Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 526 - 516: Edin Targeted

"Dear, you actually enjoy having your forehead rubbed like this, don’t you?"

"Inanna, how do you always manage to see through my preferences?"

"It’s the intuition of people in love!"

...

The playful yet gentle words seem to still linger in my ears.

Alama extricated herself from the fleeting memory. In front of her was Inanna, constantly teasing the Puki in her arms.

For a moment, the sideways smile of her daughter playing with the Puki overlapped with the image of her wife in her memories.

However, besides being touched, what filled her heart more was the irritation toward that Puki.

He didn’t dare to imagine, if his wife were to come back to life and see how he had let their only daughter become like this, what would she think...

Alama was startled when he first heard the news of Inanna’s disappearance, thinking that the Demon Race had found an opportunity to target Inanna.

In fact, the idea was not wrong, as the Demon Race did indeed send two batches of assassins after the war, adding to the quality D Level personnel for the Mushroom Garden.

Trying to rely on the mark for contact, Alama attempted to locate Inanna’s position. Initially, he had bad luck and encountered a broken crystal showing the location to the north, until the second one showed correctly, pointing him to the south, toward Pujie Dungeon.

Nevertheless, on his hurried way to Mushroom City, he received news halfway that Inanna was safe and sound.

After some thought, he decided not to turn back but planned to see his daughter.

Unexpectedly, upon meeting, Inanna first brought up her desire to go to the Mountains to communicate with the Dwarves.

Alama guessed it was probably the desire of those in the Mushroom Race, as they likely wanted to contact the Dwarves.

This wasn’t an unacceptable request, especially since the Kingdom currently intended to deepen cooperation with the Elf Dwarves to reconsolidate the alliance, just perfect for Inanna to go with the mission.

However...

Watching Inanna, even while talking with him, never stopping her hand from touching the Puki, Alama pondered for a moment and slowly asked, "You stayed in the dungeon for over ten days this time... What did you gain?"

"Look, I’ve made new friends again!" Inanna said, holding up the Sword Saint Puki that had already given up struggling.

"That’s good, but..." Alama hesitated for a moment before saying, "You know, your status now is more important than before, countless eyes are on you, both benevolent and malevolent. You acting alone like this, I can’t help but worry. If there were a more stable guarantee... like having someone trustworthy by your side, I could be much more at ease."

He paused, his tone softening, "Among the young people you usually come into contact with, is there anyone you find particularly reliable, capable of this responsibility?"

"There is!" Inanna answered without hesitation, "Number Four, Ten, and Fourteen, they are amazing! With them around, I dare to go anywhere!"

In fact, Inanna wanted to say that with the boss around, there’s nothing to worry about, but Lin Jun wouldn’t let her say that.

Number Four, who heard this, immediately jumped onto the table, "Exactly, anyone wanting to harm her must first step over my dead body!"

Alama was silent for a while.

"I mean... a human," he carefully phrased, "Like your former deputy Warren, that kid is reliable and quite attentive towards you. If you had someone trustworthy like that accompanying you..."

"Warren is indeed reliable, but isn’t he busy training the Puki Master Corps?" Inanna said, touching her chin in thought, "If someone must accompany me... why not let Edin do it! His illusion technique is very strong!"

Inanna thought Alama intended to assign her a bodyguard. Rather than letting her father eventually decide on someone she wasn’t familiar with, she’d rather choose someone like Edin from the Mushroom Garden, someone with whom she had cooperative experience.

"Edin?"

Pulled from a corner of his memory, Alama recalled a report about Inanna’s status submitted long ago by the steward Eric, which mentioned Edin’s name.

A fallen noble, Diamond Level Illusionist.

But none of that was important.

What was important was, if he remembered correctly, this guy was already in his damn forties, not much younger than himself!

"Isn’t there... someone younger?" Alama tried to keep his voice steady.

"Edin is quite good," Inanna blinked, completely unaware of the implication, "Don’t worry father, Edin’s physical strength is completely up to the task!"

She was, of course, referring to the stamina required for long-distance travel.

Crack—

The solid wood chair armrest cracked under Alama’s unconscious grip.

...

Originally preparing to thoroughly test his large illusion instrument in the Far North, Edin suddenly received the task of accompanying the mission on a visit to the Dwarf Mountains.

This one-to-two-month assignment made him quite annoyed.

Fortunately, his boss promised to allocate materials specifically to support his illusion experiments upon his return, which alleviated much of his annoyance.

For a working man, sudden business trips are unavoidable.

There’s just one thing he couldn’t figure out.

Why did Duke Alama, whom he met for the first time, although showing a polite smile, seem to harbor a sinister intention to tear him apart alive?

But it didn’t make sense; he was clearly behaving properly, fully observing etiquette, and his appearance could be considered decent... where on earth did he offend the Duke?

Alama’s gaze was like a tiger, imposing tremendous psychological pressure on Edin.

Until a week later, when the professional negotiation team and the accompanying guards sent by the Kingdom were in place and the team departed, was Edin finally relieved, having already lost a significant amount of weight under pressure.

This team would pass through the Scarecrow Abyss, successively negotiating future cooperation terms with the Elf Dwarves.

Since the Dwarf Mountains were not within the reach of the Fungal Mat, Sword Saint Puki would escort them all the way and depart only on the return journey to explore the Scarecrow Abyss again.

As for walking more to protect his grand-niece, Sword Saint naturally had no objections.

It’s just a pity, looking at the entire team, there was no suitable opponent to practice with.

...

"Duke." After Inanna left, Fa’er came to find Alama, who was also about to return.

He was here to ask about the handling of the "Mushroom Worship Sect."

He had already brought up this issue on the first day of Alama’s arrival.

During his subsequent interactions with a few members of the Mushroom Race, Alama also tried to subtly probe.

However, those in the Mushroom Race seemed completely unaware of the related situation, as if it had nothing to do with them.

But... just because they don’t know now doesn’t mean they won’t know in the future.

Letting the Puki worship spread unchecked was certainly not acceptable, but if it were to be directly deemed a cult and eradicated, even if it truly had nothing to do with the Mushroom Race, such a handling method might still affect both relations.

The Kingdom cannot do without Puki now, which is a cold hard reality.

"Arrest the main members, but do not conduct a trial or maltreat them. Focus on limiting the spread."

"If connections with the ’Hand of Death’ are found...?"

"Then kill them!"

There are differences even among heresies, and the Hand of Death is clearly the worst of the worst!