Capítulo 11: Everything is in Order
The old and beardy assistant minister was currently pinching his cheeks. It was early in the morning, so he thought there was an off chance he was still dreaming. Unfortunately, the pain was real, and since that was so, what he looked, the pile of reports that he had gathered previously... increasing, was naturally authentic too.
But what made Barov dumbfounded was not the new stuff but rather the young man that was behind it.
The young man, the prince, was actually working... even earlier than him!
"I thought since the town was small, there would be only some dozens to a couple of hundreds of issues to fix. But for some reason, why all I see is the problems are more than the number of the population?" Roland Wimbledon was grumbling.
Although it seemed he was about to explode, he kept his temper and only resorted to cursing under his breath. The maid beside him was still not the head maid people in the castle found more familiar with, but she easily looked quite the part. But to Barov, she was a nervous inducing existence.
At some point, some of his disciples and assistants had gathered in the room too and was doing some sort of paperwork. Some were entering the room carrying a pile of paper while others came out after taking some papers the prince handed over.
Noticing Barov, they looked up to their teacher and superior with those helpless looks.
"You're late Barov," Roland also looked up to see who came before returning to what he was doing. "Did you have your meal yet? If not, do it first and come back later."
An exclusive table was reserved near the prince.
The castle had a lot of rooms, and some were bigger than others. The drawing room was of the bigger one and after removing some furniture, adding some sets of tables and chairs weren't a problem.
Roland had been earnestly reviewing, making corrections, and set up lots of ideas since he declared his intention to remain through the months of the demons the day before. While he had yet to make it public and only a handful of people knew about it, he was definitely serious about making it possible.
Although he felt the pile of paper Barov first came up with was already a lot, he thought a lot of more possible issues and indeed came out with a whole can full of worms.
He told Barov and his workers to gather more reports, not just about the financial situation of the town in general anymore but also any dealings that had connections with the nobles and minor stuff that had potential to become major.
With the nobles, they were just minor nobles from the countryside. Nevermind the authority of the prince, even with only Barov's status; they couldn't actually refute anything so long he sided with reason. Although they were very reluctant, the inspections hardly met with meaningful resistance.
He didn't stop there. Pulling Carter into it, he made the knights paired with Barov's assistants to perform census to the town's guards and hunters.
For few that was still free, Roland made them a team with servants that didn't have much to do to inspect the town, gathering rumours and any conflicts they heard.
The result was disastrous — the papers bloated to thrice the size from the previous time.
"Too many corruptions..." Roland covered his face with his palms.
The problems extended from the very top to the bottom.
A town from this era could probably be left alone to run itself, but to make a prosperous one Roland took the job seriously. But the deeper he dug, only stuff he didn't want to know that came out.
Leaning at his chair, he thought since he lacked the modern knowledge like making firearms, he could make up for it with improvements to other areas. He didn't even need to be that knowledgeable, only by cleaning the dirt and stains in the system that he honestly thought the whole situation would improve.
But it looked like it won't be easy.
For a couple of days, the morning meeting happened every day and lasted until the end of the morning. Roland carried a stack of papers he was still inspecting to the cottage where Anna was doing her training.
It also had been a few days since Anna started learning to control her power, and it was going well. It was a lot of better, unlike the first time she just burned the floor. Now she could lit her hands and fingers easily and didn't scorched her skirt, though the evaluation for her control was that it still needed a lot of work.
In preparation to make cement, there were already enough materials for that. Roland already made Barov gathered the materials while Carter would bring workers to build the place where there would be the blast furnace. These were as necessary as Anna being able to control her power properly.
The distance of making proper cement from traditional binder this world already had was not much theoretically, but the former required some materials that weren't used much here and precise control of high temperature currently not possible, besides people with supernatural power like Anna anyway. Taking a page from the Earth history, if he were to let it developed naturally, it probably took decades to centuries later.
Time passed as he finished the last of papers. Looking around, Anna was still trying hard controlling flame. Her focus was an admirable trait for Roland to see.
"You're working hard." Roland smiled as he wiped Anna's sweats with his handkerchief.
His words ended her training session. Usually, there would be still more to come after they took their afternoon break, but Roland finally remembered something.
Anna looked at Roland, her cheeks full of pastries.
"I heard some interesting information from birds and rats," Roland took time to let out a chuckle from seeing Anna's strange face on top of her mouth full of food. "Outside of the castle, there is your kindred around."
"...Witch?" Anna was a quick learner and thinker.
"Indeed." The prince gave his approval.
Roland was someone who had known for about a hundred chapters of this world. Although it was only a few months to the future and limited to certain events, it still had a lot of uses.
Busying himself busting criminals into jail or tracking illegal money flow, he had almost forgotten about it.
Beside witches from outside of the town, there was another witch other than Anna.
"Did she get caught?" Anna looked indifferent, but her voice contained a hint of concern.
"Of course not." Roland took a sip to his bitter ale that he had slowly grown accustomed to and slowly shook his head. "She won't either."
Anna gave a silent sigh of relief from the corner of Roland's eyes. He smiled as he saw her eating with even more gusto.
"But first..." Roland gave a doughnut; the sweet snack appeared in the hands of the castle cooks retrieved from his modern knowledge, out of his share to Anna who nibbled it just like the way Roland liked to see. "Let's meet with the town's hero."
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