By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 9 - Chapter 1

Chapter 6 Episode 1: The Fishing Village on the Lake

“Go straight that way and you’ll get to Lake Latoin. Bear left and you should get to Sikum. Even if you don’t get there, you should see some villages from the edge of the lake, and you can travel between the villages by boat once you’re there. It might take some time, but you’ll get there eventually.”

“Thank you for showing me this far.”

“No problem, we gotta help each other out. I doubt you’d lose your way from here, but still, be careful out there.”

“Likewise! Thanks again!”

Two weeks after I signed the familiar contract with the genius chicken and its flock, thereby securing me a sustainable supply of eggs, I was en route to Lake Latoin, an area where mad salamanders lived, to do some training.

“Right, time to go.”

After seeing off the kind merchants who had shown me here, I turned to head down the path they had pointed out. The dirt path wound into the forest.

I started down the path and found that it was as confusing a path as it could be, with tree roots crisscrossing the path every few steps. The path was mostly mud and tree roots, with a few rocks along the way; it reminded me of a mangrove preserve I had walked through when I was in Okinawa once. I kept my stride small, carefully walking toe-first. I was mostly after mad salamanders on this trip, but traversing through perilous paths like this would probably prepare me for the sea of trees.

My biggest concern was my ETA; the merchant had told me to go straight, but he had also told me we were “almost there” two hours before arriving at our lodging the previous night. I imagined that he lived out in the country, where one’s “nearest neighbor” was miles away. I guessed that it would also take me about two hours to make it through the woods.

■ ■ ■

Four hours later, I finally arrived at a beautiful lake with a village nestled along its shore. Near the entrance to the village stood a cheval de frise that must have been fashioned out of the mangrove-like trees, with a guard standing next to it. I approached a man in his fifties enjoying a smoke near the entrance to the village.

“Excuse me!” I called.

“Hm? You’re not from the village, are you? You alone, kid?”

“Yes. My name is Ryoma. I’m an adventurer, and I’m trying to get to the fishing village of Sikum. Am I in the right place?”

“Yeah, this is Sikum... Oh, I just remembered. Apparently, one of Kai’s chums was supposed to come by here. Would that be you?”

“If that’s the same Kai from the adventure party Sikum’s Pier, then yes, that’s me.”

“Great! Hang on a sec.” The man reached for a mallet which hung from a rope on the gate, and clanged a metal bar, which also hung from the gate, several times.

Soon, a young woman came running out from the village. “What’s going on, Manda?”

“Perfect timing, May. This is Kai’s friend.”

“Oh, the one I’ve heard so much about?! I can’t wait to—wait, you’re him? Kind of a young one... Hell, forget young, he’s just a kid,” the woman bluntly remarked.

“Nice to meet you. Ryoma Takebayashi’s the name.” Her name sounded enough like Kai’s that I wondered if they were related.

“Thank you kindly. I’m May, Kai and Kei’s older sister. Thanks for helping them out.”

“He just got here, so why don’t you show him around?” Manda offered.

“You got it,” she answered. “I’ll take him to our place for starters. I’m sure one of the boys should be home. Follow me!”

“Okay! Oh, and thanks... Manda, right?”

“No problem! Take care!”

Manda the guard watched me as I chased after May, who hastened her way back into the village. As we walked through the roads, which weren’t paved but neatly flattened, I spotted children running around, women engaged in conversation around the well, elderly people who had brought out their chairs and tools working on miscellaneous things in the sun... Overall, this seemed like a very peaceful village.

“Something catch your eye?” May asked.

Did I look like I was ogling? “Oh, sorry. I had heard that there were a lot of monsters around these parts, so I didn’t expect the village to seem so peaceful.”

“Mad salamanders, you mean? They usually show up around this time every year, so there’s not much point in being scared of them anymore. Besides, they’re after the fish we catch, so they’ll come to the shore but never into the village.”

“I see... Are those buildings made out of wood and mud? They seem rather uniform.”

“Heh, that’s purely out of necessity, I can assure you. We don’t have anything else to build with. Trees and mud are things we can get from around here. That way, if your house breaks, it’s easy to fix.”

“So everyone fixes their own homes?”

“Who doesn’t? I don’t know anyone around here who can afford to hire someone for a little renovation.”

This village wasn’t just peaceful, but full of quite resilient people, it seemed.

“Here we are. Come on in,” she pointed out as we arrived at our destination. She held the door open for me.

“Thank you.”

I stepped into a space with the bare ground below us. It stepped up into a large, wooden-floored living room with a hearth in the center of it. It somewhat resembled traditional Japanese architecture, which gave me an odd feeling of nostalgia.

“Kai! Kei! No answer, huh... Guess they’re not around. Well, no big deal. We have your room ready, Ryoma. Let me show you.”

Wait, what? The letter I had received earlier said that I had a room booked at an inn set up for adventurers. I asked May about this, and she explained that the aforementioned “inn” was actually the village hall. They rented rooms out to adventurers during this time of year, but as it wasn’t that large of a building, it had already filled up with other adventurers. When the village discussed the issue of what to do with the overflow of adventurers, they didn’t want to force the adventurers who had traveled all that distance to camp outside the village, so they settled on the idea of offering trustworthy adventurers a room at the house of volunteers.

“Sorry to push you around like this, but I hope you can bear with us.”

“Oh, you’re not pushing me around at all! If anything, I’m very grateful you’re putting me up for free.”

“Glad to hear it. I don’t know how things are in the cities, but around these parts, we all help each other out. Just give me a holler anytime you need anything while you’re here. I’ll try to help you any way that I can.”

The people of this village seemed closer to each other than people in the city, and they seemed so friendly, even to a stranger like me... I was a bit surprised by the sudden greeting into this culture, but it was encouraging to know I was welcome here.

“All right! Thanks for looking after me!”

The warm welcome was something I was very grateful for indeed.

And so, my training at Lake Latoin was about to begin!