Chương 170: Efficiency

I spent the next two days as efficiently as I could. For the rest of the first day, I helped with the guild. It was the most important part to get right, otherwise, nothing here would be sustainable. More importantly, we needed the potions. Even if we couldn't refine them, I knew we could send them to the front lines as they were and it'd be incredibly helpful. But there had to be other people inside Gate, or west of Gate, who would buy our well-water and use it as the base to a powerful potion.

Idnulf showed the boys how to find the best ground to dig wells, and Cynuise helped them lay stones along the walls. She showed them how to mix mortar and how to pick the right stones, and how to set them in the bottom of the well even when it began filling with groundwater. I would've wanted to learn the intricacies of wellmaking myself, but I wasn't going to be doing much well-making, and it was far more important to find more recruits.

I told Romance to look out for the hardest workers while they were building the wall, and by the evening of the first day, he'd gathered up about thirty of them. I stood in front of the workers, heels hanging over the edge of the sandy patch we were using to stage logs for the palisade wall.

"If you would like, I am offering all of you a position in the Hyrdford Supply Guild," I told them.

"You don't have to accept, and this is not an order. However, the pay will be generous, and you won't have to perform any unpaid work. Your first payments will come at the end of the month. By now, I'm sure you've all heard where we've gotten our funds from…" Although we didn't have any supplies moving yet, we would have most of Tunmod and Jaruwain's wealth that we could use to keep the guild alive in the early days. We just needed to sell off some of it to actually get the loose sceats.

It wasn't like the two of them just sat around on a massive treasure vault.

"At the moment, I am keeping control of the guild, however, I am looking for someone to act as a deputy to manage everything while I'm gone. If you join me, you will have a chance to rise through the guild ranks." I stepped forward a few paces, then added, "If you would like to join us, then meet me at the guild hall tomorrow morning, and we will get your paperwork sorted out."

"Sir," a young man began, stepping forward.

"How do you plan to keep us safe from the remaining gophers?"

"We know you killed most of them, but there are a few of them left, aren't there?" asked a woman with work gloves and a hair bonnet.

"A few," I agreed.

"That's why we're training guards. Their first exercise, tomorrow, will be guarding the well we just dug. We will protect the guild, and that's a promise." I paused, then pulled the sheet of parchment out of my pocket, which Elf had scrawled a set of calculations on. He was no master accountant, but he was better than me and he knew more about what things cost than I did. Assuming we could sell alchemical supplies at the rate he projected, we'd have enough income to pay fifty workers two gold sceats a year.

Twice the average income of a farmer. That had to be enough to attract new recruits. Of course, if we didn't reinvest some of the gold, we could raise their wages to four gold sceats, but two was more than fair already, and the last thing I needed was to crash the local economy by flooding it with gold. (That might have been an overblown concern coming from my modern life, though, because gold couldn't spread as quickly in a world like this, compared to back home. It would probably be more difficult to crash the economy on a large scale.) Still, more importantly, we needed to use the rest of the gold to grow the guild. We would need to buy equipment and storehouses. We would need places to keep the weak potions once we pulled them from the ground and a system to distribute them to buyers, and none of that was free. Some of the recruits looked at each other with skeptical gazes, but I let them be.

I was more interested in the ones who wanted to join, regardless of the danger of gophers or economic uncertainty.

"You're dismissed," I said.

"Consider the offer." After my meeting with the potential recruits, I headed to the barracks with Romance and Elf, where the combat-suitable recruits were training. As we walked, Romance whispered to me, "Are you sure we should be appointing women to positions within the guild or in the local guard?" I shrugged.

"We will need all the hands we can get, and if they're willing, I don't see why not. You've already seen how Cynuise works, and she's more than capable." Yeah, this world had its ways, and I didn't need to upend every single tradition, but I also needed all hands on deck.

"We will set physical standards. If they can meet it, and they are capable of following orders and all that, then I don't care who they are. We need people who are willing to help." If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Romance nodded slowly. Elf said, "You will still need someone to manage the homes here, sir. To raise children and look after the city."

"It is important." I gulped.

"I—yeah. Yes. But I'll give people the choice, and we'll see what they choose. It's more important to get people working. No one's going to care about quotas, as long as the tasks get done." Taking qualified people who were willing to work and fight was key to our survival. All would have to work together to defeat the orcs. Elf and Romance shared a skeptical glance.

