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By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 27




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Chapter 2 Episode 27: A Fun and Busy Banquet

When the duke’s family finally arrived, Ryoma led the twenty-nine guests inside.

“The employee area is past this point, so customers generally wouldn’t be allowed inside. Employees have a changing room, parlor, offices, a break room, and a bathroom. There’s also a small kitchen.”

“Mind if we take a little look around?”

“Go ahead,” Ryoma said and went through each room with the other twenty-nine following behind him. They were like the tourists in his previous world. They ended with the break room, after which he headed off to finish cooking and had them wait in the break room for a while.

As an aside, this was when Ryoma finally realized that he had called the duke’s family, people of high status, for a personal gathering, an act that stretched the bounds of reason. He planned this gathering as thanks to them for all their help, and out of a yearning for the positive relationships he never had in his previous world, but after he reflected on the situation in the kitchen, he felt it may have been a hasty decision. Most of the adventurers were of a high rank too, but they didn’t mind as much as Ryoma thought. Those who he left waiting were nervous, but calmly chatted with one another.

■ ■ ■

About ten minutes later, Welanna suddenly began to look antsy.

“Welanna? Something wrong?”

“I don’t know what it is, probably Ryoma’s cooking, but something smells delicious,” Welanna said, provoking everyone to sniff the air, but nobody else noticed the odor except the other three beastkin and Asagi the dragonewt.

“Meow?! Now that you mention it, something smells tasty!”

“You’re right.”

“I don’t smell a thing.”

“It’s probably a bit faint for human noses. Maybe only beastkin can smell it.”

“No, I notice it as well. Might this be meat? Fragrant bread, perhaps? Either way, it smells scrumptious.”

“That reminds me, Ryoma’s cooking is pretty good.”

“Is that so, Lord Reinhart?”

“Yes, he’s clever with even a small number of ingredients. His rabbit saute with giger root was delicious.”

“Master Ryoma does have Housekeeping Level 10, impressive for his age. I’m looking forward to this.”

“10 at his age is pretty good, yeah. Even with skills that are easy to level up, few people get that far before the age of 40.”

Five minutes later, Ryoma returned.

“Sorry about the wait. The food’s ready.”

“Oh meow, finally!”

“Took long enough! You’ve been making us wait here with nothing but that smell. You know how painful that was?”

“Oh, you smelled it? I put up an anti-odor barrier, though. Maybe it wore off before I finished.”

“Nevermind that. Food, please.”

“Understood.”

“Allow us to help,” Sebas, Araune, and Lilian said. Ryoma thanked them, and they all brought the dishes out together. For drinks, Ryoma ordered a slime to carry them over. Ryoma’s slimes behaved differently from the average slime, but Taylor and the five members of the Merchant’s Guild knew nothing of this, so they were shocked. The others explained to them.

In the meantime, more food and drinks were brought out. Once that was finished, Ryoma called for a toast.

“Ahem, thank you all for coming to celebrate the opening of my store. It’s nothing special, but I prepared plenty of food for everyone. Enjoy the meal. Cheers!”

“Cheers!” everyone shouted back. They all drank their alcohol at once, then Gordon loudly cheered.

“The hell’s this booze? Quality stuff!”

“It’s for a celebration, so I decided to splurge a bit.”

“What is it, exactly?”

“The owner of the liquor store said it’s called Jemis Fountain,” Ryoma answered. Gordon looked at his glass and grinned.

“Jemis Fountain?! I heard it was good, but never drank it before.”

“Really?”

“You bought it without knowing what it is? Every alcohol fanatic knows that Jemis Fountain’s world-class booze.”

“I had no idea. I only bought it because the liquor store owner recommended it.”

“What luck. Jemis Fountain’s relatively affordable, but it’s got so many fans that it sells out right quick.”

“I see, so I got lucky― Oh!”

“Is something the matter?”

“No, I just realized why I was able to get such good alcohol.”

“There’s a specific reason?”

“Yes, I was blessed by Tekun, the God of Wine.”

“What?! Really?!”

“For real, kid?!” Ryoma’s explanation got a big reaction out of Gordon and Pioro.

“Y-Yes, it’s true. Why do you ask?”

“I’m jealous.”

“So, so jealous!”

“Tekun’s blessing is the kind of thing dwarfs dreams of. Particularly the Protection of the God of Wine.”

“Not the Protection of the Craft God?”

“Look, I’m an adventurer, so getting better at blacksmithing doesn’t help me much. Besides, any blacksmith who has to ask a god for help is a failure of a blacksmith. Skill’s something you have to work for. But every dwarf would love to have good drinks on hand, so we’d all want the Protection of the God of Wine. Getting ahold of good booze just isn’t always possible through hard work alone. Only thing that gets you over that barrier is the God of Wine’s blessing,” Gordon answered. Ryoma saw his point, so next he asked Pioro a question.

