Keeping Our Feet On The Ground

The fourth morning had come since the village became a Sanctuary.

By this point, our daily life had begun to stabilize in many ways.

Even Shekuri-san’s sermon that we had him deliver yesterday seemed to have gone somehow well.

It wasn’t as easy as “Instant, perfect repentance in one shot!”, but even so, there appeared to be a clear change in the bandits’ behavior.

Just yesterday, for instance, they watched the villagers harvesting fruit trees and seemed genuinely impressed.

I even felt like one of the bandits looked my way and made a gesture as if in prayer… but that had to have been my imagination.

Ah, right.

Come to think of it, I had reached the point where I could raise my Tree Planting level, but I had been so busy with various things that I hadn’t found the time.

I’d been busy with crossbreeding House Trees and hadn’t managed to think that far.

For now, I figured I should at least do a level-up first.

Up to now I had gained a new power with each level-up, so I was already excited, wondering if I’d get something again this time.

By the way, here was what my current Tree Planting status looked like.

Normally, I should already have progressed with level-ups, but the reason I hadn’t was the drawback of this newly acquired skill, Crossbreeding.

This crossbreeding, which had been thought to be able to do anything by combining two traits, had one major drawback.

—When you used crossbreeding to perform a planting, Smile Points decreased, but it didn’t count toward the number of plantings.

Apparently, this “number of plantings” only responded to trees planted anew.

I was truly glad I had a decent reserve of Smile Points.

It seemed the villagers didn’t harbor ill feelings toward me, and my Smile Points were steadily increasing day by day.

After checking several times, the pace looked like about once per person per day that I received Smile Points.

For reference, an ordinary villager yielded 1, and if they were thankful to me, I could get more than that.

Perhaps because they were simply grateful that they could now eat properly, I was getting quite a lot of points.

On average, it was probably close to 2.

Of course, this was a bonus period for now, but if the bandits repented, their Smile Points would get added in as well.

Even now, I could handle the plantings the village needed, and the houses were ready, so… maybe I should plant some Grape Trees out on the edge of the village?

Given that our production capacity now had some leeway, it seemed fine to start grape production for wine.

To be honest, as far as food circumstances went, we wouldn’t be in trouble even if I didn’t plant any more.

From here on, the purpose of planting would likely shift less toward feeding us and more toward trading with others to earn foreign coin.

Yes, thinking about doing business with outside parties… I should plant not only grapes but apples as well.

In this desert, fresh, juicy fruit alone commanded considerable value.

Ordinarily they wouldn’t grow without a large amount of water, and in a pinch they could even be used for hydration.

But if I considered selling to merchants and such, it was about time to start making dried fruit… no, no, focus.

First I had to plant the trees.

No need to rush—plant my feet firmly on the ground and move forward step by step.