Chapter 40 – Managing Territory

Translator: Isekai Shousetsu

“Yal, is it really fine for you to not stay like them?”

“Yes, I have decided to devote my life to you, after all.” Yal said with a grin.

All the former Ferrum Territory has become part of the Ars Territory. That includes, of course, the territory of my original village.

After all, it would be a waste to abandon or to neglect the village we’ve spent years to reclaim and develop. Having said that, managing all these lands by myself would be out of the question.

Thus, I asked each of the villagers whether they would like to stay in the village or come with me.

A large part, particularly from those who I saved as children and those who were slaves, who I have now freed by the way, have decided to come with me. I will grant them territory.

Most of the refugees who came last year, on the other hand, elected to stay in the village even though I thought they would want to come back to their hometowns. They probably felt it would be more comfortable to live their lives in the new village.

However, it’s a village where one hundred and thirty people lived. Having only thirty people living there would be a waste so I plan to add more people from my new territory there.

–

(Scene change)

“Alright, all members are accounted for huh.”

We have Tetra, Soyon, Lulu, Ron, Roswald, Gram, and Yal. Bolus and Bartolo has also joined.

“Hey, I think I feel like I’m the only one sticking out like a sore thumb.” (Bartolo)

“Well, I heard Bartolo-san holds some territory so I figured to consult your opinions on managing territory.” (Almis)

It’s my first time managing territory. I really don’t know anything about it.

That’s why asking a senpai is only natural.

“So…first, please teach us what feudal lords do.” (Almis)

“It’s not a big deal, really. Basically, you’re responsible for maintaining public order, sorcery defense, territorial defense, and giving tribute to King Rosyth. You’re also responsible for passing judgement and justice. Also managing necessary expenses and tax collection. That’s pretty much it.” (Bartolo)

Hey, isn’t that a big deal?

“Well, although it might not be a walk in the park, it’s not that difficult as you’re imagining. First, of course, is the tribute to King Rosyth, but you’ve been given exemption for two years due to these special circumstances.” (Bartolo)

Ah, right. Something like focusing on recovery and reconstruction or what not.

“As for tax collection, you let each of the village heads and the landlords collect them for you. You only have to set the tax rate. Well, the old landlords in your territory were all executed so there’s another problem for you.” (Bartolo)

The landlords supported and cooperated with King Ferrum. There’s no way an excuse like “We were deceived by King Ferrum!” would float. So, all of them got executed while their relatives fell into slavery. You might call them pitiful but it’s just them reaping what they sowed.

“Sorcery defense should be left to sorcerers. Especially since you have a few particularly skilled sorcerers in your team. However, it is very important that you take care, retain, and conserve those who can ride souls.” (Bartolo)

This means I can’t let Tetra, Soyon, and Lulu participate in the construction of magical barriers. It might be fine if the scope of the barrier were small but covering the whole of my territory would be impossible. (Re-check)

Moreover, there’s also that country somewhere who was known for the behind the scene sorcery attacks ten years ago.

“Speaking of which, regarding, the junior sorcerers employed by King Ferrum, they’re in jail but I can free them and use them as per my discretion right?” (Almis)

“Well, yes, since administering justice is one of your jobs. I think that’s the reason King Rosyth left them there in the first place.”

I see. That’s King Rosyth for you. Splendid.

“As for maintaining public order and territorial defense, we will be helping you for the meantime.” (Bartolo)

“Would that be alright?” (Almis)

“It’s an order direct from King Rosyth. The king is not stupid enough to completely leave behind the defense of a territory bordering King Domorugal’s domains to someone who doesn’t have territorial management experience except that of a small village.” (Bartolo)

Ah, right. We border King Domorugal’s territory.

“But don’t worry much. It would be fine, really. King Domorugal is busy fighting a war with King Girubetto and King Fardam after all. He won’t have the leeway to look south.” (Bartolo)

Is it really alright?

You’d get attacked if you get careless you know.

“Please tell me more about my judicial duties. What laws do I have to base my judgements on?” (Almis)

“Basically, it depends upon your discretion. Well, murders and virgin rape typically warrant the death penalty of course. Robbery and general rape warrant the amputation of the right arm. Petty theft warrants caning or whipping. That’s pretty much how conventional judicial wisdom goes.” (Bartolo)

In short, it’s customary/common law huh.

In the first place, without a proper/dominant system of writing, there’s probably no use writing down the laws.

“Then let’s just leave the judgements to the village chiefs’ opinions and discretion.” (Almis)

I can now somewhat understand the things I need to do.

