New chapter of Control Engineer is out! (1/1 chapter)

Helping with Household Matters

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“It’s done.” (Leon)

Standing up, I placed the accounting report on Manager Begart-san’s desk.

Today was the day to help with accounting work.

“You’re as fast as ever, Leon.” (Begart)

He picked up what I had written and began flipping through the bound pages. Here in the office of the trading company, he doesn’t call me “dono” or “kun”, just by name. That’s because I work here not as the third son of the company head, but as Leon. Though I’m not an employee, just an apprentice. Still, I do receive a reasonable wage.

When I closed my eyes, the internal system clock in my head read 11:25.

It’s a recent feature I keep always displayed now because it seemed convenient. My working hours are three days a week, from 9:00 to 12:00. There’s still about thirty minutes left. All the tasks I was assigned this morning were complete. This accounting report was the last of them.

“Um. If there’s anything else to do, I can take care of it.” (Leon)

Besides Begart-san, there were other accounting staff in this room.

“Yes yes, Leon-san. Could you wait just a bit? This side’s accounting report will be ready soon, so please do the verification.” (Accounting Staff)

“Okay. Understood.” (Leon)

I nodded to a young man seated a short distance away.

“Lutz. Just because Leon is going to verify it doesn’t mean you can slack off on the calculations.” (Begart)

“O-of course!” (Lutz)

I looked around, but there was no further response. I sat back down in my seat and closed my eyes. It’s been nearly two years since I started working here. When I first began helping out, everyone except Begart-san had this expression like, “You’re letting a 12-year-old brat do accounting just because he’s the chairman’s third son?” But I felt like I’ve earned a good amount of trust since then.

I recalled something from just before I started this work.

 

—

 

“Oh. If it isn’t Leon-dono.” (Begart)

Sunlight from the twilight hour streamed in through the window nestled between bookshelves. The face illuminated by it belonged to Begart.

“Um, I’ve received permission from Kaa-sama to come in here…” (Leon)

This was the archive room in the main building of the trading company. In addition to old business records of the company, it houses many books collected by Ojii-sama.

Reading magic documents is fun, but even I get tired after half a day of reading. I’d prefer to go outside during those times, but I still need an escort. Due to the availability of Ursula, who’s in charge of me, I can’t go out whenever I please. So, I looked for a place within the grounds where I could refresh myself, and upon hearing there were lots of books, I got permission from Kaa-sama to enter.

I don’t have much contact with the company employees, but Begart is someone I’ve become acquainted with since he started teaching me bookkeeping in spring after Morgan-sensei retired.

“Oh, that’s fine. No problem.” (Begart)

He peeked at the book I was reading.

“Oh, a book on analytic geometry. Forgive me for asking, but… do you actually understand what’s written in it?” (Begart)

“Well, for the most part.” (Leon)

I was already good at arithmetic, and after gaining Reo’s knowledge, even more so. In control systems, you use various diagrams, and to determine transfer functions, you need knowledge of differential equations like motion equations and such.

Begart made a small sound and stroked his chin.

What is it?

“In that case… bookkeeping must’ve been easy for you, Leon-dono.” (Begart)

“Not really. The direction is different, I’d say. Bookkeeping has its own difficult parts.” (Leon)

Bookkeeping in the Cecilia Kingdom is double-entry, like on Earth.

Balance sheets and profit-and-loss statements have different formats, but what’s written is essentially the same. Reo was supposedly in the engineering department, but he must’ve taken it as a general education subject, because he had knowledge of it.

“Leon-dono, you’re 12, correct?” (Begart)

“Yeah.” (Leon)

“You’re about the age to start helping with household matters.” (Begart)

I nodded.

If anything, I’m late. Hein-niisan, who is two years older, already started helping out the year before last. At 12, kids in farming families are considered normal labor force. Even merchant families, especially in retail, often have children helping with customer service.

“Pocket money becomes necessary too, doesn’t it?” (Begart)

“W-well…” (Leon)

Our family is wealthy, but strict with the children. You don’t get any money just by living normally. That’s why I’ve never really had any money of my own.

Setting that aside, I wondered what Begart was getting at.

