How a Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom

Chapter 6: In Which I was Baiting Sea Bream with a Shrimp but Caught a Shark Instead [1] A There was a tiger in the middle of darkness, closing his eyes, while remembering the events of that day.

◇ ◇ ◇

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a familiar ceiling.

[2]While his mind was still hazy, he was staring at the patterns on the ceiling, but when he was fully conscious, he noticed that he was lying on a soft bed.

This was strange.

The last scenery that he saw should have been the prison.

When he remembered this, he turned his neck, and found someone sitting on a chair besides the bed.

That person was a young man who was looking over documents.

After he stared at the young man for a while, the young man seemed to have noticed his condition.

『Hm? Yo. Did you finally wake up?

』(A Certain Young Man) The young man put the documents down and handed him a hand mirror that had been placed under the chair.

『You might have many things to ask, but first, please look at this.

』(A Certain Young Man) As what the young man had said, he peeked at the mirror that was given to him.

A tiger-faced beast-kin was reflected in it.

A gold and black striped pattern that unmistakably belonged to a tigrissword tiger[3] (it was bigger than Earth’s tiger and had long canines as its special trait).

This overwhelmed him and caused him to gape as the young man spoke with a smile.

『You are a tiger.

So you will be a tiger.

』[4](A Certain Young Man) He didn’t understand what the young man means by it, so he didn’t say anything, but the young man was scratching his head as if he was embarrassed.

『Well, umm, after all…… don’t merely push things on me.

You need to bear it a bit, too.

』(A Certain Young Man) ◇ ◇ ◇ 「Kagetora[5]-sama」(?

) Someone was calling for him.

His consciousness returned, and he saw a man wearing a black dog mask kneeling on the floor.

「So it is you Beo-…… Inugami.

[6]」(Geo- Kagetora)「Yes.

It seems that the Mountain has moved.

」(Beo- Inugami) The dog masked man who was called Inugami, bowed his head while reporting.

「…… I see. It has been one month since then.

Unexpectedly, it is early.

」(Kagetora)「That is true.

Even though I thought that it should have taken a bit longer.

」(Inugami)「Fumu…… Even if it is early, it is not a bad thing.

After this, whatever happens on this land will be reported to His Majesty without omitting a single detail.

This is our duty, the 『Black Cats』!

」(Kagetora) 「「「We understand.

We accept the command.

」」」(Black Cats) Receiving Kagetora’s order, beginning with Inugami, the Elfrieden Kingdom King’s Guards Special Intelligence Operations Squad, the 『Black Cat』 began to move.

◇ ◇ ◇ 「King~, let’s play~」(Girl)「King, shoulder ride~」(Boy)「……」(Cat-Girl) A lively and cute 3 year old wolf-eared boy and a human girl came to play with me.

The last one was a cat-eared girl as old as the other two, who had occupied my cross-legged lap and had fallen asleep not long ago.

The cat tail that came out from her end was moving flip-floppily.

「Ummm, I can’t move, so please don’t climb on me on your own.

」(Souma)「「Yes!

」」(Girl)(Boy) The two of them then began to climb on my back and playing happily.

Yep, really cute, right?

Even when they had climbed on my shoulders and then patted my face, this was something that I was used to.

「Fufufu, Your Majesty is really popular with the children.

」(Tomoko) My lovable step-sister Tomoe-chan and her biological mother, Tomoko-san were smiling at me while folding the children’s laundry.

This place was the day nursery that was established inside the castle not long ago.

It was for taking care of the children of the people who were working in the castle, like the maids and others.

Then the relative of Tomoe-chan, who was semi-forcibly adopted as step-sister, Tomoko-san was working in this place as a live-in nursery worker.

By the way, the wolf-eared boy who was touching my face with hands covered in drool was her eldest son (Tomoe-chan’s little brother), Rou-kun.

「Nii-sama[7], I am happy that you play with Rou-kun and the others, but will this be alright?

Won’t nee-sama[8] will be mad at you again……?

」(Tomoe) She was asking me while cuddling an infant in her arms.

Without any animal negotiation duties, like the one with the Rhinosauruses, outside her lesson hours, Tomoe-chan will help her mother work.

Considering that Tomoe-chan was still a ten-year old, she was a very reliable girl.

「It’s fine, since I am not crowded with work right now.

In addition, I properly left the【Living Poltergeist】 working at the Government Affairs Office.

」(Souma)「Is that so?

Then, you can play a lot.

That’s great, right Rou-kun?

」(Tomoe)「Yes!

」(Rou) Rou-kun raised his hands up.

How cute.

I really like children.

I could keep watching the tiny toddlers step, walking unsteadily all day long.

By the way, it’s not because I am a Lolicon or Shotacon!

It’s because this scene tickled my guardian instinct[9].

When my grandparents were still healthy, I helped at the recital in the neighborhood nursery.

Because of this, I played with the children for a short while.

「What an amazing appearance you have, Master.

[10]」(Carla) When I turned around to the one who was greeting me, there she was, Carla, in the maid uniform.

[11] 「Really?

It isn’t something that the current Carla can say herself, though.

」(Souma)「That is…… You’re right.

」(Carla) Carla dropped her shoulders dejectedly.

However, looking closely…… 「The maid uniform surprisingly doesn’t suit you.

」(Souma)「Please don’t mention it…… I already thought about that myself.

」(Carla) In the first place, Carla was a dragonewt, so compared to a normal human, they had a lot of additional parts.

