After school, with the campus buzzing with an even livelier atmosphere than usual thanks to the upcoming school festival, the three of us left the building and headed for the gates. We walked past students diligently prepping for the festival, our minds focused instead on the strategy meeting we had scheduled with Juzo-san to prepare for our interview with the Association.
Watching the students count down the days with joyful expressions as they worked, I felt an almost irrepressible urge to lament. Why did we have to spend the festival season mired in tedious negotiations with the Association instead? One could argue it was the price of a high reward, but a burden was a burden, no matter how you sliced it.
"Seeing them like this makes me nostalgic for last year’s festival. Back then, all I had to do was look forward to the event..."
"Don't say it, Daiki. I understand how you feel, but just hearing you grumble makes me feel strangely miserable."
"Haha, sorry, sorry."
Hearing the complaint that had inadvertently slipped from my lips, Yuji winced and voiced his own objection. Hiiragi-san, walking beside us, didn't say anything, but her expression was just as gloomy.
Realizing I’d messed up the mood, I lowered my head slightly and apologized with a regretful look. Even if you empathize and agree with a sentiment, hearing it put into words really kills the spirit.
"Anyway, Yuji. Did you let Juzo-san know we were coming?"
"Yeah, I messaged him a bit ago. I told him I'd be bringing the two of you over in about thirty minutes."
At Yuji’s reply, Hiiragi-san and I let out sighs of relief.
We were the ones asking for urgent advice on short notice, and it would have been rude to just show up unannounced. We had to give him an estimated arrival time so he had a chance to prepare.
"I see. In that case, should we hurry?"
"Nah. I told him 'roughly thirty minutes,' so I don't think it'll be a problem if we're a little late. It's probably better than arriving early."
"Well, true. Getting there a bit late gives him more prep time than showing up ahead of schedule. Let's head over at a steady, unhurried pace then."
"That works. If we actually let loose and ran, it wouldn't even take us five minutes."
When all was said and done, we could run as fast as cars. In the countryside, when you ask for directions, people often tell you how many minutes it takes by car; in our case, that description would be perfectly accurate for our actual arrival time.
In fact, since we could take paths cars couldn't, we might even arrive faster.
"Then let's head back while we organize what we need to talk about."
With that, we passed through the school gates, confirming the order of our points as we went.
We arrived at Yuji’s house right on schedule. After dropping our school bags and other luggage in Yuji’s room, we headed toward the dojo where Juzo-san was waiting.
Once at the dojo, we knocked on the door and waited for Juzo-san’s response before stepping inside.
"I'm home, Old Man."
"Hello. Excuse us for the intrusion."
"Welcome back. Good of you two to come as well. However, it seems you lot get yourselves tangled up in troublesome business every time, eh?"
"Haha, I'd really appreciate it if the universe would give us a break."
Upon seeing our faces, Juzo-san welcomed us with an expression that bordered on a wry smile. We each took a zabuton cushion as we always did and sat down before him.
"Now then, as for this 'talk'... I heard the gist of it from Yuji yesterday, but shall we go over it again to keep the facts straight?"
"Understood. To start with the part where we went to the property viewing through Kiritani-san’s introduction..."
Acting as our representative, Yuji began explaining the sequence of events. Of course, he only shared what we were allowed to mention. The first drop skill scroll—the one related to alchemy—was strictly off-limits.
After about ten minutes, Yuji finished recounting the story.
"I see. You lot truly have a knack for finding trouble, don't you?"
"Haha, it's a strange fate that none of us asked for."
"A strange fate is still a fate. Well, see that you navigate it well and turn it into a good connection."
"A good connection, huh..."
A good connection with the Association... He didn't mean becoming a government servant in all but name, did he? I had no desire to end up as an agent carrying out secret requests from the Association in exchange for high rewards.
The happiest ending for me would be receiving the reward for the magic bag, signing the non-disclosure agreement, and having that be the end of it.
"Now then, since I have the general idea, let us discuss what kind of countermeasures you should take."
As Juzo-san straightened his posture and spoke, we did the same, listening intently while meeting his gaze.
"First, regarding the dungeon. You needn't worry much about that. That fellow Kiritani will handle the fundamental cleanup. All you need to do is keep your mouths shut about finding it until the time comes."
"When you say 'the time'..."
"The Association will eventually make an official discovery report. You simply need to refrain from speaking until then. They just don't want word spreading publicly before they can prepare for the announcement."
"Is that because of the land acquisition for the surrounding area?"
"Precisely. The Association will want to secure at least the minimum amount of land required for the path to the dungeon. If word gets out prematurely, greedy private companies will buy it all up, driving prices sky-high and wasting the budget. They’ll want to avoid that."
Juzo-san’s explanation matched what we had suspected. The government wouldn't want to waste its budget due to information leaks. They were likely to demand we stay silent about the newly discovered dungeon until their preparations were complete.
I had no intention of blabbing about it anyway, so if they told me to stay silent, I’d stay silent.
"However, if you are to sign a formal non-disclosure agreement regarding this matter, ensure that the wording isn't 'until it is made public,' but rather a clearly defined expiration date. They may have already decided that it will be made public eventually, but they can come up with any number of reasons to postpone it—delays in land acquisition, delays in announcement prep, lack of personnel, and so on. If the public release date isn't clearly set, the NDA effectively becomes indefinite. You lot wouldn't want to be bound by a contract for decades, would you?"
"Haha, you're right. If we don't set a clear expiration date, we might have to keep quiet forever. A 'scheduled' release... if there's no fixed date, the schedule is just a wish."
"That is exactly why you must include a clear deadline."
Just as Juzo-san said, setting a clear expiration date was vital. It wasn't impossible that after being told "we're still on schedule" while the problem was postponed, we'd suddenly realize ten years had passed.
