In order to give the little witch something warm to eat, I decided to start a fire.


Thanks to the food we received from Lady Dryad, our diet had improved, but it was all preserved food.

I wanted to give the little witch, who had lost her parents and was all alone, a small taste of warm, home-cooked food.
Living deep in this forest, the nights are cold enough to freeze, and it’s too cruel to only have cold meals.


Still, I couldn’t use my human knowledge to make a fire.
The duchess’s daughter had never started a fire before.
Even in my previous life as a high school girl, the only way I ever made fire was with a lighter.


But if I can’t rely on my experience from when I was human, then I just need to start a fire as a plant instead!
With that thought, I immediately got to work.

Perhaps responding to that effort, the fairy Kiri had returned from exploring the forest.


“I found it! If we’re talking oily wood, this one’s the best around here,” she said.


Fairy-san had brought me a small tree sapling.

Yes, I had asked her to find a certain plant for me.
The payment was, of course, my nectar.
The fairy who flew off so happily had found the plant I wanted.


Thanks to my potted-plant lifestyle, I was able to explore the forest.
That’s when I realized something.

The forest is filled with all kinds of plants.

It’s a deep, ancient forest where Lady Dryad, the spirit of the woods, resides.
Maybe because of her, all sorts of plants from various ecosystems came to coexist here.

Plants that normally wouldn’t survive in a place like this sometimes thrive here, perhaps thanks to the forest spirit’s blessing.


Fairy-san placed the sapling in front of me.

“I found it just like Alraune asked. Is this the right one?”

“Perfect… Thank you.”


I rewarded Kiri, who had become my personal flower fairy, with some nectar.
Thinking how convenient it was to be able to ask a fairy to handle little errands like this, I turned my attention to the plant she had brought back.


It was a eucalyptus sapling.
To be precise, it’s a magical tree in this world that resembles the eucalyptus trees from the world of my high school days.

By using the leaves of this eucalyptus tree, I could start a fire.


I grabbed the magical eucalyptus with my vines and consumed it with my lower mouth.
With this, I’ve gained the eucalyptus’s abilities.


Eucalyptuses are famous for being koalas’ favorite food, but they have another well-known aspect.
They’re also called “gasoline trees.”
Eucalyptus leaves are known for their tendency to ignite spontaneously.

Their leaves contain a highly volatile, flammable substance called terpenes.
Under the right conditions, like dry weather, high heat, or lightning, they can spontaneously catch fire. That’s why Australia has such a reputation for wildfires.


Speaking of which, I recently acquired the ability of the Banksia tree, which spreads seeds during fires.
Banksias are also native to Australia, and it may have evolved to adapt to fire because of eucalyptus trees.
The frequent wildfires in Australia are partly due to eucalyptus trees.


Luckily, this area isn’t as dry as Australia, so the forest hasn’t caught fire.
Besides, even though they’re called the gasoline tree, they almost never combust on their own. They’re not a dangerously unstable plant.

If they don’t catch fire under normal conditions, I can just breed them to be more flammable.


I generated eucalyptus leaves at the tip of my vine.
At the same time, I absorbed as much moisture as I could, creating dry eucalyptus leaves.


Now, all I had to do was create a high-temperature environment, and it should ignite.
For that, I could use the power of the skunk cabbage.
During that harsh winter cold, it was able to melt snow through self-generated heat. Using that same power, I can warm my entire body.


Dry eucalyptus is said to ignite naturally at around 40 degrees Celsius.
A normal skunk cabbage only produces heat up to about 20 degrees.
However, in my previous world, there existed a type of skunk cabbage that could reach 40 degrees.

I may be a plant, but I’m also a monster.
I’m sure I can raise my temperature to around 40 degrees.

I focused hard and concentrated.


When I was human, my body temperature was about 36 degrees Celsius.
But as a plant, I can’t raise my temperature that high without using my heat-generating ability.

Once again, I’m reminded that I’m no longer human.


Ugh.
The leaves should be about 40 degrees by now, but they still aren’t burning.

