My name is Alraune, and I am a plant monster.
I had just finished defeating the Legion Commander of the Demon King’s Army, who had been attempting to invade Edelweiss.
──Chomp.
I felt my body beginning to flush with heat. Since he was a fire spirit, I suppose it made sense that he was still smoldering inside me. What would I do if my own body actually caught fire?
But I figured I’d be fine. I felt a bit hot, but more importantly, he was packed with nutrients.
"Come to think of it, was this the second time I've eaten a spirit?"
The first had been the fallen Dryades, Vergissmeinnicht, one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King's Army. Back then, I had only managed to defeat her after a desperate, life-or-death struggle. This time, however, things had been surprisingly simple. Perhaps it was proof of how much I had grown.
As that thought crossed my mind, I felt a strange surge of energy. Since he was a spirit, he was likely highly compatible with me now that I had become a plant-spirit-like existence myself.
"Now then. It's all well and good that the Demon King’s Army has been defeated, but... this gaze still hasn't vanished."
A mysterious gaze was monitoring me from afar. Even while I was locked in combat with the Fire Spirit Ifreet, it had been watching me the entire time.
"What in the world is their objective?"
As I stared intently toward the north, I felt yet another gaze. This one was different from the mysterious one monitoring me. It didn't feel unpleasant or strange; on the contrary, I felt as if I could hear a distant voice calling my name.
"Alraune!"
"Rufe!?"
A small white bird flew toward me from the direction of the town. It was the familiar sight of the Little Witch! For some reason, while in her bird form, she was clutching a blue dress with her feet. Wait, that blue dress... wasn't it my—Iris’s—dress that had fallen from the sky when I was in town earlier? Why on earth did the Little Witch have it?
"Alraune! I finally found you!"
"Rufe, where have you been!?"
The Little Witch flew down to me, remaining in her bird form. When I offered a vine, she perched on it as if it were a branch. As she landed, the blue dress fluttered through the air.
"Ah!"
The moment she let out a cry of alarm, I moved reflexively. I quickly whipped another vine through the air and caught the dress. Yes, this was definitely my—Iris’s—dress from before. I was curious why she had it, but there was something far more important to check first.
"Rufe, are you okay? You aren't hurt, are you?"
"Yeah... I'm fine."
I checked the white bird's tiny body with my hands. I even performed a thorough palpation under her feathers, but she didn't seem to have a scratch on her. Perhaps my touching her tickled, because she let out a sound like a kitten.
"Nn... Alraune, that tickles..."
"Ah, sorry. Aren't you going to change back into your human form?"
"I'm not wearing any clothes right now... so I can't."
"Eh!? What happened to your clothes?"
"The maid took them off me."
"???"
What did that even mean? By "maid," she probably meant the one from my home—the House of Duke Edelweiss. Why would a maid strip the Little Witch? ...Wait, I think I see it now.
"Did you bring that dress because the maid gave it to you?"
"Yeah. She made me wear it."
I didn't quite grasp the full context, but I understood the result. The Little Witch had been stripped by a maid and ended up wearing my—Iris’s—dress. I understood that much, but I still couldn't fathom how it had come to that.
"The one who defeated the Witch Queen's subordinate, Diesel, was you, right?"
"Yeah. I beat him."
"Does that mean... did you actually meet the Witch Queen herself?"
"...The Witch Queen?"
The way she reacted was strange. Did she not meet her?
"I saw her earlier. The Witch Queen was staring right at me from the mansion window."
"But the Witch Queen is in the Royal Capital, right? Why would she be at the mansion?"
"I don't know. Do you know anything about it, Rufe?"
"I don't... but thinking she was there makes me suddenly scared."
The white bird's body trembled. The Witch Queen had been hunting the Little Witch for a long time, so it was clearly still a source of trauma for her.
"So, Rufe, what did you do after you defeated Diesel?"
"Um... after I waved to Alraune and we parted, I met the maid, and she made me wear the dress."
"And that's why you have it... But that's a bit sudden. You wouldn't just put on a dress without a reason."
"Because my clothes got too small."
"Small?"
"Yeah. Because I became big."
I had no idea what she was talking about. Or rather, did she wave to me? The one who had waved to me from the window was supposed to be the Witch Queen...
Suddenly, I recalled the Little Witch's face. Rufe and the Witch Queen looked identical. However, their ages were so different that I couldn't have mistaken them—or so I thought. The person who waved to me was definitely an adult woman.
──But wait.
Now that I thought about it, the Witch Queen's clothes looked a lot like the Little Witch's. In fact, that wink she gave me was exactly like Rufe’s mannerisms. Could it be that when she said she "became big," she meant...?
