In Guinea Village

I made sure to come to Guinea Village regularly.

To check whether the dwarves had been able to blend into Guinea, and to see what had happened with the metalworking industry that had been talked about for some time.

Those were the two things I came to confirm.

And so I came to Guinea Village again today, but today, I had brought a guest unlike usual with me.

That guest was…

“Myaa.”

The yellow, fluffy thing sitting on top of my head.

As you can probably tell from the color, it was a small earth-attribute spirit, different from the first one that had appeared.

Come to think of it, that red small spirit had been entrusted to Fem-san, who had agreed to turn Magros Volcano into a Sanctuary.

“It has been a long time since my children grew up and left the nest… I will make sure to raise this child into a proper adult.”

For some reason, Fem-san said that and confidently puffed out her chest.

Apparently, spirits and Divine Beasts were compatible, and the ball of fur narrowed its eyes happily atop Fem-san while meowing.

I was quite curious about whether that child would become massively muscular.

“Nyanya!”

“W-wait a second!?”

For some reason, the spirit became displeased and started struggling on top of my head.

Could it be… because I had thought about another spirit?

Perhaps spirits were actually quite jealous.

While I was wrestling with the spirit, we arrived at the district where the dwarves had settled. Since it was close to the mine, I could hear the clang, clang of mining.

Hardware stores, weapon shops, and armor shops had already been built, and I could hear the sound of hammers striking too.

As a result of all those sounds mixing together, it was incredibly noisy.

I was glad we had separated this district from the other people… We had almost ended up with a noise problem.

“Oh, Woody-dono, have you been well?”

“Vis-san, it has been a while.”

“Come now, come now, a drink to start things off.”

“Sorry, I’m in the middle of work right now…”

While gently turning down Vis-san’s invitation after he took out a bottle of alcohol from somewhere, I asked about the dwarves in Guinea Village.

“For now, the iron mine run by Shida’s son is going smoothly. Thanks to the blast furnace using firebricks, production volume is steadily increasing too.”

Asking about their situation was, in other words, also asking about that metalworking industry.

It was truly a fact that all dwarves were craftsmen.

Surprisingly, nearly ninety percent of the men had hoped to work in metal-related fields.

With that many people coming in, Guinea’s surplus of iron was resolved in an instant.

Rather, iron mining could no longer keep up, and the dwarves ended up rolling up their sleeves to dig out even more iron, which felt like putting the cart before the horse.

They were skilled not only in processing, but also in mining techniques.

The techniques passed down continuously from their ancestors had already reached the realm of magic, and they brilliantly extracted iron ore even from dangerous zones that Guinea’s excavators had given up on, and from abandoned mines that had been discarded because no more iron could be obtained from them.

And the newly produced iron did not become surplus, but was reborn into newly processed goods by the hands of the dwarves.

“Come to think of it, the weapon shop at Mizii’s place seems to be doing very well. Apparently, there was a former knight among the adventurers. Through that person’s word of mouth, they apparently became able to do business with the knight order too.”

“The dwarves are better at business than I thought.”

“Nah, all of it’s just because talk over drinks got lively and led to orders.”

When I thought of a dwarf’s shop, I could not help imagining it as something run by a stubborn old man, the kind of place that refused first-time customers and operated without regard for profit.

But contrary to that image, all the shops run by the dwarves were doing well.

They used alcohol as a communication tool.

Because of that, they could become friends with anyone who could drink, and they obtained all sorts of work from drinking parties.

Of course, there also seemed to be harmful effects from alcohol, such as causing various problems in shops or letting jobs that should have been secured slip away… but for now, the shops generally seemed to be running well.

However, because the dwarves had begun competing on equal terms, the people who had been working as craftsmen until now seemed to be affected… but the dwarves did not try to hide their techniques from them either.

Some saw that and became fired up, determined not to lose, while others gave up because they could not reach the dwarves’ level and searched for other work, so their reactions varied.

Still, thanks to the dwarves, technical exchange had become more active, and there was no doubt that Guinea’s metal-related industries were rapidly developing.

“Thanks to Magros Volcano, weapons are selling well. For us, it’s a place with bitter memories… but I never thought we would end up receiving blessings from that place.”

Over the past while, there had been major movement from the Adventurers’ Guild.

They swiftly moved their once-heavy hips and began an official investigation of Magros Volcano using high-ranking adventurers!

And as a result, it was officially decided that the Adventurers’ Guild Magros Volcano Branch, provisional name, would be established.

That said, things would not move that quickly. After all, they did not know whether Magros Volcano would really make money.

For the time being, they would apparently dispatch staff temporarily to process requests related to the Magros Volcano dungeon and operate in the form of a branch office.

“It seems that a considerable number of blacksmiths who thought they had no chance of winning in Guinea want to move to Magros Village.”

“That is actually a good thing. We have no intention of returning there anymore, so it should help the adventurers over there. If weapons and armor made from monster materials are handled over there, while metal-processed products are handled here, we can even divide our roles well.”

Village building there had only just begun under Fem-san’s leadership, and even its official name had not been decided yet. Magros Village was a provisional name. Incidentally, Fem-san fiercely opposed that name.

I checked on its condition every day, so I had a firm grasp of its development, but it would still take quite some time for that place to become a full-fledged Sanctuary and start operating as a village.

