This was how terrifying an underdeveloped legal system could be.
And on top of that, an age of absolute monarchy?
‘There’s no way there’d be mercy.’
Some might say that even unregistered wanderers still continued their lives on imperial land, so were they not ultimately imperial subjects?
However, that was nothing more than the perspective of a modern person with a twenty-first-century education.
‘In this age, wanderers who aren’t listed in the family register ledger are rebels who haven’t borne the duties of tax and military service.’
The emperor’s power came from the vast number of imperial subjects. As for merchant companies that regularly traded furs with unregistered wanderers?
‘One report would be enough for an off-with-their-heads ending.’
Just look at the merchant before him, panicking on the spot.
He had called her up because he thought she would at least have some backbone, and even she was like this. If it had been the other merchants, they would either have fainted already or raised hell by drawing a blade and screaming that they would take him down with them.
“But since you’ve cooperated so well with public office, surely there must have been circumstances.”
That was why Aiden intended to give her a chance.
‘It’d also be inconvenient right away if they weren’t here.’
For now, he could estimate the value, and if he thought there was much to gain, he could delay handling the matter for a while.
“...What will you do if I answer that I do not know?”
“Is that an answer?”
“It is a hypothetical. I also have many mouths depending on me.”
Still, Kalisa truly was a formidable woman.
Even after having her secret exposed, she had instantly returned to a cool expression and begun calculating.
“A cornered rat will bite the cat, as they say.”
Now she was outright threatening him.
In other words, she was saying this.
‘If it comes down to it, you’ll take my head first?’
It was a threat made possible because the north was almost cut off from the central government.
But Aiden was not a fool either.
“Aide. The tea has gone cold, so this hardly counts as proper hospitality.”
“Yes, Administrator.”
Jamie, who had been crammed into a corner, stood from his desk and approached the table with hot water that had been placed on the stove.
Crackle, crackle.
Thud, thud, thud.
Spring was coming, but the north still needed a fireplace.
The sound of firewood burning in the hearth matched the rhythm of his heavy footsteps.
Pour.
Steam rose thickly from the fresh tea Jamie had brought.
“Good grief. I told you to replace the tea leaves first.”
“Ah, is that so?”
“This is already the fourth brew. It turns bitter like this.”
“I was born and raised in the north, so I don’t know much about tea....”
“I’ve taught you now, so don’t forget next time.”
“Yes, Administrator.”
And then, thud, thud. Jamie returned to his place.
“......”
Gulp.
Only the sound of Kalisa swallowing dryly could be heard in the silence.
That was right.
Aiden’s beloved aide, Jamie, was of pure northern blood.
When he declared that he would become an official instead of a hunter, everyone in his village had grabbed him by the trouser legs and tried to stop him. He was a steel-boned man among steel-boned men.
‘Heh.’
Even now, he looked far more suited to holding a halberd than a pen, and he was right beside Aiden. Did she think she could stick a knife in him?
‘She shouldn’t lack that much judgment.’
This was why Aiden deliberately did not use the office alone.
“Drink. It has been brewed several times already, but it’s still warm, so it should help you thaw out.”
“...Yes.”
“More importantly, I think you said something earlier about a cornered rat.”
“It was nothing.”
“Of course it was.”
The world was muscle.
That was a truth that held in any world.
***
“...You really didn’t know either?”
“I thought there might be some to an extent, but this....”
After seeing the map Kalisa had gifted them, the lord’s castle leadership (two people) could only stare blankly.
Red markings on the map.
“These are all villages that the lord’s castle hasn’t identified.”
There were eight villages where the roughly three thousand two hundred people recorded in the north’s family register ledger lived.
About a thousand people lived in the largest village, where the lord’s castle stood, while the smaller villages had only one or two hundred people at most.
But then,
“Three, four, five....”
There were no fewer than twelve red dots.
Wow!
A miraculous administrator who increased the number of villages by 150 percent only one month after taking office.
‘This is ridiculous. Completely ridiculous.’
He should have known from the moment he realized that there was no proper administrative data left at all.
“This is unbelievable.”
“I-I apologize.”
“What do you have to apologize for?”
He should blame this damned lack of technological development, where there were not even satellite photographs.
Or was that not it?
Was the problem the worthless previous administrators, who had never even thought of trying to do anything properly because this was abandoned land anyway?
‘I heard that renowned mages can even fly through the sky and all that. Couldn’t we use them in place of satellites?’
For a moment, he considered a mage exploitation project, but since that was something he could not even begin to attempt, he passed over it for now.
“In any case, the census. We have to do it again, don’t we?”
“Will they comply willingly?”
“Trade with the merchant companies is on the line. If they don’t comply, there’s no trade.”
“Ah.”
He had already given Kalisa and the other merchant companies a warning in advance.
“You’ve been sucking honey all this time, haven’t you? From now on, even if dirt has to cover my eyes first, you’re not eating it all by yourselves. Let’s share, hm?”
He had explained it very kindly.
“Thinking of trading in the villages of people not registered in the family register ledger, just as you have until now? Don’t even dream of it. We’ll attach one of our officials or soldiers to each of you, and the moment any of them disappears, gets hurt, or suffers any other personal mishap, we will report to the capital that your merchant companies have deliberately hidden unregistered wanderers from the empire and profited from it.”
