"Alright, let's head out!"
I raised a vine with a flourish, prompting Rufe and Yasmin to shout back with an enthusiastic "Oh!"
Following my mock battle with the playboy, I officially joined their adventurer party, just as I’d promised.
I wasn't the only one coming along, though—the little witch was joining us, too. After the fight, she’d come running over to see what all the noise was about, and once she heard the plan, she refused to take no for an answer. "I'm going with Alraune!" she had insisted.
And so, our party of five—me, the little witch, the demon maid Yasmin, the playboy Kyle, and the female swordsman Anna—began our journey together.
To make traveling with everyone easier, I shrunk down for the first time in a while to become a Potted Alraune. The process was simple: I grew a miniature Alraune body and then transferred my consciousness into it. Once the little witch placed my tiny form into a bucket, my long-awaited potted version was complete.
It felt just like a picnic! Teleporting would have been faster and easier, of course, but there was a certain charm to traveling the old-fashioned way once in a while.
In my absence, I left the management of the forest to the Child Alraune. Naturally, she also took over the task of extending our roots all the way to the Royal Capital. Kiri and the Amazoness Treant stayed behind as well to look after the forest and provide support for my little clone.
Having finally become the "Adventurer Alraune" I had always dreamed of being, I set off in high spirits, tucked away in the bucket carried by the little witch.
Departing from the woods now known as the Alraune's Forest, we reached the highway that led toward the southern reaches of the Kingdom of Gardenia. This was the same road the Imperial Army had used recently. If we followed this path far enough south, we would eventually reach the village where the little witch once lived.
The forest near that village also happened to be the place where my life as a Saint had come to an end. A great deal had happened since that day, and considering everything, it felt like a miracle that I was even alive and well.
As I was drifting off into sentimentality, the playboy called out to me.
"I never would’ve guessed the Alraune girl could get so small. How does that even work?"
It seemed he hadn't heard about my shrinking ability from his older brother, the Flame Dragon Lord. Perhaps he didn't actually know as much about me as I’d thought. Come to think of it, Kyle’s personality didn't resemble the Flame Dragon Lord’s in the slightest, despite them being brothers. He was far too flighty to be related to someone as dignified as him.
The only thing they seemed to share was a relatively friendly attitude toward humans for members of the Demon Race. I couldn't help but wonder if he really was the Flame Dragon Lord's brother.
I was tempted to just ask him point-blank: "Is your older brother Glühschwanz-sama?"
It would have been easy enough, but Anna was also here, and she had been hired by the kingdom alongside Vol-nii. I still wasn't sure how much I could trust her, so it was probably for the best not to bring up the Flame Dragon Lord in public.
As I weighed these thoughts, the little witch snapped at Kyle for me.
"Stop prying into Alraune! If you're planning to bully her again, I won't be merciful."
At her sharp glare, Kyle raised both hands in mock surrender. "Ooh, scary, scary."
I hadn't really been "bullied"—it was just a spar—but the scale of the battle had clearly been enough to make the little witch worry. Knowing Kyle was likely a demon made his overwhelming strength easier to swallow, but it still left a few questions. Why was a demon living in Tower City pretending to be human?
Well, that made more sense now too. He wasn't the only one; Yasmin was a demon, too. The two of them had come to see me together and acted like they were on good terms. I was certain they were old acquaintances who had coordinated this whole adventurer act together.
I wondered what they were really after. Were they planning to investigate the area where the Flame Dragon Lord had gone on a rampage? If they were secretly planning to invade the human nation, I would have to stand in their way to protect my homeland.
Still, it took a lot of courage to strike up a conversation with someone as intense as Kyle, so I decided to test the waters with Yasmin first.
"Hey, Yasmin, what do you think of Kyle?"
"Hmm. I'll admit he’s strong and easy on the eyes, but that playboy attitude is a deal-breaker. Plus, he's a human, so I'm not really a fan."
Yasmin... do you seriously not realize who he is?
If that was the case, then their traveling together might have just been a coincidence. Kyle certainly looked the part of a flirtatious human, but I was fairly certain he was actually the brother of a high-ranking officer in the Demon King's Army. I made a mental note that Yasmin should probably apologize for hitting him on the head while she still had the chance.