“Due to sending personnel to the royal capital branch, we’ve been short-staffed in accounting. We’ve hired new people over the past few years, but frankly, we still lack capable hands.” (Begart)

“Huh? Are you saying you want me to help with the company’s accounting work?” (Leon)

“Yes.” (Begart)

“Eh, but…” (Leon)

An accountant can’t get by on arithmetic skills alone. Experience is needed, and more than that, since it involves handling money, trustworthiness and character… ah, well, I guess I’m already trusted, being a relative of the management.

“Accounting is a specialized field, so even within the company, it’s one of the higher-paid roles.” (Begart)

I don’t particularly want anything, though. He probably picked up on that from my expression.

“Leon-dono may not understand this yet, but there’s a saying in the world. Having no money is like having no neck.” (Begart)

“No neck?!” (Leon)

“Yes. Of course, there are more important things than money. However, even so, lacking money tends to lead to bad circumstances, that’s how the world works. I imagine Leon-dono will come to understand that, whether you want to or not, in the not-too-distant future.” (Begart)

That’s true. In three years, I’ll be 15 and legally an adult. I’ll have to become independent. Begart probably won’t be calling me “dono” for much longer.

“Got it. No, I understand. Please take care of me.” (Leon)

If I’ve accepted the offer, then this man is my superior. I should choose my words carefully. Besides, Begart-san thinks I might be able to handle accounting work. I want to live up to those expectations.

“That’s good to hear. I’ll speak to the Vice President. Now then… ah, right, I came here to get some documents. Excuse me.” (Begart)

Manager Begart smiled cheerfully, turned around, and walked past me toward the back of the archive.

 

—

 

“Leon-san. Thank you in advance.” (Lutz)

“Yes.” (Leon)

Before I realized it, Lutz-san had come to stand in front of my desk. I received the accounting report and stack of slips from him.

It’s already been almost two years since that conversation, huh.

I opened the cover of the report and examined the tables. As always, his handwriting was neat.

This was the accounting for clothing procurement at the royal capital branch. When I focused on the report, my system activated, and many red square frames appeared over the numbers, reading the values. This was a combination of the optical character recognition feature and a custom-made program. The aggregation proceeded instantly.

Before I made this, data entry into the system took more time than the calculations. I built the initial version around the third month of working here and have improved it several times. The character recognition has almost no errors, but I still double-check a few entries randomly by hand as a precaution. Of course, there were no mistakes.

All clear on this end.

I set down the report and flipped through the slips to cross-check.

This too reads the item names and amounts automatically and records them into the system. The paper quality is poor, so flipping too quickly risks tearing them.

I slowed down the pace. Even so, I finished reading 116 entries in a few minutes.

116?

I checked the report again. As I thought, it had 117 entries.

That’s strange.

There were no duplicate items in the report, and I had recounted, it definitely had 117 entries. Which means the error must be in the slips.

Maybe I skipped a page, or two were stuck together?

I rechecked more carefully than before, but there were only 116 sheets. None were stuck together. Comparing them to the report, I found that the item between the 78th and 79th entries was missing.

“Lutz-san.” (Leon)

“Yes. Huh? Was something wrong?” (Lutz)

He blinked several times.

“There’s a slip missing for the item in the report… three pieces of gray bear fur fabric.” (Leon)

“No, it was definitely there. I remember seeing it.” (Lutz)

Well, yeah. The surrounding items are different, so it’s not a likely mistake.

“However…” (Leon)

“Lutz.” (Begart)

A voice called from the left.

“Yes, Manager?” (Lutz)

“There seems to be a piece of paper under your desk.” (Begart)

“Huh?” (Lutz)

Lutz-san pulled back his chair and crouched down.

“Ah… gray bear fur… oh.” (Lutz)

He stood up with an apologetic tone.

“As Leon-san said, a slip had fallen. I’m terribly sorry.” (Lutz)

“Oh, no. I’m glad it was found.” (Leon)

I took the slip from him, threaded it with string through the torn hole, and patched the ripped part with another sheet of paper.

I looked at Manager Begart-san’s face.

“What is it?” (Begart)

“I’ve finished the verification. No discrepancies were found.” (Leon)

I placed the report and the stack of slips on his desk.

This person had already noticed that a slip was missing before I even started the verification, hadn’t he? And he stayed silent.

“I see. Good work.” (Begart)

 

—

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