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By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 6 - Chapter 7




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Chapter 4 Episode 7: Negative Inheritance

I stopped by the store to inform them that I was back in town, and they told me what had transpired while I was away. It sounded like everything had gone as smoothly as usual, but they did have two matters to inform me about which were unrelated to work.

“This is from Weizen,” Carme said as he handed me a letter.

There were also two framed pieces of paper on the desk in my office. It took me a while to remember what Weizen was, but it was the name of Fina, Maria, and Jane’s village. It was written on their resumes, but I’d completely forgotten about it.

“Looks like it was sent by the mayor,” I noted.

The letter said that they had decided to produce and sell barley tea, and that they were grateful to me. It seemed that the village was in agreement on the idea, and that they were working well with the Saionji Trading Company. Each of the families was processing their barley reserves, and they were making plans with Pioro to build a processing plant where numerous people could work at once, as well as increase their barley production.

When Pioro got my letter of introduction and a sample of the tea, he apparently went to visit the village himself. While he was there, he even bought their excess grains aside from the barley. They certainly sounded happy. To show their appreciation, they also sent a special thank-you letter and a certificate stating that I was the Weizen Barley Tea Factory’s advisor. Both of those things occupied the two picture frames.

This advisor position seemed to be entirely honorary and required no input from me. I wasn’t getting paid for it, either, but they intended to periodically send me some tea leaves so I could appraise their quality.

“Congratulations on the advisor position,” Carme said.

“Thank you.”

I hadn’t done anything to earn it, but I decided to accept the compliment.

“And what about the other message?”

“Right. We’ve been catching wind of some curious rumors. The denizens of the slums have been saying that the slums will be demolished to build a new district, and that they’re all going to be driven out.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

It was strange, though. I understood their concerns, but I didn’t know why they thought that was going to happen now. The same went for Carme, so he immediately investigated, apparently.

“I checked with the merchant’s guild, and it sounds like the public office has no such plans. But there was some scandal at the public office before we started work here, wasn’t there?”

“There was. They’ve appointed a new leader since then, though. Does the public not trust him?”

“It seems that way. The incident was considered resolved when the old leader was thrown out, but they likely haven’t regained the trust they lost. It looks like suspicion begets suspicion.”

I thought back to the man who I met during the Founding Festival. He took over the public office, but it sounded like cleaning up after the old leader’s mess was going to be rough.

“Does this affect our business in some way?”

“For now, not at all. But I hear that people from the slums have been seeking jobs over the past few days, and they’re proactively visiting stores which are currently hiring. We aren’t hiring at the moment, but we might receive visitors looking for work. I think we should figure out what to do if that happens.”

“Well, do we need any more employees?”

I had enough money to pay new recruits, but my current employees were running the laundromat just fine. Even if I wanted to open more stores in the future, I couldn’t think of a reason to rush into hiring more workers right away.

On the other hand, people from the slums had been helping with my store since it first opened. I even had a lot of acquaintances from the slums. If they were in trouble, then I wanted to help them out somehow.

“I think it depends on the person, but for as long as I’ve worked here, I haven’t had a bad impression of anyone from the slums,” Carme said.

“I thought it’d be more dangerous at first myself.”

“In most cases, I think your assumption would be correct. Once a city reaches a certain size, there tend to be places that the guards don’t bother patrolling. The fact that this city’s slums still have patrols makes them as safe as possible, you could say.”

That was interesting, but we were getting off-topic. If I were to hire someone new, maybe they could transport clothing for us, but we didn’t need that many workers in that role. That was except for the busiest hours, so hiring someone part-time was an idea. That would free up another employee to take orders, which could decrease the wait time for customers.

I proposed the idea to Carme.

“What do you think?” I asked.

“We would have to hold an interview with the person first, and make sure they’re not trying to steal cleaner slimes. Aside from that, this wouldn’t give us more workers than we know what to do with, so I think it would be fine. If we find someone who has potential, maybe they could even be hired full-time one day.”

“Can you get that set up, then?”

“As you wish. That’s all I had to report today.”

“Thanks as always. I’ll see you again in five days.”

“I’ll take care of the store while you’re gone. By the way, Boss, what will you be doing for the rest of today?”

“Well, I need to go home and check on the mine. If something started living there while I was gone, I’ll have to exterminate it.”

“You only just got back from a long journey, so don’t forget to get some rest.”

“Thank you.”

With his report finished, Carme returned to the front of the store. I took Carme’s advice and went home early.

■ ■ ■

I was walking toward the northern gate on the road through the residential district when I smelled a sweet, refreshing aroma. It seemed to be coming from a nearby home. On closer inspection, it actually appeared to be a cafe.

A sign next to the cozy wooden house said this was the Cat’s Forehead, and that they were currently open. Only then did I realize it was around noon, and that it was probably a good idea to eat something. Though I wasn’t sure if it was right to go inside. The sign said they were open, but no customers were entering or leaving, and the words on the sign were crude enough that they could have been left by a mischievous child.

“What are you doing here, Mr. Takebayashi?”

“Hm? Oh!”

I turned in the direction of the words spoken to me and saw a well-groomed man with a small, slightly worn bag under his arm. It was the current chief of the public office.

