The Refugee camp was safely disbanded with everyone's help, but the changes that happened weren't just limited to that.
"Chise~ I have come to see the forest's management. By the way, I've marked the trees so that only those will be cut down."
"Thank you, Refrya. Also, did you bring the jam you made last time with you?"
"I brought many of them!"
"Great, Shael would be delighted."
First, Alsace-san of the adventurer party returned to the dungeon city Apenemis along with Tonny-san, the successor to his party, to help and support the refugees who sought work with the Adventure Guild. On the other hand, after providing her support in the incident, the Elf Refrya moved in with Shael as a freeloader on the pretext of 'I am a forest specialist and I can help out here'.
"Say, Refrya, was it a good choice?"
"Hmm? What is?"
"Majou-sama is asking about Refrya moving here-nanodesu! Refrya seems like she can still work more as an adventurer-nanodesu!"
At our inquiry, Refrya replied with a wry smile.
"I was recently contemplating that it's time to retire. Even this time, I was called here alongside Alsace-san because of my reputation as an A-rank adventurer, but I've been mostly solo for over ten years now."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah...... And just as I was thinking it's about time to find a place to settle down, I met Shael and Yahada."
I see. Apparently, this place where many long-lived species lived attracted her attention and so she happily jumped over here to settle down.
"Also, Shael looks like the past 'stuck up' me, so it's hard for me to just leave her alone.”
"Well, it's true. You have become mellower compared to the past."
"Refrya has become softer!"
"The way you phrased it sounds like I used to be fat...... Whatever."
And that's how the welcomed another resident, Refrya-san.
Speaking of other newly added residents------
"Oryaaaaaaa------!"
"Uooooooooo------!"
A muscular, bulky man with two horns and the dragon-demon Yahada were having a mock battle with training weapons in their hands.
As the dust fluttered in the air due to their intense mock battle, the two of them noticed our presence and turned to greet us with smiles.
"Oooh, Majou-dono and her Guardian-dono, have you come to visit!?"
"Did you see the splendor of my muscles!?"
Yahada waved his hand while the giant horned man, Gast of the Onikin, took a bodybuilder pose and showed off his muscles.
Aside from them, other Onikin warriors had gathered around as the dragon-demonkin and the angelkin had mock battles against each other.
They were originally working away from their settlement far away from human territories.
Having a tough time finding typical jobs due to the discrimination against demonic races in human settlements, they had been earning foreign currency by utilizing their overwhelming physical strength as adventurers and mercenaries in other countries.
However, after the Stampede, the village they came from was destroyed, scattering the Onikin across various places. However, with Dragon Grandpa's help, they managed to get back together and they then pledged their loyalty to us, who welcomed them with open arms.
"We, the Oni tribe, pledge absolute loyalty to Majou-dono!"
"Err, keep it in moderation."
After advising them to not overexert themselves, we toured around other new settlements and found that everyone was working hard on their respective tasks to make their daily lives comfortable.
Then, as we walked through the forest while heading towards our next destination, we encountered a group on patrol.
"Ah, Majou-sama and Teto-sama."
<majou-sama~, teto-sama~=""></majou-sama~,>
<go---!></go---!>
It was a strange group consisting of a young girl with a tanned complexion resembling Teto, an earth spirit, and a clay golem.
All of them had once been clay golems created by Teto. But the evolution of Teto to also brought a change in them as well. Like,
---Some changed from mere golems to demonkin , the same as Teto. ---Some shed away their golem bodies and evolved into spirits. ---Some remained clay golems but got an increase in their abilities.
They had changed into one of these patterns.
And so, currently---
"Yo~, Chise and Teto. You know you had me worried seeing that it was taking ages for you to return to the so I came to take a look."
Once we returned to our mansion after the disbanding of the refugee camp, Erneah-san and the others came to visit us.
Though she had immediately returned to the after defeating the skeleton giant, she continued to support us by sending supplies or taking in refugees among other things.
Currently, she was sporting an amused smile on her face as she gossiped about our current situation.
"Hoho, so things like that happened, huh? Must've been rough."
"Well, I couldn't bear to watch them be driven into isolation. More importantly, what the heck is the ?"
It should've been the ...... As I was puzzled, Erneah-san informed me with a grin.
"I mean, have you forgotten just how much you used your ? Now the masses have acknowledged you as the and so the place where you live is now called the . Now, no one would believe it if they were told it was a wilderness."
