The Sleeping Beauty (1)
"The people who went logging have collapsed."
"What?"
"It seems they ate poisonous mushrooms. There are traces left behind."
Even as she delivered the news, Kalisa was still smiling. I knew her sense of humor was a bit different from everyone else’s, but was someone collapsing from eating poisonous mushrooms really something to laugh about?
"Is that funny?"
Aiden, completely dumbfounded, glared at her and demanded a further explanation.
"Ah, they are poisonous mushrooms, but they aren't life-threatening."
"...Huh?"
"If you really want to be precise, it's a bit ambiguous to even call them poisonous."
"Speak so I can understand."
"They are called Nightmare Mushrooms."
"Ah, those?"
Jamie immediately acted like he knew what she was talking about.
"Nightmare Mushrooms? What are those?"
"There’s this thing that grows a lot in the coniferous forest zones. It looks like a yellow egg, and I heard they taste pretty good when grilled. Well, nobody eats them anymore, though."
"I've never heard of them."
"Are they not common in other regions?"
Roland, who wasn't from this area, seemed to have no clue. Judging by this, it seemed to be a species native to the North.
"I get that they aren't poisonous. But didn't you just say people collapsed?"
That didn't add up. A mushroom without poison, a mushroom that was ambiguous to even call poisonous. Yet, people had collapsed.
"Did they eat the Nightmare Mushrooms?"
"Yes. There are traces of them having been grilled and eaten."
"Why the hell would they eat that? They must be having a group nap. Ugh."
"?"
Jamie answered Aiden's question for him.
"Ah, Administrative Officer. That Nightmare Mushroom thing, it doesn't actually cause any physical problems. It just forces you into a deep sleep."
"A deep sleep?"
"Yes. Once you eat it, you fall fast asleep within minutes. There are almost no exceptions, no matter how healthy the adult is."
"...Is it like a sleeping pill?"
"Similar. But much more powerful."
"If it's powerful, how powerful are we talking?"
Aiden, having relaxed after hearing that the side effect was just making one sleep, immediately showed curiosity. He thought to himself that if making someone get a good night's sleep was a side effect, it shouldn't be called a side effect, but an efficacy. As someone who was always sleep-deprived, he couldn't help but be interested.
"It is not an item for you to be curious about, Administrative Officer."
"Why? If it helps you sleep well, isn't that a good thing?"
"If that were all there was to it, why wouldn't people eat them?"
"So there's another problem."
Jamie nodded.
"Do you know why the Nightmare Mushroom got that name?"
"I wouldn't know. Do you have nightmares?"
"In a way, yes. Though the person who eats it doesn't."
What on earth was this now?
"Then, what, does someone else have the nightmares for them?"
"People who eat those mushrooms have no guarantee of when they will wake up."
"What?"
"It varies from person to person, but the time it takes to wake up is unpredictable. Some wake up in thirty minutes, others in half a day. If you're unlucky, it could be ten days, and according to records, there are people who haven't woken up for over a month."
"......."
"In the end, the name was given because the people watching the ones who fell asleep are the ones having the nightmare."
Aiden gulped at the follow-up explanation. The thought of 'Should I get one and try it?' vanished instantly.
'If I fall asleep for a month, who's going to do the work?'
Just thinking about it was a nightmare in itself. Whoever named it, they certainly hit the nail on the head.
"Furthermore, the more important thing is the addictiveness."
"Oh. Is it strong?"
"You don't get addicted after one time, but they say the withdrawal symptoms are quite severe if you consume it multiple times."
"If you mean withdrawal symptoms—."
"They say you can't sleep without the mushrooms."
That was why the Northerners removed Nightmare Mushrooms wherever they saw them. Even if food was scarce in the North, they couldn't just eat such things to fill their bellies.
"Then this is a pretty serious matter, so why were you laughing?"
"There is no need to pity those who tried to smuggle them, is there?"
Kalisa’s cold words.
"The ones who fell into a deep sleep after eating the Nightmare Mushrooms are all laborers brought by the timber merchants from Lontes."
"They attempted to smuggle them?"
"To be precise, it seems they were secretly exporting the Nightmare Mushrooms."
Aiden immediately understood how the situation had unfolded.
"So, the higher-ups ordered them to secretly harvest the mushrooms, and the laborers snuck some away to grill and eat."
"Exactly."
He could clearly picture the scene: them giggling, saying, "Since the big shots are looking for them, let's have a taste ourselves, not even knowing what they are."
"First, send them to Lapisha Japa's clinic. Even if we want to get testimony about the attempted smuggling, they need to wake up first."
"About that, we haven't secured them."
Kalisa took over.
"The Lontes side hurriedly took the collapsed laborers and left. It seems they wanted to hide the fact that the mushrooms were being siphoned off."
"It’s now certain that the reason they obtained the mushrooms isn't for anything good."
"They are likely planning to use them on the Viscount of Lontes, aren't they?"
"Is the situation that bad? To the point of resorting to drugs."
"According to information that came in recently, the balance between the two factions seems to be breaking. It hasn't been revealed to the public yet, but it seems the Viscount's power has been steadily growing from beneath the surface."
"So the 2nd Prince, or the Mages, have started supporting them."
This isn't good.
