Magician Marygold. (3) 4. Marygold's Condition Is Off.
Marygold's condition was strange. She hadn't seemed entirely normal recently, but this time it was especially off. Lancel gazed out the window at the garden of Baron Jenis's mansion.
"Hoo! Ha! Hoo! Ha!"
Marygold was running around on the grass. It wasn't casual jogging for exercise. Anyone could see she was plainly running on all fours.
Has she turned into a beast again?
It overlapped with the scenery he'd seen endlessly during Marygold's feral days. Lancel couldn't shake the anxiety that she might bolt into the woods again, but fortunately, nothing like that happened. Marygold only acted like that when she relaxed in places out of others' sight. He'd learned it well because she'd play innocent the moment he approached, as if nothing had happened.
"Ahem, so you were in the mansion, Sir Lancel."
"...Yeah, something like that."
"Shall I prepare some tea?"
"Please do."
Marygold brought hibiscus tea without even brushing off the traces of her wild beastly romp still clinging to her clothes. Her face was utterly shameless.
Did getting that Affinity stat really make her give up on being human?
Of course, that was nonsense. No matter how kaleidoscopic Marygold's variations were, she couldn't change her fundamental species. Bloodline was decided at birth—how could it shift? If it could, Marygold would be divine in some sense.
"Mary."
"Yes, Sir Lancel."
"Come here."
"Pardon?"
But the weirdness didn't end there.
"You're a knight, Sir Lancel, but you don't go to parties or anything?"
"Sorry I have nothing better to do. Bring your head over here."
"That's not what I meant... Ah!"
Lancel plucked the leaf Marygold had been wearing dangling from her crown all morning. He'd watched it for half a day, waiting for it to fall, but finally couldn't resist.
Suddenly pulled into Lancel's arms, Marygold fidgeted restlessly.
"S-Sir Lancel? If you do this so suddenly..."
"...? Why won't it come off?"
"Wait, just a moment, you're too close..."
"Hold still."
When he tugged, something popped free with a snap, and the leaf came off.
"Ow!"
Marygold shot him a resentful glare, eyes brimming with tears.
"Ugh, how could you just yank out a lady's hair like that, Sir Lancel?"
"No, it wasn't hair..."
Lancel looked back and forth between the leaf in his hand and Marygold in confusion. What he held was definitely a leaf—fresh and green, like a new sprout.
"See? It came right out of your head."
"Pardon?"
Marygold took the leaf with a puzzled look.
"Does that mean I'm a plant?"
"Is that how it works?"
"Maybe you pulled it out with some hair?"
"...Maybe?"
Up to then, he'd brushed it off as something odd. But it kept happening.
"Ow!"
Observing the sprout he'd plucked again, Lancel spoke up.
"Mary, it looks like grass is growing out of your head."
"No way... Maybe it's from those fruit seeds I ate a while back, growing inside me?"
It was absurd, but Lancel didn't argue. He had no better explanation.
Is her rising mana affinity making her drift further from humanity?
The thought dominated his mind, even though it made no sense.
"Another one's sprouting?"
"Ah, pull it!"
By the time he'd yanked the third sprout from Marygold's head, their expressions had grown serious.
"Sir Lancel, does this mean I can't eat fruit anymore?"
"Don't talk nonsense. It can't be the fruit. Is that what had you looking so glum?"
"...The ones I snuck in the middle of the night last week might've..."
"Seeds that go in your mouth don't sprout from your scalp, so stop with the weird ideas. Fruit late at night isn't good for you anyway—cut back."
Grass was growing from Marygold's body. It wasn't his imagination. It was really growing.
"No helping it."
Lancel grabbed Marygold's shoulders and met her eyes seriously.
"Don't tell anyone. We'll just pluck them whenever they come up. That's the only way."
"Eek!"
"Don't worry. It just stings a bit. If anyone finds out, rumors'll spread you're a human who grows grass—what then? You don't want that either."
"Mm, true..."
"Come here."
"Eek!"
That week, Lancel plucked five leaves from Marygold's head.
What if we let them keep growing without pulling them?
The thought flashed through his mind.
She won't turn into a tree, right?
He shook off the horrifying image.
5. At least, aside from the grass sprouting from her head, no other bizarre symptoms appeared.
"Remember this."
As the only one sharing the secret, Lancel laid down the law firmly.
"Check the mirror every morning and pluck them consistently. Don't wander around with leaves on your head and get caught—nothing good comes from that. Got it?"
"What if I just let them grow... Would it be so bad?"
"I won't stop you. You'll end up as an experiment for some nameless magic society."
"...!"
