BXBX NOVEL Volume 5 1.5
「So what’s the mission now?」
Seeing that the conversation wouldn’t progress by ignoring the issue, Fum asked what was going on. The fact that she, a girl whose age was still in the ones, was the one who had to steer the conversation already spelled doom and gloom for Azuma Workshop’s future.
「Well, nothin’ all that crazy. Just gonna have all of us enroll in Rufeus Academy.」
「Whaaat?」
When Hiroshi threw that bomb into the open, other than Lime who didn’t fully understand the gravity of the situation, everyone got taken off-guard and let out inane voices.
「Well, I do gotta hear Layla-san’s opinion regardin’ Fum ‘n Lime, but yeah.」
「You’re, asking me……?」
「No, I mean I can’t just have the kids go off somewhere without their mom’s permission, mate.」
When Hiroshi said that, Layla briefly went into thought. Sending her children to attend Rufeus Academy. This was a status symbol, and a very powerful one at that, for households with both a certain amount of financial muscle and educational standards.
Thinking back on how she and her daughters had lived in the slums for a time, barely able to get them education at primary school, this was truly an awe-inspiring moment. However, as the administrator of the workshop who was studying whenever the occasion mandated it, she had a firm grasp of the importance of proper education.
After worrying herself sick, the conclusion she came up with was…
「I’ll leave this Fum and Lime. As a parent, I do believe they should be going to school, but I doubt they will acquire knowledge if I force it on them, plus if they went to school and something happened, it would be more difficult for them to see me as a place of refuge……」
And that was what she decided.
「Alright, got it.」
「Boss Man～、Lime’s gonna go to school～?」
「Yup. Do ya not wanna?」
「I wanna go!!」
As Teres and the others were freezing, Hiroshi, Layla, and Lime had suddenly wrapped up the conversation. Once she heard them speak and returned to reality, Teres hurriedly cut in.
「Uhh, umm, Boss Man!」
「Wha?」
「If we all enroll, what will happen to work!?」
「Don’t worry mate, I gotcha.」
Hiroshi said, explaining they would go in rotation once every three days in just the morning or afternoon to attend lectures. While he was at it, Hiroshi handed them all lists that picked up all the lectures that would fit the aforementioned time slots.
「If it’s once every three days for just half a day, we can all follow up right?」
「……Well, sure we can, but……」
「Still, it’s going to be real busy for a while, no joke.」
When Hiroshi reminded them, Teres reluctantly agreed and Fum mentioned her own concerns. Everyone felt oddly jealous of Hiyohiyo, snoozing in the basket without a care in the world.
「It seems like we’ve reached some sort of decision, so I’ll give in and study alongside you all, but could we at least wait until the royal house brings along new candidates and teach them a little bit about how we work here?」
「But then we won’t know when we’ll be in Rufeus. Sorry, might be a bit tough, but I wantcha to try enrollin’ ‘n attendin’ lectures startin’ next week.」
「If that’s how it is, I can’t complain, but next week is rather soon, don’t you think?」
「There’s a lotta new experiments goin’ on over there, so during that time we’ll be samplin’ some problems at hand ‘n I guess they want us to be there for that.」
Hearing the new experiments portion, Nora suddenly realized they were all being sacrificed. Looking at her coworkers, she saw that they also recognized this, with clouds over their heads.
「And so, ya can choose whatever ya want from the lectures, but whatever y’all decided on I’ll have Lime also take, so make sure to think of her when yer decidin’.」
「Oh yeah, I never asked, but how is Lime going to fit into all this?」
「She’ll pretty much attend every day. Makoto-san’s also gonna go ‘n learn magic fundamentals in the short-term course, so we’re thinkin’ of makin’ Lime’s mornin’ schedule match that subject. For the afternoon we see if one of us has a lecture ‘n match Lime to that, and if not then we call it quits for that day.」
Hearing Hiroshi’s fiendish plans, Nora’s face began growing terrifying. She had realized that this employer of theirs was practically forcing them to have at least one person taking lectures every morning, in consideration of Lime’s stamina.
「……I don’t have a choice, so I, Nora, will take the morning curriculum……Yes, how about Biology 1? It’s the first lecture on the day of the moon and the day of the wind, so Fum and Teres will need to select something else.」
「In that case, I will take Mathematics 1 in the morning for water and earth.」
「Then I guess I’ll do Beginning Enchanting Magic 1 in the afternoon for fire and time?」
Teres and Nora figured they should leave the afternoon as open as possible, choosing the morning instead, while Fum figured they needed someone to take an afternoon slot, choosing lectures in the afternoon.
A little late into the game, but I should explain that this world has the seven days of moon, fire, water, wind, time, earth, and sun, and businesses other than stores had the day of the sun off. The naming was slightly different, but it was practically the same as the earth’s calendar.
「Gotcha. Also, if the time yer there feels a lil lacking, yer free to pick another lecture.」
「Yeah, Teres’s schedule is definitely unfinished.」
Hiroshi and Nora discussed this, and Teres went into thought for a bit. The lecture Teres had actually chosen was from 10:30 to noon. Doing work until 10 am was certainly lackluster.
「……Alright. If Nora and the others don’t mind, I guess I’ll also take History: The Western Regions?」
「I don’t mind. In exchange, though, at night I would like you to at least tell us what kind of content they went over.」
「Then when dinner’s over, and also for the purpose of review, let’s make it the timeslot for anyone who went to school that day informing everyone else of the lecture content.」
「Ah, that does sound good.」
Initially the three of them had grumbled about this negatively affecting their work, but now that they knew they were going to school, an unexpected sort of learning desire rose up within them. Apparently the main thing they were concerned about was work becoming difficult to handle, but they all loved the idea of attending school.
「Come to think of it, Lime has a slot open in the morning for classes. What do we do about that?」
「I’ll consult the school ‘n have ‘em fill it in with some other general education segment. Also, if it ever seems like there’s an inconvenience, we’ll have another person out there teach her things like grammar, arithmetic, fundamental stuff like that, so if there’s a need for it we’ll have ourselves as possible house tutors.」
「Kaaay.」
Cool with Hiroshi’s explanation, Nora and the others were grateful that everything besides work getting harder was more than satisfactory. Seeing their reactions, Hiroshi spoke directly to Lime, the centerpiece of all this.
「Lime, ya cool with this as yer curriculum too?」
「Yeah!」
Hiroshi asked, and Lime answered with enthusiasm. Of course, a child of five years like herself wouldn’t have any specific thing she wanted to study. Lime was just happy to go to school and study.
「Then we’ll proceed with what we discussed tomorrow, y’all.」
With everyone at a consensus, today’s conversation was over.
The next day, just in case, everyone attended each class they had accepted together, and other than a few things that were not entirely clear, Lime and everyone else were all able to keep up with the content. This would end up greatly astonishing the academy, but as to whether this was because of Azuma Workshop’s education standards being oddly high or because Rufeus Academy’s scholarly ability standards being oddly low, the world will never know.