The master of the wine workshop begged Witch-ko, "Please, help us."
It seemed that after handing over their wine to the Imperial Prince, they had none left to deliver to the royal family.
If they were in trouble, they had my sympathy, and I wanted to lend a hand.
Thinking along the same lines, Witch-ko asked him in return.
"...Help you how?"
"Think of it as saving our lives and sell us some of the Saint Nectar you're carrying, miss. You're a Saint Nectar merchant, aren't you?"
"A Saint Nectar merchant...!"
Ah, Witch-ko's eyes lit up with excitement.
She was clearly delighted to be called a Saint Nectar merchant.
"I'm well aware that you're transporting Saint Nectar to the Royal Capital on Count Turmburg's orders. A noble's command is absolute, and I know you can't just part with it easily."
It seemed the master was under the mistaken impression that we were on a mission to transport Saint Nectar to the Royal Capital on the orders of Count Turmburg—in other words, Lord Manfred of the Tower City.
Given that a merchant carrying a Saint Nectar trade permit had shown up at a wine workshop right before the grand wedding, it was only natural for him to assume that.
In truth, we had only ducked into the wine workshop to lay low.
The master bowed his head low and continued.
"I understand how hard it is to share such precious Saint Nectar. Even so, just a little is fine... Won't you please sell us just a tiny bit of it?"
"Sure."
"...Right, of course. There's no way you could just hand over Saint Nectar, which is practically worth its weight in gold these days... Wait, what!?"
"I really don't mind."
Witch-ko answered with a completely straight face.
Her sheer, unwavering composure left the master entirely flabbergasted.
"R-Really!?"
"I'm a Beast-ear Race Saint Nectar merchant. Something like this is easy. In exchange, though, I have a few conditions."
"Money? If it's gold you want, I'll pay every coin I have! If that's still not enough, I swear I'll pay the rest later!"
"I don't really care about money that much... Ah, hold on a second."
With that, Witch-ko took a few steps back from the master and his crew.
Turning her back to them, she whispered to me.
"Hey, Alraune, we already have plenty of money, so I don't think we need any more... What should we do?"
"Rather than money, right now, I think I'd prefer, information about the Imperial Prince."
"Got it."
Having finished conferring with me while I posed as a potted houseplant, Witch-ko turned back to the craftsmen with a solemn expression to present her terms.
"My conditions are that you tell me everything you know about the Empire. Also, let me have some wine to drink."
Rufe... you really just wanted to try drinking wine, didn't you?
I had a feeling that might be the case.
"If you're truly fine with that, miss, we'd be more than grateful, but... out of curiosity, how much Saint Nectar can you spare us?"
"As much as you want."
"...Huh?"
"I'll give you as much as you like. You're going to use it to make Saint Nectar Wine, right?"
The master and his apprentices exchanged bewildered glances at Witch-ko's bold claim.
After a brief pause, the master braced himself and spoke.
"Miss, you arrived in this city with a few carriages, right?"
"Nope, I flew."
"Flew!?"
"Oops, my mistake. I walked."
"Y-You walked...? Which means... how many Saint Nectar barrels did you bring with you...?"
"Not a single one."
At those words, the master and his men sank straight to their knees on the floor.
They looked as though their desperate final hope—a straw they had clutched at when pleading with Witch-ko—had just been thoroughly crushed.
Thinking Witch-ko didn't have a single drop of Saint Nectar on her, it made sense that they were in complete shock.
Still, I really wished they would hear us out to the end before despairing.
Parting my bud, I decided to speak up in Witch-ko's stead.
"The Saint Nectar, is something, I will provide."
Witch-ko had made up her mind to give them the nectar.
If so, there was no longer any reason for me to hide.
"Let us, strike a deal. I will gladly, share the Saint Nectar. In exchange, please, cooperate with us."
"Wh... That massive plant is... You can't be serious... An A-Alraune!?"
Leaving someone completely slack-jawed was the only way to describe the scene.
Laying eyes on me, an Alraune sprouting from a potted plant, the master and his workers trembled uncontrollably, their eyes wide with disbelief.
"We ought to help one another in times of need. So please, keep my existence, a secret between us, all right?"
Truth be told, this wine workshop was renowned even in the Royal Capital.
I, Iris, had never tasted its vintage myself, but the royal family weren't the only ones who loved it—my father, the Duke of Edelweiss, was fond of the wine from this place as well.
Because of that, back during the Saint Iris era, I had once sent Father a bottle of their wine as a gift.
Busy working all across the kingdom from my base in the Royal Capital, I rarely had the chance to return home to Edelweiss.
A letter from Mother had mentioned how overjoyed Father was to receive a present from the daughter he longed to see, yet rarely ever could.
That was why I didn't want this workshop to go under.
If trouble had found them, I wanted to do whatever I could to help resolve it.
Besides—the Empire seemed to be involved in why the wine had vanished.
I didn't know the full story yet, but there was no way I could just turn a blind eye and let it slide.
After that, we sat down together to talk things through.
At first, everyone had been terrified by my presence as an Alraune, but given the sheer urgency of their situation, they seemed to accept it remarkably fast.
Perhaps it also helped that, alongside the fame of the Saint Nectar, my own reputation had spread. Even so, it was a little unsettling that they treated me less like a monster and more like a benevolent goddess who bestowed Saint Nectar upon the world.
I cast a subtle glance toward the corner of the room.
A few of the young workshop hands over there appeared to be reverently praying in my direction from a distance.
I could faintly hear mutters like, "Lady Alraune truly exists!" What was that even about...?
For now... I decided it was best to pretend I hadn't seen anything.
Pulling myself together, I focused on my conversation with the master.
