It Is A Different World And Yet I Am Cultivating Monsters

Chapter 9: Let"s cultivate Mandragora (1)

「I think this time I will try to cultivate a Mandragora. 」

「Mandragora? Why? 」

Lily looked at me with a dubious expression.

I noticed that Lily came to the hills pretty often. She was sitting right now at a wooden table inside the old cottage that I kept to myself. Come to think of it, she"s an adventurer, isn"t she? She didn"t tell me about her occupation. But is it okay to have a spare time during daytime?

「Actually, I just bought this stuff at a street stall back in town. 」

There was a few seeds scattered on the wooden table. Lily looked at those seeds with a suspicious face.

「The old man from the stall told me that these seeds belong to a very rare species of Mandragora in the world. It seems that they were unsold, so I bought them at a good price. 」

「Hey you, if you have lots of free time, then why don"t you fix this rotten hut first? 」

Sometimes, Lily gets too bossy when she feels irritated towards my actions.

Yeah, the cultivation of Jack O" Lantern went really well. We"ve managed to get a very good trade value at Mina"s restaurant. Even if I said that, my finances were still severely bad. I was not getting much money so far, but at least, it was enough to barely make a living in this world.

Therefore, I thought about making a new investment with some of the remaining money! I"m going to purchase new monster plants! If I manage to grow a variety of different monster plants on my field, I"ll become the pioneer of monster farming in this world!

「I don"t care what you chose to do. But I don"t recommend raising a Mandragora. 」

Usually, Lily gets excited when I raise monsters, but she didn"t show much motivation this time around.

「Why not? Are you saying that Mandragora tastes bad? 」

「That"s not true. Rather, it"s very delicious. It"s also very rare for adventurers to find. In fact, it"s worth a hundred times more than Jack O" Lantern. 」

Was she serious? That would be a ridiculous price. There"s no choice but to cultivate this no matter what.

「But, I don"t recommend it…especially if it"s you. 」

「Why not? Maybe it"s because of "that"? If I pull it out, it will scream and I"ll die? 」

I do remember The Legend of Mandragora when I lived on the other world. Who knew that it would become true on this transitioned world?

Mandragora. It was a humanoid root. If someone pulled it out from the ground, it would scream insensately and the person who hears it would die. It was a cla.s.sic of a fantasy world. I wonder if the Mandragora is that dangerous in this world too?

I thought that. However, Lily shook her head.

「No, you won"t die after you hear the screams… 」

「It will be no problem then. I will do it. We have some crops available after the last harvest of Jack O" Lantern. First, I"ll just lay a few seeds on the ground to see how it goes. After I confirm that it"s safe to raise a Mandragora, we"ll start to cultivate lots of it. 」

I was full of motivation, while Lily was not on a good mood. She told me 「Do whatever you want 」, as if she was gloomy.

Why does Lily care so much about this?

Okay, I understood the farming process. Now I need to do "this" and "that".

I managed to successfully cultivate a mature Mandragora. Yeah, of course, I ended up pulling it from the ground. When I took it out, I heard a small cry. However, that cry was very different from the scream that I imagined. Then…

「Oh, my lord…Please don"t…I"m sorry…I"m sorry…I"m sorry…Please, I"m sorry…I will do anything….Please….Don"t kill me… 」

In front of me was an innocent naked girl of the size of my palm. She was growing leaves on her head and she was crying quite seriously.

Hey, I didn"t read about this. She was more humanoid than I expected her to be. She"s so cute.

It was often said that Mandragora was a plant monster with a creepy face, but she was barely even a monster. Somehow, she had a fairy appearance!

「I…I beg you…I won"t scream anymore…Don"t kill me…Don"t kill me… 」

When I pulled her out from the soil, she cried when she saw me. She kept begging for her life continually. I had an agricultural sickle on my hand; however, this scene was so unpredictable.

「That"s why I told you. Mandragora are harmless. Besides, there are many adventurers that once they find them, they"ll pull them out aggressively and instantaneously kill them. 」

「…Hey…It"s just a simple question. But, if we don"t kill the Mandragora, then we won"t be able to eat it, right? 」

「Of course. Mandragora"s body is very delicious. However, the head is not very tasty. People usually cook it after cutting the head off. The method is a bit cruel, that"s why it"s better to cook it alive. 」

What a horrible image. We were having a horrible conversation right in front of the Mandragora. She was crying and looking very scared of us. Well, as expected, it would be impossible for me to kill her. It would be better to have a monster that only screamed without having a personality. But this cute thing was begging me so desperately not to kill her.

So, this was what Lily meant before.

「Ah, don"t worry. I"m not going to kill you. I mean, I can"t kill you anyways.」

I tried to comfort the Mandragora with such words. Yet, she was not that relieved. Rather, she seemed a little bit wary of me.

「Eh? But won"t you raise me…to kill me in the end? 」

「I was going to do that at first. But I won"t be able to kill you after I saw how you look like.」

I don"t want to kill her even if I could. She was on a brink of death, that"s why she wanted to live so desperately. I won"t be able to kill a creature that begged me to live.

「Brother is as gentle as ever. You can always cook me you know. 」

Yeah. I forgot to mention it, but a maturely grown Jack O" Lantern got a personality of its own. I thought I would be able to take care of the situation. However, when I cut it off from the branch, it floated and moved autonomously. So, I decided to ignore it and gained a new companion. Yet, it was so annoying at times. It says 「Eat me. 」repeatedly. How can I eat a pumpkin with a st.u.r.dy personality?

「Ex…Excuse me. Then, I…? 」

I spoke confidently to the Mandragora that was not quite convinced yet.

「You can do whatever you want. I don"t want to kill you, but if you want to be with us here, then you can stay in the garden. 」

The Mandragora shed tears of happiness when she heard my words. She desperately thanked me. I didn"t do much to be thanked for but I felt happy and relieved for her as well. Lily had a bittersweet smile on her face, because she knew that I would be like this in the end.

1/3 More coming.

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