By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter 25

Chapter 5 Episode 25: Sympathetic Ryoma

~Ryoma’s Side~

Once the tryouts had wrapped up, I knew right away who I was going to pick.

“Welcome aboard, Mr. Roade.”

“I’ll give the job my all. And Master, please call me Ox.”

Ox Roade. His strength in combat was on another level from the rest. It seemed like he had a stubborn side, but his stoicism was actually reassuring. I had asked the others for their input, too, but they were all in agreement. As a slave sold to pay off his debt, his only personal effects were the pair of swords on his belt and a few sets of clothes. When I came back after allowing my magical energy to recover post-match, he had already finished packing. We were informed that we could take Ox with us immediately if we paid for him, so we settled that straight away with a payment method that resembled a personal cheque. Apparently, there was no need to rush him out of there (and I was only squatting at the Duke’s myself), so I was only going to pay a little extra to keep him there for a few more nights and pick him up on my way back to Gimul...

“He can stay at my place as a servant. Let’s go home already.” Reinhart’s offer had settled it.

We returned to the carriage, and everyone but me, including Fay and Ox, climbed inside.

“How about a relaxing cup of tea to commemorate a well-negotiated deal?” Moulton asked.

“Go relax yourself, then,” Pioro cut in.

“It was worth a try. Oh, well... Mr. Takebayashi, if you are ever in need of another slave, please stop by anytime. Even if you simply wish to kill an afternoon with pleasant conversation.”

I gave an obliging chuckle. “I know where to find you, Mr. Moulton.”

“Oh, I almost forgot! Please call me Orest. Let us be frank, Mr. Ryoma. Don’t you think honorifics are such a hindrance to friendship?”

He didn’t even try to hide how blunt he was... Not that I particularly minded.

“All right, Orest. I’ll come by some time.”

“I’ll be looking forward to it, and I’ll surely have some attractive deals for you. I would give you the spiel, but before the adults scorn me for it...” Orest handed me a pamphlet.

He was so smooth with the hand off that I took it without thinking. He had this ready the whole time?

With a quick thanks, I climbed into the carriage and took the open seat between Fay and Ox. With our carriage full, the coachman took off as though he couldn’t wait to get out of there. I watched Orest see us off, beaming as he shrank into the distance.

The adults sitting opposite me let out a uniform sigh.

“Thank you all for coming along.”

“I didn’t have anything better to do,” Reinhart chuckled.

“We couldn’t have let you come alone.”

“I’m sure you see why, Master Takebayashi...”

It really was a huge help that they tagged along. If I had encountered him without any allies or prior knowledge, I would have danced like a puppet the whole time I was there. “Like you said, Mr. Serge, he may not be malicious, but he is quite certainly hard to handle.”

Reinhart had also mentioned this, but Orest knew exactly the right moments to push or pull, socially speaking. He had taken me by surprise during some points in conversation, and even made me almost irritated at others, but never crossed my line of intolerance where I would have shouted or been enraged. Then he’d throw in a compliment or brush off a question...

At the end of the day, I stopped caring. I felt like he played this mind game with everyone he interacted with, fine-tuning his tactics depending on who he was dealing with. It was exhausting, and I got where everyone was coming from, but I couldn’t totally dislike the man. He might have fun with someone hating him, if it came to that.

“Yeah, I’d say you’re right. Got all that from your first visit, huh?”

“I don’t think I would have been as collected on my own, but you were there to be a buffer between us... And I couldn’t help but find a part of his character relatable.”

“You and Orest? I can’t see that...”

“Agreed.”

“Not that we have similar personalities or anything, but we have a similar approach to our interests.”

Whenever I find a new slime, I put it next to all sorts of things to see what it likes and doesn’t like, including poison if it comes to that.

Even if a slime bit me, I wouldn’t get mad at it. In fact, I would be curious as to how it bit me, and what sorts of powers that it could evolve. I just didn’t get the appeal of doing the same thing to humans, since I was never that interested in them. “Kind of felt like we had a similar way of tackling things.”

“Oh...”

“That’s what you meant...”

“That makes sense...”

They seemed to accept that explanation, including Fay, who sat silently beside Ox. Ox himself didn’t seem to catch on, since he didn’t know how much I liked slimes...

Oh no. It can’t be comfortable to be thrown into a group of strangers having a conversation you have no understanding of. “I’m sorry, I totally kept you out of the loop.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Ox said, to my relief.

With our introductions already out of the way, though, I wanted to discuss what came next. I was going to stay at the duke’s house for at least another three days, so I wanted Fay to give him the rundown about the shop, especially when it came to security. I hoped that he’d also get me to help with setting up the wedding venue. He was strong enough to swing that sword all over the place single-handedly, and I definitely could have used muscles like his.

“And one more thing,” I added. “If you’re willing, of course, I would like you to help me experiment with a new kind of medicine.”

“Medicine?”

I gave him the spiel about my grandmother teaching me knowledge about medicines and how to make them, explaining that I was quite proficient at it... Then I told him that I wanted to test a magic recovery one, but not a fast-acting one like those sold at the store. This was a longer-lasting potion, which slowly and steadily regenerated the user’s magic. I had been thinking about Ox’s tactic of using magic to wield his second sword to make up for his lost hand. While we couldn’t do anything about him having less magical energy because of his race, it seemed like a waste not to come up with a way to improve upon that tactic. He didn’t have enough magical energy to fight for long, and even before he was completely out, running low on magical energy alone caused him to rapidly lose precision in his movements. As a result, Ox was always in a kill or be killed situation, which led me to the idea of long-lasting magic recovery. The concept itself was included in the knowledge that had been passed down to me.

