By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 6 - Chapter 37

Chapter 4 Episode 37: Beyond Crime and Punishment

“Not on my watch, you won’t,” Wilieris said, putting a stop to the fight before it could begin.

“Come on, at least let us fight a little,” Kiriluel complained. “Not like he comes to visit every day, and nobody’ll get hurt as long as we fight here.”

“I won’t allow it. Ryoma may look human right now, but he’s just a soul in this form. You won’t hurt his body, but you could hurt his soul. Those wounds could be even more serious, if anything. If it went wrong, you could destroy his mind. If you absolutely insist on fighting, you should either ask Tekun to provide armor of some sort, or see if Fernobelia can help.”

Wilieris went from mild-mannered to stern and unyielding. Kiriluel was blatantly annoyed, but I didn’t especially want to get my mind destroyed either.

“Maybe I can ask Tekun, but talking to Fernobelia’s a huge pain. As if he’d help anyway.”

“Would you rather she taught you how to use your Intimidate skill instead, Ryoma? You said something about not knowing how to use it.”

“Yes. I have a feeling it could be useful.”

“There, isn’t that more productive? Can you explain it, Kiriluel?”

“It’d be easier to understand through practice than through words,” Kiriluel said. “Well, I’m sure you’ll be back some more in the future, so we can try it then. The Intimidate skill is honestly tough to handle, I think.”

“What does that mean? Am I not strong enough?”

“No, the opposite. Anyone as strong as you should be able to use it naturally. Listen, the Intimidate skill is about playing on your foe’s fears and instincts. When you’re good enough at it, you should be able to prevent the enemy from taking action and use it for feint attacks. In a battle between two master fighters, you’ll always see this technique come up. You’re in that class of fighter, so you can use it just fine in battle. The thing is that if you’re not in the right mood, you can’t use it at all. Like if you can’t make your voice sound threatening, any huge guy will be more intimidating no matter how weak he is.”

The Intimidate skill could appear on someone even in everyday life, but in those cases, it would only be Level 1 or 2.

“Think about it like this,” Kiriluel continued. “You see a big guy. He’s squatting on the ground and trembling. He’s sobbing and wetting himself. Then he shouts, ‘I’ll kill you!’ Are you afraid of that guy?”

“No, I would probably just find him kind of creepy.”

“Yeah, probably. Words alone aren’t enough to frighten someone. You need the right attitude and intent too.”

“I see. How does that work for me, though? I can evidently still intimidate people with this body, and I take a pretty dauntless attitude too. I’ve successfully intimidated people before, but sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.”

“In your case, it’s probably a problem of the heart. You’re Japanese, right? Those people are all about talking things out peacefully and thinking everyone can come to an understanding.”

“Kiriluel, I think your viewpoint is terribly skewed. But Japan is considered more peaceful than the average country, I guess.”

“Really? Most of the Japanese that have come here were like that, though.”

“Have a lot of Japanese people been brought here?”

“Yes, well, we mentioned how we pick the safest people to bring over,” Lulutia said. “Perhaps a relatively high proportion of those people are Japanese.”

“Of course, we also select people from outside Japan,” Wilieris added.

“Most of them either get used to the way we do things here or turn a blind eye to it, but some insist on pacifism and die because of it. I could never understand it, but you have to admire their commitment.”

I had no idea there were people like that, but we were getting off topic, so I tried to get things back on track.

“So yeah, I’m sure there are all kinds of different people in Japan, but it’s fair to say it’s a peaceful country, right?” Kiriluel asked.

“Yes.”

“And when you lived there, did you regularly threaten people of your own will?”

“No, I can’t say I did,” I admitted. Sometimes people were scared by my appearance, but never because I wanted them to be. In fact, my frightening appearance made me need to compensate by trying to act less scary. Not that it was ever enough back then.

“That’s what I thought. You formed a habit. You can be intimidating when you really have to be, but you probably hold back subconsciously. Seems like you developed in kind of an irregular way, too.”