With this I can somewhat get by. (Re-do これなら俺でもなんとなかなりそうだ)

“For the meantime, I think we should start a population census.” (Almis)

“What do we do specifically?” (Someone)

“We record in writing the sex, age, and occupation/industry of all the people within our territory.” (Almis)

There’s not a lot of people who has a good command of the Cretian language. Inevitably, because of this, there won’t be something like family registers and such. Therefore, the village chief, which is the person who knows the village the most, becomes in charge of the tax collection and governance in behalf of his lord. It’s become a system like that. But this becomes the stage for tax evasion, corruption, and acting as one pleases. Surely lots of taxes are wasted and unaccounted for because of this.

I would like to address this one way or another.

“But the people who can freely write in Cretian, including Leader and Tetra, aren’t even more than ten people. I don’t think this would work.”

“Don’t worry about that. We’ll make the forms beforehand. You’ll only have to write the numbers in them.” (Almis)

That way, tallying the results would also be much easier.

“The forms would be handwritten? That would be too bothersome I think.”

“I’ve also thought about that. I think I have a solution and it shouldn’t be too hard.” (Almis)

We would be able to prepare them in large quantities by printing them, that is by Woodblock Printing.

“You’ve thought of a great idea huh. Can we also do it in my territory?” (Bartolo)

“There no particular problem with that. It would cost you though. Don’t forget the cost of the paper too.” (Almis)

“My territory probably has around 6000 to 7000 people though. How much paper would that take?” (Bartolo)

“Let’s see…A sheet could have twenty people’s data recorded in them so you would probably need three hundred to three hundred fifty sheets of paper. A sheet of paper would cost around 10 bronze coins so that would be around 3500 bronze coins.” (Almis)

Bartolo held his head with his two hands as he heard my answer.

“You calculate fast huh. 3500 bronze coins huh? How much would that be if I paid with wheat? I’ve never used bronze coins so I don’t know.” (Bartolo)

“I don’t have experience buying wheat with bronze coins so I don’t now but if with salt against bronze coins, that would be around 21000 didals (350 kilos).” (Almis)

Bartolo grimaced as I said so.

“That’s pretty expensive huh. Make it cheaper, come on.” (Bartolo)

“Well, it’s pretty hard on us too you know. But since we’re fellows after all I’ll cut down the price by twenty percent.” (Almis)

For now, it’s become that we’ll trade paper with wheat. With this we’ll be able to secure our food provisions.

“Then the next order of business would be the tax rate. The Ars territory fell into ruin because of King Ferrum’s reign therefore I think we should lower the tax rate.” (Almis)

At the same time, this is also a bid for popularity with the people. I’m a newcomer after all.

“However, if we lower the tax rate too much we won’t have income. Moderation is needed. So, what would be the prevailing reasonable tax rate?” (Probably Almis)

“Let’s see. There’s lot of patterns that influence the tax rate after all. If it’s payment in kind (PIK), sixty percent would be expected. However, they can also pay thirty percent of that in the form of labor.” (Bartolo)

According to Bartolo, in PIK, they could pay in wheat, cloth, or a specialty product like when blacksmiths pay with swords and spears.

“Then let’s go with a PIK only system. The tax rate would be…maybe 40%. Preferably with wheat.” (Almis)

“The reasoning is…?” Tetra asked.

“There is a need for desolated farmlands to recover. Therefore, there is no leeway to round people up for labor. The only thing we can do is to let them pursue agriculture. King Ferrum considerably strengthened the defenses on the border with King De Morgal so there won’t be any plans for some special kind of construction.” (Almis)

“Then how about the manufacture of paper and the repair and construction of defense facilities burned in the recent war?” (Tetra)

“We will go with employing people. We will pay grain as a salary.” (Almis)

There’s probably a lot of people who can participate with that kind of special income. Especially widows who lost husbands and sons in the war. We can let them manufacture paper. You don’t use energy to the extent of farming in paper making after all. Instead of the somewhat difficult farming, papermaking, with a reliable income, would probably be more convenient for the women.

Besides, I plan to introduce the thousand-tooth thresher. If the widows became paper manufacturers, then the effects of introducing the thresher would be lessened.

“Alright, then that seems to be it for domestic affairs. Of the greatest importance is the Crop Rotation System. This needs to be widely introduced to our territory.” (Almis)

Well, for the meantime this will do for the crop rotation system. It’s not something you can easily change or implement after all.

“Then how should we gather the taxes?” (Almis)

“The village chief will collect them from the villagers then we will collect from the village chiefs. Should they work illegally or embezzle tax proceeds, then they would be taken care of as per the feudal lords’ jurisdictions.” (Tetra)

“That’s a great idea huh.” (Almis)

We need to dispatch bureaucrat-cum-soldiers to every village. That is exactly the opinion I wanted to impart. With that system, the village chiefs would direct the villagers. Meanwhile, the taxes would be collected by the bureaucrat-cum-soldiers. I can trust them after all if they were my comrades. They most probably can’t be bought/bribed as well. With this we can also centralize power. Hitting two birds with one stone. That’s my Tetra. She’s a genius ain’t she.

