After Tsukasa Fujiwara temporarily withdrew from the bathroom and tried again to take a bath after some time,
Akizuki Suzuri confirmed the items delivered to the shed and returned to the manager’s office to power up her tablet.
“Hey, Suzuri! Always starting with the basics, huh? Jersey and apron?”
The chat screen showed a woman with mesh hair, holding an electronic cigarette. Suzuri smiled wryly at her greeting and took off her apron before sitting down at her desk.
“You’re still using that kind of language… You haven’t changed a bit. Aren’t you relaxing a bit too much?”
“Well, the research labs are like personal spaces, so it’s pretty comfortable. Haven’t been home in a while.”
“It’s good that you’re enjoying your work, but you should have a somewhat normal social life too…”
“Isn’t talking with you and drinking a bit of alcohol considered somewhat normal?”
“Honestly… Oh, what’s that ‘pssh’ sound? Now you’re making me want a drink too.”
“Don’t you have a fridge full of beer in your room? Definitely not something I’d show to the students.”
“I wouldn’t do that… I actually prefer sake over beer. But today, I’ll go with beer.”
Suzuri retrieved a can of beer from the fridge and poured it into a glass. She held up the glass, just before the foam overflowed, showing it to the screen before taking a sip.
“…Ah, delicious.”
“That’s such a ‘noble lady’ vibe. Beer is all about that ‘pah’ sound, right?”
“Noble lady? I thought I’d moved past that.”
“Really? Well, anyway. I saw your email earlier. You said the new students might be exceptional?”
“Not ‘might be,’ it’s already certain they’re exceptional…”
“You said you’re not good with guys, but you’re okay with younger ones?”
“As a dorm manager, I plan to take my responsibilities seriously. Personal issues like discomfort with men aside, I want to build trust…”
“Hmmm. I’m getting a bit interested in that guy now. If Suzuri is interested, he must be an interesting guy.”
“Himeno, you always jump to such conclusions. This is more about work and my role as an educator, you know?”
Suzuri’s friend, Himeno, laughed heartily. Suzuri sighed and rested her chin on her hand.
“The back of the mountain where the dorm is located also functions as an outdoor dungeon. It’s a place with natural challenges for explorers. You need to head to your destination, retrieve items, and deal with monsters.”
“Sending new students to such a place and helping them if it gets dangerous… sounds like quite an adventure.”
“This time, there was no need to send help… But there’s something concerning among the items the two new students brought back.”
“Oh? Did they find something undiscovered in such a place?”
“It’s a normal-looking herb, but… when I used ‘Appraisal’ on it, it showed ‘Herb +1.’”
“…Huh?”
Himeno responded with a confused tone. She abruptly straightened up from her relaxed position.
“…Could it be some sort of mistake?”
“No, I’ve tried it several times, and it’s consistently the same. The students thought it was ‘kind of amazing,’ but…”
“It’s rare for a natural plant like an herb to become ‘+1.’ It can happen if the environment is right, but for it to be found in such a place is improbable.”
“It’s improbable, but it’s actually happening. Can I send it to you? I’d like you to analyze it.”
“If the ‘Appraisal’ results say it’s ‘+1,’ then it’s probably correct. But if it’s due to some human factor, I’d want to borrow that student for a month or so.”
“I don’t want to inform the higher-ups about him yet, but if he continues to excel, it might become hard to keep it hidden… Still, I want to keep an eye on him as much as possible.”
“Well, that’s up to you. But since you contacted me, I suppose there’s something you need my help with? If there’s someone interesting, I’ll go and greet him myself.”
“I only wanted your opinion on how rare it is to find something like ‘Herb +1.’ For now, at least.”
Himeno chuckled and was about to smoke her electronic cigarette when she stopped midway.
“Talking about it makes me want to go dungeon crawling again. If that student is with me, something incredible might happen.”
“I know… though I’m not in a position to do that, I almost want to go back to being a student.”
“Graduating and wearing a uniform again would be tough. Suzuri might manage, but I certainly couldn’t.”
“Even if you wore a uniform, you wouldn’t be able to form a party. Besides, students probably wouldn’t want to be with a dorm manager in their private time.”
“You could just make them fond of you. If they ate Suzuri’s cooking every day, they might not want to leave.”
“I don’t cook with that intention… But I didn’t expect to serve additional dishes from the first day, so I was a bit pleased.”
“Finding an ‘Herb +1’ and even getting silver coins on the first day. I remember it took me three days to get those, and it’s so nostalgic it’s almost painful.”
“Indeed. Those students might even reach ranks higher than us… It’s a heavy thought.”
“If the former top-ranker says that, I might tell them. They’d probably be scared if someone like me showed up.”
The conversation continued with no clear conclusion. Suzuri reminisced about the past with her old friend while contemplating the future of the promising students she was responsible for.
Meanwhile, unaware of being discussed, Tsukasa Fujiwara was muttering in his sleep about being “attacked by pudding”—and so the first night of his entrance into the dorm came to a close.
