As we walked through the C School Building, Joan-senpai stopped in front of a certain room.
“This is Mr. Wallace’s laboratory,” she said, then opened the door without knocking.
“Professor, I’ve brought Tsukasa-kun.”
Joan-senpai walked in, so I followed her.
The room was about ten tatami mats in size. There were unfamiliar devices scattered everywhere, and surprisingly, there was even a bed.
It looked like a laboratory, but with the bed, it also seemed like a private room.
“Joan, you should at least knock.”
“Sorry about that.”
Joan-senpai apologized lightly.
“Haa…Nagase-kun, sorry for calling you here during your break,” Mr. Wallace sighed and spoke to me.
“No…this is an incredible room. It’s filled with devices I’ve never seen before.”
“Well, yeah. I develop new magical artifacts here. Right now, I’m in the middle of developing a device to summon monsters based on your hint.”
He’s actually making it even though I said it without thinking…
But Toko might like it.
“Are you living here?”
As I asked and looked at the bed,
“I technically have a house in Astral’s residential area, but I’m practically living here. Once I get immersed in research, it feels like too much trouble to go back home.”
I recalled my mother once saying that wizards dedicate their lives to magic.
Gives lectures during the day, doesn’t even go home after that and keeps on researching.
That’s an incredible passion.
“That’s impressive.”
“It’s nothing. I enjoy doing this.”
Enjoys it, huh…
Glancing at Joan-senpai, she was sitting on the bed and reading a book.
“I heard that you’re apprenticing under the professor; is that true?”
“Apprenticing… it’s not that formal, but I guess if you say apprenticing, then it could be called that. There is such a thing, though. Lectures only teach surface-level things. If you want to learn more specialized knowledge, it’s common to apprentice yourself to not just teachers, but various people. You also learned martial arts from someone, right?”
That’s right, I learned from Grandfather Nagase and Father.
“Then, for example, if I asked to apprentice under you, would you teach me?”
“Of course. If you have that much passion, I wouldn’t hesitate.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t.”
I wouldn’t be suited to it, and I wouldn’t enjoy it.
“I see. You don’t seem like such a dedicated student to me. It’s not a bad thing though. You haven’t decided yet, that’s all. Go hunting for what you want. Whether it’s developing your strengths, pursuing what you like… do what you want. Just don’t forget to consult with others. It doesn’t have to be teachers, parents, your sister, friends… it’s good to rely on whatever support you have.”
He really feels like a teacher.
“Understood.”
“Alright, let’s get to the matter at hand,” Joan-senpai urged.
“Right. Tsukasa-kun, would you be interested in doing some part-time work?”
When Mr. Wallace nodded, the real topic began.
“You mean part-time work? Like going outside and hunting monsters?”
“No, nothing like that. Actually, I’d like you to investigate the basement of the D School Building.”
“Huh? Sorry, but what do you mean by basement?”
“This academy has a long history, it’s said to be hundreds of years old.”
That’s impressive.
“It doesn’t seem that old.”
“They renovated the school building last year. We have a lot of graduates who donate heavily, so we do renovations regularly.”
I remember hearing that from Frank and Cedric before.
“And why do we need to investigate the basement?”
“I mentioned the history, right? Essentially, there are old research facilities left in the basement. And your job will be to survey… or rather, clean them.”
Cleaning, huh…
“So you mean we’ll be taking rags and brooms?”
“Pretty much that. There are magical cleaning tools, but there’s a risk of damaging precious research materials, so I’d prefer the human touch.”
Oh, when I went to town, Cedric recommended a magical device that automatically sucks up dust.
“Sorry, but why me? Wouldn’t a student from your class, or even Joan-senpai, be fine?”
“Ah, no, you’re not specifically needed. Since it’s just a cleaning part-time job, anyone would do. But it’s a good-paying job, so I thought you might be interested. You gave me a great hint, and I wanted to express gratitude. Plus, Joan is already counted in the headcount.”
“Andy too,” she added.
So there’s no particular reason?
“Three of us?”
“Probably around that number. We’ll decide after checking the actual site. If it’s too bad, I might need to call in a few more people.”
Seems like an ordinary part-time job.
“What about the pay?”
“That’ll depend on what we find in the room, but probably somewhere between 10,000 to 30,000 Mana.”
We get paid that much just for cleaning!?
That’s indeed a good-paying job.
“You really pay that much?”
“It’s because it’s off-campus work. But more than that, academy jobs tend to be well-paid because they’re not carefully calculated. They put up notices on the bulletin board from time to time, so I recommend checking it regularly. Though competition can be fierce.”
Huh…
I didn’t know because I’ve never paid attention.
“You’re passing this offer to me?”
“Yeah. I asked Joan, and she invited Andy, then I remembered you since we were missing one more person. Joan and Andy are in class D, so it seemed convenient.”
I see.
“Well then, I’ll accept the job. When are we doing it?”
“Sometime this week or next week is fine. Just coordinate that with Joan and Andy.”
When he said that, I looked at Joan-senpai.
“Should we go talk to Andy?”
Joan-senpai put the book down and stood up.
“Understood. To the dormitory, right?”
“Probably. Let’s go. Professor, excuse us.”
“Excuse us.”
We left the room and headed to the boys’ dormitory.
—
Unrelated to this work, the first volume of my currently serialized work, “The Strongest Yin-Yang Master and His AI Shikigami in an Alternate World Unparalleled,” was released today by the Hagane Bunko publishing company.
If you’re interested, please have a look.
(There’s a link available below.)
Thank you very much for your continued support of both this and other ongoing works.
