Designing the Kin (College Graduates)

[Core Room]

"Marie-san, next is the preparations for summoning the retainers. Choosing their names is going to be a chore."

"As a practical matter, there is no correlation between name and occupation, so we may as well simply assign ordinary, common surnames one after another off the top of the list. The Iruma Daikan, for instance, is Yoshida Nishinoichinojō, but there would be no problem in having a retainer named Yoshida as well. To begin with, the otherworld's Saitama Prefecture is a cluster of satellite cities linked to Tokyo City by some dozen-odd commuter railways, with people gathered there from every corner of the country, so there is hardly any such thing as a 'distinctive surname.'"

The names comparatively skewed toward Saitama are the Gunma-derived Arai, the Kaneko of that Murayama Party, and the Sekine that originated in Saitama District, and the like.

"In other words, no need to overthink it, just take it easy. Is that the idea."

"Quite. Far more important is the question of what sort of work the retainers are to do, and how many of each to summon. Retainers, too, are named-ordinary monsters, so there is no 'do-over.' As with people, it is possible to spend years teaching one a different trade, but that would squander the very strength a retainer offers."

"The ones we need in numbers would be agriculture, civil engineering, machinery, drivers, and clerical staff, roughly."

"With programmers and the like, it is ability over numbers. For Mint, attaching one systems engineer and one programmer should suffice for the time being."

"To keep things easy to tell apart, we could line up the surname endings to match. Among the surnames on the list, there are plenty, so… if it ends in -tō (藤), civil engineering; if it ends in -da (田), agriculture; that sort of thing."

"With fewer than a hundred summoning slots all told, the only one for whom such a thing is necessary would be you, Master. Not that it's forbidden."

"And if we're picking by frequency, it'd be more natural to have several of the Suzukis, Takahashis, Satōs, and Kobayashis. The question is whether to allow duplicates…"

"Do as you please. If I may venture one piece of advice, in your case, Master, I think it would be better not to duplicate surnames."

"First, the technical-line retainers who are college graduates (with master's degrees) or graduates of the grandes écoles. For the systems engineer to assist Mint-san the hacker, Suzuki-san; for the programmer, Takahashi-san. To share the load with Dr. Hamada of civil engineering and push the development of all five directions, I'll summon the civil engineers Satō-san and Saitō-san. For machinery, under Dr. Sakku, Kobayashi-san; for electrical, under Dr. Ebara, Kurihara-san; for shipbuilding, under Mito-san, Fukushima-san; for aviation, under Melissa-san, Negishi-san; for chemistry, under Dr. Leonor, Arai-san; for bioengineering, under Soga-san, Tanaka-san. For agriculture, I'll attach Yamada-san and Yoshida-san under Dr. Ōba. That makes twelve retainers."

"You hold no architect's license, Master, so a first-class architect is needed as well."

"A surname common in Saitama, then… let's go with Sekine-san. And for agriculture, I want individual specialists for forestry and stockbreeding, so for forestry, Asami-san, common in Chichibu, and for stockbreeding, Okada-san. That brings it to fifteen."

"That is about where the college-graduate retainers presently essential to running the dungeon, and difficult to substitute with residents, stand. However, owing to the departments established by Naniwa University's Faculty of Agriculture, forestry and stockbreeding require special, contrived career 'settings,' which makes their summoning costs run considerably higher."

"That's a necessary expense, then. And lastly, in the non-technical line, the chief clerk, Kaneko-san. Practical work experience is required for the 'setting,' but I don't think he needs a master's in business administration."