Restless

“This… uses way more Smile Points than I expected.”

After checking my current Tree Planting status, I could not hide my surprise.

If I was not seeing things, my Smile Points had dropped by nearly 1,000.

Even if I had plenty of points to spare, seeing them decrease by this much still made me a little uneasy.

I still did not really understand the mechanics behind Smile Point consumption.

Even if it was the World Tree, it only took 4 points to plant a tree.

It took 10 points to create a Tree Guardian Beast.

It took 7,000 to create a Frazard Wood Golem.

It took 14,000 to create an Iridescent Wood Golem.

The points required to perform Group Transfer Between Trees changed depending on the distance, and for example, going from Tree Village to Count Tristan’s mansion required nearly 1,000 points.

Basically, the more you tried to do something that should not normally be possible, or forcibly created something that did not exist in this world through the power of a skill, the higher the point cost tended to be.

When carrying out crossbreeding, no matter what was made, the required points had usually been around 20 to 50.

If it required nearly 1,000 points… then most likely this too was either something extremely rare, or something I had newly created.

“Woody-sama, could this possibly be…?”

Utena-san approached the newly created tree from the crossbreeding and stared at it intently.

I also placed a hand on my chin and observed it.

“Hmm… somehow, is the color of the fruit a little different?”

At first glance, it looked like nothing more than an ordinary grape tree.

But if you looked closely, the tree was faintly glowing.

It did not have a Tree Barrier like the World Tree, and somehow looked like it could be used as stylish indirect lighting.

As I stared at it… Pop!

Right before our eyes, a single bunch of grapes suddenly appeared.

Compared with ordinary grapes, the flesh was quite a bit larger, about as big as you could barely manage to eat in one bite.

That said, this sudden phenomenon of fruit appearing… was exactly like when the World Tree bore fruit.

Which meant this fruit was… a World Tree Fruit (grape version)… maybe?

“For now… shall we try eating it?”

“I shall taste it for poison.”

Aira, who until just now had been standing behind us and watching how things unfolded, stepped forward.

“Taste it for poison…? I think it should be fine since it is fruit I made, though.”

“In that case… yes, exactly, there is a possibility that these grapes are unbelievably awful. If so, then I shall offer myself as a human sacrifice and eat them.”

Aira seemed strangely flustered.

Her lack of composure, so unlike her usual self, was more than a little suspicious.

“Could it be… that you just want to eat this fruit…?”

“… (glance away)”

“You looked away!?”

It was not like she needed to arm herself with logic. If she wanted to eat it, she could have just said so.

So first of all, I decided to have Aira try it and tell us what she thought.

“Then, I humbly partake… (munch munch)”

Aira took one large grape in her hand and bit into it just like that.

Apparently she could not finish it in one bite, and about half of the grape remained in her hand.

For some reason, the grape with the bite marks left in it looked a little sensual.

“…”

Aira’s expression as she closed her eyes and savored the grape was no different from usual.

After finishing that one, Aira ate the grape in her hand without saying anything about how it tasted.

Once again, her cheeks puffed up, and the time came for us to watch her munch away.

After properly finishing it, she wiped her mouth with a handkerchief, wore a satisfied look, and said this.

“—Out of one hundred points… it gets one hundred!”

Following Aira, Utena-san and I each popped a grape into our mouths as well.

“What is this…? Out of all the grapes I have ever eaten, this is overwhelmingly the most delicious.”

“T-to receive the blessing of the World Tree upon my lips… my mouth is rejoicing…”

The sweetness was so intense it felt as if I were eating a lump of sugar.

And yet it was not cloying, and before I knew it, I was tossing the next one into my mouth.

It was the type you could eat with the skin on, and amazingly, even the skin was sweet.

If something like this existed in the natural world, every living creature would surely fight to be the first to eat it.

I see, so this was the fruit born from crossbreeding with the World Tree…

Utena-san, now nearly in tears, wiped at her eyes with a handkerchief while skillfully eating the grapes.

But I definitely agreed too that it was delicious enough to move you.

Was the point cost so high because it could produce such delicious fruit?

Or was it high because it could give the properties of the World Tree to a fruit tree?

“But no matter what, this looks like it could become one of our new specialties.”

