In Inanna's room, a magic wand lay alone on the carpet.
Beside it, one pink Puchi and two blue-gray Puchis had their heads pressed together, forming a small circle.
"So you really are a Puchi!" Number Four, having witnessed Inanna's transformation, was full of amazement. "What was that form just now? Is it some super amazing disguise? How can you get so much bigger?"
"It's transformation magic," Number Ten explained.
"I see!" Number Four had a moment of realization, but immediately came up with new questions. "But why would you transform into a mushroom servant's appearance? And this designation 'Pink Puchi'... don't you have an official number bestowed by the Mycelial Lord?"
Its thought waves unconsciously carried a trace of sympathy—to think there was a mushroom race compatriot who couldn't get a number, how pitiful.
Number Ten chose silence. It was too lazy to explain to this one-track-minded Number Four that "Pink Puchi" was very likely the Mycelial Lord's designation for this special existence.
After all, the Mycelial Lord's decree only required protecting her, not necessarily getting along well with Number Four.
"Number Ten, Number Four..." Inanna softly repeated the names the two Puchis had just given, her heart full of curiosity. "You... seem different from the other Puchis?"
"Other Puchis?" Number Ten, somewhat awkwardly using the detection skill in this mushroom body, sensed the ordinary Puchis outside the room and immediately understood Inanna's meaning. "Those are merely tentacles the Mycelial Lord extended out, while we are the mushroom race with independent will."
"The mushroom race... Does the Mycelial Lord refer to Boss?" Inanna continued asking.
"How can you call him Boss like those mushroom servants!" Number Four immediately corrected her, straightening its body. "Using the honorific 'Mycelial Lord' is a privilege of us mushroom race!"
Inanna found these two Puchis with active thinking and distinct personalities both endearing and novel, asking question after question.
Most of the time it was Number Ten answering with concise, clear mental projections. Except for parts the Mycelial Lord explicitly required to be kept secret, it satisfied almost all of Pink Puchi's curiosity.
And whenever Number Four showed a tendency to say something wrong, Number Ten would interrupt it at just the right moment.
The one pink and two blue Puchis thus communicated enthusiastically for a long time, until suddenly, from the hallway outside the room, came the sound of gradually approaching footsteps...
...
"Alama, the new arm regenerated by the regeneration potion hasn't shown any abnormalities, has it?" Before entering, Lorenzo's voice came through first.
He strode into the room, pulling out a potion with a glowing green luster from the inner pocket of his mage robe. "I've formulated a new nutritional compound that should help speed up your recovery. You warriors who specialize in tempering your bodies always have a more troublesome recovery process after physical damage than us casters..."
His voice gradually lowered, noticing something unusual in the room's atmosphere.
Alama sat alone in a corner's shadow, maintaining the posture of burying his face in his palms, like a statue, showing no reaction to his arrival.
Lorenzo frowned in puzzlement and walked to his old friend's side, leaning close: "Hey, what's this all about now?"
Alama slowly lowered his hands, raised his head, and met Lorenzo's gaze with hollow eyes.
Lorenzo had never imagined he would see such... life-doubting bewilderment and dejection in the eyes of this tough man who remained unfazed even when facing a demon army siege.
"I suddenly feel," Alama's voice was hoarse, carrying a fatigue of having had his spirit drained, "that I'm a complete and utter failure of a father..."
Alama's words put Lorenzo's mind slightly at ease.
So it was just a trivial family matter—he'd been afraid Alama's body had suffered some irreversible injury.
"What makes you say that?" Lorenzo sat down beside him, trying to console with a light tone. "Didn't Inanna do very well this time? Although she borrowed external power, she really did rescue us from a desperate situation. That's much better than those two troublemakers at my house who only cause problems!"
"I just... went to find her," Alama's voice was strained, "and discovered she was secretly in her room... with... with..."
Seeing Alama's unspeakable expression, as if his worldview had suffered a devastating blow, Lorenzo instantly understood, showing an "I get it" expression on his face.
He patted his old friend's shoulder, advising in the tone of someone who'd been there:
"Sigh, when children grow up, some things are inevitable. When I first discovered my eldest son was involved with the maid caring for him, I was just as angry, but thinking about it later, young people are hot-blooded—it's not some unforgivable major flaw. Tell me, who has your niece taken a fancy to? Is it that adjutant named Warren who came with her? If it's him, I think that's acceptable. Though the young man lacks background, he has ability, and he's rather handsome—has about eighty percent of my charm back in the day. You can find an appropriate opportunity to have a good talk with them and formalize things..."
"It's a Puchi!" Alama suddenly interrupted him. This usually resolute and steady man was nearly breaking down now, his voice even trembling. "I saw her... she transformed herself into a pink Puchi! Huddled head-to-head with two other Puchis! How did things turn out like this?!"
The understanding and consolation on Lorenzo's face instantly froze, his mouth slightly open, emitting a syllable full of bewilderment: "Huh?"
...
On the other side, Inanna also suffered a heavy blow.
"What do I do..." She sat on the bed hugging her knees, pink long hair falling down, covering her face full of chagrin.
Conditions in the valley were truly limited. Having an independent room to live in was already special treatment as a commander—as for facilities like door locks, those were completely out of the question.
The moment she heard footsteps outside the door, Inanna knew things were bad. Like a startled rabbit, she pounced toward the staff on the floor, trying to undo the transformation before the person came in.
But she was still a step too slow, caught red-handed by Alama as he pushed the door open.
Fortunately, thanks to her transformation magic becoming quite proficient, she could at least transform together with her clothing.
Otherwise, if she had transformed back naked in front of her father Alama... that scene was simply unimaginable, absolutely a hundred times worse than now.
But the current situation was already enough to make her wish the ground would swallow her up.
When Alama saw her in Puchi form huddled together with the other two, although he said nothing, that instantly frozen expression and the slightly swaying figure as he left made Inanna clearly realize things were very bad.
Beside her, Number Ten was deep in profound self-reproach—it had seriously failed in its duty.
It felt that after its rebirth, it should have immediately adapted to the skills in its body. If it could skillfully use those reconnaissance methods, it definitely wouldn't have made such a low-level error as just now, where people walked right outside and they only noticed then.
Fortunately the person had no hostility. If it had been an enemy, the task the Mycelial Lord had just assigned might have failed!
"This kind of mistake... must never happen a second time!"
Meanwhile, Number Four completely couldn't understand why Pink Puchi was so dejected.
After Inanna briefly explained that "being seen by father in a strange appearance is very bad," Number Four suddenly remembered the lofty status the Mycelial Lord had just bestowed upon them.
"We are the embodiment of the Great Puchi's will! The glorious mushroom race!" Its mental projection carried genuine pride. "How can we hide and skulk about? Come, let's go explain things clearly to those non-mushrooms! Let them know how noble your status is!"
With that, it extended its mycelial tentacle, wanting to pull Inanna to go out together and set the record straight. However, upon seeing her human hands, it obviously hesitated for a moment, the mycelium pausing in midair. Finally, enduring some disgust for Pink Puchi's "non-mushroom form," it gently wrapped around Inanna's wrist and led her outside.
Number Ten immediately followed behind, ready to intervene at any time in case Number Four caused trouble.
(End of Chapter)
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