By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 16 - Chapter 10

Chapter 10, Episode 10: More News and Inspecting the Lab

Three days had passed since Eleonora’s arrival. We were carrying on with introductions and the transfer of duties when Sebas came knocking on my door again.

“We looked into the potential unauthorized use of your proprietary technology. While there was no theft of proprietary technology, there is a facility that partially resembles your trash plant,” Sebas said, once we sat down with him in the meeting room we’d set up in Eleonora’s office.

If there was no theft, then it wasn’t like one of my slimes had been stolen or one of my employees had sold out information, which was a relief.

Sebas continued, “What first drew our attention were dumpsites newly built around the cities within the lord’s territory. When questioned about it, the lord explained that the new dumpsites were set up because his existing trash processing centers were attacked by monsters. His territory is seeing a comparatively faster rise in monster attacks, which they have been struggling to control because of the recent change in lordship. The old trash centers—located outside of the cities—were attacked by monsters searching for prey, which inevitably led to more injuries among their employees.”

Preventing monster attacks would require an investment in the facility’s defenses. However, this territory was never particularly wealthy to begin with, and having to pay the fines for the crimes of its previous lord was a drain on their coffers. Waiting out the monster attacks wasn’t an option, though—if they went unchecked, the monster attacks would only worsen. The new lord’s desperate solution was to freeze the existing trash plant and set up temporary dumps around the city. It felt like a stopgap, if anything, and there were some sanitary concerns, but moving the dumps into the city did allow the guards to concentrate within the city limits. Gimul still had its traditional trash plant outside the city, which was still staffed and operational. The successful implementation of the slime trash plant would probably allow us to better deal with attacks like that. If we didn’t have a backup trash plant like mine, monster attacks would have been a huge issue.

“We have varied the establishment of collection spots as well as the rise in monster attacks. The lord is not lying about that,” Sebas said.

“About that?” I questioned.

“Very astute. The root of the problem can be traced back to the relationship between the lord and a noble who borders his territory—there’s much more animosity there than we’d initially thought. The increase in monster attacks affects not only trash collection but the territory’s commerce. The lord admitted his predecessor’s wrongdoings and his own inexperience to ask the neighboring noble for help. But then the noble rejected his plea, only to turn around and demand outrageous payments for their aid, knowing how desperate the new lord is.”

“Then eliminating those monsters would only treat the symptom,” I said.

“New lords and ladies are at the bottom of the pecking order. Sounds like someone’s blinded with greed,” Hudom said.

“If their territories neighbor each other, all they would have to claim to buy time is that their resources are tied up defending their own territory from the monster attacks. They must be waiting for the new lord to grow even more desperate until they can negotiate an outrageously unfair deal to their advantage. Never mind that the people are the ones who will suffer... Even if the new lord can survive the imminent rise in monster attacks by taking the unfair deal, if those conditions make it so he can’t run his territory effectively... Sooner or later, his territory will collapse,” Eleonora said bitterly, probably thinking of her own family. Her attitude towards the new lord wasn’t friendly, but not entirely unsympathetic. She knew better than most the burdens that came with an inescapable lineage of lordship.

At this point, I picked up on what Sebas was implying. “The new lord meant for us to suspect him of copying my trash plant... Is that right?”

“Most likely, though he hasn’t admitted as much. The former duke’s visit had quite rattled the new lord, I’ve been told, but his defense for setting up new trash collection points seemed rehearsed. Since this misunderstanding came to light, the neighboring noble has refrained from contacting the new lord,” Sebas said.

“No one’s gonna want someone stupid enough to provoke the duke as their lackey. Being associated with someone like that, let alone having them act on your accord, wouldn’t be worth the risk,” Hudom said.

Like the vibrant coloring of poisonous animals, the new lord had painted himself as dangerously useless—the worst kind of potential ally.

“All he did was collect trash in the city and then burn it, which is not a new method of processing trash by any means. This means that there are no grounds for an accusation of theft of proprietary knowledge. He must have planned to ignore the issue if we had never brought it up, and thought he could play it as an honest mistake if we did,” Sebas said.

“Still, that couldn’t have made a good impression on the duke. Did he think his reputation couldn’t get any worse?” I mused.

“Perhaps he was spurred on by youthful confidence and rebellion,” Sebas suggested. “The new lord, having graduated from the academy only last year, is nineteen years of age.”

He’s that young?! That did make sense, though. This was someone who inherited the lordship without enough time to properly prepare for the role. If he were older, he would have had time to learn his responsibilities before now. I’d considered the possibility that this was a last-ditch effort, but I hadn’t quite expected this. “I’m not sure how I feel about this,” I admitted. “Was there nothing else he could have done?”

“Requesting aid from the king’s army is an option,” Eleonora quickly jumped in. “The problem is the timeline. Mobilizing the army requires several steps: filling out paperwork, deciding how many and which teams to assign, preparing supplies according to the job, and then traveling to where the army is needed. That would have taken two weeks at minimum.”

