By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 16 - Chapter 19

Special: Break Room of the Gods

One day, three gods appeared in a room conceptualized in the divine realm, all looking very much exhausted.

“I’m so tired!” Kufo yawned.

“That demon lord... Too many fragments...” Meltrize said.

“You can say that again,” Gain added.

“Hey if it isn’t you three.” Tekun, the god of liquor, held up his goblet of sake in greeting.

“Tekun... How did it go?” Gain asked.

“Found one in the mountains of Granmelde. Looks so desolate it’s gonna be easier to take care of than the others. Right now, Kiriluel and Fernobelia are whipping up a plan to watch and eliminate the thing. They’re better at that stuff than I am. I’m just taking a breather while they’re doing the math. How about you guys? You were doing a whole-world scan, right?”

“It took a lot of energy for no results,” Kufo said. “The fragments are too weak to stand out, and it’s using the little bit of power it has to conceal its own existence... We’re not going to find them without a magnifying glass.”

“Bummer... We gotta keep looking for needles in the haystacks, huh?” Tekun said.

“For now, yes. This will be a long battle,” Meltrize said.

“Good thing we set up a break room...” Gain said, picking up a teapot and snacks from a shelf and setting them on the coffee table.

Kufo and Meltrize took one of each without a word and settled into their seats.

Normally, gods created anything they needed in the blink of an eye...but while they were scrambling to find the demon lord fragments—one of which Ryoma had recently found—using even the slightest kernel of their power seemed like an insurmountable task.

This room was originally created to welcome Ryoma for his regular curse-treatment sessions in the divine realm. At some point, the tired gods had begun to congregate and rest here.

“There’s got to be a better way of finding the fragments...” Kufo grumbled.

“It’s the demon lord. Even though he has fallen, he was once the same as us. Not only that, he was a higher-ranking god than us. He knew what powers we have and prepared for them. It will not be that easy,” Meltrize countered.

“I know, but... It would be nice if we could dig up just a little more information. For example, if we could at least find out how many fragments are left, that would make us feel better. As long as we find them, we can deal with them,” Kufo said.

Because of their nature, searching for demon lord fragments was always a battle with self-doubt. There were several occasions when a god had found a fragment in an area another god had already cleared. Furthermore, the gods were too powerful to eliminate the fragments without obliterating much of the surrounding environment, so they were unable to eliminate them as soon as they were discovered. The gods were forced to calculate the effect on the environment and dealt with each fragment with utmost care.

The gods were juggling several nerve-racking tasks—searching for fragments, watching the discovered fragments, eliminating the fragments, and observing the environment after elimination. In the time it took them to complete one task, another task or two arose. It was like they were running a marathon where the finish line was moving farther and farther away.

“Looking back on it, the first one was easy,” Gain said.

“Because Ryoma brought it all the way here to us,” Tekun said, sipping from his goblet. “The fragments are only a problem when they’re in the mortal realm. If the fragments were here, we could deal with them without worrying about wiping out ecosystems.”

Meltrize, looking even more emotionless than usual, chimed in. “It would be more efficient to request Ryoma Takebayashi to collect the fragments. Although unintentionally, he did successfully secure and bring the fragment to this realm. His risk can be mitigated if we give him divine relics to protect him from the fragments.”

“Hrm... We’ve already put him through enough, and I hate to rope him into this affair... But I’ve started to think that we have no other choice,” Gain said. “Not only will delegating the collection to Ryoma take the load off our shoulders, but it will also allow us to destroy fragments that we have not dealt with yet because the impact on their surroundings would be too great. It would be a very beneficial course. But still...” Gain fell silent, and Kufo and Tekun watched with a grimace while Meltrize waited silently.

“Agh, dammit! We’re done talking about this! It’s spoiling my drink!” Tekun protested.

“This was intended as a moment of rest,” Meltrize conceded. “We have a long road ahead, and our situation is not yet dire. I rushed into proposing a decision.”

With that, the topic of conversation shifted.

“How is dear Ryoma doing?” Gain asked.

“He started studying hexes. There are some new faces: his warlock tutor and a girl named Eleonora. Like we talked about before, he’s working on cleansing cursed energy,” Tekun said.

The other three gods stared into the air. That was all it took for them to catch up on Ryoma’s actions while they were away.

