20 years had passed when I woke up! ~ The villain's daughter’s thereafter and after that ~ - Chapter 52

Translator: NovelMultiverse | Editor: NovelMultiverse

One month after the suppression of Count Sain’s revolt, on May 25th in the Year 1097 of the Royal Calendar, the Abolishment was finally put into effect.

From this day forth, the existence of an “aristocracy” vanished from the Tristan Kingdom, and all land was taken over by the King.

There were originally slightly more than 100 aristocratic properties existent in the Tristan Kingdom, but after consolidations and reorganization, it was decided that there would be 72 prefectures established.

“We consolidated baronies and viscountcies that were not very wide in land area, but I would like to further decrease the number of prefectures. Let’s take it step by step,” said Fioria. She set a goal of reducing the number of prefectures to 50, for now. She was using her motherland of her past life, Japan, for reference.

“There will probably be many issues at first, but when push comes to shove, I shall act accordingly,” said Fioria. If she really wanted, she could cross all of the Tristan Kingdom from end to end in less than an hour.

She planned to stay at the palace to carry out her duties as the sitting Prime Minister, and at the same time, quickly travel about in response to any trouble that occurred in any of the prefectures.

“This is all kind of anticlimactic… Lex, could you please give me a refill of this tea?” asked Fioria. She had just finished up dealing with various documents in the Prime Minister’s office and sighed with boredom. 

Seeing his master in such a state, Lex, the tall, young butler smiled wryly and poured her another cup of tea.

“Are you disappointed, my lady?” he asked.

“How could I be? No news is good news, after all… I say that, but I feel a sort of desolation since there’s so little to do. I wonder if this is what it feels like when one’s child grows independent,” said Fioria.

At this point, leaders dispatched from the palace were governing most of the prefectures of the Tristan Kingdom. Every single one of these leaders had been dispatched from none other than the Duchy of Florence.

Twenty-one years ago, Fioria had put a considerable amount of work into the educational reforms within the duchy that she ruled over, and without compensation, she had advanced compulsory education and employment training by establishing many vocational schools.[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]

One of the career focuses that people trained for in those vocational schools was bureaucracy and governance, and now, the people who had studied in those vocational schools were being sent to various prefectures to manage the core of the governing bodies.

“My lady, may I ask one question?” asked Lex, suddenly. He had made this request in his usual, tranquil demeanor and soft voice.

“The Abolishment… You have had not the aristocrats, but dispatched bureaucrats from the central region rule over the prefectures. I believe this is the best strategy for centralizing the system of power with the King at the top of the system. When was it that you thought of this system?” he asked.

Fioria sipped tea from her cup, and at the same time, broke into a meaningful smile.

“Why don’t you take a guess, Lex? You already have an answer in mind, don’t you?” she asked.

“Please allow me to make sure of something, first. When you established the vocational schools specializing in bureaucracy, you had done that while foreseeing the Abolishment, didn’t you?” he asked.

“Yes, that’s correct. To take it one step further, all of my educational reforms were, from the beginning, steps taken with the Tristan Kingdom’s future in mind. Governance, economics, culture, and technology… I’m sure that the fruits of that labor will start appearing, soon,” she said.

What Fioria was saying was not deceptive propaganda, at all. Just as she said, it would be written into the history books that people from the Duchy of Florence would continue to spread the influence of their home territory in various fields. They would come to be known as “the Golden Children”, in reference to Fioria’s nickname, “the Golden Goddess”. 

“To answer your question, I thought of the Abolishment after entering the School of Aristocrats… about half a year after I had started living in the royal capital,” said Fioria. It had been autumn, in the 15th year of her life.

At that time, Fioria would sneak out of her dormitory at the School of Aristocracy, and mingle with people from various walks of life, such as up-and-coming young businessmen, troubadours who had traveled through many lands, and veteran leaders of mercenary groups. As she came into contact with these people, Fioria started to attain an accurate grasp of how the world worked.

In other words, she realized that the most important thing in the age to come was going to be economic power. In addition to that, she saw that a nation couldn’t afford to uphold an aristocracy for the sake of having an aristocracy. 

If these people were naive about the world because of their privileged upbringings, they would be fooled by clever but deceitful businessmen, and everything would be taken from them until they were left in tatters.

No one could expect them to be able to effectively manage the finances of their land simply because they were born into a certain rich family. They were bound to become preyed on by businessmen and other nations.

She realized that for the good of the Tristan Kingdom’s future, experts would have to be trained and given these positions of governance and financial management.

The ultimate result of this way of thinking was the Abolishment. The educational reforms that were undertaken in the Duchy of Florence were the preparatory steps for this event.[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]