Chapter 43

At last, we were fully established in Chesapeake Bay.

The food supply to feed 10,000 people was being steadily secured, and the harvests of potatoes, wheat, and barley were consistently increasing. The number of livestock had also grown quite a bit since the beginning. This meant that it was now possible to conduct a challenging ‘experiment.’

I gathered the settlement representatives, who had been running around with their computers, and spoke. “Now, we will begin preparing for the cultivation of corn.”

The reward for my back-breaking work in the vegetable garden to preserve the corn seeds was finally here.

“Pardon? By corn, do you mean the crop with the yellow kernels that we cultivate?”

“Yes. That’s the one, Manteo. It has excellent productivity and tastes quite good.”

“But aren’t we and the other natives already cultivating that on our own?”

“I have a superior variety. And until now, the natives have only cultivated it on a small scale.”

I hadn’t been able to cultivate it on a large scale until now, either. The reason was clear. Corn grows incredibly fast, in massive quantities, but in return, it drains the fertility of the soil. There’s a reason people say corn farming is powered by electricity; it draws a huge amount of water and nutrients from the land, so it’s not uncommon for land that has been used for corn farming for a few years to become completely barren.

The amount of fertilizer needed for corn farming… was more than what my house could produce. A field just over 10 ares (about 300 pyeong) would devour an entire bag of fertilizer; how could I possibly manage that?

But now that we had established the settlement in Chesapeake Bay, the soil had improved, and the water supply had become much more stable, so it was worth a try. This was a place with so much water that we had to worry about draining it first.

“There are several swamps near Chesapeake Bay, so we will turn those into fields. Let’s begin the work of draining the water by building windmills and water pumps.”

“If… if it requires that much water and fertilizer, how do we farm corn?”

There was a reason I said the time had come.

“Here, we will send people to this area in the Pamlico Sound to mine a certain ‘mineral’.” I unfolded the resource map of the surrounding area, which I had copied from the game catalog, and told the people gathered here. “We will process that mineral slightly, spread it on the ground, and then farm on it. That will solve the fertilizer problem.”

“Do you mean to say we will use a mineral as fertilizer? I have never even heard of such a thing!”

“Yes, Vicente. We will likely be the first.”

“What is the name of this mineral?”

“…”

We had enough manpower. Therefore, developing a mine or two wasn’t a bad idea. It wouldn’t be long before the product from this mine became as precious as gold…

I told Vicente, “It is phosphate rock.”

And so, after concluding the matter of the corn and the phosphate rock mine development, I dismissed the meeting.

***

Walter Raleigh, who had returned to Chesapeake after a long time, had secured an enormous amount of capital. This was thanks to the price of the new grape varieties and aluminum becoming as expensive as gold in England. Thanks to this, he was able to bring 50 more heavy cast-iron cannons to the Virginia colony. They were all to be loaded onto the newly constructed clipper ships.

It would be nice if they could make the cannons themselves in the New World, but most cast-iron cannons not made in England tended to crack and explode, so there were significant limitations. Raleigh couldn’t have known, but this was because English iron contained phosphorus. In any case, now that they had bought English cannons, it was time to build the ships to install them on.

“Transparent Sheet No. 15 was just used.”

Click.

“Transparent Sheet No. 17 should go in now.”

Click.

At Walter Raleigh’s words, the workers moved swiftly. Raleigh stared at the strange black slate that had come into his hands as soon as he returned… and muttered. “Wait, why are twenty sheets missing? According to the records, they should all be in Warehouse No. 3.”

“Ah, that… we were short on space, so we temporarily moved them to Warehouse No. 4…”

“Tell me in advance next time! Everything has its role; what are we to do if they get mixed up? Find them at once!”

At his words, the artisans grumbled about how strict he had become, but they ran off quickly. They wondered what difference it would make if a few sheets were moved to a different place.

And.

In that ‘strict’ work environment, Walter Raleigh was sweating profusely.

‘What is this?’

It had been quite some time since he had suddenly received this black slate called a ‘computer’ from Sir Nemo. And it had taken him a full several weeks to learn how to use this bizarre object. Sir Nemo and the other apostles had warned and taught him time and again, and he had finally grasped its basic use.

Calculate, sort, and organize.

Those three things seemed to be the basic uses of this thing called ‘Excel.’ Looking at its structure, it seemed to have other complex and elaborate functions, but he didn’t even dare to try touching them. But that alone was enough.

