HOT NOVEL UPDATES

By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 10 - Chapter 12




Hint: To Play after pausing the player, use this button

Chapter 7, Episode 12: After Playtime, Part 1

The next morning, being finally permitted to return to business as usual after my forced respite, I excitedly commuted down the mountain into Gimul.

“Good morning!” I called out to a guard at the northern gate as he let me into the city, and I ran straight to the slums.

When I arrived at the large, ancient building, I found a crowd gathered nearby.

“Excuse me... Coming through...” I parted through the crowd to find the seven sent to me from the duke, as well as Serge, Arnold, and Lible, leader of the slums. Guards and carriages surrounded them, making them stand out from the rest of the population. I decided to go and greet them.

“Master Ryoma. We still have some time until our appointment, so don’t worry.”

“We just got here early. The kids aren’t ready either.”

Serge and Lible gave me the rundown. The kids Lible mentioned were the children inhabiting the building in front of us; just one of the many dilapidated “orphanages” of the slums, where children without homes all lived together.

“I’m always astonished by how old the building looks,” I remarked. And “old” was putting it kindly.

“Naturally. According to official records, this building was constructed as a storage unit for the materials used to build the rest of the city. As construction continued, the storage units were moved and added on, until the unused units were sold to private owners. Some of them, like this one, have not weathered the sands of time very well.”

The information Arnold gave explained a few things about the building. The stone construction seemed to prioritize sturdiness and utility of space, with little to no curb appeal. There were two entrances each on the front and back of the building, each large enough for a carriage to ride right up to, allowing for efficient loading and unloading of materials. Perhaps out of concern for theft, the doors on those entrances were thick and were adorned with minimal windows. A large wall encircled the building, and there was even a relic of a heavy gate that separated the main grounds from the street. The best thing you could say about the craftsmanship on display here was that the whole thing hadn’t caved in on itself years ago. Of course, it just looked like an abandoned building to me, and one completely unsuitable for housing children at that.

“Lible, come clean with me. As soon as the children are ready and out of the building, we can make sure it’s empty and begin the demolition, right?”

“The faster we do this, the faster you can get to building them their new homes, yeah? We’ll look after them while you’re at it, but speed’s of the essence here. It’d make the kids happier to have a new home sooner rather than later.”

In spite of his stoic look, Lible quite clearly cared about these children. Small wonder why he took me up on my offer and reached out to the owner of the building, as well as people willing to act as foster parents along with the children themselves, just so we could make all this happen. While the main objective of the project was for me to build a trash processing plant and accompanying factories, he made it clear to all parties that lending me assistance would help to improve their living conditions. Without his help, I wouldn’t have been there ready to take down the building.

“Thank you for your help. I’ll make sure things progress quickly until we lay the last brick. You can count on me.”

“Much appreciated. We’ve got a heck of an audience too, so don’t let ’em down.”

“Yes, sir!”

Suddenly, children came pouring out of the buildings.

“Are the workers here to help us?” I asked.

“I rounded up thirty of them. They’re around the corner, waiting for instructions.”

“Thank you.” That would be plenty for day one. “Serge, Lulunese, do you have the—”

“Used clothes for the children? Yes, I have plenty of them loaded onto my carriage. Plus, I just had them washed.”

“The cleaner slimes are loaded onto that carriage. Lilian will ride with the children to show them the ropes, since she’s formed a contract with those slimes and all.”

“Sounds like we’re all set. Thanks again.” I’d asked the three maids to provide a full-body bathing service, courtesy of the cleaner slimes. I was going to get the children cleaned up, then give them the secondhand clothes I asked Serge to get ahold of as a sort of compensation for their efforts.

“The weather’s getting cold, and here they are about to find new homes. This much wouldn’t be too much effort on their parts. Still, I appreciate the thought.”

“Likewise... Why don’t we get started now, then? I know we’re a little ahead of schedule, but I think everything’s ready.”

“Yes, I’d say we’re safe to start.”

There were about fifty children in total gathered at the entrance of the building, with an age range from as young as kindergarten to as old as middle school. The older kids were currently doing a roll call.

“Right, I’ll leave the children with Lible, Serge, and the ladies.”

“Yes, sir,” the girls answered in unison.

“You got it.”

“We’ll handle it.”

And so, Hughes’ team and I made doubly sure there was no one left in the building or in the vicinity using both our regular eyesight and detection magic. After confirming all the children were accounted for, we were finally able to get started.

“I’ll go round up the workers.”

“Oh, Zeph!”

“What is it?”

“Feel free to call over the workers, but don’t start the demolition just yet. I was playing around with some of my slimes, and I made a surprising discovery. It’s just something I want to try out. It’s rather reliable, and if it works, I think it will prove very useful.”


“R-Right.”

“You really do have a thing for slimes.”

“Oh, sorry...” Well, at least I had permission to experiment.

