Juno put her hands on her hips, making an angry face. "What're you two
whispering about? Seems suspicious."
"No, it's nothing suspicious at all, really..." I said.
When Juno stared at me with her unyielding eyes, it was kind of awkward to be
there. That was when Carla and Owen, who had finished wiping out the brigands,
returned.
"What were you doing, master?!" Carla yelled. "Going to the front yourself like
that?!"
"Gahaha!" Owen laughed. "I saw that. The sword techniques I taught you came in
handy, didn't they?"
Seeing this as my chance to break out of the current atmosphere, I slipped out
from the middle of the Liscia-Juno sandwich and rushed over to the two of them.
"Ah! Hey! I want a proper explanation!" Juno called after me.
Ignoring Juno's complaints, I asked Carla and Owen, "Good work, you two. So,
who were those guys, anyway?"
"From what I was able to gather, it seems it was a slave trader and men in his
employ," said Carla.
"A slave trader?" I repeated.
"You nationalized the slave trade recently, master," she explained. "I hear that
you made the qualification exams more rigorous, too. That drove slave traders from
other nations out of the country, and slavers from our own country who've failed to
qualify have been leaving for other countries, too. These were a group of slavers
who failed the qualification exam."
I had turned slave traders into public servants just the other day. I couldn't
abolish the system of slavery yet, but to make it something that existed in name only,
I was working to make it so slaves went from being treated as objects to being
treated as laborers and people. In order to accomplish that, I'd made it so that
slavers who treated their slaves like objects and abused them would fail the
qualification exam.
"But why would people like that attack the refugees?" I asked.
"In order to fund their flight abroad, they meant to abduct women and children
who looked like they would fetch a good price, no doubt," said Carla. "Because the
refugees aren't people of this country, they must have thought the officials wouldn't
act proactively to protect them."
"As if we wouldn't!" I shouted.
"I-I'm not the one you need to be telling that," Carla said with a troubled look on
her face, snapping me back to my senses. True, that wasn't something for me to say
to Carla.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm sorry for losing my composure there."
"No..."
"Carla, I'm sorry, but could you fly back to the castle and report what happened
here to Hakuya?" I asked. "I'm sure he'll send out notice to those who need to know
and think about the necessary measures right away."
"Yes, sir. I understand."
No sooner than she had said that, Carla spread her wings wide and rose into the
air, flying toward the castle at top speed. In that instant, I caught a glimpse of her
garter belt, so I hurriedly looked away.
No, I didn't see anything more important. So, please, Liscia, don't look at me like
that.
Then, at almost exactly the same time as Carla took off, Hilde returned. "We
finished treating the wounded. They weren't minor wounds, but it's probably due to
that priest's quick work. Their lives aren't in danger. The wounds have already been
closed up with magic."
"I see... That's good..."
"But what are you going to do?" Hilde asked. "It looks like a crowd has gathered
here."
When I looked around, there were refugees who had begun to gather when
they'd heard the commotion. We had managed to keep a low profile so far, so I didn't
want to stand out now. I called Owen and Liscia over.
"Let's let the adventurers hand these guys over to the authorities. We'll go and
meet with the chief of the village as planned."
"Understood, sire," said Owen.
"You don't want to do anything about Juno?" Liscia asked.
"I don't see any good way to explain this situation. Besides, it'd probably be bad
to have it come out that the king was the one inside Little Musashibo all along."
"True, if people found out the king was playing with dolls, that's not exactly
dignified." Liscia nodded to herself, seemingly satisfied.
We then got out of there in a hurry.
"Ah, hey! Wait!" Juno yelled after me when she noticed, but I wasn't about to wait.
So long, pops!
No, wait, she was the thief here.
Leaving the cleanup to Juno and her party, we headed into the center of the
refugee camp to accomplish our original goal of meeting with the chief. After
following our guide for some time, eventually we were led into a large tent that
resembled a Mongolian ger or yurt.
When we entered the tent there was one large human male, sitting cross-legged
with both hands on the ground, bowing his head to us. It was a pose I'd often seen
vassals take toward their lords in period dramas.
The large man, who looked to be around thirty, wore, if I were to describe it
simply, garb that looked to me like Native American clothing or something similar.
He had a tanned, muscular physique, and though it was already quite cold, his
leather clothes were sleeveless. He wore magical-looking paint on his face.
Behind him there was a girl wearing similar attire who was sitting in the same
pose. Her age probably wasn't that different from Liscia or Roroa's. She was a cute
girl with dark brown hair and a rustic simplicity to her. There was a resemblance in
their faces, so these two might be siblings.
"I thank you for coming, Great King of Friedonia," said the man.
"Please, could you not call me Great King, or anything like that?" I said. "I don't
really like that sort of stuff."
