1-12 Reconstruction Aid, And Then To The Royal Capital

Today made it my seventh day in this other world.

The next morning, after breakfast and a quick smoke, I ran to the village that had been attacked, using my own legs.

Partly for leveling up and training.

With the determination to kill any monsters I ran into along the way.

And of course, when I was that fired up, nothing happened and I arrived in thirty minutes.

After that, I greeted the villagers I recognized and walked around the entire village.

But again, it was a brutal sight.

It seemed the raiders had set fire to any house they were done with, just to prevent the village from fighting back.

Apparently concepts like “re-extraction” or “recycling” didn’t exist here.

Just hit the next village, right?

Even outlaws on Earth were like that.

Those types slaughtered without thinking ahead, like saber-toothed tigers acting only on immediate convenience.

If they thought about the future, they wouldn’t become outlaws in the first place.

And at last, I found Chief Damur.

“Chief!”

When he saw me dressed in this world’s style now, his face brightened.

“Oh, it’s you. The magistrate said you made it safely into town. Did something happen today?”

“Actually, I learned healing magic in town. If you’ll allow it, I’d like to treat everyone in the village.”

“Oh, that’s incredible. We’d be grateful. Medical treatment and medicine are expensive, so we haven’t been able to provide proper care.”

He gave me a light pat on the shoulder in thanks.

There didn’t seem to be anyone like a doctor in the village, and of course there wouldn’t be anyone like that priest here either.

So we decided I’d start with those too badly injured to move.

About thirty severely injured people had all been gathered at the magistrate’s residence.

The defenses there were solid, so it had apparently remained safe.

The worst they’d suffered was damage to the stables.

The place I’d first assumed was the lord’s manor had actually been the magistrate’s residence.

It was a small village, after all.

Honestly, having a magistrate here at all was probably a blessing.

And that had been a huge stroke of luck for me, too.

I’d leaned on him so much that it made me wonder what all my suffering up to now had even been for.

He got me into town, and I even received an adventurer credential as an ID.

On top of that, I was granted an audience with the lord, praised, and even given reward money.

That had been enormous.

It dispersed the knot in my heart—the lingering guilt, the fixation, all the feelings about the killings I’d committed.

Something about the lord’s character, his presence, his gravitas…

It made me feel, from the bottom of my heart, that I hadn’t been wrong.

In Earth terms, it was like the presiding judge personally saying, “Splendid work! You defeated villains—of course you’re not guilty! Here, take a cash reward!”

That lord was quite a person.

And he wasn’t even a baron.

Did you really have to flatter people and send gifts to get promoted?

That lord didn’t seem like the type who could do that.

The debt I owed the magistrate—I’d repay it now, by helping these villagers.

First, Area Heal.

Just one cast, and several people were able to sit up.

Still not enough for the critically injured, huh.

Area High Heal.

This was a spell I’d developed by applying what I knew from Area Heal and High Heal.

It was a higher-tier spell, but the method was exactly the same as Area Heal.

If someone knew both spells and had plenty of mana, they should be able to use this one.

It consumed a lot of mana, but each individual’s recovery was no different from High Heal—so when there were many patients, it was far more efficient.

And for someone like me with abundant mana, that wasn’t a problem at all.

Since most of them could now move, I layered Area High Heal again.

With that, every severely injured person recovered safely.

“You should be able to move now, but don’t start walking around right away. You’ve lost too much blood, so get nutrition and rest properly. I’m really glad poison wasn’t involved.”

Fortunately, it seemed no one among the severely injured had died since the attack.

For now, I distributed cup soup for nutrition.

It was instant, sure, but in an emergency it was plenty.

It had to be more nourishing than plain water.

I copied servings I’d prepared into cups made in this world—cups I’d bought in Elmia—and handed them out to everyone.

The healing spells I used each rose to Level 2.

Like games, these things probably leveled quickly at first—and I should have some kind of growth bonus as a rare visitor, too.

Next, I had the lightly injured gather.

Even “lightly injured” just meant they could move. Since there had been so many fires, there were plenty with severe burns, along with fractures, deep lacerations, and countless scrapes and cuts.

It made sense—untrained villagers with poor equipment had forced themselves into a fight using numbers and farm tools against professional bandits.

Because I’d warned them, they’d had time to prepare, and during the attack they’d all fought desperately together.

If they hadn’t, the ambush would’ve landed cleanly and the village might have been wiped out.

This time there were about fifty.

One cast of Area High Heal finished the job.

I put a lot of power into it, so Area High Heal rose to Level 3.

