesses that couldn’t be treated with light magic. However, no matter how much the three-eyed insisted on this, the other races who couldn’t see the bacteria wouldn’t believe them. In a world filled with superstitions, even if they spoke the truth, it might seem like they were trying to throw the world into chaos with some dubious new theory.

Because of that, the three-eyed had come to hate contact with other races, and they’d developed their own independent system of medical knowledge and practice only for their own race. When it came to the study of infectious diseases in particular, their medical science was centuries ahead of this world. In this world where humans and beastmen were thought to have lived long lives if they made it to sixty, the three-eyed who originally had the same life expectancy now lived to eighty on average.

“That’s how I, as someone who knew what they were saying is the truth, was able to arrange talks and request their assistance,” I said. “With that done, in order to demonstrate their abilities, I created a system that would let other races see bacteria and microorganisms.”

In other words, an optical microscope. This world already had lenses. (They had glasses, after all.) For the rest, I’d drawn out a diagram of how I vaguely remembered a microscope working, and the academics and craftsmen had created one for me. That optical microscope had proved that the three-eyed were telling the truth.

“But, man, the three-eyed really are incredible,” I said. “I’d never have imagined they’d already developed antibiotics.”

“Auntie-buy-ought-ex?”

“Substances that prevent bacteria from multiplying like I was telling you about.”

The famous example would be penicillin, I suppose. I mean, even a humanities student like me had heard of it. (Though it was knowledge I’d picked up from manga.) It was extracted from a blue-green colored mold, I think?

In the case of the three-eyed, they were extracting theirs from a special sort of slime creature that could live in unsanitary conditions. They were a subspecies of gelin, and they had the same sort of shape as Liquid Metal *limes. They had no name, but I’d taken this chance to christen them “gelmedics.” From what I had heard of its effects, there was no questioning it was an antibiotic, but while it was similar to penicillin, it might also be very different.

Incidentally, the three-eyed just called this drug “the drug.”

That felt like it was just going to get confusing in the future, so I’d used my authority as king to give it the name “three-eyedine.” It was the three-eyed race’s medicine, so I’d shortened that to three-eyedine. I mean, it would have been fine calling it “the drug,” or “the pill”... but, as a former Japanese person, I’d always have been thinking of completely different drugs.

“This... three-eyedine, was it?” Liscia asked. “It prevents the bacteria from multiplying, but what good does that do?”

“It’s a cure for infectious diseases,” I said. “Basically, you can think of it as a wonder drug that treats epidemic diseases and will prevent wounds from festering, I guess.”

“Treat epidemic diseases?! It can do that?!”

I couldn’t blame Liscia for being surprised. While this country’s medical treatments (in particular, regenerative treatments) could be, in some limited ways, ahead of modern science, on the whole, they were at the same level as Japan in the Edo Period. When it came to infectious diseases, they would drink medicinal teas, trying to ease the symptoms. However, with antibiotics, it was possible to treat the underlying cause of illnesses to some degree.

Liscia looked taken aback. “That’s terrible... We’ve been overlooking an incredible drug like that all this time...”

“Well, the other races didn’t recognize the existence of bacteria and microorganisms, so even if the three-eyed had told you that antibiotics could fight them, you probably weren’t going to believe them. If you turn it around, the three-eyed were only able to find this way of fighting bacteria because they could see them.”

“So, can we mass produce this three-eyedine?!” Liscia asked, looking desperate to hear more.

Yeah, I could understand how she felt. I’d had a similar response myself during talks with the three-eyed elder. However, Carla and Owen, who were watching us, were wide-eyed with surprise at the way Liscia was acting.

I nodded to Liscia. “We don’t have the capacity for it yet, but we’re slowly increasing production. I had already distributed it to the military when the war with Amidonia broke out, actually. Didn’t you notice?”

“Fortunately, I never needed to take any... Ah! Now that you mention it, I did think the number of fatalities was low given the number of wounded in that battle. Was that thanks to three-eyedine?”

“Could be,” I said. “Bacteria getting into a wound and making it worse is one of the things it can help to prevent, after all.”

“Incredible...” she whispered.

“Anyway, the three-eyed are giving their full cooperation, and the country has no intention of being stingy when it comes to medical care. The biggest bottleneck will be the number of gelmedics that they can extract three-eyedine from, but thanks to Tomoe, we easily solved that problem.”

Slime creatures like gelins were actually categorized as plants, and she couldn’t communicate with them as well as animals; but from their thoughts, she had still been able to learn their preferred environment and the conditions needed for them to multiply. Now we had the gelmedics actively multiplying in their breeding grounds.

“Our little sister is way too convenient, isn’t she?” I added.

“She sure is,” said Liscia.

The public had started calling Tomoe the Wise Wolf Princess. Given the rhinosauruses, the orangutan army of Van, and now the gelmedics... there was no doubt she was living up to that name.

“And, well, on that note, our country is in the middle of a medical and hygienic revolution, and one part of that was fixing up these slums,” I said. “We tore down the old houses to improve the sunlight and air flow. While we were at it, we stamped out the criminals and illegal drugs, which was cleaning up the area in a different way. We had all the residents move to new, prefabricated huts. The huts are small and cramped, but they’re free. On top of that, by having them work at cleaning up the city, we’re able to both support them financially and manage the city’s hygiene.”

“You’re doing all sorts of stuff, huh. ...You’re not pushing yourself too hard, are you?” Liscia asked, looking concerned.

I put a hand on her head. “It’s a struggle, yes... but it’s rewarding. I get to see the city, and the country, rebuilt the way I want them to be. If the result is more people smiling in the end, all the better.”

“Well... Okay, then,” she said. “But if there’s anything I can do for you, just say the word.”

“Of course. I’ll be counting on you.”

Liscia and I smiled broadly at one another.

But just as we had a good mood going...

Pshhhh.

...suddenly, we heard a sound like air leaking out of something.

When I looked up ahead, wondering what it could be, I saw someone with a large barrel on their back using a metal cylinder on the end of a hose extending from that barrel to spray some sort of mist on the ground.

That person was an exotic-looking woman with skin not quite as dark as a dark elf, but still brown, and blond hair. She looked to be in her mid-twenties. She was probably beautiful, and she had a shapely figure, but with the triangular mask she wore over her face and the barrel slung over her back, it all went to waste. That woman’s forehead had the third eye unique to the three-eyed race shining on it.

“Hehehe... Hohoho... Ahahahahahaha! Filth will be sterilized!” After that three-stage laugh, the woman enthusiastically sprayed the ground and huts with some sort of mist.

That all-too-incredible scene left Liscia, Carla, and Owen all speechless. As for me, I felt my head starting to hurt again.

“What are you doing, Hilde?” I asked wearily.

Her name was Hilde Norg. In a show of appreciation for our support and the redemption of their honor, the three-eyed had lent her to us to help reform our system of medicine. She was their one and only “doctor.”

In this world, there were very few doctors in the sense that a modern Japanese person would think of the term. The ones who carried out the vast majority of medical treatments were light mages, and the ones who administered herbal remedies to help ease the symptoms of illness were medicine men and women.

Many of those light mages were affiliated with the church, and therefore most of the hospitals were also attached to church buildings. That was why it was normal for people in this world to go to the church when they were sick, but for the three-eyed, it was a little different.

Because their medical technology was far more advanced, they could treat most illnesses and injuries in the homes. When they came down with an illness so serious that it couldn’t be treated in the home, that was when they would first seek medicine mixed by the doctor. Naturally, that doctor was the foremost expert of her race, and so she could only prepare medicine for so many of them.

The one over there spraying a disinfectant (limewater, probably), Hilde, was the one and only doctor of her race, considered to have a high degree of medical knowledge, even by the standards of the three-eyed. However, with the way she was dressed now, she just looked like a farmer spraying agricultural chemicals.

Hilde had been letting out a loud, enthusiastic laugh until a moment ago, but now she wore a dark smile and had a heavy atmosphere around her. “Honestly... haven’t I told you people to pick up your cats’ droppings?! Because you people keep leaving them lying out in the open, there’s bacteria all over this place! Oh, for goodness sake! Unclean, unclean!”

This time, as he sprayed disinfectant, she stamped her feet indignantly. She might have seemed emotionally unstable, but this was business as usual for Hilde.

She, with her knowledge of pharmacology and an eye for bacteria that was considered excellent even by the standards of the three-eyed, also demonstrated an obsession with cleanliness that was strong even by the standards of her race. To the point that it was normal for her to walk around with disinfectant like that.

It wasn’t always good to be able to see too much.

“I see you’re the same as ever, Hilde,” I said.

“Hm? You’re... Who’re you?”

I took off my conical hat and showed my face.

Without much surprise, she said, “Oh, just the king, huh,” and returned to the work of spraying disinfectant.

“Calling me ‘just’ the king is a little mean,” I said. “It’s technically an important position, you know?”

“Then try to dress the part, why don’t you?” she asked. “I thought you were some hobo.”

She was as harsh as ever. I’d had an image of doctors being harsh even back in my old world, and it seemed things were the same here. Hilde in particular wasn’t the sort to care much about the position of the person she was talking to.

Hilde’s philosophy was: “Illness strikes us all, good and evil, rich and poor, male and female, irrespective of race. Then, before a doctor such as myself, all patients are equal.”

That was her argument, apparently.

“Anyway... Hilde, let me introduce you,” I began. “The two ladies are—”

“I know who they are,” Hilde said with a sigh, as if it was a given that she’d know who they were. “They’re famous, aren’t they? The princess and the daughter of the former General of the Air Force, right?”

“Huh? What about Sir Owen?” I asked.

“I don’t want to know anything about that filthy old man.”

“What?!” Owen protested. “Who are you calling filthy?! I take care to groom myself properly!”

“Stay away, you musclebound moron! I hope you’ve washed yourself properly?!” she shouted.

Pshhhh.

“Hey now, little girl, don’t spray that weird mist on me! I am clean, you know? Every day, I pour water over my naked body, then rub myself down with a dry towel!” Owen shouted.

I was suddenly forced to imagine a macho man bathing naked in the dawning light of morning. Yeah... It felt dirty just imagining it. Perhaps having imagined a similar scene themselves, Liscia and Carla both looked ready to puke.

I-It felt like dwelling on this any longer was just going to make everyone’s mental state worse, so it was time to change the topic.

“B-By the way, Hilde, what are you doing here today?”

My forced attempt to change the topic got a snort from Hilde.

“If I leave the people here to their own devices, they become unhygienic in no time. I’m making regular visits to instruct them on hygiene and to disinfect the area.”