Next would be the martial affairs.

“What do we… What should we do about soldiers?” (Ron)

Ron…It’s fine if you don’t use polite speech you’re not used too, you know. Actually, it’s kind of lonely that you’re using polite speech.

“Uh…No…Well, Leader has become the patriarch of a powerful clan you see. So, I figured distinction should become important. I can’t stand it when people make light of our leader because we don’t speak polite speech.” (Ron)

“…You’ve thought about that much…” (Almis)

People grow huh.

I’m a little touched.

Well, there’s some truth in what Ron said. But it’s not like our relationships would suddenly change because of using polite speech.

“Then the answer to the previous question is?”

“Ah, Sorry. I was moved a little. Hmm. Soldiers, huh. For the meantime, we should confirm the number of soldiers we have.”

First is everyone from the village – 30 people. Everyone is equipped with iron forged weapons. Skill and morale is extraordinarily high. Next are the “We love Tetra” troops (Tetra Daisuki Tai) commanded by Bolus, 40 people all with bronze equipment.

These are my present forces, 70 people in total.

We can add Bartolo’s forces which would be a hundred. Around ten possess iron equipment while the rest have bronze equipment. Morale and skill are unknown. The only thing I know is that Bartolo’s forces faced King Ferrum’s army head on so you can probably count on their skills.

They will fight with us for the meantime.

We also have forces loaned to us by King Rosyth, one hundred soldiers all bronze equipped. Although you can’t say their skills and morale are high, you can’t say they’re low either. The King would be paying for their expenses.

This means that should King De Morgal attack us we would immediately be able to face them with 270 soldiers. How would we fare with this?

“How much is King De Morgal’s total martial power?” (Almis)

“Around 10,000 men strong. He brings out that much when he slugs it out with King Gillbed and King Fardam. Should all the powerful clans in the kingdom under King Rosyth unite, we should be fielding around 5,000 soldiers. However, in reality, we would only be fielding around 3,000. But be at ease. King De Morgal is always at war with King Gillbed and King Fardam. Therefore, 10,000 men marching against us would be highly unlikely. It would be 3,000 at most.” (Bartolo)

I see. That means we should have enough to face them evenly. If we could stall them for time…

3,000 against 270…that’s somewhat…

“At the very least, I want 500 soldiers. Meaning we would need 230 new soldiers.” (Almis)

“Would we turn to conscription as expected?” (Tetra)

I answer Tetra’s question.

“Hmmm. I don’t like conscription you see.” (Almis)

Conscripts have bad efficiency. You would have to pull people who don’t want to go to war forcibly somewhere plus you’d have to give them equipment. Plus it’s because of forcefully siphoning the labor force to the army that tax yields go down.

They would only be useful after training them for a long time but by then their term of service would have ended. They would then come back to neglected desolated fields and the vicious cycle begins again.

You would give them guns, and by pulling the trigger, let them kill people. Furthermore, the concept of self-determination would have to permeate society and every citizen would have to be seriously thinking about national defense. It may be possible in the modern era, but doing it at this civilization level is a long shot.

You would need strict training in the hoplite corps after all. The people of the Ars Clan Territory would find any leader good so long as the taxes go down anyway.

Therefore, conscription is out of the question.

In times of crises it might be fine, but peaceful times wouldn’t need that much soldiers anyway.

“Conscripts would have too much of a difference in skill and morale with us. In the worst case, they might just become dead weight. Our role is containment, right? Therefore, I believe what we need would be quality as opposed to quantity.” (Almis)

“Hmm. For an amateur, you sure do know your stuff huh.” (Bartolo)

I got praised by Bartolo.

What, I’m not happy at all even if I’m praised by this guy you know!

“Alright, it’s decided! It would cost us cash but let’s recruit regulars.” (Almis)

“Umm. Older brother, should we announce the recruitment when we collect the taxes?”

“Ah, let’s go with that.” (Almis)

Posting the announcement or erecting a sign would probably be useless. There probably isn’t anyone who would be able to read them anyway.

“Nee. Almis-san. Aren’t you forgetting something important?” (Gram)

“Something important?” (Almis)

“It’s archers. ARCHERS. When you speak of defensive battles, you gotta have archers, right?” (Gram)

Gram expressed with great emphasis.

Well, it’s not like I forgot about archers but…

“Archers are expensive, you see. You would need advanced skills. We will be increasing them but…” (Almis)

In the Aldnea Peninsula, Hoplites would be the deciding factor in battle.

“Cavalry! Cavalry…Cavalry would be necessary, right older brother?”

“Horses are expensive too you know? Besides, cow and horse tilling would be the priority anyway.” (Almis)

We won’t be able to gather much anyway. What can ten cavalrymen do as a cavalry division? At the very least we need a hundred to function properly so why bother. My Japanese sense tells me that it’ll then become “Let’s gather a hundred light vehicles!” or something like that.

