Chapter 154
Chapter 154 Work Part 2
“You have a great perspective. If possible, I almost want to recruit you to our side. Compared to a merchant, you seem to look at these issues more like an official.”
“I attended school according to my father’s orders. Although what I studied was business, I’d occasionally go into government courses to listen to them. I was quite interested in the subject.”
“Ah…is that so? Heh, that academy seems to be doing its job. If that’s the case…do you have more time? I want to take you to the larger conference.”
“Oh, would that be okay?”
His eyes shone as he spoke hurriedly.
“Yes.”
The contents of the conference were on the paper in his hand.
There wasn’t anything there that was confidential anyways.
“Rehme, help me prepare an extra seat.”
“Understood.”
She grabbed a chair from the office. A few minutes later she returned to tell us that preparations were complete.
I stood up and ushered him there.
There was a whole building on our land that was set up specifically for dealing with territorial affairs.
Many officials hurried about, trying to get their work done.
The merchant walking behind me admired this scene with interest.
We arrived in the conference room, where five old men and two officials were already sitting.
“Everyone, thank you for being here today. Let’s hurry up and start the meeting. Please first read through the documents set down before you. If you have any thoughts, please let me know.”
“The progress is just as imagined. I’ve confirmed it in person, it’s exactly like the demonstrations.”
“But wouldn’t it be better if this side of the dam were constructed quicker as well? At this rate it’ll just burden the other side further.”
The five old men chatted amongst themselves like this as they read through the progress report.
To me, there was so much that I didn’t understand.
I even started to regret that I hadn’t studied more of Japan’s knowledge…and technology.
But I didn’t have any time to pause out of sheer regret.
I had only two hands, two eyes, one brain. I was no more than a normal human, and I couldn’t start learning everything from now.
That’s why I gathered so many knowledgeable individuals to make up for where I was lacking.
Everyone has different interests and talents. What causes the individual to seek out more information is different from person to person as well.
What I wanted to say was that even without paying much attention to taking care of flooding, there would still be people with the talent to verify, investigate the past, and people who could push that water into farming lands.
That was the group that I had gathered, to encourage them to communicate about all this.
Thankfully, after the establishment of the academy, seekers of knowledge have had a much easier time overall.
Rather, it was to the principal’s credit that this academy was created, and that a public library was opened.
This was the tenth time we were having a conference like this. But the first few times, discussion was far from free-flowing.
But the thought that the dream you were describing might become reality, that your own knowledge and the conjectures you made might finally become public…
When they found that path, everyone started speaking their mind with bright eyes.
And then, through the interaction of everyone’s opinions, better ideas emerged.
I was the one here to make sure that the conference wouldn’t fly off the rails because of how excited everyone was.
After we came to a conclusion, I declared that the conference was over.