History Literature / HowARealistHeroRebuiltTheKingdom

* SexForServices: {{Defied|Trope}}. Souma refuses the idea of taking on Carla as a wife when Liscia and Castor promote the idea in hopes of a pradon for treason. Souma refuses because he doesn't want future traitors to think they can bribe him with nubile women.

* SexForServices: {{Defied|Trope}}. Souma refuses the idea of taking on Carla as a wife when Liscia and Castor promote the idea because he doesn't want future traitors to think they can bribe him with nubile women.

* NonActionProtagonist: Souma Kazuya was a well-read college student intending to join the Japanese civil service when he was summoned to a StandardJapaneseFantasySetting, expected to become a HeroicFantasy hero. He instead chose to put his knowledge to use restoring the fortunes of the declining Kingdom of Elfrieden, to which end the incumbent King and Queen chose to make him their HeirInLaw and then AbdicateTheThrone to him. As a combatant, Souma[[note]]even though it's his surname, it becomes his regnal name due to NameOrderConfusion that wasn't corrected in time[[/note]] is merely a passable crossbowman (though he can magically puppeteer inanimate objects to some extent), but fortunately he attracts a BattleHarem of martially talented women who do their best to stay between him and any aggressors.

* WeAreStrugglingTogether: Despite the Elfrieden Kingdom facing a possible invasion from the Demons or the Empire along with having an economic and refugee crisis, some nobles refuse to work with Souma to solve the country's problems as they are still bitter that he hired people based on merit rather than lineage and his reforms benefit the people more than them. Furthermore, the leaders of Army, Navy and Airforce, the Three Dukes, are planning a coup.

** The song Juna sings during the ceremony in episode 3, is "Give a Reason" by Creator/MegumiHayashibara, the opening theme song from ''[[LightNovel/{{Slayers}} Slayers NEXT]]''.

** The series also establishes that there are hierarchies within such a polygamous relationship as well. "1st Wives" are fellow nobles or royalty who children are anticipated to actually be in line to inherit the throne. "2nd Wives" are commoner-born, and are therefor akin to a Concubine. A noble is unable to take on a 2nd wife, unless they have already married the first.

** Polygamy is established as being a norm with nobles in Elfrieden, and when Souma expresses discomfort at the prostpect Liscia tries to quells his worries by letting him know that she fully anticipated that he would have to take multiple wives as King due to [[AltarDiplomacy having to form alliances with other nations]].

* ObviousRulePatch: Jeanne Euphoria, and by extention Maria, agree to Souma's terms for [[spoiler:the return of Van in exchange for hefty financial compensation, namely ''two years'' worth of Amidonia's [=GDP=] paid over ten years, as it shows nations who have signed the Mankind Declaration and those who haven't, the Empire will not tolerate the sophestry and loophole abuse attempted by Amidonia in their invasion of Elfrieden and when they lost Van from Elfrieden's countermove come crying to the Empire for help. As a signator, the Empire helped return the land as is their duty, but it makes clear there is a big cost for trying this again]].

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Mechadra is a metal dragon built using the skeleton of an actual dragon as the base, animated by Souma for his Tokusatsu shows. The MadScientist group consisting later arms it with a pair of gunpowder-propelled piledrivers and [[CombiningMecha the ability to attach the experimental icebreaker vessel being developed]] [[ThisIsADrill to use as a drill weapon]]. [[spoiler: These enhancements [[CheckhovsGun come in handy during the battle against Ooyamizuchi]].]]

* MuggingTheMonster: When Halbert meets Souma, he sees a cocky guy with three beautiful women near him who interrupted his conversation with Kaeda about the worthlessness of King Souma. When he moves in a threatening manner towards Souma, Aisha, Lisia and even Juna get ready to murder him on the spot. It's only Souma's reasonable approach that prevents things from escalating.

* BigEater

** Souma uses another loophole in the Mankind Declaration to take back Van after the Empire forces Elfrieden to return the city to Amidonia. While a country can't use military force to change their borders under the Declaration, it also gives people the right to self-determination. While Elfrieden is occupying Van, they give the people freedom that they never had under Amidonian rule. Between the people's dissatisfaction when Julius tries to repress those freedoms and the Black Cats coordinating a revolt, Elfrieden is then able to annex Van by claiming they're merely giving the people what they want, not invading another country. Roroa also takes advantage of that loophole, coordinating revolts across Amidonia that force Elfrieden to annex the ''entire country'', not just the capital city. It helps his case that Roroa then [[AltarDiplomacy gets engaged to him]], essentially turning the whole thing into a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_union real union]] between the royal houses ''a la'' the marriage between Queen Isabela of Castile and and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, which led to the foundation of the modern state of UsefulNotes/{{Spain}}. The two countries are renamed the United Kingdom of Elfrieden and Amidonia, or the "Kingdom of Friedonia" for short.\\
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Related to the self-determination loophole, Souma observes to Empress Maria that the Mankind Declaration is a potential trap for states that pursue cultural pluralism, as with both Friedonia and, ironically, the Gran Chaos Empire itself: extremist movements have the potential to exploit the loophole and use the self-determination principle as a shield against foreign intervention. Souma's InternalMonologue cites the 1975 Helsinki Accords preventing intervention in UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars as an example.

* BringIt: Liscia proudly announces to the Amadonia forces to come at her if they dare when she is leading a battalion in the One-Week War.

