My name is Alraune, and I am a plant monster.
After I finished clearing out the urn golems that were attacking the city, I found myself surrounded by the townspeople before I knew it.
Crowds of residents flooded the plaza, pressing in from all sides. Among them, I spotted the merchants from the Pitsuru Company and the knights of the Edelweiss Knight Order. The atmosphere was so lively and festive that one might have thought a celebration had just begun.
They all looked toward me, shouting with pure joy.
"Blessings to the New Saint of Edelweiss!"
Wait, what?!
What’s going on? Why is everyone acting like this all of a sudden?
"I'm not a Saint. I'm an Alraune..." I tried to protest.
It was true that I currently only had a human upper body growing out of a Gajumaru Tree, but my face was the exact same face as Saint Iris—the woman everyone in this city knew. I had assumed they were simply mistaking me for her, but the air felt different.
The townspeople were staring at me with an intensity that wasn't meant for the monster who had saved them. Some looked as though they were on the verge of tears just by looking at my face; others wore smiles of profound relief, like someone reuniting with a beloved friend after years apart.
A sense of dissonance washed over me. The expressions they wore—yes, they were the exact same looks they used to reserve for Saint Iris.
A voice rang out from the crowd. "You are the New Saint of Edelweiss!"
At those words, more voices began to chime in from every direction.
"You're the hero who saved the city!"
"You protected Edelweiss. We're all so grateful to you!"
"If you hadn't stepped in, both I and my daughter would have been killed by those strange urns. You're our savior!"
"This massive tree covering the city... it protected us from the explosions. That was your doing, wasn't it?"
"Edelweiss looks like a forest now, but compared to losing our lives, that's nothing!"
"Not a single person died despite all that chaos! It’s nothing short of a miracle!"
"Speaking of miracles—my legs should have been blown off by that blast, but thanks to the Saint’s nectar, they're back to normal! It’s a miracle, I tell you!"
Everyone was singing my praises. I had rarely been complimented this much since I became an Alraune.
Then, I realized the source of that strange feeling. These people weren't looking at me as a monster. They saw me as a Saint. They were treating a woman growing out of a tree as if she were a human being. Not a single person looked at me with the suspicion usually reserved for monsters.
Even in the Tower City, where I had become quite close with the residents, this had never happened. There, I was the Alraune who guarded the city. But the reaction here in Edelweiss was different. Even though I had saved both cities in the same way, the emotions being directed at me were on a different level. They were treating me as a person—as the Saint who watched over their home.
What was this feeling?
I wasn't being recognized as a monster, or even just as an Alraune. I was being recognized as a Saint.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, a warmth spread through my chest. It was a feeling I had long forgotten, ever since I was betrayed and killed by my junior apprentice saint. I never thought I would be called by that title again.
The fact that the townspeople accepted me as their Saint stirred the heart of the girl who used to be Iris.
"I’m so happy..."
I was being accepted, not as an Alraune, but as the new Saint of Edelweiss.
There was no way I wouldn't be overjoyed, but... wait, hold on. Is it actually okay to be happy about this?
They were treating me as if I were a real Saint, but I wasn't Saint Iris anymore. In fact, if they kept calling me a Saint, wasn't there a risk they’d figure out my true identity?
As if to confirm my fears, someone shouted over the din.
"Your bravery in protecting this city reminds me so much of Lady Saint Iris... yes, of Lady Iris herself!"
The plaza fell into a sudden, heavy silence. Every eye was fixed on my face.
"I knew it. That face... it’s the spitting image of Lady Saint Iris."
"The hair color is different, but everything else looks exactly the same."
"It's not just the face. The aura around her is the same, too."
"Even the way she speaks... it sounds just like how Lady Iris used to talk to us."
"Ah, how I missed her... it's like Lady Iris has returned to us, right when we thought we'd never see her again."
"Just a resemblance? No—aren't you actually Lady Iris?"
"But Lady Iris died years ago in the war against the Demon King's Army, didn't she?"
"Then maybe the late Lady Iris sent this Alraune to us?"
"No, Lady Iris has been resurrected! She was loved so dearly by Goddess Selene—the Goddess must have shown her mercy!"
"Come to think of it, I saw a white-winged angel soaring into the sky just a moment ago!"
"What?! An Angel-sama was here in Edelweiss?!"
"An angel, a messenger of the Goddess, descending here... that’s the proof! Lady Iris has come home!"
The plaza erupted into a roar of excitement. The conversation was moving forward entirely without me, and it seemed everyone was now convinced I was Iris.
"W-wait a minute! Everyone, calm down!"
It was no use. My voice was completely drowned out by the cheering.
