I’m an Alraune, a plant monster girl.
And ten days have passed since I arrived at the Demon King’s army’s botanical garden. I’ve more or less gotten used to life here now.


I’m still looking for a chance to escape somehow, but there’s no way that’s going to happen.
I mean, my roots are buried in the ground. Even if I want to leave, I can’t exactly walk away. I’m a plant, after all.


In fact, I’m starting to feel like I might forget my goal of escaping altogether.

Because life here is far more comfortable than I ever imagined!


They spread fertilizer for me, and they even give me meat to eat.
I get watered three times a day, there’s plenty of sunlight.
There are no enemies whatsoever. As a matter of fact, the caretaker protects the peace of the botanical garden.

This place is practically paradise for a plant!


And on top of all that, I’ve even made a friend with a plant monster.


This is how my days usually go.

I wake up in the morning, enjoy my bath, and then munch on the meat that’s brought to me for breakfast.
Once I’m done eating and have nothing else to do, I tell Barometz stories about what life was like in the forest.
After that, Barometz tells me stories about her days in the Imperial Palace.

When I get sleepy, I take a nap while photosynthesizing.
There aren’t any forest monsters trying to attack me, and not a single human adventurer here either, so I can sleep completely at ease.


I may have been kidnapped, but honestly, this is the most comfortable life I’ve had since becoming an Alraune.


I’m actually living the peaceful plant life I always dreamed of, quietly photosynthesizing to my heart’s content.

This place is heaven—it’s the best!!


Still, there’s one thing that worries me. It’s the little witch.

I worried if the little witch is eating properly.
At least Kiri is there. If anything happens, she can probably seek protection from Lady Dryad. Thinking that makes me feel a little more at ease.



Even so, being separated from my companions, who are practically family, is weighing heavily on my mind.
I wonder if everyone is doing alright.

As for me, surprisingly enough, I’m doing very well.
So please don’t worry about me.


But somehow, someday, I want to return to that forest.
Life here is comfortable, but I just can’t get the little witch out of my head.
So I have to do what I can right now.


“Barometz… instead of a story… can we do the usual?”

“Of course. You simply wish me to keep quiet about you eating the plants in the garden, correct? For a dear friend, it’s the least I can do.”

“Thank… you.”


And so, it’s time for my phantom thief activities.
I stretched my vines out into the distance.


Then I yank up a plant and—yes, jackpot!


Wrapped in my vine was a flower with delicate white thread-like petal margins.

This is a Japanese snake gourd.

It’s a plant from the gourd family, famous for flowers that only bloom at night.
Once night falls, it produces beautiful white flowers that resemble snowflakes.

With this, I can finally overcome my weakness to nighttime!

──Chomp.

Munch munch.

Thanks for the meal.


Now I’ll be able to keep my flowers blooming through the night as well.
That means Uncle Teddy’s sleep magic won’t be able to put me to sleep anymore!

I’ve beaten Uncle Teddy!



Of course, I’d like to keep eating more plants at this speed, but I can’t.
There’s no telling when the caretaker might return, so I have to replace any plant I eat as quickly as possible.


Using my Plant Generation ability, I forcibly opened the night-blooming Japanese snake gourd flower, pollinated it, and produced seeds.
After pouring plenty of nutrients into it with my light magic, I planted the seeds back where the original had been growing. The newly sprouted snake gourd rapidly grew, and just like that, everything was back to normal.
Evidence eliminated!


Because I have to spend time covering my tracks like this, there’s a limit to how many plants I can eat in a single day.

Life here doesn’t allow for the kind of gluttony I enjoyed in the forest. There aren’t any animals around to serve as food.
Without a steady source of extra nutrients, I can’t store up huge reserves of energy.

This means if I use Plant Generation too recklessly, there’s the risk that I won’t be able to replenish what I spent.
When I think about it that way, I really can’t afford to overdo things.


Besides, even when the caretaker isn’t around, demons occasionally visit the botanical garden to look at the plants.
Because of that, I don’t get much time to carry out my phantom thief operations.


In fact, look. The caretaker just came into the garden with another demon.


A one-horned minotaur was carrying a potted plant as he walked down the path.

The caretaker and the minotaur stopped in the row next to mine and began planting it.
As they worked, the minotaur spoke to the caretaker.


“Did you hear? One of the Four Heavenly Kings, Lord Garuda Hræsvelgr, has gone missing.”

