Volume 1 - CH 5.3

National Enrichment Arc

My name is Hulbert Magna, 19 years old.

I am the eldest son of the Magna family that is renowned throughout the Elfrieden Kingdom’s  Army and I was originally an officer in there as well. However, something or another happened and now I have transferred to the Royal Army. This is still acceptable. However, to have my childhood friend, the Earth Magician Kaede Foxia, as my superior is something that I can’t get used to even up to now. After all, her 「~nanodesuyo」way of speaking sounds idiotic, right? Even if the order from the top is like this, nevertheless I absolutely must comply…… Honestly, it would be better if this was just a joke.

And yet, what am I doing right now?

Currently, I am not holding a sword but instead an entrenching tool (It’s a shovel with rounded blade that also can be used as a close-combat weapon).

When the Royal Army arrived at the place where they had ordered us to march, what was waiting for us was work to dig up the ground. Then, we had to pour a viscous liquid (?) in the middle of the hole, harden the sides with gravels, plant seedlings on the sides and then put up street lamps that contained a type of luminous moss that was renowned for absorbing the sunlight during the day and releasing that energy as luminescence during the night. We kept on repeating this work and moved it along endlessly.

In other words, it’s road construction.[1]

Although summer had already passed, the sunlight is still hot. With the entrenching tool, I kept on repeatedly digging up the soil.

Ah that’s right, so this is hell.

「Why, does the Royal Army, do this kind, of work, what the heck, is the reason.」(Hulbert)

「You there! Do your job promptly without idle chatter nanodesuyo!」(Kaede)

While I swiped the sweat I looked up, seeing Kaede who stood at the pseudo-watch tower and took command of the site, beating the handrail with her megaphone. Maybe because it was hot. Her trademark fox ears that were always pointed up were currently drooping like dog ears.

「Hey Kaede, this is really,」(Hulbert)

「You can’t nanodesu! Hal is a subordinate, nanodesuyo!  You need to address the field overseer properly!」(Kaede)

「……Overseer Ma’am. Is this really work for the Royal Army?」(Hulbert)

「Recently all the work for the Royal Army is like this nanodesuyo.」(Kaede)

「Can’t this be entrusted to civilian contractors instead?」(Hulbert)

「It’s simply because there aren’t enough hands nanodesuyo. It is a plan to lay out a road network inside the Kingdom after all. Although we even employed the unemployed people of the capital, the number is still not enough even if we could borrow the hands of werecats.[2]」(Kaede)

That’s why, is this something that was normally done by an army?

「Furthermore, no civilian contractors will come to these outskirts nodesu. Since if you go to the outskirts, then monsters will also come out. If we employed adventurers as the guards for the contractors, then the costs will be too expensive.」(Kaede)

「In the end it was all about cheap labor……」(Hulbert)

「If you understand, then do your work properly nodesuyo!」(Kaede)

「You are an Earth Magician right? Then won’t it be finished faster if you use magic?」(Hulbert)

「I can’t consume mana in this place nodesuyo. Can Hal excavate a tunnel in the mountain in exchange?」(Kaede)

「……」(Hulbert)

I returned to my work of digging the soil.

Excavating a tunnel is hard work in times without magic……

◇　◇　◇

It was finally noon. So they gave us two hours of break to return to the camp. Everyone either ate their meals inside the tents, had a friendly chat, or took a siesta in the pseudo-beds (it was something similar to a hand stretcher). Sleeping after eating was something that the King promoted. He said that this would somehow could raise the work efficiency. Although recently all the Royal Army’s works were literally 「Three meals a day with daytime siesta」, I think that no one would envy them if they know how exhausting Civil Engineering projects were.

Either way, if I don’t eat the lunch meal it will be a waste, so I ate the prepared bento.