I was curious about what she meant by that last part, but before I could ask, Wilieris and Lulutia glared at Kiriluel like they thought it was rude. “Well, anyway, there you have it. It’s a problem of the heart,” she concluded, awkwardly shifting away from the subject. I still wondered what she was talking about, but decided to ask her another time. “And problems of the heart aren’t my specialty. You’ve got this thing you call counseling in your world, I think? Never done that before. And I’m sure you’d have to do it for a while to see the effects of it. Personally, I learn better through actions than through words, and teach better that way too. So, if we could just—”

“No, you’re not going to fight,” Wilieris interjected.

“Fine, I got it. Then not much I can do for you, honestly. Take your time learning through experience. You’ll get the hang of it eventually.”

“So I just have to practice, and there are no shortcuts?”

“That’s the idea. Your body’s still got room to grow, so if you want to get stronger than you are now, you’ve got plenty of time.”

Fair enough. I was hardly above the age of ten, so it wasn’t like I only had another decade or two to improve. I planned on hunting more bandits in the future too, so I’d have ample opportunities. Which reminded me of something on my mind.

“On another subject, do you think it’s possible to rehabilitate bandits after capturing them?” I asked. I hoped that the bandits I captured could be rehabilitated, so I wanted their opinion. But they looked conflicted about it.

“Unfortunately, it’s common for criminals to go on to commit more crimes,” said Lulutia. “Bandits who were part of guilds get banned after their arrest, so even after they’re released from prison, they can’t rejoin, so it becomes difficult for them to find employment. Of course, it’s not impossible to find work without the aid of a guild, but most employers use guilds to find vetted workers.”

“Unlike in Japan, the concept of self-defense is commonplace here,” said Kiriluel. “Not a lot of people are going out of their way to hire former felons if it’d put them at risk.”

“I hear that you’ve hired people from the slums,” said Wilieris. “But much of the population won’t even hire them, even if their records are clean, because of preconceived notions about their criminality.”

I had to sympathize with them. In a way, I understood how employers felt. The thought of hiring someone who might do harm to my employees was frightening. But there was a specific memory that ran through my head.

“I think it would be a bit better for everyone if they could get jobs, though,” I said.

“Maybe, depending on how much they regret their crimes, how much they’re willing to change, and how much they can tolerate the prejudice they’ll face,” Lulutia said. “I do think that giving them employment would make their rehabilitation easier, though.”

“Is something on your mind?” Wilieris asked.

“Something that happened to me in the past,” I said. “Do you know about my past, Wilieris?”

“Nothing that would be relevant to this conversation.”

“Me neither,” Kiriluel said. “Wilieris and I don’t involve ourselves in picking people to bring over from Earth. All we know is what Lulutia and the others tell us, or what we see of your lives here. Takes time to memorize everything about a person’s life anyway.” I thought that all the gods knew about me, but that made sense.

“A lot happened to me when I was younger. I can laugh about it now, though. I’m rather proud of how far I’ve come, I suppose.”

Wilieris, Kiriluel, and Lulutia to a lesser extent responded with fascinated gasps. I guess I said something curious.

“Ryoma, would you mind telling us a bit about that?” Lulutia asked. “You don’t have to, but we’re out of things to talk about.” That was understandable, considering they had been doing this for three days.

“Sure, I suppose so. It’s all water under the bridge anyhow,” I said. “Just try not to yell at me if you get bored. I can’t promise it’ll be too interesting.”

■ ■ ■

It was my first year out of school. On the way home from work late at night, I was shopping at a convenience store when I had the misfortune of running into three muggers. None of them were even hiding their faces, but they had guns and fired them at the ceiling. There was an uproar in the store, but they cackled and glared at the customers, demanding everyone’s wallets, including mine. They ordered the cashier to hand over all the money too.

They sounded drunk and something was off about their voices that’s still eerie as I think back to it. I could at least surmise from their words and actions that they didn’t have the best mental health. The cashier was scared into trying to get the store’s money to these three, but he was trembling, tripping over himself, and dropping coins everywhere. The three muggers kept laughing and urging him to hurry up.

The biggest problem came a moment later, when something seemed to occur to one of them. He shouted and suddenly pointed his gun at a woman in the store, gleefully declaring that he would kill her to set an example. That was when I took action. I can’t imagine that the man was entirely sane, but I took him to be serious about what he said.

