How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 7

by Dojyomaru

  While I was thinking that, a voice that sounded like it belonged to a young man came down from above. “Hm? That’s unusual. Don’t usually see so many people at this workshop.”

  The mammoth spoke!

  Yeah...no. That couldn’t be right.

  It sounded like a young man’s voice, so he was probably riding on top of this mammoth.

  “Sire, get behind me.” Aisha rushed over to stand in front of me.

  Hal and Kaede were tensed and ready for action, too, while Juna was subtly waiting by my side.

  Maybe because such a massive animal had shown up all of a sudden, everyone had gone into battle mode.

  Roroa, being a non-combatant, had taken Tomoe and evacuated to a spot a little further away. Probably sensing our unease, the voice up top turned threatening.

  “Who’re you guys? You’re not planning to attack this workshop are you?”

  “Huh?! No, we’re not! We’re...”

  “Oookyakya!” Before I could explain, someone jumped down from the mammoth.

  The one who flipped in midair before landing was a white monkey beastman. A white monkey... Did he belong to the snow monkey race, one of the Five Races of the Snowy Plains, maybe?

  He stood around one hundred and sixty centimeters high, and appeared to be fifteen, maybe sixteen, at a glance. Rather than having a full monkey face, he had large ears and long sideburns, and what you’d call monkey-like features.

  Even in this cool climate, he wore a short-sleeved shirt and half-length pants, and the arms and legs sprouting from them had thick hair the same color as the hair on his head. He had a long tail like a lemur’s growing out of his half-length pants, and if I were to quickly describe him, he looked like a live-action version of Sun Wukong (white monkey version) from Journey to the West. That (white) Sun Wukong thrust his hand out as if striking a pose.

  “Oookyakya! You’ve got real nerve, trying to force your way into Taru’s workshop! I, the great Kuu Taisei, show no mercy in the face of such insolence! I hope you’re ready to...”

  “Master Kuu!” a weak voice called from on top of his mammoth. A girl with rabbit ears poked her head out and shouted, “Please, don’t suddenly pick fights with people!”

  This girl of about seventeen was apparently a member of the white rabbit race, like the lady running the shop in town. Now this one felt more like a bunny girl, although she was wearing a thick duffel coat that didn’t show much skin.

  The girl hopped down to stand beside Kuu. “If you cause a scene, your father will get mad again, you know?”

  “Oookyah? But, Leporina, these guys are armed, so they’re bandits, right? You think I can stand by when Taru’s workshop’s about to be attacked?”

  Bandits...? It looked like we’d been badly misunderstood.

  The girl called Leporina put a hand on her hip and said, “Come on, that’s clearly not the case. Look over there. You see the little girl, right? What bandit brings a child with them on a raid? They’re just ordinary adventurers who were startled by your numoth, right?”

  Having said that, Leporina stroked the...numoth’s (?) trunk with one hand while pointing to Roroa and Tomoe with the other.

  Kuu’s eyes opened wide in surprise. “Oookyah? You’re right, there is a cute girl.”

  Before I could stop him, Kuu headed toward Roroa. Hiding Tomoe behind her, Roroa put her hands on her hips and glared at Kuu.

  “Ah! Hey...” I began.

  “What? I can’t have ya fallin’ for my pretty face,” Roroa said. “I’ve already got a man I’ve set my heart on.”

  “Huh? I don’t have any business with someone like you who doesn’t have any.”

  “Doesn’t have any...?” Roroa’s gaze drifted down to her own chest, then her eyes went wide.

  While Roroa was letting out a silent exclamation of surprise, Kuu peeked around behind her.

  He was after Tomoe?!

  “You’re a cutie! What’s your name?”

  “T-Tomoe...”

  “Tomoe, huh! That’s a good name! Hey, Tomoe...”

  “Y-Yes...?”

  “Will you be my bride?”

  With those words, the atmosphere froze over. The climate was already cold to begin with, but now it felt even more frigid.

  Tomoe...his bride? They’d only just met, and this man was already trying to lay his hands on our cute little sister? Before I knew it, I could feel the anger emanating from Aisha beside me, too.

