A SEARCH FOR THE MANDRAGORA BEGAN
A few days later, Halkara and I went to the shop of the Witch of the Grotto, Eno. We had just run out of Mandragora pills, so we went to buy a new bottle.
She wasn’t in a grotto, by the way. Eno had a shop in town now.
We flew in on Flatorte, but she wasn’t all that interested in medicine, so she waited outside.
I came with the intention of gossiping with a fellow industry professional, but Halkara was acting like she was here to spy on the enemy. She was examining the products very seriously.
“Oh, this bottle looks handy. Something this small might be nice for single households…”
“Hey, you! You better not plagiarize me! I will file a cease and desist with the kingdom if you act with intent to harm!”
While there was no concept of copyright in this world and the existence of licensing was dubious at best, merchants could go to the courts and claim that other merchants’ products were breaking the rules.
“I am not plagiarizing you. I am simply consulting. Sometimes I get inspired by looking at the products of other companies.”
“You do have ill will! Depending on what you do, I might file a lawsuit to prevent Halkara Pharmaceuticals from doing any work at all!”
Halkara and Eno were competitors, so they were rather sharp with each other.
The closer people were in the industry they worked in, the worse their relationship became. I had no business sense at all, so I was neutral.
“Miss Azusa, please make sure that apprentice of yours doesn’t do anything sneaky, okay?” Eno warned me.
“Sure. Even if you didn’t worry, Halkara would never do anything so ruthless—”
“If I could just learn the components of this medicine, perhaps we could mass-produce something similar for a cheaper price at the factory? That sure would deal her a blow.”
Oh, but maybe she could get brutal when it came to competition…
“Halkara, don’t go too far, okay…? I don’t want either of you going bankrupt, okay…?”
“It’s all right. Even if we bankrupt them, I would then hire them at Halkara Pharmaceuticals!”
“I’m telling you: Don’t bankrupt them.”
I was uncomfortable being a neutral party in the middle of such a savage and heartless war.
“Indeed—once you comprehend that they cannot be done cheaply and mass-produced, then I shall take you under my wing as an apprentice at any time. Even with more people employed, I will never forget the spirit of creating each individual pill by hand with love. The Witch of the Grotto’s medicine is made of ninety percent kindness!”
“So only ten percent actual medicine?”
It would be too much trouble if I got too deeply involved, so I would just interpret this in a positive way—these two from the same industry were just pushing each other to even higher heights.
“Okay, then, Eno, I’d like to purchase a bottle of Mandragora pills.”
“Oh, Miss Azusa, you can take them for free. You are my benefactor, after all!” Eno had more recently started treating me as her senior and mentor. She wasn’t wrong, though. “Please wait a moment. I have one just for you.”
Eno produced some Mandragora pills in a bottle that looked to be of much higher quality than the regular ones.
“Regular Mandragora pills use mandragoras that have been aged three years, but the ones in these have been aged for ten years. This is an incredibly valuable product, and I can make only a limited number per year.” Eno began her explanation with a confident look.
“I feel bad taking something so valuable… All of us at home are generally pretty tough…”
“Oh, please take it! This is my expression of gratitude! Please! Lead an even healthier life!”
I had no choice but to take it after hearing that. “Thanks, Eno.”
“Oh, it’s nothing at all. I only wish to be as wonderful as you, Miss. One day, I’ll find a top-quality three-hundred-year-old mandragora and make the greatest medicine ever created!”
“Three hundred years old… So they can live that long…”
There was nuance to mandragoras, too. I really wasn’t all that interested in them, for a witch. They didn’t grow in the highlands, though.
“Is this three-hundred-year-old mandragora really so impressive?”
“Yes, of course it is. You know the myth, right? When you pull out a mandragora from the ground, it lets out a scream that kills anyone who hears it.”
“Oh yeah, I know that.”
The same story existed on the Earth I lived on in my past life. They said that bit of folklore came from the humanlike shape of mandragora roots.
“Don’t tell me they really do scream when they’re three hundred years old?”
Something like that was entirely possible in this fantasy world.
“No, it’s way more than a scream. It’s said they can fluently speak in the language of people, and they can even move around.”
From how Eno was acting, this was a big deal.
“And making medicine out of a talking mandragora— Oh! That is the dream of any witch! I’d love to get my hands on it one day!”
She clenched her hand into a tight fist.
“Ohhh, I get it now.”
“But you’re a witch, Miss, yet you don’t show any interest in mandragoras at all.” Eno looked at me inquisitively.
“My goal is to live an easy life, you see. I don’t have a goal of being the best witch ever.”
