Since he had finished reviewing matters thoroughly, it was time to take his first real step.
‘I already managed to submit a bill through patent-intellectual property rights...’
Of the assignments Wilhelm had given him, the two remaining ones were improving management efficiency and launching a new product that could become a hit.
‘That is more than enough for achievement farming.’
As if vowing to seize both of those remaining assignments and all the rewards that came with them, Friedrich Medichin clenched his loosened fist once more.
He had already decided where, and with what, he would take his first step in the Etilant Autonomous Territory. He had decided it back when he was still in Asteldorf.
‘Double-entry bookkeeping.’
When he had visited the Asteldorf Branch of the Medichin Trading House for a field investigation, he had seen the ledgers kept there.
‘Accounting is the language of management...’
To Friedrich, the Medichin Konzern’s accounting method was no more than the low-level vocabulary used by ordinary brats.
‘If we are going to do business properly, we have to act like grown-ups!’
He had lived in twenty-first-century Republic of Korea, where even ledgers kept by self-employed people after hiring tax agents or accountants were neater than the Medichin Konzern’s books. So he immediately turned on the Search Engine function.
‘Hmm...’
He thought of a word to enter into the search window floating before his eyes like a hologram.
‘Principles of Accounting.’
When he typed into the search window the same title as a course he had taken in university, the book he wanted appeared.
‘Nice.’
[You bet? But it will cost quite a few points, you know?]
At Merkl’s voice, which suddenly popped out of nowhere, Friedrich chuckled as if he had now grown used to it.
‘Nothing is free, so I have to spend them. Let’s see...!?’
This is insane!
‘Five hundred points!?’
[You and I both know what you are going to do with this, so do you not think you should spend at least that much?]
‘Ugh, so this is what it feels like to have my nose cut off with my eyes wide open.’
Even so, for the sake of achievement farming, he could spend five hundred points without hesitation.
After Friedrich pressed the payment button and placed his hand on the Principles of Accounting book, the image opened as though an actual book had been spread before him.
‘I wonder if I can view it by the page.’
[Of course! If you switch it to single-page mode, each page should spread out one by one.]
‘Thank you!’
As soon as he received the advice, Friedrich opened the book in single-page mode.
FLUTTER!
The book broke apart page by page, and every page from the first to the last spread out before his eyes one at a time.
‘Oh?’
He took the first page in his hand and dragged it over as if setting it down on the desk, then laid a sheet of parchment over the image.
‘Ooooh!’
The image showed through the parchment as if oil paper had been laid over a sheet of paper.
‘This works!’
Friedrich grinned and began placing the quill he had dipped in the ink bottle onto the parchment.
***
Two months later.
After returning from the Imperial Diet, Friedrich, who had devoted himself not only to his heir’s education with his siblings but also to his own plan, was attending an accounting lesson.
“...Therefore, in order to make single-entry bookkeeping more accurate...”
His older sister and younger brothers struggled to hold up their eyelids as they tried to close.
‘Honestly, accounting is rather boring.’
As Friedrich smiled bitterly at the siblings who were suffering along with him because of him, he heard the voice of the employee from the Accounting-Finance Department of the Medichin Konzern who was teaching him accounting.
“Those who are learning must begin by correcting their posture, Young Master, Young Lady.”
At the smiling employee’s remark, Maria, Felix, and Julian flinched, came to their senses, and focused on the lesson. Friedrich, however, looked at him with a sullen expression.
‘Look at him getting smug just because he is teaching this stuff.’
Until now, Friedrich had only listened to the lectures because he had lacked preparation. Listening to such outdated lectures any longer would be nothing but a waste of time.
‘Shall I begin?’
Soon, Friedrich relaxed his expression, flashed a grin, and spoke to the employee.
“Clarity and integrity are the life of accounting, so I am not sure whether Lord Merkl would be satisfied with the accounting method we are learning right now.”
“!!!”
The employee was startled by Friedrich’s opening attack, delivered with an utterly arrogant expression. To think he would carelessly invoke Merkl’s name, not only the guardian deity of House Medichin but also the patron deity of merchants!
