Setting up the Government

The Country of Eruchea:-

Harry was finally free from all the recent mess.

Wang Tian had thankfully died due to a cardiac arrest or something.

He didn't really bother confirming. But it did seem like one of the most probable causes.

The guy had been pushing his luck (and also the things he sat on) by becoming so dang fat.

There was no way that all that fat and cholesterol (and whatever else was in his body) would let him live for so long.

Just the fact that he had been functioning for so long was a medical miracle.

But it turned out that the trauma from the battle and the sightseeing that came after that finally did the trick.

'Thankfully, he didn't end up exploding like that Monty Python guy did. Otherwise, it would be quite a sight to see. But just as big of a nightmare to clean up!', thought Harry as he went to his room to change the next morning.

He had already provided the EUPAC guys with the details about all the chemicals required to clean up the warzone in front of the gates.

All that cleaning and related stuff would be taken care of by the military over the next few days.

Still, he was finally free from all his upcoming major tasks. Stuff might pop up later on, but he for clear for the next couple of days.

And the fact that he was free meant one thing.

No, it did not mean that he could go to the other side of Eruchea and sleep on the beaches.

That would be utter dumbness.

Actually, saying that he was "free" wasn't exactly correct.

He did not have any of his regular work of visiting places and going through his daily reports and stuff.

But he did have one major event planned out for now.

"Sir, everyone has arrived in the dining hall.", said one of his maids from outside the washroom door.

"Sure thing!

Inform them that I'll be right there with them.", replied Harry as he hastened his movement.

The thing was that he had made announcements about setting up a new government structure and had asked for applicants for the empty roles.

Naturally, this had caused portfolios and résumés to swarm his desk, leading to an exponential increase in his workload.

But he had paid the system a price of 2000 SP to help him sort through the mountain of applications.

And the few that he had managed to select had shown up today.

The reason why he chose the dining hall as the meeting place was quite simple.

In terms of big rooms where such meetings could be held were the dining hall and the throne room.

His office wasn't exactly a great place for such things.

But the throne room felt too big and spaced out to Harry.

Plus, this government was supposed to be somewhat inspired by the democracies back on Earth.

It felt awkward to Harry to conduct the discussions in a room that screamed monarchy and class divisions.

It was like going to KFC to have vegan food. It could be done. But it would feel kinda weird, especially if you're not vegan.

That's why the dining hall was the place chosen.

Plus, with the possible duration of the discussion, with Harry explaining all the various duties, everyone would have to stay till late.

And since the discussions happen at the dinner table, food easily could be served mid-discussion.

When Harry walked into the room, he saw the group waiting beside the table.

It included Jeanette, Brittney, Wang Cheng from EUPAC, Frederick Kruger from the blacksmiths, elder Lao from the Masonry guild, George, the army general and Lan Li, a farmer.

From all the applications he got, Harry had chosen them since everyone seemed to be pretty good in their field.

Some personal bias was naturally involved. Harry had decided to mainly choose people he knew since it would make communicating way easier.

Somethings couldn't be helped much.

Harry was doing this to ease his work. And if there was someone who might be bad at their job or just bad at communicating with others, it would be a huge headache for him.

Because changing out ministers would be exponentially difficult later on.

So, four of the seven were known.

He could have chosen any of the three heads of the EUPAC but Wang Cheng made the least amount of fuss. So, he was chosen.

As for the other two, Frederick was chosen by the system. He seemed to have a lot of potential.

And Lan Li had suddenly become the leader of the entire agriculture-oriented population for some reason. So he was a must. (It might have been everyone setting him up. But since Lan Li didn't have much of an issue, Harry was happy to pick him.)

"""""""Good morning, Your Majesty!"""""""

Harry heard a chorus of greetings just as he entered the room.

"Good morning!", replied Harry.

"But guys, you don't really have to be so formal with me when we aren't in public.

I get it. I'm your king and all that. And being in this position means that everyone else has to be really, really respectful towards me and stuff.

But I'm just a human too. Not too different of a species compared to you guys… I think…

So, I feel that you can drop most of the formalities when not explicitly required.

I'm not the kind of guy who goes around punishing people for minor mistakes.

But not being overly formal doesn't mean that you start lazying around when you're supposed to be serious."

Everyone seemed to relax when they heard him.

"I would say that you shouldn't show up to work in your undies as a part of not being overly formal.

But honestly, with the sort of heat that our binary star system gives, it would be quite dumb to say that.

I mean, as long as the work gets done and it doesn't affect your health, I don't mind you wearing your underwear at the peak of winter.

Just don't do it publicly, okay?"

Harry's this statement caused everyone to giggle and further lightened the previous overly formal mood.

It just felt annoying to Harry if every talk he had with others was stuffed to the brim with etiquette.

This stuff was normal if he was meeting guests like once or twice a year or something.