  This was...a challenge to us, right?

  We had to put him in his place.

  “Aisha,” I said heatedly.

  “What is it, sire? I feel like cutting up a monkey right now, you know.”

  “I’ll allow it.”

  The blood had risen to my head because he’d mocked Roroa, a member of my family, and tried to make a move on my little sister, Tomoe. Like, there was a story in my old world, wasn’t there? Slaying a demon monkey was a job for the dog, Shippeitarou. When I was about to sic the fierce dog Aisha on that insolent monkey...

  “Both of you, calm down,” Juna ordered.

  ““Gwuh!””

  Juna grabbed both of us by the back of our necks. Unable to breathe, I turned back to look at her, and Juna rebuked me, anger seeping into her smile.

  “You two, this is another country, you realize? You both have your positions to consider, so please refrain from doing anything to cause trouble.”

  “Uh, right...”

  “S-Sorry.”

  “Honestly... Now listen, sire, Madam Aisha.” Juna pressed a finger into my chest, then, with a powerful smile, she put her face between Aisha’s and mine and whispered in our ears, “In times like this, you have to dispose of him in a way that won’t be discovered.”

  ““Wha?!””

  Aisha and I ended up staring at Juna despite ourselves.

  Then Juna said, “Hee hee, just joking,” and gave us a charming smile.

  While I was relieved it was a joke...having just witnessed how scary she was when she was angry, I doubted whether it really was a joke.

  Maybe the anger I had seen seeping into her smile before hadn’t been directed at the two of us, and Juna was angry at Kuu’s behavior, too? When I looked at Juna, considering that...

  “If I say it’s a joke, it’s a joke,” she insisted with a smile.

  Yeah. Best not to think too much about it.

  No matter how I thought about it, it would be provoking trouble I didn’t need to. Thanks to her, I had managed to mostly cool my head. For now, I was more worried about Tomoe and Roroa.

  Looking over, Roroa was picking a fight with Kuu. “Hey, you! Ya said I ‘don’t have any,’ so what are ya doin’ tryin’ to seduce a little girl like her for, huh?!”

  “Huh? Are you misunderstanding me? What I was saying you don’t have is fur, okay?”

  “Huh? Fur?”

  Seeing Roroa so taken aback, Kuu snickered. “I like girls like her who have furry ears and tails. That, and this girl looks like she’ll be a total knockout in ten years. I figured I’d make her an offer now. So, how about it? Will you be my wife?”

  Whup, whup, whup, whup! Tomoe silently but vigorously shook her head back and forth.

  From behind me, I felt an intense stare. When I turned back, Inugami, her bodyguard, was staring hard in this direction. He seemed to be hiding his bloodlust so his target wouldn’t notice, but the glint in his eyes said, Please, allow me to take out this trash.

  Yeah... When there’s someone madder than you, don’t you find you suddenly calm down?

  Having settled down, I approached Kuu. If nothing else, I had to acknowledge he had a keen eye to have recognized Tomoe’s cuteness. However, as her older brother, I wasn’t giving my little sister to a man she’d just met.

  “You’re bothering my sister, so could I ask you to stop?” I asked coldly.

  Kuu’s eyes went wide. “Huh? You’re this girl’s big brother? You don’t look like it.”

  “We have a complicated family sit
uation.”

  “Hmm... Well, it looks like she’s shot me down anyway, so I don’t have much choice. Oookyakya.” With that said, Kuu intertwined his fingers behind his head and grinned.

  Seeing how he didn’t seem all that disappointed, the proposal just now must have been almost entirely a joke. Well, of course it had been. He’d only just met her, and Tomoe was still just a child. Unless he had that sort of predilection, there was no way he would propose to her seriously. It looked like we’d been the ones who needed to calm down.

  Thinking about it, I realized we hadn’t exchanged greetings yet, and, after taking a breath, I extended my hand to him.

  “I’m Kazuma Souya, a merchant here from the Kingdom of Friedonia to investigate possible trade goods. These people here are my family and employees.”

