How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 7

by Dojyomaru

  “Huh...? Oh, sure!”

  Juna, who knew it made a man look better if she didn’t hesitate at times like this, bowed once, then invited Tomoe, who tended to hold back at times like this, to look at the lady’s wares with her.

  These were women with complicated backgrounds, but when you saw them in front of an accessories shop, giggling this way, it was reassuring how like any other young girl the two of them were.

  “This is perfect, Hal,” Kaede said. “You should buy your gift for Ruby here.”

  “Sure. Oh! But can you help me pick one out? I’ll buy one for you, too, of course, Kaede.”

  “I guess I’ll have to. But I expect you to choose mine yourself, you know?”

  “Uh, right.”

  It looked like Kaede and Hal were planning to buy something here, too.

  “I think gold will go nicely with Ruby’s red hair, you know,” Kaede suggested.

  “Yeah, you could be right. I feel like silver’d be a match for your golden hair.”

  “Hee hee, I think you have good taste, Hal.”

  The two of them had that sort of sweet conversation while looking at the shop’s wares.

  Wait, huh...? Where did Aisha go?

  Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen Aisha for a while now.

  I looked around the area and spotted Aisha a little ways away with two messenger kuis perched on her shoulders. It looked like she’d received a letter.

  For some reason, I recalled the day when she’d received word of a natural disaster striking the God-Protected Forest. Try as I might to forget the look of anguish on Aisha’s face that time, I couldn’t.

  I waited tensely, wondering what sort of news had come, but there was no change in Aisha’s expression. Then, having finished the letter, Aisha came over my way.

  “Was there a message for us?” I asked.

  “Yes. Two letters from Lady Liscia.”

  “From Liscia?”

  “Yes. The first was addressed to me, and the second to you, sire.”

  With that, Aisha passed a single unsealed letter to me. While accepting it, I tilted my head questioningly. She’d sent separate letters to Aisha and me?

  “Did something happen in the capital?” I asked.

  “Well...in my letter, she asked me to do something specific.”

  “Something specific?”

  “I’m sorry. She wrote not to tell you what the letter said, sire.” Aisha bowed her head apologetically.

  I had even less of an idea what was going on now. I’d have to look at what my own letter said.

  Let’s see...

  “Dear Souma,

  I think this letter will arrive together with another for Aisha, so have Aisha read hers first. Make sure you read this letter after that.”

  That was how the letter started.

  I didn’t really get it, but she seemed insistent. Aisha seemed to have read hers already, so I could probably continue. I kept reading, and...

  “Huh...?”

  When I spotted a certain passage, I suddenly felt like I’d been hit in the head.

  Whuh...? Was this for real? Was she serious? No... She had to be. There was no point in telling a lie like this. Which meant... Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!

  “Wh-What’s wrong?!”

  I must have had quite the look on my face, because Aisha started shaking my shoulder. That snapped me back to my senses, but there was still a cold sweat running down my back and my knees were shaking.

  Seriously? I mean, seriously?

  I turned my head toward Aisha like a broken tin robot. “I’m going home.”

  “Huh?”

  “I’m going back to the kingdom right now!” I declared to everyone with bloodshot eyes.

  Thinking back later, I don’t think I was quite sane at the time. Every plan I’d had in my head up until that point slipped away. After all, my entire mind was now completely occupied by a certain thing written in Liscia’s letter.

  That one sentence sent me into a confused state of shock and delight. It said...

  I’m pregnant.

  “I called Dr. Hilde to come and look at me, so I’m certain of it. Oh! Dr. Hilde was pregnant, too. I felt bad for calling her in. She says it’s Dr. Brad’s. They didn’t seem to get along that well, so it’s kind of surprising, huh?”

  It was true, I was surprised, but I didn’t care about that now!

  While reading the letter, I wanted to poke fun at Liscia. The letter continued, “But anyhow...”

  It was an awfully roundabout way of writing things. Maybe Liscia had been feeling tense herself while writing it.

  “This is our child. Are you happy? You’re happy, right?”

