This update is a special release to celebrate the launch of Volume 5 of the manga!
The perspective of this Alraune is a little different than the usual.
I am an Alraune, a plant monster.
However, I am not the original.
I am a brand-new Alraune clone, fresh and budding from a seed this very moment.
While I inherited the memories of my previous life as Ayame Komurasaki and my time as Saint Iris, I am, unfortunately, not the real thing.
Standing before me was another Alraune, roughly the same size as I was.
This was the mother who gave birth to me—the original Iris in her Alraune form.
The original me snapped a vine through the air and made a declaration.
"I, appoint you, as the Cooking Squad, Leader Alraune!"
It seemed I had been promoted to the leader of the cooking squad. Was it really wise to entrust such a heavy responsibility to someone like me for such an important party?
"What, is the reason, for making me, the leader?" I asked.
"Because, you have, a face that, looks somewhat, smarter, than the other, mes."
There were several other cloned Alraunes growing nearby. Indeed, the other "mes" around me looked somewhat vacant and dim-witted. As a former Saint, it was embarrassing to behold.
Furthermore, it seemed that once we grew to full size, our personalities diverged slightly from the original. Perhaps because of that, the clones began chatting freely amongst themselves.
"I’m hungry. Is food ready yet?"
"We’re the ones making the food, you know."
"What do you think? Does this chef’s hat suit me?"
"It’s cute! But I feel like I look pretty good in mine, too."
"We all have the same face, so of course we’re all cute!"
"Hey, what do I have to do to become the original?"
Everyone was saying whatever they pleased. Just thinking about having to manage this lot gave me a headache.
Still, seeing others who shared my appearance wasn't entirely bad. Hmm, looking at it this way, I really was quite a beauty. I won't say exactly where, but I felt proud that I had grown even more impressively than I had during my days as Iris. With this body, I could surely stand my ground against that Shitty Junior who killed me.
"So, a question for the original me," I said. "What exactly should we be making?"
"In our previous life, do you remember, the wild vegetables, that grew, at Grandpa’s house? I think, tempura, made from those, would be, rare and good."
Tempura didn’t exist on this continent. If we served it at the party, it would surely be treated as a great novelty.
"Also, nanohana ohitashi would be nice."
"It feels a bit common, but it is delicious, isn't it?"
They were spring-themed dishes I had eaten at my family home in my previous life. Well, anything the original me could think of was naturally something I, as a clone, could conceive of as well. At this rate, there shouldn't be any problems regardless of what we decided to cook.
"Well then, I'll leave, the cooking, to you."
"And what will the original me be doing?"
"I, will be making, a cake, with Rufe! So, I’m leaving, the cooking, to you."
With those parting words, the original me teleported away. The Alraunes of the cooking squad were left to handle the party food on our own. As I turned to my colleagues, they began picking up various kitchen utensils with their vines.
"To be honest, I'm not very good at cooking. So, I’ll leave it to the rest of you."
"No, no, no, I’m bad at it too! I can't handle being put in charge."
"Let’s just have the person who's best at cooking do it."
"That’s right. Since there are so many of us, let’s find the 'me' who's actually good at this."
"Everyone! The 'me' who is good at cooking, raise a vine!"
—Silence.
Not a single vine went up. Of course. We were clones of the original. If the original was bad at cooking, then we were all equally hopeless.
"This is bad, isn't it?"
As the cooking squad leader, I had to find a way out of this.
"Everyone, I have an idea."
The gazes of the Alraune squad gathered on me. I had to show some leadership.
"I’ll go and check on the other cooking squads. Until I get back, please make whatever dishes you can manage."
"That might be genius!"
"As expected of me. It's a brilliant plan."
"We just have to copy the other squads."
"No, if we copy them, we'll have duplicate dishes. That's no good."
"Scouting is vital. We'll leave the spying to the leader!"
There were others in charge of the food besides us—the elf Merk and the Flashy Man. They were bound to be skilled in the kitchen. I would go and steal their techniques!
First, I decided to observe the Flashy Man. I teleported to a nearby cooking area. A bear as massive as a boulder lay dead before me.