  “Oh, that’s all. Tell me that in the first place.” Kuu accepted my hand and shook it vigorously. It kind of hurt. “I’m Kuu Taisei. Taru and I are childhood friends. I came because I figured the thing I ordered ought to be about finished, but then I saw there were these tough-looking guys with weapons surrounding the workshop. I figured you were getting ready to attack the place, so that put me on guard.”

  “We could say the same,” I said. “When you rode in on this huge creature, it was only natural we’d be on our guard until we figured out what was up.”

  “Oookyakya. No kidding. But my numoth is more docile than he looks.”

  As if responding to Kuu, the numoth trumpeted loudly.

  Hearing its voice, Tomoe came over to me and whispered in my ear, “Um, Mr. Numoth said, ‘I’m sorry for startling you, young lady.’”

  “He’s surprisingly gentlemanly?!”

  Maybe this numoth was a better person than his master...? Uh, no, he wasn’t a person, he was a pseudo-mammoth thing, but still.

  Then Kuu asked a question. “So, why did you people come to this workshop? It’s outside town, isn’t it?”

  “We came to visit because we heard there was a talented craftsperson here,” I said. “I thought maybe the person here could create the item I was thinking of as a trade good.”

  “Oh! If you discovered Taru’s talent, you’ve got good taste. Taru may have no curves, but she’s got skills like no other black— Ow, that hurt!”

  Kuu suddenly grabbed his head and squatted down. Standing behind him was Taru, brandishing the cudgel with the golden centipede design that had been leaning against the wall inside her workshop. It had made a good sound, so she must have hit Kuu upside the head with it.

  Taru looked irritated. “Don’t say I have no curves. And don’t hit on girls in front of my business.”

  “Oh-ho? You jealous?”

  “Do you want me to hit you again?”

  “Heh heh, I’ll pass... Wait, is that the thing I ordered?”

  Kuu jumped up, snatched the cudgel from Taru’s hands, then spun it around like a windmill. He looked just like Sun Wukong swinging the Ruyi Bang around. After swinging the cudgel vertically and horizontally, and jumping around himself, Kuu suddenly stopped.

  Ohhh, it was kind of like Chinese martial arts.

  “It feels good. That’s my Taru. You do good work. I love you.”

  “I don’t need your love,” Taru said. “I just want to be paid for my work.”

  “I’ll pay. Jeez... You always play so hard to get,” Kuu said, pouting a little.

  Huh? He had been just fine when Tomoe rejected him before, but he made this sort of face when Taru was cold to him?

  Oh, I get it... So that’s how it is.

  He was a really easy guy to figure out.

  “Ah...” Taru said, seeming to have realized something. “This may be a good opportunity. Can we tell the dumb master about what we were talking about before? It might resolve one of our problems.”

  “Erm... What were we talking about again?” I asked.

  “The part about needing permission from this country to make a deal. The dumb master has connections to the higher ups in this country. After all...for all his shortcomings, he’s the current head of state’s son.”

  Chapter 3: A Great Man Still in the Making

  There wasn’t much point in our continuing this discussion outside, so we relocated to inside the workshop.

  In addition to those who had been in the workshop before, this time Aisha came inside, too, as a bodyguard.

  Having seen him swing that cudgel around, that Kuu kid was pretty experienced. That was why, in preparation for the unlikely event that things went badly, I wanted Aisha at our side.

  While drinking the coffee Taru provided, I explained to Kuu my request to this workshop.

  “...And, well, that’s the gist of it,” I finished at last.

  There were medical reforms underway in the Kingdom of Friedonia, in the future there would be a shortage of medical equipment, and we were going to need to get the craftspeople in this country to mass-produce that equipment for us to import. We would also need to secure permission from the government so the medical equipment wouldn’t be misunderstood as weapons when exported.

  Because Kuu was the son of their head of state, and it was unclear if the two countries could form cordial ties, I was hesitant to show too much of my hand. But I had already discussed all of this with Taru, so I decided we couldn’t trick him.

  Incidentally, when I tried taking a formal tone in the discussions...

  “Let’s do away with all the stuffy formality!” he declared cheerfully. “Yeah, I’m the son of our head of state, but we don’t know if the Council of Chiefs will let me inherit the position. Having people get all polite with me just makes my butt feel all itchy.”

