The only thing a man seeking power cannot afford is a conscious - Tazawa Hisashi

I was on my way to speak with Hisashi, the student council president of Atsuko. Despite my best efforts to encourage exploration, only one individual has left the school grounds since the last exploration.

“This is a shocking sight to behold. What does the student council president want with little old me?” he uttered with a smirk

“I was wondering how the crops were coming along.”

“Hmm… Do you really need to come down here for that? Can't you send one of your many followers to check on your behalf?”

“... What can I say... I need the fresh air.”

“Is that so? Unfortunately, our efforts are falling short. At this rate, we will be unable to meet those unrealistic demands you gave us.”

“Unrealistic?”

Hisashi snickered at my question before speaking, “Surely you were not expecting us to become world-class farmers overnight.”

“True, but if one of you had a skill that helped the growth of plants… that would more than makeup for the lack of natural talent.”

“Sadly, my skills are not that great.”

He was lying…

< Analyze >

Name: Tazawa Hisashi

Level: 5

Attributes: Earth

Class: Farmer

Skills: Plant Growth, Harvest, Sprinkle, Plant Knowledge

We discovered that repeated use of skills led to a rise in one's level… that being said, there was a big difference in how much someone will improve based on their class.

Combat-related classes improved extremely slowly, which led us to conclude that facing and killing monsters was the only way for them to raise their levels at an acceptable speed, however, none of the combat students have been willing to adventure outside.

“Are you sure your skills are lacking?”

“Are you doubting my words?”

“No…” I spoke before thinking, ‘I can’t let him know of my analyze skill or the command console… not yet anyway.’ “I just assumed that someone of your level of intellect would be doing far better than what you are doing now. How disappointing.”

“Do you believe that uttering such words would motivate me? Or are you mistaking me for some globule fool that you can twist and turn to your desire?” He uttered with a glare.

“I was only expressing my opinion on the matter. I apologize if it came off as rude.”

“Apology accepted…” he replied before turning his back towards me.

I took it as a sign that this conversation was over and left.

***

It has been two days since the encounter and the food situation hasn’t been resolved. Correction, it has been made even worse.

Yesterday, a fire was set in the storage room had housed the food.  Less than hal the food was destroyed but given our current situation, it is still a big hit. An investigation was carried out but hasn’t revealed the culprit... the only clue we found was that some kind of fire magic was used.

The command console doesn’t allow me to look at the past movements of students, which meant that I couldn’t solve this in one go.

Interrogation of all fire users was also not fruitful.

‘Was this the work of Tazawa Hisashi? Or Kirishima Koiso? Hmm… considering that Koiso has been keeping a low profile ever since Shusaku came back injured. I have to conclude that this was the work of Hisashi. Well… it is not like finding the culprit will change anything…’

“We have increased the number of patrols, but…” Akemi spoke

“It is not enough to reassure the student that a similar incident won’t happen again,” I uttered after guessing what she was about to say.

She nodded to my conjecture before adding, “There has also been a rise in the amount of bullying towards magic users. While we can easily protect the female magic users, the male magic users are a whole different story.”

‘It can’t be helped… the entire discipline committee consists of females only, and while the boys don’t cause trouble when they are around, they can’t watch over them 24/7 and they also can’t keep an eye on what happens in their dorms.’ 

“I am in the process of identifying some trust worthy males to join the discipline committee. I will get back to you soon.”

“Much appreciated.”

“Now then… Kayoko. How is the general feel around the school?” I asked my vice president.

“People are getting nervous… It hasn’t reached to the point that I would call it an emergency, but if we cannot assure them of a constant supply of food then we may have trouble on our hands.”

“What she saying is true. People have been asking about the food supply more often after the fire.” Akemi revealed

“And there are no signs of movement from the combat students,” I asked

“I thought we agreed to call them adventurers?” Kayoko asked me

“Hard to call them that when they are not even adventuring.”

“That is harsh…”

“Call it whatever you want. It doesn’t change the fact that they are slacking…” I coldly replied.

I remember that day clearly. I remember the fears in the eyes of those who returned the first time. I know I am asking a lot but if we don’t get our act together, I fear something bad will happen to all of us.

“What of our plan to entice them?” I asked

“You mean the plan to pay them with those coins?”

I nodded to Kayoko’s question but before I could receive an answer the door burst open.

“Has something happened?” I asked Mineko

She was one of the receptionists for the guild we had created.

“You remember that one boy who left a while back?”

“Hmm… I seem to recall a boy doing that… what about him?”

“He has returned.”

“Is that so?" I uttered before asking the obvious question. "How are his injuries?”

“Eh? Ah... No…  He is fine… in fact, he has returned with a lot of information and stuff. We are in the middle of processing everything he brought back. It is really amazing… It is like one of those isekai cheat moments where the MC brings a lot of stuff to the guild.”

I have no idea what she was mumbling about at the end, but this was clearly a big deal.

“Kayoko, head downstairs and supervise everything. Akemi, post more security around the guild… I don’t want anything to happen while we are processing everything.”

“Understood.” They both uttered before leaving.

I activated my command console and had look.

‘Hmm… That looks promising.’

***

Somewhere in the school, a pair of eyes was watching the guild building. “After going through all that trouble of burning the food storage, only to have this happen… Tch! This is why boys can be so troublesome sometimes.” Kirishima Koiso uttered with an annoyed look on her face.