Re-Tale of a Hero - Chapter 16.1 Part 1. The World 300 Years Later

“For the time being, tell us how things are in this era.”

Now that they’ve discussed what to do once their proposal of becoming adventurers was approved, they moved on to the next topic, Enefia’s current situation.

[Let me start with the empire. At the very least, the current emperor isn’t incompetent. The moment he heard of the transfer, he immediately restricted the spread of information.]

With around 500 other-worlders suddenly appearing in this world with knowledge of science and technology, many nobles would no doubt try to approach Tenou Academy, hoping to make a profit. And not all of them would come with kind intentions.

All things considered, they were lucky to have been transferred near the duchy.

“I see, then I guess Sakura or the principal would have to go and thank him one of these days.”

It wasn’t something for him to decide, however.

Kuzuha’s face suddenly stiffened.

[…Onii-sama, just now, you brought up another girl’s name…]

Through the screen, Kuzuha shot him a cold glare, forcing Kaito to back away a little.

“Sakura’s the student council president of Tenou Academy…don’t just assume I’m in a relationship with everyone,” he muttered.

Unfortunately, he was hit by a follow-up attack from Tina.

“Now that I think about it, when Sakura was frozen in fear, he grasped her hand and gently consoled her.”

[Onii-sama, anything you wish to explain?]

“How do you know this!”

He thought no one had been looking, but that was in fact not the case.

Kuzuha’s glare was now approaching absolute zero, threatening to freeze Kaito where he stood.

“…How about we leave this for later?”

[Yes, we’ll have a longtalk later…Anyway, His Majesty has given me full authority over what to do with Tenou Academy. He told me that he won’t interfere with how I treat the guests from Japan.]

“What kind of person in the emperor of this era?”

[He’s like a warrior…and a bit of a battle maniac.]

Kuzuha said with a wry smile. Remembering something, she continued.

[His Majesty’s grandmother is Baran-san’s great-granddaughter.]

“That old man’s great-granddaughter…and how strong is she?”

Kaito imagined she would be quite strong, and just as expected, Kuzuha’s answer didn’t disappoint.

[…She’s a powerful martial artist. His Majesty was quite naughty when he was young, and his grandmother, who was concerned with his attitude, did something to her grandson who’s 60 years younger than her…]

For some reason, Kuzuha seemed a little hesitant.

“What did she do?”

Kuzuha responded with a bitter smile.

[Well, um, she challenged His Majesty to a match…and His Majesty, who was full of himself at the time, accepted it. “There’s no way I’d lose to an old woman who’s over seventy. She must be feeling lonely, so I guess I’ll show her some filial piety,” or so he claimed. Afterward, His Majesty was haunted by nightmares of his grandmother for an entire week.]

Uwaah, Kaito took a step back. Tina showed a similar reaction.

[After being destroyed by an old woman in her seventies, His Majesty began to devote himself to martial arts seriously, and as a result, he’s developed a hobby of challenging powerful people. Thanks to that, he now enjoys the title of being the strongest in the empire. The ministers and generals under him seem to be suffering day and night though…Oh, and but of course, he wasn’t foolish enough to challenge us.]

With their leader challenging powerful people all the time, it was no wonder his subordinates were worried.

[Oh, but when he heard of Onii-sama’s return, he said he’d like to have a spar with you.]

Kuzuha chuckled.

Kaito, on the other hand, showed an expression of absolute disgust.

“Hell no.”

Sparring with a member of the royal family? Hard pass. He’d have to put on a farce and go easy on purpose.

“Then how’s the situation in the duchy?”

[Looking at the duchy as a whole, its population has grown about 10 times compared to 300 years ago, numbering around three million. Around half of them in provincial cities, a million of them live in the duchy’s capital, and the rest live in autonomous regions given to various races.]

At first glance, three million seemed like a lot, but it wasn’t actually the case.

“It increased by that much? Is there enough space to accommodate that many inhabitants?”

[The duchy is several times larger than the territories of ordinary nobles, so we haven’t had any problems with land and space. This land originally belonged to nobles that fled in the face of the demon lord’s invasion, so far from not having enough land, we have too much of it. Having said this, the number of self-governing districts has increased as a number of races have accomplished great endeavors after Onii-sama left.]

“Hmm…if I recall correctly, self-governing rights were given to the Divine Wolves, the Dragons, and some other races that were cooperative. Aside from that, it was also given to races that were forced out of their homes due to the war.

The city was originally built to provide for tribes that had been driven out of their homes due to the war, and Kaito had hoped that it could promote coexistence among the numerous tribes.

However, that didn’t mean the tribes didn’t have autonomy. Powerful tribes such as the Dragon Tribe had a strong sense of independence, and though they lived inside the empire, they were not subordinate to it. It was more accurate to say they were cooperating with the empire.

