Helping with Adventurer Party Management - Chapter 388

The finalized plan, now bearing her name, looked like a major improvement.

But for some reason, Sara couldn’t bring herself to accept it.

She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but it felt different from what Kenji had done.

“It just doesn’t feel right…”

As it turned out, this wasn’t just Sara’s imagination—Shion, who had also seen Kenji at work, nodded in agreement.

“You’re right. Something’s off.”

Bolstered by his words, Sara pressed her fingers to her temples, trying hard to recall what Kenji had done at the time.

“Um… what was it? I think you said something while turning the boards vertically…”

“That’s it. I remember wondering about that. Turning the boards vertically definitely shortened the project timeline—but what did that mean? What kind of work were you doing back then?”

“Well, with the shoe project, I hired a ton of adventurers. The whole thing was done in about three days…”

As Sara and Rodolphe puzzled over it, Paperino suddenly beamed, his eyes lighting up. “Ah, I get it! That really is amazing!”

“You figured it out?”

“Yes! It means thinking about labor numerically! I understand now.”

“Numerically…? What do you mean?”

“Look, if a job takes three people ten days, then ten people can finish it in three days, right? So the size of the board represents the total amount of work! That’s incredible!”

While Paperino rambled on, full of excitement, the rest of the officials began to gather around, curious.

Lowering his arms and clearing his throat, Paperino began to explain properly.

“Sorry, I just realized what the Governor was doing. When we write a job on a board, we usually focus on how difficult it is. But I think the Governor was trying to express that difficulty numerically. He went even further—thinking about how long it would take one person, or two people, and how to complete the work in the shortest possible time by adjusting the workforce accordingly.”

“In that case, wouldn’t ten people doing it in a single day be best? You want it done quickly, after all,” Ruc said.

As expected from someone with a merchant’s background, he quickly started thinking in numbers.

“That makes sense if you’re just looking at time,” Paperino replied. “But we might not have that many people available. Plus, there’s the cost and effort of training them. If we bring in outside help, we’ll also need to pay wages, arrange housing, and provide food. That’s why you can’t always just throw more people at the problem.”

“I get it,” Rodolphe said, thinking of his family estate. Bringing in outsiders would create all kinds of complications.

If that’s the case, it’s probably better to rely on local workers.

Sara chimed in. “Right. Kenji said something like… shorten the longest part! Like, make the whole thing into one straight line so it’s shorter overall…”

As she spoke, everyone turned to look at the scattered boards laid out on the floor.

The work was varied—where did it start? Where did it end?

Which line was the longest? In its current state, it was impossible to tell.

“Shorten it…? With this much work, I have no idea where to start,” Rodolphe muttered.

“Then how about we write a number on each board?” Paperino suggested. “Let’s say ‘1’ is the amount of work one person can do in a day. We write down the number for each job, and when we add them up, we’ll know how much work the whole project takes, right?”

“Wow. I always thought you were way too serious—but you’re actually pretty smart,” Sara said to Paperino, teasing him with a mix of compliment and criticism.

Paperino gave her a wry smile and voiced his thoughts. “Well, this has a clear, correct answer, so even I can get it. But if the Executor came up with this, no wonder Father Nicolo took notice. Just who is this Executor, really…?”

But Sara responded with a proud smile. “Kenji is Kenji! That’s all that matters.”

“Right… anyway, let’s start assigning the numbers.”

Paperino and the newly appointed officials, now visibly more subdued, began entering numbers on each of the wooden boards.