“Makes sense...” I said. “By the way, is your partner with you today?”

“Don’t call him my partner.” Hilde spat the words out, seemingly annoyed. “If you’re looking for Brad, he’s ‘outside.’ He said, ‘If I have to examine fattened pigs, I’d much rather treat the untainted wild dogs’... or some such nonsense.”

“...I see he never changes, either.”

“Maybe you could you tell him off, too, sire,” she said. “That guy always pushes lecturing the junior physicians off on me.”

“I-I see...”

The Brad who had come up in our conversation was the other doctor acting as a pair with Hilde to push forward the reform of this country’s medical system. His full name was Brad Joker. He was a human male, and his skills as a medical practitioner were good, but... his personality was a bit of a problem.

I can’t see Brad ever being able to explain things to others. Showing off practical skills in the field will offer guidance to his juniors, but Hilde’s going to have to be the one to hold lectures...

“Hey, are you listening to me, s-i-r-e?” Hilde snapped.

“I-I get it,” I said. “I’ll try talking to him, at least.” If she was going to press me on it with that angry smile, I just had to nod and agree with her.

“So? What is the king and his entourage doing here?” Hilde demanded.

“Oh... I was planning to visit the chief of the mystic wolves,” I said. “While I’m at it, I thought I might poke my head in at the job training facility I have Ginger running, too.”

“Oh, so that’s the sort of business you had.” Liscia clapped her hands as if she finally understood something.

Oh, now that I thought about it, I hadn’t told her what we were doing, had I?

“Then, once I’ve had the mystic wolf elder make a connection for me, I plan to go ‘outside,’” I added.

“Ohh, you’re going ‘outside,’ are you, sire?” Hilde asked. “In that case, maybe I’ll tag along.”

“Huh? Why is that?”

“That should be obvious. To knock some sense into that examination-obsessed idiot, that’s why.”

Hilde had a smile on her face, but her eyes weren’t smiling.

“W-Well... Just try to not to go overboard, okay?” I asked nervously.

“Um, you keep talking about going ‘outside,’ but what exactly does that mean?” Carla hesitantly raised her hand and asked.

“If we’re talking outside from the perspective of being inside the city, it can only mean outside the walls,” Hilde said coolly.

“By outside the walls... could you mean...?” Liscia seemed to have figured something out and had a pensive look on her face.

Yeah... It was probably exactly what she was imagining.

Regardless, thus was our group of a foreign traveler, a female student, a dragon maid, and a macho man joined by a female doctor.

...Yeah. This group was making less and less sense.

Our first stop was the job training facility Ginger was in charge of.

The mystic wolves’ Kikkoro Distillery, which produced miso, soy sauce, and sake, among other products, was in the former slums. So was Ginger’s job training facility. Both had required considerable room, and this had been the only suitable place.

While it went without saying for the training facility, the Kikkoro Distillery also had an easy time securing workers here, so it wasn’t a bad location. That alone made it worth having fixed the place up.

The job training facility was surrounded by brick walls, and there were a number of buildings inside the compound. The place had just opened and so they were only teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic to the applicants, but the intention was to experiment with all sorts of different ideas in the future, so the number of buildings had increased.

When we went to enter through the front gate, a number of children ran out from it.

“Goodbye, Ms. San!”

“Goodbye!”

They were all around the age of ten, maybe. They weren’t that well dressed or groomed, but they seemed full of energy.

When we looked in through the gate, the former slave who was now Ginger’s secretary, Sandria, was waving to the children. “Goodbye, children. Take care on your way home.”

The slight smile she saw them off with was a gentle one, very different from the ill-tempered demeanor she’d had when we first met.

So, she can make an expression like that, too, huh...

While I was thinking that, Sandria noticed me and gave a respectful bow. “Why, Your Majesty, how good of you to come visit us.”

“Hey, Sandria,” I said. “Is Ginger in?”

“He is in his office. I will show you the way there.”

We followed Sandria into one of the buildings.

It was a simple, boxy design with no frills, but you could tell this building had a lot of rooms even from the outside. It would have looked like a hospital or school to a modern Japanese person.

We were led in front of a room on the first floor of that building with a sign that read “Director’s Office.” When Sandria informed the occupant he had visitors and opened the door, Ginger, who had apparently been doing desk work, hurriedly rose.

“Wh-Why, Your Majesty, it has been a while,” Ginger said, rushing over to us. Unlike Sandria, he did so timidly, and it seemed he still felt tense when talking to me.

“No need to be so stiff,” I said. “I’m the one imposing on you here.”

“N-No... It’s no imposition whatsoever...”

“Your secretary there has her head held high, doesn’t she?” I commented.

“Because my loyalty belongs to Lord Ginger alone,” Sandria said nonchalantly as she moved to Ginger’s side.

It should have been quite the disrespectful statement, but there was something about her demeanor that wouldn’t let me take it that way. She was like Liscia’s maid, Serina, or the public representative for Roroa’s company, Sebastian. Those people who had found the master they meant to serve for the rest of their lives had a unique intensity. It was like they could face down the king himself on their master’s behalf.

“Ginger, let me introduce you,” I said. “This is my fiancée, Liscia.”

“Hello. I am Liscia Elfrieden.” Liscia smiled and bowed, causing Ginger to stand up very straight.

“Th-The princess?! Th-Thank you for coming to visit our humble establishment! I-I’m... Ah, no, I am the one called Ginger Camus. With more support than I deserve from His Majesty, I have been able to become the director of this facility...”

“Hee hee! No need to be so tense. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ginger.”

“Y-Yes, ma’am!” Ginger stiffly took Liscia’s hand and shook it.

“It almost feels like you’re more tense than the first time you met me...” I murmured.

“I’m sure he is,” said Carla. “Until your betrothal to her was announced, master, Liscia was something like what we now call a lorelei to the people of the kingdom. That unreachable flower, the princess who was so high above him that she might as well be above the clouds, is now right in front of his eyes. He cannot be blamed for being tense.”

Carla’s explanation made sense to me. Members of the Royal House, especially a princess or a queen... they were like national idols in a way. I had seen the huge fever that had gripped England when a new princess was born there on the news. Even in Japan, news about the Imperial House and those connected to the imperial family got a lot of attention.

After that, I also introduced Carla and Owen. Then, when I went to introduce Hilde...

“Hilde and I are already acquainted,” said Ginger. “She gives free medical examinations to the children who come here. It’s really been a great help.”

Ginger bowed his head to her, causing Hilde to take on an awkward expression.

“Hmph. The brats are filthy, that’s all. Who knows what diseases they’re carrying around.”

“You say that, but you still come to visit us once or twice a week,” said Sandria. “If the children get injured, you heal them. I think that, for all that you say to the contrary, you really do like children, don’t you?”

“Sandria... If you say too much, I’ll sew your mouth shut, you know that?” Hilde snapped.

“Oh, pardon me,” Sandria apologized nonchalantly while Hilde glared at her.

Yeah... Looking at Hilde just now, it made me remember the old lady at the bakery in the neighborhood where I’d used to live a long time ago. Whenever the children came up to her, she’d say, “Look at the noisy visitors,” taking a sour attitude, but then she’d add, “What hungry little brats you are,” and would often give away leftover sweet buns. Now that I thought back on it, it had been her way of masking her shyness.

Hilde snorted. “I’ll be waiting outside until you’re all done talking.”

“The children have all gone home, just so you know.”

“Shut up, Sandria! Whoever said they wanted to play with the children?” Hilde snapped.

“I didn’t say that much...” Sandria said.

“Hmph!”

When Hilde left, violently slamming the door behind her, we all saw her off with wry smiles.

...Now then. It was time to get back on track.

Liscia, Ginger, Sandria, and I sat down at a conference table. Liscia and I were seated on one side, with Ginger and Sandria sitting across from us. Carla and Owen were standing behind us.

Liscia raised her hand. “Um, I have a lot of questions... What exactly do you two do here?”

“For the moment, we teach applicants how to read, write, and do arithmetic,” Ginger answered with a gentle smile.

“Is that something like a school?”

“Yes. It’s a school where anyone can come learn, regardless of class.”

In this country, there were already proper educational institutions. The uniform Liscia was wearing belonged to the Royal Officers’ Academy, and there was also the Royal Academy, which pumped out researchers in every field, as well as the Mages’ School, which specialized in the study of magic. However, those educational institutions were almost entirely for the children of the knights and nobility. There were no general schools meant to serve the common people. This job training facility was serving as a test case for that sort of general school.

“Also, it’s not only for children,” said Ginger. “Adults can learn here, too.”

“Adults, too?” Liscia asked.

“There are many adults who say they cannot read, write or do arithmetic. The poorer their background, the more likely that is to be the case. We provide those people a place to learn here, too. During the day, children learn, and then at night, adults who have finished working during the day come here to study.”

“Hm, so you’ve got them properly segregated into separate time periods...”

“It was His Majesty’s idea to set up a time at night for adults to learn,” said Ginger.

It hadn’t really been my idea. I had just recreated the night schools we’d had back in the other world.

Ginger brought his hands together in front of his mouth. “This is all we can do right now. However... from here on out, we’ll be able to do more and more. Isn’t that right, sire?”

Ginger had turned the conversation over to me, so I nodded firmly. “Yeah. From here on, I intend to have you teach more specialized topics. For instance, training adventurers to explore dungeons and protect people, passing on civil engineering techniques, working with Hilde and her people to train new doctors, studying ways to improve our agriculture, forestry, and fisheries... Oh, also, I’d like a place for training chefs, too.”

“That’s a pretty wide range of topics...” Liscia said.

I think you’ve figured it out now that I’ve said this much, but the job training facility I wanted to create was a vocational school, or perhaps something like a university made up of specialized departments.

The main focus of academic study in this world was either magic or monsters. Magic could be applied with some versatility to any number of fields, and it also had ties to science and medicine. As for the study of monsters, ever since the Demon Lord’s Domain appeared, it had been become one of the most important research topics.

Before that point, the monsters that had only appeared in dungeons had been the subjects for this sort of research. However, after the Demon Lord’s Domain had appeared, the number and variety of monster sightings had increased by a factor of ten. Research on the topic had been rushed along in order to find some solution to the problem. Also, research on the materials that could be harvested from monsters was indispensable for the development of technologies.

This sort of research on magic and demons was principally being done at the Royal Academy. It was certainly true that the results of this sort of cutting edge research could lead to new developments in other academic fields.