If I’d wanted to mature as a witch, my three hundred years of leisurely killing slimes wouldn’t have happened.
“But where would a talking mandragora be? Trees over three hundred years old probably exist, so I wouldn’t doubt the existence of a three-hundred-year-old mandragora.”
“It would be no problem at all if I knew where they were. As you know, the mandragora’s ability to move around means it will run away. It should usually be underground, and it is incredibly difficult to pinpoint its habitat.”
That was a good point. It was like a ninja constantly using earth ninjutsu. It’d be a miracle if anyone found it, especially in a world without security cameras.
“The tracks it leaves as it moves are distinctive, like raised ridges in a field, I’ve heard.”
“Huh. I’m surprised there are plants out there like tha— Ah?”
My gaze suddenly darted to the ceiling. There wasn’t anything that caught my attention up there, but it was a habit I had when recalling things.
“I feel like I’ve seen something like that recently…”
“What did you say?!” Eno immediately squeezed my hand and shook it around. “Where?! Where did you see it?! Please tell me!”
“Wait, wait! I could be wrong, so don’t get your hopes up!” I’d hate to disappoint her, so I gave a disclaimer first. “Well… I thought I saw grass moving around on the ground, and then something that looked like a human popped out… And then…it spoke.”
“That has to be it! That’s a mandragora that’s lived for three hundred years and gained human intelligence!”
“When it saw me, it said meeting a witch was the worst thing, or something like that, then ran away…”
“That is it, one hundred and twenty percent! Any creature that grows in the ground like that and gets scared when it sees a witch has to be mandragora-related!”
That was awfully specific; I would sure hate for there to be more than one.
“And where was this? Its location is vital!”
The look in Eno’s eyes was terrifying. The red flame of passion was burning within them.
Well, less passion and more pressure on me, specifically…
“You are hounding Madam Teacher too much! You must remember your manners, even if you are good friends!”
Halkara took it as danger to my person and cut in, but—
“Some things are more important than manners!!!!!”
“Oh, um…okay…”
Halkara succumbed to Eno’s drive and stepped down. Wait, that’s not why you should be backing down!
“Hmm, where was it…? Oh yeah.”
“Where was it?! Where?!?!”
I succumbed, too.
“In the garden of Beelzebub the demon… I say ‘garden,’ but it’s practically a forest. Actually, it’s been left untouched for centuries, so it’s just a natural wood at this point…”
“Oh-ho! I see, then! Very well! Thank you for providing this information!”
She finally let me go. I was free…
I doubted this was something to get all worked up over, but Eno immediately started briskly packing a cloth bag.
“What are you doing…?”
“I will depart today! I will leave this store in the hands of another supervisor for the time being!”
“Um, you know how far away the demon lands are, right?”
“I have a contract with a transport wyvern, so I will use that. I must go as quickly as possible. I’ll be fine!”
She was rushing around in a hurry, so Halkara and I left the shop. We woke Flatorte, who was taking a nap in a café—probably because we took too long—and went home.
“Is a living mandragora really that exciting?” I asked Halkara as we rode on Flatorte.
“I am an elf, so this is something I shy away from, but I believe there are quite a number of witches who want it.”
“Why would being an elf make you shy away?”
“It is taboo for an elf to take the life of any intelligent being living in the forest. Even if it might be a plant, I cannot turn a speaking mandragora into ingredients for medicine~”
“Oh…”
Eno had strong-armed me into spilling the beans, but maybe that was a bad thing…
Now I started to recognize the gravity of the situation.
“Wait, when you say turning mandragora into ingredients, you don’t mean like borrowing a bit of its leaves or something like that…?”
“It depends on the witch, but I believe there are people who grind down the entire thing.”
That was bad.
From the way Eno was acting, she was probably going to use the whole thing…
At the worst, I’d be an accomplice to a murder…
And Eno would be breaking and entering into Beelzebub’s house, so I didn’t know if she would get out of this unscathed herself. Someone with common sense would have known it was impossible and given up when they heard it was in the garden at Beelzebub’s house, or at least gained permission to investigate the garden before acting.
But when I thought about Eno’s behavior, it was entirely possible that she would explore the garden without Beelzebub’s consent.
The mandragora was in danger.
Eno, who was acting with no regard for herself, was also in danger.
I had to stop her!
“Flatorte, we’re changing direction… Fly to the demon lands…to Beelzebub’s house…”
“Yes, Mistress, understood!”
We rushed straight toward Beelzebub. But our speed dropped slightly.
“Mistress, Halkara might fall if I go faster, so I want you to secure her with rope.”
“You’re right… We should take care of that just in case…”
Always drive carefully, even if you’re in a hurry.
