With Noel staying with me all night, I somehow managed to organize what I’d been thinking into something presentable.
“Lord Aizen, you really do seem to have a knack for making documents like this easy to look at.”
“Isn’t that basic?”
“I’ve heard that unless someone has spent a long time as a bureaucrat, they usually can’t make documents like this very well.”
Thinking over Noel’s words, I supposed she had a point.
After all, organizing a large amount of information in a readable way wasn’t something you learned overnight.
I’d already had some experience to begin with, and after coming here, whenever there was a machine or piece of equipment I wanted Mina to make, I’d organized things neatly for her as well. It seemed those things had blended together in their own way.
Deciding that all was well if the result was good, I matched Noel’s walking pace and headed toward what seemed to be the meeting room of the temporary residence.
And, for some reason, I found not only Mina and Erika there, but several others gathered as well.
“Why is everyone gathered here?”
“Because I sent out a message by magic.”
I wondered when she had done that, but I must not have noticed because I’d been concentrating.
Looking at those present, there were Sir Galed and the knights of the Phoenix Domain, the people Noel had brought with her, and Daniel with his squire.
Toward the back stood the members of Mina’s merchant company. Judging by the look of it, since they did not have noble blood by status, they had been made to stand at the rear.
“…It’s kind of uncomfortable if everyone is standing, so they could just sit in chairs.”
“I told them to do that because I figured you’d say so, but they insisted on standing.”
That was what Mina said, but seeing the people who seemed to be from Noel’s domain turning their heads and casting looks as if to say that wouldn’t do, it was probably those people who were the problem, not me.
…However, thanks to my exchange with Daniel, I had realized something, so I spoke quietly with force behind my words.
“I’m the lord, so doesn’t that make me the highest-ranking person here? They probably can’t even see everything from there, so let’s just have them come over and look.”
“Since the lord has given permission, please forget about status for a moment and gather over here.”
When even Noel stepped forward and added weight to my words, the people on Noel’s side looked at one another before stepping back.
The people in the rear approached hesitantly, and Daniel smiled broadly as he said,
“It was quite noisy early this morning. It feels like it’s only been a few hours since I spoke to you, yet I heard you’ve already come up with an answer of your own.”
“It’s not that grand… I’m worried Noel may have oversold it too much.”
At my attitude, Noel smiled faintly.
Then she laid out the materials she had brought on the table.
“I was going to have Mina or Erika review it one more time. For now, to explain…”
“Free education for the domain’s people?”
Mina immediately began glaring at me as if asking what nonsense that was.
Well, by the common sense of this place, it must be absurd.
“I’ll say this in advance, but I can’t just lend you money for something like this.”
“This isn’t about spending money from your wallet. You’ll at least hear me out, right?”
“Yeah.”
Her expression relaxed at once.
One of the types of people Mina hated the most was someone who tried to spend Mina’s money as if it were their own.
Perhaps because Mina knew I wasn’t that kind of person, she seemed willing to let it pass with no more than a warning not to say such things carelessly.
If she had had no intention of even listening in the first place, knowing Mina’s personality, she would have simply walked out.
And in truth, Mina’s reaction was on the mild side.
“Isn’t this… pushing it too far?”
“There aren’t even any people in the domain yet, and already an education policy? Besides, what good would teaching them do…”
“Hmm… If the Count heard this, I think he’d only call it an interesting idea…”
The people on Noel’s side and the knights on Erika’s side were muttering behind me as if wondering whether this made any sense at all.
By the common sense of this world, free education was certainly a concept that was far too early.
“Enough. The Baron must have his own thoughts. To begin with, it’s a plan, so it’s not as though he’s saying he’ll do it immediately.”
“You will explain it to us, won’t you?”
As Sir Galed quieted the knights, Daniel asked gently.
I nodded and said,
“Well, it isn’t something I can explain at length, so I’ll keep it brief.”
There was no point talking to these people about human rights or equal education.
To begin with, those concepts themselves didn’t exist.
As for me, though there were problems, I considered it a form that had developed through much trial and error, so I had brought over the basic framework almost as it was. But from their perspective, it was a story from an entirely different world.
If I wanted to explain it in a way these people could accept…
“In the end, I thought of it as an investment necessary for the future of the domain.”
Starting with those words, I continued.
“First, I had to consider the circumstances of this domain. The domain itself has very high potential for development due to its location, but the landmass itself is on the small side. Even if I wanted to expand further from here, I can’t. Then what is the most efficient thing one can produce from a narrow piece of land?”
It was a cleverly positioned land that bordered the Nexia Duchy and the Phoenix County, and could become a transportation hub with access to the Academy and the capital. But put another way, it was land that could not go anywhere.
The reason it had not developed was also because, wedged between those two enormous domains, it had been left alone as a kind of buffer zone. There was a royal mana metal mine, so it had some value, but it was only lower-to-mid grade, so it wasn’t a place anyone would fight desperately to develop.
To put it coldly, my domain was an area where I couldn’t expand my territory even if I wanted to.
In a place like that, there were only a few predetermined ways to achieve the highest efficiency.
“In the end, the main purpose will be investing in facilities like the mine, the golem manufacturing plant, and the colosseum. Leaving aside the mine and the colosseum, I thought that for the factory at least, demand for technicians would exceed supply.”
There needed to be some degree of self-sufficiency, so there would be some farmland, and if we kept looking, something new might also arise.
But on this narrow stretch of land, the main sources of income for now had to be those three.
And considering those three, demand for technicians would increase in an instant.
“The technicians we have now are people from Mina’s merchant company or blacksmiths from a few noble houses who learned the relevant techniques and went from there. If you asked whether they were technicians specialized in golems, honestly, there are very few. In that situation, I thought demand for Cyclopes would gradually increase.”
