HOT NOVEL UPDATES

By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 8 - Chapter 33




Hint: To Play after pausing the player, use this button

Chapter 5 Episode 33: Follow-Up #1—The Gods

Three days after the dazzling ceremony, Fey, myself, and my new employee Ox were all packed to leave the duke’s estate for Gimul, to the great disappointment of the duke, duchess, and their staff.

Before we left, though, I visited the divine realm through the church in Gaunago to find...

“Great job down there!”

“We saw the whole thing! What a wonderful ceremony.”

“Here, have a drink!”

“We got tons of snacks too! What strikes your fancy?”

“Figures...” I muttered, having encountered Kufo, Lulutia, Tekun, and Gain amidst mountains of food, bottles, and barrels where there should have only been a pure white surface. “The wedding was three days ago. Have you been drinking all this time?”

“Oh? Has it been that long already?”

“We don’t really keep track of the time, you know.”

“Not like we can drink ourselves under the table! We just do it ‘til we get bored!”

“Bwa ha ha! Only three days?!”

“I swear, you four... Where’s Wilieris?” I asked. Since Wilieris had blessed the couple at the wedding, I was sure she’d be here.

“Went on vacation with Grimp.”

“Grimp... The god of agriculture?”

“Yep. And Wilieris’s husband.”

“They still dote on each other, after all these years. ‘After that lovely wedding,’ she said, ‘we’re going to relive our honeymoon and go tour locales around the world and check on the crops.’”

“Do they have to relive their honeymoon a billion times?!”

“It’s harvest season in Rifall Kingdom where you’re at, Ryoma. Some other countries and continents are sowing their crops as we speak... They might grow exceptionally well this winter and into the spring, what with the goddess of earth and the god of agriculture touring the world and all...”

For all the conversations I’d had with these gods, I was reminded not to regard their actions the way I would those of ordinary humans. I drank from the cup they’d given me, and then Kufo spoke up.

“Wait... Three days? You came through the church in Gaunago, didn’t you? I thought you were leaving after the wedding.”

“That was the plan. But you all blessed the couple at the wedding, remember?”

“Oh yeah! Really livened things up, didn’t we?!”

Tekun was right. It did cause quite a hoo-ha at the wedding, with everyone exclaiming how they’d never seen a more celebrated union. I appreciated their divine gesture and all, but...

I dare say, there was a bit too much life in the party. It was enough how the reception carried on way past the scheduled time. But more crucially, although we were planning on demolishing the venue after the wedding, no one wanted to give any thought to destroying the structure on which the historically blessed marriage took place; that led to talks of reinforcements to make the structure last as long as possible, and I, as the de facto foreman, oversaw the reinforcements to the end. Besides, I had quite a few orders come in after word had spread among the workers of the estate how I’d built those statues.

“Ooh, guess you’ve been pretty busy.”

“I could have turned them all down, but everyone was very nice about it. I got to practice earth magic by mass-producing the statues, and I learned a spell usually used to reinforce mining tracks to bolster the venue. Better yet, I got to talk to a gentleman named Araflal about pharmaceutical methods; he officiated the wedding, actually, and he even gave me some advice. The extension was definitely worth it.”

“That’s great to hear.”

Speaking of those statues, I wanted to ask them about something: Divine Statue Master. “I noticed that title on my status board recently. What’s it mean?”

“Pretty cut and dry, I’d say. We deemed you a master at making our statues.”

“Most of the statues down in your realm are... What do you call them? Fanfics.”

“That’s, uh...an unexpected analogy.”

“You get to meet us and create your statues exactly as you see us. Normally, humans can’t do that. The other statue makers can only draw inspiration from old legends and their imagination. No matter how impressive they may seem to humans, they seem a bit off to us.”

“We used to be closer to humans, so there were more artists who could see us or sense us clearly... Some locales even change our gender, or depict us as non-humans!”

“Sometimes they even depict us as a different god for a different religion. Not that we can do anything about them, but there’re so many statues that just don’t get it right.”

“Not that gender or appearance matters much to gods like us, but we’re in our most natural and comfortable state. No sense in making ourselves match their depiction. And...while we could use our powers to do something about them, those statues have too much sway. We could ruin the world if we’re careless, and a couple of inaccurate statues aren’t worth risking the entire world for...”

“I see what you’re saying...” I suppose even gods have their own stuff to deal with. “I understand the Statue Master thing now, but do you think it would blow up in my face if people find out about it?”

“Considering the kind of person you are, Ryoma, yes. Master titles are given out when we deem projects to be a certain caliber, so they’re not unheard of. When the word gets out, everyone from nobles to clergymen want to hire those people.”

“The title is proof that the gods have praised whatever they’re making. If they’re a carpenter or something, they may be recruited to build churches or other religious facilities. You wouldn’t be treated badly, but the Church would want to keep you under their thumb. That could be a big break for normal people, but, well...you know. In any case, no clergyman in their right mind would force you into anything, and you can always turn them down. Even if you draw some unwanted attention, I wouldn’t be worried as long as the duke has your back.”


“I didn’t exactly plan on parading around town with my title, but I’ll be careful.”

“That would be safer. Tekun mentioned that Master titles are granted occasionally, but Divine Statue Master hasn’t been granted in a long time because of the issues we mentioned,” Lulutia lazily added, apparently buzzed. I, on the other hand, was growing more wary of the title.