“Magical energy regenerates when you rest, so most situations that call for a recovery potion call for fast-acting ones, like in mid-combat, or to supplement healing magic being cast to heal someone severely injured. On the other hand, I’ve been told there are people with a condition called magic leakage, who slowly lose their magical energy without using any magic. While researching a cure for this condition, they apparently developed a medicine that continuously recovers small amounts of magical energy over a longer time. The symptoms of low magical energy could be fixed with a fast-acting recovery, but a long-lasting one can prevent those symptoms from showing altogether. I only have the knowledge and have never made such medicines myself, but I’ve heard that adjusting the ingredients for it can allow me to change how long it lasts or how much magical energy it heals. I’m wondering if we can make up for the magic you expended on your fighting style with the amount this potion could recover.”

“Is that possible?”

“It’s just a guess, but I think it could certainly help you in training. Considering how long it lasted in the match, it looked like you were using your second sword solely based on your memory from the days when you still had your left hand, rather than having any real practice under your belt with magic...”

Ox nodded. “That’s correct. A few minutes before sleep was the best I could do. I couldn’t hope to train longer, or consume medicine that wasn’t exactly a necessity. I was grateful to have any real training time at all. But wouldn’t this new medicine become a financial burden for you, Master? They can’t be cheap to make.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that.” I could use the running mush I’d been steadily growing to preserve bacteria. Those were supposed to be luxury materials, so I could only sell off so much through the guildmaster. To be honest, they were beginning to pile up. “The crafting of and experimentation with medicine will help me improve... And I’m better off than most, financially speaking. You wouldn’t have been an option for me otherwise.”

“Indeed. I see my concerns were unfounded.”

“I may have to watch my pocketbook for a bit, but I won’t have to change my lifestyle. If this medicine will allow you to maximize your potential, that will reassure me more than saving on the cost of it. If you still want to repay me somehow, I would love to learn the technique of casting magic without incantations.”

“I learned it by accident, but I would gladly oblige. Please use me in your experiments.” Twisting his large stature in the cramped carriage, Ox bowed to me.

I’d been secretly practicing casting magic without incantations, based on what my street performer friends (Maiya and Sorio the sword-dancers, to be exact) had taught me, but I was struggling to see any progress. Aside from the business of my shop, I remembered that Gimul had started an expansion project, a coliseum being one of the main attractions of the new town. I remembered that because I’d collected materials for the project. If I could tweak that medicine right and get Ox up to shape, I wouldn’t mind him resuming his career as a gladiator.

I’d feel the safest when he’s guarding the shop, but I want my workplace to encourage the passions of my employees. During one of my small talks with Orest, he had mentioned that some nobles even purchased slaves with the very intent of making them into gladiators. If Ox wanted to do it, I would get my money’s worth that way.

I explained to Ox that I’d chosen him with that backup plan in mind.

“I never expected to be treated with such kindness after becoming a slave.” With a mix of what looked like a smile and teary eyes, Ox kept thanking me, and I kept accepting. Although I couldn’t help but think that he should be thanking Orest more than me.

“Why thank him?” Ox asked.

“I guess that reaction says a lot about how you got along with him... But he did recommend you, and I’d bet that he knew all about this medicinal project and my background as well.”

Magic leakage and long-lasting magical energy potions were rare, but he was at least a second-generation slave trader. Assuming he liked people as much as I liked slimes, he’d likely used his position to interact with countless people, day after day. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d come across at least one person with magic leakage, or someone with knowledge of the kind of medicine I was working on. Even if that wasn’t the case, Orest knew about Ox’s technique, and I believed that exploring ideas to improve that tactic alone could lead him to long-lasting magic recovery potions.

“He pretended not to know, in order to keep you close as part of the ‘problematic inventory’... Since he did sell you to me, he probably did that so he’d get a buyer he approved of.” Like Ox pointed out, making medicine to give to a slave would be a strict expense. Not just in terms of materials, either; anyone who didn’t know how to make them may have to make a special order for it. Knowing how much Ox could look after himself with just one hand, I wondered if any other buyer would have been willing to spend the money and time on him. That would have been such a waste of Ox’s talent. If anyone had treated one of my slimes that way, I would have been outraged. If I was in the position to choose who to give my slimes to, I would make sure to never let anyone who would waste their talents even lay a finger on them.

“You must really like slimes, Master... I’ve never been compared to a slime before,” Ox muttered. The rest of the carriage chuckled, but I was beginning to understand why Orest was so selective of who was going to buy Ox.

I, for one, had some knowledge of medicine, and I didn’t even hide that. Besides, I was apparently quite well-known in Gimul for treating my employees well.

Some merchants thought I was too soft on my workers, or that I was too wasteful, but those criticisms only supported how well each employee was treated. Orest, who had boasted about how much research he’d done on me, would have known that, of course.

“I can’t be too sure... But take the innocent conversation about the slave-gladiators, for example. I feel like he was nudging me in this direction with little insinuations all the way.”

How much did he know? The more I wondered, the less malice I saw in him... But continuing to think about him wasn’t doing me any favors. “I think I’m starting to understand how you feel...” The adults in the carriage gave me the same look a support group would give to a newcomer.