However, and this might be my sense as a Japanese person speaking, I thought that there were incredible, revolutionary discoveries waiting to be found in research that, at a glance, seemed pointless, too. Like how the techniques that were polished and refined in downtown factories without gathering much attention could then create indispensable parts for a spaceship.

No matter what the subject, if you mastered it, you were first class. If you could become number one, you could become the only one.

That was why I wanted to create a place where the subjects that had been neglected by this world—education, civil engineering, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, cooking, and art—could be given specialized study and taught to other people. And then, if we were able to see results in a given field from our experiment at this training facility, we would build a training facility (at this point, more or less a vocational school) for that subject in another city.

For that, it would first be necessary to raise the average level of education within the kingdom, and that was why we were starting by teaching elementary level reading, writing, and arithmetic.

I asked Ginger, “Well, what do you think? How are things with the training facility?”

“Well... we are doing a good job of gathering children under the age of twelve,” said Ginger. “The school meals system that you proposed has worked well, I would say. There are times when it gets hectic, but we have created a cycle where they show up, they study, they get a proper meal, and then they go home.”

“School meals system?” asked Liscia.

“If children under the age of twelve come here and study, they are given free meals to eat. If they study here, they can eat. Once this becomes widely known, the children of families under financial stress will be more likely to come here and study. Many of their guardians find it’s better to send them here to study and save the money it would take to feed them than it is to force the children to work for what little money they can get. If they study properly, they may be able to escape from poverty in the future, after all.”

“Hmmm,” said Liscia. “That’s a well thought out system. Is that something they do in your world, too, Souma?”

“Yeah,” I said. “It’s a method often used for providing support in poor countries.”

Liscia seemed impressed, but Ginger’s expression was more clouded.

“It’s true, we’re doing a good job of drawing in children. However, conversely, it’s hard to gather the adults, who aren’t covered by the school meals system. We are doing what we can by teaching them in the evening once their work lets out, but... ‘I’ve lived all my life without being able to read, write, or do arithmetic. Why should I learn to now?’ they say, and won’t even give us a chance.”

“Well, if they’ve never had an education, I can see how they might think that way,” I said.

Only upon receiving an education is one able to understand the value of one. While children may ask, “Why are we studying?” when they become adults they think, “Why didn’t I study more?” That they’re able to have that regret at all is because they were made to study as children.

“Well, enlightening them on the value of education is one part of our work,” I said. “I’ll come up with something.”

“Please do, sire.”

Ginger and I naturally shook hands.

Finally, after touching base on a number of things, Ginger and Sandria saw us off, and we left the training facility.

The next place we visited was the Kikkoro Distillery, not far from the training grounds.

This distillery, which used a hexagon with the character for wolf in the center as its brand mark, was run by mystic wolves like Tomoe, and it produced soy sauce, miso, sake, and mirin.

Here, we met another person I knew.

When we entered the grounds, there was a plump man wearing short sleeved clothes despite the winter chill.

“Hm? Poncho?” I asked.

“Wh-Why, Your Majesty! Good day to you, yes.”

When he noticed us, Poncho bowed his head to me. Maybe he had gotten used to the idea that he was only supposed to bow once. Before, he had been bobbing his head up and down constantly.

“What are you doing here, Poncho?” I asked.

“Oh, that’s right! Listen to this, sire!” Poncho trudged over with his abdominous body.

“Whoa, you’re getting too close!” I exclaimed. “...What’s this, so suddenly?”

“At last, at long last, it’s complete! That ‘sauce’ you have been requesting!” The usually shy and reserved Poncho was incredibly excited, thrusting a bottle filled with a black liquid out toward me.

The sauce I’d requested?

...Ah!

“You don’t mean that’s finally ready, do you?!”

“Please taste it for yourself, yes.”

“Sure!” I dripped a few drops of the black liquid onto the back of my hand, then licked them up.

It had a vegetable or fruit flavor and a spice-like fragrance. There was no doubt, this was what we’d called sauce in Japanese. However, unlike ordinary Worcestershire sauce, it had a strong sweetness and sourness, along with a depth of flavor.

This was definitely the sort of sauce that went with yakisoba, a sauce for flour-based dishes.

“The taste of sauce... is a boy’s flavor,” I remarked, quoting a certain gourmet manga.

“What kind of nonsense are you talking now?” Liscia said with a roll of her eyes, snapping me back to my sense.

“It’s just, the sauce we have been experimenting with is finally complete, so I was filled with emotion.”

“I-Is it that big of a deal?” Liscia asked.

“Of course! Because, with this, I can make yakisoba, okonomiyaki, monjayaki, takoyaki, and sobameshi. It’s good on fried dishes on its own, too.”

“I barely know what any of the dishes you just named are...” Liscia murmured.

“I’ll make them for you sometime soon. I mean, even if there are leftovers, I’m sure Aisha will make them disappear for us.”

But, still... at last, we had perfected this sauce for flour-based dishes.

It had been a long process. There had already been a sauce similar to Worcestershire sauce in this world, but it hadn’t been the sort of thick sauce that would work well with yakisoba. I had thought I could create one somehow, and I’d been working on it through a process of trial and error, but with no real knowledge of sauces, it had proven to be beyond me. That was why I had ended up creating those spaghetti buns before yakisoba buns. I had half given up on the development, but it looked like Poncho had continued it for me.

“I’m impressed you were able to recreate it,” I told him. “You’d never tasted it yourself before, right?”

“I had Your Majesty’s words, ‘It’s thicker than ordinary Worcestershire sauce, sweet, and I think it felt a little sour,’ the knowledge that there was a noodle dish, ‘yakisoba,’ which you would pour the sauce over and mix, and the memory of the pasta dish you call Spaghetti Neapolitan, which gave me the hint I needed.”

“The spaghetti did?” I asked.

“Yes, it did, yes. That spaghetti uses the tomato sauce called ketchup that I developed with you, right, sire? I knew that ketchup went well with noodle dishes, so I thought something similar to ketchup might have been used with this noodle dish called yakisoba, yes.”

“Ahh!” I cried.

I saw now! This sweet and tangy flavor came from fruits and vegetables! In other words, this sauce for flour-based dished was made by adding tomato sauce and other ingredients to a thick Worcestershire sauce, then? Poncho had an incredible sense of taste to be able to figure that out on his own.

“Then, in order to give the Worcestershire and tomato sauce mixture a greater depth of flavor, I tried adding the soy sauce and mirin produced here at the Kikkoro Distillery. Um... How do you think I did?” he asked hesitantly.

I put my hands on Poncho’s shoulders. “Poncho... you did well.”

“Sire! You are too kind, yes!”

“Now, can this sauce be mass produced?” I asked.

“It seems the Kikkoro Distillery will take on the job for us.”

That was wonderful. Now I could write another page in the culinary history of the kingdom. When Poncho and I started excitedly talking about the topic of sauces, the other members of the group... particularly the women, Liscia, Hilde, and Carla... looked on, rolling their eyes.

“Souma’s not a big eater, but sometime, he can be pretty picky about the strangest details,” Liscia said. “I wonder why that is?”

“That’s just what men are like, Princess,” said Hilde. “They pour needless passion into things women don’t understand, and they think nothing of the trouble they go to doing it. They’re such bizarre creatures.”

“You speak like you have personal experience with this,” said Carla. “Do you know someone like that, Madam Hilde?”

“Don’t ask about things you shouldn’t, dragonewt girl,” Hilde snapped. “I’ll stitch your mouth shut, you know?”

“Y-Yes, ma’am! I won’t ask you anything, yes!” Carla hurriedly saluted, seemingly having been infected with some of Poncho’s speaking style as she did.

And, well, I was excited by the unexpected result, but it was about time to accomplish my real objective here. I parted with Poncho and then, in the director’s office of the Kikkoro Distillery, I met with the elder of the mystic wolves who was also the director of this place.

We sat across from him in the same arrangement as when we’d visited Ginger. The elder’s white hair, white eyebrows, and white beard were all long and thick, reminding me of a Maltese. Except that inside all that hair, there was an old man.

The elder bowed his head deeply while still remaining seated. “We, the mystic wolves, are endlessly grateful to Your Majesty for your protection, the construction of this Kikkoro Distillery, and all of your other support. I thank you on behalf of my people.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “Little Tomoe’s done a lot for us, too. Besides, it was fortunate that people like you who knew how to grow rice and produce soy sauce, miso, mirin, sake, and more came along. I get to eat tasty food, and I can feed it to other people, too.”

“You are very kind to say that,” said the elder. “Now, sire, what manner of business have you come here on today?”

“Yeah... I was thinking it was about time we resolved the issue outside.”

“By ‘outside,’ you mean... the refugee camp?”

I silently nodded.

When I’d been summoned to this world, this country had been facing a large number of problems. The food crisis, corrupt nobles acting against the state, neighboring countries plotting to invade, how to deal with the Demon Lord, its relationship with the Empire— the list had gone on.

However, I felt like the vast majority of those problems had been resolved now. We had gotten through the food crisis somehow, and the domestic situation was looking good. Our foreign enemies had been swept away, and when it came to the Demon Lord, we had formed a secret alliance with the Empire to handle that matter together. I had worked through all those problems one by one, and the last one left was this refugee camp issue.

Outside the castle walls that surrounded Parnam, there was a village of refugees that had drifted here from the north after the appearance of the Demon Lord’s Domain.

I called it a village, but it was really just a group of tents and hovels concentrated in one place. Of the many races that made up the refugees, I had been able to lift up the mystic wolves in the name of putting their special talents to use, but they only made up a small percentage of the overall refugee population. Even now, many refugees still lived in that refugee camp.

Technically, even when things had gotten chaotic, basic food relief had been provided to them the whole time, but they couldn’t stay like this much longer. There were issues of hygiene, and if I supported them for too long, it was bound to create friction with the people of this country.

If possible, I wanted the rest of them to choose to live as people of this country, just like the mystic wolves had, but... it seemed that would be difficult. Their wish was to return to their homelands. If they accepted citizenship in this country, that would be the same as giving up on returning to their homeland.

To these people who wished for the threat of the Demon Lord’s Domain to someday be swept away, allowing them to return to their homelands, it was simply not something they could accept. I had sent my vassals to the refugee camp a number of times to negotiate, but they had always been rebuffed.

“We want to return to our homeland,” they said. Or, “Let us remain here until that time comes.”

I understood how they felt when they said these things, so I couldn’t be too firm with them. However, there was no time left now.

“The chill of winter will only grow more harsh from here,” I said. “If they stay in crude tents and hovels, the weakest among them, the children and the elderly, will be the first to freeze to death. Before that happens, I want to go there personally and press them to make a decision.”

