“What?” Riya said, “How… And why… Are a bunch of school children’s exam scores, how exactly do they determine the Prefecture’s ranking?”
"Indeed, my lady, the children will inherit the Prefecture one day, so it is only natural that their marks would hold a certain sway in the Prefecture's standing." Amelia said. “Of course, there are other factors that determine the Prefecture ranking, such as trade and influence, however, those are secondary to the student’s marks, afterall, a Prefecture with many top-scoring individuals should translate to the Prefecture having plenty of wealthy families having the time and money to educate their children properly and hence, a very wealthy Prefecture, does it not?”
What this all translated to… Multiple children have top scores = multiple parents are wealthy = Nobles of that Prefecture must be very rich = if the Nobles are rich that means obviously the Prefecture is rich.
There were… So many things wrong with that metric…
First, it does not take into account the socioeconomic status of the Prefecture. There could be more students from wealthier/higher nobility families (Archnobles and Heirs) in one prefecture than another and because they (Prefecture with more Nigher nobility) were rolling in cash, they have access to better educational resources, which could give them an unfair advantage on the exams. This could lead to Prefectures with higher socioeconomic status being ranked higher even if they were actually relatively worse than the other Prefectures.
Didn’t make sense?
Well, consider that there are two Prefectures, [A] and [B] and while both have the same number of nobles (take 1000 for this thought experiment), 500 of those Nobles in [A] are Archnobles and only [250] of them in B are Archnobles. [B] on the other hand, has a thriving economy selling shit like diamonds and makes a real tidy sum of profit each year or whatever while [A] has a struggling fishing economy with barely any exports anything, however, [A] will come out as a higher ranking Prefecture because the [A] has 500 well-taught Archnobles while [B] has 250 well-taught Archnobles.
Secondly, it can create a culture of competition between Prefectures. The pressure on students scoring good must be unreal, like, imagine failing an exam because it wasn’t one of your best days, and you end up making the Prefecture go down a rank!
And lastly, think of the manipulation! There’s always bribing the teachers if you don’t get the score you wanted… Riya bet there was a Prefecture whose sole focus was just knowledge and teaching students how to get high scores in the exams… Probably even has a shitty economy too but makes it up with student marks…
Insane!
“Really?” Riya said, “That’s… Unexpected… However, it is still important we should still focus on improving the Prefecture, after all, the students only go to school for a few months of the year, the rest of our lives however, are spent in this Prefecture, more development means a more comfortable life for us.”
Amelia didn’t seem to believe that.
OOO
It took around three whole hours to sort out a small percentage of the papers, but it was enough for Riya.
There were a few piles in front of her, each pile was the number of people in a specific town/village/hamlet/whatever. “My Lady, what should we do now?”
“Sort the piles by age, and then sort those by gender.” Riya said, after that, she was gonna make a few dozen population pyramids…
This was going to be a pain…
OOO
Riya looked over the papers for the former capital-city Porta Maris and started to make a population pyramid for it.
“Pray I ask what you are doing, My lady?” Sebastian asked as he walked in with a tray of tea and a tin of biscuits.
“Hmm? Oh.” Riya took her tea and two biscuits, “Thanks, Sebastian. I’m making a population pyramid.”
“What is a… Population Pyramid?”
Riya immediately got into lecture mode. “A population pyramid is like a graphical snapshot or representation that shows the distribution of different age groups and genders in a population. It typically takes the shape of a pyramid, with the younger age groups at the bottom and the older age groups at the top. This visual tool helps us understand the demographic structure of a population, indicating trends such as whether the population is growing, stable, or declining, and whether there is a balance between younger and older individuals.” And who said rote learning helped no one?
Riya showed him her finished population pyramid. “See? It’s a bit like a double-sided bar graph. The older people are at the top gets younger at the bottom.”
“... I’m afraid I don’t see how it’s a pyramid, My lady.” Sebastian said, looking puzzled.
Riya sighed, ya fair. “Normally it does look like a pyramid, but because of the war, most of the population has been wiped out… making it look like a… not… Pyramid…”
Sebastian nodded, “Very well, My Lady. If I may be a bother, what is a bar graph?”
Deep breaths, deep breaths, “
A bar graph is like a visual scoreboard that uses rectangular bars to show and compare amounts or quantities of different things. Each bar represents a category, and the length of the bar corresponds to the amount or value it represents. It's an easy way to see which category has more or less of something by looking at the height or length of the bars.”