“He’s really good at hexes, considering he only just started to study them. Well, I suppose it is Ryoma we’re talking about,” Kufo said.

“Naturally. He and hexes are a perfect match. Especially after all the excessive tribulations the god of Earth showered him with,” Meltrize remarked.

“Right... Like chaining insignificant misfortunes until he’s wrapped up in a big scandal, or making sure he’s surrounded by crazy people that only make up a small portion of the population... They clocked in extra time to make sure he was miserable,” Tekun grumbled.

“Kept alive but not living a life... Misfortune became normalized. Even when he conjures negative emotions, he stands firm and manipulates hexes as naturally as he breathes. He’s gotten more effective with cleansing cursed energy than before.” Gain laughed.

“He’s more effective and efficient than the last time he did it on instinct. Thanks to studying the basics. But he has a long way to go. With his natural affinity for hexes, they should be more effective,” Meltrize said critically.

“Even though he comes up with and pulls off all sorts of experiments on the fly, he can be surprisingly cautious. He knows he’s dealing with dangerous cursed energy, and he needs to prove himself as the duke’s engineer, so I bet he’s being more careful than usual,” Kufo said.

“His tutor Rosenberg harps on the dangers of a curse going rogue. Once he practices more and figures out his limits, he’ll get better at it,” Tekun said.

While they caught up on Ryoma’s adventures, the gods shifted the topic to the lost spell of cleansing. “Maybe he’ll learn that spell no problem,” Kufo suggested. “I really want him to learn it so it can help him moving forwards.”

“I’m not sure... It’s simple in theory, but the spell is a little different from the modern magic he is used to. Ryoma undoubtedly has the knowledge and technique, but learning this spell may prove difficult precisely because he has grown accustomed to modern magic,” Gain said.

“Humans have developed different anatomies between then and now. Modern humans are less likely to face side effects, so it is not all bad. Besides, he has Korumi the fairy with him,” Meltrize said.

“Right. Fairies are masters of controlling magical energy,” Kufo said. Regardless of how he’d fare in the testing grounds, Ryoma would visit the Sea of Trees again, where he would tell Korumi of events in the world beyond the woods. If they worked together, Kufo concluded, the lost spell would not be difficult to learn.

“Even if he can’t learn it, he just needs to stay out of the public eye until our treatment is done,” Tekun pointed out. “Ryoma said he was expecting that, and he’s got more people working for him now. Like that Eleonora girl.”

“Oh, she looks like she knows how to get the job done. While she has baggage of her own, I think she’s a good match for Ryoma,” Kufo said.

“Hm... There’s her, who excels at processing information, and a boy named Hudom, who is a master at building relationships. Plenty of people with whom Ryoma has built a connection are in Gimul too. With their help, he won’t have trouble solving most problems he’s going to experience,” Gain said with his whole chest, easing the tension on Kufo’s and Tekun’s faces.

Watching Ryoma’s peaceful life helped soothe the hearts of the gods. Meltrize alone remained eerily silent.

“Hm? What is it, Meltrize?” Kufo asked.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? You might as well have said something’s bugging you,” Tekun said.

“Something caught my attention. It is not a big deal. I did not want to ruin our break,” Meltrize said.

“Now I’m entirely curious,” Gain said.

“You noticed something about the fragment?” asked Kufo.

Meltrize’s attempt to let this conversation go had backfired. Although she was one of the quietest gods, she contemplated for a moment and decided that it wasn’t worth keeping her silence at the cost of an argument. “I noticed something about Ryoma Takebayashi. From what I have researched, he has frequently been caught up in trouble, the most prominent example being the demon lord fragment. That is not something a normal person runs into. That is why I wondered if he was going to be okay this time. That is all.”

The other three gods let out a groan of agreement.

Ryoma has a strange kind of luck, so I can’t guarantee it... Gain said silently. It was a shocking coincidence that he came across the fragment and was cursed by it. The same could be said for finding a file within his inheritance in Korumi village that happened to contain information about a spell that could lessen the demon lord’s curse. 

Before he stumbled upon the fragment, his city had been embroiled in a huge incident, Kufo answered. Everything that happens to him is either really good or really bad. 

Now I’m starting to get worried, Tekun chimed in. Don’t tell me something horrible is coming because it’s been so calm for him lately. 

Silence fell again until the gods reached a joint conclusion.

“Let’s keep watching,” they seemed to say all at once.