Chapter 7, Episode 21: The Days Are Changing
The next morning, I braved the gloomy overcast sky and razor-sharp, icy wind and headed to the security company to review any news and tasks for the day. The first item on my agenda was a package that had been delivered from Serge; Lilian brought it in for me.
“Here you are,” Lilian said as she handed it to me. “It’s my understanding that this is the magical item you ordered, Master Ryoma.”
That said, I’d ordered so many magical items from Serge that her lack of specificity didn’t help narrow it down. Opening the box, I found it to be a pressure cooker, a familiar modern-day kitchen appliance.
“Finally,” I remarked. This was something I had ordered from Dinome, the magical item maker, some time ago. I had been cautioned that this order would take a while, since it presented new challenges to deal with, such as keeping a proper airtight seal and ensuring durability, not to mention all the safety procedures. But now, it was finally mine!
“Couldn’t have come a moment sooner either.” The cold was getting especially bitter now, and I had found myself repeatedly wishing for one of these to have in the kitchen. I had to hand it to Dinome for getting this project done on time in the dead of winter.
“Oh? Master Ryoma, there’s a letter at the bottom of the box.”
“Really? Let me see... Hm, that’s interesting.”
“How so?”
“Hm... It says that he’s never done anything like this before, so he wants me to give some feedback. Also, he wants more of the rubber that I had provided as raw material for the whole project, and a few other things, so he’d like me to stop by for a chat when I have the time. I mean, content-wise, it’s pretty standard, but his writing style is strangely quaint...”
Not to criticize his skill or anything, though. We exchanged letters quite frequently regarding magical items for use in the kitchen. I figured that he couldn’t put anything confidential in a letter like this.
“Doesn’t sound like he wants me there in a hurry, but I think I’ll stop by sometime soon when my schedule allows.”
“Understood. I’ll rearrange our itinerary a bit so you’ll have time for that.”
“Thank you.”
Then came two decently thick piles of paperwork.
“These are reports from the construction department and the city clerk.”
“Right...”
Our construction department was composed of the people working on rezoning the slums, centered around the thirty veterans of the trade whom Zeph had rounded up the day I demolished the first orphanage. Back when I had them help me rebuild the new orphanage, I explained my 3D printer-like magical construction method, and had them focus on the building process. Now I’d split them up into groups of five and get them to train the new hires to aid in the rezoning as foremen and chiefs. I was sure this would be easier on the newer recruits, since they’d sooner take orders from someone who looked to be above them than from a child.
“Things at the construction department are going smoothly; they’re on track to complete the current task on schedule... Right, I’ll get the next site ready. Might be as soon as this afternoon... Now, the city’s been working on guiding and assigning lodging for the homeless. Maybe I should prioritize housing for the city next? We have the land for that, so...”
I sketched up my proposed schedule on a piece of paper, which I’d get both our construction department and someone from the city to review.
Once I get the green light, I’ll demolish the old buildings, prepare the lot, and gather materials for the construction at the same time with magic. Thanks to our division of labor, the rezoning and renovations were moving along quickly. With the winter getting more intense, we could expect ever-increasing levels of cold and frequent precipitation. Those were conditions liable to get people living on the streets killed, so I hoped the workers would manage as many projects as they feasibly could without it affecting their well-being.
“And...there. Go deliver this letter for me, would you? Since there seems to be nothing urgent today, I’ll head over to the Adventurers’ Guild, since I’ve been meaning to go there.”
“Yes, sir.”
And so, out into the cold I stepped, and off to the Adventurers’ Guild I went. Lately, I hadn’t needed to do so much running around the city. Even today, once I was done with my meeting at the Adventurers’ Guild, I was pretty much free until the afternoon, when I’d be working at the construction sites. My workload would more than likely plummet in due time, and I would be able to spend most of my days improving myself through study or training. Not that I was unhappy with that prospect, but I also felt a twinge of sadness knowing that this sudden glut of work and productivity, for whatever it was worth, was going to come to an end...
While pondering over how this may have been the workaholic in me doing the talking, I arrived at the Adventurers’ Guild and opened the front door to the sight of a group of men shouting at each other.
“You wot?!”
“Shut yer damn trap!”
“You got a problem with that?! Wanna go?!”
“Yeah, let’s fight!”
“Them’s fightin’ words!”
Apparently, two groups of six ruffians apiece, one of humans and one of beastkin, were having a disagreement. The few receptionists and male employees of the guild came running out, calling for them to stand down, to no avail. A brawl seemed imminent until...