All of the men were now directing their attention to the woman, like they were expecting to see some entertainment. They didn’t even notice me, so suppressing them was simple. But in the process, I ruptured one of the mugger’s internal organs, fractured another’s skull, and damaged the third’s subclavian artery. When the police finally arrived, I was accused of unjustifiable self-defense and taken into custody. They might have even assumed I was a mugger.

I didn’t go along voluntarily or even get the chance to explain myself. I remembered being handcuffed and taken to the police car by force. At the station, I think I was first questioned about unjustifiable self-defense, but I was pretty frantic at the time and my memories are vague. In any case, what I remember most is the astonishment and fear with which I was viewed by officers when I arrived.

My stay in custody was repeatedly extended, during which time a few details were established:

•    All of the men I attacked were armed with handguns, whereas I was unarmed.

•    A later investigation uncovered that the men were all using illegal substances.

•    Considering how they fired the guns after entering the store, there was presumed to be a high chance that they would really shoot the woman.

•    Because there were three of them, there was a high chance that they would have struck back even after they’d been disarmed, so it was unthinkable that I could have held back in that moment.

•    I did inflict heavy wounds, but I only attacked them by knocking their guns out of their hands with my arm and delivering a single strike to each of them.

•    I told someone to swiftly contact the police and a hospital right after attacking them, and treated their wounds to the extent that I could.

•    Security cameras recorded everything and proved that I attacked them as little as possible.

•    Witnesses to the incident provided testimony that said the same.

With all that information, my actions were deemed to be justified. I was declared innocent by the law, but the story doesn’t end there. While I was in custody, news spread that a single man had fought and heavily injured three men with guns. Much commotion was made about it. I was treated like a hero at first, but then the media approached the families of the muggers for interviews.

“My son did something wrong, but did he have to be beaten so badly?!” one of their elderly family members said.

“If there wasn’t a hospital nearby, he could have died!” cried another.

After that, I started getting demonized online and in magazines on a daily basis. By the time I was finally free to go, there was no place for me at my company anymore. The reason given was that, while I did save someone, they couldn’t ignore that I nearly killed three people. Once friendly co-workers no longer dared to approach me. They disparaged me behind my back, calling me a piece of shit who never got what I deserved. The story had started to fade from the memory of the general public by this time, but it wasn’t so easy for my coworkers to forget.

Less than a week after I returned to work, I was called to a meeting with my boss and an executive at the company. They wanted me to resign.

“It seems like you fully intended to keep serving our company, but you have to understand something,” the executive said. “It’s going to be difficult for all of us if you stay, yourself included. Quit your job here and find another path in life. I believe you’re behind in your work too, aren’t you? Personally, I think this is the best thing I can do for you.”

When my boss heard that, he even prostrated himself to the executive on my behalf. But he wasn’t convinced, and in the end, I agreed to quit my job.

“The responsibility for any losses and the dissatisfaction from coworkers that would come about as a result of you staying would probably be directed at the man who kept you here,” the executive said to ultimately persuade me.

That man would be my boss. He was a great person. He would clean up after his subordinates’ messes and voice his disagreements with superiors if they had unreasonable demands. He was harsh when it came to work, but dependable and respectable. While I was in custody, he even helped pay bail for me. He was also a loving father who loved to display pictures of his three children, calling them his treasures. I owed a lot to him, and the company was willing to threaten his position. That being the case, I decided to leave the company.

“Thank you for everything,” he said at the end. He sounded frustrated and apologetic, but also somewhat relieved. I had burdened him a lot, so it was to be expected.

I looked for a new workplace after that, but because I quit my first place of employment after so short a time, nobody would hire me and I didn’t even get a chance to explain why I quit in interviews. Eventually, I found the company that I worked at until I died, one of the most abusive of businesses.

■ ■ ■

“And that’s the story. What do you think?” I asked. I tried to make light of it, but the goddesses looked sour. I can’t say I was expecting that positive a reaction in the first place, though.

“I don’t know what to say. That’s definitely contrary to everything I’ve heard about Japan,” Wilieris said.

