Arthur's Secretary

Arthur is in his office in the City Lord's Castle. On his table lies Grima, a special book that is previously on the pillar of the Great Library. He walks around while touching his chin, thinking of ways to finish the mission that the System has given.

It will take a lot of time if Arthur does it alone so he starts to think for the future of the city in a long run. How about creating the City's Construction Team? Arthur proceeds to this line of thought and tries to think of establishing this organization.

Arthur sits down on his office chair and writes down an announcement. First, he needs a secretary to handle most of his affairs. Previously, the income from tax is too low to hire someone to handle all of the affairs.

After writing the details of the announcement, Arthur leaves the castle and moves to the City's Bulletin Board where all announcement from different organizations are listed. There is a special board for the City Lord Announcement but there isn't anything there yet.

To sum up the year that Arthur is here, he is lazy to do anything and the only thing he is able to do is to raise the monthly income coming to the City Lord's Castle by 2 gold coins. When you exclude the food he buys in a month, it is at most 1.5 gold coins or 150 silver coins.

The people are shocked to see the City Lord walking himself to the Bulletin Board. This past year, the rumor that Arthur is a selfish person that only wants people to pay taxes has spread. He rarely appears in public. The only reason Arthur has to raise the taxes by a little percentage is for him to live.

After Arthur posted the announcement and left, the people flock toward the bulletin board and look at the details.

[Urgent: City Secretary For Hire]

[Anyone that can read and write that are interested can immediately go to the City Lord's Castle. More details will be given in the castle.]

A lot of people are skeptical about the announcement because they think Arthur wants their bodies and it may be different work that he will make them do. Though Arthur is handsome, it doesn't mean that they will flock to him for money.

What makes them more skeptical is that there is no rate as to how much he will pay. Most organizations in the city will at least post how much the base pay will be.

Arthur's decision to omit this detail is because he doesn't want to deal with many people going to castle. Instead, he wants to know who are really interested in this field of work. Additionally, he wants to know what the rate is from the people he will interview.

A few people become interested because after all, this is still work. It is much better than plowing in the farm or collecting herbs and fighting beasts outside. Most people that arrived are women and there are a few men. There are around twenty people outside the castle.

Arthur receives them well and asks them to enter the castle. He prepares dozens of chairs outside his office. He asks them to come in one by one.

Arthur begins to scratch his head after interviewing fifteen people. Why did these women think that I want someone to play with me in bed? Are they nuts?

Suddenly, a young woman enters his office and she immediately catches Arthur's interest. She has a blonde hair, blue eyes, and wears eyeglasses. His first impression of her is that she looks really intelligent at first glance.

She stares at Arthur, too, as she has not expected for their city to have a really young lord. "Forgive me for being rude but may I know how old you are?"

Arthur's lips curl up as he answers. "I am sixteen years old. How about you, young miss?"

The young girl blushes as she thinks that their age is fairly close. She is pretty timid to young men close to her age. "I am fifteen years old."

"You look mature for your age. Since you have read the announcement, for sure you know how to read and write, correct?" Arthur begins his questioning with this as some of the people he interviewed don't know that this is required.

"Yes, I can read and write." The young girl shyly replies.

"May I ask your name then?" Arthur said.

"My name is K-kuri." It is still a bit uncomfortable for her to talk to him for some reason.

"You are young to be working. There will be a lot of tasks here and I want you to work eight hours a day for the city. Can I ask for what reason you want to have this job?" Arthur probes Kuri as he knows that she is too young. Compared to the previous people he interviewed, she is way younger than all of them.

Kuri lowers her head as she knows that she lacks experience to work for such an important job but Arthur notices the change in her actions.

"Don't misunderstand. I am willing to accept you but I want to know the reason you want to work for the city, for me." Arthur reassures her.

"My mother is sick and I need to buy medicine for her." Kuri replies honestly.

Arthur can see the sadness from her eyes. He remembers when his mother is really sick and cannot play with him when he was ten years old. They say that his mother, the Queen, has contracted the black plague, a disease that has yet to be resolved by the current medicine. This black plague has also become the cause of his mother's death.

He then continues to ask Kuri. "What is your mother's illness? How about your father?"

"The doctor said that my mother has contracted is the disease called flu. And... last year during winter, my father died from the beast tide." Kuri cannot help but cry as she feels pitiful. She cannot understand what she has done for her to have a fate like this.

Arthur feels sad as well. It is also last year during winter that his father died while fighting with beasts. What beast could have exhausted and killed him? He is already the strongest in the entire kingdom. Perhaps, he is killed by multiple high ranking beasts.

After listening to Kuri, Arthur empathizes with her. He then takes out a piece of paper where her duties are listed. "I want you to read this and tell me if you are capable of doing these tasks."

Kuri looks through it and then answers. "Yes, I believe I can do all of this."

"You are officially the secretary of the city then. Your salary is 50 silver coins monthly."

Kuri's mouth suddenly opens wide in shock. Five silver coin can feed a whole family for a month and with fifty silver coins one can live extravagantly! She expects a higher salary than the minimum wage in the city of 4 silver coins. Who can expect that she will have more than ten times?

Kuri stands up from her seat and bows down to Arthur as tears fall down her face. "Thank you! This will help in buying medicine and food for my mother."

Arthur smiles as he understands what she is feeling but fifty silver coins are only just for what the job entails. He then plans out his next step with his secretary, that is, the creation of the City's Construction Department.