The four of us, excluding Frensen, entered the conference room and all the guys who were waiting in the room turned their attention to us at once.
Most of them look at me as if they value me… but some of them stare at me as if they think I’m young or something and try to mount me. I’m sorry… but your rank and power aren’t nearly as impressive as when I had to explain our unilateral action in front of the military leaders during the defense of Finoi. The Dauphin alone is far more frightening. It’s a different level of intimidation.
“First of all, let me say hello. My name is Werner van Zierfeldt. I’ve been appointed Lord of Anheim. My regards to you all.”
Congratulations on your new position, Viscount.
The old man at the head of the table bows his head and everyone follows his example. Well, I guess this old man represents the pledges. Let’s introduce ourselves and start with a jab. I’ll signal to the officers and have them pass around the portraits I’ve prepared.
“This is…”
“Some of you have seen him, some of you have not. That man is Mungold.”
Some look at the portraits again. Others look at me. The reactions are varied. It’s hard to forget the lord’s face, but some of the eldest sons may have forgotten or never seen him before. It’s a world without television. I’ll ignore their reactions for now and continue.
This was made by the national legal staff, by the way.
“As you know, Mangold has caused much turmoil in King’s Landing.”
“Mungold… Are you saying there’s a Mangolt in town?
“I didn’t say that. But it’s true that he’s missing, and it’s also true that people think he’s gone to the old Marquisate of Knaap.”
I guess I’m not comfortable calling him out. Objectively speaking Mungold has no reason or value to speak for you. But he’s still not accustomed to addressing a member of the family for generations to come. Old traditions and precedents like this are surprisingly troublesome.
“I would like you to conduct another search of the town to make sure there are no people living in hiding. If anyone is trying to hide them, they will be punished by the government as well.”
Emphasize the country. It’s like the fox that walks in the shadow of the flag, but I don’t care if that’s the impression I’m trying to give. I don’t care if it gives the impression that I have the country behind me this time.
I’m watching the guys who start talking to the guy next to me in a quiet voice, and I’m reconfirming the situation in my head.
I’ve been ordered by the government to deal with the demons in the border regions. we have no choice but to deal with this one first.
I do have questions about this world, but I don’t know where to begin. It’s not something I can consult anyone about, and it’s not something that can be answered from the materials in the Count’s household. I can’t just abandon my duties and ask you to let me investigate when I’ve been ordered to Anheim. It’s not easy being a courtier.
And there’s a real problem with this general Gesarius. I’m just speaking in terms of results, but he should have been replaced right after the demon outburst, so he must have been free in King’s Landing for quite a long time. I felt a little uncomfortable thinking that he had that much time and all he did was lure the demons into the capital by using Mangold.
I’ve asked my father to have Peckler’s footprints scrubbed once more, but I can’t help but feel that we’ll have to deal with this guy sooner rather than later. So I’ve decided to put the lid on the other questions and give top priority to the Demon Lord. There’s plenty of time before Mazel fights the Demon Lord… or rather the event of the attack on King’s Landing is ahead of us… My stomach hurts.
On the other hand, the Anheim problem is also somewhat complicated. There’s a possibility that it won’t be a simple matter of territory alone. I wish I could cut it in two like the Gordian Knot, but it’s hard to do that. But we’ll have to deal with this town first.
In this world, there are similarities and differences between the medieval world and the previous one. The most similar part is this council of oath-takers. If I, the mayor, am a deputy, then you can think of the council of pledges as a town council, though not a democratically elected one.
Let’s take a rough analogy and say that a guild is like a corporation. The guild leader is the president of the guild. The guild leader is usually the president of the guild, and he tries to increase the sales of his company, the guild, and make it profitable.
The guild leaders’ association is the pledges’ association. You could think of it as a kind of business association of presidents. The guild also serves as the town council in medieval times. It’s called an oathkeeper’s council because it’s a group of people who swear fealty to the king on behalf of their guild.
For example, when the people of the town ask the pledge committee to fix the bridge near the town, the committee discusses whether it is necessary or not, how much of the budget should be paid from the town budget, and how much temporary tax should be collected to pay for the work, including the deputy. By the way, in this case, the temporary tax is not money but labor in most cases.
The members of the pledges will form a committee of several members and they will be in charge of tax revenue, financial accounting and judge. In case of an assault case, two pledges and four officials would be the judges and a trial committee would be formed.
A city official is a subordinate body of a committee of pledges who are in charge of the practical affairs of the city. They are middle managers. The captain of the guard, who is made up of people from the city, is usually a member of the council of pledges as well. It’s not surprising since it’s also the police force in the past life. But in a provincial city it’s usually like this.
