The next day and the day after that I’m in charge of paperwork at the royal castle. My father’s busy with his duties as minister so I’m in charge of military affairs. I’m still a student…
You might be wondering if the Minister of Liturgy has any work to do… but since the incident happened in the capital… they’re planning to hold some sort of purification ceremony at each site to wipe out the bad spirits from the past life.
I don’t know if it’ll help, but it may be necessary in the interest of human stability.
I’ll put someone else in charge of about half of the work that has to do with the war effort. You’ll pair up Augen and Schunzel and Barkei and Neurath and take turns each day. The reason for the one-day shifts is to give them a chance to rest and recuperate.
I’ll have to work overtime at Finoy’s and Arlea Village, so I’ll have to make some time off. I’ll be assisting Max. If I don’t know something, I just ask or throw it. If you insist on doing it yourself, you’ll never get it done. You can double-check when you have time.
Priority in the paperwork is given to paying lump sums for the dead and wounded, paying tribute, rewarding knights for their service. Rewards and punishments are important in all worlds. Sometimes it’s a simple reward, sometimes it’s a way to offset the cost of medical treatment for a wounded private horse.
The next is the payment for supplies, but merchants are less likely to falsify documents for the sake of future business relations. Whether the documents are legible or not is another matter. On the other hand, the prices of the goods purchased on the battlefield are sometimes overcharged, so it’s very hard to check them.
The trouble here is that if you don’t pay even if it’s a rip-off, they might say you’re too stingy to pay even if you’re an aristocrat, so it’s important to find a way to compromise with them. Most of the time, once you’ve done something wrong, you’ll be put on a watch list like a black list.
“Oh… It’s so hard.”
But since some purchases are made on the spur of the moment in the battlefield, the format isn’t always the same, so you have to check many documents, all in different formats. This time I wrote a simple permission form for the use of flying boots on a piece of cloth, but there are also purchase documents like that.
By the way, the most troublesome time is when the person in charge of the purchase does not come back from the battlefield that day. Without any evidence or testimony whether he/she really bought it or not, we have to start from the investigation to check if the seller’s statement is accurate or not. It is not unusual for it to take several days to deal with one case.
As for internal affairs, I’m going to ask my father’s aide to help me put together a plan. The review of the deputies is one thing, but managing the safety of the territory, securing tax revenues, and confirming the results of court cases are also tedious and troublesome tasks, but I can’t avoid doing them.
In the Middle Ages, tax revenues are usually associated with cereals, but there were various kinds of taxes depending on the region. Like the toll tax, there was a tax on the use of a water mill to grind wheat into flour, or a tax on the construction of a bread oven, and so on. I heard that in wine making areas, there is also a tax on the tools used for squeezing grapes.
Sometimes there are people who raise the price without permission or operate arbitrarily, so we have to check them. It’s the job of the deputy to check such things, but the purpose is to review the deputy as well. We have to make sure there aren’t any deputies who aren’t doing their job. It’s a real pain.
I spent the day sitting in the castle but when I returned to the Keep I stayed up until midnight going over papers. I’ve been deciphering the daily reports on the city’s beautification which had been left to the orphanage. It’s sad that “deciphering” is not a metaphor.
Aside from the reports of the apprentice knights and the guards who are leading you, the daily reports of the children who are also practicing their writing are mostly in code. But the information here is not wasted, and you must do your best to read it by the light of the lamp.
I said it would be a good way for the kids to practice their letters, but I didn’t think the problem would come up in this way. It helps that Frensen has organized them by day and by block, so you can read them in order and keep track of them.
And Frensen is standing next to me deciphering it, and he’s groaning. Sorry.
Mr. Werner, I brought you some tea.
Yeah, come on in.
Excuse me.
Lily came through the door and I answered it. I’m sorry it’s so late. Lily’s making tea while I and Frensen watch because she’s been instructed by my mother to grade us. I have to tell her what’s wrong.
Thank you for waiting.
I glance at Frensen, who nods silently. From his point of view, he’s passed so far. In times like this it’s best to leave it to the elders, yes. I’ll take a sip for now.
“Delicious.”
“Thank you.”
He smiles at me with a relieved look on his face. You weren’t bad at it before, but you’re getting better at it. When I make my own coffee, I’m often in a state where I don’t care as long as it’s colored. I need a cup of coffee to make me sleepy, but I don’t have any.
Lily looked at me curiously after I made Frensen some tea.
I know it’s late, but are you still working?
I’m kind of in a rush.
“I suppose I should have at least asked for help.”
“I think you’re right.”
I can’t argue with Frensen’s criticism. Even though the mission to Finoi was urgent, you left Mangold’s research and our paperwork to Frensen alone. Frensen has a lot more work to do when it comes to paperwork.
I didn’t think a child just learning to write could be so rough. It’s not surprising if you think about it. The paper they send to the orphanage is of inferior quality so it’s hard to write on it… and the writing implements aren’t very good either. And the writing implements are not very good either. Therefore, I don’t feel like complaining, but I hope you’ll forgive me if I complain.
I groaned and Lily peeked at the daily report Frensen was holding.
