Elara's praise was sincere.
In this era, the government hadn't even fully set up the Ministry of Households. Population checks were very loose. If someone wasn't a serious criminal or under special attention, then the number of people in a household was just an estimate.
This was also because the methods of collecting data were old-fashioned, and communication and transportation weren't convenient. Even if the government once tried to check everything carefully, the cost of time and effort often made them delay or cancel the second or third inspections. That's why there were many unregistered people.
In such a simple and slow system, Elara was surprised that Damon had already thought of creating records for the people he was about to hire.
She admired how she had indeed saved a talented person. Not only would he be a future great archer general, but he also had management skills and could think ahead.
While Damon spoke, Elara walked toward the entrance of the estate.
The refugees lined up around them stepped back without thinking when they saw her and Damon beside her. Their thin and dirty faces showed fear, caution, trying to please, and nervousness.
When they reached the front of the line, Elara saw four tables and chairs that were set up for registration. Beside the tables was a pile of bamboo slips already stacked half as tall as a person.
When Elara saw the thick mountain of bamboo slips, she thought of the unread reports back at the Princess's Mansion.
She had been so focused on pulling her backup secretary Mathias out to help her understand these affairs. She almost forgot there were already a lot of tasks waiting in the Princess's Mansion.
Good people were never enough when you needed them. She only had one backup secretary, and she really lacked skilled workers.
Elara sighed in her heart. Suddenly, she remembered something from last night—when she made a deal with Emory, he kept mentioning the same person.
Scholar Fu.
Right, wasn't there already a top scholar in her inner court?
This unlucky Scholar Fu, no matter what, had passed the top exam, and his skills likely didn't fall behind Mathias. Last night, she and Emory talked about him. After finishing her work today, she should go meet this Scholar Fu and see if he could become her second backup secretary or maybe help in another "department."
As these thoughts ran through her mind, Elara looked at the people sitting at the tables. They held brushes and were writing quickly on the thick bamboo slips, recording refugee information and asking questions from time to time.
The people doing the records were older and wore servant clothing like what Elara had seen the day before. They were the old servants who had stayed in this business estate from the start.
Damon, behind her, explained, "There was no one else at the estate, so I had to ask these old servants to help record the information. Luckily, they came from the Pei Family estate and had received some education. They know how to read and can write basic characters."
As he spoke, Damon glanced at Mathias, who silently followed Elara on the other side.
Mathias just watched the busy old servants with no expression on his face, as if he didn't hear what Damon said.
In this time, people who could read and write were extremely rare. If even a servant could do so, it meant they had served a very wealthy and noble family.
The Pei Family might have declined, but their ancestors were important ministers in the Plumera State for generations. Their foundation was strong. Even these old servants, who had stayed behind to watch over the abandoned estate, had the skills to read and write.
Elara nodded as she listened.
But in her mind, she thought that raising education levels was really necessary. When she had the means in the future, she would slowly spread basic education across ancient Plumera.
Let people in this old era get a taste of the modern five-year exams and three-year practice papers… hmm…
But that idea would take time.
Right now, she needed to solve the problem with those heavy bamboo slips.
Damon's worry earlier wasn't wrong. That huge pile of bamboo slips might only have a few people's info, but the pile was already giving her a headache.
And that wasn't the worst of it. In the future, as the estate grew and more people came, the amount of bamboo needed for records would also grow. She'd have to find places to store them and search through them later to make changes it would be too much trouble.
So the issue of paper had to be handled soon. Otherwise, not only would it be hard and expensive to promote education in the future, but even her daily tasks…
The four old servants who were busy recording and checking refugee information finally noticed Elara and the others arriving. They quickly tried to put down their bamboo slips to bow to them, but Elara stopped them.
She walked forward and glanced at the densely written bamboo slips in their hands. Elara told them to continue recording, then kept walking toward the entrance of the merchant estate.
Right after passing the four old servants, she saw another long line.
This line was much closer to the merchant estate compared to the ones outside. It stretched from behind the four recording tables all the way to the entrance of the estate.
Elara guessed this must be the second step of checking if any refugees had caught a disease.
She kept walking and saw, about twenty or thirty meters from the entrance, a young medicine assistant with a white cloth wrapped around his face.
The assistant had his sleeves rolled up and was busy checking the refugees standing in line. Beside him was another old servant recording the situation on bamboo slips, and a few younger servants dressed like guards.
Elara looked closely and realized this assistant was the same medicine boy who had been beside Oswyn at the princess's estate the day before.
The medicine boy was alone and clearly overwhelmed, sweating all over.
Even when Elara and the other two walked nearby, he didn't notice them, staying focused on checking the refugees in front of him.
The refugees he checked were divided into three groups.
The first group were those who looked mentally and physically fine. These people were allowed to enter the merchant estate, meaning they were not infected.
The old servant beside him would write down their names and place a check mark before letting them go in to wait.
The second group were those he shook his head at. The young guards standing nearby would come forward and take them to an area about a hundred meters away, marked off and separated from others.
These people's mental and physical condition clearly wasn't as good as the first group.
The third group were those who looked obviously unwell. They were taken directly to a nearby horse-drawn cart, already prepared in advance.
Once the cart was full, it would leave the area with those people inside.
Damon noticed Elara's eyes looking at the nearly full cart and explained:
"The people on the cart are judged to be very likely infected. They'll be taken back to the princess's estate, where Young Master Oswyn will take over."
Elara nodded, then looked at the area a hundred meters away where people were sitting or standing.
"Those are the ones the medicine boy said need to be quarantined. If they're still fine by tomorrow morning, they can enter the estate."
Elara raised her eyebrows and nodded again. Though she didn't speak, Damon could tell from her reaction that she approved of the arrangement.
The medicine boy was working alone and had no time to notice the new observers nearby.
After watching for a while, Elara didn't stay long and kept walking toward the estate's main gate.
Inside the merchant estate, things were completely different from the peaceful atmosphere the day before.
Now, within a hundred meters from the entrance, many groups of people were either sitting or standing, divided by type.
Near each group stood a few people managing them. Only a few were the estate's original servants, while most of them looked just like the refugees.
It was clear these temporary managers had been picked from the refugee crowd itself.
"Because there weren't enough people in the estate," Damon explained, "when more people were let in, I temporarily selected those who had some experience in managing others. Later, we'll arrange them properly."
That seemed like a good plan.
Elara looked at the different groups and saw that around each group, thick piles of wood and straw were burning.
Thin white smoke floated in the air. Elara narrowed her eyes, staring at the burning straw and sniffing the strong medicinal scent in the air.
She barely recognized it as a kind of herb.
[Master, the burning stuff is indeed medicine. It's similar to mugwort on Earth. It helps kill germs, reduce inflammation, and prevents disease.]
Damon, walking behind her, explained the same thing. He said it was the medicine boy's way of preventing infection and accidents.
Then he pointed to the refugee groups and introduced each one to her:
"This group is the largest. Most of them are strong young adults between sixteen and thirty.
They used to work in the fields for their families. But after losing their homes and land, they had no choice but to wander with their loved ones.
I plan to make them the main force for guards, fighters, and trainees you wanted. Depending on their individual conditions, I'll divide them further later and assign them to various tasks in the estate."
"This group is made up of women skilled in weaving, crafts, and detailed work.
You said earlier that anyone good with handicrafts could be useful. So I placed them here first, and we'll organize them more based on your needs."
"This group has the fewest people," Damon said as he led her to the smallest group.
These refugees were a bit different. Though still called refugees, if one looked closely, their clothes and fabric weren't too bad.
Some even had spots of dirt on clothing that looked expensive before.