How a Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom
Book 15: Chapter 10

We sat around the table in the center of the room in three groups: Me, Liscia, and Julius; Maria, Jeanne, and Krahe; and Fuuga, Mutsumi, and Hashim.

Queen Sill joined us, seating herself between the Empire and the Great Tiger Kingdom. There were also simple receivers placed on either side of the Kingdom team, in the middle of the gaps between them and the others. Furthermore, behind Queen Sill was the jewel that had come from our country.

“To ensure fairness and keep a record of the proceedings of this conference, I will be acting as secretary. Is that acceptable to all parties?” Sill asked.

We all nodded to show there was no objection. Sill nodded too.

“Then with all sides agreed, I’d like to begin. Now then, as the man who proposed this event, I would ask Sir Souma to direct the meeting from here.”

“Okay. First... Liscia, Julius. Take care of the simple receivers.”

“Got it.”

“Understood.”

When they activated the receivers, Kuu and Shabon appeared.

“Kuu, Shabon. Can you see us?”

“Yeah! I can see you perfectly here, bro!”

“There are no problems on my end either.”

Nodding at their responses, I turned to Fuuga and Maria.

“As we discussed in advance, in addition to myself, Sir Kuu Taisei, the Head of the Republic, and Nine-Headed Dragon Queen Shabon—both of whom are part of a maritime alliance with my country—will also be participating. The support of these two countries will be indispensable to solving the problem at hand. This isn’t a meeting where anything is going to be decided by majority vote, so I assume there’s no problem.”

“A meeting with the heads of six influential states, huh? Fancy,” Fuuga said jovially, crossing his arms.

“First, I will explain the epidemic disease in the Spirit Kingdom of Garlan known as the Spirit King’s Curse...or rather, its true nature, as discovered by my doctors, Blood-Borne Magic-Eating Bug Disease—Magic Bug Disease for short—using the latest information sent to me by Surgeon Brad from the port town... Uh, this is getting unwieldy, so I’m just going to speak normally from here on. First...”

I rose from my seat and began writing everything we knew about Magic Bug Disease on the blackboard that had been prepared for me.

The magic bugs were inside the spiral shells of insect-type monsters that appeared in the demon wave, and people got infected when they came into contact with fluids from those shells after defeating them. I also noted it could not transfer from the blood of one person to another.

“To sum things up, the best way to get this disease under control is to eradicate all insect monsters with spiral shells. Without getting their juices on us, of course.”

“Yeah. The faster the better,” Fuuga said, nodding.

“The worst thing would be for a cycle of infection to become fully established.”

“A cycle?”

“As living creatures, blood-borne magic-eating bugs have to produce offspring in some way. If they just kill their host and die themselves, that’s a failure. They have to make eggs of some sort inside people, then have them exit the host body somehow, such as through the person’s excrement. Then, when that dissolves in water that gets drunk by monsters, they grow into a form that can infect people... When you have a complete cycle like this, a disease can get established in an area for a long time.”

“That would be troublesome,” Maria said, her face filled with concern. “There are many historical examples of countries destroyed by epidemics that went on for an extended period of time. I’m sure we’ll have to deal with the problem while it’s still possible to.”

“Right... Souma already told me that insect-type monsters were the cause,” Fuuga said, nodding at Maria’s words. “That’s why I’ve ordered the unit I sent to the Father Island to attack at long range, not up close, but...I’ll tell them to prioritize eliminating those monsters too.”

“Yeah. That’s the main thing.”

Oncomelania hupensis, the intermediary host responsible for schistosomiasis in Japan, was a small snail no larger than a centimeter at most. I remember being surprised by just how tiny they were when I saw them at Sugiura Memorial Museum in Showa Town, which we visited as part of our social studies class. It seemed like they’d have been really hard to find.

In order to exterminate the snails, they mobilized the whole prefecture, and even borrowed the assistance of the occupying American forces, but it still took many long years. The snails were small enough to live in rain troughs, so the exterminators couldn’t keep up. In this case, though, the relevant insect-type monsters were massive and easy to find. We’d need the Spirit Kingdom and Fuuga’s forces to do all they could to eradicate them.

Fuuga leaned in and asked, “I’ll take responsibility for the Father Island, but what do you want to do about the Mother Island?”

“The Spirit Kingdom King’s daughter is in the port town, right?” I asked.

“Yeah. Princess Elulu, was it? She should be looking after Shuukin.”

“I believe so. Hilde and Brad are sharing the information with her.”

Gerula had given his life for this information. I wanted it to save the people of the Spirit Kingdom too.

At this point, Hashim, who had been listening, opened his mouth. “The key thing is to prevent further infections. I understand that. With that in mind, what should be done to treat those already infected?”

Julius’s expression twitched just a little when his enemy spoke.

I did everything I could to remain calm as I replied, “There is a way to treat it. If you have light mages with information on the Magic Bug Disease, knowledge of the body, and an understanding of medicine, it’s possible. I’m going to ask them to develop medicines that will allow it to be treated even in places without that kind of mage, but...if we wait for that, it could be years or even decades. We have no choice but to rely on these mages for now.”