  Damn straight I was! No, it wasn’t like my mind had fully processed that fact yet, but I was just as happy as I was surprised. If Liscia were here now, I would have hugged her, without a doubt. The hands I was holding the letter with were shaking.

  “By the way, the one most ecstatic about the news was our chamberlain, Marx, who’s been constantly pressuring us to produce an heir. He shed a flood of tears, then stood up and declared, ‘I must prepare a room and clothing for the young prince at once!’ and went straight to work. Even though we don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl yet.”

  What’re you doing, Marx? I thought. I was glad he was happy, though.

  “I’m very happy,” the letter said. “To be able to bear your child. I can say this now that I’m pregnant, but I was a little worried. You know, because you’re from another world, right? Lady Tiamat was saying that while we were both human, our origins were different, so I wondered if we could have kids, and what I was going to do if we couldn’t. It looks like I was worried in vain, though.”

  Liscia...

  I couldn’t bear to sit still any longer. I wanted to fly to Liscia’s side right away. I was dominated by that feeling, and tried to one-sidedly declare to everyone that we would be turning back to the Kingdom before taking off running.

  However...

  “F-Forgive me!” Aisha suddenly jumped on me from behind, forcing me to the ground.

  “Gwah!”

  With her arms wrapped around my back, I was like a fugitive being restrained by the authorities.

  Underneath Aisha, I struggled to break free from her hold.

  “L-Let go, Aisha! I have to go to Liscia...”

  “I don’t know why, but Lady Liscia asked me to do this!”

  Huh? Liscia did?

  When I stopped resisting, Aisha thrust her own letter in my face.

  “Dear Aisha,” it said, “If Souma says he’s going home after reading my letter to him, restrain him. Then tell him to read his letter carefully, and do as it says. Also, until you’ve restrained him, keep what this letter says a secret.”

  It looked like Liscia had predicted my response to reading the letter. I gave up and, standing up, I continued reading.

  “You can be overprotective when it comes to family, so I’m sure you’ll want to come home when you read this, but...you can’t, okay? You won’t have many chances to look around another country freely, so make sure you do it this time.

  “You don’t need to worry about me. I have Serina and Carla, who both rushed here when they heard, waiting on me hand and foot, and I’m thinking of going to stay with my parents until the baby is born. My father’s old domain is quieter than the capital, and it’s in the rustic countryside. I’ll go ask them all sorts of questions about how to raise a child. So, Souma, you do what you need to be doing now, too.”

  It seemed Liscia had carefully planned out things on her own end. It didn’t seem like I had anything to worry about, but... Even with that said, it was in my nature as a man to worry anyway, you know?

  Still, with Liscia telling me all that, I guessed I couldn’t abandon what I was doing and turn back now.

  When my shoulders slumped, the last line of the letter caught my eye.

  “P.S. You can start putting your hands on your other fiancées now.�
��

  Liscia... At the very end, that was what she’d decided to write? Maybe it was her way of masking her embarrassment.

  Whatever the case, I decided to show everyone else the letter. The old lady minding the shop looked at us dubiously when we all moved away for a minute to whisper about it, but right now our family issues took priority.

  When they saw the letter, everyone was surprised for a moment, but they all congratulated me.

  “My word!” Aisha exclaimed. “This is a happy occasion indeed!”

  “How wonderful,” Juna smiled. “Congratulations, sire.”

  “I’d say the succession’s secure for now, huh?” Roroa smirked. “Geh heh heh! Ya think it’ll be one of our turns next?”

  “Congratulations, Big Brother!” Tomoe cried.

  “Congratulations,” Kaede agreed. “Now your house is secure. If this weren’t a foreign country, I’d want to cry out, ‘Glory to Friedonia,’ you know.”

  “Congrats,” said Halbert. “Souma a father, huh... It’s kind of moving, as a guy from the same generation.”

  “Does this get you in the mood to finally make an heir for the House of Magna?” Kaede asked him.

  “My old man’s still the current head of the house. But...it makes me think it might be good to, yeah.”