As expected, just drying them and raising their temperature wasn’t enough to make them spontaneously combust.
With a lightning strike, they probably would have caught fire, but I can’t exactly summon lightning. There has to be another way.


I glanced at the little witch. She was rubbing her body, probably because she was feeling a bit chilly.


──Of course! Friction!

If I generated enough friction heat, it might just be enough to ignite.
Come to think of it, I think I’ve read somewhere that eucalyptus trees can sometimes catch fire naturally from the friction when they fall.



I rubbed the eucalyptus leaves together using my vines.


Ordinary eucalyptuses probably wouldn’t catch fire from something like this.
But the leaves of this magical tree, which is like a eucalyptus in this world, reacted to my friction.


Finally, the leaves caught fire…!
After all that effort, I had successfully created a spark.

I had eaten the magical eucalyptus to breed it for flammability, dried it by absorbing moisture, and added friction heat. That’s why it ignited.


In truth, there are plants that can ignite naturally even more easily, but they’re tricky to handle.
Which is why I’m glad I ended up with a eucalyptus plant.


Thanks to this, I’ve evolved into a plant capable of starting fires.
I wonder if I can brag about this achievement to all the neighboring plants.


But wait a minute.
It’s great that the eucalyptus leaves are burning, but… I think the tip of my vine is burning too…


Ahhhhhhh!!

I’m on fireeeeeee!!



Of course, the tip of my vine started burning along with the eucalyptus leaves.
I had been so focused on starting the fire that I completely forgot about the consequences.

Well, since I’m a bucket Alraune now, I figured that if anything went wrong, I could just get taken to the river. That made me relax a bit.

But guess what? The accident didn’t stop there.



It was already evening.
Maybe because the forest had grown dim, insects were drawn to the firelight and started gathering.

Literally like moths to a flame.
But one visitor was far too large to simply call an “insect.”


Drawn to the firelight came a huge moth-like monster.

It was a moth-type monster, a Nachtfaifalter.

When it spreads its wings, it’s probably about three meters across.
Definitely too big to call it just a moth.


By the way, on summer nights, insects that gather around firelights are called “fire-attracted solitary insects¹.”
Most of them are moths, but the term can include beetles and other flying insects.
Sometimes, they’re also called “fire moths.”


The Nachtfaifalter certainly lives up to that name.


As a moth-like monster drawn to fire, it’s quite infamous in this world.
If you make a campfire in the forest at night, encounters with Nachtfeifalters aren’t uncommon.

I’ve even heard stories of people who didn’t notice the huge moth silently approaching, got caught, and were carried off into the night.


The Nachtfeifalter approached, eyes locked on the flame at the tip of my vine.
It was already in a battle stance.


Come to think of it, some moths eat plants.
I wonder… are soft new leaves tasty……?


But that’s not all.
Considering there are carnivorous moths that eat insects, the little witch might be in danger too.
This moth is so large it could probably swallow a child whole.


So that means… to this giant moth monster, both the little witch and I are just food.


Just as that realization hit me, the Nachtfeifalter let out a piercing, ear-splitting screech.
At the same time, it sent a cloud of powdery scales flying from its wings.

Yeah. No doubt about it.


This giant fire moth is planning to eat us!


But you know, I’d really prefer it if it could wait.
The thing is, I’m currently in the middle of burning.

I’m busy, okay?
I don’t have the time to deal with a moth right now.


While all this was happening, the flames on my vine only grew stronger.

H-hey, stop that already!!

Being burned alive or getting attacked by a moth—couldn’t it have been just one of those?!!


But my desperate pleas went unanswered, as both the flames on my vine and the giant moth monster came rushing towards me at the same time.

***

Author’s Note:

Thank you very much for reading.

Next time: Will the Fire Burn Me, or the Moths Eat Me First?


TL’s Note:

1: The raw uses 火取虫, which is most likely a literary/poetry term used to describe moths are other insects drawn to light during summers. “Fire moths” is a similarly archaic word.

2. Eucalyptus leaves