“Just any ordinary light mage won’t do?” Fuuga asked and I nodded.

“You couldn’t treat Sir Shuukin yourselves, right? But he’s on the mend now that our doctor, Hilde, treated him. There’s your answer.”

“Yeah, I get it... I was just checking,” Fuuga said, resting his cheek on the palm of his hand. “What a pain.”

I continued. “Just being a light mage isn’t enough. They need to have learned medicine. In addition to Hilde, we have a number of light mages who’ve mastered medicine... Okay, that’s a mouthful, so I’m going to call them mage doctors. We’ve worked hard to train them. But...”

I slammed my hands down on the table and shook my head.

“We don’t have enough of them. In addition to the basic prerequisite of being able to use light magic, learning enough about medicine is difficult. Furthermore, at the current stage, the only difference between them and a regular doctor is the ability to treat parasitic diseases. They’ll be highly valued in special situations like this one, but it’s questionable if we’ll see returns fitting the effort it takes to train them.”

“We don’t have doctors to begin with, so I don’t really get it, but... Is that just how it is?” Fuuga asked.

“That’s just how it is,” I replied with a shrug. “We don’t have that many in the Kingdom either. Even if we sent in every mage doctor in the Kingdom, there’d be too many patients for them to handle them all.”

“Right...”

“So, that’s why I’d like the Empire and Republic to help,” I said, looking at Maria and the image of Kuu. “We have a medical alliance with the Empire and Republic, and have been sharing our knowledge with them.”

“They...were doing that?” Hashim muttered to himself with a frown.

When I decided to increase the number of mage doctors to keep Hilde from being treated as special, I’d contacted the Empire and the Republic, and asked them to work on training mage doctors. The Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago Union had joined that alliance afterwards, but it hadn’t been long enough for them to be ready in time.

“The Empire and Republic should have mage doctors. With their larger population, the Empire has even more than us, right?”

“Yes, that’s true. We’ve been using the knowledge you provided us with in order to train enough people to cover our vast empire. If you can provide the information on Magic Bug Disease, we’ll get them ready to treat it at once,” Maria said with a smile.

That’s the most populous and powerful state on the continent for you.

Kuu thumped his chest with one hand. “Ookyakya! In that case, the Republic will help too. We may have less than the Kingdom, but it’ll be a good chance to give our people training out in the field. I’ll send you everyone we’ve got.”

“Then allow my nation to provide transportation,” Shabon offered, placing her hands over her chest. “You will have to take sea routes to the Spirit Kingdom, I am sure. We cannot help by providing mage doctors, but I promise our country’s fleet will deliver people there safely from the Republic and Empire. Leave the shipping of any medical supplies to us as well.”

“Ohh. That’s a big help.”

Whether we went east or west, we had either the continent or the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago between us and the Spirit Kingdom. It was a long way for our fleet to go, so if they were willing to provide shipping for all the countries involved, that was going to be helpful.

Sill, who had been taking the minutes of the conference, looked up.

“In that case, let the Nothung Dragon Knight Kingdom assist too. You’ll be wanting to send necessary supplies from the Kingdom, I’m sure, and our dragon knights can deliver them faster than by sea routes. Oh, we’ll need permission to pass through everyone’s airspace though.”

“That sounds good too. I’d very much like you to do it, but what does everyone else think?”

I looked around to the other attendees, and no one seemed to object, so the plan was adopted. Sill seemed giddy as she jotted it down in the conference minutes.

Fuuga chuckled jovially. “I know you’d touched base with everyone beforehand, but these solutions just keep coming out one after another.”

“Yes, you’re right. It’s fun just listening,” Mutsumi added with a smile.

“Oh, truly, truly. With all of these great leaders in our presence, it’s only to be expected. Oh, I am most pleased to be able to sit among you. It is a shame that Sir Gunther couldn’t join us, but taciturn as he is, he’d be little more use than a statue at such negotiations, so I was the obvious choice. My word, truly, history is on the move. And, I, too, am moved! I feel as though I am about to ascend to heaven this very— Ow!”

As Krahe emotionally babbled on in his affected manner, Jeanne grabbed him by the lapels to cut him off.

“You shut up!”

The group from the Empire were the same as ever.

“Huh?!”

At that moment, I sensed a cold pair of eyes on me. I turned towards them, and next to Fuuga, Hashim was glaring at me. His eyes were wary of me, in contrast to the relaxed mood in the room. Then he averted his eyes. Following his gaze, I saw Julius was keeping a close eye on Hashim too. He’d probably noticed Hashim’s unsettling behavior before I even did. Julius seemed worried the man was going to try something.

The two geniuses stared one another down.

If I stir up things needlessly, it’ll just drag this out... I can leave watching Hashim to Julius while I keep the discussion going. I decided to take a hands-off approach to them in order to avoid damaging the atmosphere we had going.

“For now... I think that will do as a general direction for dealing with Magic Bug Disease,” I said, looking at Maria and Fuuga. “But there’s no telling what diseases will show up in future, or where. I think that Magic Bug Disease spread because the demon wave created the conditions for it, but no one could have predicted that. We don’t know what kind of disease will break out tomorrow. It could be in the Kingdom of Friedonia, the Empire, or in the Great Tiger Kingdom.”

