Wilhelm Medichin was puzzled by the higher-ups who had suddenly come swarming in as a group the moment he returned from the first-half session of the Imperial Diet.
As if to resolve his question, Raul Müller stepped to the very front of the higher-ups. With an expression unusually full of excitement, he shouted.
“It is a tremendous success, Mayor!”
“What is a tremendous success, Senior Aide?”
“The vaccination method! While you were away at the Imperial Diet, smallpox spread through northeastern Latius...!”
Senior Aide Raul Müller reported that the merchants who had traveled through the area around the time smallpox spread were perfectly fine, and that not a single smallpox case had appeared in the cities and villages of the autonomous territory adjacent to that region.
“The vaccination medicine will absolutely make money!”
“Please forgive our ignorance!”
The higher-ups of the autonomous territory, even if only after the results had come out, admitted that their disbelief had been wrong, loudly apologized, and bowed their heads.
‘Thank you, my son.’
Wilhelm Medichin hoped that his eldest son, who had given him strength by presenting the possibility of the vaccination method, would spread his wings and soar as soon as possible.
***
Not long after the efficacy of the vaccination method had been proven.
Friedrich was drinking tea after finishing breakfast when Wilhelm asked him a question.
“I am curious what you plan to do from now on.”
“Me?”
“Yes. You have effectively solved all three assignments I gave to the employees, so should you not step to the forefront now? The Patent-Intellectual Property Law, which is officially acknowledged as your solution, and double-entry bookkeeping alone are more than enough.”
He had created a law to protect the autonomous territory’s interests through the Patent-Intellectual Property Law.
He had spread double-entry bookkeeping through the Medichin Konzern and the financial bureau of the autonomous territory government, raising management efficiency. What more needed to be said?
In that sense, Friedrich translated what Wilhelm had just said as, “Your ability has been verified, and you have time left, so let us work!”
‘When I look closely, Father is rather like an exploitative superior.’
The one thing all exploitative superiors had in common was that they could not stand seeing a capable person idle.
Thinking that his father, the leader of the autonomous territory, would never leave him to play around either, Friedrich gave a small nod and answered.
“I have to inherit the family business. I am the eldest son of this house.”
‘Thank you, my son! From now on, let us cultivate Etilant together, you and this father of yours!’
A smile spread across Wilhelm’s lips after hearing that answer. As Friedrich felt an inexplicable chill from that smile, he heard Merkl’s voice.
[If you want to do proper business, you must first set the framework straight.]
[Show a blueprint that will change the future of Etilant and the Medichin Konzern. (Not Achieved)]
‘Right! There was this too!’
Simply doing as he was told did not suit his temperament. The moment he received as a Mission the very thing he had wanted to do as soon as he arrived in this world, Friedrich quickly continued his answer.
“But there is something I must do before that, Father.”
“What else is there that must be done?”
“While studying, I began to wonder whether the current system was truly correct.”
At the words that left Friedrich’s mouth, Wilhelm’s face, which had shown only a trace of disappointment just moments earlier, turned fierce.
“I will pretend I did not hear that. If those words leak out, you could be accused of treason.”
‘That was a slip of the tongue. I tried too hard to sound impressive for no reason.’
Acknowledging his own mistake, Friedrich clicked his tongue, stripped away the flowery rhetoric, and got to the point.
“The system I spoke of is not the political system. I mean administration, management, and the economy.”
“Administration, management, and the economy...”
Only after hearing an accurate answer did Wilhelm relax his expression. He savored the three words as though chewing them over, then gave a light smack of his lips and made his decision.
“Good. I will support you with as much time and whatever you need, so tell me when you are ready. I will summon the higher council of the autonomous territory, the chief administrators, the managers of the Konzern, and even the chief agents.”
“!?”
Friedrich, who had petitioned him with great confidence, widened his eyes at the raise his father had made.
“You mean you are going to summon all of those people...?”
“I will have them evaluate whether or not you are fit to lead the autonomous territory and the Konzern in the future. Haha.”
‘Damn it.’
The scale of the matter had grown dizzyingly large, and Friedrich smacked his lips.
***
In any case.
From the day an office was prepared for his work, Friedrich went back and forth to the official document archive, examining documents.
“As expected, the nobles are the problem.”
The nobles who held more than half of the farmland within the Etilant Autonomous Territory were not paying taxes.
“Still, lords who, like Master, once served my mother’s family and now remain loyal to the autonomous territory government are fine. They leave the free tenant farmers alone except for taking 25 percent of the yield, and those farmers pay taxes to the autonomous territory government.”
The real problem was the anti-Medichin lords and neutral lords within the Etilant Peninsula.
‘At least most of the lords merely collect 50 percent of the harvest from free tenant farmers or serfs under various pretexts, so that is fortunate...’
