This story continues from the perspective of the corporal.
My name was Franz. At the time, I was serving as a corporal in the Kingdom's Army.
Under military orders, I had gone into the forest to hunt for the fugitive Witch, but instead, I stumbled upon a plant monster—an Alraune.
From the waist down, she was a plant. She looked like some sort of giant insectivorous plant. Her plan seemed clear: use her beautiful upper body to charm men, then devour them with that massive, gaping maw once they drew close.
What a terrifying creature. I had come within a hair’s breadth of being eaten by that girl. It was chilling how cruel she could be despite such a lovely face. Then again, only her top half was human; her lower half was pure monster.
Military regulations dictated that all monsters had to be exterminated. I leveled my weapon and, along with my four subordinates, began to close in on the Alraune.
Suddenly, she spoke to us.
"Please... listen. I... do not... eat humans."
I paused. Something about her behavior felt off. I could sense a genuine reluctance to fight, as if she truly wanted to avoid a conflict with us.
"I have no... intention... of being hostile. Please... lower your weapons."
Her claim that she wasn't our enemy gave me pause. Come to think of it, she had warned us to stay away from the very beginning. Perhaps she wasn't inherently evil. It wasn't too late to listen; maybe we could have actually talked this through.
However, my subordinates didn't share my sentiment. They reminded me that failing to eliminate a monster was a violation of the military code. This was exactly why serving the state was such a headache. I found myself missing my days as a free hunter.
If I let a monster go, my men would almost certainly report me to my superior. At best, I’d be discharged; at worst, I’d face severe punishment. I couldn't risk the repercussions reaching my family back home.
Bound by duty, I felt I had no choice. I gave the order to attack.
That was when things took a turn for the worse. The Alraune skillfully deflected the arrows and launched a counterattack. One of my men was incapacitated by a mysterious powder, and a second was snatched up by vines that erupted from the earth. My comrades were being systematically dismantled. She was clearly not the kind of monster ordinary soldiers could handle.
I ordered my remaining men to fall back and decided to take her on alone. Fortunately, the elemental matchup was in my favor. I could only use fire magic, which made me the natural enemy of any Alraune. One good shot would end this.
I infused a flame arrow with my magic and let it fly. She used her vines to deflect the trajectory, but the arrow still managed to pierce through. I had her!
A third subordinate went down. While one man managed to carry a comrade to safety, two others were still trapped on the battlefield. I knew their lives depended on me.
I fired a second shot. This time, it struck the Alraune’s bulb. If the fire took hold, she’d be finished.
But then, she did something I never could have imagined. She reached into her base and pulled out a water flask. With a practiced motion of her vines, she uncapped it and began dousing the flames.
I couldn't believe my eyes. I felt like I was dreaming. Who could have predicted a plant monster would carry a canteen, let alone have the presence of mind to conduct firefighting operations? Honestly, it defied comprehension. What was this thing? Was she really just a monster? She was far too bizarre.
Steeling myself, I fired a third shot. And once again, I witnessed the impossible.
The Alraune pulled out an axe. She used it to block my flame arrow. What was even happening? It was a great axe, so massive that no human could have possibly wielded it.
The surprises didn't stop there. She used the axe to sever her own burning vines, which then underwent regeneration in an instant. Her recovery speed was absurd. This was an out-of-spec monster—nothing like anything I’d ever heard of.
My shock deepened when I realized she didn't just have one great axe. She had three.
She hoisted all three great axes effortlessly with her vines. A plant that used axes? It was unheard of! It was terrifying. Encountering such an inexplicable, alien existence made my blood run cold.
Those axes couldn't have belonged to her originally. Only someone non-human could carry something that size. She must have taken them from the Demon Race.
And what had happened to those demons? The answer was staring me in the face. I looked at the hideous mouth of that insectivorous plant and realized they had all been eaten. If she caught me, I’d be next. If I had been fooled by her cute face and walked right up to her, I would have been finished.
At that moment, I knew I couldn't win. The scale of her power was simply on a different level. I wasn't equipped to deal with such an irrational creature.
My assessment was proven right immediately. A thicket of vines erupted from the ground all around me, and from them sprouted man-eater flowers. She was likely preparing to release more of that mysterious pollen. It was as if she had a blade pressed against my throat.
I was going to be eaten by this monster in the shape of a girl, just like the owners of those axes.
