Theus saw Alexei again. The chief secretary had visibly lost quite a bit of weight lately.
Building a school, recruiting workers to renovate the workshops, surveying mineral deposits—he had to personally keep an eye on every one of these matters. Not only were the deadlines tight, they were all happening at once.
Theus had been busy dealing with pollution, leaving nearly all the territory's affairs to him.
Although he had undergone extensive training before coming to Castel as chief secretary, he had never handled much practical work.
When he first began pushing the projects forward, he had been brimming with confidence. He had thought his plans were already thorough enough, and that all he needed to do was carry them out step by step. But the past few days had left him utterly overwhelmed.
Building the school and renovating the workshops were manageable enough. Castel did not have a particularly long history, but its development had never stagnated, and there were people on the island who specialized in construction.
Recruiting people to survey minerals, however, was rather troublesome. Minerals? What even counted as minerals? How could one tell whether there were any?
The secretaries under him had all come from the Empire. They had no trouble handling routine affairs, but this sort of specialized knowledge was beyond them.
Besides, the secretaries had plenty of work of their own. The only people he could organize were the local fishermen.
In the end, he had no choice but to personally take an old blacksmith to inspect the mine.
After barely managing to sort through the old mine, Alexei had rushed off to oversee the school's construction. He spent several days at the site before returning to report. He had thought he was almost finished with everything, only for Theus to make him