I couldn't forgive this.
Why was there salt being scattered all over the ground?
This was bad.
—Salt damage.
The words flashed through my mind like a warning sign. I traced my fingers over my corolla; just as I feared, white crystals clung to my skin.
"Why, is, salt, here...?"
"Oh my~. You’re an Alraune who can’t even move from this forest, so how do you know what salt is, nyah?"
"Rufe, taught, me, you, know."
I glared at the Witch Queen’s hateful smile. Was she insane? Scattering salt in a forest... the only logical conclusion was that she intended to eradicate every living plant in the area.
"You seem to have a much stronger loathing for salt than someone who was 'just' taught by Rufe~. That child wouldn't know the first thing about the properties of salt, would she?"
My internal panic must have shown on my face. I had been shocked when the poison fairy used herbicide on me before, but this was on a completely different level.
"Plants are weak to salt. I've lived a long time as a witch, so I know that well enough, but there's no way Rufe would know," the Queen continued.
"Rufe, is, a clever, child."
"No, Rufe was just a village girl. And I highly doubt Saint Iris, a Duke’s Daughter, would have known about this either. Where on earth did a 'Crimson Flower Princess' like you learn about the relationship between salt, plants, and soil, nyah?"
The Witch Queen pressed me, her eyes searching for the truth. Since Iris had been a high-born lady and a Saint, she wouldn't have known a thing about agriculture. It was only natural for the Queen to be suspicious.
Where did I learn it? From my previous life, obviously!
I knew exactly what happened when salt was scattered in a forest. The answer was simple: salt damage. In short, if you give a plant salt, it withers and dies.
I remembered reading about how coastal agriculture suffered from salt damage. I wasn't an expert, but I recalled history lessons about how the Ancient Roman Empire allegedly sowed the fields of their enemy, Carthage, with salt to ensure nothing could ever grow there again. Salt turns fertile earth into a wasteland.
If this continued, I would wither.
—And this entire forest would vanish along with me.
"You possess knowledge a monster shouldn't have, yet you wear the face of Saint Iris. You really are a bizarre little thing, Crimson Flower Princess-chan. Tell me, who are you, really?"
"I, am, just, an, Alraune, you, know."
The high school student I once was and the Saint who served her country were both gone. I was currently nothing more than a single Alraune. That was why I intended to feign ignorance until the very end!
"Is, that, attitude, wise? I, have, captured, you, Witch Queen-san. I, should, still, have, the, advantage."
"Ah, that’s right. Sorry, sorry~. But you see, I haven't actually been caught at all~."
As she spoke, the body of the Witch Queen—which should have been firmly bound by my Dodder vines—began to blur. Like a fading ghost, her figure dissolved into the air and vanished.
"Storm Magic: 'Mirage Clone (Luftspiegelung)'. I can create illusions, too~."
—You’ve got to be kidding me.
I thought I had her, but I had only been squeezing a mass of mist. She had evaded my best shot. The real, unharmed Witch Queen was now levitating a few feet above the salted earth.
"Nyahaha! What a disappointment~. Just be a good little girl and let me turn you into a potion. An Alraune of your quality would make the most exquisite aphrodisiac!"
"What, would, you, do, with, such, a thing?"
"I'm not telling~. Though I’ve already decided who I'm going to use it on!"
Convinced that my life was measured in minutes, the Witch Queen had grown talkative. While I feigned being limp and weakened by the salt damage, I looked up at her with pleading eyes.
"One, last, thing. Tell, me. Where, did, this, salt, come, from?"
"This? I used 'Storm Disaster (Turbulenz)' to carry it here all the way from the sea~!"
It seemed I wasn't the only one hiding extra effects within the storm. The Witch Queen had utilized the winds as well.
It was hard to believe. Before our battle, she must have generated a waterspout at the coast and used her magic to transport the seawater across the sky to this specific location. Her power was certainly world-class, but the sheer obsession required to go that far just to kill me was terrifying.
She had gone through all that effort just to ensure my death. I suppose it was only natural that I was in a pinch; I never would have dreamed of facing salt damage this far inland. I couldn't even imagine how many miles that salt had traveled.
Even my head had started to throb. And more importantly...
"I, can't, breathe..."
This was getting dangerous. The salt was already affecting my body. It was happening far too fast—perhaps accelerated by the Witch’s mana.
Essentially, salt damage occurs when the salinity of the soil rises. This increases the osmotic pressure outside the plant, literally sucking the moisture out of the plant’s cells. Not only that, but the roots lose their ability to absorb water entirely. The plant effectively dies of dehydration while surrounded by moisture.
Animals have skin to protect them, but plants like me absorb everything through our roots. We take the full hit. Only coastal plants have adapted to overcome this, but we were in the middle of a landlocked forest. There weren't supposed to be any salt-tolerant species here.
