Chapter 77

The one who shouting 「Purple-chan!」 could only have been one person, judging by the voice and reaction, and since it was the same sight as always, we continued on toward Irai’s sugar cane stall.

「Witch-san, young master Noel, welcome!」

「Hello. …Um, one popped sugar cane, please.」

Popped sugar cane was a sweet made by frying sugar cane, which had properties very similar to corn, in oil. In other words, it was essentially popcorn.

Noel ordered sweet popcorn drizzled with syrup, but when he tried to pay, Irai refused to accept the money. Five copper coins was already an absurdly low price, and Noel looked slightly confused when he was told it could be free.

(Copper coins are probably worth only a few dozen yen in Japan, after all…)

Ten copper coins were equivalent to one large copper coin. A large copper coin was probably worth less than five hundred yen. It seemed that every ten coins were equivalent to one coin of the next denomination, increasing in value in the order of copper coins, large copper coins, silver coins, and large silver coins. …I had never seen any in this village, but perhaps gold coins existed as well.

Prices here were quite different from those in Japan, so I could not say whether my sense of value was accurate, but considering festival pricing, it would not have been strange for food from a stall to cost around one large copper coin. The price was already far too generous, yet he was giving it away for free. He had far too little interest in profit.

「You two are always helping me out, so please accept at least this much.」

「…Then I’ll be taking this.」

「Sure sure. This stuff is delicious even if you just boil it when it’s freshly harvested, and even when it isn’t, you can make all sorts of dishes with it, so it’s been selling like mad today. I’m sure the people here will want to make sugar cane fields in this village too.」

(Ah, I see. This is an investment. Irai-san really is a merchant after all…)

He was selling it cheaply to spread awareness of how delicious it was and encourage the villagers to begin producing sugar cane themselves. This plant was rather difficult to grow and was not widely cultivated in this country. However, he probably believed there would be no risk of failure in a village where the Flower Witch could manipulate plants.

(Besides, apparently freshness is important with sugar cane, and almost no one in this village knew about it before.)

Sugar cane was supposedly sweetest and most delicious at the moment it was harvested. That was because even after being harvested, the plant continued trying to grow by using the sugar stored inside its kernels. In other words, its sweetness gradually diminished over time.

Because the sugar content decreased during transportation, boiled sugar cane was said to be a luxury that could only be eaten near the places where it was grown, while only dried sugar cane circulated in regions farther from the source.

(I feel like I could stop the sugar content from dropping by ordering it not to grow after harvest… Maybe I’ll try that sometime.)

While I was thinking about that, the square suddenly erupted in excitement. Startled by the voices, I turned around and saw Ritter fighting Daon, with Ritter being driven back one-sidedly.

The sight of a village chief cornering an active knight of captain rank was frightening. It seemed the murderous aura and fear I had felt when I first met Daon wasn’t just my imagination.

(So the second-strongest person after Leonhart-san is Daon-san… Is that what this means…?)

It looked as though the match would end that way. However, Daon swung down a heavy blow, Ritter avoided it, and then struck near the base of Daon’s sword instead, causing Daon to let go of his weapon. In other words, Ritter won.

He thrust a fist into the air in celebration, then ran toward the spectators and lifted up the smallest figure there, or rather, a plant.

「I finally beat Daon-senpai! It was all thanks to your support, Purple-chan…! Thank you, I love you!」

Winning in front of the lover who had come to cheer him on, then sharing a joyful embrace. Generally speaking, it was probably supposed to be a moving scene. The only reason it created such an indescribable feeling was that they were not two humans, but a human and a mandragora that merely imitated the shape of a woman.

The people around him quickly moved away as he rubbed his cheek against a mandragora in public, while the parents within sight covered their children’s eyes and ears, perhaps deciding it was not good for their education. The villagers were accustomed to the sight, but the adventurers seeing it for the first time looked shocked or simply dumbfounded.

(Well, of course they would… Come to think of it, where is Miriya-san…?)

I looked around in search of her. Beside Ellie, who was being held by her mother and was probably having her gaze turned away, stood Miriya with her eyes wide and her mouth half open. She wore the sort of expression that made it seem as though she was staring directly into the void of outer space.

She froze, her brain completely shut down. After a while, she suddenly came back to her senses, shook her head, and then seemed to notice that I was looking at her. Our eyes met.

At once, she sprang lightly into the air and crossed from the opposite side of the square to stand in front of Noel and me in an instant. …That startled me enough that I could not help screaming. Was her physical ability perhaps on Leonhart’s level?

「Oh, Miriya-san. …What’s wrong?」

「No, um… That person you mentioned, is that him?」

「Yes, that’s right. That man is Ritter-san… and he is seriously dating a mandragora who serves as one of Witch-sama’s familiars.」

Even hearing it stated again, the words did not quite make sense, or rather, my mind tried to reject them. Just where did someone have to take a wrong turn to end up seriously dating a mandragora? Perhaps he had awakened to herbivorous tastes after stopping to eat weeds along the road and could no longer return to the path of humanity.

After hearing that, Miriya closed her eyes and groaned thoughtfully, but after several seconds, she gave a small nod.

「I see… But he must be really happy. You can feel it from him. …Even with that much difference between them, love can still work out.」

(Oh, good. She seems to be taking it positively…?)

「I do think going that far in public is questionable, but they’re mutually in love, right? …That has to be much harder than just being different races. I’m going to keep trying too and not give up!」

I had wondered what would happen when Miriya saw this man and plant in an interspecies romance, but she looked a little happy. Apparently, it had given her courage.

With her fist clenched and her motivation fully restored, she looked toward Daon, who had picked up his fallen sword and was gazing at it pensively, then ran over to him next.

(I’m glad she seems energetic. …But does Purple Plant really love Ritter…? Well, she doesn’t seem to dislike it, so maybe she does…?)

Just in case, I checked Purple Plant’s status. Her level had risen, but she appeared to be leaving the points unused. Even one point would have been enough for an evolution that changed the shape of her body, yet she had not done so. Perhaps she intended to acquire some kind of skill, or perhaps she simply had not thought about it. …I did not synchronize with Purple Plant, so among all my young plants, she was the one whose thoughts I understood the least.

(Well, whatever. As long as it doesn’t disadvantage me, she can do as she likes… Even if they really are in love, that would serve as proof that mandragoras can coexist with humans.)

At the very least, Ritter was serious about it. If humans could fall in love with plants, then there was nothing strange about plants falling in love with humans. …Though I still could not understand it myself.