More specifically, the migrants had stuck to calling this place either the or the <witch's forest="">.</witch's>
Mechanoids alongside Baretta had also taken a liking to this name since it included the term 'witch' which was synonymous with me. Furthermore, Dragon Grandpa also said,
<isn't it="" fine?="" even="" from="" the="" perspective="" of="" that once used to be a barren land, a new name like the signifies its rebirth.></isn't>
With the majority of the people approving of the name, it was obvious that the forest's name needed to be changed.
"Then it would have been better to call this place <dragon's forest=""> or ."</dragon's>
"But Teto likes the name <witch's forest="">!"</witch's>
Though I personally didn't like the name that included my own alias, seeing that Teto looked happy about it, I thought that maybe it was okay after all.
"This year was also rough for us, we spent so much time relocating the elven refugees from other places to the Great Forest or other elven settlements around the continent."
"I see, thank you for accepting the refugees."
"Don't mind it, it's natural to help each other in times of need. Besides, I get all jittery when you thank me."
With that, we sipped on the tea served by Baretta while listening to the delightful laughter of the children echoing within the mansion. The mansion has become quite lively these days.
"Ah, right, I almost forgot but I meant to ask, your place must lack enough spirits, right?"
"Yeah, it hasn't been that long since the land here recovered. So there are hardly any spirits."
"The only spirits here are the ones who transformed from the golem-sans Teto made-nanodesu!"
Spirits were spiritual entities that governed various aspects of nature and carried out the balance of nature.
Even though this land was already covered in a fair amount of greenery, it hasn’t even been that long since this land recovered, so the only way for spirits to spontaneously arise here was either to let nature further flourish for 100 more years or to make the mana more abundant here.
"Spirits will either move in from the outside, or the souls of the deceased mythical beasts would transform into spirits...... Well, both will take time to happen."
The great barrier erected by Liliel and the others to prevent the inflow and outflow of mana was currently blocking any mana lifeforms from entering.
When this barrier was one day released, spirits might come here riding on the wind or carried by the rivers and streams, but this was something that will take time.
I could only hope that the spirits who took a liking to this land would decide to settle here.
"Fufufu, I expected that would be the case. That's why I brought along some of the spirits who wished to migrate."
"Spirits who wished to migrate?"
"Come on, how long are you planning to hide, come out."
As soon as Erneah-san snapped her folding fan shut, fairies started appearing around her.
"They are... the same fairies who drained my mana?"
"Muh, the one who kidnapped Majou-sama?"
Seeing the appearance of the spirits who lured me toward the looped spring, and became intermediate spirits by draining my mana, Teto pouted and hugged me as if to protect me from getting kidnapped again while vigilantly looking at them.
"I won't ask you to forgive them. The lower-rank spirits with weak self-control tend to play pranks on people sometimes and sometimes they meddle too much when they take a liking to someone. In the case of Chise, they seemingly became addicted to your mana's quality."
Mythical beasts and other mana life forms had their own preference for mana.
Just a nearby example was the Cat Sith Kuro who chose my disciple Yuishia even though I boasted the highest mana capacity among us, so mana capacity and personal preference for the mana had no connection.
However, when I visited the Great Forest of Elves, I spotted several individuals with huge mana capacities casually sharing their magic with mythical beasts. Their mana must have had the quality that was preferred by them.
Apparently, that was the reason why their desire of 'we also want mana' brought forth their affection for me.
"I've given up on them, they just aren't compatible with me. No matter what I say, they are hellbent on not listening to me."
The reason why they reluctantly gave me their spirit stone when Erneah-san asked them to do so was because it was her order, and they just did not like her mana.
On the other hand, if it was me who had asked for the same thing, they most likely would have given me a spirit stone with a higher density even if it meant shaving a part of their spirit body.
Obviously, I got slightly flustered after hearing Erneah-san explain the situation.
"No matter how much you like me, I rather hope you value your own well-being more."
"Now that they've been promoted to intermediate spirits, they have better self-control and probably won't cause any more trouble. With these spirits present, the land will flourish. The forest's trees will produce more mana, and the environment will become more favorable for the natural birth of spirits. So, would you mind letting them move in?"
Hearing the details, I glanced at the fairies who looked at me with a hopeful gaze.
Although they may have taken around 20 million units of my mana, after receiving their spirit stone and thinking of how much the environment would benefit from their relocation, it would instead be me who would be owning them.
"Alright, I will take them in."
"Hmm. I knew you would say that. Well then, spirits, do your best~."
Then, receiving Erneah-san's encouragement, the spirits took flight in search of a new place that would house them.
"Seriously, it's as if we've suddenly boarded the expressway of transformation."
Once a barren land, the ---.... no, now the , sure has become quite a lively place.
Amidst such a cycle of major and minor changes, today too, we lived on.
