Chapter 10 – Circle Crusher A.K.A Man-Eater
The Zornbienes brought a flower monster. Next to me, the new princess is surrounded by female knights. Her name is Man-Eater.
Her face is a flower with vicious-looking teeth, while her body is a tree trunk with many roots growing from its base like a jellyfish. Her body is not that big since she is shorter than me. However, she is still huge compared to ordinary flower.
I wonder if the Zornbienes are thinking of collecting honey from her as well. Maybe the reason they brought this newcomer is because I stopped providing them with honey during the drought. I had my hands full with my own survival at that time, so I couldn't do anything about it.
Still, I don't think she can produce delicious honey like me. I mean, just as you can see, she looks.... too wild?
She seems to be the kind of flower that will attack anyone who gets close to her indiscriminately. Not only that, since a while ago, she has been trying to intimidate me by raising a strange sound. No matter how you look at it, she is clearly hostile to me. Even so, I will be an adult and try to get along with her.
I extended my vine for a handshake towards the Man-Eater.
Hello. Let's be friend as a fellow monster plant.
However, instead of handshake, I got my vine bitten.
Hey, biting the vine of someone you've just met is very unladylike!
Didn't stop there, she also attacked me using her own vines --- a straight attack like a punch aiming at me, but I was almost unscathed.
If I may be blunt, she is not on my level. I feel the gap in our power is so wide that I want to tell her to challenge me again after she trains her punch 10000 times a day at least. I'm not an Alraune that can be defeated by a small fry like Man-Eater.
Still, I can't believe she attacked me so soon after we met. Does she think I'm a nuisance? That's pretty cocky of her.
I hope she is not under the impression that I won't do anything to her just because she’s a fellow flower monster. I also have my pride. I know she’s trying to monopolize the Zornbienes' affection. I won't let it happen.
Then again, let's put up with it for now. Even if a junior is being a bit rebellious, as a senior, I should not get angry.
No, hold on!
This reminds me of that fucking junior of saint apprentice.
That bitch slept with my fiancé --- the hero, put me in a false charge, and even killed me.
Yeah, a junior can just go die!
This place doesn't need a forest princess other than me. I alone will make the Zornbienes happy. Now then, since it’s been decided that she is an enemy, I will show her no mercy.
I captured the Man-Eater with my vines and tore off her body into two.
My vines are thicker, longer, and more numerous than hers. In addition, despite their appearance, my vines are crazy strong, she is not match for me. The rest is to destroy the evidence so the Zornbienes won’t find it.
I opened the bulb's mouth wide and throw the Man-Eater’s corpse in.
*swallowed*
I’ve returned to my peaceful life now!
The patrolling Zornbienes who came back to check on us looked at me suspiciously. However, they left again without questioning about the disappearance of Man-Eater.
Good. The honey I gave to them as a bribe seems to be working.
Then, suddenly, I felt my body was acting weird.
What’s going on!?
I feel like a new sprout is about to grow from my vines.
I've never felt anything like this before.
I was surprised to see a man-eater flower bloom on my vine when I applied recovery magic to it.
What is this!?
Why is there a man-eater flower growing on of my vine?
Could it be I'm actually a relative of Rafflesia?
I tried the same thing to the other vines and learned that I was able to make man-eater flowers bloom at will.
This happened because I ate the Man-Eater, right? I mean, I've eaten a lot of animal-type monsters but nothing like this has ever happened. My guess is that if I eat plant-type monsters or normal plants, I can obtain their abilities and characteristics. Okay, let's do an experiment!
I pulled out a yellow flowering weed that was growing nearby and threw it into the bulb's mouth. Next I used recovery magic while imagining a yellow flower blooming on my vine
Yeah, there’s no doubt. This is the same flower as that weed's. I apparently have the ability to absorb and reproduce plants.
I wonder if it's because I can use recovery magic to make plants grow rapidly. Or perhaps it's because I used my power as a saint to the limit and assimilated the monster flower using super recovery at that time.
Anyway, I don’t know the principle, but there is no reason to not make use of it. For the time being, let's name this ability 'Plant Generation'.
After that, I ate up all the plants in the vicinity and converted them into my own power.
The more weapon, the better. Then again, since they were originally just normal plants, there are not many things that can be used for fighting.
Speaking of being usable, after I ate the whole tree that was growing next to me, I can change my vines into tree trunks.
That tree was pretty tall and its branches cast shadow on me. Because of that, I only exposed to about half of the sunlight. I've been annoyed by it for a long time, but it's alright now. I don't have to worry about anyone stealing sunlight from me anymore.
My peaceful daily life returned to me. Every day, as a forest princess, I offered my honey to the Zornbienes, and they would bring me a tribute in return. When it rained, I raised my hands in joy, and I muttered that I wanted water again the next day.
As I was spending such days, the thing I worried the most had finally come. The Zornbienes brought a tribute for me. However, it was neither monster, animal, or another flower princess, but a human child. Furthermore, the child was still alive.
E-Everyone, where did you pick up this child!?
This is definitely a kidnapping, isn't' it?
I don't want to be an accomplice in this crime!
What should I do with this child?
Seriously, what should I do?
Swallowing a word ‘nutrition’, I cradled my head with my vines.