According to him, the situation went something like this:
"Up until today, the Imperial Prince and his entourage were staying in this city. They were supposed to be on their way to the Imperial Princess's wedding in the Royal Capital, and since it was such a joyous occasion, the whole town was celebrating like a festival."
"So that's why, there were drunkards, sleeping in the streets."
"The prince's party only set off this morning. But then disaster struck—the prince took an extraordinary liking to our workshop's wine."
Normally, learning that a royal prince fancied a winery's vintage would be cause for celebration.
However, the fact that they were facing a critical shortage meant things hadn't ended on such a happy note.
"The prince and his soldiers seized every last drop of wine our workshop had in stock. What's worse, he merely claimed he'd pay for it eventually, making it practically highway robbery. We tried to resist, but they threatened us at swordpoint, telling us we'd lose our heads if we dared defy them..."
The Glanz Empire was an authoritarian realm where royal authority held far more absolute power than in the Kingdom of Gardenia.
If Prince Kintora, widely hailed as the next emperor, declared he wanted wine, imperial subjects would eagerly surrender their finest wares.
Because the Empire operated that way, the prince's retinue had likely assumed they could demand tribute from commoners like the master in the exact same fashion.
Still, acting as if they were back in their own territory while in a foreign land put the imperial soldiers firmly in the wrong.
This is the Kingdom of Gardenia, not your personal playground, so learn some manners!
"If that is what happened, I will gladly help. Has the wine, truly run out completely?"
"We managed to stash a portion away in the cellar, but it's only about half of what we're contracted to deliver."
They had a reserve, but the volume simply wasn't enough.
If they failed to deliver the promised wine to the Royal Capital now, severe punishment was all but guaranteed.
Given the timing, the vintage was almost certainly intended for the grand wedding banquet.
With the nation's prestige on the line, botching such a pivotal delivery would undoubtedly bring harsh retribution upon their heads.
The lives of commoners weighed tragically light against the whims of royalty.
As a former Saint, I felt compelled to save the master and his workers somehow—and so, I got right to work.
His eyes glued to the barrel filled to the brim with my nectar, the master spoke in an awed, trembling voice.
"This is Saint Nectar... How divine...!"
"Please try, blending this, with the remaining wine."
The master poured wine into a glass and carefully dripped the golden Saint Nectar inside.
The shimmering, honey-like liquid swirled into the rich, purplish-red vintage.
Once the two liquids were thoroughly blended, the master tipped the glass back and took a tentative sip.
An instant later, he let out a thunderous roar of pure delight.
"It's incredible! We can actually pull this off!"
The young apprentices erupted into enthusiastic cheers.
What was more, the worker who had been praying toward me earlier was now clutching a red flower in one hand and a bizarre wooden carving in the other. What in the world was that supposed to be...?
"In the Tower City, there were people, who loved to drink Saint Nectar, mixed with other spirits. That is why, I thought it would pair wonderfully, with wine as well."
"The rich sweetness of the Saint Nectar marries seamlessly with the wine's natural acidity and tannins. This Saint Nectar Wine is dangerously addictive... Just one sip makes your mind melt into pure bliss...!"
"Master, let me try some!" "Give us a taste too!"
In a flash, a frantic scramble broke out among the cellar hands under the guise of an official tasting.
Slumped comfortably in a chair with a glass of wine in hand, Witch-ko watched the chaos unfold.
Her cheeks were flushed with a rosy hue... She might actually be tipsy.
I was a little worried about Rufe, but given her relaxed mood, leaving her to enjoy herself seemed harmless enough.
While my little sister indulged in her drink, I, as the big sister and pillar of our household, had to keep working hard.
"I will leave, the exact ratio of wine and Saint Nectar, to your expertise. Will the total volume, be sufficient with this?"
"With the extra volume from the Saint Nectar, we should just barely hit our quota. Even if we fall a little short, offering up Saint Nectar Wine to the royal family ought to earn us their grace. However—"
The master's bright, triumphant expression suddenly darkened.
As if infected by his mood, the young apprentices hung their heads as well.
Could there still be another obstacle?
"Those imperial dogs stole the bottles along with the wine we had prepped for shipment. We have plenty of spare glassware, and the Saint Nectar Wine itself is ready. But... we're missing this."
The master reached deep into his coat pocket.
Opening his palm, he presented the object to me.
"Is that... a cork?"
"Every bottle needs a proper cork stopper to seal it. This is a royal shipment; we can't just substitute it with crude plugs."
"Do you not have, any spare corks?"
"...Look out there."
The master pointed a heavy finger out the workshop window.
Framed by the glass stood a row of trees, scorched pitch-black.
"When we fought back to protect our stock, the imperial soldiers torched them. Not only our stored corks, but the entire grove of cork oaks out back went up in flames with them."
Are those imperial soldiers nothing more than a band of savage barbarians?
Plundering wine and burning down a local workshop's trees was bound to ignite a major diplomatic incident between both nations later.
The imperial commanders couldn't possibly be ignorant of that... Did the prince simply not care about the fallout?
Originally, this city—Blutenweiss—was marked for an assault by the Demon King Army's Second Army.
If demonic forces stormed in and reduced the town to ashes, the theft of some wine would become utterly trivial by comparison.
Depending on how badly the city was devastated, the crime itself might well be erased from history entirely.
Even so, we had to resolve the cork shortage before anything else.
Still, Master.
I felt terrible interrupting his despair as he clutched that solitary cork, but I had a pretty good feeling I could handle this problem too.
"Master..."
"What is it, miss?"
"Would it be all right, if I took, that cork?"
"Clinging to just one won't do us any good anyway. You're welcome to it if you want it, but... what do you plan to do with it?"
"I am going to, eat it."
"Huh?"
I plucked the cork from his palm with a nimble vine.
Well then, down the hatch.
—Chomp.