Family Meeting ~ The Matters of Each Territory

 
 
 ☆
 
 
 After confirming that everyone was seated, my father gave a brief greeting then immediately got to the main topic.
 
 “As everyone knows, Our Family received two rank promotions the other day, and was put in charge of new territories. The first is the Owleyes New Territory in my custody, while the other is the Ainsworth County in Leticia’s custody.”
 
 With a glance from Otou-sama, I nodded back.
 
 “Everyone has been gathered here today for none other than this. To decide on the assignment of who will be put in charge of these two new territories and the Owleyes Old Territory and in what manner. ——— Miss Sofia. I’d first like the report of the Ainsworth Territory.”
 
 “Understood.”
 
 Sofia, seated beside me, responded to my father, and gave the other members a slight bow.
 
 “I am Sofia Brixton, who has been assigned as the domestic affairs official. As the transfer from the royal Family is complete, I would like to report on the current situation. ——— Loretta, the first document.”^[1]
 
 “Yes!”
 
 A young woman, roughly as old as Anna, pinned a page to the mobile wooden bulletin board.
 
 She was actually Sofia’s former colleague, a rookie administrative official for the country.
 When she heard Sofia was moving over to work for me, she applied to switch jobs immediately.
 Well, in short, she’s a fan chasing after Sofia.
 
 The delay in joining up with her was due to the time it took to pass on her previous work, but even so, she managed to catch up in less than a month, perhaps because of her admiration for SOfia?
 
 
 
 Indicating at the bar graph pinned up by Loretta, Sofia began explaining.
 
 “Indicated on the bar graph is the income and expenditure of the Ainsworth territory over the past ten years. As you can see, there is not much change year after year, and income generally exceeds expenditure. You could call it tolerably stable, I suppose. It’s just ———”
 
 While presenting the materials, Sofia explained the situation of the current Ainsworth territory in an easy-to-understand and concise manner.
 
 The following is a summary of the main points.
 
 
 
 The Ainsworth territory’s financial affairs are currently stable, and slightly in the black.
 
 But, this is largely due to the detachment from the kingdom’s knight order and directly controlled army maintaining public order.
 
 In short, their wallets are different.^[2]
 
 If a knight order paid for by ourselves and the territory soldiers were to take over those duties, we’d immediately fall into the red.
 
 The grace period granted by His Majesty is three years.
 For three years, the directly controlled army will be continuously garrisoned here.
 
 In that time, we’ll have to increase Ainsworth territory’s own 『earning power』, as well as prepare our own paid knight order and territory soldiers.
 
 Be that as it may, our current key industry is labour-intensive agriculture, with other industries not growing.
 
 Though we have vast plains and hilly areas to use as farmlands and pastures, since the population is small, a large portion of that is undeveloped and left as is.
 
 『The Heielland’s Grain-producing Region』 sounds nice, but it’s basically an agrarian community reliant on manual labour.
 
 
 
 There are three main issues.
 
 First, the optimisation of agriculture and adding value^[3].
 Second, the cultivation of new industries.
 Third, the establishment of our own paid knight order and territory soldiers.
 
 The first two will increase income, and prepare for the third.
 
 In short ———
 
 “We need to aim for a 『rich country, strong soldiers』^[4], is what you’re saying.”
 
 Hearing my mumbling, everyone looked my way, startled.
 
 “『Rich country strong soldiers』? Letty, what’s that?”
 
 In a fluster, I began explaining to Otou-sama, who looked this way with his head tilted.
 
 “Enrich the territory, and prepare troops. It’s a phrase with that meaning from some foreign country that I heard, Otou-sama.”
 
 “I see. Letty is quite knowledgeable, hey!”
 
 “Th-, thank you very much. Hehehe…”
 
 I returned a smile out of desperation at Otou-sama, who was now smiling in idiotic-parent mode.
 
 
 ☆
 
 
 With the Ainsworth territory’s issues clarified, the treasurer^[5] continued onto the situation report of the Old and New Owleyes territories.
 