Even the taxes they paid to the autonomous territory in the form of tribute as representatives of their people were nothing but pocket change compared to the yield obtained from the vast farmland they possessed.
‘But those people are the decent ones. The truly rotten bastards...’
As a matter of course, they collected taxes of up to 70 percent under all kinds of pretexts, imposed everything from the Right of First Night to all manner of forced labor, and more.
The lords sitting on the Latius Region in the southwestern part of the Etilant Peninsula, which was officially autonomous territory land but outside the autonomous territory government’s sphere of influence, cultivated farmland by using slaves, which the autonomous territory prohibited by law.
“Those bastards are not even paying taxes, so no wonder our finances look like this no matter how hard our Konzern, the other merchant caravans, and the remaining freemen work themselves to the bone paying taxes. Tsk.”
Aside from that, the more Friedrich learned why the government’s finances were so poor despite the standing of the merchant caravans of the Etilant Autonomous Territory, including the Medichin Konzern, the more his temper flared. Still, he held it in and continued examining the documents.
“...This is strange.”
While he was laboriously reviewing the documents, Friedrich discovered a peculiar turning point.
“After Mother married Father and my maternal grandfather passed away, the land held by independent farmers increased sharply.”
“Huh? Master and all the other members of the Knight Order were also registered as lords at this time?”
As he examined the documents and sensed that something was unusual, Friedrich immediately mounted a horse and rode somewhere.
‘Master should know.’
Friedrich was certain that Griffith knew the reason behind all the matters that had raised questions in his mind, and he sprang from his seat.
***
After passing through the gate and arriving at the training ground, Friedrich dismounted and met Griffith.
“Today should not be a training day.”
“I looked through a few documents at the official document archive...”
After Friedrich told him the points he had found strange, Griffith smiled.
“You will only become an adult next year, but your thoughts are already like the Mayor’s when he was in his twenties. Haha.”
“Is there some story behind it? At the Imperial Diet banquet, the Wife of the Count Palatine of Sütern insulted Mother, saying she had been bewitched by her commoner husband and even thrown away her title of Count.”
At those words, Griffith’s expression hardened fiercely.
“That is useless nonsense, so pay it no mind.”
“But something still seems strange. According to imperial law, women can inherit titles as well, so I do not understand why Mother gave hers up.”
At Friedrich’s persistent questioning, Griffith let out a sigh and answered.
“After Johanna married the Mayor, things happened that you have not understood. If we go back, it began with a hunt the two of them went on to celebrate having just held their coming-of-age ceremony...”
Friedrich’s jaw dropped as he heard the story of the two of them fighting orcs during the hunt, and of Wilhelm worrying about Johanna more than himself even while his life hung by a thread.
“Really?”
“It is true. That is why Johanna vowed that, for the rest of her life, she would do everything she could for the Mayor.”
“Then...?”
“The fact that all the members of the Knight Order, including us brothers who inherited the late Count’s surname, went from mere knights to receiving imperial noble titles and becoming lords, and the fact that the number of independent farmers surged, were all the result of Johanna laying down what she possessed for the Mayor. Those events changed Etilant.”
The more Friedrich heard the details from Griffith after that, the more everything made sense.
‘Thanks to Mother returning the title of Count, the lords from the Berstein Knight Order received titles from the current emperor and were incorporated into the Etilant Army. The independent farmers had been freemen who farmed land leased from my mother’s family, and they received land just like the lords from the Knight Order.’
The realization that the questions he had been unable to resolve until now had originated from his mother’s love for his father filled Friedrich with awe.
‘My mother is truly a formidable woman. Even now, she has ranches and forests all across Etilant, as well as plenty of other property, but...’
Compared to the things she had laid down, they were nothing.
In this world, in this era, where farmland was power, the wheat fields she had distributed alone amounted to vast lands exceeding 40 percent of all farmland area and wheat production within the autonomous territory.
“Whew... Mother was a great person.”
“There is no woman in this empire with as much breadth of mind as Johanna. That is why all the members of the Berstein Knight Order, including me and my other brothers, willingly joined the Etilant Army.”
Though not a single drop of blood connected them, and though she no longer held a title, Johanna was still Griffith’s precious younger sister and one of the lords he continued to respect.
Griffith, who had proudly revealed those feelings without hiding them, placed a hand on Friedrich’s shoulder.
“If you want the love between your mother and the Mayor to be passed down for generations, the burden on your two shoulders will be heavy from now on. You know that, do you not?”
Of course Friedrich knew the reason. Was it not to make Etilant, which his mother had cultivated for his father even while laying down almost everything she had, prosper?
“Of course, Master. Now I finally know clearly why I have to work hard.”
At Friedrich’s bright answer, given with a grin, Griffith smiled with satisfaction.
