“The lords of the Frontier Alliance have already pledged to help us. I ask that His Majesty give due recognition to the nobles who are trying to save the lives of their people,” I said, acknowledging the allies we’d gained in this plight. As protectors of the entire kingdom, the royal family wouldn’t be able to remain simple bystanders. Helping those in peril is fundamentally a good thing, and the king should be acting as the entire kingdom’s protector. With my contribution to the budget, the operation should go ahead without a hitch. The royal family probably only wanted information on the ever-growing Frontier Alliance, but I won’t give it to them. I needed to do my best for Ash.
...
Fall rolled in, signaling that it had been a month since the battle at Fort Phoenix. Fortunately, everything was going to plan regarding the refugees in the Sacula region. That seemed to also be the case for the other regions within the Frontier Alliance; checklists confirming available relief supplies were continuing to come in day after day. With this, we no longer had to worry about food. The Territory Reform Promotion Office had temporarily become the Disaster Response Office, and, to my relief, everything had gone smoothly. It was good news. Yet, where there is good news, there is also bad news. The bad news came in the form of a report from Maika who was leading the scouting party into Yanga’s territory.
“The situation is worse than we thought,” Maika told me. It was the night of her return and we sat on our bed. She had not even put together the report yet. My usually angelic Maika, whose bright smile alone was enough to put me at ease, grabbed my hand and rubbed it. She did not look pleased. Seeing someone with as much battle experience as her feeling this miserable... It meant the situation in Yanga’s territory must be bad. Maika let out a sigh and she told me that there were no survivors anywhere between the central part of the region to the southwestern border.
“It seemed the survivors either made their way to the south of the Sacula region or headed to the damaged eastern and northern areas of Yanga’s territory.” Maika, with a heavy expression, went on to explain that the bodies of the deceased had been left to rot in droves in the villages and towns.
“The refugees that came to us were lucky. I mean, you had an idea that something like this would happen, and you did everything you could to welcome them.”
“I take it that those who fled north and east were not so lucky then?” I asked, stroking her head. Maika nodded silently.
“They were treated like bandits. I imagine that would mean there have been other such ‘bandits’ in the past.”
With a forlorn expression, Maika mumbled that the eastern and northern areas had suffered more than the area that was attacked by werewolves. She then wrapped her arms around my waist and hugged me. As she buried her face into my chest, I switched right to comforting her. I hugged her back with all my might.
“Thank you, Maika. Thanks to you, I feel like I can work even harder at welcoming the refugees in.”
“Mhm.” Maika nodded in return, her gentle breath tickling my chest. I gave Maika a kiss on her cheek and began to process the information I had received from her.
It had been a month since the battle, and the number of refugees within the Sacula region had risen to six thousand. Three thousand of them were in Itsutsu city, and the other three thousand were elsewhere in the territory. An additional one hundred refugees were spread about various towns and cities in neighboring territories. I wanted to send more to our neighbors, and there had been offers from a lot of lords, but it would have been difficult to send them far distances. While the refugees would receive better treatment there, they were all too exhausted. The logistics just did not work out. There were also regions that were receiving refugees from Yanga’s territory directly, and as far as the Frontier Alliance could confirm, that number was over ten thousand. If Maika’s report was anything to go by, there would be more still yet to come.
There was no one left at the crisis point, but it seemed that even more refugees had begun to emerge from northern and eastern areas. It seemed they were people who had been unable to find asylum, had given up their own territory and were now seeking somewhere else to live. After being chased from their homes by bandits, they would undoubtedly end up right here.
“I guess if half the refugees out there come to Sacula, there’ll be about another ten thousand?”
“I think there’ll be a lot more.” Maika corrected my rough estimate as she continued to bury her face into my chest. “Refugees are being chased out of other territories so they’ll be coming here too.”
“Is that so?”
I often forgot since we were treating them as asylum seekers, but in this world, they were first regarded as bandits. In this world, there were no plans in place regarding what to do with refugees.
“Yeah, they were telling me about it. When they were chased out, they were told that Sacula would take them in instead. Since they knew I was from Sacula, they wanted to know if they could really come here.”
“Those who kicked them out no doubt felt awful seeing these people putting their lives on the line.” As I thought, society as a whole had a lot more room to improve. Since we are all here as humans, we should do our best to live positively and freely. At the very least, we should be able to extend a hand to someone who is quite clearly struggling.
“Ash, you’re amazing.”
“Hm? I am always happy to hear your compliments, but why all of a sudden?” I asked as I continued to stroke her head. She finally looked up at me, wearing a smile as bright as the sun.
“I was able to look them in the face and tell them that everything will be all right. I was able to tell them that if they come to Sacula, it’d be all right. I was able to tell them that we had everything prepared, and we were ready to take them in.” She smiled as she went on to tell me how relieved the refugees were when she told them she could help.
“If you weren’t here, Ash, I wouldn’t have been able to tell them that. I mean, taking in as many refugees as that? Usually, that’d be impossible. No one has ever done it up until now, and no one has ever said that they’d do it either.”
“Is that so? I feel like, before the battle, I said I would and everyone agreed immediately. You all helped me get to work on a plan, remember?”
“Because it was you who said it. Because you said it, everyone thought that it was possible. We all thought we’d show everyone that we can do it. We wanted to do everything that we could.”
I remembered how everyone looked when I first proposed what to do at our pre-battle meeting. Speaking of which, everyone had a stiff expression when the battle had ended. I thought that was only natural considering how difficult it would be to take in and manage that many refugees, however, I wondered if it actually came from them realizing they had to follow their hearts and do the right thing.
“Everyone’s smiles get stolen away from them, but you, Ash, you’re the one who returns them.”
“It is not just me. Lady Renge and Lady Suiren, Lord Itsuki and His Excellency Count Gentoh, Officer Raino and Viscount Sukuna—a lot of people lent me their strength, and as a result, we were able to accomplish what we set out to do.” Of course, Maika and Princess Alicia too. Maika blushed as I smiled and stroked her cheek.
“Ash, you’re always like that. When people think something’s impossible or that they can’t do anything, you’re always there with a calm expression. You give off this mysterious light, and then suddenly everything feels possible.” Maika started counting on her fingers the number of things that mysterious light had led to.
“You made our studying fun, you helped make our village successful, you came up with medicine to cure disease, reintroduced beekeeping, came up with new methods for agriculture, discovered flight, found out how to bring back a village that had once disappeared...and you found our good friend, the Princess.” She nuzzled her face back into my chest as she playfully recalled our memories together.
“Ash, I love how bright you shine. Let’s continue to illuminate the way with your wonderful light.”
“Of course. Anything to help you, Maika.” After that, I heard Maika’s soft breathing as she slept. It had been a while since I had seen her so exhausted. “Thank you,” I whispered as I continued stroking her head.