Guinea

From there, everything progressed smoothly.

Thankfully, Wheel-san, his wife, and their children brought the villagers together for us.

Meanwhile, I returned to Tree Village once and soothed the sulking Simurg-san by providing him with as many Element Fruit–bearing trees as my remaining points allowed.

Now, Wheel-san stood before me.

Behind him were Aira, Nadja, and all the people who trusted us enough to follow.

Sorry for making you all wait.

But now, at last… I could finally offer them a place of peace.

“I dunno what Simurg told ya, but I’ve only got one question. Woody-dono—no, Woody… do you got the resolve to make everyone here happy?”

What was my answer?

There was only one possible response.

“—Of course! I’ll make sure every villager who lives here finds happiness!”

“—Good! Woody, don’t ya ever forget the feeling you’ve got right now!”

With that, Wheel-san leaped high into the air, then slammed both forelegs into the ground with tremendous force.

In the next instant—fwoom, flash!

Just like Simurg-san had done, light spread outward from the point of impact.

But what followed… was different.

Bokoon, bokoboko!

First, plants began to sprout.

The sand vanished, transforming into reddish, iron-colored soil.

Compared to Simurg-san’s Sanctuary, the amount of new vegetation was far less.

If we were talking crop yield alone, Tree Village would still win by a wide margin.

But the transformation didn’t stop there.

Next an oasis formed—then grew larger—until it expanded into a full lake.

The ground caved in dramatically, forming a massive pit.

And farther away, the earth rose, swelling upward into a mountain.

Amazing…

In an instant, the desert had transformed into a landscape you’d never believe used to be sand.

Simurg-san’s Sanctuary had felt like a comfortable town.

This one, though—this one felt more like a mining settlement.

There was even a scent of rusted iron in the air.

Maybe we’d find iron ore here.

So this was the Sanctuary Wheel-san created.

“It’d help me out if ya build a crazy-good town here—somethin’ that’ll last a hundred, two hundred years so my kids can inherit it! Oh yeah, did ya decide on a name?”

“Yes. From today on—this place is Guinea!”

And so, a new Sanctuary was safely born—one watched over by Wheel-san as its guardian Divine Beast.

Its name was Guinea.

Right now its scale was still small—more a village than a town—but that was fine.
Tree Village had been the same at the start.

Even after being driven out of my home…

Even after being attacked by sand bandits…

Even with monsters that strong…

We still made it through.

So we’d be fine.

If everyone worked together, then surely—no, definitely—we’d overcome any obstacle.

One step at a time, we’d keep moving forward—