Chapter 11: A Latticework of Spirits and Mushrooms
“BLACK mist, floating in the air… It’s just like Duke Granier said,” Agnes whispered more to herself than out loud.
Ciel wove through the knights, who were busy fighting several monsters, to arrive right in front of the mist. The cliff’s rocky surface was so vast, it hurt Agnes’s neck when she looked up at it. It was…imposing.
At first glance, the black mist looked like a hole in the rock, but it was not touching the cliff at all; rather, it floated in the air without any support. It was a mist, so it didn’t have a clear outline, but it was vaguely circular and the size of three grown adults with arms outstretched.
In front of the circular black mist was something like a floating grid or lattice that looked like some sort of suppression apparatus, but Agnes had no idea how it was managing to suspend in the air like that.
“Your Highness!”
One of the knights finished cutting down a monster in his path, barked a few orders at his fellow knights, then ran up to Agnes, Claude, and Ciel. He helped Claude down from Ciel before bowing reverently.
“The wave is here, it seems,” Claude remarked to the knight.
“Yes. We let a few slip through. My apologies.”
The monsters that “slipped through” must have been the ones that attacked Agnes. Then, how many monsters had there been originally?
Agnes had heard the term “frontline” several times… And that was no exaggeration. Now that the remaining monsters seemed to have been defeated, the knights were all rushing about to treat the injured and prepare for the next battle.
“I took out the ones that came toward my residence,” Claude said. “My uncle will handle the cleanup there, so no issues.”
“Duke Granier? In that case, there’s no need to worry,” the knight said, looking relieved. Cesar clearly had a reputation for his strength.
However, the fact that these knights were able to suppress the monsters even without Dragon Crest magic showed how excellent they really were. Agnes watched them with admiration as they gathered around.
“Is this…?”
“Yeah,” Claude nodded in response to the knights, who were all looking at Agnes.
Immediately, every knight present straightened up before they bowed.
“Mushroom Princess, blessed by spirits. We extend our heartiest welcome to you. We are the knights who guard the hole in the wall.”
Agnes was taken aback by the vigor of their welcome, and the phrase “Mushroom Princess” stood out to her. Did they know the truth about her and the Kingdom of Oreille?
“This is my precious princess, daughter of a man of Oreille, blessed by the spirits and beloved by mushrooms. Right, Agnes?” Claude turned to her.
Right… It was well-known that Agnes didn’t grow up as a royal and that her father was from Oreille. Claude had only stated the facts, albeit in an embarrassing way.
“We certainly weren’t expecting to see a white tiger with mushrooms on its head today,” the lead knight remarked. “The spiritual protection of Oreille must be a thing beyond our comprehension.”
Ciel now received the knights’ admiration, as did the red and white mushrooms bobbing about on his head. They were wiggling an awful lot, almost like they were vibrating with pride or something.
“The tiger’s not my doing…” Agnes demurred. “The mushrooms are mine, though…”
“Uh-oh… It’s leaking through, again,” Claude muttered.
Following his gaze, the knights’ faces grew grim and serious as they all reached for their sword hilts.
The lattice grid floating in front of the black mist was made of some brown material. Every now and then, it seemed to crackle with something like static electricity. Though the gaps in the lattice were quite wide, they still seemed to be holding back the mist. Whatever protection it gave, it wasn’t purely physical.
On closer inspection, Agnes could see that the black mist was not still; it was undulating slightly like a wave. When the waves grew large, black mist seeped through the gaps in the lattice. Whenever this happened to a certain extent, it manifested as a monster.
In front of Agnes’s eyes, a mass of mist took on the shape of a large mouse. With a blow from the knight, it returned to the mist and disappeared.
“Is this what you meant by the monsters being made of mist… Not flesh and blood?” Agnes asked. She had seen the monsters destroyed and turned to mist, but to learn that they came from mist to begin with, it was impossible to tell when a wave big enough to form a monster would come. No wonder someone always needed to be watching.
And no wonder a monster-subjugation force of knights was needed.
Humans need rest, so the people on guard would have to be rotated out at regular intervals. Agnes could now fully understand the significance of having knights stationed at the hole in the wall and why the Walled City was so necessary. As Agnes stood there overwhelmed, Ciel took a bite out of a wisp of mist.
“Uh, Ciel?” Agnes was about to ask if Ciel was all right when she remembered that Ciel liked to snack on the monsters. She doubted the mist monsters were very filling. But Ciel seemed to enjoy the taste nonetheless.
“The mist isn’t just a floating mass,” Claude said. “We believe it’s a border to another world. That grid isn’t physical, either. It’s a seal, created by the power of dragons and spirits.”
A border to another world. That didn’t sound quite real. And yet, looking at it…
“Why not seal off the hole completely?” Agnes asked.
If the mist leaking through the lattice turned into monsters, then why leave those gaps to begin with?
Claude and the knights nodded.
“There is record of this being done in the past,” replied Claude as he looked up at the hole in the wall thoughtfully. “Not only was it a huge undertaking to seal the hole completely, but there was a breach after a few days, and a huge mist wave came through. We think that this is something like a vent for the other world. If we don’t let a little seep through, there might be a massive explosion.”
Even the few monsters who leaked through were formidable. It was scary to think of a huge influx coming through at once.
“That’s why it’s shaped like a grid, then,” Agnes noted.
“Yes. It vents the mist while preventing too much from coming through at once. That’s how we have guarded the hole in the wall for a long time,” Claude said.
These knights continued to protect the way of life of the ignorant masses.
Agnes was filled with gratitude and respect for the royal family and the knights who supported this land and all its subjects. Her heart ached with emotion.
The hole in the wall could not be eliminated, nor could it be sealed completely. With that being the case, Agnes wanted to help in any way she could. She wanted to help protect those who protected the country.
Agnes clenched her fists and slowly approached the black mist and the floating grid. What had first looked like a collection of brown sticks was actually a complex latticework.
“This lattice is made out of vine… Or maybe roots. Either way, it looks like a plant,” she observed.
“The current grid was created by a King of Roots several generations ago. Strong spiritual blessing leads to an affinity with plants,” explained Claude.
Right, that made sense. Come to think of it, King Nathan also controlled vines. On the surface, the vine lattice looked like any normal plant, but it was probably very special—a blessing of the spirits.