We exchanged unreadable expressions as we processed Student Council President Minashiro’s proposal. The handouts we’d distributed at the school festival were, at the end of the day, nothing more than documents compiled by students for a club activity.
Just in case, we’d even included a disclaimer at the bottom of the page, noting that some information might be incorrect due to our own misinterpretations.
"「......」"
While I agreed with the idea of an awareness campaign to prevent everyone from panicking at the end of the year, a concern flickered through my mind: what if we gave the other students the wrong information?
Legal language is notoriously dense, making it easy to misinterpret. To be honest, I really wanted people to consult a qualified professional—like a tax accountant—for the actual specifics.
"Um, we’re certainly willing to help, but... how should I put it? I’m worried our information might lack the necessary accuracy for distribution to the entire student body."
"Yes, I understand your concern," President Minashiro replied. "Even if the facts aren't strictly 'wrong,' this is a subject where interpretations can easily diverge depending on how a sentence is read. I agree that students without specialized knowledge shouldn't be widely disseminating information based on a vague understanding. However, I believe there's value in guiding people toward accurate sources. In this day and age, accessing primary sources from official institutions via a smartphone isn't difficult at all."
"……That’s true. If they don't know the information exists, they won't even think to look it up. But if they're given a warning that hits close to home, some might feel the urge to check. The information is right there at their fingertips. Whether they actually take action after that is out of our hands, though."
"At the very least, if they know about it, they have the opportunity to act."
It was as the President said—if they weren't aware of the situation, they wouldn't even have a reason to look into it. In this case, as long as we ensured a reasonable level of accuracy, it was more important to make the students aware that taxes were a real factor in their lives.
After a brief exchange of glances and a few small nods, Yuji spoke for the group.
"Understood. We'll help you out."
"I'm glad to hear it. We simply don't have enough hands on our end to start the research from scratch, so this is a lifesaver."
"I don't think it'll take long just to grasp the basics, but drafting something intended to teach others requires a fair amount of preparation."
"Exactly. At the very least, the person distributing it needs enough knowledge to understand what’s written. I’d be hesitant to hand out something to the whole school if I didn't fully grasp it myself."
"Fair point."
If the person giving out the info didn't understand it, the person receiving it would be even more confused.
Regardless, the request from the Student Council was settled for the time being.
"Then, could you draft a preliminary version of the handout right away? I think the content from the festival is a good base, but there are a few things I’d like you to add..."
"By 'add,' do you mean things like the URLs for the Dungeon Association and the tax office?"
"Yes. It would be a huge help if you could structure it to direct them to official sites, allowing them to access primary sources themselves. As I mentioned, we can't fully guarantee the accuracy on our own."
"Understood. Since precision is tricky, we'll try to frame it as an alert regarding explorer-related taxes while avoiding overly specific examples."
After hearing President Minashiro’s requests, we began brainstorming the layout. As Yuji suggested, rather than giving potentially flawed examples, it was better to inform them that taxes existed and point them toward doing their own research.
It would be a nightmare if people complained later that something wasn't in the handout or that it was wrong. It was safer to include the URLs for government sites or information about the free tax consultation sessions you sometimes saw in the papers. Now that we’d warned them about the taxes, the rest was up to them.
"Then please, proceed with that. How long will it take to create the draft?"
"If you're okay with a handwritten one, we can get started right now. The foundation is already there from the festival, so we just need to tweak the content."
"Then I’ll leave it to you. I’d like to have the school check it before we distribute it to the students."
"Understood. We'll get on it immediately."
The exchange had become quite businesslike, but that was fine as long as we were on the same page for the draft. It was better than using roundabout phrasing that could lead to a misunderstanding and force a total rewrite.
Once the main points were confirmed, President Minashiro stood up.
"Then, sorry for the trouble, but I'll be counting on you."
"Yes. I think we can have it ready in about an hour, so we'll bring it to the Student Council Room when it's done."
"Understood. I'll be waiting."
President Minashiro gave us a slight bow and left the clubroom.
Once the door closed, we all looked at each other and let out a long, collective sigh. It had felt casual enough, but we’d just been saddled with a massive responsibility.
"Well, that was quite the task to be dropped in our laps."
"Yeah. A draft for something that's going to every student in school..."
"I suppose it means our work is being valued, though..."
The success of the school festival had been surprising enough, but I never expected more work to come out of it afterward. I’d put those materials together just to fill space, and now they’d blown up into this.
Yuji turned to Hashimoto-sensei to ask about the nature of the request.
"Setting that aside, Sensei... was it really okay for us to take this on? It’s a pretty big move that involves the whole school."
