Wait Until the Hototogisu Sings. But Only Until Spring

[Tier-Group 3 Control Room]

In the control room, Mint and Sapien-sensei were conferring.

"So the aide-de-camp scribe's condition is not promising."

"Regrettably, as things stand it's gaze input, slow and riddled with errors. That's about the size of it. It hasn't gotten so bad that even 'Yes' and 'No' are unreliable, mind. Whether the brain itself has been damaged and recovery can't be hoped for, or whether it's merely a matter of the nerves that move the body, I can't tell; but either way there seems to be no prospect of a swift recovery."

"The Dungeon Master can't stand in for the aide-de-camp scribe, and among the Named monsters there's no one who can fill the role at present, either."

"In this dungeon, to wield part of the Dungeon Master's authority one needs a master's degree or higher, and among the Named only two qualify: Mint-san, Master of Engineering, and Kinran-san, Master of Business Administration. I'm a Doctor of Medicine, but I hold no master's. The other four only hold bachelor's degrees. It seems no one anticipated this sort of situation back when they were summoned."

"There's no way we can spare the hands to run the dungeon on top of that. The control room is run off its feet as it is, and we're only just managing by mobilizing every last copy of myself."

"Couldn't you make still more copies?"

"Impossible. I couldn't keep them all under control. Separate individuals produced by breeding would act on their own, but because of the name problem, I can't breed."

Mint, having the same species name and individual name, could be neither additionally summoned nor bred.

"Tajima Village has any number of identical names, though."

"Those aren't dungeon monsters, so it's a different matter. But how they cope with the problem of a limited pool of names (Tajima Sakura, Tajima Sakura, Dōai Sakura) being shared by so many that they're useless for telling individuals apart, that I wouldn't know."

"And besides, it takes more than ten years for an Asura to reach maturity, so breeding is no stopgap. On top of that, this dungeon's Shiso (Asura) are one individual per species, so in most cases it would come down to cloning or self-pollination."

Crossing Anne the maid with Leonor the chemist would yield a Lavandin; crossing Leonardo the nurse with Aurora the veterinarian would yield a Hardy Marjoram. Such things were possible too. Incidentally, most Shiso (Asura), whatever their human bodies look like, are biologically hermaphrodites that reproduce by seed. For that reason, even with their clothes off, they don't go R-18.

That said, depending on the type of Asura, some, a portion of the Orchid family for instance, are rather problematic in various ways.

"It was three methods, I believe. The ones we explained to the Director."

"Observation continues as it stands. Delivering the finishing blow and waiting for revival has too many uncertainties."

"And worst case, we'd have to find a way to communicate with a tree. Was that it?"

"The last is corpse-possession summoning. But the method is unknown, and there's no guarantee a conveniently available corpse exists. And on top of that, even if we slot a soul into Marie the scribe's body, it has to be compatible."

"A sporty type would likely find it stressful. The body doesn't have much in the way of muscle."

"A TS-reincarnation would probably cause grave psychological problems, and while it might do in a story, in reality it can't be recommended. And then there's the problem that, looks aside, that body is functionally neither male nor female."

Looks-wise, too, the parts hidden under clothing had been skimped on.

"If you put it that way, that goes for most of the Asura."

"With reincarnation through the cycle, there's no such problem. Fortunately, we're not in a situation that demands immediate action, and I think we have leeway until spring."

The Marie of her past life, no, the Marie of before, would have decided and acted on the spot, but in a case like this, moving in a panic never came to any good.

"In all likelihood we'll need to move in earnest come spring. We'll have to settle on a course of action before then."

"Still, the books in the library are books from the otherworld, and the otherworld has no such thing as 'corpse-possession summoning.' 'Reincarnation through the cycle,' too, is a religious concept there, and no medically known method exists for inducing a transmigration."