Chapter 6: Relief (part 1)

I'm Halbert Magna, age 19.

I'm the eldest son of the Magna family, well known within the Elfrieden Kingdom

land forces. I myself used to belong to them, but after some stuff happened, I was

forced to transfer to the Forbidden Army.

To add insult to injury, my commanding officer was my childhood friend, the

earth mage Kaede Foxia, who liked to end her sentences with "you know." To think,

now I had to take orders from her... I wished it was all just a joke.

On top of that, what was I doing now? Right now, rather than a sword, I was

swinging an entrenching tool (a round-edged shovel which can also be used in close

quarters combat) instead.

Marching orders had come for the Forbidden Army, and when I arrived on the

site, I was tasked with piling up dirt, hollowing out the middle, pouring in a gooey

liquid (?), reinforcing the sides with gravel, then planting saplings on either side.

After that, I would set up the street lamps filled with the lightmoss that are common

in the capital, the kind which absorb light during the day and are phosphorescent at

night, repeating these same tasks over and over.

To sum it up simply, I was doing roadwork.

Summer had ended, but the sun was still hot, and I was digging up dirt and

making piles with it over and over.

"Why... does the Forbidden Army... have to do... roadwork?"

"You there. Stop prattling and get to work, on the double."

Wiping the sweat from my brow, I looked over to see Kaede standing on top of a

simple scaffold, smacking the railing with her megaphone as she gave orders. She

must have been feeling the heat pretty badly herself. Her trademark perky fox ears

had drooped down like dog ears.

"Hey, Kaede, is this really...?" I began.

"You can't do that!" she protested. "Hal, you're my subordinate, you know. You

must address me properly as the site foreman."

"...Foreman, is this really a job for the Forbidden Army?"

"This is the sort of work that the Forbidden Army does now, you know," she

answered.

"Surely we could leave this stuff to construction workers."

"There just aren't enough of them, you know. This is part of a plan for a kingdomwide road network, you know. We've hired unemployed people from the capital as

well, I hear, but we're still so short of hands, I'd even ask a warcat to help."

Even so, would you normally have the military do this sort of work? I thought.

"Besides, we can't have just construction workers come here alone, you know,"

she said. "The further you go from a settlement, the more powerful the wild

creatures get, after all. And if we hired adventurers to protect them, it would cost a

fortune."

"So, in the end, we're just cheap labor, is that it...?" I asked.

"If you understand that, then get to work, on the double," she said.

"You're an earth mage. Can't you do this faster with magic?"

"I can't afford to expend my magic here, you know," she said. "Hal, are you going

to dig tunnels through the mountains in my place?"

I said nothing.

I went back to my work of digging up dirt and piling it up.

It's better than being forced to dig a tunnel without magic, at least, I thought. What

kind of old-fashioned hard labor sentence is this...?

Noon came. We went back to the camp and were given a two-hour break.

Inside the tent we ate, chatted, or used the simple beds (they were no more than

stretchers that had grown a little fur) to take an afternoon nap. Apparently that king

strongly encouraged naps after eating. It was something about how it improved

work efficiency.

So work in the Forbidden Army literally came with "three meals and a nap," but...

once people found out what kind of work was involved, there was no way they

would be jealous of us.

Anyway, I wasn't going to make it through the afternoon if I didn't eat, so I wolfed

down the lunchbox I had been supplied.

Today's lunchbox was meat and vegetables between bread. Delicious.

The meat was lightly spiced, which felt like it helped relieve my exhaustion. It

was apparently a dish called shogayaki which that king had come up with. It was a

menu he was experimenting with now that the production of the seasonings the king

was having the mystic wolves make for him — "miso," "soy sauce," and "mirin" —

had gotten on track.

In the Forbidden Army, we were often served the king's experimental menus like

this. The meals were one of the few things that made me happy that I had been

forced to transfer to the Forbidden Army. The meals we'd gotten in the land forces

had prioritized quantity over quality. The kind of thing you'd picture from the words

"A Man's Meal." Honestly, eating here even once had been enough to convince me I

didn't want to go back.

"That king... If nothing else, I've got to recognize his gift for cooking," I admitted.

"They really are delicious, you know," Kaede agreed. "The dishes our king comes

up with."

At some point, Kaede had sat down next to me, and she was eating the same

menu.

"Also, it's incredible that we can eat fresh veggies every day, you know," she

continued. "They come in from the closest village to here that's hooked up to the

castle by road. The reason roads are great is that they make it easy to maintain

supply lines, you know."

"The roads we're building are being useful right away, huh?" I asked.

"With this transportation capacity, you can almost call the food crisis solved

already, you know. We can bring food from the areas with a surplus to the areas

where there are shortages. We'll be able to transport foods that we couldn't before

because they didn't keep long enough."

"...Is he doing this because he knows all that stuff?" I asked. "That king, I mean."

"He's an incredible man, you know. His foresight is almost frightening."

Well, I thought Kaede was pretty amazing for being able to understand all of that,

too. She could be a bit silly in some ways, but Kaede had some pretty high base

specs. She could use magic, and she was sharp, too. That was probably why she had

been chosen by the king himself.

...As her childhood friend, it did frustrate me a little, though.

...I need to do my best, too.

"Well, now that you've eaten, will you be taking a nap, Hal?" she asked me.

"Well... I am tired. Guess I will."

"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."