First things first, I made sure that the building was completely empty. While it might have seemed like overkill, you couldn’t be too careful when it came to something like demolition. I stepped off the lot, just to be safe, and produced a large pot from the Dimension Home. Now I was ready.

“Hey, are we starting yet or what?”

“What’s that kid doing?”

“Whatever it is, he’d better hurry it up.”

The workers grumbled to themselves, but it wasn’t bothering me. I chuckled to myself. “Well, we’ve got an audience and all... So I’ll give ’em a real show!” If anything, they were fueling my enthusiasm as I poured magic into the pot.

Apparently, some of the workers were magic users, as their murmuring started including magic lingo.

“That should do it.” I’d spent about a quarter of my magic, and it seemed to be plenty. The contents of the jar, a pile of sand, rose into the air with a whirlwind.

The crowd muttered in astonishment as the sand flew above the building, and floated in the air as a spinning sphere. At this point, I lowered my right hand that I had raised as the sand ascended; the gesture became a cue for the sand and wind to disperse before regrouping in midair and flying downward. A sound that resembled crashing waves rang through the area as the sand flew down to the ground in the blink of an eye.

Then...

“Hey, what just happened?”

“Beats me... I just heard a big noise, and then I saw those lines run down the walls.”

“Lines? Those are scratches.”

“They’re pretty deep. Must be pretty powerful to make scratches that deep in stone, huh?”

“No.”

“What do you mean, no?”

“I can see right into the building, and the other side through the cracks.”

“What?!”

“I’ve got beastkin blood in my veins. My eyes don’t lie to me.”

“So you’re saying...”

“He used magic to...”

“Cut up that building?”

“What the hell...?!”

To be more accurate, I didn’t cut the building but scraped it away. Just like how mountains become ravines due to years of erosion from wind and rain, I used earth magic to loosen the molecular bonds, using the velocity of the wind and sand to scrape away parts of the earth and stone to change them into sand particles. Plus, the first batch of sand already contained a synchronized sand slime, so I had a few more tricks up my sleeve.

“Let’s do this again, and make it a twofer.”

The pile of sand on the ground split into two halves and flew up towards the roof. After two lines were struck onto the sides of the building, a space emerged that did not exist before. The sand I was controlling with sand magic had the sand slime integrated into it. It was both sand and a sand slime together, essentially. The sand slime still had its own free will, to an extent, and could still communicate with me because of our familiar contract. Thanks to these criteria, controlling this spell became easy.

It’s gonna sound weird when I put it like this... But it feels like I’m able to communicate with the sand itself, and it even acts on its own to do what I want it to.

All this also allowed me to cast a spell which didn’t need an incantation, saving me some magic compared to a normal casting. With the skills of the sand slime affecting the sand, there was nothing but upsides to be had with this method.

Controlling the sand with my magic also affected the sand slime. Just like how elemental slimes evolved from magic, giving the sand slime magic allowed it to learn sand magic itself, as well as the Encroachment skill. The sand magic also allowed it to move faster and gave it a greater range of motion. I could even give it my magic to have it cast a spell in my stead. Of particular note to me, however, was how every time I gave the sand slime magic, its skill seemed to be slightly strengthened. I could compare this to the sand slime acting like a staff to support my spell, and me acting like a magic reservoir to it, so we were each providing what the other lacked. This was based on the hypothesis that the sand slime was using its sand by way of magical energy, and it wasn’t like I had used a staff before or anything...

“There!”

After scoring the building vertically at even intervals, I divided each of the two piles of sand into four new groups and began slicing up the walls (though they were more like pillars by now) horizontally. The entirety of the stone-built wall was diced up in less than five minutes, and it all shook the earth as it crashed down, throwing up a dust cloud in the process.

“Bring it in, please. I don’t want the dust to reach the crowd.”

I gave the sand slime my order and some magic to let it handle the tough part while I maintained the spell’s power and range. In response, the sand spread out within the confines of the grounds, turning into a tornado of sand. The dust cloud was immediately sucked into the whirlwind, away from the spectators.

“We’ve done this much already, so let’s wrap it up.”

And so, I concentrated the sandstorm into the size of a two-story building. In just a matter of minutes, the sand carved away the rest of the walls and exterior fence, revealing the wooden support. Strangely enough, this spell was less effective at carving wood than stone, but it was possible if I increased the density and speed accordingly. Seeing that some of the wood was completely rotten, I carved it down to chunks large enough to not get blown away by the wind, and dug the ground down to the foundation.

“There! That should do it.”

The building had now vanished, replaced by the sight of a large sandpit. Now I could see the people who were standing on the other side of the building. Plus, the demolition had managed to stay completely within the controlled area. Flawless victory!

I turned around to face the crowd. I had met most of them before, and the people I didn’t know too well were completely taken aback, while those who knew me better had “you’ve done it again, Ryoma” smirks on their faces. Everyone couldn’t help but look from me to the plot of sand behind me, and back again...



Share This :


COMMENTS

No Comments Yet

Post a new comment

Register or Login