“You mean the incident that happened? Yes, I think that’s extremely uncommon. Illegal substances are thoroughly restricted in Japan, and there are hardly any gun-related crimes. But that doesn’t mean these things never happen at all.”

A year never went by when there wasn’t news of someone being arrested for drug possession, and sometimes that news was about athletes or actors. It was rare, but it happened. The three muggers just happened to be using some.

“Anyway, isn’t it weird how the police responded?” Kiriluel asked. “Between you and the muggers, it’s pretty clear who was in the wrong. So why’d you have to be detained for so long? Plus, nasty rumors were spread about you and you even lost your job. But now you talk about it like it was no big deal. How?” Kiriluel sounded like she couldn’t comprehend it. Of all the gods I had met, her emotions were the easiest to understand.

“Well, like I said, it’s all water under the bridge now. And I don’t understand everything that happened at the time myself.”

I did think that the way the police acted was strange, but they wouldn’t tell me what was going on internally. The media was also as sensational then as in the modern day. I didn’t know exactly where everyone in my company or neighborhood got their news, but once one of them heard something about me, they could all share it with each other.

“I thought about it a lot at the time, but now I just have to assume that I got unlucky. I don’t know who could have set up such a situation on purpose, short of a god or something,” I said with a smile, but then I realized I said something I shouldn’t have. The three goddesses all frowned. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Huh?” said Lulutia.

“Oh?” said Wilieris.

“What are you apologizing for?” said Kiriluel.

I had thought that they weren’t pleased about me blaming a god. I didn’t intend to say it was their fault or anything, but if I were a god, I wouldn’t care for humans accusing gods of causing their misfortune. We were kind of friends, but that didn’t mean I could forget my manners. Especially when I was meeting two of these goddesses for the first time. There are some things you just shouldn’t say. That’s how I felt, at least, so I explained how I felt.

“Oh, no, no, you’re totally off the mark there,” said Kiriluel.

“What she said. We aren’t offended at all, don’t worry,” said Lulutia.

“Indeed,” said Wilieris. “We know you weren’t talking about us, and it’s reasonable that you would think that way in your situation.” That was good to hear, but it didn’t explain their reactions a moment ago. “By the way, is that experience related to what you said about jobs for criminals?”

“Oh, yes. After what I went through, I think I can understand the anxiety over not having work, how hard life is for them, and how cruelly they’re viewed by society.”

But it wasn’t just former criminals who lived those lives. People from the slums were in a similar position and had to endure it despite their innocence. There were a few times in my past life where it all felt like too much for me to bear, and I had been held in custody and nearly brought to court myself. But I still felt like I managed to live honestly to the very end.

Maybe that’s why I was irked by those bandits. They became bandits of their own will, they worked for a killer, but they still insisted that they were against killing, and that they never killed anyone because they didn’t do it personally. That they felt comfortable claiming that was disgusting. I hated that they thought they had no other options. But there was no point in just taking out that anger on them.

While both this world and Japan had inequality, everyone had certain protections under the law. The state couldn’t punish anyone without a trial, and if they did, they would themselves be breaking the law. And criminals did time in prison, so one could say that they already paid for their crimes by the time they were released. That doesn’t change the fact that those crimes were committed, of course, and that remained on their criminal record. Those with a criminal record had a fair chance of committing crimes again, so I could understand the distrust toward them.

That being said, it seemed unreasonable to expect them to suffer and work for unfairly low wages in miserable working conditions. People can feel as negatively about their crimes as they wish, but under the law, it was up to the courts and the judges to decide the sentence for their crime and punishment. Once that sentence was completed and they were out of prison, that should have been enough to make up for their crimes.

If anyone after that didn’t think the sentence was good enough, they were allowed to have those feelings, but to subject people to abuse because they had criminal records was akin to punishing them without a trial. Imposing their own punishment on a criminal for breaking the law when the law said that it was up to the court to impose punishments on criminals didn’t seem sensible. This distrust toward former felons and fear that they would inevitably commit crimes again only put them in a position where they would even more likely commit another crime, so I felt like it was all illogical. And most of all, if we would just give these former felons proper job opportunities, they wouldn’t be able to use the excuse that they had no choice if they committed a crime again.

