How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom (2021–2022): Season 2, Episode 6 - Strike While the Iron Is Hot - full transcript

CONTINENTAL CALENDAR 1546
START OF NOVEMBER

What is the progress of the matter
in question?

Yes.

The plan is going well.

You could almost say it is
running smoothly.

You don't sound completely happy
with that fact.

Is there something bothering you?

It almost seems to be running
too smoothly.

Almost as though
there are other forces at work.

If that is the case,

things may later take
an unexpected turn for the worst.



I don't feel happy when there are
many unknowns,

but if we try to back out now,
it will be a problem.

That is correct.

We cannot change the course of
the plan at this stage.

We just need to proceed with caution

while being wary of unknown factors.

Yes, Sir.

Your Majesty.

What is all the rush?

Sorry, Prime Minster,
for interrupting your meeting.

What is it, Ludwin?

I am afraid an acquaintance
of mine has made a terrible mistake.

A terrible mistake?

ORIGINAL STORY BY DOJYOMARU



So this acquaintance is
a childhood friend of Ludwin it seems.

Yes,

she is known as the "Mad Scientist"
of the Forbidden Army.

The Forbidden Army?

I feel I have heard of her somewhere.

Is it a garage?

Forget it.

What is this Ludwin?

It is the entrance
to the dungeon, Your Majesty.

Dungeon.

You mean the normal kind of dungeon?

Are there artificial ones like this?

There are many different types.

Some are just caves.

Some are fortress basements
layered with stones.

There are also mysterious areas
encased completely in metal.

As for this dungeon,

it was passed down by the Royal Family
to the eccentric Maxwell Family,

who transformed it into

a research facility.

Genia. It's me.

Ludwin Arcs.

Genia, are you alright?

You surprised me when you addressed me

so suddenly that I jumped up

and knocked something over.
Lucky it wasn't anything dangerous.

Thank goodness!

This is metal?

What are you so interested in?

The floor is glowing.

Don't you find that strange?

It's just magic, right?

In this world, magic explains everything.

So probably for Liscia and the others,

it does not seem so mysterious.

This is the lowest level

where Genia's laboratory is located.

What is this place?

Your Majesty?

This is Genia's research facility.

I'm coming.

I'll be right there, Lu.

Thanks for coming all this way.

Who are these guys?

Genia, come on!

How can you be so rude?

This is His Highness Souma
and Princess Liscia.

Please forgive her rudeness.

Your Majesty. Really.

You're right.

If you look closely,

their faces match
those from the Gemstone Broadcast.

It is an honor to meet you, Your Highness.

My name is Genia Maxwell.

I am Kazuya Souma, provisional ruler
of Elfrieden Kingdom,

and this is my fiancée.

Liscia Elfrieden.

I know of your engagement.

May I wish you happiness and good health.

There's really no need to be so formal.

We are the ones who turned up unannounced,

please relax so we can talk naturally.

Really? In that case, I will.

Genia!

-It's fine.
-But really…

We can address
the "terrible mistake" later.

Before that, I want to learn
more about Genia.

No point standing outside.

Come on in!

I will put some coffee on.

Let me start from the beginning.

My name is Genia Maxwell.

I am a researcher, scientist,
and inventor.

I was also a General
in the Forbidden Army.

I was in the Weapons Development Division,

but I got fired for doing
some things that I shouldn't.

What did you do?

She made something quite terrible.

You know how war can damage the land.

So I made sure that there
would be greenery on the

battlefield by making arrowheads
loaded with seeds of fast-growing plants.

Planting trees during wartime?

It is rather far-fetched.

I don't mean to blow my own trumpet,

but I think it was a good concept.

However,

although it accelerated their growth,
it may not have been wise for me

to have enchanted the plants with
light magic.

Now I remember.

The mad scientist of the Forbidden Army.

You were responsible for that event.

I hesitate to ask, but what happened?

Well,

it was before you were summoned here.

The training ground and laboratory

was surrounded by a sea of trees.

I never expected it to work first time.

Genia. Let the past be the past.

There was certainly a strange atmosphere
in the development division.

It's strange for everyone to work

on the same project.

