Chapter 97: Red fruits
Just like that, we’d gained enough supplies to last another day.
And for the rest of the day and the next night, we were stuck with that adventuring party as they took time to recover from their wounds.
Their presence, however, came with an unexpected perk.
With how differently Selia acted around others, she didn’t bother trying anything when we went to sleep.
And for just how much I enjoyed her teasing and our playful bickering, I nearly forgot just how much I missed such peace.
The ability to just go to sleep and rest...
It was strangely liberating.
I woke up in the middle of the night after volunteering for the worst guard duty, deep in the middle of the night. And for the next three hours, I stood watch to the best of my ability.
Knowing my limits, I didn’t hesitate to wake Selia up when the darkest hour of the night arrived.
It was the time when the predators roamed the whole area in search of prey. And by all means, Selia was our best bet to ward off against them.
Thankfully, the rest of the night passed without an incident.
I barely managed to catch some sleep before Selia shook my shoulder to wake me up.
The adventurers, despite the extremely early hour, were leaving.
"Again, thanks for the help," the younger, less wounded of the two men spoke while supporting his older brother.
Even a day and night of rest were far from enough for his wounds to properly close, forcing him to grit his teeth through the pain and endure it for their return. Only in the town could he seek proper care. And with a portion of their supplies now in our possession, the time he could spend resting on the road was also cut short.
"Just be more careful next time," Selia replied before waving the group off as they nodded their heads and strolled away.
For the next few moments, our makeshift camp was silent.
Selia’s face made it clear—right now would be the worst time to try to talk with her. And even without that face, I could clearly tell thanks to our bond.
That’s why, for the next hour or so, we just sat around in silence, waiting for God knows what.
Then, after an entire hour of silence, Selia sighed and raised her face.
"Should we go check on those plants?"
Her question was loaded with meaning.
Checking the plants after a night given for the jungle to "regrow" them back was why we waited for a whole day doing nothing but dawdling around.
But to check them, Selia would have to get through that evolved guardian beast first.
Judging from the look of determination in her eyes and the clear pull of duty I could feel in her soul, though...
’I could venture to guess she wants to kill it more than she cares about the coffee.’
I sighed out. Then, I raised my eyes to the girl.
"Is there any way in which I can help?"
In my eyes, I was perfectly powerless. My near-death experience from just before allowed me to feel the magic... but not to actively use it.
Still, I was looking from the perspective of a total amateur. And who was to say Selia wouldn’t see things differently?
Maybe she knew ways in which even someone like me could help!
My delusions were quickly shattered.
"No, no way."
There wasn’t a single hint of hesitation in Selia’s voice. Instead, her face twisted in a mix of amusement and disbelief.
"Then, how hard will this fight be?" I changed my approach.
Getting coffee was one thing. But judging from the air around the Saintess, this fight wouldn’t be as easy as the others. And while she would be putting herself in harm’s way as usual...
I couldn’t bear the thought of her risking her health over something as stupid as a nice drink!
"Hmm?" Selia raised her eyes, her face changing again only to then soften as I felt the slightest touch of her thoughts caressing my soul through our bond. "Don’t worry about it. I only need to actually try for a bit," she assured with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders.
’That’s exactly the kind of thinking that gets people killed!’ I screamed out in my mind, loud enough for Selia to freeze, stunned, just from what she felt through our bond.
"Ah... hahaha..." Selia laughed before looking away, her cheeks covering in a slight blush. Then, however, she shook her head. "Seriously, there’s nothing to worry about. It’s because I’m taking this seriously that I’m going through the full process."
I squinted my eyes...
And then it struck me.
Selia didn’t just waste an hour sitting and brooding around.
What she was likely doing was some kind of ritual that powered her up!
And regarding the full hour she sacrificed for it... Who was there to say this wasn’t how long rituals needed to take? Even a Sunday’s visit at church takes about an hour, so why would a powering-up ritual last any shorter than that?
