Strawberry Devil in a Fantasy World

"Kanoko, do you know anyone by the name of Kanobi?"

"Yes, it's not an uncommon name." She seemed unfazed. "Why do you ask?"

"I can't say that demon name but when I was doing business with a strange demon, someone who looked really similar to you showed up. She was also a fey being just like you, and of the same species. I was just wondering if you knew each other?"

Her eyes twitched and she spoke with a slightly harsh tone, "You must be quite stupid to do business with a demon." Then after a short pause she sighed, "Yes, she was related to me, but not anymore."

"Did something happen? If you don't mind me asking..."

"It's nothing a fantasy tale, really. You do know how or why fey beings like you and me are born, right?"

"Uhh... Not at all. No one explained a thing to me when I was born?"

Certainly I had no memories of any explanations when I was reincarnated as a strawberry plant. The entire decision to reincarnate as a plant was completely arbitrary with no input of my own.

"Well, I don't know the exact details either so I'll share with you what I know. It'll probably help you with making choices down the line. Later if you speak to Vorte again, you can ask him for a broader perspective."

"Sure I'm listening." Though, I'm certainly a hinder to your unending workload if that's okay with you...

Although much of the things she told me wasn't really news to me since I had figured them out, some things had to be said to set up the premise. In some of her explanations, I added some of my own understandings from my previous world to make sense of the terminology here.

As an example, in the common language, there was no such thing as "vacation." If I asked Kanoko to take a vacation, it would roughly mean asking her to rest or take a break. In this world, rest generally also meant nap or sleep. The concept of vacation or vacation time didn't exist in this world, at least not yet. Because of the lack of entertainment, I figured, people just worked and stopped when they didn't feel like they could keep going.

Anyway, fey beings originated as spiritual beings or lumps of spiritual energies without physical bodies and could not interact with the physical world. It was something like just a soul without a body and usually it lacked consciousness or ego or both. In this world, mana was not that different from spiritual energy, or rather, they were really the same in terms of their function.

In my case, I had a core from the beginning since I had my consciousness and ego all intact.

It could be understood that not all fey beings were born equally. Those born without ego nor consciousness was no different than mere beasts. Since it was more likely for mana to imprint on creatures with greater populace which tended to have group consciousnesses instead of ego, most fey beings simply didn't develop their ego. This meant they were just unintelligent wildlife living by their instincts such as ones I had seen in my travel.

Naturally, if one only looked at populations, mortal races were great in number. However, mortal races could control mana, and lumps of mana didn't just sit around and allowed to imprint, develop and evolve. It was literally not that different from the act of possession for the duration of imprint process. Those with consciousness who wished to imprint on mortal races would also be met with extreme resistance. Hence, spiritual beings with ego such as a deceased human were more likely reincarnate as a human than become a fey being. In addition, only those who were powerful could become intelligent fey beings, or otherwise risk losing everything. All in all, everyone had their own circumstances and each fey being was unique in their birth.

The main difference between fey beings and physical beings like those of mortal races was the ability to alter and create their own bodies to some extent. It was just a matter of efficiency. After all, fey beings were semi-spiritual beings. Apparently there was even an instance where some lumps of rocks gained consciousness, albeit it perished within days after discovery.

Mana had their own energy signatures. This was confirmed by Kanoko. Mana under my control was mine alone. If someone else wished to use it, that mana had to be converted. The conversion factor varied. This meant lumps of mana couldn't just imprint on anything or anyone. My case with Smoothie was quite special because our relationship and traits.

Aside from those born from plants like me, in the animal world, there would usually be an imprint of the spiritual energy with a particular species.

Apparently, in ancient times, Kanoko was originally a human, a fairly powerful one at that. Kanobi was a friend and also a powerful individual at that time. Unfortunately, both of them suffered the same fate when they tried to subjugate a tailed fox fey beast. Due to a special trait of that fey beast, it was able to split into identical selves depending on the number of tails it had. Every additional tail the fey beast had meant an additional soul was collected. They couldn't be weak souls either. However, what was unknown to the subjugation team was that the number of tails had increased by three since the beast was last spotted.

The battle was bitter with each side taking major losses. On the human side, three people were dead or critically injured. On the fey beast side, five tails were lost, and three remained. The number of tails it could have was limited by the fey beast's level. In addition, powerful souls were not easy to collect even with the appropriate level. Unable to defeat the fey beast, their souls were collected and those who were strong became the fey beast's tails.

That was basically how Kanoko and Kanobi became fey beings. They weren't related by blood originally but once they became part of the fey beast, they were equivalent to being siblings. Strangely enough, the fey beast gave them new names and cared for them in return. It was a fey beast capable of rapidly gaining wisdom and knowledge as it collected more souls.

"You used to be a tail...? And what happened to the fey beast?"

"Its soul was reaped by a certain demon for breaking a contract I assume. I was out hunting at that time so I ended up being freed from domination after it died. Kanobi, for some reason, was quite willing to make a contract with that demon. I don't know what had gotten into her. Anyway, the demon got what it wanted and I was left alone. I don't know what happened to the other souls and I have since not heard from her."

I slowly, very slowly tried to sneak around her desk. Out of pure curiosity, I wanted to see how many tails she had. 

"I only have one." She stated flatly.

"Why only one?"

"I have no desire to collect souls to turn into my minions."

We were getting super off-topic but I learned quite a bit.

"Ah... I see. By the way, I managed to make good use of the medicinal stuff you sent me. Ta-da!" I showed her the vitamin pills.

"What are these?" She picked one up with her slender fingers and examined it.

Huh, what should I tell her? Think!

"Nutrients, important nutrients that will help people recover. I isolated just the essential nutrients and replicated them."

"I don't know about this. Isn't it better to leave them as is?"

That's a start. At least she trusts me with the stuff I make now.

"I understand but these, what I call 'pills', could be easily stored away and won't rot. Think of them as condensed and purified substances like the poisons. Instead, these are nutrients that help people."

"Oh that makes sense. Interesting. I'll run them by our laboratory. Once the results are out, His Majesty will make the decision."

"You can't approve it?"

"No, if this thing is really amazing as you say, we might apply it to our military. This isn't something I can approve by myself."

"I understand."

"Then, does that mean you can't approve Haelley's leave either? She said she was okay with it."

"One of her kin came earlier to advise me of it so that's already approved. In the future, please ask me first, and same thing with Vorte. Please ask my permission. If you cause any troubles, I have to clean up after you. I'll even deduct your pay for the extra work you've given me."

"Sorry! Please don't deduct my pay." I clasped my hands together and begged.

She sighed with exhaustion, "Again, please ask me first for anything that might need permission. You have to help me help you, okay?"

"Nn! Okay."