The Man Picked up by the Gods – Volume 3 Chapter 164: Invitation (2/3)

“Yes. We can contact you by simply sending a letter to your store. And then if you’re going to be away for a while, we’ll need you to inform us. But you’re already sending letters to us regularly anyway, so I don’t think keeping in contact with us will prove to be a problem.

And then… The position I’m planning on giving you is the ‘Rank 3 Specialist’. It’s the lowest rank as far as specialists are concerned, but the conditions surrounding it are also the least strict. Moreover, although it’s the lowest rank, specialists are generally directly affiliated with me, so you won’t have to take orders from other specialists.” [Reinhart]

“…Can you go into more detail?” [Ryouma]

More specifically, I wanted to know more about the ‘Rank 3 Specialist’ and that part about ‘generally being directly affiliated with Reinhart-san’.

The rank 3 specialist is probably a hierarchy thing, but he said ‘generally’, so I wonder if that means there are exceptions.

“As you’ve imagined, the rank 3 specialist is the lowest rank, above which is the second rank, and then there’s the first rank. The rank is decided based on one’s history and achievements before becoming a specialist, as well as one’s contributions toward the family after becoming a specialist. One’s treatment is also decided according to one’s rank.” [Elize]

According to the madam, the only things the first and second rank shared in common with the third rank were the research funds and the status.

Beyond that the second rank specialists also received extra hands, as well as their own research facility. Both of which are meant to make it easier for them to conduct their experiments. When needed, they can also be given a small number of guards.

As for first rank specialists, they also have the authority to hold a soldier unit of their own.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that the knowledge of Rank 1 Specialists is a treasure. It takes a number of people to ensure the safety of such important people and their research facility.” [Serge]

“Speaking of achievements, a cure for the Cursed Wound is certainly more than enough to qualify you as a Rank 1 Specialist, but that position is really special. It comes with it considerable influence and reputation, which in turn bring with them a lot of trouble. That’s probably why you’re being given a Rank 3 instead.” [Pioro]

After Serge-san and Pioro-san added their input, things were finally starting to make sense.

On top of what they said, specialists also worked in different fields and required different facilities to show off their abilities, so the specific conditions varied for each specialist and were decided only after much discussion. Because of that specialists have a greater degree of freedom compared to other jobs. It fits me fairly well, actually.　That’s probably one of the reasons why Reinhart-san recommended it in the first place.

Now that that’s cleared up, I wonder what he was talking about regarding ‘affiliation’ once one has become a specialist.

“That was an error on my wording.” [Reinhart]

Specialists aren’t alone in their field of expertise. There’s a lot of them in their respective fields, so there are times when two specialists end up in a teacher-student relationship after interacting with each other, or alternatively, they were already in that sort of relationship before becoming specialists.

In other words, he was just saying that I didn’t need to have that sort of relationship with a senior specialist.

“When you work as a specialist, most of the time I won’t be with you. At such times, I will be sending a representative, but this doesn’t mean that you’re subordinated to this representative. You can talk to him as your equal, share your opinions, and if necessary, you even have the authority to directly appeal to me.” [Reinhart]

Specialists are people that have formed a contract with a noble – in this case, Reinhart-san. If I were to think of them as something akin to an adviser…

“Frankly, it’s not a bad proposition… If anything the conditions are rather favorable to me, but as expected, I won’t be able to live as I have until now, can I?” [Ryouma]

Reinhart-san quietly nodded.

“First of all, once every few years, the specialists of a house must show off his abilities. To that end, they’ll have to submit some kind of research result and have those results prove useful for the territory.” [Reinhart]

In my case, I have my cure for the Cursed Wound, so I more than qualify to be appointed as a specialist.

But there’s a possibility that I could lose my right to be a specialist later depending on my work.

“…That’s indeed a possibility.” [Ryouma]

“Considering how big your achievement is, it’s possible to extend your time, but my wealth is accumulated from the tax paid by the people. Naturally, I can’t use it on someone who can’t give results. I believe you’re more than capable of protecting your position as specialist, but you will indeed be bound by a responsibility and an expectation to produce results.

Of course, I won’t ask anything unreasonable from you and you can continue your laundromat and your adventurer work as you’ve been doing until now, but you will certainly become busier and it’s possible that you’ll have less time to spend on other jobs.