I remembered hearing on the news once about land acquisition for Shinkansen tracks taking decades... While things were different when dungeons first appeared, now that their value was known, there was no guarantee this wouldn't turn into a repeat of that story. I had to be careful.
"Well, that's that for the dungeon. The problem is the magic bag you reportedly submitted. Even if the situation left you with no choice but to hand it over, you've handed over something quite troublesome..."
"No, I mean, you're right. But at that time, if we hadn't handed over the drop items from that dungeon, I think we would've ended up under constant surveillance."
"I suppose so. It is well known that the first drop items from a dungeon are often rare. When dungeons first appeared, fools who dived into foreign dungeons without permission used to brag about their expensive drop items on social media."
"Exactly. If we hadn't submitted it, Uwajima-san and the others would have noticed something was off when they went in for the investigation. They would've realized, 'Hey, these guys hid the first drop item.' And if that happened..."
"The hidden item would be confiscated, and if you intended to continue as explorers, you would likely be designated as monitoring targets. Nay, given your track record, you would likely remain monitoring targets even if you quit being explorers."
All of us broke out in a cold sweat, letting out sighs of relief. If Juzo-san thought so too, the probability of that actually happening was likely high.
An explorer with power far exceeding that of an ordinary person gives in to temptation and takes the easy route of a criminal act—that's more than enough reason for the Association to flag them. Even more so for people with a track record like ours.
"Therefore, handing over the item itself was not a mistake. In this case, you were simply unlucky with what you found. It is something beyond your control."
"Haha..."
We could only give dry laughs at Juzo-san’s words. Sorry. We were the ones who chose what to hand over, so it wasn't exactly a matter of being unlucky. I'm seriously reflecting on the fact that we should have thought a bit more carefully about what to give them.
But then again, handing over an alchemy skill scroll as-is would have been just as bad.
"Well, there's no use moping about having handed it over. Let us discuss how to proceed from here."
"O-Okay."
"First, regarding the value of the magic bag you surrendered... I believe you each received an appraisal sheet?"
"Ah, yeah. The content of the appraisal report was the same for all of us."
Yuji pulled the envelope he’d brought from his room—the document from the Dungeon Association—and handed it to Juzo-san. Juzo-san took the envelope, scanned the contents quickly, and frowned slightly before looking at our faces with an expression that suggested he had something to say.
"Since you all received the same thing, that means the appraised value of the magic bag is 150 million yen. For a figure the government decided on so quickly, they've been quite generous, haven't they?"
"I thought so too, but honestly, I have no idea if this is a fair price. I'm sure it includes some hush money, too."
"Given what the item is, I cannot say if this amount is fair either. But as I said before, for an amount the government decided to pay on the same day, it is a significant sum. You can be certain that the importance of the magic bag is quite high. Indeed, a bag that can hold more than its outward capacity is bound to have a massive impact on various sectors, not just explorers."
"For explorers, it means an increase in the volume of materials they can recover. For ordinary industries, there's no doubt it would affect everything, starting with logistics. However, there's currently no way to meet the demand that those various industries would have..."
At the very least, they probably wouldn't want to officially acknowledge its existence until they could recover enough to satisfy domestic demand or until they accumulated enough technology to reproduce it themselves, even if only partially. The magic bag we submitted didn't have a particularly large capacity, but the mere fact that magic bags existed as drop items was a massive deal.
If word got out that we had one, people would be swarming us to negotiate for it. No, being approached for negotiation might actually be the better scenario compared to what else could happen.
"One could say the amount presented this time was chosen precisely because of their desire to ensure they recover it. They likely thought that if they offered too low a sum, you would break off the transfer negotiations."
"I did vaguely convey to Uwajima-san and the others that we were willing to hand it over, though..."
"Well, those people have their reputations to consider as well. If they had taken it by offering a pittance, people might later say they took advantage of and exploited ignorant high schoolers. Since the item is what it is, they presented a figure that is neither too low nor too high."
"150 million isn't 'too high,' huh. Well, I suppose if you consider it an amount coming from a state institution, even if it exceeds 100 million, it might not be an outrageous sum. And if it's over 100 million, the general public wouldn't say they were lowballing us."
"From the perspective of the national budget, a hundred million or so is a small price to pay if it prevents public chaos. Just imagine if large-scale, long-term protests broke out across the city; an expenditure of a hundred million wouldn't even begin to cover the cost of dealing with that."
True, if you thought of it as security maintenance costs, 100 million wasn't that high. And if protests were to break out, many of the participants would likely be explorers. Explorers, who possess abilities far exceeding those of ordinary people, gathering in large numbers to voice their protests—even if they didn't bring weapons—would be a nightmare scenario for the government.
If, by some chance, the participants and the security maintenance force were to clash... it could lead to large-scale property damage or numerous casualties.
"If you were planning to hand it over anyway, there should be no problem with accepting the money. The issue lies with things like the non-disclosure agreement. If you sign a poor contract, you'll be suffering for a long time. As I said before, you must ensure the contract period is clearly defined. Regarding this matter, it would be best to set it until the magic bag is made public, or until a certain number of years have passed since signing. An item like a magic bag... there's no telling when they'll ever be able to go public. If the terms don't match and you can't reach an agreement, it would be best to try increasing the duration year by year to see how they react. Or, you could avoid giving an answer on the spot and use stalling tactics by saying, 'We understand your proposal; we'll take it home and consider it.'"
Juzo-san glanced at our faces and gave his advice with a serious expression.
Hmm, negotiating the contract period year by year, huh... That sounds like it's going to be a pretty tough negotiation.
And withdrawing without giving an answer on the spot is also a negotiation tactic... right?