What would happen, indeed?
“Miss Reyes would become queen of a verdant underground empire?”
“Kunon. I don’t need your jokes right now.”
Cassis wasn’t just being her usual crabby self; she was actually quite serious as she warned Kunon to stop messing around.
Serious girls sure are nice, Kunon thought. Cassis was physically a boy, of course. But she was a girl at heart.
“Kunon’s eccentric wording aside,” said Elva, “there is a chance the plants could take over the entire dungeon… In fact, it seems pretty likely. Or is it already happening?”
Cassis nodded meekly. “Our representative has gone missing, too. We’re looking for him, but…he’s been gone for days. No one has any idea where he is.”
Lulomet, the Rationality representative, was apparently unaccounted for. Going missing really was in style.
“We’ve decided to temporarily block off the areas of the dungeon leading to the forest to hold the plants back. I’d like your help with that.”
“I fell into a weird hole in the forest.”
That was the first thing Reyes said to Kunon when he visited her.
The Saint appeared to be just fine. Despite going missing for a few days, she had apparently gotten out with nothing more than disheveled hair and dirtied clothes.
Once Cassis had led Elva away, Kunon had gone straight to the Saint’s classroom. He was too worried to wait any longer. Riyah had said she was safe, but Kunon wanted to confirm that with his own two eyes. Not that his eyes could see anything, of course.
And so, he’d traveled the familiar route to the Saint’s room, this time under slightly more unusual circumstances.
Upon his arrival, he found his classmate tending to her plants, looking a little tired—no different than any other time he’d visited her.
“The hole quickly became an incline. I rolled down like a helpless pebble and, before I knew it, I was in a stonework dungeon. It was pitch-black and I got injured when I hit the ground, but fortunately, I’m a light user.”
That simple accident was the cause of her disappearance. If she had fallen down the hole totally unprepared, she would have been in great danger. But such a situation was no problem for a saint. She had spells both to heal herself and to produce light.
“Also, the teachers I was with quickly noticed my absence. They fell down the hole on purpose to save me.”
I see, Kunon thought.
They’d been investigating a mysterious forest, so they were likely wary of any danger lurking in its depths and had forbidden acting alone. If they were together, they could handle any unexpected crises. The teachers had been ready for any accidents and had quickly rushed to her side.
“I heard you were missing for a few days,” said Kunon.
“The vegetation had spread into the dungeon, so we decided to investigate it. The plants had somehow laid roots into the stone paving. There was even some shrubbery. The professors and I were very curious to learn how they grew without sunlight.”
That explained a lot.
“So you got so immersed in your research that you spent a few days down there.”
“Yes. We couldn’t tell the passage of time while underground and ended up investigating for longer than intended. We were surprised when we came back above ground and were told it had been a few days.”
That certainly would be surprising. Kunon knew the feeling, though—it was common for time to fly when one was immersed in a fun project.
“I think we did lose consciousness multiple times, though.”
That was probably from fatigue. The same thing happened to Kunon when he got obsessed with something and pushed his mind to keep working all day long. The body was more honest than the mind, however. Even if you didn’t feel it mentally, that kind of thing would inevitably lead to physical exhaustion.
“What’s the forest like?” asked Kunon.
He hadn’t yet gotten a chance to explore it. He had heard stories of moving plants and holes opening up in the ground, and now it turned out the vegetation had penetrated a dungeon. His curiosity simply couldn’t be suppressed.
The Sacred Tree, Kira Vera. Kunon knew it was an incredible plant, but he was also coming to realize just how troublesome it was.
The Saint was in the same boat—she was endlessly fascinated by it, but she knew it was dangerous to leave it alone.
She had just fallen down a hole and gotten injured. The forest was clearly unsafe.
“It’s quite interesting. The plants within are being altered by their environment. This world and the mysterious depths of the life in it are a miracle of the Radiant Goddess.”
While Saint Reyes’s expression was as blank as ever, she appeared more at peace than usual as she mentioned the goddess. She truly was a devout saint.
“Those plants will probably fill the entire dungeon in half a year. This is clearly the work of the Goddess. Ha… Just half a year, and I’ll have the environment I’ve been dreaming of… My underground city of plants is almost a reality… Ha-ha…”
Kunon had never seen the Saint laugh before. Her smile was endlessly pure. Her excitement and passion for satisfying her intellectual curiosity was plain on her face.
She’s so beautiful, Kunon thought. Though he thought others might find such an expression rather wicked.
Because of that, Kunon couldn’t bear to tell her the truth. He couldn’t tell her the plants taking over the dungeon were about to be exterminated. He could see how upset it would make her. Well, he couldn’t see, but that was beside the point.
If he told her, she would probably try to stop it. But if the plants’ advance wasn’t halted, they could end up destroying the dungeon. Human lives had to be prioritized over intellectual curiosity.
The Rationality Faction would suffer if the plants’ roots broke through the stone and caused the artificial dungeon to collapse. There was nothing else to be done.
Kunon was curious about the plants, too, but there was nothing he could do.
“Miss Reyes,” he said.
“Yes?”
“Let’s do another experiment together sometime.”
“…? Sure.”
Before long, perhaps in a matter of days, the Saint’s spirit would be crushed.
Kunon knew that, but he didn’t say anything.
That pain would surely be essential for her emotional growth.
That was what he told himself, at least.
A few days later, the Saint learned her dream of an underground city of plants had been dashed.
✦ ✦ ✦
“…Oh. I see.”
She looked the same as ever, but sorrow permeated the air around her.