The status of Marigold was strange.
Though she hadn't exactly been normal lately, this time she was particularly odd.
Lancel looked out the window at the garden of Baron Zenith's mansion.
"Huff! Ha! Huff! Ha!"
Marigold was running around on the lawn. This wasn't jogging for exercise.
She was clearly running on all fours, plain for anyone to see.
*Has she turned into a beast again?*
It felt like an overlap with scenes he'd grown tired of seeing during Marigold's days as a wild human.
Lancel couldn't shake the anxiety of "What if she runs off into the forest again?" but fortunately, that didn't happen.
Marigold only showed such behavior when she was relaxed in places where others couldn't see her.
Lancel knew this well because whenever he approached, she would pretend nothing had happened.
"Ahem, so you were in the mansion, Sir Lancel."
"...I suppose so."
"Would you like me to prepare some tea?"
"Please do."
Marigold brewed hibiscus tea without even removing the traces of her intense beast-like activity from her clothes. Her face was shameless.
*Did she give up on being human after gaining that friendliness stat?*
Of course, that made no sense.
No matter what variety of kaleidoscopic variations Marigold possessed, she couldn't change her fundamental species value.
How could bloodlines determined at birth change? If that were possible, Marigold would have been a divine being in some sense.
"Miss Mary."
"Yes, Sir Lancel."
"Come over here."
"Pardon?"
But the strangeness didn't end there.
"Sir Lancel, as a knight, don't you join parties and such?"
"Sorry for not being busy enough. Bring your head over here."
"That's not what I meant... Ah!"
Lancel pinched the leaf that Marigold had been dangling from the top of her head since morning.
He had been watching to see when it would fall off for half a day, and finally couldn't stand it anymore.
Marigold, suddenly finding herself in Lancel's arms, began to fidget.
"L-Lancel, sir? If you suddenly do this..."
"...? Why isn't it coming off?"
"Wait, wait, you're too close..."
"Hold still."
When he applied force, the leaf came off with a plucking sound.
"Ouch!"
Marigold, with tears welling in her eyes, gave him a reproachful look.
"Ugh, how could you suddenly pull out a lady's hair, Sir Lancel."
"No, it wasn't hair..."
Lancel looked back and forth between the leaf in his hand and Marigold in confusion.
What he held was definitely a leaf. A fresh, green leaf like a new sprout.
"Look. This was plucked from your head."
"What?"
Marigold took the leaf with puzzled eyes.
"Are you saying I'm a plant?"
"Is that what this means?"
"Maybe you pulled it out along with my hair?"
"...Maybe?"
Until then, he dismissed it as just something strange.
But the same thing happened again later.
"Ouch!"
Carefully examining the new sprout he had plucked again, Lancel spoke.
"Mary, I think grass is actually growing from your head."
"No way... Could it be that fruit seeds I ate recently are growing inside my body?"
It was nonsense, but Lancel didn't bother to refute it.
He had no other explanation.
*Has she been drifting away from humanity since her mana affinity increased?*
That thought dominated his mind.
Despite how impossible it seemed.
"Another one sprouted?"
"Ah, that hurts!"
When they finally plucked the third sprout from Marigold's head, both their expressions grew increasingly serious.
"Sir Lancel, does this mean I can't eat fruit anymore?"
"Don't talk nonsense. It can't be because of fruit. Was that why you looked so gloomy?"
"...What if the ones I secretly ate at dawn last week started growing..."
"Seeds that go in your mouth don't grow from the top of your head, so stop saying weird things. Fruit isn't good for your body late at night, so try to refrain."
Plants were growing from Marigold's body.
It wasn't just imagination.
They were really growing.
"We have no choice."
Lancel grabbed Marigold's shoulders and said with serious eyes.
"Don't tell anyone if possible, and let's just pluck them whenever they appear. That's the only way."
"Eek!"
"Don't worry. It just stings a little. What if people find out and rumors spread about you being a human who grows plants? You wouldn't want that either, right?"
"Hmm, certainly..."
"Come here."
"Hiiiek!"
That week, Lancel plucked five leaves from Marigold's head.
*What would happen if we didn't pluck them and let them keep growing?*
The thought briefly crossed his mind.
*She wouldn't turn into a tree, would she?*
Lancel tried to shake off the terrible imagination.
5.
Fortunately, apart from leaves growing on her head, no additional strange phenomena occurred.
"Remember."
As the only person sharing the secret, Lancel firmly warned Marigold.
"Check in the mirror every morning and pluck them consistently. Nothing good will come from being caught walking around with leaves on your head. Understand?"
"What if I just let them grow... would that be so bad?"
"I won't stop you. You'll just end up being captured as an experimental subject by some unnamed magic society."
"...!"
"...Torture, dissection, dark magic, research material, human experimentation, flame reaction..."
"Every day! I'll pluck them every day!"
Right.
As long as she endured a little sting every morning, there would be no problem.
All that remained was Marigold's somewhat beast-like living habits.
"Kyao!"
Strange noises coming from the bathroom every time she bathed.