“I see, but Pioro, you love alcohol too?”

“Wouldn’t say I hate it, but I’m more jealous from a merchant’s point of view, to be honest with you. Haven’t told you this before, but my company mainly deals in food and drink, so I envy how you can easily get good alcohol.”

“Interesting,” Ryoma replied.

“Ryoma,” Welanna interjected.

“What?”

“I want seconds.”

“That was fast! You’re done already?!”

“Ryoma, me too.”

“Me three.”

“Me four.”

“Jeff, Hughes, even the Guildmas― I mean, Worgan? You all eat fast.”

“Your food’s tasty. I’ve never eaten anything so good before.”

“Really? Hearing that makes cooking all worth it, I guess.”

“I agree with her. When you get to be my age, your jaw’s not as strong as it used to be. The meat they serve in restaurants around town is too tough for me to chew through, but the meat in this pasta is easy to eat. Even this steak is soft. I haven’t been able to eat meat like this in ages. I’m glad I came here today.”

“And I’m glad you like it. Eat to your heart’s content,” Ryoma said, then got seconds for the four of them and returned to the room. By then, Mizelia, Miya, Reinhart, and Asagi licked their plates clean and ordered seconds as well.


“You too, Reinhart? I’m glad it was to your liking.”

“Haha, I’m sure I would enjoy anything you cook.”

“Really? I’d think you eat better at your parties― Is something wrong?” Ryoma asked, noticing the light in Reinhart’s eyes darken.

“Ryoma, let me teach you something.”

“Y-Yes?”

“Expensive food isn’t necessarily good. When nobles hold parties, the importance of flavor is superseded by extravagance and rarity. We all have different tastes, of course, and when you’re serving one or two people, you can simply offer up meals to their liking. But when you have a large group, that’s impossible. Even so, the host wants to please as many guests as possible. That’s when you resort to elusive and high-grade ingredients, to show how much you care for your guests. It’s always been the safest option.”

“In exchange, you often end up with food that goes overboard on the spices, though.”

“The chefs work hard to cook it, but it’s ruined by the nobles who order it. It’s edible, but not something I would ever eat regularly. The flavor is bad enough, but it’s also too rich for someone my age. In that regard, your cooking is perfect.”

“Your cooking’s a safe bet, Ryoma.”

“I’m glad you like it, but there’s also dessert after this, so leave room for that,” Ryoma said. He had his doubts as to whether sacrificing flavor for expensive ingredients was sensible, but accepted it as standard for aristocratic parties in this country and decided to think about it no further. The calls for more food didn’t wane, with everyone asking at least once, and Welanna and Jeff requesting another plate four times each. Ryoma cocked his head, wondering how all that food fit in their stomachs.

When the apple pie and tea were brought out, the guests’ eyes lit up. That was not simply thanks to the flavor, but because it included honey, a pricey ingredient. This satisfied everyone, and it was particularly popular with the women.

“Mm, I’m stuffed! Today was a purrfect day.”

“I’m glad you all enjoyed it, but I’m surprised you ate so much. Especially you, Jeff, how do you have room for so much food?”

“Huh? I’ve still got room for more. I’ve got the Food Storage skill, you see.”

“What’s that do?”

“You don’t know? It lets you eat a ton at once, then go days without eating anything. You can learn the skill by trying it over and over, apparently. Back when I first became an adventurer, I spent most of my earnings on food and ate gigantic meals, so I picked it up naturally.”

“Jeff’s got that and a bunch of resistance skills from living in the slums. That’s why he’s purretty famous for taking lots of brutal jobs that most adventurers can’t.”

“That’s impressive, Jeff.”

“I pick relatively good jobs, that’s all. I’m nothing special. Like, if you wanted to do what I do, I bet you could. You got some resistance skills that I don’t, yeah? Interested in taking a job alongside me sometime? You could probably handle some tough ones.”

“I’d be happy to try that one day.”

“If you and Jeff teamed up, the guild would sure appreciate it,” Worgan interjected. “Nobody else can keep up with Jeff, so he’s always taking jobs by himself. But there are some jobs that only groups are allowed to take. He’s never been able to touch those ones.”

“What kind of jobs are those?”

“So there was this C-Rank job that involved mining this ore called blazing ore from a volcano, right? You’d need Stench Resistance to have a decent time with that one. Traveling and mining take a long time for this job, and you’ve got the smell of rotten eggs all around you the whole time you’re in this volcano. The whole volcano’s full of some mild poison too, and certain parts of it could be deadly to some folks.”

“There’s poison in a volcano? Mild poison does things like make your eyes swell and tear up, while strong poison can cause breathing complications, is that correct?”

