Kazuki had never seen stone so white.
The **Royal Capital of Viremont**, a shining city of banners, marble, and pride, stood in stark contrast to the plague-ridden alleys of Thornwell. Its cobbled streets sparkled. Its fountains flowed with imported glacial water. The nobles glided through flower-lined courtyards in silks perfumed to mask nothing.
It was, by all accounts, pristine.
And Kazuki *hated it.*
"Looks clean," he muttered, brushing invisible dust off his shoulder, "but smells like denial."
He'd been summoned—*invited*, technically—by **Queen Elanore IV** after word of his sanitation miracles reached the palace. The invitation, delivered on gold-leafed parchment, read more like a challenge than a request:
> *"The Royal House of Viremont formally requests your peculiar services for the preservation of our noble estate. The servants speak of a... persistent odor."*
Kazuki packed three Cubes of Purity, two gallons of concentrated bleachbrew, and a rune-etched mop he'd been saving for a special occasion.
---
From the outside, the **Royal Castle** gleamed like a monument to order.
But inside, it whispered secrets.
The moment Kazuki crossed the threshold, his \[Pathogen Sense] *flared red*.
"...That's not an odor," he said quietly. "That's a biohazard."
---
He followed the scent—under the chandeliers, past the rose-glass windows, beneath the throne room itself.
And there, behind a concealed door in the wine cellar, he found it.
A **sprawling mold colony**, thick as webbing, breathing in the dark. Black-veined and pulsing, it climbed up the walls like veins of some ancient parasite. At its center: a dormant *miasma heart*, a fungal core that pulsed with corrupted mana.
> **Status: Necrotic Mold Entity — "Imperial Rot"**
> *Feeds on pride. Avoids sunlight. Thrives on denial and hidden spaces.*
Servants had ignored the creeping illness for years. Rumors of coughs, strange deaths, "castle sickness." No one had questioned it. Not when the curtains were clean and the floors polished.
Kazuki's lip curled.
"This isn't a castle," he said. "It's a mushroom farm in denial."
---
The fight was brutal.
Kazuki activated all three Cubes of Purity, setting them to *purge mode.* They glowed like divine lanterns, emitting high-frequency cleansing fields. He swept forward with his broom, carving through living mold with arcs of \[Sanitize Slash]. Spores shrieked. Fungal limbs lashed out. The core tried to escape through the floor.
Kazuki gritted his teeth.
"**Steam cycle. Maximum setting.**"
With a flash of light and a *howl of boiling rot*, the miasma heart exploded in a geyser of sterilized mist.
> **Contamination Level: 0% — Area Purified**
> **Castle-wide infection halted. Casualties: 0**
> **Achievement Unlocked: Noble Cleanser**
---
When the royal guards arrived, swords drawn and eyes wide, they found Kazuki leaning on his mop, shirt scorched and hair damp, the basement glistening like a surgical suite.
Queen Elanore herself descended moments later, flanked by armored paladins and coughing lords.
She stopped short at the sight.
"This," she whispered, "was under *my throne room?*"
Kazuki gave a tired nod. "For the record, your wine is fine. But your ventilation system is trying to kill you."
---
Reluctantly, the Queen named him **Sanitary Advisor to the Crown**. He was gifted a royal insignia, castle-wide access, and a steep pile of gold he immediately spent on more enchanted mop heads.
Nobles scoffed at first.
"A janitor in the court?"
"His robes smell like lemon and defiance!"
"Is that... bleach on his boots?"
But the people cheered.
The sick stopped dying. The castle staff no longer wore masks soaked in lavender. And for the first time in a decade, the capital's air smelled like something other than fear and perfume.
---
Kazuki stood on the castle balcony days later, looking out over Viremont. Gerald the Rat sniffed the wind beside him.
He'd done it.
He'd cleaned the capital.
But as he watched the golden banners wave, Kazuki felt it in his bones:
**This was just the surface.**
Behind the shine, deeper rot festered. Nobles with secrets. Sorcerers of pestilence. Whispered rumors of a **Rotborn Heir** in the court.
And far away, in the dripping catacombs of the earth, **Mother Rot began to stir.**