The principal was, of course, stunned.
[38,352 entities? Isn’t that more than our entire student body?]
“The current number of enrolled students is 3,025 first years, 3,789 second years, 5,025 third years, and 885 fourth years, totaling 12,724.”
[If new students are more than 30 times the number of current students, does the student council president election even matter?]
“Of course, it doesn’t. The student council president will always be elected from those chosen by Oknodie.”
[This is too dangerous. This tiny creature is a monster that can summon the Avatar of the Outsider at any time. Can we really just hand over the student council president position to such a being?]
Professor Mahabharata was genuinely surprised.
The academy had countless dangerous individuals.
Professors. Criminals. Students with great potential.
But none had instilled a sense of ‘alertness’ in Dragon Principal Omoshiroi…until now, except for the first instance of Oknodie.
A millennium of history.
The Gift Academy has produced heroes, demon kings, saintesses, monarchs, and even emperors.
In this academy that has ranked numerous strong contenders on the Empire’s leaderboard, Oknodie had accomplished what all the strong contenders throughout history could not do—on their own.
“So, will you refuse the human rights ordinance application for homunculi, their basic education rights, and voting rights for the student council president?”
[No. That would hurt my pride.]
“…Your annoying personality hasn’t changed, I see. If you don’t like this and don’t like that, what do you plan to do?”
Mahabharata expressed his dissatisfaction toward the principal, who was being as finicky as a friend who complains about every lunch menu option.
Even the loyal guardian felt irked, and the Dragon Principal admitted he had been too capricious.
[Let’s first consider the lifespan of the homunculi.]
The living quarters for the homunculi were under construction to accommodate the increased demand for clothing, food, and essential facilities due to their growing bodies.
“Is it really okay to keep expanding this small space?”
“It’s fine! With this rate of expansion, when the magic circle is damaged, they won’t even feel pain before they instantly die due to the pressure!”
“…Is this guy really a rights activist for homunculi? Or just a sadist?”
Despite looking at Oknodie with distrustful eyes, the seniors from the Magic and Production Departments diligently continued the expansion projects.
They intensified their efforts to protect the Spatial Expansion Magic Circle, as no one wanted to hear about a construction accident resulting in a death toll in the thousands.
“So what’s this container for?”
“It’s a protein shake generator!”
“…What about the water supply?”
“You can drink the protein shake, right?”
“Add cooking facilities!”
“Aww… there’s nothing more efficient than a protein shake…”
“I’ll even throw in a cooking counter and a food storage warehouse for the bonus, just make it!”
The seniors from the Production Department couldn’t help but interfere when they saw the expansion plans for Oknodie’s homunculi living quarters.
“Where did the mattress on the bed go? And what’s with the rails?”
“Isn’t it good to train while sleeping? By learning the Mana Flow Technique called ‘concurrent sharing,’ even when your mind is asleep, your legs keep running, which builds basic strength and lower body power!”
“I’ll build a proper training facility separately! For heaven’s sake, take the rails off the bed!”
Harsh facilities that didn’t consider user happiness or convenience from meals to sleep!
The seniors realized why the Foundation had been so powerful in the Foundation Workshop Battle and how it had managed to plant so many scholarship students across the world to wield such strong influence.
“Those Foundation folks made the doors out of rare metal so weaklings can’t even use the recreational facilities…?”
“Not human…”
“Why did they create multiple gas dispensers in recreational areas?”
“I heard that the longer you spend playing, the higher the concentration of poisonous gas is released, making it a natural poisonous gas resistance training; and you can’t enjoy activities for too long.”
“That’s inhumane…”
“Every moment of life is training; no wonder the Foundation folks were so strong…”
“Jiang’s rumors were true… Oknodie and the Foundation have been training as professional assassins since childhood, officially…!!”
After hearing about the designs and reasons behind several dangerous facilities, the seniors’ perception of Oknodie’s danger level exceeded even that of many professors.
Honestly, even professors wouldn’t push students this hard.
“Why don’t you all speak up? This isn’t just inhumane!”
“It’s fine. We are very satisfied with the facilities designed by Oknodie.”
“Are you satisfied with a training facility that means anyone passing through the hallway has to roll a giant steel ball?!”
