40-How to best benefit (from) my apprentice?

7/2/5/4353 M.A.C - Niwut- Afternoon

Any minute now!

Scholar Atwut paced around his office, his patience wearing thin. His mind had been in turmoil for the last decan, ever since his new apprentice and his father had dropped a bombshell of a revelation on him.

If I play this right, the sky is the limit! I have to make sure not to waste this opportunity.

Scholar Atwut had made use of some of his saved-up favors to get another scholar to substitute for his morning responsibilities and spent the entire decan studying the metals Doro had left behind and coming up with ways to profit.

With these strength-to-weight ratios, if we can mass produce these, we can progress mundane architecture leaps and bounds.

Impressive buildings had been a thing for most of the empire's history, but most had relied on special Abilities, Brahmatech, or Artifact materials that needed to have their energy replenished. Scholar Atwut's main field of study was finding mundane means to allow for the construction of such buildings, and these metals appeared to him as the keys to his future.

....And the alloys! Oh, the alloys! Who knows how these metals might improve the characteristics of those we already use for building? Hopefully, this Celestial-sent blessed does!

Scholar Atwut could not stop himself from dancing a little jig in excitement, showing himself to be more limber than one might have expected from his rather aged appearance. He took one last lap around his office and then stopped in front of his slate board.

How to best benefit from my apprentice?

This sentence was written across the top of the slate board in his office, multiple bullet point lists, broken up into categories, filling the space beneath it.

Might want to erase that "from" bit before he shows up.

Scholar Atwut was about to fetch a wet cloth when someone suddenly knocked on his front door. He hurriedly rubbed off the word "from" with the corner of his sleeve and dashed back behind his desk.

"Come in!"

C'mon Atwut, time to sell yourself like never before!

***

Doro knocked on the door of Scholar Atwut's office and waited to be called in. He heard a flurry of movement from the other side, followed by the sound of approaching footsteps a moment later. Scholar Atwut opened the door and stood there, a nervous smile on his face as he motioned Doro inside.

"Good afternoon to you my dear apprentice. I see your esteemed father has not blessed us with his presence on this occasion. Please relay my utmost apologies for my behavior last we met. My lack of decorum was most shameful, and I would hate for it to prevent our burgeoning friendship from blossoming."

Doro did his best to keep a deadpan expression, but the saccharine words and shamelessness of the scholar's reversal in attitude made it a more difficult challenge than he could handle. Doro winced as the scholar's cringe overwhelmed his tolerance, and it did not go unnoticed.

"Uh....Professor? Could you please...stop?"

The scholar's face went pale as beads of sweat started appearing on his brow. The visibly panicked scholar plunged forward to the ground, prostrating himself in front of Doro.

"Oh please don't forsake me! I didn't know! Please give me another chance, I swear I can make myself useful!"

Scholar Atwut accompanied each statement with a smack of his forehead against the hard ground, leaving visible marks behind as physical manifestations of his contrition. Doro was about to speak up, in an attempt to stop the scholar from abasing himself further, but Scholar Atwut moved on before giving him the opportunity. The scholar wormed himself another foot forward while remaining prostrated as low as he could, and began blubbering as he grabbed onto Doro's ankle.

"I know I messed ub *sniff* but blease dont forsake meeeeeeee!"

Huh?

Doro was struck speechless by the display, the self-important image that he'd established of the Scholar crumbling into a million tiny pieces.

"Professor...please stop. I don't know what you've cooked up in your head, but I wasn't planning on 'forsaking' you. Was just gonna tell you to speak to me like you normally do, this whole business is super awkward. Also, I think you are getting snot on the hem of my pants, and silk is a tough fabric to wash..."

***

"Ah....that's better."

"Mind telling me what got into you? Are you in some sort of trouble or something? I know we've just met a couple times, but..."

It had taken a few minutes but Doro had managed to calm the scholar, who was regaining a modicum of composure after blowing his nose and drinking a glass of water.

Stolen novel; please report.

