Chapter: 21-Visiting the Water Clan
***
Venhorst Castle
In Fernando's office, a sigh echoed, but one, another, again, after so much sighing, anger began to emerge, Felicia looked at the stack of documents in front of her as if she was looking at a powerful enemy.
The organization of the territory was important, as a bearer of the medallion, she had to fulfill her responsibilities and leave everything in order.
Felicia never had an open mind for administration, in front of her was a stack of documents that piled up until it reached about half a meter high, she did not understand what the document was portraying, even though it was written in the same language that she was fluent in, she did not understand a single word.
Felicia read one of the documents on the table, the words confused her completely, even Ceto trying to help her she was even more confused, for Felicia dealing with administrative cases, it was like a talented athlete, who was at the top of his country, being placed as a local administrator, without any training there was nothing he could do.
Of course, Felicia was a superior being, to reach this level, the accumulation of knowledge and life experience is undoubtedly surprising, but her knowledge was based on combat arts, elementary knowledge, some geographical and military knowledge, if she were somewhere else, her knowledge would be well used, but in the administrative office, she was lost.
It's been a week since Fernando left on his trip, during this time Felícia did everything she could to get John's medal, but to her disappointment, her nephew was as inflexible as a mountain.
Felicia wanted to earn some money from managing the territory, she wanted to keep the money to a minimum for John and Alex's evolution, but to her sadness, everything was different from her imagination.
First John didn't give her his medal, second she had a lot of work to do, in her mind, she would get John's medal with some tricks, then she would increase the territory's taxes in the same proportion that, she deducted the added percentage, in two years, she would have enough money for at least half of a ritual.
With her plan, Felicia would reduce her costs by at least 30%, she felt defeated and discouraged, just economic terms, the numbers and graphs made her head buzz, she decided to throw in the towel.
There was an agreement between the medal bearers, whoever best handled the administrative affairs of the Venhorst territory would have two medals in their possession and would become the interim lord.
Catarina was the first, she lasted only one day in the office and threw the towel on the floor, surrendering and abandoning the competition, this time it would be Felícia's turn, after 5 days without understanding anything, she also threw the white rubble on the floor symbolizing her surrender.
Felicia looked dejectedly at Ceto who was standing faithfully in the corner of the office and said.
-Keto, I give up
She lowered her head as her words left her mouth, at this point, her hair was disheveled and she had dark circles under her eyes, so she thought it would be John's turn now, she wanted to know how long a child as unyielding as a mountain would last in this office, a smile appeared on her face.
There was still hope for her to carry out her plan, as soon as John threw in the towel, she would tempt John with more benefits, at this point she was looking forward to her stubborn nephew's failure.
-Okay, I'll stay here, now you're going to work with John.
Ceto nodded, he was happy in his heart, these past few days he had been on edge, no matter how many times he explained to the two women, it was as if he was speaking a different language.
Ceto thought that his young lord would last at most a day just like his mother, without any expression on his face, Ceto spoke.
-As you wish.
Felicia left the office and went to announce her surrender to the other two carriers.
***
John and Catarina were studying theoretical magic. Over the past week, John tried everything to get his mother's medal. However, no matter what his plans, Catarina didn't give in. Gradually, he began to understand what was happening.
It wasn't that Catarina didn't want to give him the medal, it was that Catarina couldn't, he didn't know why, but he decided not to insist and put Catarina in a dilemma.
John thought of another way to get a second medal, the answer was, Felicia his greedy aunt, Felicia, tried to get her own medal, so how would he get her medal?
John thought of several possible answers, Felicia was greedy and John had no money to bribe her, she would only listen to John if he was stronger than Felicia, or if John was made of gold or elementary Christians.
John thought of a competition that everyone had a chance of winning, considering that he seemed like just a stubborn child in his aunt's eyes, she most likely underestimated him, so he suggested the following: whoever best managed the territory would be awarded an additional medal.
Catarina and Felicia agreed immediately. Felicia never considered John a competitor. It was logical that anyone with a brain would automatically disqualify John. After all, it doesn't matter if a child is intelligent; due to his age, there wasn't much to learn, and his life experience would be even more regrettable.
John and Catarina, the two were having their outdoor class in the castle garden, when a fiery figure wearing red clothes made of leather approached, the figure was an attractive woman with black hair and beautiful features on her face, even with dark circles she was still beautiful, a mischievous smile was engraved on her face.
-Sister-in-law, nephew, are you still studying? On such a beautiful day.
