By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 11 - Chapter 3

Chapter 7, Episode 23: With the Delinquent Adventurers

One little greeting was all it took for the team of delinquent adventurers waiting before the guild to line up single file in a perfect salute. Naturally, such a display in the middle of the city garnered the attention of all passersby. Their gazes boring into me, I hurried over to Darson’s establishment with my lackeys in tow.

“Good morning!” I called out to Darson, who was shoveling snow out front as we arrived.

“There you are. Come on in.”

Darson planted his shovel in a mound of snow and let us in.

“Darson, could we take a look at your merchandise?”

“Be my guest.”

“Thank you.” I turned to the adventurers. “Please pick out a weapon of your choice. Handle them with care.”

“Yes, Boss!”

“And be quiet.”

“Yes, Boss,” they answered, slightly less loudly. I was never going to get used to this...

Then, Darson called from behind the counter. “They’re those slacker adventurers I’ve been hearing about? Worgan told me what’s up. Looks like you’re handling them pretty well.”

“Do you think so? They don’t fight me on things, at least.”

“Those wannabe rebels just do what they’re told; that’s enough of an accomplishment. They’re even calling you ‘Boss.’”

“I feel like I’ve just scared them into submission. And they apparently think I’m older than them... Some races don’t look like their age, right?”

“I think I get it. You’re not exactly childlike. More of a geezer, if I had to pick.”

“What?!” Me?! My youthful eleven-year-old self...?! I guess my gut reaction aged me in and of itself. With the mind of a middle-aged man, I couldn’t put my whole heart into denying this assessment.

“Why are you giving those guys weapons? You’re paying for them, right?”

“I ruined all of their weapons on our first day working together.”

That day, I had lured them into a deserted alley when they picked a fight with me. I had mercilessly defeated them as instructed by the guildmaster.

“I kind of egged them on. A lot.”

At first, I was taking care of them hand to hand, but they were more stubborn than I had expected. Worse still, they gave me dumb excuses like “I was just going easy on you.” So, I kept casting healing magic on them to fight them over and over, crushing their excuses one at a time.

“Eventually, I made them use their weapons...and they got broken. Those were their property and tools to earn their livelihood. Even though they started our skirmish, I encouraged them to use their weapons, and they ended up breaking, so I think it’s right that I replace them.”

“Did you need to come with them, though? Most people would just hand them some cash.”

“There’s something I wanted to see.”

“Wanted to see?”

“It seemed like many of their weapons weren’t the best fit for them. For example...” I spotted one of them who had just picked out a greatsword.

“Beno.”

“Yes, Boss! What can I do for you?”

“That’s very similar to the sword you had.”

“Oh, yes. I figured I’d try to find one like my old one.”

“Can you show me your stance, please? No need to swing the sword.”

Looking a little confused, Beno complied. The tip of his sword, however, was slightly quivering from its own weight. I remembered him looking like he was being swung by his sword during our previous skirmish.

“Gotcha. This isn’t the sword for your body type. I recommended picking a lighter greatsword, switching to a longsword that you could still swing with both hands or a blunt weapon that weighs the same. If you really want to use a sword this weight, you better put on a little more muscle, first,” Darson explained.

“There you have it,” I chimed in.

“Really?”

“Darson is an expert on weapons, and an adventurer giant who walked before you. He was once an S-rank, after all. He worked with the current guildmaster Worgan.”

All dozen of the young adventurers turned at us in surprise, apparently learning Darson’s impressive background for the first time.

“I haven’t been S-rank for a long time,” Darson answered. “That doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m talking about. If you can’t keep your sword straight, it won’t cut. Regardless of size. But you’re far from the only rookie who needs to hear this.”

“Is there a special reason why you chose the greatsword?” I asked.

“Not really... I’d only been using it because I found an old one in a dusty shed back home.”

“In that case, I recommend changing your weapon now. It’s your choice to make since it’ll affect your life and livelihood. And make sure to take the guild’s training. Knowing one thing about how to use your weapon could save your life.”

