"You want a job? I'm sorry, but right now there's only street cleaning," the bureaucrat said.
Street cleaning literally meant clearing filth from the streets.
But I wanted to try it because I was curious about how to use the Manager Scouter.
Its name sounded like something straight out of Dragon Ball.
"Sir, this isn't work suitable for a knight."
"I urgently need money, so give me a job."
"That's tricky. Hmm, then can you write, by any chance?" the bureaucrat asked.
"I can read and write."
I'd never learned German, yet I knew German and its script.
I didn't know if it was system correction, but it felt very natural, and I could read even difficult text without hesitation.
I even knew Latin, because I understood what the bishop was rattling off in Latin at Church Mass. However, it wasn't very enriching content (Alleluia!), so I often dozed off in the middle.
"Oh, then how about working as a site supervisor?" the bureaucrat asked.
"I just manage the site and workers?"
I had worked for 8 years as a site manager at an electronics factory. From raw materials to production planning, quality control, to finished products, I still took pride in the fact that products that passed through my hands were sold worldwide. So site management was my strongest suit. However, personnel management might be a bit trickier.
Originally, this street cleaning was one of the jobs handled by the executioner clan.
I'd seen them on the street once. They wore distinctive red coats and had unique symbols, and people kept well away from them. They had to eat or drink tucked away in corners, and activities outside designated areas were strictly prohibited.
Even those who unknowingly sat alongside them were dismissed from work and sometimes took their own lives.
Living under such social discrimination and unable to even reside in the city, relegated to the outskirts, the executioner clan was surprisingly wealthy. Because they were mobilized for dirty and menial work, they earned more money than commoners. At least living a life free from starvation, it might have been better than being a commoner.
If you could endure the contempt and discrimination.
"The execution date was set, so they can't work this week, so we were urgently hiring temporary workers. I didn't expect a knight to show up. I was going to handle the supervisor work myself, so this is a relief," the bureaucrat said.
"So it's a temporary job for a week? Have many workers shown up?"
"There are many applicants, but the problem is choosing—I can't tell which ones are good workers."
Since the executioners weren't available, the poor had poured out in droves to apply. So I had to select 10 workers, but not knowing who among them would actually work hard, the bureaucrat had been at a loss when I showed up. So I activated the Manager Scouter I'd been given.
There were two functions: I could view history (name, age, affiliation, address) and status (health, mindset, disposition, relationships). Since I could check the most basic personal information, I used this function to select only those with diligence and honesty dispositions, regardless of origin.
"I want to select these 10 people. Can you grant me that much authority?" I said.
"Though temporary, you're the site supervisor, so I'll grant you that much authority."
Since they were workers to be hired anyway, the bureaucrat hired according to my selections. The workers were bewildered that I had personally picked them, but since I selected people with the drive to work hard based on those traits, the site I'd be managing would run quite smoothly. Work should go easily.
"Please deal harshly with anyone who slacks off. You can use your sword."
Because I was a noble knight, there would be no consequences even if I killed a pauper.
That's why the bureaucrat made such a request. Rule with fear.
"But which area is my district?"
"Alleys 6 through 10 south of Linz Boulevard."
Linz Boulevard was the boulevard extending to Breisburg's west gate, and directly across to the south was where the poor residential area, brothel district, and slums were located, so it was extremely dirty with poor public safety. Wouldn't 10 people be insufficient to clean 5 alleys?
So when I asked if I could hire more, the bureaucrat balked.
Since they'd already hired me as supervisor, there was no additional allocation.
"When cleaning is finished, just send someone to fetch me."
The departing bureaucrat had a noticeable spring in his step. If there had been no help and he had been juggling the supervisor role himself, of course it would have been hard. I knew the feeling of passing off work with relief all too well. When I had worked as a manager at the company, whenever a new employee came in, I'd offload one of my tasks onto them.
That much of the workload disappeared, so of course it felt good.
Still, bureaucrat, try not to look so pleased.