"We can hash out the details later," I said, "and frankly, we can worry about it once we've won. Until then, though, we need to win." Although the sun was setting, the recruits were still training. We walked down an aisle in the central atrium of the garrison. The barracks wrapped around the outside, enclosing a gravel pit in the middle, where the Dupes had marked out sparring circles. Still, even this late at night, the recruits, in their regular tunics and pants, were still training.

Dupes patrolled around, giving them advice and helping them, making sure they didn't hurt anyone. However, as we walked past, speaking, we passed a young woman whittling away at a wooden training sword.

"Sir Levi, does that mean I can join in?"

"You heard?" I asked. She smiled brightly.

"I couldn't help it."

"If you're willing to fight to protect your home, that's what matters," I told her.

"I'm sure we can find someone else willing to make training weapons for us, can't we?" Romance nodded.

"Then yes, tomorrow morning, you can join in," I told her.

"Thank you, sir!"

"What are the physical standards going to be?" Elf whispered.

"Man or woman, most of our recruits are skinny as a twig." I stopped and held my tongue, then exhaled.

"Let's set a training period. When it comes to food, our number one priority is feeding the potential recruits. They have two months to train. I know it's not much, but we'll do what we can for them. With the one squad of Dupes we leave behind, they'll be our judges when the training period is up. The recruits must all complete a training course, and complete a sparring challenge. They must win at least five out of ten sparring matches they take part in." Elf said, "I'll make a note of it immediately, sir."

~ ~ ~ The second day went similarly, except I had to choose someone to act as my deputy in the guild while I was gone. I had a sheet of parchment, and I carried around a clipboard and a charcoal pencil with me to make notes about the candidates. Eadgeat, though he was young, was performing admirably. But he was just too young. In time, he'd gain the experience he needed, but I couldn't put him in charge right away. Sure, he might have had the willingness to learn about making wells.

He didn't have the same ability to handle people like some of the older recruits, though. Throughout the day, I had a list of three potential candidates. I rated them on loyalty, first and foremost. The last thing I needed was a deputy who betrayed me. To judge that, I gave them tasks where they had to move sceats or other valuables for me, or had to deliver unpleasant orders that they didn't necessarily want to.

I kept an eye on them the entire time, checking to see how hard they worked, and looking for signs of disloyalty. Questioning orders was fine, but changing them or trying to dodge the task wasn't. It all felt a little slimy, but at least Brawl wasn't here to complain. He was busy helping build the wall. Besides, I never made them do anything that would hurt them. Then came organization skills—if we were going to grow the guild, we would need to stay organized. That was easy enough to judge just by watching.

The last criteria was 'people' skills. How well did they interact with the others? Were they a natural leader? By the evening, I narrowed it down to three candidates. I raised my pencil, about to force myself to make a decision, when someone yelped behind me. Then an impact and a grunt. I spun around. A pair of recruits circled each other, forearms raised in a fighting position.

"Hey!" I shouted, about to rush over, but I stopped. Before I could arrive, Hardric—the man who had introduced me to Idnulf and Cynuise—intercepted them. He was twenty-five, ish, with long brown hair and a stubbly beard. Though he was slender, he had the frame to bulk up, given proper nutrition. Hardric. I glanced down at my criteria sheet. He had performed well throughout the day, and he took charge often, though he was ranked second (based on his slightly gruff personality).

Still, I watched carefully, curious what he would do. He pushed the two recruits apart and snapped, "What are you two doing?" They gave some explanation, but it boiled down to them being from two rival cliques who'd formed in the absence of work. The foundations of a gang—if we'd let things get bad enough here, I was certain it would've become a gang. That was in the days of Tunmod's rule, though.

"Those groups don't matter anymore," Hardric told them.

"You can't let it split you. You can't. We're here for the guild now. So shut your mouths" A light hand at first—for Hardric, that was. But the two boys didn't stop. Hardric stomped in between them, physically separating them, and said, "Sir Levi is watching. If you don't stop, he will remove you two dustbrains from the guild. And he would be right to. These fights don't belong here." Stern, forceful. Demanding that they behave in a civilized manner.

I made a note of it in my ranking list, boosting all of Hardric's points.