Chapter 47

And so, I began gathering mushrooms with three people whose conditions seemed somewhat strange.

Fortunately, despite not being in their right minds, the three seemed to willingly cooperate in gathering mushrooms.

Excluding the occasional strange behavior they displayed, they appeared normal, but whether that was genuine or just a facade to deceive me, I couldn’t tell.

Moreover, the Mushroom Human that had initially threatened us was nowhere to be seen.

If it had lost track of us and couldn’t find us, that would be a relief…

Despite various unsettling factors, the mushroom gathering proceeded smoothly.

“Wow! Look at this mushroom! Isn’t it fascinating how it wriggles?”

“Indeed… It’s a beautiful mushroom. But I doubt it’s edible. What about this one? Doesn’t it look like it has horns?”

“*Giggle*. To boast about such a mushroom… Look at this radiant one instead!”

They showed off the mushrooms they had gathered to each other.

Even though I was the one who brought them out to gather mushrooms…

Honestly, they weren’t that pretty to warrant such excitement.

In fact, if anything, they were rather grotesque-looking mushrooms.

Yet, the three of them were thrilled, showing off the mushrooms and calling them beautiful.

The Sea Golem refused to eat them, singing instead, but were these strange-shaped mushrooms really okay?

Though their sense of aesthetics was incomprehensible, as long as the mushroom gathering went smoothly, there was no problem.

Then, the remaining task was to figure out the cause of their strange behavior and resolve it.

I needed to solve the issue before the mushroom gathering ended.

If I couldn’t resolve it, the next best option would be to take them to the Alchemist Guild or the Magic Tower for examination.

Then, Mari suddenly spoke up as if she had remembered something.

“Ah! Come to think of it, there seemed to be a lot of nice mushrooms over there earlier. How about we go check it out?”

“Over there?”

The direction Mari pointed was the complete opposite of where we had come from.

In other words, a direction we had never been to before.

But how did she know there were many mushrooms there?

How?

“We’ve never been there before, so how do you know there are many mushrooms?”

But it wasn’t just me who was puzzled. Karina and Serena also agreed with Mari, supporting her claim.

“I agree with Marisia. I definitely saw many good mushrooms over there earlier.”

“Right, right. I saw so many mushrooms on the way here. It was like a paradise made of mushrooms.”

The two of them described the scenery of a direction we had never been to, siding with Mari.

“…”

“Mr. Kurt, let’s go over there quickly.”

“Hahaha. That’s right. Mr. Kurt, why don’t you come over there quickly too?”

“We can make mushroom hotpot there!”

Perhaps.

Their condition might be worse than I had thought.

For a moment, I had let my guard down, seeing them gather mushrooms so normally.

“Why are you hesitating? Aren’t you coming to gather mushrooms with us?”

“Surely you’re not thinking of leaving us behind, are you?”

“Right, Kurt. You’re not thinking something strange, are you?”

At this point, it would be better to just leave…

…

“…No. I was just excited to see what kind of mushrooms are over there. Let’s go together. Lead the way.”

But if I left, there was no telling what these clearly abnormal women would do.

In the worst-case scenario, a bloodbath could occur while I was away.

In that case, even if it was a trap, it would be safer for me to stay and watch over them.

Having reached that conclusion, I followed behind them.

.

.

.

After following their lead for a while.

They seemed like they would walk endlessly in one direction if left alone.

As we walked, I pondered over what could have caused the three of them to act this way.

But nothing particularly stood out.

It was hard to pinpoint exactly when they had started acting strange, and even when I tried to recall, I couldn’t remember them doing anything particularly unusual.

Even excluding Mari, Karina and Serena were both skilled adventurers, worthy of their silver rank.

They weren’t the type to act recklessly in unfamiliar environments outside the city.

Moreover, if all three of them had become strange at the same time, the trigger must have been something they all did together.

But no matter how much I thought about it, nothing came to mind.

What could it be?

What caused the three of them to become like this?

As I continued to think, I suddenly felt something and stopped in my tracks.

“Mr. Kurt, what’s wrong?”

