The First Day of the Internship

He looked at it for a while, then looked away, pulled the stack of "to be processed" folders on the table in front of him, and opened the top one—a preliminary draft of the Sea Train route map, sent from Water 7.

The draft document has three lines drawn, each marked with the islands it passes through and the estimated construction period.

He looked at it for a while, then picked up his pen and drew a line in the middle of the first line.

"This section is convoluted," he muttered to himself, then wrote two words next to it, "Straighten it."

When Kiyomasa led the people to the gates of the Sacred Court, the sun had just risen over the walls of Mary Geoise.

Five students stood in a row, their gray-white uniform jackets neatly worn, their hair combed sleekly, and their backs ramrod straight.

Kiyomasa glanced at them, nodded in satisfaction, and turned to the Night Owl Guard on duty at the door, saying, "The first batch of interns from the Management Branch Academy have come to report for duty. They have an appointment with Dragon."

The Night Owl Guard on duty went in to report, and after a while came out, leading five people inside.

The corridor was quiet, and footsteps tapped crisply on the stone floor.

As the five students walked, they couldn't help but look around, glancing at everything: the old wallpaper on the walls, the oil painting of the Celestial Dragons at the end of the corridor, and the wooden shelves piled with files on both sides of the corridor.

Kiyomasa walked at the front, his steps quick, without turning his head. "Don't look around. There'll be plenty of time to see things when we get there."

The five people pulled their necks back in.

Dragon's office was at the end of the corridor. The door was open, and voices could be heard coming from inside.

Kiyomasa stood at the door and knocked on the doorframe. There was a moment of silence inside, then Dragon's voice rang out. "Come in."

Kiyomasa stepped aside to make way and nodded to the five people behind him.

Five people Earth Flow in one after another and stood in a row in front of the desk.

Dragon sat behind the table, clutching a document in his hand, and glanced up at them.

Ivankov leaned against the windowsill, holding a cup of tea, and glanced at them.

"Kiyomasa." Dragon put the document down. "These are the five?"

"For the first batch, we selected five of the most outstanding individuals," Kiyomasa said. "Three of them previously served as deputy squad leaders in Heavenly Star Guard, and two studied basic administration at the Clan Academy. They all have solid foundations, but what they lack is practical experience."

Dragon stood up from behind the table, walked to the five people, and looked at them one by one.

The five people became a little nervous under his gaze and stood even straighter.

"Name," Dragon said.

"Uchiha Kazuma." The first person spoke, a tall, thin man in his early twenties, his chin slightly taut as he spoke. "Formerly the deputy squad leader of the Seventh Squadron of the Heavenly Star Guard, in charge of port patrols and trade route protection."

"Uchiha Chinatsu." The second person was a girl with a ponytail, her voice clear and bright, "Formerly the deputy squad leader of the Third Battalion of the Heavenly Star Guard, mainly responsible for rear coordination and supply distribution."

"Uchiha Taichi." The third person was a short man with broad shoulders, who spoke slowly. "Deputy squad leader of the Fifth Battalion of the Heavenly Star Guard, formerly in charge of the outer island garrison."

"Uchiha Nao." The fourth person adjusted her glasses, still clutching half a pen in her hand. "Graduated from the first class of the Clan Academy's Management Branch, having studied basic legal provisions and administrative procedures."

"Uchiha Akito." The fifth person looked the youngest, and spoke with a hint of nervousness, but his eyes didn't waver. "Graduated from the first class of the Clan Academy's Management Branch, studied legal statutes and administrative procedures."

After listening, Dragon did not respond immediately. He walked to the table, took out three files from the stack of "to-do" folders, and placed them on the table.

"Three things. First, the documents for the registration of the clan in the South Blue have been delivered one after another, and there are nearly two hundred copies piled up."

Your task today is to categorize these documents by region and extract the key information from each one—the clan head's name, the clan's location, the number of private soldiers, the quantity of weapons, and whether there are any clauses in the clan rules that conflict with the Uchiha Code. Compile them into a summary table; I need to see it tomorrow.

He pulled out the second one.

"The second item is the preliminary plan for the Sea Train route, which was sent from Water 7. There are three lines in the plan; take it and check them against each other, making sure the islands marked on each line match their actual locations. Circle any discrepancies, and I'll have someone verify them later."

He pulled out the third one.

"Thirdly, regarding the thirty-three kingdoms in North Blue that lack information, piece together all the information you can from the existing files. Compile as much as you can, and mark the parts you can't. Send people down to fill in the gaps later."

Dragon pushed the three documents onto the table.

"Do these three things in order. Do the first one. Once the documents are compiled, hand them to me. I'll review them before moving on to the second one. Don't rush. Make sure the first one is done thoroughly before moving on to the next one."

The five people responded in unison and each accepted their task.

