Assembly

Curtis and Mathew continued to talk for quite some time, the amount of research and preparation that Mathew had was quite astonishing, so Curtis was quite interested in them.

Mathew continued to detail his plans, from developing the extractions of resources to building up the industry of the village. This all sounded like distant dreams to everyone listening, especially Evan the most skeptical of those present, however, no one could deny that his plans were quite marvelous.

-" Sigh... It pains for me to say that I don't think that you will be able to do this..." Curtis found Mathew's capabilities quite impressive, but, he aimed way too high. " You need to gather manpower, compete against other more established cities, and rebuild the village... " Curtis was sure that if Mathew stayed in the village for a decade or two, it would eventually grow to quite the good commercial center, but, the young man had planned in doing this in so little time. "Furthermore... Do you seriously think that the local powerhouses will let this village grow like that?"

-" Powerhouses? What they can even do to me?" Mathew asked in doubt, he didn't think that surrounding villages and cities could do anything to him, after all, this world didn't seem to be so lawless.

-" Sigh... You may be quite intelligent, but, you sure aren't too clever." Curtis couldn't help but look at Mathew in pity. " There can only be one Municipality in every area, and no sane magistrate would watch one of his prefectures overtake the position of economic center, besides that there are many more things like sects, companies, and even great nobles that would like to take a piece of your city."

Mathew froze as he finally realized how naive he had been until now. He saw this world and the village like a simulator game that he could easily transform, but, this was the real world, and things were surely more difficult.

Evan grinned as he observed the disillusioned expression that the man had on his face. -" Finally waking up? This is all but a dream! As if growing a small village like this would be easy!'

-" Hypothetically speaking... What i would need to protect the village from all of those people?" Mathew shook his head, he was resolved in going ahead with his plan.

-"Humm... Allan's help can keep some dangers at bay, but, there he won't be able to help you every time." Curtis found Mathew's resolve commendable and tried to answer the question to the best of his efforts. " Frankly speaking, improving your cultivator and of those that work under you is the only method of ensuring the safety of your village."

-" Improving the cultivation of those around me..." Mathew was too busy the last few weeks to properly go over all of Sigebert's cultivation knowledge, so he knew that it would take quite a while for him to get used to cultivation. " Can't I just recruit more cultivators?"

-" You can try it... Cultivators would likely ask for too high of pay and resources for their cultivation as an extra." Curtis smiled as he answered, finding talented people was one of the biggest hurdles for a bureaucrat. " Not to mention that you won't be able to find that many free cultivators, the few that aren't part of a Sect are too attached to their freedom to settle down."

Mathew grinned, he thought that his woes were finally done, and he could finally start working, but, it seemed that there were plenty of things he didn't think about.

It didn't take long for the conversation to end, Curtis returned to the province's capital as he still had much to do, and Mathew took his two new helpers to Simon's house.

He felt a bit frustrated about the many hurdles he would face, but, he didn't dwell much on it. -" I will make some announcements today." Mathew planned to introduce the two new prefecture works, and inaugurate his first few policies.

-" Still planning on going on with those petty dreams?" Evan couldn't believe how obstinate the man was.

-" Sigh... I could say that about you too." Mathew finally had enough of Evan's complaints, and couldn't ignore him any longer. " How many times did you already say something like this? Didn't you notice that I kept ignoring you?" Mathew was baffled by the man's actions. " You are overestimating your worth if you think that I care about your opinion."

Evan froze in shock as he heard how Mathew spoke with him, he tried to answer, but, found that no words came out of his mouth.

-" I'm not only interested in personal glory..." Mathew reached Simon's house and knocked on the door. " I hope that you understand why I'm so resolved to improve this village."

With Simon's help, it didn't take very long to gather every villager in the plaza; They all looked frail and hopeless, quite the stark contrast compared with the expression of happiness they had when Nicolaus was arrested.

They all thought that the hard times were past them, but, they had to restart their whole lives from the ground up again, a hard task for most of them.

-" Good day for every one of you..." Mathew took the center of the village plaza and began to speak. " I have a few announcements to make! Firstly I would like to announce that the imperial palace decided to compensate every one of you with 3 gold pieces!" Mathew decided to start the assembly with something that would get them happy.

The crowd of villagers was all silent, the news that their new magistrate gave was so shocking that they all believed that it was a prank.

-" Is this real?"

-" I don't think he would lie about that."

-" But? 3 gold pieces are so much!"

Mathew smiled, it was clear to him that they only receive this hefty amount thanks to Allan's help. " Yes! This is true! This is an arrangement that was only possible thanks to our governor's hard work!" Mathew decided to boost some of Allan's prestige with the villagers.

-" Blessed be the governor!"

-" 3 Gold Pieces! Oh My! Thank you! This is what a good Magistrate and Governor are like!"

The crowd erupted in cheers, they were all broke and couldn't even begin to restore their lands to a farmable point without money, so this news was quite important to them.

-" I have a few more things to speak of." Mathew raised his hand and gestured for the crowd to calm down. " I will open a new line of credit too... If you are a citizen of the village and it looking for money to start an endeavor, be it farming, raising livestock, or some other things, you can look for me."

-" Line of credit? What is this?" One of the villagers asked in confusion.

Mathew grinned in embarrassment, he completely forgot that the people in this world hadn't ever visited a modern bank. " The prefecture will offer loans for you to build your business! The fee that the prefecture will charge will be a small one! 5% of the loan per year."

The villagers didn't know how to feel about his announcement, almost all of them could barely count so they weren't sure if five percent was a good deal or not.

Mathew smiled as he saw the reaction of the villagers, it seemed that it would take quite a bit of work to make the villagers begin taking the loans. " What you just need to understand is that if any of you needs money for some new tool, seeds, or even cattle, you can ask the prefecture for a loan." Mathew explained the credit line once again and gestured for Evan and Irelia to walk forward. " As for the next thing, I would like to introduce everyone to the two new tax examiners of the Hard Pine Village! Evan and Irelia."

The crowd of villagers looked at them warily, they still had much distrust about bureaucrats after what they passed with Nicolaus.

-" My name is Evan! And I was brought here to help put this village in order!" Evan decided to give a stern first impression to the villagers, as he thought that they would respect him more this way.

Little did he know that his introductory speech only made all the villagers even warier of him. Irelia on the other hand had decided to follow Mathew's footsteps and try to ease the villagers, she knew what had happened with the previous Magistrate, and it was clear that they still held enmity for the bureaucrats.

-" Good day! I'm Irelia, this is my first appointment as a bureaucrat, so I'm quite inexperienced!" Irelia bowed to the villagers as she spoke. " I hope that you all can help me in my job!"

Mathew gave a slight nod to Irellia, he found that the girl had better social skills compared with Evan, who was quite a jackass in his mind. " This mark the end of this assembly! I hope that we can all work together to restore the village!" Mathew marked the end of the assembly, but, before all the villagers could leave he quickly added. " Oh! The iron mines will reopen! So if any of you are looking for work you can look for any of us!"