By the Grace of the Gods: Volume 3

by Roy

  “Why do you ask?”

  “Seems like someone hired those thugs. We used a truth serum on them before the guards showed up, so this has to be correct.”

  “They were hired? Well, there were these criminal adventurers trying to steal from kids. I beat them up, so I guess it could be them.”

  I hid away in the forest until I came here, and I lived in another world entirely before that. I had only met good people for the most part since I arrived in town, and never got on anyone’s bad side that I could recall. The only real strife that happened involved those adventurers.

  “The hoodlums said they were paid handsomely for a relatively minor job.”

  “What was their job, exactly?”

  “They were supposed to intimidate customers around here, but that was all.”

  “Fay noticed this and restrained them, however.”

  Their goal wasn’t to destroy the store or harm employees, but simply to obstruct business, it seemed.

  “I have no idea who might have hired them, then.”

  “Maybe someone envies you. You did come out of nowhere and become an instant success, after all.”

  “There are people like that everywhere. At any rate, let’s be cautious.”

  “It would have been nice if the hoodlums knew anything, but whoever hired them was careful not to reveal their identity.”

  “This tends to happen when there’s profit to be made. All we can do is prepare for such an eventuality.”

  Carla and Carme informed Serge and the guildmaster of the Merchant’s Guild about this incident, while I relayed this information to the duke’s family. After that, I decided to have Fay and Lilyn watch the store during the day, while the slimes would be left to stand guard at night. Then I returned to the inn and talked to Reinhart. He suggested that the duke’s family could hire guards for the store, taking the matter very seriously.

  The only ones that could be hired right away were ex-soldiers or ex-knights. He said he would introduce me to some who retired or left their positions after sustaining injuries, but still had some combat talent. But they all seemed too overqualified to work at my store. The strongest of everyone he introduced me to, by the way was a retired knight captain that fought alongside Reinbach. The idea of hiring him sounded ludicrous.

  After taking the time to talk it out with him, we decided to wait and see what happens for the time being. So much had happened that I didn’t even think about this truth serum that Lilyn and Fay had on them. I had no idea about those, but it helped to have them. At any rate, it was time for bed.

  Chapter 2 Episode 36: Taming Magic

  The next day...

  “Ryoma, are you awake?”

  Early in the morning, Eliaria visited my room with Sebas.

  “Is something wrong?”

  “Mother and Father were going to teach taming magic today, so I was wondering if you’d like to join us.”

  I currently knew the spells Taming Contract, Monster Appraisal, and Cancel Contract. Presumably there were more spells than that, and I had time available. But the incident with the hoodlums yesterday was still on my mind. As I thought about that, Sebas approached and whispered into my ear.

  “I know this is sudden, but I hear you have room to take time off as of late. Why don’t you take a break and spend some time with Lady Elia? She wants to make as much time for you as possible. We’ll have guards watch your store for the day, so feel free.”

  That reminded me that ever since I decided to become independent, I was so focused on my store and securing living expenses that I didn’t spend as much time with Eliaria as I did during our travels. She seemed happy about practicing magic with me, and I’m sure she was glad to have made a friend. I felt a little bad.

  “Understood, shall we learn together?”

  “Really?!”

  Eliaria’s smile was so bright as to be blinding. I felt guilty for some reason. Maybe because I didn’t realize I’d neglected her until I was told. I stopped by my store to tell them my plans, and they all grinned and said I could leave business to them. After what happened yesterday, I was surprised nobody complained. At my old workplace, there would have been outcries. These were great people, and I was glad to have hired them.

  ■　■　■

  I arrived at a wide open area of the now familiar abandoned mine. We were apparently going to train here. Elise came before us holding a birdcage.

  “Now let’s begin. First of all, what is taming magic, Elia?”

  “It’s used for making contracts with monsters so you can get their help. For the duration of a taming contract, the caster and the monster are bound by magic energy, making it possible to understand one another.”