The size of the guild of pledges is different in each town, and the color of the town can be guessed from the members of the guild. For example, if a town has a mine nearby, there will be a representative of the Ore Guild, but if the town is mainly a dairy town, there will be no one from the Ore Guild.
It’s just like this world… Every town has a guild leader of the Adventurers’ Guild. Of course, there were no adventurers’ guilds in the Middle Ages.
I had wondered what the head of the Adventurers’ Guild did on a regular basis, but it seems that his job was to inform the Pavilion Guild of complaints from adventurers that the inn was dirty and to exchange requests from the Medicine Man Guild to make their herb gathering requests more prominent.
Sometimes adventurers go to apologize to the guild they’ve caused trouble for. Failure to protect a trading guild means that the members of the guild are also affected. A guild leader also needs political power.
But I can’t imagine that the guild leader of the Adventurers’ Guild is a member of the tax collection committee and collects taxes from the farming villages.
As well, what’s different in my previous life is the position of the church. In the previous life, there was more than one church in town. Not that the whole town couldn’t gather in one church for every Sunday service, but there were Jesuits and Dominicans and other denominations. And the covenant society reflected that, too, because all the heads of the churches had seats in the covenant society. So it’s not unusual to have more than one religious official in the pledges’ meeting in a previous life.
But in this world, the Church is unified. I mean, internally there’s the high priests and the rest of the powerful, but outwardly at least, the Church is monolithic. And there’s usually only one church in town. This is a bit of a problem, because it’s weirdly based on the game. Therefore, it is normal in this world that there is only one religious person in the council of oath-takers, the head of the church.
But it’s also the church that takes care of you when you’re sick or injured. I may have more say in this life than I did in the last one because I’m the medical director and the religious director all by myself. I’d like you to be neutral on me at least.
By the way, I heard you took out some bandits.
“It’s better to do what we can first, you know.”
“The Guild of Commerce thanks you for your work in restoring order to the streets. I understand the ringleaders will be executed.”
“Yes. All others are to be treated as laborers.”
You’ve called on me to stop thinking and respond. “Workers” is an understatement… criminals forced into labor in this world. We’ll be operating in the countryside, not on the outskirts of King’s Landing.
In rural areas, there are prisons, but there are no facilities such as jails to keep prisoners for a long period of time, and there are not enough extra people to monitor them. But unlike in the past, it takes a lot of time and effort just to transport a criminal, so unless the crime is really serious, the idea is to do something about it locally.
It’s inevitable that we’ll end up either locked up in town jails for a long time or shackled and forced to work.
Slaves are treated relatively lightly in this world. It is not often that slaves are made to do hard labor, except when they volunteer to do it. On the contrary… the position of a laborer is probably closer to the image of a slave in a previous life.
However, they are often freed depending on their work, so I would say that they are more like criminals in prison than slaves. Miners and so on would be done by state-controlled criminals, and the laborers in various parts of the country would be treated less lightly than that.
But it may or may not be easy. Some tasks may shorten your life.
There’s no legal limit to how long a worker can be free. If the disciplinary committee made up of pledges give permission, he is free to go. It may be effective not to decide the punishment first in order not to send the unrepentant back to the prison. In other cases, the deputy may release the person, but the decision of the board of pledges can’t be ignored in most cases. But that’s only in the time of peace.
“How are the allocations?”
“You’re in charge, sir.”
“That’s… that’s…”
There are probing looks, but also appreciative ones. To put it bluntly, the workmen are a labor force that can be made to work for free, except for food. Many guilds want them. Some local cities even have their own security forces, if only to keep the workforce.
But if the council of oath-takers had decided to take down the enemy, the distribution would have been decided first based on the ratio of the number of men captured. Since I didn’t use the town budget, I could have distributed the money as I pleased with the authority of the deputy chiefs.
“There are still many things we don’t know about town government. I’d like you to consult with the board and bring me the documents in order of priority. Let’s go through them in that order.”
Now there’s a guy who’s gonna stick his tongue out. He’s probably thinking of getting some kind of permission from the lord before I know what’s going on. But now that I’ve told him to bring it to me through the council… he can’t just sneak whatever’s good for his guild.
But you really can’t be too careful.
“I’d like to review some documents on local administration. I’d like to end this meeting here for now. What is your urgent business?”
No, nothing at all. Thank you, Viscount.
The old man bows his head, and that’s the end of the meeting. I nod and head back to the office. I’m sure they’ve been watching us, but for the time being, it’s worked out in our favor. I’d say we won the first round by a landslide.
Let’s make our next move before they start to reel us in with their “I’ll teach the young man a lesson.
