I was Alraune, a plant monster.
And apparently, I had just had a child... or at least, that was the massive misunderstanding everyone had fallen into!
Kiri the fairy was busy scattering petals of blessing using her spirit magic.
Behind her, my younger sister-figure, Amazoness Treant, was softly clapping her hands in celebration.
Then there was Rufe—the Little Witch—who stood there with her mouth hanging open before finally directing a question toward me.
"Alraune actually gave birth to a child that isn't a clone... If it's not a clone, then that means it’s her real baby, right?"
The Little Witch looked incredibly serious, as if she were wrestling with a profound dilemma.
I had a sinking feeling that if I let this misunderstanding continue, there would be no going back. I had to do something!
"No, it's not, this child, isn't, my child!"
"Then is it a monster that has nothing to do with you, Alraune?"
"Well, it's not, that it's, unrelated, exactly... It was, more like, a part of, my own body."
This Mandrake had originally been born from a petunia that Treant brought to me. Because I had connected with that petunia through my roots, it had lived as a part of my body for a long time. Therefore, the Mandrake wasn't entirely unrelated to me. There was no doubt that a portion of my energy had been flowing into the petunia before it transformed.
"If it came from Alraune's body, then it really is her child, isn't it? There's no one else here, after all."
I took a moment to imagine the scene from an outsider's perspective.
Suppose there was an adult woman standing there. She was cradling a newborn infant in her arms. There were no other people around, and they were in a place where a small child would never simply be abandoned. Anyone seeing that would naturally assume the baby was hers.
Back to reality.
There was a single Alraune in the forest. She possessed the ability to bear children and was capable of pollination. And there she was, cradling a baby Mandrake. The way she was soothing the Mandrake, as if it were her own flesh and blood, looked exactly like a mother with her child to any objective observer. Furthermore, there were no other circumstances that would explain a new monster appearing.
Except, of course, the possibility that the Alraune had given birth to it...
To be precise, the Alraune and the Mandrake were separate entities. However, within the broad category of "plant monsters," such a distinction seemed like a trivial detail to everyone else who wasn't a plant.
──In other words, the circumstantial evidence screamed "guilty."
It was obvious to anyone with eyes. Alraune—that is, I—had given birth to the Mandrake—the child!
"I see... Alraune has already grown up, hasn't she...?"
For some reason, the Little Witch looked lonely. She had the expression of an older sister whose height had just been surpassed by her younger sibling.
"A child for my little sister... Does that mean this baby is my niece?"
The Little Witch was saying some very strange things. But she was totally mistaken. Besides, I didn't even know if this Mandrake had a gender. I had no idea if it was a boy or a girl.
"So, who is the husband?"
"Husband...?"
Wh-Whose?
"Yours, Alraune. You know, the father of that child."
If there was a child, there had to be a father and a mother. The Little Witch was clearly dying of curiosity. So much so, in fact, that she dropped an absolute bombshell.
"If it's another plant... could Treant be the father?"
Treant shook her head with every ounce of strength she had. Being named so suddenly seemed to have given her quite a shock. It might have been the first time I had ever seen her look so flustered.
I mean, Treant was a female. Beyond that, she didn't have any flowers blooming, so there was no way she could have provided the pollen for a child.
"I guess it's not Treant, then..."
Realizing how absurd the idea was, the Little Witch reconsidered. I felt a wave of relief, but then she pressed me further.
"Hey, Alraune. Are you... keeping the partner's identity a secret even from me?"
The Little Witch's eyes began to well up. It was hardly the time or place, but I couldn't help but think how beautiful her shimmering, teary eyes were.
"Is it someone you really like, Alraune?"
"It's not, that I, like them, or anything."
My impression of Hecate-sama was that of a mysterious figure who existed far beyond the concepts of liking or disliking. Besides, she wasn't a flower. She probably wasn't even human.
"Don't tell me... were you attacked by them against your will...?"
"It's, not, that, either... oh, but..."
The petunia had been forced to receive Hecate-sama's Aura of Darkness before it became a Mandrake. So, in the sense that it had been forcibly turned into a monster, she wasn't entirely wrong.
