I’m an Alraune, a plant monster girl.
And after defeating the Heavenly Stalker, I went ahead and captured the poison fairy I had a score to settle with.


Originally, I had caught her in a Venus flytrap. But in the chaos when the Heavenly King attacked, she must’ve escaped.
And it looks like she also managed to flee outside the range of Garuda Hræsvelgr’s Heiligenschein.


Perhaps wary of me, the poison fairy kept her distance.
Normally, my vines wouldn’t be able to reach that far.
But now that I’ve grown… reaching her is effortless.


I extended a mass of vines and seized the careless fairy in an instant.
You’re not getting away this time.


“Eek!?”


I dragged the captured poison fairy right in front of me.
And then, I delivered my final ultimatum.


“If you… swear loyalty to me… like Kiri did… I’ll spare your life.”


I am, after all, a former saint.
She seems to know Kiri, and I don’t just go around eating fairies without reason.
That’s why I’m giving her this one chance.


“If I do that… you really won’t eat me?”

“Yes.”

“…Alright. I’ll become your fairy!”


She agreed to submit to me with almost refreshing candor.
In that case, we should perform the ceremony properly.


“Then… lick this nectar.”

“Nectar…?”

“It’s the ceremony… to become my… fairy.”

“Got it…”


I temporarily released the poison fairy from the vines’ restraint.
Slowly, she approached the nectar-coated vine.

She glanced at my face, and I gave her a nod.
Turning back with a look of resignation, she leaned in to lick the nectar

But then—

In an instant, the poison fairy spat weedkiller straight from her mouth.


“Idiot! Like I’d ever become your subordinate!”


The poison fairy lunged at my face—
Then, wrestling her way in, she tried to pour the weedkiller down my throat.


“If you inhale weedkiller directly, you’re definitely going to wither, no matter what!”


Before I could restrain her again with my vines, the weedkiller was forced into my mouth.


“Kyahaha! Now the Alraune’s finished! Lady Fea will surely be pleased!”


The poison fairy’s delighted voice rang out.
But… that confidence won’t last long.


“Huh…? What’s this? The weedkiller… it’s getting pushed back…?”


Anticipating something like this, I had already stored some nectar imbued with light recovery magic inside my mouth.
So when the weedkiller was forced in, it mixed with it.

That means if I spit the nectar out, I can expel the weedkiller along with it.
And thanks to the light recovery magic, the weedkiller’s effects have already been purified.


Drops of what had once been nectar and weedkiller fell to the ground, one after another.
The poison fairy watched in silence.


“P-please… forgive me…”

“No… I won’t.”


The poison fairy had thrown away the final mercy I offered her.
Worse still, she even tried to wither me again by forcing weedkiller into my body.
No matter how much of a former saint I may be, I can’t tolerate this anymore.
Besides, I’m no longer a saint.


I’m a monster.
I’m an Alraune, a carnivorous plant monster.



“P-please… help me…”

“I already spared you… once. There won’t be a second time.”


I bound her once more with my vines.


Don’t look at me like that.
Ever since becoming an Alraune, I’ve faced despair more times than I can count.
And the worst of it recently? When you nearly withered me.


I’ve never experienced anything as painful as that.
You’ve never been made to wither by someone else, have you?
You should try thinking about how others feel.


“I-if it’s come to this… I’ll have to use my last resort…”


The poison fairy bit down on something hanging from her chest. It was a pendant of some kind.
It seemed she’d been hiding something.


“If I use the Seed of Evolution Master gave me, I can turn this around!”


The poison fairy swallowed the small seed that had been hidden in her pendant with a gulp.
Just what was that seed supposed to be?


“With this, beating an Alraune like you will be easy. Kyahaha!”


Suddenly, her body began to swell.

Bulge… bulge… bulge…

Her form ballooned grotesquely, expanding at an alarming rate.


“W-wait… what is this………? I wasn’t told I’d get this ugly……”


For some reason, the poison fairy sounded shaken.
Maybe something unexpected had happened.

Then, with a look as if she’d given up on everything, she spoke her final words.


“How did it come to this…………?”


The vines binding the poison fairy snapped apart.
Her body doubled and doubled in size—until the poison fairy became something that could no longer be called a fairy.