“I get what you’re saying, but aren’t you overthinking things?” Kiriluel asked. “Feels kind of theoretical.”

“I don’t know how it seems to you, but I’ve always been like this,” I said with a laugh.

I was the type who always read the rules or the manual first, and when I was young, I was called especially straight-laced. Even now, the way I dealt with the bandits was like an extreme version of that.

“Knew it, just like when we talked about intimidation,” Kiriluel said quietly.

“What do you mean?”

“Most people would avoid former felons, obviously. The reason being that, like you said, they could be dangerous. They worry about their own safety in the event that something happened, but you don’t have to be so concerned about that. In both your past world and this one, you’re an especially strong person. But even you’ve actually faced danger like that unlucky incident you got into, right?”

“I suppose so. Not so much by the end of my life there, though.”

“So look, in your case, you can be attacked by muggers and win that confrontation just fine. That’s why you don’t even have to try and intimidate them, and you can even get close to giving their targets a helping hand. And if they try to attack you, you can just beat them up yourself.”

“You think it’s because I’m confident?”

“Fact of the matter is that random tough guys are no match for you, and you’ve gotten through misfortune that’d normally be unthinkable. Yeah, maybe you’ve got some subconscious confidence. What you make of that is up to you. Anyway, there aren’t a lot of guys who think the way you do, let alone put those thoughts into action.”

“Your ideas are logical and idealistic,” said Wilieris. “In a nation of laws, I think that’s the right perspective to take. But unfortunately, Kiriluel is right that most people react to former felons with fear and aversion. That’s entirely natural and it’s hard to blame them. Suppressing that emotional response with logic and choosing to offer assistance instead isn’t easy. I don’t think you need me to tell you that.”

“I lived for thirty-nine years, yes, I like to think I understand how emotions can be a nuisance. I can’t count the number of times I wished that we could solve everything with theories,” I said. Wilieris looked at me like a mother at her child and poured tea into my empty cup. “I know that what I’m saying is idealistic and that it won’t easily be realized. That’s what makes it an ideal. Reality is different.”

“But despite understanding reality, you won’t give up on your ideals?” Wilieris asked, getting at the core of what I was feeling. But while I felt like that was correct, something was wrong and I wasn’t sure what. But my doubts were dispelled unexpectedly quickly.

“On Earth, there’s a concept in religion called divine grace,” I said. “Presumably the way gods influence us in our everyday lives and help us. Maybe some receive the grace of the gods. But if some do, there must be others who don’t.”

I happened to actually receive the grace of this world’s gods out of all possible candidates, the only reason I was here now. And as I thought back on it, my life since I reincarnated had been nothing but happiness. I had absolute freedom and lived to my heart’s content. I met friendly people and was never left wanting for money. Everything was perfect, almost too perfect. I could never have imagined enjoying each day so much before.

That was my reality now, but as the bandit who guided me talked about, being falsely accused of crimes and forced into life as a criminal were still very real issues in this world. I myself often told myself that I had no choice when problems arose in my life on Earth. They must have despised this reality.

As I kept thinking about it, I couldn’t help but start grinning. “Is this just escapism too?”

“Escapism has a rather negative connotation,” Wilieris said. “But it still looks like you’re enjoying it to me.”

“Yes, I guess so. Maybe I am having fun right now.”

I had no choice. This was reality. I kept thinking that to myself, but as I did, smoldering emotions started to ignite in my heart. I remembered this feeling. It was a feeling that I stubbornly refused to give up as a child, but that I naturally repressed as a working adult.

“I refuse to accept that reality has to be this way. That’s the only answer I can give you, Wilieris,” I said, gazing right into her eyes.

These were my true feelings. A lot of things about the world were absurd. There were times when I knew things were wrong, but I couldn’t say so. There were times when I had to tolerate things that shouldn’t have been necessary. I didn’t want to accept the world as it was, but I had to convince myself that there was no other way. Now, however, that was in the past.

“Maybe this is the kind of thing children say when they don’t understand reality,” I said. “But I can’t honestly think that I’m wrong about this. Is it because I was reincarnated as a child?”

“Oh my, were you not always like this?” Wilieris asked.

