I’m an Alraune, a plant monster girl.
And right now, Barometz is happily munching away on my vine.


Like she’s participating in some kind of speed-eating championship, Barometz polished off my entire vine in the blink of an eye.


I’ve become her snack!


“M-My deepest apologies. I promise I won’t eat any more, so please don’t worry.”

“Then… could you let go… of the vine you’re… holding in your hand.”


Barometz was already clutching a second helping of my vines in her cotton hands.


“Ohoho, my apologies, Alraune. Look, I’ve let go of the vine, so you can relax now. But please forgive me, I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“……It’s fine. One or two vines… grow back… quickly anyway.”


Perhaps she was full from eating her fill, because Barometz soon fell asleep.
Watching her sleep so peacefully with her soft little breaths made her look rather adorable.

She did say I could eat her if I wanted, so I suppose it would be alright to nibble on some of her cotton fluff. But what should I do?
Even with permission, this still feels like attacking someone in their sleep, so I’m rather hesitant.
As a former saint, sneaking onto someone’s bed for a midnight bite is rather improper.

So for now, let’s put off eating her.


Anyways, now that Barometz is no longer looking, it’s time for me to get to work.

That’s right. It’s rather sudden, but I’ve decided to become a phantom thief!


I have no intention of remaining trapped in this botanical garden forever.
After all, someday I need to return to the little witch.
And for that, I need to improve my abilities.
Which means I’m going to secretly eat the rare plants in the botanical garden.


The caretaker isn’t here. And the only possible witness, Barometz, is asleep.
Right now, I can commit the perfect crime.


Phantom Thief Alraune is on the move!



If I eat the nearby plants, Barometz will notice right away once she wakes up, so I need to target the ones farther away.


I stretched my vines across the botanical garden.
The prey would be plants hidden somewhere neither Barometz nor I could directly see.
My vines wrapped around a plant, uprooted it, and dragged it back to me.


Alright, plant secured!


Oh? I remember seeing this plant in a plant encyclopedia back when I was a high school girl.
Actually, I’ve eaten it many times before, in its processed form, that is.


This is cassava.

It’s a tropical plant from the Euphorbiaceae family.
It contains toxic compounds that release cyanide.

And yet despite that, cassava is actually the raw ingredient used to make tapioca.


After thoroughly removing the toxins from the root, the starch is processed into tapioca for human consumption.
So the tapioca itself doesn’t contain any poison, meaning there’s nothing to worry about.

Back in my high school days, whenever my classmates were drinking tapioca, I always secretly thought to myself:


“You know that originally comes from a poisonous plant called cassava, right?”


But since I was a loner, I never really had the chance to say it out loud.


If properly detoxified, cassava roots can be eaten as starch, but honestly the only use I can think of is making tapioca as a gift for the little witch. If I ever manage to reunite with her, maybe I’ll make her a tapioca drink.


Alright then, onto the next one.
Cassava may be rare in the Kingdom of Gardenia, but in the world I lived in as a high school girl, it wasn’t all that valuable of a plant.

I figured it would be difficult to strike a rare plant on my first try anyway. But next time, I definitely want to pull a winner.


“Say, Alraune, is eating plants delicious?”


Suddenly, I heard Barometz’s voice.

Nervously, I looked up in front of me, only to lock eyes with Barometz grinning at me.
Oh no, she woke up before I noticed!


“So Alraune is a little glutton just like me.”


This is bad! She found out I was eating plants!


“I wonder what would happen if I told Mr. Caretaker about this.”


P-Please don’t!
I’ll get fed to Barometz as punishment!!

I don’t want to become my friend’s food!


“Fufufufu. I would never do something as tactless as exposing a friend’s secrets. So please rest easy.”

“R-Really?”

“Yes, of course. One of the things I hate most is revealing someone else’s secrets.”


Come to think of it, Barometz herself had her secret spilled by the noble ladies in the palace. Maybe that’s why she values keeping secrets so strongly.


“However, in exchange for my silence, I do have one request.”


──A request?