“Y-Yes, sir.”

At Darson’s advice, he began looking at swords suited for single- and two-handed use, as well as war hammers and the like.

“Excuse me, Boss. I’m good at carving up game, so I’ve been using a hunting knife as my weapon in combat as well. What do you think?” One of the others came over.

I advised him on what I could tell, and had Darson chime in with his expertise. Before I knew it, we had gone through all of the adventurers to help them pick out their new weapons.

“Everyone is confident in their choice, now?”

“Yes, Boss!”

“Can we check out, please, Darson?”

“Yeah. Give me a sec.”

Darson quickly calculated our total, and I handed over the cash. With our shopping trip coming to an end, the adventurers quickly became sulky.

Darson asked, “What’s with the long faces all of a sudden?”

“Must be because we’re about to test their new weapons and get in some training.” They would have to grow accustomed to their new weapons, of course. After this, we would head to the security company and continue training in an unused spot on the premises. For their training, however, they would use a metal slime shaped and weighted to resemble their weapons as closely as possible. That way, they wouldn’t have to worry about damaging their new weapons. I could always tend to their wounds with healing magic, and the company even held its own infirmary where they could be immediately treated if need be.

“Of course, I wouldn’t go as far as I did when you picked that fight with me. No need to be so scared. Where’s your spirit of rebellion you showed me that day? It’s not like you’re going to die. How can you let a defeat or two break your spirit?”

“Yes, Boss...”

“Well... In a sense, what happened the other day was inevitable. I may not look it, but I have probably been training for much longer than you think I have and had a proper teacher back in the day... Aren’t you mad that you can’t beat a little kid like me?!”

“W-We are!”

“Then try to kill me today!”

“Yes, Boss!”

“I can’t hear you!”

“Y-Yes, Boss!”

“Good!” I turned back to Darson. “We should get going, then. Thank you for your help. Everyone?”

“Thank you!”

“R-Right. Keep up the good work, huh?”

Maybe the forced ignition of their morale was a mistake. Feeling like Darson was getting the wrong idea about me, we began to make our way out of his shop.

“Ryoma, you might have a knack for leading guys like them,” Darson muttered from behind me. Did I really seem like some kind of mob boss?

■ ■ ■

When afternoon rolled around, the delinquent adventurers were sprawled all over the courtyard of the security company.

“Come on, hang in there...”

“You alive...?”

“I think so...”

The twelve of them were laid out prone and unable to move a muscle. There was nothing wrong with their skill; I just ended up pushing them to the breaking point. I always held my strikes before they landed, so no one was injured. I kept my word that they would be in better shape than they were before.

“Even when you thought you reached your limit, you still had some energy in you when you were cornered, didn’t you? Now, you’ve reached your true limit, I think. It may serve you well to remember this feeling. If you end up this way on the job, the only fate that awaits you is death. An ordinary child my age could easily finish all of you off. Or a wild animal could tear into you. My point being, you need to win the battle or make your way to a safe location before you reach this state, and preferably before you’re unable to perform at your best.”

“Yes, Boss...” they squeaked out. They’d be just fine.

This brought me back... My dad, although he must have been going easy on me by his own definition, had never hesitated to actually hit me with his wooden sword or straight-up kick me. He would usually beat me down until I passed out too. I was an angel of a trainer compared to him.

The pile of adventurers would get in the way of the afternoon security training, so I employed the healing magic I had just learned from Maflal the other day. “Energy Charge.”

“Huh...?!”

“How do you feel? A little better?”

“Y-Yes, Boss.”

