Chapter 164: Invitation (1/3)

“I know full well how much you dislike rigid positions, so I won’t force the issue, but won’t you consider becoming our engineer?”

Immediately after inviting me, Reinhart-san said that he understood that much about me.

“It’s for the same reason that I don’t think you’ll ever try to work for another noble elsewhere. But you know too many strange things. If word of this blood serum of yours were to come out, nobles will surely appear in droves and try to employ you without regard for your own feelings. You understand this too, right?” [Reinhart]

I nodded silently and replied.

Even if the cure for the Cursed Wound is taken, if it were to spread in society, there will naturally be patients and families looking for it.

There are bound to be merchants and nobles who wish to sell to those people at a high price.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be a surprise if people wishing to secure the rights no matter what appeared.

“We would of course want to help you in such a situation, but there are things that are difficult to do with the way things are now.” [Reinhart]

Although the duke’s family treats me well, my social standing remains that of a ‘commoner’.

I’m not the subject of the duke’s family, but merely a ‘child they are slightly partial to’.

Of course, even just that makes things a lot more convenient for me.

After all, no one would want to incur the ill will of the duke’s family, which possesses great authority.

A boy adventurer, who owns a small store, and to whom the management of the abandoned mine has been entrusted to.

Even if such a boy were to possess strange ideas and knowledge, so long as these ideas were only at a certain level, then no one would dare lay a hand on him.

“But the knowledge to concoct the ‘cure for the Cursed Wound’ is a different story. Our family may possess great authority, but it’s not as if there’s no way for others to go against us.” [Reinhart]

When I thought of that, the idea of cleverly woven schemes immediately came to mind, but the madam seemed to infer that and she wryly smiled.

“I can’t deny what you’re likely thinking, but think of something simpler. Right… Let’s put it this way. Right now, you’re in a position where you can do anything you want with your store, yes?　But if you’re too selfish, then various people will try to stop you.　Depending on what it is you’re being stubborn about, people will turn a blind eye to your selfishness once or twice, but if you keep acting stubborn, eventually you’ll lose the trust of the people around you. It’s the same thing for us. We hold great power, but we can’t just use it as we please.

If you were to become our family’s engineer, then when people try to recruit you, we can refuse them if you don’t wish to work for them. But with the way you are now, if we tried to interfere, then they would snap back at us and say something along the lines of ‘You’re not even trying to hire him yourself! Don’t get in our way!’ That’s a bit more forceful than what they’re likely to say, but you get the point.

That being said, it’s doubtful that they would wash their hands clean of the matter so easily and will probably continue to keep up appearances and try to make excuses, such as in order to give you a suitable position given your meritorious deeds and what not. That’s just how valuable your knowledge is.” [Elize]

If I were to keep the existence of the blood serum a secret, I probably won’t get into trouble, but that would also mean having to live with the danger of leaking word of its existence to someone my whole life.

And if knowledge of the bloody slime’s blood serum were to spread, then it’s possible more cures might be discovered. It won’t necessarily be limited to just the Cursed Wound. I can’t predict just how big this will turn into, but it’s possible that a lot of lives that would otherwise be lost could be saved. Hiding such powerful knowledge is simply too wasteful. No, ‘wasteful’ isn’t even enough to describe how great of a loss that would be.

“…Can you tell me more about exactly what the occupation ‘engineer’ entails?　I want to know exactly how my life would change if I were to accept that position.” [Ryouma]

“That’s right. As I’ve mentioned previously, an engineer is a technical expert hired by a noble. When needed, the noble will call upon him and have him demonstrate his expertise. In other times, he is called upon for consultation. So long as the engineer is able to accomplish those duties, then he can live as he wishes. After all, highly skilled craftsmen do tend to have strange fixations that normal people find difficult to understand.

For example, in our case, we have a live-in engineer on medicine, but our engineer on ‘smithing’ owns a workshop and a store in the Middle-Class District and is working normally. Being hired by a noble doesn’t mean monopolizing your expertise or keeping you on a leash and not utilizing your skills.” [Reinhart]

It would appear that as long as they can keep in touch with me, I don’t even have to stay at the town where the duke’s residence is situated.

As such, I can continue living at the abandoned mine as I’ve done until now and continue working at Gimuru.