We sped straight to Beelzebub’s manor.
We arrived later into the night, so she was home from work.
“Another sudden visit. I’d at least want you to bring along Falfa and Shalsha if you do this.”
“Your garden might be in trouble!”
“Hmm…? I don’t understand…”
I explained the situation as simply as I could.
And then, she looked annoyed with me.
“Had you not told her about the mandragora in my garden, then this would not have happened…”
“Y-you may be right, but… She just kept pressing and pressing me for answers… She was too much for me…”
It ended up sounding like an excuse, but anyone would have caved under that interrogation.
“Well, we mustn’t cry over spilled milk. For the time being, I will ensure that the strange witch will not be torn to shreds should she be discovered within my property.”
“I appreciate it.”
Now Eno wouldn’t be killed. That didn’t mean the forest still didn’t pose any danger, though.
“If possible, I’d like to put the mandragora in our care before she finds it. That would be the safest thing to do.”
Halkara the elf was taking part in our strategy this time, too. Flatorte was sitting and staring out into space.
“However… This is the first time I’m hearing about such a thing living in my garden as well. I only know so much about my own garden…”
Beelzebub looked out the window toward the forest. It was dark, so there wasn’t much to see.
“That’s true… It’s not like we know where the mandragora is, so even if we want to take care of it, just finding it would be difficult…”
It might be a garden, but it was huge. It would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. But actually, we were searching for a single mandragora from a huge forest, so maybe it was even harder than that.
“You say a lone witch named Eno is coming to search for it? Then perhaps it would be faster if I find this Eno person and tell her to not enter my property. If I do, then she may obey me out of fright. It would be coming from the demon minister of agriculture, after all.”
Beelzebub looked confident, but Eno was on a rampage. Would she listen? I got the impression she would go on with her work in secret…
“By the way, is there a barrier or something around the manor?”
“There is one around the manor itself, but the garden is large, so I’ve left it alone.”
I could use barrier magic as well, but not something this large. There were designated entrances in towns and villages, so I could selectively reinforce those areas, but anyone could enter from anywhere in a forest.
“I understand the situation for now. It’s just a little witch girl, no? I can manage her one way or another.”
Despite how worried I was, Beelzebub seemed undaunted. To her, a human witch probably wasn’t the least bit scary. I was probably an extremely rare exception.
“This Eno will come on a wyvern, yes? Then there is still time yet before she arrives.”
“Would you mind if we kept watch here for a few days?”
“Sure. Use any room you like.”
After that, nothing happened for four days.
Apparently, Eno hadn’t come to Beelzebub’s garden at all.
“’Tis quite peaceful, no? Our fears were groundless. What a relief.”
Beelzebub went off to work as she always did. We kept watch in the meanwhile, but nothing too out of the ordinary happened. We were just lazing around a noble’s house.
Eno had seemed enthusiastic about this, but maybe her fervor had cooled somewhere along the way. Maybe she got scared of the thought of going into the garden of the demon minister of agriculture.
“We call this crossing our bridges before we get to them. You may return home once you understand that we’ll be all right. I have off tomorrow—shall we go sightseeing or something together?”
“Well, if it turns out our crisis management efforts were for nothing, then that would be ideal.”
—But then, the next morning, something unbelievable happened.
A whole congregation of dozens of witches had gathered outside of Beelzebub’s garden!
Some were wearing black hats like me; some had brooms—there were all sorts. But I could generally tell they were all of the same trade.
“Wh-what is the meaning of this?!?!” Beelzebub cried, unsurprisingly. This was her property, after all… Not a public park…
And then Eno emerged from among the witches.
“Are you Miss Beelzebub? My apologies for showing up uninvited today. I heard tell that the greatest quality of mandragora lives in this garden, so I rushed here to obtain it. Illegally, if I must!”
She was very polite about telling us she was going to commit a crime!
“No—go home, go home! Why do you have a whole entourage anyway?”
“I contacted and gathered all the witches from across the land so that we may find the mandragora with certainty! We have agreed to take equal shares once we find it!”
The other witches nodded. Everyone else looked just as enthusiastic as Eno.
“This is the dream of any witch!”
“I promise I will compensate you afterward!”
“I will take on this challenge, even if it means my life!”
“I never thought a moving mandragora was real! I’ve been searching for a hundred years; this is the greatest news!”
This was too much!
Oh no. Mandragoras really are incredible things to witches.
“The witches’ union will now catch ourselves a mandragora! Commence the operation!”
The witches, including Eno, all marched into the forest one after the other.
“Eno! Stop! I command you as your senior!”