Looked like the spell was a success. I was told this spell had the effect of healing someone’s stamina, but I personally thought of it as converting magical energy to physical strength. The foundation of the spell was the Heal spell and its derivatives that I had cast numerous times before. According to Maflal, while Heal spells were primarily used to close and heal wounds, they had a secondary effect of restoring the patient’s stamina. Energy Charge was specialized to heal as much stamina as possible, in exchange for not healing any wounds. While it couldn’t treat any injuries, it was useful for exhausted patients or as a form of life support. While healing magic was generally considered to be ineffective in treating illnesses, restoring physical stamina could aid the patient in their treatment. My particular application of the spell seemed a bit inappropriate considering its noble purpose, but these adventurers had earned a little helping hand.

Once I cast the spell on everyone, they could all stand and walk, no problem.

“Your attention, please,” I called. “You shouldn’t have suffered any injuries from my strikes, but you may have some scrapes and bruises from falling. Just to be safe, I would like you all to receive treatment at the infirmary. In the meantime, I’ll prepare lunch. Better late than never, right? Let’s meet at the dining hall after your treatments.”

The group roared in excitement, like a high school football team. These delinquent newbies, after all, were high school age, in their late teens. I had only guessed them to be college aged because their physiques seemed well built for their years.

Having just put a dozen hungry high schoolers through the wringer, I could see they were definitely in need of a good meal. After watching them march on to the infirmary within the security company, I rushed to the kitchen. I also acquired the help of a few cooks who had shown interest in brand new recipes and the pressure cooker, so they were happy to help me out during their break.

Before we even knew it, starving boys entered the dining hall, so we quickly served them.

“Whoa!”

“That’s a lot of food...”

“We can eat this?!”

“Yes. You all worked hard today, so please help yourselves.”

Today’s lunch consisted of bread, sausage vegetable soup, a cluster of boiled root vegetables, steamed and marinated pumpkin, and sprint rabbit stew. The bread and soup were left over from the lunch of the security employees, since I wanted to add something nutritious and filling that’d benefit young people like themselves. As for the sprint rabbit stew, I just wanted to experiment to see if I could use the pressure cooker to soften the meat.

I reiterated for them to eat as much as they wanted, and they promptly moved the contents of the pots to their dishes, and then into their stomachs. I watched, a bit taken aback by their ferocity, and they gradually began to settle at the table, starting to converse with their tablemates.

“This boiled potato...didn’t we have something like this back in the village? Tastes a bit different, though.”

“That’s why it felt so nostalgic.”

“Pumpka... We grew them on our farm too...”

“It feels too good to be true, eating this much bread. We only ever had wheat in porridge back in our village.”

“Same with mine. Aren’t most farming villages like that?”

“It cost too much money and energy to mill the wheat anyway. The only bread we’d make would be really hard so we could store it over the winter.”

“Come to think of it, soft bread was a rare treat for going out into the city...”

“Just taste this meat. Talk about a treat. Not bad for winter.”

“Right, I usually only have sausages, dried or pickled meat.”

“Yeah.”

“So, where are you all from?” I asked. “Do they have any specialty food or dishes?”

“Just a normal farming village. We eat a lot of wheat porridge and boiled potatoes.”

“Our village, or region, specializes in potatoes, and we have this potato noodle. It’s nothing special, though. Wheat just cost so much so we mix in powdered potatoes to bump the portions.”

This piqued my interest, so I asked him to elaborate. It seemed like a dish close to some udon dishes I knew of in Japan, where they used potato starch in the noodles.

We continued eating as they told me more about dishes from their home villages, until...

“I-I can’t move...”

Most of the food had disappeared from the table. I contributed, but I only ate a single serving.

“Now that was a feast.”

“It’s been so long since I had good food. Now I’m stuffed...”

“I haven’t been this full in a while.”

The boys laughed, rubbing their guts in satisfaction.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it. Can I invite you over for a meal again sometime?”

“You would?!”

I warned them that I’d probably serve them test recipes or leftovers, and they were still ecstatic. Life in the city seemed to be tough for some of them.

“It has to be a big change from your villages,” I supposed.

“It sure is, Boss!”

“It felt so right when I left the village, promising to make a name for myself.”

“Didn’t go that easy once we made it to the city.”

