How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 7

by Dojyomaru

  “I-I’m not your subordinate, I’m your attendant, you know?! Don’t order me around!” Leporina protested, but Kuu wasn’t even listening to her.

  “So?” Kuu asked, looking straight into my eyes and trying to appraise me. “You’re one of those capable subordinates that supports the king, are you?”

  “I’m just a merchant, you know...?”

  “Oookyakya, lying’s not good. Those medical reforms are sponsored by the king, right? The equipment for them isn’t something a single merchant, let alone the young son of one who hasn’t even inherited the business, can handle the negotiations for. You’re playing at being a merchant, but you really are acting according to the will of that king. Am I wrong?”

  “...”

  He’d hit the nail on the head, so I couldn’t come up with a good response. It looked like he didn’t think I was the king himself, at least, but acting on the will of the king was equivalent to acting on my own will, so he wasn’t wrong.

  Taru had called him the “dumb master,” but he might be surprisingly sharp. If I underestimated him, I was going to get hurt.

  “What if I am?” I asked. “Would you call off this deal?”

  “I wouldn’t say that,” he said. “For our country’s part, mass-producing that medical equipment or whatever would be a new industry. It’s just...there’s one point that bothers me.”

  “What would that be?”

  He leaned over with his elbows on the table and his cheeks resting on his hands as he responded. “I think the neighboring king’s medical reforms sound awesome. Those...doctors, was it? They don’t rely on light magic, and even treat diseases that’re hard to heal with magic.”

  I nodded.

  “Basically, I want those doctors here, too. Exporting the equipment is fine, but if it’s being produced in mass quantities, I can’t accept not being able to use it ourselves. There are a large number of sick and wounded in every country. If there are tools that may be able to treat them, it’d be a waste not to have people on hand who can use them, right? That’s why, if you want medical equipment from us, you’ll give us doctors in return.”

  Kuu spoke in a strong tone. I felt an intensity in his eyes that he had every right to be proud of as the son of their head of state. Even though he was only turning sixteen this year, he could pick the fights needed to carry his country and people.

  This was...a man who might do great things in the future. Half impressed, half cautious, I accepted Kuu’s stare, and he suddenly grinned and let the tension out of his shoulders.

  “And, well, that’s what I figure my old man would have said.”

  “Your father...huh.”

  Even though those were clearly his words, Kuu had brought up his father now to blur that distinction. He was a shrewd one, all right.

  “I’ve thought that over properly,” I said at last. “If you people will export the equipment to us, I will provide doctors...is what our king said.”

  “Well, that’s nice. But the winters in this country are harsh, you know? Can an outsider take them?”

  “In that case, we can make doctors out of the people in this country.”

  “Our people?” Kuu asked, and I nodded.

  “To be more specific, what the kingdom will provide is the study of medicine. When it comes to the training of doctors, we are confident we are well ahead of other countries. So, if anyone in this country wishes to become a doctor, they can come to the kingdom to study. If those people return home after acquiring knowledge of medicine, you will have doctors who can stay here.”

  Kuu slapped his knee as if he got it now. “I see... That sounds like it’d work. That’s how we’ll trade doctors and medical equipment, huh?”

  “Fundamentally, that’s about right,” I said. “What do you think?”

  Kuu pounded his chest with one hand. “Sounds good! I’ll talk to my old man. I mean, I insist you meet with him and discuss it now,” he added with a happy smile.

  I didn’t have a bad feeling about this. If we could expect the backing of Kuu, the son of their head of state, that was going to be a great help.

  Oh, wait.

  “In regards to that, there’s a person I want to have handle the negotiations with your head of state.”

  “You want to leave it to someone? You’re not doing it yourself?”

  “Yeah. I think negotiations should be handled not by me, Kazuma, but by His Majesty, King Souma.”

  “Oookyah?! A meeting between heads of state, huh!”

  “Yeah. That’d be faster, right?”

  “Well, yeah, but...can you get King Souma to come here?”

