Chapter 59
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: Real Princess? (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Young master, that applicant from earlier... Elizabeth. Something was off about her."
I nodded. More importantly...
"The pendant. You had it made, right?"
"I commissioned a magical accessory craftsman. It cost about two months' salary."
That was quite a sum.
The salary I paid her wasn't stingy by any means.
"What are the specs?"
"It reacts if silver hair has been dyed another color. Like covering up natural silver hair."
"Why dyed silver hair specifically?"
"The imperial family is looking for a girl with silver hair, right? If the real princess ran away, she'd try to hide her silver hair. Dyeing is the easiest way."
The logic checked out.
I remembered how Lize had paid extra close attention when the imperial wanted posters came up.
She must have started preparing from then.
Quick thinking and decisive action.
"The princess is the key to the whole situation."
Lize said with a serious expression.
"If the current princess is a fake, it throws the imperial family's legitimacy into question. It's a political bombshell."
I nodded.
"Makes sense."
That was my outward response. Inside, I thought differently.
The princess wasn't worth that much.
I didn't know the imperial family's situation in detail, but I could make inferences.
The princess had snuck away.
That fact alone was evidence.
Contrary to what was publicly known, she might not be the daughter of the official wife.
In the extreme case, she might not even have imperial blood.
Either way, the value of the 'real princess' wasn't as high as Lize imagined.
And Lize didn't know.
That the Empire was on its last legs.
She had a vague idea, but not the certainty I had.
The things I'd seen in my past life. How this Empire fell. When it fell.
To explain would require bringing all that up.
So I'd brushed it off vaguely. Just that the Empire was doomed.
She'd reacted appropriately, but she didn't grasp the full extent of the collapse.
That old hag Clara had been keeping my father in check, but in my view, this Empire wasn't threatened by some powerhouse named Walter von Krushtein.
It was a country that would have already fallen without an overwhelming force like Walter von Krushtein.
Of course, low value didn't mean zero.
There was plenty of reason to keep a close eye on it.
"Anyway, you're planning to fill the trading company staff with maids."
"Yes. We have to hire new ones anyway. We can check their housekeeping and accounting skills. Two birds with one stone."
Not a bad move.
Maids in a noble house weren't mere servants.
They managed the household finances, procured supplies, and sometimes even negotiated with external partners.
There was a lot of overlap with trading company duties.
"But there's a problem."
"What?"
"They're worse at math than I thought. I graded the test papers. Half of them failed two-digit multiplication. Three-digits were even worse."
"Maid academies don't teach math in depth."
"Exactly. They can read and write, but their arithmetic is barely basic."
It was the expected outcome.
Maid training in this world focused on etiquette, housework, and basic literacy.
"We can train them."
"Who knows how long that will take? It varies by person."
"That's why I have a method."
I pulled out a blank test paper from the interview room.
I took a pen and wrote 15 and 15 vertically, aligning the digits.
"What's that?"
"Break it down by digits, multiply separately, then add up."
5 times 15 is 75. I wrote it below.
10 times 15 is 150. I shifted it one space over.
I drew a line and added them: 225.
"From 1 times 1 to 9 times 9. Just memorize what's called the multiplication table, and you can multiply any numbers."
"Where did you learn this?"
"From a book."
Not a lie. The problem was it was from my past life.
"It's called vertical multiplication. Teach them this and the multiplication table. Just those two."
"Just two?"
"Yeah. The rest is application."
Lize peered at the paper. Her eyes moved quickly.
"It really works."
She paused, then tilted her head.
"But there's a problem."
"What?"
"What if someone can't learn this either?"
"Cut them."
Wasting time and money training the unfit was a loss.
Better to hire one more suitable person with those resources.
This wasn't a world with labor laws. No restrictions on firing, and replacements were plentiful.
"How many chances will you give?"
"Three months. If they don't pass the basics test by then, cut them."
"Got it."
I nodded.
"Oh, and Elizabeth is an exception. Keep her regardless of the test results. But stick close and monitor her."
Three months passed.
The retest results were in.
"Out of thirty-two, sixteen failed. Nine couldn't memorize the multiplication table, seven couldn't apply vertical multiplication."