Last time, she asked me to be her friend, but what could she possibly want this time?
Don’t tell me she’s going to say, “In exchange for not eating all of you, let me eat one vine.”
No, maybe she’ll ask for two.


“Would you tell me stories about the forest where you used to live, Alraune?”

“…That’s all?”

“Yes, I would love to hear them.”


Apparently Barometz absolutely loved hearing stories about my forest and kept asking me to tell her anything and everything about it.
It’s not even that special of a place though.

From my perspective, the Imperial Palace where Barometz lived sounds far more interesting.


Feeling a little guilty, I confessed to her that after eating plants, I would gain the ability to grow those same plants from my vines.
It was partly to return the favor for her sharing the secret about her golden wool, and partly as thanks for her keeping quiet about my snacking.


“In that case, you should scatter seeds of the same plant wherever you remove one.”

“…Why?”

“Mr. Caretaker has nine heads, which means he also has excellent memory. If plants suddenly disappear, he’ll absolutely notice. Even if the missing plants are far away from us, he would quickly suspect the newcomer, you.”


N-No way…
I thought stealing plants from far away would keep the caretaker from noticing.


“You should replant the seeds and restore everything before Mr. Caretaker returns.”


Barometz, are you a genius!?
Forget the perfect crime, at this rate I almost became Barometz’s meal as punishment for eating the garden plants.

Phantom Thief Alraune narrowly escapes disaster.
She really saved me there.


As thanks, I promised to tell her lots of stories about the forest in the future.
Hearing that, Barometz became ecstatic.
Is it really something to be that happy about?

The talkative Barometz spent a while happily chatting with me before she let out a heartfelt sigh and murmured, looking deeply touched.


“I now have three people I can talk with, including you and Mr. Caretaker. Life is going to become much more enjoyable from now on.”

“Three…? So there’s another person… who talks… with you?”

“That’s right. Besides Mr. Caretaker, there is one other person who goes out of their way to visit me.”


Apparently, this person isn’t a bad individual.
At least, judging from Barometz’s expression, they seem to be someone she trusts deeply.


“Her name is Feagismeinnicht. I would love to introduce you to her someday, Alraune.”


That’s… quite an impressive name.


──Huh?


I wonder why.
That name feels strangely familiar somehow.


“Lady Feagismeinnicht is amazing, you know. She’s actually one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s army.”


One of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s army!?
Doesn’t that mean she’s an unbelievably important figure.


“And it seems the others in the Demon King’s army call her the Spirit Princess.”


────Wait a second.


She’s called the Spirit Princess, she’s one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s army, and her name is Feagismeinnicht.


Could that possibly be the “Lady Fea” the poison fairy Oin mentioned……?


“This Lady Feagismeinnicht… are they… perhaps… a Dryad?”

“Oh my, you know of her? I suppose the Four Heavenly Kings really are famous after all.”

“Do you know… when she’ll… come here again?”

“Let’s see… Apparently she’s been very busy lately, but she did say she would visit again before summer ends.”


Before the end of summer means it could still be about another month away.
But sometime during that period, the Dryad who is one of the Four Heavenly Kings will come here.



The poison fairy Oin’s master was a fallen Dryad.
At the same time, that spirit was also one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s army.
And despite supposedly living in the western forest, for some reason she was also here at the Demon King’s castle.


If I trace everything back, the reason I was attacked by the poison fairy and the golden birdman of the Four Heavenly Kings was all because of that Dryad.


In a sense, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call her my sworn enemy.
After all, she’s a dangerous figure who threatens the peace of the Forest of Dryades.


And just like that, I began sensing the approach of a destined encounter with the enemy I would one day have to defeat.


But that premonition would arrive far sooner than I expected.

***

Author’s Note:

Cassava: A member of the Euphorbiaceae family, it is best known as the ingredient used to make tapioca. At the same time, it ranks second in global production volume after the potato, the world’s top-produced root crop, making it the second most consumed root crop in the world.

Next Time: Travelogue; The Lone Wolf Magic Swordsman Is Invited by the Second Saint


TL’s Note:

A basket of cassava (Mahinot esculenta)