“QUIET!”
An enraged voice rang out; it belonged to the guildmaster, Worgan. Even over the noise of the crowd, you could pick his voice out instantly.
“Ah, crap.”
“There’s the former S-rank.”
“Hmph...”
The men immediately fell silent.
“Really, gentlemen, where’s the fire in your bellies gone? If there’s something on your weak minds, spit it out,” urged the guildmaster.
“Nothing.”
“We were just having a conversation.”
Men from both groups began muttering excuses; the guildmaster’s scorn had evidently done the trick. It seemed the men were neither brave nor stupid enough to defy the guildmaster, but they still looked visibly disgruntled. They all appeared to be in their twenties.
Worgan answered with a sigh. “I’m going to have you all exclusively do supervised chore quests for a little while. I want to see you all in this guild at this time every day for that.”
“You wot?! We ain’t even taken a job yet!”
“Yeah! You’re not the boss of us! We decide what quests we wanna do!”
Of course, they all complained about that.
“Very well,” the guildmaster answered without hesitation. “If you hate the idea that much, you don’t have to come in tomorrow, or the next day, or ever again! By my authority as guildmaster, your adventurer licenses are now revoked, and you’re all expelled from this guild!”
“Th-That’s not fair!”
“You ain’t playin’ fair!”
“Shut up! That’s my final word. You’d better do some long, hard thinking about all the stunts you’ve pulled by tomorrow. If you still have a problem with it, then don’t bother showing your faces in here again. Now, you’re done for the day, so get your sorry hides home and stay out of trouble.”
The men finally shuffled away under the weight of Worgan’s authority.
“Hm? Oh, hi, Ryoma! Didn’t see you there!” He called out to me with a smile. Naturally, all eyes in the guild were on me.
“Good morning. I just got here.”
“All right. I still have some paperwork to sort out, so I’ll have to ask you to wait a few minutes before our meeting.”
Of course, a guildmaster would have been working with some confidential documents. I told him there was no problem and that I would wait here until I was called. Worgan retreated, and the other employees of the guild returned to their posts. I was thinking of ways to kill a few minutes when I heard some comments coming from the group of human men, accompanied by unabashed staring.
“What’s that kid doing here?”
“How should I know?”
“The hell is this, a playground?”
“Well, he ain’t carrying, but I heard the guildmaster wanted to see him, so he must be an adventurer.”
“Must’ve screwed up somehow. The job’s stopped so he’s not wearing any gear.”
“With the way the guildmaster greeted him? Yeah, right.”
Even the beastkin were grumbling about me.
“They seemed really close.”
“The kid’s wearing good clothes.”
“Maybe he gets all the easy money quests.”
“Nepotism at its finest, I tell ya...”
“And we’re always getting the short end of the stick.”
“No ranking up for us.”
This seemed like a bit of a problem. I had a hunch they had something to do with what I was about to discuss with the guildmaster...
“Ryoma, the guildmaster is ready to see you.” Maylene, the receptionist of the guild who often helped me out, called me in.
“Thank you. I’ll go in now.” I made my way to the guildmaster’s office.
“Sorry for the wait,” Worgan said upon my arrival.
“It’s no problem. I was just watching things unfold.”
Once Worgan gestured for me to sit on the sofa, I obliged and told him about what had happened.
“Right... Those dimwits.”
“I’m not sure if they plan to do anything to me, but I suppose I did leave quite the impression. So, why did you purposely direct your attention to me?”
Unless I was mistaken, Worgan’s face when he greeted me had been shaded with a hint of mischief, and I could see it again when I pointed this out.
“You know why I called you here, right?”
“About cleaning the drains around the city.”
This was the gist of what I had been told so far: It will start to rain and snow heavily in the city for a while, so there’s a quest to clean and check up on all of the drains laid out throughout the city. Some delinquent adventurers will be taking on the quest as punishment, and the guildmaster needed someone he could trust to supervise them. The letter mentioned that he wanted to discuss my role in the quest too.
“You mentioned jobs tomorrow, so I assume those were the adventurers we’re putting to work.”
“Some of them, anyway... I’m sure you’ve heard that the influx of workers in the city’s been causing headaches for us too.”
“Guess you can’t catch a break, huh. Who are those adventurers, anyway?”
“Some rubes from the countryside who got it into their skulls that since they could fight better than anyone else in their little villages, they can’t do wrong in the big city.”
