CH 312

Bliss! Mia Finally Picks Mushrooms!

Now, let’s go back to the forest…

After having some fun flirting with Abel, Mia found out that even more happiness was on the way.

“O-Oooh my…”

She moved towards the mushroom that had caught her eye in a trance-like way. She slowly reached out her arm, but stopped in the middle of the motion. She felt a sense of unease that she had grown used to. Someone would definitely get in the way again.

The hunter Muzic helped out in Remno. Keithwood had cleverly blocked all of her moves on the deserted island, and in the end, he only let her pick herbs. Even when she was back at home, the head chef told her very clearly not to eat mushrooms.

Now, though… Now! At long last!

Her hand shook as it got closer to the mycological MacGuffin, but when it was just a hair’s breadth away, it froze again.

She turned towards Citrina and thought about the red threat she had once seen. What did you call that thing? Salamandrake, I think? Even touching that thing, it seems, can ruin your day…

She looked at Citrina with doubt, and she looked down at the thing in front of them.

The young girl nodded.

Mia’s face quickly brightened up. She touched the mushroom with her hand.

Oh, so this is how it feels to eat mushrooms… A little bit cold to touch. And rougher than I expected. But it’s just a mushroom!

She carefully picked up her prize from the ground, moved by how important this moment was.

It was a brown thing with rough edges that looked a lot like a rock.

“Well done, Your Highness.” Citrina said, “That’s a brown rock fungus.”

“The brown rock fungus… Is it edible?”

“It’s a bit bitter, but you can eat it.”

Mia felt a wave of feeling come over her.

Aaah… I did it… I finally picked a mushroom that I could eat myself.

After more than a year of stubbornly trying, she finally got to taste the forbidden fruit of mushroom hunting. And it was so great! She was ecstatic when she pulled her first fungus out of the ground and said, “Wonderful! Then let’s start picking!”

She collected cap after cap with the quiet but intense focus of a master craftsman.

Citrina gave her some advice when she brushed aside a patch of yellow leaves and pulled out a blue mushroom.

“Oh, that’s a kind of fungus that looks a lot like the brown rock fungus. It is called blue rock fungus, and it is very tough. If you simmer it for a long time, it should soften up a bit. But you can eat it.”

“Hm, I see. This looks like a blue rock fungus. I read about them in a book,” the self-proclaimed mushroom expert mumbled as she moved on to her next target.

They were lucky to have a real mushroom guide with them.

The path that Citrina had picked out for them turned out to be perfect for the situation. It took them through many different patches of mushrooms.

Mia almost squealed when she saw how many different things were there.

“Look! There’s something different over here!”

The next mushroom she saw was a huge one that was as big as her hat.

“Wow! That’s pretty cool, Your Highness. This big of a demonstone cap is hard to come by. It’s technically edible, but it has a bitter taste and is otherwise pretty bland.”

After that, she ran over to a blue mushroom that was just as big. Citrina came right after him and gave advice with the accuracy and detail of a real veteran.

“And that is a blue demonstone cap. It is related to the demonstone cap and has a bitter taste. Still, it’s possible to eat it if you try hard enough.”

“What a haul!”

Mia was almost walking on air after she had eaten all the mushrooms in the area. But then she had a sudden thought that brought her back to reality.

Hold on a minute… Is it just me, or have I never been given a chance to show what I know?

She thought about what she had done so far that day and realised that she had mostly just run around picking mushrooms. She was supposed to show off the wisdom of the Great Wisdom of the Empire, but that hadn’t happened at all.

She decided that Citrina was to blame because she always spoke before her.

Hm… As a girl of the forest, I know a few things about mushrooms, but it’s not my main job to study them. I guess it makes sense that I would come in second when it comes to pure knowledge…

Even though it wasn’t Citrina’s main job, but…

She went to Citrina so that her pride as a girl of the forest wouldn’t be hurt any more.

“Rina, just so you know, you don’t have to spend the whole day with me. I’m sure the others would also like some advice from a guide as knowledgeable as you.”

“Yes, Your Majesty, I know that.”

Citrina’s sweet smile came out.

And… just kept smiling.

She didn’t try to leave any mushrooms for herself or pick any. She almost looked like she was watching Mia for some reason.

Like an officer.

Since Citrina was the daughter of a noble Tearmoon, it was natural for her to stay with the Tearmoon princess. The problem was that her constant presence threw off the whole situation. It seemed like Mia was a rich little kid on a field trip, and Citrina was her wise guardian who had to keep her from hurting herself and keep her entertained.

Mia thought of herself as a mushroom girl. She didn’t need to be watched by an adult. Her pride would not let her put up with that. Not that Mia really was a mushroom girl.

But anyway…

The thought stopped her from being so excited about finding mushrooms. When she came to, she also realised something else.

Wait one more minute… Is it just me, or do all of the mushrooms I picked look a little bit strange? All of them are a little bit bitter, tasteless, or hard to chew.

In fact, when I looked more closely, I saw that Citrina had used the word “edible” for every single one of her mushrooms.

That wasn’t a good way to talk about food! But no, I can’t be to blame for this. It has to be, because the only mushrooms that grow around here are strange ones. All I can say is that the location is bad.

Just then, she heard the voice of her granddaughter.

Bel held up a mushroom and asked Rina, “How about this one?”

“Well done, Bel. The name for that is caviar fungus. They taste great, especially when cooked in a stew. After just one sip, you’ll want more for days.”

It’s where it is! The place is not good!

Grandmother Mia’s pride was hurt in a terrible way.

Gah! Okay, it looks like I don’t have a choice. Time to go deeper into the forest, where the better ones grow. I’m coming for you, tasty mushrooms!