We should be free to develop new ideas.

The best ideas develop from free thinking.

I think so, anyway.

You have your hands full there, Ludwin.

Your Majesty.

By the way, King,

do you know much about the Maxwell family?

They are a family who have successfully

researched artifacts
recovered from dungeons.

That's right.

My family have been researchers
for several generations.

After many long years of research,

they came across a certain "something."

A certain "something"?

A natural law for this world

separate from the magic world.

A separate law?

I have heard that you use gemstones a lot.

But do you know what kinds of things
they really are?

From what I heard,

they are artifacts from dungeons

and they work using two types of magic.

The Silf wind spirits
and the Undinay water spirits.

That enables them to deliver
both pictures and sound.

I am afraid there are two things wrong
with your understanding.

Mistakes?

The first thing wrong is that

the magic of the wind spirit Silf,
and the water spirit Undinay

being present has never been proven.

But spirits do exist, right?

Well, I've never seen one.

Spirits are part of the stories of myths.

This hardly proves their existence
then, does it?

In this world, there is the power of magic

and this makes it hard for people
to accept the truth.

If we can't explain something,
it is convenient to explain it as

either the power of magic or spirits.

Because of this,

there are many things that we cannot see.

The truth is this.

While studying the gemstones
that we found in the dungeons,

we found that if we add wind magic
and water magic, they take in

the scenery
of their immediate surroundings.

And when that scene was used
with the information device developed

at the same time,

we discovered by accident that it
could be projected.

The stories about Silfs and Undinay were

conveniently added on later as a reason

to explain how it could have worked.

So, you are saying there are no spirits?

Well, I can't rule it out yet.

They may exist. I just don't know.

And, now for your second mistake.

The part about the gemstones transmitting
audio and video.

Well, that's what they do, right?

As I just told you,

the broadcast function was found
by accident

during a research experiment.

In other words, we have

only used gemstones for broadcasting,

So what you are saying is

that this is not the real purpose
of the gemstones?

So, what are they really for?

According to my research,
they are "dungeon cores."

Dungeon cores?

Dungeon core.

Apparently, they are the most
important thing for maintaining a dungeon.

If they are there,

wild beasts continue to appear to
a certain extent.

If these are abolished or shut down,

the monsters will stop appearing

and it will be an abandoned dungeon.

Adventurers are exploring dungeons

and their final aim is to shut down
the dungeon core.

If they can just bring one back,

they are rewarded with wealth
and prestige from the nation.

In other words,

what we refer to as gemstones today,

are just destroyed dungeon cores.

The problem is we have only been
able to study them in broken form.

As of yet, nobody has been able

to bring a working core to the surface.

We don't really want
more demons on this earth.

Maybe so,

but wouldn't you like to study

how a working core works?

Can they not be reactivated?

Not at this stage.

We don't even know how they operated.

The unknown is scary.

That is why people explain things
as magic.

What do you mean?

People are surprisingly logical beings.

Things we cannot perceive

or even explain we find frightening.

So we try and understand it by
forcing an explanation on it.

I knew you would understand.

I am glad somebody around here
understands.

The thing is in the world I was from

there was science, which was studied as
a completely different thing from magic.

I would like to sit down with you
sometime, and pick the bones out of that.

In the Maxwell family, we have a name

for this kind of endeavor.

We call it "Over Science."

"Over Science"…

That makes me an overscientist.

In any case,

as you seem to get what I am doing,

I would love to show you some of
the inventions in my laboratory.

This is my latest invention.

The Little Susumu MKV.

What a lame name!

Large vessels are propelled by the wind
and dragged by the sea dragons.

This Little Susumu MKV

can propel ships forward on its own.

So, it's a propulsion device？

Yes! Top marks!

This device

sucks up anything in the space
near the loop,

and expels it out to the space behind it.

If it sucks up everything in front of it,

what would happen in its current state?

Good question.

It would take in the air around

the ground and then expel this air.

Shall we give it a whirl?

Genia! Wait!

Your Highness! Princess!

Are you hurt?

I think we are okay.

We are still alive.

Sorry about that.

I had it on the wrong way.

Genia!

What would you have done
if something happened to his Majesty?

