Sword of Dawnbreaker - Chapter 45

Chapter 45: The First Step In The Plan

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Gawain could not explain the plans he had in mind and his considerations to others— even if it was to Rebecca and Herti, who were the most trustworthy people, he was unable to explain his thoughts clearly. Hence, the only thing he could do was to break down his big long-term plans into stages and small details, then slowly put them together.

What was done today could be said to be one of the most fundamental parts, even for the development of this territory.

However, to Rebecca and Herti, Gawain showed them the most unbelievable side of the commoners and serfs.

They had never seen commoners and serfs work so passionately and finish jobs that they would never have done so well and expertly in the past.

They attributed it to Gawain’s promise of, ‘meat at night’ motivating these people, and it was rightly so.

It was still too early to motivate them by building confidence and pride in their work. A meal with meat was the simplest and most efficient way to motivate passion for labor.

After returning to the central tent, Gawain found some paper and jotted down some things. At the same time, he gave Knight Bryon who had followed him in, some instructions. “Send two people to cook ten servings of meat. Also, make sure that everyone working has enough vegetable soup and black bread. We have enough rations. We can’t have anyone falling sick due to cold or hunger in the early stages of developing this territory.”

“Are we really going to prepare ten servings of meat?” Bryon asked, slightly shocked.

“Of course. I have to fulfill my promise. Is there a problem?” Gawain replied assuredly.

“I thought you were just going to boil a pot of meat soup,” Bryon explained. “You only need to boil a large pot of soup with a few pieces of meat cut into the size of a walnut and vegetables and those people would be grateful.”

“Do as I say.” Gawain waved his hands. “I will not allow any cutting of corners on the promises that I have made. Oh yes, ask the cooks to set up the pot at the most conspicuous location in the camp, I want everyone to see the cooking of the meat. At the same time, make sure there are soldiers maintaining order by the sides to prevent people from fighting and snatching.”

Knight Bryon bowed with a slightly weird expression before he received the order and left.

Gawain felt that there was someone looking at him from the side and he turned his head to find Amber looking at him with unblinking eyes.

“What are you looking at?” He moved his neck uncomfortably. “Is there something on my face?”

“I was trying to see if you were possessed by something that would affect your mind while you were in the vault, but it does not seem like it,” Amber said with a serious face. “I have never heard of nobles who would reduce their wealth on their own accord…”

Gawain was slightly amused. “Do you think that I am reducing my wealth with those actions?”

“Isn’t it?” Amber shrugged her shoulders. “By freeing serfs, it means that they only need to give you a portion of the food that they grow in the future. You also need to pay them with money from your own pocket… would a noble do that?”

“If I ordered you to paint the wall, how much would you be able to do in a day if I didn’t give you money.”

Amber pondered over it. “I would steal some coins from you and hire a person who does odd jobs to do the job for me and use the remaining money to buy liquor!”

“… Why am I even bothering to reason with an ultimate scumbag like you?” Said Gawain.

“How am I an ultimate scumbag?!” Amber replied.

Just then, Herti walked into the tent, interrupting Amber’s outburst. She was still in disbelief and said, “Ancestor, this is absolutely unbelievable. They have never worked so hard before – especially those serfs, there isn’t even a need for a supervisor to make sure they get the work done…”

“That’s because they were only working for their lords previously. Now, their work is closely linked to the food that they receive,” Gawain said without feeling surprised. “This is just the first step and you can see that compared to the extra food and money we have to give out, we are receiving so much more.”

“I once considered motivating them to work as well, just not to this extent.” Herti shook her head. “I dare not to envision how the future of the territory would be like if this system is continued.”

Gawain smiled. “It will definitely progress in the right direction; you only need to trust me. Besides, what I have done today is just the first step. Come over and look at these…”

He had been writing and drawing on a few pieces of paper since just now. Amber had taken a few glances at them previously before finding them boring and quickly lost interest. Now that Herti heard Gawain’s instruction, she immediately walked over dutifully. “What’s… this?”

The paper was filled with sentences which she could not understand. They looked more like a bunch of nonsensical terms, for example: work teams, competition and contract jobs, assessment methods and efficiency statistics. There were also mid-term plans written on other pieces of paper, with words like general education, magical power affinity tests, bringing in of human talents which were even harder to understand.

“These are ideas I came up with during this period of time, but I never had the chance to implement them before this. Now that the development of the territory has started, these things should be on the agenda.” Gawain pointed to the piece of paper at the top. “Some of these things are probably hard to understand for many of the commoners and serfs so I want to tell you first. After which you can tell Knight Bryon and the people in charge before sharing it to everyone repeatedly. Oh, where is Rebecca?”

