“In that case, you can rest your head in my lap, you know,” she said.
“Bwuh!” I spewed my tea.
Everyone was suddenly looking our way. More than half of those glances were from men who clearly wanted to kill me.
Now, even though I’m biased as her childhood friend, Kaede is cute. It’s nothing to write home about, but her figure’s not bad, and those fox ears and tail really work in her favor. It wasn’t surprising that she was treated like an idol in the Forbidden Army.
The king had told me to serve under her so that the men wouldn’t look down on Kaede, but, honestly, I think that with one request from Kaede, these guys would gladly have gone to their deaths. That was why their murderous rage was directed at me, for being so close to her.
I coughed desperately. “What are you saying?!”
“People were talking about how the princess did it for the king in the park in the capital a little while back, you know,” she said.
“I’m amazed they could do that in a place where so many people could see…”
Well, they’re engaged and all, so maybe it’s not that odd, I added to myself. It’s far better than not getting along at all.
“People are saying we’ll have a royal heir by next year. Though, partly because the king is from another world, the betting pools for the heir’s name haven’t been able to narrow down a list of candidates.”
“…You’re talking an awful lot about something that’s none of your business,” a voice said.
Kaede yelped.
When I turned to look in the direction of the sudden voice, I saw King Souma, sighing and slumping his shoulders, and Princess Liscia, her face a deep shade of red, standing at the entrance of the tent.
“Hey, you two. How’ve you been?” King Souma asked, addressing us casually.
“I’m full of energy, you know,” Kaede managed. “Your Majesty, I see that you and the princess are the same as ever.”
“Yeah, we haven’t changed much, have we, Liscia?” King Souma asked.
“You’re right. It makes me wish you’d show a little more awareness of your position as king.”
King Souma and the princess sat down at our table, as though it was perfectly natural for them to do so, and started having a friendly chat with Kaede.
Huh? Wait? What’s going on?
King Souma and the princess were sitting across from me and Kaede while the dark elf who’d been with them at the cafe stood waiting by the entrance. Since I felt better just knowing that that blue-haired woman wasn’t around, that was probably evidence I’d been traumatized by the experience I’d had last time.
Then King Souma turned the conversation to me. “Halbert, have you gotten used to things in the Forbidden Army, as well?”
“Yes, sir! I have no issues!”
“So formal…” he muttered. “Where did the spirit you had before go?”
“I apologize for my behavior that time!” I said immediately. “I was terribly rude to you, Your Majesty…”
“King’s orders: Don’t be so uptight and formal. Also, no more of that ‘Your Majesty’ stuff. Souma’s fine.”
“No, but…”
“‘Hal’, did you not hear me? That was an order.”
“…I… I understand… Souma.”
“That’s good. I was just thinking I’d like a guy my age who I can chat casually with,” King Souma… Souma… said, seeming satisfied.
What the hell, man? Seriously? I thought. Well, if he’s requesting it himself, fine. I don’t feel much respect for his authority, anyway.
“So… why are you here, Souma?” I asked.
“For an inspection, that’s all. I want to see how the roadwork is progressing.”
“You don’t need to tell us to take our jobs seriously. We already are,” I said.
“So it seems. I took the road coming here.”
“You’d better be grateful,” I said. “We’re breaking our backs to build it for you.”
“And I reward you with good food and wages, don’t I? You’re receiving plenty of compensation.”
I got used to talking casually with him in no time. Souma’d never felt like a king to begin with, anyway.
When he saw we were finished eating, Souma rose from his seat. “Now then, you two, why don’t you join me for the road inspection? I’d like to explain road construction for Liscia.”
“…What, isn’t Kaede good enough for that on her own?” I asked. “She’s the one in charge here.”
“I want to show her the actual work of making the road, you see,” he explained. “Besides, it’s at times like this when you should do what your superiors want and take the chance to build connections. It’ll come in handy later, you know?”
“How is it going to help me?” I demanded.
“Well… we’re studying how to make instant gelin udon right now,” he said. “Just add water and anytime, anywhere, even out in the field, you’ll be able to enjoy gelin udon. I might be able to arrange for some of the samples to make their way to your unit…”
“Right this way, sire. I’ll show you around.” I rose to my feet and saluted Souma.
Instant gelin udon. Now we were talking. I wasn’t going to let this chance to add some variety to our already-limited selection of field rations slip away.
The princess and Kaede seemed amused by my sudden change in attitude, but I didn’t let that bother me. Food was my number one priority, after all.
The five of us — me, Kaede, Souma, the princess, and the dark elf guard — arrived at a section of road that was currently being paved. There, Souma asked me to demonstrate the work procedures for everyone.
First, I piled up dirt to create the road’s sides.
“Once he’s piled up the dirt on both sides, we pour that gooey stuff over there in the middle,” Souma said, explaining road construction to the princess.
“What is that gooey stuff?” she asked.
“Roman concrete… It’s a mixture of volcanic ash and lime. It will harden as time passes. It also has a unique viscosity, so it doesn’t crack easily. If you want to see how tough it is… Well, if you look at that over there, I think you’ll understand.”
After saying that, Souma pointed to a giant lizard that was larger than many buildings. The giant lizard was towing a number of wheeled container cars behind it. The container cars were packed full of construction materials and provisions for the soldiers.
The giant lizard, rhinosaurus.
Also known as the great horned lizard, this super-sized lizard was distinctive for the two great tusks which grew from atop its nose. (If Souma had been describing it, he might have described it as, “Take a rhino, add a Komodo dragon, divide by two, then multiply the size by ten.”) They were omnivorous and gentle, easily becoming attached to people, so they were used in big cities to haul large volumes of cargo like this. When they were enraged, they had an unstoppable charge, so I had heard of them being used to assault castles, as well.
“It’s so tough that even if that rhinosaurus rammed it at full speed, it won’t crack,” Souma explained.
“That is incredible,” the princess said. “It’s that hard?”
“No, actually, it’s flexible where it needs to be, so it distributes the force that’s put into it. In the world I came from, there were buildings made with this concrete over 2,000 years ago that were still standing.”
2,000 years? Four times longer than this country’s existed? I thought. Wow, that’s amazing.
“Moving on, the street lamps he’s setting up on either side of the road are the same as the ones in the capital. There are a lot of wild creatures, so I doubt people will move by night often, but with these, they won’t get lost if they do. As for the roadside trees he’s planting, they’re ‘warding trees’ from the God-Protected Forest.”