"More importantly, it's that way you're addressing me!" Yasmin said, leaning in to stare at my face. "What's with this 'Yasmin-san' business? After everything we've been through, just call me 'Yasmin' already."
"I-Is that okay?"
Addressing a friend by their name without an honorific... even back during my time as Iris, I only ever had one friend I could speak to that way. I was still quite bad at gauging that level of intimacy.
"Yas... Yasmin... I look forward... to traveling with you."
"A bashful Alraune is adorable, too! Here, let me hold you for a bit."
Yasmin started playfully bickering with the little witch over who got to carry the bucket. I was genuinely happy to have gained another good friend.
Our group continued down the highway, passing the occasional traveler or merchant. Eventually, we veered off the road and approached the edge of the woods.
"Let's enter the forest from here," Yasmin directed, checking her map.
It seemed our ecological survey of the Dryades' Forest was finally beginning. Our party formation was set: Anna, the close-quarters specialist, took the lead. Behind her was Yasmin, serving as the guide and non-combatant. In the center was the little witch carrying me—I was responsible for mid-to-long-range attacks and healing. Kyle took the rear, since he was proficient in both close and long-range combat.
Moving together like this reminded me of my days in the Hero’s party. The feeling of "adventure" was in the air, and it was wonderfully exciting.
As I was humming to myself, Anna suddenly shouted, "Monster ahead!"
Since the Dryades' Forest was home to high-level creatures, we encountered massive monsters I never saw back in the Alraune's Forest. For instance, there was a Waldschwein—a nostalgic boar-type monster. Back when I had first become an Alraune, I used to find them quite delicious.
"I'll handle this!" Anna declared.
She lunged at the Waldschwein, her sword crackling with lightning. The blade bit deep, and the monster went stiff, paralyzed by the current. Seizing the opening, she decapitated it with a second strike—a god-speed blade clad in wind.
She was strong. For a human girl her age, she was a true powerhouse. It made sense why Vol-nii had kept her around. Furthermore, she was a dual-wielder carrying two monster-class magic swords that could manipulate lightning and storms.
I had seen those swords before in the memories of Vergissmeinnicht, one of the Four Heavenly Kings. If I recalled correctly, they were the same blades used fifty years ago by the female swordsman Fidessa. Fidessa had actually been the Witch Queen in disguise, and those swords were supposed to have been recovered by the young Great Sage Otfried.
So why did Anna have the magic swords that the Great Sage was supposed to be keeping? More than that, I felt like I had seen this girl somewhere before... somewhere back before I became an Alraune.
"Anna-san, where did you get those swords?" I asked when our eyes met.
"These? They were a gift..." she replied vaguely, immediately creating distance between us.
Anna seemed like an energetic person, but for some reason, she acted cold whenever I spoke to her. Had I done something to make her dislike me? There had been that bit of trouble with Vol-nii and the others, so it was possible. Even if it was only for a short time, we were finally companions, so I hoped we could get a bit closer during this trip.
After that, the forest’s inhabitants practically lined up to meet us. Our party easily dispatched a Wolf of Hell, a Wahnschlange, and a Kriegtiger. We were, quite simply, very powerful. At our current level, not even the Four Heavenly Kings of the Forest could hope to stop us.
Aside from the monsters, there was no sign of any other humans. The remnants of the Imperial Army were nowhere to be found. It was the same dangerous, monster-filled forest it had always been, yet I found myself feeling strangely nostalgic. I wasn't sure if the feeling came from my own survival memories as an Alraune or from the lingering essence of the flower monster that had originally consumed me.
Whatever the cause, I felt at home. My heart was at peace, much like the feeling of visiting a grandparent’s house in the country after a long absence.
"What is this!?" Anna called out from the front, pulling me out of my thoughts.
The landscape had changed abruptly. The forest had simply... ended. In its place was a vast stretch of Black Earth. The boundary between the vibrant woods and the charred ground was as sharp as if a wall had been built between them.
This was the place I had seen from the sky with the little witch—the boundary between the forest the Flame Dragon Lord had incinerated and Lady Dryades' barrier. Even though nearly three years had passed, nothing had grown back. Usually, nature would have started to reclaim the area, but the earth remained as black as the Flame Dragon Lord's own fire.