“Use it well, and it could be a bargaining chip against the Church...given the right opportunity, of course. If you keep your titles a secret, no one should find out which ones you have. No need to be concerned about it too much.”

“You said it,” Tekun chimed in. “Everybody gets a title or two to their name eventually.”

After that advice, I decided not to worry about it, but the conversation so far made it sound like some titles were given to people without a conscious action from the gods. I asked them if this was the case.

“It is. There are two ways for humans to earn titles. One is for us to bestow them directly...”

“And the other is for the human to meet a set of preset requirements. In this case, the title is given out automatically, like a bot account replying to you on social media.”

“Somebody’s in touch with the latest trends, I see...”

“It’s the best comparison I could think of. Most automatically bestowed titles are common ones. For example, in any wedding, the newlyweds are each given a title as the wife or husband of their partner. That’s a lot of weddings every single day, on a global scale. Even us gods can’t process them all one by one.”

“I used to do them, back in the day. But sometimes I would be late on or miss a couple, and some were forced to separate, people claiming that ‘the gods didn’t approve of the union.’ I just couldn’t bear it...”

“I see...” I quietly topped off Lulutia’s glass, as she quickly became sullen.

“As the god of skill, I’m more impressed that the people of Earth can not only do what we do, but have even made it so any one of them can do it through the spread of technology,” Tekun muttered with an uncharacteristically serious tone and look in his eyes. So he was interested in Earth technology?

Of course, I still had my own questions. “I noticed that marriages are all supposed to be approved by the gods here. Do you have any problems with that? It’s hard to wrap my head around it, since marriages are approved through the governments on Earth.” I was particularly worried about Hughes and Lulunese, since they had each received three separate blessings.

“No worries. It’s always been that way here, so there aren’t any problems to speak of.”

“People get divorced, don’t they?” I asked. “If their marriage doesn’t work out, for whatever reason. Would they be excommunicated or anything?”

“Oh, nothing like that. We approve of divorces, just as we do marriages. As the saying goes, ‘Repent ye therefore, that your sins may be blotted out.’”

“It’s regrettable for any marriage to fail, but that’s just how the cookie crumbles. Humans believe that as long as they consider their shortcomings and strive to improve, they aren’t going against the gods. Sometimes, the marriage will work out with a little intervention from one of us.”

“Noble divorces can affect the reputations of many people involved in the marriage, so most of them simply decide to live in separate houses rather than officially divorce, but commoners get divorced just like they do on Earth.”

“I didn’t expect that...”

In that case, I wouldn’t worry about the possible failure of their marriage; I needed only be happy for them.

“Anyway, let’s have another round! Cheers!”

“Oh, yeah! Hand me a barrel!”

“Woo hoo!”

“We gettin’ lit!”

“Always the excitable bunch, I see... And what’s with the slang, Gain? How do you know so much about Earth culture?”

“We’re just a bunch of normal gods having a drink... But I learned quite a lot about Earth through watching Tomochin.”

“Who’s Tomochin?”

“What?! You’re from Earth, and you don’t even know who Tomochin is?! The number-one idol of our times, Tomoko Sukiya?! She started out as the quiet, girl-next-door type. She likes to read manga and draw; she even once wrote fanfic manga with other idols who shared her passion, but now that she’s an adult, her agent is pushing a more well-put-together look, forcing her to ‘grow out of’ her hobby for the most part! What’s more, even though the total number of fans have increased with this change, she’s heartbroken that her OG fans are losing interest—a twenty-year-old girl who gives off the impression that she works a bit too hard for her own good?!”

“N-Never heard of her...”

I continued to listen to Gain ramble away, but the only piece of information I made out was that she had been in a super famous idol group in Japan; they were around even when I was alive there. Kufo had told me that Gain had gotten hardcore into some idol or something, but I didn’t expect it to be this hardcore.

“You lived in Japan, and you don’t even know about her... Ryoma, I am very disappointed in you...!”

“Yeesh, overreaction much... One of my old coworkers Tabuchi might have known; he’s into more fandoms than I was. I just wasn’t interested in idols or celebrities at all, really. In my past life, I feel like I wasn’t interested in people at all...”

“Well, that’s just sad,” Tekun commented.

It was the truth, though. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have shut myself in a forest for three years the moment I got here. Besides, I was much more social in this world than I ever was on Earth. Plus, I enjoyed it. My own death and reincarnation had changed me quite a bit, it seemed.

“I’m getting to know more and more people in different circles... Including gods, no less. It’s hard for me to believe how I left the forest barely even a year ago. Compared to the time I’ve spent outside, the three years I spent in the forest feel like they just flew by.”

If I were a light novel protagonist, I imagine the readers would be complaining to the author about how the plot was moving way too slow right now. I could probably chalk that up to how fulfilling life had become for me by now.

“Oh, right... Got a question for you, Ryoma. Now that you’re meeting new people, expanding your horizons, and all that jazz... Have any fine young ladies caught your eye lately?”

“Ooh! Yes, do tell us!”

“Oh, no, no. Not at all. Well, not yet, anyway...”

I continued to celebrate the happy couple with the gods for all the time allotted to me...though the conversation did take its share of weird detours here and there.



Share This :


COMMENTS

No Comments Yet

Post a new comment

Register or Login