Ahhn

Next, I picked up a Water Muscat.

The basics were the same—when I poured magic into it, water kept coming out for a while.

Still, since it was small to begin with, the flow was just a trickle.

I figured it would take about three full days of dripping into a canteen before it finally filled up.

“If you can make a magic tool that produces water in the desert, people will fight tooth and nail to get it!?”

“Huh, really? Since it only trickles out, I thought it wouldn’t be enough even for drinking.”

“Woody, your sense has been completely broken thanks to that dumb big-boobed woman!?”

It was true that even if it was just a trickle, being able to make a small water source could be huge.

I thought I’d have to make it so the water flow could be regulated like with Water Magic, but if I managed it well, it might become possible to create a magic tool like a canteen that produced water.

Since Aira could always produce water anyway, she just ate Water Muscats as her favorite snack.

As expected, having a third-party opinion opened up discoveries I wouldn’t have noticed myself.

“By the way, the taste isn’t very strong. It’s really watery, kind of like watermelon.”

The fruit of a Water Muscat was nearly three times the size of a normal grape.

So we decided to split it in half and eat it together.

“W-Woody…”

“…? What is it, Nadja?”

“Ah… ahhn…”

Nadja offered me a piece of Water Muscat with her fork.

Her hand trembled, and her face was bright red.

Wasn’t this what they call… an “ahhn” feeding!?

I thought that, but I forced myself to calm down.

We were fiancés, so something like an ahhn wasn’t embarrassing—it was perfectly normal…

“Ahhn, munch munch… yeah, it’s tasty.”

I forced myself to eat, enduring the embarrassment.

Even though I said it was tasty, honestly I didn’t even register the flavor.

As I tried to regain my composure with a deep breath, Nadja began fidgeting.

“Woody, next time, um…”

“Yeah, okay—ahhn…”

I wasn’t so dense as to miss her meaning.

As a return favor, I stuck a muscat on my fork and held it out to her.

“Ahhn…”

Nadja’s face flushed even deeper red, which in turn made me embarrassed as I watched.

After repeating that a few more times, we finally calmed down enough to resume our inspection of the Element Fruits.

The Wind Muscat dispersed odors, while the Earth Muscat buried waste by covering it with soil.

The ways Nadja suggested using them were often practical in real combat.

“The toughness of these vines is definitely high. If we bind someone tightly with them, we could probably restrain even someone with the aptitude of ‘Swordmaster.’”

With the Sword Saint’s endorsement as well, it looked like there was no issue with using the vines like ropes.

It seemed that the Element Fruits still held many more possibilities.

We then moved on to inspect the other Element Fruits.

Since I already knew what most of their effects were, I added brief explanations.

“Element Marrons either explode or shoot off with a burst of water pressure, so they’re pretty tricky to use.”

“The Fire Marron’s explosion is just like Fire Magic… If you dropped this into a pitfall trap, you could take down an enemy easily.”

Element Marrons were basically all dangerous.

The Fire Marron exploded, while the Water Marron and Wind Marron accelerated and launched at high speed with magical force.

As for the Earth Marron, it only increased the amount of soil, but for some reason its shell was absurdly hard.

It was said that only Nadja’s mithril sword could cut through it, and an ordinary person would never be able to crack it.

“The Element Apple has detoxifying properties, and the Element Peach has healing effects. But they ignite with magic really easily, so carrying them around is tough…”

“They’d be useful for emergency treatment. If stored separately, we could manage them just fine.”

The Element Apple and Element Peach were basically just fruits with magical effects.

Eating an Apple gave detox effects—working as a cleanse and even improving digestion. The Element Peach healed wounds, and while eating it, an old scar on my knee vanished.

“This Element Mulberry, if you infuse magic into it, bursts apart. Its killing power is enough to take down a goblin.”

“That’s basically buckshot. Could be useful for hunting—maybe we should let Kadin’s group use it.”

“We still don’t know the effects of the Element Persimmon and the Element Pear. The aptitude of ‘Tree Planting’ hasn’t given me any hints either, so I’m trying all sorts of experiments.”

“I see… I get it.”

And with that, our little Element Fruit observation tour ended.

Immediately afterward, Nadja’s eyes sparkled as she declared,

“I’m going to test the Element Fruits in live combat!”

The ex–sand bandit soldiers had recently surpassed three “smile points” a day, and their loyalty to me only grew with no end in sight, so there was no need to worry about betrayal or leaks.

So I generously provided them with Element Fruits.

How effective they would be in actual battle against monsters was still unknown… but I was sure Nadja would make good use of them.