By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 1 - Chapter 6

Chapter 1 Episode 6: Morning of Departure

The next day.

Hm?

When I woke up in the morning, I noticed something was different about my room. The only source of light in my room was the magic light beside my pillow. It was dimmed so that everything was dark, but I could immediately tell something was off.

There were no ‘things.’

Come to think of it, I packed everything yesterday... I accepted in my head once, before I took a second look and still found it strange. I poured energy into the magic stone to illuminate the room, and found it to be completely empty. While I had packed most of my items away into my Item Box yesterday, I had left the furniture, like the tables, chairs, and shelves.

I didn’t recall breaking them down either. Yet, I couldn’t see them anywhere. In fact, the bed I should have been sleeping on was gone too. What was going on? There’s no way it could have been stolen, right...? That was impossible. If a thief snuck in I would notice, and the slimes would make a fuss too. I let the duke’s party sleep over last night, but I couldn’t imagine them stealing anything.

In the first place, stone furniture made from earth magic couldn’t be worth anything, and what thief would assume there would be anything of value in a cave like this? There were various spoils from my battles, but they were stored away in my Item Box.

All that was left were the slimes...! The slimes! Where were the slimes?!

“Whoa!”

Unable to see the single cleaner slime I normally left in my room, I tried to leap up from my sleeping area when suddenly, my body was enveloped in a floating sensation, followed by an impact and dull pain.

“Wait, huh?”

When I sat my sore body up, my surroundings were dark again. I turned on the light, this time to see my usual room. It was rather bare after all the packing, but the table, chair and other furniture were all there. The impact to my body also seemed to be from falling out of bed...

“Geez, it was just a dream...”

Now that I had calmed down, I could see the lone cleaner slime hanging over the edge of the bed to peer down at me. I could confirm the other slimes were also within the cave still.

Honestly, don’t scare me like that... is what I wanted to say, but in this situation I had no one to say it to. Speaking of which, how long was it until the sun rose? If I recall, yesterday...

“...There it is.”

The clock I received yesterday was still on the table. The clock face was a round and thin metal plate with numbers and two hands attached, set upon a round pedestal with a Y-shaped metal support. The pedestal, support, and clock face were all decorated in a modest but refined way, and with nothing mechanical in sight to suggest the structure of a clock, I had thought it was a mirror when I first unwrapped it. The back of the clock face was so polished, it really could have passed for a mirror.

The clock face itself had the numbers 1 to 12 positioned just like on Earth. One rotation was 12 hours, and two was 24 hours — a full day. And one hour was made of 60 minutes. In other words, it could be read in the same way as on Earth, which made things easy.

However, when I watched it carefully, it seemed like the length of one minute in this world was slightly different to one minute on Earth. Well, the length of a day in this world had never bothered me from the beginning, although that may be due to my relaxed schedule these past three years ruining my body clock...

Either way, when I checked the clock, it said it was currently 5:30. This clock couldn’t tell morning and afternoon apart, but it was obviously morning. I would have overslept by a lot if it was afternoon. There was time for a second sleep if I wanted, but I didn’t feel like it. As I was thinking that, I heard muffled footsteps from deeper within the house.

“Sebas...?”

“Good morning, Master Ryoma.”

I turned my eyes towards the direction of the sound to find the duke’s butler, Sebas, walking this way.

“Is something the matter?”

“I heard a strange sound earlier, followed by light leaking into the corridor.”

It seemed like he had heard my great fall out of bed.

“Did I... wake you?”

“No, we servants are normally up and about at this hour. Araune and Lilian are awake too. Though the other still seem to be sleeping.”

“I see...”

The sun was about to rise, so I guess I’d go get water from the river. There was no point waiting around idly, but it’d also be disruptive if I went about doing things.

When I told that to Sebas, he said he could create it with water magic, so I told him he could use the bathroom and kitchen as he wished before I left the house for some light training and a walk before we left.

“Phew.”

After stepping outside, the tranquil morning air of the forest brushed against my skin, filling my lungs with every breath. The chill was comforting as the sun started to rise from the distant sky. It was bright enough outside that no lights were needed to walk around. Stepping through the grass covered in morning dew, I strolled down the familiar path leisurely. Who knew how many times I had made my way back and forth to the river down this path... As I was immersed in my thoughts, I suddenly realized something.

