"Fishy? Do you prefer it to Rudyard?" I said to Louis.
"Yes, I believe he is hiding something; it seems your highness was being prohibited from using the baron residence by him, and their appearance was so different from other people in this village."
Cail joined the conversation "I think he is trying to make your highness not work as a baron, as your highness sees that all the paperwork and documents are still in the baron residence, and I believe the law is prohibited to bring them to a building that is not affiliated with the administration of the kingdom; after all, we didn't receive information from the palace about this renovation.."
"So what do you mean by that.." I said.
"Apologise for my word, but I think he is trying to make you cripple, By making you stay away from the baron residence, it will take time for him to make a move, like inform the count, the duke or maybe the king that you are not working well, or maybe wash his hands from this village, As we know, our kingdom has adopted the High Crown Authority…"
"Absolute High Crown Authority, what is that???"
Everyone except Aalis and Ame was surprised and shocked by what I had asked.
"Does your highness not know it?" Louis asked.
"I don't know, what is that?"
Cail explained to me, "Absolute High Crown Authority is where all the power belongs to the royal; it means only the royal can appoint and revoke the title of peerage rank; it makes this kingdom different from other kingdoms. In other kingdoms, the king can appoint and revoke the titles of duke, count, and baron; the duke can appoint and revoke the titles of count and baron; and the count can appoint and revoke the title of baron. In this kingdom, the count and the duke don't have authority to appoint and revoke the title below them."
"Do normal people know about this system?"
"I believe not…"
"So that's why the inn lady before said that they don't know how the nobles got appointed."
Louis asked with a curious tone, "Your highness, I want to know about what your highness was talking about with her.."
"We just talked about how Rudyard was the baron in the view of the village's people and the count who brought him."
"It's interesting…" Cail seemed to have got something.
I saw Elpis beside Cail and seemed to cherish him so much
Elpis teased him "Oh my Cail…It's like you thought, after you heard the situation of commotion before." She put her hand on his hair and stroked it, and it made Cail embarrassed..
I looked to Louis and waved for him to take his ear closer.
I whispered in his ear, "Cail and Elpis seem so close to each other; do they have any relationship?"
Louis immediately looked at them and was smiling at me "Ah..about them, they like brother and sister; I think they have a history that makes them closer; I believe it is better to know it, if your highness asks them in person than ask it to me."
"But….if.. I.. ask them in person, it.. Makes..me..embarrassed…"
"Are they strangers to you, your highness?"
"They are not…"
"If they are not strangers to you, why would your highness feel embarrassed to ask them about it? I think it's great to know about the character or the history of your highness knight."
"I know it..."
"If your highness knows it, so it's great…"
"....and I believe you have something to say to me….."
I wanted to know about the clothes everyone wore—that they came from Louis, Louis brought it to them without my supervision.
Louis said "I believe there is nothi—"
Suddenly, Cail spoke, "Your highness!!!"
I ignored Louis and answered Cail, "What is it?"
Elpis was still stroking his head. Cail stood up from bed and said, "Cut it out; can you stop it? I want to talk with your highness.."
I was watching him and her exchange words about how Elpis treated Cail like a child. I realised it when I watched Cail talking about the problem, he seemed more mature with great intellect, but it changed while Elpis was beside him, now he has become more like a kid. I remembered when Zoe talked about how everyone met each other, she said that she was the third from the group, before her was Aldea and Darryl, and after that it must be Cail and Elpis, and everyone came from different backgrounds and guilds. It made me more curious about them..
Cail started to speak after Elpis stopped teasing him. "I want your highness. Start to think and make a move about this situation."
"Hmmmmm…before I took a step in this village, I was thinking about how I would govern the village.." From the previous world, I worked as a civil servant at the Regional Development Planning, Research and Development Agency; maybe it would help if I implemented it. "Alright then.." I stood up "First, I want to know about this village's information, and the first thing will be the census of the village and the goods and services of the village's data, and I want this data not just the current year, but I want to know about the previous year…"
I saw Cail's face with confusion. "Your highness, what is this "census '' your highness talking about??"
So..this world still didn't know the census.
"Census is where we collect, analyse, evaluate, and publish it—the population and the geographical location of this village."
Louis started to ask, "What's the purpose of this census from your highness?"
"When we have all the data and publish it to the public, it will help us to know who we are, what we are, and where we are as a village, and it will help us to determine what the people need from housing or economic building, and the important thing is it will help the people."
