"You know very well that I hate dealing with those useless things... if it doesn't include fighting and leading the army, I am not really interested. And besides..."
She made a pause as she looked at me with the most serious expression that she could muster.
"Paperwork is boring, and doing administration even more..."
What did I really expect from her... the uncanny resemblance that she bore to Hela in this manner was really something else. However, I had to admit that even Hela started attending to her duties as Lord Marshall Militant of the Imperial Army when she was named to the position.
And shortly afterward, once again, after Vali returned from the very same position, Hela returned to the post once more. She was rather good at it, despite her annoyance with the bureaucracy and other things.
"You know that you cannot build and lead a proper army without a proper bureaucratic system to administrate anything. If not, then you would be reducing yourself and your troops to a bunch of bandits or something else on that line, without much organization and structure."
I said as she frowned hearing that, but I was aware that she knew it was true... her dismay for anything not really related to the war, combat, battles and training was something that was severely holding her back.
Contrary to Hela, Esdeath didn't understand too well that even these boring things were very important in the great scheme of things, and someone needed to do them. This was a rather great deficit because while she was a splendid commander in the battlefield and a powerful powerhouse on her own, in the long term, she would be a somewhat terrible leader.
Even though she was obsessed with battles and waging war, she didn't quite understand the peculiarities of needs of the sentient living beings, that they were not really machines, and that not everyone was that much a battle maniac as her.
This was something that she would hopefully learn in years of training, but it really seems that she seriously neglected her education as the Heiress of the Partas Tribe... if she even had some, because I don't really think that somebody would dare to say something to her which she didn't want to hear in this aspect.
Even though, for someone as stubborn as her, she was rather open and tolerant toward different or even dissenting opinions on warfare and even often accepted them or implemented them if they had merit.
"Maybe you are right... but..."
She said quietly as she fidgeted her fingers and looked down on the ground, as I knew that this was something that she felt pretty ashamed about. Not like I cared, as I would never really laugh at her for not understanding most of the things that she needed to do as ruling governor of the Frozen Coven or any other territory.
I knew that even though she underwent some lessons in administration and statesmanship, she wasn't really paying attention, or else, she would have long ago dealt with minor things like this, but for Esdeath, all those things were boring.
"Don't worry... I won't laugh at you if you don't understand how bureaucracy works and so on; if you want help, I am willing to impart to you some tricks that I learned in my time."
Hearing what I said, she looked downcast and that she doubted me for sure... despite her rough exterior, Esdeath was actually rather an easy person to read. One just needed to know how, and the rest would already go by itself.
"Cheer up a bit, once you learn how, it will be easy for you... not to mention, you can actually select what you will do and create a trusted body of bureaucrats under you that will be taking care of the minor things, not requiring your personal oversight."
I said as she almost immediately enveloped me in a bear hug, as I almost felt my bones breaking, which was rather a feat, as this body of mine was created to be rather durable, and yet her physical strength was really fearsome.
***
Several days later, the former headquarters of the Frozen Coven.
After several days, everything was going much better...
Finally, at last...
After I started tutoring Esdeath on the arts of statesmanship, she was learning rather fast, and soon enough, she was capable of handling most of the domestic affairs on her own, and due to the increase in efficiency in ruling, most of the things that were stuck started going down one after another.
Ironically, though, it has been proven to be a rather wrong move by Esdeath when she dumped all of the work on her subordinates at the first moment she could because neither of them was doing it with haste like she wanted.
She was spamming one order after another and overseeing the crucial projects in the Frozen Coven.
Especially the dismantling of the defense of the Froezne Coven, or at least those that still remain, as this entire place was destroyed, and the Patriarch Ezran Partas decided to abandon this place.
During the siege, some of the most crucial defenses were destroyed, including the grand walls and great gate, together with some other facilities that were making this place so hard to conquer due to the overwhelming firepower of the Partas Tribe.
The machinery that was in good shape or could be repaired was being dismantled and brought back to the Icecrown Citadel. Another reason why the Partras Tribe deemed this place to be useless was its size, as it was too huge and too remote for the current needs of the Partas Tribe.
Even the Icecrown Citadel had the potential to hold far more people than it was currently holding. The transportation of the library and Psyker Artifacts from the Frozen Coven back to the Icecrown Citadel was going without a problem and was also personally overseen by Esdeath, as this was of the utmost importance.
That was the prime prize for the Partas Tribe.