When I called out to her, Eno stopped and turned around. Would she listen to me?
“Miss… I’m sorry! This is for the sake of creating the world’s greatest medicine!”
Nope!
Then she pressed into the forest, too.
“Hey! This is not funny, you scoundrels! I’ll burn this garden to the ground!”
“Stop! Don’t do that! You’ll just kill the mandragora!”
I ended up having to hold Beelzebub back.
“Now that it’s come to this, we have two options. We could find all the witches, beat them to a pulp, and arrest them, or we could find the mandragora ourselves first,” Beelzebub said.
We might end up with corpses on our hands if we went with the former, so…
“Let’s go with the latter.”
The rest of us reluctantly went into the garden.
Furthermore, Halkara and I were working together. She was with me because some of the plants growing in there were hazardous enough to put her in danger.
The other two, Beelzebub and Flatorte, were searching on their own.
Since I had Halkara with me this time, I could use that elf knowledge of hers. “Halkara, do mandragoras have any special characteristics? Like the places they grow and stuff?”
“They do have some, but this mandragora can clearly move freely. So I’m not sure where we might find it.”
She was right. It was intelligent, after all… I guess it wouldn’t stick to only damp spots or something like that.
“By the way, Madam Teacher.”
“What is it, Halkara?”
“There’s something like a vine tying me down. Am I being attacked?”
“It sure didn’t take long for weird plants to start assaulting you!”
A plant with tentacle-like vines was reaching out for her. I could easily tear them off, but you couldn’t let your guard down for a moment…
“Wow, the plants in the demon lands sure are scary~ Oh, that mushroom over there is giving off deadly poison spores~ Perhaps we should make a detour~”
“Halkara, I think the whole forest itself is after you…!”
This was so strange. When I’d come into the garden, it was much calmer than this. Halkara was a magnet for these things. It wasn’t like she herself was careless—the danger just came to her.
I don’t know how the planets were aligned when she was born, but I was starting to think that was why this always happened. I would be powerless to stop it.
“I’m sorry; it seems plants like me because I’m an elf. Oh, that one there preys on small animals and melts them into a soup. If you reach out like this—”
“No need to test it! There’s no need!”
“Ahhh, no! My clothes were just about to melt!”
“Why do things always trend towards the erotic?!”
At this rate, I’d have my hands full just trying to keep Halkara safe… Maybe it was a mistake bringing her along?
But Halkara’s gaze was trained carefully on the ground.
“At the very least, it doesn’t seem like there are any signs that the mandragora came this way. The way the moss is growing suggests that nothing has stepped on it.”
“Thank you! That’s the kind of information I’m after!”
“And this big tree has very thick roots. It would be difficult to move underground by a tree like this. The roots would be in the way.”
Oh, that made sense. I guess it would be hard for the mandragora to go through spots where roots from other plants formed a wall.
“This kind of tree is everywhere, so if we disregard all the places where they grow, we might be able to narrow down the location. It could use its roots to walk on the surface, but it would be very easy to spot, so it’s likely staying put.”
“You are so clearheaded today! You’re so smart!”
“This is my profession, after all. If I could not play an active part here, where could I— Oh, another vine’s wrapping around me again.”
Marveling at how long Halkara had managed to stay alive, I pulled the vine apart.
And so Halkara and I narrowed down our search.
But our opponents were using human-wave tactics to beat us with numbers. Each witch had her own designated area to search within. We came across enemy witches several times along the way.
“Hmph… So you are the Witch of the Highlands… Greetings. I am the Witch of the Treetop.”
“Oh, hello… I’m the Witch of the Highlands.”
“So you’re the Witch of the Highlands, eh?! Nice to meetcha. I’m the Witch of the Mistletoe.”
“Oh, uh, hi, I’m the Witch of the Highlands…”
We met them, but it never broke out into battle.
Witches were either a kind of intellectual or they just dealt with others softly. Either way, the majority of them were very polite.
Some of the witches we met here and there had been tied down by the vines like Halkara was; we promised them that they would be safe, but then we just left them. Sorry, but I want to keep down the number of enemies.
The area of our search within the spacious garden was gradually shrinking.
—And soon enough, Eno and I came face-to-face.
“I see you think this spot is the one, too, Miss.” Eno had her eyes trained intently on her feet.
“Eno, this mandragora is almost exactly like a human. That’s why I need you to stop trying to put it in danger.”
“A three-hundred-year-old mandragora is purely botanical, Miss. And at the top of every witch’s wish list!”
Rrrgh… We just see it different ways.
Sure—it was still a plant. But this couldn’t be settled because of our cultural differences. For me, the girl I’d met once already was a human.