Were most of her retainers like this?
Why?!
Riya could think of four main reasons:
1. Mommy and Daddy paid off their teachers so they could pass the grade and not make the family lose face.
2. Here was a literal war and because of that classes were on-and-off so the standard of education plummeted.
3. Her retainers saying ‘education defines the Prefecture rankings’ was all a hyperbole and people just go to school to socialise (wouldn’t surprise her)
4. A lot of stuff hadn’t been invented yet and so how the fuck could you learn something that hasn’t been invented yet?!
…Riya had a feeling it was a mixture of points two and three…
OOO
A few hours later, guess who showed up?
“You’re back!” Riya said to Leo, “So? Found anything you like?”
Leo simply stared at her with blank eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Riya asked, what was so traumatising about a mediaeval town? It was a mediaeval town, probably had a lot of horse shit, and actual shit.
Ya, the place probably stank to high heaven, Riya doubted Nobles would want to share their technology to the poor commoners, not unless they could cough up the amount of coin needed to buy and install the slime toilet.
“Leo?” She asked again, a bit concerned, she looked at his knight. “What happened to him?”
“My Lady, Lord Leo is simply shocked by the state Aureus had left a town…”
OOO
Notes~!!
It’s a bit difficult to figure out stuff using the citizenship papers for a few reasons:
* There are tons of people dead
* Some people just never become citizens
But from what I’ve found so far:
We currently have around 250,000 citizens (Nobles included) but would probably go upto 750,000 if everyone was counted.
Now you might be asking ‘Riya, isn’t this a bit too much?!’
Short answer: yes.
Long answer: Also yes.
See, this place is a really weird version of the roman system: If parents don’t like their child they can always sell them to slavers BUT that’s only before the child turns 8 (at which point, they’re considered a member of the household and not property of the household and also considered a citizen).
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
AND GUESS WHAT!?!
Nobles also Practise this!
Yep! That’s right!
So apparently raising a Noble child is EXPENSIVE! By Expensive I mean Nobles are dropping atleast 1 small gold a week! There’s
* Caretaker expense
* Tutor expense
* Food
* Cloathing
* Tea Parties
* Books
* Quills
* Ink
* Medicine
And That’s only for children! There’s so many other things (Like housekeeping and stuff the adults need) which also adds to the expense!
Also like, Condoms and contraceptives haven't been invented yet so that’s another reason the birthrate is sky high (Sorta bullied my retainers into telling me, most had around 15-20 siblings even though only 2-3 were turned into citizens, rest were either killed off for manastones or sold to slavery and bought again to become servants of the house-hold)
But since modern medicine is none existent, people keep dying off (Which is why the citizenship age is at 8, so expensive paper wouldn't be wasted on babies who’ll only live for 6 months tops).
My rating for this civilization? Stage 1 civilization.
How to transition this into a Stage 2 civilization?
* Sally, invent better meds
* We should build a hospital! (And have affordable health-care cuz 2 large silvers for cinnamon?! That’s a daylight robbery! Is cinnamon even used in medicine?!)
* Make killing children iligal
* Make slavery illigal
* Re-invent condoms (does rubber-trees exist in this universe?!)
Stuff like that you know? Also This place is a LEDC and we should be working on turning it into a NIC (right after we get the population boom)
So ya, If you have any questions ask me (I’m running out of space to write)
* Riya
OOO
Notes~!!
It’s a bit difficult to figure out stuff using the citizenship papers for a few reasons:
* There are tons of people dead
* Some people just never become citizens
But from what I’ve found so far:
We currently have around 250,000 citizens (Nobles included) but would probably go upto 750,000 if everyone was counted.
Now you might be asking ‘Riya, isn’t this a bit too much?!’
Short answer: yes.
Long answer: Also yes.
See, this place is a really weird version of the roman system: If parents don’t like their child they can always sell them to slavers BUT that’s only before the child turns 8 (at which point, they’re considered a member of the household and not property of the household and also considered a citizen).
AND GUESS WHAT!?!
Nobles also Practise this!
Yep! That’s right!
So apparently raising a Noble child is EXPENSIVE! By Expensive I mean Nobles are dropping atleast 1 small gold a week! There’s
* Caretaker expense
* Tutor expense
* Food
* Cloathing
* Tea Parties
* Books
* Quills
* Ink
* Medicine
And That’s only for children! There’s so many other things (Like housekeeping and stuff the adults need) which also adds to the expense!
