The Non-Working Civil Official

“A civil official… me?”

“Yeah. We’re really short on hands right now.”

“But I’m completely inexperienced…”

“Even so, since you have the aptitude, you should grow much faster than an ordinary person. Most of what you’d do would be administrative work, starting with tax calculations.”

Maton’s aptitude was Mathematician.

If I could properly teach her the procedures, there was no doubt she’d be able to process taxes and similar work far faster than I ever could.

As for aptitudes, there was a lot you couldn’t understand unless you actually investigated them.

Basically, aptitudes varied wildly, and even people who shared the same aptitude name could differ greatly in ability—for example, those with the Swordsman aptitude showed a wide range of strength.

Mathematician was an aptitude I hadn’t encountered close at hand before, and thinking ahead to the possibility of others with the same aptitude appearing, I had her undergo various evaluations and tests.

As a result, it was clear that since acquiring this aptitude, Maton’s logical thinking and calculation ability had increased dramatically.

To put it simply, Maton was incredibly capable.

It was hard to believe she’d never received proper education before—she absorbed knowledge like a sponge soaking up water, and in no time at all she had joined the ranks of intellectuals.

Incidentally, the reason her house was such a mess was apparently because she believed it was better to immerse herself in something than waste time cleaning.

Her improved calculation and logical thinking leading to such a disaster of a room… if this was the result, maybe being a little illogical actually made people happier.

“Right now, you’re not really working at all, are you?”

“Eh… y-yes. I don’t want to wor— I mean, people who work are fools. If you can avoid working, that’s obviously better.”

…Wre all smart people like this?

So because I didn’t think that way, did that make me the fool?

No good—my head was starting to spin.

Why did Maton’s mind only seem to allow such extreme either-or choices?

“If you don’t work, you won’t be able to keep eating forever, you know? When we think about future trade and the villagers, we’re starting to think it might not be good to give out unlimited fruit anymore.”

“—What!? That would be a problem!”

Lately, people with a fleeting mindset like Maton’s—thinking that as long as they could live on fruit, that was enough—had been increasing.

They were still a minority overall, but people like that often had a bad influence on others…

I had no intention of producing more people who undermined others’ motivation to work.

So, step by step, I planned to stop letting people take fruit freely.

Instead of free picking, I intended to shift to a rationing system.

Of course, I had no intention of letting anyone starve—but I didn’t plan to maintain a situation where people could laze around indefinitely just by casually eating fruit.

Barely able to eat, but without any surplus unless they worked themselves… creating that kind of environment and encouraging everyone to work was one of my current goals.

I agreed that laziness wasn’t necessarily evil—but I still believed people led better lives if they had at least some kind of work.

Hearing my reasoning, Maton began to tremble violently.

“W-work… work… what is work?”

As if she’d suddenly lost only her memories related to labor, she started muttering nonsense.

“I don’t want to work! I don’t want to work!”

And then she suddenly started throwing a tantrum!?

Maton rolled around inside the house, flailing her arms and legs.

“You’re not a child. Work, you useless freeloader.”

Aira, eyes devoid of emotion, shot Maton a look of pure disdain as she sulked.

“Ugh… sniff… fine! I’ll work! I’ll work, okay!? If you hadn’t told me to work, I would’ve worked even harder!”

Maton offered a mysterious excuse, but it seemed she’d also felt a bit guilty about doing nothing and lazing around.

And so, she safely became a civil official apprentice—my first-ever civil servant working directly under me.

Given how much she’d resisted, I’d expected her not to do any proper work…

That expectation was betrayed—in a good way.

Maton, who hated working, began to work in a way completely beyond my imagination—