Chapter 19: Viscounting for Beginners

Soon after, Platidus’ disciple, Miriam, and the metalworker, Randy, arrived from the capital. Thus, the main force of Yamano County was complete.

Time to cheat in the game of politics! thought Mitsuha. Well, I’ll just improve the situation little by little. Nothing extreme.

Mitsuha started by changing the servants’ roles. Under her new system, there were no personal attendants or chore maids. The head attendant became a normal head maid, and the head chore maid became her second-in-command. All the others were now regular maids with the exception of Rachel’s daughter, Leah. A four-year-old could only be an apprentice maid.

Gunther and the other discharged staff had directly handled some taxation during their employment, but from now on, those types of responsibilities would be assigned to “public officials”. Only one servant who had been in charge of taxation remained. Mitsuha didn’t feel he was terribly trustworthy, but he showed no signs of corruption thus far, and removing him would be a detriment to county affairs. She decided to leave him be, but made a note to learn the entirety of his responsibilities so she could seamlessly discharge him if he decided to go criminal.

The soldiers would simply be called the “Yamano County Army”. That made them sound a bit more important than they were, but Mitsuha felt a bit of inflation was necessary every once in a while. Major Willem would be the commander, while Sublieutenants Sven, Szep, Gritt, and Ilse would be leading officers. Four out of the thirty-six civilian soldiers under their leadership would be sergeants, but they would rotate out every month or so. Even if the sergeants were not on duty, they could be summoned in times of necessity.

There were a total of 216 potential soldiers in her county, which would make six platoons of thirty-six. They would have to juggle their trades and military service for two months out of the year, which Mitsuha felt was acceptable. While it sounded like a lot of responsibility, any squads that weren’t training or on guard shifts could simply go back to their homes.

Miriam would be in charge of financial affairs and welfare, and act as Mitsuha’s advisor. She would also make suggestions on how to captivate the masses or boost public morale. Mitsuha even planned to have Miriam read psychology and sociology textbooks from Earth. Well, she would read them to her—just once, though—seeing as Miriam wouldn’t know the language and Mitsuha couldn’t be bothered to do written translations. Miriam seemed intelligent enough to get a good grasp of the content this way. Additionally, Colette would be a trainee acting as Miriam’s assistant.

As for Randy, he would be assigned to a workshop owned by Mitsuha herself. He would also be a member of the management team, as he was skilled and eccentric enough to provide out-of-the-box opinions, some of which could prove quite valuable.

On certain occasions, the more distinguished maids, cooks, soldiers, and other servants would be chosen to temporarily take on a more managerial role, with a chance of permanently securing the position. Mitsuha didn’t know the process by which the previous lord had selected his servants, but they seemed like normal people to her—probably picked from the locals. Those she picked herself, however, had the potential to be something more.

At least, that’s what I wanna believe.

As Mitsuha had expected, the maids serving as personal attendants didn’t take the removal of specializations too well. For them, it was something like a loss of status. They weren’t outraged enough to defy Mitsuha, however, and soon came to accept it. Their leadership had essentially stayed the same, so the transition was easier on them than they had expected.

Upon finishing the reorganization of the servants, Mitsuha decided to hold a meeting to unite all her people as one.