Today’s bento is meat and fresh vegetables interposed between two bread. Delicious. The sweet and salty flavor from the meat really shed off the exhaustion I felt. I am told that this is a dish called “pork fried with ginger”[3], and it was something that the King invented. Somehow it was made from seasonings called “Miso”, “Shouyu” and “Mirin”[4] that were planned to be produced by the Mystic Wolf Tribe in the capital.

The King designated the Royal Army as the taste-tester of prototype menu dishes. Why did he give it to the Royal Army first? It was because he wanted to see if the dishes were fitting to this country’s  palate. Even if it was only for the dishes…… I think this was the good part of being transferred to the Royal Army. The Kingdom’s Army meal prioritized amount over quality to such extent, that they give off impression of being 「A Man’s Meal」. Honestly, after eating any of these meal just once, I don’t wish to return to the army at all.

「That King…… I cannot help but admit his talent in cooking.」(Hulbert)

「The dishes that the King came up with are really delicious nodesu.」(Kaede)

Before I realized it, Kaede was already sitting beside me and ate her usual menu.

「Even so, it’s amazing that we're able to eat fresh vegetables nodesu. It’s because the road from the capital was even connected to the nearest villages nodesuyo. To be able to easily improve the supply line, the power of a road is immense nodesu.」(Kaede)

「Will the road that we make be that useful immediately?」(Hulbert)

「It can be said that with this increased transportation capacity, then the problem of the food shortage will be resolved, nodesuyo. With this, in the future we can even transport food that previously couldn’t be transported because of spoiling issues, nodesu.[5]」(Kaede)

「……Do you really understand the King to such an extent?」(Hulbert)

「He is a really wonderful person nanodesuyo. But that person’s foresight was also really frightening desu.」(Kaede)

No, I thought that your ability to understand him is also amazing. I completely didn’t understand him at all, so when I finally noticed his insight I was surprised. Although she was a little dull, Kaede was basically high spec. She can use magic, her appearance is above average, and her head is also sharp. That’s why she received an exceptional promotion from the king. As her childhood friend, I was a little vexed.

…… I also need to work even harder.

「Then, since Hal has finished eating, does Hal want to sleep?」(Kaede)

「That’s true…… Since I’m tired, I need to rest.」(Hulbert)

「Then shall I give Hal a lap pillow?」(Kaede)

「*bu*ho*!」(Hulbert)

I spurted out the tea that I drank.

I immediately looked at my surroundings. Then I felt killing intent coming from the majority of the males towards me.

Even leaving out the favorable childhood friend assessment, Kaede is cute. Her style is not something worthy enough to mention, but she isn’t that bad. Her fox ears and tail are her charm points.[6] There was also an unspoken agreement inside the Royal Army to treat her as the Idol. The King might have told me to keep the subordinates in line so they wouldn’t look down on Kaede, but to be frank, I believe that if it was something that Kaede had asked of them, they would abide it, even if it could threaten their lives. It was so much that they put all their killing intent toward me who was intimate with Kaede.

「*ge*ho* What the heck are you saying?!」(Hulbert)

「Recently the topic of how the Princess gave the King a lap pillow in the Capital Park has become the talk of the town nodesuyo」(Kaede)

「They really have guts for doing that in a public place……」(Hulbert)

Well, since they are engaged, there was nothing particularly strange about that. It is better than having a bad relationship.

If a husband’s relationship with his legal wife is bad, causing him to get concubines, it could spawn a non-stop family squabble after all.

「There was also the topic about how there will be an heir next year. There was even a betting pool for the name that will be given to the heir, but since the King is a summoned person from another world, it seemed that they weren’t able to narrow down the list.」(Kaede)

We were surprised by the sudden voice and turned towards the speaker, finding King Souma dropping his shoulders while sighing and Princess Liecia with a flushed face, standing in the tent entrance.