“Yeah, it could...”

“Yes, you’re right...”

Fuuga and Maria nodded. I nodded back at them.

“And as we’ve learned this time, once a disease like this spreads, no single country can handle it alone. Diseases don’t care about our borders or factions. That’s why we need to coordinate our response, but gathering all our leaders together like this is a lot of work. That’s why I want to decide on an international agreement in regards to diseases here.”

“An agreement?” asked Maria.

“Yes. When a disease breaks out, we will not hide it, and instead make the information public. Thus, we immediately take measures to prevent an epidemic, and if necessary, seek the assistance of other countries. In such a case, we respond to those requests by sending medical supplies and equipment... That’s the sort of system I want in place. To make it simple, I want us to always be in a position to do what we’ve done this time for Magic Bug Disease. So the world can work together to suppress diseases before they can turn into epidemics.”

“I see. I think that’s a wonderful idea,” Maria said, clapping her hands.

Fuuga, meanwhile, cocked his head to the side. “If we could do that, it’d be ideal, but will it really work? What happens if someone hides a disease outbreak?”

“You can assume they wouldn’t be able to count on international help. If they can handle it on their own, then fine, but if you look at what happened this time, it’s clear that diseases aren’t something we can control. Would you want to deal with Magic Bug Disease alone?”

“I’d rather not...” Fuuga shrugged. “Okay, I get it. So, you want the five countries here...six, if we count the Dragon Knight Kingdom, I guess. You want these six countries to make a decision?”

“Yeah. We’ll call it the ‘Balm Declaration on Medicine.’ I’d like our countermeasures against Magic Bug Disease to be the first of many actions taken under this declaration. I’d also like the Empire and Great Tiger Kingdom to work to have Zem and the Orthodox Papal State sign on too. I’m sure we’ll have no trouble getting the Spirit Kingdom to agree.”

“All the nations of mankind? It sounds like an even larger framework than the Mankind Declaration,” Maria said.

“That’s just how terrifying disease is,” I said with a nod. “It’s bad enough that we need to face it united, in the name of mankind. To that end... Fuuga, Queen Sill.”

“What?”

“Huh? Me?”

They both gave me blank looks, responding in unison.

I said, “In order to carry out anti-epidemic measures on a global scale, we cannot have great gaps in the understanding of medicine between different countries. This goes for you in particular, Fuuga. It’s a problem for all of us if a country ruling as much land as the Great Tiger Kingdom doesn’t have basic medical knowledge.”

“S-Sure... But you know we can’t fix that right away, yeah?”

“Neither can we...” Sill agreed. “All of your talk about preventing epidemics was too advanced for me, and I couldn’t understand it at all.”

These two were bold warriors on the battlefield, but all that martial prowess couldn’t help them in subjects they lacked confidence in. You could see the consternation on their faces.

“I understand... That’s why I’d like for the Great Tiger and the Dragon Knight Kingdoms to send people to learn medicine in my country.”

““Wha?!””

Fuuga and Sill’s eyes widened at my proposal.

“You’re sure? This is a diplomatic weapon you’re giving up here,” Fuuga said.

“Well, what choice do I have? There will surely be limits to the medical techniques we’re able to give away, but...this incident showed me just how dangerous it is not to have even the most basic knowledge. It just so happened that the outbreak was on an island this time, so it didn’t spread to the continent. But if it had happened on the continent, in a country without the knowledge to prevent an epidemic, that would have been terrifying.”

“Yeah... I shudder to think what’d’ve happened if it broke out in my country. We’re bordering the Demon Lord’s Domain, so the same conditions were probably there too. And with all the people traveling around, it’d spread real quick.”

Fuuga crossed his arms and groaned. It was a good thing he was picking this up so fast.

“Right? That’s why I want you to send people to learn medicine from us. I’ve said this to the Republic and Archipelago Union too. Right?”

“Yeah. I’ve sent a good number of students there since coming home.”

“As for me, while we are just beginning to send people, I have been asking each of the islands for young people who are interested.”

Kuu and Shabon answered over the broadcast.

I looked at Maria. “I’m sure the Empire has been working on medical development just as much as we have. If Madam Maria is willing to accept them, you could send students there too...”

When I looked to her for a response, Maria smiled and nodded. “Of course. We’ll gladly accept them.”

“Ohhh!” Sill cried out loud and leaned in. “That’s marvelous! Please, take students from my country too!”

“Sure... We’ll send some also. Take care of them for us,” Fuuga, who’d had a thoughtful look on his face, accepted it.

Details still needed to be fleshed out, but it was decided that the first worldwide agreement in this field, the Balm Declaration on Medicine, would be issued.

In order to put all our effort into the first act under that declaration, Maria, Fuuga, and I set to work giving orders to our countries. I wrote to Hakuya about what had been decided in a letter, and asked Aisha to have it delivered to the port town on the west coast by messenger kui.

“For now, I guess I can say I’ve accomplished something...” I said.

“You did more than enough, Souma.”

As I was feeling relieved, Liscia stood by my side, a gentle hand on my back. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ Nʘvᴇl(F)ire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

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