How a Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom

All the chapter listed is only after-story of main story line. The chapter is not following any time sequence.

The men glared angrily at Luka, who had suddenly stepped between them.

“What the hell? Who’s this brat?”

“Hey, kid, if you don’t want to get hurt, butt out.”

“Acting all tough will get you killed young.”

The men snarled and threatened Luka. However, Luka pushed Misha behind him, ushering her toward Juno, and spoke with an unruffled smile.

“No, no, you guys are the ones acting tough. Don’t you notice the attention you’re getting?”

“Huh? What are you talking about—!?”

The men looked around and saw glances filled with murderous intent directed at them from every corner of the Guild. They had tried to lay hands on Misha and Juno, the Guild’s idols. The anger of the Ocean Adventurers who frequented this Guild was intense, and if Luka hadn’t intervened, it might have immediately escalated into a mass lynching.

Seeing the men flinch, Luka pressed his advantage.

“Kidnapping and human trafficking are crimes, first of all. Uttering such things in a public place like this is either suicidal… or just too much bravado, don’t you think?”

Luka’s tone was rough, suggesting he was angry too. Although he quickly corrected his phrasing, it only served to further provoke the men. They screamed at Luka, their faces flushed with rage.

“Shut up! Even if enforcement is strict in the South, the Union (Southern Continent Union) doesn’t interfere much in the North, right? So it’s not a problem!”

“Idiot… This isn’t a lawless zone; the unique discretion you think you have is only granted because waiting for instructions from the South in an emergency could be fatal. There are laws in the North, and committing human trafficking will immediately land you on the bounty list. Your bounty request will probably be posted right there on that board.”

When Luka pointed to the Request Board (Quest Board), the men visibly flinched. On the edge of the board were sketches of those who had committed crimes in the North and had bounties placed on their heads. The reward section beneath those sketches clearly specified “Dead or Alive.”

Then, one of the adventurers drinking in the tavern area drew his sword from its sheath and began maintenance. Seeing this action, which suggested preparations to immediately collect a bounty, the men grew genuinely nervous.

The most frivolous-looking of the trio started chuckling awkwardly.

“Saying we’d sell her for a high price, was… a joke, just a joke. We were just warning the little girl running around this place, mostly as a joke.”

“…Oh?”

“And yet you took it seriously and picked a fight. How are you going to settle this?”

It seemed the men realized they were at a disadvantage regarding Misha and shifted their target to Luka alone. At the men’s change of demeanor, the atmosphere in the Guild turned contemptuous. People likely felt that scum who so easily folded after receiving hostile glances were not worth worrying about.

Luka felt the same way. He sighed with genuine distaste.

“Threatening an eight-year-old girl and threatening a fifteen-year-old me is pretty much the same thing. It’s truly lame.”

“You… That’s enough swaggering!”

The largest man of the trio grabbed Luka by the collar.

“It looks like we’ll have to physically teach a brat like you what happens when you get cocky. You need to know who you’re mouthing off to.”

“Oh yeah… and who might that be?”

“We were warriors who fought under the great hero, Fuuga Haan! We’ve been through way more battles than you kids!” the big man declared confidently.

However, Luka simply clicked his tongue in boredom and spat out, “Tch… ‘Fallen Tiger Soldiers,’ figures.”

There was a certain segment of people who had drifted to the North with this mindset. They were individuals who had nothing to boast about except their physical strength, found no place in the peaceful Southern Hemisphere, and relied on the memory of having “participated in the world-dividing war under Fuuga.”

However, since Fuuga ruled half the Southern Hemisphere, roughly one-third of the Southern Hemisphere’s population could claim they fought under him. In other words, there were people who fought under Fuuga everywhere, and relying on that as pride was like clinging to a phantom. Such individuals, who clung to past memories and drifted North, often exhibited problematic behavior stemming from recklessness and arrogance, and were scornfully called “Fallen Tiger Soldiers” by other Ocean Adventurers.

Luka looked at the big man with cold eyes and placed a hand on the arm gripping his collar. Then…

“…Pathetic.”

“Huh?”

“I said utterly pathetic.” (CRACK!)

“Ugh, gwaah!?”

Just after a sound like something bursting was heard, the big man let go of Luka’s collar and stumbled backward significantly. He was rubbing his hand painfully. The other two men questioned him in surprise.

“H-Hey! What happened!?”

“I-I don’t know. But I was hit by a shock, like static electricity.”

“Does that mean he can use lightning magic!?”

“Wait, wait. The guys in the bar said his magic is only about half of his mother’s, didn’t they?”

“Then it can’t be much. Let’s just surround him, all three of us.”

The men returned to their senses and tried to surround Luka from three sides, ready to attack.

“Die, you brat!”

