Chapter 6 – Pollination Crisis
Emergency! It's an emergency comparable to the time when I was betrayed by my companions.
I, Alraune, am a female flower and my upper body is a pistil.
Over there is a bee monster called Zornbiene with pollen from male flowers on its body.
If the pollen on that bee's body reach me, I will pollinate. It's like get pregnant in human terms.
If I don’t do something, I'll be humiliated by that bee.
I’m scared!!!
I mean, why can't plants choose their partner freely based on love?
Yeah, I know. Plants don't do that.
In this harsh world, your species will go extinct if you don't produce as many offspring as possible. However, I want to be an exception. I don't need an offspring. I want to be a single flower forever.
When pollinated, this body will eventually become a fruit to produce seeds. If that happens, I'm sure I won't be myself anymore. I will be as good as dead.
Or rather, to bear a child of an unknown male flower, you've got to be kidding me!
I'm not such a cheap flower!
I am, after all, a former duke’s daughter and saint!
To all unknown male flowers out there, first send me your photo and profile, and then come to introduce yourself when the time's right. I won't refuse if it's just a blind date.
Now, let's calm down for a bit.….
If I remember it correctly, the pollen enters the pistil through the stigma towards the ovule located in the base of flower, which resulting in a pollination.
But which part of my body is the stigma? My head? Or perhaps my hair? Since the pollen needs to enter my body, maybe my mouth?
The matter of pollination aside, I don't like the idea of pollen entered my mouth. The pollen could also enter through my nostril or other parts of my body, but that doesn’t make things better. In any case, just don't ever let bee get close to me because that will put my chastity in danger.
To Alraune, a child born from my seed, I don't want to say; "I don't know who your father is.". Or rather, I can't say it even if I wanted to because I technically would become that seed.
So, to protect my chastity, I will fight with everything I've got!
Focusing all my attention on my vines, I launched a preemptive strike at the approaching Zornbiene. However, it didn't hit the target.
Fast! I guess it's to be expected from a bee. Still, unlike normal bee, it's a monster as big as adult human, so it's much easier to target.
I launched dozens of strikes afterwards, but not even once I landed a hit. Feeling annoyed, the Zornbirne retaliated by biting off one of my vines.
Ouch!
I had never imagined to be bitten instead being stung by a bee. The combination of pain, frustration, and the fact that my chastity was in danger, caused honey to drip from my eyes instead of tears. Seeing that, the Zornbiene got even more motivated to approach me.
Eek!?
D-Don’t get any closer!
Take this!!
I shot poisonous pollen towards the Zornbiene.
This is my ultimate weapon that killed even the perverted bear in single breath.
However, nothing happened to the Zornbiene even after some time had passed. Being a bee monster that also used poison, the Zornbiene apparently had a fairly high poison resistance.
Perhaps it was on alert after the poisonous pollen attack, the Zornbiene stayed in the air where my vines couldn't reach. Meanwhile, I gently stroked the bitten vine with teary eyes.
When I was a saint, I would use recovery magic right away whenever I got hurt. Speaking of which, can the current me use magic?
I tried to fire Light Arrow at the Zornbiene as an experiment, but nothing happened.
Magic seems unusable.
Oh well, being a monster and a plant, I guess there’s no helping it.
I thought that I couldn't use recovery magic either, but there was a reaction and my vine grew back to the way before it was bitten.
What’s going on!? I think it’s a little different from recovery magic. Instead of recovering, the vine seems to have grown. Could it be that when I use recovery magic, instead of healing, it’s promoting the growth of the plant?
For your information, it’s officially called light recovery magic. Light is important to plants, and is one of my three major needs. I guess that's why light recovery magic and this plant body are pretty compatible.
For the next experiment, I tried to apply recovery magic on the other vines. Then, as if watching a fast-forward video, the vines rapidly grew to twice their original length. Not only that, their number has also doubled.
Instead of healing, I seem to have gained the ability to make plants grow rapidly. If this is the case, I might have just found a way to defeat that bee.
I stretched out my vine towards the still hovering Zornbiene. Seeing it could only reach the empty air, the Zornbiene let out a squeal of derision.
You should not let your guard down yet.
I used recovery magic to make my vine grow longer rapidly. Unable to react on time to the sudden change, I successfully landed a solid hit on the Zornbiene's wings at last.
Then, before it could recover from the shock, I hit the Zornbiene using all of my vines, sent its body crashing into the ground, and then restrained it tightly. The Zornbiene put up a desperate resistance, buzzing, squealing, biting, and stabbing my vines using its stinger, but I endured it.
This is the end....
I tore off the Zornbiene's body into two using my vines.
This is what happens to those who tried to defile me. I will show no mercy. Now then….
I WON!!!
Yeah, I did it!
I have protected my chastity!
---or so I thought until I heard a sound like that of helicopters regiment approaching from the other side of forest.
Speaking of which, I've heard that bees will send a distress signal to their friends when their life in danger. No way, is that the cry from before!?
The answer to that question came a while later together with a cruel reality. The army of Zornbiene covered the sky above me, dyed it in yellow and black color.
There are more bee eyes than what I could count staring straight at me.
What should I do!?
I just barely defeated a bee that was trying to defile me, but there are even more of them now. I’m sure everyone has pollen from male flowers on their bodies….
This is bad.
This number is impossible.
I might really be pollinated this time!!!