Tsuki – Chapter 385: You there with the fake glasses

There’s actually a lot of times when I would get surprised over again.

It is natural that the Couple Company would be overwhelmingly superior to us in the know-hows of goods circulation, and it seems like she did have the idea of managing the schedules of the cargo and people with a time table. 

Something that I muttered unconsciously might have stimulated that slight idea of hers inside her mind, and ended up taking form. 

I am reflecting about this from the bottom of my heart.

“Fuuh…” (Makoto)

When I close the door and exit, I sigh.

I am currently at the stairs of the meeting room used for businesses in the Kuzunoha Company. It is technically my homeground.

But the meeting room today has Capli-san and a number of executives of her company, and she was instructing them in front of a white board.

When thinking about the person that fit the bill the most in regards to transportation and the time tables from Asora, the one who came to mind was Shiki.

He is the very person that strengthened the foundations of the goods management in the Kuzunoha Company. Moreover, even now, he is managing the exchanges between Asora and our store.

I say that, but our style is mostly just using the teleportation to bring the stuff to the Kuzunoha Company.

I personally don’t know the specific schedules for that and the fact that there were dias.

I didn’t know until a few days ago that the name dias is a shortening of diagrams.

For me, the time charts that I know are mostly the ones that I found in the train stations for what time the trains will be coming.

I have no memories of diagrams that have closely packed lines, and have symbols and numbers mixed in too.

There might be time charts that have things like that in thick books, but I don’t remember them.

Shiki said that he would go talk to her, and it seems like they steadily got heated up in their discussion. Their words were fluid yet were accelerating, and for some reason the terms like differentials, integrals, and trigonometric functions were flying about too. I gave up at that point.

Anyways, the Couple Company asked us to please give them a lecture at least once, and that brings us to today.

“I didn’t think enough about it.” (Makoto)

It is not about Shiki getting fervent about it.

It is about the fact that there’s the need for a decent amount of knowledge in order to make it look like we are actually using the proper procedures to transport our goods.

In the beginning, the Kuzunoha Company did deal with most of the transportations with teleportation, but now we have made teams to send things to depopulated areas and remote regions.

They need knowledge in the locations of settlements to receive the goods, and the knowledge to know what routes to take, and that knowledge came from the experience they accumulated from the very beginning.

It is the truth that my ability and imagination was lacking. Throwing it everything to Shiki and the others assuming they are geniuses was clearly my mistake.

That part of me reminded me of the obstacles that would call me a monster when they got the chance and I ended up killing. 

It is nigh impossible to understand all the specialized terms that are packed in the documents I get before I sign them, but if I were to widen the things I understand, I think I wouldn’t have needed to call Shiki from Rotsgard.

The thing is that, when Shiki summarized the maths, and gave out actual examples as he wrote the diagram in the whiteboard, the people of the Couple Company let out voices in wonder and amazement. 

In other words, they are somewhat understanding the contents and the meaning.

“In the vertical axis, there’s the cities, stop locations, and storehouses; in the horizontal axis there’s the time and…” 

“If we could share the precise times for the base points and the stop locations…” 

“So the movements of the wagons are mostly oblique lines, huh.” 

“At present, the one that seems to have the chance of having the biggest flow is the Golden Highway to the storehouse district. The storehouse to the old walls…no, should we include Koran in the calculations too?” 

“No, the storehouse district to Koran would increase the information we have to handle way too much. Even if we were to utilize this and the clock, it isn’t something we can manage.” 

“Then, the idea of ramification with the companies as the central point, could we use the dias for that as well, Shiki-dono?” 

“For the relay points, the confluencing points, and the waiting time that would be happening naturally, it would depend on the use of the marks and the time management on the horizontal axis…” 

…

The voices that could be heard in the room have long passed what I could understand.

It looks like they are really capable people, taking into account that the representative and executives are specialized in that area and are at the top of the companies when it comes to this.

This will most likely be categorized as the number 18th specialty of the goods circulation in the Couple Company, but…there’s the chance that a new type of specialized job will be born from this.