“They definitely have chutzpah. Plus I get the feeling they overestimate their own abilities.”
“They used to take care of nuisance animals in their hometown, so they have some combat experience there. Talent’s not bad. They’d be decent if they’d only check their egos and train hard, but that’s never going to happen at this rate.” The guildmaster sighed. “Sorry, I’m just griping about my job to you.”
“Don’t worry about it, I can lend you an ear anytime.”
Worgan laughed. “In that case, you’ll have to join me in a drink sometime.”
“Deal.”
His expression became stoic again. “Back to business. I’ll be there for the cleaning job too, starting the day after tomorrow, and there’ll be other supervisors on duty, but the work is going to be done by a bunch of rubes just like the ones you saw out there. They do nothing but gripe and start fights. It seems to me that some of them will no doubt try to start something with you under the supes’ noses. So if any of them try to screw with you at any time, you have my permission to give them a proper ass-kicking.”
Wow, uh, didn’t expect that.
“They’ve got it coming to them. We’ve already given them enough verbal warnings. I’m sure a good, solid whack to their bloated egos would do them a bit of good... Adventurers or not, if they keep this up, it’ll land ’em all in the can.”
Worgan looked intimidating on the surface, but cared well for his adventurers. However, it sounded like he was out of patience if they caused trouble again. These certainly didn’t look like the kind of people who’d listen to reason.
“Of course, I can defend myself if it comes to that. Shouldn’t be an issue.”
“Thanks. When we get the chance, that drink’s on my tab.”
After that, we went over the cleaning process and schedule to improve efficiency, considering which drains needed to be cleaned first or which sections would take the longest time.
“Going by the rain and snow records from the last few years, we should be able to get this done pretty quickly,” I noted.
“Yep. We’ve been getting absolutely dumped on in winter lately, drains have been clogging from the trash on the street and flooding the city. I want to get this done before the weather gets really bad, so it’s all down to you and your slimes, Ryoma.”
“That’s what we do. Plus, after all you’ve done for me, this is the least I can do. See you around.” With the meeting wrapped up, I turned to leave.
“Wait a second,” Worgan called. Had I forgotten to mention something? “You got a weapon on you? Not that you’d have trouble taking them on without one.”
I was wearing my suit since the meeting was the only thing on my schedule. It might have looked like I wasn’t wearing any armor or carrying a weapon. “Thank you for your concern, but I’ll be fine.” Reaching for my belt, I grabbed a portion of the buckle and drew my iron slime, which instantly formed itself into a sword.
“In your belt?”
“Back when I lived in the forest, I used to make clothes from the hides of my game, so something like this is pretty easy. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I have been a bit paranoid recently; this was one of my projects.”
In India, there’s a martial art called kalaripayattu which involves the use of a thin and flexible steel sword called an urumi. In China, they used to use a sword in much the same way, sheathing it in their belt. The iron slime formed a relatively soft metal, which wasn’t ideal for ordinary swords, but perfectly suited for turning into an urumi or belt sword because of how flexible it was. With the slime’s Harden skill and my own energy meditation, it could be hardened to use as a normal sword after drawing it from my belt. A very convenient weapon and partner to have with me at all times.
“You were pretty wound up until those people came from the duke’s... Is that bracelet you’ve been wearing on your arm a weapon too? Just thought you were accessorizing, but you started wearing that when things were getting tense.”
Good eye. I had a wire slime on my wrist, disguised as a bracelet, allowing me to use it as a kusari-fundo if need be, using the gem as the weight on the end of the chain. I could also use it as a gauntlet, or even to tie someone down. Another very useful slime.
“Do you have any more on you?”
“No, these are the only two I can use as weapons. I am wearing a blade-proof undershirt and trousers, both made from tough silk. My shoes have a sort of steel toe, made from the hardening solution of a sticky slime.”
I also planned to mass-produce any of these that could be used by any of my new employees as safety measures.
“So you’re pretty much fully geared up in all but looks.”
“Embarrassing as it is, I was kind of a wreck... I’ve calmed down now, but still, may as well use what I have. After all, I still need to watch my back.”
“Well, I do have my concerns...and they’re not about your gear.”
Still, Worgan left it at that.
Once I left the guild, the group of adventurers started tailing me without even trying to hide it, so I lured them into an alley and gave them a proper ass-kicking. I reminded them to show up to the cleaning job the next day and made them get their wounds treated at the security company before letting them go home.
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