Mushroom Lord in the Underground City

Chapter 537 527: Kindred Spirits

After one of the accompanying Elves quietly poked Galadriel in the waist, she snapped back to herself, swiftly adjusted her bearing, and exchanged a few words with the delegation led by Inanna about their journey and some polite greetings. Her wording was impeccable, leaving no room for criticism.

When she returned to her room high in the Royal Court, closed the heavy carved wooden door, leaned back against it and shut her eyes, trying to recall the scene from just now, she discovered that her mind's impression of the delegation members was oddly vague.

Even that distinct pink‑haired girl Inanna, aside from that striking hair color, left almost no other impression.

In contrast, the image of that four‑sword Puki she had only glanced at twice at the very beginning, then lost track of while she was talking with Inanna, was unusually clear, carrying even a lingering sense of presence she couldn't shake off.

"That's really strange…"

Although Puki culture had become quite popular in the Elf Forest recently, Galadriel herself didn't have any particular feelings about it.

In fact, every time she saw Eco with a Puki sitting on his head and still wearing that solemn expression, she had to put in real effort just to keep her own face composed and dignified.

She certainly had no thought of raising a Puki herself.

But why, then, was she so hung up on that one Puki?

That Puki carried four swords on its back; it clearly wasn't an ordinary Puki. It was probably, like Number One, a member of the Mushroom Race.

Was it just pure curiosity stirred up by seeing, for the first time, a Mushroom Race fighter armed with swords?

Galadriel shook her head lightly and, for the moment, filed away this inexplicable concern under the category of "curiosity."

The exchanges with the delegation were not something that could be settled in one go; at minimum they needed at least a week of negotiation and adjustment. Both the Kingdom and the Elf Forest had their own demands regarding future cooperation.

On the Kingdom's side, they especially hoped the Elves could dispatch a group of Mages specializing in Magic Arrays and Barrier techniques to help construct that crucial new defensive line.

The Elf Race's long lifespan and their knowledge of Secret Techniques accumulated over generations gave them an advantage humans could hardly match when it came to constructing large‑scale defensive systems.

The Elf Forest's focus, however, was on the Hero. They hoped the Kingdom would at least share basic information about the current Hero, and allow the Elves to provide assistance where possible, even permitting some Elves to join the Hero's party.

Doing so would, first, let them take this opportunity to assess the new Hero's character; second, they could establish contact early and cultivate a preliminary level of trust and bonds.

This seemingly naive act of "cultivating feelings," looking back at history, had turned out to be a surprisingly reliable approach.

Those Heroes summoned from the Otherworld, while naturally feeling more of a sense of belonging to the human side, did not have their stance completely fixed at the moment of summoning.

Early, sincere support and investment often influenced their eventual factional leanings, keeping them from becoming the "decisive weapon" of any single power.

In truth, very few of the summoned Heroes were truly evil people. If not for what the Hero Link did three hundred years ago, the Elf Dwarves wouldn't harbor such strong hostility toward Heroes.

Now that the Elves lacked the strength to stop the rise of a new generation of Heroes, they naturally wished to pick up their original stance again—building a relationship with the Hero rather than standing in opposition.

The problem, however, was that… the Kingdom currently had no news of the Hero either.

The Priest Samuel, who accompanied Sofia, had always communicated directly only with the Archbishop.

The matter of the Hero was far too weighty; aside from the Archbishop, he didn't even trust any of the Dukes.

And Duke Brunus's betrayal had only further confirmed this viewpoint.

Therefore, after learning of the Archbishop's sacrifice, the Hero's party discussed it among themselves and decided to break away from the Kingdom's support and continue their training on their own.

This would of course make securing supplies more difficult, but it also avoided certain potential dangers.

As a result, the Kingdom now had no clear idea of the Hero party's exact situation—only their rough area of activity.

In such circumstances, even if they could locate Sofia, it would be hard enough for people the Kingdom dispatched to integrate into the Hero's party, let alone the Elves trying to insert their own members.

And the delegation's ongoing argument centered precisely on this point.

However, the specific back‑and‑forth of the negotiations had little to do with Inanna or Galadriel anymore. Both sides had professional negotiators to handle the talks; there was no need for them to intervene.

In fact, when the sounds of heated dispute downstairs in the hall grew ever louder, the two of them were still able to sit in the Royal Palace garden, sipping tea and chatting while playing with the Pukis.

Inanna was a bit surprised that the Elves had accepted the Pukis so smoothly.

Thinking back to how humans had clashed with the Pukis several times at the beginning before finally achieving coexistence thanks to the boss's concessions, the Elves' harmonious acceptance moved her deeply.

Galadriel's attention, on the other hand, was focused on the Puki called Fourteen.

For some reason, Fourteen had lately liked to stay by itself and would even evade Inanna's hugs.

"Fourteen is really skilled with the sword," Inanna said, her tone full of genuine admiration and pride. "On the way here, it single‑handedly wiped out a group of cultists that had settled near the Scarecrow Abyss. It was amazing."

"A Puki that powerful… you're almost making me want to try hugging it," Galadriel said softly, as if it were just an offhand remark.

But Inanna's eyes lit up at once, as though she'd found a rare kindred spirit.

"Then let's go find it!" She grabbed Galadriel's hand and, as they walked, began sharing her experience. "Fourteen is just a little shy. The first time I hugged it, it struggled a lot too. But Pukis are all like that—once you scratch the right spots, they become really well‑behaved!"

"Mm… except for Number Ten," Inanna added with a hint of regret.

Meanwhile, the Sword Saint Puki was standing quietly on the edge of a balcony, its senses stretching past the palace spires and corridors to fall on the ancient giant tree at the center of the garden.

The Elf King Oriel had been laid to rest beneath that tree's roots.

Elvyn felt a deep sigh in his heart.

Strictly speaking, Oriel could be considered half his master.

Even if it was the twilight of his years—but that "twilight" might well have been longer than an ordinary human's entire lifetime.

Elvyn had sometimes wondered in the past which of them, he or Oriel, would reach the end first.

He hadn't expected that in just half a year's time, the two of them would die one after another; rounded up, you could almost call it dying at the same time.

Only, thanks to the methods of some existence he still wasn't sure was righteous or evil, he had been reincarnated as a Puki, while among the Mushroom Race there was no one called "Oriel."

Just as he was lamenting the whims of fate, his mushroom body suddenly trembled slightly, and a powerful unease surged up from within.

Elvyn was a Sword Saint; intuition was sometimes even more useful to him than Qi Sensitivity.

The Sword Saint Puki immediately tried to move away, but eight tentacles suddenly wrapped around his body.

"Number One, Number Four, what are you doing?"

The two Pukis clung tightly to the Sword Saint Puki.

"We don't know either! The Mushroom Lord told us to do this!"

"Xiao Fourteen, don't struggle. The Mushroom Lord naturally has his reasons!"

What the hell?

The Sword Saint Puki couldn't quite make sense of it, but the ominous feeling in his heart only grew stronger.

He still trusted his intuition more.

Just as he was about to drive his Power and forcefully break free, a delighted voice came from not far away, confirming the unease in Elvyn's heart.

"Found you! So you three were hiding up here playing! Galadriel, come on, I'll teach you the best way to hug a Puki!"

When four hands landed on his mushroom body, a flash of understanding crossed Elvyn's mind—without a doubt, Lord Puki was evil…