MagicalExplorer
Reborn as a Side Character in a Fantasy Dating Sim
“Figured it would be wilder and more overgrown, since there’s no chance to do any upkeep in here.”
Listening to Yukine as we all moved forward, Yuika nodded. “When I heard ‘Sanctuary’ I imagined something kinda intense, but this place is pretty.”
Yuika was looking at a large white mushroom growing to the side. They were glowing slightly as if loudly announcing, Hey, I’m poisonous!! Looking at it was all well and good, but I really didn’t want her to take a bite out of it or anything.
“This is my first time coming here, so I didn’t really know what to expect,” Ludie murmured.
It was difficult to come up with a comparison, but it was a sort of mysterious forest I could imagine mythical beasts living in. There were places where the canopy was large enough to block out the sun, but these areas were illuminated by the bioluminescence of firefly-like insects, glowing mushrooms like the one we had just passed, and pumpkin-looking plants, so there wasn’t any need for an external light source.
In other sections of the forest, sunlight streamed through the trees, and in others still, there wasn’t much overhead vegetation at all.
“Didn’t expect we’d get here so easily, to be honest…”
With Claris’s help, we had managed to get inside the Sanctuary without any trouble whatsoever.
In-game, there are several fights with imperial soldiers trying to stop Ludie along the way to the Sanctuary. This time, however, there weren’t any signs of them.
The only ones who could enter the Sanctuary were the imperial family, Ludie included, as well as whoever held the key. Anyone with access could bring a small group to accompany them.
Part of why we’d had such an easy time getting inside was because Claris had been so quick to act.
“Did you anticipate everything would play out this way, Miss Claris?” Nanami asked.
“I suppose so… With how Lady Ludie has been lately, I was sure she would try to come here.” Claris turned to me. “In that regard, I also assumed Emperor Marc and Empress Sophia would anticipate Lady Ludivine would attempt to come here herself.”
“Knowing what I do about His and Her Majesty, that makes sense.”
“I wasn’t convinced Emperor Marc and Empress Sophia would anticipate Lady Ludie’s friends escaping and meeting up with her. But I could easily imagine you all trying to come here together.”
So that was why Claris had sprung into action.
“Thank you for all you did.”
“Not at all. I was unsure how best to act, so I simply chose the option I would regret the least. However…if something bad does come up, I truly might have to impose on the Hanamura family, so should that happen…”
“We’ll be waiting with open arms, of course.”
“Kousuke, I’m not letting you have Claris, okay? I’ll personally employ her if I have to.”
“Please, Miss Ludie, there is no need to worry. Should the Hanamuras hire Claris, her job would be that of a Hanamura House maid. Considering Miss Hatsumi already trusts her, I imagine the fundamental aspects of her work won’t change…outside of her nighttime duties.”
“Nothing will change at all, whether it’s morning, afternoon or night, okay? Don’t add in suggestive stuff like that.”
What exactly was she going to do at night, hmm?
“Well, I’m sure she’ll be just fine with Kousuke… Actually, you might even employ her under even better conditions than we do.”
The only “better conditions” I could really imagine offering was an increased salary. Thanks to Marino and Nanami, I had an unbelievable amount of money in my bank account. I didn’t really understand it fully, but my passive income was kinda outrageous.
“At the very least, thanks to Nanami, money’s not an issue. I’d gladly pay you however much you wanted, Claris. Might not actually be a bad idea.”
The elf woman smiled awkwardly when she heard this. “I couldn’t accept any money from you. You’ve given me something that would take multiple lifetimes to properly pay back.”
Just then, Nanami’s mood changed.
“Forgive me for interrupting right as you declared that you would serve Master for life…but I must request you all be careful. I sense something approaching.”
Nanami, advancing onward beside Yukine, appeared to have picked up something, as she glared at a slightly open area and began to cast her enhance magic.
Yuika strained her eyes to look at what Nanami pointed out. “Uhhh, what is with that moving flower thing…? Wait, it’s not a flower!”
The thing Yuika had spotted was moving far too strangely to be swaying in the breeze. It wasn’t a flower, though. I knew what it was. This was a female-shaped monster that had flowers sprouting from its body.
“A person?” Claris squinted, looking at the monster.
It wasn’t a person, either. If it was, there wouldn’t be flowers blooming out of the tips of its hair.
“I see. While it may not hold a candle to my own, it has quite the voluptuous figure. It earns high marks for being covered in that sticky liquid, too.”
Nanami had a wonderful eye. Of course, this enemy was quite popular with eroge players, but at the same time, it severely punished those who took it lightly. That dubious sticky liquid it was covered in would melt our bodies, and it gave off a smell that made us hallucinate.
“I’ve seen that thing in some documents before. It’s an Aluloona, if I remember correctly,” I said.