Also like, Condoms and contraceptives haven't been invented yet so that’s another reason the birthrate is sky high (Sorta bullied my retainers into telling me, most had around 15-20 siblings even though only 2-3 were turned into citizens, rest were either killed off for manastones or sold to slavery and bought again to become servants of the house-hold)
But since modern medicine is none existent, people keep dying off (Which is why the citizenship age is at 8, so expensive paper wouldn't be wasted on babies who’ll only live for 6 months tops).
My rating for this civilization? Stage 1 civilization.
How to transition this into a Stage 2 civilization?
* Sally, invent better meds
* We should build a hospital! (And have affordable health-care cuz 2 large silvers for cinnamon?! That’s a daylight robbery! Is cinnamon even used in medicine?!)
* Make killing children iligal
* Make slavery illigal
* Re-invent condoms (does rubber-trees exist in this universe?!)
Stuff like that you know? Also This place is a LEDC and we should be working on turning it into a NIC (right after we get the population boom)
So ya, If you have any questions ask me (I’m running out of space to write)
* Riya
… Could you like… summaries this and write it in such a way someone a layman can understand? - Sally
OOO
Notes~!!
It’s a bit difficult to figure out stuff using the citizenship papers for a few reasons:
* There are tons of people dead
* Some people just never become citizens
But from what I’ve found so far:
We currently have around 250,000 citizens (Nobles included) but would probably go upto 750,000 if everyone was counted.
Now you might be asking ‘Riya, isn’t this a bit too much?!’
Short answer: yes.
Long answer: Also yes.
See, this place is a really weird version of the roman system: If parents don’t like their child they can always sell them to slavers BUT that’s only before the child turns 8 (at which point, they’re considered a member of the household and not property of the household and also considered a citizen).
AND GUESS WHAT!?!
Nobles also Practise this!
Yep! That’s right!
So apparently raising a Noble child is EXPENSIVE! By Expensive I mean Nobles are dropping atleast 1 small gold a week! There’s
* Caretaker expense
* Tutor expense
* Food
* Cloathing
* Tea Parties
* Books
* Quills
* Ink
* Medicine
And That’s only for children! There’s so many other things (Like housekeeping and stuff the adults need) which also adds to the expense!
Also like, Condoms and contraceptives haven't been invented yet so that’s another reason the birthrate is sky high (Sorta bullied my retainers into telling me, most had around 15-20 siblings even though only 2-3 were turned into citizens, rest were either killed off for manastones or sold to slavery and bought again to become servants of the house-hold)
But since modern medicine is none existent, people keep dying off (Which is why the citizenship age is at 8, so expensive paper wouldn't be wasted on babies who’ll only live for 6 months tops).
My rating for this civilization? Stage 1 civilization.
How to transition this into a Stage 2 civilization?
* Sally, invent better meds
* We should build a hospital! (And have affordable health-care cuz 2 large silvers for cinnamon?! That’s a daylight robbery! Is cinnamon even used in medicine?!)
* Make killing children iligal
* Make slavery illigal
* Re-invent condoms (does rubber-trees exist in this universe?!)
Stuff like that you know? Also This place is a LEDC and we should be working on turning it into a NIC (right after we get the population boom)
So ya, If you have any questions ask me (I’m running out of space to write)
* Riya
… Could you like… summaries this and write it in such a way someone a layman can understand? - Sally
Summery: This place sucks but I know how to make it less suck and it involves a lot of drugs and making slavery illigal add: Make everyone get citizenship at an earlier age
Also did you know that here girls are more likely to recive citizenship thatn boys? Ya it's because parents (mostly nobles) need only 1 boy to inherant their family branch/buisness/whatever and the girls are used for political marriage to streangthen their house/buisness/whatever and because of this, boys are litterally outnumbered 1:5 which caused polygamy to be legal here (max three wives) and for ladies to be married to OLDER men!!
Imagine being fresh out of school (18) only to be in a political marriage to a 35 year old! AND YOU'RE PARENTS ARE THE ONES WHO DID THAT TO YOU!! (Note that's all New Roman years so if you take it in earth years, the age gap is wider) AND IT'S NORMALLISED HERE!!- Riya