  “Correct, and today I’m going to teach you a spell that makes use of that bond. It’s called Share Senses. As the name implies, the caster and familiar share their senses with each other to obtain information and know when one another is in danger.”

  “This can’t be done with summoning magic, so it’s unique to taming, right?” Elia asked. I didn’t realize that.

  “Why doesn’t it work with summoning?”

  “Normally, summoning contracts use magic to make a monster submit by force. There’s a bond, but it’s one-sided.”

  “I see, I understand now.” I didn’t know much about summoning magic.

  “Making the most of Share Senses takes some getting used to,” Reinbach said. “The more you help each other and come to a mutual understanding, the easier it is to use, they say. However, today we will have you two make contracts with these monsters we prepared in advance in order to practice.”

  “Why do that? Do slimes not work?” asked Eliaria.

  “You can indeed use Share Senses with slimes, but it’s hard to tell whether it’s working or not, so there’s not much sense in using it.”

  “Slimes have no eyes, ears, or nose, you see. You can use Share Senses with them, but they have no sense of sight, smell, or hearing, and it’s not even clear if they have a sense of taste. We have no idea how they know what’s happening around them.” Said Elise. That did make it sound hard to tell if the spell was effective.

  “I see,” said Eliaria. Then we made contracts with the pigeon-like monsters in the birdcage. They were called crew birds. This was actually my first time making a contract with anything but a slime. When I realized this, I was somewhat nervous, but the contract was made without a hitch.

  “Have you made your contracts? Then be conscious of the bonds between you and your familiars, and imagine seeing what they’re seeing. If you can manage that, you can use Share Senses without even casting the spell,” Elise said. I imagined I was a TV with a camera attached at an electronics store in Japan. Images immediately flowed into my brain.

  “This is making me feel sort of sick,” I said. Both my own vision and that of my familiar entered my head. It was hard to describe, but it was like being forced to watch two TV screens at once, and understanding everything happening on both of them. It didn’t feel all that pleasant.

  “Oh, Ryoma, you did it already?”

  “Impressive as always,” Reinbach remarked. “Many people have trouble imagining the concept, so it’s quite difficult to learn.”

  “Due to the difficulty, it’s taught early in life and practiced over a long period of time. That unpleasant sensation is typical with every tamer who succeeds at the spell for the first time. It can be dealt with through practice, so work hard and get used to it. For now, close your eyes and just focus on what your familiar sees.”

  I did as told and focused on the crew bird’s vision. It was on the ground, and its line of sight was very low, but at least I saw through only one pair of eyes. This felt much better.

  We practiced for two hours. At the end of it, I commanded my crew bird to fly and kept my eyes shut throughout, successfully seeing a view from the sky. This could be convenient for surveillance purposes. While I was thinking about the possibilities, Eliaria succeeded at the spell as we
ll.

  “What’s this? It feels strange,” she said, evidently going through the same unsettling experience. But while I imagined a concept based on my knowledge from Earth, Eliaria learned the spell in one day based on nothing. That was amazing.

  Once we both cast the spell successfully, we took a break. The maids made tea.

  “I must say, I’m surprised you both learned the spell so quickly.”

  “Elia is from the Jamil family, so I expected her to learn fast, but not quite this fast. And I thought Ryoma would have more trouble with it.”

  “It’s great that they learned it without too much trouble. Now it just comes down to practice.”

  “It’s going to keep feeling like this, isn’t it?” Eliaria asked. Even with closing her eyes, she seemed to have difficulties getting used to the feeling. It was an all new sensation for her, so it was to be expected. It felt like watching TV to me, so it wasn’t too bad, but she seemed to be treating the monster’s vision like it was her own. I wanted to teach her how I did it, but she didn’t know what a TV was. I could only wish her good luck.

  “Ryoma, how does it feel making a contract with a monster that’s not a slime?” Elise asked. “Does it feel weird? Does your bond feel weak, perhaps?”

  “No, not especially.”

