Work Relief

Early in the morning, Hant entered the Viscount's manor dressed in armor stained with blood.

Upon seeing Claire, he knelt down, "Reporting to Lord, I have not failed my mission!"

"Get up," Claire waved her hand. "What was the haul?"

"They were carrying a total of 460,000 gold coins!" Hant's tone was quite excited.

Claire nodded gently and looked at the Steward, Robin, who was beside her.

Robin naturally knew what Claire wanted to ask and quickly said, "The price I agreed upon with them yesterday was 300,000 gold coins. Combined with the 430,000 gold coins recovered, our Viscount's fiscal deposits have now reached over 500,000."

"500,000 gold coins... that's ten years of tax revenue from Nafu City," Claire murmured to herself.

She then turned to look at Regan and said softly, "Frank is dead, and our Barony is short one Steward..."

Regan bowed slightly, "Young Master, I will find a qualified Steward from another city."

"No need," Claire shook her head slightly. "Isn't there a good candidate right here?"

Regan was a bit confused, looking left and right, still not understanding who Claire was referring to. Robin was already the Tax Official, so surely she couldn't mean for Hant to be the Steward.

"You!" Claire pointed at Regan. "From now on, you are the Steward of the Viscount's manor."

Regan was extremely apprehensive and quickly refused, "Young Master, I..."

"No need to say more. You are a qualified butler for the Griffin Family, and I believe you can also be a qualified butler for the Barony. Besides, this way you are helping me lighten my burden."

Regan's eyes flickered, and he finally bowed deeply, "Thank you, Young Master, for thinking highly of this old man."

Claire smiled and said, "Although the nobles in the city have been purged, the common people below are still in a state of material scarcity and destitution..."

"Therefore, my next step is to rebuild the entire Nafu City!"

Claire's words stirred up a great wave of reaction. Regan was the first to raise his hand in objection, "Young Master, rebuilding Nafu City will likely cost a lot of money." As the butler of the Griffin Family, he was always particularly sensitive to wasting money.

Although Robin didn't say anything, his expression showed slight disagreement. This money, hard-earned from the nobles, was being poured into useless construction, which was a waste. Moreover, it had nothing to do with the material scarcity and destitution of the common people.

Claire shook her head and smiled mysteriously, "Have you ever heard of 'work relief'?"

Regan and Robin exchanged glances and both shook their heads. They really hadn't heard of this term. Only Hant stood foolishly to the side, completely clueless about this matter.

"Regan, do you remember what I told you before? Money is meant to be spent. Money is not for hoarding or saving; only when it flows can it create value. Rebuilding Nafu City is only one aspect; the main purpose is to redistribute this money, distributing it to the common people below."

"The prosperity of a territory does not depend on how rich its lord is, but on whether the people in the territory are sufficiently wealthy. When the people are rich, the country is strong. Only when they are wealthy can they drive the development of the entire territory."

Claire's explanation completely shocked Regan and Robin. They looked at each other again, seeing the astonishment in each other's eyes. They had never heard such reasoning before.

Claire continued, "What I said before was not empty talk. I want to start by rebuilding Nafu City. Not to mention anything else, let's get the sewage system done. The garbage and feces on the streets are simply unbearable, and if they accumulate for too long, they can cause plagues."

"Mhm, mhm!" Robin nodded repeatedly. He agreed with this point.

"What I said before was not all empty talk. Establishing schools and hospitals are essential. This way, in another ten or twenty years, our entire Barony will not have a single illiterate person, and illnesses can be treated, preventing incidents like the previous incompetent doctors. The populace can live and work in peace, free from oppression, and the entire territory will be prosperous."

Just listening to Claire's description, everyone became somewhat excited.

With that, Claire turned her gaze to the three people in front of her, "I will entrust this matter to you. Can you handle it?"

"Yes!"

"First, let's clear out a space from the nobles' properties to establish night schools, allowing adults to learn to read as well."

"No problem," Robin replied. He was responsible for taking over the nobles' properties and naturally knew which places could be directly used as night schools.

"As for teachers, we can only recruit them from other territories after some time," Claire said with some regret.

"No need, Lord Viscount!" Robin said excitedly. "My wife is a teacher! She used to teach the children of nobles. Having her serve as a teacher for literacy should be fine. As for elementary school teachers, there's no rush, the schools haven't been built yet, so we can look for them slowly."

Claire's eyes lit up, "Good! I'll leave this matter to you." It seemed the matter of night schools wouldn't be delayed for too long.

"Oh, right. Now that we have money, let's raise the maids' wages to twenty-five silver coins."

"Yes, Young Master!"

At noon, Regan personally carried a large stack of papers to the city gate and posted them. This was originally the job of the Steward.

The first notice posted was an announcement from Claire appointing him as the Steward of the Barony. Following that were several announcements about recruiting workers.

As soon as people saw someone posting announcements, the pedestrians entering and leaving Nafu City immediately gathered around, all looking at the posted notices.

"Don't push, didn't you say last time you couldn't read? Why are you still pushing?"

"Go away. Who in Nafu City can read? I just want to get closer."

"..."

When most people had gathered, Regan cleared his throat and announced loudly, "I! Am now the Steward of the Griffin Barony!"

The crowd below looked bewildered and started discussing among themselves.

"Who is he? I haven't heard of him."

"Where's the previous Steward?"

"I don't know. Why did they suddenly change Stewards?"

Regan stopped their discussion and announced loudly, "The Steward who arbitrarily collected taxes last time has been driven away by the Young... Lord Viscount! I am the new Steward appointed by the Lord Viscount!"

"Oh! The Viscount appointed them!"

Upon hearing Claire's name, the crowd below instantly became excited.

"The last Steward should have been hanged! But it's fine that the Viscount drove him away, long live the Viscount!"

"Yes! The Steward personally appointed by the Viscount must be countless times better than the last one!"

Seeing the people below praising his young master, Regan's lips curved upwards unconsciously.

He then explained the contents of the notices posted later, regarding the Night School, the reconstruction of Nafu City, and the construction of new hospitals and schools.

After listening to Regan's explanation, the crowd below erupted once more.

"Is that true?! Helping with the work for a month earns twenty silver coins?! And it includes food?!"

"The announcement issued by the Viscount is definitely true!" another person exclaimed excitedly. "It's not the busy farming season right now, so we can completely take time off to work!"

"Yeah, with such generous compensation, what does it matter if it's a bit tough!"

"And the restrictions on it aren't many, basically anyone who's an adult can! I'm going back to the village to tell them this good news!"

"Our good days are finally coming! Long live the Viscount!" someone shouted as they ran.

Within just a few minutes, the entire Nafu City echoed with cheers: "Long live the Viscount!"