  Hal and Kaede seemed to have a good mood going. They were going to use another house’s good news to start flirting, huh? Well, not that I minded.

  I stuffed the letter in my pocket and beckoned to Roroa.

  “Roroa, come here a minute.”

  “Hm? What’s up... Wait, whoa?!”

  I stuck my hands under Roroa’s armpits, and lifted her up high like a child.

  Roroa was petite, so even with my weak arms, I was easily able to lift her. If I’d chosen the tall Aisha, or the shapely Juna, I doubt I could have done it.

  With Roroa held up in the air, I spun around in place.

  “What what what what?!” Roroa sounded uncharacteristically flustered.

  After spinning around a good bit, I released my hands and caught her in my arms as she fell. Roroa’s eyes were spinning.

  “Wh-What are you doin’ to me...out of nowhere?!”

  “Sorry,” I said. “I got kind of excited. Really, I wanted to do that to Liscia, but she’s not here. I did it with you because you’ve got the closest figure to hers.”

  “Murgh... I’m not so keen on bein’ Big Sister Cia’s substitute, but, well, it was fun for me, so I’ll let ya get away with it. But, y’know, isn’t it kinda rare for you to let loose like that, darlin’?”

  “Yeah... Well, it’s just for today, so let it go.”

  I mean, I’d made a baby. A new member of the family. With Grandpa and Grandma’s deaths, I’d lost the last people I could call family. That was why, feeling that Liscia and Tomoe were something like family, I wanted to protect them.

  Now, with Liscia and me having conceived a child, we’d gone from being something like family to an actual family. There was nothing that could make me happier.

  “If we were at the castle now, I’d probably be proposing a system of childcare support!” I declared, gripping my fists and speaking passionately.

  “Well, I can’t see that bein’ anythin’ less than excessive,” said Roroa, looking taken aback. “Maybe it’s a good thing we’ve gotten you away from the castle for a while to cool down.”

  Yeah, I had to agree.

  Hal exasperatedly asked, “So? In the end, what are we doing now?”

  “Hrm...” I said. “I want to fly back now, but Liscia said not to yet...”

  “You’re the king, so you should prioritize looking around this country, like Lady Liscia was saying,” Juna advised.

  “That’s right,” chided Roroa. “Ya need to keep the kingdom developin’. For the people in it now, and for the kid who’s gonna be born, too.”

  For the kid who was going to be born, huh... If she put it that way, I couldn’t say anything back.

  “Fine,” I said. “There’s no change in plans. We’ll start by going to that workshop we’ve got an introduction to.”

  Having settled that, we went back to the woman and her shop.

  “What is it, young man?” the shopkeeper asked. “You’re all done talkin’ now?”

  “Yeah. Now, where is this Ozumi Workshop you mentioned?”

  Ya can see it from this town. Look, it’s up on that there hill,” the woman said, pointing to the hill at the back end of the town.

  It was a grassy hill with a gentle slope. There were woods on both sides, and it looked like a skiing hill during the summer. There was still snow left here and there in the woods; even if we watched it all year, it probably wouldn’t fully melt.

  There was a red brick building halfway up that hill. I could see it adjacent to the woods. Was that the Ozumi Workshop?

  We settled the bill for the things we were buying, had the old lady write us a letter of introduction, and headed for that building at once.

  Leaving the town of Noblebeppu, we spent the next thirty minutes traveling aboard a rocky carriage. Then we wound up standing outside a building made of brick: the Ozumi Workshop.

  That workshop, which stood in the middle of a field of tall grass with a forest behind it, had a chimney. It looked like, in addition to producing accessories here, they also handled blacksmithing. Convenient.

  Having been told Taru was shy, it seemed likely I would surprise her if I dragged a bunch of folks decked out as adventurers in with me, so we left Aisha and the others by the carriage while Juna, Roroa, Tomoe, and I went inside.

  From the looks of it, they didn’t have a sales counter. The building was a ways out, so they probably sold their wares wholesale in town. I could hear the sound of something being pounded inside.