…And one more thing.” [Reinhart]

Reinhart wore a remarkably more serious face as he spoke.

“If I were to give you the position of specialist, you will have you to reveal where you learned your abilities from and you will have to reveal your history. Although the information won’t be spread around wantonly, you’ll have prepare yourself for the information to be spread to related places.” [Reinhart]


Tl Note: Changed engineer to specialist.

29 comments / Add your comment below

      1. No but I think it’s time he let know the name of his “grandparents” and if they are the same as the precedent version that enough

  1. The change from engineer to specialist is very good. Now this little detail at the end is very interesting. Will Ryouma finally explain a bit more about him, or everything? This is interesting and a bit exciting.
    Thanks for the translation! Awesome as always! God bless you, take care, and sleep well!

  2. no, really there is no advantage to that position, and he has more than enough power to protect himself, I really really hope that he says no to that “offer to chain himself”

    1. The advantage for the position, is that it will help protect him from political bs that his invention/research can get him into. It will help as a shield from trouble some nobles who don’t take no for an answer or people who live in their pwn mind. It is not to protect him physical problems since they know he can defend himself from that just that there are some things that brute force cant solve all the time

      1. nah, that’s author just forcing the plot, he really doesn’t need their protection, not physically nor politically, he just need to raise his lvl in the guild, increase the size of his business, any of those things will shield him.

        1. Yeah, that sort of thing works wonders in the real world where no powerful people with a lot of connections ever try to crush independent businesses that turn down their offers, right?

          In all honesty, it doesn’t even harm him in any way. He can study whatever he wants on the side (not like he doesn’t anyway) while managing his shop and adventure work. If any recruiter comes, he can just tell them to speak to the duke. Not very many would actually try that, especially since it’s been alluded to that he has a rather close relationship with the family, and if they try any dirty tricks they’ll immediately be caught (Ryouma has an excellent security system) and the duke family gets to trim some rather diseased branches from the political tree. Win/win/win.

          1. Tell them to speak to the duke? Yeah. And then they will say what the duke expect them to say like in the chapter: “You’re not even trying to hire him yourself! Don’t get in our way!” and give your kind duke a new problem.

          2. Agreeing that he should be…? It’s kinda obvious if you caught the sarcasm from the first sentence.

        2. Sadly, what you said is the same as for him to climb by himself to get a backing from the guild by becoming a high rank. And guild is still below the noble. So you want him to refuse a high level backing he can get easily and go get a middle level backing the hard way.

    1. Não não na história passada foi sem precisar se acorrenta que ele conseguiu, espero que ele não aceite!

  3. i dont think he is restringing hinself, if anything, the worst case is he lose his job of especialist beacuse of lack of results, but he will continue to have the laudronmat and be a adveturer

  4. Nobles>Guild. Dukes are pretty much second only to the royal family in terms of political bs.
    Guilds are employed/funded by the Royal Family/Nobles in terms of Guild quests that are high level like A rank missions, then wealthy merchants/business owners have most of the requests below that, and just general monster subjugation by whatever territory lord, then resource collection jobs by other guilds like the merchant guild.

    A business can be brought down by the major players of the Merchant guild through connections/shady shit, his status as an Adventurer can be really significant if he’s like A or S rank where they are sent to the big jobs employed by Nobles. It takes a lot to move up the ladder and at the end of the day, most of the biggest Business men and best Adventurers all have some form of connection with a Noble Family. The merchant guy Piero has good relations with the Duke and his business, even the Guild Master when he first met Ryouma personally oversaw his examination purely because he showed up with the Duke. The Duke has a lot of powers both in terms of politics, military might, and money plus it’s not like they say he has to work on their specific site.

    All he pretty much has to do is just write to them on what he’s doing and show off whatever thing he came up with every few years and boom, all nobles/wealthy merchants direct any sort of complicated stuff he doesn’t care about to the Duke Family and it ends there. Unless the Royal Family personally tries to do something, literally no one will try to do anything to his business or adventuring, cause in the back of their mind they’ll remember he’s got the backing of the Duke Family who has contracts with a clan of Fire Dragons.

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