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

Side Story: Behind the Scenes with the Nobles

~???’s Side~

As Ryoma was thinking about his future, somewhere else, other things were occurring.

“Is that all for today’s plans?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Is it time for dinner, then? Or a bath?”

“What should we do, Elise? It’s up to you.”

“I’d like to be able to take a nice, long bath. Let’s have dinner first.”

“Understood. One moment, please.”

The maid left the lavishly furnished room, leaving Reinhart and Elise alone. They sighed, exhausted after days of work and dealing with visitors.

“I swear, it’s the same thing every year. Isn’t there anything we can do to improve on this?” said Reinhart.

“I hope so. If it were at least just people coming to say hello, it would be easier,” said Elise.

They knew it was their job, but they were only human. Exhaustion was inevitable. Once nobody else was in the room, they no longer bothered to hide it. They glared at the pile of documents.

“How many of these appeals do you think are legitimate?” Reinhart asked.

“Oh, I don’t know, 70%. That’s my optimistic guess.”

“What a pain.”

The documents were all appeals from nobles they knew, and most of them were loan requests.

“I think this is suspicious, at least,” Elise said.

“Let me see. Oh, this? What they really want is money they can show off with, I suspect.”

“And here’s this proposal again. How many times have we gotten this now? This person is so wasteful with money.”

It was almost socializing season, an important time for nobles. They held parties every night to meet others and deepen their relations. And if they didn’t want to embarrass themselves at these events, they needed to spend a fortune. It was so costly that some noble families spent the rest of the year living as frugally as commoners, if not more. A family went bankrupt every few years from trying too hard to improve their social standing and overspending. And now that it was the end of the year and socializing season was about to start, an increasing number of nobles were secretly requesting loans from more financially stable families.

“I’d like to reject this one, but I’m not so sure,” Reinhart said, reserving his judgment. There was a reason he couldn’t easily dismiss it.

“Most of the rest also say they want funding for defenses against monsters, don’t they?”

“They sure found themselves an annoying excuse.”

If they wanted funding to protect their cities and population from monster attacks, there was some sense to that. They had to approach loan requests from the nobles under their command with particular caution. If they responded poorly, their reputation among nobles could drop. The Jamil family had a fair amount of influence, but they stood nothing to gain from provoking anger. And it was unfortunately true that over the last few years, there was an increase in monster attacks throughout the country. As such, they couldn’t dismiss all of the appeals as excuses, so first they had to gather information and judge it carefully.

“Oh right, isn’t Ryoma coming soon?” Reinhart asked.

“Why do you bring that up?”

“The monster increase started three years ago, didn’t it? I just remember that was around when he said he started living in the forest, that’s all.”

“Now that you mention it, you might be right. It’s amazing he was able to leave his home at all.”

“That’s true. Apparently he’s going back to that forest full of monsters he came from. Do you think he’ll be alright? I guess it was always full of monsters, so maybe it doesn’t matter.”

“From what reports have told me, it seems like he’s doing fine in the city. I don’t see why he has to put himself in danger like that.”

“I don’t want him to do anything dangerous either, but he can make his own decisions. He’s plenty powerful anyway.”

“I know that, I’m just worried. And he must be lonely now that Elia’s off at school.”

Reinhart wryly smiled and said, “He’ll be fine. Ryoma knows what he’s doing, and he has allies. And even Elia has made friends thanks to Ryoma, apparently.”

“You’re right, they won’t be children forever. But I just can’t change how I feel. If your father were here, I’d ask him to go check on them.”

“You had better not leave too,” Reinhart said with a frown. “It would have been easier if Dad had been nice enough to leave Sebas behind, but he just had to take him along.”

“‘Elia is away at school, you shouldn’t need the extra help anymore,’ isn’t that what he said?” Elise asked with a chuckle. “He was gone in a flash. That was a surprise.”

“He did a good job ditching, I’ll give him that. Yeesh.”

As the discussion shifted to the topic of their family, the mood lightened up. Then the maid returned.

“Dinner is ready,” she said.

“Got it, we’ll be right there,” Reinhart replied.

“Did something happen? You two look more cheerful than when I left.”

“We just chatted. It helped us relax a bit.”

“Yes, that,” Elise said. “I’d like to get ready to have a guest stay with us soon, if you can prepare the room.”

“As you wish,” the maid answered.

“And don’t forget the other preparations. A lot is happening at once, so I’m sure it will be difficult, though.

“Don’t worry, I won’t forget. We care for our colleagues as well.”

Satisfied with the maid’s firm response, Reinhart and Elise began to walk to the dining hall, but then they were interrupted by another maid. She was holding a letter.

“I believe this just arrived,” she said.

“Who is it from?” Reinhart asked and checked the name on the envelope. He instantly turned glum. “Another one,” he said.

“I just wish we could go check on Elia.”

“We’ll just have to wait. For now, let’s have dinner.”

Reinbach, their competent butler, and the daughter who brought so much joy to their lives were all away. Their hardships would continue for some time.