Visitors

The people of this village were actually quite busy in their daily lives.

In addition to the farming and blacksmithing they had done until now, they also had to regularly harvest fruit.

But that problem had been almost completely solved once I gained the ability to use Auto Harvest.

Thanks to that, they could now live much as they had before.

Since all I did was tend trees and stockpile fruit, I wasn’t really that busy myself.

If anything, the one who was busiest… was her—Nadja.

“I’m back, Woody.”

“Welcome home, Nadja.”

Of course, if we ate only fruit, our nutrition would be unbalanced.

Humans needed to eat grains and meat as well, in proper balance, or else it wasn’t healthy.

With the Sanctuary, it seemed we could manage to secure grains.

That meant the next problem was securing meat.

Since planting trees alone couldn’t solve that, I had entrusted the task of hunting meat entirely to Nadja.

“Today I hunted a Sand Boar.”

“Wow… that’s really big.”

Thud!

She set down, with great force, a plump, fattened wild boar.

Its skin was light brown, perhaps to camouflage itself against the sand.

This was a Sand Boar… supposedly a powerful monster adventurers were often hired to subjugate.

“It’s convenient not to have trouble finding prey. Looks like the monsters around here aren’t being culled properly.”

Fortunately, we didn’t have much trouble getting meat.

Since I was protected by the Tree Barrier and kept safe by the Sanctuary, I didn’t really feel it firsthand, but apparently there were quite a number of monsters in this desert—and Nadja quickly hunted them down.

“I wonder how people in other villages manage to live.”

“Most likely, they survive quietly and secretly, making as little noise as possible.”

“Noise?”

“Yes. Monsters of the desert are almost all poor-sighted, but their hearing is highly developed. If they live clustered together, they’re less likely to be noticed. And if you pound your footsteps loudly, it becomes laughably easy to lure prey in.”

Nadja said this with a grin.

Since coming here, she had hardly fought monsters thanks to the power of the World Tree, so apparently she had built up some frustration.

She could relieve her stress, and we could enjoy delicious meat.

No one lost—a wonderful win–win arrangement.

“I see. By the way, how are Dan and Meg doing?”

“Not bad. Look, this wound here was dealt by Dan.”

Nadja, possessing the aptitude of Sword Saint, was one of the strongest in sword techniques. Frankly speaking, no monster in the surrounding area could defeat her, no matter how many came at once.

That was why I had her act together with Dan, who had the aptitude of Swordsman, and Meg, who had the aptitude of Pirate.

She was training them in actual combat.

No matter how strong Nadja was, she couldn’t do everything alone.

Eventually, I wanted Dan and Meg to be able to hunt monsters on their own.

Besides, we would need personnel capable of leading the reformed bandits in the future.

Nadja had great leadership ability, but she shone brightest when wielding her sword.

As I thought about that, I opened my flask and drank the tea inside.

Right now, Aira wasn’t by my side.

She often acted separately these days, teaching two villagers who had the aptitudes of Water Magic and Fire Magic.

Shekuri-san was probably still giving sermons to the former bandits, and other people in responsible positions within the village were quite busy too.

Maybe I, just planting trees, was actually the least busy of all.

“Woody-sama!”

Just as I was thinking I should go bring some Wind Muscats to Simurg-san, Meg came running toward me in a rush.

Her expression was tense.

Covered in sand from hunting monsters, she pointed toward the village entrance and shouted.

“—Merchants! Ran-san the merchant and her people have come!”

“What shall we do, Woody?”

“…F-for now, let’s go meet them.”

I asked Meg to tell the refugees, and in the meantime I gathered the core members.

Together with Aira, Shekuri-san, and Simurg-san, I headed for the village entrance where the refugees were staying.

The Sanctuary’s barrier was only to ward off monsters.

It didn’t prevent humans from entering, so we had to hurry before anything happened.

Come to think of it, when Simurg-san and Nadja had flown here before, the World Tree had glowed brightly to signal danger.

But during the bandit raid, and again now with the merchants’ arrival, the World Tree had shown no change.

There might be some reason for that.

Once this matter was settled, I thought I should look into it.

Ah, why did the things I needed to do keep piling up endlessly?