  “Then you may have good aptitude with bird monsters.”

  “What do you mean by aptitude?” I inquired.

  “You don’t know? Tamers and summoners all have different aptitudes,” Reinhart answered. “It determines which monsters you’re compatible with, how many monsters you can form contracts with, and how powerful of monsters you can form contracts with. It’s like how magic elements work. You’ve probably got good compatibility with slimes. Otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to make contracts with so many.”

  “Tamers have to learn about their own aptitude and which familiars are best for them,” Reinbach said. “Aptitude is vague, so it’s something you must discover for yourself. For example, I’m compatible with monsters that have scales. I also can’t make contracts with very many monsters, but individually, my familiars are quite powerful.”

  “I have an aptitude for most four-legged monsters,” said Reinhart. “But in exchange, I have absolutely no aptitude for bird monsters. I can’t even form contracts with them.”

  “I...” Elise muttered something, then a big, shining, silver-furred wolf appeared by her side. I was shocked, but everyone else remained seated like nothing had happened. Elise said she was fine and laughed. I relaxed.

  “I’m sorry I startled you. This is Luorg, my familiar. He’s a little fenrir.”

  If this was Fenrir as in the creature from Norse legend, then I wasn’t sure what to say.

  “Oh dear, you’re not mistaking a little fenrir for Fenrir, are you?” Elise asked me.

  “Are they two different things?”

  “Yes, Fenrir is a divine beast while a little fenrir is a type of monster. Little fenrirs are wolf monsters that can use just a bit of ice magic. They are strong though, I won’t deny that.”

  “I see.”

  The little fenrir was awe-inspiring, and Elise seemed to have it completely tamed. As she petted the wolf, it lay down as if it were a dog.

  “He’s the boss of a pack of twenty other little fenrirs that are also my familiars. I have about a hundred different wolf familiars of varying types. That’s what I’m compatible with.”

  A whole twenty of these monsters sounded ridiculous. It was nowhere near as many little fenrirs as I had slimes, but there was a massive difference in quality. The sense of terror I felt when it appeared far exceeded that of a black bear.

  “Elise’s an incredible tamer, actually,” Reinhart said. “Most people couldn’t get little fenrirs to obey them. When I watched Elise back in the day, I felt so inferior.”

  “Oh really now? You had your sword, so you didn’t seem to care all that much. All you did was practice swordsmanship. Besides, it’s not as if you lack talent in taming magic either, I’d say.”

  “Compared to you and Father, it’s hard to stand out as a normal tamer.”

  “But you never felt especially bad about that, did you?” Reinbach said. “You skipped out on your taming magic training ever since you were young in favor of sword practice. Don’t blame us.”

  I listened to Reinbach’s scolding as I watched Luorg out of the corner of my eye. Elise had twenty of these little fenrirs and a total of a hundred wolf monsters as her familiars. Reinbach stood as her equal. This wasn’t normal for this world, as I understood it. They were both supposed to be extraordinary.

  “Ryoma, what are you thinking about?” Eliaria asked.

  “Oh, I was thinking about how amazing it is that Lord Reinbach can compare to Lady Elise,” I answered. Happy to hear praise for her family, Eliaria smiled. But Elise stepped in and denied what I said.

  “Ryoma, that’s not quite true. Reinbach is far greater than myself.”

  “Is that true?”

  “Absolutely, his familiars are on another level. He has less than twenty, but they would all be classified as at least A-Rank by the Adventurer’s Guild, and half of them are dragons.”

  “Dragons?!” I exclaimed. I had yet to see any dragons, but I knew ten dragons was crazy. Not only that, but if all his monsters were at least A-Rank, that was a ludicrous amount of power for one person to wield. Reinbach’s abilities sounded even more like cheating than my own.

  “What’s this about dragons?” Reinbach asked when he overheard us.

  “I asked about your familiars. Having several dragons as your familiars is pretty amazing.”

