Chapter 2: One Opportunity

「Cheers!」

Kin—our cups rang with a high metallic note as we clinked them together.

「So, Rin’s old enough to enjoy a drink now, huh.」
「Sensei, how many years ago are you talking about? I’m not a child anymore.」
「What are you talking about? You’re only a bit over a hundred.」

Nina said this to Rin, who was holding her cup in both hands and taking tiny, licking sips.
As for Nina—let me think—she’s seven hundred forty‑three this year.
By elven standards she’s still a youngster, so Rin must look like a child to her.

「How was your journey?」
「It was fun! There really are all sorts of people on land.」

As she spoke, Rin rummaged through her bag. It was the leather satchel I’d given her as a send‑off gift when she set out.
I’d had it made especially sturdy so it wouldn’t get in her way even when she traveled underwater and wouldn’t break easily—and she was still using it.

「This stone’s from a really big person, this one’s a flower from a tiny person, and this bone’s from someone like a fat Luka... and this stone is... wait, who did I get this one from again? Whatever. I didn’t get anything, but I also met black people and people with wings.」

Lining her mementos up on the table, Rin recounted her memories in astonishingly broad strokes.

「What, you even went and met giants and the shadowfolk?」

Nina narrowed her eyes and glared at Rin.
Both are belligerent and prone to looking down on the weak.
We’re not at war with them, but you can’t really call them friendly races.

「Hmm...? I dunno. They said something or other, but I forgot. Oh, and I went to visit Sig and Luka’s places a few times. Violet’s too.」

Rin tilted her head; she didn’t look drunk yet. She’d probably just genuinely forgotten.
She’s always been a bit forgetful.
I just hope she hasn’t done anything too dangerous.

「But none of them felt as solidly put together as this village.」
「Figures.」

At Rin’s words, Nina nodded with a strangely proud air. Well, not so strange.
No one has lived in this village as long, or contributed as much, as she has. It’s only natural she’d take pride in the praise.

As for me, I can’t help feeling a twinge of guilt, as if I’m cheating with knowledge from my previous life.

「Though that may be getting harder from here on.」
「Because that thing you were making today failed?」

When Nina flicked her eyes my way, I nodded.

The waterwheel is probably the world’s oldest prime mover.
And modern Japan’s—no, Earth’s—industry was supported almost entirely by prime movers.
Power generation—whether thermal, hydro, or nuclear—all uses prime movers, and the steam engine before that is, after all, just a kind of prime mover.
A machine that automatically converts one kind of energy into another.
Because those existed, humanity cut vast amounts of labor, automated and mechanized, and managed to support immense populations.

This world has magic, but if people still have to perform it one by one, it doesn’t actually save much labor.

「I don’t really get it—does it cause that much trouble if that thing won’t move?」
「Not exactly. It’s more that the very fact it won’t move is the problem.」

At my words, both Nina and Rin wore matching question marks on their faces.
I suppose it’s hard to understand. If anything, it may be that my very notion—that if you put water on a waterwheel, it turns—is the heresy here, and wrong.

If that’s so, it will be hard to keep developing the village with my knowledge and ideas.
That said, I’d expected we would reach that point soon anyway.
I’m neither an engineer nor a historian.

There are only so many famous, simple technologies.
Now that we have metal tools, the village’s level has probably climbed out of the stone age into something like antiquity; there are still far too many undeveloped parts to call it medieval.
We’ve managed by supplementing with magic so far, but I’ve had a sense that the era when my ideas alone could carry us is coming to an end.

I can muddle through by imitation with a waterwheel and gears, but I have no clue about more complex machines. Even engines—I saw rough diagrams as a child, but I don’t know a thing about their actual mechanisms.

Computers were what I handled most in daily life, and yet I never understood how they worked. I know they use something called semiconductors, but what even is a semiconductor? A metal, or some man‑made substance like plastic? I don’t even know that.

So maybe this is one opportunity, I thought.

「It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while.」
「What kind of no‑good idea is it this time?」

When I let that slip, Nina quipped back, teasing me.

「Yeah. I’m thinking of building a new school.」
「I see.」

She must have half expected it; Nina gave a deep nod.

「Whenever you make that face, my workload tends to go up.」
「Sorry to put you through it.」

Nina screwed up her face.
And yet she still goes along with me—she really is a fine partner.

「What about our old school?」
「We’ll keep that too, of course.」

I nodded to reassure Rin, who looked a bit uneasy.

「Our existing school—right, for clarity let’s call it an elementary school. It’s where children learn the basics and acquire the minimum knowledge. In other words, it’s a school for teaching what we already know. On top of that, I want to create a school for higher things—research into what no one knows yet. A university.」
「What no one... knows...」

Cheeks faintly flushed with drink, Rin rolled my words around in her mouth.
Farming and animal husbandry have stabilized, and Hiiro village’s food stores have grown a lot; we’re at the point where without a waterwheel, threshing and milling will soon fall behind.
That means people who don’t engage in producing food or necessities—who do nothing but research as their work, a knowledge class—can make a living.
As for me, it’s been centuries since I hunted for myself. The groundwork to accept such roles is probably already in place among the people of Hiiro village.

「In short, you want to do what we did back when these kids were here, all over again.」

Pon—Nina tapped Rin on the head and said this as she brought her cup to her lips.

「Put that way, maybe so.」

We took in exchange students to cultivate future teachers, but it’s true we also tackled all sorts of new things back then. We had the goal of making farming and animal husbandry work.

For me, reproducing known technology and attempting unknown technology are entirely different—but to Nina and the others, both are simply things they don’t know yet.

「Sensei, I want to do that! It sounds fun!」

Maybe because of that, Rin’s eyes sparkled and she spoke up at once.
Of course, that was just what I’d hoped for, too.
Her flexible, distinctive way of thinking makes her ideas ideal for research—aside from her short attention span.

「Thanks. I’d love your help. ...But before we build the school, there’s something we have to make first.」
「Right. If we’re going to split them completely, we’ll need another school building—and we’ll have to line up teachers.」

Nina swallowed her drink in little nods as she ticked items off on her fingers. She seems slapdash, but she’s surprisingly meticulous about that sort of administrative work.

「Those too, but—」

But what I meant right now was something else.

「We need to make paper.」