By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 15 - Chapter 13

Chapter 9, Episode 22: Parlor Trick

“This is the station closest to my office...” It was just an illusion. In one blink, the door that had closed behind me turned into the familiar train station. There was a man arguing on the phone with whoever he was waiting for, and the stench of vehicle exhaust hung in the air. Everything I could see, hear, and smell seemed impossibly real. “I don’t have much time,” I realized.

“Chief!” a familiar voice called from the right, just as I raised my guard.

I whirled to raise my sword, only to hold up a worn briefcase. It took a moment to register that the hand gripping the briefcase handle—and every other part of my body—had reverted to my old self.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” the portly man in a business suit said. “What are you doing?”

“Tabuchi,” I noted. As far as I could tell, the thing in Tabuchi’s form showed no signs of attacking me.

Tabuchi watched me curiously and spoke with a voice identical to the one I remembered him having. “Anyway, I’m glad I found you. Let’s go.”

“Where?” I asked.

“Where? The resignation party, of course!”

“Resignation?”

“Let’s get going,” Tabuchi urged. “We can walk and talk.”

What is he talking about? I wondered, but he still showed no inclination to attack me, so I followed him.

“Doesn’t this feel strange?” he asked. “When’s the last time you’ve been outside during the day, off the clock?” I had the same thought the first few days after being reincarnated. “Actually, it’s been a while since you left, so you’d be more used to it than I am. It’s been a rollercoaster since you left us, Chief.”

“Rollercoaster?”

“Well... You know how the company went under,” Tabuchi said, more as a statement.

“It went under?”

“Today, we finally wrapped up everything,” he said. “So we decided to go out and have a good time. And we couldn’t celebrate without you. Oh, and I know I’m jumping the gun...but congratulations on your new job!”

“New job...”

“You told me on the phone. A cleaner’s, right? Complete career change, but there’s no overtime, you said. And you said that your coworkers are great—nothing like our old department head.” That was the truth, at least. It was an insult to the staff at the laundry shop to even compare them to that piece of work. “Speaking of, did you know he was hospitalized?”

“No, I didn’t,” I said.

“The place was pure chaos after you left. The first thing was the mountain of work that he used to pressure you into doing. At first, he’d yell at us to divide and conquer it on our own...but we still couldn’t get it done. He tried taking on his fair share, and ended up in the hospital from ‘overworking.’ Before it got to that point, though, he was pretty pissed about the extra work. Yelling at us only stalled the real work we were doing, so he started throwing tantrums at the nepo babies. They had it easy, didn’t they? Always complaining while barely working. And their nepo status kept them off of the department’s head radar...until it didn’t. They received a few ‘verbal warnings’ and they ran for the hills.”

“I...kind of feel bad about that,” I said, realizing that all the work I’d left had to be divided among the team.

Tabuchi shook his head. “Don’t. They all had it coming for passing the buck to you all these years. They should feel bad for making you do all that work alone... Well, the same goes for me and the other members of the team. Everyone wants to apologize. You’re the only reason work got done at all at that place, where unpaid overtime was expected.”

“Is that what they said?”

“Yes. Everyone knew for a long time that you’d been covering for the rest of the team, working nonstop with your superhuman stamina. You made it a little more bearable for all of us. It’s not that we didn’t know how much you did until you left. We just...had gotten used to it. We trusted that you could take care of everything, and took advantage of that. That’s another reason we want you there so badly—to show how sorry we are,” Tabuchi said.

“I’d always wondered if they knew.”

“Of course we did. All of us. Otherwise, none of us would have made it that long. Our health—physical or mental or both—would have given out along the way.”

Soon, we arrived at our destination—a familiar eatery down an alley. It stood halfway between the station nearest to my office and the next one over. That wasn’t the best location, but they were open late and served good food. With how often I never made it back home for the night, I’d come here quite often. Tabuchi slid the door open—the familiar bell clinking as it opened—and I followed him through it.

