AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Chapter 144: Ministries

Year 4, Summer, Third Month, Third Week.

Walking through a city where everybody could recognize her, made Samia feel extremely uncomfortable. Even so, she chose to leave the coat with the concealment effect home, after all, she couldnt use her mission equipment on private matters. Fortunately, the walk to the newly built Council building only took 15 minutes.

Aside from being the biggest construction in the city, the building didnt have any remarkable features. A neatly dressed boy around her age welcomed Samia as soon as she entered the building. The entrance room was large and had several lines of chairs on the opposite side of a long counter. It took the boy a few seconds to figure who she was. She saw the boys bright expression transform into a pitiful look in an instant as he bowed and asked for forgiveness. However, she couldnt care less about the situation.

After the boy recovered, he guided her into one of the three doors beside the counter, and then, through some big doors. Inside, Samia was greeted by a large room with a semi-circle of 16 unusually big seats in the center, where most of her fellow Councilors sat. She gave a polite greeting and move to sit on the seat next to her sister. When she got close enough, she realized the table in the center of the 16 seats had a representation of the Eastern Forest, similar to a map, but with small objects instead of drawings.

Then, she also realized the presence of two other people sitting in the corner of the room, one boy with a book and a brush, and a girl holding a tool. Since they were still waiting for Karl and Reiner, Samia didnt hesitate to ask her sister about the oddities.

Didnt I tell you this meeting is important? The boys here to write everything and the girl to communicate with Lew, hell participate in the meeting through messages.

Samia was about to ask the meetings topic when Karl and Reiner arrived. Omero didnt wait any longer to start the meeting.

Welcome everyone! I would like to first thank everyone for your efforts and the amazing job carried on all departments. Most of you already know the reason for this meeting, but Ill explain it to the others. Things are progressing too fast and our current administration cant handle the problems efficiently as it is Weve been creating departments to solve problems, but we need a stronger structure that deals with obstacles without creating new Heads. We need clear definitions of everyones reach and more autonomy for the Heads to deal with their problems without needing to call a meeting.

Until now, the departments are created with a practical purpose. Therefore, I propose the creation of Ministries, focused on management and with more autonomy. The Council would continue to meet monthly or even seasonally to decide on the general policy, but each Ministry would have its autonomy to perceive the policy. Of course, if the Minister acts outside the Councils policy we just need to change the Minister. What do you think?

After discussing a little, they all agreed that having a Council meeting to solve every little problem was becoming impractical as they grew. The proposal was put to vote for the sake of formality and passed by unanimity. The first Ministry would be, of course, Alchemy. The only actual difference was giving this Ministry more autonomy to act.

The second point of discussion was farming. Although they were originally a farming village, their nutrition now involved other factors like hunting and even foraging. From a management level, farming could be part of a larger area that would involve food security in general. So, they ended up creating the Ministry of Foods, to deal with everything related to food security and production.

Kanin refused the position of Minister of Foods, he was happy taking care of the farming department and he would be relieved with someone could take the spotlight. In the end, Marlen decided to step up to the position, and since nobody objected to it, she became the Ministry of Foods.

Unfortunately, Katlyn's situation was only getting worse as the Hunting Department would lose even more ground. When the discussion touched her department, the general mood became complicated. Nobody wanted to beat a fellow Councilor, even less one who made great contributions to AK. However, ignoring the situation would only make it worse.

Since the creation of the Defense Department, the Hunting Department started to lose power by the day. Some conflicts even erupted amongst the members of the two departments. The final blow was dealt when several members decided to leave the department to either join Johanns independent hunting group or form their own. With fewer members, the departments extinction was just a matter of time.

In fact, giving space for the private parties was in line with the Councils plan of development. Although the beasts represented a potential threat to their state, the Kingdoms persecution showed they needed a national force to protect them. Another reason why they chose to invest in AP and focus most of the Defense Departments operations there was to use the place as a training camp for their agents. They knew the Kingdom would find the place eventually, so they wanted to use the opportunity to limit their engagement while gathering experience.

Now, they had two choices. Either they could maintain the hunting department temporarily to work on a transition, or they could abolish it and put their weight behind the hunting parties. Fortunately, Katlyn decided to put the cards on the table herself, offering her honest, though unhappy, suggestion to extinguish the department and only keep a small management team in the Ministry of Foods to deal with meat demand. In respect to her pride, the Councilors didnt try to convince her otherwise.

Next, they had to deal with crafting. The department had grown too much and was having problems managing all workers. So, they decided to establish a Ministry of Construction, which would only focus on laying the physical foundations of their Kingdom. Different from Kanin, Alfeur decided to assume the position of Minister of Construction. The other crafts unrelated to construction would fall under the private sector, like hunting and food service.

The Health Department became the Ministry of Health, and young Mary gladly took the place as Minister. The only difference in the department would be autonomy, which Mary would surely put to good use. Likewise, the Defense Department became the Ministry of Defense, and Lew continued as the Minister. More autonomy would be very welcomed on the other side of the mountains.

Now, the true problem appeared when they didnt found a name to command the Ministry of Finance, which would deal with their treasury and commerce. After a long discussion, elder Lonni reluctantly accepted the position until they could find someone more appropriate. The presence of the elder in the Council had become something odd. He wouldnt offer any remarkable suggestions, neither his votes follow one of the two factions (Karls and Omeros), his only constant position was being conservative against bold changes.

Finally, the Council decided to create three new Ministries, Ministry of Governance, Ministry of Living and Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Governance would work as a bridge between Ministries and with the citizens, it would also focus on policies and public services. Omero offered to assume this Ministery and nobody objected to it, so he became the Minister of Governance.

The Ministry of Living would keep the work of the current City Planning Department, caring for the welfare of AK citizens living in all their territories, which also included AP, the crystal mine and the Tunnel. Last, the Ministry of Education would be responsible for general and specialized education. One of the first actions of this Ministry would be creating a school to train magic operators and other important technical skills.

Unfortunately, again, they didnt have someone to command the two Ministries. So, they have to settle for Elder Said and Katlyn while they looked for another option. Elder Said would fill in as Minister of Living, and Katlyn as Minister of Education. Although Katlyn could stay as a Minister, she chose to only help temporarily. Maybe she was disappointed after having a department taken from her, or maybe she was being sincere when she told them she wanted to open her own taming business. After helping tame the horses and the bat, the job has grown on her.

***

I dont understand why you proposed to give more autonomy to the Ministries Have you given up on your revenge?

Omero wondered if the girl was trying to play him, her attitude was becoming increasingly wild.

Whats the use of giving the Council all the power if every time we call a vote, Karl always starts with half of the votes on his side? Diminishing his power became unrealistic So, its better to give autonomy and influence each Ministry separately

I see.