CH 13

That’s right…… Just stamp it……

Behind his sincere, intelligent, and kind smile, Ishida was thinking about the “next step”.

As soon as Hiroki stamps his seal on the contract, he would take it to the patent manager and campus lawyer to obtain the rights.

The rights holder will, of course, be Itsuki and the laboratory.

After all, Hiroki’s possession of the rights for this technology will not bring about a change in the world.

It would remain as nothing but an obsolete technology if it remains in the hands of this middle-aged man from a small local company who just happened to understand its capabilities, and within Itsuki’s mind, this technology must be properly steered by him so that he could invest the university’s facilities and excellent human resources to make it useful to society.

As Ishida gazed at him, imagining the brilliant future, Hiroki started casually flipping through the pages of the contract, seemingly checking the number of pages.

[This contract has quite a number of pages, isn’t it?]

The contract is a special one that Ishida approached a young law student to make for him.

Because it was designed to cover all kinds of cases so that they could win the case against Hiroki even if he took the case to court, it had much more clauses than a normal contract.

Even though it was difficult for him to understand the contents, it seemed like he was knowledgeable enough to wonder why the contract had too many pages.

However, Ishida had also prepared an excuse in case he was asked that question.

[Yes, well, it’s the university’s template contract. The university is also a bureaucracy when it comes to procedures, so those documents are very detailed.]

[I see, that’s how it is huh. The university is also a bureaucracy huh. I suppose that might be the case.]

[That’s right. As you may have heard from the news, when you want to apply for documents such as transportation expenses, you would need at least 100 yen for just one sheet. Anyway, the office is very fussy.]

[I suppose all places have their own problems eh.]

Nodding his head in agreement, Hiroki continued to flip through the contract, as if he were looking for his favorite manga in the magazine he had just finished reading.

Ishida is getting increasingly frustrated. Hurry up and stamp it already.

Or perhaps, has he noticed the trick in the contract?

Ishida pondered if he should have narrowed down the clauses a bit more…… but he just shook that thought aside. He thinks that there shouldn’t be any way that he can read and understand the contents of the contract by flipping through it at that speed.

He calmed himself down…… He’s just dealing with a middle-aged man with a private business. There shouldn’t be any way he can understand……

[Mhmm!?]

Thereupon, Hiroki stopped moving while he was flipping through the pages.

[W- What’s the matter!?]

When Ishida reflexively called out, Hiroki shyly answered.

[No, well…… There are a lot of kanjis that I can’t read, making me feel like I’m in a bookstore, so I can’t help but feel like peeing…… Excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom.]

When Hiroki excused himself to use the restroom, the staff beside Ishida whispered to him.

This staff was also one of Ishida’s collaborators at the university.

He had been doing routine work for the old man at the office, when Ishida called out to him.

[Ishida-sensei, that was quite close, isn’t it? It looked like he was going to stamp his seal right away.]

[Yeah. Just one more push. We’d clinch this contract if we just went like this. You know what to do when you bring back the contract, right?]

[Of course……]

Taking advantage of the absence of their prey, the two of them whispered to each other to confirm and discuss their future plans. Perhaps, it was their hopeful outlook for the future that was making them so excited that they couldn’t stop their voices from rising.

A little while later, telling them “Well, sorry about that”, Hiroki came back with a refreshed look on her face.

The staff wanted to ask him to stamp the seal already, but Hiroki stopped him before he could speak.

[Before we sign the contract, how about we talk about the business a bit?]

Small business owners like to talk about their business.

They talk about how capable they are, how hard they have worked, and how they have overcome difficulties to achieve success.

They satisfy their need for approval by bragging about how the company and themselves are one and the same in their explanation of their business.

Signaling the staff with his eyes to pull back the contract, and once he did, Ishida took a listening posture.

Ishida would take all the rights for this business away later anyway.

At least, for the time being, he’d lift this man up and make him feel good.

★　★　★　★　★

Unlike Ishida’s expectation, Hiroki’s explanation ended up being very immediate.

There was no hint of Hiroki’s personality within his words, he just talked about the number of this, and the amount of that.

However, those numbers were still enough to astonish Ishida.

[A 10-ton dump truck earns you 200,000 yen!? Is that kind of calculation right!? Don’t businesses like this change the unit price depending on the type of waste?]

[Well, with my technology, I’m able to process both boards and rubble at the same time. If I have to separate them all, the hourly rate will go down.]

""

To Ishida’s astonishment, Hiroki wasn’t even separating his waste when disposing of them.

Just by reviewing the unit price, Ishida could already think of ways where he could probably triple the current sales.

[With my current system, I’m only able to process about four trucks worth a day. There’s also hardly any expenses. I think the amount that could be processed would be much more than that but……]

[That client that troubled you?]

[I’ve been harassed in various ways. I mean, I do think that I can handle not only construction waste, but probably more difficult wastes as well. Like medical waste…… and radioactive waste.]

Hiroki didn’t go into specifics about how he was harassed, but being in this kind of industry, Ishida somewhat imagined that something like that could happen.

More importantly, there was something in what Hiroki said that he couldn’t ignore.

[Radioactive waste too!? ……No, given the incredible cleanliness of the soil test results, it does sound possible that radioactive waste could be processed. I suppose we may need to investigate this matter with radioactive markers.]

[Yes, yes. if we want “to do that”, we’ll have to set up a monitoring post like you said, right? I think that if we don’t set up such testing equipment and provide data, the public won’t trust us. That’s why, I’m hoping for your cooperation.]

[I see…… Well, even so, it sure is a wonderful technology.]

When Ishida reflexively muttered, Hiroki smiled and sitting up on the sofa……

[Well then, would you like to take a look?]

""

Hiroki’s demeanor and tone were so light that for a moment, Ishida seemed to not have understood what he was talking about. A few moments later though, Ishida vigorously agreed and stood up.

Within Ishida’s mind, he’s inwardly astounded at Hiroki.

His guard is quite loose…… He’s planning to show me that technology even before signing the contract.

This technology really must be under his management.

As Ishida followed Hiroki’s back, he was convinced of how justified his strategy was.

Not even knowing what awaited him where Hiroki’s leading him……