Even with my ability to sense every living thing in this forest, I couldn't simply conjure a plant that didn't grow here.
"Witch Queen-san, you, are, truly, formidable."
Her "Storm Disaster (Turbulenz)" was a phenomenon greater than any hurricane I’d seen in a Hollywood movie. It made sense that such a storm could carry seawater.
But that was the thing. A storm of that magnitude doesn't just pick up water.
I extended a vine toward a specific plant caught in the branches of a nearby tree.
"Since, you, are, so, wise, do, you, recognize, this, plant?"
The plant I retrieved was a Mangrove—a species that lives by the sea and possesses incredible salt tolerance.
Her "disaster" had swept up more than just water; it had snatched the local flora right off the coastline and dumped them here. She had brought the salt to kill me, but she had inadvertently brought the cure as well.
—Chomp.
Just like that, I absorbed the Mangrove’s traits.
"What are you doing, eating a piece of wood? Have you gone crazy from the salt, nyah?"
The Witch Queen didn't know I could absorb the abilities of other plants. She was convinced I would wither away regardless of what I did. It was the typical arrogance of the strong. I was lucky she wasn't as cautious as Flame Dragon Lord.
I took advantage of her momentary lapse in vigilance.
"Please, look, up."
I used a vine to point toward the canopy. The Queen looked up, though she remained wary.
"Nyahaha! This lovely green forest has turned completely yellow. It’s already withering~."
Mangroves don't die in salt water because they have a specialized mechanism: they concentrate the salt into specific leaves to protect the rest of the tree. Once a leaf is saturated with salt, it turns yellow and falls off.
"Those, leaves, would, taste, quite, salty, if, you, bit, them."
The yellowed leaves of the forest began to flutter down to the ground like snow. The Witch Queen didn't realize that I was using these leaves to discharge the salt from my system. She mistook the defoliation for the death throes of the forest.
Salt damage was a lethal threat, but it wasn't instantaneous. It gave me a few hours of leeway. While I would eventually need to properly desalt the soil, for now, I was still very much alive.
And I needed to deal with the Queen first.
Judging by the vibrations in my roots, my allies were almost here. I needed to finish this before they got caught in the crossfire.
"Witch Queen-san, you, went, too, far."
She had turned the forest into a salt-choked wasteland. If I did nothing, this land would remain barren for generations. As an Alraune who loved all greenery, I couldn't forgive her.
And more importantly, she was the one who orchestrated the death of the woman I used to be. It was time to pay back that debt and force the truth out of her.
"It, is, too, late, for, apologies."
"Crimson Flower Princess-chan, don't look at me like that~. I know I killed the forest, but is it really something I need to apologize for? It’s not like it matters to people like us if a few trees die!"
That was it. I was done with her. I would show her exactly how terrifying nature could be.
The Dryades' Forest was home to many strange plants. I had previously asked my "little sister," Amazoness Treant, and the fairy Kiri to help me collect samples of the most unique ones.
The time had finally come to use the one we had found.
"All the leaves are gone because of the salt~. It looks so lonely, like winter came early... wait, what?"
The Queen finally noticed something was wrong. She stared at the bare branches, whispering in confusion.
"Why are there pumpkins growing up there?"
Hanging from the branches that had survived the storm were dozens of small, pumpkin-like fruits. But that wasn't the only change.
"Those trees were normal a second ago... why are they covered in those horrible thorns? What is that...?"
Every tree surrounding the Witch Queen was now bristling with sharp, conical thorns. Without the leaves to hide them, the trees looked like instruments of torture. It was a hellish, apocalyptic sight.
"I, shall, tell, you, a, secret."
The Queen likely planned to use her mirages to dodge my attacks. In that case, I simply needed to use an attack that couldn't be dodged.
"Those, are, not, pumpkins. They, are, bombs."
The "pumpkins" were actually the seed pods of the Sandbox Tree—also known as the Snabakonoki. Some called it the "Dynamite Tree."
The Witch Queen had looked down on plants as inferior lifeforms. She thought nothing of withering them with salt.
But...
"Plants, are, truly, terrifying, when, you, anger, them."
Mangrove: A general term for plants that inhabit the brackish water where salt and fresh water meet in tropical and subtropical regions. There are over 100 species worldwide.
Sandbox Tree (Snabakonoki): A member of the Euphorbiaceae family native to the tropical regions of the Americas and parts of Africa. It is characterized by its dangerous appearance, covered in thorns. Its sap and seeds are toxic and have been used to create poison arrows. When the fruit ripens, it explodes with enough force to launch seeds at speeds exceeding 120 mph, earning it the nickname "The Monkey's Pistol."
Next time: The Witch Queen and the Collaborator's Name.