I sat down in front of the big man. Not on a chair, but directly on the carpet that
had been rolled out. It was a familiar thing for a Japanese person to do.
From the feel of it, I could tell there were probably wooden boards beneath the
carpet. It didn't seem to have been rolled out directly on the dirt.
Liscia sat next to me, while Owen, Hilde, and Carla, who had already returned, sat
behind us waiting.
The big man said, "I see..." a pensive look on his face. "Then what am I to call
you?"
"King Souma... Your Majesty... call me whatever you want."
"Understood, King Souma. I am Jirukoma. I am the chief of this refugee village. I
hear that you just helped some of our people here, and for that I thank you from the
bottom of my heart." Jirukoma bowed his head deeply.
"I am Souma Kazuya, the one acting as the king of this country," I said. "The ones
who helped them were the adventurers we dispatched here. If you want to thank
someone, thank them."
"No, the adventurers are here because of your support," said Jirukoma. "I thank
you for that, and the supplies you have given us."
"I'll accept your thanks. But, you know, I didn't come here today so you could
thank me, right?"
Jirukoma's expression stiffened. He had to know what I was here for. After all, he
had already spoken many times with the emissaries I'd sent to discuss this matter.
"I've come to push you to make a decision," I said. "You've listened to the counsel
of my emissaries, right? Now that I've come in person, today is the day you must
finally make your decision. Which will you choose?"
"That's...!"
"Stop, Komain," the man said.
"But, Brother!"
The girl tried to rise, but Jirukoma motioned for her to stop.
This girl's name was Komain, huh? They were apparently siblings, just like I had
thought.
Jirukoma told her, "Our words will decide the fate of everyone in this village. We
cannot be quick to anger."
"...I understand." Komain sat back down.
For a moment, Owen and Carla behind me had tensed themselves for a fight, but
Komain had laid down her arms, so to speak, and so they'd calmed down, too.
A heavy air fell over us all.
Perhaps out of concern for that, Liscia spoke up. "Souma, I'd like you to explain
the situation..."
"Right... I want this whole refugee problem solved already," I said. "Because no
good will come, either for our country or for the people living here, from leaving
things the way they are. That's why I've forced the refugees to make a decision."
"A decision?" he asked.
I gave a heavy nod, then said it clearly. "They can abandon their longing for home
and become people of this country, or they can leave."
For the refugees who'd lost their homes to the appearance of the Demon Lord's
Domain, their true wish was to return to their homelands and take back the lives
they once had.
However, in the current situation, there was no indication of when or if that
would be possible.
The major incursion that had been launched into the Demon Lord's Domain had
ended in failure, instilling a fear of the Demon Lord's Domain into the forces of
mankind.
Even the largest nation on the side of mankind, the Gran Chaos Empire, was
unenthusiastic about the idea of another invasion. The nations were focused solely
on keeping the Demon Lord's Domain from expanding any further.
Even if, at some point in the future, something was going to change this situation
for the better, it wasn't going to be in the next few days. It wouldn't be in the next
few months, either. Even with years, it still might be difficult.
That being the case, what should the refugees do in response? Continue to pray
for their return, swearing allegiance to no country while they stay in a foreign land?
...That was no good. That sort of warped arrangement was sure to cause trouble
later.
"The former king turned a blind eye to their presence," I said. "I've had a
mountain of other problems to deal with, so I've carried on that way until today. I've
even provided some support, though only a little."
Jirukoma said nothing.
"But now, with solutions to all of the other problems worked out, I have to tackle
this one. We can't simply provide support forever, and you remaining here illegally
is a problem. We've turned a blind eye until now, but hunting and foraging without a
license is against the law. If we tolerate these illegal acts, it is guaranteed to stoke
resentment from the people of this country."
Because they didn't belong to this country.
For now, there was still an air of sympathy for them because they had lost their
countries when the Demon Lord's Domain had appeared. However, air was air. You
could never tell when the winds might shift.
They had no prospect of returning home. If we supported non-citizens
indefinitely, and continued to overlook their illegal behavior, it wouldn't be long
before the people's resentment boiled over. In the worst case, there could be clashes
between the people and the refugees.
"That's why I've pressed the people here to make a decision," I said. "They can
give up on returning to their homelands and become people of this country, or they
can choose not to give up on returning and leave this country as people of a foreign
land. I'm here today to have them make that choice."
"But, Souma, that's..."
Liscia had a pained look on her face, but I shook my head silently.
"You may think it cruel, but it's necessary."
In the world I'd come from, there was a book that likened a commonwealth to a
monster and its people to countless scales covering it. On the cover of that book, the
monster was depicted as a person larger than a mountain.