Satou's here. Recently people tend to shirk effort, but I think you will never get masterful insight without piling up efforts. It is said that your everyday effort will never betray you after all.
◇
The next morning after the Royal Capital sightseeing tour, I change into Kuro and teleport to the workshop where Porina is waiting.
I'm going to meet the inventor mentioned before.
"Porina, has he come?"
"Yes, Kuro-sama."
Porina who welcomed me guides me to the reception room.
The one waiting beyond the door Porina has opened is an unexpected person.
"Nice to meet you! My name is Aoi Haruka. I am not a noble despite having family name, so please do not misunderstand."
A 10-year-old boy who looks exactly like a girl introduces himself with polite language unbefitting of his age.
Aoi is a Japanese person that Princess Menea's Kingdom has summoned. It might be more correct to call him a person of Land of Rich Autumn Harvest Empire Japan, but let's not mind the detail.
"Nice too meet you, I'm Echigoya. I'm the chairman of Echigoya Firm."
Despite using the figure and clothes of Echigoya, my name in exchange column is still Kuro. Echigoya is a plain fake name of Kuro.
"I'd like to ask forgiveness for my rudeness, but is Echigoya-san a Japanese?"
"It's probably a different Japan than yours though."
"As I thought! I knew that there were other Japanese people who came to this world beside me!"
I make Aoi Boy to control his excitement with my hand.
I feel that his personality differs from when I met him as Satou, but this one might be the base one. He was with Princess Menea at that time, he might have denied the fact that he was a Japanese.
"Calm down. First, let's talk about our business."
"Yes! That Lighter is my masterpiece--"
Aoi Boy gleefully begins to talk about his hardships and the point for improvements.
It seems like he'll go on forever if left alone, so I tell him the cruel hard fact.
"We will not sell that Lighter as our product."
"B-but why? The mechanism is simple, and oil is common--"
I tell the shaken Aoi Boy about the problem with the Lighter as Porina has told me.
Yet the Aoi Boy still persisted, and only finally relented after I showed him the Ignition Rod.
"So, what kind of 『Invention』 are you going to make next?"
"Unfortunately, there is no next time if I can't sell the Lighter.... I have no more fund."
It seems he got the lighter money this time from pawning the ring that Princess Menea had lent him.
Shiga Kingdom doesn't have any bank that you can ask for financing after all.
There are firms and the merchant guild that can do that, but you'll become a slave if you can't pay back the money.
"Then, I have a suggestion for you--"
I offer Aoi Boy to become an inventor & advisor of Echigoya Firm, and to give him a laboratory in our Royal Capital's mansion and the research fund.
And just to make sure, I also offer him one gold coin as the initial salary, and to lend him the money needed to take Princess Menea's ring from the pawnshop.
Thus, Aoi Boy becomes a member of Echigoya Firm.
I have many reasons as to why I take him under me, but the biggest one is in order to avoid him developing something that will incur the [Gods' Wrath].
I tell Aoi Boy about the story I've heard from Corpse and Armor after forewarning him that it should remain a secret.
I especially warn him about the radio tower and train ahead of time since they're convenient and easy to come up. It won't be funny if the Royal Capital turns into ashes because of my funding.
My business with Aoi Boy is over, so I ask him about the present state of the other Japanese who was with him, Yui Akasaki.
It seems she was proposed by a high-ranking nobleman whom she was acquainted with from an evening party she attended with Princess Menea.
Looks like the other party was the one who fell for Yui. Falling in love to a 13-year old girl, he must be a lolicon.
It seems Yui didn't feel the same, but she was moved by intense attack from the other party and made a promise to marry him. They couldn't get married right away due to the difference in their social positions, so the guy has asked a noble related to him to adopt Yui as their daughter in order to secure her social position, allowing them to marry.
Aoi Boy is deeply moved as he tells me about how she's currently seriously studying etiquette in a class referred by that related noble.
"Echigoya-san, I want to introduce you to my Sensei--