Strawberry Devil in a Fantasy World

Once Haelley left, the two of us continued where we left off.

"I have inherited all of your memories of this world. No?"

Despite this revelation, I was not happy. The only thing that made it redeemable was that my previous life's memories weren't disclosed.

"Say what? What happened to my privacy?"

"Privacy?"

"Like my personal space."

"None. You said we are family! Also, I want to be a daughter, no?"

"You want me to refer you as a 'she'? What's wrong with 'it'? We aren't from the mortal races."

"But you are annoyed with lack of gender, no?"

The way this kid ended certain sentences was irking me. It just sounded too annoying. Where did she even pick that up?

"Yes! Now, stop ending your sentences with 'no'! It's flipping annoying me, no!?" I raised my voice in exasperation.

Oops, I caught on. It's contagious.

"Then call me your daughter! Or I won't stop, no?"

Seriously, that one way memory share was just plain unfair. If I could, I would separate us super far away so that I could have my privacy back again. The memory share probably had limits. Even the idea of having someone else read my memories was just didn't sit right with me at all. It was worse than being under surveillance, at least then I would still keep my thoughts private. 

"Fine. Whatever, you can be my daughter. I'll pretend to be your mother. You know I'll just abandon you, right?"

"Then I won't tell you anything!"

"You're not afraid I'll kill you?"

"You won't kill me," as she approached closer to me.

Stay away, you're too glamorous!

I slowly backed off but she was closing in on me fast.  

Is this the so called "family bonding time"? This isn't what I had imagined. But if I had to choose between being a loner and being with a cute fairy, I'd pick the cute fairy any day. Hold on, isn't she my kid? Wait, no, am I being charmed? Me? This can't be happening.

It was all too late.

Oof, God, when did you find out my weakness?

Squeeze.

Huh?

She was just too adorable, just too adorable.

"You smell like strawberry smoothie," I commented while remaining in a hug with the little fairy.

"And you smell like rotten strawberries," she retort while wrinkling her nose.

"Why you, talking back to your parent? What a bad kid!"

"Nuh uh. I have a rotten parent, that's why," she smiled brightly, her words not matching her expression.

"Did you learn that from a demon?"

Suddenly, soft memories gushed into me. I knew from the onset that this was Smoothie's memories. She was sitting under her strawberry leaves just like how I used to spend my time doing nothing. One day, two pairs of colorful parrot-like birds stopped by. They chattered during the day and bickered during the night with little rests in between. All the while, Smoothie was sitting there listening to them, absorbing all that useless information. After around a five days, the two pairs of chatty birds continued on with their migration.

It didn't take long before she evolved into Strawberry Smoothie, her current species. Her ability to speak well was due to a combination of multiple factors. Her trait, |rapid growth|, apparently also helped her learn things faster. I had that trait too but I never knew it applied to anything but plant body's growth. Her ability, [producer], was akin to my ability, [synthesis], with the difference being that her ability allowed her to create things that were immaterial from immaterial things.

Then there was the strange ability, [soothsayer]. This ability basically made her into a psychic which helped her glimpse into possible futures and understand exactly how to make best of her current situation via traits, abilities and everything at her disposal. In addition, it had some peculiar functions I didn't quite understand.  

To sum it up, her abilities and traits were obnoxious in a way that seemed completely superior to mine. I wished I had the [soothsayer] ability. It seemed to be the most useful ability ever.

Phew, at least there were no demons involved. God, nerf her. Please. This isn't fair! I'm the only one who had to suffer so much only to get subpar abilities.

Disregarding what my thoughts, I asked, "Was that memory share to me?"

"If you allow yourself to receive, you can know my memories too. So, no privacy between the us two. Meaning, we're besties!" She beamed.

"No, we're not. Don't make me pluck your wings."

"No! You won't! I won't talk to you anymore!" She pouted.

"Fine, we can be besties. Let me create a dress for you. I feel uncomfortable looking at you like that." Even though I was like that not long ago, I just wasn't used to seeing others without clothes. Obviously, Haelley was an exception since her body was nearly completely covered in feathers.  

