Chapter 38 — A Real Headache

While the two family knights hurried about preparing supplies, Gao Yang had Hedy and Rebecca take a census of all the Cecil people, having them compile the more than eight hundred survivors into a detailed register.

"Accurate down to each person's name, age, sex, state of health, and skills, grouped by household, and make a separate list of carpenters, stonemasons, and blacksmiths. Also—if possible, assign each person a number for easy reference."

Such was the task Gao Yang assigned to his two great-great-great-great-...-granddaughters. He had thought it would be easy, but had not expected to leave the two great-granddaughters utterly bewildered.

They had never even heard of what "basic information registration" meant, nor did they know how this so-called "table" was to be made.

"You have not even carried out basic population registration?" Seeing the blank faces of Hedy and Rebecca, Gao Yang felt even more dumbfounded than they were. "Then how do you keep count of the people in the domain?"

Rebecca answered with utter simplicity: "The domain around the castle is managed by Aunt Hedy; the several knights' fiefs are managed by the knights themselves. It is enough to have a rough idea of how many men, how many women, how many old folk, how many children—and as for who among them is a blacksmith and who a carpenter, the people living nearby all know one another more or less; one has only to ask around."

Gao Yang: "..."

Holy hell. Ask around? The legendary art of governing by a glance, keeping the realm in order by a look, and pacifying the world with a single shout?

Noticing the shifting weather on Gao Yang's face, Hedy grew nervous at once. "Ancestor... could it be that when you and the late lord founded the kingdom, you used those 'tables' you speak of to count the population?"

Gao Yang hurriedly rummaged through the data in his mind, and a moment later his face turned the color of greens.

Damn it... it was even messier back then.

The Gondor Empire had collapsed overnight; the prosperous and advanced central region was utterly wiped from the face of the earth, and those who survived the first wave by sheer luck were all people of the remote regions. And that ancient empire had been a typically unbalanced society, its form of development in Gao Yang's eyes even approaching the deformed: because the magic technology of this world had to depend on mana foci, and natural mana foci were finite, all the advanced technology of the Gondor Empire had piled up around "Deep Blue," the mightiest mana focus at the center of the continent, while the remote regions, where mana foci were thin...

Were unbelievably backward.

So when the tide of magic erupted with "Deep Blue" at its center, all the advanced technology and highly educated population of the Gondor Empire were offered up to the heavens, and those who survived were then sifted again and again by the persistent energy radiation that followed; in the end, when the explorers led everyone to safety, human civilization could be said to have collapsed utterly...

To put it bluntly: the Four Great Kingdoms were raised by a bunch of schoolchildren leading a band of illiterates.

Only in this world, where supernatural power existed, the strength of individuals at the apex could to some extent offset the overall decline brought on by a backward civilization—which was why the Four Great Kingdoms of that time could be founded under the desperate exertions of a group of explorers with off-the-charts fighting power, and could withstand the pressures from every side in the early days of their founding.

But—but—but still!

Seven hundred years! Seven hundred years, and these worthless descendants had still not managed to improve in the slightest?