How a Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom

Chapter 5: Invitation to the North

The Great Tiger Empire of Haan had destroyed the Mercenary State Zem and had taken hold of the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State. With this, Fuuga now had a system in place to move the continent at his whims. A combined state, larger than any that had existed before, founded by the great man of the era.

Wise people likely had doubts that this country could hold together once they lost Fuuga’s charisma. However, most people didn’t realize this. They delighted in Fuuga’s exploits as if they were their own, and supported him fervently. This was a country that could even retake the Demon Lord’s Domain. No, they could go even further: they could force the Maritime Union into submission and unite the continent—a dream no one had ever been able to realize before.

Dreamers don’t tend to think ahead. They’re too busy dreaming to think about what comes after.

The important thing is to make their dream come true—to get the things they want—and the results of that are left as a secondary consideration. This was true of Fuuga too. “I’m gonna do it because no one else will.” That’s all that had taken him this far.

“How far...can I go?”

One night, as he lay in his canopied bed, Fuuga mumbled that to himself. When he did, Mutsumi, who was resting on his arm as her pillow, rubbed her sleepy eyes and began to stir.

“Darling...?”

“Oh, sorry. Did I wake you?”

“No. It’s all right.”

Mutsumi pressed herself close against Fuuga. They were both completely naked, each feeling the other’s warmth.

“Is something the matter?” she asked softly.

“Oh, nothing much. I was thinking about how we took Zem and the Orthodox Papal State, how Yuriga’s married now, and...where this country is heading next...”

Mutsumi chuckled. “You’re feeling uncharacteristically sentimental.”

“Oh, shove off... The world and this era are changing moment by moment. Our country’s rise wiped several nations off the map, which is still being redrawn. And that little twerp Yuriga is somebody’s wife now, you know?”

“Hee hee, that last bit is the part that really makes you feel how much time’s gone by, isn’t it?”

“I was thinking about how things are always gonna change. The era, this country, and us.”

After saying that, Fuuga let out a big yawn.

Mutsumi sat up and leaned over Fuuga, brushing her long, black hair back over her shoulder before kissing his forehead. Mutsumi always appeared so pure and clean, but for just this moment, there was something alluring about her.

“I decided to be with you—no matter how the times change or how the world changes. So, please, run down the path you believe in, and show me things I’ve never seen before. These days we’ve spent together since we were freed from our small countries in the Union of Eastern Nations certainly haven’t been bad by any means.”

“Oh, yeah?”

Fuuga stretched out his thick arm and pulled Mutsumi closer.

The next day, in the audience chamber of Great Haan Castle, Fuuga greeted Hashim and Moumei, who had finished exterminating the rebel elements in the Zem Region, and Anne, who had purged their political opponents inside the Orthodox Papal State. Mutsumi stood by his side as he sat on the throne, her expression resolute.

“Well done, everyone.”

“““Yes, sir!”””

The three of them knelt down and bowed in response to Fuuga’s praise.

Anne raised her head, then put her hands together in front of her face, as if praying to him.

“There is something I would like to show you, Holy King Fuuga,” she announced.

“Hm? What’s that?”

“Bring it in, please...”

Anne raised her hand, and a group of men dressed in the raiment Lunarian Orthodoxy appeared, carrying some large object on their shoulders between them like a portable shrine. It was large enough that Hashim and Moumei had to step aside so it could pass. With a heavy thud, the men set it down behind Anne.

The object was tall enough to make people look up at it, and was also wide and thick. Everyone aside from Anne stared at it, dumbstruck.

“Hey, Anne. What is it?” Fuuga asked, and Anne raised her hand to give the signal.

The cloth was pulled off of it, revealing what looked like a massive stone tablet, or perhaps a monument.

Anne assumed a pose as if she were praying before it, then said, “This is the greatest treasure of Lunarian Orthodoxy, the Lunalith.”

“Oh-hoh... Is that what this is?” Hashim, who had been watching from the side, stroked his chin. “I believe future events are carved into this monument, yes?”