  “I’m thinkin’ it’ll be fine, y’know? That king likes doin’ the legwork.” Roroa looked to me with a grin as she spoke.

  Well, I was here, after all...

  “Oookyakyakyakya!” Kuu laughed heartily. “Okay! I’ll talk to my old man. It’ll be up to him what happens, but you people talk to your King Souma!”

  “Got it.”

  “Now things are getting interesting! This’ll be a huge deal!” Kuu seemed deeply entertained. “Hey, Leporina! You run over to the old man now, and let him know what’s up!”

  “N-Now?!” she protested. “It’s already evening, so let me set out tomorrow!”

  “You dolt!” he yelled. “You’ve gotta make immediate decisions and act fast when it comes to business opportunities!”

  “G-Give me a break, please.”

  Kuu was hyped up, and Leporina was being run ragged by him. Watching this boisterous master and servant, Taru, who had to this point been listening and not saying anything, let a few words slip out.

  “I knew it... The dumb master really is dumb.”

  Her tone was cold, but the corners of her lips looked as if they had turned upward just slightly.

  This unplanned-for meeting with Kuu resulted in the decision to arrange a sudden meeting with the head of the republic.

  To make preparations, I dispatched a messenger kui to Hakuya in the kingdom, and Kuu dispatched one to his father, to arrange a time and place for the meeting. Then, when those arrangements were complete, it was decided we would stay in the country until the day of the meeting.

  Taking the speed of messenger kui communication into account, the meeting would be in one week (eight days in this world) at the soonest.

  However, I explained to Kuu I would be staying as a liaison.

  Because there were issues of security and such when the king stayed in another country, I was choosing to keep my identity a secret for a while longer. Because I had, technically, entered the country on false pretenses, I decided to have Hakuya subtly inform their head of state of that fact before the meeting.

  That being the case, I thought I would use the time left before the meeting to continue deepening my understanding of the country, as originally planned. But Kuu said he wanted to accompany me.

  “If you want to learn about our country, you’ll need a guide, right? Being Turgish born and Turgish raised, I’d say I fit the bill, wouldn’t you?”

  “Oh, uh...I appreciate the offer, but I couldn’t make the son of the country’s head of state be my guide...”

  I tried letting him down lightly, but Kuu laughed.

  “Hey, don’t sweat it. I may be his son, but I don’t have any power. Besides, Kazuma, now that I know you’re a foreign VIP, I can’t let you out of my sight.” Kuu made a sharp, slightly provocative glance in my direction. “Sightseeing is fine, but I don’t want you going anywhere too unusual. If you try going to military installations, for instance, I think we may have a little trouble.”

  That made sense... He’d be doubling as our keeper, it seemed. The air got a little tense, but I shrugged and let the look Kuu was giving me slide.

  “I never planned on that, anyway.”

  “Oookyah, just playing it safe,” he said. “You people wouldn’t want to be suspected of anything you aren’t doing, right?”

  “Fair enough...”

  Right
now, we weren’t in the country to gather intelligence. We were purely here to expand our understanding of the country; there was no need to seek out their critical facilities. If Kuu was going to accompany us, we wouldn’t have to worry about any undue trouble with the locals, so it was a convenient arrangement.

  I offered Kuu my right hand. “If that’s how it is, then please, come along.”

  “Sure!” Kuu took my hand and shook it firmly. “By the way, do you guys have lodgings booked for the night?”

  “Yeah. We booked lodgings at the White Bird Inn in the town of Noblebeppu.”

  “The White Bird Inn! That’s a good place. Now, if you’re wondering what’s so good about it, it’s that there are hot springs.”

  Hot springs.

  Yes, hot springs.

  I’d heard there were many hot springs in the republic. The town of Noblebeppu was one of the few hot springs areas in the country, which was also one of the reasons we had chosen it for our base of operations. We apparently had a decent number of hot springs in the Amidonia Region of our own kingdom, but there were few in the former territories of Elfrieden, and none of those were in the vicinity of the capital Parnam.

