My vacation ended, and I successfully moved up a grade.
I’m now a second-year student at the academy.
That would make me about thirteen or fourteen years old.
It’s vague because in this world, you age at the start of the year, not on your birthday… In other words, they don’t have a birthday system.
So, according to this world’s standards, I’m probably considered thirteen or fourteen. Honestly, I don’t even know my exact date of birth.
By the time I graduate from the academy’s six-year program, I’ll be around eighteen, I guess?
In this world, turning eighteen means that women are just before being considered too old to marry, and men are just shy of adulthood.
Why?
Well, it goes without saying that this world is fundamentally male-dominated, so when a woman reaches childbearing age, she’s expected to get married.
Meanwhile, men are only considered adults when they become independent and can support their families. That’s the general perception in this world.
That’s why typically, the husband is older than the wife.
A man is considered an adult at twenty, and it’s around his early twenties that he earns enough income to support a wife.
In rural areas, where education isn’t required and physical maturity is the only thing that matters, a man is considered an adult before turning twenty.
As for women, they generally marry around fifteen, and if they’re over twenty, they’re considered old maids.
Well, the average lifespan here isn’t even fifty, so that’s probably just how things go.
So, is it easier for men since this is a male-dominated society? Not at all—men who can’t provide for themselves are seen as failures for life.
Look, I don’t really get it since I’m a city boy, but even on 21st-century Earth, in rural areas, aren’t you considered strange if you don’t get married or have kids?
Same thing in America. Unless you have some major reason, a businessman who doesn’t have a family is seen as odd or not fully capable.
Or maybe it’s the other way around? Like, “If you’re a real adult, of course, you’re married and have kids, right?”
In Japan, too, if you walk into a restaurant alone, people look at you like you’re some kind of deviant.
So yeah, that’s why I reluctantly got married.
Anyway, who cares about my ex.
The women I have around me now (well, one’s a guy) don’t have any rights, so I can treat them however I want, and that’s a lot easier.
Ahh, in this medieval-like, backward world, as long as you have power, you can get away with almost anything. It’s so much easier than Earth.
There were plenty of fools on Earth, but not nearly as many as in this world.
Honestly, when you go to the rural areas here, and I hate to say it, but they’re practically savages.
The people who introduced mandatory education were truly amazing.
It’s only after nine years of compulsory education that people are really able to claim their rights, I think.
People who haven’t been educated are no different from apes. Giving them rights is impossible, and even if you tried, it would clearly end in disaster.
The concept of human nature being inherently good… well, the sense of right and wrong, morality, those are things you only gain through years of education. They’re not pre-installed apps in humans.
“…This applies to work as well. Improving the average quality of personnel is the supreme task in every profession, and… the cost per unit…”
“Yes!”
And so, I’m holding a study session with my executives like this.
Since we’re a white company, this study session counts as working hours.
…Salary? Their wages are offset by full coverage of food, clothing, shelter, company housing, and free distribution of company products! I mean, if they want money, I’ll give it to them, but in this world, there’s nothing you can’t get in Aurora, so money’s practically useless.
Anyway, I’m gradually teaching them project management methods and mindsets.
The Aurora Corps’ goal this year is to train the executives in project management. Well, before that, we’ll also do field training so they can understand how things work on the ground.
Of course, there are other things we’ll be doing as a business, but everything we do is so blue ocean, there’s no way we won’t make a profit.
Oh, and while I’m at it, we’re still occupying the port of the Proxia Republic, so we’re exploiting the surrounding rights as we please…
The king of Biltrion seems to be trying to complain, but since I’m a noble too, he can’t exactly tell me to hand over the land a noble seized.
It’s kind of like being a warlord, right? The Emperor can’t just waltz in and demand the land a warlord conquered, right?
I think they call it de facto control? Well, technically, that’s not quite right, but let’s leave it at that.
Anyway, business is guaranteed to be profitable thanks to our overwhelming technological and military superiority. I don’t have to worry about that.
So, in two years, I want to actually assign a project to the executives.
The lower-tier personnel have grown quite a bit over the past year.
Of course, with the hundreds of orphans, all we could teach them were basic manners and morality, but we’ve gathered about fifty loyal subordinates from the academy. Supporters, maybe?
And out of the orphans, there are about twenty or thirty who are useful?
The number and scale of projects we can handle will depend on this year’s education and recruiting new first-year students.
Well, the projects I’ll have the executives handle will be ones that can fail without much consequence, and I’ll prepare the WBS for them… Oh, so I guess I’ll start with the project workflow.
Hmm… These kids are all geniuses, beyond “super” genius, but even so, I think it might be tough to make them project managers in just a few years.
I’ve never done much newbie training, so I’m not sure, but I think I should add some fun elements here and there.
Am I just rushing because they’re so good?
Maybe they need more practical experience before getting into management methods and frameworks?
But they’re pretty capable already. Even their meeting minutes are better than those of new grads nowadays.
Ah, damn it. If I knew this would happen, I should’ve studied training methods more seriously.
I barely know the basics.
…Alright.
“This year, I’ll be launching a new project myself while training you guys in management. Watch and learn from that. If there’s anything you don’t understand, ask right away.”
“Yes!”
This year, I’ll be the one running the project.
“Alright then, let’s start with the project charter and work plan! Since this isn’t a big project, we won’t need a scope definition document! Now then…”
I let the pen run across the whiteboard…
