I am Alraune, a plant monster girl.
After seeing off the Little Witch, Kiri, and my newborn Child Alraune as they headed for the Ice Castle, I remained in the forest with my little sister figure, Amazoness Treant, to keep watch.
You might wonder why my main body didn't simply self-pollinate, shrink down, and head for the castle myself.
The truth was that my current form had spread too far underground, staying inextricably linked to various other plants. If I were to return to a seed in this state, the transformation might have affected all the flora I was connected to. It would have been a disaster if the surrounding plants had all withered at once because of me.
After much deliberation, I gave up on the idea of shrinking myself to fit inside a bucket for the sake of the forest's health. Instead, I decided to take the long way around—slowly extending my roots toward the Ice Castle so I could move there later using my Teleportation ability.
With a little help from Kiri’s spirit magic, I eventually succeeded in stretching my roots all the way to the castle. With the preparations finally complete, the Little Witch and the others set off for the enemy stronghold.
The plan was for them to signal the tree growing from my roots once they had arrived and finished their investigation, but they were taking quite a long time. Just as I was beginning to worry, the signal finally arrived.
"Well then, I'm off. I’ll leave the rest to you."
I gave my departure greetings to Amazoness Treant, who would stay behind to guard my main body, and activated Teleportation.
—When I opened my eyes, the Little Witch was standing right there.
The moment our eyes met, she screamed.
"Alraune, it’s a disaster!"
What on earth happened to put her in such a panic—wait, what is that?!
An impossibly massive ice giant was standing right in front of us! Or rather, the Ice Castle I’d heard so much about was nowhere to be seen. Kiri had told me it was a beautiful castle, and I’d been looking forward to seeing it, but where did it go?
"Just... what happened?"
"Listen! We were having a tea party inside when the castle suddenly turned into a golem!"
What? I didn't understand the situation at all.
Judging by the Little Witch’s explanation, it seemed the castle itself was the golem. That meant that icy giant was the golem. It was the first time I’d ever seen one in person.
In the books I’d read back in my Saint Era, golems were described as giants made of earth that appeared in ancient myths. They were said to be holy relics created by the Goddess herself. To think they actually existed... but why was the Demon King’s Army commanding one?
Besides, the golems from the legends weren't supposed to be ice-attributed. But the surprises didn't stop there.
The golem was just so incredibly huge! It was far larger than Bear-papa, or even Lord Glühschwanz. Granted, it wasn't quite as tall as my Big Sister Dryades in her Divine Tree form, but the golem was much thicker. It was built like a tank.
Then I noticed something: one of my Child Alraunes was frozen solid inside the arm of that mythological golem.
M-My child?! Why was a Child Alraune frozen in a place like that?
There could only be one culprit behind such a cruel act. I didn't know the full story yet, but there was no doubt that this golem was our enemy.
Furthermore, it seemed the giant in front of me was also responsible for this massive blizzard. Since snow was billowing out of its body as we spoke, I’d caught it red-handed.
Surely this Frost Golem was the handiwork of the Sister Dragon—the Prime Minister of the Demon King’s Army. She was an Ice Dragon, after all. Since they shared the same attribute, it stood to reason that she was involved in the castle's transformation.
Regardless, I really wanted to decline the opportunity to fight a living skyscraper. This wasn't the kind of opponent a human should have to face. Well, I wasn't human anymore, but still.
Speaking of things that weren't human—Little Witch. I’d been curious for a minute, but what was the deal with that snake on her arm? Why was there a snake growing out of her? And that wasn't all. She had white wings sprouting from her back, too. She didn't have snakes or wings when we left the forest.
She looked almost like an angel. Between her hair and the wings, she was a vision of pure white—it was incredibly mystical. She was so beautiful I could almost believe the Goddess of the heavens looked just like this.
Wait, I’d seen those wings somewhere before. I was certain they hadn't been white, though...
"What happened to... that snake and those wings?"
"They just appeared when I used my transformation magic. Never mind that! Look at the bird flying over there!"
I followed the Little Witch’s finger. There, circling near the golem’s arm, was Parca the Harpy—my nectar transporter.
What was Parca doing here? I was sure she was supposed to be heading to Lord Glühschwanz to deliver my nectar.
"Hehe! As I thought, the frozen Crimson Flower Princess is simply divine. I want to take her back to my room just like this!"
Parca’s gleeful voice drifted down from the sky. It seemed she was talking to herself while ogling my frozen Child Alraune.
I waved a vine and called out a greeting. "Good day!"
For some reason, the Little Witch immediately scolded me. "What are you doing, Alraune?!"
"That bird woman is our enemy. You can't just greet her like that!"
Wait, Parca was our enemy? Parca had been assigned to Lord Glühschwanz’s unit as a nectar transporter. They were technically part of the Demon King’s Army, but they weren't supposed to be hostile...
Perhaps hearing my voice, Parca descended toward us.
"Another Crimson Flower Princess? Has the earth sprouted yet another Alraune for me to freeze? Is the world giving me even more rewards?"
