Anime Episode 08

"The Forest in Labour" is the 8th episode of the "Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki" Anime adaptation.

''Kaede leads an engineering corps, including Halbert, in constructing a road. As the work detail receives a royal inspection from Souma and Liscia, an urgent message from Aisha's father arrives, informing them of a natural disaster in their homeland.''

Summary
Due to the existence of magic, the technological system can be a little different. For example, the Battleship Albert, the single ship possessed by the Forbidden Army. A metal ship like this is usually made in the industrial revolution, however as that still doesn't exist in this world, the ship doesn't have engines, and they use sea dragons to tow the ship. The cannons are in a similar situation, while this world has gunpowder, they don't have firearms due to using magic for attacks. And with infusion spells, they can make objects stronger or have different effects. The battleship cannons were created to fight other battleships as any non-water magic is greatly limited while on the sea and they needed the means to fight.

Halbert and other men from the Forbidden Army help constructing the roads. He complains if this is a job for the Forbidden Army, as normally they need to protect the kingdom and not do things like this, but Kaede explains that they hired the unemployed people to help out, but were still shorthanded. During lunch, Halbert tries a dish created by the king, a shogayagi burger and ends up enjoying it. Kaede explains that it uses seasonings "shoyu" and "mirin", which are made by Mystic Wolves who now can make a living selling the seasonings. She also enjoys having the fresh vegetables, commenting that the roads they made helped out greatly in making supply lines easy. Once distribution is smoothed, the imbalance in supply and demand will be eliminated which will lower the prices. Souma then shows up, but seeing how stiff Halbert acts, he orders him to not be so formal and call him "Souma".

Souma and his group then check out the construction of the roads and Liscia comments that she never wondered how the roads are made. Looking at the first layer, Kaede explains it's a mixture of volcanic ash and lime. Souma comments it's known as "Roman concrete" and has the property to harden in time, as it also has some flexibility, there are buildings in his world that are still standing after 2000 years. Liscia then sees the lamps and Kaede comments they are made so that when it gets dark, the lightmoss inside starts to provide light. Souma asks Aisha to explain the warding tree and Aisha explains the tree emits a frequency that monsters and wild animals find unpleasant, and that they are using them in the God-Protected Forest around their villages. Souma explains the trees are planted with some space between them to not completely chase away the wild animals, as some like the gray wolves and red bears need to change hunting grounds, but if they are unable to migrate and run out of food, they will start attacking people and livestock.

A messenger bird kui then appears. Kaede explains it doesn't just have homing instinct, but it can also detect the frequency of its master from a distance. As it lands on Aisha, it gives her a message. Reading it, Aisha explains that it's from her father, the chief of the dark elves and informs her of a landslide that swallowed half the village and many are still missing. Souma asks Kaede about how many men they have here and she explains it's 54 from the Forbidden Army and 4 engineers from the civil engineering guild, with six of all being earth mages. Souma then states that the group will go and rescue the elves. Souma tells Liscia to return to the capital and request a rescue party and tell Hakuya to send relief supplies to the dark elves. Learning it will take them two days to reach Aisha's village with normal military march, Souma realizes that two and a half days would pass since the incident, giving them only half a day until the 72-hour threshold. He explains that during natural disasters once three days pass, the death rate of those who need rescuing increases significantly. Wondering what to do, Souma then sees the heavy carriages and decides to use them to transport all the men faster.

Reaching Aisha's village, they meet her father, Wodan Udgard and tell him that he brought 50 men and more will come soon. Wodan then explains where the landslide occurred and that there are already more than hundred dead with about 40 still missing. Souma requests a list of the missing people, so they don't miss anyone. He also tells Wodan to put a few men to watch the mountain and report if there are some movements or strange noises, in order to avoid getting caught in a second landslide. Aisha requests that she be one of the people and her father tells her to call her old friends with which she used to run in the forest.

Souma instructs the Forbidden Army to listen to the voices in the dirt, but if they see a second slide, to evacuate even if they were in the middle of a rescue. As they rescue people, Souma states he heard a voice under a large trunk and tells Halbert to come and help. Halbert states he didn't hear anything, but is then surprised to see someone under the trunk. Souma explains he used a wooden mouse and control it, getting it into places where people can't look up. As he explains it's his living poltergeist, Souma throws up, commenting that one of his mice had found some horrible mangled bodies.

Souma and Wodan confirm that they found all missing people, although some of them are already dead. Aisha informs Souma that Liscia and the relief unit had arrived, but Robthor Udgard states it's too late. Souma states there are many things left to do from tending the wounded to building temporary houses, however, Robthor states that won't bring the dead back. Wodan tells Souma that Robthor is his younger brother, who lost his wife and his daughter is still in critical condition. Robthor wonders why the forest took his wife, even though he was protecting it for so long. Wodan tells him it's not the time to assign any blames, but he should mourn his wife and pray for his daughter.

Outside, Aisha tells Souma that Robthor was against thinning the forest and wonders if they had done more thinning would it have prevented this incident. Souma is unsure, but explains that it would have definitely helped decrease the chances of landslides. He also explains that with thinning, they would more easily notice any signs for upcoming landslide and prepare for it. Nature isn't so weak and it constantly goes through the process of destruction and rebirth.

As they leave, Souma tells Liscia that he wasn't able to do anything. As he is the king, his job isn't to direct things onsite, but to make preparations before the emergency happens. He felt he failed in many areas as he was occupied with the food shortage and the Three Dukedoms.

Characters in Order of Appearance
Characters in italics debuted here.


 * Kazuya Souma
 * Liscia Elfrieden
 * Aisha Udgard
 * Halbert Magna
 * Kaede Foxia
 * Wodan Udgard
 * Robthor Udgard

Trivia

 * ''This Episodes adapts from Light Novel Volume 01 "Chapter 6"