Chapter 684 (2/2)

After Roland’s repeated emphasis, City Hall had finally gotten used to the slogan of “no one freezes or starves to death” as their administrative goal and implementing it to every policy.

Roland nodded with gratification and said, “Good. Please pass my word to Scroll and tell her not to forget about education during winter.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Besides, I plan to wage a minor scale war on the premise, obviously without affecting the normal operation of Neverwinter. My target is the Southernmost Region. When Iron Axe has done the specific battle plan, please coordinate with him to assemble the supplies.” Looking at Barov who was hesitating about replying, Roland walked to him and patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’ve everything under control.”

…

After Barov left, Nightingale showed herself. She asked with bewilderment, “Are you sure this is alright? What he said about Edith was clearly far from reality. One doesn’t have to use magic power to figure that out.”

“But if I criticize him for that, he may never dare to suppress Edith openly again,” Roland said with his hands laid out, “In order to maintain the balance in City Hall, there has to be someone who can restrain the Pearl of the Northern Region. As far as I know, Barov is the only one capable of that.”

“But why do you want to restrain her? If she has the capability of managing City Hall, it wouldn’t do you any harm.”

“Because…” Roland opened his mouth but did not know what to say.

Right, why would I want Edith to be restrained?

Am I worried about her getting too strong?

That’s highly unlikely. As long as I’m the king, I could get her replaced with one word. Besides, City Hall isn’t allowed to interfere with the army, so even if she controlled all the departments of City Hall, she would still not pose a threat to my throne.

As a matter of fact, since all the employees in City Hall were selected according to the recruitment notices and paid by the treasury, the possible influence caused by replacing a manager would be minimized.

Am I worried that she would go behind everybody’s back to falsify my policies?

At least it would not happen in Neverwinter because all the comments on his policies would reach Roland’s ears. And since the city’s area was limited, messages traveled in real-time.

Before he arrived in this world, check-and-balance was the method that he hated the most. Especially in his workplace, his boss regarded it as the Monarchy trickery, and thus he viewed his boss with contempt. But when he came to power, he began to realize its importance… If Nightingale had not reminded him, maybe he would have become the kind of person that he hated the most.

Indeed, check-and-balance was needed but it should not be achieved by playing the game of powers with another person or several other persons. Instead, it should be regulated by policies, structure and laws. Without violating any of these frameworks, an employee should be encouraged to put his or her ability into full play.

Roland let out a deep breath and curled his lips. He was about to thank Nightingale for her reminder when he realized she was staring outside of the window wholeheartedly.

“Look, it’s snowing.” She whispered.

Roland looked over and found that countless white flakes silently appeared from the gray sky and slowly descended as soft-footed elves.

The Months of Demons had begun.