How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 1

In contrast, Liscia silently read her opponent’s attacks, striking with her rapier.

It was hard for an amateur to tell which of them had the advantage. Was it Aisha, who was unleashing an attack that would be crippling if it landed? Or was it Liscia, who dodged that attack, unleashing three sequential thrusts with her rapier?

Was it Aisha, who knocked those thrusts aside using nothing more than the gauntlet she wore? Or was it Liscia, who used the opening that left her with to step on Aisha’s great sword, preventing Aisha from lifting it up?

…Is this really a practice match? Their swordplay was so intense, I couldn’t be sure how serious they were.

“Sonic Wind!”

“Ice Sword Mountain!”

Now they’ve started using magic and skills!

Aisha’s Sonic Wind was apparently a skill that released a “cutting wind” from her great sword. When Liscia dodged, it cut the tree that had been behind her in half with a diagonal slash.

Meanwhile, Liscia’s Ice Sword Mountain seemed to be a skill that instantly froze the ground like a skating rink and shot icy spikes out of it, but Aisha cut down all of the spikes that looked like they might hit her using her great sword.

…What’s with this battle to the death?

I had already seen magic in this world. Recently, in order to practice my ability to manipulate dolls, I had been using a mannequin to go out and hunt monsters, so I had often seen the adventurers it encountered use magic (though it was usually when my mannequin got mistaken for a monster and attacked).

However, with the magic that ordinary adventurers used, the most they could do was things like shoot flames, shoot ice, or heal minor wounds. I’d never thought magic used by someone experienced would be this incredible.

Aisha was strong, but Liscia seemed pretty capable herself. As the two fought, their eyes were filled with life, sparkling even, as if they had discovered a worthy rival.

So these are warriors, huh… Wait, if I let them keep going, they’re going to wreck the castle!

“Both of you… cut that out!”

““Yes, sir! Wait, wha?!”” The two of them returned to their senses, landed on the ground, then both slipped on the ice and fell on their rumps in unison.

“A-A date?!” Liscia exclaimed.

“Yeah.”

When I explained to her that I had a day off, and that Hakuya had recommended I spend it going on a date with her, Liscia looked dumbstruck.

“Wait… Is that something we should be doing because someone else told us to?”

“I feel the same way, but… in Hakuya’s mind, royal dates are probably a part of our duties.”

“What an inhumane way of thinking,” she muttered.

“‘Before I am a human being, I am the prime minister.’ That’s probably something he’d say.”

“Ha ha ha!” she giggled. “He would.”

“So, before we’re human beings, he wants us to be king and queen, basically.”

“…Sorry. That one I can’t laugh at.”

The two of us sighed in unison.

Hakuya was sharp, reliable, and he took his work seriously, but he could take loyalty to his post too far sometimes. Well, that wasn’t to say he didn’t have a soft side. Recently, he had started tutoring Tomoe at her request.

“Well, I’m happy for the day off, and I figure heading out somewhere is okay, right?” I asked.

“I suppose so,” she agreed.

“Oh, oh! In that case, please, come to my forest!” Aisha raised her hand, trying to get our attention, but I shook my head.

“I still have a pile of official work to get through. It has to be somewhere we can make a day trip to.”

“Ohh… Even by horse, it takes three days each way to get to the God-Protected Forest…”

Yeah, that’s out of the question.

“You’ll have to give up on it this time. But I did teach you how to do periodic thinning, didn’t I?”

“Yes. However, there are some among the dark elves who are blindly stubborn… ‘What is this nonsense? How can you suggest that we dark elves, protectors of the forest, cut down trees?’ they say.”

Ah. Yeah, you get types like that in every world.

I respected their desire to protect nature, but when that desire goes too far, it reaches a level of arrogance, and it can actually be a problem. Nature isn’t so weak that that it needs humans to look down on and “protect” it. If anything…

“That’s why I want you to come, sire,” she explained. “To give them a good shouting at.”

“…I get it. The moment I’m free, I’ll go.”

It feels like the number of things that I need to do is only going up, but… saying that won’t help matters, will it? I thought.

“Please do. If it will help, please, use my body, my life, in any way you see fit,” Aisha said, bowing her head.

“Well, then I’ve got a favor to ask right now…”

“Yes, sire! You want me to see to your needs?” she asked immediately.