Chapter 10: I Am the Pink Mushroom Princess
“CIEL!” Agnes yelled, grabbing the neck of the monster that was biting into Ciel’s leg and swinging it into the face of another monster.
The monster was thrown with such force that it seemed like its body would be torn apart, but when it collided with the other monster it immediately turned into black mist and disappeared.
“Ciel, are you all right?!”
Agnes rushed over and examined the bitten paw, but there was no blood coming out. Instead, a black mist clung to it. No doubt the same type of mist that shrouded the monsters.
Ciel looked weakened—that wasn’t good. She needed to get rid of that black mist.
Agnes tried to wipe away the mist with her hand, but Ciel stopped her, rubbing his head against her hand. His sky-blue eyes gazed intently at Agnes, as if trying to convey something to her.
“I shouldn’t touch it…?” she guessed.
Ciel let out a small roar then faced off against the rest of the monsters, moving in front of Agnes.
“What kind of monster is THAT?” Philip cried.
“Ciel’s not a monster. He’s my bodyguard, appointed by Claude.” Agnes scowled at Philip, who’d come up behind her, and that was when he said something totally unbelievable.
“Then let’s use it as a decoy while we escape!”
“…Excuse me?”
“You said it’s a bodyguard? Appointed by Claude? Then its job is to provide us cover so we can get away,” Philip reasoned.
Agnes was so shocked, she ended up yelling hoarsely, “Are you telling me to abandon Ciel?!”
True, Ciel was Agnes’s bodyguard. If Agnes ordered Ciel to distract the monsters while she fled to the house, no doubt Ciel would obey.
Even at the cost of his own life…
“Our lives are more valuable than that of some mangy beast. Obviously.” Philip reached out to grab Agnes’s arm, but she shook him off and glared right into those hopeless eyes.
“…I was your fiancée.”
“What?”
“It was an arranged marriage, one with no love, but I was still officially your fiancée. Then you insulted my appearance, acted like my mushrooms were disgusting, cheated on me, and then ultimately dumped me in public. THEN you came back around, asking me to be your mistress, acting like you actually liked me all along after all…only to have me kidnapped by a foreign country to pay off YOUR debts!”
Ugh, just going over it all again made her blood boil.
“But none of it compares to how angry I feel with myself for letting you do all of that!”
Philip took a step back, paling as he took in Agnes’s clenched, trembling fists.
“A-Agnes?”
“Between you and Ciel, I don’t even need to waste my breath clarifying whose life has more worth in this situation!”
“What? Huh?”
Agnes had never yelled at anyone like this in her life. Philip simply stood there, making stupid noises in shock.
“Get out of my sight, you utter waste of space! Disappear!”
Then Agnes turned from Philip, stepping protectively in front of Ciel and facing off against the monster. Ciel tugged on her skirt as if to say, “Don’t, Mistress,” but Agnes stroked his head reassuringly.
“You’ve saved me many times, Ciel. Now it’s my turn.”
She’d promised Claude she would not leave Ciel’s side. Agnes knew she had to do something.
“Mushrooms! Please, get in touch with Duke Granier! Can you do it?”
There came a popping sound in response to Agnes’s cry, and a white mushroom with large warts appeared on Ciel’s head.
An Amanita cokeri… Previously, it had come to Agnes’s rescue and stopped Gerome when he was passing by in a carriage. She would trust in it again now.
It would need to hold until Cesar came along.
“Okay, mushrooms! Let’s go!” Agnes yelled again, and an Amanita muscaria popped up on Ciel’s head. With its red cap and white warts, it looked very pretty beside the Amanita cokeri, but Agnes didn’t care about aesthetics now. She was just happy it had come to help.
Don’t worry, Agnes. We’re your friends. You’re the Pink Mushroom Princess, after all.
“I need mushrooms to slow down the enemy!”
With another popping sound, a reddish-brown Nameko grew just before the monster. Wielding its slimy cap, it doubled its slime output until the ground was slick, trapping the monster’s legs in the several-centimeter-thick trap and causing it to slide and fall. The monster struggled for purchase, like it was trying to stand on slippery ice, as it floundered in a sea of slime.
“And I need attack mushrooms!”