How a Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom

The Association for Victims of Masters: Now Seeking New Members

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

It was a winter night so cold that, without a fire in the hearth, your breath would turn white even indoors.

In the Jewel Voice Room in Parnam Castle, the Prime Minister of Elfrieden, Hakuya, and the Little Sister General of the Gran Chaos Empire, Jeanne, were holding one of their regular meetings over the Jewel Voice Broadcast.

When it came to the end of the week, they got in contact with one another using the ambassador stationed in the Empire, Piltory, as an intermediary. They would hash out the finer details of negotiations that didn’t require King Souma or Empress Maria’s attention, and tell one another about events that had happened in their own countries in order to share information. Then, when that was done, they would gripe about their respective rulers over tea. This was their secret pleasure.

This was usually a time for just the two of them, but today, unusually, they had an extra guest.

“Um, Sir Hakuya? Who is that person you have with you?” Jeanne asked.

When their routine meeting had concluded, and she had thought, at last, that it was time for their complaining session to begin, Hakuya had invited another individual into the room, which had left Jeanne perplexed.

Hakuya had the person he had invited into the room stand in front of the jewel.

“Allow me to introduce you,” Hakuya said. “This is Sir Colbert, who was the finance minister of the former Principality of Amidonia, and now holds the same position in our kingdom.”

“Greetings, Madam Jeanne.” The man bowed his head. “I am Gatsby Colbert.”

Jeanne hurriedly bowed in return. “Oh! Why, hello... Um, should I call you Sir Gatsby?”

“Oh, no. For some reason, both His Majesty and the princess both insist on calling me by my family name instead of my given name, so, please, Madam Jeanne, go ahead and call me Colbert, too.”

“Ahem... Well then, Sir Colbert. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Jeanne greeted the man and then looked to Hakuya. “And, Sir Hakuya? Why have you introduce Sir Colbert to me?”

“The truth is... His Majesty has taken to calling us ‘the Association for Victims of Masters,’” Hakuya said.

“Hm... That’s exactly what we are, but... If my sister were to call us that, I would have to say, ‘Who are you to complain?’”

Instead of directly attacking Souma, Jeanne brought up her elder sister Maria and criticized her. No matter how deeply she and Hakuya sympathized with one another, she knew she couldn’t insult the ruler of another country.

Hakuya replied, “I couldn’t agree more,” with a nod. “It would be ideal if we had no need for such an association, but... The reality is, we are being run ragged by our masters. By creating an association, we can share our struggles, and possibly come up with ways of coping. That is why I wanted to introduce Colbert, who has all the makings of a new member.”

“I see... So, in short, Sir Colbert is also being run ragged by his master?” Jeanne nodded, seemingly satisfied with that answer. “Sir Colbert, is your master also Sir Souma?”

“No... Ah! I suppose you could say he is, but the one who has been running me ragged is the former Princess of Amidonia who is now a candidate to become His Majesty Souma’s third primary queen, Princess Roroa.”

“Princess Roroa, you say?” Jeanne asked. “You mean the one who forced Sir Souma to take her as his betrothed after the war, and take her country with her? The one who made him cancel the war reparations, and then pushed off the responsibility of looking after the people of her country onto him on top of that?”

Making full use of the merchants’ information network, the girl had outwitted Souma, the wise Hakuya, and even her own brother to take all the best parts for herself. Souma had described the experience as, “I was using shrimp as bait to catch sea bream, but instead I caught a shark.”

“But I’ve heard she’s a clever princess, isn’t she?” Jeanne asked.

“That is very much the case... There are some small issues with her personality, however,” Colbert said.

“Her personality? How so?”

“She has boundless curiosity and a love of showy displays. If I were to limit myself to economics, I could say she has a good personality for using money well, but when that personality extends to her personal life, people like me get run ragged. The other day, when she was meeting His Majesty for the first time, I was only told the day before that she suddenly wanted me to procure a large quantity of carpets...”

The night before her audience with Souma. Roroa had suddenly said, “I’m gonna be goin’ off to get hitched with Souma, but first impressions are important, y’know? I think I’m pretty cute, as far as girls go, but Souma’s probably got lots of beauties around him. I wanna have a first meetin’ that leaves an impact.”

What she’d come up with was to disguise herself as one of the carpets to be presented as a gift and then jump out and surprise Souma when he got close. Though, unfortunately for her, there had been a woman who had done something similar in Souma’s world, so he’d seen through her scheme all too easily...

When he thought back to that moment, Colbert’s shoulders slumped. “The night before, I ran all over looking for high-quality carpets in a hurry, but then the all-important surprise was seen through so easily. What was all my effort even for?”

“W-Well... You have my condolences...” Jeanne couldn’t help but feel sympathetic.

Hakuya, who was listening to them, asked, “Did you have to pay for those carpets out of your own wallet, too?”

“Oh, no, she’s got it together when it comes to things like that,” Colbert said quickly. “It came out of the princess’s pocket money... I feel like the amount she had was far too great for me to refer to it that way, but I took the money from there.”

“Ah. So she does have that sort of common sense,” Jeanne said.

“Yes. However, you could also say that she only has it together when it comes to money. I told you how I gathered all of those carpets, but because I was in such a hurry, there were a fair number that weren’t fit to be given as gifts. We couldn’t offer those carpets to His Majesty, so I’m still holding on to them. The rolled up carpets look like logs that have sprouted up wildly all over my house.”

“That’s terrible...” Jeanne said.

Colbert’s domain was in Amidonia. He was living in a small house in the royal capital while he was there for work. That small house was packed full of carpets. There was no doubt that they must have been putting serious pressure on his living space.

“I was told Sir Sebastian would eventually come to take them off of my hands to sell, but until then, I have to live surrounded by carpets. There’s hardly room to stand... I had thought that carpets were meant to be rolled out so you could sit on them, but I’ve now learned when they’re rolled up, you can sit on them that way, too.”

“You’re making weird discoveries!” Jeanne exclaimed. “I can see you’ve been going through a lot.”

“Ahaha... Well, serving the princess isn’t so bad in and of itself,” Colbert admitted. “Roroa could only make these selfish requests of someone she trusts, so I think of her like a needy little sister.”

When Colbert spoke with a far-off look in his eyes like that, Jeanne sensed that this man, too, was one of their comrades. “Still, like with my sister, or with Souma, do those who stand above others all have something defective about them? Like... in order to balance things out?”

“You could be on to something there...” Hakuya agreed with a wry smile. “Now then, Madam Jeanne. I was thinking of admitting Sir Colbert to our Association for Victims of Masters. What do you think of that?”

“I would have it no other way. Welcome, Comrade Colbert.”

“A-Aha ha... Thank you for having me,” Colbert said.

Thus did the Association for the Victims of Masters gain a new member.

The new recruit, Colbert, looked to Hakuya and said, “Still, I didn’t expect this. To think the sagacious Hakuya would be leading a playfully mischievous gathering like this... Oh, I’m sorry, was that rude of me to say?”

“Hee hee, you’re right,” Jeanne giggled. “He may not look it, but Hakuya can be quite funny.”

“...Please, don’t tease me like that.” Hakuya made a sour face. “I serve His Majesty who’s unpredictable and prone to taking a bad joke too far. It wouldn’t do for me to be letting myself loose all the time, too.”

“You’re very right. I wish my sister would get her act a little more together, too,” Jeanne said.

“I can really sympathize,” Colbert agreed. “Why, just the other day...”

On this day, it is said that the three of them stayed up late into the night complaining about their masters.