“Blacksmith’s Day on 3, commercial district, 8 long, 5 wide, after lunch, third row of streets, in front of the vegetable stall with the red curtain, the street is concave and water pools when it rains… Does that mean the road is bad?”
Lily reads it out smoothly and me and Frensen look at each other like we’re in shock. Lily looks at us and looks at me and Frenssen. Frensen compares the daily report in his hand with Lily’s and says something.
Can you read this?
“This is about right… Some of the pilgrims have rougher handwriting. It’s easier to read if you’re trying to write carefully.
I finally realized that we have different reference points here. Most of what I and Frensen read were written by fellow nobles, or at least by people who had studied for the nobility. In other words, we read only the handwriting of people who have been trained and educated to avoid bad handwriting.
Lily, on the other hand, was a commoner who could read, even if she could only read what was scratched on a wooden board, so her resistance to habitual writing was low.
The resistance before reading and the grasping ability during reading are totally different between those of us who think that the habitual characters are hard to read from the beginning and those of Lily who think that she can read this much normally. The mental aspect is also a big factor because of the large amount of the text.
Frensen turned to me with a serious look on his face.
“Werner, why don’t you ask Lily to help you?”
No, but…
“The commercial zone also needs to be checked against the layout of the stalls, so we won’t be able to finish if we don’t.”
I’m speechless. It’s my own fault for putting all this work in. Lily got a strange look on her face.
Stall placement, sir?
“Oh, Lily doesn’t know much about that yet.”
Most of the nobles would just tell the merchants to bring it to them or they’d come to the manor to ask for it. On the other hand… there probably aren’t that many merchants at the village level. It’s only natural that they don’t know.
In large medieval cities there were many shops, but there were also other places where travelling merchants could set up stalls to open temporary shops.
However, this is often misunderstood. Except for places where merchants who have promissory notes with guilds always have stalls less than a shop, there are rules for opening stalls in places where stalls are lined up. In big squares, there are many permanent stalls, and the stalls are like side streets.
There are some prime locations that attract customers, while others are at a disadvantage, and there’s also the issue of the selection of goods and the relationship between the guilds, which makes it complicated. It’s also a question of whether a prime location that’s sold out in the morning is going to remain empty all afternoon.
Therefore, in a place called a stall, there is usually a time and a day division.
The time division is easy to understand. Almost every place is lined with stalls selling bread in the early morning when it is dark. Citizens usually buy a day’s worth of bread early in the morning. Some aristocratic families, barons and viscounts, do the same.
Of course, the bakery also sells its bread at the shop, but the shop is not large enough to accommodate all the customers, so it gets congested and the sales efficiency is not good. In the stalls, the baker’s children or apprentices are often in charge of the stalls.
I may be off a bit, but in a previous life… the bakery stalls would all clear out at the bell that rings around 8:00 a.m. It’s the morning. At this time of the day, most of the stalls are selling goods necessary for the journey, hardware and bags for the day’s use… and the food is usually dried meat and cheese. It could be said that this is the time when people who have had breakfast at home or in their lodgings sell the goods they will need on their way out.
Most of these stalls change at noon bell at 12 o’clock, and in the afternoon, there are many stalls selling fresh food such as vegetables and meat… I don’t know if it’s fair to say that… but many of them sell goods that we should eat before the end of the day. It’s the time when the city supports the kitchens of its citizens.
And other street stalls where you can eat easily usually open at noon. They are like side dishes for the people. These shops buy ingredients in the market in the morning and prepare them for sale in the afternoon. Unlike the world before, the night is much darker and the cost of lights is quite expensive every day, so the citizens don’t work in the dark hours before sunrise. It is said that there are times when guilds get together and gather around the lights together.
Most of the fresh food stalls are closed by the time the evening bell rings. After that, many of the stalls are red lanterns, as in a previous life. A little drink after work is always a good idea. This is the rotation I saw in a day on a street lined with stalls.
Of course, it is possible to buy and sell such things at permanent shops, but it is always cheaper at the stalls. The price of some items may even be almost twice as much. The stalls have to sell their goods before they are cleared, but the shops have to pay taxes just for owning the shop.
The days of the week are rotated by block. If some shops monopolize the area near the gate or the busy area in the square where the morning market is held, there will be trouble, so it’s decided which guild gets the prime spot on that particular day. I didn’t say it’s the most prestigious area.
This rotation is a test of a guild’s strength. If the guild is weak, they can only sell their products in the backstreets all year round.
I don’t know much about how it works, but apparently there’s a meeting once a year where all the guilds get together and decide the rotation for the year. It’s a time when dead bodies can be found in the back alleys. I’m not gonna tell Lily that.
“So even if the daily report says what stall it is, sometimes it’s in a different place at different times of the day.”
“Okay, um… Well, do you want me to just read it out loud?”
As soon as I’m satisfied, I’m ready to go. Oh, man. It’s a little late for me to be saying this, but…
“Then Lily, please read them out loud in order. I’ll write them down and you can check them against each other.”
“Yes.”
“Hey.”
… I’m not even listening to either of you. Oh, man. I guess I’ll just have to thank Lily for today.
