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By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter 10




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Chapter 5 Episode 10: About the Unspeakable Meeting

“What are you going to do now, Ryoma?” Reinhart asked me the next morning during breakfast. I already knew my answer to that question.

“I think I’ll look for house demolition work at the adventurer’s guild.”

“House demolition? Glad to hear you’re intending to work, but why that?”

It all began at last night’s meeting. This was the first meeting I’d attended, so they had started by going over their plans and reviewing their current progress. Once they were done going over everything, Hughes had suggested helping to set up some things for the wedding site.

“It’s being held in the back garden, and it’s an elf-style wedding, right? The maids should be able to set that up on their own,” said Reinhart.

“It is an elf-style wedding, but we’re constructing a human-style church in the middle of the grounds,” said Elise.

“Why, though?”

“Everyone was confused when that got brought up last night too,” I said. To explain it, I wanted to make sure I understood the types of weddings and their features. “So, just so we’re on the same page, human-style weddings involve going to a church, and swearing a vow in front of family, friends, and clergy, right? And the wedding reception can vary depending on income, but it’s separate from the ceremony, right?” I asked. Everyone at the table nodded. “And elf-style weddings, by contrast, set up a stage in any space that’s large enough, place tables with food around it, and use an elder or someone of high status in place of the clergy. You still make the vow in front of friends and family, but after that, everyone starts the banquet right away.”

There were an increasing number of elves living in human cities, but from ancient times, elves lived in small settlements located out in nature. People in such an environment all tend to know each other, so they naturally developed a custom of celebrating weddings with the whole village. While they were called elf-style weddings, human peasant villages typically held these sorts of weddings as well. And as mentioned earlier by Elise, Hughes and Lulunese’s wedding was also going to be elf-style. But in this case, that was due to the number of guests, so that more friends could watch the wedding. They wanted everyone to be able to enjoy the banquet. Most importantly, though, Lulunese just wanted an elf-style wedding.

“She said she was interested in human-style weddings as well, but she definitely wanted an elf-style wedding.”

“She could’ve been more up-front about what she wanted,” said Elise.

“Well, she is more the reserved type,” said Reinhart.

She was also quiet, but Hughes had seemed to notice what she wanted and made the suggestion at a meeting. Others at the meeting argued that it couldn’t be done at first, but when they learned that it was Lulunese’s heartfelt desire, they started to consider it. Then, Hughes said he would ask for my help. He knew that I’d built my laundromat in less than a week, so he thought I could make it possible. And he claimed that I would do it for free if he just asked. I suppose it was just a strength of his that he figured he could just come right out and say that.

Later, Lulunese got the sense that hiding her feelings was a weakness of hers, and appreciated how Hughes picked up on this. Then they got all romantic, drawing the ire and jealousy of others at the meeting, mostly directed toward Hughes. But this was a success for Hughes, so while they were getting fed up, they tolerated it. Some of the men were so frustrated that it seemed like they might cry blood.

“I don’t even feel like talking about what happened anymore, so I’ll leave out the rest,” I said. “But after discussing it, we decided to have a church-style stage. I think it’s going to be big enough to hold my god statues, the bride and groom, and whoever’s acting as the clergy. The entrance should be big enough to see what’s going on from the outside. I think it’ll take about as much work as building a break spot with a roof in a park, or a small hut. The gardener and the guards are offering to help, so once the design is settled, it should be ready in a day or two.”

“Knowing what you’ve accomplished, I’m sure it won’t take long,” said Reinhart.

“I also wanted to see the sights around town and check out the guild, so hopefully there are some jobs available where I can get some of the necessary resources.”

I wanted to see if there were any jobs, and if I got those out of the way early, I planned to visit the church and get a solid idea of how the god statues should look. Hughes said he would pay for the resources himself, since he was making the request, but there were plenty of other ways he could spend that money. I wanted him to save his funds where possible. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to mind if it was made of recycled materials.

“You’ll be back by dinner, won’t you?” Elise asked. She didn’t seem to want me to work too hard.

“Yes, I’ll have dinner here again tonight,” I answered. That was my plan anyway, but she didn’t seem to completely trust me.

■ ■ ■

After breakfast, I was riding in a carriage. Elise wanted me to take the carriage if I was going out, but it seemed odd for an adventurer to ride to the guild in a carriage bearing the crest of the duke’s family. I tried to decline, but she was pushy. In the end, I decided to ride it until I was at least out of the noble district.

“I feel like Elise wasn’t this protective before.”

“Her daughter is living away from her. Maybe she’s feeling lonely,” Fay replied. He was staying in a room with Serge and Pioro’s servants, and when I went out, he naturally came along.


“You think she is?”

“No good parent wants to be away from their child. They can go too far with it, but for nobles, traveling by carriage is normal.”

I suppose it was something like sending a child off in a car to go take lessons somewhere.

“Wait, you knew that Elia started going to school?”

“The duke and duchess brought it up when they summoned me yesterday.”

“Huh?!”

“They knew what my old job was, and wanted to make sure there were no issues. When they heard I had a daughter, we mostly just spoke about our own daughters.”

“I see.”

They were good people, but the Jamil family were still nobles. It was normal for them to be wary of suspicious people in their territory, and to seek out information like that. Glissela knew about his former job and ended up finding a job for him, so she probably reported it back then. But I didn’t think the Jamil family would meet with Fay in person, let alone tell him about their daughter.

“I’m glad it all worked out,” I said.

“They even gave me written identification and a letter of recommendation to the adventurer’s guild. Did the same for Lilyn, too. They only want me to look after your businesses in return for that.”

“That’s awfully generous of them.”

Fay took out a piece of high-grade paper. The sealing wax on it featured the same crest that this carriage had.

“Now that you have that, why not register with the adventurer’s guild?” I suggested. “I probably can’t bring you along on the jobs I take.”

These documents would probably greatly reduce the restriction they experienced as foreigners. I gave them carte blanche so long as they were working at the laundromat, but if they ever wanted to quit, it would be nice for them to have options. And since he was given these personally, it was probably hard for him to dismiss the idea.

“Yes, we could live normal lives whenever we wish with these. I’ll make good use of the opportunity and go register.”

He seemed a little hesitant, but he still decided to do it. Maybe it would be nice to take a job together with the two of them when I had the chance.

“Oh, I just remembered something. Did you get the feeling you were being watched yesterday?”

When I mentioned the house fairies Lulunese told me about, he seemed to clue into what I meant.

“I thought I was being spied on for sure.”

“Me too. That’s what anyone would think, I guess.”

The fairies were doing it of their own accord, but come to think of it, maybe it could be called spying.

“Fairies that watch over a house, though? That’s a new one. There were fairies who brought misfortune upon the owners of the house in my country. They would show up whenever inhabitants of the house died in horrific ways. They say that’s when they’re born.”

“Those are fairies? Not evil spirits or undead monsters or something?”

“In my country, they’re both called gwi. Like the term monster, it lumps many things together, so maybe they are the same. To fend these gwi off, I believed they used what your language would call necromancy. They had that magic, so that’s what they used.”

“Sounds like they’re evil spirits or something.”

I wasn’t familiar with this magic, so I was curious. Our conversation kept going until the carriage came to a stop.



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