Chapter 87: Mandragora Feeds on Human Fluids (1)

  Acc to the expert's analysis, Lien’s current dition was essentially that of a zombie.

  However, she still had a soul aained her reasoning. Although her body erpetually in a near-death state, it remained fresh—a corpse whose heart had stopped and blood no longer circuted.

  During the jouro the capital, her body had nearly stiffened and begun to decay, but fortunately, the neancer who had rejoined midway assisted her. Upoering the temple and examining her body, it was firmed that while she was teically dead, her flesh moved thanks to a miracle powered by divine energy.

  Depending on how one viewed it, she could be sidered both alive and dead. Because of this mysterious dition, the temple and the neancers proposed to monitor and study her body until she could pass on peacefully. As a result, she decided to live he capital at a vent, hiding her identity while recharging her divine energy.

  “Is this a happy... ending?”

  Though they wouldn’t have to part ways for now, Lien wanted rest, and her situation was far from simple. If she stopped replenishing her divine energy, she would risk being corrupted by neancy, losing her sciousness, and being a full-fledged zombie.

  Still, sihe temple and neancers agreed to care for her, and occasional visits were possible, this could be sidered a somewhat happy ending.

  “By the way, hasn’t the horse arrived yet?”

  Upourning to the magiight order, I realized the number of horses had decreased signifitly.

  Luckily, my horse, a gift personally chosen by Eileen, was fiercely loyal and refused to serve any other master. It had resisted being taken away by the stable hands and remained here. However, the rest of the horses had been forcibly requisitioned, leaving fewer than ten behind.

  “This is beyond disgraceful, even for the deing magiight order.”

  “What happehis time?”

  “There’s no budget to maintaiables, so we temporarily entrusted the horses to another knight order. We’ve been spending all day just fing for hay to feed them.”

  They cimed they couldn’t afford to maintaiables. Was this even a knight order, or just a group of hopeful young meending to be knights?

  “At this rate, even a local youth association would be better anized.”

  Levin, equally frustrated, grumbled while carrying farming tools and digging the training field. After listening to him, it became clear just how dire the budget cuts were. They po use the idle fields to grow high-value crops to supplement the budget.

  “This is ridiculous. I’ve heard of soldiers managing fields during long campaigns to secure rations, but knights farming?”

  Though absurd, orders were orders. This was the military, after all.

  Resigned, I ged into more practical clothes, pced straw hats on Molng and Shuru’s heads, and headed to the farming area with them.

  There, a few of my rades were already plowing the nd with makeshift plows strapped to their backs. Among them, Daood out, perf so adeptly that one might think he was more suited to be an ox than a knight.

  “This is all part of training! Strengthening stamina and muscle, see?”

  Even the senior knight had abandoned his ceremonial attire, donned casual clothes, and was digging the ground with a hoe. Looking at this se, it felt like the magiight order should officially reself to the agricultural knight order.

  Grabbing an unfamiliar hoe, plow, and other tools, I joined in, diggihusiastically in a er of the training field.

  “Surprisingly… this is kind of fun.”

  Initially relut and wearing sour expressions, everyoually started enjoying the farm work.

  We divided the area by living quarters. With Dane’s impressive strength, we dug deeply, preparing the soil to pnt anything. Sweating uhe sunlight, we pnted seeds as the senior knight suggested. He opted for practical crops like pumpkins and —something that could be sold for profit or eaten if unsold.

  However, the plot assigroup had something unusual.

  “Guess what this is.”

  Jake approached proudly, holding a handful of seeds.

  The seeds were tiny, smaller than fingernails, and there were about a dozen of them. It was impossible to tell what kind of pnt they came from.

  “What are they?”

  “Mandragora seeds.”

  At the mention of Mandragora, both Dane, Levin, and I were stunned.

  “We’re pnting that?”

  Mandragora is an ominous pnt that grows by abs the blood of executed criminals near execution grounds. Infamously, it covers the area in a sinister growth, and attempting to uproot it carelessly results in it emitting a deadly scream that kills both the harvester and anyone nearby.

  Mandragora, known as an all-purpose medial ingredient in alchemy, was highly valued despite its ominous nature. People would pay a fortuo obtain it, often sneaking into execution grounds to harvest it, though many died in the process. Eventually, a more ihod was developed: tying the pnt to a dog or livestock, retreating to safety, and allowing the animal to uproot it and absorb the deadly scream.

  Obtaining Mandragora seeds wasn’t particurly difficult, but the real challenge y in cultivating them.

  “Don’t they usually grow in damp pces?” Levin asked.

  Jake waved his hand dismissively. “It’s fi’s fine. We’ll just water them a lot. Let’s dig deeper els and flood our se.”

