Ch.21Recruitment Notice (2)

How long had it passed since I scattered recruitment notices seeking 30 residents for the pioneer village in my domain, borrowing wisdom from the excellent ancestors of Earth, my former homeland?

‘Thank you, Ernest Shackleton!’

Upon seeing the results generated by this notice, I couldn’t hide my joy at its success while expressing gratitude to that great hero.

Ah, for reference, the recruitment notice went something like this:

[Pioneer Village Residents Wanted.

Dangerous creatures, low or non-existent infrastructure, harsh environment, mandatory compliance with orders, constant danger, survival uncertain, wealth guaranteed upon success.

Camille de Alzar, Official Knight.]

Thanks to this notice—which I tried after learning from information videos on my past life’s internet platforms that a similar advertisement had been wildly successful during Antarctic expedition recruitment—we received over 1,000 applicants.

Of course, not all 1,000 were worthwhile candidates.

We eliminated those who weren’t subjects of Alzar Barony, those with obvious or subtle intentions of establishing connections, and handed over to the city guard a list of criminals attempting to wash their identities.

Beyond these typical examples, there was an astonishing variety of bizarre applicants among the thousand, but after filtering out all the unsuitable ones, we were left with 200 viable candidates.

That’s 200 people who perfectly matched our selection criteria of having “rural origins” and experience as “simple laborers.”

In truth, among the flood of applicants were some educated and high-level personnel, but the reason for recruiting these 30 people was ultimately to hire simple laborers.

In a situation where we need to build a village from scratch in the middle of nowhere, we need laborers rather than highly educated university graduates. Another major factor was that my father had already arranged for the key personnel we needed.

To be blunt, from the perspective of building a pioneer village, diligent physical laborers are necessary, while highly educated intellectual workers aren’t particularly useful in our current reality.

Regardless, what matters now is that we have 200 people who meet our basic requirements.

This meant I could choose according to my preferences, so I selected 30 people who satisfied the additional criteria I had established.

I filtered out those too old or too young to provide adequate labor, and prioritized those born in rural areas or with farming experience.

The ideal candidates were those who weren’t firstborn sons set to inherit farmland or cultivation rights, who had contributed labor in rural areas during childhood, then migrated to cities to work as laborers—a fairly common type of person.

Particularly focusing on those who hadn’t yet established themselves enough to marry, while being mindful of gender ratio and looking toward the future…

“This is… perfect.”

I was able to fill all 30 positions with candidates who were exactly what I was looking for.

These included people with experience in militia or vigilante groups in their home villages, or skilled laborers with impressive—if not extraordinary—credentials.

…In truth, the applicants were so impressive that I wanted to select more than 30, but considering that carelessly increasing our workforce could genuinely lead to famine, this was the best approach for now.

Taking into account that children under 10 weren’t included in those 60 people, the actual population would probably be somewhere between 70 and 80.

The ultimate reason why so many people responded to this notice was… probably due to the distinctive mindset of medieval people, or rather, people of this era.

Unlike my homeland in my previous life, which was a modern developed country, death is an all-too-familiar concept for people in this world, and consequently, their attitude toward life and death differs.

Since life happens only once and everyone dies eventually, there’s a mindset of living as gloriously and magnificently as possible before death.

As someone from a modern developed country where starving to death is virtually unimaginable, it’s hard to comprehend, but perhaps because of this, people in this world often display somewhat extreme and reckless tendencies.

In a harsh world where less than 10% of people live out their full lifespan, this way of thinking was still somewhat difficult for me to understand, as I hadn’t fully shed my modern perspective.

…Considering that our domain has a relatively stable society where these tendencies are somewhat diminished, the boldness and intensity of people in this world must be a unique trait rarely found in modern people.

Of course, I can’t deny that my status as the heir to the title is another reason, attracting parasites hoping to attach themselves to me.

Anyway, after spending several hectic days organizing the pioneer group’s personnel, I now wanted to review the personal information documents that I had asked Corinne to bring from my father.

These were the very documents I had requested but hadn’t had time to check due to being so busy.

The parchment scroll my father had given me earlier merely listed positions and numbers without details, and since explanations were either missing or too brief, I needed to review this information.

And the first thing I wanted to look at was information about the priests, about whom I had no data.

‘Debona… a priestess who serves the goddess of healing and life.’

First, the identity of one formal priest and two apprentices: they serve “Debona,” the goddess of healing and life. They can handle divine magic related to healing, making them crucial for improving survival rates in pioneer villages where injuries are common and medical conditions poor.

The gods of this world tend to have strong personal characteristics, and they have their own preferences, so they generally bestow power on those who resemble them or whom they favor.

Additionally, since priests are quasi-magic users who borrow divine mysteries to use power, their tendencies and personalities vary depending on which deity they serve…

Therefore, Debona’s priests are truly dedicated and kind-hearted people.

While the order of “Jephtal,” the god of light and justice who is Debona’s spouse, serves as the head of the pantheon and the hammer of justice, Debona’s order holds high social status, handling charity and poor relief for the pantheon.

The mere fact of being a priest of the pantheon’s benevolent deities serves as proof of one’s character and morality, so the intangible authority most priests possess is incomparable to secular power…

Particularly, the influence of Debona’s order, which symbolizes mercy and gentleness within the pantheon, was such that even the most heinous criminals would not dare to harm them.

On the other hand, the third-year administrator was… for some reason, a very familiar face to me.

‘…Huh? Why is she here?’

Charlotte Mainster, the daughter of the priest who served as my tutor—someone whose face I recognized. Crucially, wasn’t she supposed to be studying abroad at the Magic Tower?

‘…What’s going on? Why is she here?’

I remember her being about two years older than me, and I recall her going to study at the Magic Tower, yet here she is as a third-year administrator.

While I was momentarily confused by this unexpected situation, given the circumstances, instead of plotting anything, I decided to check her detailed specifications…

‘”Withdrew due to failure to adapt to Magic Tower environment.” …Brutally realistic.’

Confronted with that distinctly musty, old smell of reality, I grimaced as I recalled what I knew about the Magic Tower.

The Magic Tower. Essentially this era’s only specialized magical education institution and academic mecca—an international organization comparable in stature to the pantheon or the Adventurers’ Guild.

While practical educational institutions can be found in any sizeable domain, the Magic Tower goes a step further, teaching specialized disciplines like natural philosophy and humanities.

One might wonder what use pure academic subjects have in this medieval era when they’re often undervalued even in modern times, but remember that the world I’ve reincarnated into isn’t one where you become a biological tank just by swinging a sword diligently.

In a world where academic knowledge forms the foundation and essence of magic, such disciplines serve as the basis for learning various forms of magic, so there’s a consistent demand for them.

‘…It must be hard to endure if you can’t adapt.’

Understanding the harsh ecosystem of the Magic Tower, I couldn’t bring myself to mock her for failing to endure and running away.

The burden of magic as a discipline, as a technique, as a power, and furthermore, the mercilessly unforgiving environment of the Magic Tower, produced more casualties than successes.

And as I was briefly reading through those documents…

“Lord Alzar, it’s about time.”

“…I understand. Let’s go now.”

Rolling up the parchment scroll I had been reading and storing it away, I rose from my seat with determination.

Finally, the time had come to leave the familiar baron’s castle and head toward the pioneer village.