I’m an Alraune, a little plant monster girl.
And the one caught in this Venus flytrap is the poison fairy from the Demon King’s army.


After hearing her defiant words, I sensed something strange approaching.
Something that gave off an unusual presence.


It was almost like me—something that seemed to wield the same light magic as a saint.

Just what exactly is coming this way?



“Mama!”

“Praise us… praise us!”

“We did our… best!”


The baby Alraunes clinging to the giant eagle-type monster, the Begia Adler’s body, called out to me.


That’s right! Right now, my children matter more than that mysterious presence!

I have to do something about the baby Alraunes still growing on the giant eagle.


Seeing me flustered and worried, the children smiled back at me.


“Mama… there’s no soil here.”

“We used up all our nutrients… we’re at our limit.”

“So… we’re going back to you.”


I realized.

This Operation Mistletoe… it had only worked through sheer force.
I thought I had absorbed a mistletoe plant at some point without realizing it, but it seems that wasn’t the case.

Because of that, the baby Alraunes couldn’t properly absorb nutrients like true parasitic plants.
So even if they stayed on the giant eagle, they wouldn’t last long.

And despite having only just sprouted from their seeds, they’ve already used up most of the energy I gave them in battle.
So rather than wither away here, they chose to return to me as seeds, just like in my previous experiment.


The baby Alraunes, my clones, flashed me a thumbs-up.
It was just like a scene from a movie.

It appears they have already accepted their fate.


With tears of nectar streaming from my eyes, I watched my children’s final moments.

One after another, the baby Alraunes bit into their male flowers, self-pollinating.
Their bellies swell all at once, and together, they become fruits… then seeds.


I carefully gathered each of their seeds with my vines.
Then I swallowed them all with my lower mouth.

Come back home to me. Think of it as returning to your mother.


The moment I swallowed the seeds, the memories of the baby Alraunes flooded into my mind.
Thinking to myself if this was how the battle in the sky went, I offered my praise to my children.


You all did so well.
Thank you for fighting in my place.

From here on, we’ll keep living together as one.

I may be one person, but I’m no longer alone.
I live on together with all of my baby Alraunes.


As I shed tears at my reunion with my children, the poison fairy, still caught in the Venus flytrap, murmured in a dispirited voice.


“Don’t get too full of yourself. If you think you’ve won, you’re sorely mistaken.”

“How… am I mistaken?”

“It’s not just the Begia Adler I called in for reinforcements. I had someone even stronger waiting near this forest.”


So that strange, saint-like presence from earlier was actually reinforcements from the Demon King’s army?

Even so, I’m confident. No matter what comes, I won’t lose.
I’ve got enough combat experience to handle it.



And while I was fighting the Begia Adler, my allies had already returned.
The little witch, the fairy Kiri, and my little junior, the Amazon Treant.
With everyone here, I’m not afraid of any enemy that comes my way.


The poison fairy grinned and pointed up at the sky.


“Look. Reinforcements have arrived.”


Suddenly, a flash of light bursts across the area, like silent lightning striking the earth.


…This feeling. I’ve experienced it once before.
It was back when I was being carried by White Bird-san, traveling from the western forest to the eastern forest.

The Begia Adler attacked us then, but the moment the sky flashed like this, it suddenly flew off somewhere.
It’s the same light as back then.


After a short while, a glowing birdman appeared in the sky.
A demon with the body of both bird and human.

Shining in radiant gold, the birdman descended to a low altitude.
Seeing him, the dark fairy cried out in delight.


“This is one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s Army, Garuda Hræsvelgr of the Radiant Crown!”


The mention of the “Four Heavenly Kings” didn’t surprise me all that much.
Because something about that birdman was far more shocking than his title.



The light he emitted… I recognized it.

It was the same brilliance as the light magic shone by a saint.
A divine radiance so intense that an ordinary saint apprentice wouldn’t even be able to perceive it.


He was a demon.
And not just any demon, but one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s army.

And yet, he possessed the light of a saint.


Realizing that, I was shocked beyond belief.


The golden, radiant birdman, having descended from the sky, hovered in place, speaking in a deep, gravelly voice.


“I had only just brought down a human fortress, and now I’m hunting plants in this forest… You think quite little of me.”


The one called Garuda Hræsvelgr of the Radiant Crown was a birdman standing around three meters tall.


His face was that of a giant eagle, but from the neck down, his body was a fusion of a bird and human.
From his back extended four wings, two on each side.
His entire body was covered in golden feathers, so dazzling it hurt just to look at him.


But most striking of all was the aura of a saint’s light.
Each feather gleamed gold, and I could sense the unmistakable presence of light magic emanating from them.


“That… can’t be…”


Light magic is something only human women chosen by the Goddess can wield.
I’ve never heard of—nor seen—a demon capable of wielding it.


And yet, this birdman, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, undoubtedly carries light magic within his body.


He was a demon who wielded light magic, something that should not exist.

Before I could even think, the words slipped out of my mouth.


“Why… can you… use light magic?”

“…Hmm. You there, Alraune. How did you know that I can use light magic?”


──Thump

I was so startled, I almost felt my heart leap in my chest, even though I no longer have one.


──That was a mistake.

For a forest Alraune to ask one of the Four Heavenly Kings, who hadn’t even revealed his power yet, why he could use light magic, it’s far too unnatural.

That would mean I, a mere plant monster, just saw through a power even one of the Four Heavenly Kings was still hiding.


Back when I was a saint, I was said to be among the strongest of all time.
So sensing the presence of another person’s light magic was something I could do with ease.

The birdman in the sky looked down at me sharply.



“Ordinarily, light magic is the exclusive domain of human Saints. Aside from myself, no demon capable of using it exists. And yet, how did a mere forest Alraune like you manage to perceive it?”



Ah… this is bad.
An Alraune born and raised in the forest shouldn’t even know what light magic is.

And yet I not only knew it, I said it out loud.

No wonder he’s suspicious.


“Now that I look at you… that face of yours, Alraune, seems strangely familiar.”


Wait, he knows my face?
This face is exactly the same as it was when I was a child back in my time as a saint.

But I’ve never seen a flashy, golden birdman like him before.
With such a striking appearance, there’s no way I’d forget.


“Perhaps it is my imagination… but your face resembles a human saint I once secretly observed several years ago…”


No way.
This Heavenly King… knows what I looked like back then?


“But that saint should be dead. And yet… if this Alraune’s face were just a few years older, it would look remarkably similar to the deceased saint…”


Garuda Hræsvelgr stared at my face intently.


My vines trembled.
My true identity… was about to be exposed.


“Alraune… what exactly are you?”

***

Author’s Note:

Thank you for reading.

Next Time: The Secret of the Saint’s Light Magic and the Golden Birdman’s Light