“Maybe he was taken down by a human Hero.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me. He’s only been one of the Four Heavenly Kings for four years, and he’s already gotten himself killed. I knew he was the weakest of the Four.”

“Can’t be helped. There were reasons besides strength that earned him his position. His ability to use light magic was one of them.”


After finishing their work, they headed to the caretaker’s hut inside the garden and continued chatting over drinks.

Eventually, as evening approached, they left the botanical garden together.


The moment she was sure no one remained, Barometz leaned in and whispered to me.


“The demons only see us as plants in this botanical garden. It’s quite surprising how much information comes our way.”


And she was right.
Simply by staying in this botanical garden, I’d learned all sorts of things about the Demon King’s army.


The garden was secluded and rarely visited, which made it an ideal place for private conversations.

Thanks to that, I’d become surprisingly well-informed about the gossip surrounding the Demon King’s army.

The hottest topic lately was the disappearance of Garuda Hræsvelgr, one of the Four Heavenly Kings.
After his disappearance, another one of the Four Heavenly Kings, the Fallen Spirit Princess, had been granted full authority over the conquest of the Kingdom of Gardenia.



And now, that very subject from all those rumors finally arrived.


The door to the botanical garden swung open with a bang.

Thud. Thud.

The heavy footsteps of a four-legged creature echoed through the building.
The frequency of the sounds suggested it was moving at a slow pace.


The slow, approaching footsteps eventually reached the row where I was planted.
Then, the moment the figure came into view, Barometz called out cheerfully.


“Lady Feagismeinnicht! It’s been so long!”


That name had become impossible for me to forget over the past ten days.
After all, it belonged to the fallen Dryad, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, who ruled the western side of the Forest of Dryades.


“It’s been a while, Barometz. I figured you’d be getting lonely by now, so I came all this way to visit you.”

“No, I wasn’t lonely at all this time! Listen! I made a friend!”

“Oh? A friend, you say?”


As she spoke, the person called Feagismeinnicht turned her attention towards me.


“That appears to be… an Alraune?”


To my surprise, the one coming down the path was actually a gigantic land tortoise monster.

But what shocked me even more was the beautiful woman on its shell.


The tortoise’s shell had become a miniature forest, with a short, log-like tree growing at its center.
Leaning casually against the tree’s trunk, the woman stared at me.


Her hair consisted of long blue vines trailing down her back in strands.
And just like Lady Dryad of the eastern forest, branches protruded from her head like hair ornaments.


As expected of sisters, she looked remarkably similar to Lady Dryad.

The only differences I could spot at a glance were that her hair was blue rather than green, unlike the Lady Dryad I knew, and that her left eye was covered by an eyepatch made of blue leaves.


“The Alraune standing there with her mouth hanging open like an idiot. Is my appearance really that unusual?”


Kiri had told me all sorts of things about Dryads.
Because of that, I already knew that a Dryad’s true body was an ancient tree, and that she couldn’t stray far from it.

As a tree spirit, she shouldn’t be able to walk.

I’d always wondered how the Dryad of the western forest could act as one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s army when she wasn’t capable of traveling long distances.
But now I finally understood.


She had somehow transplanted her true body, the ancient tree, onto the back of a giant land tortoise.
Then she simply let the tortoise do the walking while she rode on top of it.

In other words, the Dryad was parasitizing the land tortoise.
I never imagined such a method of travel existed.


Actually, wait. If I did something similar, I could move around too!
I’m honestly a little jealous!


Perhaps noticing the way I was staring, the giant land tortoise carrying the Spirit Princess lumbered up to me.

Then, suddenly, she asked me something unexpected.


“Say, do you happen to know a fairy named Oin?”


My entire body jolted.
If I still had a heart, my pulse would have shot through the roof.

There was no way I could forget that name.
It belonged to the poison fairy who tried to wither me to death.

Could it be that she knows I fought the poison fairy?
If so, that would be really bad.


The alluring Dryad’s gaze pierced right through me.
She asked the single question I least wanted to hear.

“You haven’t, by any chance, eaten Oin with that mouth down there, have you?”

***

Author’s Note:

Japanese snake gourd: A climbing plant from the Cucurbitaceae family, famous for producing beautiful white flowers that bloom only at night.

Next Time: The Crisis of the Alraune Breeding Experiment


TL’s Note:

Flowers of the Japanese snake gourd at night (Trichosanthes cucumeroides)