** When hosting Amadonian Crown Prince Julian and General Jeanne Euphoria during a discussion about [[spoiler:Elfreden returning Amadonia's capital city Van to Julius]], Julius' anger towards Souma causes a detriment to the discussions. So, after having Julius leave, Souma has Head Maid Serina hold a banquet for the Prince to keep him entertained. Serina requests that she can use a high vintage wine as part of this banquet, which Souma agrees to, to everyone else's discomfort. After Serina leaves, Souma learns that wine is known for its sweet flavor and is quite good, but will knock out anyone unaccustomed to drinking it very quickly. As Julius is unlikely to be familiar with the wine and not recognize it, Hakuya guesses the banquet will be over in ten minutes. Even Liscia feels bad for Julius at this moment.

Related to the self-determination loophole, Souma observes to Empress Marie that the Mankind Declaration is a potential trap for states that pursue cultural pluralism, as with both Friedonia and, ironically, the Gran Chaos Empire itself: extremist movements have the potential to exploit the loophole and use the self-determination principle as a shield against foreign intervention. Souma's InternalMonologue cites the 1975 Helsinki Accords preventing intervention in UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars as an example.

* MilitaryMashupMashine: Souma comes up with the ''Hiryuu'' (and eventually two sister ships), an aircraft carrier sculpted to look like an island. It's designed to carry wyverns out to sea: they normally refuse to fly out over open water for fear they won't be able to get back, but the artificial island provides them with a roost.

* ObviousRulePatch: Jeanne Euphoria, and by extention Maria, agree to Souma's terms for [[spoiler:the return of Van in exchange for hefty financial compensation, namely ''two years'' worth of Amadonia's [=GDP=] paid over ten years, as it shows nations who have signed the Mankind Declaration and those who haven't, the Empire will not tolerate the sophestry and loophole abuse attempted by Amadonia in their invasion of Elfreden and when they lost Van from Elfreden's countermove come crying to the Empire for help. As a signator, the Empire helped return the land as is their duty, but it makes clear there is a big cost for trying this again]].

** Juna attempts a similar line when [[spoiler:she is asking a reward for her military service in the Elfreden-Amadonia war. Duchess Excel realizes she plans to ask for leniency for Castor and Carla as well, and stops her. Excel instead tells her to ask Souma for what Juna truly desires, namely to be Souma's wife]]. Excel herself offered her own life if [[spoiler:Souma would spare Castor and Carla (respectively her son-in-law and granddaughter), but Souma refused--which turns out to be because he didn't actually plan on executing them anyway]].

** It is a common practice among many levels of Elfreden society. As Souma learns from Liscia, Aisha, and Juna, it is a common way to allow a household to continue on if tragedy should strike part of it. There is also nothing against a woman with many husbands, but that isn't as common. As King and head of a royal family, it is incumbent upon Souma to have several wives to make sure there is a large base of children to pass the crown off to. That said, as the TopWife, Liscia notes she will tolerate no more than eight wives[[labelnote:*]]This is due to the world Elfreden is located in having eight day weeks thus one day for each wife [[/labelnote]], including herself. As of the end of volume 16, he's up to seven.

** Polygamy is established as being a norm with nobles in Elfreiden, and when Souma expresses discomfort at the prostpect Liscia tries to quells his worries by letting him know that she fully anticipated that he would have to take multiple wives as King due to [[AltarDiplomacy having to form alliances with other nations]].

* AntiAir: This world has specially made ballistae incorporated with enchanted arrows that follow movement. Souma notes the similarity with homing missiles. However, because of how other magics which degrade or don't work at all over the open sea, these are used only on land-base locations and not on ships.

* CruelMercy: How Souma deals with Castor and Carla after their rebellion, partially because they're too potentially useful to just kill but need to be punished.
** Castor is stripped of his military post, his titles, even his name, and then [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking left in the custody of his mother-in-law, Excel Walter]].

** Slavery is often viewed by the enslaved as a reasonable alternative than going hungry and homeless. However, Souma pointedly disagrees, and though he enslaves [[spoiler:Castor and Carla]] as punishment for their crimes, he plans to work with the Empire to gradually abolish the practice.

* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: Most of the setting is this, with other cultures added for flavor.

* PyrrhicVictory: How Souma gets Fuuma to eventually stop his expansion of his territory. Friedonia may or may not be able to beat Fuuma, but it demonstrates that it can make defeat costly enough to ruin Fuuma's reputation for invincibility, and force him to use troops needed on the main front against the demons, endangering the rest of his nation.

* PlayingBothSides: One of the survival strategies of the House of Chima was to split the family between each side of a conflict. The ones who ended up on the winner's side would try to intercede for the losers, and either way ''some'' of them would live on. [[spoiler:This plays out again when the current Duke of Chima joins the conspiracy against his daughter's husband]].

** Dark elves are called that simply because they have darker skin than other elves.

* TheCasanova: There are a lot of rumors around Souma, which are believable enough that many people in the Kingdom buy into them.

* BareYourMidriff: Carla's costume in the tokusatsu segment during the morning educational program that Souma produces.

** [[spoiler: Kazuya's children are quickly approaching this, with him currently having 5 kids between Liscia, Roroa, and Juna.]]

* BizarreAlienSexes: Dragons' human forms are born OtherworldlyAndSexuallyAmbiguous, but shift to take on masculine or feminine forms based on the sex of [[DragonRider their humanoid riders]], who are also their mates. This has the side effect that only dragons who partner with males can birth new dragons, since female humanoids cannot lay eggs.