“The number of orders really has been rising.”
There were places watching the Abatus Count’s family for their reaction, but there were also places that, rather than waiting endlessly for that family’s chimera to become commercialized at some unknown point, wanted to use reliable fighting power right now.
In the case of the Phoenix Count’s family, they planned to gradually expand their forces outright, and the royal palace also had plans to operate Cyclopes.
Demand would definitely increase.
“So before it becomes impossible to handle, if we teach various things starting with reading and writing, and at the same time teach golem manufacturing methods, operating methods, morals, and all sorts of other things, I thought we might be able to prevent the shortage of technicians as much as possible in advance.”
For now it could somehow be handled, but at this rate, there was a possibility that demand for technicians would become unmanageable.
So to prevent that, a systematic education system needed to be prepared in advance.
“And if they want to learn even more beyond that, we can arrange opportunities for them to go to the Academy.”
“The Academy won’t accept them easily.”
“This is still in the planning stage, so I’m just saying it. But Professor Reina is also trying to make an operating manual for the Cyclops, so if we provide what we can on golem-related matters and ask her to select a few outstanding people from the domain and teach them an advanced course, wouldn’t that much be possible?”
I answered Noel’s words slowly.
Daniel, who had been listening quietly, opened his mouth and said,
“In any case, the Academy already has a system for selecting and teaching commoners with exceptional ability, so it wouldn’t be greatly different.”
“I get the gist, but the biggest problem remains.”
Mina looked at me as she spoke.
“The budget. What are you going to do about that? Even if you want to support it, there has to be a steady income before it’s even worth discussing.”
Mina was making the most realistic point.
Naturally, at least for me, there was no storehouse that could endlessly pour out everything like that.
“There are methods like charging tuition, but, well, it may be a little rude to say this, but if they’re commoners, there may be people for whom even earning enough each day to eat that day is a burden…”
“We’ll have to make a contract, I guess. We support their education costs, and once they learn, they get employed at the factory and work to pay it back.”
I replied to Erika’s words rather bluntly.
“Unfortunately, it’s not something my own pockets can cover, and I can’t ask other places to pay on my behalf, so I’ll have to make them repay it. By working. We’ll provide room and board for several years, and they’ll pay it back while paying taxes.”
It sounded like quite a wicked method, but if we set it at a level that didn’t burden their daily lives, wouldn’t it be all right?
“Mina’s factory continues to receive a supply of technicians, skilled technicians can either keep working under better conditions or get opportunities to leave and work at other factories that might appear, the people themselves gain an opportunity to learn and a way to keep making a living, and I use that money to run the domain while continuing to develop golems.”
“At least I understand that all roads lead to golem development.”
Mina said with a small laugh.
Even though I said all this, there was no guarantee everything would work out well, but at least with this, wouldn’t there be as few people as possible taking a loss?
Problems I expected could occur, and completely unexpected problems could occur too, but if this was a policy I could proactively put forward, then for now, this seemed to be about as much as I could do.
Then Erika, who had been thinking for a moment, suddenly asked a question.
“But who are you planning to leave the teaching to? If you’re going to teach techniques, you need instructors.”
“We’ll have to think about the technical side, but for other things, including reading and writing, we can just use the kids from the alchemy department.”
If we provide them a place to stay, food, and research time, those guys will let themselves be mobilized anytime.
Professor Rodelini might be impossible, but the current students in that department were more than capable of teaching someone.
“You really have thought of methods for everything in your own way.”
“There are still problems. This plan collapses immediately if the Cyclops isn’t properly distributed…”
“No, depending on how much the domain’s people accept this, the efficiency…”
At Erika’s words, several people, including those on Noel’s side, began debating.
And at the sight, I let out a small sigh of relief.
The fact that they were debating meant it was worth debating.
“What do you think?”
I quietly asked Daniel.
“Splendid.”
Daniel answered quietly.
****
He had found an unexpected jewel.
As he watched the guard acting as a squire begin taking down the contents from midway through, Daniel nodded.
‘To be honest, there is one issue with the premise, but it wasn’t bad.’
The premise, of course, was that demand for golems, including the Cyclops, had to remain steady and also had to be high.
However, Daniel too judged that, at least for now, demand would be high.
Despite the Abatus Count’s family doing everything they could to interfere, orders for the Cyclops were gradually increasing.
Relations with the Empire were worsening by the day, and monster attacks were also occurring frequently.
‘On top of that, according to classified information, there is a possibility that the unusually large increase in giant monster attacks is also being instigated by the Empire.’
Reports that some sort of tool had been used to lure monsters had already been treated as a major issue.
The Abatus Count’s family insisted that they had no problem, but could they truly give a firm answer that it would have no effect on chimeras, which were monsters as well?
And even if that were so, compared to chimeras, whose widespread use might come at some unknown point, Aizen’s Cyclops had already reached a level where it could be sold to civilians.
Perhaps in the distant future things would be different, but for now, there was no reason for demand to fall.
There were still elements that depended on various strokes of luck, but as a policy to discuss at a desk right now, it was sufficient.
But what came to Daniel’s mind was something else.
‘If things turn out that way, there will be one more effect.’
Because it was Aizen, he had spoken in terms of the domain’s people becoming technicians, technicians running the factory, collecting taxes and debt from those profits, and using them to manage the domain.
But depending on the method, this structure could naturally be used to foster bureaucrats.
And bureaucrats with little connection to the nobility, at that.
‘…Considering that most of this country’s nobles are ultimately connected by blood to the Abatus family…’
The effect and value of this policy were even greater.
‘…I truly can’t keep the expression off my face.’
Danimus sincerely thought it was fortunate that his hood could hide the corners of his mouth, which had been rising all this time.