“Hold on, Souma, why are you saying that all of a sudden?!” Liscia demanded.
“Do you believe what this old man is saying, sire?!” Aisha cried.
“If we make changes now, there will be a major delay in construction…” Ludwin protested.
I could understand how they felt. I didn’t want to do something so bothersome, either. However, when I considered the peace of the new city, it had to be done.
“Souma, you can’t mean to tell me you really believe in this sea god?” Aisha asked.
“No, there’s probably no sea god,” I told her.
“Then…”
“Liscia, legends are people’s memories.” I pointed to my temple. “Legends are something we hand down. So, why do we hand them down, you might wonder? Because our forefathers decided it was important to do so. Worthless stories won’t be handed down. If this one has been handed down, there’s a ‘lesson’ to be found in the legend, or ‘wisdom for everyday life’ in it.”
“And you’re saying this curse of the sea god is like that?” she asked.
“Yeah. In this legend, the ‘lesson’ is don’t build houses in a specific area. If people ignore that lesson and build houses there, they’re sure to be destroyed.” I looked straight at Urup and added, “By a tsunami, right?”
Urup’s eyes went wide, and he suddenly began to tremble.
“Y-Yes! By a tsunami! Everyone in the houses there, they were washed away, houses and all!”
“Was there a big earthquake before the tsunami came, perhaps?” I asked.
“H-How did you know?!” Urup cried, as if he had just remembered that now himself. Perhaps the sight of people being washed away, houses and all, was so shocking that he had unconsciously been suppressing the memory.
“In other words, the sea god’s true identity is ‘a tidal wave triggered by an undersea earthquake,’” I said.
Even on Earth, it was only recently that the mechanism behind earthquakes had been discovered.
We had had to wait until the 20th century, when the interior structure of the Earth had been discovered. Until that point, even if we’d experienced an earthquake as a phenomenon, we had said it was because of reasons like “volcanic activity” or “underground water turning into steam and causing a hollow cavity to form.”
I used my hands to demonstrate one plate subsiding under another, like you often see on news programs’ earthquake coverage, but all I got was a bunch of blank stares.
“Ummm… Sorry. I don’t really get it,” Liscia said.
“Plates? Vibration? Are you talking about magic, sire?” Aisha asked.
“I’m lost, too,” Ludwin added. “When it comes to things that advanced, I don’t know if they teach it even at the Royal Academy.”
Not one of them understood. It was ahead of their time, so I couldn’t blame them.
“Okay, forget the mechanism behind how it works, then,” I said. “The important thing is, when there’s an earthquake underwater, sometimes it causes a tsunami. In other words, Urup’s ‘wrath of the sea god’ doesn’t occur because people build houses there; it’s a periodic thing.”
“My word… It will happen even if we don’t build houses there?” Urup’s eyes were wide.
I traced the contours of the coastlines on the map and showed them. “I could also mention, this country’s coast is in a < shape, and this spot is in the corner of it. Places like this will be damaged more heavily than other coastal areas in a tsunami. The reason for that is… something you wouldn’t understand even if I tried to explain it to you, so just accept that that’s how it works.”
If I’d built a miniature model of the coast and poured water in so they could see the waves converging, they might have been able to understand. That’d take effort, though, so it could wait.
“Still, if this place is so dangerous, won’t the new city be at risk?” Liscia pointed out.
I groaned. “Hrm… Some spots might be better than this, but all coastal regions are about the same, and I can say for sure that this is the closest port to the center of the country. From what I’m hearing, there’s a long period of time between them, and they only happen once in a hundred years, so if we design the city assuming it will be hit by a tsunami, it should be okay.”
With that, Ludwin and I looked at the map, hammering out the details of our plan.
“First, we should pile up dirt and raise the ground level,” I said.
“Right now? If we do it by hand, it will take quite a while,” he answered.
“Have earth mages in the Forbidden Army prioritize working on it. It will have an impact on the building time, but there’s no other choice.”
“Understood.” He nodded. “Now that I think of it, I’ve heard that Duchess Walter’s coastal city has these things called seawalls. Should we make those here as well?”
“Seawalls, huh… It’ll hurt the view…” I gave that some consideration. “If possible, I want this trade port to be usable as a tourist destination, as well. Besides, they wouldn’t be able to stand up to an unprecedentedly large tsunami, anyway.”
“We shouldn’t build them, then?” he asked.
“…Let’s see. Actually, I’d rather build a city that doesn’t rely on seawalls. It seems like the civil engineering and construction guild has an expert on flood control, so let’s summon him and get his opinion.”
“Understood,” he said. “Now, as to the specifics of the city plan…”
“Thanks to old man Urup, we know roughly the area that the tsunami can reach,” I said. “We’ll avoid it when we place the residential, commercial, and industrial districts. Of course, that goes for important facilities like consulates, as well.”
“You’re not going to develop the area that the tsunami reaches?” he asked.
“The fishing harbor and wharf can’t go anywhere else. As for the rest, we’ll develop it as a seaside park.”
“I see. You’ll develop on the assumption that it’s going to get washed away.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Oh, one other thing, old man Urup.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“I’m going to make you a state-registered storyteller, so see to it that the Legend of the Sea God gets handed down, please. I’m going to make it a public service job that requires a certification, so work hard to train the next generation to tell the story before you die.”
“M-Me, a public servant?!” he exclaimed.
“Yeah. In addition to the ‘Don’t build houses where the tsunami can reach’ lesson from earlier, work in ‘If you feel an earthquake, assume there will be a tsunami,’ and ‘Because a tsunami is coming, evacuate to high-ground,’ as well. You can blame the sea god’s wrath, just make sure the tale is one that’s easy to hand down.”
“…Understood! I shall spend the rest of my life on it!” he cried.
“Good. By the way, about the castle wall that will surround the city…”
Three men talked enthusiastically about the plan for the city. Liscia and Aisha watched them with wry smiles.
“His Majesty… looks like he’s enjoying himself,” Aisha commented.
“He is enjoying himself,” Liscia nodded. “Compared to hunting for funds, at least.”
“I wonder why it is, but I think I’ve finally seen the youthful side of His Majesty.”
“Youthful… huh. The reason Souma doesn’t seem youthful is almost certainly because…”
“Hm? What is it, Princess?” Aisha asked.
“No. It’s nothing…Hey, Aisha.”
“What is it?”
“Aisha, do you… like Souma?” she asked hesitantly.
“Yes! I have great respect and affection for him!”
“…I see. Well, then. Let’s work to support Souma so he can keep smiling.”
“Yes! But of course!” Aisha cried.