Two Helpers

Mathew was sitting in his study when a sharp cry of an eagle rang outside. -"So they are finally here..." He took a deep breath and prepared to greet the guests.

It was already Mathew's second week in this world, and he had waited patiently for this moment, Mathew was full of novel ideas and plans, but, unfortunately, he was met with one of the downsides of being a bureaucrat: the bureaucracy.

He required permission for many of his plans, and thankfully it took way less time than he first thought. -" So? Any good news?" Mathew's face was full of excitement.

Curtis jumped from the eagle's back and let out a smile. " Some you may like, others you won't." He gave a look around the prefecture, which now looked way more presentable than the last time he came. " Why you don't take us for some tea first?"

-" I don't think that the tea I have here will fit your taste, but, if you insist..." Mathew gestured for Curtis and the two people that followed him to sit at one of the tables in the courtyard and run inside the main prefecture building and brought a tea set.

Outside of Simon acting as the Precinct Chief, he was completely alone and had to do all the work himself, so he grew quite used to living in this building already.

-" So? What did Allan say about the stolen funds?" Mathew asked curiously as he began to set up the teapot on a nearby woodstove.

-" Well... in theory, the stolen funds should be returned to the Provincial Government, but..." Curtis paused for a second and let out a grin. " Allan decided to help you and spoke with someone he knew of the Ministry of Revenue, and it was decided that the Hard Pine Village would be awarded 40% of the recovered funds, twenty percent of the funds will also be awarded to everyone who was affected by this matter, including the people who were enslaved."

-" 40%?!" Mathew jolted up from his seat, this was way more than what he thought he could get.

-" Quite the large sum, isn't it?" Even Curtis himself was quite surprised by this, they had recovered quite a large sum of money from Nicolaus Clifton and Ruffus, and Mathew would receive a good part of it. " Only a truly bustling municipality would get so many funds." Curtis paused once again, and this time his face turned serious. " Allan is counting on you... You can't fuck this up."

-" You don't have to worry about this." Mathew was determined to improve the living standards of the village, so there was no way that he would try anything with the funds. " And what about remaining Clifton lands?" He was visibly excited, as this was the last thing he needed to be sure of before going with his plans.

-" Well, Allan put in the report that he was arrested by the local precinct, so the confiscation of his possession should be your responsibility. " Curtis let out a big smile as he finished, he was curious about what the young man had planned that he needed all of this. " Allan asked me to tell you that he wouldn't offer the local baron position for anyone, but, if the county governor moves, there is little he could do."

-" Send my gratitude to him." One of Mathew's biggest worries was that the new noble would try to compete with him for village control. " So? Those are all the good news?"

-" Mostly yes... " Curtis pointed to the two people that accompanied him and introduced them. " They are Evan and Irelia, two new bureaucrats that just passed the Imperial Exam, they will be the ones helping you from now on, you can choose the people for the rest of the vacancies."

-" Oh? Finally, I'm getting some help!" Mathew was already tired of dealing with everything himself. " My name is Mathew, a pleasure to meet the two of you."

Evan had an annoyed face, not only he was brought to a run-down village in the middle of nowhere, his chief was an inexperienced youth, which looked to be of his age.

Irelia on the other hand was excited to finally get to work and greeted Mathew with excitement. " Please take care of us! I can't wait to get to work!" The village was in quite a bad shape, but, this didn't affect her as this only made her even more energetic as they would get more recognition if they could put everything in order.

Mathew had noticed Evan's expression, but, he choose not to comment on it as he understood why he was annoyed. -" I'm counting on the two of you! I have quite the big plans for this small village."

-" Big plans? Tsk!" Evan sneered as the man kept talking, he couldn't see what he was so excited for. " I just hope that you don't act as the previous magistrate."

Curtis and Mathew grinned as they heard the man answer, and decided to completely ignore him.

-" So? Can't you show me what are you planning now?" Curtis had talked with Mathew quite a bit since the two of them met, and he always mentioned that he was planning something, but, never had gone into the details.

Mathew let out a big smile and served the tea, which just got ready. -" Wait a bit, let me get the map." Mathew ran inside and brought out a few scrolls.

Everyone observed the scrolls with curiosity, one of them was a big and detailed map of the village and its surroundings, while the others two were filled with information.

Mathew put all of them on the table and prepared to begin his presentation. " This village is located right on the slope break of a hill, quite a good position for a settlement, as we have easy access to the meadows, the river for agriculture, and even the forest for hunting and gathering materials." Mathew quickly began explaining the village location geography.

-" So? That is quite a good position, but, there are plenty of villages that share this same quality." Evan still didn't see that much future for the rundown village.

Mathew continued to ignore the man and returned to his explanation as he saw that Curtis and Irelia were paying attention. " Much of the village farmable land is filled with weeds and it will take quite an effort for it to be ready for planting again, but, the years that this land spent abandoned helped the soil to restore some of its previous quality." Mathew quickly pointed to one of the scrolls. " There are around twenty-two acres of farmable land and eight acres of grazing land in the village, this may not be comparable to the bigger farms, but, it's more than enough to sustain the village and even export some of the procedure."

Curtis was impressed as he looked at the map, the amount of detail that it showed was quite impressive. " What is the meaning of those painted areas?" He grew curious as he observed some sections painted red, green, and yellow on the map.

-" Yellow are the areas where the villagers lived. " Mathew quickly pointed to the center of the village, where some of the people lived, and to the outskirts near the farms where most of the village had their residences. " Green represents areas that are owned by the prefecture but, we have no use to, as for red..." Mathew paused momentarily and opened the last scroll he brought. " They are areas that hold important resources for the village. Iron Mines, Grooves of certain useful trees, and even a marble quarry." Mathew finished showcasing all the natural resources that the village had and waited for Curtis's reaction.

-" Quite the good variety..." Curtis was impressed by the village's richness, he couldn't ever imagine that this little village had so many useful resources. " Was Clifton extracting all of these things?"

-" No, he tried to set up the marble quarry, but, it was too hard to get it working without attracting attention." Mathew passed one of the scrolls, which had all the details of the village infrastructure to Curtis. " Only one of the iron mines is working, and the rest are in dire need of repair too."

-" That's quite a lot of work..." Curtis was impressed by how prosperous the village was, but, it would take too long for the village to seriously begin to grow. " If the state of the village was just a tad better, you could easily transform it into quite the bustling commercial center."

-" You don't have to worry about this." Mathew let out a confident smile, he was determined to make this the best village in the whole kingdom. " Two years... No, I just need one year..." Mathew knew that this would be hard, but, it was still possible. " In one year, you won't be able to recognize this village any longer."

Everyone was astonished by Mathew's promise, after all, one year was a relatively short amount of time, however, for some reason, Curtis believed in him.

-" Tsk! Let's see!" Evan was even more sure that his chief was quite the buffon, just repairing one of the iron mines would take close to a year, not to mention that it would be working with almost no efficiency.