People in Terra, governing a bizarre little country

But now, Ernst is more eager to recruit a group of qualified civilian staff to fill his government team, which has been vacant for a long time.

Recruiting locally in Kjerag is definitely going to be done, but Ernst thinks that the chances of finding suitable talent are slim, if not completely nonexistent.

It's the same old problem: Sherag lacks a corresponding talent development mechanism, and naturally, it also lacks the corresponding talent.

Unlike sports or mathematics, which rely heavily on talent, government clerical work involves repetitive and tedious tasks, requiring employees to skillfully employ three key skills: shifting blame, appeasing superiors, and exploiting loopholes, to cope with oversight and inspections from various sources.

As for getting things done, that's a task that's "outsourced," especially for governments with parliamentary electoral systems.

Doesn't that sound pretty easy?

But the reality is never that simple. Those repetitive, unchanging jobs are the pillars that support the stable operation of this society, while the so-called three skills are merely unavoidable coping mechanisms for dealing with emergencies.

After all, the government is not an individual entity; it comprises various interest groups and demands. What might have been a minor incident like A hitting B's dog could be resolved in an ordinary family by having A apologize to B. However, within a large collective, resolving this issue requires considering factors such as whether A instigated the incident, who B is, what breed B's dog is, whether there are any backers involved, and whether someone like C might profit from it, among other questions.

And just when a government has finally sorted out all the rules and regulations, allocated resources among interest groups, and is ready to get things done... Oh no! It's election time!

It's only then that you suddenly realize you haven't accomplished anything while in office; you've just been busy smoothing things over. Once you lose an election, the government has to be completely reshuffled, and then the whole process has to be repeated.

Of course, Ernst's current government doesn't need to face these troublesome problems for the time being, because there's practically no one in his government.

Even the civil engineering sisters are doing secret techniques! All they do every day is hang Ernst's clothes and carry him around. They don't know how to do much else. Isn't this a great way to make money?

In short, as long as you can hire people, you can use them. However, in Sherag, it's probably difficult to find even people who can perform the most basic clerical work.

"We still need to look outwards."

Ernst gave the order to Lola beside him in a serious tone.

“Offer higher salaries and benefits, and spend some money to have foreign newspapers exaggerate it, saying that the Shelag government is recruiting interns, and welcomes all recent college graduates to submit their resumes. The salary and benefits are generous, and you can be promoted to a full-time position after working for a year.”

Lola was nodding at first, but she became a little confused halfway through. When Ernst finished speaking, she blinked in bewilderment and asked:

"I understand using high salaries to attract talent, but why did you say you were recruiting interns, Mr. Ernst? And why did you specifically mention recruiting recent college graduates?"

Ernst paused for a moment, hesitating whether to reveal this cruel truth.

After all, Lola seems to have only graduated less than a year ago.

But after thinking it over, and considering that they were all on his side, Ernst answered with peace of mind:

"Because college students are easy to fool."

"To be honest, this place, Sherag, is probably not even as good as the countryside in Victoria and Columbia. My government office doesn't even have a small Originium heater, which is a bit too shabby. Ordinary people might come here to coast along because of the high salary, but the real talents won't come here, no matter how high the salary I offer."

Ernst paused, his eyes sparkling with a clear and pure light as he looked at Lola:

"But college students are different. There are many undiscovered talents among college students, and they have little social experience. In addition, with the current global competition, they face great employment pressure in their local areas. If you coax them a little and offer them a high salary, they might come here with the mentality of 'no pain, no gain'."

Lola glanced at Ernst, then subconsciously looked down at herself, who stretched out to the horizon, and stood there stunned, her expression blank, as if she had been greatly shocked.

After a long silence, she asked with mixed feelings:

"Won't they realize something's wrong after working there for a while? You want to give them permanent positions after a year, but what if they run away after a year?"

This time, Ernst turned his head away sheepishly, looked towards the window, and whispered:

"College students only mature once a year."

Just like leeks, you can harvest one batch and then replace it with another. As long as the international environment remains unchanged, you can never finish harvesting leeks.

After Ernst finished speaking, Lola remained silent for a long time. An awkward silence fell over the office.

It wasn't until Ernst couldn't hold back any longer and broke the deadlock:

“It’s okay, Lola. You’re special. You’re the first college student from our Sherag to go abroad. My brother only has an undergraduate degree, and he’s studying business. You’re a real high-caliber talent with a bright future ahead of you!”

