第１３１４堀：どこかにしわ寄せがくる (Part1)
Chapter 1314: The Strain Falls Somewhere
The strain falls somewhere.
Side: Yuki
I realized that the situation on the ground was far more dire than I had anticipated.
To think that the Department Head of the Resident Services Division was also concurrently serving as a Section Chief—it was utterly absurd.
It wasn’t as if we were some small-to-medium enterprise suffering from a labor shortage; unless I investigated the root cause, it was clear that the operational efficiency of the Resident Services Division would plummet significantly in the near future.
Honestly, the matter I came here for today—the military’s security arrangements—felt like a secondary concern compared to this critical situation.
It was a problem that I hadn’t noticed sooner, but what on earth was Seraria, the one at the top of this hierarchy, doing?
The General Government Building was the equivalent of a city hall or municipal office in modern Japan.
In other words, the only person at the top was Seraria, who governed Weed.
Well, Seraria was also the head of something akin to a parliament where she listened to opinions from representatives of other districts, but this was simply unacceptable.
No, calm down.
For now, I needed to grasp the situation accurately and consult with Seraria.
It wouldn’t help to just blame everything on her.
I had my own shortcomings for not noticing this, too.
As her husband, I should be the one to provide support.
As I was thinking this, Prol came walking by, swaying unsteadily while clutching a stack of cardboard boxes.
The fact that she didn’t even have an assistant spoke volumes about how truly difficult their situation was.
"Orelia."
"Yes?"
As soon as I spoke to Orelia, she immediately moved to help.
"Oh, um..."
"It’s fine. I have received permission from Yuki-sama. Please, give us your instructions."
"Thank you. In that case, please prepare some tea and distribute these documents, one to each person."
Prol issued her instructions without a moment’s hesitation.
Since it was Eris who had assigned her to this department head position, it seemed she wasn't lacking in aptitude after all.
"I am terribly sorry for keeping you waiting due to our incompetence. I am prepared to accept whatever punishment is deemed appropriate for this incident."
Having left the preparations to Orelia and the others, Prol immediately bowed deeply toward me.
It seemed she was well aware that the situation was dire.
"I accept your apology. But before we talk about punishment, could you tell me why things have reached this state? Regardless of your own tenure, if we don't investigate why this happened and improve it, there's no point."
If this was caused by Prol’s negligence, then punishment was in order, but there was a possibility that wasn't the case.
In that scenario, putting someone else in her place would only lead to the same outcome.
Prol didn't change her expression at all in response to that question.
"Yes. I will explain that as well. Please look at the first page of the document. Yayui-san, please stick the number one paper onto the whiteboard."
"Oh, yes."
As instructed, Yayui spread out what looked like a poster from the cardboard box she had brought and stuck it to the board.
It appeared to be some kind of graph, and as I cast my eyes toward the first page of the document to match it, the full picture began to emerge.
"The figures on this graph represent the number of new residents. With the establishment of the New Residential District and the start of public recruitment, we have been flooded with registrants at the Resident Services Division ever since the permits were issued. We usually manage them by dividing them into the First and Second Divisions, but we established a temporary Third Division, and the fact that even that couldn't keep up is one of the causes of the current congestion."
In other words, it was because of the student exchange program I had impulsively launched that the Resident Services Division was short-handed.
"Another cause is the increased complexity of the procedures due to more thorough background checks on these new residents. Normally, there would be five steps, but now it requires coordination with the Information Division, which adds more steps and becomes a factor in the time consumed."
This, too, was caused by my own whim.
I had told them to strengthen the investigations to ensure no hostile elements could infiltrate.
Well, I had left the specifics to them, but it seemed they had been even more vigilant than I had expected.
"This is the reason for today's congestion. However, regarding this, we expect to be able to increase our staff within three days, so I believe it will be resolved. We have already reviewed the procedures for registrants of the New Residential District, and starting today, we have switched to a method where we ask those who are prepared to come back at a specific time or a few days later. As for the details of that..."
It seemed Prol had already prepared solutions that their department could implement for the current trouble and had already put them into action.
No, honestly, it was impressive.
The solution seemed to be calculating the time based on the number of people currently waiting, then telling them how many hours or days it would take and asking them to return then.
Since there was some leeway in the timing, there would be little need for people to wait due to our own mistakes.
"I see. In that case, there is certainly no need to wait at the government building."
"Yes. With this, they only need to complete the procedure and return at the designated date and time."
"Then... was today's crowd just a coincidence?"
"No. That state has been continuing recently. It is undoubtedly my failure that the countermeasures were delayed. I rarely had the time to observe the front lines. As a staff member, I had simply thought that it was natural for the number of people to increase, and that waiting was a matter of course."
Ah, I see.
She had figured that if they just added more chairs, people could wait, and that would be enough.
...Hmm, I suppose that could be called a lack of training.
"I will continue the explanation. Please turn to the next page."
Prompted, I turned to the next page.
"The reason for the delay in my countermeasures for the on-site congestion—or rather, my excuse—is that I have been observing the conditions of the Third Division, that is, the people of the New Residential District, and conducting room inspections. Well, this also connects to the previous explanation: because the number of people increased all at once, the workload of the Third Division expanded. I have been serving as the Chief of the temporarily established Third Division as well, and while the Chiefs of the First and Second Divisions were supporting the Third Division at the counters, the reality is that we still couldn't keep up. Well, that is to be expected. The Third Division involves the future defense of Weed, so it is not something that can be decided carelessly."
They had been hit with twenty or thirty units of work when they were only scheduled for ten, so naturally, they couldn't handle it.
That was a given.
But the other divisions couldn't judge whether that would be a constant state of affairs.
After all, Prol was the only one holding that information.
And Prol herself had been running around dealing with the influx of people, which led to the delay in handling those waiting at the government building.
Or rather, was the burden on the Resident Services Division just too high?
Looking at the documents, I thought so again.
I had left the entire allocation for the New Residential District to the Resident Services Division.
I had thought that would make the information easier to consolidate and manage, but in turn, it meant that much more manpower was being diverted.