“You will be able to do it, so be strong.”
“Yes!”
Unlike during their harsh swordsmanship training, Griffith was cheering him on like an uncle, and Friedrich answered energetically.
***
Having resolved his questions and strengthened his motivation, Friedrich Medichin immersed himself in work from that day onward, going only between his office and the official document archive except for the time he spent eating, sleeping, relieving himself, and training in martial arts.
This was a chance to resolve the regrets that had remained because he had died without doing what he wanted to do. So, with a joyful heart, he moved his quill until he finished writing the final character. Only then did he stretch both arms high above his head.
“Nngyaaa!”
At Friedrich’s loud, strange cry as he stretched, Hans, the youngest butler of the same age whom Wilhelm had assigned to him, and Anna, the youngest maid, opened the door and came in.
“What is the matter, Young Master?”
“Are you feeling unwell somewhere...?”
Hans and Anna, who had cried out with worried expressions, looked dumbfounded when they saw Friedrich frozen halfway through his stretch, his mouth hanging open.
“I was just stretching, and without realizing it... I am sorry.”
In that mutually embarrassing situation, Hans gave an awkward smile and spoke.
“So that was it. I thought something had happened.”
“Please call us when you need us, Young Master.”
“As it happens, there is something I would like to ask of you.”
“Ask? Please simply give us your orders.”
“Hans is right. What is it?”
Facing the expectant gazes of the butler and maid his own age, Friedrich smiled confidently.
“Tell the Mayor that I have completed everything I promised.”
Friedrich had finally finished preparing to bring a new wind to Etilant.
His face was full of confidence, along with a determination to succeed no matter what.
***
After receiving the message, Wilhelm listened to Friedrich’s “few requests.”
“Hmm... I understand. I will prepare everything as you requested.”
“Thank you, Father!”
And so Wilhelm immediately issued a summons to the employees of the Medichin Konzern and the officials of the autonomous territory government. He arranged the presentation as Friedrich had requested, setting the venue in the garden of the Medichin Mansion and the time from lunchtime onward.
Roughly ten days later.
The tables and chairs set up before the temporary stage prepared on the broad lawn garden of the Medichin Mansion were crowded with Konzern employees, officials, and officers of the Etilant Army.
“It has been a while, Max! Have you been well?”
“How can you ask whether I have been well, Michael? Look at your own face first. Your eyes are completely sunken.”
Chief Agents Michael and Max, who had come with the managers they each served at the Medichin Konzern’s Central Imperial Trade Headquarters and Eastern Trade Headquarters, smiled bitterly as they looked at each other’s hollow eyes.
“What can we do? Since last year, I have been dying from studying the newly distributed accounting instructional text.”
“You said it. Once we fully understand that thing, it looks as if we will suffer like dogs writing new ledgers we never expected to touch in our lives and compiling the inventory surveys from each branch.”
However, they did not simply dislike anything new.
“But the more I look at it, the better it seems.”
“I admit it. If we had organized our ledgers that way earlier, we could have sent goods that were not selling to places where they sold well and cleared out inventory. We could also compare it with past data and hold only the proper amount.”
The issue of inventory disposal was an assignment merchants could never finish until they quit the trade altogether.
In that sense, properly managing ordinary inventory levels was realistically the best solution. Because of that, Michael and Max acknowledged the value of double-entry bookkeeping, which would be fully introduced in the future.
As Michael chatted with his colleague whom he had met after such a long time, he looked around to see who was and was not nearby, then spoke in a low voice.
“By the way, I hear Young Master Friedrich made that accounting instructional text?”
“Is that true?”
“I said it is. After coming here, I talked to the boys from the main office’s Accounting-Finance Department, and they said even Manager Gelt is studying it.”
“Is Ers going to perish soon? To think the ‘man of accounting’ himself is studying accounting.”
The two of them had known since their days working at the main office just how relentless and exacting an accountant Heinrich Gelt was.
When they were rookie agents, had they not been torn apart for getting a single number wrong in the ledger, then forced to copy the entire ledger until their hands went numb, all so they could study again?
At the fact that such a Heinrich was studying accounting again at this late stage, and with an instructional text made by a young master who was practically young enough to be his son, Max snickered with a satisfied expression.
Michael, who had suffered alongside Max as his colleague back then, stopped chuckling and told him one more fact.
“And the presenter at today’s presentation is apparently the First Young Master.”
“You expect me to believe that? He will only hold his coming-of-age ceremony next year.”
As Max questioned him with an expression of disbelief, he heard a familiar voice that he did not want to hear.
“It is true that the First Young Master will be presenting. And not only I, but also the Director of the Financial Bureau and even the Mayor are studying it.”
‘This...’
‘Surely...?’