Ahaha

“Meru meru…”

“There, there, calm down, Chappy.”

Ran, who had been stunned, first focused on calming her beloved camel, Chappy, whose legs had frozen in fear.

Seeing something more shaken than oneself often made a person regain composure.

By the time Chappy’s face returned to its usual drowsy look, Ran had regained her calm as well.

“Did an oasis form while digging a hole…? That wouldn’t be too unusual… but to see greenery this thick in the middle of a desert is an overwhelming strangeness.”

In this desert, it was not that unusual for a water source to dry up, or for a place with nothing to suddenly turn into an oasis.

Ran herself had seen such sights several times.

‘But this… this could only be called abnormal.’

Normally, an oasis did not appear all at once.

Water seeped out, sand was gradually eroded away, a small puddle formed, and over time, sprouts began to push through.

Only after years did it grow into something substantial.

Yet now, in the village spread before her, trees far larger than a human body were already growing everywhere.

And not just one or two.

Dozens, hundreds of trees stood in ordered rows.

They were all splendid trees—so splendid that it made no sense unless decades had passed.

“B-Big Sis! What do we do!?”

“Don’t lose your nerve! You call yourselves adventurers? We’re moving forward—for now, I need to see with my own eyes what’s going on here.”

Ran left Chappy behind and advanced, with White Silver Wings following her.

They moved carefully… but reached the village entrance without incident.

“Those are… bandits!? Don’t tell me they’ve taken the villagers!?”

Ran, staring at the green village, quickly spotted men emerging.

They were—no matter how you looked at them—ruffians with villainous faces that could only be taken for bandits.

Their swords had curved blades designed to strike effectively in the unstable footing of desert terrain—equipment unmistakably favored by sand bandits.

It was only natural that Ran linked together these two things—the abnormal greenery and the bandits.

“Let’s go, everyone! First, we’ll crush those sand bandits!”

Ran remembered.

The villagers, poor yet pure.

The smiling faces of children who had thanked her.

There was no way she would forgive the bandits who had ruined such a humble yet beautiful village.

She raised her sword—

“Wait, isn’t that Ran-san?”

“Haaahhh—wha?”

Her sword stopped just short.

Because behind the supposed bandits, she saw a familiar face.

If she recalled correctly… the name was Meg.

“Meg-chan… wasn’t it? It’s been a while. Have you been well?”

“Yes, I’m doing fine!”

It didn’t look like she was being threatened.

In fact, it even seemed like she was the one leading the bandits.

It was hard to imagine that a mere village girl had suddenly become their leader, but…

“Why were you trying to leave the village?”

“Eh? Oh, that was… I thought we’d go hunting monsters.”

“H-Hunting monsters!? If you make careless noise, Sand Worms or Sand Boars will attack you!”

“It’s fine. We… we’ve been training!”

The one who stepped forward in Meg’s place was a spirited young man.

After whispering something to her, Meg nodded and went back inside.

“Oh, by the way, do you remember my name?”

“Of course, it was…”

‘It’s Dan-san, Dan-san.’

“Dan, wasn’t it? Of course I remember.”

“Ah, ahaha… thank you very much.”

With a wry smile—having clearly received advice from the adventurers behind her—Dan began explaining the situation that had led to this point.