  “If we sell Mandragora, it’ll fetch a high price, right? How much are they worth? Ten thousand gold?” Levin mused.

  At the mention of ten thousand gold, Dane and I immediately grabbed the Mandragora seeds and started pnting them with enthusiasm.

  “That’s for lrade Mandragora. The better ones easily exceed a huhousand gold,” Jake crified.

  “Whoa!”

  Our eyes wide the thought. Ten Mandragora pnts, each worth a huhousand gold? This was a life-ging fortune. Dane and I, desperate for money, eagerly phe remaining seeds and began watering the field.

  “But what about the blood?” I asked. Mandragora thrives on blood, and while we could provide water and nutrients from the soil, the ck of blood posed a problem.

  “Do we o buy chis or other animals to feed them blood?” I specuted.

  Levin shook his head. “Where do you think chis fall from, the sky? Besides, feeding them animal blood will only yield low-grade Mandragora worth about ten thousand gold.”

  Even with a rough calcution, sacrifig chis wouldn’t be profitable, as their cost would eat into any potential earnings. Larger animals would be even more expeo feed ten Mandragoras, each would s own sacrifice—chis at the least, or perhaps something rger.

  “Guess we’ll have to make a sacrifice, Dane,” I joked.

  “Yeah, just one of you would probably be enough to grow them all,” Levin chimed in.

  “You little punks!”

  If we could sacrifice Dane—or a bull his size—the problem might be solved. Unfortunately, he resisted fiercely, making it difficult to proceed.

  ‘Hmm… there has to be another way. A substitute for blood…’

  When in doubt, seek expert advice.

  “Elves are knowledgeable about pnts, right? I’ll ask Professor Pandel,” I said.

  “Professor Pandel specializes in biology,” Levin pointed out.

  “Pnts are living things, aren’t they?” I retorted, sileng Dane’s foolishness. I headed straight for the infirmary.

  ---

  ‘Now that I think about it, wasn’t Professor Pandel away st time? Is he baow?’

  Previously, when I tried to leave Molng and Shuru with him during a neancer mission, he was unavaible, so I had t them along. Now, the infirmary door en, suggesting he’d returned.

  Knock, knock.

  “Excuse me, Professor Pandel? I have a question…”

  The infirmary was eerily quiet as usual. Various fiscated dangerous items y scattered around, including what looked like a disassembled tentacle self-pleasure device beled as hazardous material. Other straools were id out on desks—a bent rod resembling a finger and a stick strung with beads.

  ‘What kind of freaks use this stuff…’

  Avoiding the uling items, I ehe inner b where Professor Pandel often worked.

  “Professor Pandel? Are you in here?”

  Knock, knock.

  Usually, the b door was shut tight, as the professor cimed trainees would break everything if allowed inside (insisting it was a 100% certainty). Today, however, the door was ajar.

  Creak…

  “Professor Pandel?”

  As I peeked in, I saw the professor’s disheveled blonde hair from behind.

  ‘Did he fix himself up today? His hair looks smooth and shiny, not like the usual straw-like mess.’

  When he ventured outside, he always ed up well, though he often appeared like a recluse in the b. Satisfied, I started to step inside.

  “Who is it? You’re noisy,” a voice grumbled.

  “Eh?”

  The figure turned, and I froze. It wasn’t the usual Professor Pandel.

  Gohe typical wiry frame, unshaven face, and haggard eyes. Instead, this person had soft, red lips, flushed cheeks, longer shes, shiny, lustrous hair… and was wearing a short skirt that exposed white panties under sheer bck stogs.

  “Professor Pandel… is this your hobby?”

  I never imagined Professor Pandel had a cross-dressing hobby. As an elf, he did look quite pretty when ed up, but recalling his usual appearance made it hard to see him as attractive. No matter how pretty, I preferred a woman to a cross-dressing man.

  Smack!

  A familiar blow nded on the bay head. Startled, I turo see the real Professor Pandel, looking more like his usual self but with his beard freshly shaved.

  “Huh? There’s a Professor Pandel here too…”

  “Don’t joke about me looking like that woman. It’s creepy,” he snapped.

  “Woman?”

  I gnced back at the cross-dressed figure and then at the professor. Side by side, they looked strikingly simir, though the woman had a slimmer waist, more pronounced hips, and a dainty frame.

  “Oh!”

  “Now you get it?”

  “You left an illusion of yourself in drag, didn’t you?”

  “She’s my twin! Don’t make disgusting assumptions!”

  Although the resembnce was uny, the professor vehemently de.

  Ultimate-Harem-fan