How a Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom - Book 17: Chapter SS5

A Request for Shabon

A little while after a solution had been found to the problem of the Demon Lord’s Domain, Nine-Headed Dragon Queen Shabon and her partner Kishun visited Parnam.

They were publicly announcing it as a courtesy visit in recognition of the liberation of the Demon Lord’s Domain, but the main reasons were more practical. We all were going to discuss how to handle Fuuga, and also negotiate trade. That said, our countries were on good terms, and another goal of the trip was to introduce my son Cian to his fiancée, Shabon’s daughter, Princess Sharan.

“Look, Sharan! Over here! Over here!”

“Ahh! Wait for me, Big Sis Kazu.”

The children were playing noisily in my father-in-law Albert’s garden in the castle.

“It’s dangerous to run like that, you two,” Cian called after his playmates.

“Ahh, you too, Lord Cian! And Lady Kazuha, don’t pull her around like that!”

It looked like my daughter, Kazuha, had taken a liking to Princess Sharan. Kazuha was pulling her around by the hand as Cian toddled after them, worried. Carla, the maid, watched over them, constantly on edge.

“Hee hee, the children certainly are energetic,” Shabon said, stroking the head of her second child, Prince Sharon, who was sleeping on her lap. Liscia and I were with Shabon and Kishun in the gazebo, sipping tea as we took a break.

“Too much energy can be a problem though. Especially with Kazuha,” Liscia said with a sigh. I could only smile wryly at that.

“She sure does take after you, huh?” I said.

“Hold on, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just what it sounds like, actually.”

“The two of you get along as well as ever, I see,” Shabon said, chuckling at us. “I am envious.”

“You say that, but you and Kishun must be getting along pretty well yourselves,” I countered. “I mean, you’ve popped out two babies already.”

“Yeah. And it wasn’t twins like it was for me,” Liscia agreed.

“Why yes,” Shabon replied with a smile. “I do believe we are your equals when it comes to how well we can get along. Right, Kishun?”

“It’s an honor to have you say that…” Kishun replied awkwardly.

For Kishun, Shabon wasn’t just his wife, she’d also been his princess, so the combined feelings of love and loyalty made it hard for him to ever disagree with her. I could relate…

Shabon set her teacup down with a slight clatter.

“So, what is this favor you wanted to ask of me?” Her expression grew a little sterner as she spoke. “If it involves the Great Tiger Empire again, is it a favor that you would be asking of my country?”

“Oh, no, no, this isn’t anything so heavy,” I said, hurriedly correcting the misconception. “There’s something I want to order from your craftsmen for my personal use.”

“For…your personal use?”

“Yeah, this is it here,” I said, producing a rough design I had drawn up.

“Is this a house… No, a shrine, perhaps?”

“Yeah, I knew you’d have designs like this in the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago.”

“What’s this about, Souma?” Liscia asked.

I pointed to the designs and said, “This is something from my old world, modeled after the shrines where people in my country prayed to the kami. The Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago’s culture is similar to my home country’s in many ways, so I figured they would have buildings like this there.”

“I see. And your request is to have them build this for you?” Shabon asked, head inclined to one side.

“No, no,” I shook my head. “I want a small one. A miniature. It should be about the right size to hold this magatama.”

I set the comma-shaped jewel, which shone with a dull red light, on the table. Liscia looked closely at it.

“This thing… You got it from the Demon Lord… I mean Mao, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. It’s like a mortuary tablet for all my ancestors. This design I have is for a kind of house shrine called a ‘kamidana,’ where you can pray to the kami at home. I was hoping to put the magatama in one so I could pay my respects to it there.”

“Oh! We do have a similar tradition in the Nine-Headed Dragon Archipelago.”

“There are these little stone shrines by the side of the road, and we pray to the local gods of each island at them.”

Shabon and Kishun both nodded, seeming to have figured it out. If they were wayside shrines, then were they for gods that watch over travelers, maybe? Yeah, the tradition really did seem similar.

I offered the designs to Shabon.

“I’d like it made without nails, if possible. Do you think they can do that?”

“Well, I should think so… Our country’s craftsmen are excellent, after all.” Shabon took the plans and rolled them up. “But this certainly is unexpected. I never took you for the religious type, Sir Souma.”

“Yeah, I mean, you rejected becoming the Holy King, so I assumed you weren’t interested in divine authority,” Liscia said, agreeing with Shabon.

“Well, I’m not deeply religious, no, but I’m not an atheist either. In my old country, faith was something a little personal, integrated into our daily lives.”

“What do you mean?”

“We didn’t go to church and pray to God, but would think things like, ‘The sun god is watching me, so I can’t do anything evil,’ or ‘This is an affront to my ancestors.’ Oh, and also, ‘You have to take care of your things, because everything has a soul inside of it.’ Those thoughts could be seen as sun worship, ancestor worship, and animism, right?”

“Ami… Ani… Uh, I think I kind of get it, aside from that last one that started with A.”

I smiled wryly at the look on Liscia’s face as she struggled to understand.

Picking the red magatama, I held it up to the light. “It’s nothing complicated. It’s just that imagining Grandma and Grandpa are watching over me through this magatama makes me feel a little better.”

“Hee hee, I think that is a wonderful thought,” Shabon said with a smile. “We will set about construction with all the respect such a project deserves. This is a house for the ancestors of Sharan’s future partner, so it will need to be a splendid one.”

“Thank you, Shabon.”

I felt like this request was going to help strengthen the bond between our countries.