NOVEL NEXT Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Deligating
1. What are some quest ideas (especially Advancement Quests) that you guys have?
2. How many BGA's do you think exist at a time (without certain spoilers)?
3. How many ways to immortality exist?
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"There are essentially two types of department heads: those who are content and those who are ambitious. 'Ambitious' meaning they want to gain or regain the mayor position, with the possibility of becoming a High-Class Citizen after 40 years of service."
"Out of the nine department heads and the former mayor, I consider four to be ambitious and six to be content," he explained.
"The good thing is that everybody knows about your situation, so I do not expect either group to cause trouble. In case they do, you have the authority to replace everybody except the former mayor, as that could possibly be seen as overstepping your boundary."
"It would be wise not to let him know this, though."
"Only the head of the police force would be harder to replace, as she is a D-Ranked Mage."
"All in all, there is a very low risk of insubordination or schemes, largely due to your father and noble rank," Verdalis continued.
"As for other types of problems, I can confidently say that neither the department heads nor the former mayor were corrupt," he said, easing one of my worries after I had received a few quests regarding that.
"I could also not find any misbehavior in their private lives up until now, but the investigations are still ongoing. You have access to all of my files on your computer, including their government files, my investigation reports, and other publicly available data, in case you are searching for something specific," he finished his report.
"Very well, you are dismissed," I said.
After all, I still had a lot to do, so I opened the Quest tab on my system panel. At the same time, I kept my notes application open.
And so I spent the next few hours of my life:
Sewer pipes are about to fail?
==> Assign this to the maintenance department.
Subordinates are preying on my downfall?
==> I should keep an eye open, maybe assign this to Verdalis.
Some subordinates are embezzling money?
==> Verdalis or the finance department head should take care of it.
Too many fares are not paid?
==> The police department should take care of it.
A kindergarten is about to open?
==> Unfortunately, I will have to do this myself.
And so the list grew, as I quickly assigned tasks to the various departments. When a task did not fit any department, I assigned it to the former mayor, Verdalis, or myself. The same went for tasks I could not really delegate without arousing suspicion.
In the end, the distribution looked like this:
Consultant / Former Mayor: 40 tasks
Police / Fighting Force: 45 tasks
Public Health Department: 9 tasks
Fire / Natural Disaster Department: 3 tasks
Public Relations Department: 16 tasks
Finance / Treasury Department: 53 tasks
Administrative Department: 80 tasks
Water / Waste Department: 29 tasks
Planning + Building Department: 24 tasks
Maintenance Department: 223 tasks
Verdalis: 33 tasks
Myself: 29 tasks
After that, I just made up some different tasks like: "Check this," "Explain this in a documentation," or "Find out why this is like that," just to have some of those tasks lead to nothing.
Lastly, I sorted the tasks alphabetically, split them into 10 different documents depending on the recipient, and sent them to my handheld communicator.
I almost pitied them. With my system giving me a notification every time a quest was completed, it was as if their boss was looking over their shoulder at all times.
POV: Fynra Marith
Tap
Tap
Tap
All ten of us were sitting at one table, just as we had done at least once a month for the last few years.
Tap
Tap
I was sitting in the same seat I had always sat in—just to the right of the seat at the head of the table. The person sitting in front of me, however, had changed.
Tap
Tap
Tap
In the past, this was the seat reserved for the head of the finance department, but now it was the place for our former boss. I felt kind of sorry for him—demoted because his son bullied the wrong person in school. And look at how nervous he is right now, with all the tapping.
Some of my officers had told me that there were dozens of reports from teachers stating that some students from more influential backgrounds had been coming in with clear signs of being beaten the day after the City Governor was demoted.
It wasn't much of a public scandal. Officially, the City Governor had simply resigned and been replaced. But to a lot of the rich and powerful, this was a message.
Speaking of the powerful, my former boss wasn't the only one of my colleagues looking nervous. In fact, it was more likely that I, as the only super among us, was the only one who wasn't nervous.
Even their assistants standing behind them seemed to have picked up on the mood and did not dare to look up from the ground.
Tap
Tap
Beep
My communicator informed me that the clock had just hit 08:00, meaning the meeting time had officially started—though the 'man of the hour' still hadn't arrived yet. I caught some looks because I had my communicator set to loud, but it seemed as if none of them had the energy to start a fight over that right now.
Or maybe it was the fact that they didn't want a fireball thrown in their direction, but I didn't know.
POV: Elrin van Vril'okai
"Good morning!" I called out as I walked into the meeting room.
Just as Verdalis closed the door behind us, even the last of the people seated at the table stood up and said:
"Good morning, Governor!"
"You may sit," I answered as I took my seat.
As everyone sat down, I started again.
"Very well, I will not take up too much of our time. Until you prove otherwise, I will assume you are competent and not replace you." I began my explanation and could already see the worry leave some of their faces.
"The previous arrangement of one meeting per week with all of you will stand, but do not hesitate to contact Verdalis or myself in case of something urgent."
"Apart from that, I might take it upon myself to assign other tasks to you." With a few clicks on my communicator, I sent out the files.
Bing
Ding
Bing
A few of their communicators made a sound, while the others seemed to have been notified through some other means.
"Read through these for now, and ask your questions if you have any," I commanded them.
20 minutes later
Most of them had finished long ago. The reading part just took so long because of the sheer number of tasks I had assigned to the maintenance department. But after the head of that department looked up from his communicator, hands started shooting into the air.
"You go first," I said, pointing at the former city governor.
"Thank you, Governor. From my tasks, I see that these are things that don't directly fall into the domain of any of the nine departments. Am I right in assuming that this will be my work from now on?" he asked respectfully.
"Yes, essentially. But not all of those tasks, as I will handle some of that type myself. Your work from now on will mostly be tasks assigned by me," I explained.
"Do you have any other questions?" I asked, directing it specifically to the former city governor.
"What is the expected time frame for completing these tasks?" he asked, a question I was sure the others were also interested in.
"As fast as you can complete them without affecting the quality of the results or the quality of your day-to-day tasks," I said. After thinking for a moment, I continued.
"You can also decide on the order in which to complete them yourself."
With that, the former governor, along with a few of the others, seemed satisfied, but three of them still had their hands up. Before they could mentally throw out the tasks I had given them, I began speaking again.
"I will check how well you complete these tasks, and if you underperform significantly, you will be replaced."
Three of them still had their hands up—not that I expected my quasi-threat to answer any of their questions.
"Yes, what's your question?" I asked the woman sitting to my left—the leader of the police force, if I recalled correctly.
"Some of these tasks will be expensive, so my question is: Are the tasks or the budget more important?"
A very reasonable question, which I suspected the other two wanted to ask as well, as they were the heads of the most affected departments. They also put their hands down after it was asked.
"I think it is unreasonable for me to expect you to do much more with the same funds. If you think your department will be affected by this, I want you to give me an estimated budget needed for the additional tasks within the next three days," I answered.
Luckily, this seemed to be the last question, as no one else raised their hand.