Hey, guys. What's up.
My name is Jack. I'm a jack-o-lantern demon.
My brother Keogh grew me the first demon to have a personality like this.

Kyou's brother is a really great guy. He grew many other monsters and was recognized by many people. He competed in the world's biggest cooking competition and was even recognized by the goddess and became a hero.
However, this time it's a personal story that has nothing to do with that.
It's a story about the time line before you met the goddess and before you participated in the big cooking competition.
Well, this is a side story.

But don't you think it's important to have supporting characters who sometimes play the main role to make the story more colorful?
Maybe my story will be connected someday, or maybe it will be forgotten.
I'm going to tell you a story with that kind of hope and anxiety.
It was a few months ago.

That day I was going for a walk, as usual, and wandered deep into the woods.
That's when I found her.
She seemed to have gotten caught by a tree root and fell to the ground, holding a basket of small mushrooms in her hand.
But what caught my attention was the pack of wolves surrounding her, the killer wolves.
This one looks like it was apparently attacked.
Well, it's a coincidence that we met here. As my brother usually says, "It's better to help than not help".

I immediately let magic power build up around me, and from it, ghostly flames are born, shooting one after another at the wolves surrounding the woman.
It's a ghost flare, or shall we call it a ghostly flame?
Anyway, those countless ghost flares hit the wolves. The wolves that noticed us and tried to counterattack immediately were fed our flames as well, and the ones that charged were repelled by our boastful pumpkin head.

Soon, the wolves realized our strength and fled one by one into the depths of the forest.
Huh? It's only a dangerous F-rated monster. These are not my enemies, an E-rated one.
After confirming that the wolves are gone, I once again call out to the fallen woman.

Are you alright, sweetheart?

Oh, thank you. ...... I don't know who you are, but you're a lifesaver.

I felt a strange feeling when the woman stood up, as if to thank the person, but when she stood up and turned to me, I realized why.

The woman was meditating.
She wasn't meditating out of fear.
Perhaps she is blind. The next line comes from the woman and convinces me of that.

"I'm sorry, looking like this. I'm sorry that I couldn't see the face of the person who saved me.

"No, no, don't worry about it. I don't have a face for you to see. I'd be disillusioned if I saw you.

No, that's not true. I don't judge people by their looks.

The woman smiles at you, but we're already out of her league.

Anyway, that's a lot of stuff around here. I'll walk you to your house if you like.

"Eh, but I'm not going to bother you with that ......

"Don't worry about it. I don't have anything else to do anyway. It's just a coincidence.

The woman who had refused to apologize to us at first, but finally smiled and nodded her head, probably because she was defeated by our meddling.





The woman - who identified herself as Est on the way - gave each other a name. I came to the house where Est lives, but it's a little far from the city, near the entrance to the forest.
The house was not quite as old as Kyou's brother's ramshackle house, but it was a small house made of wood.

Come on in. It may not be very welcoming, but please allow me to repay you in any way I can.

No, you don't have to be so attentive.

As we are not really expecting anything in return, we thought we would return early, but as we entered the house, a question arose in our minds.
It was obvious from the size of the house from the outside, but there was only room for one person in the house, with a desk and a bed for one person, and no one else seemed to be living there except for the woman.

Mistress Est. Do you have any family here other than your daughter?

"...... yes

She replied to my question with a moment of silence, Miss Est.
Then, with some sadness and hatred, she continued.

"My parents were killed by a monster.

I listened to his indifferent mutterings in silence.

As you can see, I'm blind, right?　But we were always poor and didn't have enough money to buy a cure. So my father and mother both registered as adventurers and went hunting for demons to earn money to get the cure for me. But the demons killed both my father and mother during their several adventures. When my father returned to the house with his last ounce of strength, he found this in his hand.

And there, out of the desk were a few small seeds.
They were probably bean seeds.

Are they intact?

"Yes. I couldn't sell them, but I couldn't get a purchase price for these mere seeds. Even if you want to bury them in your garden, you need a special environment and ability to grow demons, and it's impossible to grow them with my eyes. If these fruits come to fruition, we may not need to go deep into the forest to get foodstuffs.

Then she clutches the seeds.
I see. It's true that if an edible monster grows wild in the garden, it won't be in as much danger as it was before.


After a moment's thought, I'll make a suggestion.

Hey. Would you be willing to leave that kind of stuff with me?

"Huh?

Miss Esto turns to you as if surprised at your words.

I know a brother who can grow demons. I want to ask him to try and see what can be grown from those seeds. Of course, when it grows well, I'll send you the ingredients from those seeds, Mistress Est.

I'm holding the seeds in my hand as if I were thinking about my words, Miss Esto.
That's probably right. I can't just hand it over to someone I just met today, can I?
I was just reflecting on whether I said anything out of line.

Okay. I'll give the seed to you, Jack.

She casually held out a seed in her hand to me.

"Are you sure?　You don't even know who I am. You don't even know who I am, so you can't trust me with this.

That's fine in its own time. It's true that I didn't have it anyway, and if it's a thank you for saving my life, that's good enough for me.

She smiled at me and took the seed from the hand of Miss Esto, and seeing her smile even though she was blind, I made a promise to her.

"Don't worry, Mistress Est. I will make this thing come to fruition.

With that assurance, I put the seed she gave me in my mouth and walked out the door.