“Sire...” said the elder.

“In order to do that, I’d like you to send a messenger to the refugee camp for me first. Have the messenger tell them I’m coming. It’s unlikely that chaos will break out that way.”

“I understand.” The elder rose from his seat and then knelt on the floor, bowing his head deeply to me. “We mystic wolves have already been saved by Your Majesty’s hand. If it is possible... we ask of you to save the rest of our fellows, as well.”

“Yeah... I plan to do everything I can to,” I said as the elder ground his forehead against the floor and beseeched me.

“How about you more clearly say, ‘Leave it to me’?” Liscia said, but that seemed like it would be taking the task on lightly.

“I’ll try to persuade them, but... the one who’ll make the final decision isn’t me,” I explained. “They are the ones who should decide their own futures. Once I receive that decision, that will decide how I’m going to deal with them. Even if that means forcing them to see the harshness of reality.”

“Souma...” Liscia had a worried look on her face, but there was no avoiding this.

Hopefully... they would look to their reality, not an ideal, when they made their decision.

Heading outside the castle walls that surrounded Parnam, the refugee camp was in a field about a hundred meters away. The tents and hovels were scattered around haphazardly, and there were crude vegetable fields in some areas. This was where the roughly eight hundred refugees were living.

There were various races here. Humans, elves, beastmen, and dwarves, too. That was just how many countries had been laid waste by the Demon Lord’s Domain and how many peoples had been forced to flee.

They had set up camp here, and had been living a nearly primitive lifestyle, sharing the resources and supplies the kingdom provided to them, then hunting and gathering to make up for what they didn’t have.

Normally, hunting and foraging required permission from the country, but the former king, Albert, had left them to their own devices. I had continued that approach after assuming the throne myself. I’d had a mountain of problems to deal with other than the refugees, so my only choice had been to give them a bare minimum of support while leaving them alone.

I couldn’t, by any means, call what they had proper living conditions, but they were at least receiving some support, which was better than nothing.

The situation for refugees on this continent was harsh. The only nations that could afford to leave the refugees alone were countries like ours or the Empire, which had some national power to spare. I’d heard that in countries bordering the Demon Lord’s Domain they were forcibly conscripted and sent to the front lines, while other countries worked them like slaves as cheap labor in the mines under the guise of sheltering the refugees.

That refugees were drifting to a country as far from the Demon Lord’s Domain as ours only showed that there was no safe haven for them anywhere else on this continent.

I walked through that refugee camp, following after the young man the mystic wolf elder had sent as my guide.

The scenery here reminded me of the slums from not too long ago. One look at the state people were in was enough to make it clear how bad the sanitary conditions were. Their clothing was tattered and their bodies were caked with dirt and dust.

And yet, none of them had eyes that looked dead inside. Each and every one of them had eyes filled with vitality.

“It’s squalid, but... they all have this strange strength in their eyes,” said Hilde, who had been covering her nose and mouth with a cloth ever since we entered the village. It wasn’t an easy scene for a clean freak to look at.

Liscia and the others all had pained looks on their faces.

“They came here from far to the north with only the will to live,” I said. “I’m sure the people here are probably far hardier than we imagine.”

The people who face hardship they can do nothing about in times of war or natural disasters, yet still refuse to give in to despair, have a unique strength. Still, that strength... can also be a danger. While it strengthens their will to pull together and overcome the situation, the group consciousness can become too strong and weaken their sense of individuality.

If a strange leader figure appeared at times like this, the group as a whole could easily be swayed by that person’s opinions. I absolutely would not want anyone connected to the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State to come in contact with them.

While I was thinking about that, Liscia spoke up.

“By the way... Kazuya. You said you gave them support, but what did you do?”

She’d nearly called me Souma just now, but this being the sort of place it was, I had asked her to refrain from using my name (well, it was my family name, to be precise) as much as possible.

“It wasn’t much, but we provided foodstuffs and firewood, among other basic necessities, and we also commissioned the adventurers’ guild to guard this place as a quest,” I said.

“I understand providing food, but why hire the adventurers as guards?”

“These people aren’t citizens of this country. What’s more, they’ve lost their own countries, which would usually stand behind them and defend them. For instance, if civilians from our country were slaughtered without cause in a foreign land, and then the culprits went unpunished, I would submit a complaint to that country as king, and would place sanctions on them if the situation merited it. It works the other way around, too. In other words, it would create an international incident. The potential for something to cause an international incident is a restraining force that keeps our own citizens from suffering from crimes in another country. But...”

I paused and looked at the people in the camp.

I went on, “There is no such restraining force when it comes to people with no country of their own. You’ll have people who falsely think, ‘If it won’t cause an international incident, then it’s okay.’ Just because it won’t cause an international incident doesn’t mean they won’t be judged under the laws of this country, but it can still lower the psychological hurdles for committing a crime enough for some people to do it. That’s precisely why I want the refugees to hurry up and naturalize as citizens of this country.”

If they did that, I could offer them shelter and treat them as my own people. However, I was well aware that that wouldn’t be as simple as it sounded. Not everything in this world could be approached with reason.

“When people’s hearts are involved, things get really difficult,” I said.

“They do...” Liscia nodded.

We suddenly heard screams from inside the village. At the same time, there was the sound of metal on metal.

Liscia furrowed her brow. “It sounds like someone’s fighting. Multiple someones, at that.”

“Let’s go,” I said.

Everyone rushed toward the sound of the commotion.

When we reached the center of the commotion, there was a group of men and women that seemed to be an adventuring party who, alongside a handful of people from the village, were fighting against more than ten men who seemed to be mercenaries. The adventurers included a young swordsman, a macho brawler, a woman wielding a short sword who looked like a thief, and a beautiful mage.

...Hold on, those were a lot of familiar faces.

So, Juno and her group took on this quest, huh?

Dece the swordsman, Augus the brawler, Juno the thief, and Julia the mage. They were the members of the party I often worked with when I sent Little Musashibo out adventuring.

“What is all the commotion about, pray tell?” Owen asked a man who was quivering nearby.

“Th-Those men suddenly came, and they were trying to abduct the children! They even cut down the adults who tried to stop them! After that, they got into a battle with the adventurers who heard the noise and rushed over here!”

The adults had been cut down? When I looked off into the corner, I could see a bleeding man being treated by the priest, Febral.

I quickly gave orders. “Carla, Owen, back up the adventurers.”

“Understood, master!”

“By your will!”

“Hilde, I want you to help that priest over there,” I went on. “Liscia, you stand by for further instructions.”

“Fine, fine. I guess I’ll have to,” Hilde said.

“Urgh... okay,” Liscia agreed.

Carla and Owen immediately rushed forward, and Hilde headed over to the wounded. I was going to get one of my dolls ready, in case it became necessary, but then realized I hadn’t brought any dolls with me today. Right... I had left them behind because I’d figured they would be too much luggage for a trip outside the castle walls. I drew the sword I wore as little more than a decoration and took a fighting stance.

“Can you fight if you have to?” Liscia asked me, her rapier at the ready.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Owen’s been putting me through the wringer lately, but he says I’m still little better than a fresh recruit.”

“That’s not very reassuring,” she said. “Still, from what I can tell, they have numbers on their side, but none of them are particularly strong. I doubt any of them are below the level of a fresh recruit. If it comes to it, hide behind me.”

“Pathetic as that is, I guess I’ll have to,” I said.

I didn’t like being weak, but if I butted in, I was probably just going to cause trouble for my own people. I was in a position where I couldn’t afford to take getting injured lightly. That was what I was thinking, but...

“Ah!”

“Hold on!” she shouted. “What are you moving forward for, right after we talked about it?!”

I heard Liscia’s voice behind me, but I didn’t stop. Juno had been unlucky and caught her leg on a stick that was thrown at her and tripped. That’s when one of the men who had his hair in a cockscomb tried to attack her. As I ran toward them, I picked up a scrap of wooden board that had fallen on the ground.

“Get down! Juno!” I shouted and threw the board at the man like a discus.

“Huh? Uwah!” Juno yelped and ducked.

Cockscomb slashed at the flying board. Because the attack took him completely by surprise, he couldn’t cut the board cleanly and ended up half-pulverizing it. Thanks to that, it looked like the splinters of wood had gotten into Cockscomb’s eyes.

“Ow! Damn it!” Cockscomb Head pressed on his eyes, flailing his sword around wildly as he backed away.

I took that opening to step into the gap between the two of them. His vision must have recovered, because Cockscomb came at me.

Calm down! One exchange of blows! I only need to hold out for one exchange, and then Juno will have regained her footing! Just remember the basics that Owen’s beaten into me!

Cockscomb raised his sword high over his head. He was going to try and smash my head open.

I brought my left foot forward diagonally and took a stance with my sword up above my head horizontally, the cutting edge angled slightly toward the ground. In the next instant...

Clang!

The sound of metal striking with metal echoed, then, with a scraping sound, Cockscomb’s sword slid down my blade and was diverted to the ground to the right of me.

I did it... I did it! My hands were numb, but I had somehow managed to block!

““Don’t just stand there!”” Liscia and Juno screamed.

As Cockscomb tried to regain his footing, Liscia and Juno pounded their swords into him simultaneously. Cockscomb collapsed.

Once she had confirmed her opponent was no longer moving, Liscia grabbed me by the front of my shirt. She pulled me in close to her face. “What were you thinking, charging out like that?!”

She seemed furious, but up close, I could see tears in Liscia’s eyes.

“Oh, um... sorry...”

“No, not ‘sorry’! You almost gave me a heart attack. If anything were to happen to you... what would I... what would all of us do...?”

When I heard Liscia’s voice gradually breaking with emotion, I could feel how much she had been worried for my safety. The mixture of happiness and guilt made my chest hurt.

“No, really, I’m sorry!” I said. “Someone I know was getting attacked, so I moved without thinking...”

“Hey, you!”

I was suddenly grabbed by the scruff of the neck and dragged in the opposite direction. When I turned around, Juno was glaring at me with a super suspicious look in her eyes.

“You called me Juno, didn’t you?” she snapped. “Why do you know my name?”

“No... That’s, um...”

“Hold it, So— Kazuya.” Liscia glared at me, looking upset for a different reason from before. “Who is this girl?”

She’d almost called me Souma for a second there, but with Juno right beside us, she’d switched to my undercover name.

Yeah, that had been a nice bit of quick thinking. Now, I just wanted her to not glare at me quite so hard.

