A messenger from the sovereign prince of Amidonia, Julius, had arrived in the imperial capital, Valois, just a few days prior.
“The occupation of Van by the Elfrieden Kingdom is a challenge to signatories of the Mankind Declaration, which forbids the changing of borders,” the messenger had told them. “As the leading power of the treaty, we ask that Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Maria Euphoria, use her power to take Van back from that country.”
Of course, the Empire knew that the Principality of Amidonia had been the one to initiate hostilities. When pressed on that point, the messenger had said, “That is something the former prince, Lord Gaius, did despite Lord Julius’s warnings to the contrary. It has nothing to do with Lord Julius.” The excuse sounded almost defiant.
When he spoke to them like that, Jeanne nearly drew the sword at her hip, but as the one in charge of the Empire’s military, she restrained herself. Then, despite really not wanting to, she agreed to take over the negotiations.
Even if the principality was at fault, the Mankind Declaration had to be respected. The Mankind Declaration was the embodiment of the Empire’s prestige. It was a bitter decision for Maria and Jeanne to have to make.
“I’m sorry,” Maria said. “Making you go to all this trouble.”
“What are you saying? I’m sure you’re the one troubled most by this, sister. I swear we’ll make Julius Amidonia pay for this someday,” Jeanne spat.
Maria could understand how Jeanne felt, but she told her in the calmest tone possible, “It will be fine. The Elfrieden Kingdom’s new king, Souma, is by all accounts a wise man. I can’t see him being so foolish as to fight with our country.”
“Are you sure?” Jeanne asked. “We once demanded he be handed over to us…”
“True… He must have a bad impression of us.”
Roughly half a year before, the Empire had requested that Elfrieden provide subsidies for the war against the demons. If they couldn’t do that, the Empire had included a condition wherein they could carry out the ritual of hero summoning which was passed down in their country, and turn that summoned hero over to the Empire instead. As a result, the financially troubled Elfrieden Kingdom had chosen to summon a hero.
Then the summoned hero, Souma Kazuya, had been given the throne by the king and become the current King of Elfrieden.
There were many points that remained unclear, such as why the former king, Albert, had handed over the throne so easily, but Souma had improved the health of the Elfrieden Kingdom’s economy and begun to provide subsidies.
Since then, the new king Souma had solved a food crisis, put down a rebellion by the three dukes, and dealt with Amidonia, which had used the rebellion as an opportunity to invade, by launching a counter invasion and occupying their capital, Van.
A man who was close in age to Maria had accomplished all of that in a short time. Even if he hadn’t been a hero, she would want someone that capable for herself.
To be honest, rather than Julius who had acted arbitrarily, she would have preferred to be on friendly terms with King Souma. However, because the Empire had demanded he be turned over to them, it was assumed that there was no hope of them forming a friendly relationship. However, Maria hadn’t given up hope yet.
“From what I hear in the reports, I think Sir Souma is the type who will understand if we talk to him,” she said.
Jeanne, on the other hand, disagreed with her assessment. “You do? I feel the opposite, sister. You and he are like oil and water…”
From all the reports Jeanne had heard about Souma, she felt like he was Maria’s polar opposite. For instance, Maria was trying to unite mankind in the face of the threat from the Demon Lord’s Domain, while Souma seemed to be thinking his country needed to be able stand on its own two feet first.
Also, no matter how unpleasant things got, Maria respected the law and rules, trying to act logically, like an empress should. Meanwhile, for Souma, when it came to his powers as king, his subjects, and systems, his policy seemed to be, “If they’re useful, I use them, and if they’re not, I don’t,” with his criteria for which was which being decided by his own sensibilities. If a system wasn’t in line with the facts, he would change it, while if it was practical, he’d employ it even if no one had ever looked at it before.
Maria acted according to logic, while Souma acted according to his feelings. Jeanne didn’t think the two of them would ever understand one another.
“To me, it feels like you two are facing in entirely different directions…” she said.
Maria was silent for a moment, then giggled. “Oh, but if we’re both facing different directions, don’t you think we could eliminate our blind spots if we cooperate?”
When she saw Maria’s mischievous smile, even as her little sister, Jeanne thought she was very cute.
Afterword
To all of you now holding this book. If this is our first meeting, it’s nice to meet you. If you are one of the people I interact with on Pixiv, thank you for your continued patronage. I am Dojyomaru.
First, I would like to apologize for not being able to properly greet you all with an afterword at the end of How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom volume one. I only barely managed to fit that long “Enriching the Country Arc” within my page limit, so there was no room left for an afterword. Because of that, I would like to borrow this space to do what I should have in volume one and thank all of the people involved with this book.
First, I would like to thank Fuyuyuki for providing such wonderful pictures. The schedule was tight, but you still managed to finish enough pictures for us. Thank you. My editor and I were both talking about the illustration of Tomoe in the middle of volume one, saying, “Huh, this is really good.”
To that same editor, I would like to thank you for supporting me when I get discouraged so easily. It’s because of you that I’m here where I am today.
And finally, to everyone who pointed out typos or missing words in the web novel version; to the proofreaders, to the designers, to my friends M and K who celebrated my debut with me; and, more than anyone, to those of you who’ve continued to read my novel on Pixiv despite my many mistakes, as well as those of you who bought the book, I offer my heartfelt thanks.
…Yeah, I should have said all of that in the first volume, huh.
I know I’m nothing special, but I hope you’ll stick with me for a long time.
In fact, as I’m writing this afterword, I have no idea how many pages it will be. My editor said “Make it two pages, please,” but it feels like the book might grow another page during proofreading. If that happens, this entire second page may be cut. Because of that, I prioritized saying the important things first.
Now, on this page which may be cut, I’d like to talk idly about this volume.
For those of you who remember the “Subjugation Arc” which makes up this volume in the web novel version, you may find yourselves wondering, “Was this character always like this?” Opinions may be divided on the changes, but I thought it was the right way to lead into the world I’m currently reworking.
Various characters worry about various things, take various actions, and through the influence of that… the world takes shape. I may be inexperienced, but that is the sort of story I hope to write.
This has been Dojyomaru, writing this as a typhoon approaches.