Chapter 70

The place Daon specified was in the vicinity of the Teleportation magic circle Nikolaus had set up. Since he said 「Vicinity」 I figured anywhere within sight the sight distance of it would do, so I stepped off the path and into the woods a little closer to the village than the circle itself.

「Aah, right. If it’s directly in front of the Teleportation circle, the adventurers would feel uneasy whenever people come and go… And being closer to the village means it’s safer since it’s farther from the desolate lands too. As expected of Witch-sama.」

(I’m really just trying to create as much distance from myself as possible, but Noel is interpreting it conveniently, so let’s just go with that. …Ah, you can’t come with me. Wait here, okay?)

I held out a hand in front of Noel, who was about to follow me while wagging his tail. I was going to remove the trees now, but if he watched too closely, he might realize something.

Sharp as always, Noel nodded immediately. 「Understood. It’d be dangerous if a tree fell over, after all.」

…The danger I was thinking of was my identity being exposed, not Noel getting hurt, but if he was satisfied with that explanation, then it’s fine.

(There are a lot of chestnut trees around here, and they’re one of autumn’s treats. Noel even makes sweets with them, so clearing them all out would be a waste… I’ll regrow them somewhere else later.)

The sweets Noel made could be used as gifts for the knights or Nikolaus. Humans appreciated small thoughtful gestures, and whether there were gifts or not changed their impression of you. Bringing gifts also gave me an excuse to peek at how the knights were doing, so Noel’s sweets and their ingredients were indispensable to me.

(Since trees are living things, I can absorb them too. Might as well do it while I’m at it. Just cutting them down would be wasteful.)

First, I approached the nearest tree and reached out to touch it. My clothes were made from vine-like strands that functioned as hair and were still connected to me even now, so I could reshape them easily. If I made a hole in the glove part and touched something directly, I could absorb energy from the tree.

And by using my hands, it also looked like I was casting magic. No one would suspect I was actually draining their energy through the hole in the gloves.

(Normal plants aren’t very nutritious, though…)

Something I’d learned from Nikolaus’s explanations, is that what I absorbed through my roots was mainly magic power. That was why monsters and plants rich in magic tasted good.

Ordinary plants, however, only had the faintest flavor. Like chewing gum that had almost lost its taste already, it went bland almost immediately. The tree I was touching quickly became tasteless too, which was disappointing.

By the time the flavor disappeared, the vibrant leaves had lost their color and become a dead tree. …It looked a little creepy.

(…Okay, I absorbed it, but how am I supposed to cut it down? There were monsters that swung around blade-like leaves before, but if I used something like that in front of people, they’d probably label me dangerous. Maybe if I just reproduced the blade part with vines and swung it like a whip…)

As I was thinking about how to fell the trees, I suddenly noticed something strange in my hand. Up until now, it had felt like chewing flavorless gum, but that sensation disappeared too. It felt like I had truly drained everything and there was nothing left to absorb.

So even after the taste vanished, there had still been a little left to absorb, huh? Completely draining it felt like this. Making a new discovery, I pulled my hand away, and the tree immediately began crumbling from the point I touched it, turning it a fine sand-like dust before collapsing entirely on the spot.

(Eh…!? W-what just happened…!?)

All that remained afterward was something dry and brittle, like ash or sand.

I stood there confused for a while, but apparently if I absorbed too much from a living thing, it collapsed and returned to the soil. I’d never kept touching something after I finished 「eating」 it before, so I had no idea.

(W-what do I do…? If someone sees this, won’t they think I’m some kind of monster…!?)

Carefully, I turned around to check Noel’s expression.

As usual, he was staring at me with eyes full of admiration, and before I knew it, the adventurers Daon had brought over were standing behind him too, all staring at me blankly. …At the very least, they didn’t seem to think I was a monster, which was a relief. I had no idea what kind of look they were giving me, though.

(Well, this way there won’t even be any stumps left, and it’ll be easier to make a wide open space… It’s kind of time-consuming and annoying, but I’ll just do them one by one.)

And so I continued touching the trees one by one, completely withering and collapsing them. The plan was to build simple huts in the clearing afterward and let the adventurers live there. …And if the buildings were made from my plants, I’d also be able to sense people entering and leaving, which was convenient for various reasons.

(Yep, this should do for now. I managed to make a space about the size of the village square, so next comes the buildings. First, I’ll make a Purification Flower toilet…)

As I was building a toilet at the edge of the campsite, a loud shout suddenly rang out behind me, making me jump and turn around.

「Hey! The beastman should go somewhere else! There’s no way we can stand staying in the same place when they stink like that!」

「I don’t stink! You’re the one reeking of sweat! My nose can tell just fine!」

「What’d you say!?」

…Apparently, trouble had broken out among the adventurers.

A female cat beastman and several other adventurers were arguing, the atmosphere tense enough that it looked like swords might be drawn at any moment. Frozen in fear, I watched the situation unfold, and it seemed the adventurers’ complaint was simply that they 「didn’t want to live in the same space as a beastmen」. There didn’t appear to be any real reason behind it.

(…Ah, could this be… discrimination against beastmen?)

I’d forgotten because Bit Village had accepted Noel, and the knights never showed any signs of it, but apparently this world really did have prejudice against beastmen.

This was probably exactly that. If beastmen, who were still a type of human, were discriminated against this badly, then what would happen to a mandragora like me? …Extermination, I suppose.

(Uugh… they’re so loud. I want them to quiet down… Ah, right.)

Their shouting, and the insults mixed in with it, were so frightening that I decided the best thing was to make everyone quiet down and cool their heads for a moment. I created 「Silent Grass」 making it sprout around them in a circle.

In small amounts, it merely dampened sound, but in large quantities, all sound disappeared entirely. Perhaps because I’d panicked and made far too much of it, suddenly I couldn’t hear a single thing.

Silence dominated the area. Confused by the sudden lack of sound, everyone traced the grass growing around their feet and simultaneously turned their gaze toward me. …Naturally, being stared at by so many humans terrified me enough that I let out a scream.