They do say that there’s not a single person in the Couple Company who can’t repair a wagon and look after horses.

But from here on, they will be divided between people who can do the specialized stuff, and those who can’t.

“…I don’t know if this is a good thing or not. I feel conflicted about this.” (Makoto)

It feels like it is the sadness of having them deviate from their original intention, but there’s the fun of seeing them going further and further ahead from their starting point and evolving. 

Shiki who is giving them the lecture was definitely having fun here.

It is because he is doing a completely different type of lecture from what he usually does in Rotsgard, with students that are burning with passion in a completely different branch.

I had Shiki steer clear from the orphanage matters and had him concentrate mainly in Rotsgard, so him being in Tsige in a long while might be a contributing factor too.

Shiki seemed to have his eyes shine slightly at the prospect of teaching in the orphanage, but I am having mainly Tomoe as the head there.

In the first place, even if he told me that he is simply sleeping at night because he feels like it and there’s no real need for him to actually sleep, so he can open up  time to do more things…whether it is the orphanage or the students at Rotsgard, I have no intention of having the children get lectures at night.

I think that when you are below 10, the best thing to do is to enjoy your days at full and sleep tightly at night.

I’ve got no backing for that statement though! 

I am the father of no child after all! 

And well, from there on it is about their own lifestyles being heavily affected by work. I know it is difficult to keep your old lifestyle forever, so I have no intention of speaking out about that.

“What has to be taken note of here are the adventurers…” 

“Oh my.” 

“Not only the active ones, but also the former adventurers huh.” 

“True. There are tons of them to spare, and it would be a lot better than them becoming rogues.”

“But will we be keeping them from going back to the countryside by paying them high salaries?” 

“There’s no need to force them to stay if they want to go. There should be a lot of adventurers who want to stay in this city even after retirement.” 

“Also, people will be flowing into Tsige from here on. That was the prediction of the Rembrandt Company’s boss, you know?” 

“They must have already been making their moves to claim the useful talents among the adventurers a long time ago.” 

“Looks like this will turn into a rough competition, hahahaha…” 

“It is a happy thing to have many choices after retiring.” 

“Seeing the orphans and adventurers as a trove of human resources came about from the flexible thinking of the Representative Raidou from our Kuzunoha Company. You could say this was a gospel that was brought to this city and the Rembrandt Company.” (Shiki)

Pfft! 

Shiki?! 

Can you please not lie so nonchalantly and raise the expectations on me even more?! 

“Raidou-kun, huh. He already had a revolutionary way of thinking since employing demi-humans after all.” (Capli)

“I would like you to call that progressive, Representative Capli.” (Shiki)

“No no, that’s not progress or a hidden technique, it is certainly revolutionary. To the point that in the beginning I even thought he would be setback by it for making do with demi-human employees.” 

“Yeah, to think he would take the route of not employing any hyumans. That can’t even be called foolhardy.” 

“He did employ Lime Latte after though.” 

“I heard that they were in a pretty dicey relationship with him before. He really does surprise me every time.” 

It is true that thinking about the state of affairs in a hyuman settlement, that was quite the reckless thing to do even in Tsige.

I think Akua and Eris have done a really good job. 

Tomoe must have thought about the personnel selection a whole lot before reaching a decision.

“By the way, we are also experimenting with employing hyuman students under conditions in Rotsgard, so it is a bit wrong to say that we employ zero hyumans.” (Shiki)

Aah, Jin and Amelia who are working part-time, huh.

Now that I think about it, aside from daily labourers in Tsige, is there a system for part-time jobs? 