Kiyomasa stood by and watched. After they finished receiving their supplies, he turned to Dragon and said, "I'll stay until noon. I'll help them with any problems. I'll go back this afternoon, and they'll have to do it themselves."

"Okay." Dragon waved his hand. "Go get to work. The table is next door; go get it yourself."

The five people left the office and went to the empty room next door.

There were two long tables in the room, and some unorganized files were piled up against the wall.

The five people first put the table together, and then Kazuma moved the documents over and distributed them, one stack for each person.

Chinatsu took out several clips from her pocket and neatly clipped the documents together, categorizing them by type.

Taichi moved a chair to a corner and sat down, flipping through the book slowly, line by line.

Nao drew out the format of the summary table, and Akito helped her copy it.

After working for an hour, problems started to emerge.

The documents in Kazuma's hands were from the White Sand Archipelago; the clan registration form listed "twenty men" in the "number of private soldiers" column.

He turned to the attached weapons list, which listed thirty-seven knives, twelve spears, and six bows.

He put down his pen.

"Twenty people are to be equipped with thirty-seven knives, twelve spears, and six bows? Who will use the extra knives? Will the common people in the tribe also be equipped with knives?"

Chinatsu leaned closer for a look.

"There might be a backup."

"This isn't how you prepare spares," Kazuma said. "One sword per person. Any extras are either hoarded or the number of people deliberately underreported during registration. Underreporting means hiding soldiers. What are they hiding for? This needs to be clearly stated."

Chinatsu nodded and made a mark next to the registration form with her pen.

Then she looked down at the document in her hand, which belonged to another clan. The clan rules section was filled with dense writing. She read it twice and picked out one rule.

"One of the clan rules states that disputes within the clan must be adjudicated by the clan head and cannot be appealed. This conflicts with the Uchiha Code, which states that 'all disputes must be heard by the courts under the Sacred Court.' This rule must be abolished."

Kazuma responded from the side and made a note on the summary sheet.

Taichi's side is translating even slower.

The document in his hand was submitted by a clan, which listed "fifty" private soldiers, but the attached weapons list only contained a dozen or so knives.

He flipped through the document several times, then finally put down his pen and beckoned to Kiyomasa.

Kiyomasa walked over. "What's wrong?"

"Lord Kiyomasa, there's a problem with this document." Taichi spread the document out. "Fifty private soldiers, and only a dozen or so swords are listed as weapons. Fifty men with only a dozen or so swords, what will the rest of them have?"

Either the weapons weren't fully listed, or the number of private soldiers was exaggerated. Exaggerating the number was to create a false impression, and not listing all the weapons was because they knew that having too many would lead to confiscation. These two things don't add up.

Kiyomasa glanced down at the document and nodded. "Mark it."

Taichi drew a circle next to the document with his pen.

At noon, Kiyomasa called the five people together and went through the summary table they had prepared that morning.

He read quickly, but when he saw the "discrepancy between weapons and number of private soldiers" marked by Kazuma, the "clashing with clan rules" pointed out by Chinatsu, and the "falsely reported private soldiers" circled by Taichi, he paused and turned his head to look at the three people.

"You all figured these out yourselves?"

"I watched it myself," Kazuma said.

Kiyomasa put down the summary sheet and nodded. "Okay. I won't be here this afternoon, so you can continue working on your own. Write down anything you're unsure about, and I'll ask you again when I come tomorrow."

After he left, the five of them continued working all afternoon. By evening, they had completed most of the two hundred-plus documents, and filled out a thick stack of summary sheets.

Kazuma carefully clipped the last document together, put down his pen, and stretched.

"First day went alright."

Chinatsu arranged the summary table by page number and clipped it in place.

"Let's continue tomorrow. There aren't many documents left; we should be able to start working on the route map for the Sea Train this afternoon."

Taichi stood up from the corner and stretched his neck.

"I glanced at that route map; it was marked quite detailed. However, the locations of some islands weren't drawn accurately. I checked the atlas this afternoon, and two islands were marked in the wrong direction."

"I'll revise it tomorrow," Kazuma said.

The five people cleaned the table, filed the documents, and placed the summary table on the Dragon.

Then I turned off the lights, locked the door, and left.

The next morning, when Dragon arrived at the office, there was a stack of summary sheets on his desk.

He picked it up and flipped through it, pausing when he reached the page marked by Kazuma that read "Weapons and number of private soldiers do not match."

Then she flipped to the "clashes in clan rules" that Chinatsu had picked out, and paused for a moment.

Finally, I flipped to the Taichi that read "falsely reported private troops" and glanced at it.

When Ivankov came in through the door, Dragon was putting the stack of summary sheets into the "read" pile.

"How is it?" Ivankov asked.

"It works," Dragon said. "Yesterday alone, the problems identified were enough for me to send three teams down to investigate."