The base near the foot of Amamiya Tower maintains almost the same size as it did in the beginning. This includes the surrounding fields. Although it’s possible to increase the fields indefinitely using slimes, they are deliberately not expanding them. If they wanted to increase slimes, they could simply use the floors of the Tower, and there’s no need to increase the produce harvested from the fields either. In the first place, they have no intention of making a living by selling agricultural products, so the current state is sufficient. Kousuke even thinks that those who are engaged in full-time agriculture might consider it a playful hobby.
In any case, the base itself has undergone almost no change and has been managed in the same manner all along.
“—It’s good, but…”
Kousuke muttered to himself, stepping outside the building and looking at the entrance of his house.
“Is there some kind of problem?”
Silvia, who had accompanied Kousuke outside, asked, tilting her head. Naturally, without any prior context, even Silvia couldn’t understand what he meant.
Realizing he had spoken his thoughts aloud, Kousuke wore a slightly embarrassed expression.
“No, I think the current size is fine, but I was wondering if there was anything else we could do.”
“Something else you can do?”
Upon hearing Kousuke’s words, Silvia’s expression became thoughtful for a moment before she continued.
“You mean, besides the fields, right?”
“Well, yeah.”
Kousuke nodded his head at Silvia’s question.
Though he answered clearly, Kousuke didn’t have a specific idea of what he wanted to do. “I don’t want to get rid of the fields we’ve painstakingly made, so I’d prefer something that can be done in a limited area…” However, even within that limited area, there are quite a few parts that are not used as fields. Considering the housing situation in his previous world, there’s enough space left to build a pool with plenty of room to spare.
Thinking this, Kousuke’s face suddenly lit up as if he had an idea. “….Oh. A pool.”
At this moment, Kousuke wasn’t thinking anything suggestive. In this world, once you leave town, monsters appear normally. Therefore, except for fishing towns, very few people can swim. By the way, Kousuke himself can swim, but he has never seen his wives, including the children, swimming, not at all, but almost never.
In the first place, in his original world, Japan, swimming lessons for elementary school students began, partly due to river floods. Kousuke had heard somewhere that the reason was that if a river overflowed due to rising water levels, it was necessary to be able to swim to some extent in case of emergency… Whether this was true or not, the reason itself was not bad. In the first place, river floods occur normally even in the world they are in now. Moreover, since civil engineering technology is not very advanced, it can be said that they happen quite often. By the way, rain also falls properly on the floors of the Tower, so river floods occur.
Since they had gone to the trouble of creating schools, Kousuke thought it would be a good idea to teach swimming there. He felt it would be acceptable for an Avatar, a divine being in human form, to directly intervene to save people’s lives, and it also met a certain standard he had in mind. Of course, the place to build it would not be at this base.
“I see, I see. A pool. That was an option.”
Silvia watched Kousuke, who had suddenly become convinced and started talking about it with a curious look on her face.
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Upon returning to the management layer, Kousuke immediately summoned Towa. Of course, Towa, being the King, couldn’t come right away. He had conveyed that it wasn’t urgent and could be done at their leisure, so Towa arrived on the evening of the second day.
“—You summoned me, which is unusual. Was there something you needed?”
After hearing Kousuke’s explanation, Towa looked thoughtful and nodded slowly.
“I understand your intention, and the goal of making swimming a habit, but…”
“Is it difficult after all?”
Kousuke asked, tilting his head.
“No, I’m not sure. To be frank, it’s impossible to say without trying.”
“Well, it’s something completely new, after all.”
Floria, who had been listening nearby, agreed, supporting Towa’s opinion. However, Floria had already discussed the matter with Kousuke beforehand and was aware of the potential problems Towa might consider. With that in mind, she presented her point of view regarding the current proposal to Towa.
“There’s no need to teach it only at the school, just as Kousuke said. In the first place, don’t adventurers need it the most?”
Adventurers, when traveling, basically have to search for water sources. Of course, on rainy days, they avoid approaching them carelessly, but on expeditions, this is often not the case.
“Well, you’re right.”
Towa, understanding what Floria meant, nodded in agreement.
Having confirmed it, Floria continued, “Furthermore, it’s not just for adventurers; I believe the military would need it too. We could start by teaching them first.”
“Well, that’s true…”
Towa’s expression became convinced by Floria’s explanation that instead of immediately rolling it out to the general public, they could start with a limited group. After all, in a world where compulsory education hasn’t even spread widely, trying to teach everyone to swim at once is impossible. Naturally, Kousuke wasn’t going to push for such an unreasonable task.
Kousuke concluded by saying to Towa, “In the first place, in a world where monsters appear even in rivers, I doubt how effective learning to swim would be. Isn’t it better to try and regret it than not to try at all? Well, I’ll leave the decision of how to proceed to you.”
“Is that so?”
Towa, understanding Kousuke’s intent, nodded with a look of comprehension. Kousuke’s words, that rather than being afraid of failure because he is the King, it’s worse to do nothing out of fear of failure, made Towa give an internal bitter smile. It’s true that quite some time has passed since he inherited the throne from his mother. If he were told that he might have become overly cautious during that time, it wouldn’t be entirely untrue. Towa, feeling as though his eyes had been opened after a long time, replied that he would consider it, while his mind had already begun to contemplate how to execute it.
It feels like I’ve written a similar story before… thinking that, I ended up writing it to the end.
Lately, this has been happening often. (Is it a lack of material!?)
