01x02 - If You Possess an Aptitude, We'll Make Use of It

[bunniefuu]

This world has magic

and strange creatures.

So if you want to fly

you can just ride a wyvern.

Large, domesticated creatures pull wagons

and steel warships are moved

by giant sea dragons.

There are no light bulbs,

but the shining moss inside streetlamps

luminates the city at night

and they cook using firewood,

a furnace, and fire element magic.

In this world, they don't know

about science, but they can do

most things with magic.

In other words,

without magic and strange creatures,

this country's level of technology

is not very high.

They're far from

having an industrial revolution

and they still follow a feudal system.

And I am currently the king

of such a country.

ORIGINAL STORY BY DOJYOMARU

A magic test?

According to the records,

heroes who are summoned from another world

are sometimes endowed with

some kind of magic

when they come to this world.

In other words,

you want to check to see

if I am able to use magic too?

I just need to touch this?

Yes.

If you are able to use magic now,

your mind will tell you

what kind of magic that is.

Really… Well isn't that helpful.

How was it?

It seems I am able to use magic too.

But when will I ever use this magic?

Souma, I'm coming in.

What's going on?

You're here, Liscia?

Um… You're controlling

the pens with magic, right?

I guess you can say that.

All I know is that I have

the ability to copy my consciousness

onto objects and manipulate them.

So I'm not moving those pens myself.

They're moving independently

based on a copy of my consciousness.

I named this ability Living Poltergeist.

I know it sounds a little immature.

I don't know about that,

but it sure is a strange type of magic.

I can't move any more than

three objects for now,

and it seems like

they have to be close to me.

But with this ability,

I can focus my consciousness on

multiple tasks and take care

of them simultaneously.

In other words…

In other words…

It's so helpful when doing paperwork.

Thanks to this,

I can get so much work done.

Without this ability, I would've been

buried under a mountain of paperwork.

It seems to me that you are

buried under paperwork even now.

By the way, what's all this fuss about?

-We're excavating buried treasures.

-Buried treasures?

More accurately, we're looking through

unexplained expenditures.

We're comparing the budget request forms

with revenue and expense statements.

Even if the amount of expenses

is equal to the amount requested,

if there are more entries than planned,

they may have squandered the money

in order to use up the budget.

Or it could be a ruse

to cover up embezzlement.

We're checking those

and if we find any fraud,

we're making the related parties

pay for the losses.

If a single person is embezzling money,

we'll have them pay us back.

If they cannot pay,

we'll arrest them and seize their assets.

Why do you have to go that far?

You got enough money to pay the empire

by selling national treasures, right?

Yeah, for now

I don't have to worry about

being handed over to the empire.

But to get this country's

economy back on its feet,

we will need much more money.

And of course, manpower as well.

I wonder if Souma and Liscia

are getting along?

Those two

will be all right, I'm sure.

Okay.

I guess you're right.

-Oh, I fell asleep?

-Good morning, Liscia.

Good morning.

Since when were you there?

When? A little while ago.

Why?

Well, I noticed you were sound asleep…

We finished what we can for now.

Do you want to go back to sleep?

No.

I'm fine. What about you?

You look like you didn't get any sleep.

I'm planning on going to sleep after this.

But can I borrow you for a second?

Right now?

There's something I wanted to show you.

Hey, don't grab on so hard.

But it's pretty scary.

How pitiful.

Isn't the man supposed to

hold onto the reins?

I can't help it.

It's my first time riding a horse.

It is?

In my world,

even if you couldn't ride a horse,

you could ride

a lot of other useful vehicles.

The world you lived in…

-Hey, Souma…

-What?

Did you have to leave behind any family

or…

-Lovers?

-No.

My grandpa, who was my last family member,

died before I came here.

-I'm sorry.

-Don't worry about it.

Grandpa lived a long life. And so,

I have nobody waiting for me to return.

I'm not really itching to go back either.

I see.

Stop here.

