3 bar menu

Chapter 208

After a successful start in the Bern territory, the merchants and adventurers and the people who had been waiting and thinking about moving to Bern finally began to all-out gather. Bern Village, anticipating that, built lodging facilities, maintained the transportation networks, and actively did advertising. Thanks to that, the area is now as bustling as it once was during the past pioneering project.

Naturally, some of these people were thinking of finding work in the Bern territory, which is in great need of human resources.

These people were former knights who had fallen from grace due to making some mistake or causing some political dispute, or civil servants who had resigned after they had been demoted. There were young people who dreamed of making names for themselves, and even elderly people who had served the previous Armadia Marquis, whose remaining lifespans were more worrying than their actual abilities.

Of course, some of them were probably merchants or subordinates of nobles from other territories who were seeking the wealth of the Bern territory, but Christina and Dran thought that as long as they were working, it didn’t matter if they were like invasive bugs. It was hard to tell whether they were too foolish, or just too generous, and it was as if they didn’t even care about it.

Many martial artists had come to the front of the mansion to show off their skills with swords, spears, and bows, since the military was holding regular tournaments and setting up on-the-spot examinations and recruitment.

In addition to that, the government team in charge of managing the Barony of Bern had to deal with various things, such as the people who are looking to serve in the government, those who are seeking permission to open up shops, the opening of the Bern branch of the Adventurers’ Guild, and the priests from different religious groups from all kinds of lands coming in and requesting the construction of churches or temples for each religion.

There was also the confirmation of inventory of imports and exports to Ente Forest, with which Bern had entered a trade agreement with, as well as reports of the profits from the carriages operating between Bern, Clauze, and Galois, and the costs of construction and labor and everything else related to the construction work for the progressive expansion of the roads.

This work was, to an extent, handled daily by Dran, who works as fast as a fleet of race horses, or Shenna, who works as both an accountant and an assistant, but the one who has to make the final decisions was Christina, as the Baroness.

Dramina, who serves as Christina’s private secretary, is also able to give advice and make plans for streamlining the work, but she leaves it up to Christina’s own judgement to scrutinize the reports and authorize or put her own stamp of approval on them.

Because of that, in addition to having Dramina’s help, Christina also had Dreadnought materialized semi-permanently, and asked him to help with her work, allowing them to race through the unfamiliar barony-related work quicker.

「Construction of the clearinghouse, lodging facilities and the medical clinic at the base of Caravis Tower is now complete. Um, the various religious groups have been requesting the construction of churches not just in the village, but also at the tower too. I will donate money and prepare the land for them, but the fees for materials, construction and manpower will have to come from their side.

This first chart shows the list of personnel dispatched by Lily and the others. Along with the construction of their brothel, they’ll need their own employees and priests. In addition to this, there are also several people who want to work as seamstresses, cooks, civil servants, military officers, and merchants, right?

We have to try to put them in a workplace without any men around, but no, the succubi are effective against both men and women alike, so it would be better if we could get the succubi to suppress their instincts, but no, no, it should be okay since they’ve become Dran’s followers now…  It’ll be okay, won’t it?」

Christina looked over the pile of sorted documents on top of her work desk, and she spoke about their contents aloud as she looked over them, in order to make sure they were correct.

As she separated them into different boxes according to whether she would approve or reject them, she was able to read the documents and make a decision in an instant. Her speed wouldn’t lose to even experienced barons.

The sunlight streaming in from outside the window was warm, and from the fragrant wood burning in the office, a smoke rose that had a calming effect on the spirit and the nerves, and it blended into the atmosphere of the room as a light and pleasant fragrance.

Even after sipping the cup of tea she had to help fight off her sleepiness, the urge to doze off was almost too much to resist, but Christina’s brain was operating at full power, so not even a messenger from dreamlands could get anywhere close to her.

「Whew, so that’s it for the things related to the tower. At any rate, the Adventurer’s Guild sure moves fast. They’re already sounding out the construction of a branch at the tower too, not just in Bern Village.

No, people from the headquarters and each region of all the religious groups are also coming, and Dramina and Dran both said that it’s natural to expect that something must be going on judging from the movements of the merchants too.

If so, then we’ll need to schedule more conferences and meetings, but, well, it’ll take up a lot of unnecessary time…」

Skilled merchants will use various means in order to increase their own profits as much as they can, and they’ll try to use their smooth eloquence too, but in the case that they don’t, wouldn’t there still be something going on behind the scenes? She wondered if they were aiming for something from a long-term perspective, and she couldn’t help but want to get to probe out the truth of it all.

Even when dealing with the devout clergy, she feels various obligations regarding Caravis Tower, and dealing with their inflexibility can be difficult.

When Christina looked outside the window, she saw her familiar, the young phoenix, Nyx, flying around leisurely in the sky, talking with a female crow that was passing by. Nyx was trying to seduce the crow, probably.