Lola pursed her lips, blinked, and stared at Ernst: "Young Master Ernst doesn't think of me as a college student, does he?"

Ernst vehemently denied it, saying, "Nonsense! How could I treat my own people like leeks!"

Lola didn't say anything, but stepped forward and opened her arms.

Ernst hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth, went up to Lola, and gave her a big hug.

The girl hugged him so tightly that Ernst felt like he was being given CPR.

Isn't this considered workplace sexual harassment? Or even sexual harassment of your boss!

I sacrificed so much for Sherag!

Ernst closed his eyes and quietly felt the warmth coming from all directions.

After a long while, Lola finally relaxed, let go of his hand, and smiled again, giving Ernst a slight bow.

"I'll get on it right away!"

Ernst nodded with a smile, watching Lola's figure disappear into the distance, then suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

You know what, it's actually a bit chilly when there are fewer people huddled together for warmth all of a sudden!

With 600 million in funding, let's buy a small stove first.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Wang Weina

Victoria, Lentinium, sunny.

The citizens of Lentinium were shocked to see the latest notice posted on the bulletin board about high-paying job openings for university graduates in government clerical positions in Shelag.

They started discussing where Shelag was.

The people of Lentinium were skeptical of the job posting.

"Government civil servant, such a good position, is actually openly recruited? Is there really such a good thing?"

"I've never heard of a place called Shelag. Where is it? Is it far from Londinium? Is it bigger than Victoria?"

"Sigh, if you ask me, where would such a good thing come from? It's probably just another scam ad from that unscrupulous factory trying to trick people into working there illegally!"

"Yes, yes, let me tell you, my cousin's classmate, a college graduate, said he got a job offer a while ago, to be an electronics engineer in some city in the Tara region, with great pay, so he went there excitedly, and guess what happened?"

"what happened?"

The man speaking clicked his tongue, looking regretful.

"Once he left, he lost contact with his family. By the time his family found him again, both of his kidneys were gone!"

"Alas! Sure enough, Tara is a place with a lot of bad people and a lot of trouble!"

"That's why we Londinim's patriarchs are truly patriarchs! Back when my ancestor followed Aslan Pasha into the pass, he had already done all the work I've ever done in my life!"

The Philin had barely finished speaking when the Philin opposite him covered his mouth, put a finger to his lips, glanced cautiously around, and whispered, "Be careful what you say about the King!"

Phil, who was speaking, nodded in sudden realization: "Yes, yes, be careful what you say, be careful what you say."

The two cautiously glanced around, making sure no one was watching them, before lowering their hat brims and quickly leaving the square. Unbeknownst to them, on a bench at the other end of the square, a golden figure watched them leave before walking towards the notice board.

The atmosphere in Londinium has been like this ever since the last King Aslan was hanged in Parliament Square.

The nobles of the city council seized power in the city, issued a decree prohibiting any grand duke from entering without permission, and then shut themselves off to establish their own little kingdom in Londinium.

Ruling is never an easy task. Perhaps out of a guilty conscience, or perhaps to quickly eliminate the king's influence and prevent any possibility of rebellion, the city council spread spies throughout the city, monitoring people's every word and action, especially information about the "king".

Suddenly, a word that was once recited by countless people every day has become a forbidden word.

Vina felt very sad and confused about this.

When the nobles in the city rebelled and the king was imprisoned, Vina, as a descendant of Aslan, was secretly sent out of the palace by the royalists loyal to the king and hidden among the common people.

The subsequent indiscriminate massacre of all Aslans within the palace made her, at a young age, possibly the last Aslan descendant.

She changed her name to Vina, using her real name Alexandria Victoria as an alias, and became an inconspicuous street vagrant in Lentinium.

There are countless homeless people like her in the slums of Lentinium, and no one pays attention to her. She has been able to grow up slowly like this until today.

Her neighborhood was invaded by nearby gangs, and a fierce battle between the local gangs caused a fire that burned down Vina's tiny apartment, forcing her to move.

She had planned to try her luck on the land in the Glasgow Gang's jurisdiction in the East End, but while passing by the square, she happened to overhear a conversation between two people in front of the notice board.

"We are recruiting clerical staff. Those with literacy skills will be given priority. Those familiar with government work and possessing a certain level of literary talent are highly welcome. Recent college graduates are also welcome to apply. Salary is guaranteed, and discounts will be offered for large orders..."

Vina silently read the job posting in her mind and couldn't help but smile.

