Volume 5 Chapter 1.2

Editor: Weasalopes

「I can pretty much see where yer goin’ with this. Clearly the current faculty of professors have been ostracizin’ any young or key figures with ambition ‘n not lettin’ ‘em display their results, right？」

「Ah, so you understand.」

「That’s gotta be the reason for not gettin’ any results the last five years.」

Hiroshi pinpointed the cause, and the headmaster took a deep, deep sigh.

「But wouldn’t it be pointless for us to interfere in a situation like that？」

「Would you still say the same thing knowing that those young, key figures with ambition are the ones causing this narrow-minded mentality？」

「Ah～……」

Apparently after taking hindrance after hindrance, the rigidness had spread throughout the entire research facility. This was quite the troubling topic.

「Ah, but we don’t really wanna git involved in power struggles like that……」

「Please, reconsider, I beg you.」

「Kay, so that’s the situation. What do y’all think？」

Looking at the headmaster continue to single-heartedly lower his head, Hiroshi first threw the conversation to the other members. This was definitely not something that Hiroshi could decide by himself.

「I wouldn’t personally mind helping.」

「I’m against the idea. Darl and Forre were one thing, but this time we would end up getting too closely involved with power struggles.」

「No comment. Not enough information to go off of and there are demerits if we help and if we don’t help either way.」

「I agree with Tatsu, no comment. Sensei, you can decide.」

Both agreement and opposition had one vote, while two voters chose abstention. Hiroshi, now with all the responsibility piled on him, contemplated this for a bit, and then……、

「Honestly, there ain’t enough to go off of and even if we go back to discuss it the result’ll be the same. Even if we hear more info and take the time to consider it I think we’ll have made the same decision anyhow. But I ain’t man enough to just throw down a decision like that, so I’ll just leave it to the god of the dice here.」

Hiroshi decided to leave this to Lady Luck.

「The god of dice, you say？」

「Ah, it’s just a super minor faith in our country, don’t worry about it.」

The headmaster made a puzzled face at the mention of this unfamiliar god. Giving him an extremely lackluster explanation, Hiroshi took out two six-sided die. Digressing a bit, these die were made together with sugoroku to kill time. To ensure there was no deviation in the shape, these fine items were created after a ridiculous amount of effort spent in firmly adjusting their center of gravity, air resistance, etc.

「Let’s have his majesty and the headmaster grab one dice each ‘n roll ‘em. If the combined total from both die is seven or more then we’ll help out.」

As he explained, Hiroshi handed one dice each to the king and headmaster. Combinations of seven or more could result from 21 of 36 outcomes. The probability that Hiroshi would assist them was a bit higher.

Accepting the die, the king and the headmaster rolled the objects with stern, praying-like faces. Being two of the top people in this country of knowledge, they did catch on to the fact that both die reaching a combined total of 7 or more was likely, but they also knew full well that this did not necessarily mean it was guaranteed success.

The sides that came out were one and six, making precisely seven.

「Looks like it’s right on seven, so we’ll help ya out.」

「……Oh, thank you.」

The king breathed a sigh of relief at Hiroshi’s words before saying his thanks. He seemed to have felt an extreme amount of pressure, considering everything was riding on his dice. Not only that, but the headmaster’s dice rolled several tempos faster than the king’s and was the number one, which meant nothing other than six on the king’s end would be acceptable; truly a severe situation in which it was impossible not to feel pressure.

「So that’s our decision. You cool with it？」

「Hey, if that’s what the god of the dice says, we gotta listen.」

Makoto, the only one opposed to cooperation, willingly responded to Hiroshi’s query. Unexpectedly enough, she didn’t fret over how they made the decision and simply accepted the outcome. It seemed that Makoto happened to also have faith in the god of dice.

「But I’m astonished they got such a precise amount.」

「Well yeah, that’s the god of dice for ya.」

Hiroshi and Mio expressed their amazement at the faces that came up on the die. While this was in the expected value range, you had to think it was the work of the dice god to come up right on the seven in such an exciting manner.

「Now that we decided we’ll work with ya, first I need to see the workshops.」

「Yes, right you are. After we show you the workshops, let us compare and adjust how we want you to assist us and how you are actually able to assist us.」

Their course of action decided, the group got right to action. Having reached the fourth kingdom, this was the first time that Azuma Workshop got the state backing their actions right from the get-go.

「Dang, ya got some workshops with great conditions for locations……」

After they checked all the workshops, Hiroshi expressed his feelings in a half impressed half exasperated tone.

「Well, we are the ones asking you to go out of your way here, so it’s only reasonable that we set everything up to your liking, yes？」

The headman informed Hiroshi with a straight face. The three workshops that Lorren had provided were all exceedingly rich sites positioned along the main street and also close to the academy and adventurer association. In addition, these were even more magnificent and gigantic than the initial workshop building in Wulls. Then again, even they were impressive workshops, their scale was no smaller than the current Wulls workshop with expansion after expansion.

「So where have you decided on? Actually, if you so desire, you may use all three facilities.」

「Nah, I say one place is fine for now. Also, if we could have one trusted person to handle management whenever we’re away that’d be great.」

Hiroshi said as he pointed to the first workshop they were guided around. The size was slightly smaller than the other two workshops, but in exchange for that, it was close in proximity to the city gates, market, and the center of the business district. Then again, other than the two adults in their group, Hiroshi and friends didn’t really care about that part.

「Remodelling and all that can be easily done tomorrow, so now the question is who we let into the academy.」

「Right. We are sending them in as a student, correct？」

Hiroshi brought up what could arguably be the most important issue. Hearing him say that, Haruna confirmed with the headmaster.

「Yes, we would hopefully have them enrolled as a student in the academy. However, that is not an absolute necessity.」

The headmaster brought the academy’s wishes to the forefront when Haruna asked him to specify the fairly important conditions. When he heard that, Hiroshi came up with a few more items to review.

「Are there any age restrictions？」

「Not particularly. We would prefer someone over the age of ten, but as we are the ones asking the unreasonable here, it is perfectly fine to bring anyone over here even if they do not fit that age. We will accept them.」

「And the amount of people? Not over a certain amount, or not under a certain amount？」

「Yes, well……One at minimum, but you are free to bring over however many you wish.」

「And how many hours are students bound to？」

「Generally lectures last from 9 am to 3 pm, and anything past that is research conducted in the laboratory, so I cannot give anything too specific.」

Hearing the gist of the schedule, Hiroshi briefly went into contemplation.

「From what ya tell us, it sounds like the students need to continue going here, but Teres and the others ain’t got that kinda leisure, honestly……」

「Yeah, they really don’t.」

Haruna nodded at Hiroshi. Losing one person when they were already short on members to begin with was just not going to happen.

「And in our case we can only attend school for about 2 months max as students.」

「And let me just add…we can’t all be bound by the school schedule, you realize？」

「Well yeah, that’s a given too……」

The academy’s demands and their own convenience. Hiroshi was at his wit’s end with this tricky compatibility issue.