I’m an Alraune. A plant monster girl.

I made a special nectar ball to keep Papa Bear from licking me, but a white bird I knew swooped in and stole it.

What do you mean?!
Did that white bird come here all along just for my nectar?

The bird isn’t a stranger.
Recently it has been showing up in front of me quite often.
An annoying white bird.

There was a time when it splashed water on me during a drought, so it wasn’t all bad. But most of the time it’s just a nasty bird that watches me from afar, then flies in circles above my head to provoke me before disappearing into the sky.

And that bird, of all things, took the nectar ball at the worst possible moment.
Someone tell me this is a lie.

If the white bird eats the nectar ball, Papa Bear will turn his sights back on me.
That would be the end.

I don’t have time to make a new one.
Before that could happen, Papa Bear would lick me so much I could never get married.

Ah.
Papa Bear is looking this way.

——Stop.
Don’t look at me.

I gave you the nectar ball earlier, didn’t I? Sure, the bird took it, but you should be satisfied with that.
So do not turn your feet toward me.
Don’t start walking this way.

Ugh, I’m doomed!

As I buried my head in my vines in despair, the white bird suddenly dived toward us.
Then, circling around him once, it took a position a short distance away from Papa Bear.

Papa Bear’s gaze locked onto the white bird, away from mine.

Feeling the gaze of Papa Bear, the white bird started to back away little by little before flying off deeper into the forest.

Papa Bear never took his eyes off the bird and began to chase it.
The heavy footsteps shaking the ground steadily faded.

And so, I was left all alone.


… I’m saved!


Looks like Papa Bear intends to capture both the white bird and the nectar ball.
The raub bear is a monster that relentlessly chases any human it encounters until the very end.

He will surely chase that bird until he catches it.

I cannot imagine a mere bird escaping from the master of the forest.
Too bad for you, white bird.
Papa Bear will punish you for your misdeeds!

***

Now that this happened, Papa Bear shouldn’t return to me for a while.

If he manages to take the nectar ball from the white bird, he can enjoy the taste of nectar in his mouth for days, maybe weeks if lucky.
He’ll surely forget about me in the meantime.

The problem is what happens after that, but for now, I should be happy I’m free.
He licked my face, but everything else is fine.

Thank goodness. I might still be able to get married…!

For now, I’ll just forget all about Papa Bear.
Good grief, what a nightmare. So many terrible things happened.

After that, I decided to return to my role as a shrine maiden.
A rain-calling ritual.
It’s simple, I need water.

Partly because the fight with Papa Bear left me low on moisture, but more importantly, I’m just wrapped in discomfort right now.

My face is completely coated in drool.
Not only that, the drool dripping down has left my entire body covered in bear saliva.

The bear stink is dizzying.
I want to wash my body as soon as possible.

But why cannot a plant go bathe somewhere? Even though we are such water-hungry creatures.
It’s strange.

I performed a rain prayer, but rain doesn’t fall so easily.
If I could make it rain whenever I wanted, I would have changed careers from being an unemployed flower to a professional shrine maiden.

So I was forced to spend the entire day living with bear drool.

Humiliation.
The word appeared in my mind every time the bear stench reached my nose.

With nectar streaming from my eyes, I lifted both hands toward the sky in silent offering.

***

Perhaps the weather pitied me for being licked by a bear, because thankfully it rained the next day.

Now I can finally be clean.

I welcome the shower called rain all across my body.
Water… it’s the best…!

Purified by the blessed rain, I begin to think about what comes next.

About Papa Bear.
Even if the nectar ball bought me time, he will definitely come for me again someday.

And next time things may not go so well.

Yesterday, Papa Bear injured his left arm from fighting the Höllenwolf and also suffered stings from the knight brigade, but the next time he shows up he will be completely healed.
He has been licking a nectar ball filled with healing properties after all.

If I could, I would leave this place immediately.
Move somewhere else, hide from my pursuer, live quietly.

But I can’t.
I am a plant.
How many times have I cursed this body?

Even if I’m attacked by an enemy, I cannot run.
And after driving the enemy away, I cannot hide from them.
Why do plants have such a harsh existence?

It is strange. Plants are strange.

