Dear Broom Knight.

Chapter 835 Varela Experiences the New Culture

Chesca laughed along, "But our lord does seem to do just that, madam."

Yagris smiled and narrowed her eyes: "Lorry just likes to share his joy when he's happy."

When you are sad, you hope to find comfort in my arms.

Lily is very much like him in this respect.

But when Lily encounters difficulties, she will seek help from adults.

Lowry, however, would not.

After all, one of them has known since childhood that only they themselves can be relied upon.

The other is that she knows that as long as she raises her front paws, she can be led away immediately, and her plea for help will never be in vain.

Iagris did have some regrets. Back then, she had to make Lori grow up as early as possible and give up all her hopes for her father and family.

But she never regretted it.

After all, as a white dragon, Lily can grow slowly over a long period of time.

Lori, who hasn't awakened her bloodline yet and is likely just an ordinary knight, is different.

It's just that she, as a mother, was blind and weak, unable to provide her son with a comfortable and carefree environment to grow up in.

In Agris's view, the two children from the Hamilton family next door were receiving the best treatment a noble family could offer... Although they still needed to work hard, they were already ahead of others, so there was no need to worry about falling behind.

Unfortunately, she didn't have that ability.

Looking up at the sky, Mrs. Yages, who didn't know why she had suddenly become sentimental again, withdrew those pointless sentiments. She looked at Chesca: "Hamilton sent a message, didn't he?"

“Yes!” Chesca replied quickly. “Valeira is handling the affairs between the two sides with Earl Hamilton.”

Once everything is done, she will return with Katarina.

Although His Majesty King Travis should be primarily responsible for matters concerning the Hamilton Territory.

But actually, it was Varela who did the work.

Of course, Ezra and his family must have made arrangements for people to do the daily work before they left.

Actually, Valera isn't that busy.

However, given the uncertainty of how long he would be away, the Earl of Hamilton could not relinquish the final decision-making power.

Some powers should never be delegated to subordinates.

As a leader, one must treat subordinates with both kindness and severity; it is impossible to always show kindness or to constantly exert pressure.

How to strike the right balance depends on the competence of those in power.

There are some things that the subordinates are aware of, but as long as they have never been exposed to them, they won't have any special feelings about them.

After all, similar knowledge is actually everywhere in their daily lives.

Some managers, without needing to be taught, can make the same decisions based on their own personality and temperament.

Especially those middle-level managers, who have a certain degree of independent management authority, even those with management authority in chambers of commerce and hunting teams, are actually doing similar things.

But if he were to come into contact with the most fundamental things and see clearly the rules that were originally hidden under the guise of warmth and strict military discipline, then it would be very difficult for him to go back to the past.

What should have been a satisfying reward can instead become a thorn in their side.

Unless someone like Bowen is already inextricably linked to the ruling family, or has even become an assistant to the family members, nobles will not easily relinquish decision-making power and control over the family's financial expenditures.

Lord Hamilton was so bold as to entrust his home directly to His Majesty the King and the Foreign Minister of the neighboring Maple Territory because they had only just entered the territory.

The treasury is completely empty; the territory is only capable of spending money, with no way to make money.

At this point, it would certainly be fine to use His Majesty Travis, who had sent them to Hamilton to clean up the mess.

Let him see for himself what kind of trouble his sudden ideas have caused others!

But His Majesty the King is of noble birth, and he certainly wouldn't hesitate when making a decision, but he also wouldn't casually meet with low-ranking officials in Hamilton Territory.

Valera was the one who relayed the message.

Another important point is that the original inhabitants of Hamilton were actually more familiar with Varela's appearance than the assistants that Ezra and his wife brought from the capital.

When she steps out to give orders, it doesn't arouse suspicion... Although Hamilton Territory is an earldom, no one thinks that Valera would give up the prosperous and comfortable Maple Territory to come here and steal work.

Who doesn't want to climb the ladder?

Therefore, the people of Hamilton generally agreed with Ezra's suggestion to ask this powerful natural mage for temporary assistance.

Mages are a common sight in Hamilton Territory, but they are all adventurers, each with a rather eccentric temperament.

Moreover, he was extremely greedy and also very extravagant and dissolute.

Rather than asking a guy like that for help, you might as well borrow a nice person from next door.

He is still a very capable and good person.

Of course, Varela herself was willing.

Otherwise, even if His Majesty Travis used threats and inducements, Lowry would not agree.

Valera certainly enjoyed improving her strength, but she also loved the thrill of being in charge and navigating the complexities of dealing with all sorts of people. In Green Maple Territory, there wasn't much left for her to learn or understand.