It was only 8:30 a.m.

Even among the uninjured, it looked like some hadn’t eaten properly, so I decided to run a soup kitchen.

I dumped a mountain of stew (retort pouches) into a huge stockpot.

Well, better than barley porridge alone, right?

I also copied out large amounts of bread I’d bought in Elmia that was relatively soft.

When there were this many people, even plating took a lot of time.

Those who ate earlier helped out, so it was manageable.

By the time I’d finished, it had become lunch too, so the soup kitchen ran until after midday with breaks in between.

While the villagers were gathered, I also had the chief distribute care items like clothing.

I’d bought various bedding too.

Then, in the afternoon, I helped clear rubble.

That was simple work—just storing it away into my item box again and again.

It kind of felt like doing disaster relief.

By evening, it was almost finished.

From here on, the village would have to keep pushing forward on its own.

I at least stayed through dinner preparations.

It sounded like the lord would provide relief funds too, so the village should be fine.

Excluding the dead, they’d managed to fully restore about eighty percent of their original population from injuries.

The magistrate had said frontier folk were tough, and I believed it.

After providing relief supplies like food, tents, and blankets, I said,

“Alright, I’m going to head out. I’m thinking of going toward the royal capital starting tomorrow. It’s a long journey from the frontier.”

With that, I said my goodbyes and returned to the inn in town.

“I see. Stay well. Thanks to you, we were helped in so many ways.”

“Thank you for healing our injuries.”

Many villagers waved to me.

Seeing that made my roughened heart feel warmly soothed.

It felt like all the negative weight I’d accumulated in this other world had finally been canceled out.

Was this what it meant to build virtue?

I ran back to Elmia with determination, and I made it safely to the town inn before sunset.

After volunteering for people who’d endured the same grim disaster, and being seen off with gratitude, my hardened heart felt a little lighter.

And my physical enhancement had become Level 4.

My HP rose to Level 4—twenty thousand HP.

The next day, since I might not be able to exchange money for a while, I converted another two hundred gold coins’ worth of gold plates.

My cash on hand became three hundred ninety gold coins, plus fifty-eight silver coins, thirty large copper coins, and four hundred fifty copper coins.

I visited the church and told the priest I would be heading to the royal capital.

I left various foods there again.

“Father, thank you for everything.”

“No, no—thank you. Take care, Alphonse-san. Will you not be coming here anymore?”

Alphonse was the name I used here.

I’d twisted my real name into something that fit this world’s language.

“No, I plan to come back here again someday, but for now I want to aim for the royal capital.”

A town where you had acquaintances was a good thing.

If the royal capital ended up being difficult to live in, I could always come back here.

Or maybe it would be interesting to see other countries, too.

And then I departed, seen off by the smiling faces of many children.

Even the older kids who usually just leaned against the wall watching with downcast faces came out to see me off, and that made me quietly happy.

It was now my eighth day in this other world.

Checking the map, the royal capital was still about seven hundred kilometers away.

From Aichi Prefecture, it was about six hundred kilometers by expressway to Fukushima in southern Tohoku—past the capital region.

So this was even farther than that. A ridiculous distance.

“Suzuran Street” in Fukushima City was my central checkpoint—where I’d stay one night—when I rode my motorcycle to Hokkaido.

From Tokyo to around Okayama was about seven hundred kilometers too, wasn’t it?

Even by bullet train, it still turned into roughly four hours once you factored everything in.

Just imagining walking this distance made my head spin.

With this much distance, I’d use the car.

I didn’t want people seeing it, but still.

I sped along the highway in the car, and every time I saw a wagon, I’d get out and sprint past—doing that over and over, I ended up with physical enhancement at Level 5.

At this point, maybe I should just run the whole way on my own feet.

With HP at Level 5—fifty thousand HP—I felt like I could handle bandits.

But I wanted to be cautious until I learned offensive magic in the royal capital.

Strong physical attacks weren’t very convenient.

If I was forced into close combat while outnumbered, I might get taken down.

I couldn’t assume I’d always escape cleanly.

I remembered the terror of that monster that night.

If this were Japan, even if I fought seriously, I’d probably lose in combat to an ordinary dog or cat.

Compared to how vicious crows were, my natural combat strength didn’t even register.

Even so, with my enhanced body, maybe I could do fairly well now.

My reinforced clothes and body had even deflected an arrow with an iron tip fired by a seasoned former mercenary.

Still, using the car was fast.

Comfortable, comfortable—I’d already covered about half the remaining distance to the royal capital in a single day.

