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."