Blessing

I had once been taught something like this by my tutor.

“‘Aptitudes belong to nobles because they are nobles. It is exceedingly rare for a commoner to be granted an aptitude even if they undergo the Rite of Blessing. Therefore, there is no meaning for a commoner to undergo the Rite of Blessing.’”

Back then, I had questioned this teaching of my tutor.

After all, the nobles of this country had themselves been nothing more than commoners a few hundred years ago.

If so, where exactly lay the reason that the chance of being granted an aptitude differed so greatly between nobles and commoners?

When I asked, the tutor snapped and refused to give me a proper answer.

And then, years later, I finally came to know the truth.

“To think there would be this many people with aptitudes…”

While helping the delighted Simurg-san, who had just obtained his very own Wind Muscat orchard, I tried giving the villagers one Rite of Blessing after another, and an astonishing truth was revealed.

Over twenty percent of them turned out to be aptitude holders.

There was no way, after seeing this result, that one could say the Rite of Blessing was meaningless for commoners.

In that case, the reason the kingdom’s nobles and royals had kept this hidden was because they did not want the number of aptitude holders to increase… that was the natural conclusion.

“What in the world…”

Nadja was just as shocked as I was—perhaps even more so.

Of course she would be. Anyone would be shaken after being fed lies from one’s teacher.

Still, it was not all bad news.

Thanks to the Sanctuary, we could increase the number of aptitude holders without needing offerings or tributes. For us, this was good news.

Aside from the slightly deepened distrust of the kingdom, it was all positive.

Because the more aptitude holders the village had, the more prosperous life in this desert could become.

Just as I, with the aptitude of Tree Planting, had been able to solve the food and housing problems.

Just as Aira, with her aptitude as Water Magus, had solved the water problem, and Nadja, with her aptitude as Sword Saint, had defeated the bandits.

Now then, let’s take a look at what aptitudes the villagers turned out to have.

“To think that I am a ‘Priest’… I’ve only skimmed through the Holy Scriptures here and there…”

First was the village chief, Shekuri-san.

He had the aptitude of ‘Priest.’

Thanks to Shekuri-san, from now on we could conduct the Rite of Blessing ourselves without relying on Simurg-san.

Since we had been troubling her constantly, we decided to let Simurg-san relax in the Wind Muscat orchard for a while.

“I… I have the aptitude of ‘Water Magic’…”

Next was Shekuri-san’s cousin, Makurei-kun, who had the aptitude of ‘Water Magic.’

In this desert, securing a water magician was more important than anything.

I had even heard that when water grew scarce, incidents of kidnapping water magicians were not unusual.

“I’ll never let this village suffer from water shortage again!”

Makurei-kun clenched his fist and took a fighting pose.

It seemed he had plenty of spirit.

For now, I decided to send Aira to him during her free time so that he could hopefully master water magic.

Makurei-kun was one year younger than me—fourteen years old.

Though not yet an adult, he had still received an aptitude without issue.

It seemed the age restriction for the Rite of Blessing had little meaning.

Other than that, the villagers possessed the aptitudes of:

‘Swordsman’

‘Fire Magic’

‘Pirate’

The village had twenty-six people, of whom five were aptitude holders.

If the village could grow at this pace, the number of aptitude holders would only increase.

Given the current situation, where stepping outside the village still meant exposure to the threat of monsters, it was a blessing to have more combat-type aptitude holders.

If Nadja and Aira trained them, I believed it would not be long before everyone became capable fighters.

I had no idea what kind of aptitude ‘Pirate’ was supposed to be… but for now, I decided to have her undergo Nadja’s training as well.

I was already excited, wondering what would come of it.

Being able to do more and more like this was, to be honest, quite fun.

I, too, planned to continue crossbreeding different trees and experimenting with them.