But then I encountered a plant that was strange in a different way than what I was muttering about.

Right next to me, there’s a hole.
A huge hole Papa Bear gouged out with a right punch the other day.

Inside that hole, a weird flower was blooming.

Like it had been there from the start, a single flower was blooming underground where Papa Bear tore the earth apart.
Which means it had originally bloomed inside the soil.

Seriously!?
Why are you blooming underground?
Are you a shut-in?
Or are you from a family of flowers that hates the sun.

Wait, could you be my stalker?

Hello, this is Mary. I’m buried beneath your feet right now.
But since I’m buried, there’s no way I can crawl up to the surface, right?
So even if someone’s stalking me, I’ve got nothing to worry about.

Still, it’s amazing a flower can live underground.

I have never heard of such a flower that blooms underground… no wait.

There is one.
I read about it in a plant encyclopedia back in high school.

I think it was called Rhizanthella.

A very rare flower that blooms underground.
It lives its entire life below the surface and never shows itself above ground.

In my old world it only existed in Australia.
Like me, it’s an angiosperm, but specifically a mycoheterotrophic plant.

Instead of photosynthesis, it takes nutrients from fungi.

By forming a symbiotic relationship with fungi, it can live underground where there are no predators and plenty of moisture.

How convenient.
So that’s why it lives quietly underground.

A tiny pale pink flower.
It’s similar to a Rhizanthella, but not exactly the same.
Probably a flower unique to this world, but close in properties to a Rhizanthella.

But since I don’t know its name in this world, I’ll just keep calling it Rhizanthella.

Rhizanthellas get its nutrients from fungi, but through those fungi, it actually takes nutrients from the roots of nearby trees, making it a parasitic plant as well.

Now I understand why a Rhizanthella was buried right beside me.

So you really were my stalker.
You have been feeding on my nutrients through fungi.
Which means another flower has been parasitizing me underground without me noticing.
I’m not as safe as I thought.

I stare at the Rhizanthella.

Being parasitized does not matter right now.
More importantly, I am jealous.
I envy you so much.

Yes, I decided right away.
Come here, Rhizanthella.

All right, good.
Straight into my mouth, and munch.
Chomp chomp, gulp.

Now the power of the Rhizanthella is mine.
Even if Papa Bear comes now, I will be safe.

If I hide underground, even Papa Bear can’t get to me.
Amazing, Rhizanthell.
You’re a genius at hide and seek!

However, things weren’t that simple.

Just one tiny Rhizanthella was not enough to drastically change my entire nature.
I could not switch to living off fungi completely.

I’m only able to partially alter myself, so I cannot fully become a mycoheterotrophic plant that easily

Even when I ate the man-eater plant I did not become a man-eater myself. I could only grow man-eater vines.
The same applies here.

I could only use a little of its power.

I extended a vine into the hole.
I moved it underground and made it resurface several meters away.

For a short time, I can now take nutrients from fungi.

I brought the vine up to the surface right away this time, but it’s possible to keep it buried underground like this.
Not enough fungi to sustain my entire body underground for long, but it can help manage me for a while.

As I am digging around with my vine, it appears.

A small white speck flying from the far end of the forest.
No doubt, that white bird.

It has been several days since Papa Bear attacked.
Looks like the white bird managed to escape him.

And considering Papa Bear has not returned to me, the nectar ball must have ended up in his mouth.

The white bird must have flown off while holding it.
Good thing it did not eat it itself.

As long as Papa Bear does not come back, the rest does not matter.

And I have thought of something good.

I lowered the vine into the hole I dug, transforming the vine into a partly mycoheterotrophic one and kept it hidden.

The white bird began descending toward me.

I have not forgotten the grudge over the stolen nectar ball.

A plant cannot usually catch a bird that flies freely in the sky.

But what if the plant had prepared a trap?

The poor unsuspecting bird would never notice and would be captured before it even knew.

Suppressing my smirk, I waited for the moment the white bird landed on the ground.

My nemesis.
I will take you down now.

The white bird landed on the ground.

And I activated my first trap.

Author’s Note:

Today will also have two updates.

Next time: Catching a Serpent with a Bird

TL’s Note: