Epilogue

In the end, I couldn’t really tell whether we had truly reconciled.

But judging from the look on Ashid’s face when we talked after he woke up, it felt like our relationship had at least moved forward a little compared to before.

And the next day, dragging along a body that was still covered in wounds, Ashid returned to his domain.

I told him to take it easy and stay longer, but as usual he didn’t listen to what people said at all.

But…

“See you, damn big brother.”

The face Ashid had when he left without looking back somehow looked like a weight had been lifted from him.

And as his older brother, I thought maybe I had at least fulfilled the bare minimum of my role.

By successfully defeating the Gigafauna, the World Tree of Bibi Village regained its power.

Or rather, thanks to the various adjustments I made, it apparently became even healthier than before.

By adding several World Trees, the range of magic circles that could be used increased, and it seemed they could now do various things besides harvesting, like in the city of Guinea.

The Earth Moles, the Tree Guardian Beasts I had left there, had apparently become mascots among the elf researchers.

When Rebecca heard that, she seemed to develop a sense of rivalry, and she ended up periodically managing the leyline control of the World Tree in Bibi Village.

No, seriously, why are you the one developing a competitive spirit!?

The problems surrounding Wenti had been resolved as well.

By defeating the Gigafauna, the problems of the elf village were gone too.

For the time being, all the urgent issues had been taken care of.

So for the first time in a while, we decided to hold a banquet in Tree Village.

But somehow the news spread, and people from all sorts of places started asking to participate.

Since we couldn’t invite everyone, we ended up having to choose who could come.

Right now I stood on the stage, desperately hiding the slight exhaustion from all the preparations beforehand.

“Umm, so then… what should we toast to?”

“Then, to the bright future of Woody-sama and myself.”

“To my engagement with Woody!”

Standing beside me were Aira and Nadja.

Nadja puffed out her chest more than usual, unable to hide her delight.

This time, since I had been formally granted the title of viscount again, the relationship between Nadja and me had changed… or rather, returned to what it once was.

After learning that I had defeated the Gigafauna and that my skill could even produce food, the count permitted Nadja and me to become engaged again.

With that, Nadja’s title changed from self-proclaimed fiancée to actual fiancée.

Seeing her laugh happily made me feel good as well.

Ah, by the way, once I marry Nadja, Aira is also set to become my concubine.

So perhaps because of that, Aira also seemed to be in a particularly good mood.

“To the hero who saved the elf village!”

High Elf Fana-san, and Akabane-sama who permitted me to be brought to the village.

Behind them I could also see Mego-san, Mago-san, and Utena-san.

“To the hero who extended a hand to the plight of the Dark Elves!”

“To the lord who gave us a future!”

And right beside them were Miria-san and Lulu-san, who had come as representatives of the Dark Elves.

It would still take a long time to restore the strained relationship between the elves and the Dark Elves to what it once was.

It would surely take an unimaginably long time—far longer than I could even picture.

But seeing them standing together in the same place like this made me feel that perhaps we had at least created the beginning of that change.

“To the kingdom’s new blue blood who gave the duke a shock!”

“Please make my sister happy!”

And among the guests were Count Tristan and Nadja’s younger brother Wayne-kun, representing Nadja’s family.

At first they had been overwhelmed by Tree Village, and seeing the elves and Dark Elves nearly made their jaws drop in shock.

But now they had returned to their usual selves.

Though really, you don’t have to worry that much.

I will make Nadja happy, properly.

“Woody-sama, please continue to favor us!”

“Don’t forget about us either!”

A little farther away stood Ran-san the merchant and the members of White Silver Wings who served as her guards.

Thanks to them skillfully selling our goods, purchasing slaves, and recruiting people from various places to Wenti, the population of Tree Village had grown considerably.

If they were suddenly freed, the slaves would probably be troubled, so for now we were still in the preparation stage.

But thanks to the explosive increase in population, the number of Smile Points coming in each day had already exceeded 2,000 and was approaching 3,000.

From now on, we would need to ship fruit not just to Wenti but to various other regions as well.

That meant we could earn enough money for the time being, so next we needed to create industries where the people of Wenti themselves could earn a living.

We were also buying slaves who had proper industrial know-how, so before long we planned to expand into the steel industry and processing industries as well, so I wasn’t too worried.

Incidentally, around Ran-san and the others were about fifty people, including Shekuri-san, Maton, and the Ten of Wenti.

Everyone was busy, but they had adjusted their schedules to come here.

As the host, I had to give it my all.

“So then… wishing for everyone’s continued prosperity… cheers!”

“““Cheers!!”””

At first it had just been Aira and me, with no idea what the future would hold.

But now… there were so many people around me.

We had overcome the biggest hurdle for now, but there were still many challenges ahead.

But if we combined our strength, it would surely be fine.

No matter what hardships came, I was sure we could overcome them together—