5.9 KiB
[RT?]How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom
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Author: u/Prezombie *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/6skhvp/rthow_a_realist_hero_rebuilt_the_kingdom/
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Score: 16
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Created: 2017-08-09T10:04:08
Post:
I stumbled across this small series (4 light novels) and it looks like something that cold potentially fit here, if the author executed the premise well.
Anyone else read it yet?
It starts out as the cliche isekai (portal fantasy) premise, with Japanese everyman dropped into a fantasy realm of monsters and elves. Instead of ending up on the front lines of a war or hunting monsters, the protagonist attempts to pull the uplifting gambit by presenting potential techs to the local king, and ends up becoming a bureaucrat.
The premise reminded me a lot of Greyjoy Alla Breve, which is my favorite isekai fanfic to date.
The licenced translation is available here: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/how-a-realist-hero-rebuilt-the-kingdom-volume-1
Comments:
u/AugSphere [+16] Dark Lord of Corruption (22 hours later)
Here's a situation from the first chapter:
“While I was sorting through the paperwork, I noticed it. With the expansion of the Demon Lord’s Domain, the demand for clothing and other daily necessities has skyrocketed. Of course, the demand for the raw materials has shot up, too. With the selling price of cotton flowers rising, and being able to sell as much as you can produce, the farmers have entirely stopped growing the food crops they had produced up until that point. Crops grown to sell to others instead of to eat are called cash crops. Which is to say: our farmers have turned to growing only cash crops, which has led to a lowering of this country’s food self-sufficiency rate.”
“If I were to go a bit further, I could say it’s the cause of this country’s poor economy, as well. When the food self-sufficiency rate drops, you have to import from other countries to avoid starving. However, imported food involves transportation costs as well, so the price of food rises. That puts pressure on household budgets, but you can only cut food costs so far. If you don’t eat, you’ll starve, after all. Of course, if you’re going to trim the fat somewhere, it’s going to be in nonessential and luxury goods. This change in spending practices is causing a downward spiral in the economy.”
“...What are you planning to do?”
“Place limits on the growth of cash crops, bring back the growing of food crops, and improve our self-sufficiency rate. The country will pay subsidies to help support that transition. First we’ll replant the fields with beans, which have a wide range of uses, and potatoes, which are resistant against famine, and over time I’d like to increase the number of paddy fields. After that...”This seems to describe a scenario in which people have recognised the profit to be made on cotton and thus switched to it, but at the same time once food shortages began somehow failed to recognise the profit to be made by switching back to producing food. So the hero has an opportunity to come in and fix things to show off how smart he is.
Now, it could, of course, be that there is something like price caps on locally produced bread that would make it unprofitable for farmers to grow grain even during a food shortage and so on (although he mentions that the price of food has risen, so it would probably have to be something other than simple price ceilings), but the impression I get is that the author simply didn't bother to think the situation through properly after they came up with a problem for the hero to fix.
It would be nice if it turns out later on that there was some underlying cause to food being under-supplied that the hero failed to address with his straightforward "place limits and pay subsidies" plan and then he has to deal with the consequences of that, but I'm not sure I can be that charitable to the author.
So far it looks like it's gonna be a tolerable isekai, with a bit of a focus on (the surface level features of) economics and logistics similar to what Maoyu has, but I'm not hopeful as far as it being rational goes.
u/None [+1] (2 days later)
Yeah. Those types of regulations on agriculture rarely work out. If the cotton is still more expensive than imported food, the farmers should absolutely grow cotton, unless there is a serious risk that the country they import from could cut off supply.
u/ToaKraka [+2] https://i.imgur.com/OQGHleQ.png (6 hours later)
u/torac [+1] (4 days later)
The reviews on novelupdates are usually helpful. My own review of volume one is here. I have not read any further.
Summary:
Positive:
- The MC tries to act rationally and makes some actual, reasonable plans which he then completes. This makes it far more enjoyable than strategists just winning for no reason at all.
Negative:
The MC’s luck has reached the counter-stop. Every plan goes off perfectly, he stumbles over all potential issues early enough to avert them.
Everyone important / intelligent believes him immediately. And becomes a subservient follower immediately.
Has anyone here read Maoyuu Maou Yuusha? It’s been on my to-read pile for ages, but I’ve never gotten around to it.
u/Orphiex [+1] (8 days later)
I realize that I'm giving spoilers here, but minor spoiler I think this story counts as being fairly rational.