I'd given them three months. Just two things: multiplication table and vertical multiplication.
Yet half failed.
"I really don't get it. These are girls who passed the maid academy entrance exam."
"Passing exams and learning new things are different skills. What about Elizabeth?"
"She passed. Top ranks too."
Good. No need to rig it.
"Cut the failures as planned."
"Well..."
Lize trailed off.
"What?"
"One of them requested a meeting. A failure."
"Reject her."
"She's already waiting outside. For two hours."
I sighed.
"Send her in."
The door opened, and a maid in her early twenties entered.
I didn't remember her name. Vaguely her face. The one who got stuck on the 7 times table in the first week of training and cried.
"I gave you three months. Two chances."
"I know. But please..."
She dropped to her knees.
"My little sister is sick. Tuberculosis. Without this job, I can't afford her medicine."
Lize swallowed hard beside me.
"Find another job."
"No one hires ex-maids. Please, just one more chance..."
Her hand grabbed my pant leg.
"Rules are rules."
I shook it off.
"But these are rules you set, young master. You can change them..."
"That's why I won't."
If I broke my own rules, no one would follow them after that.
The maid bowed her head. Her hand fell limply.
"Give her two months' severance."
I told Lize.
"...Yes."
Her reply was quieter than usual.
The maid stood. She walked to the door with her head down.
Her back looked smaller than when she entered. Much smaller.
The door closed.
"Two months' severance for the rest of the failures too."
"...Understood."
Lize gathered the papers.
Securing staff for the trading company was progressing slower than expected.
Still, the direction was right. It was moving forward, even if slowly.
The bigger problem erupted another three months later.
"The new legion commander is refusing cooperation."
A knight from the Red Deer Tribe. He handled communications with Kuulruk.
"He wasn't like that until recently."
"The first two months, he cooperated reasonably. Kept the existing contracts, allowed use of supply routes."
"Then?"
"A month ago, he cut off all cooperation. No using supply routes. No legion personnel support. Even recalled all the ones dispatched to us."
"Kuulruk's reaction?"
The knight hesitated, then spoke.
"Our chief says... wipe out the new commander."
Wipe him out, huh.
He had handled the judge issue last time by wiping out two out of three.
Movement from the sofa. Celine in her cat form perked up her ears.
"What, you wanna wipe him out too?"
Her tail swished slowly. Impossible to tell if agreement or not.
But that time and now were very different.
Back then, it was against Mueller.
Twenty years-old treason charges. Bribery of a judge, a current crime.
Public opinion was overwhelmingly in our favor.
We could cover aggressive moves.
This was different.
The new commander had no official ties to Mueller. Appointed formally by the imperial family. Touching him meant touching the throne.
I felt the Empire's end was near, but antagonizing the throne right now was a separate issue.
"Not a good idea right now."
Lize said what I was about to.
The Kuman knight nodded.
"I told our chief that, but he insists it's the cleanest way."
Lower realm than Kuulruk, but sharper mind. Calling him 'chief' instead of 'chieftain' suggested he'd followed him for years.
Serving under someone less smart than you.
Well, the gap between Expert novice and advanced was huge. Martial charisma played a role too.
"Without solid ties to Mueller, we can't."
"We investigated connections, but..."
The knight paused.
"No hard evidence."
As expected.
He'd have led with it if there was.
Even if there was, he'd hide it.
Handing us justification to wipe him out.
"Getting hands dirty directly is amateur hour."
Lize said firmly.
"So what do we do?"
"The new commander isn't the problem. The imperial family that appointed him is. But we can't touch the throne."
"I know that."
"So make the throne replace the commander themselves. Show the current one's incompetent. Need someone else. That's it."
The logic followed.
"I don't have to go back myself?"
"Without changing the laws, you can't anyway. Just replace this guy."
The method was the issue.
"How?"
"Create a problem in the north. One too big for the current commander. Big enough the throne decides he's utterly incapable."
Lize's voice lowered.
"Make a problem?"
"Not make one. Unearth an existing one."
"What's that?"
"The Golden Bear Tribe."