At the irreverent provocation that seemed to insult not only him but even a god, the employee’s eyebrows twitched, and the corners of his eyes rose.
“In that case, what points do you think should be improved?”
“Well, what I have thought of is nothing much.”
Friedrich began laying out fragments of the Principles of Accounting he had reviewed until then.
“First, if we want to grasp the state of management quickly, accurately, and comprehensively, the current ledger system is insufficient.”
“Could there be anything better than organizing matters into a journal, a daybook, and a ledger?”
“With just those three, is it not difficult to identify product inventory, consigned goods, and credit transactions? I believe we should prepare separate ledgers for the relevant categories and conduct product inventory surveys every quarter. It is said that we have been engaged in bleeding competition until now, but if inventory management had been a little more efficient...”
After that, as Friedrich continued explaining double-entry bookkeeping while using the current state of affairs as examples, the employee shuddered as though he had been electrocuted.
“How did you think of something like this...?”
“Is that important right now? What we are learning as so-called double-entry bookkeeping is, in reality, nothing more than an advanced form of single-entry bookkeeping. Is that not so?”
Considering all the improvements Friedrich had poured out like a waterfall until now, the accounting method currently used by the Medichin Konzern could not be called proper double-entry bookkeeping.
“......”
When the employee, at a loss for words, became as silent as a mute who had swallowed honey, Maria, Felix, and Julian’s faces brightened.
‘Ah, that feels good!’
‘He always talked about nothing but theory. Do you know how boring it was?’
‘Would it have killed him to explain with examples like my brother?’
The employee, who had only ever criticized their posture while teaching in a way that did not stick in their heads at all, had been thoroughly put in his place by none other than their own sibling.
As Friedrich watched the three siblings cover their mouths and giggle, he spoke to the employee.
“Wait here for a moment. I have somewhere to go.”
The employee’s eyes widened at the sudden declaration that he was going somewhere.
‘Surely...?’
As they said, a bad feeling was often right.
What Friedrich brought back with the butlers was hundreds of sheets of parchment.
“This is the instructional text on double-entry bookkeeping I organized.”
“Yes. Then...”
The employee swallowed dryly and examined the very first page of the instructional text on double-entry bookkeeping.
‘I record this in the name of the god Merkl.’
A grandiose yet extraordinary opening line.
Upon seeing that sentence, he tensed sharply, quickly skimmed the preface, and then moved on to the actual contents.
‘How can this be...!’
Unlike the existing accounting method, double-entry bookkeeping divided expenditures and income between two sides called debit and credit. If even a single number failed to match, the two sides could not be equal.
Because it perfectly aligned with the integrity and clarity that accounting pursued, just as Friedrich had said, the employee stared at Friedrich with a dazed expression.
‘He has only been learning accounting for two months...’
Yet he had made a book and presented a better form of double-entry bookkeeping.
In the employee’s eyes, Friedrich looked like a monster, or perhaps a god.
THUD!
“Double-entry bookkeeping! Please teach me, Young Master!”
It was too difficult!
The employee prostrated himself on the floor, wanting to properly learn double-entry bookkeeping, which was better than the single-entry bookkeeping he had handled until now but also more difficult. Friedrich attached a condition.
“Bring the employees of the Accounting-Finance Department. They will have to learn it too.”
It was the moment the one who taught and the ones who learned changed places.
***
From that day on, the employees of the Medichin Konzern’s Accounting-Finance Department received Friedrich’s special accounting lectures in the annex of the Medichin Mansion as soon as they left the main office.
“If the debit and credit do not match, something has been left out! Again!”
“You are not writing a household account book right now! Expenses go on the debit side! Income goes on the credit side!”
“Are debit and credit difficult? Then drive this into your heads! Assets go on the left! Liabilities and capital go on the right!”
“Yes, yes, sir!”
Under Friedrich’s relentless scolding as he took up the pointer, the employees screamed silently.
‘Damn it!’
