Chapter 59: Management Issues

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Gawain knew that Norris had no idea what the “position” actually meant or what kind of new administration would soon be implemented in this land. He was still in a confused state, caught in the joy of soon becoming a “respectable person”, but this old farmer probably could not even imagine the lifestyle of those respectable people in towns and cities.

But that was fine because what Gawain wanted to establish in this world was an unprecedented new order. It was not only Norris who could not imagine it, even Herti and Rebecca also could not imagine it.

He knew that he had to be cautious and take things steadily and under control as they moved forward in order to prevent being too impatient and be caught in the backlash from this era’s conservatives, but he had no choice but to do it. The recent alerts from the satellite monitoring station still rang in his ears. If the Dark Wave was truly inevitable, doing something was better than doing nothing.

When Norris left, Herti finally could not help but ask, “Ancestor, do you really intend for him to manage your fields?”

Gawain knew that Herti would have doubts, so he was not at all surprised. He only looked at her with a faint smile. “Anything wrong with that?”

“Although he is literate, he…” Herti was going to say that he was poor, but on second thought, she rephrased it, “I’m afraid that he might lack the knowledge, and he does not know of the rules of the upper class. If you let him manage your fields, I’m afraid he will screw things up and even get punished for no reason.”

Gawain just looked at Herti quietly until she appeared to show unease, and then he asked, “Where is this upper class you’re referring to?”

Herti was stunned.

Gawain smiled and pointed his finger to the surroundings. “Look around. In this empty piece of land, there is no upper class, nor are there any aristocratic etiquette or rules of being a lower class citizen. Throw all those old ideas into the scorched soil of the old Cecil territory! In this land, everything starts from scratch. Rules, laws, guidelines, everything will be brand new!”

Herti stared blankly at the land that was being opened for agriculture and the camp that had already begun to take shape in the distance. Here, there was no towering castle or the poor people’s small houses. The camp was being built according to the strict principles of “orderliness, hygiene, efficiency, and space for future development”. Here, there were no rules like “houses of the poor are not to face the castle”, ” noble estates must be separated from the homes of the poor by at least one street”, “serfs are forbidden to live in the intermediate or inner districts”.

She vaguely understood what Gawain meant.

Gawain looked at Herti. He knew that her traditional aristocratic views were not deep-seated. Being a noble of a declined clan, the tough situation was the best motivation for one to start using their brains more. Cecil Clan had been excluded from the core circle of nobles in recent generations. Thus, they would become more and more “unlike aristocrats”. Take Herti for example, she would even go to the construction site to help with work. Thus there was absolutely no problem with how flexible her mentality was. It was just that the habit and social constraints brought by being an aristocrat were not easy to deal with, so she instinctively thought that a farmer from a poor family would not be qualified to help Gawain manage the territory even if he was literate with language and numbers, even more so since his position was to manage the most important problem of food.

Seeing the change in expression of this descendant, Gawain knew that she had already understood roughly, but she still needed a little push, so he went on to say, “As to whether a poor farmer can become a manager, do you know of the ancestor of the Franklin clan of the west and what he used to do?”

“Grand Duke of the West?” Herti was stunned for a moment. “I remember the history books saying that Franklin’s ancestor was in charge of steelworks, and was the “Iron General” of the expedition force…”

“Yes, he was a blacksmith but with monster-like strength. And he was talented and fortunate enough to grow up during the northern expedition.” Gawain smiled. “What do you think I used to do?”

Herti was already shocked upon learning about the truth of the original Grand Duke of the West. Now, she could not speak as confidently, “I remember in the history books… I think it said that you were a knight among knights, the first of all famous knights…”

“Yes, I was a knight apprentice. When I was fifteen, I finally learned my first combat skills, but before my teacher could write a letter of recommendation to the Lord, he got drunk and fell into the river and drowned. I was left with no other choice. So I wrote a recommendation letter myself, used the teacher’s stamp, and brought it to the Lord. But before I could get there, the Dark Wave broke out, and the Lord died. Then I met Charlie, who was escaping with a group of people. He said that the south had already turned into a huge mess, and to go south would only lead to more deaths. I told him, ‘I still have to be named a knight. I have been studying for years and finally managed to pass.’ Then, Charlie said a few wise words to me in front of everyone.”

Gawain paused deliberately, sure enough, Herti could not help but ask, “What wise words?”

“Let’s just name ourselves knights. The lords of the south are all dead anyways.”

