By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 9 - Chapter 5

Chapter 6 Episode 5: Lunch in the Village

The mad salamander hunt had been repetitive and arduous work, which I had expected, but one couldn’t call it menial work either.

Once the fishermen had pulled the first seine, they transferred their catches into baskets. Meanwhile, we had to ensure no salamanders made it onto shore. The basketed fish were intended to be taken to the processing station or on boats to other towns, so we had to be ready to jump into any station as required.

Once the boats sailed and the village’s catch was carried to the processing station, the salamanders focused their attention on the one location, so we tackled the charging horde head-on. Throughout the hunt, we had to be aware of fishermen and their work, and always be ready to improvise.

How many mad salamanders are there, anyway...? They would come in varying waves, but their assault was constant until high noon; by then, the picturesque beach had been littered with salamander carcasses. I was astonished that this would go on for days.

“All right, looks like that’s the last of them for today,” the leading adventurer announced. “Round up the bodies on the beach! We’re done here!”

The hunting parties replied with a roar of excitement, eager to finally end the monotonous hunt. Gaining a second wind at seeing one last task to do for the hunt, we hauled all the carcasses off the beach, concluding our work for the day.

“Great job.”

“Good work, Kai, everyone.”

“A job well done.”

“One day down.”

“You seem...surprisingly fine, Ryoma. People who aren’t used to the job usually tap out halfway through or burn themselves out by the end.”

“Kid’s got a lot of stamina for his age...”

“It’s the one thing I’ve got going for me.”

Sikum’s group started to congregate, so I asked what their plans were for the rest of the day.

“For starters, we were gonna take a nap or get a bite for lunch,” Thane answered.

“We did have an early morning, I suppose.” Seemed like a great time for lunch to me.

“Let’s start there. We usually like to discuss things over food anyway,” Shin proposed, to the group’s agreement.

I thought we would be having lunch at one of the members’ houses, but our first stop was the processing station for the fish that were just caught.

“Sis! Six bowls of rice, please.”

“Coming right up. Take a seat!” a cheerful voice answered as we came through the door.

“May?”

“She’s— Well, most of the women in the village work here.”

“They work in the afternoon too. It’s much easier to eat together here, and everyone cooks lunch in their own place. Most fishermen and their families eat lunch here.”

“I see.”

Indeed, as I followed the Pier into a grand dining hall, there were already crowds of men starting on their lunches. Before long, May and two kids about my age came over with a serving tray.

“Here you go!” she said. “Scrumptious veggie soup today!”

“Vegetables, huh? Don’t see that every day.”

“Thank you.”

“Thanks...”

Then I noticed that the boys who had brought us lunch gave me a look as they turned away.

“Something wrong?”

“No, nothing,” I answered. They must have noticed that I was an outsider in this village. Still, my curiosity was dwarfed by my desire to eat my lunch before it got cold. The vegetable soup was served with a piece of bread. Once again, the soup had large chunks of vegetables in them.

Yep, this is delicious.

I could taste hints of daikon radish, burdock and lotus root, as well as that same spice from before; it was another dish that somehow felt nostalgic to me.

“Phew... That really warms you up.”

People greeted me as they passed by our table.

“Saw you at the hunt, kid. Great work.”

“Oh, thank you,” I answered.

“Ah, so you’re the little one running around. Eat up.”

“I will, thank you.”

Maybe it helped that I had done a morning’s work with them, but the people of this village seemed friendlier and closer, even to an outsider like myself. Among their fellow villagers, they were more than just close-knit; they were practically family. Their hospitality, partnered with the great food, gave me a great feeling of warmth.

I imagined living in this village came with just as many problems as living in a big city, but it wouldn’t be too bad to spend my retirement somewhere like this...

“Is there anything you want to do today, Ryoma?”

“Let’s see... Some preparations for tomorrow’s hunt, I suppose.” Having experienced my first mad salamander hunt, I wanted to get my familiars involved in a way where they wouldn’t interfere with the others.

“My first thought was how there were a lot more of them than I had anticipated. I feel like we dealt with our section well enough, but they did get through the defenses at one point.”

“I remember that.”

“It happened to that other team today, but our team could face a wave in areas where there are simply too many of them. I wanted to prepare accordingly, so we could deal with more of them at once if needed.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Me too.”

“No objections from me.”

“Likewise.”

“Great. We’ll help Ryoma do that this afternoon, then.”

That was settled rather easily... But I couldn’t help remembering how, at my old office job, many of my suggestions to improve workflow had been brushed off with the response that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Even if it actually was broken.

How would the team take my suggestions for change...?

Great. We’ve wasted all this time doing an inefficient job.

You’re calling us stupid for not coming up with this sooner?

Who do you think you are?

Those would be the most extreme reactions, but I knew how resistant to change people could be... I had expected at least some of that from the team, but when I expressed that to them, they shared a chuckle.

“This is how fishermen deal with the salamanders; people like us who grew up here learn how to do it that way, but I’m sure adventurers would come up with something different. Still, it’s all good as long as it gets the job done. Besides, I’m sure we could learn things from outside ideas. My adventuring mentor once told me that doing the basics, like preparing for the job and learning when you can over and over again, is the most important part of the job... Though I never really put that into practice until I came back from our adventure.”

Back then, their entire trip had almost been wasted because they weren’t as thorough as they could have been with their research. I ended up with a bloody slime in the end, but apparently the Pier had learned some things too. In any case, I was glad that they were so receptive to suggestions.

“I’ve got another question. I didn’t see anyone casting magic this morning. Is that forbidden?”

“No, it’s allowed. We just don’t have anyone in this village who can use it. Most adventurers who can go defend bigger towns around the lake,” Thane said.

“Not to mention the number of those salamanders... I doubt their magical energy would last all morning. There’s decent money in the quest, but using magic healing potions would hurt their bottom line, or maybe even put them in the red,” Kei added.

“Fire doesn’t do much. Lightning tends to strike someone in the crowd. Big, flashy spells can take out a bunch of them at once, but they can also scare the fish away. As for poison spells, those are out of the question... That’s the kind of stuff I overheard when I was a kid, anyway. Magic takes a lot of caution, I guess,” said Peyron.

While I would need to exercise caution, I was technically cleared to use magic. I continued asking a few more questions as we ate lunch, contemplating how to use my slimes in action.