  So I opted to talk casually with him. He was awfully open, considering his position, but, well, who was I to talk?

  Hearing what I had to say, Kuu thought for a moment, then let out a sigh. “Whew... Medical reforms, huh... That’s awesome. Is that what our neighbor’s doing? We don’t get much news from outside around here. Our access to news is so bad we have to get our information about what happens at the end and beginning of the year from the merchants who come in the summer. Like, we only heard the Elfrieden Kingdom had absorbed the Principality of Amidonia to become the Kingdom of Friedonia after the snow melted.”

  Oh, he was right, that might be a bit slow.

  The annexation of Amidonia had taken place from late fall to early winter last year. If he was saying the information hadn’t reached here until the spring of this year then yeah, that was pretty bad. It just showed how intense the snow was in this region. Maybe it was like having the evening edition and morning edition of the paper arrive at the same time.

  “From what I hear, the king who was installed next door is pretty young, yeah?” Kuu added.

  “He’ll be twenty this year,” I said.

  Oh, but by the reckoning of this world’s calendar, I was twenty already, right? Well...whatever.

  When he heard the (provisional) king was twenty, Kuu let out an abrasively loud laugh. “Twenty, huh! I’ll be sixteen this year, so he’s not much older than me!”

  “Isn’t a four-year gap between humans and beastmen pretty big?”

  Back when I was entering my first year of high school, this guy still would have been in elementary school, wouldn’t he?

  “Nah.” Kuu shook his head with a laugh. “It’s a rounding error, nothing more. If it’s just four years, that’s still well within my strike zone.”

  “What are you talking about?!”

  “Women, of course,” he said. “I’m down with anything from twelve to thirty.”

  “I don’t care! You’re not laying a hand on Tomoe, got it?”

  “That’s a darn sha— Ow! Hey, Taru, don’t hit me with that thing.”

  Taru had whacked Kuu in the head with the tray she had used to bring in the coffee. It made a pretty loud bong sound. This girl didn’t hold back when taking shots at the son of their head of state.

  Taru held on to the tray and snorted. “Dumb master, your v
ulgarity shames our country. You ought to work on fixing that.”

  “Y-Yeah, she’s right,” said the bunny-eared girl, Leporina. “I-Isn’t your father always getting upset with you over it? For a start, you keep acting like you’re loose with women, but you’re not actually okay with just anybody, right? Pretending to have feelings for other women just to get the one you’re interested in to pay attention is— Ow, ow ow! Don’t pull my ears!”

  “It’s because you keep running your mouth!” Kuu shouted.

  Ahhh, I think that exchange told me a little about who Kuu is as a person.

  So that was it... If he was going to turn sixteen this year, that meant he was fifteen now. By the reckoning of my old world, he’d be in his third and final year of middle school. When I remembered what I was like at that age, I felt like I could understand how he was acting.

  I would be spinning my wheels with eagerness and self-consciousness, and when I came to my senses, I’d often mistake the means for the end, and the means I chose often wouldn’t even match the end I was pursuing.

  “What’s up, darlin’? Why the frowny face?” Roroa asked while I was indulging in sentimentality.

  “No, it’s just, I was looking at how Kuu was acting, and I saw a bit of myself in him...”

  “Hm? Ya did?”

  “Hee hee. Grandmother told me men are like that,” Juna said with a smile full of charm, and I could offer no rebuttal.

  Then, to mask his awkwardness, Kuu cleared his throat loudly and got back on topic.

  “So, what’s the young king like? I hear he annexed Amidonia not long after he got into power, so is he that great a warrior?”

  “No, it’s nothing like that,” I said. “He didn’t absorb Amidonia because he wanted to, the flow of events just made it a necessity...or so I hear.”

  Hmm... It was hard explaining myself while pretending not to be me.

  “But, well, even if the king himself isn’t a military man, he’s assembled a talented group of subordinates,” I added. “Their support lets him keep the country going somehow, you could say.”

  “Capable subordinates, huh... That’s something to be envied. The only person I get to order around now is Leporina. I wanna hurry up and get some house vassals for myself.”