What stood there instead was like a troll.

Her flesh bulged unevenly, grotesquely swollen beyond what should be possible. It was nothing like any creatures of this world.
Her hideous form called to mind a black, shaggy bear.

In mere moments the poison fairy, Oin, had transformed into a bloated, three-meter-tall troll.


“BWAAAAAAAGH!!”


Her mind was gone.
The poison fairy had become nothing more than a rampaging monster.


──Wait… what was that?


Just what is going on?
After eating that strange seed, she’s turned into something like a troll.
But I’ve never heard of a seed like that.


I remember reading somewhere, perhaps in folklore, that trolls can be considered a type of fairy, in the broadest sense.
But this…? There’s no way I could call this thing a fairy.
Even a normal troll looks cute compared to this.



“BWAAAAAAAGH!!”


The troll charged straight at me.

No time to think, I need to defend myself.
I fired off a barrage from the squirting cucumber machine guns.


Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!


Dozens of poisonous seeds tore into the troll’s flesh.

And yet, strangely enough, its wounds began to regenerate.


Right…

Trolls have regenerative abilities.


Even if you cut off an arm or a leg, it grows back almost immediately.
That’s how powerful their regeneration is.
Even my poison doesn’t seem very effective.


That said, even trolls aren’t immortal.
They have a weakness.

Trolls are vulnerable to fire and light.
If you burn their wounds, they won’t regenerate.



I used eucalyptus leaves and heat generated by friction to ignite flames along my vines.
Since growing out of my child form, the intensity of my fire had become fierce enough to use in combat.


Once again, I unleashed the squirting cucumber machine guns, riddling the troll with wounds.
This is my chance—
Before it could regenerate, I tied up the troll in my burning vines.


“BWAAAAAAAAAGHH!!”


The troll’s anguished screams echoed throughout the area.
The flaming vines kept its wounds from regenerating as fire, its weakness, engulfed its entire body.


After a while, the troll stopped moving.
Nothing but a lump of blackened charcoal remained.
It had burned to death.


The way things look, the poison fairy Oin’s true body was surely beyond saving too.
Still… that strange seed—what did she call it, the “Seed of Evolution?”
I never imagined it would transform her into something like that.

Having tried to wither and kill me so many times, she was an infuriating opponent to the very end.
Still, I never imagined her to meet her end as a troll.


Now that she’s been reduced to cinders, I can’t even eat her for nutrients.
She’ll simply return to the soil of the forest.
For a fairy… perhaps returning to the forest where she was born is what she would’ve wanted.

──Wait… this isn’t the time to be thinking about some poison fairy!

My flaming vines are a double-edged sword.
I’m on fire too!


Before the fire could reach my bulb, I hurriedly used the lithops’ molting ability, shedding my outer layer along with the burning vines.


Phew… that was close.



“Alraune!”


I turned toward the voice.
A withered-looking Treant sprinted across the ground with surprising speed.

Clinging to its branches were the little witch and the fairy Kiri.
Looks like everyone made it out safely.


The little witch leapt off the Treant and used her levitation magic to dive straight into me.


“I’m so glad you’re okay!”


She buried her head deep into my chest.
Somehow, looking down at the little witch from above felt… strangely new.


Right, the first time I ever touched her was after I had become a little Alraune.
So this was the first time we’d embraced since I returned to an adult form.

Well, “adult” might be a stretch. I only look about seventeen.
But compared to her ten-year-old self, I’m definitely the older sister now.


“Alraune, why are you back to your normal size…?”

“I… grew.”

“I mean, I get that plants grow, but that was way too sudden!”

“I did… photosynthesis.”

“…Photosyn—what’s that?”


It seems the little witch doesn’t know the word “photosynthesis.”
Then again, she’s never been to school. So it’s no surprise she never had the chance to learn it.


The little witch is my little sister.
As her older sister, I’ll become her teacher and show her all sorts of things.


After all, we’ll have plenty of free time from now on.
Our enemies are gone.

So from here on, I should be able to live peacefully with the little witch.


Just the two of us, living quietly together in the forest.


At last…
Peace has come to me.

***

Author’s Note:

Thank you for reading.

Next Time: The Dryad Sisters