It was not yet at the stage of attracting residents, so right now, we were only renting House Trees for a fee to the sharp-eyed adventurers who had come there.

Ran-san and the others were apparently transporting large quantities of supplies, and sharp-eyed merchants and adventurers had already started moving, so I supposed it would keep developing more and more from here on.

“Are Vil and the others doing well?”

“Yes. They seem to be somehow hanging on while being worked hard by Nadja and Miria-san.”

“Haha, I see, I see.”

I mentioned earlier that ninety percent entered the steel industry, but the remaining ten percent wanted military service, so they joined Sandstorm.

Our Sandstorm did not pay particularly high wages.

Until recently, when the economy finally started moving properly, most of the pay had practically been in kind.

But strangely enough, there was no end to the applicants who wanted to enlist in this unit.

It seemed the fact that the lord paid their wages, and therefore payments would not be delayed, was a big factor.

It also seemed to be partly due to the Faith of Wind and Tree, which still continued to spread throughout Wenti… but I did not really want to think about that influence.

After that, I continued asking whether there had been any changes, whether they had experienced anything unpleasant, and so on.

Apparently, the dwarves had a style where men worked while women took care of housework and children, but after seeing the women of Guinea working just like the men, the dwarf women had begun saying they wanted to find something they could do too.

They seemed to have started side jobs using their dexterity, making things like knitted goods and wooden accessories.

Vis-san said that today’s work was over and became cheerful while drinking alone, but I still had things I had to do after this, so I declined.

“Come to think of it, Woody-dono, I’ve been wondering for a while… what is that fluffy thing sitting on your head?”

“Huh, come to think of it, had I not explained?”

“Meow.”

“Its cry does sound like a cat…”

Apparently, Vis-san had become curious about the same thing as me, and I felt a strange sense of sympathy.

“This child is an earth spirit.”

“A-an earth spirit-sama!?”

Vis-san jumped up and opened his eyes wide.

W-was it really something to be that surprised about?

The spirit sitting on my head was startled by his momentum too and hissed.

As expected, even its threatening voice sounded somewhat catlike.

“Pardon me,” Vis-san said, clearing his throat, then after calming down, he explained.

“For dwarves, earth spirits-sama are special beings. They are said to be divine messengers who manifest the blessings of the earth. If one ever settles in, we are strictly commanded to prepare the environment inside as well as possible so that it will not leave.”

“If stories like that exist, does that mean they’re fairly common?”

“No, at the very least, I have never seen one as long as I have lived. The only person I have even heard stories of them from was my grandfather, who served as a storyteller.”

Earth spirits were said to revive abandoned mines and infuse metal with mana.

For the dwarves, they were apparently extremely professional beings, and Vis-san’s drunkenness had completely cleared, returning him to sobriety.

“Come to think of it, you really have been energetic since coming here.”

“Myaa!”

It seemed to be true that a spirit’s mood and condition changed depending on the environment, because ever since coming to this Guinea Village, this earth spirit had clearly become more energetic.

At this rate, if it lived in a mine or something, would it become even more energetic?

“Would you rather live in a mine after all?”

“Myaaan.”

Apparently, that was an affirmation.

The earth spirit’s attention was turned toward the distant mine that it should not have been able to see yet.

It probably sensed that there was a mine over there.

“If possible, could you secure a place for this child to live?”

“I-is that all right!? That means you are inviting earth spirit-sama into Guinea, correct!?”

Vis-san spoke with incredible intensity.

His words came out with so much force that spit flew onto my face.

“Excuse me.”

“Mm, thanks.”

Aira, who had been waiting behind me, swiftly wiped my face, and I regained my composure.

“Please,” I said, placing the spirit on Vis-san’s hand.

“Myaa.”

The spirit sprawled limply on top of Vis-san’s hand.

Perhaps because its body was soft, it looked as if it had melted.

“Mi… zzz, zzz…”

And perhaps because the feeling of Vis-san’s rugged hand was extremely comfortable, it fell asleep just like that.

Vis-san’s fingertips were as hard as rocks, but maybe because it was an earth spirit, it liked hard things after all?

“P-please take care of it… (whisper)”

“Y-yes. Please leave the rest to us. We will absolutely not treat it badly. (whisper)”

Since his normal voice was a roaring shout, even Vis-san’s whisper was normally loud.

Still, while being careful in his own way, he gently carried the spirit away.

I looked at his back and nodded once.

With that feeling, just as Wheel-san had said, it seemed spirits would be treated with care in Guinea Village.

As originally planned, it would be best to let the earth spirit live here.

The fire spirit would be fine at Magros Volcano… so that left two.

Where would be good for the wind spirit and water spirit?

“A place with lots of wind… then I guess it would be Simurg-san’s place after all?”

“I believe so. However, Simurg-sama is more the type who likes being alone…”

“Hmm, that’s true too.”

Currently, at Simurg-san’s request, we had placed various Element Fruit trees, mainly wind-attribute ones, there in addition to Wind Muscat.

If a wind-attribute spirit liked that, it would probably be comfortable there… but spirits meowed noisily, so Simurg-san might not be able to relax.

And there was probably a limit to how many spirits Guinea could accept too… Ah, right!

“In that case, how about we separate the Element Fruit trees by attribute and make each one an independent orchard?”

In order to put that idea into practice, I promptly began to move.