By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 2 - Chapter 15

Chapter 2 Episode 15: Inquiry

I see. ‘F and G rank adventurers’ would include them as well.

“Yes! Thank you for yesterday!”

“Thank you for yesterday!”

The others echoed the words of the girl who spoke first, bowing their heads and attracting the curious eyes of people around us. I suppose there was no point in telling them not to look. Since my surroundings were dominated by countless slimes on standby to assist with the job, their presence alone was quite eye-catching.

“Umm, what’s this about...?”

Their attitudes were quite different to yesterday, though I had an idea why.

“We wanted to thank you for saving us and apologize for our attitude yesterday.”

“Well, thank you for that. I’m glad you were safe too. I’m Ryoma Takebayashi, a human. As you can see, these are my slime familiars.”

This was my third time meeting these kids, but I still didn’t know their names. I introduced myself since they came to thank me, but it caused them to stiffen nervously as they introduced themselves back.

And to my surprise, they were...

A monkey beastkin named Beck, aged 13.

A dog beastkin named Ruth, aged 12.

An ape beastkin named Wist, aged 11.

...Those were the boys, and as for the girls...

A half elf named Martha, aged 12.

A half dwarf named Finia, aged 12.

And a dog beastkin named Rumille, aged 12.

I had assumed they were two beastkin people and four humans, but I was wrong.

The two halflings were completely human in appearance, and the ape and monkey beastkin were also misleading!

For the record, Beck was the shortest one that spoke the most. Unfortunately, his height and rude tone had made him seem like nothing more than an arrogant child, but he was actually the eldest and trying to act as the leader.

Also, the ape beastkin Wist was actually the youngest, despite being the biggest. I had assumed he was the oldest.

“The adults said my height was an issue with my species...”

His personality was also the picture of timidness. I asked about the different impression I had of him yesterday when he was cornered against the wall, and he said it was because he squeezed out all his willpower while working so that the other adventurers wouldn’t look down on him. He did seem intimidating for his age when he was standing silently, though.

An ape beastkin and monkey beastkin. Now that I knew that, I could see the resemblance to a gorilla and golden snub-nosed monkey when I looked at them... especially in their hair colors. I didn’t say it out loud to be polite, but now I couldn’t see them as anything but that.

But that aside...

They were still children, but they all excelled in their respective species traits of physical abilities and magic energy.

Ruth and Rumille had the dog beastkin characteristics of a sharp nose and good physical balance, while the half-elf Martha specialized in magic. The monkey beastkin Beck could nimbly scale any tree with ease, while the ape beastkin Wist and half-dwarf Finia had extraordinary strength for children, which they showed me.

It was interesting to compare the traits between species. But...

“That’s amazing. I can tell you excel in physical abilities.”

“It’s not amazing...”

“W-We lost against someone our own age for the first time, bro.”

“I saw... The two of you lost, but you have just as much strength as an adult adventurer. We became adventurers to make use of our advantages and earn a living. But even though we can move better than adults, adults make more money. That’s why when we saw you, who looked even younger than us, we said those things. We’re really sorry, Ryoma.”

While having better physical abilities was certainly an advantage, it didn’t mean they could do jobs any better. Even in a single hunt, there were many things to do like finding your target prey, knowing where to aim for, and choosing how to do it. They had yet to learn such techniques. They lacked the experience.

“Like I said before, I don’t mind the words you said to me. But there are a few things I’m curious about.”

“Ask us anything. We don’t have anything to hide anyway.”

In that case, I would do just that.

“I was feeding my slimes when my metal slime rolled away and I happened to hear the commotion while I was picking it up. But why were you there in the first place?”

They were probably taken there by the men, but it was still lunch at that time. If they were in the square, they could have sought help — or so I thought, when their expressions fell.

“We couldn’t carry everything your squad let us have in one go.”

“We didn’t have enough bags...”

Finia added to Beck’s explanation. Now that they mentioned it, there was a fair bit more than they could have possibly carried at once. They probably couldn’t use the space magic Item Box either.

“So they picked a fight with you when you were on your way to get it?”

“I think they would have done so at some point eventually, even without that. It was the second time yesterday they picked on us too.”

When I asked Rumille for more details, the six kids looked a little frustrated.