Herti, “… Name yourselves?! You can do that?!”

“However, that was how it happened,” Gawain put away his smile as he looked at Herti. “A youngster with delusions of grandeur, proclaimed himself as the leader of the northern expedition, led a group of blacksmiths, carpenters, apprentices, and unemployed people who then identified as pioneering knights. They forced their way across the entire wasteland of Gondor and built a kingdom here. Do you think it was because we had noble bloodlines? Or were we all blessed by gods?”

Herti: “…”

“In the beginning, there were no nobles, but it was the ones who first got up and took things for themselves who became nobles.” Gawain pressed Herti’s shoulders (she was older, and he couldn’t just pat her head like he did with Rebecca), “Putting aside this difference, Anzu is just a kingdom established by a bunch of peasants. Now the land before us is exactly what Anzu was like when we established it. And I am going to implement some new rules on this land.”

Herti frowned slightly. She felt vaguely apprehensive, but she did not know what was off about it, “I… I can’t imagine what the future would be like if we really do it…”

“Yeah, it’s a bit too early for me to tell you about this.” Gawain nodded slightly. “But I believe you will be with me on this.”

“Of course!” Herti replied without hesitation. “You are the cornerstone of this land! You are also the only person that Rebecca and I can count on…”

“Then I promise you one thing. Everything that I do will be to bring about prosperity and civilization to this land. As long as you follow me, you and Rebecca will witness an unprecedentedly powerful Cecil Clan,” Gawain said seriously, “Do you accept this promise?”

Herti nodded vigorously.

“Then let’s get back to the issue of management,” Gawain laughed. “The issue about allowing normal citizens or poor people to be involved in the management of the territory.”

“You have more ‘positions’ prepared?” Herti had guessed from earlier conversations what Gawain had in mind. “Although I don’t think there is anything wrong with it now, is it really necessary?”

Gawain looked up and down at Herti. This beautiful and graceful lady had been overworked in recent days that she was looking quite haggard. She had not even bothered to wash her face today, let alone talk about looking elegant.

She was responsible for almost all the work within the camp. With such an exhausted countenance, she actually did not realize that they had a lack of a management team…

“Do you think you can take care of all the internal affairs by yourself?” Gawain asked.

“It is getting quite tiring. But after all, we are in the starting phase. When we reach normal operation…”

“When we reach normal operation, you would not be able to handle it because you have never ‘managed’ before.” Gawain glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. “Have you ever done demographic statistics? Have you done production statistics? Have you done economic statistics? Have you done purchasing, sales, storage in previous years or developmental plans for the coming year? Let’s not even talk about this. Have you ever once understood how the cash flows into and out of the territory?”

Herti had swirly eyes. “… Huh?”

“Sending people to check how much grain is left in the granary at the end of the year and counting how many people still owe rent when they collect tax paid in grains does not count as much of the management of internal affairs.” Gawain gave an awkward chuckle. “I asked you and Rebecca to collect the names, ages, occupations, and family situation of those 800 people. Tell me honestly, what do you think of those forms?”

Herti submitted cheerfully. “It was indeed very convenient to use. For the first time, I was able to easily understand how many people we have in various occupations. And when assigning people for production, I can simply use the information from the forms instead of sending people to find out where those various kinds of craftsmen are…”

“There might come a day when the territory will have 8,000, or even 80,000 people. Are you and Rebecca still going to count them yourselves? There might come a day when the territory expands to the south of the Dark Range. Are you still going to cross over the mountain and knock on each door to ask about each family?”

Herti: “…”

“If you want to keep up the convenience, you have to have a ‘management team,’” Gawain spread open his hands. “And to build such an organization, we have to involve the citizens.”

Herti thought for a moment and frowned again. “But most people in the territory can’t even write their own names, so how…”

“That is the next stage of my plan,” Gawain said with a smile. “Teach them to read.”

Herti: “…”

She was probably left speechless more times today than over her whole lifetime.

Gawain gave Herti some time to think about it while he looked at the people not too far away who were reporting progress to their supervisors.

Results could not be obtained overnight.

It would take time to establish a new order. To build a society in this new order would be even more difficult. And to build a kingdom on top of that… would probably take many more years.

There were only 800 people in the territory now. It was true that Herti managed to deal with it on her own. Perhaps with Rebecca, who was not quite competent, there could be fireballs to liven things up…. and clear the wasteland or whatnot, but if they wanted to work towards the long term plan, there were some foundations that must be established step by step from now on.

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