This chapter is told from the Corporal's perspective.
My name is Franz.
Until recently, I had spent my entire life in my home village, but I now serve as a Corporal for the Kingdom’s Soldiers.
My hometown is a bit of a special place, known for being the birthplace of a certain celebrity: the Great Sage Otfried. It’s also somewhat famous because the Great Sage decided to stay there, and he still lives in the village today.
Perhaps it’s because of his influence, but for some reason, an unusual number of villagers are naturally gifted with magic. I was one of them.
Normally, I make my living as a hunter, heading into the woods to track game. However, a situation forced me to put my hunting career on hold this year: the Great Cold Wave of winter.
The snow was so heavy that many animals never woke up from hibernation—or perhaps they simply passed away in their sleep. Many creatures couldn't survive the winter, and the amount of game plummeted. At this rate, I wouldn’t be able to provide decent meals for my wife and daughter. My wife eventually kicked me in the backside and told me to figure something out.
Lately, she’s started to remind me of the old woman living next door—the Great Sage’s wife. Since we’re neighbors, they talk often, but the resemblance is truly terrifying. Every woman in that household is incredibly strong-willed: the Great Sage’s wife, her late daughter, and even his granddaughter. They are all formidable.
The granddaughter has grown into a fine young woman despite losing both her parents. She’s a world apart from her shiftless younger brother. That boy is supposed to be traveling with the old Great Sage right now; I wonder how he’s holding up.
The Great Cold Wave had other consequences, too. Apparently, the Fortress City—the front line against the Demon King’s Army—fell. To bolster our defenses, the military held a massive recruitment drive for new soldiers.
With my hunting business dead in the water, I was practically driven out of the house by my wife to enlist. My aptitude for Fire Magic was quickly recognized, and despite being a fresh recruit, I was fast-tracked to the rank of Corporal. Suddenly, I had subordinates to look after.
Good grief. I wondered if I was really cut out for this. I’d spent my whole life working alone and doing as I pleased; suddenly being in public service was a shock to the system. To top it off, I was a Corporal in charge of four men.
Then again, I’d received some personal coaching from the Great Sage since I was a child, so I did have confidence in my abilities. As long as the pay was higher than a regular soldier's, I didn't mind. I had to send money back to my wife and daughter, after all.
I told my family with total confidence that I’d earn a fortune and left the village behind.
I became a soldier, but as luck would have it, I was immediately assigned to an expeditionary force. Word had reached the capital that a Witch had appeared in a remote village, and we were sent to subjugate her.
I was mobilized for the Witch Hunt, and we eventually reached the village. However, in an annoying turn of events, the Witch supposedly fled into the forest the moment the army arrived.
A Court Mage from the Royal Capital took charge of the operation and began issuing orders. Apparently, she was quite high-ranking—the Vice-Commander of the Court Mages, and an incredibly powerful mage in her own right. She had brought several of her own subordinates with her as well. Honestly, having someone of that caliber leading the unit was reassuring.
We were ordered to search the forest for the fugitive Witch. As Corporal, I led my four men into the thicket.
Before long, we stumbled upon an unnatural mass of vines. It was a strange clearing where the trees had vanished as if a hole had been punched into the woods. At the center of this void sat a mysterious, dense cluster of vines.
Now, this was suspicious. There was no other way to put it. I’d been a hunter for years, and I had never seen anything so bizarre. I figured the Witch might be hiding inside; it was the perfect place for someone to conceal themselves.
I signaled my men and we approached. Then, the vines twitched. Someone was definitely inside.
It looked like we’d hit the jackpot. Bracing ourselves, we moved in.
That was when I received my first shock. A beautiful girl’s face peeked out from between the vines.
"He... llo."
Nested within the greenery was a lovely girl who looked like she’d stepped out of a painting. "Beautiful girl of the forest" was the only way to describe her. She had long, pale green hair and a face with perfectly delicate features.
I hadn't seen a woman this beautiful since I met my wife. No—I can’t say this aloud, but she might have even been more beautiful than her. I was genuinely stunned. She possessed the kind of beauty that would make you believe her if she claimed to be a high-born noble. In fact, that would have been more believable than her being a simple village girl.
She greeted us, though her speech was halting and awkward, likely due to nerves. Who on earth was she? She clearly wasn't the target; her appearance didn't match the description of the Witch we'd been given at all. It seemed we had the wrong person.
But if that was the case, what was she doing in a place like this? This was a demonic forest, home to countless dangerous monsters. It was far too dangerous for a young girl to be alone.
"Miss, please don't be afraid," I said, reaching out a hand. "We are Kingdom’s Soldiers. You shouldn't stay there. Please, come this way."
However, the girl refused, claiming she couldn't move. She looked deeply troubled. My subordinates started whispering, wondering if she was caught in the vines and couldn't get out. They began walking toward her, eager to play the hero for a pretty girl. They were hopeless.
But in the next heartbeat, we saw something that didn't belong in the woods.
"Don't... come here."
The girl made a warding gesture with her arms, and as she shifted, her upper body emerged from the vines. She was naked.
Well, technically she was using vines to cover her chest, so she wasn't completely bare, but it was an unbelievable sight nonetheless. It had been a long time since I’d seen that much of a young woman's skin. My heart hammered against my ribs; I’d seen something I definitely wasn't supposed to see.
