Helping with Adventurer Party Management - Chapter 87

What’s needed to establish a company?

Aside from capital, I need land for an office and a workshop. Securing a large area within the city to protect the secrets of shoe manufacturing is a significant challenge. It’s quite a difficult problem. It’s fair to say it’s even more challenging for an adventurer like me.

I explain this to Sara while we walk.

“Can you even buy land in the city? I never thought about it,” Sara wonders.

The rules for buying land in a city are entirely different from those in rural areas where land is abundant. Life in the countryside of this world is harsh. With starvation from poor harvests, disease, and monster attacks, the population doesn’t increase much. Young people dislike that kind of life and leave for the city.

Therefore, if you want to acquire land in the countryside, you can obtain unused land from the village chief for a small amount of money, provided you’re accepted. Sara’s suggestion to “go back to the countryside and buy livestock and fields” referred to this method.

Buying land in the city, however, is far more complicated.

“So, where do you go to buy land? Do you have to meet with a noble?” I ask.

Nobles don’t provide such administrative services, and private entities don’t offer them either.

There’s no real estate business available to the general public in this world. Thus, obtaining usable land requires not only money but also navigating a complex process. Land rights are essentially owned by the nobles who control the city. Citizens are in a situation similar to renting in China—they don’t own the land but have usage rights.

So, are there any kind of usage rights certificates for the land?

Unfortunately, there are no formal documents for this. There are no formal certificates of rights. Instead, each city block is divided into districts and streets, and the church’s birth register guarantees where you were born. This register functions like a combination of modern resident registration and family records.

The register is accessible only to a few privileged individuals who know it exists, are educated enough to read it, and can afford the high viewing fees.

“What? So if you can’t read, you can’t do anything! That’s unfair!”

“The world is designed so that the unfair get ahead,” I reply.

The birth registration list is essential for transferring land use rights. This is because the transfer of land use rights is managed by a legal official who updates the address on the registration list. For example, it would be updated to reflect, “Citizen Kenji’s birthplace changed from Aizu Domain to Yonezawa Domain.”

Since this process must be done for each individual, it’s a considerable effort. The church is responsible for managing and auditing the records to ensure justice. The viewing fees for the birth register and the mediation of land usage rights are significant sources of income for the church.

The more complicated and costly the process, the better it is for them. Ordinary citizens who can’t read often believe they can live on their land indefinitely because they’ve lived there for so long, only to discover one day that their land has been sold.

That said, since citizens are considered property, those purchasing land use rights are usually more interested in the land’s benefits rather than displacing residents. Tax collectors are also continuously employed, so unless there’s expropriation of land or an increase in tax rates, there’s usually no significant concern.

In other words, it’s impossible for someone like me, an adventurer, to acquire land through conventional means.

“…So what will you do?”

“Well, just wait and see. I have a plan.”

Every world has its backdoors.