Chapter Chapter 32: RATH 32 TL: Eevee (1/2)

RATH 32

TL: Eevee

TN: Uweeek. So much dialogue and monologues….

5. Welcome to the summoners’ school. (2)

“Are we really going to move forward according to this plan?”

“The number of lecturers that have quit are only increasing.”

“Do you really think that this is possible?”

Including the dean and I, we were in a meeting with the lecturers that represented each year.

But the air in the room was significantly bleak.

-Owner, innit gonna fail at this rate? Owner release some more of the plan? There’s so little bait that no one’s biting in!

-If I scatter too much then they’ll all flock in. You only need just enough bait.

Experienced master fishermen do not use a lot of bait.

They just simply toss out a bit at a time, and the fish bite in and are reeled in on a line.

If you throw out too much bait then you also attract the useless small fry.

“Let the ones who wish to leave, leave.”

“Are you serious!”

“Even if Professor Nicerwin is outstanding as a summoner, isn’t it your first time as a lecturer?”

“At this rate, we won’t have enough lecturers to teach the students!”

“Then we simply need to reduce the numbers.”

“You can’t be serious!”

All sorts of shouts come and go. Ho ho, were you very surprised when the number of teachers dropped?

But, this academy had too many useless teachers.

No seriously, the ones that had contracts with high-rank summons aside, how the heck did summoners with just a few low-rank summons get places as lecturers here?

After I inspected them it turned out that it wasn’t that they were particularly skilled, it wasn’t that they were good at teaching, but they were just idiots with a good bloodline!

“We are already at risk of closing due to our declining number of students!”

“What is that supposed to mean? It’s not that we’re lacking in students, the enrollment numbers at our academy is similar to the other schools. The problem is the perception.”

They should say it properly.

The number of students at Yugrasia aren’t all that different to its glory days.

Why? Because since it’s the easiest school the dropouts from the other academies all end up here.

Especially among the low-ranking nobles, rather than paying big money to contract with a summon for self-protection, they can get their child to contract a summon for a much cheaper price by enrolling their child at Yugrasia, so some even deliberately do that instead.

Since it’s still one of the Four Great Academies its name still has some value to it, and since there are some ex-Yugrasia students from its glory days on the front lines, sometimes you get kids sent here to make connections with the military.

But, these children do not come to Yugrasia out of a genuine wish to learn the summoning arts.

“The numbers aren’t important. No, rather, a small number can prove their value.”

There were always a lot of nobles in the empire.

Way too many of them.

But there are a lot less of the ones that are Earls and higher, and that’s why they’re called high-rank nobles.

“Do you know why the dukes and margraves of the Ten Great Families are called as such? It’s because their numbers are limited. They have that much authority and might, and it’s not like the rest don’t have long family histories either, but it’s because that those titles are only allowed to a few that they are called the Ten Great Families.”

In the history of the empire, there are almost no families that rose to the rank of marquis.

Even in the previous great war only one family earned the title of margrave.

And as for the title of duke, only one of them were given out in the entire 1000 years of the empire’s history.

“So what is it that you are trying to say?”

“If Yugrasia is to have that much value, accepting only a small number of elites is much more meaningful. Hence, there is no need to stop those that are walking out. We have already finished discussions with summoners much greater than them. Summoners that would be a better long-term investment even if we gave them the wages of all the outgoing lecturers combined.”

Even if I look like this I still have a few connections with the army and other races.

Of course, excepting those who know of Naruan or Ast.

If it goes wrong then Operation Dark Under the Lantern! becomes Very Close Under the Lantern instead.

If it’s that miss Imperial Princess, I wouldn’t put it past her to close off all the city walls and gates to trap me.

Even if I was armed with the metal bat, a one-man reverse-siege to get through the continent’s strongest capital city is impossible.

As long as the escape route that I commissioned the dwarves is incomplete I cannot leave a single trace.

“Is that possible?”

