Technology Is Built Upon Investment (2)
It’s not as if I know exactly how investment in the sciences is handled back home. I’ve prided myself on rotating through every department imaginable, but even in the world of civil service, where one is supposed to be free of academic bias, tasks directly related to the sciences weren't just handed to anyone.
Especially when it came to investments involving money, there was no way a low-level civil servant like Aiden could have been involved.
Still, I had occasionally seen such segments in newspapers or on the news.
They said our nation’s scientific talent was leaking overseas at an alarming rate. They said patriotism is fine, but if you don’t invest in talent, there is no future for our nation’s science. They said before you envy the number of Nobel Prizes our neighbor has, you should compare the soil in which science is grown.
It’s all the same story.
To put it simply, it’s all about the money.
Are you going to pour money into real estate? Or are you going to pour money into the talent and technology that will create our future sustenance? Everyone knows the right answer.
‘But the reason it’s not easy is ultimately because of the votes.’
The members of the National Assembly, packed as tightly as bean sprouts in a jar, with their long resumes—it’s not as if those honorable representatives don’t know that.
However, the reason they can’t decide to scrape together a bit of money from real estate, welfare, or administrative budgets to invest in technology is, in the end, because politicians live by chasing votes. There isn't a single crazy politician who would set fire to their own base just to catch a handful of talent.
In that sense, Aiden is in a rather fortunate situation.
Since this isn't a world where the lord is elected by vote, you don't need to worry about public opinion; you just need to persuade the three adjutants you work with, and everything will go smoothly.
“Why have you returned so quickly? You said you were going to look around the hot springs a bit more.”
Jamie looks startled at the sight of Aiden, who has returned to the Lord’s Castle so soon.
“Why? Are you happy to see me?”
“Ah, well. I suppose so, but didn't you send word yesterday? That you wouldn't be back for a while.”
Jamie is flustered, bringing up the message he received just yesterday afternoon—the one saying the schedule would be long and to send someone to the hot spring complex if there was anything urgent.
“I intended to, but something much more important came up.”
“Something important?”
“The Department of Technological Labor. I’m going to scrap the current budget plan entirely and redraw the whole thing.”
“The department budget, right now?”
At the mention of money, the eyes of the three adjutants—Kalisa and Roland, who were keeping their seats—glittered as if they had been polished.
Since each of the three holds a concurrent position as a department head, they are on high alert because they sense a massive pile of money is about to be dumped into a territory that isn't their own.
In the end, it’s true that they are all working so that everyone can live well, but the lives of administrators who must compete for performance within that framework are inevitably similar.
When Aiden first arrived in the North, the departments weren't even properly divided, so there was no such thing as an annual budget or settlement for each department.
Aiden himself was the one who tore all that down and fixed it.
- You need to know how much each department and agency spends in a year and how much they plan to spend for anything to function. Are we going to keep doing this by rule of thumb, sending money when it’s short and taking it back when there’s a surplus? That’s nonsense. And I haven't even seen a case where there was money left over, which makes it even worse!
Of course, as projects are carried out by each department and agency, there are naturally cases where there is less money than originally planned.
Therefore, in these times, they would send official documents stating how much was lacking and why it was needed, hold intense meetings, and compile additional budgets.
“Are you saying you want to increase the department budget itself right now?”
“Yes.”
However, this case is definitely the first of its kind.
To say he would redo the budget planning from scratch, not just compile an additional one? At this point, when we are looking toward summer?
“If you have an amount in mind, please let us know. We will review it.”
Still, Kalisa said this as she stood up from her seat immediately. Because she trusted that if Aiden brought up such a thing, he must have had his reasons.
However, she added words that, if it were a different lord, might have caused him to fly into a rage, shouting, “How dare you talk about reviewing what I do!”
Even then, for an adjutant to review the lord’s opinion was a crime sufficient to be subject to summary judgment in other territories.
Because in this place, there existed a “crime of being offensive” that took precedence over imperial law.
Nevertheless, Aiden did not get angry.
This was authority he had granted himself. It was a measure to prevent the budget from being wasted recklessly in an already poor territory.
