By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 24

Chapter 3 Episode 24: The God of Magic and Academics

A month had passed since I returned from Lenaf. I woke up, went outside, and saw the refreshing blue morning sky. It was still nice in the mornings, but it was hot in the afternoons as of late, and that was likely to be true of today too. At the adventurer’s guild, I was starting to see adventurers who knew ice magic looking to make a killing. Summer had arrived.

I spent the last few days making a surplus of waterproof cloth in preparation for a long journey, so the outside air felt all the more refreshing. I hated to stay cooped up in the mine with this kind of weather. I had less work to do now, so I wanted to use this day to take a break.

■ ■ ■

With that being said, I didn’t actually have any plans. I decided I might as well stop by my store, but the door was shut. I had completely forgotten that we implemented break days this month. Left with nothing else to do, I wandered around town at random until I ran into somebody.

“Oh, if it isn’t Ryoma? What are you up to?” somebody said from nearby.

“Good morning, Pauline. My store’s closed today, so I’ve just been taking a walk. The weather’s too nice to waste the day sitting around at home.”

Pauline walked up to me and smiled. “Agreed. Actually, as long as you’re out and about, you should stop by my husband’s store. He’s got slime food for you.”

“Thank you.”

I followed Pauline to Sieg’s store and took the blood, meat, and bones they were throwing out anyway. The warmer weather made the meat rot faster, so I received somewhat more than usual. These two had done so much to help me that I considered giving them a fridge in return, but that would only make me busier. Even the fridge at my store was just an ordinary box when I was out of town, so it wouldn’t be a great gift.

“Mom!” somebody suddenly shouted inside the store.

“Not so loud, I can hear you!” Pauline shouted back. The voice came from Pauline’s rowdy son, Rick.

“You’re here too, Ryoma?”

“Good morning, Rick,” I said.

“You should’ve said good morning too, you punk!” Pauline said and jabbed Rick. “So what did you want?”

“Go, right! Thor’s here, so I’ll be going!”

“Oh, that time already?”

“Rick, are you going somewhere?” I asked.

“What, you don’t know, Ryoma? Today’s church-cleaning day.”

“Once every two months, the local kids clean the churches and run errands and so on,” Pauline explained.

“There’s no better way to thank the gods than by cleaning churches!”

I was kind of impressed that Rick was so enthusiastic about what amounted to sanitation work, but Pauline wryly smiled. “Don’t be tricked, my boy would never be that respectable. He’s just repeating crap he’s heard. All Rick wants is the sweets they get when the cleaning’s done.” Rick looked away as if he were guilty. “Anyway, are you gonna go clean, Ryoma?”

“I haven’t even heard about these cleaning days until now,” I said. It didn’t sound like a bad idea, especially considering I had nothing else to do at the moment. “You wouldn’t mind if I came along?”

“Not at all,” Rick said.

“Then I think I will.”

“Awesome! Then follow me!” Rick exclaimed, then raised his right hand and walked off. I said goodbye to Pauline and followed after him. “Ryoma, get a move on!”

“Just give me a second,” I said. Rick’s yelling was annoying, but he was nice enough to wait for me to catch up. Maybe in the future, he’d grow to be a caring sort of older brother type.

We found Renny and Thor waiting for Rick outside. When the four of us arrived at the church, a young nun who I remembered seeing before told us to follow the signs until we got to the chapel. There were arrow-shaped signs all around the church, so it would be hard to get lost. In the chapel, there were sixty children and a single adult woman to supervise them. Considering anyone was free to join, I didn’t know if this number of participants was a little or a lot. In any case, we sat and waited for the cleaning to begin. But when I sat in one of the chairs, a light appeared before me.

■ ■ ■

Strangely, I was warped by the usual bright light without even needing to pray. I looked around and found that I wasn’t in the usual empty void. I was in a library, surrounded by enormous wooden bookshelves. They were packed full of books and looked heavy, but some of the shelves were floating in midair. This was clearly no ordinary library.

“Curious. So I can summon you too?” an unfamiliar voice said. I looked up and saw a thin man floating there. He slowly descended to the floor.