As if to confirm my words, as I looked closer, I realized that it wasn’t just the air between us growing tense over the course of prolonged, hourly silence.
The air around Selia was actively changing, growing thinner and colder as if she slowly sapped all the kinetic energy in it.
Then, from where she just sat down, Selia burst forth, exploding away at a speed I’d never seen her reach before.
Quite noticeably, her hair didn’t turn golden this time. And while some mana stirred, it was nowhere near the level I witnessed during her earlier fight.
Selia reached the small pretend-hill where the monster masked its presence in a single lunge, her sword piercing through the thin air, as if pulling the girl towards the monster’s abstract weak point.
The tip of her sword struck true against the target.
And just like that, the reality of the monster started to warp.
Selia didn’t dismantle it with that single piercing strike. But she dismantled the rules of reality that bound the monster’s flesh together, turning the gruesome beast into a slurry of bubbling mess.
I stood rooted in place.
This kind of strength...
"And here I thought she was powerful when exploding her mana..." I whispered.
What else could I do, though?
Selia just revealed that her sword could strike not at matter... but at the rules of existence of said matter itself, damaging the very core of what made things... their exact shape and form.
And the fight that made me dread for her safety was never any harder than the ones she fought and won at before.
’That’s one hell of a girlfriend to have,’ I thought, a small smirk dancing on my lips.
Before I could relax, though, Selia rose back up and looked over before beckoning at me with her hand.
Wasting no time, I gathered all of our things and rushed forth, wasting no time that she so gallantly bought us.
Within a few minutes, I managed to reach her position on this weirdly expansive space before we crossed into the woods. Another moment later, we reached what used to be a small clearing done by Selia’s sword and hand...
A clearing that had turned into a part of the jungle just as the lands all around it.
Its lush vegetation wasn’t trees, though, but overwhelmingly huge plants of coffee.
’What the hell,’ I stared wide-eyed at nearly three-meter-tall bushes, ’those grow that big?!’
In the moment of the shock, I forgot about manipulation of the seed’s quality. And by all rights, while it grew tall... we still had to wait to see if it produced quality fruits.
"It worked..." Selia stood still, staring at the huge bushes with a mix of confusion and elation. And judging by how her eyes darted all around while quite obviously skipping over the bush’s red fruits...
"It worked indeed," I nodded my head before dropping all I had in my hands and rushing to gather the fruits.
"Huh?" Selia leaned her head over her shoulder while watching how I picked away at stuff that didn’t look like the coffee I used at all.
"We will need at least fifty to set up a normal plantation, then between ten to twenty to check their quality..." I muttered as I continued to gather the fruits and dump them into a big, empty bag once used to hold flour, one of the few auxiliary items we brought for this trip.
"So it’s those red fruits that we want?" Selia asked, standing rather still while giving me a weird look.
"Yeah," I nodded my head as I slowly filled up the bag. Even when I reached the minimum number necessary, I continued to gather, already imagining all sorts of drinks I would make for the Saintess.
Before long, the sack filled up, forcing me to give the plants one last look before retreating with an unspoken grief in my heart.
I’d only managed to gather a tenth of all the fruits those few massive plants offered. And now, I was going to pretty much abandon it all and let it go to waste... simply because I didn’t have another bag to use nor the ability to carry more than just one heavy bag on the long way back to the town!
"Let’s hope for the best," I said as I lifted the bag over my shoulder and looked over at the Saintess. "If those work well, we might have everything to start a farm and to get some coffee to drink while it grows," I explained the value of my haul in practical terms.
For now, this coffee was too much of a luxury for me to even consider trading it.
No.
Until we had more coffee than we could ever hope to consume, it was going to remain my small, little secret to share with Selia, allowing us to enjoy the limitless supply of this beverage while laughing at the world that was deprived of it.
And once the time would come, we could pretty much conquer the world with just this coffee alone, especially if otherworldly tendencies could become trendy in this world.
After all, what commoner wouldn’t want to give a drink that makes otherworldly heroes go crazy for, a try?