[12] She had a tail, she had dragon wing, and she also had small horns growing on her.

To wear a maid uniform on top of these… Perhaps it could be said as an unbalanced idiosyncrasy.

「Moreover, isn’t the skirt’s length awfully short?

」(Souma)「P-please don’t look.

」(Carla) While saying this, Carla grasped the front end of her skirt.

Every castle maid wore a classic long skirted maid uniform, but what Carla was wearing right now was something that wouldn’t be out a place at a maid café: a knee-length puffed-wide dress.

[13] It was evident that the style selection itself was excellent.

「Uuu…… The head maid…… said to wear this……」(Carla)「Ah, so this is Serina-san’s “tease” huh?

」(Souma) Not a “prank” but a “tease”[14].

It was not bore out of malice, rather, perhaps, it can be said as a form of emotional “affectiontease”.

The core of it was to instigate the target’s shyness.

As a maid, the head maid Serina was capable, but it seems that she had a sadism habit, limited to cute girls.

Furthermore, if the target had a determined spirit, then they would be “teased”, so someone like Liscia and Carla was right in her strike zone.

Liscia had told me about this before with a thousand yard stare on her face.

I offered my prayers.

[15] 「Nevertheless…… It has been about one month, huh?

Isn’t your maid training already over?

」(Souma)「T-training……wh-…whoaa……」(Carla) The moment I mentioned training, Carla was squatting and holding her head.

Oh my, something did happen.

To enter the maid corps, someone will receive training for the necessary skills, right?

「Wh-……whip……」(Carla)「Whip!?

」(Souma)「Hitting…… with a whip……」(Carla)「Is the training that hard!?

」(Souma)「Furthermore, that whip is custom made, so even when it strikes the body, it won’t leave any wounds…… but somehow it leaves me half in pain and half in pleasure.

」(Carla) What the heck is that whip!?

Rather than for training, that was for animal taming, right?

[16] 「The head maid-dono said, 『Since the pain will obstruct you from feeling pleasure, when you are enduring pain, then you will also feel pleasure as well.

』[17] Since I didn’t want to feel useless even though I had ended up as a slave, I planned to study and work hard as a maid…… But that whip is too scary.

Soon I might be able to easily fall into the pleasure.

」(Carla)「The maids corps are the Master’s dogs.

There is no place for a sowfemale pig……」(Serina)「Hiiii!?

」(Carla) When I turned around, Serina-san was standing there with a refined smile.

Or rather, Carla who could plunge into the battlefield without fear, was yelling in such a frightened state…… Just how intense was her fear?

「Is something wrong, Your Majesty?

」(Serina)「…… Nope, nothing.

」(Souma) I felt bad for this, but I decided to play dumb so that the spearhead wouldn’t be pointed at me.

It’s alright, Carla.

You won’t die…… Though, I don’t know what will happen to your mental state.

「Now then, Carla-san.

Shouldn’t you make the bed in the Government Affairs Office where His Majesty resides?

」(Serina)「No, it’s just…… to enter a male acquaintance’s room, as expected, it is embarrassing……」(Carla)「What are you talking about?

If you become a maid, then in the future you will have to make the bed where His Majesty and Princess Liscia zealously 【Self-Censored】, 【Self-Censored】 into 【Self-Censored】and 【Self-Censored】, with a composed face.

」(Serina)「T-then, as expected, I wish to be excused from it‼」(Carla) Carla was shouting with a deeply red face… But, huh?

But didn’t Serina-san just indirectly insult Liscia and I?

Right now, I felt really uneasy, though.

「By the way, Your Majesty.

Will Your Majesty’s sides be alright?

」(Serina)「Eh?

」(Souma)「Well, behind Your Majesty, I caught sight of someone running towards this place.

」(Souma) I turned my head to look at what made Serina smile when she said that… [1] The title is a pun of Japanese idiom: 海老で鯛を釣る: Throw in a shrimp and pull out a sea bream (English equivalent will be: Use a sprat to catch a mackerel).

The meaning which: to get something much more valuable or huge profit with a small investment, effort or price as bait.

In this case, the profit is not just at sea bream level but SHARK level!

[2] A clichéd expression from Neon Genesis Evangelion that has been used to exhaustion in Japanese WNs…[3]虎ソード・タイガー: Written as Tora, which means tiger.

Read as Sword Tiger.

Tigris is Latin word for tiger.

[4] Here we go again.

This line is from the opening song of a classic wrestling Anime “Tiger Mask”.

The first lyric was: 虎だ、お前は虎になるのだ.

“(Because/I say) you are to be (become) a tiger”.

[5] Kagetora means: Shadow Tiger.

Although Shadow Tiger sounds awesome as codename, too.

[6] Inugami means: Dog God.

Read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inugami for more information.

[7] Older Brother in a formal way of referring.

[8] Older Sister in a formal way of referring.

[9] desire to protect[10] Goshujin but without “sama” (you know that stereotype Maid Café greeting: “Okaerinasai Goshujin-sama” : Welcome back, Master).

I understand that Carla was trying not to be too polite (not adding honorifics), but Goshujin without“sama” is also a way to politely refer to someone’s husband… Perhaps since Souma is Liscia’s (Carla’s BF) husband-to-be?

[11] Too bad, no illustration… yet!

Perhaps LN Vol.

3 will have it… (Until then, just imagine Tohru from Kobayashi-san Chi no Meidoragon)[12] Originally: Options.

If you buy Gunpla you would know this word by heart.

[13] This one?