  I wanted to take the opportunity to use Noblebeppu and its famous hot springs as our base of operations, and to enjoy the springs while deepening my understanding of the country. That was the reason we were here.

  The White Bird Inn, where we would be staying for a while, was a travelers’ inn operated by a member of the white eagle race. What was more, for an additional charge, we could reserve the open air baths for an hour a day for exclusive use by our family.

  When Roroa’s sharp eyes had picked up that detail during check-in...

  “Hey, hey, darlin’. We don’t get the chance often, so how’s about we reserve the bath and go in as a family? By ‘we’ I mean me, you, Big Sis Ai, and Big Sis Juna, of course,” she’d said with a grin.

  Being a man, it was a tempting proposal, but I had no idea how to explain our family situation to the innkeeper, and I felt it would be a poor influence on Tomoe, who was traveling with us. And, more than anything...I felt incredibly embarrassed, so I gave Roroa a firm but non-painful karate chop to the head.

  While I was recalling that, Kuu suddenly slapped his knee.

  “Okay! I’ll stay at the White Bird Inn tonight, too, then!”

  Leporina let out a strange cry. “Whoa, what are you saying, young master?! You have a villa here, don’t you?!”

  But Kuu tut-tutted and waggled a finger at her. “Kazuma and his folks want to understand our country better, right? In that case, we’ve gotta let them experience our traditional culture.”

  “Traditional culture?” I asked.

  “Oookyakya!” Kuu cackled with glee. “In this country, when friends come from far away to visit you, it’s customary to slaughter an animal and hold a feast. You and I are already like friends, after all! Let’s ask the inn to hold a feast!”

  With that said, Kuu threw his arm around my shoulder.

  It should have felt a little too chummy coming from a younger guy, but, for some reason, it didn’t bother me so much. There was no malice behind it, and I could tell this was just how he was, so I couldn’t even bring myself to feel like, “Well, I guess there’s no helping it...” It may well be this was a sort of charisma.

  “I appreciate the offer, but wouldn’t it be trouble for the inn, receiving a sudden request like that?” I asked.

  “Oh, don’t worry, I know the owner. If I pay money and provide the ingredients myself, it won’t be an issue. Leporina, run over to the innkeeper’s place and get the necessary materials together.”

  “Urgh... I understand, but, young master, you’re such a slave driver,” Leporina complained. “You’re already sending me to your father’s place tomorrow...”

  Kuu heartily laughed it off. “While you’re out shopping, you can buy that expensive cherry wine you like, too.”

  “I’ll get right on it!” With a salute, Leporina took off and dashed out of the workshop.

  Kuu was surprisingly good at handling his subordinate.

  Kuu turned to the woman near him. “Taru, you come party, too. The more the merrier, after all.”

  “Honestly, dumb master, you’re such a handful.” Taru resignedly accepted. However, her white bear ears were twitching a little.

  Could it be the snow bear race’s ears functioned similarly to the mystic wolf race’s tails? If so, despite how cold she presented herself to be, she may have been unexpectedly enthusiastic about it.

  Well, anyway, the impromptu feast had been arranged.

  The sun went down, and a large carpet in the great hall of the White Bird Inn was packed tightly with plates bearing various dishes. The majority of it was meat, meat, meat... A smorgasbord of meat dishes. The white eagle innkeeper was laying down another large plate with a new meat dish.

  The white eagle race were, as the name suggested, eagle beastmen with wings on their backs, but their wings turned brown from the middle outward, so they didn’t give off the impression of being angels. For the men, their faces were actual eagle faces, making them resemble the half-man, half-beast depictions of gods from ancient Egyptian murals.

  While watching the innkeeper lay out the food, I talked to Kuu, who was beside me. “I’m seeing an awful lot of meat dishes...”

  “That’s how our feasts are. We generally butcher our livestock, then eat the meat.”

  “This is party food, right? What is your normal diet like?”

  “Aside from meat, we eat shellfish, fish, and dairy. We do have potatoes, but fruits and vegetables can only be harvested in parts of the north, so they’re rare and expensive.”

  “Hmm...”