“Nice to meet you, I’m—”

“I know who you are. You’re the most recent migrant from Earth, aren’t you? I hear you’re quite the interesting one. I am Fernobelia, the god of magic and academics. This is my territory. You seem surprised to see how different this is from your experience with other gods, but this is the divine realm all the same. You will be able to return to the other world in time, so relax and make yourself at home.”

“Thank you,” I said. According to Tekun, this god was seldom seen. He seemed like sort of a grouch. More so than Tekun was, at least.

“It’s nothing. The gods you know say that they have been able to summon your soul and consciousness to our world, so I took this opportunity to try it myself. But I did so without your asking, so the least I can do is offer some hospitality,” Fernobelia said. He went on to explain that he was investigating why I could come to the divine realm, and since I happened to be in a church, he summoned me to see if I could give him any clues. It was essentially an experiment. “I’d like to ask you a few questions, if you don’t mind.”

I had no particular reason to object. Rather, I couldn’t object if I wanted to, so I said I would be happy to answer. He started by asking me about Earth and the life I lived there, then went on to ask about matters as trivial as my favorite food, about what was running through my head as I was being summoned to the divine realm, and about topics as serious as my thoughts on war and slavery. I answered all his questions, but couldn’t see the logic behind them.

“Thank you for your cooperation. I have one last question. What do you think about this world?”

It was too broad of a question to offer a precise answer, but I thought it was a good world. Of course, it wasn’t as if I had seen this whole world, and my information on it was lacking. But just about everyone I met was a good person and a friend. Magic, slimes, and other unique aspects of this world also interested me enough to provide a fulfilling life, so there was nothing to complain about. I was sincerely glad I came to this world.

“Hm, I see now,” Fernobelia said.

“Wait, did I say that out loud?”

“No, I read your mind,” he admitted. Apparently if my mind was being read, I had no way to notice. “Sorry, I was a bit wary of you, so I wanted to see what you really thought.”

“Wary of me? Why?”

“Unfortunately, not everyone from Earth has been like you.”

Fernobelia explained that some people from Earth became corrupted by the power they received and used it to commit crimes. Some didn’t even have ill intent, but they used their power incorrectly and unknowingly brought about disasters, so Fernobelia wanted to use this first meeting to judge my character. I could see where he was coming from. If I were a god and someone used power I granted them to wreak havoc, I would be infuriated.

“Indeed. If someone has clearly dangerous thoughts, we don’t bring them to this world to begin with, but there’s always the possibility that their newfound power changes them over time. And after we’ve already brought someone over to our world, there’s little we can do to interfere aside from try and convince them to repent. We can get directly involved if they try something that may destroy the world, but that seldom happens. By the time such a thing does happen, the damage has already been done anyway. I’m glad you understand,” Fernobelia said, apparently having read my mind again. I had been lost in thought, but his complaining got my attention again.

“There’s a lot more I want to do, but I’ll be careful not to let my power corrupt me. I can’t be absolutely certain that won’t happen, sadly.”

“If you claimed to know for certain, I wouldn’t trust you. I’ll take your honesty to mean that you’re taking this seriously.”

“Thank you. I’ll do the best I can,” I said just as the light began to shine bright again.

“Looks like the time has come. I’ll say one last thing. The abnormalities with you are not actually all that special. This applies only to those from Earth, but a fair number of them have had qualities similar to yourself,” Fernobelia said. By abnormalities, I could only guess he meant my ability to come to this world and take divine items out of it. “The cause is unclear, but there have been others in the past who could do things humans normally cannot. For some reason, it’s been especially striking in your case, but that’s all. The other gods are also aware of these prior occurrences, which is why they know it’s not a sign of any problem with your body or mind. None of the other humans with these qualities have suddenly died or gone mad.”

That reminded me of when Kufo talked about a saint who, upon her death, eliminated disease from the world. That certainly didn’t sound like something a human could accomplish. I didn’t think I was that worried about there being something wrong with me, but maybe I actually was. Hearing this from Fernobelia came as a great relief.

“Thank you for telling me,” I said right as the light enveloped my body and I was sent back to the chapel. I was worried he didn’t hear me, considering the timing of my departure. My feelings must have been apparent from my expression, because the other three kids asked me what was wrong. After the sudden encounter with a god, I had completely forgotten about them.