A Breath Of Relief

Tension and release were quite important.

If people did not learn to relax when it was time to relax, they often ended up bursting somewhere.

And so, since we had finished the important job of turning the village into a Sanctuary, I decided to make today a full day off.

I did not feel like going straight back to work either.

Since we were at it, to commemorate the completion of Magros Village, though it was not as if we had created it anew today, I decided to generously serve our latest products throughout the village today.

Of course, it would be unfair if it was only Magros Village, so I arranged the same things for Tree Village and Guinea Village as well.

I wanted everyone to wish for Wenti’s future prosperity too, after all.

Today, I would be generous and treat everyone to free food and free alcohol.

Since I had a massive stockpile in the Harvest Bag, I checked on everyone while replenishing supplies.

Naturally, since I was incognito, I was wearing slightly coarse linen clothes instead of my usual noble silk clothes.

Aira, who was usually behind me, was now beside me dressed like a village girl.

Incidentally, Nadja, on the other side, was wearing leather armor apparently made from leather materials dropped by monsters from the Magros Volcano dungeon, giving her an adventurer-like appearance.

As we walked, we could hear the sound of cups clinking together everywhere, along with the cheerful voices of people who were drunk or in good spirits.

“To Woody-sama!”

“To the future prosperity of Magros Village!”

““Cheers!””

The men who liked alcohol were pleasantly drinking a sweet wine that had been drawn from a barrel and was still a little underprepared.

Looking at the snacks lined up on the table, I could not help smiling.

I thought alcohol snacks were normally something people nibbled at little by little, but the men surrounding the table were devouring them at an incredible pace, as though they were the main dish.

What was on the plates atop the table was…

“Deliciousssss!! What the hell is this mango!? The ones before were so good they made my cheeks fall off, but this one is even better!”

“These raisins are no joke either… Damn it, I can’t stop my hands! They go way too well with this sweet wine!”

They were dried fruits, a byproduct born thanks to this round of Tree Improvement.

When overly sweet fresh fruit was used as is, the flavor of the dried fruit somehow became indistinct.

But by becoming able to freely choose sweetness and sourness through Tree Improvement, we had succeeded in creating an improved version that made all previous dried fruit obsolete.

The key was to set the sweetness value high, then adjust the sourness value so that it slightly exceeded it.

Using fruit improved that way raised the sugar content of the dried fruit itself, and the indistinct flavor we had felt until now disappeared completely and cleanly.

I somehow felt like eating some, so I put one piece of dried mango from the Harvest Bag into my mouth.

“Woody-sama, please give me some too.”

“Give me some too!”

I tossed the same thing into both of their mouths.

When I rolled the dried mango in my mouth with my tongue, the sweetness came through from that alone.

Just by licking it, I could sense a sweetness like hard candy.

I bit into it with a snap. Despite being dried, it had a sticky texture.

The concentrated umami erased the slight odd sensation of biting through dried fruit flesh.

My mouth was filled with sweetness stronger than when it was fresh fruit, and a faint lingering sourness.

“Yes, it’s delicious… We finally made dried fruit I can be satisfied with.”

“It is delicious… I had thought fruit was best fresh, but right now, dried fruit is completely competing with it inside me.”

“With this level of flavor, we can send it out with confidence.”

“Yeah, that’s right. Dried fruit can be transported much farther than fresh fruit, so we’ll be able to do business with the entire kingdom.”

Actually, until now, the distribution volume of dried fruit had been limited compared to fresh fruit, Peach Ointment, detox water, and fruit tea base.

It was delicious, but it had not reached the level of, “It’s so delicious I want to eat it again!”

To avoid damaging the brand value, we had only wholesaled a certain amount.

But with this improved version of dried fruit, even I had no complaints.

It was a masterpiece that would definitely make anyone who ate it take an interest in Wenti.

“It seems they can make new wine too, so I am looking forward to that as well!”

“As expected, the brewing isn’t ready yet today, but it should be done before too long. If there is a tasting, will you come too, Nadja?”

“Of course I will!”

Just like with dried fruit, there had also been changes to the wine.

By becoming able to produce sour grapes, we could now make ordinary wine, not just the overly sweet kind we had made until now.

The strength of Tree Improvement was that it allowed us to continue producing grapes with a consistent flavor.

So when making wine too, by using grapes with the same flavor, it became possible to maintain uniform quality.

Wine was something made in quite a lot of places, but if we could create a brand where people thought of Wenti when they thought of fruit, I believed it would not be impossible to break into the famous wine-producing regions.

So currently, Keep-san was extremely busy making new wine using grapes with adjusted sweetness and sourness.

He seemed unable to help enjoying winemaking, so he was probably devoting himself to work today too, without paying any attention to the surrounding commotion.

Later, partly as thanks for his hard work, maybe I should go share some dried fruit with him.

“Still… seeing all the large men in town smacking their lips over fruit looks somehow eerie.”

“Ahaha… Well, I can understand how you feel.”

The sight of large adventurers who looked like they loved alcohol and meat devouring fruit really did feel strangely out of place.

I hurriedly left before being noticed and continued watching the state of Magros Village.