The first thing Rest did was reach out to his classmates.
He made a point of finding free moments during lunch break and other gaps in the schedule, approaching those classmates he was on good terms with.
"Ah, of course. You've got to let me in on this!"
"Same here. I've got experience slaying monsters."
The very first to volunteer were his friends, Luido Gistal and Maurice Louie.
"I'm a third son, so there's no territory or title for me to inherit. If there's a real chance to strike out on my own, I'll jump at the chance to join the frontier development!"
"I'm planning to take over the family business, but… I could use the money, so count me in."
Luido grinned broadly and declared his motivation without the slightest hint of embarrassment.
Maurice spoke of money just as casually, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
What Rest was recruiting for, this time around, were people willing to participate in monster subjugation as collaborators in the frontier development.
However… those who distinguished themselves would be appointed as retainers of House Clover.
The vassals of a newly elevated noble with not a single domain resident to their name… at first glance, it looked like nothing but thankless, grueling work with no real upside.
But anyone with foresight could see the truth.
Becoming a retainer of a new noble flush with territory meant that, with the right connections, you could land a lucrative posting as steward of a brand-new town.
In some cases, depending on how things played out, you might even receive a grant of land and be recognized as an independent noble yourself. There was more than enough land to go around.
"Me too, me too! Let me in!"
"I'm joining as well. Don't even think about leaving me behind!"
"Give me a shot. I swear I'll make a difference!"
Classmate after classmate raised their hands to volunteer.
If anything, the opposite had happened — word had apparently spread that Rest was commuting to the academy, drawing students from other classes and even other grades.
Most were commoners or the third sons and below of noble families. A handful of oddballs had even shown up hoping to join on an after-school-job basis, drawn by the promise of reward money.
"Rest-kun has always been so cool, you know…"
"He carries himself with such dignity for a commoner — I just knew he'd make something of himself."
"If you don't mind, would you be willing to tell us about your heroic exploits during the civil war?"
And it was not only male students hoping to serve who had gathered.
Among the girls, too, there were those who had quietly drifted over to Rest's vicinity.
Though, of course, their goal was not to seek employment — they were likely angling to become concubines or kept women.
"If you have business with Rest, I'll hear it out."
"Shall we sit down and have a lovely chat?"
But each time, Viola and Primula would step forward with smiles cold enough to freeze one to the bone, blocking their path.
"You need to pay your respects to a senior student, don't you? Stop skulking around — come through us first!"
"H-H-Hiiii!"
Most of the women, receiving that intimidation, scattered and fled.
It seemed as though the honey traps had been averted — yet, terrifyingly, there were still bold female students who stood up to Viola and Primula.
"Excuse me. My family runs a trading company. I was hoping to discuss the logistics infrastructure that would come with the development of the plains…"
"Well, you see… my parents at home dote on my younger sister and abuse me. I would be perfectly fine being a concubine, so if you would just take me in…"
"My grandfather serves as Minister of Finance. If I were to become a concubine, all sorts of arrangements could be made…"
The ones who, despite being intimidation, still pushed themselves forward were people who had spotted enormous business opportunities in the development of the demon realm, or those with circumstances they simply could not ignore.
They were meticulously laying out the benefits of marrying them to Viola and Primula, and an unexpectedly constructive discussion was underway.
"Hey, hey — you're not just taking the Rosemary sisters, but a mistress too?! How enviable!"
"...Just leave me alone. I don't want to hear about that anymore."
Luido clapped him on the back, and Rest put on a thoroughly exasperated expression.
"More importantly... for those who plan to participate, could you fill out the required information on these documents?"
"What is this paper?"
Rest distributed the documents he had prepared in advance to every young man who had volunteered to join the frontier development.
"As you can see... the document has fields for your name, background, special skills, and so on. Once you've filled everything in, bring it to me. If you can't finish by the end of the school day, you can also send it to the Rosemary marquis family's townhouse."
What Rest handed them was essentially a résumé.
In this world, there did exist a culture where socially credible individuals — nobles and the like — would write letters of introduction to promote talented people.
However, since those letters of introduction required lengthy prose explaining just how outstanding a person was, checking them for a large number of people took considerable time and effort.
So Rest had adapted the résumé from his past life into a format suited for this world, and had the prospective participants of the frontier development fill them out instead.
"That way, their background and areas of expertise are visible at a glance, right? And since it's concise, it doesn't take much time to write."
"Oh yeah, it really is easy to understand. Even someone like me who's terrible with paperwork could manage to fill one out."
"But... unlike a letter of introduction, there's nothing stopping people from lying, is there? What if someone writes a fabricated background or bogus skills?"
While Luido was nodding in admiration, Maurice remained somewhat skeptical.
"In that case, the person who lied would only end up hurting themselves. When we assign tasks for the frontier development work, we'll use the skills and expertise listed on these forms as reference. If someone wrote nonsense, they'd definitely have a rough time of it."
The same logic applied to their background.
For tasks unrelated to things like monster subjugation, prior experience wouldn't be weighted too heavily. However, if someone were to be formally employed as a retainer, the background listed on the form would be investigated to verify its truthfulness.
If a lie were uncovered later on, all the accomplishments and trust they had built up to that point would come crumbling down.
"I see... this does seem quite useful. It could probably be adapted for recruiting people for other types of work as well."
"Hey, this system could really catch on, couldn't it?"
Maurice acknowledged the usefulness of the résumé as well. Luido laughed with a half-joking grin.
A few years later, their prediction proved accurate.
Rest continued to make use of résumés in frontier development efforts, and before long, other nobles began following suit. For important positions where trust was paramount, they stuck with the traditional letter of introduction, but for jobs that required a large number of applicants, they started requesting résumés.
Eventually, résumés spread beyond the nobility to private merchant guilds and other civilian institutions as well, becoming a standard tool for talent recruitment regardless of whether the employer was public or private.