“She… is helping to burn the weeds and shrubs at the southern side of the river,” Herti said. “This is also one of the ways in which she does magical training usually.”

Gawain quirked up the corners of his mouth. “Ask her to come as well, the big fireball training can be done at any time.”

Rebecca was called in quickly. This lady viscount’s face was all black and she was covered with a smoky smell. Rather than magic training, she seemed more like she had just climbed out from the kitchen- it was no wonder she only knew the big fireball trick until now.

“I want to talk to you two about the upcoming work shifts in camp.” Gawain laid out his plans and explained carefully. “Firstly, the work teams – I want the workers to be grouped into teams of five to ten. Work details and rest shifts would be done in teams…”

“All of the teams will report to a supervisor before they start and after work. The supervisors will then collate the performance of the teams. Also, every team will have a team leader who will be in charge of assigning jobs within the team…”

“The team leader will be chosen by the team. Tell them that the team leader is not fixed. If a team leader is affecting their work efficiency, lying or hiding things from the supervisors and lords in any way, they will be replaced immediately.”

“I will elaborate on how teams will be assessed based on their work efficiency, team rewards and punishments and how the meritocratic and competition systems work later…”

“As for the points system that I mentioned, considering how most people are illiterate and cannot count, Herti, you will be noting down the work completion of the different teams for now. We can discuss the specific contribution points at a later time…”

“Next, we still have to discuss how to record the taking and returning of the tools by the various teams.”

Gawain said so much in one breath that not only Rebecca, even Herti was feeling dizzy. The latter looked blankly at Gawain who was talking and writing at the same time. The papers which only had a title previously were quickly filled with messy scribbles. “Ancestor, by making a simple job so complicated, wouldn’t the efficiency… be lowered?” Herti could not help but ask as she was confused by his decision.

“These measures may seem complicated, but in the end it’s just the commoners and serfs. They only need to work fast and well to benefit from it. Once they reap the rewards, they will naturally follow the measures conscientiously, and once they do that, you will experience a much more alarming efficiency than the tent pitching today. Of course, it may be a little difficult when we first push out the measures. That is why you need to keep publicizing and explaining the measures. Other than that we have to enforce and spread these measures forcefully. There is no need to explain—just tell them, this is a new law in Cecil territories.”

At this time, Gawain could not help but be slightly thankful for how backward these times were instead. With unadvanced ideologies, it did not matter whether they were free citizens or serfs; they felt that it was natural to follow commands. To them, whatever the lord said had to be right and there was no room for resistance from the ‘lower class’. In such situations, many of his ideas could be implemented without further explanations…

However, that was not what Gawain wanted. His motive was to change this situation, such that every member of the ‘lower class’ in Cecil territory was not a lower class anymore, but a living, breathing human.

He needed people, many people.

Because what he wanted to do was impossible to be done with the might of just one person.

Hence, he wanted Herti to publicize the measures repeatedly while they were spreading and enforcing them. It did not matter whether the commoners understood them right now because they would eventually understand one day.

Herti was not stupid, she had enough intelligence, and her understanding had already exceeded that of the current nobles by a great margin. Therefore, after Gawain’s explanation and giving it some thought, she could somewhat understand the meaning behind his actions and thus agreed.

“What about me?” Seeing how Aunt Herti had a task, Rebecca could not contain her excitement and asked excitedly. “What am I here for?”

This lady viscount, who was the lady feudal lord of the Cecil territories previously, was already completely at ease with being Gawain’s assistant by this time.

“Bring some people tomorrow to check the soil quality. Confirm the difficulty of opening up new land and how much land we can open up in the early stages of development. Don’t go too far.”

As he talked, Gawain drew a rough map on a piece of white paper quickly. The map had the river at the center of a big piece of land, with a few markers indicating the distance between various locations. Even though they were just contour lines that could not even be considered as sketches, it was enough to cause Rebecca to go into a daze.

“Just follow this boundary- ignore those areas outside the boundary for now.”

Rebecca received the “map” with a blurry expression. “Oh… oh…”

Amber, who was beside Gawain, looked at him as though he was a monster. “You… Was everyone in the age of the Second Settlement a monster?”

After thinking for a while and figuring that it was unlikely for the other old guys from 700 years ago to jump out from their graves and correct him, he decided to be nonsensical and said, “Yeah, being able to draw the map of half a kingdom while closing our eyes was the standard for us back then.”

“…”