Don't worry. No harm done.

I mean, Genia,
that is quite the invention.

Isn't it?
The loop part is made of special metal

and it includes an improved
energy transmitting technology.

By sending it energy,
you get the little Susumu Mark 5.

It is the first machine that can receive
and expel magic.

Just one of these does the work
of a whole sea dragon.

What power source does it use?

Is it the power of magic?

We have one of these installed.

It looks like a cursed ore.

You have seen this before, Liscia?

The thing is that
we use magic to dig for ore too.

However, if one of
these cursed ores are nearby,

for some reason we cannot
use magic anymore.

And if we try to use them anyway…

kaboom!

An explosion?

Sounds dangerous.

If we are digging
and come across one of these ores,

we will be unable to dig any further.

That is why we call it a "cursed ore,"

as in a stone cursed by God.

A problem is that a

large section of it
runs underneath the Kingdom.

No offense, but that is nonsense,
Princess.

On the contrary,

the fact that there is so much of it

means the country is blessed by God.

Cursed cores don't prevent us
from using magic.

Think about it.

You can't use magic near the ores,

you get an explosion, right?

So where does that energy come from?

So what you are saying is

the cursed cores absorb magic?

I knew you would get it, King.

This ore absorbs the magic energy.

When the tolerance level is exceeded,

that energy is quickly released.

In a very explosive manner.

I have succeeded in taking

this stored magic and using it as energy.

I even use it to power this device.

You what?

This is quite amazing.

If this really works how she says,

it would be like a rechargeable battery.

Genia has devised a device to
store energy in a world

that has not yet seen the invention
of the steam engine.

With this technology,

the Kingdom can take
a great technological leap forward.

However,

if people learn that the power source
is cursed stone,

it will become the target
of religious fear and persecution.

According to Liscia's information,

there is a rich vein of it
running under the Kingdom.

If we play this wrong,

other countries may invade us
for the purpose of securing resources.

In other words, this technology

could make us the greatest
superpower on the continent,

or become the actual ruin of the Kingdom.

What's the problem, Souma?

Sorry.

Just thinking of the high risk-high return
nature of this situation

has got me feeling queasy.

Genia may be as necessary to us as Tomoe.

I will explain in detail later,

but for now,

we need to find a way
of tying Genia to Elfrieden.

I think the fact that she is one
of the Maxwells should be enough,

but if you want to go further,

we could marry her off to

somebody you trust.

That would be one way of doing it.

Do you think she has
any affection for Ludwin?

My female intuition points to
about a 60% chance it could work.

I don't understand your gender at all.

So, from your perspective,

do you think Ludwin could be interested?

I think he is 99% on board.

Men are an open book in this regard.

Ludwin, do you have feelings for Genia?

Where did that question come from
all of a sudden?

Your Majesty.

Genia is important to our nation.

So, I want her to marry somebody reliable.

Am I to become Ludwin's wife?

Are you not keen on Ludwin then, Genia?

He's not so bad.

I always thought I would marry one day.

And I always thought Ludwin would
be a good catch.

Sire.

But that would be the end of
the Maxwell family line.

Then, you could just call it Maxwell-Arcs.

And the Kingdom will pay for
your wedding ceremony.

Are there any other issues?

Ludwin, get used to the idea.

Yes.

Would you do me
the honor of becoming my wife?

Are you sure I will make the grade?

I am hardly wife material for a nobleman.

That may be the case,

buteven so, I want you by my side forever.

You are a plain speaker,

but…

Yeah, why not?

I am sure we will be very happy.

This seems to be settled nicely
on all fronts.

No, Your Majesty. Not yet.

With everything going on,
I forgot why we came here at all.

She is the one who committed
the "terrible mistake" I mentioned before.

So she is.

I forgot in the excitement
of the new invention.

Yes.

Ouch!

Ludwin, are you committing
domestic violence already?

No, you fool, I am asking you
to join me in apologizing to the King.

My fiancée has made a terrible mistake.

I said you are hurting me, Ludwin.

And what is it you actually did?

She…

stole the horn of a dragon.

Ouch.

Subtitle translation by: Simon Way