I’d been thinking about producing more Mandrakes, but the voice when being pulled from the ground is the problem. It would be ideal to produce them without the voice, but I don’t think it’s that simple. With people nearby it could be lethal — I was still worrying over what to do when several days had passed.
With the Diversification skill I can grow just the leaves, flowers, or fruit of a plant, and I can make things grow rapidly or wither at will. Filling fruit with medicine is also possible. But whether I can produce not just ordinary plants but monster-grade ones — in other words, whether I can apply Evolution Points to cause changes and produce the result directly — that I wasn’t confident about.
(I’ve made a playground in the garden so the children come to play all the time, and lately the knights are watching too… how do I go about growing a Mandrake?)
Leonhart, Ritter, and eight others — ten knights in total have taken up residence in the village. They had visited before as well, and seem unable to conceal their surprise and confusion at how much the village has changed. When I walk through the village, they watch me with guarded eyes.
(Hmm… right, the changes were too sudden, so from the outside it probably looks very suspicious…)
I had just been trying to make life more comfortable for the villagers, fulfilling what they wished for. The many plants absorbed in the wasteland turned out to be useful, but plants that couldn’t normally take root in inhabited areas establishing themselves so quickly would look strange to any outsider. Especially when it’s supposedly the work of a witch who should no longer exist in this world.
(Ugh, I absolutely can’t let them find out I’m a monster… for now, just be friendly. Wave a little…)
Inside I’m letting out small terrified yelps, but even in that state my face only ever looks like it’s smiling. I tried waving warmly at the knights who were watching me — it didn’t seem to have much effect. They looked away.
“Ma’am Witch! These are fresh eggs!”
“Ma’am Witch, thanks to you the livestock are thriving. Here, fresh milk — please take it.”
“Even ma’am Witch must get tired using her power all the time, mustn’t she? I’ve gathered some petals for the garden’s fertilizer!”
“Hey ma’am Witch, could you make a big grass bed in the treehouse in the garden?”
Walking through the village, people call out to me one after another. The gifts come in such quantities that Noel’s hands are full almost immediately.
Noel, now recognized by those around him as my attendant, apparently doesn’t want his master to be carrying things — so he’s holding a great deal with his small body. He’s a child, but perhaps because he’s a beastkin, he has roughly the strength of an adult man — yet even so, with the volume and bulk of everything, it’s clearly a struggle.
(No one in the village seems to be struggling with anything, so maybe we should head back. Noel looks like he might collapse…)
“Allow me to help carry some of this, the both of you.”
Leonhart appeared from nowhere and smoothly lifted the milk basket right out of Noel’s arms. He did it with such practiced ease that he probably makes a habit of doing this whenever he sees someone struggling under a load.
Watching him these past few days, Leonhart has clearly become considerably better liked by the villagers than the other knights.
“I — I can carry this!”
“Someone with your beastkin strength could certainly manage this weight without difficulty. But please, let me help too. …Actually, I was also once saved by the witch. I’d like to repay that kindness.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yes. It was when I went into the mountain alone to investigate changes in the wasteland —”
Noel began to listen as Leonhart spoke. When Leonhart took one step toward the watermill, Noel naturally fell into step beside him.
My first meeting with Noel captures his interest keenly, so this was exactly the right topic. I could see his wariness fading as he listened.
(Wow, he’s very good at getting into people’s good graces. I’d love to learn from that…)
In my case, trying to have a conversation would kill someone before I ever got close — so I can’t fully imitate it — but observing this easy way with people might give me some clues for lowering the knights’ guard. I followed along behind the two of them, listening.
“I never expected to encounter anyone in a place like that, and I had already accepted death. But the witch appeared, and in her compassion, she wept for me.”
“I understand that. Ma’am Witch is kind.”
“And those beautiful tears performed a miracle — they healed my wounds.”
“The same thing happened in the village. Ma’am Witch’s tears have a special healing power…”
Before I’d noticed, Noel had begun speaking to Leonhart with polite, formal language, and the conversation had naturally turned into Noel recounting my various deeds. Noel talking up my exploits like a child eagerly sharing proud stories with an adult. Leonhart responding with well-placed prompts, keeping the story going.
From the time I took Noel in, we had always been together. The thought that if anything about my behavior seemed off, it would come out of his mouth — that thought sent a sudden chill through me. Not that I have body temperature, being a plant, so it was purely a feeling.
(I haven’t done anything strange, have I…!?)
Perhaps this had been part of the knights’ investigation all along. I followed the two of them inwardly screaming. Noel was happily talking to an adult who listened to stories about the witch — but just how Leonhart was receiving all this was deeply concerning.
“Ma’am Witch truly cannot speak a single word? …Doesn’t that make things very difficult?”
“Not really. I can generally tell what ma’am Witch is trying to say. She always acts with me and the villagers in mind, so you just predict from there… I’m proud to serve ma’am Witch. That’s why I didn’t want her taken away, and I was behaving strangely.”
“I understand your feelings very well, Noel.”
“Yes. And since you were also saved by ma’am Witch, I thought you’d understand… so please, do your best to clear her name!”
“Of course I will.”
Leonhart turned back and gave me a smile. That smile felt like it was asking, “and why exactly is it that you can’t speak?” — I screamed with everything I had, but my face was surely smiling gently back at him.
(I’m scared the suspicion is only deepening…!)
— Anyway. I had to do something. Anything to start clearing the suspicion.
(That’s it — I’ll go to the mountain! Out there with no one around, I can grow Mandrakes safely!)
Create suspicious presences elsewhere, throw the investigation into confusion, redirect their attention to something other than me. In a complete internal panic, I resolved to produce a bifurcated Mandrake within the next few days.