How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 1

The horse was spurred on by a beautiful young girl in a red military uniform that looked like it could have come out of The Rose of Versailles. She was sixteen or seventeen years old with fair skin, and platinum blonde hair that streamed behind her in the wind. Her tight-fitting uniform accentuated the well-balanced lines of her body.

A beautiful girl riding a white horse made for a picturesque scene in its own right. The people she passed on her way let out gasps of admiration, which turned to cheers when they realized she was their country’s princess.

“Congratulations on your betrothal, Princess!”

“We wish you happiness!”

The people sent her their warmest regards, with no idea how she herself felt about the matter. Of course, it was unlikely she could hear them now, anyway.

“Father, Mother… Please, be safe!” she, Liscia Elfrieden, whispered to herself with a pained look on her face.

“Father! What is the meaning of this?” Liscia demanded, raising her voice at the sight before her.

The king’s bedroom. It was a room large enough that the king-sized bed did not dominate it, and each and every piece of furniture was exquisitely designed. Originally, this bedroom had been meant to be the private quarters of the royal couple, so it should have been turned over to Souma when he ascended the throne, but Souma hadn’t wanted to go through the trouble of moving in, so he had given permission for the former royal couple to stay, and they were still using it. Souma, incidentally, had brought a simple bed into the governmental affairs office and slept there.

When Liscia ran into that room, out of breath, she was greeted by the sight of her parents not only elegantly enjoying tea on the attached balcony, but dipping scones in cream, raising them up to each other’s mouths, and saying:

“Say ah, darling.”

“Ah.”

and feeding each other.

Liscia fell to the ground, but quickly stood back up, and marched up to the former king, Albert, with anger in her eyes.

“Father, when I heard your throne had been usurped, I hastened back from my patrol outside the capital! So, why is it that I now find you two feeding each other without a care in the world?!”

Liscia, in addition to her title as a princess (though, following the abdication, she was now the new king’s betrothed), had also graduated from officers’ school and held an officer’s rank in the army. She was not especially high in the ranks, but due to her high birth, she was often tasked with attending royal army funerals, or with other missions of a special nature. This time, she had been on a regional patrol, so upon hearing of her father’s abdication, she had rushed to the capital.

“There was no usurpation, really. I abdicated of my own will,” her father said calmly.

“Why would you suddenly do that?!”

“I had become certain that that man would make a better king for this nation than I. This is a decision that I came to as the one entrusted with this country, and I take full responsibility for it. I will tolerate no objections.”

In that one moment, Liscia saw the dignified authority of the man who had, until just recently, carried a nation on his shoulders, and found herself unable to object any further. “Urkh… But how could you decide my engagement without even consulting me?”

“You may discuss that between yourselves. The betrothal was something I forced on him to begin with. If you do not want it, I doubt Sir Souma will force the matter.”

“Motheeeer!” Liscia shouted. She turned to her mother for help, but Elisha just smiled.

“Meet Sir Souma for yourself first. This is your life, so you must decide what you will do with it yourself. Whatever your decision is, we will respect it.”

With not even a straw to grasp at, Liscia’s shoulders slumped.

She departed the room of the former royal couple and walked quickly across the palace.

It had been some weeks since she had left this palace for her regional patrols. Something about the palace she had been away from for a few weeks caught her attention. Many of the servants were running around… The guards, the maids, the bureaucrats, even the ministers… anyone and everyone was running. The sight of pudgy ministers running about and gasping with sweat beading on their foreheads was so surreal that she could only stare, dumbfounded.

It hadn’t been like this before. The castle she remembered had been a place so relaxed that it felt as if time just flowed slower there. The maids, the ministers… everyone would walk slowly, and it was so quiet you could hear the palace guards training in the courtyard from anywhere in the palace. Hadn’t Liscia joined the officers’ academy because she had been sick and tired of that atmosphere?

But what now? No matter where she went in the castle, the sound of footsteps echoed.

Liscia called out to one of the maids who was rushing past. “Can I have a moment?”

“Why, Princess! How may I be of service?” the maid asked, slowing.

“Um… Everyone in the castle seems to be in an awful hurry. Is there something happening?”