"Sorry about that. I'm usually better at controlling it, but I have some deeply rooted self-worth issues, my usual facade is mostly bluster. Remember what I told you about my familial situation? Well, it was quite a bit worse than I let on. You might not be aware of the details, but noble titles aren't strictly hereditary in the Empire. Sure, the heir of a noble often succeeds him, but the Empire ties noble titles with specific responsibilities. For the Empire to allow the passing of the title, the successor has to prove they are able to take over the accompanying tasks. My family title comes with the responsibility of managing the flood channels and waterways on the western side of the Manzat River, both a prestigious and important task."

The scholar took a deep breath to resettle himself before continuing.

"I had no talent for it whatsoever. I followed the same studies and training regimen as my older siblings, but when my Choice day came, not only did I not get the option of our family's Choice of predilection, but I also did not have any options that came close to it in function. Upon that revelation, my relationship with my siblings and my parents deteriorated rapidly. You have to understand that this meant that I would not have a chance to inherit, but I would also not be able to help the successor with his task, or have the opportunity to start an official branch family. When the situation at home grew untenable, I found an apprenticeship in the Scholarium and flourished, but the wounds I still carry from that period sometimes get the better of me."

Oof! Yeah, no wonder he's got some hang-ups, that's a lot of baggage.

"Look. I'll be honest, I thought you were some useful but self-important prissy egomaniac who I could trust to act in their own best interest. I was willing to work with you as long as I thought I could control you. I never expected that this whole thing would affect you this much. I'm sorry about the way I handled our last meeting. To tell you the truth, I also had a similarly complicated situation with one of my parents in my previous life, so I get it. I got lucky this time, well, you know, you met my Dad."

"Yes, seems like a good man. Please do apologize to him on my behalf, I did accuse him of being a con man when you came last decan. I felt bad about coming to the wrong conclusion, so I spent last decan making plans. Here, look at this."

Scholar Atwut gestured toward the slate board on his wall, showing the fruit of his decan 's worth of mental labor. Doro once more felt that he had misjudged the scholar, who had shown more goodwill than he'd expected.

How to best benefit my apprentice

Damn, I didn't give him enough credit. I didn't think he'd already be hard at work trying to help me.

"I'll give you the quick rundown. I did some research in the library, reading through some blessed autobiographies, and came to one conclusion. If you want to profit from your knowledge, you need to do it before another Blessed beats you to the punch. First, we need to identify useful knowledge you have, then we need to make categories. All good so far?"

Doro nodded and waited for the scholar to continue.

"For the sake of simplicity, let's make three categories. "Sealed", "Personal", and "License". "Sealed" is simple to explain, that is where we put any bit of knowledge that could have negative repercussions that you don't think you can keep a handle on. "Personal" is for anything you want to use yourself, but you want to remain in complete control over. The last one is where it gets interesting. As a level 1 nine-year-old boy, if you don't make the fact that you are a blessed public, between your lack of credibility and low energy reserves, it would be tough to move forward with any real momentum."

"I'm actually level 3 now Professor, but please continue."

Scholar Atwuts's eyes opened wider at that statement, but he managed to remain otherwise unbothered by the correction as he kept going, his speech obviously practiced.

"The answer I came up with is simple but should be effective. We create a consortium. We find appropriate professionals, get them to sign a non-disclosure contract, help them carve out their niche, and take a cut of their profit in exchange. If we manage the consortium well, we'll be able to use it as a network of professionals you trust with your secret, as a source of income for your future projects, and as a front to hide that you are at the origin of all the innovations. Obviously, your father and I would be the first members. Between you assisting your father and being my apprentice, you will have a reasonable reason for being involved. What do you think? Also, congratulations on leveling twice in such a short amount of time."

"Thanks. Your plan sounds good, I was planning on just repeating what I did with you, but setting up an organization might be better. Wouldn't you need a company to join a consortium though?"

"Is that how it works back in your old world? Consortium here basically work like sub-guilds to the merchant guild. Consortium usually develop around a specific resource or a specific industry, but anyone from people harvesting the required resources to the people selling the final product can join without a company, unlike the merchant guild."

