Beyond M-Eclipse: Easy Mode LIVE

———Wiina———

<6: 57 pm>

“Okay then, I believe that’s everyone.” Walsuna said once she looked through all the guests. It’s not like there’s a lot of people to check.

“Do you really need to take your time with that? It’s only six of us.” Rico sarcastically said before sitting down. “...Also, I didn’t know this was a ‘bring one of your parents and kid along’ kinda party.”

…I think that’s the most genuine expression I’ve seen Walsuna made. She looked absolutely livid for about a second before brushing the comment off.

Everyone else sat down and ignored that demeaning comment.

“I think the better question to ask is why are we putting a hotpot on this fancy table, the aesthetic is rather odd.” Edea said, trying to ease the tension with… another demeaning comment, but less personal overall. “So… when can we dig in?”

“Let’s start right away. This isn’t a very formal meeting anyhow. I’m sure all of us are sick of that kind of thing.” Walsuna said, trying her best to calm down while the principal and the green-haired woman stared at her awkwardly.

Also, why is Rico spilling the beans just to make that kind of remark? I didn’t know that the green-haired woman was Walsuna’s mother before she said that line. Did she forget that I don’t exactly belong compared to the rest since I’m a newcomer? I kinda figured out Walsuna and Mana’s whole deal beforehand, but this is entirely new information I don’t know what to make of.

…The atmosphere feels kinda awkward, we all just start eating and not really saying anything? I mean it makes sense when it’s a more casual meeting where there aren’t any goals in mind or anything serious to talk about, but last I checked we were supposed to talk about the development of this institute, not simply snacking.

If nothing else, I sure as hell ain’t going to be the first person to speak up. I’m the one with the least amount of authority here. I’m just gonna quietly eat and let them initiate the discussion. Heck, I don’t really know why I’m sitting at this table in the first place. I know they want to make use of my abilities in order for easier renovation, but that just means they don’t need me for the discussion part, just for afterward.

I’m not going to complain about the food though. It is one of the great pleasures in life, no matter who or what you are, this is the kind of thing everyone universally loves.

“So. What exactly do you two have in mind? Surely you have something in mind before organizing this meeting.” Edea asked, addressing the two people who owned the place.

“Indeed we do, but it would be rather poor showing of the host to get straight into business, especially since there’s no need to rush.” The principal answered. How long have they been thinking about this anyway? If they’re saying stuff like that.

Speaking of the principal. It’s odd how as part of the pair that control the school and its curriculum, I have barely ever interacted with her in comparison to Walsuna. I know that she is the one handling most of the work, but it’s odd that she rarely ever approached me even when it seems like she would’ve. Walsuna was the one who approached me about the exhibition matches and other school plans.

It is an odd choice to have the one who by all accounts should be the superior to do all the grunt work while the one under her the more official work. Perhaps she is just so used to this kind of approach that anything else would’ve been rather alien.

“...Say, Wiina, is this your first time seeing that green-haired woman?” Rico asked, looking at me with some interest. Please don’t rope me into your interpersonal drama…

“Yes.” I don’t need to say more than that. I certainly don’t want to get on anyone’s bad sides here. Actually, how in the world do they not destroy the entire town with how much beef they have with each other?

“Heh. You certainly look rather unsure about yourself. What can really be said? It’s a very long story, even though I don't know the full extent of it.” She casually said while others ignored what seemed like the start of a provocation.

She doesn’t actually say anything else before she continues eating. Everyone is enjoying the large hotpot right now and all sorts of ingredients laid down for us to take on the spinning table.

It felt like it could end up in a disaster if even one of us misgauged our strength. Hopefully this table is absurdly durable just in case.

Unrelated to the matters at hand. It’s nice that I can just adjust the receptors in my tongue if I feel like my mouth is burning from all the spices. I think the others probably have some way to alleviate the pain, which is why no one seems bothered by the large amount of spice.

“Say, Wiina, how was your time in school?” Principal Mana suddenly asked.

“It’s pretty relaxing. Let’s keep it that way.” I don’t have much to say beyond that. If she wants to talk about things like the events or plans on expanding the school campus, that should be reserved for later when we are planning on what we should renovate.

I’m surprised there aren't really any exotic ingredients on display. Just a bunch of ordinary but high quality ingredients, making it really look like this is a simple dinner, if we are discounting the room we are in alongside the table and chairs looking real clean and fancy. The crazy part is that this is just one of the dining rooms in the school building. It’s not the cafeteria area for the students, but it’s not like this room wasn’t used before for more mundane meetings in the past.

“Alright, while all of you keep eating, I want you to listen to a few ideas we have. You see, seeing how people have been living under our roof since the snake incident…” Mana briefly glanced at who should be her grandmother. Did they all seriously forget I am supposed to be out of the loop? Is she the one doing all of this? Or maybe someone close to her? “I’m thinking about making more… fun locations for people to use. It looks like they’ve all been rather bored during their time here, and maybe students are feeling the same way. We have a bunch of empty spaces in the buildings and haven’t built that much underground yet. Us two got some ideas, but what about you three?”

