Chapter 5: Weighing Nostalgia Against the Future (part 4)

We were led in front of a room on the first floor of that building with a sign that

read "Director's Office." When Sandria informed the occupant he had visitors and

opened the door, Ginger, who had apparently been doing desk work, hurriedly rose.

"Wh-Why, Your Majesty, it has been a while," Ginger said, rushing over to us.

Unlike Sandria, he did so timidly, and it seemed he still felt tense when talking to me.

"No need to be so stiff," I said. "I'm the one imposing on you here."

"N-No... It's no imposition whatsoever..."

"Your secretary there has her head held high, doesn't she?" I commented.

"Because my loyalty belongs to Lord Ginger alone," Sandria said nonchalantly as

she moved to Ginger's side.

It should have been quite the disrespectful statement, but there was something

about her demeanor that wouldn't let me take it that way. She was like Liscia's maid,

Serina, or the public representative for Roroa's company, Sebastian. Those people

who had found the master they meant to serve for the rest of their lives had a unique

intensity. It was like they could face down the king himself on their master's behalf.

"Ginger, let me introduce you," I said. "This is my fiancée, Liscia."

"Hello. I am Liscia Elfrieden." Liscia smiled and bowed, causing Ginger to stand

up very straight.

"Th-The princess?! Th-Thank you for coming to visit our humble establishment!

I-I'm... Ah, no, I am the one called Ginger Camus. With more support than I deserve

from His Majesty, I have been able to become the director of this facility..."

"Hee hee! No need to be so tense. It's a pleasure to meet you, Ginger."

"Y-Yes, ma'am!" Ginger stiffly took Liscia's hand and shook it.

"It almost feels like you're more tense than the first time you met me..." I

murmured.

"I'm sure he is," said Carla. "Until your betrothal to her was announced, master,

Liscia was something like what we now call a lorelei to the people of the kingdom.

That unreachable flower, the princess who was so high above him that she might as

well be above the clouds, is now right in front of his eyes. He cannot be blamed for

being tense."

Carla's explanation made sense to me. Members of the Royal House, especially a

princess or a queen... they were like national idols in a way. I had seen the huge fever

that had gripped England when a new princess was born there on the news. Even in

Japan, news about the Imperial House and those connected to the imperial family

got a lot of attention.

After that, I also introduced Carla and Owen. Then, when I went to introduce

Hilde...

"Hilde and I are already acquainted," said Ginger. "She gives free medical

examinations to the children who come here. It's really been a great help."

Ginger bowed his head to her, causing Hilde to take on an awkward expression.

"Hmph. The brats are filthy, that's all. Who knows what diseases they're carrying

around."

"You say that, but you still come to visit us once or twice a week," said Sandria. "If

the children get injured, you heal them. I think that, for all that you say to the

contrary, you really do like children, don't you?"

"Sandria... If you say too much, I'll sew your mouth shut, you know that?" Hilde

snapped.

"Oh, pardon me," Sandria apologized nonchalantly while Hilde glared at her.

Yeah... Looking at Hilde just now, it made me remember the old lady at the

bakery in the neighborhood where I'd used to live a long time ago. Whenever the

children came up to her, she'd say, "Look at the noisy visitors," taking a sour attitude,

but then she'd add, "What hungry little brats you are," and would often give away

leftover sweet buns. Now that I thought back on it, it had been her way of masking

her shyness.

Hilde snorted. "I'll be waiting outside until you're all done talking."

"The children have all gone home, just so you know."

"Shut up, Sandria! Whoever said they wanted to play with the children?" Hilde

snapped.

"I didn't say that much..." Sandra said.

"Hmph!"

When Hilde left, violently slamming the door behind her, we all saw her off with

wry smiles.

...Now then. It was time to get back on track.

Liscia, Ginger, Sandria, and I sat down at a conference table. Liscia and I were

seated on one side, with Ginger and Sandria sitting across from us. Carla and Owen

were standing behind us.

Liscia raised her hand. "Um, I have a lot of questions... What exactly do you two

do here?"

"For the moment, we teach applicants how to read, write, and do arithmetic,"

Ginger answered with a gentle smile.

"Is that something like a school?"

"Yes. It's a school where anyone can come learn, regardless of class."

In this country, there were already proper educational institutions. The uniform

Liscia was wearing belonged to the Royal Officers' Academy, and there was also the

Royal Academy, which pumped out researchers in every field, as well as the Mages'

School, which specialized in the study of magic. However, those educational

institutions were almost entirely for the children of the knights and nobility. There

were no general schools meant to serve the common people. This job training

facility was serving as a test case for that sort of general school.

"Also, it's not only for children," said Ginger. "Adults can learn here, too."

"Adults, too?" Liscia asked.

"There are many adults who say they cannot read, write or do arithmetic. The

poorer their background, the more likely that is to be the case. We provide those

people a place to learn here, too. During the day, children learn, and then at night,

adults who have finished working during the day come here to study."

