Groups of citizens gathered around guards scattered in the surrounding area. All of them were being questioned by fortitudes of questions related to the new Hestanar School. Discussion about the new school was at a feverish high.
Kent was content with the results. He could hear the high enthusiasm from the citizens that listened to his speech.
"That was nicely spoken, milord," Sebastian said when Kent made his way down the podium.
"Yeah, it seems we wouldn't need the monetary incentives," Kent replied
Sebastian looked at the eager and energetic crowd that was feverous after Kent's speech. The old butler nodded his head, "I'm afraid we wouldn't even fit the number of students interested."
"Yeah, but I think that it was better than classes being half-filled. After all, the Hestanar school couldn't be a small classroom confined in a small tavern forever"
Sebastian raised his eyebrows in wonder as he looked at his Lord with a strange look in his eyes. "My Lord is the size of this school not satisfactory?"
Ken smiled as he heard his butler's bewilderment. "Just wait for the future. I will show you a real school."
Kent walked across the small square. He got on his horse and steadied himself.
"Let's return Sebastian, we have more work after this."
The old butler could only shake his head. His master is shrouded in such mystery these days that he couldn't even tell the similarities between the present and the old Kent.
Sebastian got up in his stead. With a whip on the martingale, the horse moves forward. The butler positioned his horse next to his lord.
The personal guards, seeing that their lord is heading back, made their way to their side. In this formation, with guards surrounding Kent and Sebastian in the middle, they made their way back to the Hestanar castle.
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By the time Kent and his butler arrived back at the castle, the sun was just slightly before midday, signalling that perhaps the time is roughly 11:00, just before lunch started.
However, unlike most other people, Kent was not distracted by his craving for food. Kent was instead in his office continuing with his grand plan for earning a fortune.
You see, as discussed previously the city is a perfect location for a global trading centre. And even the location of the kingdom is excellent.
The Tetbury Dominion is located between two great powers of the Eastern Twin World, with oceans at the state's south. Being stationed at a location crucial geopolitical positioning, the Tetbury is a state where almost all trade between the Eastern Powers must go through, whether on land or on sea.
With this in mind, Kent had the idea of imposing a trading tax on all merchants that travelled through here. By imposing this trade tax, it would certainly earn some money. But this was not Kent's main reason for introducing this.
As part of his ongoing plan to make Hestanar a trading city, Hestanar should have the local policies become concrete before anyone can exploit this lost revenue. Right now, although the city doesn't have many trading activities, once the merchants and business savvy entrepreneurs see the potential here, they would come rushing back for profits.
But right now, Kent needs to improve the lives of the citizens as well as repopulating Hestanar to its full potential, creating a market for merchants to come here. Currently, roughly ≈2000 people are living in Hestanar, a far fetch to the city's once max population of ≈5000.
Many houses, taverns, inns, farms, and workshops were all left abandoned by previous owners that fled to nearby settlements. Kent's first call of action was to put these abandoned infrastructures to good use. After all, everything under Kent's territory is theoretically his property.
With this in mind, Kent got a fresh piece of parchment and wrote down his next plan. On the parchment, a few key aspects were noted down:
– All abandoned buildings are to be rented out for anyone interested.
– All farm fields are to be rented out for farmers to use. Rent for farmlands will be decreased from 40% of the total harvest to 10% of the total harvest.
– A Trade Tariff is to be imposed, with all imported goods required to pay a tax of 2.5% upon being sold.
– A new industry is to be established. A large, abandoned building in Westway District is to be selected for this.
.
Just when Kent was busy writing down the finer details of what was to be implemented. A knock came from outside the office building.
"Come in," Kent said without much thought.
The door swings open in a gentle motion before revealing the old butler. Kent nodded at the butler and gestured for him to speak.
"Milord, I have spoken with Deryk and he reported that training has been progressing splendidly. Also, initial registration for the classes has been very successful, with the smallest class being Science with only 32 students. The largest class was Language with 41 students in total."
Kent nodded at this whilst he continued writing on his parchment paper: "Continue on Seb,"
"The uhh- farm restoration project is also being spearheaded by the local farmers. But there has been some resistance." The butler said awkwardly, clearly unwilling to inform his lord of this news.
This time, Kent stopped writing and looked at his butler with a slight annoyance.
"Oh?"
"Milord, some farmers have grown discontent from your orders. I have insisted them to continue work but they did so unwillingly and with slow progress."
Kent sighed; he knew how to make the upper plain bear crops but is being stopped by some medieval peasants unknowledged on modern science.
"Tell them their pay will be based on how much land they completed each week. That should kick them back to work." Kent said with a slight irritation.
Sebastian nodded: "I will inform them of this."
"Also, take this parchment with you. Carry out the orders written on them." Kent spoke as he finished writing his last line of words. He rolled the paper into a cylinder before handing it to the butler.
The butler nodded, even though he didn't know what Kent had in mind next. Sebastian knew it couldn't be bad. Witnessing the earlier grand speech on opening a school, the butler is fully convinced that Kent is acting for Hestanar's benefits.
"I will carry out you orders, milord." the butler replied.
"Then you may leave," Kent said, dismissing his butler.
The butler bowed before exiting the office in the quietest of manner, being as respectful as he could.