  If he was saying there was demand for vegetables, we could probably develop a trade route and export them here. Well, how were they getting their vitamin C and such? I’d read in some manga that, long ago, sailors had suffered from scurvy due to vitamin C deficiency, and it was really hard on them.

  “You don’t get sick from lack of vegetables?” I asked.

  “Huh? Never heard of that happening. Like, we don’t get sick much at all. We don’t really have reason to be afraid of death by sickness. We’re more afraid of death by freezing.”

  “Hmm...”

  Did they have some special way of taking in those nutrients?

  While I was thinking that, the preparations for the feast seemed to be completed. Present for the occasion were Aisha, Juna, Roroa, Tomoe, Hal, Kaede, and me from Friedonia, as well as Kuu, Taru, and Leporina from Turgis, for a total of ten people.

  Something resembling wooden goblets were passed around, one to each of us.

  When I looked, the goblet had a white liquid inside. Giving it a swirl, I could see it was just a little thick. Rather than milk, it seemed more like unrefined sake.

  “A mysterious white liquid...?” I murmured.

  “This? It’s our famous fermented milk,” Kuu answered.

  “Fermented milk?”

  “It’s a drink made by fermenting snow yak” (this was apparently a hairy cow-like animal that lived in this country) “milk, so it’s fermented milk. It’s got a strong taste, but once you get used to it, it’s good, y’know?”

  “Fermentation...” I murmured. “If it’s yak milk, then...lactic acid bacteria?”

  Come to think of it, didn’t lactic acid bacteria produce vitamin C? If I recalled, it was part of the fermentation process... I only vaguely remembered it, though. Could it be the people of this country were supplementing their otherwise insufficient intake of vitamin C with this drink?

  That aside, once everyone had received their goblet, it was decided Kuu and I would offer a toast. With everyone gathered around, he and I stood up on our own.

  “Long-winded speeches before a feast are so uncouth. That’s why I’ll keep this brief.” With that said, Kuu turned to me, and raised his goblet. “To our guests from Friedonia!”

  In response to those wo
rds, I raised my goblet to Kuu, too. “To the people of Turgis!”

  Then we clacked our goblets together.

  ““Cheers!”” we both said.

  “““““Cheers!””””” everybody else called.

  Then the feast began.

  “Now, go on and knock it back,” Kuu urged me.

  “R-Right...”

  I tried drinking the fermented snow yak milk. It had a strange taste.

  It was smoother than its appearance may suggest, but...how could I describe it...? It was like drinkable plain yogurt, maybe. But it had that alcoholic flavor to it, too. It was better than I had expected, even this way, but I felt like it might taste better with honey.

  Everyone but Tomoe smacked their lips over this fermented milk.

  Incidentally, in this country, just like ours, there was no law dictating a minimum age for drinking. It seemed the custom was that, as of fifteen or sixteen, children could openly drink in public. I’d considered putting a proper law in place, but in some ways it was part of the local culture, so I was leaving it be for now. If I meddled unnecessarily, it could invite a backlash from the public, after all.

  Well, if the people became health conscious, voices calling for a minimum drinking age would emerge naturally. I could wait to roll out a law until then.

  While drinking my fermented milk, I looked around.

  Checking the most boisterous spot in the room, Aisha and Kuu were seated in front of big plates stacked high with food, competing over who could eat the most and the fastest for some reason. It seemed like Kuu, influenced by seeing the way Aisha ate, had challenged her. The competition was apparently to see who could clear a plate stacked high with food first.

  ““Nom, nom, nom, nom...””

  They were both desperately piling food into their mouths.

  In a simple contest to eat the most, I wouldn’t have thought it possible for Aisha to lose, but, with the speed element added in, who knew? From the look of it, the food was disappearing from their plates at about the same rate.

  “Nom, nom...” (Oookyakya, you’re not bad, for someone so slim.)

  “Nom, nom...” (You, too. I’m impressed.)

  Their eyes crossed every once in a while, and when they did, they seemed to be having an exchange like that.