"Oh, Alraune-chan! Hey, check it out! I bagged a big one!"
"It is... very large."
It wasn't quite as big as Bear-papa, but it had to be at least seven meters long. To have carried such a beast all this way... the Flashy Man was clearly no ordinary person. I suppose since he was the Flame Dragon Lord's younger brother, it shouldn't have surprised me, but still.
"Perfect timing. I was just about to roast this whole bear!"
Roast it whole? What a waste! It would obviously be far more delicious to just swallow it raw. If it were me, I would use my lower mouth to snap up a paw and gradually devour the entire thing.
"After you roast it, what do you plan to do?"
"Well, I was going to carve it up to make it easier to eat, but..."
It really was a waste. I much preferred swallowing things whole.
"You can carve it whenever you want," I suggested. "I think it would be better to take it to the party exactly as it is."
"Well, that works too, but... Oh, I see!"
The Flashy Man clapped his hands as if he’d had a revelation.
"Since it’s such a massive catch, everyone will probably be thrilled to see a whole-roasted bear at the party!"
"No, that wasn’t exactly what I—"
"If I dismantle the bear right there, it becomes a performance! I was told I needed to do some kind of show, so this solves that problem, right?"
"Y-yes... I suppose it does."
I only wanted to swallow it whole, but it seemed I’d inadvertently settled the matter. And apparently, there were going to be performances. Since nothing had been said to us clones about that, I suppose we were off the hook.
"Thanks for the tip! See ya later!"
The Flashy Man got to work preparing the roast. Hmm. Since there was bear meat, it looked like we wouldn't need to focus much on meat dishes. By the way, the Flashy Man completely mistook me for the original. My eyes were crimson, unlike the original's nectar-colored eyes. It was surprisingly easy to go undetected.
Next, I teleported to the elf Merk’s station. Merk was planning to make Buddhist cuisine. Unlike a whole bear roast, her work would actually be a useful reference. As soon as our eyes met, she spoke.
"Oh my. What happened to your eye color?"
—Busted!
As expected of my number one friend. Unlike the dense Flashy Man, she noticed the difference immediately. That said, while she was "my" friend, she was technically the original's friend. I agonized over whether to keep up the charade.
"You seem a little different than usual. I wonder what’s wrong?"
Merk reached out and touched one of my vines. I was a clone, but I was supposedly identical to the original in every way except for my eyes. There was no way she could tell I was a clone just by touching a vine. I decided to make an excuse and keep pretending to be the original.
"When I woke up this morning, my eyes were bloodshot."
"I’ve never heard of a plant having bloodshot eyes... Ah, I see. So that's how it is."
Merk gripped my vine and murmured as if she had reached a conclusion. Wait, what did that mean?
"You really are fascinating. Won't you let me dissect you sometime?"
"D-Dissect?!"
I immediately imagined myself tied down like an experimental subject. She was going to carve me up with a scalpel and turn me into a specimen!
"I just remembered I have an errand to run! Goodbye!"
That was right—Merk was a botanist. In other words, she looked at me, a plant, as a research subject! This was dangerous. I had to get out of here!
"Oh, how unfortunate. I wanted to talk to you more."
"Good day to you!"
I teleported to a nearby empty clearing. I even retrieved the part of my body I’d left at Merk’s by turning it back into a seed. Phew, that was close.
"My, if it isn't Lady Crimson Flower Princess. Did you come all this way just to see me?"
A voice suddenly called out from the trees. I looked up to see a harpy.
"I’ve brought the ingredients for the food, just as promised."
Parca-san tossed down a net. It was stuffed to the gills with fresh fish.
"I caught these in the river. Will this let me attend the party too?"
According to the original's memories, she had asked the harpy Parca to gather ingredients. It seemed she had followed through.
"Thank you very much. If you don't mind, would you be willing to cook these?"
"Cook them? I prefer them raw."
"Humans don't eat river fish raw. However, they are incredibly delicious when grilled."