"The sun's going down, and I'm beat. Let's call it a day," Yasmin said, admitting defeat.
We decided to camp there for the night. After setting up, it was time for dinner. I used my Plant Generation to grow fresh vegetables to supplement the rations Kyle had brought, and we enjoyed a stir-fry together. The dinner was lively and warm, and I found myself thinking that these moments were something special.
The next day, we finally reached our destination.
Yasmin muttered as she consulted her map. "Is this... a village ruin?"
At the edge of the Black Earth lay a place that remained scorched and skeletal. There were ruins that clearly indicated people had once lived there: charred pillars of houses, a blackened well, and a cluster of graves. The graves were the only things that hadn't been burned, likely built by someone after the initial fire had passed.
"T-This is..." The little witch's voice trembled.
Looking at her, I knew immediately. This was her home. This was the village that had been wiped out by the Flame Dragon Lord.
"Rufe..." I reached out and gently patted her head.
Based on what she had told me, she had fled the Empire and lived in this village with her parents. After they died, she lived in the Village Chief’s house. Then, the villagers had discovered she was a witch and subjected her to horrific, daily torture. After enduring a month of hell, she had been tied to a stake to be burned alive. She had been on the verge of death when the Flame Dragon Lord’s arrival inadvertently saved her.
For Rufe, this village was both the place where she’d lost her parents and the hateful site where her distrust of humanity had been born.
While Yasmin and the others moved to investigate, Rufe remained frozen in place.
"Hey, what's with you two?" Yasmin called back, looking confused.
"Are you okay?" I whispered to the little witch.
She exhaled a ragged breath, her face deathly pale. "I... I don't want to be here."
I couldn't make her stay. We had to leave this spot.
"She's feeling... a bit sick. We're going to... rest over there for a while," I told Yasmin, pointing a vine toward the village outskirts.
Assuming she was just feeling travel-worn, Yasmin readily agreed. "Got it."
I guided Rufe as we retreated from the ruins. Even though she had grown enough to interact with humans again, the trauma of this place was far from healed. We needed to get as far away as possible.
We moved past the edge of the village to a spot where a small stream flowed. There, I spotted something that looked out of place.
"What's that...?"
Beneath a massive, withered tree stood a simple wooden shack. It wasn't a ruin from the fire; it was a relatively new building. It looked so recent that it might have been built this past winter.
That wasn't all. The shack was surrounded by a makeshift fence, and there were stacks of cut firewood and a bucket of water nearby. It was undeniably inhabited.
"Who on earth... is living... here?"
Maybe it was a survivor from the village. If it was, I didn't want Rufe to have to face them. It was probably better to avoid the area entirely.
"Let's... get away from—"
The moment I pointed a vine in another direction, a sharp, clattering sound rang out.
It was a clapper alarm! My vine had brushed against a tripwire, and I hadn't even noticed it. I suppose my field of vision was limited because I was tucked inside a bucket. The sound was loud enough that anyone inside the building would have heard it.
Just as Rufe started to turn back, the door to the wooden shack swung open.
"Who's there!?"
The voice belonged to a child—a boy. More than that, the voice sounded incredibly familiar.
Thinking it couldn't be, I looked toward the boy who had stepped out. He looked to be about twelve or thirteen, with messy blonde hair. There was a clear resemblance to a boy I used to know. It had been about three years, so it made sense that he’d grown so much.
The boy sniffed the air, and his eyes widened.
"This sweet scent of nectar... could it be? The Alraune from back then!?"
The person living in the shack was the boy who loved my nectar so much he had practically become obsessed with it. It was young Armin.
Thank you for reading!
Thanks to your support, Volume 4 of the "Plant Monster Girl Diary" manga will be released on Monday, 10/23!
The story covers the beginning of Alraune and the little witch's new life, and many familiar characters from the web version will be making their debut! I fell in love with the new character designs as soon as I saw them, and I hope you'll enjoy them too. I'd be very grateful if you could pre-order or pick up a copy!
Thank you so much!
Next time: The reunion with the nectar-crazed young Armin.