Van thought he understood the difficulties of recruitment. After all, he had experience applying for jobs and working hard to get hired. He had at least considered how tough it must be for those doing the preparations.
But reality held challenges far beyond what he had imagined.
“…So, this is the job description. Are there any questions?”
Van briefly explained the duties and then asked if anyone had questions. An elderly man sitting at the back of the table nodded deeply.
“It's fine. I used to be a merchant, so I think I can handle it…”
“Oh! That’s reassuring!”
“Well, I was an apprentice for a few years, but still. Hahaha.”
“I-I see.”
“Oh, by the way, Van-sama, could I ask you something?”
“Yes, yes. What is it?”
Before he knew it, the conversation had turned into small talk, and the elderly man spent about fifteen minutes talking about how he had been fighting with his son and hadn’t spoken to him since yesterday. Van also had to deal with other applicants who mentioned they had applied because they thought they could talk with Van-sama, though they didn’t calculate their chances of being hired. Well, it wasn’t the applicants’ fault, but having fans was tough sometimes. Being popular has its challenges.
“Van-sama, you’ve worked hard. Should I call in the next person?”
“Give me... just five minutes of rest...”
“Yes, I’ll let everyone know.”
Til responded with a wry smile before leaving the reception room. From the other side of the door, Van heard Til’s voice: “Van-sama is taking a break! I’ll brew some tea, so please wait a moment!” followed by several people laughing. But Van didn’t mind, too tired to care.
Having interviewed forty people since the morning, it was already noon. The plan was to get through the interviews quickly and finish by the morning, but at this rate, it was going to take until the evening.
“Good job.”
Espada entered with a relaxed expression, holding drinks. He walked in with a silver tray carrying a teacup and teapot. Holding the tray with one hand, Espada looked like a seasoned waiter. His graceful movements would surely make him popular in a butler café.
“Thanks... Next time, let’s prepare a simple test beforehand. Have them read a short passage and write their impressions, then solve a few addition and subtraction problems. We can have only those who pass the test move on to the interview. That would save a lot of time.”
“Hm, that’s a good idea. Normally, that’s what we would do, but I heard you wanted to directly hear from the villagers, Van-sama.”
“Oh, that’s right... I forgot all about that because of the fatigue.”
Van agreed, admitting that he had lost sight of his initial goal. Espada let out a short sigh and glanced over the papers he had compiled.
“Still, we managed to gather a lot of information from the casual conversations. It looks like we’ve found a viable pool of candidates, so I’d say this is a big success.”
“Really? That’s great. There were more people who could read and write than I expected. It was surprising to see even the early villagers of Ceat could do it.”
Even among the Ceat villagers, who had little interaction with outsiders, there were people who could read and write and do basic math. Van was surprised by this, and Espada nodded in agreement.
“In territories where only traveling merchants pass through, it’s difficult to gather information from outsiders. In some places, knights might visit periodically, but if not, the main source of information is conversations with the merchants. Many merchants know how to exploit that situation. Some even deceive villagers. To prevent that, there are a few people in the village who can interact with the merchants. Usually, this responsibility falls to the village chief or their successor. In Ceat Village, apart from the village chief and his son, there were several others who frequently went to neighboring villages for exchanges and shopping. Those people had learned basic reading, writing, and math.”
“Wonderful! I’ll bring some celebratory wine to the village chief later! By the way, what’s Ronda doing right now?”
“Ronda seems to have become good friends with the chiefs of the Apkallu tribe, and he’s often seen drinking tea by the lake.”
“Alright, let’s recruit him as a school teacher. We’re short on teachers too.”
As Van discussed with Espada, Til knocked on the reception room door and peeked inside.
“Umm... Should we resume soon?”
“Oh, sorry. Let’s restart the interviews.”
“Understood!”
Til responded with a bright smile and withdrew. Then, Van heard her calling out, “Everyone! Thank you for your patience! We’ll resume the interviews now!” Her cheerful voice filled the air, and Van felt a bit more energized by her upbeat personality.
Feeling rejuvenated by Til’s bright spirit, Van said, “Alright, let’s do our best.”
“Yes, we have about seventy people left.”
“Wait, what?! It’s increased!?”
Van, having just gathered some energy, was shocked by Espada’s reminder of the reality. It seemed like the interviews might drag on until the evening.
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