“It is.”

Everyone shut their mouth at my conviction.

Now, let’s look at our Hell Joseon.

Even when you go to university, everything you learned in primary intermediate high school becomes absolutely useless, why do they try so hard to stay in Seoul?

Because they’re rare!

Especially Seo** University!

If you go there then all their dogs and cows are all top of their schools? That’s why people recognize you if said you were a graduate.

If it really was a place where all your dogs and cattle could enter, no one would want to go to Seo** Uni. Because just going to a uni near your house would be so much simpler.

In that case, like my past life’s old hometown that wanted to go to Seo** Uni, I just have to change the environment in Yugrasia into that!

“The current students include many where they couldn’t even progress to the next year at other schools and came to Yugrasia even though they had no aptitude for summoning just because it was one of the Four Greats. In that case just how many new students would we get that actually wanted to learn about summoning properly? And the students that had to learn with them, would those that did have the aptitude for summoning have the desire to learn properly, either?”

When a regular friend wants to go to a PC café, then even the studious kids have an internal struggle.

It’s not like the surroundings have nothing to do with studying. Mengzi’s(1) mother didn’t move house three times for her son for nothing.

“There is no reason to take in those students. If we take those who have no belief or affection for our academy, then they can only be a harm to the other students who do have those traits. And from the beginning, all education is most effective with a small number of students.

“But, the fees to keep the academy running will…”

Indeed. Although the academy gets some money from the empire to get it running, magic and summoning always have a lot of places to spend money.

If the numbers of students decrease then the tuition fee intake will naturally drop. In that case.

“Then we simply need to raise the tuition fees.”

“Eh?”

If there aren’t enough fees then you can simply raise them, no?

Parents of students don’t care how much it costs as long as their kids are taught well.

And it’s also the reason why people do all sorts of shit to get their kids into those expensive private schools.

“Then, then what about excellent students that can’t afford the tuition!”

“We give them scholarships.”

And the rare dragons from small streams(2) can be taken in with the tuition money earned that way.

And later on once they become big, an interview saying “it was because of Yugrasia that I became who I am now” would also be good publicity.

“Do, do you really believe that is possible?”

“Yes, it is. Why do you believe that the fees for Mercaria are the cheapest. Is it because they have the most commoners? Or was it an institution designed for commoners like the school’s creed? No it is not. Out of their graduates, the vast majority of them will bear little difference to the graduates of other nations’ academies. It is because one lecturer teaches hundreds of students.”

To be precise, it’s more like an internet lecture.

If the lecture keeps on talking, then they need to absorb it like that.

Of course if there are any outstanding students then they can guide them separately, but in the middle of over a hundred students in a class, they can’t stop a class for the sake of helping a single student.

“And, what do you think is the reason for Marcis having the highest tuition fees among all the academies? It is because like it’s nickname of the ‘education magic tower,’ a small number of students are taught by many magicians and sorcerers.”

Furthermore, a professor at Marcis isn’t in charge of more than five students, tops. It’s pretty much a 1:1 session there.

A disciple gets stuck at a wall?

Then direct help to get said disciple through that wall is Marcis’ style.

That’s why there’s such a sturdy relationship between teacher and student even after graduation, and because of that both the empire’s army and the Magic Tower are eager to send personnel to be lecturers.

Because once a teacher takes a student in under their wing, then said student naturally moves to join whatever organization their teacher is in.

In that case, we can also use that method, and guarantee them a job after graduation, there’s no reason that we can’t be like Marcis as well.

“If we look after our students even better than Marcis, there will be no opposition to our high fees.”

“But with our current teaching quality…”

“Which is why, drastic changes are needed.”

“Th, this is?!”

“Is this really possible?!”

The lecturers that all stared at my proposal with wide eyes.

Even the dean that believed in me looked surprised.

-Owner, owner? Ya nuts? Whaddaya have against those kids? Wazzis? This hell or something?