Catarina looked at Felícia and a hint of respect flashed in her eyes, she closed the elementary magic book in her hand, she felt respect for her sister-in-law, she lasted a day and Felícia lasted 4 days longer than her, inside Fernando's office.
-Did you finally give up?
-At least I lasted longer than you, sister-in-law
When Felicia spoke, she looked triumphant, as if lasting longer in the office was a great achievement. John looked at the two women and laughed inwardly.
The two talked a little more for a while, then two pairs of eyes fixed on John's body, the two had different thoughts, Felicia smiled and said.
-John, now it's your turn, I want to see how long you will last, I hope you last a little longer than your mother.
John nodded unperturbed, he stood up and asked very calmly.
-Mom , can I go now?
Catarina nodded saying.
- You can go now, we're done for today.
Felicia arched her eyebrow, John was too calm, it wasn't what she expected, but that was also good, so Felicia would see this look and calm attitude turn into confusion, anger and despair, she then smiled and decided to ignore John's attitude.
John got up and slowly walked into the Castle, into the garden Felicia intended to follow John, when Catarina's voice reached her from behind.
-Sister-in-law, it's better not to follow him, you might be surprised.
In Catarina's words, Felicia could detect a bit of playfulness, mystery, seriousness, and expectation. Felicia didn't take it seriously. Who could surprise her these days? At this point in her life, what hasn't she seen yet?
Catarina didn't move from the garden, she remained seated watching John walk away, Fernando's words echoed in her head, she smiled and no one knew what she was thinking.
When John arrived at the room, he asked a maid to call Iza, after all she was his secretary and he enjoyed the wolf girl's company.
Felicia had already reached John in the room, a small silhouette approached, Isa's face blossomed into a beautiful smile when she saw John smiling at her, now Isa was wearing beautiful clothes, even though they were ordinary clothes she was still beautiful, she wore a short blue and white dress with long socks, her eyes were beautiful like the blue of the sky, her hair was very well combed.
Iza bowed to Felícia and greeted her, John looked at him, stroked his hair and asked.
-Iza, how are you? How are your mother and aunt?
Iza replied with a sparkle in her eyes.
-I'm fine, mom and aunt are fine too.
-That's good, what about your mother's illness?
Iza's expression changed a little, but it was only for a second, John noticed, she said still with childish joy.
-Mother is recovering, thanks to the potions, the illness has not affected her as usual, now she can walk, even if it is only for a short time, aunt and I have been taking very good care of mother.
Felicia gave a fake cough in response, John rolled his eyes and spoke in a soft voice.
-Iza, today we're going to spend the day at the office, I'm going to really need your help.
When Iza heard that John would need her help, she was happy, she was a maid assigned to serve John in the castle, this gave her a high status among the maids, but she did almost nothing to serve John
Felicia cleared her throat again with a fake cough. She didn't want to see children dating in front of her. She just wanted to know how long John could last inside the office.
-Let's go
John headed to the office and Felicia followed her, Iza was right behind them both.
Ceto had been waiting for a while, when the three entered he greeted them, John sat in the most prestigious place, Fernando's place.
Fernando's office was large and could accommodate up to 10 people at a time. There were 6 chairs in the office, 2 were between the secretary and the other 4 were in the corner next to the bookshelves.
John settled down to feel comfortable, at only 7 years old he was very short, he asked Iza to bring some pillows that he piled on the lord's chair, it looked funny, but no one laughed.
John respected Ceto a lot, he saw him as if he were his uncle, he wanted to call Ceto uncle, but the latter refused, Ceto also liked John and saw him as a son, but Como was very humble and greatly respected the hierarchy imposed by the kingdom.
John looked at the pile of documents piled up on the table, she hadn't touched them yet, he asked Ceto to sit across from him, he asked.
-Ceto, with just one word, reports the current state of the territory.
Ceto didn't pay attention to John's question, he answered without even thinking.
-Young man, the current state of the territory is -decadent-
John nodded and remained silent, he picked up one of the documents and began to read, the office was silent, even a needle dropping could be heard.
An hour later John finished reading the first document, he read the same document several times, then he moved on to the next, the same process was recorded, one hour of reading for each document, after 6 hours John stood up and said
-Ceto, that's all for today, let's continue tomorrow.
Felicia and Ceto looked at each other, but they didn't understand anything, they both assumed he was joking or something like that, no one would take an hour to read just a single document.
John and Iza left leaving the two adults inside, after the meal John, Alex and Iza played for the rest of the day, both Felicia, Ceto and Catarina, the three paid attention to John's day.
The second day was the same, first John had theoretical magic classes in the morning, then he went to the office and read 6 more documents in a period of 6 hours, after the meal, he played with Iza and Alex.