“A three-hundred-year-old mandragora has leaves that glow with life, and they say that you can tell what a noble plant it is from a single glance. I am a witch! I swear I will find it!”
“Sorry, but I’m not going to let you!”
Both of us looked down and stared hard at our feet.
I would find the mandragora before Eno could. Once I did, I could insist on finders keepers!
It looked like some of the witches had also determined that this area might be it, so the number of people around gradually grew.
Flatorte even came by.
“There are a lot of people here, so I figured there must be something here, too.”
That just makes you a rubbernecker…
But since we were now up against a whole crowd, we were at more of a disadvantage…
“Crap… At this rate…”
“Oh, Madam Teacher, that mandragora is perfectly human, isn’t it? It can speak our language, and it even ran away when it saw you and realized you were a witch, right?” Halkara asked, still searching with me.
“Yeah, that’s right. Really, you should say she’s unequivocally human.”
“Then let’s work backward from that.”
It seemed Halkara had some kind of idea.
In the next moment, she took a deep breath—
“Oh, mandragoooraaaaaa! You’re in dangerrr! Life-threatening dangerrrrrr!”
—and yelled at the top of her lungs!
“Your only hope is to come under the protection of the great Witch of the Highlands here! Please leap into the great Azusa’s bosom for solace!”
Halkara’s voice echoed throughout the forest.
In the next moment, I saw the ground swelling up!
A leaf poked out from the ground, just like the one I’d seen before.
“There it is!”
“Catch it!”
“It’s so fast!”
“Hey! Stop running into me!”
The witches were trying to get a hold of it, but it was a lot faster than they thought it would be. They couldn’t stop it at all and just ran headfirst into one another.
The ridge of earth weaved among them—
And when it reached my feet, a girl jumped out!
No doubt about it! This is the mandragora!
“H-help!”
The girl clung to me!
She was pretty warm for a plant; I could feel her body temperature. But that didn’t matter. More importantly, she was asking for my help. That was all.
What should I do now? The answer came to me naturally.
“I will watch after this girl! If you have a problem with that, then come at me! But please don’t if you can help it!” I announced sharply. The last sentence of my statement wasn’t very strong, but I was a pacifist, so there wasn’t much I could do about it.
The whole area fell silent, as though time had stopped with my voice.
I was glad that it didn’t seem like any of the witches was going to attack me.
“Are you sure, Miss…? You do know that’s a bona fide three-hundred-year-old mandragora, right…? A witch can live in great luxury with that,” Eno said to me, trying to make sure of my decision.
Ugh… The witches in this world were still thinking of this girl as a plant…
“Sorry, hold on a sec. There’s no need to worry, okay?”
After warning the mandragora girl, I spun her around and held her out to face Eno.
“Ahhh! Don’t hold me out at her! Help me!” The mandragora kicked and flailed.
“It’s fine; it’s fine! I’m not going to do anything bad!”
She sure was tomboyish…
“Eno, let me ask you this: Are you telling me you can shave away at this cute, innocent little girl and turn her into medicine?”
The mandragora sniffled and looked at Eno with tears welling in her eyes.
“Ngh! That just makes me feel guilty… I was actually imagining something more deformed, but she’s so cute…”
Good, she was still open to discussion.
“That’s exactly right. Now that she’s asked me to help, I have no choice but to protect her. I’d be the worst person if I let her go, wouldn’t I?”
There were other witches nodding, so I did have some agreement.
“I never thought it’d be so cute.”
“Yes, she’s adorable.”
“Totally adorable.”
“She’s so cute, I want to take her home… I want to keep her…”
“I want to have her in nothing but an apron…”
Yikes. It sounded like a few of them were into some weird stuff! I had to keep her!
Eno, their representative, sighed in defeat.
“Regardless of what you’re planning on doing with her, you still got a hold of the mandragora first. We lose this time. We don’t have the right to take something from the witch who obtained it, at least not without good reason.”
“I suppose this settles the matter, then?”
“W-wait!” the mandragora girl in my arms yelled.
She then took her hair—I mean one of the leaves growing from her head that looked like hair—and ripped it up into tiny pieces.
“I can’t give you my root, since it’s my body, but I can give one of my leaves to the witches. It’ll grow back eventually…” She held it out to Eno.
“Oh, are you sure…?” Eno slowly approached the mandragora.
“So in exchange, promise not to go after me, okay?!”
“Yes. I promise! I, Eno, the Witch of the Grotto, will no longer go after you!” After making her announcement, Eno took the pieces of leaf from the girl. “Wow, this is from the leaves of the legendary mandragora…”
The other witches also seemed keenly interested, surrounding Eno and peering at the leaves in her hand. They’d probably split them among themselves later. They could settle that on their own.
