Speechless

“Ahh, sorry about yesterday. It was the first time in a while we could eat and drink without a care, so I may have gotten a bit carried away.”

Chief Jinga scratched his head with a boribori sound.

His face smiled, so he didn’t seem to think he’d done anything terribly wrong.

That attitude somehow made us think, “Well, that’s all right,”—perhaps that was his personal charm.

“But really, was that absolutely all right? Giving away that much fruit for free… you’re extremely generous, and we’re most grateful, but…”

“There’s no problem at all. I can replenish that amount easily.”

“‘Easily’…?”

There was no lie in my words.

To prove it, I activated Auto Harvest.

On the desert road yesterday I’d discovered Auto Harvest could be used even from a distance away from the orchards.

At the same time I triggered the Harvest Bag.

When I used both together, as if by magic, the harvested fruit automatically stocked itself inside the Harvest Bag.

Incidentally, the bag also let me see how much fruit was inside… and, well—

The newly harvested stock was actually more than what we’d used yesterday.

After all, it had only been enough to feed a village of a few dozen people for one meal, so it wasn’t an enormous amount.

Once the Harvest Bag was refilled, I activated it again.

Just like yesterday, a great heap of fruit tumbled out.

“…(speechless)”

Chief Jinga looked like a fish gasping for air—utterly stunned.

I thought it was only the second time he’d seen me show fruit like that in person, so I wondered what had struck him so dumb.

“C-could it be true…?”

“…? Yes. That level of consumption is no problem at all.”

“Lord Woody!”

“—Y-yes! What is it!?”

“Is it true that in the territory Lord Woody governs, fruit is available to eat all day every day!?”

“Y-yes, that’s correct…”

“Please bring everyone from our village to Tree Village!”

“Eh… ah…”

He was performing a dogeza.

Chief Jinga suddenly dropped into a full prostration—jumping into it, in fact.

He didn’t lift his head at all, so it was clear he was pleading seriously.

What audacity… but would the villagers accept such a sudden request?

“It’s fine.”

Ran-san interjected from beside him.

Perhaps because she’d still been feeling the aftereffects of yesterday’s drinking, she wasn’t wearing a full face of makeup.

Yet her natural looks were still lovely—honestly, I might prefer this natural look.

“W-what!?”

Ran-san turned bright red and flustered.

“T-That won’t do, Woody-kun. You’re a merchant and I’m a lord—”

For some reason she spoke far more casually than usual and spoke rapidly.

It seemed she had picked up on the thoughts in my head.

She looked extremely flustered—her face as flush as mine before a violin recital.

But Ran-san was a veteran merchant.

After a deep, steadying breath, she quickly regained her composure.

For an instant I got chills—people who’d survived hard times carried a certain presence about them.

“Hmm! …There’s no problem, Woody-kun. Yesterday, while Chief Jinga was going around pouring drinks, he secured everyone’s agreement.”

“R-really!?”

Ran-san’s words revealed a shocking truth: the groundwork had already been laid.

I’d thought he’d just been enjoying drinking and socializing, but it turned out Jinga had already obtained everyone’s consent yesterday.

He looked like a bit of a haphazard fellow, but maybe he was actually quite capable.

Of course, having the villagers move to Tree Village had been one option—just not one I expected to happen so smoothly.

“Of course that’s fine. But if they come to our village, they must follow our rules.”

“Ah, certainly. Treat us the same as the people already living in your village, and we’ll be fine. We’ll each earn our keep—we’re capable of that.”

With that, we had the village’s agreement.

Now I just had to get Simurg to do that thing for us.