"Hm, so you've got them properly segregated into separate time periods..."

"It was His Majesty's idea to set up a time at night for adults to learn," said

Ginger.

It hadn't really been my idea. I had just recreated the night schools we'd had back

in the other world.

Ginger brought his hands together in front of his mouth. "This is all we can do

right now. However... from here on out, we'll be able to do more and more. Isn't that

right, sire?"

Ginger had turned the conversation over to me, so I nodded firmly. "Yeah. From

here on, I intend to have you teach more specialized topics. For instance, training

adventurers to explore dungeons and protect people, passing on civil engineering

techniques, working with Hilde and her people to train new doctors, studying ways

to improve our agriculture, forestry, and fisheries... Oh, also, I'd like a place for

training chefs, too."

"That's a pretty wide range of topics..." Liscia said.

I think you've figured it out now that I've said this much, but the job training

facility I wanted to create was a vocational school, or perhaps something like a

university made up of specialized departments.

The main focus of academic study in this world was either magic or monsters.

Magic could be applied with some versatility to any number of fields, and it also had

ties to science and medicine. As for the study of monsters, ever since the Demon

Lord's Domain appeared, it had been become one of the most important research

topics.

Before that point, the monsters that had only appeared in dungeons had been the

subjects for this sort of research. However, after the demon lord's domain had

appeared, the number and variety of monster sightings had increased by a factor of

ten. Research on the topic had been rushed along in order to find some solution to

the problem. Also, research on the materials that could be harvested from monsters

was indispensable for the development of technologies.

This sort of research on magic and demons was principally being done at the

Royal Academy. It was certainly true that the results of this sort of cutting edge

research could lead to new developments in other academic fields.

However, and this might be my sense as a Japanese person speaking, I thought

that there were incredible, revolutionary discoveries waiting to be found in research

that, at a glance, seemed pointless, too. Like how the techniques that were polished

and refined in downtown factories without gathering much attention could then

create indispensable parts for a spaceship.

No matter what the subject, if you mastered it, you were first class. If you could

become number one, you could become the only one.

That was why I wanted to create a place where the subjects that had been

neglected by this world—education, civil engineering, agriculture, forestry and

fisheries, cooking, and art—could be given specialized study and taught to other

people. And then, if we were able to see results in a given field from our experiment

at this training facility, we would build a training facility (at this point, more or less a

vocational school) for that subject in another city.

For that, it would first be necessary to raise the average level of education within

the kingdom, and that was why we were starting by teaching elementary level

reading, writing, and arithmetic.

I asked Ginger, "Well, what do you think? How are things with the training

facility?"

"Well... we are doing a good job of gathering children under the age of twelve,"

said Ginger. "The school meals system that you proposed has worked well, I would

say. There are times when it gets hectic, but we have created a cycle where they

show up, they study, they get a proper meal, and then they go home."

"School meals system?" asked Liscia.

"If children under the age of twelve come here and study, they are given free

meals to eat. If they study here, they can eat. Once this becomes widely known, the

children of families under financial stress will be more likely to come here and

study. Many of their guardians find it's better to send them here to study and save

the money it would take to feed them than it is to force the children to work for what

little money they can get. If they study properly, they may be able to escape from

poverty in the future, after all."

"Hmmm," said Liscia. "That's a well thought out system. Is that something they do

in your world, too, Souma?"

"Yeah," I said. "It's a method often used for providing support in poor countries."

Liscia seemed impressed, but Ginger's expression was more clouded.

"It's true, we're doing a good job of drawing in children. However, conversely, it's

hard to gather the adults, who aren't covered by the school meals system. We are

doing what we can by teaching them in the evening once their work lets out, but...

'I've lived all my life without being able to read, write, or do arithmetic. Why should I

learn to now?' they say, and won't even give us a chance."

"Well, if they've never had an education, I can see how they might think that

way," I said.

Only upon receiving an education is one able to understand the value of one.

While children may ask, "Why are we studying?" when they become adults they

think, "Why didn't I study more?" That they're able to have that regret at all is

because they were made to study as children.

"Well, enlightening them on the value of education is one part of our work," I

said. "I'll come up with something."

"Please do, sire."

Ginger and I naturally shook hands.

Finally, after touching base on a number of things, Ginger and Sandria saw us off,

and we left the training facility.

The next place we visited was the Kikkoro Distillery, not far from the training

grounds.

This distillery, which used a hexagon with the character for wolf in the center as

its brand mark, was run by mystic wolves like Tomoe, and it produced soy sauce,

miso, sake, and mirin.

Here, we met another person I knew.

When we entered the grounds, there was a plump man wearing short sleeved

clothes despite the winter chill.

"Hm? Poncho?" I asked.

"Wh-Why, Your Majesty! Good day to you, yes."

When he noticed us, Poncho bowed his head to me. Maybe he had gotten used to

the idea that he was only supposed to bow once. Before, he had been bobbing his

head up and down constantly.