Chapter 3: An Unusual Slave Trader (part 2)

Also, there was an area in the center of the room that had been dug out, on top of

which I'd placed a round table with a blanket stuffed in between the space where

our legs went and the bottom of the table. There was another hole dug out inside of

that dug-out area, and beneath it I had installed the heater Genia developed based

on an idea I gave her.

Basically, I had recreated a hori-gotatsu.

In the dug-out area where our feet rested, there was a dome-shaped iron grate,

keeping us from touching the heater. It was a lovely space, warm in winter, and nice

and breezy in summer once you took the blanket out. Truly, it was a space that let

you feel the designer's (my) attention to detail.

And, well, that was the sort of room I'd made, but all of my fiancées really liked it,

especially Liscia, and they had taken to staying here. The hori-gotatsu was really

popular with them. It had gotten pretty cold outside, after all.

After the annexation of Amidonia, Hakuya had said, "Please, understand, this is

necessary to maintain your authority," and forbade me from using the general

cafeteria, so I had taken to having my breakfast and dinner (lunch was usually in the

governmental affairs office) here around the table with Liscia and the others.

Most of the meals were made for me by the castle chefs, but on days like today,

when I wanted to eat something Japanese, I made it myself. I had rice, soy sauce, and

miso to work with, after all.

The meals I made were a novelty to them, so Liscia and the others liked them, but

Hakuya and Marx weren't happy about it. It wasn't the taste they didn't like. It was

that I was making plain-looking food, serving it to my fiancées, and we were all

eating it like it was delicious, which was pretty far from their image of what a king

should be like. I didn't see why even the food I ate had to be fit for a king, though...

For starters, neither Liscia, I, nor the others were the type to indulge in luxury.

Juna and I were both former commoners, Liscia had lived a military life where

supplies were limited, and having grown up in the forest, Aisha would eat anything

so long as it tasted good. Even Roroa seemed interested, saying, "If we could make

eatin' food from your world a hot trend, it'd sell, don't ya think?"

Besides, even though the food might be simple in appearance, it used rice, which

wasn't that common yet, so the cost was actually pretty high.

Today's lunch, by the way, was oyakodon, miso soup, and nukazuke.

"Big Sister Ai, could ya pass the pickles?" Roroa asked.

"Mmf, mm-mm-mf (Here, Roroa)," Aisha said through mouthfuls of food.

"Hold on, Roroa," said Liscia. "You have rice on your face."

"Hm? Thanks, Big Sister Cia."

Roroa let Liscia pick the grain of rice that was stuck by her mouth off of her face

for her.

Juna looked on warmly as Aisha shoveled food into her face.

If you could cut out just this scene of all of us around the kotatsu, we looked like a

real, happy family.

"Lady Aisha," said Serina. "Would you perhaps like another serving of miso

soup?"

"Mmf. I-I would, Madam Serina."

"Ma... Lady Juna," said Carla. "We've got... There is another serving of rice for you,

too."

"Hee hee! No need to be so stiff and formal, Carla," Juna giggled.

"Y-You are too kind."

I have to correct myself; there was one thing that was strange here. There was

something like the sort of serving table used at elementary schools during lunchtime

in the corner of the room, and there, the maids Serina and Carla were waiting to

serve us food. That was out of place.

"And wait... Were any of you listening to me?" I protested.

"Sure," said Roroa. "We're listenin', we're listenin'."

"There's a response from someone who's clearly not..." I muttered.

"I am listenin'. You're short of hands, right?"

When Roroa said that, Liscia furrowed her brow. "Are you going to gather people

again? I think we have a pretty diverse group of people already..."

"The more talented people we have, the better," I said. "What I'm after this time is

a bit different, though."

"What do you mean?"

"Hm... It's not good to say this, but if I were to rank people on a scale that goes S,

A, B, C, D, E, the kind I'm looking for now fall into the B to C range. I want a very large

number of them."

"Sorry," said Liscia. "I'm not sure I get what you're saying."

I put my hand on Roroa's head. She was sitting next to me with a spoon in her

mouth. "For instance, Roroa's economic sense is anything but mediocre. She can

manipulate large amounts of money, find funding, and bring in greater profits. If I

were to rank her as a member of my staff, she'd get an S. But one Roroa isn't enough

to run a country, now is it? Roroa needs a bureaucratic system that will serve as her

arms and legs. On top of that, she needs people who are capable of doing math to

work under her. What we're short of is those people who can do the math."

The literacy rate in this world was low, and pretty much the only ones outside of

the nobility and knightly class who could do arithmetic were the merchants.

Basically, in this world, those who could both write and use numbers would be B or

C class personnel. Right now, in this country, we had a shortage of them.

"If that's what you're lookin' for, how's about hirin' some merchants who're

closin' up shop 'cause they couldn't turn a profit, or who were reduced to bein'

slaves for one reason or another?" Roroa suggested.