“This is the first time I heard about this ‘employment under conditions’. I am interested in it.” (Capli)

“It is called a part-time job. If put simply, it would be employing people with daily wages or hourly wages every month or year.” (Shiki)

“? Even though you are employing them as a company, if you were to finish the contract in a month or a year, wouldn’t the time just end really quick from just teaching them the job?” (Capli)

“It is not an official employment. For example; it could be a student, a housewife, or even the retired adventurers that were mentioned before -is how Raidou thinks. Of course, in the case when they have grown into talents that would be a shame to let go, you could employ them officially. It is more difficult since you have to maintain them for a period of time instead of day labourers that you can simply hire in the busy times, but in the cases when you want to keep people for a long time, I think this method would be better.” (Shiki)

“…In other words, it is like requests for adventurers where you have them work for a set period of time? It is in between daily labourers and official employment?” (Capli)

“I think that’s close. It depends on the job contents, but it can also serve as a way to maintain company secrets. But well, it can also work the other way in that it could leak info though. Especially in jobs that require you to place your trust like leaving luggage in the care of someone. You would need the highest of wariness in that regard.” (Shiki)

“I see. With that form of employment, there’s no need to look at the minute details of the payments and agreements.” 

“By simply spicing up the payment a bit, you can gather people, and even in sudden situations, it can increase the task force to a certain degree. Ma’am! Ah, Representative! It would make employing people drastically ‘lighter’.” 

“Even when considering the risks…it is overflowing with potential to solve all the problems we have right now.” 

“That boy really thinks impressive stuff. Then, could it be that the trigger for the Rembrandt Company singing about the increase in the production power of the manufacturing industry was also the Kuzunoha Company? That’s just unfair, geez.” (Capli)

“If it is about the line, then it is true that Waka-sa—I mean the Representative and I discussed it to a certain degree.” (Shiki)

…No, I didn’t really think too deeply about it. 

…Rather than calling it discussing, it was more like I was told about it. 

“Could it be that the showcase that’s in the store was also Raidou-kun?” (Capli)

“No, that was the result of the free thoughts inside the company, and the desire to show to the world the abilities of the skilled people we met in our duties. It was in a sense the idea of our representative, but what’s inside is packed with ideas from others.” (Shiki)

“I personally was very interested in the city miniature. That’s the same for the people here.” (Capli)

“…Hooh.” (Shiki)

“I thought that the design as if compressing the functions of the city was splendid. An easy to live in city that I have never seen before. At the same time, I felt like something was lacking.” (Capli)

“Lacking? As in…?” (Shiki)

“How to say it…not lacking, but…missing. As if something was taken away from the completed work.” (Capli)

I thought there were people interested in the model, but there were also people who were interested in what was in the model, huh.

What was taken out from it was only the train and the railways though. Did it give out a feeling of something missing? 

“Taken away… Aah, so that’s what you mean. As expected of the skilled woman that rules over the goods circulation of Tsige. To think that you would notice the shadows of the railroads and the trains. That’s impressive.” (Shiki)

“So you people really did take out something from it intentionally.” (Capli)

The Capli Representative confirms in a teasing tone as if reprimanding a prank.

On the other hand, there’s the executives who were making noise in surprise. 

“I ended up saying something unnecessary in the surprise, but well, let’s just leave it at that. Now then, let’s continue the lecture.” (Shiki)

“Then, teacher, the model for that work was the Mist Town?” (Capli)

“That question was pretty out of target, Capli-kun. That was simply the playing of a dwarf.” (Shiki)

“Oh my, then how does the Mist Town look?” (Capli)

“How about putting out a request for that to the adventurers? ‘Please bring me to the Mist Town’. The people around will most likely withdraw, and I don’t think there will be any adventurer who would take Capli-san even in the guild. Hahaha.” (Shiki)

“You are a lot more of a bully than Raidou-kun. I can tell why he left the care of Rotsgard to you.” (Capli)

“I am honored at your evaluation.” (Shiki)

Shiki used his index finger to readjust his fake glasses that he prepared for lectures, then bowed elegantly once as he responded.

At the time when he showed me those round glasses, he said ‘this is to look the part’ and I thought he was joking, but…it really does look good on him.

I did make a number of them while making some for the gorgons. 

As expected of Shiki.

Alright, I may have come back, but there’s no way for me to overcome the expectations that have been carried to the heavens.

I should just leave this to the teacher and just go work.

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