"After I borrowed Saint Iris's dress, I looked for you. But the trees in the city suddenly attacked me, so I just ran away... Those trees were you, right, Alraune?"
"Y-Yes..."
"The city turned into a forest. Alraune, you're a naughty girl."
"...I'm sorry."
I knew she was right. Turning the city into a forest had been a bit excessive.
"Then I heard from a knight that the Demon King's Army was outside the city, so I flew out here."
"Right, the Demon King's Army! It seems they attacked Edelweiss just as the reports said."
We had known this was coming because I had extracted the information from the Beast Ogre Mantiger. I was truly relieved we had made it in time to save the city. However──.
"When I arrived here, the Demon King's Army had already been decimated."
"...I was the one who did that."
"............Eh?"
"I defeated the Demon King's Army."
I scanned the surroundings. Though the area had become a lush grassland thanks to my power, it had been a desolate wasteland only moments ago. There was no sign of the army that should have numbered over ten thousand; only the corpses of a few large-class demons remained. It was a scene of utter devastation, as if a catastrophic storm had swept through.
Even the Fire Spirit Ifreet had been buried in the ground. Did that mean the person Ifreet—a Legion Commander—had been hiding from because he couldn't even resist was our very own Little Witch?
"Th-That's amazing! You did great, Rufe!"
"Yeah. I worked really hard!"
"Good girl, good girl."
"Ehehe."
"But... how did you do it?"
I didn't doubt her. If she said she defeated them, then it was the truth. But no matter how strong she had become, she shouldn't have been able to wipe out ten thousand soldiers single-handedly.
"You see... it was only possible thanks to you, Alraune."
"Thanks to me?"
"Yeah. Because I ate the Mistletoe Fruit."
"Mistletoe... you don't mean the Witch Queen's!?"
"Yeah. I had the fruit that fell when you defeated the Witch Queen, so I ate it."
The mistletoe I had used to parasitically drain the Witch Queen had condensed her magic power into fruit. If the Little Witch had eaten that, then──.
"It made me transform into the Witch Queen, and I became strong. I tried mimicking the magic she used on you before, and the whole army just blew away."
"So that explains the mess."
The pieces were finally falling into place. The Fire Spirit Ifreet had mentioned being defeated by the Witch Queen. That "Witch Queen" was actually Rufe. Everything made sense now. Which meant...
"Since when did you transform into the Witch Queen, Rufe?"
"When I defeated Diesel."
"...I knew it!"
The lingering sense of incongruity vanished. The person who had waved to me from the mansion was indeed Rufe! The one watching me wasn't a threat; it was my beloved Little Witch.
To begin with, the real Witch Queen hadn't even been in Edelweiss. That had all been the Little Witch—Rufe’s powered-up form. Her very presence had become equal to the Witch Queen's thanks to the Mistletoe Fruit. The fact that she could wield that much power... wasn't that actually incredible?
"Whoa! Hey Rufe, show me that Witch Queen form too!"
"B-But..."
"Ah, you're naked under the feathers, right? If you wear this dress, it'll be fine."
"...If you say so, Alraune."
The white bird's body distorted. The tiny creature shifted its shape, growing into a girl. Then, the familiar child-form of the Little Witch appeared before me.
"............Huh? You look the same as usual?"
"I used up all of the Witch Queen's magic power on the army, so I changed back."
Rufe hid herself behind the oversized blue dress, looking quite bashful. I felt a pang of guilt; she could have just told me that from the start.
It was then that I noticed something. That mysterious gaze from before was still fixed on me.
"Hey, Rufe, do you feel a presence or something?"
"A presence? Hmm, I'm not sure."
"I see."
Even now, I could feel it. Someone was still monitoring us from afar while we spoke. Just as that thought crossed my mind...
"Ah............ it's gone."
Perhaps the observer decided there was nothing left to see. The mysterious gaze suddenly vanished. I truly wondered who it was. Since it had come from the north, I suspected we were being watched from either the Royal Capital of the Kingdom of Gardenia or perhaps the Holy Capital of the Kingdom of Myrte Holy Light beyond it.
"Alraune... how do I look?"
I shifted my focus back to the girl. There stood Rufe, draped in the baggy blue dress. She was wearing the very dress I had worn during my Saint Iris Era. The sight was surreal.
──That dress used to be mine.
I felt a bittersweet frustration at not being able to say those words, but I simply smiled at her.
"It suits you, Rufe."
"...Thank you."
However, one thing weighed heavily on my mind. That mysterious gaze had only vanished after the white bird transformed into Rufe. In other words, that unknown observer had seen that the Little Witch was a witch capable of transformation. That realization filled me with a quiet dread.
Next time: The Newbie Saint Looks Down at the Lower World from the Top of the Tower.