"It's not a problem. In fact, word of the handout you distributed during the festival had already reached the faculty office."
"It reached the faculty? How so?"
Hashimoto-sensei explained the situation with a weary look. Apparently, after the festival ended, the school had received several calls from parents. They wanted to know if the information in our handout was actually true.
"The teachers who answered the phones didn't know what was going on at first. They hadn't really been tracking what your club was doing for the festival. But since the calls kept coming, the teacher in charge eventually came to me. They asked if I knew anything about it."
"So that's what happened."
"It was. I gave them the copy I’d received from you, but the matter didn't end there. It ended up being raised at the pre-work staff meeting—specifically, how the school should address the student explorer tax issue."
"……"
So all this drama had been unfolding behind the scenes while we were recovering from the festival. Hashimoto-sensei looked at our stunned faces with a hint of exasperation.
"You realize how popular your booth was, right? Given the subject matter, of course there was going to be a reaction."
"I mean, yeah... it did feel like most of our visitors were parents of our students."
"It’s only natural for people who took your handouts home to get worried. If they ignore it, it'll turn into a disaster later. Of course they’d call to confirm."
"Haha... I really wish they'd just called the tax office instead."
Seriously, why call the school? For tax questions, you should be calling your employer or the government.
"I agree completely. But now that the problem has been exposed, the school feels it has to take some kind of action."
"And that led to the Student Council and us?"
"Yes. The Student Council heard about it through the school festival executive committee. They decided to work with you to resolve potential future issues before they happen. Ideally, the faculty should be the ones handling this, but another problem came up that we have to deal with first..."
Hashimoto-sensei explained the internal situation with a grimace.
"Does this involve that drinking scandal?"
"Yes. It didn't become a police matter, but for the school, that is a much higher priority right now."
"Well, I suppose so. The drinking incident needs an immediate response, whereas this tax issue has a few months of breathing room."
"Dealing with the discipline for an entire class has left the school completely short-handed. On top of that, midterm exams are coming up, so we’re busy writing the tests..."
They knew there was a problem, but they were currently paralyzed. So, before the school officially had to step in, they decided to frame it as a voluntary student awareness campaign led by the Student Council. If it hadn't been for the midterms or the drinking scandal, the faculty probably would have moved on this without ever involving us.
"Yeah, if things are that piled up, the teachers must be drowning. Talk about bad timing..."
"If not for that drinking incident, we could have handled more of this ourselves..."
"They really went all out with that mess, didn't they?"
"Yes. The school expects some trouble every year, but we never imagined they would fail on such a massive scale."
The presence of student explorers—a factor that didn't exist in previous years—had magnified the consequences. In the past, if a student got drunk and rowdy, their friends could have easily restrained them and handled it quietly without the school ever finding out. But this year... yeah.
"Anyway, the school is more than happy to have the Student Council step in where the faculty can't. Just keep in mind that since it’s going to everyone, we will be vetting the content before it's approved."
"If the school is on board, then we have no objections."
"I appreciate that."
As long as the school was aware and this wasn't just the Student Council overstepping its bounds, it was fine. It wouldn't turn into a case of us getting in trouble for acting without permission.
Actually, given how messy things were getting, President Minashiro’s idea to have the Student Council take the front while we remained just 'collaborators' was a smart move. This was the kind of project where you didn't want to be the one standing in the line of fire.
"Alright, let's get this draft started."
"Right. We promised it would be done in an hour."
"Exactly," Hiiragi-san added. "Though, since it's for awareness, let's not overcomplicate it. If you cram it with too much text, people will lose the will to read it the second they see it."
She had a point. The handouts from the festival were for people who were already interested, so the text was a bit dense. We needed to trim the fat. We didn't need illustrations, but we should use large headers and make the key phrases pop. We needed to grab their attention and make them actually look at the content.
"I'll check if the Dungeon Association's website has a section on taxes," Mika volunteered.
"Then I'll check the tax office's site," another said.
"I'll... take a look at the National Tax Agency's site."
"I'll scour the other public institutions then."
Seeing us start on the text, Mika and the others immediately pulled out their phones to look up the official sources. Since the goal was to direct students to accurate primary information, verifying the URLs was the first priority.
To meet the one-hour deadline we’d set, we divided the labor and worked with practiced efficiency.
"Alright everyone, let's get to work."
Once the final draft was finished and checked by Hashimoto-sensei, we delivered it to the Student Council Room exactly as promised. President Minashiro thanked us for our help and informed us that after their final check, it would be submitted to the school. If things moved quickly, it would be distributed during homeroom tomorrow afternoon.
I just hoped this would be the final piece of business from the school festival.