“Ma’am Witch, there’s a bedroom in the back! I’ll get it ready for you right away!”
(No, I don’t sleep in beds, so that’s alright.)
Noel had thoroughly investigated the house and was raring to go, so I shook my head. Lying in a bed would put my face at a low height — which is to say, at a height where Noel might brush against it by accident.
(Accidentally absorbing him would be a disaster. If I can’t sleep in the soil, I’ll find somewhere else to rest.)
I pass the puzzled Noel and step inside. The front room is a spacious living area. I touch the wall and encourage root-spreading plants to grow along it — and in no time at all, vines cover the wall and ceiling. That alone is a bit sparse, so I get flowers blooming too. …Yes, this is starting to look like a witch’s house. I’ll add more plants elsewhere later.
(I think if I make a bed up at the ceiling, that should work. …Oh right — a hammock.)
I grow the ceiling vines into a complex weave and produce a hanging hammock. At this height there’s no chance of accidentally touching anyone. I’m not going to make a ladder up to it — I plan to use my own vines to climb up each time. A perfect solution.
“Wow… that looks like it’d be wonderful to sleep in, ma’am Witch.”
(Hm? If Noel wants a hammock too, I could make him one.)
I head into the adjacent bedroom. A simple bed by the window, and nothing else — since there’s nothing else in here, it might be best to let Noel use it however he likes.
I made a hammock for Noel beside the bed as well, just in case. He looked at me with bright eyes, so I nodded to mean he could use it. …The bed might end up never being slept in.
“Ahh… ma’am Witch, you really are incredible. This house already feels so different… it seems like you can make anything with plants — if you can provide for yourself like this, I suppose you never would have needed to come down to where people live.”
(Well, I can keep that as my story… the truth is I came down because things got difficult, but…)
The daily life of fighting monsters and absorbing them — what a bleak existence it had been. Humans don’t attack me on sight, and they’ve misunderstood me as a kind witch, so no one seems to fear me either.
This is exactly the safe place I’d been wishing for. I want to settle down here just like this, keeping up the pretense of being human.
“But after five hundred years away from human society — why come to a place like this now…?”
Ah — a good point. A witch who had hidden herself away for five hundred years suddenly appearing would certainly seem odd. If someone asks why she came now, the only honest answer is that she was fleeing from monsters. Though since I can’t speak, there’s no way to explain it regardless.
(The monsters on that mountain were all those unappetizing zombie-types toward the end… that was actually a pretty significant reason.)
At some point, the monsters emerging had become half-rotting, zombie-like things almost exclusively. Absorbing them tasted awful. Their nutritional value was also much lower than other monsters — it felt like eating something already wrung dry.
Feeling vaguely wistful, I found myself looking in the direction of the mountain I’d descended. Noel and Daon followed my gaze.
“…Come to think of it, ma’am Witch — you came down from the mountain?”
“From that mountain? Could it be… you were living in the wasteland?”
(Oh — I didn’t mean to let that slip… could this be it, the moment they realize I’m a monster…!?)
I scream internally — no no no no — which to them must look like nothing but a smile. And that smile seems to have been taken as confirmation, because Daon is now looking at me with an expression of pure staggered disbelief.
“Even for a witch with such an abundance of magical power, what recklessness… have you been watching over the land where your kin rest for five hundred years?”
(Hm? …Is this conversation going somewhere unexpected…?)
“At the time of the battle with the dragon, it’s said only around five hundred of the Mage-folk remained. …Could it be you were mourning every last one of them?”
And from those words, I learn that the Mage-folk died fighting a dragon in the very wasteland where I was born. Perhaps all that magic-saturated earth was why I grew into such a plump, round little turnip shape. …The soil in that area really did taste delicious.
For now they seem to have arrived at a misunderstanding, so I nod. Far better than being mistaken for a monster.
“Ma’am Witch is so kind… she’s been praying for her kin all this time. But I heard that living things can’t survive where the miasma is thick. That’s why our village couldn’t be built at a higher elevation.”
“Quite right — even Mage-folk wouldn’t be unaffected by it. The impact of magic this dense on the human body is immeasurable… you surely couldn’t have been at the very center, but even so, remaining near that land all this time — I have the utmost respect. Though when the miasma thins, monsters begin to multiply rapidly. Wasn’t it dangerous?”
“Oh — now that you mention it… before ma’am Witch arrived here, she defeated an incredible beast. She isn’t only kind — she’s very strong as well.”
“I see. Having survived the battle with the dragon, you must indeed be a very exceptional witch. A witch powerful enough to live without dying in a miasma-laden land…”
Since I can say nothing, Noel and Daon proceed to reason out every detail between themselves, building a coherent explanation for why a witch such as myself had been living in the wasteland — and how she could. Together they’re constructing a perfectly plausible backstory for me.
(Oh, that all works, does it… right, good — keep going, please build as much story as you like.)
Well, when you think about it, imagining reasons why a witch might have lived hidden from the world for a long time is considerably easier than entertaining the outlandish truth that the person in front of you is actually a Mandrake monster who simply evolved a human shape.
Without human memories to work from, it’s simply inconceivable that a monster would spend Evolution Points to look like a person. I’m a special case.
And so, through the two of them talking it over, my backstory was settled: an ancient Flower Witch who cared deeply for her kin, spending five hundred years mourning the five hundred Mage-folk who died fighting the dragon; who only recently decided the wasteland had become too overrun with monsters to stay, and at last descended to return to the human world. …Honestly, if a witch like that actually existed, she’d be something else.
“Ma’am Witch, it’s overgrown with weeds now, but there used to be a garden beside the house. You seem quite fond of flowers, so you might enjoy planting something there. …Please make the house and the surroundings as comfortable as you like.”
(Oh, right. I need to think about food for Noel too… maybe I should grow lots of edible plants around here.)
“Well then — please rest and take it easy. I’m thinking of throwing a small feast in your honor before too long, as a gesture of thanks, and I do hope you’ll join us.”
With that, Daon headed back to the village. Noel and I set about clearing the weeds around the house, growing a variety of edible plants nearby, and settling in to have them for dinner — except.
“…I’m sorry… the medicine should have cured me, so why…”
(It’s alright, just lie down for a while. You must be tired from today.)
The freshly harvested fruits and vegetables, washed clean in the river — Noel had eaten them and been sick, just like the villagers. A dose of full-recovery potion brought the color back to his face and restored his energy, but I had him rest in his room to be safe.
(… What’s causing this sickness, I wonder.)
It’s possible the villagers are all falling ill again too. Full-recovery potions are easy enough to produce, but they do consume my magical energy and make me hungry. Since Noel wasn’t watching, I decided to go catch some fish — poisonous varieties were no problem for me — and waded into the river.
(Ugh, this water tastes awful! It has the same foul bitterness as the zombie monsters!)
Water seeping in through the gaps in my clothes tasted so bad I grimaced. And then it hit me.
…Wait. Could this be the cause of the sickness?