“Phew, I guess that puts an end to th—”
“Wait.” Beelzebub arrived, apparently very put out.
She had something in her hand—it looked like a rolled-up piece of paper.
She went over to Eno and handed it to her.
“Erm… What might this be…?”
“This is a bill for entering my garden. It’s one hundred thousand gold in the human currency per person—so that amount times the lot of you. There is no group discount.”
Eno was rich, so she could easily pay it, but the other witches were starting to murmur.
“Oh, I don’t have much to spare this month…”
“I think I’m starting to catch a cold, so maybe I should leave early…”
“Okay?” pressed Beelzebub. “You will pay, and if not, I will begin taking further measures.”
The one who had been most inconvenienced by all of this was Beelzebub, the owner of the garden subjected to this whole commotion. This was really more like compensation for damages.
“A-all right… I’ll take responsibility and pay…”
“Mm, ’twould be troublesome to collect from each of you individually, so as the leader, you should take care of everyone’s portion.”
Not even Eno would fight back against a demon minister at this point. The mandragora case was over.
“And the park is closed for today now! You have three minutes to leave the grounds! If you do not, you will pay extra for staying late!”
The witches scattered like baby spiders at Beelzebub’s announcement—but then came the icing on the troublesome cake.
An actual spider appeared before the witches.
It was just like Beelzebub had described before—as big as an adult human’s arm span.
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
“Gyaaaaaaahh!”
“Waaaaaaaaah!”
The witches screamed and ran.
“What—? It’s just a large spider. They don’t attack humans.”
“Hey, you might be used to seeing them, Beelzebub, but this is the stuff of nightmares!”
The spider seemed indifferent to the witches and vanished into the forest. Guess it really was harmless.
The danger was gone, and I released the mandragora girl from my grip.
“Well, we can finally relax now. Though there still might be witches out there using guerrilla tactics to try and capture you, so you should be careful.”
But before I could finish my sentence, the girl was clinging to me again.
“I’m scared. Hide me… You said you’d help me, right? You won’t go back on your word, right?”
She was right. This was no time for simple catch and release.
“Okay, let’s go to Beelzebub’s manor for the moment. I want to hear your story.”
“It’s been such a long time since I’ve been in a building.”
She was a plant, after all.
We went inside the manor. Now that I was relaxed, I realized how unexpectedly tired I was…
On the way in, I carried the mandragora girl on my back.
“I get tired of burrowing through the ground and walking around. I don’t want to if I don’t have to.”
I guess that’s because plants never move much, period.
“That was an excellent play, Halkara.”
When we came back to the manor, the first thing I did was commend my elf apprentice.
We all sat down in the reception parlor. Since there were no maids or butlers in the manor, Beelzebub went to prepare the tea.
“If we hadn’t decided to let her find us instead, then she might’ve been caught by one of Eno’s. We would’ve been in real trouble if that happened.”
“Heh-heh. I’m smart, too. Quite clever.”
“Well, I wouldn’t give yourself too much credit. I might start seeing you as a problem again, so don’t push your luck.”
Halkara typically ended up failing when she got too carried away.
“Well, they say to leave the plants to elves. I’ve come this far with my smarts and my good luck.”
Good luck…? I wasn’t sure if Halkara’s luck was good or bad. Which was it…? I had a strong feeling that she had the luck of the devil himself. If not, she’d probably already be dead…
But the mandragora girl was extremely wary of the bumbling elf. She hadn’t even left my side. She wasn’t clinging to me like a child did to a parent, but she probably felt this was the safest space for her.
“I hate elves… Elves pick plants all the time. Including mandragoras.”
Ahhh, plants would see races that used them as predators.
“I understand, but I have to eat either plants or animals in order to live. I’m good-natured. I am not going to attack you.”
“You’re an elf and that’s scary enough. Stay away! Ooooh, grrrrr!”
She was threatening her… This was bad in a very concrete, physical sense.
Then Beelzebub brought back the tea, which meant the gang was all here now.
“So then, mandragora, what’s your name?” Flatorte asked. Right, we didn’t know yet.
“My name is Mandragora.”
“Idiot. That’s your species. I, Flatorte, am asking what your personal name is.”
“I don’t have one of those. I don’t need one. The other plants don’t talk, so I don’t have to introduce myself.”
I see… This girl doesn’t have a concept of a proper name.
“Huh. But without one, we’d have a hard time calling for you. All right, I, the great Flatorte, shall choose for you. We’ll shorten ‘Mandragora’ and call you ‘Drago’!”