“Hello,” I said.


“Yes, hello. Are you eating here as well?”

“I ended up stopping here since it smells really nice, but I wasn’t sure if I should go inside.”

“I see. Let me guess, is it because the place looks like a house? I got the same impression when I first saw it. Would you like to go in with me?”

He invited me to lunch with him. I was hungry anyway, so I saw no reason to decline.

“Welcome.”

“I’ll take the usual; black tea and the sandwich of the day. Plus some lamon pie after I’m finished, please. I’m with a guest this time, so make it a double order.”

“Very well. Please be seated.”

When we entered the building, a counter was straight ahead. Sitting on the other side of it was an old cat woman. After Arnold aloofly took his order, she disappeared into the back of the cafe.

“This way,” Arnold said, guiding me to a table for four against the wall east of the counter. There was an identical table on the left side, but that was it. This cafe could seat no more than eight people, from what I could tell.

“This place is as small as it appears. Plus, those three items I ordered happen to make up the entire menu. Still, they’re all quite delicious.”

“Interesting. Do you come here often?”

“I suppose I do. I’ve been coming five days a week as of late.”

So basically every day, then. More than a little often.

“On the other two days, I purchase something close to the public office. I can’t cook, you see.”

“Understandable. You seem like a busy man. I’ve heard that a new district’s being built south of town.”

“You know about that? It’s still in the planning stages, though. I’m only going to get busier later.”

The look on his face when he said that reminded me of my coworkers on Earth.

“I apologize if I’m mistaken, but you look very tired,” I told him.

“Was it that obvious?”

“Maybe not, but I had a hunch. You’re not the first one I’ve seen in a state like that.”

Arnold looked at me and let out a heavy sigh.

“I suppose there’s no use in hiding it.”

Then our food arrived, so I ate my sandwich as I listened to his story. He described it in mild terms, but to cut a long story short, one might say he had a boatload of problems.

First of all, the public office had to rid itself of a lot of people when it ousted the corrupt chief who preceded Arnold. That meant they were somewhat short on workers. They did recruit some new staff, but they still needed some training to do their jobs properly. The old staff that weren’t fired could do the work, but these were people who allowed the previous chief to abuse his power. This was as good a time as any to step up, but most of them weren’t terribly proactive.

“That sounds tough. Seriously.”

“Do you have any employees like that?”

“Oh, no, I’m quite happy with my employees. But I used to deal with people like that in the past.”

I was getting dangerously close to letting the cat out of the bag. In any case, we still hadn’t talked about the slums. I wanted to know the situation there, so I shifted the subject in that direction.

“You heard about that too? Nothing in our plans for the construction of this new district states that we will drive the inhabitants of the slums away, and we have no intention of doing so. However...” Arnold furrowed his brow and took another sip of his tea.

It sounded like he knew what had caused the rumors. Most likely, it was a complicated and headache-inducing problem.

“There are some homeless people in the slums, and their makeshift dwellings often block the roads. Some also live in dilapidated buildings that clearly don’t meet safety standards. We’re asking them to move their belongings and move someplace else, or to fix up their homes. This is all in accordance with the law, and if we were to neglect this matter, we would not be doing our duty.”

After word of that got around, it was at some point extrapolated into the idea that they were being driven out of town, apparently.

“I checked our records, and there has been an increase in accidents resulting from destroyed or damaged homes over the last few years, as well as an increase in instances of freezing to death in the winter among the homeless. Something must be done.”

But even he didn’t believe that he could expect the citizens in these buildings to move or repair their homes right away. He knew that they had little money to spare. That was why he took the responses of the citizens into account. He never considered removing them by force, and for the time being, this was simply a request.

There was a department set up to deal with this specific matter at present, and maybe the construction of the new district was partially meant to create new jobs for these citizens. But the homelessness problem was its own separate beast.

“In any case, fixing these problems in the best possible way for all our citizens is our job and our duty.”

“I respect your dedication.”

But I started to wonder if these problems didn’t exist under the previous chief. Maybe he was just slacking off on that part of the job too.

“Here’s your lamon pie.”

“Oh, thanks—What the?!”

I was expecting a couple slices of pie, but for some reason, we were given a whole pie. It seemed like a little much for two people.

“I’ll get those old plates out of the way.”

Once the plates were removed, another lamon pie was left in their place. We each got one whole pie.

“What in the world?”

“I’m sorry. Perhaps asking for double my usual order was a mistake.”

“You order a whole pie for dessert every time?”

“I can’t eat it all in one sitting, so I take the rest to go and have it during my break at work. I tend to want something sweet when I’m tired,” he said bashfully.

It was the first time I saw him smile that day, but he should probably have been worrying about becoming diabetic. I took a bite of the pie myself. The crust was plain but warm, and the sour lamon brought out the flavor of the cream. It was delicious. There didn’t seem to be a ton of sugar, but I didn’t need more than two or three pieces. I decided to take the rest home.

As Arnold Bernhyde ate more and more of the pie, I had never seen him more relaxed. This was what little time he had away from his grueling job, so I tried to avoid ruining his fun.



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