I sprouted countless vines, surrounding Corporal-san.

Holding up three large axes with my vines, I pressed in on him while the man-eater flowers locked onto their target.


“Drop… your weapon and… surrender.”

This was my final warning.

I didn’t want to fight humans.
If possible, I didn’t want to hurt them either.
It would be so much easier if he would just listen.

Corporal-san let his bow fall as if giving up, and he slowly raised both hands above his head


Was he surrendering?

Thank goodness.
Problem solved, then.


Now then, what should I do next?
I can’t just hand him back to the military.

Even if I asked him to forget about me and go home, I doubt he would actually keep that promise.
He’d surely report everything dutifully to his superior, and before long, he would return to this forest leading a proper subjugation squad.

In that case, should I just turn him into nutrients?
Truthfully, that would be the simplest and most reliable method, but I still don’t have the courage to do that.

And since I managed to capture the three of them alive and unharmed, I should make sure they stay that way.

But how does one keep three humans as pets?
I’ve never done such a thing, so I have no idea.
Not that it would be any less strange if I did.

Keeping my own little set of soldiers.
They would make decent conversation dolls at least, which sounds nice.

You see, I’m terribly bored.
So would you three mind helping me cure my social awkwardness?


To think that I, a former saint praised by the entire kingdom, would one day end up keeping three grown men…

There was something terribly sinful about this.
That I, the saint, would be keeping three men by my side.

Was it just my imagination, or does this feel strangely exciting, like I’m doing something forbidden?

But don’t get the wrong idea.

Taken at face value it sounds really bad, but I’m not plotting anything. This was just for monitoring.

I really don’t have any other intention.
I am just going to keep them restrained and alive.

That’s all

Please do not get the wrong idea.


Now, how should I keep them here?
After all that fighting, I’d doubt they would suddenly warm up to me.
They’ll probably try to run or fight back.

I need to make sure they won’t do that.

Ah, I know! I could give them nectar as a gesture of reconciliation.

The nectar-crazed boy was delighted by it, so surely these soldiers would be happy too.

If they grew to like the nectar, I can make them promise not to attack me in exchange.
Since killing me would also mean they’d never be able to drink my nectar again, which would stop them from raising a hand against me.

And if they wanted nectar, they would forget about running away.
Even the nectar-crazed boy said he did not want to go home.

If they became my friends through nectar, I wouldn’t even need to take care of them like pets.
They would stay of their own volition, which is the best outcome for everyone.


Alright. Nectar it is.
This way, everything could be resolved peacefully.
Everyone would be happy.

First up is you, Corporal-san.


Ah, don’t look so utterly defeated.

It’s okay, I’ll give you some delicious nectar.
So cheer up!


I bit into the vines, coating them with nectar.
If you tasted this nectar, you’d surely want to be friends with me.

Now then… won’t you become friends with me?
If you do, I won’t ever have to feel lonely again.


I brought the vine in front of Corporal-san.
Then, suddenly, a mysterious, loud splash echoed from a distance


Beyond the forest, water shot up into the air like a fountain.

It looked like a tall, thin geyser, but the height was too high for that.

The fountain was so tall we could see it from anywhere in the forest. It must’ve been dozens of stories high.
It was definitely unnatural for something that’s meant to be a natural phenomenon.


Corporal-san muttered quietly, “They’ve been found, huh?”


The moment I turned my gaze back to him, a knife flew out from deep within the bushes.
Probably from one of the soldiers I had let escape.

The knife didn’t reach me, instead plunging into the ground in front of me.

Close call. Maybe you should work on your shoulder strength a bit before throwing again.
But apparently, that was enough for the soldiers.

In the brief moment I was distracted by the knife, Corporal-san moved.

He reached both hands behind his back and grabbed as many arrows as he could.
With a swift motion, he lined them up horizontally and stabbed them into the ground.

Then, murmuring something under his breath, a wall of fire erupted in front of him.
He had used the arrows as conduits to cast fire magic.
It looked like fireworks.

