There were a few cursed monsters at that time.
I purified all the cursed monsters we found but is that all of them?
What if there weren’t just two places connected to this space?
What if there are still cursed monsters lurking somewhere in the forest?
「Fairy, how many monsters wandered in back then?」
「Ehto….4. There were four of them who wandered from the forest.」
「I see」
4.
I guess all the monsters that wandered here have all been purified.
-0-
Areh?
I feel like I’m forgetting something.
What is it?
……there’s nothing weird but……
Something doesn’t feel right.
「Ehto, this place can be connected to the forest.」
Ah, I see.
The reason this space is connected to the forest is because it has to lure monsters to nourish it.
Even if the underground temple and the forest are connected, they won’t be able to come here due to those passageway mechanisms.
But then, why were the four monsters got cursed instead of being nourishments?
Yeah, that alone is already strange.
And I feel something’s bigger behind it….
「Wandered? The way fairy says it is—」
「What about me?」
I look at the fairy who stares at me curiously.
The fairy said, “not so long ago, monsters wandered into this space”.
The way it says it makes it sound like something unusual happened.
If monsters come here frequently, it wouldn’t talk like that, right?
「Your lordship-sama?」
I’d better ask to confirm.
「Do monsters often wander into this space?」
「As far as I remember, only once.」
Once?
Does that mean that the flowers of the dead have a way to nourish themselves without luring monsters into this space?
Ah, when you find something out, new questions arise.
「Tiring」
Well, we’ll just have to know it one by one.
「These flowers get their nourishments from monsters, right? If monsters can’t be lured into this space, how are they nourished?」
「Somewhere in the world, an alter ego of the flower of the dead blooms. Those flowers gets nourishments from the dead.」
Alter ego flower?
Is that even possible?
I look at the flowers of the dead.
「Where is the place where the alter ego flower blooms?」
「No specific place. As long as there is life, it will bloom.」
「I see. But, why is there only one flower? There are so many flowers here, why can’t there be more?」
Not that I want more of it.
「It’s a rule. No matter how many flowers of the dead this place has, there can only be one alter ego.」
Rule……is it between the world and the flower of the dead?
Let’s ask about this later……
「The alter ego flower has a stronger fragrance than the flowers of the dead and as soon as it blooms, monsters will come to it, and they will become disoriented. And once they are weakened, the flower will eat them up.」
「Eh!」
Isn’t that more terrifying than the flowers of the dead?
I mean, what do you mean by eating them up?
I can only imagine a flower swallowing a monster.
「Swallow it whole」
That’s not possible.
「That’s right. It will swallow the monsters whole.」
……how could I be right?
Such a horrible flower suddenly appearing in the forest?
How scary.
-0-
Ah, come to think of it, there was a flower in the place where the cursed monster appeared, right?
No way, is it that flower?
No, it shouldn’t be.
That flower was about the size of a tulip.
I don’t think it can swallow a monster.
Besides, I went by the flower and observed it but I didn’t smell anything.
「What kind of flower is this alter ego of the flower of the dead?」
「It is white and red in color and has five petals. It looks like an ordinary flower.」
Areh?
White and red?
「Is it a giant flower?」
It has to be big since it can swallow monsters whole.
「IT’s a small flower at first. However, when the prey’s in front of it, the flower petals will grow big, wrapped around the prey, and swallow swooosshhh」
Do you mean melt it?
I won’t ask any more.
I don’t need to know how it digests.
Absolutely not.
「I once found a flower that should be the alter ego flower according to the description but it didn’t have a scent.」
「That means it’s just eaten so it didn’t need the scent.」
So, you mean it just got the nourishment it needed?
I’m glad I didn’t run into it while eating.
「Areh? Weren’t there two flowers at that time?」
One white and one red.
The fairy said there should be only one because of the rule.
「Two flowers? That’s strange. That’s not supposed to happen.」
It looks like the fairy doesn’t know either.
The only ones who might know about the flower of the dead are the dragons.
I’ll ask them later.
「Speaking of which, that alter ego flower, I think I’ve seen it in the human country.」
「Human country? Ah, it was when it was being nourished by a lot of beastkins. It seems that it once bloomed in the same place for hundreds of years.」
Lots of beastkins?
Were there many beastkins who were lured?
No, the flower bloomed in the human country.
The human country, a lot of beastkins……that can’t be, you mean the slaves?
