The Reorganization (2)
‘Now this is a proper personnel appointment. Absolutely.’
Ah, yes. This is it.
Aiden’s lips trembled with pure, unadulterated joy.
What a long-awaited organizational restructuring this was. A team leader who knew nothing but changing their mind and screaming at the top of their lungs? A section chief whose only contribution to the company was wiping orchid leaves with a dry rag? Or perhaps a bureau director whose presence in the office was a complete mystery?
If you hate working, shouldn’t you have the decency to vacate your seat?
Aiden’s world had finally been set right. Positions should go to those who actually want to work.
‘And it’s even better if they’re actually good at it.’
Hmm, yes. Looking at it from every angle, this was the correct path. Therefore, it was only logical that he take on the role of department head for all five departments himself.
“Excuse me, Administrative Officer.”
“What is it?”
“Then what about me…?”
“You’re my adjutant, aren’t you?”
“To be precise, my title is Administrative Adjutant to the Lord’s Deputy.”
“Then you’ll also hold the concurrent position of adjutant for each department.”
“Pardon?”
“Why? Do you want me to write up an official appointment letter?”
“……”
Unlike Aiden, who couldn’t hide his delight at the increase in manageable tasks, Jamie—a normal human being—felt as if the world were turning pitch black. Even now, he could count the days he didn’t have to work overtime on one hand. If he had to serve as the administrative adjutant and the adjutant for every single department on top of that…
“That’s…”
“You’ll be the undisputed number two in the North.”
The sweet temptation reached the ears of Jamie, who had been seriously considering handing in his resignation and switching careers to become a hunter.
Snap!
His head whipped around instantly.
“Number two…?”
“There’s no one above you but me, so yes, you’re the number two.”
“That was already the case, though.”
“What do you think carries more authority: just assisting the Administrative Officer, or handling the actual operations as the adjutant for every department?”
“That’s…”
Jamie rolled the thought around in his head for a moment before finally reaching a conclusion.
“Then, should I go round up the guys who can handle the actual work?”
He was a man with more ambition for power than he had realized.
“Will there be any? We can’t just strip the Lord’s Castle of all its administrators.”
“I think if we grab some guys who know how to read and write and teach them diligently, it might work out.”
“And where are we going to find guys who know how to read and write?”
“……”
As mentioned before, the North was barren. It was hard enough to find a decent shop, so naturally, there were no merchant guilds to speak of, and even fewer educated people.
To be precise:
“Anyone who has a decent head on their shoulders just runs away to the South…”
“It’s a matter of survival, so I can’t blame them.”
Aiden had no intention of criticizing them. That’s just how people live. If there are no jobs, you have to leave. There’s no other way.
‘I do need to think about talent acquisition, though.’
He didn’t know for sure, but anyone else dropped into this situation might have felt a suffocating pressure. The sheer hopelessness of wanting to do something but having no foundation and nothing to work with. However, a flush of excitement began to rise on Aiden’s cheeks again.
‘Hnn…!’
A pleasant tension wrapped around his entire body. His toes tingled with a sharp, thrilling sensation.
‘The higher the difficulty, the more rewarding it is to clear it.’
Aiden was the type of person who had never once used a cheat code or an edit program while playing tycoon games.
A few days later.
“Hey, hey! Over here! No, I told you to put the window this way!”
“Oh, this side?”
“Yes. You don’t need a window there. How many times do I have to tell you it connects to the exterior space for the stables and the wagons?”
“My apologies!”
The flea market, which had dragged on for four long days, finally came to an end, and construction began immediately. In truth, if Aiden hadn’t put a stop to it, the flea market might have lasted for a full week. The Northern sense of time was far more chaotic than he had imagined, and their talent for slipping bribes to the soldiers trying to stop them was top-tier, forcing Aiden to grab the back of his neck in frustration once again.
