By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 38

Chapter 3 Episode 38: The Founding Festival, Day 2

A day passed.

“Can I get three cups of that barley tea stuff? And two glasses of water. It should be about this much money, right?”

“Understood!”

I had been taking orders at a food stand since morning. Since I was able to use ice magic, I was put in charge of the drinks.

“Here you are! Three orders of barley tea, and two of water.”

“Dang, that’s cold. This is nice, thanks.”

“Enjoy! Next customer, please!”

“I’d like two barley teas, please.”

I had been serving customers nonstop for hours. Soon, a familiar face came before me.

“Next—Oh, Jeff!”

“How’s it going?”

“Great, thanks.”

“Anyway, seven barley teas, please.”

“Understood.” I quickly prepared a tray of barley tea. “Are you here with friends?”

“Eh, you could call them friends. They’re people you know, actually. Look, over there.”

I looked, and they were certainly people I knew. “Oh, Beck and friends?” I said. The party of six novice adventurers had split up to order food from my food stands.

“You gave them advice the other day, right? Heard from some other adventurers.”

“Oh, I did, yes. Are you helping them?”

“Yeah, old man Worgan introduced them to me, and now I’ll be looking after them for a while.”

“I see, that’s relieving to hear. Here’s your tea.”

“Thanks, good luck to you.” Jeff paid for the tea, then met back up with Beck’s party.

I never expected that it would be Jeff who oversaw their party, but he knew what he was doing, and he was from the slums like they were. Maybe he had an easier time understanding Beck’s party than most. It was nice to know he was looking after them.

Then they left to enjoy their food, after which it seemed that they were going to check out the rest of the festival together. Jeff watched over the excited kids as he walked off with a smile. Some time later, more familiar faces came to visit.

“Yo.”

“Welcome!”

Guildmaster Worgan of the adventurer’s guild came to the food stand, along with Tigger from the weapon shop.

“I want barley tea. What about you?”

“The same, please.”

“Understood! I never expected to see you two together, though.”

“Really? We used to be in the same party, you know.”

“Oh, you did?” That was news to me.

“This is back before we retired from adventuring.”

“Tigger always had the best eye for equipment of anyone in our party. He was also good with money, so he was in charge of the party’s finances. The job he’s got post-retirement is pretty much perfect for him.”

“I don’t know if I was that great with those things at the time. It’s more that the rest of you were so careless. You would’ve blown all the money on booze and women if not for me.”

“We were young, man. And we were adventurers, that’s just how adventurers are. Right, Ryoma?”

“I don’t know what to tell you.” I wished that Worgan wouldn’t drag me into it.

“Ignore him,” Tigger said. “And I’d recommend you don’t follow his example, as a general rule.”

“What the hell?” Worgan complained.

“Well, you two seem like pretty good friends.” I cast Freeze on the drinks. “Here you are.”

“So this is barley tea?”

“This is enough money, right?”

“Yes, thank you!”

They were about to leave with the barley tea, but then Tigger remembered something and turned around. “You haven’t been to my store lately. Is your equipment good?”

“Yes, it’s all been serviceable. I’ve been getting a lot of use out of the knife and armor I bought before.”

“That’s good, but what about a katana? You never got back to me about that.”

“Oh, right.” I whispered a summary of what had happened into his ear.

He closed his eyes. “So that’s what you came up with? Wasn’t expecting that.”

“I’m sorry, I guess.”

“If it works for you, then that’s fine. I won’t tell you how to use your familiars’ abilities. Just don’t do anything too crazy.”

“Thank you.”

Then he met back up with Worgan, and after catching their breath, they hit the town again.

“Hello.”

“Welcome!”

Next, Sister Betta came to the food stand with some children from the church in tow. It was almost noon.

“Thank you for your help yesterday. Bell very much appreciated it.”

“Oh, don’t mention it. It was the least I could do.”

The church looked after children with no relatives. Their lives were by no means luxurious, but the two nuns were willing to spend what little they had so they could enjoy the festival like the other children.