“That name sounds too much like ‘dragon;’ it’d just confuse people. Idiot.”
“Wh-what did you say?! All blue dragons are like this!”
Did she just call all blue dragons idiots…?
But it was true that picking a name for her would make it easier for us to converse. What kind of name should we pick…?
“Then why don’t you pick, Azusa? The Witch of the Highlands, was it?” the girl asked from my lap. She was small and not all that heavy, but this was too close.
“Mm. It makes sense for the one who first found her to name her,” Beelzebub said reasonably.
More like the plant found me, though. “Name her? That’s a pretty big job…” She looks like a girl, so she should have a cute name. A cute name… I’ll give it my best shot! “How about Gina?”
The girl scrunched up her face. She wanted a different one!
“H-how about Cornet or something…?”
She scrunched up her face again. This was difficult for no reason! I didn’t even know what kind of stuff she liked!
“How about Great Running Mandragora?”
Halkara suggested the kind of name that belonged to a totally different category.
As expected, the girl growled, “Grrr! Be quiet, elf!”
“Okay, then… What kind of stuff do you like? I’ll try and put that in your name.”
“Dirt and sand and water and sunlight.”
That was a plantlike answer!
It was hard to think of a cute name with dirt in it! Doi has the kanji character for dirt in it… No, that’s a last name. And it doesn’t really fit in this world.
Another word for dirt was soil. That wasn’t very cute, either. As for sand…sand…
“Okay, Sandra! Your name is Sandra!”
“Sandra… Hey, that’s not bad.”
All right, that settled it! I’m honestly relieved we picked a name so quickly!
“Mistress, that name sort of sounds like the sun dragons. They might get mixed up.”
Those existed…? There were all sorts of dragons.
“I like it, so it doesn’t matter! Stand down! Grrr!” Sandra was acting hostile to Flatorte. She was still a little wild…
I was happy to see she was satisfied with her name.
—Once we decided on Sandra’s name, we finally got around to talking about her life story.
“After being alive for such a long time, I suddenly started to look like this.”
It didn’t sound like Sandra remembered when she turned into what she was now.
“And once I learned that there were people out there looking for mandragoras like me, I started going around to find a place where they wouldn’t catch me. I learned how to speak from living near human houses and listening in on them. I saw humans wearing clothes, too, so I copied them.”
It sounded like Sandra gained knowledge as she moved around.
“And when I saw that this forest was completely untouched, I thought it would be safe and started living here. And then I met you, and I was so surprised to see a witch… And now we’re here.”
Her whole life story was over already. It wasn’t like she had much curiosity for anything, so she had apparently just lived in the dense sea of trees that was Beelzebub’s garden for such a long time.
“A mandragora, hmm. I doubt there are any like you recorded in the demon census. This is one of the rarest of cases.”
Someone like her didn’t even exist among demonkind, a category that included all sorts of races.
But that made sense. If the demons recognized her as a human, then the witches wouldn’t have come after her in droves to harvest her.
“Mm. And, Sandra, what are you going to do now?” Beelzebub went straight to the point.
“What do you mean by that…?”
“You’re a plant. You lived all this time in my garden, which means you are fine living there—are you going to stay in the garden? I would not call plants in my garden illegal squatters, so you may stay here; what will you do?”
Sandra drooped her head slightly and fell silent. She seemed troubled.
She didn’t seem particularly keen on staying here.
“I’ve lived here for a long time, but… The sunlight isn’t very strong here… And it’s not very fun… It’s hard to grow…,” Sandra muttered quietly to herself. “That’s why…I thought it might be a good idea to move elsewhere… But I’d hate to be caught by witches again… So I want to say somewhere safe…”
Beelzebub glanced at me.
And then Halkara glanced at me.
Ohhh, fine, fine. I get it.
“What’s going on?” asked Flatorte. She didn’t understand at all. That was to be expected from her.
“Sandra, would you like to come to the highlands I live in? We have a vegetable garden, so you can live there. We do have extra rooms, so you can stay in one of those, too.”
For a moment, Sandra’s eyes sparkled.
But her expression immediately changed back to a dubious one.
“R-really? Is that really a good environment to grow in…?”
“I don’t know if it’s a good environment for mandragoras, but if it doesn’t suit you, then you can move elsewhere, right? You can give it a shot. There’s plenty of sunlight for you to bathe in.”
“If you say so, then…I guess I’ll try… T-take me with you…”
We’d come to an understanding.
When I thought about it, had this girl never met me, she would have spent the rest of her days living quietly in Beelzebub’s garden, so the logical progression was that I would now take care of her. I’d even named her.