It was fortunate that the level of the bribes was limited to half-eaten jerky, a single glove that had lost its luster, and a few loaves of unwrapped bread; otherwise, they would have all ended up in the dungeon.
“Now that we’ve sent out the calendars, things should improve, right?”
“That remains to be seen.”
People who had lived their whole lives that way wouldn’t change so easily.
“At the very least, don’t make any exceptions regarding dates or time. If you start saying, ‘This much is fine,’ or ‘This isn’t that bad,’ you’ll never establish any discipline.”
“Yes, sir.”
“How long will it take to build the Administrative Welfare Center?”
“To complete it properly, it will take at least two months, won’t it?”
“That’s too late.”
“Even so, if we build it haphazardly, it won’t be able to withstand the snow that piles up in winter.”
Jamie replied with an uncompromising gaze.
“Late is still late.”
Aiden wasn’t the type to just give in, though.
“I’m gathering as many able-bodied men as I can, but it’s a two-story building, and there are various things mixed in, so the construction difficulty isn’t easy. Two months is already a very tight schedule.”
“Tsk. It can’t be helped. Still, finish the trading post connected to the Administrative Welfare Center first.”
“That will still take two weeks…”
“Too late! It must be finished by the time the next market opens, no matter what. You don’t need to think about it grandly; just make it so we can handle the work. Can’t you figure something out?”
“If it’s just that much, it might be possible.”
“For the other departments, just give them the empty rooms inside the Lord’s Castle for now.”
“But then there will be a lot of people coming in and out of the Lord’s Castle.”
“Is there a problem with that?”
“Uh…”
Jamie was about to say, ‘But that will damage your authority as the Administrative Officer,’ but decided against it. His superior was not the type to be overly concerned with authority or prestige in the first place.
“Still, it’s better if the flow of movement is convenient, so group them together. The west side of the first floor should be fine.”
“Yes, I will make the arrangements.”
As the two leaders were deep in conversation while looking at the construction site, a guest arrived.
“I greet the Administrative Officer.”
It was Kalisa.
“I am late because I was finishing up trades in the furthest villages. I heard the market had opened, but it is a pity I could not participate.”
Though she said that, the chill radiating from her expression suggested she wasn’t actually feeling much pity.
“It seems your trades were successful. Congratulations.”
Regardless, Aiden smiled brightly and reached out for a handshake. That was the nature of the relationship between a civil servant and a private sector representative. Even if they were parties seeking mutual profit, from the perspective of a civil servant who didn’t take bribes, it didn’t matter if the merchant liked him or hated him; there was nothing to be ashamed of, and no need to walk on eggshells.
A party that wants nothing from you is always so exhausting.
“...Thank you for your kind words. However, the profit margin has decreased quite a bit. Naturally, since we are in a cooperative relationship with the government starting this year.”
“Does a successful trade only depend on the profit margin?”
Kalisa’s reply was sharp, but Aiden wasn’t the type to fall for it and say something like, ‘I appreciate your company’s cooperation.’
“It looks like you’ve urgently acquired more horses and wagons.”
Aiden gestured with his chin toward the workers of the merchant guild behind Kalisa. It was exactly as he had said. Where he pointed, there were several more wagons that looked brand new, still smelling of the shop.
“I’m not well-versed in the power dynamics of the merchants coming and going in the North, but I have heard that the Jenkin Merchant Guild is the largest.”
“……”
“Since the government cleared that guild out of the way, the share that Jenkin was supposed to take has likely been swept up by a shrewd merchant.”
When he said this, Kalisa’s lips curled upward slightly. Jamie, standing behind Aiden, felt that the Kalisa he had seen for the past few years felt a bit unfamiliar.
“You would have been a great success if you had been a merchant yourself, Administrative Officer.”
Aiden thought that using words like sales, profit, revenue, and profit margin interchangeably to suit one’s own advantage seemed to be a passive skill for merchants, whether here or there.
“The volume of goods from the places that traded with Jenkin was quite large.”
