Paint

The hero crossed his arms and tilted his head, smug grin still lingering.

“It’s not money,” he said, almost purring. “It’s a mushroom.”

Kael blinked. “A… mushroom?”

“Not just any mushroom,” the hero added, lifting a finger. “It’s green and purple, grows in the forest just outside the city. Very rare. Very specific. I was promised one as payment, and I will not leave without it.”

Lian groaned inwardly. Mira furrowed her brow.

Kael, still determined, gave a sharp nod. “Fine. We’ll go get it.”

Lian was already turning away. “No. We won’t.”

Kael looked at him in disbelief. “What?”

“Why are we even doing this?” he asked. “This whole thing is stupid. This isn’t our fight.”

“But we got involved.”

“No. You got involved.”

Kael’s mouth opened, but before she could retort, Mira stepped gently between them.

“We don’t have to argue about this,” she said softly. Then, she turned to Lian with a small smile. “Look… I think we should help. Just this once. Even if it’s annoying. Even if it’s unfair. I just—” she hesitated, “I don’t want to walk away like nothing happened.”

Her voice wasn’t pushy, but it carried a quiet strength that Lian hadn’t quite gotten used to yet. He sighed and rubbed his temples.

“Fine,” he muttered. “Let’s go find the magic mushroom.”

The forest outside the city was dense and humid, the kind of place where every step felt like wading into a deeper maze of green. Vines curled around thick trunks, and the canopy filtered sunlight into soft, shifting beams. Birds chirped in bursts, and the ground was damp with moss and fallen leaves.

They had no plan.

“We just… look for something green and purple, right?” Kael asked, kneeling by a patch of ordinary mushrooms. “These are all brown. Lame.”

“We don’t even know what kind of size it is,” Mira added, carefully stepping over a root. “Or the shape.”

“Or if it even exists,” Lian muttered under his breath.

They walked in zigzags for hours. Checked fallen logs, underbrush, tree roots. Nothing. As time passed, the heat and frustration began to build between them like rising steam.

Kael wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. “This is useless.”

“Yeah, well, welcome to doing things without a plan,” Lian snapped.

Kael turned sharply. “Excuse me?”

“You’re the one who jumped into that conversation like a self-proclaimed savior. Now we’re wasting our entire day for a mushroom that may or may not even exist.”

Kael folded her arms. “You know what’s funny? Just earlier, you were whining about how messed up the hero system is, how it crushes regular people, and now you can’t even be bothered to help one.”

“Because it’s not that simple!” Lian shot back. “We don’t have money. We barely get by. You want to save every villager who gets mistreated? Go ahead. But reality doesn’t care about your big heart. The faster you realize that, the better.”

Kael’s fists clenched, but she didn’t say anything. The silence after that felt sharp and uncomfortable.

Mira stepped between them again, her face serious. “Enough.”

They both turned toward her, breathing hard.

“We’re all tired,” she said. “We’ve been wandering in circles. Let’s do this smarter.”

She pulled out a piece of parchment from her bag, scribbled quickly, and drew a rough outline of the forest paths. Then she marked three wide sections.

“Here,” she said. “We split up. Each of us takes a section. If none of us finds it, at least we’ll know we didn’t waste time covering the same spots.”

Kael hesitated, then nodded. “Fine.”

Lian said nothing but took the map section she handed him and walked off.

By the time the sun dipped lower in the sky, their clothes were dirt-streaked, their legs scratched by thorns, and their spirits deflated.

The trio met again near a mossy boulder, each of them clearly empty-handed.

“Nothing?” Kael asked.

Lian shook his head. “Not even a hint.”

“Same here,” Mira said, sitting on a rock with a sigh.

Kael dropped to the ground, pulling off her gloves. “Do you think someone already picked it?”

“Could be,” Lian said. “Or maybe it only grows in a certain season, or after rain, or under specific trees. Or maybe it doesn’t exist at all and the guy was just screwing with us.”

Kael stared at the leaves above. “So we go back empty-handed?”

They all fell silent.

“…No,” Mira said finally. “The villager would get hurt. And that hero doesn’t seem like the type to let it go.”

Kael slowly sat up. “Wait. I have an idea.”

Lian narrowed his eyes. “Oh no.”

She rummaged in her pouch, pulled out two bottles of paint.

“…Why do you carry paint?”

“Does it matter?” Kael asked brightly.

A few minutes later, they had taken an ordinary round mushroom with a smooth cap, and Kael had painted it in shades of unnatural green and violet. The result was… convincing enough. If you squinted.

Lian stared at the finished result with a blank expression. “I can’t believe this.”

Kael grinned. “Hey, it’s creative problem-solving.”

“It’s fraud.”

“It’s art.”

Mira gave a small laugh, the first since the fight. “It’s also our only option.”

They all looked at the fake mushroom.

“…Let’s just get this over with,” Lian said.

The hero was still lounging in the square when they returned, tossing a small stone into the air and catching it lazily.

Kael stepped forward and held out the colorful mushroom like a prize.

“Here. Your mushroom.”

The hero raised an eyebrow, stood, and walked over. He took it in his hand, inspected it, then looked at the trio.

Then, he laughed.

It wasn’t a short laugh either. He doubled over, clutching his stomach, full of booming amusement.

“You—ha! You actually brought me something? That’s incredible!”

The three stared at him.

“What… do you mean?” Mira asked slowly.

The hero wiped a tear from his eye. “There is no mushroom. I made it up. Just wanted to see how far you’d go.”

Lian blinked. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope. Made it up on the spot. What kind of idiot thinks there’s a green-and-purple mushroom? Come on.”

Kael stiffened. “So… this was all a joke?”

“Not a joke,” the hero said, still grinning. “A lesson. So you don’t go sticking your noses where they don’t belong next time.”

Mira’s eyes darkened. “You… humiliated us.”

“And I could’ve done worse,” the hero said, suddenly serious. His smile faded, and his voice dropped a tone. “This time it was fun. Next time, it won’t be. Trust me. You do not want to cross the wrong kind of hero.”

There was a long silence.

Kael opened her mouth to say something, but Lian lightly tapped her shoulder.

“Not worth it,” he said quietly.

They all nodded slowly and walked away, leaving the fake mushroom in the hero’s hand.

As they disappeared into the city crowd, Kael muttered, “Next time, I’m charging for painted mushrooms.”