“Do you want drinks for eighteen?” I asked.

“Yes, please. Say please, children.”

“Please!” all the children said in unison, putting smiles on the faces of people around us.

“Coming right up, then.”

At the rummage sale yesterday, a kid I worked with talked about how they were going to check out the festival today. He was buying enough hot dogs for several people, and it looked like he was having some childish fun.

“Here you are. Careful, the tray’s heavy.”

“Thank you!” the children said.

“Don’t mention it. Next customer, please!”

“Howdy!”

“Meowdy! It’s been a while.”

“Have you been taking care of yourself?”

“Barley tea for four, please.”

Now Miya and Welanna’s party was here.

“Hello, everyone. I don’t think I’ve seen you anywhere recently.”

“We’ve been out of town for work.”

“Well, I’m glad you made it back in one piece. Here’s your barley tea. It’s nice and cold.”

More and more customers kept coming. I kept working, trying to find time to eat or take breaks when others could take my place. It was busy, but I could feel the public’s energy in the air, so that at least did something to keep me motivated.

Next thing I knew, it started to get dark out. The sun was setting in the distance, and it wouldn’t be visible for much longer. But even so, the hustle and bustle all around us made it seem like the festival was just getting started.

“I’m back!” Jane said. “Boss, I can take over here. Go have dinner!”

“Thank you. Do a good job while I’m away.”

I left to eat dinner quickly. I wasn’t planning to eat much more than our specially made hot dogs.

“You’re sticking to eating just those again?” Jane asked. It was all I ate for many of my meals, not just during the festival, but during our preparations beforehand as well. But all the same, they were delicious, I could get them for free, and most importantly, it let me get back to work as soon as possible.

Hot dogs are composed of carbohydrates and meat. I could get my share of vegetables for the day from the vegetable stir fry, so maybe that would make for a surprisingly balanced meal. The only problem I could think of was that I’d be consuming a lot of oil and salt, but it was hot during the day, and I needed to use a lot of energy, so this meal seemed good for that, maybe. Or maybe not, but it was probably fine no matter what I ate. My body was young.

The older you get, the easier it is to get trapped in that line of thinking. That’s what I was always told back on Earth, at least, but my diet never caused me any problems. As such, I didn’t hesitate to order four hot dogs and a vegetable stir fry. I also poured myself some barley tea, then forked over the money for my meal and went to find somewhere to sit.

I found a spot that seemed like it’d be available soon. There were four seats, and three women sitting there. As I got closer, they stood up to leave. Now I could take a seat in their place.

I took a bite out of a hot dog. First I tasted the soft bread, then the firm meat popped in my mouth and juices flowed out. That, combined with the sour ketchup, had me drooling. It was a pretty dense meal, but it went down eventually.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” Prenance shouted. My seat was near the exit to the lot, but he was so loud that I heard him clearly over all the noise. Then he declared that a show was about to begin, and three dancer women came onto the stage. The band played a song as all eyes were drawn to the dancers and the audience went quiet. I saw them practice this show several times, but it was still impressive.

Maybe this is all those light novels I’ve read doing the talking, but when I thought about dancers, I thought of scantily clad women. But these women didn’t show much skin. They wore thick one-piece dresses with lots of colorful frills. Their arms and legs were mostly hidden too, but they lightly lifted their skirts and took a springy step forward as part of the dance. Their skirts were also weighted, so the skirts billowed when they turned. That drew the men in the seats near the stage to try and peek up the skirts, while the women in the audience gave them cold looks. Husbands who came with their children were dragged away by their wives.

“Looks like the event proved a success.”

“Yes, thank you. Wait, Guildmaster?!”

Glissela of the merchant’s guild had arrived. Taylor was behind her, along with a young man I didn’t recognize. They were both holding trays.

“What brings you here?” I asked. It was rare to see her outside of the guild.

“It’s not healthy staying inside all the time.”

“On occasions like these, we old folks walk around town together.”

“I see. Would you like to sit with me?”