I was sandwiched between two cute girls, both of them glaring at me. Some people might be jealous of this situation, but unfortunately, I was not equipped with the right fetishes to appreciate it fully.

This situation... How exactly am I going to explain it? I wondered.

Or rather, where was I even to start? Should I start by outing myself as the person inside Little Musashibo (or, more precisely, remotely controlling him)?

Juno’s glance shifted to Liscia. Something must have caught her attention, because she was inspecting her closely. “Hey, I feel like I’ve met you somewhere before, too.”

“Huh?” Liscia asked. “Ah!”

Liscia pulled hard on my arm, then whispered in my ear, “This girl, she’s the one who was at that banquet, right?”

Huh? Oh! Now that I thought about it, Liscia had met Juno, hadn’t she? Liscia had recognized Juno, but judging by Juno’s reaction, she didn’t realize who Liscia was. Probably because Liscia was lightly disguised right now.

Juno put her hands on her hips, making an angry face. “What’re you two whispering about? Seems suspicious.”

“No, it’s nothing suspicious at all, really...” I said.

When Juno stared at me with her unyielding eyes, it was kind of awkward to be there. That was when Carla and Owen, who had finished wiping out the brigands, returned.

“What were you doing, master?!” Carla yelled. “Going to the front yourself like that?!”

“Gahaha!” Owen laughed. “I saw that. The sword techniques I taught you came in handy, didn’t they?”

Seeing this as my chance to break out of the current atmosphere, I slipped out from the middle of the Liscia-Juno sandwich and rushed over to the two of them.

“Ah! Hey! I want a proper explanation!” Juno called after me.

Ignoring Juno’s complaints, I asked Carla and Owen, “Good work, you two. So, who were those guys, anyway?”

“From what I was able to gather, it seems it was a slave trader and men in his employ,” said Carla.

“A slave trader?” I repeated.

“You nationalized the slave trade recently, master,” she explained. “I hear that you made the qualification exams more rigorous, too. That drove slave traders from other nations out of the country, and slavers from our own country who’ve failed to qualify have been leaving for other countries, too. These were a group of slavers who failed the qualification exam.”

I had turned slave traders into public servants just the other day. I couldn’t abolish the system of slavery yet, but to make it something that existed in name only, I was working to make it so slaves went from being treated as objects to being treated as laborers and people. In order to accomplish that, I’d made it so that slavers who treated their slaves like objects and abused them would fail the qualification exam.

“But why would people like that attack the refugees?” I asked.

“In order to fund their flight abroad, they meant to abduct women and children who looked like they would fetch a good price, no doubt,” said Carla. “Because the refugees aren’t people of this country, they must have thought the officials wouldn’t act proactively to protect them.”

“As if we wouldn’t!” I shouted.

“I-I’m not the one you need to be telling that,” Carla said with a troubled look on her face, snapping me back to my senses. True, that wasn’t something for me to say to Carla.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry for losing my composure there.”

“No...”

“Carla, I’m sorry, but could you fly back to the castle and report what happened here to Hakuya?” I asked. “I’m sure he’ll send out notice to those who need to know and think about the necessary measures right away.”

“Yes, sir. I understand.”

No sooner than she had said that, Carla spread her wings wide and rose into the air, flying toward the castle at top speed. In that instant, I caught a glimpse of her garter belt, so I hurriedly looked away.

No, I didn’t see anything more important. So, please, Liscia, don’t look at me like that.

Then, at almost exactly the same time as Carla took off, Hilde returned. “We finished treating the wounded. They weren’t minor wounds, but it’s probably due to that priest’s quick work. Their lives aren’t in danger. The wounds have already been closed up with magic.”

“I see... That’s good...”

“But what are you going to do?” Hilde asked. “It looks like a crowd has gathered here.”

When I looked around, there were refugees who had begun to gather when they’d heard the commotion. We had managed to keep a low profile so far, so I didn’t want to stand out now. I called Owen and Liscia over.

“Let’s let the adventurers hand these guys over to the authorities. We’ll go and meet with the chief of the village as planned.”

“Understood, sire,” said Owen.

“You don’t want to do anything about Juno?” Liscia asked.

“I don’t see any good way to explain this situation. Besides, it’d probably be bad to have it come out that the king was the one inside Little Musashibo all along.”

“True, if people found out the king was playing with dolls, that’s not exactly dignified.” Liscia nodded to herself, seemingly satisfied.

We then got out of there in a hurry.

“Ah, hey! Wait!” Juno yelled after me when she noticed, but I wasn’t about to wait.

So long, pops!

No, wait, she was the thief here.

Leaving the cleanup to Juno and her party, we headed into the center of the refugee camp to accomplish our original goal of meeting with the chief. After following our guide for some time, eventually we were led into a large tent that resembled a Mongolian ger or yurt.

When we entered the tent there was one large human male, sitting cross-legged with both hands on the ground, bowing his head to us. It was a pose I’d often seen vassals take toward their lords in period dramas.

The large man, who looked to be around thirty, wore, if I were to describe it simply, garb that looked to me like Native American clothing or something similar. He had a tanned, muscular physique, and though it was already quite cold, his leather clothes were sleeveless. He wore magical-looking paint on his face.

Behind him there was a girl wearing similar attire who was sitting in the same pose. Her age probably wasn’t that different from Liscia or Roroa’s. She was a cute girl with dark brown hair and a rustic simplicity to her. There was a resemblance in their faces, so these two might be siblings.

“I thank you for coming, Great King of Friedonia,” said the man.

“Please, could you not call me Great King, or anything like that?” I said. “I don’t really like that sort of stuff.”

I sat down in front of the big man. Not on a chair, but directly on the carpet that had been rolled out. It was a familiar thing for a Japanese person to do.

From the feel of it, I could tell there were probably wooden boards beneath the carpet. It didn’t seem to have been rolled out directly on the dirt.

Liscia sat next to me, while Owen, Hilde, and Carla, who had already returned, sat behind us waiting.

The big man said, “I see...” a pensive look on his face. “Then what am I to call you?”

“King Souma... Your Majesty... call me whatever you want.”

“Understood, King Souma. I am Jirukoma. I am the chief of this refugee village. I hear that you just helped some of our people here, and for that I thank you from the bottom of my heart.” Jirukoma bowed his head deeply.

“I am Souma Kazuya, the one acting as the king of this country,” I said. “The ones who helped them were the adventurers we dispatched here. If you want to thank someone, thank them.”

“No, the adventurers are here because of your support,” said Jirukoma. “I thank you for that, and the supplies you have given us.”

“I’ll accept your thanks. But, you know, I didn’t come here today so you could thank me, right?”

Jirukoma’s expression stiffened. He had to know what I was here for. After all, he had already spoken many times with the emissaries I’d sent to discuss this matter.

“I’ve come to push you to make a decision,” I said. “You’ve listened to the counsel of my emissaries, right? Now that I’ve come in person, today is the day you must finally make your decision. Which will you choose?”

“That’s...!”

“Stop, Komain,” the man said.

“But, Brother!”

The girl tried to rise, but Jirukoma motioned for her to stop.

This girl’s name was Komain, huh? They were apparently siblings, just like I had thought.

Jirukoma told her, “Our words will decide the fate of everyone in this village. We cannot be quick to anger.”

“...I understand.” Komain sat back down.

For a moment, Owen and Carla behind me had tensed themselves for a fight, but Komain had laid down her arms, so to speak, and so they’d calmed down, too.

A heavy air fell over us all.

Perhaps out of concern for that, Liscia spoke up. “Souma, I’d like you to explain the situation...”

“Right... I want this whole refugee problem solved already,” I said. “Because no good will come, either for our country or for the people living here, from leaving things the way they are. That’s why I’ve forced the refugees to make a decision.”

“A decision?” she asked.

I gave a heavy nod, then said it clearly. “They can abandon their longing for home and become people of this country, or they can leave.”

For the refugees who’d lost their homes to the appearance of the Demon Lord’s Domain, their true wish was to return to their homelands and take back the lives they once had.

However, in the current situation, there was no indication of when or if that would be possible.

The major incursion that had been launched into the Demon Lord’s Domain had ended in failure, instilling a fear of the Demon Lord’s Domain into the forces of mankind.

Even the largest nation on the side of mankind, the Gran Chaos Empire, was unenthusiastic about the idea of another invasion. The nations were focused solely on keeping the Demon Lord’s Domain from expanding any further.

Even if, at some point in the future, something was going to change this situation for the better, it wasn’t going to be in the next few days. It wouldn’t be in the next few months, either. Even with years, it still might be difficult.

That being the case, what should the refugees do in response? Continue to pray for their return, swearing allegiance to no country while they stay in a foreign land?

...That was no good. That sort of warped arrangement was sure to cause trouble later.

“The former king turned a blind eye to their presence,” I said. “I’ve had a mountain of other problems to deal with, so I’ve carried on that way until today. I’ve even provided some support, though only a little.”

Jirukoma said nothing.

“But now, with solutions to all of the other problems worked out, I have to tackle this one. We can’t simply provide support forever, and you remaining here illegally is a problem. We’ve turned a blind eye until now, but hunting and foraging without a license is against the law. If we tolerate these illegal acts, it is guaranteed to stoke resentment from the people of this country.”

Because they didn’t belong to this country.

For now, there was still an air of sympathy for them because they had lost their countries when the Demon Lord’s Domain had appeared. However, air was air. You could never tell when the winds might shift.

They had no prospect of returning home. If we supported non-citizens indefinitely, and continued to overlook their illegal behavior, it wouldn’t be long before the people’s resentment boiled over. In the worst case, there could be clashes between the people and the refugees.

“That’s why I’ve pressed the people here to make a decision,” I said. “They can give up on returning to their homelands and become people of this country, or they can choose not to give up on returning and leave this country as people of a foreign land. I’m here today to have them make that choice.”

“But, Souma, that’s...”

Liscia had a pained look on her face, but I shook my head silently.

“You may think it cruel, but it’s necessary.”

In the world I’d come from, there was a book that likened a commonwealth to a monster and its people to countless scales covering it. On the cover of that book, the monster was depicted as a person larger than a mountain.

“A country is... ultimately, something like a giant person,” I said. “And people are mirrors that reflect one another. If someone loves you, you can love them back, and you’ll want to protect them no matter what. If they’re indifferent, you will be indifferent to them. And unless you’re a saint, you can’t love someone who hates you.”

“Countries are the same... is what you want to say,” Jirukoma said gravely.

I nodded.

