The group was greeted by the village chief, Gaisak.

"Well, well, well. Gentlemen, welcome to the village of Kaina. I am village headman Gaisak.

They had missed him the last time they had visited with Rhodes.

Gaisak had gray hair and gray eyes, was in his mid-forties, small and stout, and gave the impression of a man from a rural village.

"Nice to meet you. I am , and I have recently become the third generation of .

Jin Nidoh now gave his real name. The idea was that this would make people think that the Magecraft Meister and Jin Nido were one and the same.

"Oh!　At last we have a new Magecraftsman, don't we?

Yes. So I thought I'd drop by and say hello.

"That's very kind of you. ...... is the day of the visit of Mr. Ellis, isn't it?

"What about ......?"

Jin did not know who was.

(...... father, the current lord of Kaina village)

"Oh, you don't know?　He is the lord of Kaina Village, a descendant of the second generation Jin.

Reiko's whispering and the village chief's explanation were almost simultaneous.

"Oh, is that so?"

Jin could only reply, "Oh, I see.

"Well, it's a coincidence that you came here today if you didn't know.

"Well, what kind of person is this Mr. Ellis?

Jin asked again, trying to gather information here.

"Eris Nido-sama is the lord of this village of Kaina, as he has been since the first Jin Nido-sama. I am the chief of the village as a deputy.

"I see."

Now I understand the situation a little better.

Master Ellis will arrive this evening.

I understand.

There is still some time left before the current lord arrives. Once Jin and the others heard this, they parted from the village chief and returned to Nido Castle.

"Well, what shall we do now?

After settling down in the drawing room of Nido Castle, Jin and the others discussed the next day's plans.

"We have two choices: to meet or not to meet. I would recommend that we meet.

Unusually, Reiko was the first to speak.

"Because there are many advantages to getting to know the current lord here in the future. Of course, there are some disadvantages.

The disadvantage is that there will be more ties. But since they are descended from blood relatives, Jin is not likely to be able to cut them off.

"Well, I guess I'll have to see him."

Marikka, Rubina, and Grina did not object to Jin's decision. They were in a comfortable position.

However, no one could have foreseen that this decision would have drastically changed the fate of one of them.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

After having lunch at Nido Castle, Jin and his team set out to investigate the main objective, the magical resin.

"Let's check the forest north of the village of Kaina.

Jin said,

"Father, I heard that a blow floater has been placed there since the other day.

Reiko told me.

"Oh, I see. That's very clever."

<

Of course, only Jin and his people can use it.

So, Hitoshi... So Jin decided to use the blow floaters at Nido Castle.

"Oh, this is nice."

The machine is labeled <>.

The <> is a sea gull, by the way.

It is a six-seater, equipped with a force field generator, a gravity-controlled magic device, and a transfer gate, and Jin had donated a similar model to the Nordic Federation.

The pilot this time is Reiko.

"Okay, let's go."

floated up and headed north toward the forest.

"Wow, this is a nice view!

Rubina is excited.

Jin also enjoyed the view of the village of Kaina for the first time in a long time.

"Father, where are we going?"

Reiko asked after flying for a while. A coniferous forest spread out below us.

"...... Oh shit. I forgot to ask the village chief about the magic resin.

"Oh, that's right."

It seems that I had heard about the current lord, Eris, and had forgotten about the other matter.

Since it would be inefficient to turn back now, they decided to investigate on their own first.

"Well, let's go a little further north.

"Yes, let's go a little further north." "Okay."

Jin thought that the concentration of free magic element (ether) used to be higher in the northern part of the country, although it has improved a lot now, and that the plants in the northern part of the country might contain more free magic element (ether) due to the effect of the higher concentration.

flew over the coniferous forest zone and entered the plains. If he continued his flight, he would pass through the Pazdekst isthmus and arrive at the continent of Gondor, or the Nordic Federation.

"Well, ...... Reiko, do you feel something like a singularity with the <>?"

"Yes,...... sure, I feel something a little more prominent at this end."

Reiko pointed to a coniferous forest at the southern foot of Mount Tahoka, a 5,000-meter-high mountain.

"Okay, let's go there."

So < starts to descend.

"Oh, there is a small meadow there. Let's go down there."

"Okay."

It was an open meadow about 100 meters in diameter. Even though it was late April, there were still remnants of winter in this area, and the grass had not yet sprouted.

"I wonder if there are any around here?"

Grina looked at the coniferous trees surrounding the meadow.

"There are a lot of pinnatifers around here."

Glina seems to know a lot about plants.

"We can expect to see pinacea growing alongside the white beech.

So the group decided to go for a walk around the meadow.

"There are a lot of <>. ...... Here is a <>. ...... here are all <>. ......"

But at the northern end of the meadow,

"There it is!　!"

"Oh, so this is it. ...... Reiko, do you feel anything?"

"Yes, I do. ...... Indeed, the concentration of free magic element (ether) in the entire tree seems to be denser than in the surrounding area.

Hearing this, Grina said,

"Jin-sama, this may have a particularly good affinity with free magical element (ether).

Jin said.

"I see. If we can get some saplings, we should try growing them on Horai Island as an experiment.

Jin thought that the climate would be manageable above the mid-slope of Mount Horai.

"But first, let's try to extract the resin from this tree.