In my previous life, I had lived in the Japanese countryside. I used to go fishing in the river with my father. We would salt-grill the fish we caught and eat them right there. It was so nostalgic. Recalling those memories, I gave her a demonstration.
"It would be a big help if you could prepare them like this."
I used my plant generation to mass-produce long skewers. I demonstrated by piercing one of the fish. Next, I needed a fire. I used eucalyptus and rockrose together to start a blaze. By surrounding the fire with stones, I created a perfect hearth.
"Skewer the fish like this and grill them over the heat."
"I think I might like this. Grilled fish smells great!"
The sample I cooked was a hit with Parca-san. The salt seasoning really brought out the flavor. We had plenty of salt left over from the battle with the Witch Queen, so we could use as much as we wanted.
And so, Parca-san was put in charge of the salt-grilled river fish. My work there finished, I parted ways with her and began the journey back. I felt a strange sense of satisfaction from teaching someone who was even worse at cooking than I was. I wondered what this feeling was. It was quite mysterious.
Come to think of it, the original probably didn't know Parca-san was here. Should I tell her? But she was likely busy enjoying her cake-making with the Little Witch. The report could wait.
At any rate, my scouting was complete. The other squads were handling meat, fish, and Buddhist cuisine. That meant we just had to make anything else!
"I'll try to come up with something centered on vegetable dishes."
Freshly harvested vegetables were delicious. The party guests would surely be pleased.
"...Wait. Am I actually enjoying this?"
I was supposed to be bad at cooking, but just thinking about it made my heart flutter with excitement. Even after such a brief experience, I was becoming genuinely interested in the culinary arts. It felt as if a sense of self—one that the original didn't possess—was sprouting within me, even though I was just a clone.
But I'm just a copy of Iris. There's no way that's possible...
I teleported back to the cooking squad's area. When I returned to my starting point, I found the original me and the Alraune army clones in the middle of a battle. Wait, what was going on?
"Hehehe. It looks like I win. This is what happens when you try to defy the original."
The Alraune with the nectar-colored eyes declared her victory. That was the original me. I didn't quite understand the context, but it seemed the main body had soundly defeated the clones.
"Ugh... I lost..."
"The original is too strong. That’s cheating!"
"And I thought I could finally become the original..."
"What happens to us now that the rebellion failed?"
"I don't want to be executed!"
The Alraunes in their chef’s hats lay scattered on the ground, battered and bruised. It seemed they had been fighting for the right to be the "real" one. But even with those numbers, they couldn't touch her. Was the original me really that powerful?
"Oh? It looks like one was still left."
The original turned her gaze toward me. She clearly saw me as another rebel looking to usurp her. But I had no such intention. Because I was an Alraune who had found a love for cooking. I didn't want to be the original at all.
"Original me, wait. How about we settle this a different way?"
I brandished a frying pan with my vines. I might not be able to beat her in a fight, but I could win a cooking match.
"Are you serious, clone me?! A cooking match? What’s gotten into you? You're me, aren't you?"
The original me was visibly shaken. She seemed stunned that I was challenging her to a duel in the kitchen. After all, I was supposed to be terrible at cooking.
But I was already different from the other clones. And I was surely different from the original, as well. At that moment, I understood it clearly. Since I had been given life, I wanted to walk a path different from the "me" I had always known. The path of a chef!
"If I win, I have a request for the original."
I wanted to continue cooking even after this party was over. With that promise on the line, I challenged the original to a culinary showdown.
And so, that was the story of the Alraune's clone. Her story might just continue in the future...!
As mentioned, this story is a special update to celebrate the manga release. Thanks to all of you, Volume 5 of the manga adaptation of "Plant Monster Girl Diary" is out today! (ノ*>∀<)ノ Yay! ♪
New characters are appearing one after another in the manga version, and the lives of the Alraune and the Little Witch are entering a new phase. The story is currently around the time when the Alraune's nectar first went on sale in the Tower City...!
The manga goes into much more detail about things like the nectar-selling in the city, which wasn't explored as much in the light novel. Many familiar faces from the web version make an appearance, so I would be delighted if you picked up a copy (ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ꕤ.
Next time: the forest party begins!