Raleigh was just beginning to realize how important it was to have everything visible ‘at a glance.’ He was now able to give procedure and system to a process where everyone had been moving by feel, by memory, by the way they had always done things. It felt like moving from a work environment where it was natural for a few things to go missing and for things to go awry, to something of a different dimension.

Raleigh attached a number to every single material and assigned a letter of the alphabet to each type of material. And with that, Raleigh could suddenly see clearly where each of the hundreds, thousands of parts that made up the ship was going.

Naturally, efficiency also increased. Useless work and all sorts of confusion and friction were reduced by three-quarters.

This strange sense of omnipotence. The subtle sense of stability that came from seeing everything find its proper place. Walter Raleigh mentally moved up the ship’s completion date by a large margin.

‘This might… be completed even earlier than I thought.’

Soon, the world’s first ‘clipper’ would be complete. Virginia’s new warship, which would traverse the Atlantic at an unprecedented speed. And so, Raleigh learned the power of computerization.

***

I heard that my PC has several times the performance of the supercomputer the Korea Meteorological Administration procured in 2002. Of course, its reliability couldn’t match an industrial computer.

Ugh, I should have learned some programming, or computer engineering. All my computer knowledge comes from studying for my Comp-Lit Level 2 certification. I’ve fiddled with computer parts, but only up to the ‘assembly’ stage.

Therefore, I couldn’t do things like calculate the trajectory of spaceships and artillery shells, or connect various measuring instruments to predict the climate with this computer. Because of the limits of my ability.

So, to me, a computer is a game console or an office machine.

Those bastards at Hwangsook Soft. If you’re going to transmigrate someone, you should at least give them a one-year grace period. Then I would have packed a bunch of history books, hoarded game cartridges, and studied for all sorts of certifications.

Whatever the case, Excel alone solved many problems.

“Excuse me, Sir Nemo?”

“What is it, Mr. Hewitt?”

“The data organization is all finished. I think we need to compile it.”

“Understood. Let’s tell everyone to gather. We’ll have to leave around this evening to get to Croatoan.”

Now, the eight of them, including Walter Raleigh, organized the information on the residents and various resources with eight laptops and tablets. That information was transferred to my storage PC on the first Sunday of every month to be compiled, and after checking for any duplicate or conflicting content, it was finally stored.

That’s how our settlement’s DB operates. It will probably run like this until my 8-terabyte external hard drive is full… but that’s unlikely to happen. For now, since we have something like a ‘government’ for our settlement, I can rest easy for a while…

“Sir Nemo? I actually came to talk to you about that very problem.”

“What is it, Mr. Hewitt? Is there a problem?”

“It’s about the ‘government’.” Hewitt tilted his head and said, “I understand very well that thanks to this thing called ‘Excel,’ we can now grasp the current situation more efficiently. And thanks to Excel, the work of distributing land to the people was also done much faster.”

“That’s right. But what are you curious about?”

To my question, Hewitt answered. “W-Well, in the end, isn’t this just a list? A government is something that gathers the will of free and equal people according to the will of the Lord to elect representatives or a monarch, prevent chaos, and enforce the rule of law…”

Election of representatives, establishment of community order, rule of law.

…What? If you take out the ‘according to the will of the Lord’ part, that’s just like social contract theory.⁴ Did they have this in this era? Bacon was born, but there’s still a long time until people like Hobbes, Locke, or Rousseau are born. I only know their names; I don’t know exactly who was born when. It’s not like I majored in Western history. For now, I hid my surprise and nodded.

“That’s right. You are correct. That is what a government is.”

“But I do not understand how this ‘list’ is related to the formation of a government.”

“…”

“…”

“Mr. Hewitt.”

“Yes.”

“Haven’t you been a bit busier lately?”

“Pardon? Now that I think about it, I suppose I have…”

That’s right. Of course you wouldn’t know. I recalled the time ‘before’ the introduction of Excel.

During the peak farming season, I was either tending to my vineyard, helping to clear virgin land with the excavator, plowing fields with the cultivator, or hauling goods all over the place with the Damas. And when it wasn’t farming season? I had to help with logging, so I ran around with a chainsaw. On top of that, it was a daily task to store various consumables, including all sorts of medicines. That was just the manual labor I was doing.

And on top of that…

—“Sir Nemo! The wild animals have eaten all the potatoes in my house! What should I do…?”

