It was just another regular work day selling strawberries like other strawberry farmers.

An idea struck me.

"Hey Smoothie, what do you think of handing out strawberry flavored candies to the children? Free of charge, of course. You should know the local children pretty well by now."

"Mother, did you eat something funny?" She glanced at me questioningly.

"I... I ate some strawberries?"

"So... What kind of hallucination jumped your brain this time?"

"Heyyy! I didn't hallucinate!"

"Sure you didn't. Mother, you're always high on your own strawberries. By now, all the local children know it!"

"I knew it! You're on good terms with them." Before my little girl could distract me any further, I forced our conversation back on track. "I promise, free candies. They love candies, right? It's our new product. We'll rack in huge piles of cash this time!"

"Free things don't rack in piles of cash." She retorted.

"Think of it as advertisement, like free sample, you know?"

"These 'candies' won't be addictive?"

"Nope!"

"And can't eat away their souls, right?"

"That's right."

"And they're free."

"Yep!"

"Alright, as long as they're perfectly safe."

"Mm."

"Let me inspect them." She eyed me suspiciously, still doubting me even though I was a perfectly upstanding citizen.

I handed over a bag of strawberry flavored hard candies to her for close inspection.

"Looks safe for consumption."

Despite her verbal approval, her brows were knitted tightly as if she was still unconvinced of something.

Little did she know I had recently regained my once lost power — a little bit though. 

Months passed.

My business was booming more than ever. Retailers were purchasing my strawberry flavored candies in bulk, carts at a time. Some were for locals, and others were for exports. Since I was the creator of strawberries in this world, no one else could profit from strawberries without my approval. In other words, I owned the patent, not that this concept exists here. With all strawberries in this world under my direct control, none dared to oppose me.

Smoothie was a little strawberry fey being, but unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, she had no control over strawberries whatsoever due to her constitution.

Creating candies was but a simple matter for me. After all, it was just hardened sugar. As a strawberry fey being myself, I could produce them with a snap of my finger!

"See? Business is great. We're racking in cash as we speak."

"And what are you doing to do with all that cash? Aren't you afraid of getting robbed?"

"Eh? With all these addicts chasing after me? I can create an army whenever I want! Wahahahaha! Nawh, didn't you see my new vault? This isn't like before, regular folks have no magic power or super strength anymore."

Furthermore, none of the other fey beings or demons should be in the general area. It would be farfetched still to think they would dare enter my territory after all that had happened. They probably believed that I had retained my godly powers despite the fact they had lost most if not all of their own powers.

"But still, it's just annoying." Smoothie remarked with chagrin.

True, nobody wanted pests hovering around.

"Perhaps I should set up defensive measures?"

"Like what? You are way past your peak!"

"Rude! That's no different than calling me old. I'm young okay? I'm very young."

Nowadays, my appearance would revert whenever I used my power to speed up strawberry growth. In the same vein, if I overused my power, I would revert back to a small child, physically. Though, that had never happened since Smoothie might find herself awkward around me.

With the expansion of my business, thanks to the fact that candies wouldn't spoil and can be shipped anywhere with no storage trouble, my secret plan was coming to fruition!

World domination was close at hand!

Indeed there had been nothing suspicious within the first batches of these candies. But! Periodic food safety inspection was not in place. Hence, one additional batch at a time, I had been inserting strawberry seed into the candies, one per candy. Strawberry seeds were tiny, and difficult to spot in a colored hard candy unless someone seriously went out of their way to look for it. None would be the wiser. With the successful completion of the first phase, the next phase of the plan began.

"La la la, lala, la la la..."

"Mother, you're in a good mood today."

"O ehehe..."

"You're up to no good again?"

"I'm an honest strawberry farmer!" I protested posthaste.

"Then, let's donate all this money to the local charity."

"No! Absolutely not! I need that to open a private bank."

"What do you need that for?"

"So I can quit being an honest farmer and be a banker."

"Mother, do you plan to move to the city center?"

"Maybe."

Naive! Always hide your secret plan behind a diversion, a false plan to mislead pursuers. Smoothie, you're much too young.

Years passed.

I definitely could have acted sooner but I wanted my false plan to appear tangible and within reach. Well, there was a limit to how much money that can be collected since the financial state of this world wouldn't allow infinite money printing. Physical precious metals were the accepted currencies and long distance communication technology was still in its early stages. Without my input, technology would probably remain stagnant for centuries to come.

I'm bored.

I don't want to toil around any longer.

Annoying competitors had popped out. They were selling candies of various flavors. My business was taking a hit, and my income had dropped.

Phase three, begin!

The strawberry seeds that people had consumed were each anchored within their body. A little magic was used to help with it. Therefore, even after years, those seeds remained in people's body.

With the initiation of phase three, the seeds began to migrate to various parts of the body of the host. Lo and behold, there was no way I could control millions of seeds independently. So, I just let them roam to wherever until they found a nice place to settle.

Once the seeds settled, they took root and slowly grew with nutrients taken from their host. It was important not to agitate their host since I wanted them to remain undetected for as long as possible.

Heheheh... Parasitic strawberries! I'm a genius.