The room in that dream had been from when I first came to this world. There were some parts I couldn’t remember clearly, but there were no drawings on the wall or the corridor that led further inside in my dream. When I first arrived, I repeatedly went from digging my house, to securing food, to fetching water... now I remembered. It was right around the time of that dream where my continuous digging had finally created enough space for me to live in. That was when — that’s right, it was here.

Before my eyes, the river I always fetched water from flowed by as usual. Its depth went from my ankles to my knees in the deep areas. While it wasn’t very deep, its great width made the calming sound of flowing water constant.

“Rock.”

I made a water jug with earth magic.

Since becoming more familiar with water magic, the number of days I made do with magic increased, but in the beginning I came here to fetch water every day. I also washed my body, did the laundry, and trained by the riverside, so I spent most of my time either at home or here. On the morning when my home was done, I had also come here to fetch water... and picked up a slime that had been washed down the river. It wasn’t the first time I had seen a slime letting itself be carried by the flow of the river, but on that day it had been close enough for me to reach. That’s why I scooped it up in my water jug, then brought it home and tamed it on a whim.

The foundation of taming magic, the Taming Contract was formed by spinning magic energy into a thread and using it to connect the tamer and the monster. Once the contract had been formed, a certain level of mutual understanding would be achieved, allowing for orders to be followed and a sense of location to be gained. However, the first time I formed a contract, the indistinct emotion I could feel from the slime could only be described as ‘fear.’ Watching the slime tremble made me decide to name it ‘Tabuchi.’ Because my first impression of it was very similar to the first time I met my former subordinate of that name.

The slime Tabuchi was slow at moving at first, weakened by flowing down the river. Even if I reached my hand out, it would just shake without trying to flee. When I tried to feed it live green caterpillars, two of every five would outrun it and escape. When it approached the river to drink, it would get washed away by the water... On that day, I finally understood the reason why slimes came floating down the river.

After that, I fed it and trained it. Once it evolved, I repeatedly conducted experiments until arriving at today. It sure brought back memories... Tabuchi was no longer here, unfortunately, but I still had his core.

...Speaking of the good ol’ days, I wonder what the human Tabuchi was doing now? He had been a rather chubby man, an otaku who entered the company after me as a new graduate. From the moment I met him as his more experienced instructor, he trembled at the sight of my previous life’s physique. He was pretty bad at socializing too, though I wasn’t one to talk. But he was never late, and if I explained what he needed to do and how to do it then he would. If he messed up, he felt remorse, though whether he could express that well or not was a different matter.

As two people with the same otaku hobbies, we had lots to talk about, even though we were from different generations. He had difficulties being a team player, but he had fixed that before I died. His work was more than satisfactory, so I hoped he was able to quit that company and find employment elsewhere already... Looking back on it now, he had been quite a handful to deal with, but he was one of the good subordinates that I had. I wouldn’t have named a slime after him otherwise, after all. Remembering the other good-for-nothing bosses and subordinates wasn’t exactly pleasant.

Although now the numbers of slimes had increased so much, I no longer named them. I could still single out an individual if needed. The effects of the contract were very convenient.

“Oops, what time is it?”

That was a long trip down memory lane. Light was reflecting off the water surface into my eyes, and my surroundings were much brighter now too. The training I was going to do... No, I had plans. It would be better to return. I filled the water jug I had abandoned after creating and lifted it on my shoulder to carry back.

When I returned, Jill and Zeph were standing before the house, looking rather surprised at the sight of me carrying a water jug taller than myself. I greeted them then went inside to find the time was 7. Quite some time had passed after all... Oops.

“You’re back, Ryoma. Good morning.”

Reinhart came out of the inner room.

“Good morning.”

“Are you all prepared?”

“Not a... problem.”

“That’s good to hear.”

After that, I was invited to breakfast, so I fed the slimes their food while waiting. Once it was time for breakfast, I ate together with the ducal house, then gathered my slimes and went outside. After sealing the entrance with earth magic... Everything was all locked up.

Now... It was time for a new journey!

I wrapped up my fond memories of the last three years and turned back. The 11 people who would accompany me on my journey were waiting.

“Ready?”

“Yes, let’s go.”

“Then let’s get going.”

“All right! Off we go! Young Miss, Ryoma. If you need anything, just speak up!”

Hughes took the lead with everyone walking behind, as I took my first step towards something new.