“To avoid being crushed by a steel ball rolling at 15 km/h from 100m away while shackled, figuring out how many telekinesis spells you need to use to survive is nothing.”
“Huh? That sounds like an exam question I’ve heard before…?”
The Production Department students felt a sense of discomfort but had no idea that the problems they had solved were experienced firsthand by the homunculi, often leading to injury or survival.
The short-lived homunculi dying in the cruel courses of the abusive professors had experienced the upgrades of longer-lived ones; thus, they were immensely grateful to Oknodie.
“Isn’t it a blessing that instead of having to roll a steel ball each time you step into the hallway, you don’t even have your hands shackled when a steel ball rolls and crashes at you?”
“Well, that’s true. I heard the Empire Faction professors who used to torment us fell into Oknodie’s traps and died in another world or got stuck on the academy branch campus.”
“Damn, it’s Oknodie again; we can’t help but sing praises!”
The homunculi, tied together by boundless gratitude regardless of how others saw them!
The Production Department students were left even more apprehensive, wondering if they had been mentally brainwashed by Oknodie.
[Why is this so fun?]
“Principal, are you… intrigued?”
Professor Mahabharata thought this was something that should be discouraged, but while he said no, seeing others cause a ruckus energized Omoshiroi Principal’s interests.
[The lifespan of the long-lived kind has certainly increased to the point where they could indeed be called long-lived. They seem to live several decades instead of just a few days or five years.]
While it seemed hard for them to live as long as ordinary humans, those whose lifespans were guaranteed between 30 to 50 years had definitely escaped the fate of the short-lived.
Especially, the special entities Oknodie painstakingly created showed signs of a lifespan longer than humans, around 300 to 500 years.
“Do you want to make homunculi into students?”
[That’s a bit ambiguous.]
The Dragon Principal found himself in a dilemma.
He liked the way these homunculi were nurtured.
He liked that they could be manipulated for longer.
But educating them to the level of academy students?
Given that there was no guarantee of talent and that their personalities were typically similar?
To put it bluntly, the homunculi were just the outcome of mass copying and pasting specific personality series.
What potential could this little one have?
What about this foolish one?
He felt that raising them with excitement was far less thrilling.
At this rate, even the green-skinned goblins seemed more interesting!
The principal called for Oknodie.
And he got straight to the point.
[Then you appeal directly. Recognize the human rights of these dull dolls as individuals and explain what qualifications they need to receive education as students.]
He tasked Oknodie to find a reason for the homunculi to capture his interest.
Oknodie’s unique approach had earned him this one-time opportunity to grab the principal’s interest.
“Principal! You know what the gift in Gift Island means, right?”
[The gift of talent.]
Gift.
Talent.
The skill and ability required for specific tasks, an innate talent.
A term referring to inborn qualities.
The principal wanted to gather raw stones of talent and refine them into jewels.
Dullards who couldn’t even meet the minimum passing line couldn’t match the overflowing talent of dragons, unable to meet those strict standards.
Even if they had talent, the principal lost interest if they all possessed the same one.
No talent could surpass that of dragons, who easily rose to the status of demigods at birth.
“That talent can be directly given, can’t it?”
[What? Grant talent?]
“If you inject different students’ memories and experiences into each homunculus unconsciously, won’t that become talent?”
[Hmm…]
It was an unexpected idea.
Memories and experiences.
Creating artificial talent through unconscious imprints.
[But is there any guarantee it won’t become a simple copy, a degraded version?]
“The homunculi live in the Gift Academy facilities, not in regular human society. Their training time, growth rate, and pursued direction will inevitably differ!”
[Hmmmmmm…]
That was right.
Even if they shared the same memories, if their growth environments were different, their lives would inevitably take divergent paths.
“Moreover, if we score the memories and experiences, and also assign points for upgrading or downgrading the homunculi specs, even if their talent totals are the same, the experiences and memories they carry would differ, and their physical levels would also vary!”
We can create homunculi like character creation!
A being with the body and talents you desire.
As much as you want!
“If we set it up to pick randomly, it will be unpredictable!”
[Can’t resist a homunculus random lottery.]
The homunculus random lottery was so enjoyable that the principal stamped the human rights ordinance application and basic education rights, along with the student council voting rights, with big thunks!