But I shook my head. "I tried that already, but it didn't pan out. If anyone is the

least bit talented, someone from the nobility or the knighthood will already have

taken them in. Well... that's my own fault, though." I said, scratching my head.

Roroa tilted her head quizzically. "What do you mean, your fault?"

"I changed the way evaluations work," I explained.

In this country, the nobility and knightly classes were, to put it simply, the

landholders. Military officials with land were called knights, while civil officials with

land were called nobles. That was why there was no distinction between counts and

viscounts in the nobility, and anyone with a large amount of land was just addressed

as "Lord."

There were "bureaucrat nobles" who traveled to the capital and regional cities to

work in the bureaucracy, leaving their lands in the care of magistrates. There were

also "regional nobles" who went to their own domains to manage the land

personally. In terms of those I knew personally, Hakuya and Marx would be

bureaucrat nobles, while Weist, the Lord of Altomura, would be a regional noble.

The balance of power between the two groups worked in a variety of ways. There

were bureaucratic nobles who were involved in affairs of state like Hakuya, while

there were also bureaucratic nobles who went to serve in the cities of powerful

regional nobles.

In comparison, knights generally left their lands in the hands of a magistrate

while they served in the military. This wasn't absolute. Retired knights, like Weist,

might become nobles, and there were also knights who passed their duty to serve in

the military on to their children while they managed their lands.

Now, as to the promotion and demotion of these nobles and knights (or, to put it

in another way, their acquisition or loss of territory), up until now, the knights had

been promoted if they'd distinguished themselves in battle and their rank had risen

in the military, while if their conduct had been bad and they'd violated orders, or

they'd failed to carry out an operation successfully, they'd been demoted.

In other words, knights had never been held to account for the management of

their lands. So if their lands had been mismanaged, the fault had lain with the

magistrate, and if they'd sacked and replaced that magistrate, the knights

themselves would not have been held responsible. Then again, if the same thing had

happened over and over, there would of course have been repercussions.

As for the nobles, they could be promoted by traveling to the capital or cities to

work as bureaucratic nobles. For those who didn't have a strong desire to involve

themselves in the affairs of state, it was normal for them to switch to being regional

nobles once their lands had expanded to a degree. That was because being a regional

noble was more profitable. If there was a noble who had no strong drive for selfadvancement, if they were satisfied with their current holding, in many cases they

would become a regional noble. However, once they did become a regional noble,

they were responsible for any mismanagement of their lands.

Now, as for how I changed our policy on the assessment of nobles and knights...

"In addition to the policies in place up until this point, I've placed a heavy

emphasis on their ability to manage their land," I said.

To put it simply, in addition to the assessment metrics in place before, I had

announced a system of evaluation that gave more land to those managing theirs

well, while reducing the size of their holdings or confiscating them entirely if they

were managed poorly.

I had sent the clandestine operations unit that reported directly to me, the Black

Cats, to keep watch, and those nobles or knights who ruled well were being given

more land, while those who ruled poorly were having their holdings reduced or

confiscated.

This clamped down on evil lords and magistrates of the variety you might have

seen in period dramas, and my aim was to make the lords communicate with their

people and bring them closer together. For good government, it was necessary to

know what the people wanted, after all.

Now... as for what had happened as a result, the nobles and knights who had,

until now, left their affairs to magistrates had hurriedly begun to pay attention to

their holdings.

If their magistrates were capable or average, there were no issues; but if they

were incompetent, that could now affect a noble's own advancement.

There were nobles that had left their positions in the bureaucracy to return to

their domains and start to focus fully on managing them. However, for the majority

of knights who had no talent for ruling, and for the nobles who still had a path to

advancement in their bureaucratic positions, they had rushed to find capable

magistrates and personnel to serve under them.

When I explained that, Juna brought a finger to her lips as if recalling something.

"Now that you mention it, Grandmother was saying that it had thrown things into

utter chaos. There was a time when the nobles and knights would wander through

the streets like hungry ghouls chanting 'peopleeee, peopleeee,' or something like

that."

"...Yeah," I said. "Honestly, I think it was a hasty decision on my part."

The passion of the nobles and knights to find talented personnel had far

outstripped my imagination, and anyone able to write or do basic arithmetic, even if

they were a commoner, had been welcomed almost like a sage and treated as an

equal. This was because, if a noble or knight used authority to take such people away

by force, they would face punishment for it.

If they learned that a slave (though not convict slaves sentenced to labor for their

crimes), a prostitute, or a person in the slums could write and do arithmetic, they

would even go as far as buying them out of bondage to welcome them into their

service. The ones who could just write and do arithmetic got this treatment, so if

there was someone who was especially good at it, the situation could get pretty

incredible.

I want to make you a magistrate! a noble might say. But you're not from a high

enough class! I know — by adopting you as a relative, I can forcibly raise you to a

higher social status!