‘This is filthy and petty!’
To think they had to be cursed at by a brat at their age!
However, Friedrich’s teaching method had them solve problems immediately after learning the basics, so while it was exhausting, the knowledge was engraved in their minds at once and could be learned through their bodies.
As they grumbled inwardly while still feeling a sense of reward, Friedrich spoke to them, especially to the employee who had taught him.
“Those who are learning must begin by correcting their posture. Is that not so?”
“Yes? ...Yes, Young Master.”
As one sowed, so did one reap.
The employee, who had received back the exact words he had spoken to the four Medichin siblings while teaching them, answered with a pitiful smile.
And news that the employees of the Medichin Konzern’s Accounting-Finance Department were being scolded by Friedrich every day while studying reached their superior.
“I hear you have been summoned by the Young Master after work these days to study?”
“Yes, Manager. He teaches so fiercely that...”
“It is killing us even more than when we learned from you, Manager.”
The employees, who had suffered under the triple hardship of difficult problems, a massive study load, and Friedrich’s scolding, answered with hollow expressions, as if they were making a complaint.
Their superior, Heinrich Gelt, the Accounting-Finance Manager of the Medichin Konzern, chuckled.
“Bring me the instructional text you have been learning from.”
No matter what, it was something a child had made. How difficult could it be?
With that lighthearted thought, he received the instructional text Friedrich had handed out at every lesson. But as he examined the contents page by page, his expression grew more and more serious.
‘This is insane!’
Heinrich Gelt, a “man of accounting” who, in addition to his main profession, was also the youngest accountant in the Etilant Autonomous Territory and an adjunct professor in the Department of Accounting at the University of Firenburg.
In his mind, he could clearly picture the dazzling rise in management efficiency that would result if they overturned their ledgers with the double-entry bookkeeping written in this instructional text.
CLATTER!
Heinrich sprang up from his seat, clutched the instructional text, dashed out of the Medichin Konzern’s main office, and ran toward the main building of Firenburg City Hall.
“Move! Move!”
He ran through the streets, repeatedly shouting for people to get out of the way like a madman. Only after he arrived at the central entrance of the city hall’s main building did he bend over and pant for breath.
“Huff! Huff...!”
“Are you all right, Manager?”
At the cautious question from the guard standing before the entrance, Heinrich jerked his head up.
“I am fine! The Mayor! Is the Mayor inside?”
“Pardon? Yes, he has not gone out.”
“Huff, thank, huff, you!”
After barely managing to finish his reply while catching his breath, Heinrich once again bounded up the stairs in the central entrance lobby.
“Mayor! Mayooor!”
Heinrich Gelt, anxiously calling for Wilhelm, ran toward the mayor’s office.
When he knocked and opened the door, Wilhelm frowned slightly.
“Welcome. What has made you cause such a fuss?”
“I have discovered something extraordinary!”
“Something?”
“Yes! It is an accounting instructional text made by the First Young Master...!”
Heinrich had been shouting in great excitement, as though he had discovered a gold mine, but then he looked at the desk Wilhelm was pointing to with a grin.
“This is...?”
“I also asked our eldest son for it and have been studying it. It is my first time encountering this technique, so it is taking me some time to master.”
When Wilhelm answered and then laughed heartily, Heinrich cried out with a disappointed expression.
“Then why have you not distributed this...!”
“Should we not be the first ones to enjoy something this good? Even if only for one more day.”
“!!!”
Cut off mid-sentence, Heinrich froze at Wilhelm’s question.
‘If this spreads outside...!’
It would only be a matter of time before the Medichin Konzern’s unique competitive edge disappeared.
‘No!’
As Heinrich screamed inwardly, a look of shame crossed his face, and then he squeezed his eyes shut.
“I apologize, Mayor!”
“It is enough that you understand. Until it takes root in our Konzern and the financial bureau of the autonomous territory government, let us treat it as top secret. You study it with us as well, Manager.”
And so Heinrich Gelt, despite being in his thirties, ended up studying accounting all over again together with Wilhelm.