“Yes. We’ve only been able to decrypt fragments, but the orthodox pope managed the country according to the prophecies of this monolith. I had it brought here in case it can be of use to you, Lord Fuuga,” Anne said with one hand over her chest.

However, Fuuga furrowed his brow.

“What rubbish...” he said dismissively. “If that were true, why is the Lunarian Orthodox Papal State in our hands now?”

He rested his elbow on the arm of the throne and his chin on the palm of his hand before he continued, saying, “Why were the heretics destroyed? If they knew from the prophecies that this would happen, they’d have been ready for it.”

“Well... They must have misinterpreted Lady Lunaria’s guidance.”

“If things work out, it’s because they followed the prophecy. If they fail, it’s because they misinterpreted it. That doesn’t sound any different from your common fortune teller to me. And I’m not gonna be ruled by a future someone else told me. We’ll cut a wide swath towards the future and win it for ourselves. Like we have all along.”

Mutsumi and Moumei nodded, agreeing with Fuuga. Hashim shrugged, not objecting, while Anne stared at Fuuga with envy.

“Besides,” Fuuga added, digging the wax out of one ear while looking bored, “Souma’s probably got experts on this kinda stuff at his place. He doesn’t just hire the smart and the strong—he hires people with all sorts of weird skills. That country’s a box of surprises. You never know what’ll pop out. Wouldn’t surprise me if someone there could decipher this thing properly.”

“Ahh... It does feel that way sometimes, doesn’t it?” Mutsumi nodded. Her brother Ichiha’s talents blossomed there because that was the kind of country it was.

Fuuga rose from the throne and walked up to the Lunalith to touch the surface of it, which bore an inscription he couldn’t read.

“If we can only read fragments, it’d be a problem if Souma managed to decipher the whole thing. I’d rather just smash it...”

“Um, I’d really rather you didn’t... Please,” Anne said, a sense of urgency in her voice.

The Lunalith was a source of spiritual support for the believers. If Fuuga were to destroy it, he risked damaging their faith, even when it came to those who worshiped him like Anne.

Fuuga laughed raucously, as if he’d understood that all along. “It was a joke. But if we leave it be, it may benefit Souma. He seems to have some good spies, after all. Right, Hashim?”

“Indeed,” Hashim replied, putting his hands together in front of him as he nodded. “Souma does seem to have a rather talented group of operatives. We’ve organized the White Snakes, expanding and enhancing the spy group that once worked for the House of Chima, but they’ve been at this longer than we have, so we seem to be playing catch-up. While we are not openly hostile to the Kingdom of Friedonia, the battle between our agents is intensifying beneath the surface.”

“Yeah... It’d be bad if they snuck into this castle and got a glimpse of the Lunalith. Let’s seal it away somewhere where they can’t get at it. Would that work?”

Anne bowed reverently in response to Fuuga’s question.

“It will be done as the Holy King Fuuga commands. There is just one thing I want you to hear,” she said, stroking the Lunalith gently. “Recently, the characters that indicate the lands of the north have appeared on the Lunalith frequently. That is the note of importance I wanted you to know.”

“The lands of the north, huh? The Demon Lord’s Domain...”

Anne’s words had put a pensive look on Fuuga’s face.

I’ve finally got things settled inside the country. I can use all the forces at my disposal freely now. And...the Maritime Alliance probably won’t be able to turn me down. Their leader, Souma, must understand the importance of fully liberating the Demon Lord’s Domain. If he and I work together, we can face the Demon Lord’s Domain with the full power of mankind on this continent.

Fuuga sensed the time had come to resume mankind’s war with the Demon Lord’s Domain.

The times are going to be changing again in a big way! And you’re coming with me, Souma!

A feral smile spread across Fuuga’s face as he thought that.

◇ ◇ ◇

One night, as I was enjoying a cup of coffee from the Spirit Kingdom in Yuriga’s room after finishing work, she broached the issue.

“My brother’s requesting a broadcast meeting with you, Souma.”

