Three weeks later, Mia stood in the Chamber of the Royal Council in her best formal attire (borrowed from Morvana's unexpectedly large store) and holding what was possibly the most important PowerPoint presentation ever to show up in the history of magical kingdoms. It was not so titled here—here it was a "Mystical Information Display System," and instead of slides, it used floating illusions that could be manipulated by voice commands.
"Ready for this?" Sir Marcus of the Golden Lance inquired, having turned out to be remarkably skilled at logistics and now serving as their project coordinator.
"I've given presentations to angry insurance customers," Mia replied, ironing out her papers. "How worse can the Royal Council possibly be?""They once spent three hours arguing over the correct grammatical construction for a revision of a tax form," Lady Vera the Truthseeker said from where she was sorting through their supporting documents."Okay, so a little worse."
The Royal Council chamber was filled. Word had gone around that the Shadow Sorceress would be presenting a "comprehensive proposal for governmental optimization," and half the nobles, at least, wanted to be there to witness what they hoped would be an expensive trap or a spectacular failure.
Chancellor Lyra opened the meeting with evident reluctance. "We're here today to hear a presentation from. Morvana the. Administrative Consultant?" She hesitated over the title.
"I've changed my title," Morvana replied from her position at the presentation table, smiling. "Market research suggested that 'Shadow Sorceress' was viewed negatively in the realm of governmental consulting.""Right. And you've brought with you."
"My team of expert consultants," Mia announced, standing up. "I am Mia Thompson, Senior Systems Analyst and resident heroine. These are my colleagues, Sir Marcus, our Logistics Coordinator, and Lady Vera, our Information Management Specialist."
"And what do you know about the other heroes who disappeared?""They're in Conference Room B upstairs, working on the budget projections for Phase Two implementation," Sir Marcus explained.Chancellor Lyra's expression started to resemble that of a growing headache. "Very well. You have an hour to present your. proposal."Mia activated the Mystical Information Display System, and the space above the council table became filled with charts, graphs, and organizational flowcharts that would have made any management consultant proud.
"Honorable Council members," she started, "we're here today to face Eldoria's most pressing existential danger: systemic administrative inefficiency."
The first slide showed a flowchart of the current procedure to be used in issuing a basic magical research permit. The chart was so complicated that it looked like a map of a small galaxy.
"Currently, a basic research permit is signed off on by seventeen offices, is composed of forty-three separate forms, and takes eight months an average of seven"Mutters of unease ran through the assembled nobles. Several of them had probably endured the process themselves.
"For purposes of comparison," Mia continued, pulling out a second diagram, "here's the same process in the Kingdom of Northmarch." The new flowchart was convincingly easy, with only three steps of approval. "Average processing time: two weeks."
"But our system assures thoroughness!" Lord Aldwin, the Minister of Magical Affairs, protested.
"Is it?" Mia said, pointing to a different chart. "Our statistics show that 73% of requests are ultimately granted with little or no change. The cumbersome review process isn't preventing trouble—it's just delaying it and stifling innovation and wasting resources."
She moved on to the next screen, showing economic projections. "The delays have measurable costs. We quantify that administrative inefficiency is reducing the kingdom's magical research output by 40% and costing roughly 200,000 gold dragons annually in lost productivity."Council members were starting to look quite serious. Numbers tended to make abstract issues tangible.
"But the actual crisis," Mia went on, "is what occurs when these inefficiencies add up over time."
The screen changed to display population growth curves, patterns of resource use, and maintenance needs for infrastructure forecasted over the next two decades.
"Eldoria's population is growing, but our administrative systems are not keeping up. Agricultural permits for producing food are taking longer to approve, and at the same time, we need more farms. Permits to build new homes are clogged; at the same time, we need more buildings. Maintenance on magical infrastructure is falling behind at the same time the systems in place are overflowing."
She allowed that to sink in. The mathematical equations were dire: without reform, Eldoria could look forward to shortages, infrastructure failure, and social problems that would make even the worst sorceress an annoyance."The good news," declared Mia, opening a new set of diagrams, "is that they're all completely solvable problems. We don't need revolutionary change—what we need is clever optimization."
Sir Marcus stood up, commanding the presentation with military thoroughness. "Our proposed modifications are aimed at three areas: efficiency of process, communication between departments, and automatic routine approval."
The screen flashed a redesigned approval process that eliminated unneeded steps, grouped together activities that were related, and used magical automation for standard applications.