He had created a wall of flame using the lined-up arrows.
A diversion.

Oh no!
I couldn’t see Corporal-san’s position anymore.

Without hesitation, I scattered paralyzing powder around.


When the flames died down, Corporal-san was disappearing into the forest with two soldiers carried over his shoulders.

The paralyzing powder hadn’t reached them in time.


Damn it.
He got away with his fallen subordinates.
My vines couldn’t reach him now.

If only I hadn’t tried to be friendly. I should’ve just forced them to inhale the paralyzing powder.
My loneliness made me lose my composure, what a mistake.

But now that he had no arrows, he shouldn’t be able to attack.
And with three of his subordinates already incapacitated, I wonder what he plans to do next.

As I watched Corporal-san, he quietly left the area with his remaining soldiers.
Looks like he won’t be attacking me anymore.

What should I do…?
They got away.


If this continues, they might organize an extermination party later.
After all, I took down three soldiers, so they must consider me an evil monster.

Even then, I really only knocked them out temporarily with sleep and paralyzing powders.
they shouldn’t be injured.

I didn’t use my poison pollen or poison thorns either.
I fought carefully to avoid killing them, yet this was the result.

If I had fought at full strength from the start, I might have been able to stop them from escaping.
But I didn’t want to harm anyone.

What should I have done?

I hated the idea of being killed just because I let the soldiers escape.
Thinking about it that way, maybe I shouldn’t have held back after all.

Perhaps I needed to be a bit more ruthless.
But can I, someone who was once a saint, really do that……?


Still, why did those soldiers come into this forest?
They seemed to have come from the nearby village.

They were looking for someone, but who would be in a forest like this?

Come to think of it, the minotaur from the Demon King’s army said he had work further ahead. He was carrying a poorly drawn picture of an old woman, plus paralyzing and sleeping potions.

It’s highly possible the minotaur and his comrades also came here to capture someone.

Both the Demon King’s army and the kingdom’s army were searching for someone.

Were they looking for the same person, or different people?
From just speculation, I can’t figure out any more than that.



As I was speculating about the goals of the two armies, I suddenly felt a strange sense of unease.


My whole body felt like it was heating up.
It was as if I had sensed the presence of something terrifying, and my body instantly tensed up.


What is it? Something felt like it changed all of a sudden.

Hmm… it’s kind of hot.
I’d noticed it in the middle of the battle, but apparently Corporal-san fire magic wasn’t the only reason.

The temperature was rising rapidly.
The sun looked brighter than usual.

And… It feels like the sun was somehow closer than usual.

Normally, there’s only one sun, but today there were two.
And one of them was getting closer to me.
This world should only have a single sun.

Guess that sort of thing can happen, huh.
Pretty strange, isn’t it?


————Wait, two suns?

And moving? What’s going on?


Looking closely, one of the suns was the familiar one I knew.

But the other was different.

A massive ball of light was approaching me from a distance.

Just as its outline became discernable, the ball fired an intense beam of light.


So bright!

Everything turned completely white, and I couldn’t see anything at all.



When I opened my eyes, the light had vanished somewhere.

Where did it go?

And that ball of light… I felt like I’d seen it somewhere before.


It felt like that thing from last summer.
The UFO that appeared just before the drought.

I mean that strange object that appeared the summer I got hired as a rain-praying shrine maiden.

That unidentified flying object was shining just as brightly as what I saw now, almost as if it were burning.


The weather had unbelievably changed too.
It felt like summer.

And on top of that, the heat was so intense that one would think a drought was coming.

The same exact phenomenon was happening now.

A UFO that summons summer.
I never imagined the joke I made before performing the rain ritual… would turn out to be true.


And soon, I would regret it.

It’s okay for UFOs to remain unidentified.
Because once I knew its true identity, I’d wish I hadn’t and could look away.

***

Author’s Note:

Thank you for reading.

Next Time: Letter; Remittances from a Corporal Working Far From Home (Part One)