Although we were married, in light of Yuriga’s position, we were putting off nighttime marital relations until later. That said, it would be awkward to keep her at a distance. People would start prying about it, so at the advice of Liscia and our new chamberlain Tomoe, I was spending time with Yuriga at night once a week.

Though, even if it was at night, all we were doing was drinking tea or coffee—and maybe a little alcohol—as we chatted. It was a valuable opportunity to get her opinion on the person this country needed to be most wary of: Fuuga.

Besides, it was hard to find time to just talk like this lately, so it was as relaxing for me as my tea parties with Juno, which we were still doing occasionally.

“I sense more trouble coming my way...” I said, looking obviously displeased.

“I’ll bet,” Yuriga replied with a shrug. “My brother wouldn’t be contacting us if he didn’t have something bothersome to force you into.”

“That’s surprisingly harsh.”

“Because that’s the truth of the matter... I mean, ’cause that’s the truth.”

Yuriga corrected herself. Since becoming my wife, she’s been making an effort to talk more casually. She didn’t want to be super formal and have people treat her like a foreign princess forever. That’s why she was trying to be frank with us, except at public functions, where there was a hierarchy to consider... She was still getting used to it though.

I’d have felt bad for her if I called attention to it, so I moved on.

“Fuuga destroyed Zem and took hold of the Orthodox Papal State. Which means...if he wants to talk about something, it’s likely about the Demon Lord’s Domain, huh?”

“Unless he’s declaring war on this country, I’m sure that will be it,” Yuriga said without hesitation.

The Maritime Alliance was the only force left that could oppose Fuuga’s Great Tiger Empire now, making me the only ruler who could contend with him. That meant everyone on the continent saw me as the person that Fuuga would eventually have to fight. I’d heard there were already drunks out there arguing over which of us would win. It’s good they were having fun, because I definitely wasn’t enjoying this...

Now that the Great Tiger Empire was united with one will, if Fuuga attacked our faction now, it would be hard to get him to back off by deploying troops from the entire Maritime Alliance like when we’d saved the Gran Chaos Empire. It would certainly crush their morale, but if he could just force the Kingdom of Friedonia to submit, he probably could take back any territory he lost elsewhere...

I sighed between sips of coffee.

“Well, Fuuga will want to take care of the threat to his rear before starting an all-out war with us. He’s a pretty cautious guy, all things considered.”

“That’s true. If there’s going to be a fight, he’ll want to be able to throw everything he has at you.”

“What a nuisance. Seriously.”

“Uh, sorry...”

“It’s not your fault, Yuriga,” I said, putting a hand on her dejected shoulders.

Then, the next day, I had my broadcast meeting with Fuuga.

“So, there you have it, Brother-in-Law. I want the Maritime Alliance’s cooperation in completely liberating the Demon Lord’s Domain.”

“You can’t just say ‘there you have it.’”

During the meeting we were holding over the broadcast, Fuuga requested the Maritime Alliance participate in an operation to fully liberate the Demon Lord’s Domain.

I pinched my temples, feeling an impending headache, and I said, “At its apex, the Empire suffered a major defeat against the Demon Lord’s Domain, despite leading a united force of mankind’s nations. We could face an unexpected situation. Furthermore, your Great Tiger Empire only just brought Zem and the Orthodox Papal State under your control. If you get tripped up here, it’ll be a fatal blow to your country.”

“I think so too, Brother,” said Yuriga, who was standing beside me, displaying a position that was contrary to her brother’s. “It’s plain to see from outside the country. The only reason the Great Tiger Empire works as an empire is because of you and the prestige you hold. If you were to fail to take the Demon Lord’s Domain, and that was to damage your prestige, the Great Tiger Empire would crumble.”

“Is that your own opinion, Yuriga?”

“Yes. Souma’s not making me say this; it’s what I think myself.”

“You’ve learned to speak for yourself, huh? I guess having a partner makes all the difference.”

Fuuga smiled, pleased to see Yuriga’s growth after she boldly argued against him.

“Brother!” Yuriga continued, perhaps feeling he wasn’t taking her seriously, but Fuuga held up a hand to stop her.