I heard that the previous king killed a lot of beastkins.
「Fairy, must the nourishment be dead?」
「Yeah. They’ll be nourishment as soon as they die.」
「I see.」
「Is it unusual for it to bloom in the same place for a long time?」
「If the person in control designates it, it can be done. However, if the role of the flower is discovered, it will be dealt with. Normally, it won’t bloom in the same place for a long time.」
However, it kept blooming in the same place for hundreds of years.
That’s because it wouldn’t be dealt with even if it kept blooming.
Why wasn’t it dealt with?
Lots of beastkins.
Perhaps the king used the flower of the dead to dispose of the bodies or something?
Come to think of it, the apprentices were favoring the beings who worship them.
Maybe they’ve even taught them about the flower of the dead.
If the apprentices or the former king had been in front of me, I would have snapped their necks.
Hnn?
……let’s think about something else.
「Why are the flowers of the dead nourish themselves remotely to the point that they created such a cumbersome thing as an alter ego?」
According to Koa, the flowers of the dead need to be nourished enough.
「Because the negative emotions of those who died in the world are so thick, they can only bloom in places where there are fairies. However, they need nourishment. That’s why they created an alter ego.」
Because the negative emotions are so strong that they can only bloom in the presence of fairies?
It seems to have something to do with the fairies’ ability to purify space.
「If the flower of the dead blooming here were to bloom in the world, the whole area would be cursed.」
Really?
Cursed?
Ah, so the monsters were cursed because they got close to the main body of the flower of the dead instead of the alter ego?
……is it okay for us to stay here?
「Aren’t we going to get cursed?」
「I’m getting stronger so all is fine.」
You mean your cleansing power?
「The role of the flowers of the dead is to catch the suffering, resentment, and envy of those who have died in the world. Then, by blooming beautiful flowers, they will slowly purify what they caught. The flowers of the dead are necessary to keep the world from being distorted.」
I was startled.
I thought I suddenly heard Light Blue’s voice and it seemed like he’s above me.
He left our group earlier since he wants to check the outside of the temple. When did he come here?
Ah, more importantly, barrier.
「Scent preventing barrier」
As soon as I cast it on him, a barrier was placed around him.
Good.
Though it’s meaningless since he’s already here.
「The flowers of the dead has an important role to play.」
Yeah, a very important one.
「The flowers of the dead deep in the forest seemed strange but the flowers of the dead here are stranger than those.」
I nodded my head to Light Blue.
Koa also saw the flowers of the dead in the forest, right?
When I looked at Koa, she shook her head as if she didn’t understand what it meant.
「What do you mean?」
「It’s too dense. I’m talking about the white stone in the middle of the flower. The white stone in the middle of the flower is supposed to purify the flower but it’s white. It’s supposed to be transparent.」
All the flowers of the dead here all have white stones.
Koa also said what she saw has white stones.
And now that stone’s supposed to be transparent?
「Light Blue, did you know about the flowers of the dead in the cave in the forest?」
「Yes. They bloomed in that place while borrowing Yggdrasil’s power.」
That Yggdrasil thingy is Eco, right?
No, the previous generation is Yggdrasil.
「The flowers of the dead in this world were normal at first. However, as time went by, they changed.」
They died.
But, how did they become so dense with negativity?
If we know that, it means we can return the flowers of the dead to their original state, right?
「Do you know what caused the thickening of the negative emotions?」
I looked at Light Blue but he shook his head.
The fairy did not respond either.
We now know that the state of the flower of the dead is because of intensified negative emotions but we don’t know what causes it.
「I remember there’s a 4th underground level here. Let’s check there too.」
Even if we think about it here, we won’t find anything.
Then, we had no choice but to find some clues.
We head to the 4th underground level together with Light Blue.
「……what is this?」
「I don’t know either. I just saw it through the gap.」
Gap?
Hearing what the fairy said, I turned my gaze to the barrier box. There, I found that it was covered with several layers of cloth.
It looks like they wanted to hide this space.
Though there seems to be a gap.
-0-
I look around the room.
Black rectangular rocks are lined up in a row.
They are evenly placed and their size makes them look like coffins.
「Graveyard?」
I asked the fairy.
「It’s not. The graveyard is one of the places that’s connected to the underground temple.」
I see.
However, given how this place looks, it looks like a graveyard with lined up coffins.
-0-
And now we have to check this place out, right?
I might not like it, a lot.
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