By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 10 - Chapter 17

Chapter 7, Episode 17: The Mass Hiring

One week later.

“Finally, the day has come...”

I gazed out of the top floor of our new security company’s HQ, built in the style of the National Diet Building. Eager day workers were already congregating at the front gate.

Any large project required a lot of preparation. My week had been completely scheduled with laying groundwork and meetings... But today was far from the end of it; in fact, it was only the beginning. I could finally begin my venture!

“Pardon me, Master Ryoma.” Lulunese entered, looking a little frazzled.

“What’s the matter?”

“The team of doctors from the duke’s has arrived. They want you to give them directions.”

It seemed that the medical team had somehow got here earlier than their scheduled arrival that night, or the next day.

“Thank you, I’ll see them now.”

“This way, please.”

She showed me to our newly built meeting room, which was furnished with a respectable set that Serge had picked out. Three young men and two young women awaited me there, and they all rose from the couch as I entered.

“I’m Ryoma Takebayashi. Thank you for coming.”

“Thank you. I am Maflal, son and apprentice to doctor Alaflal. These are my fellow apprentices...”

“Tint Canterri! Nice to meet you!”

“Ector Moncada...”

“Isabelle Rosada.”

“Clarissa Loniarty.”

They all seemed to be in their early twenties appearance-wise, but Maflal was an elf, so I assumed him to be much older than he looked...and he was quite the looker. The other four were all human, so they were likely as old as they appeared. Tint Canterri was the friendly, athletic type, juxtaposed against Ector Moncada, who gave off more of an introverted scholar vibe, which I found to be more relatable. And Isabelle Rosada seemed to be a highly professional doctor’s doctor, while Clarissa Loniarty seemed the gentle nurse type.

“Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to study in the field,” Maflal spoke on their behalf.

“No, thank you!” I answered. “I will no doubt learn a great deal from you all. Pleasure to be working with you.” After this, some uncomfortable silence followed, and I finally clued into the fact that the doctors seemed very nervous about me.

While I was wondering about the reason for their nervousness, Maflal spoke up. “Master Takebayashi, we have been told that you are the apprentice to the famous sage Meria.”

“Oh, that’s why... Yes, you could say that.”

I pulled my status board for the first time in a while, and showed him my title of Sage’s Apprentice; the nervousness among them now seemed to have been substituted with a sort of admiration. I’d been informed these were trustworthy people, and Reinhart must have told them about my title to make things easier for me, since I was even younger than them. However, they were making me a bit uncomfortable with their practically glowing eyes.

“Um, we can drop the formalities if you wouldn’t mind,” I offered.

“Really?!”

“It would make this easier for me. My grandparents may have been famous, but I can’t take any of the credit for them. To me, they were more like adoptive parents than tutors. And as much as I like to talk about how I’ve learned a lot, I’m still an inexperienced kid. I’m certain you’ll be teaching me quite a lot, so please just call me Ryoma.”

“Okay, Ryoma! Then you can call me Tint!”

“With pleasure, Tint,” I obligingly replied. He definitely knew how to project his voice like an athlete. When I asked the remaining four if they were also fine with being on first-name terms, they all agreed.

“The less nonsense I need to worry about, the better...” Ector muttered.

It seems that elite doctors and their apprentices have a complicated relationship. Probably a fair bit of power struggling going on there.

“That reminds me, since this will be your future office, would you care to take a look around? If anything needs changing, I’ll see that it’s fixed.”

They all enthusiastically agreed to this.

I took them to the hospital in the west wing of the security company’s headquarters. On the first floor, there was a reception area, a waiting room, exam rooms, a break room, an operation and prep room, a linen closet, and a pharmacy. The second floor had one bedroom for each of the doctors, as well as a conference room, the nurse station, and beds for patients.

Once I’d given them the grand tour, I asked, “What do you think? I tried to account for everything.”

“This is more than adequate. It far exceeded our expectations.”

“Most of the potions and herbs I use were in stock... There were even some rare ones.”

“Unless it’s some sort of novel or rare disease, we should be well equipped to deal with the majority of patients who come our way.”

“Only real things we’re missing are certain kinds of equipment and the right amount of manpower.”

“That depends on how many patients we’ll get, and our capacity for hospitalizations.”