"...Torture, dissection, dark magic, research material, human experiments, combustion reactions..."
"Every day! I'll pluck them every day!"
Yeah. Just endure a little sting each morning, and there'd be no issue. All that remained was Marygold's increasingly beastly habits.
"Kyao!"
The weird cries echoing every bath time.
"Don't just eat fruit—eat other stuff too."
"...Yes..."
"And hand those fruits on your plate over to Sir Lancel quick. Go on."
"..."
"You little..."
"Here! Here it is!"
...'.
Or sneaking only the dessert fruits at meals and getting called out by Baron Jenis.
"Hyaah!"
-Woof! Woof!
-Wheeeeen!
Chasing dogs, cats, and rats on all fours whenever she had free time on holidays.
"Mary! What a mess your clothes are! If anyone sees, my reputation hits the dirt!"
"S-Sorry!"
"Tch, you immature brat! Go change into clean clothes right now!"
"Yes!"
"Argh, you fool!"
"Keng!"
Or getting a knuckle rap from Baron Jenis for her filthy clothes.
Is this a magician's apprentice?
The good news was she'd started realizing it herself lately. That her actions didn't befit a magician's dignity.
"Mary, honestly, it's a bit unsightly."
"Even you, Sir Lancel...!"
Marygold seemed genuinely shocked by Lancel's frank words. After that, her savage 'beast behaviors' noticeably decreased.
-Woof! Woof!
"...!"
She still whipped her head around at animal sounds now and then, but once she regained her dignity, she snapped back to normal in no time.
What lingered was the unsolved mystery.
Leaves sprouting from her head, instincts like a savage, diet somewhere between human, stag beetle, and herbivore...
Lancel soon grasped the elusive truth.
"It's real."
Marygold. Half-human, half-Ain.
The secret of her birth that never appeared in the game even once.
....
"Sir Lancel, Mary has learned magic."
"Really?"
That morning, Lancel was greeted by a thoroughly astonished Baron Jenis.
"Yes. Come take a look."
Lancel hurried inside the mansion. In the center of the lab sat Marygold, eyes closed. Mana swirled through the air, enveloping her body. Her clothes and hair rippled in the void.
"Mana concentration state. Means she's entered 1st Rank."
The compass in Marygold's hand had spun a full turn. Proof she'd become a 1st Rank magician.
A change in mere weeks.
"Now we can teach her basics step by step—she'll wield them fine. Academy entrance won't be hard. She can even help my research."
Baron Jenis beamed with pride. He couldn't hide his joy at his apprentice's achievement.
"Never expected this level of talent. Fate's a real miracle, Sir Lancel. For Mary, and for you too."
"Miracle..."
Talent beyond human limits. Lancel watched the mana whirl around Marygold, a chill running down his spine.
Archmage. Maybe even possible.
"...Sir Lancel! Master!"
Tears burst from Marygold's eyes as she broke concentration. Tears of emotion.
"Well done! My apprentice!"
Months before the academy entrance exam. Marygold had finally become a magician.
6. That night, Lancel tossed and turned in bed for a long while. For some reason, sleep wouldn't come until dawn. He stared at the unusually bright moon through the wide-open window.
Marygold's bloodline. Ain.
It nagged at him relentlessly. There were countless Ain types—not just one or two. What was hers?
Lancel had spent ages with Marygold, yet knew little about her. By his regression point, five years had passed since her family's total ruin. The traitorous Marygold count family had been eerily wiped clean from records.
No point digging into it.
That was the vague consensus among elder noble houses.
Marygold.
Her unknown past. Secret birth. Her count family's fall and tragedy. And the fallen lady Marygold, left adrift alone...
His thoughts chained together, chasing sleep away.
Clack-!
"...!"
Lancel yanked a blade from beside the bed in an instant. He'd sensed the suspicious shadow at the window and reacted immediately, leaping back as he rose.
No presence at all.
Even with dulled senses, how had he missed someone this close?
Lancel fixed a sharp gaze on the window. A woman sat there. Under the moonlight, her golden hair shimmered almost silver, weaving through the air. Near 170cm tall, her mature curves were outlined in thin, soft silk robes. A single curved horn sprouted from one side of her head like a ram's, surrounded by green leaves and flower petals. It felt less like a horn and more like a well-tended sapling.
No. Perhaps it really was a tree.
-Shh.
The woman raised a finger to her lips with a smile in her eyes. She stepped down from the sill and approached Lancel steadily.
...!
Why? He couldn't block her. An overwhelming presence stiffened him rigid. As instinct urged him back, she wrapped her arms around him.
"Mmph!"
Their lips met. A forced kiss. Lancel's hair stood on end.