Chapter 11.

Six months passed by without much incident.

During that time the reorganisation and reshuffling of the public sector have finally been completed, taking into account the relatively small size of the fief, compared to the others in the Kingdom, many of its myriad of offices was cut down in size and some absorbed into newly formed departments.

In the end, out of the original twenty-four, only eight remained.

They are the Department of Justice, Treasury, Education, Commerce, Public Affairs, Labour, Health and Agriculture.

They worked as their names suggested, the DOJ is in charge of the implementation and enforcement of new laws.

The Treasury Department is in charge of the calculation and collection of taxes, the Fief's Budget, and investigates financial crimes.

The Education Department oversees all schools and public libraries in the fief, standardising the curriculum, providing financial aid and grants for students and schools.

The Commerce Department main concern is to create jobs, promote economic growth using a variety of subsidies, tax breaks and tariffs. They also tasked with gathering economic and demographic data to aid business and government decision-making.

Public Affairs is the biggest department out of the rest, due to its wide range of responsibilities, having to manage infrastructure, public works, emergency services and maintaining the social welfare programs mandated by the King, as well as working with the church for its religious needs.

The Department of Labour current responsibility is overseeing and enforcing the current workplace health and safety regulations and gathering of economic data in cooperation with the commerce department.

It is also tasked with regulating the slave trade, a trade which I am making sure to unofficially abolish, disincentivising slave owners and traders by passing new stricter and more rigorous health and safety laws concerning slaves and heavy taxes on the trade while at the same time offering financial incentives in freeing them.

I know this will cause most of the trade in this region to go underground but them doing so would give me legal authority to arrest and free them, so that's a plus at least.

The Health Department is the second-largest and the one with the most significant budget, taking 30% of the overall budget with education and Public Affairs a distant second and third, taking 15 and 13% respectively. But it is also the department suffering the most from lack of resources due to the size and scope of its responsibilities.

With healthcare reform and education reform being my top priorities, there are only two hospitals for a city of 1.5 million. Clinics most of the time are simply homes of the doctors or the doctors simply came to the patient's home and conducted operations on the spot. This is not taking into account of the rural regions of the fief which suffers even more from lack of medical access.

There was, of course, also the issue of quack doctors, licenced physicians are not a thing yet, which are causing more harm than good. This is not even taking into account the flood of fake medicines out in the streets, sold by roadside peddlers who bolt at the first sign of police.

There was one saving grace, however, and that was Ragnaid, a magical medical device that combined refined Ragnite and Sulphanilamide in a small canister. The mixture when applied, sterilised and aided in the repair of wounds.

But the main problem with Ragnaid is that it is expensive to procure, with most of it going to the military, leaving very little left for the civilian market.

Another problem is that Ragnaid is made from the mineral Ragnite. It is a bright blue mineral; it is the most versatile out of the other known magical minerals and has a wide variety of commercial and industrial applications.

Most commonly as an energy source, replacing hydrocarbons, which does exist, as the world's primary energy source. As it's easier to find, extract and refine, it also does not produce greenhouse gases, only heat, but it is also highly explosive, the more refined it gets.

In retrospect, Ragnite is more like a battery than hydrocarbons, but with medical uses as well. The large number uses mean it is always in high demand, and with only some much to go around, it is only natural to face shortages.

Lastly is the Department of Agriculture, with the Agriculture sector employing 50% of the fief's total workforce, and dominating a considerable chunk of the fief's economy, great pains has to be placed on maintaining/ improving the overall health of the industry or I risk the entire economy collapsing.

By having the Department educate the farmers on new and better methods of farming and introducing mechanisation into the process, I can boost output and at the same time have a larger pool of potential workers for the new industries I plan to develop.

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At the same time as the government was being reorganised, the Atlas Corporation was founded, with me as founder and Chairman. Launching Atlas Food, Atlas Financial and Atlas Energy subsidiaries at the same time, with Atlas Pharmaceuticals joining the Atlas umbrella two months later. Each one becoming largely successful on its own.

But by far the biggest is Atlas Foods, and the coffee chain I created, Coffee-Rush, a strangereal equivalent to the ubiquitous Starbucks Brand on earth.

Creating the strangereal version of Starbucks was easier than I thought, with no competing brands the first five stores were immensely popular with the public, especially the one in the Capital, Farbanti, proving popular with both the nobility and growing middle class.

In six months after opening the initial launch, the number of stores was quickly expanded upon. The brand Coffee-Rush quickly solidifying in public as the place for coffee and afterwards, confectionary.

The condensed milk and milk powder also came to become extremely popular, with the milk powder, mothers do not have to rely on breast milk to feed their infants anymore, the military loved both products for they could be transported vast distances without becoming spoiled.

Within three months, the company was showing record profits, all of which were reinvested into expanding the business. Under Mike's suggestion, the company branched out into confectionary, making sweets and chocolates, selling them in Coffee-Rush cafes.

A separate luxury line, the Silesia club, was created, under Mike's suggestion during the same time. It sold chocolates and other sweets made by earth's best confectionery chefs, in a speciality shop in the capital, a Villa to be accurate, with servants providing first class service to those that visit the store.

It was a closed off-brand, reserved for the nobility and the wealthy, one had to apply to be put onto a waiting list, with priority given to status and wealth. If accepted one had to pay a yearly membership fee and would receive a matte black membership card, the patterns on the card edges and logo, Silesia, are made of solid gold and the name of the card's owner writing in silver. All this to give off an air of exclusivity, to its owners.

The rooms in the mansions were converted into private suites, for clients to peruse and sample the newest and best Atlas products that by now included luxury watches, and cosmetics into its growing catalogue.

The privacy the rooms gave also made it an excellent place to discuss and make backroom deals in secret. Though unknown to them, the rooms have been bugged, and hidden cameras recorded their every move. Information gathered passed along to the CIA for analysis.

All this, however, went down exceptionally well with the rich and powerful, who all clamoured to be placed on the list, it was the hot new thing for them to be part off, to show off their wealth and power, becoming a member became a status symbol by itself.

The fact the head of the company is me, the disgraced son of a Duke was of no concern to them.

Which made it all the more embarrassing when I deliberately everyone in the Royal Family but Yuno became a member. The head of the Silesia brand, Lady Theodora have reported to me that Prince Rainer has lodged several complaints that Yuno's application was taking too long, and would like the process for her sped up, because I quote,

"As the future Queen of the Erusean Kingdom, Lady Yuno should be given the utmost priority over her subjects."

And to that I say Bullshit. I would delay her application for as long as possible. Until Rainer, himself come storming into my castle if need be.