  I knocked on the door, but no one came to answer. Had no one heard me? There seemed to be someone inside, so I tried knocking again, and after a little while, the door slowly opened.

  A girl with a bandana wrapped around her head came out. “Who is it...?”

  The girl was petite and had a baby face. I put her at around fifteen to sixteen years old. Even though it was so cold out, she wore a short-sleeved shirt, long pants, and a blacksmith’s apron. In her gloved hands, she held a hammer that seemed incongruous with her petite form. Could this be the craftsperson the old lady had been talking about?

  “Erm, excuse me... Would you happen to be Madam Taru?” I asked, standing up straight.

  The girl cocked her head to the side and looked at me with sleepy eyes. “Yes, I am. What is it?”

  Dealing with you is tiring. If you have no business here, go home. That was what her general demeanor seemed to say.

  Some people may have gotten offended at this point, but I was used to dealing with people like Genia, so I didn’t think much of it.

  I bowed politely, then introduced myself. “I’ve come here with an introduction from a lady in Noblebeppu. My name is Kazuma Souya.”

  Naturally, I used a fake name. Because if my name got out, not to mention all the other members of our group, it was bound to turn into a hassle.

  I then introduced the rest of us. “This is my wife, Juna, my younger sister, Tomoe, and my employee, Roroa.”

  “I’m Juna. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  “I-I-I’m Tomoe.”

  “Roroa. Nice to meet ya.”

  “Taru Ozumi. Nice to meet you.”

  I felt like Taru relaxed her guard a little after the girls introduced themselves. Well, hearing Tomoe’s stuttering introduction would warm anyone’s heart.

  When Taru took off her bandanna and introduced herself, I noticed two bear ears on top of her head. She was a bear beastman? I guessed that would make her a member of the snow bear race, one of the Five Races of the Snowy Plains. The atmosphere had lightened a little, so I immediately got to the point of our visit.

  “I saw the accessories made by this country’s craftspeople in Noblebeppu, and oh, my, was I ever impressed. Looki
ng at the detailed and fine ornamentation on them, I could tell you must all be very skilled with your hands. It made me think that, if we used this country’s craftspeople, we might be able to make a certain thing that I’ve been planning to have made. I asked if there were any good craftspeople around, and the lady I was speaking to gave me an introduction to this place. Are you willing to listen to the rest of what I have to say?”

  “Come in...” Taru gestured for us to come inside the workshop.

  I was thinking, Phew... I managed to speak smoothly, like the young son of a businessman, but...

  “Also, talk normally. I’m sure you’re older than me. Besides, I doubt you’re used to talking that way.”

  It looked like Taru saw through me completely.

  Seeing me awkwardly scratch the back of my head, Roroa bit back a laugh.

  Hey, no laughing! I’m embarrassed here!

  When we were brought into the workshop, the roaring flame of the furnace made the place fairly warm. No wonder Taru could dress so lightly. We took off our coats, too, but when Tomoe removed my handmade white mage hood, Taru’s eyes narrowed.

  “You’re a dog... No. A wolf beastman?”

  “Oh, yes!” Tomoe beamed. “From the mystic wolf race.”

  Taru looked to me as if she wanted to ask something. “Wasn’t she supposed to be your sister?”

  Oh... That was what was bothering her, huh. Fair enough, since Tomoe and I weren’t the same race, and our faces didn’t look alike at all. We must not have looked like siblings.

  “From another mother,” I said. “It’s a family matter, so I’d appreciate if you didn’t pry too deeply.”

  “I see...”

  I made it sound like there was a difficult story involved, and Taru didn’t ask any more. When it came to topics like this, even if she was interested, it was best to let them slide, after all.

  With that, Taru led the way, and just as we were about to take a seat at a table, I noticed something odd leaning against the wall in the corner of the room.

  It was pole-shaped, but both ends bulged slightly. If this were an RPG, I’d probably call it a cudgel. It had a distinctive design with a long, thick centipede wrapped around it that continued down to where the wielder would hold it. I thought it looked cool, but I wasn’t so sure about it as a weapon.