People often say home is where you make it, and sure enough, I’ve settled into life on this island and lead fulfilling days.
But at the same time, as people settle into their daily lives, they start wanting to get even more comfortable.
“…And so, I was thinking about making a road to the divine beast people’s village.”
“What do you mean ‘and so’?”
Reina is perplexed by my sudden proposal.
“I was thinking about this when I went over there while I was looking for Luna. The path is pretty iffy.”
“Well, it is an untamed forest.”
“Of course. But we’re going to their village to trade, so…”
We can both use storage magic, so it’s not that big of a deal for us, but it’s really inconvenient for Xellos and Merlin to use animal paths.
This means that while they are starting to get to know Luna and Elga, they haven’t gone to their village to say hello.
The biggest hurdle is that they just haven’t found the right time, but the fact that the path itself is hard to traverse is a problem too.
“So if we make it more convenient to get there, and make it so we can easily meet and communicate, it’ll be good.”
“Hm… That’s fine, I guess? It would be easier for me too if we had a proper path. But are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“Hn? What do you mean?”
“I mean, this area is divine beast people territory, right? We are just borrowing it, so wouldn’t they object to a path being cut open?”
“Ah…”
I didn’t think about that. I really was just thinking about deepening our relationship by having a nice path.
“What now…”
“Let’s ask Suzaku first, and if they agree, you can go on with your plan. If they don’t, let’s think about something else.”
And so, we decide to visit the divine beast people’s village, but…
“She’s not here?”
“Yep. She said something about something being complicated, and went over to Wilhelmina’s place a few days ago.”
As we were making our way to her mansion, Elga stopped us, and he’s saying Suzaku went off somewhere.
Apparently she was strangely flustered, and even Elga says he’s never seen her like that.
“Is everything all right?”
“Well, she revives herself even if she dies, so I’m not gonna be worried about her. But a lot of the beast people are wonderin’ what got that elder so flustered. Good grief…”
Elga’s usually a guy with a sharp tongue and a caring heart, so he’s probably been talking to these beast people that feel anxious.
Maybe that’s why he looks more tired than usual. It feels like he’s missing his usual vigor.
“But what didja want with the elder anyway?”
“Well…”
I tell Elga what Reina and I were talking about before.
I think it will make trading goods smoother, and deepen our relationship with them.
Also, I didn’t tell Reina this, but when I was summoned far away and came back, I felt something.
It feels to me like this is my hometown. Like I was born here.
That’s why I want to learn more about this island too, and talk more to the various races that live here.
And so, the first step is to make things run smoother between us and the divine beast people, since we already know them.
“Oh, that’s it? That’d be good for us too. Go ahead.”
“Eh? Are you sure?”
“Yep. We’re gonna be usin’ that path too, and the beast people never know when monsters might pop up. They’re not gonna get close to a path with your smell, so it’s gonna be safer too.”
He says that rather than being okay with it, they’ll actually help. I’m glad to hear that.
“I need to work out some things today, so how about starting tomorrow?”
“By the way Arata, how are you thinking of doing that?”
“Eh? Cut down trees and stuff with magic, and flatten the ground with earth magic like always.”
I figured I’d just do it the same way I did it for the path to the river, and Reina gives me an exasperated sigh.
“You know, magic energy isn’t infinite? And there is quite a bit of distance to this village. If you run out of magic energy… By the way, have you ever run out of magic energy, Arata?”
“Me? Not yet.”
Reina is looking at me like I just said something unbelievable.
I haven’t seen an expression like that in a while, because lately she’s been dismissing everything with a simple ‘well, it’s Arata’.
“I can’t believe it… Maybe you can actually pull it off. But that means the amount of magic energy in you…”
“Ah, I don’t know either. I’ve never depleted it, so it might actually be very little.”
“The simple fact that you can use storage magic like that proves otherwise.”
I do get the feeling that she said that the capacity of storage magic is proportional to magic energy.
Considering I haven’t yet reached the limits of my storage magic, it could very well be that my magic energy is as abnormal as everything else.
“Ahh… Fine. Thinking about it any further will just make my head hurt… More importantly, I have one more question.”
“Eh?”
“What are you going to do about the trees you cut down? I guess you could fit them all in your storage magic, but…”
“Ah… That’s right.”
If I put them in my storage magic, that settles it, but I’m going to need to cut a lot of them, considering how long the path will be.
But the forest’s trees are alive.
I don’t know how precious nature is to the residents of this island, but I’m sure they’re not going to be too trusting of a human that goes around destroying it as he pleases.
“How ’bout letting us have those trees? The beast people can use them to turn ’em into something else.”
“But it’s going to be a lot.”
“Ah… Then how ’bout we make a processing area? You can leave ’em there, and use your storage magic if there’s too much.”
So, wasting as little of it as possible.
They won’t rot in my storage magic, and I’ll think about it later if there’s more than I can handle.
“Let’s go with that then. It’ll take me a few days to make the path, so can you explain everything here in the village?”
“Yep. If you’re bringing trees, we can use that manpower somewhere else too.”
“But if I’m giving you the trees, I want something too.”
“Name it.”
The concept of money doesn’t exist on this island, so it’s generally down to bartering.
Also, as a general rule here, the person proposing the trade is supposed to present something that’s useful to the other.
That means that it’s easy for people to ask each other what they want without hard feelings.
“All right. Let’s get to it then.”
“I will help as well.”
We go back home, spend the rest of the day preparing, and then start advancing while bringing trees down.
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