Chapter 61

After helping build a base for the humans, I apparently overdid it and ended up getting glared at by Nikolaus, so I hurriedly fled back home.

Though trembling with fear inside, I returned home to find Noel anxiously looking around in front of the house. When he noticed me, he rushed over.

「Witch-sama! Um, there was this really strange presence earlier, are you alright?」

(Yes, I’m fine. I just reinforced and rearranged the plant walls a little…)

Since the thorn walls I created had expanded their range and shifted position, even villagers who were already awake at that early hour may have been startled, like Noel.

Leonhart, who had likely been nearby watching, would probably explain things. Unlike Nikolaus, he has a favorable and cooperative attitude toward me, so he wouldn’t make things worse… probably.

「The plants were rustling, so I thought monsters were attacking… Oh, it was you, Witch-sama. That’s a relief. I’ll go prepare breakfast!」

Noel would likely prepare soup or drinks for me. Using magic had made me hungry, so I was looking forward to it. But before that, I decided to replenish a little and went around to the back of the house.

Dipping my feet into the river, I absorbed the nutrients from the purification flowers seeping into the water. If the river became too nutrient-rich, the aquatic plants might overgrow and make it uninhabitable for fish, so I had replaced the river’s vegetation with species I created using 【Diversification】. That way they wouldn’t overpropagate, and simply bathing in the water provided me with considerable nourishment.

(It should be fine to gradually expand the range downstream along the river, right? It wouldn’t be good for the aquatic plants to grow too much.)

If it continued downstream, eventually my aquatic plants might reach the sea. Once it became seawater, seaweeds would grow, plants of kinds I had never incorporated before, and ones I might not be able to fully control.

I would like to visit the sea at least once. Seaweed is different from terrestrial plants, so I wasn’t sure whether it fell within the range I could manipulate, but there must be plants that exist only along the coast. If I incorporated plants from all over the world, I would have more options in an emergency. …Fighting was scary, but I wanted to incorporate as many plant-type monsters as possible.

(I can have them fight in my place. I placed various ones at the base this time too… If I let my familiars hunt monsters, I can replenish nutrients without fighting myself, and it won’t be scary… Isn’t that nothing but benefits?)

Monsters like mandragoras that attacked indiscriminately couldn’t be used for combat, but if they could attack only monsters, then there should be no issue with them existing within human living areas. Plant monsters that defeated enemies attacking humans and turned them into nutrients would be human allies, one could even call it symbiosis.

(If humans gradually stop fearing plant monsters that way… then even if my true identity is exposed someday, they might overlook it.)

Still, that was just insurance. Above all, it was best that my identity never be discovered. It was more convenient to continue being regarded as the Flower Witch, the same kind as humans.

While I was thinking that, I sensed a sprout approaching for some reason and lifted my face. Soon the green sprout appeared, holding something with both hands above its head as it came toward me.

(The green sprout was supposed to be keeping watch on Nikolaus-san… Did something happen?)

The greatest risk of my true identity being exposed was Nikolaus, the sole surviving demon. That was precisely why I always wanted eyes on him, and since he seemed to tolerate sprouts staying by his side, I had assigned the green sprout as his dedicated watcher. Yet now it had left its post and was here.

(Let me sync and check what happened… Hiiiii!!!!)

By synchronizing with the sprout, I could access its memories, and learned that it had been threatened with being used as medicinal material. I understood that it had no choice but to obey Nikolaus. …I couldn’t scold it for that.

Moreover, it had properly switched places with the pink sprout before coming, so I decided to forgive it. Nikolaus was terrifying, after all. A dangerous individual who would threaten a mandragora with being made into ingredients if it didn’t obey. Too scary, I didn’t want to get close.

(So then, this bottle the sprout brought… It looks like the nutritional tonic bottle Nikolaus-san gives to the sprouts… but the color’s slightly different?)

In the green sprout’s memory, Nikolaus had called this a nutritional tonic. It seemed different from the usual plant nutrient tonic. …And he had gone so far as to threaten a sprout just to send it here.

(…That means… I’m supposed to drink it, right…?)

He had said it was inferior to a magic recovery potion, so if it were something I shouldn’t drink, I could simply make a superior magic recovery potion and return it.

In fact, if he had intended me to drink it and I didn’t, he might get even angrier. Remembering his sharp gaze from this morning, I shivered, opened the small bottle, pressed it to my lips, and slowly poured it in.

(Oh, it might actually be tasty. It’s different from plant nutrient tonic… maybe it’s human nutritional tonic? Well, I am supposed to be human, after all.)

Replenished by both the purification flower river water and this tonic, I returned home. Since the green sprout had been stuck to Nikolaus the entire time, perhaps it should rest a little.

(You can rotate surveillance with the other sprouts if needed… For now the pink sprout is watching Nikolaus-san.)

At my new command, the green sprout responded with a salute. Then I suddenly remembered that the pink sprout was wearing a frilly apron like a maid’s outfit. The purple and yellow sprouts had villagers who ordered or made clothing for them, and the water sprout, though not wearing conventional clothes, was dyed light blue and had recently been spending time with the village chief Daon, appearing quite close.

Only this green sprout had not dyed its attire, remaining the natural color of the plant, plain green, more standard and unadorned than the others, with no particularly close villager either.

(Does that make it… lacking individuality? But it resembles me the most, doesn’t it?)

My own clothing was largely the natural green of plants as well, so we were similar. Ordinary was the most reassuring. I wanted to continue living peacefully as an ordinary, kind mandragora, no, as the Flower Witch.