How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom seems to at least acknowledge that the people of Van weren’t all that upset that the Kingdom had invaded. After the negotiations finally conclude, and I’ll discuss those in a moment and Souma and his friends, including their army, finally leave the city for home, it is clear that the citizens of Van are deeply troubled about their future.
I’m wondering how many of them will try to leave to go and live in the Kingdom instead and whether the idiot Prince manages to hold onto power for even a month.
How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom continues to have some fairly simplistic views on economics and politics but I guess they’d talk even longer if they were trying for something complicated.
Does anyone else find it curious that Souma came from a world full of inequality and conflicts and yet somehow the political views and theories from that world are like a magic formula that make everything better in fantasy land? How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom loves to pull out its Machiavelli quotes (and quotes from other places) but if fortune cookie logic was enough to be a brilliant ruler surely we’d have more examples of it happening on Earth.
It’s kind of obvious that the Prince is going to fail to unite his kingdom without the stronger personality of his father to hold the military together. Plus, the boogie man stories of the evil kingdom have more or less been defused by the presence of the kingdom in the capital city for so long. The people there know that they weren’t horrible and oppressive so blaming them for everything wrong in Amidonia isn’t really going to fly anymore.
Of course, I am wondering where the Princess ended up all things considered. She at least seemed to have a few functioning brain cells.
So the agreement is signed and our Realist Hero is trying to prevent future military incursions by insuring they don’t have the budget for it for a time. Which would work if the person he was dealing with used logic. What is more likely to happen is that the idiot will raise taxes and blame it on the reparation payments without actually reducing the amount he is spending on building up his military. But I guess we’ll see.
We also see Jeanne return to the Empire and happily reunite with her sister where she reveals the many wondrous things Souma has said and done in the brief time she’s known him. It is hardly a comprehensive or analytical report but whatever. What I did find interesting was that we find out the hero summoning was never supposed to find someone to defeat the demons but someone who would bring about a revolution. From that point of view the summoning has clearly been very successful.
Then I guess because the episode wasn’t over yet but for whatever reason How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom didn’t want to kick off the next plot point yet, we visit the adventurers having a drinking party on the Kingdom for their services during the war. I’m kind of struggling to remember what they did. I know they did something but all of those characters have been so utterly forgettable I genuinely cannot remember.
Naturally the weird mascot thing that Souma uses was there as well.
It is on that unremarkable note that the episode sputters to a stop. On the bright side it feels like they’ve finally closed this chapter of story which makes me kind of hopeful that maybe next episode they’ll move on to something else. On the other hand, How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom has now been back for three episodes and other than signing one peace treaty it hasn’t really accomplished anything of note.
Images from: How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 2nd Season. Dir. T. Watanabe. J. C. Staff. 2022
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Karandi James
To the question of “Is Anyone Else Expecting a Mass Exodus From Van?”
The answer: …No.
I guess realistically speaking it was already established Amidonia wasn’t exactly the richest place to be due to them spending their money for the military throughout the series, so it’d be hard to believe a number of people, who don’t have that much money to begin with, can actually make the trip to Elfrieden safely unless they would be able to coordinate with the Kingdom somehow and in time. So from that standpoint, no.
…Any other elaboration would go into spoiler territory, so can’t add much else other than, as you can expect, this Van situation will have a resolution at some point.
But well, we gotta find out what’s going to happen to Carmine, Castor, and Carla, so essentially the clean up of the rebels within the Kingdom is next!