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Chapter 28

As I listened to the sound of the pot bubbling and Noel’s humming as he stirred it, I gently sipped from a cup containing tea with fairy jam.

(Yep, fairy candy jam really is nutritious… Though I have no idea what it tastes like to humans.)

At Ilai’s suggestion, we decided to start by selling jam made from fairy candy. So now, in houses with time to spare, people are simmering fairy candies to make jam.

The profits are distributed fairly, and the village benefits—so it’s a win-win.

「These fairy candies are really mysterious fruits. I wonder why one tree produces such differently colored fruits?」

(Yeah, and they seem to taste different too. Total fantasy-plant material.)

When making jam with this fruit, we first separate them by color. If we mix all the fruits together, the resulting jam becomes a muddy dark color—so we make red jam from red fruits, green from green ones, and so on.

…Personally, I thought the dark jam tasted best, but Noel made a face, so it must be an acquired taste for humans.

(Noel’s really diligent with his experiments, but… he won’t make the dark jam anymore…)

The jam Noel makes starts with crushed fruit juice that’s simmered down. Then he adds more whole pieces of the fruit and simmers again, resulting in a beautiful, jewel-like jam that retains the fruit’s shape. He won’t make anything that looks unappealing.

The white fruits turn transparent when boiled down, so Noel sometimes adds them to colored jams taken off the heat. This creates jam that looks like it’s filled with colorful gemstones. Seeing this variety, Ilai was overjoyed and showered Noel with praise—perhaps the boy has a real talent for cooking.

「I made it for Witch-sama, but I never imagined it’d one day become a product for sale.」

Apparently, all that variety was something he originally developed for my sake. As a Mandragora, I can’t really eat human food—mostly just drinks.

Or more accurately, drinking things lets me fake the appearance of 「eating「 without arousing suspicion.

(Though to be honest, plant nutrients are way better for me. Like purification flower nectar…)

Sometimes, I pretend to feed the seedlings and secretly sip some myself. Purification flower nectar is genuinely excellent nutrition.

Right now, the five seedlings are scattered across the house and village entrances, housed in their personal pots. But it seems villagers have taken a liking to watching the seedlings rest inside them—some even place empty pots filled with flower petals in front of their homes to attract them.

There are two village entrances, so I’ve ordered two of the seedlings to always guard them. The other three move around freely between the house and village. They’ve even set up their own rotation schedule, and their 「free time「 behavior reflects their personalities. The purple one, for instance, often hangs around near the Holy Knights’ inn. …Probably because Ritter praises it.

(I was planning to use sound-producing plants to teach them to dance—like with a music box… but I guess they’ve already done enough to seem harmless.)

In this world, lilies of the valley are different from those in my previous life—they actually emit sound. Each bell-shaped flower carries a specific musical note, so if you command them properly, they can play music like a handbell set.

Each note lingers a bit, making them better suited for soft, gentle melodies rather than upbeat songs. I realized it might be better to use them not for dancing, but to create something like a soothing music box. That could make a nice product too—Ilai would definitely want to sell it.

(Still… teaching them a melody properly is the tricky part…)

You have to instruct the flowers to play in the correct order and interval. I’m trying to program them to perform automatically, but first I need to perform the song myself to teach it.

In my previous life, I once performed in a handbell concert at a care facility, but I only handled two bells. I don’t really know sheet music.

(Noel looks so happy listening when I do it… so maybe it doesn’t sound terrible? He doesn’t know the original anyway—he probably thinks I composed it.)

Lately I’ve been trying to piece together a classic Christmas tune—one note at a time, testing and correcting myself along the way. …But since I don’t have perfect pitch, the result is turning out a little… different.

(Maybe I’ll keep working on it later toda—Huh!? What…!?)

Just as I stood up to head toward the pot where the lilies of the valley were growing, a chill swept over me.

Like an instinctive jolt—an overwhelming sense that a powerful being had entered my territory. That’s what it felt like.

「…Witch-sama, is something wrong?」

Apparently, this sensation is unique to me. Noel, noticing I’d frozen mid-step, turned off the stove and rushed over.

I didn’t know exactly what it was. But I could sense something had appeared nearby—something that hadn’t been there before.

(…Probably outside the house… Ugh, none of the seedlings are nearby right now… Should’ve had one stationed out front…)

Whatever it is, it’s definitely outside. I can tell because this whole area is surrounded by plants I created.

For now, I want to see what’s happening out there. So I mentally ordered the seedlings to return. Even from a distance, I could feel them responding and hurrying back. The closest one is the one guarding the village entrance.

It would really help if the unknown presence just stayed put until the seedlings got here—but I doubt I’ll be that lucky.

As I turned toward the entrance, Noel also looked that way.

「Someone’s here? I’ll go check.」

(Noel, wait—! It might be dangerous…!)

But I couldn’t call out to stop him. All I could do was stretch a hand toward his retreating back as he dashed off.

He didn’t share my unease, so he simply opened the door and looked up at the figure standing there.

「…Who are you?」

The person at the door wasn’t a villager, a knight, or Ilai. It was a stranger in a deeply hooded robe. The figure stared silently down at Noel, and although there was no visible hostility, Noel kept his eyes fixed on the stranger, puzzled.

「…Huh. So the so-called ‘witch’ keeps a beastkin around.」

As he spoke, the man pushed back his hood. Long, deep navy hair spilled out, and his eyes gleamed like amethyst.

「You’re the one pretending to be a witch? Or rather… what are you?」

His glare landed squarely on me—a complete stranger, and very, very intimidating. Inside, I was screaming in terror.