Cail turned to ask, "I see, it is great, but why does your highness need to know about the previous year?"
"We will know the rate of our population. If the population from the previous year is bigger than this year, that signifies an alarm for us. What was happening the previous year? So we can make a move to prevent what was happening the previous year."
Elpis joined to ask, "Oh my…Your highness has amazing thoughts about this village, how do we gather this census?"
"Well, we just knock on every door in this village and interview them.."
"Interview them about??" Cail asked.
"Interview them about their condition; for example, how many people are in this house? How are their earnings? How is the condition of this house? And many more, I want questions from the interviewer about the population, the goods, the condition, and the foods, as we can see the people seem lacking nutrition, and we need to ask them about the previous year and this year."
"It will take a week to gather all of it.." Louis said..
"It's fine…for this task, I want to appoint…" I was pointing to Cail. "Cail is the interviewer and gathered all of it, of course he is not alone, he will accompany Aldea and Darryl."
"Is it alright for me to do that?"
"Sure, you will be alright; from the trip, I saw you had great intelligence. Aldea and Darryl will accompany you, so you don't need to be worried." I turned my face to Zoe. "Zoe…I want you to borrow something…"
Zoe asked, "What is that?"
"I want you to take a trip to the Baron residence to borrow some documents; you are capable of that, right?? Borrow the documents containing the condition of goods and services in this village."
"Sure, I can easily do that.."
I looked to Elpis and said, "And for you, Elpis... I want you to do research about the soil and vegetarianism of this village; this is crucial for this village; I hope you can do it.."
Elpis answered, "Oh my…Of course your highness, I can do it for the people.."
"And Louis will be my aide, so you will stay beside him.."
"Sure, your highness."
Aldea started to rumble, "Wh..y w..hy.."
I saw it. "What is happening, Aldea?"
"Your highness, appoint Zoe, Elpis, Cail, and Louis for some tasks, but Darryl and I are just being escorts for Cail; I want some tasks beside being escort.."
"Well for now, you will be the escort of Cail….How about I tell everyone what you must do?"
"Sure…" Aldea said.
"From tomorrow, Cail will be responsible for the internal affairs, Zoe will be responsible for communication and information, Elpis will be responsible for agriculture, Aldea will be responsible for reconnaissance of unknown terrain, Darryl will be responsible for defence, and Louis will be my aide, which it make him your supervisor, all of you can report it to Louis if I'm not around."
Ame raised her right hand
I saw it and asked, "Ame?"
"What is Ame's job?"
"Ame and Aalis will stay by my side as maids.."
"Yeahhhhh, I will always stay with your highness?"
"Sure…Is there any objection to this?"
Everyone nodded their heads.
"Thank you for everyone's time, and thank you for warning me about the current situation. From tomorrow, everyone can do the task that I was given."
After all the discussion, everyone left the room except Aalis and Ame; they stayed behind because it was my room. It was already evening, so we decided to end the day and went to bed..
…
..
.
I woke up in the middle of the night for no reason. I saw Aalis and Ame were still sleeping in one bed beside me; they were hugging each other. I left the room quietly. In front of my room, I heard a lot of noise from below, and I walked to it with the pyjamas I wore for sleeping.
When I took a step on the ground floor, I saw the tavern full of people, so the noises were from the tavern. I walked around in the tavern cluelessly and took glimpses everywhere. They were local people; even though they had slim figures, there was a slight smile on their faces. Maybe because this was the tavern, where people drank with their friends or colleagues or maybe their family, they forgot everything that was behind the entrance door or the outside world. I saw that everyone expressed their concern, raised their voice, or released all the stress of their lives. They shouted about nobles here and there.
When I walked around cluelessly, I bumped a table and made the glass above the table fall. Everyone's eyes suddenly focused on me, started to talk about me, and raised suspicions about me. The guy at the table wore a robe with a hoodie up, and the clothes appeared all black. He stood up from the table and came close to me. I couldn't see his face properly, but he just gazed at me. I noticed from his gaze that he had bright red eyes. For some reason, his gaze made my body shiver. I felt so intimidated by his eyes; it was like I was going to be killed on the spot.
He just passed me, moved towards the entrance door, and left the building. I was still not moving. It was like I was in a blank space and I could not hear anything or feel anything, and suddenly a boy walked past me. I just stared at him with empty eyes.