Wenti’s fruit was already such a luxury item that only quite wealthy people could afford it, but this went even beyond that—it felt like we could brand it as a fruit fit for use by rich merchants, nobles, and royalty.

Like Element Fruit, it was easy to tell at a glance that it was different from ordinary fruit, so it was perfectly suited for gifts.

“Though as for this, we will have to keep production numbers very low. It needs to be such an ultra-luxury item that even if we increase the amount a little, the price still will not collapse.”

The Smile Points it used were also very high, so I would have to decide carefully how many to make.

For now, maybe I should start by crossbreeding each fruit tree with the World Tree one by one and observing how they grew.

A World Tree Fruit was worth one thousand platinum coins apiece.

So then the price of this fruit would be… hmm, would it be safest to set it around the same price?

Since it was probably a fruit that could only now be newly produced through my skill, there was no precedent, so I had no idea how to price it.

For the time being, it would probably be best to discuss that later with Maton and Ran-san before deciding.

“Woody-sama, what will you call it?”

“A fruit made by crossing the World Tree with another fruit tree… hmm… it is a little simple, but wouldn’t Premium Fruit be fine?”

If we sold this as World Tree Fruit, then the price of the carefully selected World Tree Fruit currently being distributed in very limited quantities would probably crash.

So I felt it would be better to present this strictly as a new variety of fruit that I had developed.

If I set the price lower than World Tree Fruit, then surely no one would realize this was a World Tree Fruit either.

What should I name the tree…?

As for that, since I intended to keep the number of people involved to an absolute minimum, something simple like World Tree Fruit Tree would probably do.

From our human side, elves were just a race of beautiful, long-lived people, but apparently from the elves’ perspective, we looked somewhat less favorably.

“But this tree will need to be moved with Tree Arrangement… where would be the best place to grow it?”

“Woody-sama, if you would allow it, might you leave that to us?”

“…To you and the others, Utena-san?”

Until now, basically no one had really taken care of the fruit trees.

Thanks to how all-powerful the Sanctuary was, the trees could always remain fresh and vigorous without watering them or trimming the roots, as long as branches were pruned and fruit for everyone to eat was picked.

But the downside of that, or maybe the aftereffect, was that there was currently no one in Tree Village or Guinea Village who was knowledgeable about trees.

Raising them from saplings might be the best option.

The elves, including Utena-san, had been sincerely devoted to their tree-planting efforts.

The people of the village, after seeing how they worked, had even changed their impressions of elves because of how earnest their efforts were.

To avoid having any bad influence on the trees, they had recently even been doing things akin to sanitary management within the town.

If it was them, after all the things they had been doing, then I could trust them.

Since they were serious and meticulous, they probably would not skim off any of the Royal Fruit either.

“O-of co-co-course we can!”

I gave a little warning just in case, and she got so absurdly flustered that my trust in her dropped with a thud.

Well, once the trees were properly grown, I had already thought that besides the portion to be circulated or distributed, if there was any left over, it would be fine to share some with the elves too.

“If the trees grow big and healthy, I am sure the time will come when I can give you Royal Fruit too. So I want you to be patient and do your best.”

“Leave it to me! I, Utena, shall work hard so I can eat Royal Fruit!”

I honestly had not expected her to bare her inner thoughts with quite that much honesty.

…Well, as long as she worked hard, I supposed that was fine.

“Woody-sama, should we not be going soon?”

“Huh…? Ah, right!”

I had accidentally completely forgotten, since I had managed to make Royal Fruit on a sudden whim.

The reason we had come to Guinea Village today was because Village Chief Degji-san had summoned us.

“W-well then, we should get going. I will come check on them regularly, so please report to me when I do!”

Beside the World Tree grape tree I had created, I produced the World Tree Fruit trees that could currently be made.

And lastly, I used the flowerpot skill, which I had not used in quite a while, to place them into clay pots.

“Leave it to me. Until these little ones have grown into something splendid, I shall care for them myself.”

“They are not children, you know.”

Aira’s retort did not faze her in the slightest.

Parting with Utena-san, who was overflowing with maternal affection for the World Tree Fruit trees, we headed toward Degji-san’s place.

Come to think of it, what in the world did he want?

Now that it was bothering me, my body would not stop feeling restless, so I decided to head there at a quick pace.