 In the old territory, as preparations for the mass-production of magic rifles, we’re spending and investing from the money saved up little by little over the past 20 years.
 
 Although we’ve planned to spend a little less than half the account on investments this time, it appears that the fundamental income and expenditure are stable.
 
 The problem is the new territory.
 
 
 
 “If I were to put it simply, it’s a problem similar to that in the Ainsworth territory, only on a more serious level. The cost of garrisoning the national army is taken upon by the national treasury. On top of that, the income and expenditure is in the red every year.”
 
 Hearing Otou-sama’s words, everyone was speechless.
 
 “As the new territory is in contact with the Principality, a larger-scale force is stationed there. Just to maintain state of the current military force, we would need five times the current income.”
 
 ““Five times…””
 
 The hall became abuzz.
 
 At that moment, Sofia, who was beside me, raised her hand straight up.
 
 “Your Excellency, may I perhaps add a bit of a supplement?”
 
 “Hm. Go ahead.”
 
 “Thank you very much. ——— Loretta, the last document.”
 
 “Yes, Onee-sama.”
 
 After Sofia got my father’s consent, Loretta pinned a graph to the bulletin board at her request.
 
 “…”
 
 I let it go naturally, but just now, it felt like she used a subtle choice of words.
 
 (It’s probably just my imagination, right?)
 
 I unconsciously stared fixedly at Loretta.
 
 
 
 Ignoring me acting that way, Sofia began her explanation indifferently.
 
 “The graph I had pinned on the left is a comparison of the incomes of the New and Old Owleyes and Ainsworth territories. As you can see, the Old territory and Ainsworth territory are at the same level of income, and the New territory’s income is at 70 percent that of the Old territory.”
 
 Looking at it in this way, the New territory is remarkably smaller.
 
 This caused Otou-sama to grumble.
 
 “In terms of area, the New territory is the largest, but…”
 
 Certainly, it has the largest size of all.
 Yet even so, the income is so small because ———
 
 
 “It’s because it’s a remote region far removed from the royal capital. And it can also be thought that, because the risk is high due to contact with the Principality and the border, there’s hardly any population influx from other territories. This is my opinion after having looked at the publicised statistics once again, but I think many of the New territory’s youth enlist in the direct army, and that the contribution ratio to production is low may also be having an effect.”
 
 The hall was abuzz.
 
 “As expected from Sofia. I too didn’t realise that.”
 
 Hearing my words, Sofia sent a fleeting look this way.
 This is probably her being shy about being praised.
 
 “It’s not bad to have patriotism and love for one’s hometown, but… it’s quite a difficult problem.”
 
 Otou-sama groaned, “Hmm”.
 
 Sofia turned back toward the pinned document.
 
 
 
 “I’d like to mention a few more details on the armaments we just touched on. ——— The graph on the right shows the standing military power of the three territories. And especially the New territory, with 1 500 people. The Ainsworth territory has 700 people, and the Old territory has 500 people.”
 
 Hearing that explanation, the knight order captain wrapped his hands around his head.
 
 “With 70 percent of the Old territory’s income, we’ll need to maintain an army of 3 times the size?… It’s probably impossible, no matter how you look at it.”
 
 His words represented the opinions of everyone here in this place.
 
 ““……””
 
 Everyone sank into silence.
 
 The one to break that silence was Otou-sama.
 
 “Be that as it may, there’s no use in lamenting it now. If we reduce the army and lose at a critical moment, it will all come to nothing. Instead of working for the independent profits of each territory, we’ll need to have the three territories work together.”
 
 Everyone there nodded.
 Everyone had gloomy expressions.
 
 I shook off the hesitation within me, and raised a small hand.
 
 “Otou-sama, could I just say a little something.”
 
 “Of course. What, did you notice something?”
 
 I nodded to my father.
 
 And then, I resolutely spat out the thoughts that had been spinning round and round in my head a short while ago.
 
 
 “On this occasion, let’s reduce the new territory’s military force by half!”^[6]
 
 
 In an instant, everyone’s eyes went wide with surprise.