But he wanted his staff and subordinates to be somewhat open with him. No need for worshipping him or anything.

This stuff only caused problems, especially if the involved people had to stay close and communicate a lot.

Though one could say that the major reason was that even his fiancée followed everyone else in the room instead of being a bit more like her usual self.

It was no secret that Harry didn't prefer people to be so formal with him. And when he saw that even one of his closest people forgot that, it only made the annoyance worse.

It was like watching your dearest pet dog (or most other pets) failing to recognise you.

{A/N: I said "most" other pets since I don't really trust something like a domestic cat to be so nice. I feel that most people would accept that cats aren't always the greatest pets, even cat owners.

Like me, I find that usually wild cats, at least the ones in videos, seem nicer than domesticated ones in this case. But then, I haven't really had any such exotic pets so I can't really be sure about the wild ones…}

Anyways, once everyone sat down, Harry on one end and everyone else on either side, the meeting officially began.

"Okay, then.

As you all know, I have gathered all of you here to be a part of the new government structure that I plan on setting up.

I do plan on keeping a number of the old positions, but there will be new tasks that also need to be taken care of.", said Harry.

Everyone nodded and continued listening to the information he was giving out.

"Thankfully, the old treasurer, Luo Jin, hadn't run away like the other nobles, so he has kept his position. But he is now known as the 'Finance Minister of Eruchea' rather than the royal treasurer.

You all shall also receive a similar post of a 'Minister' of several things.

For now, the areas under you will be quite a lot. However, once our country grows further, other people shall be chosen for many of those fields.

And several other fields would most probably be created as well."

Everyone started getting quite excited on hearing this.

It would be an almost unprecedented thing that commoners could be a part of governing the country so easily. (There were such cases in history but those could easily be counted on one hand.)

And from what they heard, the number of such commoners would only increase in the future.

Such a marvellous thing!

"I can understand from your expressions that you guys are quite excited.

Let me guess, is it because I included ordinary people?", asked Harry.

Everyone started nodding like bobbleheads, with smiles on their faces.

"Seriously?

Oh well.

Don't get so excited.

I had another type of government planned, where the leader was elected by the citizens. And every adult citizen, regardless of their gender or age, could vote for their desired person.

But honestly, I feel that it would make everything way too cumbersome.

Plus, even if I did go ahead with that idea, I would probably be the one to get elected anyway.

The entire concept is a little too ahead of its time for our country."

The idea of a people's government did excite everyone in the room. But, honestly, no one in their country had any idea to go about ruling a country.

Most people weren't even fully educated.

For most, even becoming leaders of a small group was something they wouldn't want to do.

So, it was completely out of the question for them to be the leader of an entire country.

They preferred to leave such things to the royalty and/or the nobility.

"So, keeping that topic aside, let's get around to the main topic of today.

Namely, giving you guys your official posts.

But keep in mind that whatever you guys are getting would only be about half the workload of that area.

The other half would rest with me.

I would still hold more power than you in terms of decisions. But unless it's too important, I hope that all of you should be able to handle most of the work without my intervention.

However, if I feel that something should be done differently, I will always have the power to veto your decisions. This would be only in rare cases though.

And if a person from either side, you guys or me, is too busy or unavailable, the person or persons responsible for those duties will have to take over for the time being.

For example, if general George here is too busy will some foreign mission, I will take care of his duties. Or if I'm out, my duties will be distributed amongst you guys.

But again, this is only for most things.

I won't be giving you half of all the things I am currently in charge of.

The extremely important fields will remain completely under me only.

And decisions regarding such fields can only be taken by me.

If I'm unavailable, you are to attempt to either contact me or will need to put them on hold for as long as possible.

However, if I'm still not available, only then can something be done by you guys.

I would try to ensure that such a case never arises but it's always better to be safe than sorry."

No one felt like complaining.

Whatever was being done was already beyond their imagination so they would be really happy about whatever they were given.

If their king wanted to keep some things completely under his control, there was nothing wrong or strange about it.

Heck, the strange thing was that he had offered to divide the government work in the first place.

No ruler in their memory had done such a thing.

They did have ministers of their own but those were just for advice.

The final decisionmaker was still the king.

But what Harry had done was given them almost as much authority as the king.

Seeing that everyone only had a satisfied look on their face rather than complaints, Harry continued.

"So, now as for your positions…

I plan on making general George the Minister of Defence.

You shall be in charge of the army, the weapons, the internal and the external security of the country.

Naturally, I shall also have a bit greater say in these matters, but I expect that you will be capable enough to not come to me for every little thing."

"Sir, yes sir!", replied George with a salute as was the usual way in the Eruchean military.

"Good.

Any questions or queries about your job?", asked Harry.

"Sir, no sir! Currently none!", came the reply.

"All right then.

Next would be…

Yes, Jeanette.

You are to be the Development Minister.

