By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 2 - Chapter SS1

Bonus Short Stories

The Seed of Rumors

“Mom! Next door’s being weird!”

At a certain florist’s shop in Gimul Town, a boy came bursting through the door yelling.

“Goodness me, what on earth? Didn’t you go out to play?”

“I did, but next door’s being weird!”

“What do you mean by ‘weird’?”

“Just come and see!”

“If you insist...”

There were no customers in the shop at the moment. Checking the empty lot next door shouldn’t take too long anyway. With that thought in mind, the woman followed her son outside, where a peculiar feeling overcame her.

“...There certainly is something weird.”

“Right?! It’s all clean all of a sudden!”

As far back as she could remember, the space next door had always been an empty lot. An empty lot with the remains of an abandoned building and long, untended weeds.

However, the empty lot she was staring at now vastly differed to the one in her memory. To be specific, other than one section of the building and weeds, it was completely clean.

But there was something else strange about it.

“Did someone clean it up?”

“Maybe, but when could it have happened? It was the same mess as always yesterday.”

When the boy pointed that out, the woman cocked her head and thought about it. She considered the amount of work required to change the building in her memory to the one before her. How many hands would be needed in order to carry that out — and so silently that she didn’t even notice while running a business next door? Weeds aside, the demolition of the building would have required explosives. It was hard to imagine she would miss that from next door.

“...How mysterious.”

It was indeed an unsolved mystery, but it wasn’t as though it caused problems for her store or her family. She should bring it up with her friends in the neighborhood, perhaps someone would know something. She didn’t think about it any further that day as she returned to her own work.

Then, the next day.

She witnessed the work going on with her own eyes, and found out the particulars. It became the topic of conversation between her and her friends visiting the shop.

“Oh, Pauline. About your next door neighbor...”

“It got cleaned up so quickly! What happened?”

“Apparently a new store is setting up there. A young adventurer child was working on it earlier.”

“Oh my, is that so? What kind of store?”

“I wonder who will work there...”

“A laundry service. He gave me this bag and said it would cost just 10 sutes to wash a full bag of clothes.”

“Oh, wow! A bag this size for 10 sutes is quite cheap.”

“But is it safe to use? If it’s that cheap, perhaps the service won’t be so good, or things might be stolen...”

“That’s true... But the child who gave me this bag didn’t seem like a bad person... Though he was a little strange.”

“What was he like?”

“He didn’t seem to be that far in age from my daughter, but his manner of speech was so polite. He said the words ‘my store’ so he’s either a shop assistant or the son of the manager... But he also called himself an adventurer...”

“If he’s the same age as Renny, isn’t that a bit young?”

“Maybe it’s his dream to be an adventurer.”

“About that — he was actually wearing proper armor. And he was also the one who cleaned up the lot. I watched him for a while and he demolished the building at a tremendous speed for someone working all alone. I was shocked... he didn’t look like he had much strength, so his forte must be in magic.”

When Pauline explained the things she’d seen and heard, one of the women remembered something.

“A talented child magician, polite, and an adventurer...”

“What about him?”

“I think I’ve heard of that boy from someone else. Who was it...? Did he have any other notable characteristics?”

“Characteristics? Let me think... Ah, he used slimes to do the weeding. A staggering number of them, too.”

As soon as she heard that, the other woman exclaimed, “I remember! Wasn’t there a huge incident recently? You know, at the north mines.”

“The place that the public office wasn’t maintaining?”

“Yeah, and then goblins started living there because of that. There was even a king goblin, how terrifying, honestly.”

“That’s right! The goblins were exterminated successfully, but there were tales of a child who used a ton of slimes to help out in a big way.”

“He’s that boy? So he is a proper adventurer after all...”

“If the tales are true, then yes.”

“That’s as far as I can remember, but I must have heard this from the housewife living across from us. Her husband’s the one who works as an adventurer. Perhaps I’ll ask them for more details when I get home.”

That was how the slight disturbance stirred the ladies’ interest...

“Pauline, you remember what we discussed yesterday? About that housewife across from us—”

...And continued to be the topic of their discussions the next day.

“That place is being built so fast.”

“It was a barren wasteland just two or three days ago, too.”

The rapid completion of the building even drew the eyes of people passing by.

Eventually, the rumors spread past the shop next door...

“Ma’am, have you heard the story about the laundry service?”

“I’ve heard. They say the building’s complete already.”

“Oh? Wasn’t it just the exterior?”

“The building is just the exterior, but what’s more important is their laundry service! Apparently, they use slimes to do the cleaning!”

“Oh, really? I don’t like the sound of that.”

“That’s what I thought, at first, but my adventurer husband said—”

Unbeknownst to the store owner, the rumors were beginning to spread far and wide...