“The documentation on his life before reincarnation did say he was relatively stubborn,” said Lulutia.

“What?! According to who? The Earth god?” I asked. “Lulutia, can you let me look at that documentation for just a little bit?”

“No, we can’t have that! It’s for the eyes of the gods only! But I think the description of your personality was pretty accurate. It also mentioned how logical you are. Stubborn, logical, and possessing unique sensibilities. But after everything you experienced throughout school and work, you repressed yourself and conformed to the world around you. Tough to live within a community when you can’t be yourself, I’ll bet.”

“Well, I can’t argue with that.”

Kiriluel and Wilieris looked at Lulutia and me with smiles. That was when the soft light began to shine brighter.

“Oh, it seems that our time is almost up,” Wilieris said.

“You had a lot to say here, but what do you plan to do now?” Kiriluel asked.

“Well, I do enjoy the life I’m living and the freedom I’m afforded. I want to hold onto that. I have plans to open more laundromats, and I have no intention of abandoning those. In another couple decades, I should be able to hire quite a number of people. I’ll also keep researching slimes, and maybe other things if I think of something else. I have the duke’s family and plenty of other people who I’m sure will help me if I need it, so I think I can ensure my own happiness. But I’d like to take the happiness I’ve been granted and spread it around. I’m going to try and pursue my ideals more. To do that, I think I’ll have to learn more about this country and the world, but I’m only eleven, so I have time to spare. Unless there’s some reason that I’d have to give up on my ideals, that is.”

Much of my happiness was thanks to the people around me and the luck I had been blessed with. Maybe that was thanks to the blessings of the gods, but whether it was through my own work or not, I was happy. And all I thought about was making sure I stayed happy. Even when it came to expanding my business in the ways I was recommended, I was cautious, if not entirely passive.

But now, I wanted to proactively seek happiness. This world was already close to ideal for me, so I could be satisfied with my current life. But I was granted a chance at a second life, so maybe that was all the more reason to pursue perfection even more. I did more than enough giving up in my past life. If there was a reason for me to give up in this one, I couldn’t think of it.

When I said all of this and puffed out my chest, Wilieris gave me a cheerful smile and said, “It’s true, you are eleven now. That’s far too early to be giving up on your dreams. In fact, no matter how old you are, whether you choose to pursue your ideals or not is up to you. You are your own person. I did say that your ideas will be hard for everyone to accept, but I respect your desire to help others. I pray that you retain those feelings throughout your life.”

Wilieris exuded such a godly aura that I couldn’t help but bow to her. Then I took a painful slap to the back. “What was that for, Kiriluel?” I asked.

“No need to bow to her,” she said. “That wasn’t a divine decree or anything. You know, sometimes you seem kind of like a certain crafty jerk in glasses I know, but sometimes you’re surprisingly dumb.” I wasn’t too pleased to be called an idiot by a god. The crafty jerk in glasses I had to assume was Fernobelia, the God of Magic.

“Well, I like people who are dumb the way you are,” she continued. “Like I said before, I have nothing against fights. Fighting isn’t just about trying to win; it’s about giving something everything you’ve got. Where there is conflict, changes and developments naturally arise. However you choose to live, you’re sure to end up in some sort of struggle. Even if you just live passively. And if you pursue your ideals, there will be too many conflicts to count. You might lose or run plenty of times and that’s fine. You can always get stronger and try again later. You only live once, so fight the fights you want to, or else you’ll regret it.” That was a unique way of putting it, but she was definitely supportive.

I was about to say thank you to Kiriluel and Wilieris, but then Kiriluel suddenly shouted before the words were fully out of my mouth. “Gah, you’re so formal!” she cried.

“Ryoma, you’ve spent enough time with us now to relax a bit, right?” Wilieris asked.

“Whatever, just, thanks, both of you.”

“Alright!” said Kiriluel.

“Take care of yourself until next we meet,” Wilieris said with a giggle. “I’ll introduce you to my husband next time.”

“We don’t get a lot of humans around here. I’ll watch to see what you’re doing once in a while too. And let’s have a fight some time.”

“Wait! Where’s my thanks?!” whined Lulutia, but my mind was already returning to my body.