It was a stone-paved road, but decent enough.

Not quite a true off-road nightmare, so I could keep my speed up.

Sure, the cobblestones were peeled up in places, but that couldn’t be helped.

If it got too unpleasant, I could just slow down.

I wasn’t in a rush anyway.

I decided to stay the night at a nearby town.

But, unbelievably, they refused to let me enter.

“Hey—why won’t you let me into town? I have identification and money!”

I protested, but the gate guard snapped back and chased me away.

All he would say was, “No. Go back.”

What the hell!

I pushed onward to the next village, and barely managed to find lodging.

This reminded me of motorcycle travel in Canada.

Even on the freeway, I couldn’t find motels, and for some reason the motels were only inside towns.

What kind of town layout was that?

If you didn’t put hotels along the road in a place that got brutally cold in winter, people would literally freeze to death.

Maybe it was “kind” that at least there were gas stations along the highway.

But once I got into town, I understood.

It was a rural place built entirely around local convenience, where travelers didn’t matter at all.

After asking at a station, I finally found an inn at 9 p.m.

But even Canadians traveled domestically—wouldn’t that be a problem?

…Or maybe Canadians understood their own country’s situation well.

At the inn, I heard that the lord’s family in that earlier town was fighting over succession, and the town was semi-closed because of it.

Apparently neither side wanted to let people from the opposing faction enter.

Idiots—if you do that, your town will rot away.

In fact, this village’s only inn was packed to the brim.

The inns in the other town must have been empty.

Since monsters could appear, I was glad I didn’t have to sleep in the car.

Still, I hadn’t seen a single monster all this way.

Were there really monsters along the highway?

Today made it day nine in this other world.

I’d made it to within about three hundred twenty kilometers of the royal capital.

Just a little more.

It reminded me of driving or riding all the way to Hokkaido, then taking my time returning home.

I steeled myself and drove the car.

But partway through, there were too many wagons and carts, and the car became hard to use.

So I had no choice but to run on my own feet.

With physical enhancement active—and even my raw HP boosting my physical abilities—that wasn’t too difficult.

Then, unbelievably, I arrived at the royal capital by 1 p.m.

Man, I really pushed myself.

I’d never run this far on my own legs in my life.

Not “Run, Melos,” but “Run, Alphonse!”

The city was surrounded by extremely high walls, and it was absurdly huge.

It looked like a gigantic metropolis from an old spectacle film.

Or a massive fortress city straight out of a game or anime.

Actually, that description fit better.

Come to think of it, they said the person who founded this country was someone who sounded like a Japanese person, like me.

“Compared to this city, Elmia looks like a tiny village.”

The high outer wall seemed to stretch beyond the horizon.

I’d been able to see it from far away.

Even running, it took forever to reach.

It felt like walking around Las Vegas on foot, where massive hotels were packed together.

Over there, even when you could “already see the hotel,” taxis would refuse you from over a kilometer away.

The hotel’s visible, so walk, they’d say.

America was the kind of country where even taxis waiting at hotels would refuse rides for no clear reason.

Unlike Japan, refusing passengers wasn’t illegal there, apparently.

Americans were loose and irresponsible like that.

This was worse than that.

This city was a gigantic walled fortress where, even from five kilometers away—the point where you could clearly see the horizon—you still couldn’t see even half of it.

Maybe it was twenty kilometers in diameter.

How did they even build something like this?

Even Earth didn’t have a structure this massive.

How many pyramids could you fit inside?

Did they have magic construction technology?

The wall didn’t even look like stone. Was it some magically created material, or something like alchemical Roman concrete?

I couldn’t see seams like masonry joints.

But the entry inspection line was awful.

First-time entrants underwent strict checks.

They were apparently using a crystal-like magical device to verify whether someone had any recorded rewards or punishments.

That knowledgeable old man in the village had made a throat-cutting gesture and said something like, “If you have even one punishment like counterfeiting money, it’s one strike and—!”

So that’s what he meant.

That was close.

Good thing I didn’t do it!

There were gates for those with ID and those without, plus special gates for resident adventurers and merchants.

And a separate special gate for nobles.

I was glad I’d used the bathroom first.

It would be awkward to set up a toilet tent halfway through.

Unlike me, those people did have original registered addresses.

They just didn’t have documentation due to circumstances.

I had an address too.

And I even had a driver’s license as proof of identity.

It just wasn’t valid here.

My home was somewhere beyond dimensions or whatever, so I couldn’t go back—that was all.

Apparently, to get proof issued, they had to return to their hometowns once.