“Yeah, you got it. You know about this stuff?”

“I have some passing knowledge of poison, not much more than that.”

“Well, that’s helpful knowledge for an adventurer to have. Know what you should do about poison? Any medicine that cures it?”

Ryoma thought for a bit, but he knew nothing about this world’s medicine and had no assurance that Earth’s medicine could be created here.

“Sadly, I don’t know, but I believe there’s poison in the smoke and air that erupts from volcanoes. Maybe you could surround yourself in wind magic to protect yourself.”

“Oh? Sounds like the old lady who taught you about poison and medicine knew her stuff. I’ve been the guildmaster for years, but poison and disease always took me by surprise. Still do.”

Somewhat shocked to hear that, Ryoma laughed and remarked on how unbelievable an individual he was, then decided to talk to Carme and Carla.

“Carme, Carla, how was the food?”

“It was delicious,” they both said.

“That’s good. By the way, I appreciate that you’re working here, but are you sure you want to? Like I said in the store, I don’t think you’ll have the chance to make use of your talents here.”

“I was just discussing that with my brother.”

“Please do allow us to work here.”

“Huh, did something happen? You don’t sound as hesitant anymore,” Ryoma said. The twins spoke with confidence in a way they didn’t when they visited the store. The difference was stark enough for Ryoma to notice.

“That was a shameful display we gave you earlier. After seeing you and your store in person, we rethought matters.”

“We had great concerns at first, but the tools and the business you’ve constructed have much we can learn from.”

“You sure changed your minds quickly.”

“Master Ryoma, your youth means you have the capacity to absorb things more flexibly. I could have introduced you to someone with more skill or experience, but I chose these two for their flexibility.”

“We hope to neither bring shame to the Morgan Trading Company nor the Takebayashi family. We will do what we can!” the twins declared. Ryoma looked at them and felt they were similar to Serge.

“Thanks, it’ll help to have someone with more business knowledge around. I have no complaints. It’s a pleasure to work with you.”

“OK!” The twins replied with big smiles. Serge watched them with satisfaction.

“But don’t push yourselves too hard. Just treat it like any old job. The Morgan Trading Company is one thing, but you don’t need to think about my family.”

“No, it’s natural to work with that in mind. Even the slightest damage to your reputation would quickly spread among the nobles.”

“Huh? Do they talk about every new store that opens, Carme?”

“Most of them keep an eye on the actions of other families, I presume. I believe my sister is right.”

“Other families? Do you two happen to think I’m a noble?”

“Are you not? We heard you had connections with the duke’s family,” both the twins said.

“I do, as you can see, but we only met through happenstance. I’m not a noble. Serge?”

“Sorry, I don’t think I was ever clear to them about that,” Serge admitted. Ryoma and the twins finally realized the misunderstanding between them and began to talk it through. Meanwhile, another group was watching them and chatting from nearby.

“Hey, hag.”

“What do you want, clod?”

“You think Ryoma’s place is gonna be that profitable? It’s a pretty strange sort of store.”

“I’m sure it will be. I don’t know precisely how much money it’ll make either, though,” Glissela acknowledged. Worgan furrowed his brow.

“Have any tips for him?”

“I intend to watch and wait unless something happens. He can run the store the way he thinks he should.”

“You sure that’ll work out?”

“Serge assigned a couple of employees to him. If any suspicious folks set their sights on this place, they should be able to handle it. And if worst comes to worst, I believe he’s capable of asking for help. If he asks me for a favor, I’d be happy to lend him a hand as a merchant. The only problem is there are some greedy, relentless merchants out there that are willing to use force. Just watch out for them.”

“I know, but he might not even need help with that. He got in a fight with a group called Fang of Obtemo the other day.”

“Everyone was talking about those adventurer thugs. Did Ryoma take them down?”

“Yeah, he ran into them on a job. You’ve probably heard the rest. It was a totally one-sided fight. He’s also performed well at slaying goblins and that sort of work. His slimes shouldn’t be underestimated, from what I hear.”

“Do they use weapons?” Someone else joined in their conversation.

“Old man Taylor, you know about them too?”

“An adventurer came to ask if slimes can use weapons the other day. All my staff were talking about it. I didn’t actually see one in person until today, though. I should recommend that he take a class sometime.”

“It probably would be best for him to learn what a normal tamer is like. Well, anyway, be careful.”

“I know, I know.”

“Talented folks are always welcome. Reinbach also asked me for a favor too, so there’s that.”

This conversation took place in a corner of the room, unbeknownst to Ryoma, who spent time with his new friends from this world. When the opening party finally ended, everyone told Ryoma not to work too hard, then headed home. With that finished, Ryoma cleaned up what remained after the banquet and took a look around outside his store. He had a sense of fulfillment that he never experienced in his old world.



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