Chapter 11: The Mysterious Dungeon
"Why did you save me?" Bowsette asked Mario the next morning on their way to breakfast. "I mean, I'm your worst enemy after all."
Pausing, Mario said, "I don't know. Maybe I was acting on impulse."
"Like you were saving Princess Peach instead of a Koopa who just so happens to look like her?" Bowsette frowned.
"You don't look like Peach," Mario claimed. "Your dress is different, for starters."
"But I have the same blonde hair and blue eyes," Bowsette pointed out. "Plus, Kamek mistook me for Princess Peach based on what he heard from Kammy Koopa."
"Okay, I see your point," Mario interjected. "Though I think the reason I saved you in that moment was to correct your 'Stupid Plumber' insult."
"Says the guy who saves the same Princess over and over again without getting much of a reward in turn," Bowsette responded. "Plus, if you had let me fall I would've been out of your hair for good."
Clenching his fist, Mario snapped, "So you saying you wanted to die?"
This made Bowsette stop. "No, I—
"Then why are we arguing about this?" Mario continued. "How is me saving you any different from you saving me? What was up with that?"
"It was…a moment of weakness," Bowsette claimed. "I would've let you fall, but because I was blown away by the fact that you saved me it made me feel like returning the favor. But that doesn't mean we're not enemies anymore."
Mario huffed. "All right, then we'll agree that last night was a moment of weakness on both of our parts and agree not to speak of it again."
Folding her arms, Bowsette nodded. "Fine."
"However, I do find it strange that Princess Peach would have such a dangerous dungeon in her own castle," Mario noted. "Was it one of the ones you made when you took over her castle after she promised to bake me a cake?"
"No, I would've added lava to those pits," Bowsette replied. "And I don't normally use axes. Plus, there was a circular pattern of linear holes in the wall at the end of the dungeon that seemed to imply there was a hidden passage beyond it."
"Linear holes?" Mario looked up at Bowsette's crown for a moment. "Like the points of a crown could fit into them?"
Seeing where Mario was looking, Bowsette clenched her fist. "I tried using my own crown, but apparently the points were too round to fit into the holes. Maybe I needed a crown with sharper points, like Princess Peach's."
"Don't get any ideas about stealing Peach's crown," Mario warned. "Otherwise, I will have to tell her about the mysterious dungeon."
"But if she doesn't know about it, she might be inclined to check it out for herself and possibly get hurt," Bowsette pointed out. "And you wouldn't want that happening to your precious Princess, right?"
Frowning, Mario looked away from Bowsette and the two arrived at the breakfast table where Peach was already sipping tea and Peachette was sampling fruit.
"Good morning," Peach said politely.
"How's your tummy today, Mario?" Peachette asked.
"Better," Mario answered. "I think some Poison Mushroom slices got added to my pizza."
"By who?" Peach asked, and looked at Bowsette. "Did you do it?"
"What?" Bowsette acted surprised. "I'd never do something as lowly as that."
Peach gave Bowsette a dubious stare.
"All right, I did it so I could look for some booze without Mario interfering," Bowsette confessed. "In retrospect, I should've had him escort me."
"Well, I hope your little trip was worth it," Peach frowned as she put her teacup down hard enough to make a clacking sound from the saucer. "Because for the rest of the day, you will be confined to your bedroom under Mario's constant surveillance."
"Really?" Bowsette complained. "It's not like I beat Mario up."
"But you poisoned him, which is a form of injury," Peach said. "And if you remember, our agreement was that if you hurt any of my subjects such as Mario or try to take over the Mushroom Kingdom in any way you're not welcome here."
This stunned Bowsette. "So…you're kicking me out?"
"I haven't decided yet," Peach replied. "But until I do decide, you will stay in your room until further notice. Understand?"
Without speaking, Bowsette took her plate full of donuts and Black Tea set back to her room.
"Are you sure confining her is a good idea?" Peachette said nervously. "If she gets mad, she might destroy her room and harm any Toads that happen to be nearby."
"I'm aware of the risk," Peach claimed. "But I don't think Bowsette would be stupid enough to do something as drastic as that, given her present condition."
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Later, after Bowsette's dinner was brought into her room, Mario decided to prop the chair he rested in while guarding Bowsette against the door handle and head down to the study. He avoided the patrolling Toads by leaping over them and opened the study with a key he swiped from the Toad that watched the study during the day. Inside, he located a book detailing all the dungeons in the Mushroom Kingdom. To his surprise, there was a missing page next to the entry on Peach's Castle Cellar. So Mario found a book on Peach's Castle and found another missing page before checking out the section that had books relating to the Mushroom Kingdom's history. While most of the books were close together, a noticeable gap appeared in the early part of the section.
"Hmm, it seems someone went through great lengths to keep that dungeon Bowsette and I found a secret," Mario speculated. "The missing pages are proof enough, and I bet the book that appears to be gone from this section is also about the dungeon. But the question is: who would do this? Apart from Princess Peach, the only other person who spends a lot of time in the study is Toadette — or Peachette I should say. I'll ask her about it tomorrow, but try to be subtle in case she is the one responsible."
To be continued…