After having a full meal, they were more open to sharing their honest feelings with me. As I had expected, moving out of your parents’ house and into the big city was a big change in any world. In the farmlands, a good portion of the population was illiterate and only traded with proper currency maybe a few times each year, almost always bartering for goods or helping each other out in the village. They were not good at dealing with or using money, even if they weren’t trying to overspend. Their inexperience with money forced them to cut back on their lifestyle, and the disparity between their vision of the big city and its reality chipped away at their confidence and pride they brought with them from their village. As their attitudes started to worsen, the city folk showed them no pity. The fear of isolation in the big city brought all of these boys together. With the small comfort of their kindred spirits, they fell into the downward spiral of acting out in attempts to restore their pride only to worsen their position in the city.

“You’ve been kind to us, Boss.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Well, you do tell us how it is, and also beat us up, but I mean...”

“He doesn’t scold us like the people at the guild do.”

“That’s it! That’s what I’m trying to say.”

“Well... I haven’t figured out life enough to tell people what to do.” In a different way than these boys had, I know I had made some mistakes. “And you’ve already been told what’s acceptable and not, haven’t you? From the guildmaster, for example.”

“Well, yeah.”

“Then there’s nothing more I can add. I’m sure all you know what you did wrong and have remorse for it deep down.”

Despite their troublemaking, they were pretty straightforward. When I asked if they knew what they did wrong, all of them tried to avoid my eyes and kept quiet. That was enough to tell me that they did have remorse. Those who really didn’t know what they did wrong would have given me surprised looks like they couldn’t comprehend what I said, or fake a remorseful look while believing wholeheartedly that they had done nothing wrong. I was never too good at reading people, but I had worked with the unremorseful for years in my previous life. Something told me that these boys were not the type. Their wounded pride drove them to make trouble, but they knew they were misbehaving, and felt bad for it. Compared to the team I had to work with on Earth, they were much more likable.

“If you try to cause trouble in front of me, I’ll stop you. By force, if I have to. If you want advice, I’ll give it to the best of my ability. But at the end of the day, you have to make decisions for yourself. ‘Scolding’ just doesn’t sound right... Personally, I would like to see all of you make a fresh start. It can take courage to admit what you’ve done wrong and change your attitude, but you can still start fresh. All of you.”

“Start fresh...” someone incredulously muttered. I turned to him. He must not have meant for me to hear him, but he reluctantly spoke when he saw that I noticed. “We caused so much trouble here. Do you really believe that?”

My answer was yes. “You won’t mend the trust you’ve broken right away, and even when you clean up your acts, people will treat you harshly at first. But as long as you keep it up... People who can’t start over are people who feel no remorse for hurting people. I don’t know if it’s in their nature, or if it’s nurtured through the force of habit. As long as you feel sorry for the things you have done, you can still start again.”

Of course, the best choice would have been to never do these things in the first place, but changing their behavior now was much better than letting it continue on that spiral. A thoughtful silence filled the dining room. Once their stomachs had settled, the boys told me they were going home.

I walked them out to the front gate of the security company. “Be careful walking home. And even though you’ve been healed with magic, your bodies have gone through a lot. Get some good rest. I’ll see you at work.”

“Yes, Boss!”

“Thank you for our weapons, food, and training, Boss!”

“Thank you, Boss!”

I chuckled. “Just so we’re clear, don’t you dare use those weapons to commit crime. If you do...” I would feel some responsibility as the one who bought them those weapons. If they were to injure or kill an innocent person with those weapons... “The least I could do in recompense would be to end your life with my own hands...”

“We would never!”

“I’m kidding. You wouldn’t do that, I trust you guys.”

“Y-You were joking?”

“That was brutal...”

“It didn’t sound like he was joking...”

With a chuckle, I waved the boys off.

“I guess I should go to church.” Things had gotten so busy since my initial return to Gimul that I hadn’t seen them in a while. It was time. “What should I start with... There’s so much to talk about...” Musing out loud, I made my way to the familiar church.