Good Cop, Bad Cop (Plant Edition)

Mahariku-san had SP Quests available too, so I decided to tag along as Tria-chan.

Alto would handle Alto-chan. Escort duty, here we go!

Looking at the quest details, it was a bandit subjugation and rescue of the client's daughter.

Bandits again… And this time, we had to start by finding their hideout.

"If it's in the mountains, then it's Roku-chan's time to shine with her plant-talking, yo."

"Yeah! Sounds like she'll be useful right away."

"Hmm. Then let's have a word with that sapling over there as a test. Roku-chan."

"Yes, understood, Mahariku-sama."

As luck would have it, this was the very scene of the attack. No eyewitnesses, but there were eyewitness plants.

Roku-chan spoke to a tree about her height.

"Excuse me, did you happen to see any humans get attacked around here? Which direction they went, that sort of thing."

"……"

"Mm-hm."

"Roku-chan, what did it sa—"

THWACK!! Roku-chan kicked the still-slender trunk.

Then she pinched a leaf and gave the branch a light tug.

"Do you think you're in a position to negotiate? If you don't talk, I'll pluck your leaves off one by one, understood?"

"……! ……!"

"Yes, you should have cooperated from the start instead of spouting nonsense."

With that, Roku-chan released the leaf she'd been pinching.

"…Plucking leaves is basically the plant equivalent of pulling out fingernails, isn't it."

"Do plants even feel pain, yo?"

"They do. About the same as yanking out a wobbly tooth that's ready to fall out. But more than the pain, it's the 'losing food' part that really hurts."

Losing food. When she put it that way, it made sense. Beyond absorbing nutrients through their roots, photosynthesis was a plant's other lifeline.

"I see. So it's like forcibly saying 'your income's getting cut by 10%,' yo."

"Yes. If that doesn't work, I break branches next, then cut the trunk. 'Want me to build a log cabin out of your family?' is an excellent follow-up threat."

"Plant values… no, that's terrifying when you think of it in human terms."

"For real, yo. To a plant, a log cabin must look like a neat pile of corpses, yo."

"Hehe, and so it happily spilled everything. It says they went that way while covering their tracks."

"Well done, Roku-chan."

When Mahariku-san patted her head, Roku-chan giggled with an "Ehehe."

Was Roku-chan still in outlaw mode or something?

"…Perhaps we should give it some plant nutrients as payment for the information."

"That's such a waste! They live in nature; they have more than enough as is!"

"Fair compensation should always be paid. That's the mark of a good businesswoman."

"! I'm sorry for overstepping!"

Ah, Affection just went up.

And Mahariku-san dripped nutrients at the tree's base, saying "Sorry for frightening you."

I knew what this was. Good cop, bad cop. One half of the duo plays the villain so the friendly one can extract information more easily.

The other plants watching would definitely find it easier to cooperate with Mahariku-san. Especially with a reward dangled in front of them.

"…By the way, what was option three, yo?"

"'I'll shove nutrients right up your ass, so get on the ground and grovel.'"

"Oh ho ho, sounds like nothing but max Affection options, yo!"

"If that raised Affection, we'd be in zealot-level devotion territory. Right, Tria?"

"Bit late to notice, but aren't all the Spirit-Possessed girls pretty much like that?"

Miitei-chan's would definitely go up. Not that I'd get to see it, thanks to the lewd skip.

After that, they confirmed the information with a couple more trees and found the bandits' hideout.

They skipped ahead until the bandits were asleep, then wiped them out with paralysis firebombs.

Paralysis instead of poison this time, so it didn't matter that there were captives inside. They swept through the cave and rescued everyone safely. The client's daughter, secured.

These firebombs were Miitei-chan's handiwork. I've been grinding Crafting XP too, you know…!

"Come to think of it, couldn't we have done this during the bandit master thing too?"

"The base was way bigger back then, so finding the hostages would've been a hassle. Plus paralysis firebombs are more expensive, right?"

Fair enough.

In any case, easy work. SP Quest, done.

We even got 1 point as cooperators.

…Was it really okay to take that when we hadn't done anything? I wondered, but Mahariku-san said "An escort fulfills their duty simply by being present, even without combat," so I accepted without hesitation.

Ahh, fair reward distribution really does raise Affection…

"What a great employer."

"Oh ho ho, she's pretty accommodating normally too. A great boss, yo."

"Alto, you could stand to show more restraint… No, that boldness is your strong suit, so creating an environment where you can make the most of it is a manager's job. Sigh."

Mahariku-san must have it rough in real life. Hang in there～