◇　◇　◇

「Hey, both of you, how do you feel today?」(Souma)

「Superb, Your Majesty nodesuyo. We bid Your Majesty and Your Princess good tidings.」(Kaede)

「Well, nothing happened. Right, Liecia?」(Souma)

「That’s true. But I hope you have a bit more self-awareness as a king.」(Liecia)

King Souma and Princess Liecia sat down facing Kaede and began to have a friendly chat. Eh, what kind of situation is this? I and Kaede sat opposite to King Souma and Princess Liecia, with the dark elf from that time in the café standing guard close to the entrance. I was glad that Juna-san wasn’t here, but that might be because of the trauma from that time.

Then King Souma redirected the conversation towards me.

「Hulbert, have you got used to life in the Royal Army?」(Souma)

「Yes Your Majesty! There is no problem Your Majesty!」(Hulbert)

「Don’t be too stiff. Where’s that gusto that you had shown before?」(Souma)

「I really ask to be forgiven for that time! Although I’m just a lowly soldier I dared to act rudely towards Your Majesty Souma.」(Hulbert)

「This is a king’s order. Stop using polite language. Also no need to call me Your Majesty, just Souma is fine.」(Souma)

「No, but……」(Hulbert)

「”Hal”, did you not hear it well? This is an order.」(Souma)

「…… I acknow-, I understand……Souma」(Hulbert)

「That’s good. Even if I had a lot of people that serve me in the royal castle, there was no one who I can bump heads with. I wished to have a guy close to my age that I can talk casually to.」(Souma)

King Souma… no, Souma nodded in satisfaction. What was he saying, geez. But since the person himself said that it was okay, then it will be fine, I think. I also didn’t hold that much respect to him either.

「Then……What’s you doing here?」(Hulbert)

「It’s an inspection. An inspection. I want  to see the state of progress of the road construction.」(Souma)

「Needless to say, we are working hard, you know.」(Hulbert)

「It seems so. I have seen the results while travelling to this place.」(Souma)

「Be thankful to us. Since we had ridiculous hardships while working on it.」(Hulbert)

「But haven’t I given out a lavish reward in the form of a delicious meal? The compensation is already quite satisfactory.」(Souma)

We quickly got used to talking in a casual manner. In the first place, Souma also didn’t have the air of a king.

When Souma guessed that our lunch had ended, he stood up.

「Then both of you, can you accompany me in inspecting the road? I want to explain the road construction to Liecia.」(Souma)

I stood up and saluted to His Majesty Souma.

Instant Zelring udon. Isn’t this good?

This is a chance to increase the food menu’s variety that was scarce even in normal times, I cannot miss this.

Seeing me quickly turning my palms, the Princess and Kaede looked coldly at me, but I didn’t mind.

After all, food is the top priority![7]

◇　◇　◇

Kaede, Souma, Princess Liecia, Aisha-dono and I, we five, arrived at the place where the road was in the middle stage of the paving procedure. There, Souma actually observed the work procedure of the task that he had entrusted to us. Since right now it’s still break time, if possible I wanted to rest, however this is all for the sake of Instant Zelring udon.

First we inspected the soil that was piling up on both sides of the road.

「Thus, in this way we filled the center bordered by the soil on both sides by pouring it in that viscous substance.」(Souma)

Souma is explaining the road-making procedure to Princess Liecia.

「What is that viscous substance anyway?」(Liecia)

「『Ancient Concrete』. A mixture of volcanic ash and limestone[8]. It has the property of hardening after some time passed, yet still retain some of its former viscosity. This makes it hard to crack, and its strength….. Well, won’t it be easier to understand if you see it?」(Souma)

Souma spoke these words and then he pointed at the giant house-sized monitor lizard. That monitor lizard pulled a container that had many wheels. The containers were fully loaded with construction materials and provisions for the soldiers.

That lizard is called a Rhinosaurus.

As with what was referred to as “Many-Horned Lizards”, the two huge horns that grew on top of its snout were the characteristics of this giant lizard (Souma expressed that it was 『Just like a combination of a rhinoceros and a komodo dragon, but with its size enlarged by 10 times』).  It is omnivorous, docile, and easy to tame, so it is bred to pull large amounts of payload in large cities. Still, they also hold tremendous charging power on the occasion they grew restless and rampaged out of control, so they could also be used as siege weapons.