“Next, we would need to mass produce black powder.”

It can’t be made easily after all. A lot of things will happen so making it can’t be helped.

“That powder is amazing huh. Teach me how to make it too.” (Bartolo)

“It would be a problem if the technique to make it gets leaked so that’s the only thing I can’t tell you. Besides, it’s not something you can prepare in large quantities plus the efficacy varies.” (Re-do, too complicated)

It was a good thing the enemy was in close formation when we used it in the defensive battle. Otherwise, the gunpowder stocks wouldn’t have been enough. It was a surprise rear attack, on the other hand, when we used it to defeat King Ferrum therefore ensuring success.

It’s particularly effective when used against an enemy for the first time. But after that, the enemy would probably prepare countermeasures. Relying on gunpowder too much would be bad.

You need large quantities of the ingredients to make gunpowder. You can get countless amount of sulfur from volcanoes, you can also produce large quantities of charcoal, and create a reliable method of producing large quantities of saltpeter.

However, you can’t easily make that much spears with ignition magic attached. For that, you need a substance called magic stones of good quality to manufacture. A magic stone refers to stones suitable for sorcery among charm stones. It was named by Tetra.

These stones may be cheap but there aren’t a lot of them either. People think they’re trash so nobody mines them.

Therefore, collecting them in large quantities would take special expenses which for some reason could go high. It’s a troublesome thing that could cost something much more than what the magic stone could be worth. (Re-do, too complex.)

If it can’t explode, then the gunpowder would useless. On the other hand, if we use ignition cords then it you would have to consider the large possibility of it not exploding, making it very unreliable.

“Is that so? Fine. When the day that you could mass produce it comes, then please by all means, teach the method to me.” Bartolo readily withdrew.

“In exchange, please teach me how to manufacture paper.” (Bartolo)

“That I would be teaching King Rosyth so please be at ease.” (Almis)

As expected, it has become difficult to keep secrets when you become a subordinate.

“Next would be sorcery, yes? We need to set-up barriers.”

The reason I and everyone almost died from starvation and the reason Tetra’s parents died was the famine caused by a curse.

I understand that we should invest forces on the matter if you think about it clearly.

“I heard a huge country from the north applied the curse.” (Almis)

“Yeah. It’s the Rozel Kingdom, right? It’s the country that dominates the whole northern part of the Adernia Peninsula.”

King Rozel huh? Alright, I’ll remember the name.

“King Ferrum did not put great importance on putting up barriers so the Famine happened, right? If I remember correctly, King Ferrum has 9 high-level Sorcerers. All of them never participated in the construction of barriers. I guess it would still not be enough even if I release the sorcerers in jail and assign them to the task.” (Almis)

“They’re not enough huh. However, in the Rosyth Kingdom, we have the national barrier put up by Julia-sama. Therefore, at the minimum, we need to assign one high-level sorcerer for the job.”

One person minimum?

Hmmm…Tetra or Soyon or Ruru? Which one should I pick?

“I heard that a young sorcerer’s soul would be more suitable for soul-riding because they’re more energetic. Therefore you should conserve those three.”

But then I won’t have any high-class sorcerer left?

“Sir Almis, I think I know someone suitable for the role.” Said Bolus who was all but silent from the beginning.

What could it be?

“The sorceress who engraved the sacred characters on Madame Tetra’s back. The old woman should have been able to soul-ride a long time ago. Barrier construction and age should be unrelated, I believe. Therefore, why don’t we try to leave it to the old sorceress?” (Bolus)

“That’s a great idea.” (Almis)

Alright, let’s do that.

Though I feel bad making the elderly work.

“Umm…doesn’t that mean we won’t have anything to do?” Soyon asked as she raised her hand.

“No…no…I have lots of things I’ll have to do for you guys.” (Almis)

First, Sorcery training for the other sorcerers. Also, the manufacture of spear fuses.

Since I’ll be having Tetra personally assisting me, I’ll make Soyon and Ruru compensate in those fields.

“In other words, nothing’s changed huh.” Said Ruru.

Well, it’s just like that I guess.

“After that, I want to increase the variety of animals we can use for Soul-riding. Yes, I’d like a dog for that after all. And then an owl or a bat for night-time reconnaissance.” (Almis)

“And how do we acquire them?”

“For the meantime, I’ll try and ask the Cretians. That country is always at war the whole year so they should probably be knowledgable”

That night.

“Nee. Almis.” (Tetra)

“Hmm?? What is ihmmmmm!!” (Almis)

My lips got covered.

Tetra looks at me with moist eyes.

“Aren’t you forgetting the most important duty of a lord?”

“Oh yes. I seem to have forgotten.”

I grabbed Tetra’s shoulders, held her closer to me, and stole a kiss from her lips.

Just like that I pushed her down.