That was when the sense of wrongness hit me.
It was absurd for a normal girl to be dressed like this. Unless she was a dancer or a woman of a certain profession, she wouldn't be caught dead in such a state outdoors, let alone deep in the woods. It wasn't sane. I couldn't wrap my head around why anyone would wear such a shameful "outfit."
My hunter's intuition told me there was something more to this "beautiful girl." Yet, she seemed genuinely distressed. I thought perhaps there was some complicated reason for her situation.
"Miss, are you from the village nearby?" I asked.
"...No. I live... alone."
That was incredibly suspicious. Could I really believe a girl lived in the forest alone in that state? Absolutely not. I doubted my own eyes; I couldn't fathom a girl her age surviving out here alone, let alone dressed like that. I started to worry she might be mentally unstable.
"Why are you in a place like that? Come out at once."
"The vines are tangled... I can't... get out."
That would explain why she couldn't leave, but I had a feeling it was a lie. If the vines were monsters, maybe, but I couldn't believe she’d just gotten stuck in ordinary plants. I wondered if she was simply too embarrassed to come out because of her state of undress. There were five grown men here, after all. She might be terrified of what we’d do if she stepped out.
I decided to act like a gentleman and be as sincere as possible. If I did that, she might feel safe enough to open up.
"We can't leave a beautiful lady like you alone in the forest. Just wait there; we’ll help you right away."
Just as we were about to move, one of my subordinates stopped me. He began telling us a legend from his home in the south. He told us that if we ever met a beautiful woman in the forest who tried to lure us in, we should never follow her. He said she was surely a monster called an Alraune.
Apparently, in the southern regions, Alraunes are vicious monsters that take the form of beautiful women to captivate and devour people. Their upper bodies look human, but a massive flower grows from their waist, and their lower bodies are plant-like.
Thinking about it, it was completely unnatural for a girl to be in the forest in such a scandalous state. She wasn't wearing clothes; she was using vines. Could that be because she was a monster? A monster wouldn't have clothes, so using vines made perfect sense. And by showing so much skin, she was successfully drawing in her prey. After all, we had been about to walk right into her reach.
The situation was turning grim.
"Miss, could you show us your feet for a moment?"
Even if she was tangled, she should have been able to shift her legs. If she could show us her feet, or any part of her lower body, it would prove she was human. If she couldn't, then she was something else entirely.
As expected, she claimed she couldn't move her legs. I didn't have absolute proof yet, but I was nearly certain she wasn't human. I decided to make a move.
I threw my spear at the mass of vines, intentionally aiming away from the girl. Even if she did have human legs hidden in there, I made sure the spear wouldn't hit them.
When the spear struck, the girl looked frightened, but a normal girl would have reacted the same way. I thought I saw the vines flinch, but it might have been an illusion. I decided to bluff and declared that she was an Alraune.
"I am... not an Alraune. I am... human. Please... believe me."
For some reason, her words were incredibly persuasive. She sounded so desperate that I almost wanted to believe her. However, it was clear she wasn't used to speaking to people. When I pointed that out, she suddenly gave up and admitted she was a monster.
The vines, which had been still until now, began to move of their own accord. They plucked my spear out of the cluster. The girl let out a sigh, stretching as if to say, "I guess there’s no helping it."
Then, the vines erupted into motion.
The girl’s true form was revealed. A massive red flower bloomed from her waist. Below that were layers of leaves, and further down, a giant Bulb was rooted in the earth. But the most terrifying part was the Bulb itself—it had a huge, hideous mouth like a pitcher plant. It was a clear, unmistakable declaration: I am a carnivore.
That was a close one. If I had gone over to "help" her, those vines would have snatched me up, and I would have been shoveled into that mouth. If my subordinate hadn't remembered that legend, I would have ended up as fertilizer.
I had been completely played. I let out a low whistle of admiration.
So, she really was a monster. That explained everything. It explained why she wasn't embarrassed by her "outfit." She was a plant monster; she didn't have a shred of humanity to begin with. She couldn't even grasp how shameful her appearance was. If she were a real girl, she’d be wailing about how she could never get married after being seen like that.
A plant monster has no such ethics. To her, showing skin was just a tactic to lure in human men. That was all. It was a strange relief to realize she was a monster rather than a madwoman living in the woods. At least the world made sense again.
The girl—no, the Alraune—glared at me. She seemed frustrated that her cover was blown, or perhaps she was mourning the loss of a meal. Either way, monsters need to be exterminated.
We leveled our weapons and closed in.
At the time, we had no idea we were walking into a nightmare. And yet, even that nightmare was only the beginning. In a single day, the lives of many people were ruined.
Mine was one of them.
But I suppose I was one of the lucky ones. After all, out of all my comrades, I was the only one who made it out of that village alive.
This chapter was from the Corporal's perspective.
Because the Corporal was taught magic by the Great Sage as a child, he is quite skilled despite being a commoner. Since he's a new recruit, he holds the rank of Corporal (he was promoted directly from private to Corporal).
Next time: Correspondence: The Migrant Corporal’s Remittance Mail – Part Two.