“Why did you stop all of a sudden? Do you have something to do?”

“If we go a little further, we’ll reach the spot we had our eyes on, so let’s hurry.”

“…”

But instead of answering the three, I quietly spread my senses wide.

What my senses picked up were numerous presences surrounding us…

No, surrounding me.

*Thud…*

*Thud… Thud…*

*Thud… Thud… Thud…*

And then, from between the mushroom-covered trees, countless Mushroom Humans revealed themselves.

“…I knew it.”

I had thought they wouldn’t give up so easily, but I hadn’t expected them to bring so many of their kind.

Perhaps the reason my companions had all become strange was due to some curse cast by these Mushroom Humans.

…If that’s the case, and they have a culture capable of using curses, are they humanoids?

“Honestly, I still don’t know if you’re humanoids or just monsters that look like humans.”

If they were monsters, I wouldn’t care, but if they were humanoids, I wanted to resolve this through dialogue.

Of course.

In comics and novels, creatures like orcs and goblins are easily killed off, but in reality, if a species has its own culture and language, you can’t just kill them so easily.

If a culture exists, a language exists, and there’s intelligence capable of building upon them, it’s hard to understand how one could justify killing them simply because they’re a different species.

That’s why, even when the Mushroom Humans had used violence first, I hesitated to confront them, thinking that perhaps they had a reason for resorting to violence.

But they had crossed the line.

Why they had done this, whether they were humanoids or monsters, no longer mattered.

They had cast some unknown curse on my companions, shaking their minds, and now they had appeared in numbers, as if to finish the job.

I had no intention of resolving this situation through dialogue.

I couldn’t help but feel it keenly.

Then, Mari, who was behind me, spoke up.

“Mr. Kurt, isn’t it a bit hot here?”

That couldn’t be.

The inside of a cave with no sunlight couldn’t be hot.

If anything, the temperature was cool enough to feel chilly if you were lightly dressed.

But Mari, as if genuinely feeling hot, began to remove her leather armor with a heated voice, twisting her body.

Not only that, but Karina, with a soft, squishy sensation on one arm, wrapped both hands around my arm and clung to me.

“Mr. Kurt, you must be tired from walking so long. Why don’t we rest a bit?”

And Serena, on the opposite side, ran her fingers along my leg, giving a seductive smile.

“*Giggle*. Let’s rest and do something fun. How about it? Don’t you want to?”

They seduced me as if the Mushroom Humans surrounding us were invisible.

Their excited voices were quite alluring, but their actions were so out of place in the current situation that my mind became as calm as if doused in cold water.

I lightly shook my hand to detach Karina, who was clinging to my arm.

Surprisingly, Karina obediently released her grip, not because she had given up on holding me, but because her movements seemed as if someone was forcibly pulling strings, making her powerless.

As I detached her, she let out a disappointed sigh, “*Aah…*”, but did nothing more.

Having shaken off the women clinging to me, I approached the Mushroom Humans surrounding us.

────!

As I got closer, the Mushroom Human raised its arm, accompanied by the same hard-to-define scream I had heard before, like someone trapped in a wall.

And before the Mushroom Human could bring its arm down, I made the first move.

*Thwack!*

A light punch landed on the Mushroom Human’s torso, and the impact caused its mushroom flesh to burst as it flew back, rolling two or three times on the ground.

Seeing that, I couldn’t help but be shocked.

I had only struck lightly to subdue it, but its body had burst apart…

Could it be… dead…?

I had prepared myself to use violence against humanoids, but I hadn’t intended to kill anyone. Seeing that, I was shocked and froze.

“H-hey…!”

Forgetting that I was in the middle of a battle, I rushed over to the fallen Mushroom Human.

But when I got close to the burst Mushroom Human, I was even more shocked than when I saw its body burst.

Inside, there were no organs like those of a living creature.

Nor was it filled purely with mushroom flesh.

Inside was a human corpse.

A mummified human corpse that looked like it had been dead for years.

In that moment, I realized everything.

Mushrooms.

Human corpses.

Spores.

Poisonous mushrooms.

The reason I was the only one still sane.

Everything.