“Ice and Water. [Road Freezing]“

However, Luka muttered casually, without panicking. Then…

“Whoa, what the—!?” (Slip, THUD)

“What the… Gyaah!?” (Slip, CRASH)

“Ah, ouch!” (Slip, BONK)

The men instantly tripped as if their feet had slipped, falling on their backsides, rolling over, and one unlucky man even hit his head on a table leg.

“Y-You! What did you do!”

“What did I do? I just froze the floor under your feet and covered it with a thin film of water,” Luka replied with a nonchalant expression to the angry big man.

Looking down, there were indeed frozen puddles forming under the men’s feet, and the surface was slippery due to the layer of water.

“Ice and Water? Is he Water-elemental? But he used Lightning-elemental magic just now, right?”

“He can use multiple elements!? Is that his mother’s power!?”

“Is this kid’s mother some kind of monster!?”

The men looked disbelievingly at the phenomena they witnessed. Meanwhile,

“Mother Juno. They called you a monster, is that.”

“How cruel, Misha-chan.”

Juno and Misha were observing the men from a distance. Misha had lost interest in the men and was in full spectator mode, sipping the juice that one of the nearby Ocean Adventurers had bought for her. Juno placed her hand on her cheek and sighed in exasperation.

“I can only use Wind-elemental magic. And it’s only to wrap it around my feet to jump high or move quickly, that’s all.”

“That is the one Big Brother often used to escape Master’s training, is that. Though he was always quickly caught and punished with sparring for running away. Even so, Big Brother tried to escape many times and was always caught.”

“That child truly… I don’t know if he has persistence or not.” Juno shook her head dismissively.

“…When I first heard about his unique magic, the Maternal Blessing, I thought he had been cursed with such a useless ability… but seeing this, it’s quite usable.”

“Yes, is that. Big Brother has ‘eight’ Mamas who give him a blessing, is that.”

Luka’s unique magic, Maternal Blessing, has the following abilities:

The user can utilize about half of the abilities/magic possessed by their mother.
Physical abilities are the user’s own; for example, superhuman strength cannot be inherited.
Skill-based abilities that do not use the body (such as singing or calculation ability) can be used.

And here is the crucial point:

For the user (A) to use the magic of the mother (B), A must recognize B as a mother, and B must also recognize A as her child. Blood relation is not a necessary consideration in this process.

…That was the magic. In short, if Luka considers the person his mother and they consider him their child, he can draw upon half of their abilities. And Luka has eight people he calls “Mom,” including Juno. It is kept secret that Juno is effectively Souma’s eighth wife and that Luka is Souma’s second-to-last child.

However, Juno frequently took Luka to the Royal Castle to play, and when her work was backed up, she entrusted Luka to Liscia and the others to look after. As a result, Luka grew up being cherished by Liscia and the others along with his half-siblings. Because of this, Luka calls Liscia, Aisha, Juna, Roroa, Naden, Maria, and Yuriga all “Mother,” and Liscia and the others also regarded Luka as their own child.

Thus, Luka can use half of the abilities of his eight mothers. Prime Minister Ichiha, who noted the manifestation of a magic so perfectly tailored to Luka’s circumstances, proposed the hypothesis that “Magic manifestation might be influenced not only by bloodline but also by the individual’s upbringing and experience,” publishing a thesis that caused a sensation in the Sorcerer’s Guild… but that is another story.

“Whose magic is that freezing spell?”

“That is probably Mother Liscia’s [Ice Sword Mountain], is that. Big Brother’s power cannot create the spiky ice that pierces opponents, but I think he used Mama Juna’s magic that wraps water around weapons and things to spread water over the surface and make it super slick, is that.”

“Hah… He’s quite resourceful for my son.” Juno said, impressed.

Yes, this was the final feature of Luka’s Maternal Blessing:

If there are multiple B-subjects, the abilities of different B-subjects can be used simultaneously.

Because of this, Luka was granted the unprecedented power to simultaneously use magic of different attributes (even if others possessed the same magic, it likely went unnoticed because people with multiple mothers are rare). In this case, he was using the powers of Liscia and Juna.

Even though he could use multiple attributes, the magic was still a degraded version of his mother’s magic, making it a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. But Luka was skillfully wielding it as a resourceful tool.

Luka extended both hands toward the men. It was already widely known that magic power could be magnified by strongly visualizing the effect in one’s mind. This is why people chant spells or use songs to reinforce their visualization. In Luka’s case, he could strengthen the magic’s power by imagining the “Mothers” who are the users casting the spell.

Therefore, when he wanted to cast strong magic, Luka would speak the following phrase:

“(Juno) Mom. Mother Aisha. Mother Yuriga. Lend me the power of Wind!”

The next moment, a sudden, fierce gust of wind was unleashed from Luka’s outstretched hands.