I could clearly see that, if things continued as they were, the people would be dissatisfied. That was why I needed to move to assimilate them while people were still sympathetic. This was a multiracial state. Compared to a state dominated by one race, the ground for accepting them was relatively fertile. However, that was dependent on the refugees being able to accept becoming members of a multiracial state.

I’d spoken about this when I’d pointed out the flaw in the Mankind Declaration, but when ethnic nationalism grows too strong, it can be the cause of civil war.

“If you, Sir Jirukoma, and your people stubbornly cling to the idea of returning to your homelands, and say you cannot identify with this country, then I... will be forced to exile you.”

Jirukoma ground his back teeth. “All we want is to return to our homeland.”

“I understand that feeling,” I said. “I don’t care if you hold onto that feeling in your own heart. If the situation changes for the better, allowing you to return, I won’t mind if you do so. However, at least while you’re in this country, I need you to have a sense that you are a member of this country. If you can’t do that, there’s no way I can let you stay here.”

Jirukoma was at a loss for words.

Komain, who had remained quiet up until this point, stood up. “What... would you know?”

“Stop, Komain!” Jirukoma ordered.

“No, Brother, I will speak my mind! You are the king of this land, are you not?! You have your own country! The pain of losing your country is something that you could never—”

“I do understand!” I cut in.

Komain was shouting in rage, but I looked her straight in the eye and spoke calmly.

“You must have heard that I was summoned here from another world. It was a one-way ticket. Unlike you people, who have at least some hope, I have no way of ever getting back. That’s why I can understand the pain of losing your homeland.”

“Urgh...” Komain couldn’t find the words to say.

Liscia lowered her face. Being the serious sort she was, Liscia was probably feeling guilty that it was her father, even if he’d done it at the request of the Empire, who had torn me away from my homeland.

“That longing for home... It’s hard to wipe it away, I know,” I said. “The land of our birth is special for every person. It’s when we lose something we’ve taken for granted that we’re first forced to see how precious it was. It’s easy to say that this is a story that’s played out over and over, but it’s not so easy to accept it logically like that.”

“Souma...” Liscia said, her heart clearly aching.

I placed my hand over hers. Liscia’s eyes opened wide with surprise. I gave Liscia a slight smile in order to reassure her.

“But... in my case, I had Liscia and the others. I had people who would be at my side and support me. I had people who were thinking about me. I worked desperately on behalf of this country in order to respond to their feelings. While I was doing that, at some point, I began to think of this country as my own. To the point where I was able to think that, if I lost this country, I would probably be just as sad as I was when I lost my homeland.”

Ultimately, a homeland was a connection. It was a connection between the land and the people who lived there. If anything could fill the hole left by losing it, it would have to be another connection.

Komain sat down, her strength gone, and hung her head. It wasn’t something she would be able to accept immediately. But they couldn’t move forward by staying still.

“That’s why I want to do for you what Liscia and the others did for me,” I said gently. “If you are willing to love this country and become members of it, this country will accept you.”

“To be specific... how will it accept us?” Jirukoma’s eyes grew more stern, probing me to find my true intent. “I know it is incredibly rude to ask you this when you have offered to accept us. However, we have seen and heard many harsh realities on our way here. There were countries that claimed to accept refugees, then put them to work doing hard labor in the mines for little pay. There were countries that sent them to fight as soldiers on the front line in the battle against the Demon Lord’s Domain. The ways they were treated were many and varied.”

“I’ve heard that, yeah...” I said. “I can only see those as stupid plans, though.”

“Are they stupid plans?” Jirukoma asked.

“Yeah. First off, sending them to the front lines is the stupidest plan of all. National defense is the basis of any state. If they’re entrusting that to foreigners, eventually they’re going to end up facing a serious national crisis.”

There had been many examples of this in Earth’s history. For instance, the Western Roman Empire during the Migration Period had tried to use the Germanic peoples who had settled peacefully in the empire to deal with the Germanic invaders, and they’d centered their forces around German mercenaries. As a result, their armies had become Germanicized, and they’d been destroyed by the Germanic mercenary commander Odoacer.

Also, in the Chinese Tang dynasty, giving power to An Lushan, who had been of Sogdian and Göktürk origins, had led to a rebellion which had shortened the life of the country.

“Treating them like slaves is an equally stupid plan,” I said. “That will only stoke animosity from the refugees. What will they do if the resentful refugees plot a rebellion or terrorist attacks? They’re only cultivating the seeds of a disaster inside their own country.”

“Then... what about the policy taken by the Gran Chaos Empire?” Jirukoma asked me, looking me straight in the eye as he did.

I scratched my head. “It’s very like Madam Maria to adopt that sort of policy.”

The Empire had received a considerable number of refugees, too. The Empire had provided them with uncultivated land within their country, following a policy of recognizing the refugees as temporary residents if they worked to cultivate it. In other words, they’d created refugee villages, allowing them to manage themselves. If they were able to sustain themselves, it didn’t hurt the Empire’s coffers any, and if they were able to return north at some later date, they would leave behind all of the land they had cultivated. Either way, the Empire couldn’t lose.

Well, that was probably how Maria had sold it to the people around her. This was a woman so gentle she had been called a saint. In her heart, she’d probably done it because she’d felt sorry for the refugees. By making them be self-sufficient, she had made it possible for them to remain inside the Empire while not giving up on their desire to return home. Even if they couldn’t return home, because their territory was inside the Empire, she probably thought they would naturally assimilate with the people of the Empire.

It was the opposite approach to what I was doing now, making the refugees give up on their desire to return home and forcing them to assimilate.

But...

“Sorry, but... that’s a policy our kingdom can’t adopt.”

“Why not?” Jirukoma asked.

“It’s dangerous.”

If they gave them uncultivated land and had them develop it, sure, that didn’t hurt the Empire’s coffers. For as long as the Empire’s power didn’t wane, the refugees would obey them and would likely feel indebted to them, too. If that lasted for a hundred years, they could be expected to gradually assimilate with the local population.

However, there was no telling when times would change.

It was the nature of our world that power we held today could be lost tomorrow. If the worst were to happen, and something caused the Empire’s authority to weaken, what would the refugees do in response?

“It’s land that they cultivated by the sweat of their own brows,” I said. “Might they not feel like it was their own? That’s not an issue with the generation that longs to return home. They likely would feel a stronger attachment to their homeland than to the land they’ve cultivated. However, what of the next generation? The generation that was born there and has never known their homeland? Would they be able to accept the fact that the land their fathers sweated to open up to development was merely on loan to them from the Empire? Wouldn’t they think of it as their own land?”

In Earth’s history, there had been the case of the Serbians. When the Kingdom of Serbia had been destroyed by the Ottoman Empire, many Serbs had fled to the Hapsburg Empire (the Austro-Hungarian Empire). The Hapsburg Empire had actively welcomed the Serbs. They had them develop land near the front lines with the Ottomans, using them as colonist soldiers to defend those front lines. The Serbs had developed the frontier while fighting the Ottomans. That harsh environment had bred a strong desire for self-rule in the Serbs, developing a fertile ground for ethnic nationalism.

In time, the nationalistic concept of Greater Serbia had emerged, causing the incident in Sarajevo which had triggered the First World War, and ultimately destroyed the Hapsburg Empire.

Furthermore, Serbian policies centered around Serbian nationalism had provoked the rise of nationalism in other ethnic groups. Their conflict with Croatian nationalism, in particular, had been gruesome with massacres on both sides.

The refugees were a multiracial group, but they would likely develop a sense of common identity through shared joy and sorrow. That common identity could take on a nationalistic face that separated the refugees from others. The Gran Chaos Empire had taken in the sparks that could possibly set off that sort of gruesome situation in the future.

Jirukoma furrowed his brow. “Do you believe the Empire’s policy is mistaken?”

“No... I wouldn’t go that far,” I said. “It’s a difference in our ways of thinking. Madam Maria chose her policy because she believes it’s the best. I can’t choose it because I fear it’s the worst. That’s all there is to it.”

I had noticed this with the Mankind Declaration: the Empire had a tendency to choose policies with a high return even if they also carried a high risk hidden inside them. Meanwhile, our kingdom was focused less on returns and more on risk management in the policies we chose.

Neither approach was inherently better. It was a question of which was more suited to the era we lived in, and that was something we would only learn after the fact.

“Then, Your Majesty, what do you mean to do with us?” asked Jirukoma. “You want us to give up on returning to our homes and become people of this country, and to get out if we won’t. You won’t make us cultivate the land, won’t conscript or enslave us... What exactly is it you intend to do with us?!”

Jirukoma raised his voice for the first time. Even Komain, who had been waiting for that outburst, shuddered when he did.

Jirukoma carried the fates of all the refugees here on his shoulders. This intensity was something lent to him by the weight of his burden. However, I bore a heavy burden of my own, too.

“...Owen.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Fetch me the thing we discussed.”

“Understood.”

I had Owen go and get a long tube for me. It was about twice as thick as the sort of tube you would put a diploma in, and more than five times as long. Inside was a large piece of paper rolled into a cylinder. I unfurled that paper in front of everyone. When they saw what was drawn on that paper, Jirukoma and Komain’s eyes went wide.

“Is that... a city?” Jirukoma asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “The new city being built on the coast. Its name is Venetinova.”

I showed them a map of the new city, Venetinova, that I’d had constructed as a strategic point for transportation and commerce in order to speed up distribution.

“This is a city that I built at the same time as I rolled out a transportation network when I first came to this kingdom, but it only just recently became ready for people to live in,” I said. “We’ve still only created the residential district, the commercial district, and the port of commerce so far. From here on, there will be more institutions being added, and I plan to develop it as a city at the leading edge of culture. Also, we’re going to be putting out a call for residents soon.”

I looked at Jirukoma and Komain and said, “I am thinking of including the refugees in that group of residents.”

My words made Jirukoma and Komain gulp.

“If you will give up on returning to your homeland and become people of this country, I will prepare residences for you,” I said. “This being a new city, there will be lots of work available. Everything from physical labor like the transportation industry to employees in the stores. For a while, I’ll continue to provide financial support, too. If you become members of this country and work honestly like the mystic wolves, I am prepared to give you a place where you won’t starve and you won’t freeze.”

“That’s...”

Jirukoma and Komain’s expressions trembled.

It’s weird for me to say this myself, but I wonder how I look through Jirukoma and Komain’s eyes right now. Am I a savior reaching out to them in their time of need... or a devil, tricking them with sweet words?

Jirukoma and Komain opened their mouths at practically the same time.

“Can you really offer us something so wonderful?!” Jirukoma burst out.

“What you’re offering us is horrible!” Komain screamed.