You will be in charge of education in general and the development of women, children and the poor.

Now, some of your responsibilities might change in the future depending on how the country develops."

However, this time around, Harry was met with a bit of confusion.

"I get that you want to make me a minister, but how can I be in charge of education when I'm in school myself?

Isn't it pretty dumb that the minister of education isn't properly educated themself? Keeping aside the fact that the person in question is a woman!"

Well, she was pretty close to Harry's image of a modern person.

It was quite a logical question.

How could someone be in charge of something and be expected to supervise others on that matter while not being good at it themselves?

Isn't that just utter hypocrisy?

But the last part of what she said still needed a bit of improvement.

It would take some time before the gender discrimination stuff could be fixed.

"Yeah, the first part of your question makes proper sense.

It looks really dumb on my part to have chosen someone who isn't qualified as a minister.

But, my question to everyone here is, is there anyone here who is as educated as I am? Excluding me of course!"

"There's Shin and Qing!", replied Jeanette.

"They are there.

But first of all, Qing is pretty young.

And second, technically, I, Shin and Qing are still somewhat newcomers compared to you guys who have lived here your entire lives.

It feels better if the ministers are ones from such a group.

You guys probably have a better idea of people's problems and have better relationships too."

"True.

But like, you aren't that new, right? You three have been here since last year.

And I'm still attending school!

How weird would it be if you find out that your classmate is in charge of the matters regarding whatever everyone is doing!"

"Ma'am, it can't get weirder than being directly taught by the king of your country!"

This time it was George's turn to reply to Jeanette.

"I don't know if I should appreciate him or feel offended by his statement, but whatever he said is pretty true if you think about it.

Where else would you find the ruler of the country teaching the commoners how to read and write, eh?

I'm pretty sure that everyone has suffered enough of a shock from that to really care about if their best friend is in charge of dealing with finances or the national curriculum or whatever.

Plus, you have the added advantage of being a somewhat regular person before becoming royalty. I mean, you did commoners as friends earlier, right?

I feel that it'll help others trust the government more than if the person in charge was someone too different or unrelated to them."

After thinking about Harry's words for a few seconds, Jeanette started nodding slowly.

It seemed the lecture this time around was somewhat effective.

"Alrighty then!

Next is Wang Cheng!

You, my friend, are going to be in charge of all the chemicals and minerals and stuff.

Titled, the Minister of Resources."

"So I'll need to prepare reports regarding all the ores and chemicals being produced?

Can't I just stick to my regular work at the EUPAC?", came the reply.

"Well, someone has to do this work, you know.

Plus you get the authority to have the first pick from all the new ores and chemicals produced."

"So, I can get all the good quality raw materials for my research before anyone else can claim them?"

Wang Cheng looked like a child who was told to pick anything he wanted at a toy store.

"In a way, yes.

As long as you don't cause any issues with others, follow the rules and don't try to go against my orders. At least not without a very convincing and valid reason.

But I'll rarely ever butt into this stuff unless it's very urgent."

Even before Harry could finish talking, Wang Cheng already reacted to his words.

In fact, the moment he heard the word "yes", Wang Cheng let his eye fountains burst open like the Genesis flood.

He was extremely overjoyed just by the fact that he could have a major say in the raw materials he needed.

Usually, alchemists were supposed to submit applications or requests to the king begging for the things they needed.

After this, it all depended on their luck.

If the ruler was feeling generous, their request would be granted.

But if they weren't, the best-case scenario was that they get nothing.

It could get worse though.

With them or sometimes even their families or relatives getting executed if the king was in a very bad mood.

And now, he was told that not only would he be able to choose what he needed, but also that he could easily pick the best quality materials too!

Also, if he didn't get too greedy, there would be no one to stop him from doing this!

Wang Cheng felt like he had died and ascended to heaven.

Screw that! Even heaven might not be this good!

For all he knew, that place would be filled with all those arrogant and backward cultivators-turned-immortals or something.

Who the heck wanted to go to such a useless place!?

Leaving aside the dreamy-eyed drooling old man, Harry decided to proceed forward with the meeting.

Just by looking at his face, everyone in the room could tell exactly what Wang Cheng was thinking.

The guy got so excited by his new position that he completely forgot about where he was sitting and had gone off on a tangent into his own imaginary world.

Talk about a lack of decency!

The guy completely forgot about the fact that he was sitting in the Royal Palace. Not only that, but he was also sitting right in front of the king of the country he lived in!

It took a whole another dimension of workaholism to ignore such a huge thing!

That's why everyone had come to the silent conclusion that it was best to leave him in his current state and continue with the discussion.

Trying to get him back was like trying to push a mountain all alone.

He'd probably return to reality himself once the meeting gets over and everyone starts leaving.

Harry gave a long sigh while shaking his head.

The others too had a similar reaction.

"So, keeping him aside, the next person being appointed would be…"