Scholar Atwut started squirming in his seat as if he needed to be excused for a bathroom break, but it turned out to be caused by something else entirely.

"Sooooooooo....How about you flip that board so we can start listing potential breakthroughs for the "license" section?"

At least it seems his mood got better but...What's up with this dude and all his mood swings...Still, I can understand why he'd be so excited, hell, if he knew of all I know, he'd be overwhelmed by happiness, on the floor, foaming at the mouth.

Doro approached the slate board and put a hand on either side. Before he pulled it off the wall to flip it, a strange gap between two words in the heading caught his attention. The area between the words seemed to have a bit of residue left over, hastily rubbed out. Although his eyes couldn't make out the shape of what had previously been there, Doro had an idea.

Let's see if this works...[Matter Analysis+]

Doro imbued the trace remains of the white powder that remained on the board and was surprised to find it was not chalk. The white powder seemed to be a mix of clay and sifter sand, but its makeup wasn't what interested Doro. He had recently realized that with the upgrade he had gotten to his Ability, he could gain much more precise information on the shape of an object than with his other senses, and with his [Minute Expertise], he could measure differences as small as one micrometer in size. Upon studying the resulting shape, Doro's heart felt like it was being wrenched away.

How to best benefit 'from' my apprentice?

I've been had...He is as bad as I thought. No clue how much of today's whole ordeal was theatrics, but I reckon at least part of it was. This piece of...

Doro felt as if he had just fallen for a con, and that did not sit well with him. He decided he might as well get a little payback as he slowly traced the shape of the word anew with a new stick of the chalk substitute.

Scholar Atwut's formerly excited face was showing a whole other type of emotion as he realized his mistake. His face went pale as the now-completed sentence betrayed his motivations. Before he could open his mouth to try and come up with an excuse, Doro smacked the white stick back on the table, smashing it into pieces upon impact. The young boy turned to face the old man, an extremely wide smile on his face. It was obvious, however, that the scholar did not feel any warmth coming from it as he seemed to shrink back in his seat.

"Oh? My apologies, it would seem I was mistaken once again. Guess I'll go back home for today, I clearly didn't leave you enough time for your "preparations"."

The tone with which Doro spoke was polite, but the pulsating vein on his forehead and the fire in his eyes betrayed his anger, the scholar picking up on all of it as he tried to get out of his seat in a panic.

"Oh, please don't bother and remain seated. I do not require an escort. On this note, I bid you a good day sir!"

Doro slammed the door behind him before letting up the act, a cheeky grin on his face.

If he is gonna be like that, gotta keep him on his toes! Hahaha. His face was priceless. I'll let him stew for a decan and see what he does to get back in my good graces. Now, let's try out the item Karo gave me.

***

"There you are. Back home, safe and sound. It was a pleasure kid, thanks again for upgrading my knives."

"No worries, you taught me some good, if somewhat painful, lessons. Here is your silver mark. Good luck with the exam prep."

"Hehe, yeah, sorry. I know it's a cheap shot, but as they say, keep your jewels secure. Here I'll tell you a little secret tip to help you improve faster."

Karo bent at the waist to whisper something into Doro's ear, but at the last second, she went in for a peck on the cheek. Doro was still wired from their morning's practice, and his trust had been tested by her cheap shot that morning, and by his professor after, and so he noticed her last-second course correction and sent himself into a sideways roll to avoid the kiss. Sadly, he had not learned that particular move and had hastily tried to reproduce it from his memory, only to end up with his back flat against the floor, a puzzled Karo looking down at him.

"Huh? Good to see you are serious about practicing, but why did you dodge? Was just giving you a peck on the cheek to increase your motivation."

Doro stood up and brushed off the dust from his tunic.

"Well, your kiss attempt did motivate me to dodge, so consider your goal achieved. It was nice meeting you, now let me just put this door between us before you can try again."

Doro dipped into his home and quickly closed the door behind him, leaving Karo blinking, speechless, on the other side.