Anyway, now only 10 workers remained, standing idle and waiting for instructions. The fortunate thing was that I had experience as a manager. The power of experience was invaluable. If I'd had no experience, I wouldn't have known what to tell them and would have been flustered too. I headed to the cleaning area with them.
Perhaps because it was an area with poor public safety, it was extremely dirty and teeming with beggars. Beggars seemed to be in every alley. More than the filth thrown from windows, it was the beggars and Romani who dirtied the alleys the most. Living in the alleys, they discarded all kinds of waste.
Most beggars weren't from the capital. Checking their history with the Manager Scouter, the majority were free men who had migrated from the provinces. And peculiarly, some of them had something called a beggar's license, while the rest had none.
What's a beggar's license? A qualification to beg?
First, I cleared the beggars and Romani out of the cleaning area. All kinds of complaints flew, but they didn't have the nerve to defy me while I was wearing a sword. Besides, I was a temporary supervisor officially carrying out public duties. They could be arrested for disobeying instructions, so it was best to comply. I warned them quite firmly but fairly.
"Divide into pairs of 2, have 4 teams gather filth, and 1 team collect it to fill sacks."
"Wouldn't it be faster if 2 people handled each alley?" one of the workers piped up.
"Just follow my instructions without arguing. Then we can finish quickly."
Giving instructions decisively, 2 people grouped together to make 5 teams, and I deployed 4 teams to Alley 6 to gather filth. The remaining team transferred the gathered filth into sacks. This was division of labor. Doing it this way was easier to manage and more efficient. The alley was cleaned in 30 minutes.
"This should be enough?"
There were no slackers, and since they were workers I'd handpicked for their honesty and diligence, they cleaned very hard. That's how we cleaned 5 alleys in 3 hours. But as soon as cleaning ended, beggars and Romani flocked in and reclaimed their spots as if they'd been waiting. What the hell.
"What, you already finished cleaning?" the bureaucrat sputtered.
The bureaucrat, summoned by someone I'd sent, was bewildered at being called earlier than expected. He just blinked, looking back and forth between the cleaning area and the filth piled high in sacks.
Normally, human concentration lasts about an hour at most, but I used the scouter to deploy labor where it was needed most and systematically, relentlessly drove the cleaning forward through division of labor. Naturally, good results followed. Division of labor was simple yet effective.
Completing the repetitive quest, I earned a hefty 200 points and 200 copper coins and received 100 copper coins as a work allowance, which was quite decent. The bureaucrat asked me to stay on as street cleaning supervisor for the time being. So I could keep the position until the executioner clan returned.
Originally, I didn't train after 6 PM, but adding an occupation quest meant evening training sessions were inevitable. As a result, my reading time shrank. However, I couldn't neglect training.
Though only a week, the points and copper coins earned were quite substantial. And the biggest gain was learning how to use something called a scouter. Looking at the rough exchange rate, 1 silver coin worked out neatly to 1,000 copper coins.
In reality, medieval exchange rates varied wildly by region with no fixed standard, but the fact that this came out so neatly seemed to have some convenient game logic behind it.
For reference, a gold coin was 1,000 silver coins.
Because it's a world created based on a game?
Generally, a commoner's annual living expenses were about 8 silver coins. Before the Black Death, it had been only around 5 coins, and life had been that difficult, but after the Black Death, when the labor supply shrank drastically and workers became scarce, taxes dropped and employment costs rose, making commoners' lives much better.
However, buildings required strict government office approval, and they levied a tax for installing windows, a tax for adding doors, a tax for placing furnaces, and a tax for digging wells. In villages, even using the mill and oven required paying a fee.
They taxed all alcohol served at taverns and even collected inheritance tax, marriage tax, and funeral tax. However, it was true that the amounts had decreased, easing commoners' burden. Before the Black Death, they said wives were offered up because families couldn't pay the marriage tax. That was one of the misunderstandings about prima nocta.
Nobles paid no taxes. However, there was a war tax temporarily levied when war broke out with other countries or regions. If you participated in mobilization, you paid less war tax, and if you refused mobilization, you paid more. If war broke out now, I couldn't participate in mobilization, so I'd be hit with a heavy war tax.