「The concrete’s strength is to such that, even if that Rhinosaurus dashed atop of it with all of its strength, it won’t crack.」(Souma)

「What, such a hard material?」(Liecia)

「Ah, no it’s not like that. Rather, it has moderate elasticity so that it could spread around the forces applied to it. That’s why in my world, even buildings that were built with this concrete 2000 years ago still stand to this day.」(Souma)

Buildings from 2,000 years ago, huh? That was 4 times more ancient than the date this country was founded. Really amazing.

「And then, the road lamps installed on both side of the road are the same type as the ones used in the capital. Although I believe it would reduce the appearance of night wildlife, but with this, it would also be hard for someone to get lost even during the night. Then, about the trees planted on the roadside, those are was trees originating from the God-Protected Forest that are called【Exorcist Trees】[9].」(Souma)

「Exorcist Trees?」(Liecia)

「Aisha, I leave the explanation to you.」(Souma)

Towards the Princess’ reply, Souma nodded in satisfaction.

「It can be referred to as local knowledge. Well, I don’t know what the effect of mass planting it so densely in the road will be on the local ecosystem. So, we will not make a “complete defense against monsters” and instead leave a moderate gap in between the trees to limit it to “hard for monsters to approach”.」(Souma)

「Eh, why? Isn’t a complete defense against monsters better for the logistics?」(Liecia)

「Then, Liecia: Demon Wolves and Red Bears change their hunting grounds as the seasons change, but if they were stopped because of the road, without sufficient food they would resolve themselves to attack livestock or human settlements. Similarly, if their habitat is limited by the road and they exhaust all their food, Demon Monkeys or Demon Boars could descend to the human settlements and devour the crops in the fields. While they do that, they could disseminate mountain leeches or parasites that originally didn’t exist before in the human settlements…… Then if this happened, what will you do?」[10](Souma)

「I understand that it is better to completely prevent it from happening, but why do you need to be that specific?」(Liecia)

「Because the countermeasure against harmful animals is a public issue that the local government has to do!」(Souma)

Souma emphasized his words while opening his eyes wide.

Um. I don’t really know anything about the local government, but I can feel his enthusiasm. I admired Kaede who stood before Souma and seemed to properly understand his words.

「Hoe~[11], to even think that far, Your Majesty is amazing nanodesuyo!」(Kaede)

「Mm. Well I believe I should properly consider the merits and demerits of the policies that I will make and I was only trying to reduce the demerit part as much as possible.」(Souma)

「It’s amazing nodesuyo~. As expected from Your Majesty nodesuyo~」(Kaede)

With gleaming eyes, Kaede looked at Souma who became embarrassed.

I saw Princess Liecia’s expression become a little peeved while looking at those two acting like this.

「Ummm, Princess?」(Hulbert)

「What?」 (Liecia)

「Your face. It’s scary.」(Hulbert)

「Re-really? ……but, shouldn’t you look at yourself before talking about others?」(Liecia)

「Eh?」(Hulbert)

Somehow or another, it seemed that my expression also become a little peeved…….

Then it happened at that time.

「No way!」(Aisha)

Aisha-dono who stood separately from us suddenly yelled. Is something happened? We looked at Aisha-dono who was greatly perturbed after seeing something like a letter in her hand. A white bird perched on her trembling shoulder. Is that perhaps a Mail Pigeon? By exploiting its homing instinct and ability that can perceive the wave that was released by its owner, you can contact a specific person or place. Disregarding the Royal Broadcast that was more like a cheat, using a mail pigeon is the fastest means of communication in current times. Then, does this mean that she has received a report from somewhere?

「What happened, Aisha?」(Souma)

When Souma inquired, Aisha replied with trembling lips.

「Just now, I received a report from the God-Protected Forest: 『Large-scale landslide had occurred』!」(Aisha)

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