"Mother, that grin, I knew it! You're up to no good! Confess, what have you done this time!?" Smoothie was outraged, staring at me like I'm some sort of criminal. But still, she knew nothing of my actual plan.

"Nothing much. I just had an idea. How about we use half of that money and build a hospital?"

"Not happening. There must be a catch to it. Are you going to extort money from sick people after making them sick?"

"Of course not! I just wanted to be charitable. That's how I am!"

"Right... As if you haven't done enough damages with these addictive strawberries. Why don't we just sell regular strawberries? I know you can produce them."

"That's no fun. It's give and take. Nothing here is free."

"Then you should pay up for drinking all that water."

"Not happening. Water is free, and because I said so. And no, I don't pay for sunbathing. Sunlight is free."

"The clouds have something to say to that."

"Smoothie, go eat your ice cream."

"..."

We were filthy rich, enough to eat ice cream in this day and age.

But anyway, was raising a kid always this tough? I thought I was on the free-range route. Yet somehow, Smoothie still ended up staying with me as if permanently. And for reasons unique to fey beings, she wasn't growing up, neither physically nor mentally despite many years having passed.

With phase of the plan moving along unhindered, my power regained at unprecedented speed. It was only a matter of time until that moment comes. This time, no demons, guardians, or gods will stand in my way.

Those unsuspecting shall receive the mark of the strawberry and become compatriots, and those who did not, an enemy of the state.

Some time passed.

News headline: "Strange Plantlike Organism Found Living in Murder Victim! Kanoko Report."

It took some time for this news to reach me where I lived.

Then, another news headline: "Breaking News! Strange Parasitic Plant Species Discovered. Scientists are Baffled!"

More uncanny but sensational headlines just kept popping out that I was starting to get interested.

"Doctors are Scrambling for the Cure to Brain Fog! All Clues Point to One Cause."

"Unexplained Extreme Fatigue? Experts Say They Have the Solution."

At some point, all the locals including my neighbors were reading these news paper articles. That was basically all they talked about from I could hear through my extensions, the sprouted seeds, or perhaps they were more accurately called implants.

Curious as I was, I too decided to see what had caught everyone's attention. Of course, being a successful businessperson myself, keeping up to date with national news was a must. Otherwise, how would I be able to sustain healthy business relationships with customers when my competitors were using all sorts of cunning tactics to lure them to their traps? Worse still, if I didn't check the newspaper articles for their accuracy, those old foxes might collude with one another to destroy my business using the media.

Truly it was unfortunate that I didn't set up a media company immediately after the war. I could have used it to expand my business! As the first and therefore the original media company, with the slow build up of trust, I could even fact-check all the other media newspapers. That way, I could easily destroy my competitors with just a bit of set up!

Truly regrettable!

"What's wrong, Mother? You don't look so well."

I heaved a soft sigh, "My realization came a bit late. By the way, when are we going to build that hospital?"

"I already rejected it."

"What!?"

"I'm not going to run a hospital."

"Who said you were?"

"Who else? Would you run a hospital? You can't even be bothered to hire any staff for your farm. Oh by the way, do you know anything about those stran—"

"Nope!"

"Huh, then let me tell you..."

Saves me the reading time, nice! But...

As it turned out, what Smoothie described was exactly what I feared the most. The entire time she was summarizing her findings, her inquisitive gaze was on me.

Oh crap!

At this rate, I'll be named the culprit in a matter of time. What to do!?

"Mother, are you sure you know nothing about this? Only a plant fey being, a powerful one, is capable of something like this on this scale. And, we all know you were once the most powerful one. Were there any other plant fey beings aside from you?"

"Uhh... There might have been? Or, maybe a new one popped up? It's a big world, right?"

Sweating beads could not describe my feelings at the moment.

What was phase four? It's too early for that! I need more time!

Smoothie replied, "Never mind then, I guess I was mistaken. I thought you had a plan or something."

"Nope. I'm a perfectly honest and respectable farmer!"

With this, our conversation came to a conclusion. Or... So I believed.

Just as she got up to leave, she added a quick comment, "Just on a side note, I've already donated ninety percent of your savings medical clinics across the nation. It was barely enough. They'll be removing those parasitic plants from people's body promptly. You wanted to build a hospital to help people right? This was for the best."

Bang.

The door closed behind her.

Ahhhhhhh!!!

Granting Smoothie access to my money was supposed to make my life easy so she could deal with the financial side of the business on my behalf. Somehow it had worked against me. 

Waaaaahhhh!!!

Something died inside me.

Rest in peace.

It was already too late.

I simply had not amassed enough power for the next part of the plan. Even if I exerted all my power, those strawberry implants wouldn't cause much damage. And if I somehow managed to cause mass casualties, I'd be hunted for the rest of my days alive.

Plan failed.

The most I could do was to siphon as much energy as I could before all of the parasites were removed.

Maybe living peaceful life isn't a bad thing either? I'll just wait until the next opportunity comes. Yep, that's the plan — I'm an avid believer in second chances!

blanksphere

I had a random idea yesterday and decided to write an extra chapter. I hope a little bit of comedy goes a long way. Peace out!