  “I got lucky. Lucky in regards to my aptitude, certainly, but also because the first dragon I made a contract with was uniquely powerful. All the dragons that served that one became my familiars. They’re dependable allies, but I only call upon them on extremely rare occasions. They create quite a ruckus when they show up,” Reinbach explained. I didn’t doubt that. “And I’m nothing compared to the inventor of taming magic, Shiho Jamil, who had an aptitude for all monsters. No matter how powerful the monster or how difficult it was to make a contract with them, Shiho could always do it, they say. The records say that Shiho could possess an unlimited number of familiars, as well.”

  The creator of taming magic came from another world and had cheats from the gods, so that probably did the trick. From what I heard from the gods, Shiho was a fine person. I already knew why Shiho was powerful, so I was more curious about Reinbach’s dragons.

  “It sounds like Shiho was an amazing person. By the way, what do you have your familiars do most of the time?” I asked.

  “They live in some mountains in the area. The monsters there are so powerful and threatening that nobody dares come near them. My familiars prevent monsters from coming down from the mountains and attacking villages.”

  “I have Luorg and the rest of my wolves live in some other mountains. There are valuable herbs to be picked there, but a lot of poachers are around, so my wolves stand guard against them,” Elise said.

  “I see.”

  “When tamers get more powerful monsters, they tend to have trouble finding places for them to live. If you ever make a contract with a powerful monster and need a place for them to live, just ask us,” Reinhart offered.

  “Thank you,” I said. When I ran out of space with space magic, I decided I would do that.

  Chapter 2 Episode 37: Forced Break

  Once our break was over, I got back to training. Or so I would have, but that was all for the day.

  “You both understand how to use Share Senses at this point, so now you just take the time to get used to it. Ryoma, relax and listen to Elia put on a show for you. She plays some excellent music, and I don’t just say that as a parent,” Reinhart said.

  “Music? What are you talking about?”

  “We talked about the limour bird before, remember?” Eliaria asked.

  “Yes, that was why you came to this town, wasn’t it?” />
  “That’s right. Limour birds fly fast and use wind magic, so catching one alive and unharmed is a huge challenge, and they’re hardly ever spotted. But limour birds are monsters, so you can make contracts with them!”

  “I see, but what does that have to do with music?”

  “A lot, actually. To make a contract with a limour bird, a musical performance is absolutely essential,” Eliaria claimed. I thought that sounded absurd, but Sebas explained further.

  “Limour birds house a great deal of magic energy in their bodies, and they’re highly intelligent. As such, they’re normally resistant to contracts, and they fail as a result. But limour birds use their beautiful cries to communicate and distinguish friend from foe. If you start off with music that the bird takes a liking to, it will be receptive to the idea of a contract.”

  I should have expected as much of this alternate dimension. This method of capturing a creature would have been nonsense in my own world.

  “You can make contracts that way? I had no idea.”

  “The success rate is extremely low, so some question whether this actually works, but I have never heard of a contract with limour birds being made by any other means. It’s the highest chance we have, one could say,” Sebas continued.

  “So there you have it. Elia’s going to put on a performance and try to make a contract with a limour bird. She’ll be practicing that this afternoon,” Reinhart said.

  “Sit right there and listen, Ryoma,” Eliaria insisted. “You may sleep instead if you like, but you’re not allowed to leave.”

  I didn’t understand the point of staying if I didn’t have to listen. I turned to the others and saw they were grinning and looking at me.

  “Have you perhaps figured it out?”

  “You’ve been working constantly, so we thought it would be best to give you a little break.”

  “You’ve done everything from slaying monsters, to starting your own store, to hiring employees, to taking jobs from the Adventurer’s Guild, and you’re even patrolling the mine and making waterproof cloth. I hear you haven’t been taking any breaks. You had some ruffians in your store yesterday, and you might end up even busier as you figure out how to prevent that in the future. Before that happens, we wanted to use today’s taming magic training as an excuse to get you away from work.”