I’m an Alraune, a little plant monster girl who once used to be a saint.
By performing photosynthesis and using light recovery magic, I was able to regenerate my withered plant body.


It seems I can convert the power of sunlight into light recovery magic.
In other words, the more sunlight I receive, the more I can grow and restore my plant body.
Though really, what I’m doing isn’t any different from before.


My light recovery magic surged.
Then I redirected the excess power into plant generation.
After repeatedly forcing my body into rapid growth, I had completely neutralized the weedkiller’s effects.


And thanks to that, I managed to generate dozens of poisonous thorns.
I stretched out the thorns, threatening the poison fairy.


Now then, allow me to teach you what proper etiquette looks like.
Naughty children must be punished.


“Y-you’ll regret it if you kill me!”

“…Why?”

“I’m part of the Demon King’s army. If they get involved, an Alraune like you will be burned to ashes in no time!”


This poison fairy… a fairy is part of the Demon King’s army?
That’s surprising. I didn’t know even fairies could fall onto the path of evil.

But even if she belongs to the Demon King’s army, she still deserves punishment.
Using all my thorns, I launched an attack on the poison fairy.


“Eek!”

“Not… letting you… escape.”


I tried to capture the fairy with my poisonous thorns.
But unfortunately, she was too good at running away.

Using spirit magic, she created a poisonous mist to act as a smokescreen.
Hidden by the mist, she vanished from sight.
She was acting just like a squid squirting ink to escape.


The poison fairy was small to begin with, and now she was trying to fly away while scattering smoke behind her.
This is bad. At this rate, she’ll escape before I can punish her!


In a situation like this, where I can’t see the fairy, grabbing her with my thorns won’t work.
So instead, I’ll just have to knock her down.

Like swatting a fly, I brought dozens of poisonous thorns crashing down toward the cloud of toxic mist.
I shall swing them with the utmost sincerity.

Then I heard the poison fairy cry out, “Gyaaaah!”
It seems one of the thorns hit her.


At the same time, I felt the satisfying sensation of my poisonous thorns sinking into something.
Serves her right.
That’s enough to relieve some of my frustration.


The poison fairy, slammed into the ground, twitched and convulsed.
she had taken quite a bit of damage from my attack.


But the punishment isn’t over yet.
After all, just a moment ago, I was on the verge of being killed.


“I-I’m going to get eaten…!”


The poison fairy suddenly shot into the air.
So she still has the strength to run? She’s quite stubborn.

But I must object.
Eating a fairy never once crossed my mind.
What I’m doing is merely punishing a naughty child.


Such a barbaric act as gobbling up a fairy is beyond me.
Unless, of course, the poison fairy were to foam at the mouth and beg desperately to enter my mouth herself. But that would be another matter entirely.


The poison fairy, having managed to put some distance between us, pointed a finger at me triumphantly.

“From this far away, your vines can’t reach me. Too bad for you!”

“In that case… how about this?”


I generated a squirting cucumber machine gun from my vine.
My target was the flying fairy trying to escape.
Since I had already punished her earlier, this time I’d give her a little “reward” in the form of seeds.
After all, if I’m not occasionally kind, it would be a bit pitiful for the one being punished.


Well then, excuse me.

Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!


Sharp seeds, like thorns, pierced through the poison fairy’s wings.
The fairy was thrown backward and pinned to a nearby tree.
Her left wing had been nailed to the trunk by one of the seeds, leaving her unable to move.


I extended my thorns toward the trembling poison fairy.

Don’t be scared.
I’m just going to catch you.
And then inject a little poison into you, that’s all.


“Th-this can’t be…!”


The poison fairy released another cloud of toxic mist.
What a stubborn little fairy.


But with her wing stuck in the tree, she shouldn’t be able to escape.
I’ll just wait for the mist to clear.


However, once the mist dissipated, the poison fairy was nowhere to be seen.
All that remained on the tree was a single wing, still pinned by the seed.


She sacrificed her wing to escape.
Even as an enemy, I have to admire that kind of determination.


Losing a wing means she probably can’t fly properly anymore.
Maybe she’s escaping on foot.


But that’s a problem.
I’m a plant.
So I can’t chase after her to finish her off.


Since there was no helping it, I decided to wake up the little witch.
Despite all that commotion, she was still asleep. I wonder how deeply she had been sleeping.


“Why didn’t you wake me up?!”

“Because… it was dangerous.”

“Next time you’re in trouble, you should come to me first!”

“Okay.”


When I told her about the poison fairy attacking me, the little witch somehow ended up scolding me.
I just didn’t want to drag her into something dangerous.
Still, next time I’ll try to rely on her a little more.


So I asked the little witch to search the area where the fairy had been. But she couldn’t find her anywhere.

Looks like the poison fairy managed to escape.


Well, that’s fine.
In exchange for nearly withering me to death, I managed to take one of her wings.
Let’s call it even.

Besides, perhaps the day will come when I can continue her punishment.
I’ll look forward to that.


When I told the little witch how I had nearly withered to death from the weedkiller, she hurriedly flew off toward town.
She must have gone to buy some fertilizer.


The truth is, my strength is actually hanging by a thread right now.
I nearly withered away completely earlier, so my energy was just about depleted.

Honestly, if I had taken even one more blast of weedkillers, I might not have been able to regenerate.
It was really close.


In any case, I used up far too much energy.
I’m running low on nutrients.
And while I’m at it, I’d like some water too.


So I’m looking forward to the fertilizer. Though I shouldn’t expect too much.
She said she’d use whatever money was left after buying the vegetables, but there really wasn’t much left. I doubt she’ll be able to afford fertilizer.


Ah… but more than anything, I’m really tired.
After all, I nearly withered to death.

The last time I felt this close to dying was when I encountered Fire Dragon-sama.
Back then, I pollinated and became a new sprout, so it didn’t matter.
This might be the first time I’ve taken damage severe enough to nearly kill me while still remaining in the same body.


So for now, I’m going to rest.

I closed my bud and settled in for a nap.
Sleeping while basking in the sunlight is the best.


Well then, good night.


I hope I have a pleasant dream this time…

***

Author’s Note:

Thank you very much for reading.

Next Time: Hospitality with a Honey Bath