Although she had no experience finding a proper job, either in the past or present, she could still tell that the job posting was suspicious.

By the standards of government civil servants, the requirement of simply having literacy skills is really too low, isn't it?

Besides, which government would hire recent college graduates?

In Vina's memory, when her father was still alive, all the civil servants she met were middle-aged, overweight, bald, with cunning eyes and a silver tongue. None of these qualities were related to a college student.

They even offer discounts for bulk orders; if you didn't know better, you'd think they were buying groceries or doing wholesale!

Vina shook her head. No wonder those two Filipinos were pointing at the job posting. Looking at it now, they weren't wrong. This thing either lured people to a shady factory or tricked them into going to a brothel.

When Vina looked at the company that was hiring, she frowned again.

"Shelagh?"

Unlike the two who directly asked where Sherag was from, Vina seemed to recognize the name.

Sherag, this place doesn't seem to be within Victoria, does it?

This seems to be another country, northwest of Victoria, where the entire nation seems to adhere to an obscure religion.

Vina rubbed her temples, unable to extract any more memories.

There was nothing she could do about it. Her entire impression of Sherag came from the Terra geography lessons taught to her by her royal tutor when she was young, but she had no interest in geography at the time and basically either skipped class or played around during those lessons.

At that moment, she felt as if she had crossed the world and was experiencing what some students in China felt during exams.

Good news, the teacher has covered this question before.

The bad news is, I fell asleep in that class.

Just as Vina was racking her brains to figure out what to do with her memories, a voice came from not far away.

"Hey, miss over there, what are you doing?"

Vina snapped back to reality, turned her head slightly, and glanced behind her out of the corner of her eye. A young woman in a mounted police uniform was walking towards her.

Is there even a question? Whether she saw through her disguise and recognized her as Aslan, or whether she came to investigate the gang fight and fire that happened a few days ago, Vina absolutely cannot be caught by her, and she absolutely cannot go back to the police station in Londinium with her!

Once you're in the police station, getting out will be a real hassle!

In a moment of desperation, Vina didn't hesitate. She reached out and tore down the job posting on the wall, then turned and ran.

Behind her, the shouts of the mounted police gradually faded into the distance.

Standing in front of the notice board, the mounted police officer Grani stopped, feeling a bit bewildered. He stood there, pursing his lips.

"Am I that scary? Do you think I can scare people away just by trying to do an anti-fraud campaign?"

Chapter Twenty-Four: Sherag's First Officially Funded Trip!

Victoria, Lentinium, corner bookstore.

After stopping at the corner and looking back for a few minutes to make sure no one was following, Vina breathed a slight sigh of relief and went into the bookstore she frequented.

The bookstore manager, Goldin, was a young and beautiful teacher who worked at St. Marso Elementary School on weekdays and spent her weekends and holidays at the bookstore. Vina hadn't seen Goldin many times; her only impression of her was that of a young lady with long, light gray hair who seemed somewhat pessimistic.

After all, in Victoria, not many people would adorn themselves with lilies—in Victoria, they were a symbol of death.

Today is a weekday, and Goldin is not in the bookstore. There aren't many people in the store. At this time of day, most of the customers are elderly people who have nothing to do and sit in the bookstore for a while to pass the time.

Vina wandered through the bookstore, skillfully finding the bookshelf displaying geography books. She searched through them one by one, finally finding a book on the customs and culture of Sherag in a corner.

With the help of the public Terra map on the bookshelf, Vina finally found Sherag's location.

"Shelag is located between Casimir, Victoria, and Colombia, surrounded by mountains. Most of its people are Jeragandians, who firmly believe that a god named Jeragand created Shelag. However, unlike Lateranism and other sects, Jeragandians do not have a strong desire to proselytize, and the Shelag people are mostly closed-minded and conservative. To this day, the religious institution Manjushri is nominally ruled, while the three major families are in actual management."

“Manju Academy…” Vina frowned, then pulled out the hastily crumpled job posting from her leather pants pocket. “It says the Sherag government on this.”

"Could it really be a scam?"

She sighed in disappointment.

To be honest, although the job posting seemed like a joke from any angle, she did have high hopes for it.

She didn't want to stay in Lentinium anymore, and if she could, she didn't even want to stay in Victoria anymore.

It's too dangerous here. She's had enough of living in constant fear of being spotted by mounted police just now, or being captured and killed by council nobles at any moment.

She wanted a peaceful life.