"Don't just eat fruit, eat other things too."
"...Yes..."
"And quickly pass the fruit on your plate to Sir Lancel. Hurry."
"..."
"You rascal?"
"I did! I did!"
*...*
Or being scolded by Baron Zenith for picking out only the fruit served as dessert at every meal.
"Hwaaaah!"
-Woof! Woof!
-Meeeeoooow!
Chasing dogs, cats, and mice on all fours whenever she had free time on holidays.
"Mary! What happened to your clothes! If someone sees this, my reputation will hit rock bottom!"
"I-I'm sorry!"
"Ah, you immature child! Go change into clean clothes right now!"
"Yes sir!"
"What a hopeless fool!"
"Kyeng!"
Or getting a knock on the head from Baron Zenith for her completely dirty clothes.
*That's supposed to be a magician's apprentice?*
The good thing was that recently she had begun to realize it herself. That her behavior was completely unbefitting the dignity of a magician.
"Mary, honestly, you look quite unsightly."
"Even you, Sir Lancel...!"
Marigold seemed considerably shocked by Lancel's candid remark.
After that, her barbaric "beast-like behavior" began to noticeably decrease.
-Woof! Woof!
"...!"
She still couldn't help turning her head at animal sounds, but once she started regaining her dignity, it took no time to return to normal.
What remained was an unsolved mystery.
*Leaves sprouting from her head, instincts like a barbarian, and a diet somewhere between human, stag beetle, and herbivore...*
Lancel soon realized the true nature of what had been eluding him.
============
—Growth Event! Marigold's Bloodline (Human-Fae Hybrid) level has increased! Mana affinity, strength, and charm have greatly increased!
============
"So that's it."
Marigold.
A hybrid of human and fae.
A secret of birth that had never appeared in the game.
.
.
.
"Sir Lancel, Mary has learned magic."
"Really?"
That morning, Lancel was greeted by an extremely surprised Baron Zenith.
"Yes. Come and see."
Lancel hurriedly entered the mansion. In the middle of the study, he saw Marigold with her eyes closed.
Mana swirling in the air enveloped her entire body. Her clothes and hair floated in the air.
"She's in a state of mana concentration. It means she's reached the 1st rank."
The compass in Marigold's hand had rotated a full circle. It was proof that she had become a 1st rank magician.
A change that occurred in just a few weeks.
"From now on, if I teach her basic magic step by step, she'll be able to use it sufficiently. She'll easily pass the Academy entrance exam. And she'll be able to help with my research."
Baron Zenith looked overwhelmed. As her teacher, he couldn't hide his excitement at Marigold's achievement.
"I never expected her to show this level of magical talent. Isn't fate truly miraculous, Sir Lancel? Both Mary and you."
"Miraculous..."
Talent beyond human capability.
Lancel felt a shiver down his spine as he watched the mana swirling around Marigold.
Archmage.
Perhaps it might be within reach.
"...Sir Lancel! Master!"
Tears burst from Marigold's eyes as she emerged from her mana concentration. They were tears of joy.
"Well done! My disciple!"
Just months before the Academy entrance exam.
Marigold had finally become a magician.
6.
That night, Lancel tossed and turned in bed for a long time. Somehow, he found it difficult to fall asleep until dawn. He gazed at the unusually bright moon through the wide-open window.
Marigold's bloodline. Fae. It kept bothering him. There wasn't just one or two kinds of fae, but numerous types. What exactly was her lineage?
Lancel had spent a long time with Marigold, but he didn't know much about her.
By the time he regressed, five years had already passed since Marigold's family had completely collapsed.
The Marigold Count's family, branded as traitors, had been strangely thoroughly erased from records. Only the perception that "There's nothing good in knowing about it" circulated among the elderly noble families.
*Marigold.*
Her past, unknown even to herself. The secret of her birth. The downfall and tragedy of House Marigold. And the fallen lady Marigold, left alone to wander...
As his thoughts continued to chain together, sleep eluded him.
Click-!
At that moment.
"...!"
Lancel immediately drew the blade that was near his bed.
He reacted as soon as he noticed a suspicious shadow cast from the window. He rose and quickly stepped back.
*There wasn't even a presence.*
Even if his senses had dulled, to not notice someone this close...
Lancel looked at the window with sharp eyes.
A woman was sitting there. Her golden hair, appearing silver under the moonlight, adorned the air.
A tall stature close to 170cm, a silk robe so thin and soft that every curve of her maturely developed body was revealed. And a single horn that grew from one side of her head, curling like a ram's horn.
Around the elegantly curved horn, blue leaves and flower petals bloomed. It made the horn seem like a well-tended sapling rather than a horn. Or perhaps it really was a tree.
-Shh.
The woman raised her index finger and smiled with her eyes.
She descended from the windowsill and walked steadily toward Lancel.
*...!*
Why?
He felt a presence he couldn't resist.
An extraordinary aura made Lancel freeze stiff.
Just as he was about to instinctively step back, she embraced him with both arms.
"Mmph!"
Their lips met.
A forced kiss. Lancel's hair stood on end.