Jirukoma and Komain turned to look at one another. The two of them seemed more surprised than anyone that, although they had spoken at the same time, their opinions were total opposites.

“Wh-What are you saying, Brother?! It’s the same as if he were saying, ‘Here’s some tasty bait, now wag your tails for me’!”

“Komain,” said Jirukoma. “His Majesty is offering us a foundation to support our lifestyles. Without the need to cultivate the land ourselves like in the Gran Chaos Empire.”

“Even so, how can he demand we give up on going home?! Doesn’t it frustrate you?!”

“If we can set aside that frustration, he’s saying he’ll keep us from starving or freezing. Don’t you understand how important that is for refugees?”

The siblings had two completely opposite views of my offer. ...That was probably just the way it was.

“It’s little surprise that the two of you don’t agree,” I said. “I myself think that this proposal could be considered very sweet or very cruel. There’s no guarantee that two people looking at the same thing will necessarily come to the same opinion. Whether someone will think it is kind or unkind will depend on how that person looks at and feels about things.”

They were both silent.

I took a deep breath, then put my hand down on the map. “This is the best that I can do for you now. Now, all I can do is hope you’ll take the hand I’ve extended you. From here, it’s up to you to decide.”

When I said that, Jirukoma groaned in distress. “There are those in this village who will remain intent on returning home.”

“You mean... like your little sister?” I asked.

“No! Komain is flexible! She only objected earlier to represent the people living in this village who cannot give up on their feeling for their homelands!”

“B-Brother...”

“I am sure that is true,” said Jirukoma. “The reason you said it was horrible was out of consideration for the ones who you know feel that way. Because you... are a girl who understands the pain of others.”

“Urgh...” Komain fell silent. Had he hit the nail on the head?

Jirukoma sat up straight and bowed his head low. “We are deeply grateful for your kindness, sire. This is not something I can decide on my own, so I would like to gather others from the village to discuss it.”

“I believe I told you I came here to push you to make a decision, did I not?” I asked.

“I know. However, I want to persuade as many as possible to take the hand you’ve kindly extended, sire. Even if... that should mean splitting up the refugees.”

I was silent.

Splitting up the refugees. In other words, any of those who couldn’t accept it would have to be chased out.

Was this the best I could do for now? If I rushed them too much, no good would come of it.

“But there isn’t much time,” I said. “Even if I can push back the search for residents, I can’t push back the changing of the season, you know. Winter has already started.”

A season with a lack of preparation would mean freezing to death. Children and the elderly, the ones with the least ability to resist, would be the first to die. If possible, I wanted them to make their decision at a point where they could be fully moved in before it got too deep into winter.

Jirukoma bowed his head deeply once again. “Yes, sir! I am well aware.”

“Well, that’s fine, then.”

The rest was up to them. No matter what their decision, I would have to take the appropriate response to it.

If possible, I didn’t want to have to show my cold-hearted side...

It happened just when it was starting to feel like talks were done for today.

That was when a man in a white coat rudely barged into the tent.

He was a human male with sharp eyes who looked to be in his mid-to-late-twenties. What was distinctive about him was his unkempt hair that, despite his seemingly young age, was stark white all the way to the root.

“I heard Hilde was here,” the man said sharply.

Carla and Owen warily reached for their sword hilts.

The man paid them no heed. When he spotted Hilde, he brusquely walked over to her.

Hilde rose, glaring straight into the man’s face. “Brad! How dare you push off teaching lectures onto me!”

This white haired man’s name was Brad Joker. Together with Hilde, he was the other doctor who was supporting this country’s medical revolution.

Brad paid no mind to Hilde’s complaints, suddenly grabbing her by the arm.

“Wait, what are you doing?!” Hilde shouted. “That’s not how you treat a woman properly.”

“If you want to complain, I’ll hear it later,” he snapped. “Sorry... But I need you to lend me a hand.”

Maybe she sensed something from the earnestness in Brad’s eyes, because Hilde now had a serious look on her face. “Did something happen?”

Brad released the arm he was holding, then nodded quietly. “Yeah. We have an emergency case.”

Brad Joker was the Traitor Doctor.

On a continent where almost everyone in the medical profession was a practitioner of light magic (recovery magic which worked by activating the systems of the body), he was this country’s sole surgeon. He attempted to treat serious illnesses without relying on magic, using only medical examinations and surgery.

“Even without clinging to the gods, people can heal one another with their own power.” That was Brad’s personal view.

On this continent, people had a tendency to see light magic as “the blessing of the gods,” especially in Lunarian Orthodoxy, where it was seen as sacred. That made it a pretty dangerous opinion to hold.

Brad had wandered across many battlefields in many different countries. He would take custody of the remains of unknown soldiers who died in combat, dissecting their bodies to study the structures of the different races’ bodies. He developed his own independent field of surgical treatment which used anesthesia and operations.

He had also approached the knowledge of the three-eyed race without prejudice and absorbed it. He knew a lot about the existence of microorganisms and the effects of antibiotics, and he applied those techniques to his work.

His skills were such that it would be fair to call them godly. (Though, for the god-hating Brad, it would come across as sarcastic.) The biggest factor in this was that he had been able to cure malignant tumors, which had been untreatable using light magic, by removing them with surgery.

“Light is not the only thing that can cure people. The dark can comfort, too.”

It sounded like he had a case of middle school syndrome when he said it like that, but I could sympathize. I’d requested his assistance, but it hadn’t been easy to convince him.

By which I mean...

“I sought this power (surgery) so that I could save the poor who couldn’t afford treatment and the people in remote areas where there are no light mages. I have no interest in money, power, or the like.”

...was what he had said to me.

Now, as for how I got him to cooperate, I hooked... erm, negotiated with him... using not money, or power, but things.

To be precise, in order to make it so everyone in the kingdom had easy access to medical care, I created a national system of health insurance like the one in my world and promised to have the finest blacksmith in the country forge a scalpel, suturing needles, and a full set of medical equipment for him. Then, by arranging a system where he would be a collaborator, not a vassal, he finally agreed to cooperate.

Up until now, I’d had him working with Hilde to guide this country’s system of medicine forward.

His corpse collecting and dissections had offended a lot of people, so he was seen as a total heretic in the medical world. The hardest part of hiring him had been getting rid of that prejudice against him. The way he acted, I couldn’t count on him to defend himself, after all.

Having no other choice, I’d had him examine an important executive who was well connected in this country and was suffering from illness. By having him treat a sickness that was believed to be untreatable, I had made that executive recognize his skills.

Once people know something is effective, their views change quickly. The number of medical practitioners seeking to learn surgery had begun to increase, too. That being the case, by putting the important executive he had helped to make a full recovery in charge, we were now training new surgeons in this country.

As for me, I was currently rushing to rework the laws and issue surgical licenses so that fake surgeons who lacked the necessary skills wouldn’t appear. At first, I would only require licenses for surgery. Eventually, I intended to make treatment with light magic and everything related to pharmacology require licenses, too.

Anyway, let’s get back to the story.

When she heard about the emergency case, Hilde’s expression turned serious as if someone had flipped a switch. “Tell me about the patient.”

She totally had the face of a doctor now. That was a professional for you.

Brad explained the situation to Hilde plainly. “It’s a pregnant woman from this village. Her water has already broken. The baby could be born at any moment, but the position of the fetus is bad. It’s lying with its back against the exit to the mother’s womb.”

“Transverse lie, huh... That’s unusual and dangerous...”

I didn’t understand what they were saying, but I gathered it was going to be a difficult birth.

“The midwife has already given up, it seems,” said Brad.

“Well, no surprise there,” said Hilde. “It will get caught on the pelvic bone. Normally, the mother or the child... one of them would have to be sacrificed here. In order to save both...”

“Yeah... A surgical incision is probably the only option.”

Surgical incision... Oh, a Cesarean section! But Hilde was looking at him dubiously.

“Can you do that? I’ve heard that the survival rate for mothers who have their womb opened is less than twenty percent, you know?”

“There’s one very clear reason why that survival rate is so low.”

“Oh... And what would that be?”

“Neither you nor I performed the procedure,” Brad said, as if it were obvious.

When he spoke with such confidence, it made Hilde furrow her brow. “You say the most incredible things as if they were nothing...”

“It’s a matter of fact,” he said. “To be more precise, it’s because they lack my skills and the three-eyed’s knowledge of infectious disease. Their process is only cut open the belly, take out the fetus, close up the wound, then heal it with light magic. They don’t have anesthetic, so the pregnant mother suffers. Their incision and suturing technique is underdeveloped, so even if they use light magic, the wound doesn’t close up properly and the patient dies of blood loss. They don’t have three-eyed antibiotics, so it’s easy for the patient to develop an infectious disease after the procedure. That’s why the survival rate is low.”

Brad extended a hand to Hilde.

“Even by myself, I can bring the rate of success up to eighty percent. However, if you’re at my side doing hygiene management, we can bring that incredibly close to one hundred percent.”

“Geez, that doesn’t leave me with much choice, does it?” Hilde scratched the back of her head before taking Brad’s hand. “Before a doctor, all patients are equal. That’s why doctors don’t get to be picky about who they treat.”

“Thank you. Having you there is as good as having a hundred of anyone else.”

Hilde turned to face the rest of us. “Your Majesty! Refugee boss! It’s just like you heard. Sorry, but we’ll be wanting to borrow your underlings for this.”

“Sure, of course you can,” I said.

“Of course,” said Jirukoma. “We are a family. It’s a chief’s duty to defend the family.”

“Thanks,” said Hilde. “Dragonewt girl!”

“M-Me?!” Carla jumped a little when she was called.

“Go to the medical laboratory in the capital, as quickly as you can. Bring back equipment and medical supplies for us. If you ask for my black bag, the researchers there will know what you mean. You can just bring the whole bag.”

“I-I understand!” Carla hurried out of the tent.

Next, Hilde looked to Jirukoma. “Refugee boss, I want to borrow this tent. It’s best to move her to the most hygienic place we can manage.”

“I don’t mind,” said Jirukoma. “Use whatever you want.”

“Also, we’ll be searching for someone with the same blood as the mother, so gather the refugees around.”

“Understood.”

I learned this later, but this world also had A, B, and O (though their naming scheme was different) blood types. Mysteriously, even across races, if the blood types matched, they could almost always be used for blood transfusions. I said “almost always” because there were some blood types that couldn’t accept transfusions regardless of the blood type used. Maybe that could be because there was Rh positive and negative blood types in this world, too.