—“Sir Nemo! The two of us are getting married, so please give us your blessing!”

—“Sir Nemo! My child is missing! W-What should I do? I don’t know where my child has gone…”

All the civil complaints were my responsibility. Because I was an ‘angel.’ Don’t kids in kindergarten, when they fight and can’t resolve it, pretend not to and then go tattle to the teacher? It’s the exact same principle. A superstitious belief that the ‘angel,’ who was presumed to be the most fair, wise, and great, could solve any problem was rampant in the settlement.

This wasn’t a big deal when it was 200 or 300 people. It was even like that when the natives flocked in droves. Because they already had chiefs who mediated conflicts. But when Raleigh brought 700, then 2,000, that’s when it became unmanageable.

At least when big things like land reclamation or clipper construction came up, I would gather people for a meeting, but all the miscellaneous tasks besides those ‘big things’ were my share. My days… were gradually becoming more and more exhausting.

“Now, what kind of reaction did you get when you went to the people with the computers?”

“Uh… well, they have to report to us when they get married or move, don’t they?”

“That’s right. It has to be reflected in the list.”

“So, naturally, when such major life events occur, they ask us for advice or how they should proceed.”

“I see.”

“And, since we are in charge of land distribution, if there are complaints about it or disputes between people, they call us to act as judges. Since we have the list… huh?”

“…”

“…”

“…That’s right.”

I am now liberated from 15-hour workdays. A single human… even with all sorts of cheats, can’t handle 10,000 civil petitioners. Of course, as an angel, I couldn’t just whine, ‘Wow! This is too hard! Can’t you help me with this?’ I had to make it sound more plausible.

“As you said, Mr. Hewitt, the free and equal Algonquians, English, and Spaniards have gathered and are naturally seeking your will.”

Election of representatives.

“And are they not asking you about various issues to prevent chaos among themselves?”

Establishment of community order.

Thomas Hewitt’s eyes trembled as if he had just realized something. “Ah, th-then…”

“Then all that remains is to enforce the rule of law.”

Rule of law.

“L-Law, but how should we…”

“The Lord has already established and demolished the law for you, so is not the law within your community your responsibility?”

The hardest part was left, but I couldn’t take that on as well. I shook my head benevolently and told Hewitt, “Gather the people and create a just law. The Lord will be watching you.”

“What do you mean, the Lord will be watching? Why does the angel not make the law himself…”

“Just as the Lord wishes the children of men to be just, He wishes the communities of men to be righteous. But just as He respects the free will of man, He respects the universal will of the community of man.”

“…”

“I have already given you a commandment. Therefore, it is you who must create a just law with that commandment as your foundation.”

“Ah, I understand.”

“However, just as the prophet Nathan rebuked David when he engaged in disordered politics, and just as Daniel warned Nebuchadnezzar when he worshipped idols, I, too, will warn you when you become biased.”

“We will make sure… that never happens!”

Saying so, Hewitt turned around, looking moved. There were many inconvenient aspects to the status of an angel, but there was one convenient thing. That is, if you say anything in a plausible manner, it is generally accepted.

I respect your free will, so I will be exempt from lawmaking and other such duties. But I also cherish you, so I will intervene whenever I want to.

Even I had to admit, it was a watertight and perfect logic. Perfect logic, and a perfect result in which I had perfectly secured all the rights and none of the duties.

I celebrated the triumph I had achieved through my conversation with Hewitt by specially permitting myself to play Crusader Kings. It was a game I was enjoying for the first time in a long while, freed from all sorts of arduous tasks.

***

Hewitt moved busily. He began to gather the representatives of the English, Spanish, and Algonquians to discuss the formation of a government. Now that they had secured the registry, the natural next step was taxes. Had not the Lord himself said not to be lazy in paying taxes?

Right now, whenever they had to handle any public work, they just gathered people at the time and handled it. Resources were covered by what Sir Nemo provided. But in the future, when the people of this settlement numbered in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, they could not continue like this. Naturally, they had to collect taxes and form a proper government to run this settlement. Because making laws and enforcing them all required resources.

This was basic. An obvious fact that needed no explanation. Many philosophers had said it, and to many people, it was ‘common sense.’ Therefore, Hewitt believed that this most basic task would proceed easily.

“Oitohtan, we must collect taxes. Please gather your tribe members.”

To which Oitohtan replied, “…What is ‘taxes’?”

At that moment, Hewitt’s vision went black.