"You're mistaken. I grew here... of my own free will."
"How disappointing... In that case, are you a companion of the Crimson Flower Princess?"
"...Do you not... recognize me?"
"Could you be the actual Crimson Flower Princess? Then who is the Alraune frozen over there?"
"That is... my clone."
Parca’s voice trembled with excitement. "To think you are capable of such a feat!"
"So many Crimson Flower Princesses... That means I can freeze as many Alraunes that look like Saint Iris as I want!"
I pictured a row of frozen versions of myself on display. I wasn’t sure why, but the mere thought of it filled me with a profound sense of sadness.
Rather than dwelling on that, however, I needed to confirm if Parca really was an enemy.
"Parca, have you... betrayed us?"
Parca was supposed to be Lord Glühschwanz’s subordinate. I couldn't imagine the Flame Dragon would break his promise and try to eliminate me. That left only one possibility: Parca was acting against his orders.
"I haven't betrayed anyone. I’ve simply been following my orders from the very beginning."
"Did... Lord Glühschwanz order you... to attack me?"
"No. These were the orders of His Excellency the Prime Minister."
Not the Flame Dragon, but the Sister Dragon?
"Allow me to tell the truth to the Crimson Flower Princess I so adore." Parca looked down at me with a deadly serious expression. "My role as a nectar transporter under Glühschwanz-sama was merely a temporary cover. My true rank is Secretary Apprentice to the Prime Minister. My placement under Glühschwanz-sama was a secret order from His Excellency."
I was stunned. So, Parca was the Sister Dragon’s spy.
But suddenly, things began to click. When the Flame Dragon had invited me to our secret nighttime meeting, he had sent a very expensive magical letter. It had been sealed with magical sealing wax that prevented anyone but me from reading it. I’d wondered why he’d gone to such extremes, but it was because he suspected Parca might be his sister's spy.
"Now that my brother—the former head of our clan—is gone, I must lead our people in his place. To do that, I must rise in the ranks just as he did when he became one of the Four Heavenly Kings. His Excellency promised me that if I eliminated the Crimson Flower Princess, she would officially promote me to Secretary."
Hearing that, I realized something else. Because Parca served the Sister Dragon—the Ice Dragon—she had always been obsessed with freezing me! I’d always wondered why a Harpy would care so much about ice.
That meant Parca’s behavior as my "stalker" had all been an act to deceive me. I’d been completely played.
"Well, just between us, leading the clan and serving His Excellency are just the official excuses. The real reason I deceived and attacked you is that His Excellency promised I could keep the frozen Crimson Flower Princess for myself."
—I was wrong. She was a pure-blooded stalker through and through!
"I’ve already cleared a spot in my room to display you. I’ll make sure you look beautiful, so please look forward to it!"
Don't tell me to look forward to that! As both a former Saint and a plant, I'd really rather not be frozen solid.
But the situation was clear now. Parca was acting purely out of a desire to turn me into a statue. Her goal wasn't my outright assassination like Beast King Marticoras, so I wanted to avoid a fight if possible.
"If you attack me... Lord Glühschwanz... won't be happy, you know?"
To the Flame Dragon, I was just a business partner who provided nectar. I didn't actually think he would do anything special if I were defeated, so I was bluffing.
"This is strictly a maintenance check for the Frost Golem. If the Crimson Flower Princess happened to wander in during the procedure and suffered an unfortunate accident, well... who could have predicted that an Alraune, who is rooted in the ground, would move all the way to this castle?"
She had some nerve saying that, considering she’d used the blizzard to lure me here. But I suppose leaking that information to me had also been part of the Sister Dragon’s plan. I didn't even want to think about how many people had been hurt just to draw me out.
"Oh, that’s right. I was also the one who sent those monsters to attack the Tower City. Thanks to that, I was able to study how you fight."
So that was it. Fair-chan had mentioned seeing a yellow bird in the forest back then. It really had been Parca.
"Plants absorb their energy from the ground, don't they? As an Alraune, you’re just a small, helpless plant without the blessings of nature. And since it’s winter, I suspect your movements are even more sluggish than when you fought Beast King Marticoras."
She was right. I’d realized that I lost my vitality in the winter. Just trying to move a single vine left me more exhausted than I could have imagined. Even though I was a half-spirit, my plant nature made me incredibly vulnerable to the cold.
"The air here is so cold it freezes even the soil. As a plant, isn't just being rooted in this spot agony for you?"
To be honest, the site of the Ice Castle had become a frozen wasteland. It was even colder than when I was buried in the snow and nearly withered last year. I felt like my leaves were going to drop at any second.
"I have no intention of fighting a fair match with the woman who defeated three of the Four Heavenly Kings. I’ll finish you off while you’re at your weakest."
Behind Parca, the massive hunk of ice emitted a fresh wave of frigid air. My body was instantly enveloped in frost.
"I told you, didn't I? You would regret coming to the Ice Castle. You can spend eternity regretting it as a beautiful ice statue."
Thank you for reading. Next time: Is that golem an edible golem?