Aiden stroked his chin. A simple accident had instantly turned into a top-secret Northern matter. Jamie and Roland closed the windows and doors, and Aiden ordered Felix to ensure no one could enter.
"Maintaining the balance until at least the harvest season is advantageous for us, right?"
"That is correct. Since the planting season has effectively collapsed, we had expected that we could easily enter Lontes if we waited until autumn, but—."
"If the Viscount gains the upper hand before then, it’s a different story."
"Yes. We would also have to completely revise the plan to incite an uprising among the Lontes territory residents."
"What about the financial pressure?"
"The Viscount of Lontes won't leave his vassals who turned against him alone, so if that happens, it might become difficult to pressure the vassal group based on the contracts."
"Tsk."
Aiden’s brow furrowed deeply.
"In the end, it means we have to stop the Viscount's power from growing."
"Fortunately, the mushrooms have crossed over, so let's wait and see."
Jamie shrugged his shoulders, but Aiden shook his head.
"We can't rely on luck."
Aiden, who already considered Lontes his own, didn't want his plans to go awry.
"That mushroom, is it in season right now?"
"Pardon?"
"I'm asking if the plan will proceed properly with those idiots who can't even manage their laborers doing petty smuggling. Since the alliance is unreliable, we should help them out from our side."
Let's see.
How do I make this a trend?
"—And so, the knight who had been spending sleepless nights drank the mushroom soup and was finally able to get a good night's sleep."
"Wow—! Mister, Mister! Then did the knight become a Sword Master?"
"What do you think?"
"I think he became a Sword Master! The fairy told him that if he slept soundly and had happy dreams, he could escape the heart-demon."
"That's right. He did. The knight must have definitely become a Sword Master."
"Whoa!"
In a back alley of a village where the Lontes castle was within reach. Village kids gathered around a bard wearing a gray, shabby robe, their eyes sparkling.
A strange bard who sang songs and told stories without asking for money. The stories that came out of his mouth were more fantastic than any story the local kids had ever heard.
"I want to eat mushroom soup!"
"Me too."
"Are you stupid? That’s just something from a story. Where would something like that exist in the world?"
"Is that so?"
As the children argued over the magical mushroom soup from the story that made the knight who was trapped by the heart-demon into a Sword Master and gave him happy dreams, the bard added a word as if he had been waiting for this moment.
"Actually, I heard it does exist."
"Yes?"
"Is that really true?"
"It’s a mushroom that grows deep in the mountains of the North, and they say the Northerners hide it and only eat it themselves."
"Eh, liar."
"Think about it. Northerners are strong, right?"
"Yes."
"They’re tall and have big bodies, too, right?"
"That’s true, isn't it?"
The image of the Northern laborers, who had started to be seen frequently in Lontes recently, flashed through the children's minds. While the Lord and the high-ranking people who had turned against the Lord were growling at each other, people and goods entering the territory were being thoroughly inspected, but even so, essential items had to be exchanged. Because of this, numerous Northerners who had contracted with the individual merchant guilds of the vassals were coming and going through Lontes as if it were their own home under the pretext of 'normal trade'.
"You've heard that saying, right? That people need to sleep well to grow tall."
"Uh-. Is that so?"
"I've heard that! My mom says that all the time. That you have to sleep a lot to grow tall."
"Oh, then did the Northerners grow tall because they slept well thanks to secretly hiding and eating those mushrooms?"
"Well, believe it or not! Hahaha!"
"Eh, what is that!"
The children laughed out loud, saying they had been fooled by the bard's glib talk.
'Did it work?'
The bard's name was Cereban. He was the very source of uncertainty that Aiden had decided to send out. He, who had thought the North would welcome him with open arms, had been taken aback by Aiden's cold demeanor. It was because he had never once thought of someone rejecting him, as much as he believed in his own abilities.
- I will give you a chance. It will probably be a job that suits your aptitude quite well.
Aiden had come to Cereban, who was lying in an inn room, killing time day by day in a state of helplessness. The more he listened to the story in detail, the more Cereban's face bloomed, and by the time the words ended, it was like a rose in full bloom.
That was how Cereban had drifted into Lontes. He had been diligently spreading the fairy-tale-like story he had prepared around the Lontes castle.
How many days had passed? Today, too, while he was telling songs and stories to the children, he felt a secret gaze from behind the dark alley. Cereban instinctively realized.
'Finally, they took the bait.'
He barely managed to suppress the laughter that kept coming, waved at the children, and turned around.
Thud, thud-.
Footsteps that sounded like metal grew louder and louder.
'Let's get ready.'
Whoosh!
As he made up his mind and squeezed his eyes shut, a sack was placed over Cereban's head, just like a well-rehearsed stage play. Dopamine exploded in Cereban's head. As expected, dangerous things were fun.
"Ugh!"
He threw out the reaction the thugs would have wanted.
"Stay quiet. If you don't want to die."
He nodded his head diligently.
Thud-.
He was loaded onto something. The rattling movement suggested it was a cart. Something was covered over Cereban's body, and it smelled of straw. Finally, the cart stopped, and Cereban was dragged down. A strange voice was heard over him as he was thrown down without his mask being removed.
"...Does such a mushroom really exist in the North?"
It was a voice that sounded very exhausted.