***
A few days later.
“Eugyagyagya!”
Only after the accounting lecture ended late at night did Friedrich stretch noisily, then grimace.
“I am hungry.”
Was it because he was still in his growing years?
Today, he had an unusually strong craving for something crispy and chewy.
‘Come to think of it, I have never eaten it here.’
Thinking that the day had come, Friedrich grinned and went down to the kitchen.
“Let’s see... Ugh, it is cold!”
After opening the door to the underground storage room connected directly beneath the kitchen, he shuddered from the chilly air emitted by the blocks of ice arranged around the edges, then searched for ingredients while holding a candle.
“Got them!”
After bringing back the two ingredients he wanted, he rummaged through the kitchen cupboards and found the remaining ingredients and tools.
“Shall I begin?”
Friedrich washed his hands, wrapped a handkerchief around his head, even tied on an apron, and placed the chicken he had brought from the underground storage room onto the cutting board.
THWACK! THWACK!
His knife work was bold yet precise.
Drawing on the skills of his younger days, Friedrich cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces, then made suitable cuts in the meat so the seasoning would soak in well.
Next, he placed the prepared chicken into a bowl, added half a spoonful of salt, half a teaspoon of pepper, and a suitable amount of one cup of milk he had scooped from the underground storage room, then kneaded it together.
“The basic seasoning seems roughly done...”
After confirming that the oil was boiling in the pot he had already set on the lit stove, he quickly poured flour, milk, salt, and pepper into the bowl where the chicken had been marinating and began mixing them.
‘Thank you, Teacher Baek!’
Separate from his occupation as a soldier, Friedrich liked cooking.
He had especially loved the “Teacher Baek’s Recipe” segment on a program connected to M Broadcasting Station’s internet broadcasts.
[If you mix it like this, you get the flavor of the staff-wielding old man. It is very easy, yes?]
As Teacher Baek’s distinctive, earthy dialect automatically played in his head, Friedrich chuckled.
“Hah.”
And so Friedrich Medichin smiled with satisfaction after completing the first plate of fried chicken in Ers.
***
Around the time Friedrich was frying chicken.
Wilhelm, who had fallen asleep after making love to Johanna in the bedroom, smelled a savory scent.
“Hmm.”
Why did it smell so delicious?
Since the timing was what it was, Wilhelm was hungry, so he climbed out of bed.
“Mmm... No more, Wilhelm...”
At the adorable sight of his wife talking in her sleep in response to the rustling sound, he chuckled, put on his nightclothes, and went out of the bedroom.
‘This is driving me mad.’
The closer he went to the first floor, and especially to the kitchen, the stronger the delicious smell and crunching sounds became. Wilhelm felt as though his stomach were being clenched.
‘Good grief. Who is hungry again...?’
When Wilhelm opened the kitchen door and entered, he saw someone sitting with a single candle lit, holding something and tearing into it as juices dripped down.
“Gah!”
Because only one candle had been lit, thick shadows fell here and there across the person’s face, making the sight unspeakably grotesque. Wilhelm Medichin was so horrified that he cried out.
As he froze where he stood, he heard a familiar voice.
“...Would you like to eat with me, Father?”
“...Friedrich?”
“Yes. I was hungry, so I made myself something to eat...”
Realizing that it was his son, Wilhelm stroked his chest and composed his expression.
“If you were hungry, you should have said so. It is not as though we have no cooks.”
Belatedly preserving his dignity, Wilhelm reproached him in a dignified tone. Friedrich answered awkwardly.
“Everyone must be asleep, so I would feel bad. Even if they are employees, we should not disturb them during their sleeping hours. And I wanted to try making it myself.”
“Well, that may be true, but...”
More importantly, just what was that thing, and why was he eating it so deliciously?
As Wilhelm Medichin unconsciously swallowed his saliva, Friedrich held out a chicken leg to him.
“Would you like some?”
Chicken legs are true love, Father.
With a grin, Friedrich Medichin drew his father into his late-night snack.