“Dear, you actually like having your forehead rubbed like this, don’t you?”
“Ina, how do you always see through my preferences?”
“It’s the intuition of people in love!”
…
Those playful yet gentle words seed to still echo in his ears.
Arama pulled himself out of that fleeting mory fragnt. Before his eyes was Inanna, teasing the puji in her arms without pause.
For a brief instant, the way his daughter tilted her head and smiled while playing with the puji overlapped perfectly with the image of his wife from mory.
Only, aside from the warmth in his heart, there was also a strong sense of displeasure directed at that puji.
He didn’t even dare imagine what his wife would think, if she were to co back to life and see their only daughter raised into this state by him…
When he first learned that Inanna had gone missing, Arama was badly shaken. He had assud the demon race had seized an opportunity to make a move against her.
As it turned out, that assumption wasn’t entirely wrong. Targeting Inanna, the demon race had indeed dispatched two waves of assassins after the war, both of which ended up becoming high-quality D-rank personnel supplents for the Mushroom Garden.
Using the imprint connection, Arama imdiately tried to locate Inanna’s position. His luck was poor at first—one faulty crystal pointed her north—until the second crystal finally showed a proper reading, directing him south, toward the puji dungeon.
However, while rushing toward Mordu, he received news midway that Inanna was safe and sound.
After so thought, he didn’t turn back, deciding instead to see his daughter in person.
What he didn’t expect was that, upon eting him, Inanna would be the one to first propose going to the mountains to communicate with the dwarves.
Arama guessed this was probably the mushroomfolk’s intention—perhaps they wanted contact with the dwarves?
It wasn’t an unacceptable request. What’s more, the kingdom was already planning to deepen cooperation with the dwarves and elves, to reinforce alliances. It worked out perfectly for Inanna to travel with the diplomatic delegation.
It was just that…
Watching Inanna continue stroking the puji even while talking to him, Arama pondered for a mont before asking slowly, “You stayed in the dungeon for over ten days this ti… how were the gains?”
“Look, I made new friends again!” Inanna said, lifting up the sword saint puji, who had already given up resisting, to show him.
“That’s good. It’s just…” Arama chose his words carefully. “You also know that your identity is more important now than before. Countless eyes are watching you—so with goodwill, so with malice. When you move around alone like this, I can’t help but worry. If there were more reliable safeguards… for example, soone trustworthy constantly at your side, I’d feel much more at ease.”
He paused, his tone becoming gentler. “Among the young people you interact with regularly, is there anyone you feel is especially reliable—soone who could take on this responsibility?”
“Yes!” Inanna replied without hesitation. “Number Four, Number Ten, and Number Fourteen. They’re amazing! With them around, I’d dare go anywhere!”
What Inanna really wanted to say was that as long as the boss was around, there was nothing to worry about—but Lin Jun wouldn’t let her say that.
Hearing this, Number Four imdiately hopped onto the table. “That’s right! If anyone wants to hurt her, they’ll have to step over my corpse first!”
Arama fell silent for a mont.
“I ant… humans,” he clarified, choosing his words carefully. “For example, your forr aide Warren. That child is steady in his actions and very attentive to you. If soone like that were to accompany you…”
“Warren really is reliable, but isn’t he busy training the puji-mancer legion?” Inanna tapped her chin, thought for a mont, then said, “If soone has to accompany … then how about Aiden? His illusion magic is really strong!”
Inanna was thinking that her father intended to assign her a bodyguard. Rather than having him arrange soone unfamiliar at the last mont, it would be better to choose soone like Aiden—soone from the Mushroom Garden and a familiar collaborator.
“Aiden?”
At last, Arama dug up a report from long ago, submitted by his steward Eric, about Inanna’s situation. It had ntioned the na Aiden.
A fallen noble. A diamond-rank illusionist.
But none of that mattered.
What mattered was that, if he rembered correctly, this guy was already damn well in his forties—not much younger than himself!
“Isn’t there… soone younger?” Arama asked, doing his best to keep his voice steady.
“Aiden’s great,” Inanna blinked, completely missing the subtext. “Father, don’t worry. Aiden’s stamina can definitely keep up!”
She was, of course, referring to the stamina required for long journeys.
Crack—
The solid wooden armrest of the chair let out a sharp sound under Arama’s unconscious grip.
…
Aiden, who had been fully prepared to conduct thorough tests on his large-scale illusion device in the extre north, suddenly received a new assignnt: to accompany the diplomatic delegation to visit the dwarven mountains.
A task that would last one to two months left him rather depressed.
Fortunately, the boss promised to allocate special materials to support his illusion experints once he returned. That eased most of his frustration.
After all, being sent on a business trip at short notice was unavoidable for a working man.
There was just one thing he couldn’t figure out.
Why did Duke Arama—whom he had t for the first ti—wear a polite smile on his face, yet seem to harbor a kind of hostility in his eyes, as if he wanted to devour Aiden alive?
That didn’t make sense. His behavior had been proper, his etiquette flawless, and his appearance fairly presentable… just how had he offended this lord?
Arama’s gaze was like that of a tiger, placing enormous psychological pressure on Aiden.
It wasn’t until a week later, when the kingdom’s professional negotiation team and escort guards arrived and the group finally set off, that Aiden—who had already lost noticeable weight from the pressure—was at last freed from it.
The group would pass through the Scarecrow Abyss, negotiating future cooperation with the elves and dwarves along the way.
Since the dwarven mountains lay outside the fungal carpet’s range, the sword saint puji would escort them the entire way, only leaving the group on the return journey to once again explore the Scarecrow Abyss.
As for walking a bit farther to protect his grandniece, the sword saint naturally had no objections.
Unfortunately, looking across the entire group, there wasn’t a single suitable opponent for him to practice on.
…
“Your Grace.”
After Inanna left, Fal sought out Arama, who was also preparing to depart.
He ca to ask about how to handle the matter of the “Puji Worship Cult.”
Arama had brought this up with the duke on the very first day of his arrival.
During subsequent interactions with the mushroomfolk, Arama had also tried to probe indirectly.
However, those mushroomfolk seed completely unaware of the matter, as if it had nothing to do with them at all.
But… not knowing now didn’t an they wouldn’t know in the future.
Allowing puji worship to spread unchecked was unacceptable. Yet if it were directly labeled a cult and eradicated, even if it truly had nothing to do with the mushroomfolk, such handling could still damage relations between both sides.
The kingdom could not do without puji now. That was a cold, hard reality.
“Arrest the core mbers, but do not conduct trials, and do not torture them. Focus on restricting their ability to spread.”
“And if any connection to the ‘Hand of Crossing Death’ is discovered…?”
“Kill them.”
There were differences even among cults. The Hand of Crossing Death was clearly the most vile of them all.
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