They're beautiful,

covered in morning mist.

Beautiful, huh?

Is this what you wanted to show me?

Yeah.

This inedible field is the cause

of this country's food shortage.

Inedible field? What do you mean?

It's exactly how it sounds.

These are all cotton fields.

Oh, that's what you mean by inedible.

Long story short,

the increase of cotton fields

caused this country's food shortage.

What?

The expansion of

the Demon Lord's Domain started it.

Until now, the northern countries

mainly produced cotton,

but because of the demons,

their production levels plummeted.

By the way, in this world,

it gets warmer as you go north, huh?

It's not like that in your world?

It was the opposite in my country.

Never mind that, though.

Because the supply decreased,

the price of cotton increased.

Because you can sell as much as you make,

the farmers of this country

stopped farming food crops

and they all started growing cotton.

Crops that are grown to be sold

rather than to feed people

are called cash crops.

Because all the farmers

started to grow nothing but cash crops,

this country's

food self-sufficiency rate went down.

That's why we have a food shortage?

No, we could've imported

however much food we needed.

That's right. Since we can

sell cotton at a high price,

we can use that money to buy food.

Right. However,

then the price of cotton collapsed.

Seeing that it was profitable,

other countries began

producing cotton too.

I guess supply exceeded demand

on a worldwide scale.

As a result, this country, which was

reliant on the export of cotton,

was suddenly put in a tough spot.

We didn't have enough money

to buy food from other countries.

When the import volume decreases,

obviously the price of food circulating

within the country soars.

And the lower your income is,

the harder you're hit.

That is one of the issues

eating away at this country.

I didn't know.

How could I not know such a thing?

As a person of authority,

I'm ashamed of myself.

Don't beat yourself up about it.

It's not too late to learn

about these things.

Is that why you wanted to show this to me?

Yeah.

Liscia, you will eventually

lead this country.

So, I wanted you to

know about these things.

So that you can manage

this country even after I am gone.

PRINCIPALITY OF AMIDONIA

LISCIA ELFRIEDEN

First, we'll limit how many

cash crops people can plant

and have them plant food crops again

to raise the self-sufficiency rate.

We'll support them

by granting government subsidies.

We should start with soybeans, which have

a wide range of usage and potatoes,

which can handle unstable weather.

Are you listening?

Yeah, I am.

Agrarian reform doesn't happen overnight.

So for the time being,

the government will buy out

foods that are both imported

and made domestically and sell them

for less than what we bought them for.

Wouldn't that leave us in debt?

I'm hoping to cover

the difference with exports.

We have to find a replacement for cotton,

which was the main source of income.

That'll be hard.

Well, that aside…

You're the king, so why are

you eating in a place like this?

Don't worry about that.

The entire castle is trying to

be frugal right now.

We can't splurge on food.

Even still…

It's good to see you, Princess Liscia.

Or should I refer to you

as Queen Liscia now?

Oh… I'm not yet…

Souma, this is the captain

of the Royal Guard,

Ludwin Arcs.

I'm Souma Kazuya.

I'm technically the king of this country.

I'm Ludwin Arcs.

I've heard rumors

about your amazing work

from the bureaucrats.

Then tell those bureaucrats,

"If you have time to be rumoring,

get more work done."

Roger that.

-May I have breakfast with you?

-I don't mind.

While I'm here, may I ask you one thing?

If it's something I can answer.

Is the reform you are planning

going well?

Not really.

I especially need talented workers.

Aside from Marx, the prime minister,

everyone else is not much help.

The retainers of the previous king

were handed over to me,

but they are the ones who let this country

fall into this state in the first place.

-I am guilty of that as well.

-Hey, Souma…

Someone who tells me what I want to know

and willingly works on

what I want them to work on.

That's the kind of retainer

I want for myself.

Using the gemstone broadcast

to recruit talent?

Yeah.

The gemstone broadcast

covers the entire country, right?

Yes.