Though by “documents,” I meant the game, of course. The worldbuilding describes them as a sort of subspecies of Alraune. There are also versions called Aluloon that resemble cute little boys. Obviously, they drip the same dubious liquid, with an even more, well, aggressive design than even the Aluloona here—something, something, throwing a bone to the female audience or what have you.
“Takioto, look. What would you say those things on the ground over there are?” Yuika said, staring at the area where the Aluloona stood.
“Those would be bones, right?” Claris remarked, staring hard at them.
“Be careful, the Aluloona’s slime will melt your body. Ludie, you ready to go?”
“Quite vicious for something so cute,” Ludie said, gathering mana in her staff. “May I?”
We all nodded.
Right as Ludie launched her spell, Yukine and I stepped out in front. Yuika followed behind us.
Yukine and Yuika appeared ready to face it head on, so I stretched out my stole thinking I may as well hit its flank instead. Once I wrapped the fabric around a nearby tree branch, I pulled back forcefully on it to send myself flying. Next, I wrapped my stole around the tree at the end of my trajectory, advancing forward like a swinging pendulum.
“Seems like someone’s upped his monkey swinging game, hasn’t he?” Yuika commented.
The Sanctuary wasn’t a dungeon with a singular corridor or a maze, but a small, forested grove of sorts. There was no reason not to use the terrain to my advantage.
If there was one problem though, it was that if I strayed too far from the path, I’d end up getting lost.
“If Ivy or Hanzo were here, I probably could’ve looked a lot cooler while moving, but— Ah, crap, you can’t hear me if I’m this far away anyway…”
When I watched Ivy move, I couldn’t help remembering a world-famous ninja anime named after the fishcake you find in ramen. Also, this might be my own bias here, but I bet Nanami and Yukine could pull off those same moves. They just didn’t need to right now.
The Aluloona held its hands up in front of itself right before the spell hit it. The next moment, flowers bloomed from its hands in a stunning display. It looked almost like a…
“Guess that’s some sort of shield. Careful, the enemy’s unharmed.”
Just when Yukine had closed in on the monster, several creatures resembling humans covered in moss abruptly appeared from the forest. One look was all it took for me to identify it.
“There’s a Matango here, too?!”
Though, to be precise, these things weren’t the Matango’s true form. The creatures were its summoned companions, matango funginoids.
With a flash of the naginata in Yukine’s hands, the matango funginoids were cleanly split in half. However, these were fungi, so unless something was done about the main body…
“…Looks like they regenerated.”
Ludie launched her spell. As though struck by a giant hammer, matango funginoids were sent flying and collided with a tree deeper in the forest.
For the time being, I focused on taking down the Aluloona, flying in from its side and trying to crush it with my Third Hand. However, several matango funginoids suddenly appeared in front of me.
Left with no choice, I smashed them to a pulp with my Third Hand. Then I moved to Yukine’s side as she backed off slightly to dodge the Aluloona’s slime.
Noticing me, Yukine attacked a nearby matango funginoid to make it easy for us to come together.
“Yukine, killing them the normal way won’t do anything. Everyone else, stay on guard!” I shouted some instructions to everyone.
“What are we supposed to do, then?”
I could hear Ludie’s response from farther back.
“Burning them will eradicate all the fungi, but the main body can make as many replacements as it wants… The main body controlling those things has to be here somewhere, so if we can defeat it…”
“What’s it look like, Takioto?”
“A mushroom. A real big mushroom. It might be mimicking something else as camouflage, though.”
Yukine pulled back for a moment and looked around the area. She was searching for the Matango.
I pulverized the matango funginoid that appeared before me with a punch. I could grind away and defeat these guys like this until they were all gone, but if I did, even more would be just summoned to take their place.
We needed to kill the main body at its roots or our efforts would be wasted.
However, we couldn’t just focus on the Matango. The Aluloona wasn’t going to sit there doing nothing, after all. It arched its back and screamed, mouth agape as if spitting out breath.
“U-ugh, can you pipe down?!” Yuika shouted while covering her ears.
It sounded like a shrill, high-pitched shriek. Loud enough to make you stop in place and cover your ears on reflex.
And then, for anyone who had stopped…
“Yuika, watch out!”
…it flung the liquid covering its body at them. Yuika immediately leaped back and hid behind a nearby tree, but the trunk melted away with an awful sizzling sound, until the whole thing eventually tumbled over.
“This monster’s a real pain.”
Finding the camouflaged Matango would be difficult without focusing on the search. However, the Aluloona was preventing that from happening, and the matango funginoids were protecting the Aluloona. The two plant monsters made for a pretty good team.
But there was one place the pair didn’t have control over—the air. And I had companions whom I could count on.
“I’m going in from above, Nanami.”