“I get what you two are trying to say. But that prestige isn’t something I can maintain for long. Right now, the world is balanced between my country and your faction. We’re in a situation where I could have a stable reign, I’m sure. But peace makes people’s dreams and ambitions rot away. If we don’t act while mankind is able to unite against the Demon Lord’s Domain, we’ll be missing the opportunity. We can only deal with the Demon Lord’s Domain now, while mankind is longing to be freed from the threat of it.”

I could understand where he was coming from. I agreed that if we were going to tackle the Demon Lord’s Domain, now was the only time to do it. But the risks of failure were so high... When a ruler considered that his country might lose stability in battle or another way—stability that so many people had worked for—he would normally be more hesitant. Granted, maybe being able to kick aside that sort of normalcy was one of the prerequisites for becoming a great man.

“We’ll head for the northernmost point on the continent by land. I want your Maritime Alliance to use the fleets you’re so proud of to head there directly and stage a landing. We’ll catch them in a pincer from the north and south.”

“We don’t know how deep the Demon Lord’s Domain actually goes.”

“That’s part of why we’re sending people. We can’t just sit on our hands forever because we don’t know.”

“There are rumors of a demon lord or a demon god too.”

“Just rumors. But if there is one, I’d like to have a go at him,” Fuuga replied with a grin.

There was a vicious innocence in Fuuga’s smile. The man certainly is...pure, I suppose. Pure in his idiocy. Pure in his greatness. Pure in his humanity.

“Obviously, even if you refuse, we’ll try to liberate the Demon Lord’s Domain with our own power.”

Urgh... That would be the worst outcome. The reason the Empire’s united force had failed was due to starting a war without knowing much about the demons. They’d sent in a force that thought they were there to slay monsters like they were culling dangerous animals. The forces had no distinction between what was a monster and a demon, and they ended up at war with the demons. Through Tomoe’s ability and her past experience, we knew that it was possible to communicate with demons.

If I left handling the Demon Lord’s Domain entirely up to Fuuga, he’d attack even the demons we could negotiate with, and when they fought back, it might be a repeat of the last time. Should Fuuga lose, his country would split or fall apart, leaving the countries that couldn’t handle the monster attacks to perish. That would create new refugees, putting pressure on the countries of the south. We’d be back in the same situation as the first year after I was summoned.

If I was going to stop it, I couldn’t leave things entirely to Fuuga.

“When...are you planning to send troops?”

“Sir Souma?!” Yuriga cried out in shock.

I likely had an expression on my face like I’d bitten into something unpleasant. Fuuga didn’t care about that though.

He told me, “The plan is to start in the 11th month of this year. The Demon Lord’s Domain is a desert region in the far north. I figure, if we don’t want our men to perish in the heat, we had better do it sometime after fall. The nights will be cold, but not unmanageable.”

It wasn’t happening immediately, we had more than half a year of lead time.

“Then don’t do anything reckless until then. I want to gather information on the Demon Lord’s Domain too. It would be pure folly to start a war without a plan. There may be records from past battles in Valois Castle in the Euphoria Kingdom.”

“Hmm... You’ve got a point. Maybe I’ll order a search through the former Imperial territories in my realm too.”

“Listen. Avoid any rash actions until the day we send out our troops, Fuuga.”

“Fine... Good working with you.”

The broadcast cut out. I pressed a hand to my forehead as I stared up at the ceiling.

“Oh, jeez!”

“Souma...” Yuriga tugged on my shirt sleeve, her tone compassionate, but also meek because she felt guilty over her brother’s selfish demands.

I patted her on the shoulder, trying to be reassuring, and then slapped my own cheeks to get myself going.

“There’s no time. I’ve gotta do what I can. I’ll need the other countries in the Maritime Alliance to help too. In particular, I’ll need Hakuya to investigate what had happened around the time the united forces of mankind lost to the Demon Lord’s Domain... We don’t have time to waste, Yuriga.”

“Okay!”

Yuriga and I left the room with the jewel, our resolve reaffirmed.