Harem-Powered Kingdom Building: Empire of Carnal Sin-Chapter 55: Evaluation

"Excellent," Hiro nodded. "Then, the second question. Among the activities you just listed to me, do you think you did anything particularly well, or particularly poorly?"

Bob took a few seconds to gather his thoughts. Since he was terrified of and respected Hiro's strength, he tried his best to give an honest answer. He told Hiro that this was the first time he led a group of men to work on a construction job. Apparently, it went better than he had expected it to, especially considering the ferocious nature of the Shuvloks.

He also criticized himself on botching the measurements at one point, which led to some wasted time and effort.

"That's exactly the kind of answer I was looking for. Well done on finishing the barracks, Bob," Hiro said, offering some positive reinforcement which caused Bob to subconsciously straighten his back.

"And now for the final question. Was there someone whose contributions stood out to you? Someone who you think did a superb job? Conversely, was there anyone who created trouble and impede others from doing their work?"

Bob hesitated at first, but once Hiro guaranteed that all of this was going to be anonymous, he spoke his mind candidly.

Finally, Hiro told Bob how much contribution he had earned for the day. Upon hearing the number, Bob's eyes widened. "Thank you, My Lord! That's... that's very generous."

Bob had never earned that much in a single day! Moreover, he understood that a single point of contribution was in reality more valuable than a single copper. He was ecstatic, but he tried his best to appear modest.

"It is mainly thanks to your efforts that people are going to have a roof to sleep under tonight. You deserve this, Bob. Well done."

"Thank you, My Lord!" Bob said vigorously.

"You may go now," Hiro nodded and then dismissed him with a wave. "Send in the next person."

As Bob left, Hiro glanced at both Hema and Fiona. He wanted to explain the essence of the system to them.

"This system has several advantages. It encourages people to work harder when they know they're being evaluated. It also creates a hierarchy based on merit rather than just combat ability. And it gives me insights into what's happening in the settlement without having to watch everyone personally."

Fiona nodded, making a note on her parchment. "It also encourages citizens to report problems or exceptional work."

"Exactly," Hiro agreed. "It's an information-gathering system as much as a reward system."

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"It is an excellent system, My Lord," Hema praised genuinely. But then a somewhat troubled expression crossed her face. "It's just that... once the Realm's population increases beyond a certain, point, wouldn't it be quite time taking to carry this out?"

To Hema's perfectly valid question, Hiro responded saying, "Good question. The idea behind Contribution Points is that they will only be important during the founding stages of the Realm. It is way to ensure that we're off to a solid start. During this time period, the population will naturally be low. Moreover, there is no issue with enlisting the help of some more trustworthy people once our population crosses certain thresholds."

In fact, apart from what he had explained to the two women, there were other, more subtle advantages to this system too.

For example, it allowed Hiro and other administrators to more easily encourage and discourage certain types of work without interfering with the broader economy.

It also served to put some money into the hands of his early citizens. That way, once the contribution system was scrapped, they would have a respectable amount of wealth to keep the economy up and running.

It must be said that despite spending the vast majority of his time thinking about sex, Hiro had indeed given the Contribution System a fair bit of thought.

Carnalia, who had been spectating these events also felt her worries being assuaged in real time. Just by watching him infer two new skills that afternoon, she knew that Hiro wasn't stupid by any means. But at that time, she still wasn't sure if he would only apply his brain for chasing skirts, or if a bit of that brainpower would be used for realm management as well.

Hema felt that her doubts were clarified by Hiro's explanation, and the trio proceeded on with the task at hand.

For every citizen that entered, Hiro repeated his three questions, listened to their responses, assigned their contribution points accordingly, and clarified any doubts Fiona or Hema might've had.

The group also randomly cross-verified the statements of the citizens against each other. Liars were promptly caught and punished, setting an example for the rest.

As the procession of citizens continued, Hiro found his attention drifting. He had been using [Inspect Sense] through his [Harem Link] with Tara for quite a while now, and the conversation between them was becoming interesting.

In addition, he decided that he was too bored to keep evaluating people's contributions like this.

One of the advantages of being at the top of the social pyramid like this was that he could just delegate everything he did not want to do, to others. That was the whole point behind Fiona's and Hema's presence in the tent anyways.

After around a minute's time, Hiro stood up suddenly. "Alright, I think the two of you understand what needs to be done by this point. Fiona, take my seat."

Fiona looked surprised but quickly complied, moving to the central chair.

"Hema, move your chair closer to Fiona," Hiro instructed. "Fiona will be leading the evaluation from now on. I will observe from the side and make sure you're both doing it right."

That was a blatant lie. Hiro just wanted to focus on the interaction between Starius and Tara, and not do any work himself. Alas, there was no way for the women to know.

Fiona took over smoothly, asking the questions in the same manner Hiro had demonstrated. She and Hema worked efficiently together, recording contributions and making decisions that Hiro occasionally confirmed with a distracted nod.

Hiro himself leaned against the back of his chair. Like a daydreaming student in a classroom, he pretended to be paying attention to what Fiona and Hema were doing, but his attention was actually somewhere else.