“Warding trees?” the princess asked.
“Aisha, you explain.”
“Yes, sir! These warding trees constantly emit waves that monsters and wild animals dislike. They probably do it to keep giant boars from eating them. In the God-Protected Forest, we plant these warding trees densely around our villages in order to prevent incursions by monsters and animals.”
“I see,” the princess mused. “They’re like a simple barrier, huh.”
When he heard the princess’s response, King Souma gave a satisfied nod. “Now that’s what I call local know how. Anyway, if we planted them densely over a wide range like a road, there’s no telling what that’d do to the ecosystem. So rather than fully block them off, we’ll leave a reasonable number of gaps so that we’re just discouraging them from approaching.”
“Why? Wouldn’t it be better to stop them entirely?” the princess asked.
“Okay then, Liscia. If the ashen wolves and red bears, which change their hunting grounds seasonally, can’t migrate because of the road, so they stay where they are instead, run out of prey, and then start attacking livestock and houses, what will you do? Or, what if giant apes and giant boars, which will end up staying in one place the same way, come down to the villages to tear up the fields and, in so doing, spread leeches that previously only existed in the mountains to the village… What if that happened?”
“I get that we absolutely shouldn’t do it, but why are your examples so specific?!” she asked.
“Because coping with dangerous animals is a problem that all local self-governing bodies must face,” Souma said, an exhausted look on his face.
What’s a “local self-governing body”? I wondered.
Unlike me, Kaede seemed to understand, and she was thoroughly impressed.
“Wowwie… You’ve thought it through that far. I should have expected no less from our king, you know,” she said.
“Hmm. Well, all I did was bring along a bunch of knowledge from the world I was in before,” Souma said.
Kaede’s eyes sparkled, and Souma blushed a little as she stared at him.
As she watched those two, the princess seemed a little miffed.
“Um, Princess?” the dark elf asked.
“What?” the princess demanded.
“That’s one scary look you’ve got on your face.”
“I–Is it?…Well, you’re not one to talk, are you?”
“Huh?”
Then, at that moment…
“No!”
…there was a sudden cry. Wondering what it was, I turned to look in its direction and saw the dark elf looking at a letter, her face distorted with emotion. There was a white bird perched on her quivering shoulder.
Was that a messenger kui?
Using a kui’s homing instinct and ability to pick up on waves emitted by its master at a long distance, it was possible to communicate between an individual and a fixed location. With the exception of the Jewel Voice Broadcast, which almost felt like cheating, this was the fastest method of communication. So, did that mean someone had contacted her?
“What is it, Aisha?” Souma asked.
The dark elf spoke through quivering lips. “I’ve just received word from the God-Protected Forest that there’s been a major landslide!”
“I’ve received a message from my father, the chief of the dark elf village,” Aisha said. “‘Last night, a sudden landslide swallowed up around half the village,’ it said. There had been a lot of rain in the God-Protected Forest lately… Yes. There are… many people missing… Ohh…” Aisha’s voice caught.
Her homeland and family had just been hit by a terrible disaster. It had to have been quite a shock to her.
…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.”