Chapter 25
(Kyle Calendar
Year 503: Age 10)
Talent
Acquisition ②: Candidate
Selection
Translator : PolterGlast
"Takuhir, you've
got that mischievous look on your face again."
At the end of the
meeting, my brother pointed it out to me.
Both my brother and
the steward were looking at me with grins.
In any case, I got
permission from my parents at the meeting! Now I can make some pocket money!
And secure personnel at the same time.
I couldn't help but be
happy about it.
After that, it was a
series of monotonous tasks.
I have a cheat that no
one else knows about.
The history of the
Solis barony, which I call the history book, not only contains the history of
the territory but also a page with a list of the residents.
In the [previous
history], the names of all those who lived in the Estol territory and were
residents of the Solis baronial family were recorded in the history book.
・Name (most residents did not have surnames)
・Age (as of Kyle calendar year 513; for the deceased,
year of death and age)
・Residence (name of town or village)
・Characteristics (This was incredibly cheat-like
information)
When I first saw the
information in the characteristics column, I was overjoyed.
Because the magical
aptitudes, which normally could only be determined through expensive aptitude confirmation
rituals, were neatly listed there. It was clear at a glance who had aptitude
and what kind!
If I knew in advance,
I could efficiently gather those with magical aptitude, in other words, mages,
with little cost.
Even a quick glance at
the characteristics column of the history book confirmed a considerable number
of people with magical aptitude.
The merit of being
able to single out and catch so many mages pinpointedly was immeasurable.
"There's no easy
way to make a comeback with the cheat of knowing history," who said that?
"This is
ridiculously game-changing information!"
I was ecstatic all by
myself.
However... there was
an unexpected pitfall.
This world doesn't
have a proper family register!
There was household
information for tax purposes, but no comprehensive individual records.
"Is this really
all the information on the people of the domain that the administrative
authorities have? Why?! This is useless!"
I couldn't help but
slam the documents down.
"I apologize for
not being of more help. I confirmed with the steward as well, but there seems
to be no further information."
"Ah, sorry. I
wasn't blaming you, Anne."
I apologized to the
shrinking Anne for taking my frustration out on her.
I resented the system
of this world.
"Yeah... there's
no such thing as an easy way to make a comeback after all..."
My earlier elation and
the sudden surge of excitement plummeted to negative zone.
For example, suppose
the resident list in the history book mentioned a person named Mary living in ○○ village with earth
magic aptitude.
If she were the head
of a tax-paying household, there would be a document in the government office
with the name Mary in ○○ village.
But there was no age
listed at all, and it was impossible to distinguish her from others with the
same name.
Furthermore, if she
wasn't the head of the household, the record would only say something like:
wife 1, daughters 2, without any individual names other than the head of the
household.
So, if Mary in ○○ village was the wife
or daughter of the head of the household, there was no way to find out from
these records.
The only option was to
send someone to ○○ village and
investigate every person named Mary.
But there might be
others with the same name.
And what further
complicated the issue was that the residences and ages were information from
ten years in the future, Kyle calendar year 513.
Therefore, there was a
good chance that the Mary who corresponded to the record might not even be
living in ○○ village now.
To put it simply, the
information in the history book was like this:
Name: Mary
Residence: Town of
Mars
Age: 14 years old
(died in Kyle 503)
Characteristic: Earth
Mage Aptitude
Name: Mary
Residence: Town of Est
Age: 18 years old (as
of Kyle 513)
Characteristic: Blacksmith
Aptitude
Name: Mary
Residence: Ale Village
Age: 24 years old (as
of Kyle 513)
Characteristic: Wind
Mage Aptitude
Name: Mary
Residence: Town of Est
Age: 32 years old (as
of Kyle 513)
Characteristic:
Swordsman Aptitude (Sword Saint)
Even if I wanted to
find the Mary living in Ale Village in Kyle 513, who would be 14 years old now,
she might not be living in Ale Village at the present time.
The two problems were
that I didn't know the current information, and that errors were occurring
because I had already changed history.
I couldn't just ask
someone to search for all 14-year-old girls named Mary living in or near ○○ village without
explaining the purpose.
It would be too
suspicious, and if I started discovering mages one after another with this
method, it would raise unnecessary suspicion around me.
Besides, even if I
could find them successfully, there would be [another problem].
One of the means I
devised to solve this was the registration at the archery range and the
reception center.
The prizes were just
bait to attract more registrants.
Even if they didn't
participate in the regular tournament, if the 14-year-old Mary in question
would just register at the reception as a form of entertainment... at least the
candidates could be narrowed down significantly.
There was a
possibility of others with the same name and age.
But I believed that if
I continued this steady narrowing down, I would be able to find them with a
high probability.
It was a tedious task.
Every day, I stared at the history book.
Extract all people
with magical aptitude from the history book
↓
Exclude those who died
before I altered history
↓
Recalculate the ages
of the remaining people to the present time
↓
Finally, recreate the
list by residence and age
"……"
I wish I had a
computer and Excel.
It was a difficult
task to do manually, but I was helped by the fact that the initial number to
sort was still small.
Surprisingly, the
number of people I managed to extract was over 200!
"What is this
number? It's impossible!"
I couldn't help but
shout.
Originally, mages were
said to be only 0.02% of the population of about 8,000 people, statistically.
It turned out that if
we could investigate those with potential abilities, as many as 2.5% existed.
It was a very pleasant
miscalculation, but if I went too far, it would lead to unnecessary
misunderstandings and inquiries.
From here on, I
decided to proceed cautiously while being vigilant.
As the next step,
based on the created list, I narrowed down relatively young residents,
including children, who were currently 10 years old or older, and a list of
about 50 people was completed.
At this point, I was
almost completely burned out...
Every day, I compared
the registration information that came in from the archery range reception with
the list I had.
I repeated this task
every day.
And the first person
was very close!
Someone I knew, so
there was no need for comparison.
And there were no
concerns about the other problem.
Perhaps this was also
fate.
When I found them, I
was so overjoyed that I received strange looks from those around me.
After that, I found
some likely names among the personnel I had employed for past refugee relief
efforts and the operation of the archery range, and I carefully proceeded with
the confirmation.
For them (her), the
other problem could be ignored.
Having come this far,
I could finally leave the simple tasks to others.
Even so, I could only
entrust the work to a limited number of trustworthy people, such as Anne and
Claire, who carried out my instructions silently without any doubts.
And after that,
candidates were steadily found, and nearly ten candidates were identified.
However, I couldn't
have them undergo the aptitude confirmation ritual immediately.
It was necessary to
confirm the candidates' character, their loyalty to the Solis baronial family,
and to create a reason for them to undergo the ritual, even if it had to be
forceful.
If they were to be
scouted by another territory as soon as their magical aptitude was confirmed,
it would be disastrous.
Yes, this was the
other problem.
The initial
justification would be to use the regular tournament.
Thinking this, I
visited the archery range daily under the guise of discussing and checking the
progress of the regular tournament, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the people
I had in mind.
Furthermore, using the
reason of being operating personnel for the regular tournament, I increasingly
brought in the candidates I could secure.
-----
Thank you for my Patrons !!
[Platinum]
Swagaraga
[Gold]
B random
DavidA
Nepheos
ShitaiNoKootoRyuu
[Silver]
Creris
Fred A.
Frédéric Bertrand-Hudon
Matthew Fraser
Anton Lim
Ctdela
Curious Panda
Read Advanced Chapters only on my Patreon
-----
