297: Lecture by Viridiana
"Let us now begin the lecture by Viridiana En Banilageroot."
Time passed.
Without incident, Viridiana's lecture commenced.
The stage was a large auditorium capable of holding over a thousand people, now completely full.
Additionally, it seemed that tens of thousands of people were watching via livestream, creating quite a lively atmosphere.
Today, standing before such a massive crowd, Viridianiela's attire for the lecture was a suit, carefully chosen with the formal setting in mind.
Her hair ornament, however, remained just as usual, and all safety-related mods were either the same as usual or even more extensive than normal.
There were numerous security personnel present besides us, and no suspicious mods were in sight... So, at least for now, safety doesn't appear to be an issue.
"First of all... continuing..."
"Guess we just can't quite grasp it, huh..."
"That's probably because we lack the foundational knowledge needed to understand Vee's lecture. There's nothing we can do about that."
As for Vrijanila's lecture... broadly speaking, it seems she's discussing the management and operation of star systems, drawing on her firsthand experiences related to these topics.
Yeah, I can't follow the finer details since I don't have the necessary background knowledge.
It's because Viridianila is throwing around technical terms.
But these aren't just buzzwords meant to confuse.
From their attire, the people we've judged to be experts are nodding seriously, whispering opinions to one another, or showing intense focus.
Yet some individuals who seem to be students are frowning, looking bewildered, or clearly lost—so the content must be quite advanced.
As for those smiling... I wonder which side they're really on?
Whether they don’t understand at all or understand everything completely… I’d guess it’s the latter with someone like Tarkotton, but due to nobles’ uniquely strong facial muscles, it’s impossible to tell.
“Even though you might forget while in the Vanilla Sid system, you still need to be careful with Sw. Let me give you a few examples.”
“Oh, I get this part.”
“We don’t understand that stuff at all.”
“Actually, Satā-sama might know this section better than us.”
The topic of conversation shifted to the influence of Sw.
Yeah, this part is pretty much my area of expertise, so I understand it.
Although Sw doesn't exist in the Vanilla Sid system and might be easy to forget, every star system within the empire has its own Sw. These are essential for defining the unique characteristics of each system, yet they're also a major nuisance.
It's common for certain mods to not work well with Sw, and if you tweak part of Sw to fix one issue, it often just causes another problem instead—no matter what you do, the outcome stays the same.
And then, when we proposed improvements to the mod while considering Sw's influence, and tried to implement them, it turned out they didn't work under actual operating conditions... deadlines... further changes to the conditions... not telling the truth from the start... accidents, explosions... ugh, my head...
"Something's wrong with Sata... he looks really intense..."
"It's probably something at Seiryō Corporation. I think we should leave it alone. Lord Johariss."
"Thinking about it again, the mod scene is really deep and shady, isn't it..."
Yamero, Yamete kure, I don't need to sleep, but that doesn't mean I can keep working without getting tired...
"..."
"Oh, you're back."
Damn, my thoughts were going off in the wrong direction.
It's irrelevant now, so I should just ignore it.
That aside, I need to keep working on the report for Seiryō Corporation...
"From here, we'll begin the question-and-answer session. I'll call on the person who raised their hand first..."
Well, it seems the part about Virijanira herself has come to an end.
So, the question session is starting.
It's starting, but...
"Of course, but it seems like the people who'd ask questions were already decided beforehand."
"Not everything was predetermined. But we do prioritize people whose concerns relate to the lecture content."
"Well, if we don't do that, there’d probably be plenty of people raising their hands with completely irrelevant questions."
At least a hundred hands were raised.
And the exchange between the questioner and Vilijaniela proceeded smoothly.
In that case, it's clear that some prior coordination will be necessary to ensure meaningful Q&A within the time limit.
As for questions that weren't pre-arranged... well, it seems like they're selecting people who appear reasonably composed, judging by their attire and demeanor.
While the questions aren't quite as precise as the previous ones, there's no sense of off-target inquiries, and Vilijaniela is responding smoothly and without hesitation.
"———!"
And then, abruptly, a woman wearing an out-of-place outfit—who had been raising her hand throughout the question period—suddenly shouted, cutting off the host’s words…
“Ah, uh…”
“Well, it was pretty obvious from her appearance, wasn’t it?”
“Just the natural response, really.”
Before she could say another word, she was swiftly subdued by those around her and escorted out without delay.
The efficiency with which it was done was astonishing—she’d clearly been watched from the start.
And so, perhaps one of them had taken the lesson to heart, for nothing further occurred afterward.
Viljaganiela's lecture concluded without incident.
Then, as if drawing the curtain on the event, Viljaganiela spoke once more.
"No matter the endeavor, understanding the local context is essential. You cannot expect success by imposing things without knowledge. Please, do not forget this."
Whether Vilijaniara's lecture was accepted or well-received, I wouldn't be the one to judge, given that I didn't fully understand its content.
Still, I can honestly say that it ended without any major incidents—something worth expressing openly.
Please understand why I'm not going into details about the lecture's content.
While it's cutting-edge technology from a world far more advanced than our own, it also touches on areas that would be familiar to us today.