Chapter 344; The Hardships of Recruitment
I thought I understood how difficult the hiring process was. After all, I had experience applying for jobs and working hard to get employed. I had at least imagined that the person on the other side preparing everything had it rough, too.
However, the reality presented a struggle far beyond what I had imagined.
“……And that is the job description. Do you have any questions?”
After briefly explaining the duties, I asked the applicant if they had any inquiries. The old man sitting at the far end of the table nodded deeply.
“It sounds fine to me. I do have some experience working as a merchant in the past, so I believe I can handle it……”
“Ooh! That is promising!”
“Well, I was merely an apprentice for a few years, though. Fahahaha.”
“I-I see.”
“Oh, that is right. Lord Van, would you listen to something for a moment?”
“Yes, yes. What is it?”
Before I realized it, the interview had turned into idle chatter, and I spent about fifteen minutes listening to the old man’s troubles about a fight he had with his son yesterday that led to them giving each other the silent treatment. Among the other applicants, I also had to deal with people who said they applied just because they wanted to talk to Lord Van, even though they couldn’t do calculations. No, I don’t blame my fans, of course. It’s tough being a popular person.
“Good work, Lord Van. Shall I call the next person?”
“L-Let me rest for just five minutes……”
“Yes, I shall go and inform everyone.”
Till replied with a wry smile and left the reception room. From the other side of the door, I heard Till’s voice saying, “Lord Van will be taking a break now! I shall brew some tea, so please wait a moment, I apologize for the delay!” followed by the sound of several people laughing, but I was too exhausted to care.
I had been conducting interviews with forty people since first thing in the morning, and before I knew it, it was already noon. I had planned to breeze through them and finish by the morning, but at this rate, it would take until evening.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Esparda brought me a drink with an expression full of composure. He walked in, effortlessly balancing a teacup and teapot on a silver tray. Holding the silver tray with one hand, Esparda looked just like a veteran waiter. His magnificent demeanor was such that if he worked at a Butler Café, he would undoubtedly be popular.
“Thank you…… Next time, let’s prepare a simple test beforehand. Have them read a short text and write their thoughts, and solve a few calculation problems like addition and subtraction. If we only let those who pass proceed to the interview, it should reduce the workload significantly.”
“Fumu, that is a good idea. Rather, that is how it is normally done, but this time I heard that you wished to hear opinions directly from the residents, Lord Van.”
“Ah, that’s right…… I was so exhausted I completely forgot.”
When Esparda pointed out that I had lost sight of my original objective, I agreed while feeling my strength sap away. Esparda let out a short breath at that and gazed at the documents he had compiled.
“That said, we were able to obtain a considerable amount of information from the idle chatter. It seems we have a prospect for securing personnel as well, so we can call this a great success.”
“Eh, really? That’s good. Indeed, there were surprisingly many people who could read, write, and calculate. It was unexpected that there were some among the original Seatoh Village residents too.”
Even among the residents of Seatoh Village, who had little interaction with outsiders, there were people who could read, write, and calculate. As I marveled at this, Esparda nodded.
“Settlements scattered at the edges of a territory, where only peddlers visit, basically cannot obtain information from the outside. Depending on the location, knights may patrol periodically, but without even that, conversations with peddlers become almost the sole source of information. There are many peddlers who know this situation and exploit it. There are likely peddlers who deceive the villagers. To prevent that, there are always a few people in a village capable of negotiating with peddlers. Primarily, this role falls to the village mayor or their heir. In Seatoh Village, aside from the mayor and his son, there were several individuals who regularly went out to neighboring villages for exchange or to buy supplies; it seems such individuals had learned the bare minimum of reading, writing, and calculation.”
“Wonderful! I’ll bring a reward of alcohol to the mayor later! Come to think of it, what is Ronda doing right now?”
“Ronda seems to have become good friends with the apkallu patriarchs; they are often seen drinking tea together by the lake.”
“Alright, let’s scout him as a school teacher. We are short on teachers too, after all.”
As I was having that conversation with Esparda, Till knocked on the reception room door and peeked in again.
“Um…… shall we resume soon?”
“Ah, sorry. Well then, let’s restart the interviews.”
“Understood!”
Hearing my reply, Till said that with a smile and pulled her head back. Then, I heard her voice calling out, “Everyone! Thank you for waiting! We will now resume the interviews!” Till is always full of energy.
I felt like Till’s bright personality gave me some energy as well.
“Alright, let’s do our best.”
“Indeed, there are only about seventy people left.”
“Hasn’t it increased!?”
I had just mustered my energy, only to be shocked as Esparda dragged me back to reality. It’s possible this might take until nightfall.