Varela has had some insights lately. She knows how to communicate with people at the bottom of society, how to talk to the gods, and even the top figures in this world. She can do all of this with ease and charm.

However, she seemed to have overlooked the middle part.

The unique environment of Qingfeng Territory means they rarely need subordinates who act one way towards superiors, another way towards subordinates, and yet another way towards themselves.

The King's Army's situation is estimated to be more complex than theirs.

Varela certainly didn't like that kind of scheming environment, but realizing that she was somewhat weak in that area and might suffer losses in the process, she was also reluctant to go through with it.

But they were even less willing to leave their territory to study elsewhere for such a trivial matter.

Besides, there's no need for that.

Lowry didn't intend to raise them to be perfect, nor did she expect them to never make mistakes.

With her current abilities, Varela is more than capable of fulfilling his requirements as a foreign affairs officer.

Valera didn't want to pass up a training opportunity that was offered to her, or a chance to practice on someone else's property.

Chesca was actually quite curious too.

Although Varela wouldn't tell her the specifics of the matter, she encountered all sorts of things, such as how officials used methods to reconcile the vast difference between their superiors who were oblivious to the hardships of life and the hungry masses who just wanted to be fed.

His Majesty Travis wasn't entirely oblivious to the suffering of his people.

But he stayed in the capital for too long!

In his view, the most pitiful people are those who don't eat well or dress warmly, but at least they can eat their fill and have clothes to wear.

Therefore, he valued the self-respect of ordinary people, as well as the principle of rewarding hard work and rewarding those who work harder.

He knew very well how much money the lower class in the capital could earn in a day of hard labor... So even if the border territories were poor, wouldn't it be better to just cut the price in half?

Therefore, His Majesty Travis expressed his extreme dissatisfaction with some of the 'shameless' unscrupulous merchants he had encountered.

However, if they were to actually pay salaries according to the already discounted minimum wage he envisioned, these so-called unscrupulous merchants would probably all go bankrupt.

The reason Hamilton has so many merchants today is because Prince Leon brought in the adventurer team when he saw things were going badly.

In the very beginning, their countdom only had a mill that also served as a bakery, and a small craftsman who sold linen!
It wasn't this bad before, of course, but in a baronial territory, generally speaking, the basic shops are run by the baron and his subordinates.

Baron Baron and his cronies perished together, their entire estate swept away by Montes Castle. What could they possibly leave for the Earldom?
Leon was a shrewd count who only picked up bargains; he couldn't possibly ask the Montes family for that little bit of stuff.

After all, it's really worthless.

Yes, even a ruined family is worth a fortune.

To rebuild those dilapidated things, it takes more than just money; it also requires skilled craftsmen.

The current business environment is thanks to the adventurers who travel around spreading Hamilton Territory's tolerance towards merchants.

There was no other way; with businessmen still unable to forget the ruthless plundering of decades ago, only greater profits could entice them.

Leon ultimately chose to adopt the demeanor of an adventurer lord because, compared to nobles, adventurers were more readily accepted by merchants.

Besides, when you're in business, who wouldn't want to pursue more profit?

The lords were no exception.

However, Leon's departure caused some adventurer factions to temporarily close their shops.

Ezra's lineage was far too orthodox.

Both high-ranking nobles and those from the royal army are likely to exclude adventurers.

All that remained were the small-time artisans and the lowest-class merchants who followed the trend.

As for merchants, only the larger they become, the more they can live up to their reputation as merchants.

When they drive the price of goods down to a fixed low level, the only way for small merchants to survive is to save money.

In the capital, almost all the small merchants were artisans and cooks.

But in border territories, especially impoverished ones, there is virtually no space for such people to live.

There are very few people willing to spend money on services. Even in Qingfeng Territory, it is known that ordinary people are willing to pay for things as little as rabbit meat pies.

In order to attract more merchants to Hamilton, Ezra would never ask the few remaining small merchant guilds that were still employing workers to raise wages.

Ordinary people don't actually want this either.

While they envied their neighbors, they were even more aware that they were Hamiltonians.

What's most important to them is having extra income besides farming.

The only way to change this predicament in the territory is to do what the Lord of Green Maple Territory did: buy up a large number of rabbits.

After all, thanks to the generosity of the neighboring lord, there are quite a few small animals in the forests of Hamilton.

Unfortunately, Count Ezra's biggest problem was his poverty.

His Majesty Travis is very wise, but he is still a little lacking in this respect.

(End of this chapter)