Besides, what was this about a white-winged angel? An angel descended on the city? Pandia-san was supposed to be in the Royal Capital, so did that mean a different angel had appeared?
I didn't understand the "how," but it seemed this mysterious angel had convinced the people that Saint Iris was back from the dead. There was absolutely nothing in the Holy Scripture about Goddess Selene bringing the dead back to life, so why were they so quick to believe it?
I had to set them straight, and fast!
"I am not Iris! And Saints don't just come back to life!"
A man standing nearby immediately pushed back. "But there’s an Alraune who looks exactly like Lady Iris right in front of us. How else could you explain it?"
The crowd surged with agreement.
"Lady Iris saved me from a fatal wound years ago, and this Alraune reacted the exact same way she did!"
"When she saved me earlier, she looked at me like she already knew me!"
"She was looking at the Iris bread with such nostalgia, too!"
"I wondered why a monster would ever go so far to save Edelweiss, but if it’s Lady Iris, it all makes sense."
"Maybe Saint Iris died and became a spirit?"
"Goddess Selene must have mourned Lady Iris's untimely death and brought her back as a spirit... could that be it?"
"How else do you explain an Alraune who is her spitting image? Looking at the way she's part of that tree, maybe she isn't an Alraune at all, but a Dryad..."
"Then she’s a spirit! Lady Iris must have become a spirit to return to Edelweiss!"
If the people from the Royal Capital Church heard this, they would have laughed at such a preposterous theory. That was how impossible this conversation was. But this wasn't the capital; it was Edelweiss. To these people, who worshipped Saint Iris as if she were a goddess, nothing I said seemed to matter.
They insisted I was a Saint. They had convinced themselves that Iris had been resurrected as a spirit.
But they were wrong! I was just an Alraune! I mean, I couldn't say I was entirely unrelated to Saint Iris, but for now, I really needed them to believe we were strangers!
No matter how much I shouted, the crowd wouldn't stop.
I realized then that they didn't care what I had to say. They wanted to believe Saint Iris had returned. They loved her—loved me—that much. It made me happy, truly, but I couldn't let this stand. If word got out that Saint Iris had been resurrected, I would be in serious trouble.
So—
"Be quiet!"
Using my Plant Generation, I created a Sandbox Tree bomb seed and hurled it at a nearby building. The moment the seed struck the wall, it detonated with a deafening crack.
The fruit of the Sandbox Tree—also known as the Snabakonoki—is known for exploding and scattering its seeds when ripe. I simply weaponized that trait. Of course, I made sure to catch all the flying seeds with the branches of the Gajumaru Tree so no one got hurt; those seeds are incredibly dangerous if they hit you.
The explosion was loud enough to shock the townspeople, who were already on edge from the golems, into silence.
"Please, listen to me! I am just an Alraune. I have nothing to do with Saint Iris! We are just strangers who happen to look alike!"
As I spoke, I saw the faces of the people fall.
They still hadn't moved on from the death of their hero, their idol. They were desperately trying to find the vestiges of Saint Iris in the girl who had saved them.
But if that was the case, I still had a chance to fix this. If I just kept denying it, they would eventually have to accept that they were mistaken.
"Besides the fact that my face looks like hers, there is absolutely nothing else linking us—Eek?! What... what is this?"
Something suddenly fluttered down and covered my face.
It felt like fabric. Something blue had fallen from the sky.
As I pulled the blue cloth away from my face, I heard the entire crowd catch its breath. Everyone was staring at what I was holding.
No... this wasn't just a piece of cloth. It was a dress.
And I knew it well. It was a fabric of vivid blue, like a mountain spring, adorned with exquisite iris embroidery. In all of Edelweiss, only one person had been permitted to wear a dress with this specific embroidery.
This was my dress. Iris’s dress.
Just as the realization hit me, Alex, my former guard knight, cried out in a panicked voice.
"That dress... it’s Lady Iris’s dress!"
In an instant, the plaza erupted in a roar of cheers. The heat and excitement of the crowd now was nothing compared to before.
Sandbox Tree (Snabakonoki): Part of the Euphorbiaceae family. It is native to the tropical regions of the Americas and parts of Africa. It is characterized by an appearance so dangerous you might get injured just by getting close to it. Its sap and seeds are toxic and were sometimes used to make poison arrows. The fruit explodes at speeds exceeding 200 km/h, earning it the nickname "The Monkey's Pistol."
Author's Note: Hooray for reaching Chapter 400! Thanks to all of your support, I’ve been able to keep this series going. I read all of your comments, and they really give me the energy to keep writing! Thank you again for all your support! (Bow)
Next time: Saint Iris's Dress.