“If you wouldn’t mind.”

“Thank you. Oh, sorry for making you carry those trays.”

“This is nothing, don’t worry about it.”

I had no idea who this young man was. I assumed he was from one of their guilds at first, but he didn’t come off that way.

“I’m sorry. I should have introduced myself already,” the man said. “I’m Arnold Bernhyde. Are you Mr. Ryoma Takebayashi?” Apparently he knew who I was. I decided to just give him a simple greeting in return.

He looked human, as far as I could tell. He was a skinny man in his late twenties or early thirties. He dressed as sharply as Carme, but his mean eyes and black-rimmed glasses made him look unaccommodating. I was pretty sure I had never met him before.

“Excuse me, but have we met somewhere?” I asked him to make sure.

“No, but I have heard about you from messages from above.”

“Ryoma, remember that whole mess at the government office? The chief over there got fired back then, and this is his successor.”

“Oh, right.” I’d heard that someone replaced him, but didn’t know who.

“I’ve heard rumors about you for some time now. Not only did you create a chance to eliminate some government corruption, but I believe you helped clean up the mess afterward as well. You also took a job through the guild to help protect the city, I believe,” Arnold said. He must have been talking about the tunnel ants. “You’ve significantly reduced my workload. Thanks to that, I could focus on disciplining my staff.”

“I was only doing it for personal reasons, but I’m glad I could help.”

“I hope that you’ll continue to offer us your assistance in the future.”

It sounded like he’d been hoping to meet me for a while, but he inherited so much work that he had no time to go out and see me. But he couldn’t call me to the office simply to thank me, either. He also needed to look into and expose all the embezzlement and collusion, so he avoided unnecessarily getting in contact with me. He took the job seriously, it seemed. But he was appointed for the purpose of fixing injustices, so he was probably the right type of man for the job. And it was nice that he went out of his way to not give me more trouble. As long as I got to keep living my life and running my store as I had been, I was happy to cooperate.

“Thank you for being so willing to cooperate,” Arnold said. “My position doesn’t permit me to give you special treatment, but I will do my part to ensure that the law is obeyed and you are treated justly. Of course, if you do continue to contribute to our city, I will inform my superiors. Perhaps you may receive some special privileges as compensation.”

“You might as well have just said he’s not getting special treatment, then,” said Glissela.

“Contributing something so great that you would receive special privileges is easier said than done,” said Taylor.

“I only mean to say that I expect great things from Ryoma,” Arnold replied.

“Sure, I guess we’ll see.”

“Maybe he’ll actually pull it off eventually, who knows?” Glissela said. She was looking at Serge’s food stands. “Did you give him any ideas, Ryoma?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. I didn’t think I could actually hide anything from her, but tried to play dumb anyway.

“By the way, Ryoma,” Taylor said.

“Yes?”

“How has life in town been for you? It’s been a while since you first came here now. You must have encountered at least some inconveniences.”

“Just say whatever comes to mind. This old man doesn’t see you that much, so he gets worried about you,” Glissela said.

“Well, things have certainly changed a lot since I first got here, but I really can’t say I’m having any problems. If anything, the fact that I have enough money to casually go shopping now has made life pretty convenient for me in general.”

But that did give me pause to reflect on my life here thus far. I was born in Japan on Earth, then I died and ended up in this world. And after that, I went all the way from the Forest of Gana to Gimul. Now that I thought about it, I had come a long way.

From where I was sitting, I could see the employees at my store to my left, business clients to my right, a troupe that I only just met right in front of me, and the head of the local public office right at my side. And other customers who came today included Dancebell, the old man from the drug store, some housewives I met while preparing for the festival, and guild members that I met on previous jobs. I had made a lot of acquaintances, but I still didn’t know if my current life was better than life in the forest. The forest had its own appeal.

“Hm, from the look on your face, it seems like you’re fine,” Taylor said.

“Yes, I think so.”

But this life wasn’t so bad. I basked in my happiness as the night grew darker.