“Next, you know something about hygiene, right, sire?” asked Hilde. “Explain it to the boss here and his people. I want the environment we work in to be as good as possible. Also, boil a lot of water for us. We’ll want to disinfect our tools.”

“Got it! Liscia, Owen, let’s do this!”

“Okay!” said Liscia.

“Understood!” agreed Owen.

“L-Let me help, too!” Komain broke in.

Komain followed us around, setting up things inside the tent and helping boil a lot of water. With no regard for our respective positions, each of us worked hard to do what we could.

Those who could do something did it.

In a way, I felt like we were embodying the current state of this country.

Once the preparations were finished, there was nothing left for us to do.

Inside the tent, Brad and Hilde must have been performing the procedure now. I could hear the mother’s ragged breathing from inside. All we could do was wait outside the tent for the procedure to finish.

Liscia, who was watching the door, spoke in a voice filled with concern. “I heard they’re splitting open the mother’s belly. Is she going to be okay?”

“If that’s all you heard, it does sounds like a bizarre crime of some kind, doesn’t it?” I said. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

I put a hand on top of Liscia’s head.

“Cesarean sections are a method that is commonly used for difficult births in the world I came from, and the rate of women dying in childbirth is pretty low. The vast majority of people there don’t even think about the fact that a pregnant woman might die when she gives birth. They just assume the child will be born fine.”

“The world you came from is as amazing as ever, Souma.”

“Yeah, kinda,” I said. “Also... those two can do something similar to my country’s medicine. Well, my world lacks light magic, so it’s not easy to do a straight comparison.” I turned to Jirukoma, who was standing beside me. “What about the mother’s husband?”

“We don’t know if he’s dead or alive,” he said. “It seems they were separated while escaping from the north, you see. Still, she said she was determined to give birth to the child in her womb and they would wait for the father together.”

“I see...”

Mothers are strong. It seemed that was true in any world.

“For the people of this village, the child inside her was hope,” said Jirukoma. “It gave us a sense that we wouldn’t only be losing things. That’s why we had all decided that the entire village would raise the child together, with love.”

“I see... Hey, Jirukoma.” I turned to face him. “I know how capable Brad and Hilde are. That’s why I’m confident both mother and child will survive. With that in mind, I want to say something.”

“...What is it?”

“That child is being born into this country. This country is where it will grow up. It will call this country its homeland, having never known the land of its forefathers.”

Jirukoma closed his eyes and was silent. It seemed he understood what I was trying to say.

“You said you would raise it as the child of the entire village, with love, right? Well, there’s no need to force a child who knows nothing to inherit your sorrow. You can decide for yourselves whether to stay in this country or to leave. However, it’s a little much to force a child who has the option of taking this land as its homeland to live as one of the people of a ruined land.”

“You need say no more,” he said quietly.

“Brother...”

Jirukoma placed a reassuring hand on the worried Komain’s shoulder. “I have made up my mind. I will entrust the role of chief to Komain.”

“Wh-What are you saying, Brother?!” she cried.

“What are you planning to do?” I asked.

Jirukoma let out a sad sigh. “To be frank, the people of this village are tired from wandering. If these exhausted people can call this land their home, I think that is a wonderful thing. However, there are a handful of hardliners who can’t give up on returning to their homelands and are currently trying to drive the people on.” Jirukoma turned to the northern sky. “I think I will take those few hardliners and attempt to return to the north. We will volunteer to go to a country seeking soldiers and wait on the front lines for the time to come to reclaim our homeland.”

“Brother!” Komain grabbed her brother’s arms tightly, like she was trying to hold him in place. “This village needs you, Brother! I’m the one who said the king’s proposal is cruel! I’ll take on that job!”

“You can’t,” he said. “The reason you felt His Majesty’s proposal was cruel was because you care for the people of the village, right? With a heart like that, you will be a better community organizer than I am.”

“But didn’t you say that the king’s proposal was wonderful?!” she cried.

“I am simply better at masking my true feelings than you are.” Jirukoma softly brushed Komain’s hands away. “In my heart, I can’t give up on returning to our homeland. However, I have been entrusted with being the chief of this village. That is why I’ve put a lid on those feelings, bottling them up deep inside my chest.”

“Brother...”

“However, there is no longer any need for that. His Majesty has said that if the people of the village will love this country, this country is prepared to accept them. The people have reached a land where they can find peace and safety. That means my job is already done. I can set these feelings free now.”

Komain was crying, but Jirukoma smiled for her. That expression was one already filled with resolve.

Geez...

I said, “Don’t make your little sister cry, you damned fool.”

“I have no response to that,” he said. “Please, take care of Komain and the others for me.”

“About all I’m good for is handling the paperwork,” I admitted. “If anything can truly protect them, it’s the country itself.”

“Then, please, make it so that this country stands the test of time. So that no one can destroy it.”

“...I’ll try.”

That was when we heard a weak cry from inside the tent.

While I was wondering what it was, Liscia shouted out, “It’s been born!”

“Ohh! So that was a baby’s cry, huh?” I asked. “I’ve always thought it would be louder, more shrill...”

The child was born safely. Now, it’s just a matter of the mother...

We looked at the entrance to the tent, praying for the mother’s well-being.

—One week later.

“So cuuuute,” Liscia said.

“I-It’s so soft...” Komain murmured.

“Liscia, l-let me hold it, too,” Carla pleaded.

The baby with pointed ears was sleeping in its mother’s arms, and Liscia, Komain, and Carla were taking turns holding it.

That day, one week ago, we had heard from Brad that the procedure was a success, but we hadn’t been able to meet them on the day it’d happened. That was why we’d been eager to see how they were doing, and so we’d come to visit with the same group as back then.

I wanted to see the baby up close, too, but the three of them were hogging it to themselves and I couldn’t find anywhere to slip in. W-Was this what a maternal nature was like...?

“Ahh, my companions seem to be making a scene,” I said. “Sorry about that.”

The child’s mother smiled. “No, we’re lucky to have the princess and the others adore my child like this.”

The mother was a calm, cat-eared beastman. I was relieved to see her so healthy. Her recovery didn’t seem to be going badly, either.

The mother held the baby’s hand. “We truly are fortunate. I mean, we even have Your Majesty concerned for us.”

We had revealed our identities to the mother. My face and Liscia’s were both widely known, so it seemed futile to try and keep it a secret. At first, the mother had been terrified (almost like after Master Koumon takes out his seal), but now, she had largely gotten used to us.

“Well, I agree with you that the child is lucky,” I said. “Incredibly lucky, in fact. After all, it was born when not just one, but both of the greatest doctors in this country were here together.”

“That’s true,” she said. “They didn’t only save my child, they saved me, too.”

It was pure coincidence that Hilde had visited the village that day. Because she had met us by chance in the former slums, because we happened to have business in the refugee village, and because Hilde decided to tag along, the two great doctors had both been present. If the child had been born a day sooner or a day later, she wouldn’t have been able to receive the care of these great doctors. When I thought of it that way, this child had even saved its mother’s life.

“Almost like a god of fuku...” I murmured.

“Fuku...?” she asked.

“It’s a word from my world. It means good fortune, or happiness.”

“Happiness... Um, Your Majesty?” The mother rushed over to me. “That name, Fuku. Could you give it to this child?”

“Hm? You’re not asking if you can give it that name, but for me to give it that name?” I asked.

Liscia was holding the child. She explained, “In this world, when a person of high status or a great person gives you your name, it is believed you will receive some of their momentum. So, please, give the child that name.”

Well, I guess I had no problem with that.

“It’s a boy, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, his name will be Fuku, then. Raise him to be healthy.”

When I said that and patted him on the head, little Fuku let out a cute little baby sound and nodded with his eyes still closed.

He responded to me while asleep?! This kid... he might be a big deal when he grows up. While I was thinking that, Liscia peered closely at my face.

“Wh-What?” I asked.

“Other people’s babies are nice and all, but having our own baby would be so much cuter, right?” she asked, shooting meaningful glances in my direction.

Ahh, yeah... That probably meant exactly what I thought it did. Hakuya and Marx were telling her we needed to produce an heir already. Now that the country had stabilized, they were probably pressuring her even more.

“Yeah... You’re right,” I said shyly. “We have the method for births by Cesarean section established, and there are more and more obstetrics and gynecology specialists. It’d be safe for you to give birth any time now.”

Liscia’s eyes went wide. “I thought you were going to wimp out again.”

“Now, listen... Okay, yeah, that’s part of it,” I said. “Because I’m prepared to be your husband, but I’m not ready to be a father yet, y’know.”

“Oh! R-Right... I see...”

I wanted to get all lovey-dovey with Liscia and the others. But, in order to increase the number of royals which had declined precipitously in the succession struggle after the death of the king before the last one, the chamberlain, Marx, had insisted, “I won’t stand for you using birth control until you produce at least one child!” You can see why I would be cautious.

“Well, aside from that, this high rate of death during childbirth in this world had been concerning me, too,” I said.

When I looked into the population of this country, I was surprised how high the death rate was for newborns and pregnant women. In modern Japan, while we might worry about whether the baby would be born safely, we hardly ever thought about the mother potentially dying in childbirth. However, it seemed that, in this country, pregnant women died sometimes. If there were a thousand women pregnant, a handful of them were going to die. In this country which lacked a formal study of obstetrics and gynecology, pregnant women were literally putting their lives on the line to give birth.

As the king, I was being told to produce many children with multiple women. If a child were born to Liscia, Aisha, Juna, or Roroa, and I were to lose one of them during the birth... I couldn’t stand that.

“In order to make sure that doesn’t happen, to keep the risk of losing any of my family to an absolute minimum, I’ve pushed forward with medical reforms,” I said. “It might be abusing my authority a bit, though.”

“It’s fine, isn’t it? The result was that you ended up helping everyone.” Liscia wrapped her arm around mine. “H-Hey, Souma. If making babies is okay now, do you want to try working on that tonight?”

When Liscia said that, fidgeting shyly, I couldn’t help but love it. But, as I’d said earlier, I wasn’t able to convince myself I should be a father yet, so I had to turn my head and look away.

“Oh! Um... do you think you could wait a little longer, after all?”

“Geez! You still wimp out in the end!” Liscia shouted.

When Liscia raised her voice, it startled Fuku, and he started making a fuss. “Wah... Wahhhhhhhh!”

We handed him back to his mother and tried to amuse him with funny faces. Owen tried to join in and do the same, but his face startled Fuku again, causing him to cry loudly and make a big scene.

Someday, we’ll make a big, noisy scene like this in the royal castle, too.

In the midst of that noisy happiness, that was what I thought.