Along with that, he had also told them not to even dream of any violent thoughts, because he had already sent soldiers far away, and if no word came from him within the set period, all of this would immediately be delivered to the imperial family.
‘This takes care of my safety to some extent too.’
Aiden’s heart grew warm.
Indeed, the sense of accomplishment that came from finishing work one piece at a time!
Living buried in work was surely the only drug permitted by the state.
What an addictive thrill.
“Heh heh heh!”
Flinch!
At his superior’s mad laughter, Jamie grew frightened, which was unlike him. However, a strong mind did indeed come from a strong body.
He quickly steadied his shaken heart and spoke.
“I will conduct the census myself.”
“You?”
“I’ve learned by watching you, Administrator, so I won’t disappoint you!”
Jamie thumped his chest and snorted through his nostrils.
“Still, there will probably be considerable resistance. They’re people who haven’t paid taxes or borne military service until now, so perhaps they may resist fiercely....”
“Pardon?”
“...Never mind. Do your best.”
“Yes!”
Aiden had no choice but to swallow the rest of his words.
Anyone would have done the same.
What could be more useless than telling a physical-type Viking, who went around with stones tied to his arms and legs because he had been working too much overtime to train separately, to be careful?
“But are you leaving after finishing everything I assigned you?”
“...Pardon?”
“Bring it here.”
“Well....”
“......”
“......”
“Take your coat off again.”
“Yes....”
Aiden simply could not understand it.
How much work was it? How could Jamie still not have finished?
He could eat sandwiches at his desk, and staying up a few nights was nothing much, was it?
‘He’s a good person, but he has no work sense.’
People all had different standards.
***
In the end, soldiers were assigned to carry out the census of the unregistered villages instead.
Aiden had considered sending lower-ranking officials, but officials were precious manpower, so it was still too early to send them outside.
‘There’ll be resistance to paying taxes, of course, but I can soothe that with something else.’
The first lash of the whip might hurt a little, but if the carrot that came afterward was enough to eat until their bellies burst and still have some left over, they would not fear the whip in the end.
‘The best thing is still jobs.’
In any world, nothing put the common people more on edge than the problem of making a living.
‘The standard answer for this sort of thing is to launch a major civil engineering project....’
The problem was that the lord’s castle’s storehouse was also empty.
‘An incentive attractive enough for them to accept paying taxes.’
For the first time in a while, Aiden took his eyes off the documents and sank into thought.
Jamie watched his superior with puzzled eyes, but eventually could not overcome his curiosity and asked.
“Um, Administrator.”
“What? Did you finish the work?”
“That is still a little far off.... I was just curious why you have been thinking so hard since earlier. The unregistered people are being surveyed now, so I thought everything was resolved.”
“Resolved, my ass.”
Aiden clicked his tongue at Jamie’s words.
“Sure, they’ll comply with the census right now. They need to trade. But what kind of people were they originally?”
“...People who lived well?”
“They were people who lived in hiding, obviously!”
“Ah!”
Something seemed to crack inside Jamie’s head.
They said that if the body was strong enough, the head had no need to suffer, but it had already been five years since he had formed the grand ambition of becoming an official. If he was still like this, that was a serious problem in itself.
‘It really seems like he chose the wrong profession.’
In any case, for better or worse, Jamie was his only aide, so Aiden had no choice but to explain.
“Unless they’re fully assimilated as residents of the north, those unregistered people will definitely flee outside the system again.”
“Come now, surely not.”
“They’re people who’ve spent their whole lives more accustomed to living that way. The moment you say ‘surely not,’ it’s already too late. We have to prepare countermeasures in advance.”
“But we can’t send soldiers to every village to monitor them, can we?”
To repeat, northerners were natural warriors and hunters.
Of course, the lord’s castle’s few soldiers had been selected from among those very northerners, so each of them was practically a weapon. Even so, one or two people could not monitor and control every village.
“We need to find a way to fully incorporate the people who were outside the system into it.”
“Into the system?”
Jamie sat with his brow deeply furrowed, apparently frustrated because he felt as though he could almost grasp something but could not quite reach it.
“Something only we can provide.”
“Uh.... Do we have something like that? Our finances are....”
At Aiden’s words, Jamie trailed off.
I know. I know.
How could he not know that they had no damn money?
“No, wait. We do have money.”
“If you mean the taxes the merchant companies will pay, those haven’t come in yet.”
“I know that too. I mean this. This.”
Rattle.
A pouch emerged from Aiden’s drawer.
“Jenkin left a donation behind, didn’t he?”
Aiden’s face, grinning broadly, filled with joy.
‘Ahh, he was a good merchant.’
Still, it was a bribe handed to someone who was an acting lord in name. Surely, it was a decent amount?
‘No more and no less. Please let it be enough to fund one local project!’
Clink, clink.
As he hurried to untie the mouth of the pouch, the constant sound of coins from inside made his heart impatient.
“Done!”
Clatter, clink, roll, clang!
When he turned the pouch upside down, coins scattered in every direction.
Rrrrrroll, tap!
The very last coin rolled to one corner of the desk and stopped.
“......”
“......”
Aiden and Jamie stopped as well.
The coins that came out of the pouch were not gold, but silver.
And even then, there were only a little over twenty of them.
“...Shit.”
“...Shall we catch him and hang him?”
For the first time in a long while, the minds of the lord’s castle leadership (full membership: two) were in perfect accord.