“You may think that’s too long, but if there was a system in place that allowed for the king’s army to arrive any quicker, it could put the local lords on edge or even offend them if they took it to mean that the king considers their own defenses inadequate. It’s a tricky situation, politically,” Hudom supplied. “The king’s army is always the backup. It’s expected for the lord’s militia and local adventurers to respond first, then for neighboring landlords to join forces if that doesn’t cut it.”

Precisely because landlords couldn’t afford to squabble with each other and had to come to each other’s aid, they needed to maintain a good relationship with neighboring lords. Unfortunately for this young lord, he never had a chance to establish that relationship. “To be honest, I half feel sorry for the new lord, and half incredulous that they can squabble like this when there’s an emergency at hand.”

“Most problems boil down to squabbles. What seems like a complicated, messy problem is normally just a pileup of small ones. That’s why issues should be resolved before they fester and grow,” Sebas said.

That much rang true. Even in my job in Japan, there were plenty of small problems that could turn into big problems if they were ignored. As long as I knew there were problems, though, I could try to deal with them early. The worst was when I didn’t know about the problems—like time bombs silently ticking away. And my office in Japan had several people who’d made planting those time bombs an art form. I could forgive that they didn’t notice the problem right away—what could they do? But there was no defense for hiding a problem after discovering it and then throwing it on my plate moments before the deadline! It would have been bad enough if only our new hires did this, but somehow my boss was prone to it too. There were some nights when I was alone in the office and I just had to scream. In any world, it seemed, messes trickled down the totem pole, leaving those on the bottom to clean it up. The ones I felt truly sorry for were the commoners living under the rule of the young lord.

“In any case, we won’t be bothering you with this incident anymore,” Sebas told me. “Even though he hasn’t stolen any proprietary technology, Master Reinbach has given the young lord a stern warning, and the entire territory will now be under the watch of the Jamils. If any issues should arise, we will handle them. Please feel free to focus on your studies and research.” Then, Sebas took out a stack of papers from his Item Box. “On that note, these are the files and the permit regarding the testing ground for cleansing cursed energy.”

“Oh, the plot I asked you about. Thank you,” I said.

“Cleaning cursed energy from the land will greatly benefit us as well. The duke had even intended to complete the process before your return from the Sea of Trees. I apologize that it took this long,” said Sebas.

“Considering the dangers of cursed energy, I completely understand that the process can be lengthy. This was faster than I’d expected,” I said. In Earth-terms, this was like leasing a volcano that leaked toxic fumes. Naturally, there were considerations to be made before Reinhart could give the green light. Even when he did, his employees had to process and record everything, which had to have taken some more time.

“And Lord Rosenberg will be available next week,” Sebas added.

“He’s going to teach me hexes. I’ve been looking forward to it very much. The last time I spoke to him, he only said he was going to make the time, so we haven’t set a meeting place. Should I come to the duke’s residence?” I asked.

“You also mentioned that you found lost curse-breaking magic. As soon as Lord Rosenberg is ready, why don’t you have him meet you at the testing ground? He is adept at handling cursed energy himself, and I am sure that location would be better suited for trying out anything that comes to mind,” Sebas said, knowing too well how I usually jumped to experimenting once I had an idea. That was a great arrangement for me, so I had no reason to say no. We then set a specific time for Rosenberg and I to meet up and went over how to access the new testing grounds.

After our meeting, I continued my work in the city—mostly setting up the office—while my anticipation grew to begin officially learning hexes.

***

The next week flew by.

“I never realized there was a place like this...” I said.

Sebas had taken us to the foothills of a mountain that was, to my surprise, not too far from the Forest of Gana where I’d spent my first three years in this world. I even remembered passing by this place when I was grinding quests to raise my guild rank.

Cursed energy had apparently taken its toll on the mountain—a patch near its summit was barren, where trees had rotted and crumbled...as if an expansive development project had broken ground. With the rest of the mountain covered in luscious trees unaffected by cursed energy, the bald patch stuck out painfully.

“Master Takebayashi, everyone is ready,” Eleonora called. I’d originally planned for her to hold down the fort in Gimul and perform secretarial duties, but I decided to have her tag along this time. Apparently, while she was being trained by Carme, he advised her to become accustomed to my behavior, since she had no problem learning the tasks involved in the job.

I made a mental note to bring Carme something for his dedication. “Thank you. Shall we?” I turned towards the voice and saw a group of people in hiking gear. Beside Eleonora stood Hudom, who’d be assisting me, Sebas, who’d been our guide so far, and Rosenberg, my warlock-tutor. A few paces away from them stood five adventurers: the female beastkin Cilia, Mizelia, Welanna, and Miya, as well as Jeff the lance master. I had asked them to survey the testing ground. I would have done it myself, but there were too many things on my plate. Eleonora had convinced me as much, so I decided to outsource a portion of the surveying.

Since I was working as the duke’s engineer, I had to find a crew who were not only capable but also trustworthy. These people more than fit the bill, and it was nice to have people I personally knew on the team. There were ten of us in all. Although I rarely worked with such a large team, I was sure this was going to be a blast.