I’d have woken up feeling awful if she’d ended up caught by a bad witch and turned into ingredients for medicine.
As long as she stayed in my garden, I doubted other witches would come to harvest her. I could put a barrier around the garden; it would work out somehow.
“All right, Sandra. Starting today, you’re now a member of the house in the highlands.”
I patted Sandra’s head, and she didn’t seem so displeased herself.
“Yay! Our family is bigger now!”
Halkara was delighted, but Sandra huffed at her.
“What family?! An elf isn’t a mandragora! I’ll just be in the garden! Grrr!”
“Ah… I suppose she doesn’t take kindly to anyone but you, Madam Teacher…”
Halkara seemed apprehensive, but she might be right… And if Sandra was hostile to Halkara, then it would be the same for Flatorte…
“Mistress, she’s too cheeky,” said the dragon. “Make her run fifteen laps around Flatta to beat that temper into shape.”
“This has nothing to do with you! Grrrrr!”
“Hmph! If I breathe on you with the breath of the blue dragon, you’d be nothing but an ice block! Earth freezes, too!”
“Th-that’s unfair… Going for the earth is against the rules…”
Sandra hid behind me. She was just a small girl when it came to things like this. And it appeared she could walk normally, too, even though she was supposed to have roots and not feet.
“I can’t escape to places without earth…”
She could walk, but it sounded like that was more trouble than moving inside the earth.
“Sandra, I have one condition for you if you’re going to come with me.”
I raised a finger.
“What is it…? Tell me…”
“Play nice with the others living in the house in the highlands. I don’t mind the occasional fight, but you have to make up afterward.”
Then Sandra fell silent. She was the type to clam up when things weren’t going well for her.
“If you can’t do that, then I can’t take you with me. You might’ve lived on your own as a plant this whole time, but there are countless animals who can talk like you in this world. There’s no need to be friends with all of them—it’s not even possible—but getting on well with the people you meet makes life easier.”
Sandra looked like she was having a hard time with this, but I think she was more worried about embarrassing herself by giving in or something like that. She already knew her answer.
“Fine… I’ll try to be nice, so take me with you…”
“Great, glad to hear it.” I patted Sandra’s head again. “Glad to have you as a part of the family, Sandra.”
“Yeah, thanks, Azusa…”
There was a great big smile on Sandra’s face.
She really looked like a kid like that. The grass on her head was just starting to look like hair.
“But why are you so sweet and sour despite living on your own for so long~?” Halkara didn’t need to ask that.
“I’m not being sweet! Especially not with you! Don’t you even know what sweet ’n’ sour means?! Grrr! Grrr!”
“Ahhh! I offended her! Wait, how do you even understand the concept of sweet and sour when you’re a plant?! What sort of earthy nutrients have you been absorbing?!”
Halkara’s commentary was right on the nose, but I didn’t want her to rile Sandra up any more. She wasn’t a very straightforward girl, after all.
I was about to have more trouble on my hands, but that was par for the course for the house in the highlands.
I’d gotten even more capable, too.
Sandra really ended up planting herself in the corner of our vegetable garden.
“Yeah, this isn’t so bad. There’s nothing here to block me, and it feels like the daylight hours are long here.”
I could hear her voice coming from inside the earth, which was kind of surreal.
“Then you’ll just stay put there, right? You don’t have to come live in the house, right?”
“I can’t sleep on beds, so I’m fine here. I’ll go in the building when I feel like it.”
I was unsure if I could consider this lifestyle as being part of the family, but we could communicate, so I’d think of her as such.
Then Falfa and Shalsha appeared with a watering can.
“It’s watering time.”
“Water, Miss Sandra~ ”
Shalsha gave Sandra a little shower.
“Ahhh, that feels great. Relaxing. Thanks, thanks. Oh, that’s enough. Any more will cause my roots to rot.”
It sure was convenient to have the plant tell us the proper dose of water.
“Mom, this plant is extremely precious. It’s worth observing.”
Shalsha was trying to start an observation diary. Wait, she isn’t a morning glory, you know…
“Mommy, I’m glad our family is bigger!” Falfa’s reaction was so purehearted.
“Yeah. Shalsha, treat Sandra like family, like you do with Falfa.”
“Understood. I will without fail.” Shalsha nodded.
“Oh, I need water twice a day. Please.” Sandra was still talking more as a plant than a girl. “I don’t need water when it rains. I’ll tell you what to do about that when it happens.”
“Understood. I will raise you with my big sis and me.” Shalsha nodded vigorously.
All sorts of dividing lines were starting to blur… But accepting it all was the way of our house.
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