“Last week the six of us went into the forest in the north for a herb gathering job, but there were five of them there doing another job. When we got close, they yelled at us saying we made their prey run away. They’ve probably had their eyes on us ever since.”

“Were you okay?”

“We were the ones at fault back then, so it didn’t end up as a fight. They didn’t ask for anything as unreasonable as yesterday, so we just paid up. That man named Sacchi coincidentally passed by and told how much the prey that got away would have been worth, and how much the penalty fees for the job would be... We didn’t know he was their friend. Now that we look back on it, they had probably planned it from the start.”

So he ripped them off by pretending to be the mediator, huh?

“But if they split it amongst such a large group of people, it couldn’t have been worth much...”

“Yesterday they said... even our low income was enough to fund drinks for one night...”

Were they not particular over the amount of money, or were they collecting from other people too? Well, the guild would investigate that. More importantly, though.

“Then, my next question... based on what I’ve heard until now, you guys can hunt to an extent too.”

At the very least, I saw them defeat cave bats and small rats. The six of them nodded at my words.

“Then why did you try to steal other people’s kills?”

“...We thought we could make more money that way.”

“We started off the monster subjugation like everyone else. But it took time. Then we saw the adult adventurers throw away their kills, saying they couldn’t be bothered... We’re truly sorry.”

Martha bowed her head once more, but that wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

“Sorry, I worded my question badly. I wanted to ask why you’re in such desperate need for money. Was it really difficult to live on what you had, or was there another reason?”

“Our living conditions are poor, but it was to pay the resident tax.”

Unexpected words came from Ruth’s mouth.

“Resident tax. Just to confirm, that’s tax you pay to the town you live in, right?”

“What else could it be? You have to pay the fees to live in town.”

Resident tax in this world not only went to maintenance of outer walls and payment of guards, but gave you the right to be protected from monsters and bandits. I had never paid it since I lived in the forest outside the walls, but living within the walls created the duty to pay up. Their words were correct.

But, sorry guys. I just couldn’t believe you were paying the tax properly.

“Sorry, I’m not too familiar with resident tax. Is the tax in Gimul really that high?”

“The resident tax we pay in Gimul is 400 sutes per person. I’ve never lived in another town before so I don’t know if it’s expensive, but we have to pay anyway. Because if we don’t pay up, we can’t live in town.”

For six people, that was 2400 sutes. I could pay that much immediately, but it must have been a fortune to people barely making a living.

“So how did you pay it up until now?”

I didn’t know if they had parents, but if they lived in the town before they must have paid it somehow.

“We earned it by cleaning toilets.”

“...Could that be the pit toilets?”

“You’ve heard of them? We got money from the public office for cleaning them. But the amount gradually decreased and the adults in the slums told us to stop, since it would only make us sick. That’s why we became adventurers.”

“Ah, I see...”

What was this feeling of exhaustion, I wonder. I hadn’t been mad with them to begin with, but the more I listened the less energy I had to be angry.

“...Hey, did I say something bad?”

“I-I don’t know... Is he m-mad...?”

Ah, it seemed like I was worrying them.

“I’m not mad, don’t worry. Err... Regarding the resident tax, are there any assistance programs to help?”

As far as I was aware, no one should be kicked out immediately if they couldn’t pay the resident tax...

“I heard there were ways you could work in the mines as well.”

“Assistance programs? ...If you mean what happens when we can’t pay, then I’ve heard you can write it off by working... But that’s the job of the people who stopped paying us in the first place, y’know? We couldn’t trust them and we weren’t the only ones troubled by the lack of work with the toilet cleaning gone, so we could have been excluded from that work. Also, the mines don’t hire children. Someone decided that a long time ago. No matter how much stamina we have, so many adults are also looking for jobs so they refuse to break their customs and end up turning us away.”

The effects of that pit toilet incident reached all the way here...

“For now, I’ve asked everything I wanted to know. Thanks.”

“R-Right.”

The six of them looked unsettled by the sudden gratitude, but I brushed it off and told them that the Adventurer’s Guild was currently managing cleaning of the pit toilets. They listened intently when I informed them that the pay wouldn’t be messed with anymore. It seemed like they were willing to work seriously.

In the future, I should only pick up the toilet jobs when my scavenger slimes were low on food.