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By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 6 - Chapter 31




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Chapter 4 Episode 31: Lodging Town

“A carriage that got into an accident, you say? I didn’t see anything. How about you?”

“Me neither.”

“Guess we can’t be much help, then. Sorry.”

“Oh, but would you like to ride with us? We’re not too far from town, and it’ll get dark soon.”

“Thanks for offering, but I’d like to search a little more on my way there. I appreciate your cooperation.”

“Yeah? Good luck with that, then.”

“Be careful!”

“You too!”

After chatting with a nice old couple, I watched their carriage disappear into the distance. I had sprinted most of the way from Gimul to the lodging town. My limour birds tried their best, but there was a lot obstructing their sight; we still hadn’t found a single clue.

This mountain stood at an elevation of about one thousand meters. It had a road that could be easily traversed without getting altitude sickness. If I were to stray from that path, though, I would be on a steep slope, surrounded by the shadows cast by the countless trees and their many branches. Thanks to the convenient road, I doubt that many people strayed into that territory. I could have missed something somewhere, or maybe I still had a ways to go. There was no telling if Pedro had wandered off the road at some point, and if he had, then I didn’t know if he went left or right.

I just wanted to find some sort of clue. If I could narrow down the location to some extent, I could mobilize all my slimes to find him. They weren’t the most mobile creatures, but by harnessing the power of over six thousand slimes, I could search thoroughly in all directions.

I kept walking around near the road in search of clues, checking between the trees where it was especially hard to see anything. Eventually I arrived at the lodging town. The town was surrounded by a simple wall made of many logs, probably built from nearby trees.

“You there!” a guard at the entrance said sternly. “Are you a traveler? You were acting kind of suspicious. What are you doing at this time of night?”

“I’m an adventurer from Gimul, and I’m searching for a missing person. Here’s my guild card, and here’s the job sheet.” I slowly approached the guard and presented my identification.

“Well, looks like you’re not lying,” the guard said and calmed down. “Sorry I thought you were suspicious. You’re free to pass.”

“I’m glad to see you’re doing your job. By the way, if you don’t mind me asking, has anyone gone missing around here lately? Or have you seen a broken carriage or anything? If you have, that’d help me out.”

“I haven’t heard anything along those lines. After I read that job description, I’d like to know myself.”

“I see... darn.”

“Will you be staying at an inn here tonight?”

“That’s the plan.”

I still had some energy, and I was good at burning the midnight oil when the situation called for it, but it would be more difficult and less efficient than searching during the day. Furthermore, I wasn’t accustomed to this sort of terrain. I could spend all day searching the Forest of Gana with no trouble, but I was unfamiliar with this mountain. I had my limour birds to fall back on, so the chances of getting into an accident were slim, but if there was any risk, then searching for Pedro at night without any clues probably wasn’t worth it. Instead, I could use tonight to ask for information around town.

“I’d recommend that too,” the guard said. “We do maintenance on the roads around here, but if you stray from the path, there are a lot of steep slopes.”

“I see. Do you have any good inns to suggest?”

“Go straight down the main road until you see the sign for Telecy’s Cafeteria. The inn across from them has clean rooms for a good price.”

“Thank you.”

I returned my limour birds to my Dimension Home and headed straight to the inn he told me about. This lodging town was, of course, even smaller than Gimul. But there were lights in the windows of the wooden buildings that served as inns and dining places along the main road, so the place looked no less lively. I reached the inn very quickly, so it was pretty close.

“Good evening. The gate guard told me about this place. Are there any rooms available?”

“Yes. If you’re just staying overnight, it’ll be fifty sute. If you’d like a meal with that, it’s seventy sute,” the receptionist said.

“I’ll take a room and a meal, please.”

“Thank you!”

I handed over the money and got a small wooden board in return. “When you want food, take this to the cafeteria across the street.” It was evidently a meal ticket.

“So I’ll get food if I give this to them?”

“You’ll get bread, soup, and the salad of the day. Anything else will cost extra.”

I went to my room, and it was as clean as I was led to believe. It looked like it was cleaned regularly, and I found no stains. But a bed and a small table were the only pieces of furniture in the room, and they took up 70% of the space. There were no decorations either. Well, this was a lodging town, and this inn was more for commoners, so I couldn’t expect much more. If guests were just traveling for work, they probably didn’t stay for long anyway. It kind of reminded me of a capsule hotel; it served its purpose, so I didn’t have any objections. But there was nothing much to see there, so I just cleaned myself up and went to the cafeteria.