No matter how far Aiden was from being a wastrel who assigned budgets on a whim, in a neighborhood short on money, the money issue needed safety devices.
“Here.”
Aiden immediately wrote down the budget scale he had been thinking of and handed it over.
“...You’re joking, right?”
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
“If not, I don’t quite understand.”
Kalisa’s expression darkened instantly as she saw the numbers written on the paper.
‘Has our Lord gone senile?’
He’s not at that age yet. Could something evil have disguised itself as our Lord’s face? Isn't that face hard to disguise anyway?
Kalisa thought of absurd things, trying to escape reality. The number presented by her superior, who was always rational, was an amount sufficient to paralyze the thinking of Kalisa, who was even more rational than that.
“I know that look—it’s obvious what you’re thinking, but I am perfectly sane, and this is an amount I decided on after sufficient deliberation, so please review it properly.”
“I apologize, Administrative Officer. This isn't even a matter of reviewing it or not.”
“Oh, so it’s passed?”
“It’s rejected.”
“Why don't you take a closer look?”
“Is there a need to?”
In the tense standoff between the two, the faint-hearted Roland couldn't even breathe and just watched the situation. At least Jamie, saying, “Geez, why are you like this again?” approached Kalisa’s side to check the number written on the paper.
“...Am I getting presbyopia lately?”
He rubbed his eyes, looked at the paper again, then shook his head and looked at the paper again. With an expression like he had seen something he really shouldn't have.
Aiden, who clicked his tongue inwardly at the guy who had eyesight as good as a Mongol falcon hunter talking about presbyopia, shrugged his shoulders.
“It’s a necessary investment.”
“You are aware that this amount is twenty percent of our Northern annual budget, aren't you?”
“Yes.”
“There is no place for the money to come from. There is no room for reconsideration.”
It’s easy to say twenty percent of the annual territory budget. The territory budget is the sum of all the money needed for the barracks, prisons, and the Lord’s Castle, not just the Administrative Welfare Office, so if you look at just the five departments of the Administrative Welfare Office, it’s more than half of this year’s allocated budget.
It’s not for nothing that Kalisa is acting like there is no room for negotiation.
“What if we decide to receive royalties on technologies developed by those who received support based on their new research?”
“Can you even be sure there will be commercial viability at the research stage? It would be better to have them invest in technologies judged to have sufficient commercial viability through the credit union, and—”
“If you only let them research technologies that have sufficient commercial viability, there will be no proper development.”
“Even so, we cannot pour astronomical amounts of money into research that doesn't even make money.”
“That is the perspective of an administrator. But there is also a problem that must be viewed from the perspective of a craftsman.”
“Administrative Officer!”
“If there’s a deficit, we can make up for it elsewhere. What’s important is the foundation and the soil. Now is the best time to cultivate that.”
Aiden did not back down.
“Seeds with high potential are blooming everywhere. But these sprouts are so fragile that if we don't protect and cultivate them properly, they will wither and die without ever bearing fruit. We have to water them, fertilize them, and protect them from the rain and wind. Isn't that what we’re supposed to do?”
“What if the sprouts that grow like that are weeds that can't even bloom a single flower, let alone bear fruit?”
“Have you not thought that some sprouts will become trees and grow hundreds of fruits on a single trunk, which would be more than enough to compensate?”
“But—!”
Knock, knock.
A knock sounded, as if to cut through the increasingly overheated atmosphere. Kalisa frowned and looked displeased, but since Aiden had ordered them to enter, she had no choice but to be quiet.
“Felix? Aimhand?”
When the office door opened, what I saw was my secretary and a dwarf who looked tense to the limit.
“Isn't it time you should be at the hot spring construction site?”
“That is... The Dwarf said he absolutely had something to tell the Administrative Officer.”
“To me?”
Felix spoke on behalf of the dwarf boy, then nudged Aimhand’s back as if to tell him to speak for himself.
“You have something to tell me? What is it?”
“I, I know it’s presumptuous, Administrative Officer. But I rushed here because I was worried that my benefactor might be in trouble because of me. Actually, I heard it. From the secretary here...”
