How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Volume 1

…I’m concerned, but I don’t have time to comfort her, I thought. In this situation, as the king, what moves should I be making?

While I was silently thinking that, Hal said, “Hey, you could at least comfort her…” but Kaede was already pulling him away by the ear before I could say anything back in response.

“The king is thinking right now,” she lectured. “You mustn’t interrupt him, you know.”

I watched her drag Hal off. What a good childhood friend she was.

…Okay, I’ve sorted out my thoughts. I raised my face, taking action immediately.

“This unit will go to aid the dark elf village!” I declared.

Hal held his ear and blinked at me repeatedly. “This unit? There are only around fifty of us.”

“Disaster relief is a battle against time,” I told him. “We don’t have time to turn back to the capital. Fortunately, the God-Protected Forest is closer to here than to the capital. First, I’ll dispatch this unit as an advance team!”

I gave each of them their orders.

“Liscia, return to the capital and request they dispatch a relief unit. Also, talk to Hakuya and have him send food, clothing, tents, and other relief supplies to the dark elf village.”

“I understand, but… Don’t you have a ‘consciousness’ working back in the capital? If you do, wouldn’t it be faster to contact him through that?” Liscia asked.

“I can’t. Living Poltergeists only has an effective range of 100 meters or so. Dolls can ignore that range limitation, but they can’t do paperwork, so I didn’t leave one behind.”

If I’d known this was going to happen, I would have left at least one doll behind. If I had, I might have at least been able to communicate that something had happened.

…Too late for regrets now, I guess, I thought.

“So, there you have it,” I said. “Someone needs to go make the request in person.”

“I get it,” she said. “Leave it to me.”

“When you go, bring the bodyguards we brought here with you! It’d be no joke if something were to happen to you on the way there.”

“I think I’ll be fine, but… Understood. You take care of yourself, too.” Liscia immediately ran off.

If I stopped to think about it, it was pretty amazing that I was making the princess of a nation play messenger girl, but Liscia probably didn’t mind. We were of the same mind on these things.

“Aisha, how far is it from here to the God-Protected Forest?” I asked.

“Half a day on a fast horse,” she said. “At a normal march, it’ll take two days no matter how we hurry.”

“Two days… When did the disaster strike?” I asked.

“It was during the witching hour, from what I gather.”

“It’s already been nearly half a day, then? The soonest we can arrive is two and a half days after the disaster… Having only half a day before we reach the 72 hour mark is going to be rough.”

Hal looked confused. “What’s that? What do you mean by ‘the 72 hour mark’?”

“In natural disasters like this, that’s the line after which the death rate for those in need of rescue shoots up. It’s three full days after the disaster strikes. It’s called the ‘72-hour wall.’”

“Sorry. Could you say that in a way that’s easier to understand?” he asked.

“It means that a lot of lives can be saved in those 72 hours.”

“I get it now… Wait, in that case, we can’t dawdle here! Shouldn’t we be getting our butts to the God-Protected Forest, pronto?! It’s gonna take a full two days, isn’t it?” he demanded.

“I know that,” I said. “Do we have a carriage?”

“The original plan only called for us to use carriages when we came here and when we left. If we need to get enough carriages for fifty people, that’s going to take time.”

“Damn!” I said. “Is there no other way to move around…?”

I noticed something. Hal and the others looked to see what I was looking at, then gulped.

I was looking at the beasts pulling the container cars. If you take a rhino, add a Komodo dragon, divide by two, then multiply the size by ten, you would have these giant lizards, the rhinosauruses. They were big, but they could run continuously at high speeds comparable to a steam locomotive.

“…Hey, Hal, Kaede,” I said.

“What?” Hal asked cautiously.

“What is it?” Kaede asked.

“It’ll probably make us all nauseous, so will you be okay?” I asked.

“I’m quite resistant to motion sickness, you know,” Kaede said.

“…I’ll deal with it,” Hal muttered.

“You will? I’ll tough it out, too, then.”

I immediately gave the order to fifty members of the Forbidden Army.

“Unload all the freight from the container cars! Fortunately, the road runs near the God-Protected Forest, but once we get into the woods, we’ll be traveling on foot! The lighter our load, the better! Leave the materials where you unload them! Even if they’re lost, you won’t be blamed for it! I’ll give a written apology to Hakuya and get off with a little scolding! Also, bring all the food with us! We can’t do something lame like show up to offer aid, then have to sponge off the locals for food!”