Chapter 167

The Thing That Will Bring Ruin to Imperial Japan [Part 3]

“Please don’t go beyond this point.“

Katou moved in front of Melsa and reminded her quietly.

Before Melsa’s eyes was a plant around twice her height that occupied the entire area. Unlike the green forest behind her, the plant was covered in yellow blossoms, and at a glance, its sight was so beautiful that it didn’t seem like it belonged to this world.

“H-Hey... Melsa... this... is...”

Oliver used to study Advanced Monster Science at the academy just to compete with Melsa even though he didn’t need it.

A cluster of tall plants and yellow flowers. Those two characteristics...

“Impossible... T-This is a... plant hazard...?”

A rare plant-type monster was propagating inside Imperial Japan’s barrier.

“There is only one plant-type monster which has yellow flowers. If the plant... has encroached this much, it will reach Edo in half a year...”

“This monster... Is it really... [Over]?”

Plant-type monsters.

Most of them are said to be carnivorous plants. And because they only grew outside the barrier, the people in this world had never come across one.

However, in extremely rare cases, monsters that had broken into the barrier might carry the seed, and there was also a chance for it to sprout. And as there were no natural enemies of carnivorous plants inside the barrier, it would reproduce and multiply tremendously.

[Over] in particular had hard trunks and branches, and was too difficult to cut or burn. The land occupied by humans would be encroached by it within a few years.

“T-This is the southern continent, right? How could [Over] grow here?!“

The Kingdom and Imperial Japan were connected by a continent.

[Over]’s habitat should have only been the northern continent.

The reason why Imperial Japan, which had many strong samurais, had let it grow this much was also that there had never been a record of its appearance in the southern continent.

Even in the Kingdom, only those who had passed the Advanced Monster Science class would know of its existence.

The children must be disappointed.

I’m sorry, William.

I’m sorry, George.

I’m sorry, Emma.

...Emma?

Ah!

That’s right.

We have Emma!

“Let’s go home, Oliver!”

“...? No, well, I just said that earlier, let’s go home.”

Oliver looked at Melsa dubiously. He suddenly had a bad feeling.

“Fukushima-sama, can you tell me more about [Over]. I will bring the intelligence back to the Kingdom and plan a countermeasure.“

“Huh?“

I have a cute daughter with exceptional creativity and no common sense at home.

We have to hold a Tanaka family meeting as soon as I get home! Melsa thought with determination.

♠♠♠

Author’s words:

I have finally... somehow... hit on the cause of Imperial Japan’s destruction.

Melsa is more gluttonous than you’ve thought, huh...

On a side note, there are no monsters that seem suitable for the story, so I just made one up myself.