“Welcome! You have a reservation,” the hostess greeted, recognizing us in an instant. She’d been working here for at least eight years, though I couldn’t remember the exact length. It was quite a long stint for part-time work.

“Over here, Chief. Come on,” Tabuchi urged me into a private room, where my old coworkers were already partying.

“There he is!”

“Chief! Tabuchi!”

“We started the party without you!”

“Are you already drunk? I don’t blame you—now that we’re finally unshackled from that place.”

“I’ll go get water!”

“Come sit down here, you two. No sense standing about,” Baba—who’d been close to retirement—called from the corner.

“Hello,” I greeted.

“It’s been a while,” he answered. After a moment of awkward silence, as I moved to meet him in his corner, he spoke again. “It is awkward, isn’t it? Strange. We saw each other every day in the office, and we’d been out drinking countless times. Is it because we haven’t seen each other for some time?”

“That’s probably it.”

“Have you been well?”

“I’m healthy, at least. My health was the one thing I could count on. And now I have wonderful people in my life,” I said.

“Is that right? Great to hear,” Baba said.

This was awkward. Baba was someone who’d excelled in sales for a long time. After some kind of confrontation with the higher-ups, he got bumped over to our team in development. The fact that I joined the company earlier than his transfer and my experience in the field were the only things that made Baba my subordinate when he was much older than me. Dependable and hardworking, Baba had always been someone I trusted in the office, but we’d never been too close outside of work.

“I’ve been meaning to apologize to you,” he said.

“About work? Tabuchi gave me the whole spiel.”

“That too, but there’s more. Back when I first started working under you, I was far from friendly. There must have been plenty of times I’d caused you stress.”

“Well...” I hesitated. Back when we first met, it wasn’t common for someone to have a boss younger than them. While things had improved by the time I was reincarnated, Baba must have faced prejudice and ridicule when he first transferred. With that in mind, I chose my words carefully. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure how to supervise someone older than me, and it took me a while to figure it out. I’d be lying if I told you it wasn’t stressful,” I began as Baba listened quietly. “But the stress lessened with time. Even though you had no experience in development, you always followed directions and learned fast. There’s a lot I learned from you, like how to take responsibility for my work and how to behave like a mature adult. Forgive me for the comparison, but it was nothing compared to putting up with our department head and the nepo babies.”

“Yes... Compared to what they’ve done, perhaps you could forgive most things.” Then, I thought I heard him say “Thank you.”

Before I could turn my attention back to him, the room exploded in excitement.

“Chief! The surprise guests are here!” Tabuchi said.

“Surprise?”

“After you left work, we got a call to the office from someone who couldn’t reach you. Who hasn’t seen you in a long time.”

“All right.”

“I can’t wait to see the look on your face!” Tabuchi rushed to the private room door, and I followed him with my eyes, wondering who was on the other side. After glancing my way once, Tabuchi threw the door open.

I couldn’t help but stare at the two figures standing there. It didn’t matter that it was all an illusion. My eyes were glued to them, and my muscles threatened to lock up.

“Mom? Dad?” I blurted.

Mom smiled at me, and dad looked away. Slowly, mom walked over. “It’s been too long, Ryoma. You never come home anymore, or call for that matter. Why didn’t you give us your new number instead of making me call up your work?” She turned to the others. “I’m so sorry about that,” she said, while I dumbly stared at her. “Don’t you have anything to say, after all this time? Like father, like son, of course... Come over here,” she told dad.

“Yeah...” Dad stalked over to me. In how slow he walked, I clearly saw that this man—who’d never shown interest in anything but swords—only came here after much deliberation. “I...was too hard on you.”

“Your father wants to apologize. After everything, we don’t blame you for wanting to avoid us... Can’t we live together again?” Mom’s voice took root in my head, binding my heart and silencing the world around me. Slowly, her hands reached out to grab mine. “Then, we can be—”

Before she could finish, I brought my sword down onto her head.