I’m sorry, I thought. I might not be able to send any more money home. I just wanted to see my wife and daughter one last time...
Suddenly, a loud sound echoed through the woods. A massive water column erupted high into the air in the distance. It was the signal from the Vice Chief Court Mage. The Witch had been captured; everyone was to assemble immediately.
This was my chance. While the Alraune was distracted by the water column, I had to move. My subordinate in the brush clearly thought the same, as he threw a knife to create a distraction. It didn't hit her, but it gave me the opening I needed.
I grabbed all my arrows, thrust them into the dirt, and used them as a medium to manifest a wall of fire magic. While her vision was obscured by the flames, I hoisted my two fallen subordinates and ran for my life.
I heard the sound of powder being sprayed behind me, but I didn't look back until I reached the safety of the thicket. I had made it. If I had been even a second slower, I would have been caught in that cloud.
I immediately ordered the unit to retreat to the village. That Alraune was a nightmare.
And yet, despite facing such overwhelming power, our squad was technically unharmed. A few were paralyzed or asleep, but that was it. Looking back, it felt like she had been holding back.
Was she really not an evil monster? Her speech was halting, but she had been desperately pleading her case. Despite her terrifying strength, she was strangely beautiful. If you ignored the plant half, she looked like a completely normal girl.
Maybe if we hadn't been hostile, she wouldn't have attacked at all. A typical Alraune beckons to lure prey in, but she had been begging us to stay away. I might have made a grave mistake. She might have been a friendly creature who wanted peace. If I ever saw her again, I told myself I’d try to talk to her.
The Witch was eventually recaptured. I wondered how they’d caught someone who could fly on a broom, but apparently, the Vice Chief Court Mage had marked her the moment he arrived. No matter where she fled, his detection magic found her, and his water magic cage brought her back. He was a first-class mage, through and through.
But even a first-class mage was no match for what came next.
We were suddenly attacked by a gargantuan monster that descended from the sky. It was an impossible existence—a true monster in every sense of the word. Compared to that thing, the Alraune seemed almost charming. It wasn't something humans were meant to fight.
Everyone except me was wiped out. The other court mages were gone. The Vice Chief fought until the very end, but I don't think even he could have won. The only person in the kingdom who might have stood a chance was the Hero, or perhaps that Great Sage old man. The old man’s power was so vast I couldn't even fathom its limits.
In any case, there were no survivors. I didn't even know what happened to the Witch.
The only reason I survived was because I disobeyed orders. While my comrades and subordinates stood their ground and died on their superior's command, I ran. That was the first time I’d ever been ordered to simply die. They all followed the order, and they all perished.
I was a hunter first. I didn't have the temperament to follow military orders into a certain grave. I felt for my comrades, but I couldn't die there. My wife and daughter were waiting for me.
"I’m going to go earn us a fortune," I had told my wife. "I don't care about the money, as long as you come back safe," she had replied. "Good luck, Papa!" my daughter had said.
I couldn't leave them behind. I would survive, no matter what.
I deserted my post and quit the army then and there. I could never go back. Since I was likely the only survivor from that village, no one would ever know I had run. I was done with being a soldier; no pay was worth facing those kinds of horrors.
But I couldn't go home empty-handed. I had no right to show my face to my wife without something to show for my time away. I had left promising to earn money, after all.
That was when I decided to become an adventurer. I remembered a man in a tavern boasting about hitting the jackpot and buying a round for the entire house. If that kind of money was possible, it was worth the risk. I could already see the look on my wife's face.
I’d live freely, unbound by the state, and earn my keep. With my mind made up, I headed for the nearest city. There was a place nearby called Tower City. A city that prosperous would have a large Adventurer Guild and plenty of work.
I won't look back. I have a family waiting for me.
Once I’ve settled in, I’ll return to that spot someday to pay my respects to the fallen. I’ll probably go look for that Alraune, too, just to see how she’s doing. But for now, I’m only moving forward.
And so, to keep the money flowing back to my village, I began my new life in a new city.
Thank you for reading.
It has been nearly a month since I began posting this story. I’ve only been able to keep going thanks to your incredible support. Thank you so much.
As a token of my gratitude and to celebrate our one-month anniversary, I’ll be posting a double update tomorrow.
Next time: The Ruin-calling UFO.