Helping with Adventurer Party Management - Chapter 365

He begins explaining the new management method, breaking it down into practical details.

“I think there are two key points we should focus on in this new method: What indicators should we manage? And how should we track and share them as early as possible?”

Seeing the confused looks on the new officials’ faces, he offers additional explanations using examples that adventurers and mercenaries would easily understand.

“Some of you may not be familiar with the term ‘indicator.’ But if you’re an adventurer or a mercenary, you should know what makes a request good or bad.

For example, if a novice adventurer earns five copper coins in one day, that’s a well-paying request. But if a top-tier clan earns only one gold coin in ten days, that’s a poorly paying request.

To make it easier to compare, let’s break it down into daily rates. A novice adventurer earns five copper coins per day, while a top-tier clan earns one large silver coin per day. In other words, the big clans earn 20 times as much as a novice adventurer.

By converting it to daily earnings, you get a clearer picture. This is an indicator — a way to understand what’s happening by looking at the numbers.”

The same concept applies in Adventurer’s Guild reports.

The numbers reflect what’s happening to adventurers and guide their decisions. Father Nicolo had seen such reports and tried to respond, but perhaps the younger priests lacked the experience to interpret them, or maybe they simply didn’t have the instincts for it.

Deacon Paperino raised a skeptical question.

“It may be possible to use this method for paid work, like adventurers. But can it really be used to manage rural areas?”

It was a valid point, so I turned to Sara, a former farmer.

“How early can you tell if the wheat harvest in a rural area will be good or bad?”

Perhaps accustomed to unexpected questions, Sara paused thoughtfully before answering without much hesitation.

“Well… you plant it in the spring, and you can tell by summer.”

“How do you know?”

“Well… when things are good, the wheat heads get really full and fat. But when things are bad, they’re already thin by then.”

I nodded at Sara’s answer and looked around at everyone.

“That’s a hint for creating an index. Wouldn’t it be useful to know by summer how good the harvest will be?”

“Um, yes. They usually report whether it’s good or bad, but if they could predict it with concrete numbers, that would be revolutionary. But I’ve never heard of such a method,” Paperino replied, surprised.

“Do you have any other ideas? Any other methods?”

As I waited patiently, the craftsman Simon spoke up hesitantly.

“Um… what about counting the grains of wheat?”

“Counting the grains of wheat! That’s a good idea. Any others?”

I exaggerated my praise to encourage more suggestions.

Perhaps because Simon — who seemed the least experienced and educated in the group — was praised, the others felt a sense of rivalry, and the discussion grew livelier.

“But good wheat and bad wheat are completely different. Bad ears are sparse even if there are a lot of grains.”

“Then let’s measure the weight instead of just counting the grains.”

“There’s a difference between good and bad fields too, right? A field that’s been left to rest will yield very differently from one that hasn’t.”

“In that case, why don’t we take 10 stalks from both good and bad fields?”

“It’s a bit of a waste, but that may be the best way.”

“We need to coordinate the dates. It would be even better if we could compare it with other territories.”

“Maybe we should measure it every month instead of just in the summer.”

As the conversation reached its peak, Kenji clapped his hands to get their attention.

“What we’re discussing now is creating an index. With this, we’ll have concrete numbers to predict how much the harvest will be by summer. We’ll track these numbers and manage them accordingly.”

This time, no one objected to the idea.

From then on, the new officials engaged in enthusiastic and detailed discussions about what kinds of figures would be needed to properly assess the state of the territory.