"You will? That's the first present ever! I'm so happy."

It took me some time to create the dress from scratch but the result was basically a shrunk version of my own.  

"Thank you so much, Mother."

"I still feel strange being called 'Mother.' Can't you call me Berry?"

"No!"

I sighed, "I guess it can't be helped."

One of us had to yield and I rather not wasted my time arguing with a kid. Just in time, Haelley returned and landed next to us on the tree.

"Family conference, done?"

"Wait, actually, I came to ask about this jungle here. Smoothie, explain yourself."

"The growth? Some elves tend to my plant body every day."

"Say what? That wasn't in the memories."

"I took it out."

"You brat, why did you do that?"

"So I can talk to you more! I'm so bored here. They never talk to me and they only cared about my strawberries."

Something didn't feel right.

"Wait a moment, how do they come here? This is the middle of nowhere. I'm sure I would have seen an elf village if any was nearby when I was scattering my clones."

"They teleported. I believe they are De Planck's servants."

Oh, that saves me time explaining things. Maybe this memory sharing trait isn't that bad. But still, if only I can be selective about it. That De Planck though, I got to give it to him for being a super schemer.

"They weren't affected by your traits and abilities?"

"They seemed to be immune."

"What about the strawberries?"

"I don't have any. My flowers don't fruit no matter what the elves did but they aren't giving up."

"Don't fruit? How, why?"

Brat, it seems you're a defect. At least I won't have to worry about weed control.

"Mother, stop dissing me. I'm perfectly normal."

"Smoothie, let's be real here. None of us are normal. Haelley there is the most normal out of the three of us."

"Berry, compliment or no?" Haelley looked at me for an explanation. Clearly, she couldn't read the mood here.

"Neither. Anyway, Smoothie, stop flowering for now. You saw my memories, right? That demon is evil. You should avoid him at all cost."

"I have to be with my plant body to control. Let me give you control of my plant body then you can change it, right?"

"I can? Since when?"

"Since now? I just gave you permission. Check."

I checked the conditions of all the strawberry plants under my management with [supply chain]. A new plant body did show up on my list. Just like that, I stopped the plant from flowering, permanently. It was population control at its finest, no surgeries or dangerous chemicals.

"Done! Your chastity is now protected, forever and ever. Amen," as I opened my eyes after completing the process. My duty as a parent was completed.

"But they already toyed with my flowers. They have to take responsibilities, no?"

"That's not how it works, sweetie... Be a good girl and go sleep."

The sun had set and the stars were already slowly revealing themselves to us.

"That's a great idea, Mother. Since you haven't slept for so long, please sleep with me! I don't want to sleep alone."

This can't be happening. Why can't you be a simpleton like Haelley?

"Uhh... Mother is busy. Haelley, we need to be somewhere, right?"

"Ah," she pondered for a few seconds, "No. But this is not a good place, should search for better place."

Really, I won't get some peace tonight? Why must you do this to me? Is this what they call "taking responsibility?" I'm too young and I'm not even married.

Alas, I figured there was no way I could outsmart this kid. She was too smart for her own good. God wasn't so kind to bless me with high intelligence.

"Haelley, can you destroy the white flowers first?"

She shook her head, "Too dark to see."

Smoothie then remarked, "You should be able to destroy them through your abilities, [supply chain] and [absorption]."

I didn't even know combining abilities was possible. I seriously didn't. When I locked on the flowers through both [supply chain], I was given the option "devour" when I intended to use [absorption]. Although it sounded super ominous, I still went through with it anyway. Just as she said, the flowers all wilted and dried up.

"Smoothie, try not to share too much. You never know who else is listening," I warned her. That kid knew too much, especially with her use of that strange ability. As a parent, I would have to keep up my vigilance so she wouldn't get kidnapped or something.

"I know. Don't worry about it!" She responded with a thumbs-up.

This kid is really trying to get on my nerves.