Chapter 640

Human Resource Development Business
A few days later, it seemed Alba and the others had finalized their ideas about what we should load on the carts when returning from rural areas.
They were ready to present it to me, so I decided to hear them out right away.

“To put it simply, we will take on human resource development as a business. We’ll bring young people from rural areas to train under skilled craftsmen in the city so they can acquire knowledge and techniques. Concretely, we will enroll them in the Craftsmen Training School.”

“Oh, that place.”

The Craftsmen Training School is an organization run mainly by the artisan-related guilds.
Its students are mostly pre-adult youths who want to become some kind of artisan.
It’s not under my management, so tuition is required, but it’s reasonably affordable and therefore popular.
So they want to send rural youths there.

“But won’t the big city feel… exciting to rural youths? Adult shops and such?”

“We will manage that on our side. We won’t let anything happen that would smear Lady Lily’s name.”

I haven’t known Alba for that long, but this is the first major project we’ll tackle together.
The rural villages are sending away valuable future workers, so they can’t have them wasting their time in indulgence—or worse, running away.
That would directly damage the reputation of the Saltas Company.
Alba knows that.
If they’re still proposing this plan, then they must already have countermeasures in place to prevent such issues.
I’m a bit anxious, but… for now, I’ll trust them.

“I understand. However, I think taking them straight to a major city like Vardmoi might not be ideal.”

“Actually, Vardmoi is easier for us. We know people both on the surface and behind the scenes.”

I see—so in a smaller regional city, they’d have to start building connections from scratch.
In that case, beginning in Vardmoi is fine.
Alright, let’s do that.

Once we decided to proceed, we needed to set the starting time and the maximum number of trainees.
We’d begin during the autumn merchant run, after the annual harvest.
The maximum intake would be around sixty.
We’d prepare a dormitory in Vardmoi for their stay.
As for what trade each youth wants to pursue, we’ll have to survey them individually.
The Craftsmen Training School will drill into them everything that can be trained during the winter.
Then, when spring comes, they’ll return to their villages together with the merchants delivering daily necessities.
That completes one cycle.

Hmm… I’m still a little uneasy.
Will this really work?
In my previous life, I’d heard many stories about young people getting used to city conveniences and refusing to return to the countryside.

“You needn’t worry. Rural life has its own hardships, but city life demands its own struggles as well. Especially for youths from rural areas—without connections, they cannot find decent work in the city.”

“… Ah. So that’s why they become adventurers.”

“Yes. Exactly.”

When I first came to Vardmoi, Melanie told me that around late autumn, the number of White-ranked adventurers rises as youths from farming regions come to the city with no other options.
Given that, if they have both skills and connections to take another profession, they have no reason to become adventurers.
In other words, for rural youths with no backing, the only way to survive in the city is to take on deadly work and live with danger every single day.
If that’s the case, there are plenty of ways to encourage them to return home.

I’m sure Alba has already thought all this through, so I’ll leave the matter in their hands.

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