Some people couldn’t afford the travel costs.

And traveling on foot took an insane amount of time.

It was absolutely impossible for an otherworlder like me.

So I ate my own food while standing there.

I made do with something like a sandwich or hot dog that I’d bought in town.

It was tasty enough that I’d completed the whole lineup.

I felt someone staring.

When I looked, a child in front of me was staring up at me.

A girl around seven, but she looked a bit thin.

Had she walked all this way with her mother?

She must have been starving.

This was an atmosphere where eating alone felt awkward!

“Want some?”

The child looked happy at the offered hot dog, but the mother with her waved it off, refusing.

Instantly, the child’s face fell.

“You don’t need money—take it. It’s cruel to make your kid just watch. Here, you can have one too.”

The woman looked surprised, but she politely said, “Thank you. I’ll accept,” and took it.

The child ate with a bright, happy face.

I also took out water from my item box and gave it to them.

Juice would stand out too much.

It had a sweet smell, after all.

“Are you a wizard, big brother?”

The child asked, looking up at me with curiosity after seeing me produce things out of nothing.

Oops—I’d let my guard down.

It wasn’t good to show people my storage ability.

Kids had sharp eyes.

Well, the other people probably hadn’t noticed, and she was just a child.

I crouched slightly and spoke quietly.

“No, this is a storage skill. Yeah, I can use healing magic, though. I came to the royal capital because I want to learn other magic. You can’t learn it out in the frontier.”

“That’s amazing. If you can use healing magic, you can make money, right?”

“Yeah. But my main job is being a merchant. I’m a traveling trader, so I also work as an adventurer. See? I even have an adventurer card.”

“Huh.”

As we chatted casually, the line moved a little.

Ugh—what is this, a supermarket or department store opening sale?

On release day for a new game or a new smartphone, people lined up from the night before.

How did they handle bathrooms?

There wouldn’t be any open in the middle of the night in a normal city area.

I’d always wondered.

Also, if you were alone in line, wouldn’t you lose your place if you stepped away to use the bathroom?

I hated that kind of thing, so I’d never lined up like that even once.

The only time I lined up was for delicious food.

Before I knew it, there was commotion in a line over there.

It looked like someone had been hit by a carriage.

Apparently a child who’d gotten bored had darted out in front of it.

The mother was screaming and sobbing.

And because it was a noble’s carriage, they were actually yelling at her instead.

…Fine. I guess I have to.

“Hey, I’m stepping out for a moment, but this is my spot!”

I barked at the guy behind me, then asked the child in front,

“Hold this place for me.”

“Okay!”

She nodded with a sparkling smile.

Even a small child could apparently sense what I was about to do.

She knew I had healing magic, and I was the kind of person who gave food away for free.

“Let me see him.”

I pushed aside the gawkers and moved forward.

I’d have to force my way into treating him.

Damn—this was bad. Really bad.

Would he be okay?

The small boy lay limp with his eyes closed, soaked in blood.

His chest was barely moving, so he was still breathing.

It looked like his organs were crushed, and bones were broken all over.

But if he was alive, I could do something.

I was glad I’d trained in that village first.

I didn’t want to use healing magic for the first time under public scrutiny like this.

“High Heal.”

Not yet.

As expected, it was only Level 1.

But that cast raised it to Level 2.

I should’ve leveled it sooner.

I hadn’t used it much in that village because it was inefficient for treating large numbers.

This spell was incredible—it restored even fractures without any splinting.

Maybe it detected something like a “curing reaction” and performed a restoration to the original state.

“High Heal.”

Still not enough.

“High Heal.”

Finally, it rose to Level 3.

And the child slowly opened his eyes.

He still needed more treatment.

“High Heal.”

He looked mostly okay now.

But just in case, I layered one more High Heal on top.

After receiving five strong healing spells, the child sat up, started crying, and clung to his mother.

The mother thanked me desperately, but she looked troubled.

She probably didn’t have money for treatment.

“No money needed. I did it on my own. Don’t let him push himself yet. Give him some nutrition.”

I handed over some food too, patted the child’s head, and told him, “Don’t dart out again.”

The mother bowed repeatedly in thanks, and I raised a hand in greeting before returning to my spot—where the people had actually left me space.

“You’re amazing. You healed him for free? You’re a pretty powerful healing mage.”

“Haha, it couldn’t be helped. I can’t just leave it like that. A child would die.”

There wouldn’t be an ambulance here like in Japan.

Even though a huge city—the capital—was right in front of us.