■ ■ ■

“Welcome! Um, are you alone, kid?” a cheerful girl at the cafeteria asked.

“Good evening. I’m staying at the inn across from here. Here’s my meal ticket.”

“Thanks! This way, please!”


The girl led me to my seat. The cafeteria was full of tables tightly packed together. People sat around them enjoying food and drinks, constantly laughing. It was a large building with two floors, but every inch of it brimmed with human warmth. It was like the beer garden Serge once took me to, except cozier. There wasn’t as much excitement, but it felt more like spending quality time with a family.

“Sorry about the wait!” the girl said as she brought my food out, but I hadn’t been waiting long at all. Personally, I was pretty pleased.

I started with a mouthful of a soup, whose thickness reminded me of a stew. The first thing I felt was its warmth. It passed from the top of my tongue down into my throat and warmed me to the core. Maybe I was colder than I thought. The vegetables were tender and gave the broth a soft, natural sweetness complemented by many herbs. It covered up the aroma of the finely sliced meat, which had a wild, savory flavor. It was nothing short of delectable.

The bread was black and hard, but tearing off a piece and dipping it in the soup softened it up. The soup added to the taste of the wheat, and it was more filling than the soup on its own. The salad was made up of boiled leafy greens, red beans, and dressing. The beans were sweet and went well with the tartness of the lamon. I was easily motivated to eat every bit of the meal. It warmed my body and soul, and I felt re-energized.

“Excuse me,” I said to the girl.

“Yes? Wow, you finished already?”

“Yes, it was delicious.” As I had her clear my dishes away, I decided to ask her some questions. “I’m looking for a man named Pedro. Do you know anything about him?”

“What’s he like?”

From what Guts said, he was about 170 centimeters tall, with brown hair all over his head and face. He was a bear beastkin, and his most defining trait was his green nose. I told all of this to the girl.

“Oh, that guy!”

“You know him?”

“I’ve seen him before, if that helps.”

“Do you remember the last time he came here?”

“Not sure, but I know I’ve seen him a lot.” She thought about it, so I silently waited. “Oh!”

“Did you remember something?!”

“No, sorry, I don’t know.”

“Oh.”

“But I do know that there are some people he’d come to the cafeteria with a lot. Maybe they’d know something.”

“Do you know where I could find them?”

“Yeah, their base is in this town, so you can probably meet them there. Head way down the road in front of the cafeteria, then...”

It sounded like I’d found a good lead.

■ ■ ■

I went off the information I received at the cafeteria by chance and searched for Pedro’s acquaintances. I found myself on a road with more carriages than pedestrians. The buildings in the area were larger than elsewhere, and everyone there seemed to either be loading or unloading goods from carriages or guarding the people doing that. This appeared to be a warehouse district.

In the corner of the warehouse district, there was a sign depicting a gigantic sitting dog, almost a wolf, with sharp eyes. It was Wild Dog, the delivery service I was looking for.

“Excuse me!”

“Hm? What do you want, kid?”

“You need something delivered at this time of night?”

I introduced myself to the two guards outside the building and asked them if they knew anything.

“Looking for someone? Well, Assimo does work here.”

“Not here right now, though. He’s probably off drinking at a bar or something.”

“Do you know which one?” I asked.

“No idea. Wait, actually, someone was treating everyone to drinks today, right?”

“Oh yeah, saw something about that on the bulletin board! Hold on a second, I’ll check.”

“Thank you!”

One of the men went inside the building.

“Hardly ever hear about anyone going missing around here, though,” the other man said.

“Is that so?”

“Occasionally we hear something like that from a carriage that’s passing through, but it usually just turns out that someone got in a little accident. A lot of food passes through here between Gimul and Keleban, so there’s a lot of traveling by carriage going on. If anything strange happened, we’d know right away. You sure this Pedro guy didn’t take a different route?”

I couldn’t deny the possibility, but based on my current information, all I knew was that he normally took this route. That was the only lead I had to go on.

“Sounds like you’ve got it rough, kid. Well, good luck.”

“Hey, I know where he’s at!” the other guard said as he returned. Once he gave me the information, I left the warehouse district.



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