Hence, the Dragons, Divine Wolves, and several other tribes that had a connection with Kaito were granted autonomy inside the MacDowell Duchy.

[At the same time, however, several races have left their autonomous regions and are now living in the cities of the duchy.]

“I see. And how’s Maxwell doing?”

[About that…I think Onii-sama should check it out for himself. You’re in for a surprise.]

Kuzuha smiled confidently as she said so.

“I’ll do just that then. How about the empire?”

He was curious about how his city was doing but decided to set it aside for later and changed the topic.

[Due to His Majesty’s personality, he’s quite popular with the military. Though of course, he doesn’t lead the military himself as he believes that should be left to the experts. Nonetheless, he’s capable of standing on the front line during important occasions, so he’s highly respected by the soldiers.]

The emperor wasn’t an expert in warfare. Instead, he was responsible for ruling over his people. As such, unless it was necessary, he wouldn’t need to stand on the battlefield himself and would leave it to his military officers.

However, if he were the type of emperor that always stood in the back, the soldiers would not respect him. After all, soldiers usually trusted the people that stood alongside them the most.

Kaito nodded, understanding what the emperor was doing.

“He’s making the right call. Even if he enjoys fighting the strong, it shouldn’t hinder with his duty as the emperor. How’s his reign?”

[It’s so-so. As long as they don’t mess with their territories too much, the emperor won’t interfere with their affair. That’s also why there are often skirmishes between feudal lords.]

“So what you’re saying is that the emperor isn’t trying to keep them under control?” Tina asked, feeling alarmed. As she had once experienced a coup d’etat, she understood more than anyone else the importance of taking the lead and keeping things under control.

Kuzuha shook her head.

[No, he isn’t. Unless they do something that crosses the line, he simply keeps them under surveillance without actually doing anything. He’s probably thinking of having them grow through rivalries and competition.]

“In other words, when it comes to domestic affairs, the emperor reigns over the people but does not rule them.”

[It’s precisely as Onii-sama puts it. In fact, many of the ministers see His Majesty as a lion. However, to me, he seems more like a fox wearing a lion’s skin.]

Kuzuha agreed with Kaito’s evaluation and expressed her viewpoint as well.

After hearing all this, Kaito and Tina decided not to make any rash judgment and leave it at that for the day.

“Fill me in with the details later on.”

[Okay. That roughly sums up the current state of the empire.]

“Fumu…any development in the field of technology?” Tina asked, clearly interested.

She was a researcher, and she was curious as to the kind of development Enefia had achieved in the last 300 years.

Kuzuha put her finger on her chin and thought for a while.

[Hmm…with Onee-sama’s absence, there hasn’t been much progress with the development of the airship… but we now know how big this world is.]

“Really? How big is it?”

This was something Kaito and Tina had not been able to calculate due to their lack of mathematical knowledge and other important information.

[This is only a rough estimate, but the radius is around 13,000 kilometers, and the surface area is approximately 2 billion kilometers squared, excluding the regions that have been isolated to a different space.]

“I see, so the radius is double that of Earth’s…no wonder there’s still land left after such an explosive growth in population.”

The Earth’s radius stood at around 6,500 kilometers, with a surface area of 500 million kilometers squared. Simple math showed that there was four times as much land on Enefia compared to Earth.

The duchy sat at the center of the map, stretching a thousand kilometers north, south, east, and west. It controlled all the roads leading to the capital from the demon’s territory in the north, so it was quite a vast piece of land.

Most other nobles possessed only a quarter of this amount, and they had only been able to acquire this much territory as there was no one to claim it.

“How was it calculated?”

[Based on the knowledge left behind by Onii-sama, we assumed Enefia was spherical and calculated its radius by surveying the land. Then, we applied the equation for a sphere’s surface area and plugged in the radius.]

“Fumu, makes sense. In fact, even a middle school student would be able to do the calculation for the surface area.”

Just like on Earth, they had used the power of mathematics to arrive at a solution.

“Is it because of the stratum of floating stones that the gravity feels the same as on Earth despite the difference in mass between the two worlds?” Kaito asked.

By injecting mana into floating stones, the people holding the stone could reduce their weight as the stones were capable of counteracting gravity.

The lower half of the Floating Continent was made of floating stones, and as the stones took in the magic essence of the atmosphere, they exerted a strong repulsive force that allowed the continent to remain afloat.

[That is the leading theory.]

It seemed she wasn’t sure as she didn’t give a definite answer.

“Right. Then let’s shift our attention to the neighboring countries.”

Kaito simply accepted this and urged her to move on to the next topic.