Even on Earth, ambulances were basically paid services abroad, so they wouldn’t come if you couldn’t pay.

And wouldn’t hospitals refuse poor people who couldn’t afford treatment in the first place?

After standing in line for about three more hours, it finally felt like my turn was approaching.

I was sick to death of this.

In over half a century of life, I’d never lined up this long even once—but this was a foreign world, so I had to accept it.

At least I’d passed the time talking with the guy behind me, whom I’d gotten friendly with.

The child in front joined in too.

I’d given her snacks as well.

But then, even though our turn came, the parent and child in front of me were rejected at the gate.

“What happened? Why are you turning them away? It looked like they paid the silver coins for their number.”

When I asked, the guard said,

“They brought a letter of introduction from their previous employer, but they don’t have identification, so they’re in the wrong line.”

The mother and child looked like they were about to cry.

And who could blame them?

After waiting this long, being told to line up again…

That other line was insanely long.

If someone told me to go over there now, even I’d cry.

“Hey! That’s cold. With those papers, they still can’t enter the royal capital?”

Since I had no choice, I complained and negotiated with the tough-looking gate guard on their behalf.

“They can enter if they line up over there. Their rewards-and-punishments record is clean. But they’re the ones who lined up wrong!”

No flexibility, huh.

They were probably being strictly trained by their superiors to enforce the rules.

If I were living here, a city like that might feel safer…

…but you just said yourself they could enter and there’s no problem.

That other line was a disaster.

It sounded like most of the people over there were long shots anyway.

If they lined up again, it looked like it would take a full day.

How were they handling bathrooms… medieval European style?

Right here at the entrance to the Flower Royal Capital.

“I see.”

I murmured, then suddenly took the guard’s hand and shook it.

Like a magic trick, I slipped a single silver coin (ten thousand yen) into his palm using storage.

And when I let go, I didn’t forget to press the coin firmly with my thumb—an extra little emphasis—while staring straight into his eyes.

I figured he’d be flexible for this sort of thing.

This wasn’t Japan.

That parent and child had legitimate documents that would allow them into the royal capital.

They weren’t criminals.

Even if the guard used his discretion to let them enter through this gate, it wouldn’t be a problem.

The guard looked slightly surprised, but after a quick glance at his palm, he shouted at the mother and child,

“Parent and child over there—through you go!”

See?

This was what they meant by, “With age comes wisdom.”

Though in my case, it was less “wisdom” and more “middle-aged experience.”

I smiled at him, then showed my adventurer card while holding my hand over the rewards-and-punishments device.

The guard grinned back, waved a hand at me, and signaled, “Go on.”

Whew.

Unlike Japan, it was nice that this kind of thing could be handled with a bit of flexibility.

I raised a hand in greeting and passed through.

My own silver coin fee was already on the table.

Then the mother and child called out to me.

“Thank you so much. You truly saved us. I lost my husband, and I came from a distant hometown to work, but I suddenly had to leave my job. The next job I was introduced to was urgently decided in the royal capital, so I couldn’t return home to have identification issued. And it’s hard to go back with such a small child…”

“Thank you, big brother.”

They’d waited just to tell me that.

It made me quietly happy.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. When you’re in trouble, you help each other. Stay well, you two.”

One small mistake, and I would’ve been stuck in that barren line too.

If I’d lined up there, would they have let someone with no fixed address like me enter?

I had no punishments, so maybe slipping a few gold coins into someone’s hand would’ve worked?

…Or rather, I did have a “reward” on record for dealing with bandits.

Maybe that appeared on the device, and that was why the guard had grinned.

Like he was saying he liked me.

And including the fact that I’d helped a struggling parent and child, this was their version of a welcoming ceremony.

“Not bad. I like you. I’m Ars. I’ll be in the royal capital for a while. If we run into each other again, let’s say hi!”

The young man behind me said that, then gave my back a light smack, but I didn’t feel bad about it.

That kind of feeling existed anywhere, no matter the world.

It warmed my heart a little.

Even if he was “young,” judging by appearance alone he probably looked older than me.

At a glance, maybe mid-twenties.

I couldn’t really tell western ages.

But his eyes shone with a pure, childlike sparkle.

He seemed like a solid young man even by Japanese standards—and pretty handsome too.

At the very least, he didn’t look like a villain.

And since he’d made it into the royal capital, he probably wasn’t a bad person.

If we crossed paths again, sharing a drink wouldn’t be bad.

In a world like this, gaining an acquaintance who said things like that made me feel a little happier.

“Yeah. I’m Alphonse. Later, Ars!”