“I suppose you secured a significant portion of it?”
“Thanks to you.”
Kalisa admitted it more readily than he had expected. She wasn’t trying to be an honest merchant; she likely judged that since the official who had followed her from the Lord’s Castle as an observer had recorded the scale of the trades in detail, lying would only lead to charges of obstruction.
“There are also quite a few items that need to be newly registered. In some of the unregistered villages that Jenkin practically monopolized, there were not only animals but also quite a lot of monster carcasses.”
“The tax on monster byproducts is a bit higher. You know that, right?”
“...Yes.”
Aiden’s principles didn’t change just because Kalisa had become a little friendlier.
“At that amount…”
“According to our calculations, it’s more than four times the tax we wrote down in our original estimate.”
“Oh ho.”
“However, I was wondering if this part might require a little negotiation.”
“Why is that?”
“Monster byproducts are very different from animal ones. Storage, transport, and processing are all difficult. There aren’t many places that handle them, either.”
Aiden nodded quietly, as if telling her to continue.
“I will be honest. For our guild, it would be better to treat these byproducts as unacquired rather than pay taxes according to the current Northern tax rate. It seems you used the capital as a standard when adjusting the tax rates by item, but shouldn’t the situation vary by region?”
In other words, she was asking to negotiate the tax rates for the items. If they couldn’t reach an agreement and Kalisa’s side gave up on the monster byproducts, it was obvious that the Lord’s Castle’s tax revenue would decrease significantly.
‘If I collect it as it is, it’s four times the original estimate… But I probably won’t be able to collect all of that.’
If they negotiated, he could probably get at least double.
For the first time, Aiden was at a loss for words. In truth, he had known this himself. However, since he couldn’t check every single item when adjusting the tax rates, he had carefully examined only the animal hides and furs that merchants were expected to trade, and applied the existing capital rates to the rest. It was a problem born of a lack of time and manpower.
But wait.
Something was a little strange.
A merchant running a small-scale peddling business on the outskirts of the Empire, who even memorized the tax rates of the capital for monster byproducts she didn’t even handle? This wasn’t the 21st century where you could just search once and find all kinds of information. Was this even possible?
‘Even the merchants were ignorant about the tax rates by item.’
Because the tax rates of the capital and each territory were different, tax rates by item were something even merchants didn’t pay much attention to unless it was their base of operations or a main product.
“Do you memorize the item tax rates of the capital?”
At that, Kalisa became noticeably flustered. Her face turned as pale as it had when the map marked with unregistered villages was revealed.
Aiden was certain.
This reaction was related to her personal background.
Thinking about it, it had been strange all along.
‘She’s too young to have risen to the position of guild leader as a woman. But the loyalty of her workers seemed very high. Her understanding of the capital’s items and tax rates is excellent, and above all, looking at her usual demeanor and way of speaking, she clearly seems like someone from a wealthy family.’
It wasn’t easy for a merchant leading a small-to-medium guild on the frontier to never be servile or intimidated in front of the Lord’s Deputy, who held military power, no matter how barren the land was. Even in the 21st century, that would be true, but this was a world where the caste system was alive and well.
‘She looks like a child from a wealthy family no matter how I look at it.’
But such a family wouldn’t let a precious daughter lead workers alone to trade in the dangerous North—and what’s more, trade with unregistered people who could be branded as traitors at the slightest mistake.
‘If so, the most likely possibility is…’
Aiden smiled and opened his mouth.
“Rebuilding the family? Or perhaps revenge?”
“...What are you talking about?”
Kalisa’s burning red curly hair looked even deeper today.
“Ah, or is it both?”
“...I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
A response that came a beat too late, and a voice cracking with tension. Maintaining a poker face when hit in the bullseye wasn’t as easy as one might think, but could she really be this bad at it?
‘You shouldn’t gamble either.’
In an instant, Kalisa had been relegated to the same level as Jamie.