"Rollout would be staged," Marcus continued, "with pilot initiatives in low-risk areas to test effectiveness before wider rollout. Complete implementation timeline: eighteen months. Anticipated cost savings: 300,000 gold dragons per year after complete rollout."
Lady Vera contributed the finishing touch: "We've also noticed places of improved inter-departmental coordination that would make all aspects of governance stronger. Shared information systems, standard processes, and regular cross-functional meetings would eliminate most of the communication delays that currently cause bottlenecks in processing."The council room fell silent very abruptly. Chancellor Lyra was studying the projections with the look of one doing mental math and not liking the result.
"These numbers," she said slowly. "You're sure they're right?""We've double-checked everything," Mia confirmed. "And these are conservative estimates. The actual benefits might be even higher."Lord Aldwin didn't want to raise his hand. "What about Control? Quality assurance? How do we ensure streamlined processes don't come back to bite us?"
Morvana stood up from her chair for the first time during the presentation. "An excellent question, Lord Aldwin. Our proposal, in fact, has more quality control through automated monitoring systems and statistical analysis of approval outcomes. Instead of requiring multiple human approvals per application, we focus strict oversight on applications most likely in need of it."
She flicked her hand, and the screen showed a risk matrix evaluation that would automatically flag applications requiring special review while speeding up mundane approvals.
"The system now addresses all applications as being equal risk," Morvana continued. "Our system is aware that a vanilla farming permit from a prominent agri family must be dealt with less scrutiny than an experimental magical research proposal from a new applicant.""It's triage for customer service," Mia added. "You focus attention on where it's required most instead of treating everyone the same, regardless of how complex."
Chancellor Lyra sat in silence for a few minutes, studying the screens and speaking with the other councilors in hushed tones. Finally, she spoke."This is. Not what we expected."
"Best solutions never are," Mia responded.
"You're asking us to completely rework centuries of established procedure."
"I'm having you make them more efficient. The nature of what they do isn't changing—we're just streamlining them."There was another long silence. And then Chancellor Lyra did something that caught Mia off guard: she smiled.
"Excellent. The Council will take time to study your proposal in depth, but. I must admit, I am convinced by your reasons. Lord Aldwin, I'd appreciate it if you'd work with these consultants to establish a pilot program for the Ministry of Magical Affairs."
"A pilot program?" Lord Aldwin sounded skeptical."Start small," Mia suggested. "Take one procedure that is currently causing you grief and let us optimize it. If it works, we expand. If it doesn't, you haven't lost much."
"The mystical research facilitates," Morvana added. "They're the right test subject—sophisticated enough to demonstrate the system's capability, but contained enough that any problems won't spread through the rest of the departments."
Chancellor Lyra nodded. "We'll do a six-month pilot program of magical research permit processing. If the results validate your estimated improvements, we'll discuss broader implementation."
When the council meeting was completed and the various nobles paraded out (the majority of them with a contemplative look rather than doubt), Mia felt a sense of satisfaction that was a world away from the one she had imagined when she arrived in Eldoria. She'd thought that being a hero meant killing beasts and battling evil. Instead, it meant discovering issues and having practical solutions.
"More like the dramatic battle the bards will have to sing about," Sir Marcus observed.
"Seriously?" asked Mia, collecting their presentation material. "We just convinced a whole royal government to reform itself of its own volition through the force of facts and sane suggestions. That's not epic?"Morvana came in, smiling. "Excellent presentation. I loved particularly the way you applied economic projections to ground the theoretical issues.""Customer service training," replied Mia. "People are more open to tangible outcomes than general issues."
"By the way," Morvana continued, "I have an offer for you. The Council has approved our pilot program, but effective implementation will require ongoing consultation and oversight. Do you want to turn this into a full-time job?"
Mia looked around the room in which she'd just delivered the most important presentation of her life. Three weeks before, she was a data entry clerk whose career highlight was having memorized the firm's manual. She was now being considered to be a governmental reform consultant to an imaginary kingdom."What's the title?" she inquired.
"Senior Administrative Optimization Specialist," Morvana said. "With a subtitle of 'Hero-in-Residence' if you will."
"Benefits package?"
"World-class medicine, liberal vacation time, and access to the kingdom's magical research libraries. And you get to keep the Jeweled Blade as an official tool."
Mia smiled. "When do I begin?"
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