Helping with Adventurer Party Management - Chapter 386

The next morning, the new officials gathered in the workshop before dawn and asked Kenji, the Governor, to review the arrangement of wooden boards that barely qualified as a proper plan.

The clergy had intended to present a clean, rewritten version on parchment, but Kenji’s simple remark—“That’s not necessary”—put a quick end to that idea.

In one corner of the workshop, desks and chairs had been pushed aside, and the boards were still scattered across the floor. 

Kenji went through them slowly, inspecting each one, occasionally asking for clarification on certain parts. The new officials watched with nervous tension, a chill running down their spines.

Whether or not he noticed their unease, Kenji eventually finished reviewing everything and said with a smile: “This isn’t bad. Looks like you’ve got a handle on the overall workload.”

The officials relaxed slightly, shoulders easing in relief.

But then Kenji added, “So, how are you planning to improve it from here?”

“Improve it…?”

The officials, who had felt they’d done everything they could the day before, were visibly confused.

Seeing their expressions, Kenji decided to be more direct. “This is a decent rough draft. But some of the tasks written here are too optimistic. I doubt they can actually be completed within the time frame. And overall, the plan stretches too long. I want you to refine the direction, improve the accuracy of the workload estimates, and shorten the project timeline.”

Since these were instructions from the Governor, there was no room for argument.

“Understood…” The officials nodded, though their voices were weak.

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Once Kenji left, the new officials pulled up chairs and sat in a circle to begin discussing next steps.

The first thing that came out of their mouths was open frustration with Kenji’s orders.

“Damn it! There’s no way to shorten all this work!”

“Right? We already pooled all our wisdom into this. It should be solid.”

“Plans like this take time. If we rush it, we’ll mess things up when we start the actual work.”

Sara sat with her arms crossed, listening to the venting. When she sensed they had said their fill, she spoke up firmly: “So? You’re giving up, then? Well, I’m not.”

Her voice carried a quiet strength. The men who had been complaining fell silent. They knew their words were just excuses.

“I’m sorry. We were wrong,” Claudio said to Sara sincerely.

The other officials were surprised—and even a little ashamed—to see a priest so earnestly apologizing to a former adventurer.

“But what do we do? There’s no way to sort through all this work in ten days. And if we shorten the time, does that mean we cut some things out? But we can’t do a sloppy job.”

“Exactly. That’s putting the cart before the horse. How do we shorten the timeline without compromising the quality of the work? We can’t do that by ourselves.”

“That’s it!”

Sara suddenly shouted, making Rodolphe and Paperino pause mid-discussion and turn toward her.

“Whatt?”