On the third day, it was October 8th, this was John's birthday, on this day he did not have a birthday party or gifts, this is because due to the economic situation in the territory the birthday party was postponed to a later date in the future.
On this day John did nothing, he spent the day with his mother, Alex and Iza, the four of them visited several beautiful places, with Catarina's flying ark, they flew over several tourist areas.
Since it was his birthday, everything John asked for was granted.
The next day, there was a theoretical magic class, in the office he read 9 documents in 6 hours, then Alex, Iza and John had sword lessons with Felícia, each of them received a wooden sword for practice.
After 5 days John finished reading the entire pile of documents, after three days Felicia stopped accompanying John to the office, she found it tedious, Ceto only stayed because it was part of his obligations, on the contrary Iza didn't mind, she liked spending time with John.
On the sixth day, John, with Iza's help, organized all the documents in a certain order. For Ceto, it was just child's play, he couldn't see any order. Ceto's patience was already at zero, he was fed up. He looked at John and wanted to say something, when John spoke.
-Okay , we're done today, let's continue in the morning.
Ceto sighed, he left and went to Catarina, he complained a little and expressed his discontent.
The next day, Ceto asked before John even began his supposed work.
-Young man, do you know what you're doing? Or is it just the young man coming to have fun with this old man?
Ceto was unhappy, he had already reached his limit, things could not continue like this, he preferred to deal with the administration as he always did in Fernando's absence, there was a lot of pending business, everything was at a standstill and this was the prelude to chaos.
At first, Ceto thought John would play a little and eventually throw in the towel, but John continued playing and wasting everyone's time and patience.
John wasn't fazed by Keto's questions, he was the only one who knew why he acted this way, he knew his behavior was strange, so it was normal to be judged badly.
-Ceto, you don't need to worry, I know perfectly well what I'm doing.
John sat in his usual place. In recent days, he has been understanding the functioning of the territory through the documents, which is why it took him so long to finish reading. As a result, he has updated himself on the administrative economic state of the territory.
In the Venhorst territory, as inside there was the city of Novo Redondo, containing about 40% of the absolute population, then there are the 9 small cities, around Novo Redondo, if you consider the Venhorst territory on earth it would be called a slightly large province, so the 9 cities were like its municipalities.
In the Venhorst territory, there were also mountains, inhabited by beastmen, there was also a large river, called Pindo, which divided the forest from the mountains to the lower regions, in this region, it was inhabited by the water clan, the forest covered most of the territory, yet there were mining caves and agricultural areas that contained a vast area of food production.
In the documents John read, there were rudimentary charts depicting the political and economic hierarchy. In public policy, the order was the lord, the nine noble families, the water clan, and the beastmen, also called barbarians.
In the ecclesiastical hierarchy were the lord, the new families, the merchants, the water clan and the beastmen .
It took John a while to understand his role in the territory, both politically and administratively.
From what John understood, even though it was a monarchical system of government, the regions of the Venhorst territory adopted a subsystem used by democratic countries on earth, in short and concluding, the Venhorst territory was an autarchic territory.
Novo Redondo was the center and determined the general policies, the laws that were in force in the territory were all drawn up by the lord and his advisors, but the regions operated on their own, the rulers could draw up their own laws and policies, under the premise that the laws did not go against the general laws of Novo Redondo.
All the documents were a mess, stacked one on top of the other, so John had to read carefully and organize them, after all he was a Sia agent, not an administrator in his past life.
Before making any decision or implementing any policy, he wanted to be clear about three important points: the current state of the territory, how Ferdinand and the nobles administered the territory, and most importantly, the people's reaction to the government.
Any decision made in the lord's office would affect countless lives whether for good or evil, now John knew the preliminary state of the territory, now he could move at will.
First, organize the document system and implement the order of the lord's office, second, visit the areas of operation, the regions of the territory, the 9 small cities of the water clan, the mountains territory of the beastmen, the mines and the agricultural areas, lastly and most importantly, check the people's reaction to the government.
After he had checked everything, depending on what he found, he would act accordingly. In the documents that John read, he saw numbers that defied mathematics, that is, that did not add up. As he was someone from another world with different knowledge, he feared being wrong, so the best thing was to collect his own data.
John spoke calmly.
-Ceto , I will need all documents listing the entry and exit of natural resources from the territory, a document listing all important administrative positions, stating their corresponding income.
- I want to know about all the influential and important figures in the areas of production, trade and resource exploration.
-Organizes debts and debts.
- I also want to know how lower class people live, their source of income.
continues.....