“For the most part, I’ll have you tend to our employees for injuries in training or in the field, as well as for regular checkups. Talking of hospitalizations, I mostly expect those to involve serious injuries sustained in the field... I’m hardly one to talk, since I built this place, but I hope we won’t have to hospitalize anyone. I’ll just keep an eye on how things go at first, but if time permits, I’m considering making it public knowledge that you’re doctors in training under Alaflal here, so I can gauge whether any patients are willing to come in. It wouldn’t be sensible to sacrifice the quality of care just to accommodate more patients, so I’ll leave that call up to you, Maflal.”

“Thank you for such a wonderful opportunity!”

“I’m looking forward to seeing you all in action. If you’re ever short on manpower or supplies, please tell me right away. I have permits ready to go, so if you have any ideas on how to improve the hospital, then—”

“Ahem,” Lulunese, who had remained quiet this whole time, politely butted in. “Master Ryoma, you are rather strapped for time...”

“Time? Oh, drats!” I totally forgot! “Sorry, but I’m actually supposed to be interviewing new job candidates right now.”

They smiled, offering to my consolation that they had come too early, only because they had rushed the carriage after seeing heavy rain coming today through Maflal’s Forecast skill. I left the five of them with Lulunese, and rushed to the other side of the building that was going to serve as the home base of the security company, where my employees would train and stand by for their shifts. Today, I would be interviewing the applicants I had called for a week prior. But first things first...

“Sorry to keep you waiting!” I entered the room with an apology, being met by Hughes and Jill, Fay and Lilyn from Bamboo Forest, and all the adventurers whom I could trust with training my new employees.

“...And that would be Ryoma,” Hughes said to the rest of them.

“Don’t worry, we heard you were running late,” said Jill.

“We just finished running through the interview process,” Roche said.

“Wanna wrap things up for us, boss?” Howard said.

I had met these two when I volunteered as a tutor for a rookie training session at the Adventurer’s Guild. They were members of the Guiding Light party, now partially retired and focusing on training and supporting the future generation of adventurers. They were also accompanied by the rest of their party—Lucas, Lucy, and Mimir.

“Uh, well, if you’ll allow me to conclude, then... Thank you all for joining me in the venture of my security company.”

“Come on, you’re too stiff. Who do you think we are? This is our city, so of course we’re gonna help,” said Jeff, a B-rank adventurer who was born in the slums and had many friends.

“Indeed. Adventurers should give back to their community. Not to mention, this will be a good avenue to improve our craft,” said Asagi, an A-rank adventurer and samurai.

“Monsters become less active during winter, with a few exceptions,” added Leipin, a monster researcher and mage.

“It helps us to get steady work during this season.”

“There are some quests out there, but not nearly as much as you’ll find the rest of the year.”

“The unpredictable weather only makes for slippery ground.”

“We’re not strapped enough for money to work constantly, but we do want to stay active. Can’t think of a better job to do in the winter!”

These were the four beastkin beauties—Welanna, Mizelia, Cilia, and Miya.

“They’re right. Everybody’s here ’cos they wanna be. Thanking us now is practically an insult,” said Gordon, a dwarf.

“We were all inspired by you to chip in,” exclaimed Sher, who was young but well respected not only among the guild but by most in the city.

They were all people whom I had come to know since arriving in the city, and they were once again ready to help me out.

“I’m just grateful... When I first came to the city, I never expected I’d be here... Uh, but this isn’t about the crime or anything.”

I took a moment to find my words.

“As most of you know, I used to live as a hermit in the forest until last spring, when I met the lovely people who serve the duke. After certain turns of events, I decided to make this city my base of operations. When I first opened my laundry shop, I was just ready to do something new. I could always close the business and go back to the forest, but I didn’t. I was up for the challenge, even though I didn’t have any attachment to this city. After working as an adventurer, traveling some days and participating in events around the city on others... I’ve come to love this place, and the people in it, more than I thought I would. At least, enough so that people actually showed concern for me when I decided I wasn’t going to sit back and just accept what happened to this city when I had my back turned. But I can only do so much alone.”

I couldn’t have laid out all of this groundwork myself. Even if I had forced it through bribery and the influence of my association with Reinhart, I wouldn’t have gotten to where I was now without the help of everyone here.

“I can’t thank you all enough, but let’s not beat around the bush here... Gimul is our city, and we’re gonna take it back ourselves!”

An enthusiastic cheer rang out from the diverse crowd surrounding me. Our plan had finally gotten off the runway, and was ready to soar.