"Just tell me this. Alraune, you're still going to stay with me, right...?"
The Little Witch looked completely dejected. She probably thought I was going to be taken away by some unknown male flower. I could see the anxiety written all over her face. But she had it all wrong. I wasn't about to go eloping with anyone!
"The person, who created, this Mandrake, was a woman—"
I finally resolved to explain, but Kiri immediately cut me off. "There's no way a human could give birth to a Mandrake," she scoffed.
I knew it wouldn't be easy to make them believe in Hecate-sama, but I hadn't expected to be shut down before I could even start. Still, given that Hecate seemed to have some connection to the Little Witch, I figured it was best to tread carefully.
Yes, that settled it. I would save the explanation about that woman for another day.
"The partner who pollinated Alraune, huh? Now I'm curious. But there aren't any male plant monsters in this forest, are there?"
Just as Kiri muttered that, a sound echoed from the distance. The ground rumbled with heavy thuds. The giant Wood Golem had just returned from its patrol. I didn't actually know the Wood Golem's gender, but it certainly qualified as a plant-based monster.
"Could it be, Alraune-sama... you and that Wood Golem...?"
I instantly snapped my head around and glared at Kiri.
"I-It was a joke! Don't look at me with such a scary face!"
I couldn't stay a part of this farce any longer. Honestly, I suspected Kiri already knew I hadn't actually been pollinated. I had a feeling she was just teasing me. As if to prove it—
"But you know, even if there are no male plant monsters, male humans come to the forest all the time, don't they?"
True to her reputation as a chatty fairy, Kiri’s tongue was wagging at full speed.
"I mean, Alraunes are that kind of monster, right? It wouldn't be weird if something like that happened, would it?"
There was a reason an Alraune took the form of a human woman: it was to tempt and lure in human men. They were supposed to be cunning monsters that turned captured humans into nutrients.
"The partner, wasn't, human. That is, definitely, not it."
I couldn't imagine Hecate-sama being a mere human. It was the Aura of Darkness she emitted that had enveloped the petunia and turned it into this Mandrake.
"Hey, Kiri... even I, will, get angry, eventually."
As the atmosphere grew tense, Kiri chirped, "Sorry, sorry, it was all a joke!" and perched herself lightly on one of my petals. Then, to settle the matter, she turned to the Little Witch.
"Rufe, you might not know this, but depending on the species, some plants can produce seeds all by themselves."
With that one sentence, the Little Witch seemed satisfied, nodding as if it all made sense now. This was my chance!
"Everyone, look, closely, at that hole, in the ground."
Everyone there knew that Treant had planted the petunia in that spot.
"The petunia, that was, growing there, turned into, the Mandrake."
I explained that I hadn't given birth to it in the biological sense, but rather that a part of my body had transformed into the Mandrake.
"Oh, so that petunia was just pollinated?"
"So Alraune did 'give birth' to it, but not in that way."
The quick-witted Kiri and the Little Witch understood immediately. There had never been a father to begin with.
"M-Maybe, I just, forgot, that I had, eaten, a Mandrake, a long time ago. Ahaha, ha..."
They both seemed to accept the idea that my Plant Generation Power had transformed the petunia flower into a Mandrake. And so, despite the brief commotion over the father’s identity, the Mandrake was welcomed by everyone as a new resident of the forest.
That said, the Mandrake remained in its bucket, unable to move on its own. Since it needed care, we all agreed to cooperate in raising it.
As she was watering it, the Little Witch mused aloud.
"I wonder if this little one will grow up to be like Alraune?"
I had never actually considered what would happen when the Mandrake grew up. Would it just become a giant Mandrake, would it stay the same size, or would it transform into a different kind of plant monster entirely? In that regard, my curiosity was piqued. I was genuinely interested to see how this child would develop.
I stroked the Mandrake's head with a vine and whispered to it.
"Grow, big, and strong, okay?"
I had found one more thing to look forward to in my daily life.
Next time: Little Witch's First Niece.