Chapter 178 - Thank You

I retracted the fruit away from the little boy and looked at who called.

It was an emaciated woman with a concerned expression on her face, reaching out to her sound like a monster was about to eat him.

...Which was quite offensive, since I would have to be the monster in that situation.

Regardless, I gave a small wave and smiled.

"Hello. Why don't you want your son to have a little snack?"

The woman looked at me in fear.

"G-Get away from my son!"

I raised my hands and took a few steps back.

"Ok, ok!"

The man with the twig crown looked uncomfortable watching this situation.

"Madam. Please do not antagonize this man. He is not a monster, but a savior of the village."

The woman looked towards him and proceeded to freak out.

"Oh no! The monsters are able to disguise themselves as the chieftain? I have to warn everybody when I can!"

It was hard for the man with the twig crown to respond. His lip twitched fiercely, like he couldn't comprehend that this was actually happening.

I turned to look at him.

"You see how annoying it is now, right?"

The man with the twig crown slowly nodded.

"...Yes. Once again, I apologize."

As for the little boy, he was quite startled after his mother called out for him. However, he seemed to care less about his mother's orders and more about the fruit of light in my hand.

The boy reached out towards it, but I had lifted it too high for him to grasp.

"Sir! You said that you would give me one, please hand it over!"

A bitter smile formed on my face.

"But you see, your mother doesn't want you to. I don't want to upset her."

The boy flailed his arms around.

"But you promised! You promised!"

At this point, the woman couldn't help but be confused. I shot a glance at her and shrugged my shoulders.

"Look. I would keep it for myself, but I did say that I would give it to him."

She seemed to be at a loss, blinking repeatedly.

Though that wasn't exactly a form of permission, I decided to take it that way and give the boy the fruit of light. With a smile, he immediately split it in half and stuffed it into his mouth. He looked quite satisfied after that one bite.

It was clearly more than the boy was used to.

Honestly, I was expecting him to stuff the other half into his mouth right after. However, he actually ran over to his mother and tried to hand it over.

"I got this for you, mommy!"

The necklace floating next to me couldn't help but tremble in joy.

"Wow! What a sweet little baby boy!"

His mother seemed a little shocked. After a few moments, she reached out with a trembling hand and took it.

"Oh dear... if it really is a monster, I don't care anymore."

Then gingerly took a bite.

The man with a twig crown cleared his throat.

"Um, it shouldn't be a monster. I imagine it will be fine."

The woman looked to be quite sleepy after eating the fruit of light and nodded absentmindedly.

"Y-Yes..."

I sighed.

"Well, I'm going to go back to work. Still need to make over eighty trees."

And so, that's what I did. The little boy from earlier decided to come along and watch. This resulted in the mother following along as well. As I continued to grow more trees, filling the place up, it inevitably attracted many other people.

They came out from their houses, both curious and afraid. Most people watched from a distance at first, but they couldn't help themselves and got a little closer each time.

One after another, a tree filled with bright glowing fruits appeared.

The crowd that began to amass before me made it hard to even see forward. There were constant murmurings among them, but none of them raised their voice too far. It was a little confusing to move on ahead, but they all parted ways whenever I tried to move forward, meaning that it wasn't too hard to get around.

By the time I made the fortieth tree, three burly men appeared with spears.

They pointed at me with clear confusion.

"What are you doing?"

It was a little hard to see them from past the crowd, but I waved anyway.

"Hello. I am making some trees here in exchange for an artifact."

One of them pointed at me accusingly.

"What? But... but..."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Hm? You appear to be one of those that have to scavenge for these fruits normally. Are these trees not beneficial to you?"

The men didn't know how to respond.

At some point, one of them yelled out loudly.

"You must be a monster creating illusions! All of these fruits must be toxic!"

The murmurings in the crowd noticeably got louder. In fact, while I did grow several trees, none of them dared to take one of the countless fruits that grew. And that was despite the fact they all seemed to be bare bones, about to die of starvation.

The words from that mean seemed to cause quite a bit of commotion among the crowd. I thought about saying something but realized that I didn't care that much in the end. So long as I got this strange artifact, in the end, it was fine.

As the murmurings got a little louder, a commanding shout suddenly resounded.

"This man is not a monster!"

It was the little boy from earlier.

"I already ate the tasty fruit and mommy did too! They aren't toxic!"

The man with the twig crown cleared his throat.

"I too can confirm that he is not an illusion. Please do not spread baseless rumors."

The three burly men from early immediately frowned. For some reason, they seemed displeased about getting all these trees. It made me quite curious as I imagined that they would be the people that benefited the most from this.

After all, they wouldn't have to go on expeditions anymore.

I narrowed my eyes.

"It seems you don't like it when there is an abundance of food. May I know why?"

While the other two froze in place, one of the burly men pointed at me with a deep frown.

"We don't want food that will poison and kill us!"

Though he said that, I couldn't help but think that he was unable to believe his own statement.

The man with the twig crown seemed to be a little incensed.

"I am the chieftain of this village and I have said before that they are not from the source of a monster!"

In response, the burly man frowned and walked away. Probably because he had no rebuttal.

After hearing their chieftain speak up, most of the people became ambitious enough to take some of the fruits on their own. Although Galileo said that one third was all they needed, most people ended up eating a whole fruit.

Though that probably shouldn't be considered overeating when they were all as thin as sticks.

I simply continued growing trees one after another. By the time it had reached sixty trees, the clamor and excitement around me built up. All of the people couldn't help but get excited about their sudden increase in food.

Even Galileo, who hadn't taken a single fruit himself, had a wide smile spread across his face. The other five members of the council also seemed shocked and no longer looked at me with any hostility.

By the time I had planted the last tree needed, there were screams of joy and laughter among the people. The man with the twig crown approached me.

"Haha, now that you have given us so much, would you like to participate in a banquet for us to show our appreciation?"

I rolled my eyes.

"What? So I can eat the food that I made?"

The corner of the man's lip twitched.

"Um... I had the best of intentions."

I waved my hand dismissively.

"Then just get me that artifact already. I did my part, no?"

The man with the twig crown nodded.

"Of course. Stay here for just a moment."

And with that, he left, pushing through the crowd with a bit of difficulty.

Galileo slowly walked up to me.

"...Thank you."

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Well, I wouldn't have done it if you didn't give me the artifact, just so you know. There isn't much to thank me for."

Galileo shook his head.

"Regardless of the fact you did this for something else, you have brought countless smiles to our village. People have become so paranoid that they were afraid of each other. There was just... far too little food."

He sighed.

"There have been several incidents where it has been stolen. You may not understand it, but the insecurity of not having enough food wears a person down in more ways than one."

Galileo bowed.

"So truly, thank you for helping our village."