Wait, what about the green-haired woman? Why did you bring her here if you’re not gonna ask for her opinion? Hopefully someone ask that question for me.

“More of that? Shouldn’t the simulator rooms account for most of the entertainment?” Edea chimed in. Right, those things. I haven’t been using them but I know that it contains a lot of functions, and that’s accounting for it being limited for those who don’t have admin access.

“You’d think that, but from the reports it’s clear that the amount of people using it even once a week is quite small.” Rico answered the question for them. “You could say it’s a bit too early for its time, which I know is a bit odd considering THAT thing.”

“I mean it’s not like either one is that different, so that’s even less of a problem. Are they afraid about the lack of mind acceleration?” Edea replied. They didn’t implement them into the simulator rooms due to the fact that if it had that function no one would do anything else but be in the simulator. It’s really a no-win situation in that case, it seems.

“I don’t think they even know that that’s an option if need be.” The principal chimed in. “I think we can leave that as is… Though we should make more classes use them, now that you brought it up.”

“It would be nice if the stuff I brought in was actually used and appreciated a little bit more.” Edea remarked. “Say, why did you call all of us at once anyway? It’s not like we need to rush since it’s the holidays.”

“That’s quite simple, we want the people who are stuck here with their homes wrecked by the incident to playtest them, one might say.” Walsuna answered this particular question.

“Huh, exploiting those who are lacking in options, quite a new low for you.” Rico sarcastically remarked. I mean, in actuality they probably are quite fine, seeing the living environment as at least perfectly serviceable. I doubt those two are going to literally force them to try these out just to ‘earn their keep’.

“They are sorely in need of entertainment, it is charity, not forced experiment. Such a concept might be foreign to a devil like you." Walsuna replied. “Right now, we are planning on expanding the underground area. We could theoretically drill straight close to… No. Let’s limit ourselves to a hundred meters down. Right now we are only twenty meters in.”

“Oh come on now, she has thick skin doesn’t she? You’re concerned about that?” Rico said, alluding to something I have zero knowledge to work on.

…No one commented on that. I guess that’ll go unexplained for me.

“I’m thinking a monster habitat will be good.” Principal Mana suddenly said. She meant a fake one, right? “Simple monster projections of course. Maybe we could make it like a bouncy playground?”

“...We don’t teach kindergartens, you know?” Rico responded with a smirk.

“Don’t be a spoilsport now. In any case, we can just make variations. It would be a good training ground with no risk involved. It’s harder to get stronger in a simulation, but it’s better than nothing.” Edea chimed in. “I think we could come up with something a bit more fun. In terms of how we could integrate it into the… Say. The living space isn’t near those solitary confinement rooms, right?”

“Why are you asking that? Of course it’s not. Did your memory bank get damaged at some point?” Rico makes a snide remark towards them.

“I don’t think those ever get used, thankfully.” Principal Mana remarked. Why do they even put that there? It’s not like we’re holding criminals, and even if we do we have a more effective and less mentally scarring way of securing and punishing prisoners. “By the way, Wiina, what kind of changes should we make to the school? You’re a student, I’m sure you have some idea in mind.”

“...Not really?” I don’t really use many facilities myself. I don’t really see the need to turn the school campus into an amusement park like the one of those ones. “I guess the inside of the campus looks a bit empty? How did you even get such a large amount of land with nothing nearby and no one questioned it?”

“It’s a bit of a long story that doesn’t really matter.” She answered. “What matters is what do you think we should put in those empty spaces. We do have quite a lot of those. Our buildings mostly take vertical spaces.”

“I don’t know. Maybe exotic plants that don’t exist elsewhere? Rico, you have something from Fantasy Land?” I know it’s rather outlandish, but I don’t know where else we could get more exotic and foreign items.

“I could go get it, but if it’s just stuff I have on me, I got nothing.” She answered, sounding the most straightforward and honest she had been since we got here. “...So on a serious matter, why is she here?”

“She’ll help with construction to make it go faster. If at all possible I’d like the playtest to begin tomorrow.” Walsuna answered. So that’s why she’s here. But even with only three people we already renovated the entire place in only a few hours. With extra hands on deck does she want this done in only an hour or less? Talk about rushing. “With it being the holiday during the time of repair, this is when they don’t have much else to do and probably mostly taking their time resting inside the campus.”

“...You think we should let the students in too? Just in case they wanna see what’s going on?” Rico suggested.

“I don’t see why not.” The principal answered. So it looks like the others will be more involved as well. I wonder if Karra can stream inside it. There’s no reason she can’t, considering there’s no rules against the school as it is.

Anyway, I hope the temporary residents here aren’t disturbed during their time of rest. I doubt any of them are going to sleep right now, but some might be inside and resting, and the others are probably still outside.

“Okay, I have the old layout of the school memorized. I’ll try to visualize the ideas on top of it and I want to see how all of you are thinking.” Edea said before projecting a 3D model of the entire school in blue just above the dining table, with the green area being the proposed new area and where it would take place. “Let’s get the idea coming in, if we are really planning on making changes tonight.”