Before leaving the hot spring area, Aiden had called Felix, Aimhand, and Lapisha to give them a hint. That full-scale support would begin in earnest, so they should do whatever research they wanted to do.
Aimhand was overjoyed at the words to not worry about money, not worry about having to report, and to try doing the things he had only ever thought about freely as he pleased.
But that was only for a moment.
- I... Aren't you all happy? Am I the only one who is?
Lapisha, as well as Felix, were sighing while looking at the empty space where Aiden had left.
- I’m happy. Why wouldn't I be? For those who do research and experiments, that proposal just now must be something they’ve only ever dreamed of.
- Then why are you sighing like that?
- It won't be easy to persuade the adjutants.
- ...?
It seems Felix, having gained a bit of experience as a secretary, had also grasped the core of the matter.
- That money you said you’d support us with, there’s no proper place for it to come from. And judging by what you just said, it doesn't seem like the support will stop with the three of us.
- I was worried because the child I take around as a secretary was young, but you have quite a good eye.
- Thank you, Japa.
- It’s as this child says. It’s not that the adjutants don't want to treat the craftsmen well. But the reason they can't agree with the Administrative Officer’s story while welcoming it is ultimately a realistic problem. No one can deny that the North has become quite livable, but pouring that much money into a place where the results aren't certain,
- will be a huge political burden for the Administrative Officer.
- Haha! You’ve learned well, you’ve learned well.
- Ah...
Aimhand felt ashamed that he was the only one who hadn't anticipated this and had been happy. Then, he suddenly became worried. Even if others might chide him, asking who he was to worry about whom, that was how it was.
‘If the Lord is taking on a burden because of me...!’
It wasn't just because of him, but since non-humans are generally beings with a fair amount of self-consciousness, let’s just move on.
- I, I have to go to the Lord’s Castle! Please take me with you, Secretary!
- Right now...?
- Right now! Immediately!
That was the full story of how the dwarf appeared at the Lord’s Castle not long after Aiden left.
***
And back to the present.
“I heard that it would cost a lot of funds to support people like us.”
“Ah, that is not a problem for you to worry about, Dwarf...”
“I will offer a certain amount of the proceeds from the inventions I make.”
“...Yes?”
“Although this is all I have for now...”
What he took out, fumbling, was the spring that Aiden had seen once before. The three adjutants, including Kalisa, saw the iron that the dwarf had twisted round and round and thought, ‘What is this?’ but didn't show it.
‘Ah, they’re all liberal arts majors here.’
Except for Kalisa, who deals with numbers, they were all much of a muchness.
“I’m planning to build a carriage factory for now. O, of course, I have to receive investment, but... I think the ride comfort has already been proven by the carriage business the Cat-folk are doing.”
“Ah-. I’ve ridden in one, so I agree. I was planning to ask for improvements to my carriage as well.”
“I plan to sell high-end carriages for nobles at a very expensive price. Ten times the price of a regular carriage.”
Even Aiden was surprised by this. Suddenly ten times? Ten times just because the ride comfort improved?
“I, I have quite good dexterity. If I advertise that it’s a carriage that a dwarf has improved the performance of and designed, it will sell well even at ten times the price. Furthermore, this carriage—I’m only going to produce a set quantity per month. Even if I have time to spare, I will never make more than that.”
...Huh?
“And I plan to give the Lord five blank contracts per year separately. These will be priced at thirty times the price of a regular carriage. I will only make them for people who bring the blank contract I gave to the Lord. There will be no exceptions.”
Even a premium that you couldn't get even if you paid money appeared.
“With this, I think we can worry a little less about the funds for the Lord’s plan to support the research expenses of the craftsmen... Isn't that right?”
After introducing the ultimate luxury business of capitalism to a naive world, he says, ‘I think we can worry a little less.’
Aiden was convinced.
‘Non-humans are indeed talents for capitalism. That’s for sure.’
Kalisa also seemed to have finished her calculations after instinctively clicking her abacus.
“First, shall we start by writing the contract?”
Seeing the glow on her face, it seems that, as expected, a merchant must be able to smell the money.