As long as you have a working setup,

whatever is said inside

the castle's gemstone room

can be heard anywhere in the country.

Then that's perfect for reaching

large amounts of people.

It's usually used for

the king's New Year's speech

or when issuing important decrees.

I'm sure it's the first time using it

to recruit talent.

How do you usually recruit people?

Let's see…

You use personal connections

or hold a written exam

and hire whoever passes.

That limits things a lot, doesn't it?

By the way,

what is this country's literacy rate?

Half of the people can read

and about a third of the people can write.

That's not good!

You can't tell how capable someone is

just by their literacy.

But because of that,

70% of the people can't take the exam.

You're missing out on

so many diamonds in the rough.

You're absolutely right.

Well, once the economy becomes stable,

we can slowly start

fixing those things too.

More importantly,

we have to recruit talent for now.

What kind of people

do you want to recruit?

I have a statement in mind already.

Well, I'm just going to borrow the words

of a hero I admire.

Hero?

Yes, an unscrupulous hero

in chaotic times.

Near the fall of the Han dynasty, Cao Cao

founded Wei, one of the Three Kingdoms.

He was so invested in recruiting

talented individuals that he's said

to have had a mania for gathering talent.

In order to do

a widespread search for talent,

he made a declaration

in the 15th year of the Jian'an era.

In there, there is a line

that is quoted to this day.

That is…

If you possess an aptitude,

we'll make use of it.

-Is that the new king?

-He's so young.

This country is currently facing

an unprecedented crisis.

A constant shortage of food,

an economic recession,

an influx of refugees who lost their land

to the Demon Lord's Domain.

All of these are serious issues

eating away at this country.

Some neighboring nations are

waiting to devour our country as well.

Upon seeing this situation,

the previous king

concluded it was

out of his ability to fix things,

and entrusted that to me.

The previous king was a wise ruler

in a time of peace.

However, we are living in turbulent times.

What we need during turbulent times

is not a king who is like a saint,

but a tenacious survivor.

A king like that

will ultimately

protect your families and possessions.

That is why the previous king chose me.

Because in terms of my tenacity,

and only in that aspect,

I was greater than the previous king.

Currently,

I am working on various reforms.

However, I am in serious need

of talented workers.

And that is why

I am recruiting talented individuals.

In this period of turmoil,

we don't need someone who is peaceful.

We need someone who excels

in a certain aspect.

I don't care what kind of talent it is.

If you have enough pride to say,

"Nobody can beat me in this aspect,"

come before me.

Your level of education, age,

social class, background,

race, or sex does not matter.

Whether or not you can read or write,

whether you own a lot or little,

whether you're pretty or not,

whether you have a shady past or not

doesn't matter.

"I am better at this than anyone.

Nobody in this country

can beat me in this aspect."

If you can say that about something,

show it to me.

I'm sure some of you are unsure

if your talent is really useful.

However, that is not for you to decide.

Whether or not this country

needs your talent

will be decided by me, the king.

I don't care if people say

your talent is stupid.

So do not hesitate!

If I determine that your talent

is useful to this country,

I will show my utmost respect

and welcome you as my retainer.

If you are still hesitant,

here is what I will do.

If your talent proves to be

second to none in this country,

as king of Elfrieden I promise

to issue a Certificate of Peerlessness

and give you a reward in cash.

Now did that motivate you a little?

Come on, guys!

You can sign up yourself

or recommend others.

If you recommend someone,

you will receive a third of the reward.

If someone is hiding and acting like

a recluse during this crisis,

drag them out yourselves.

Also, some talents will have

a lot of competition,

like being strong or singing well.

We'll have those people compete beforehand

to decide on one representative.

So keep that in mind.

Well then, those with talent,

come shake my hand

at the royal capital of Parnam!

What was that at the end?

-I made it up on the spot.

-Seriously…

I hope a lot of people

with the talents I need come forward.

‪So, your mind is already made up?

‪Yes, Father.