Magician Marigold

4.

Marigold’s condition is strange.

It feels like she hasn’t been completely normal lately, but this time it’s especially odd.

Lancel looked out the window at the garden of Baron Jenis’s mansion.

“Huff! Hah! Huff! Hah!”

Marigold was running around on the lawn. It wasn’t a jog for exercise.

Anyone could clearly see that she was running on all fours.

‘Has she turned into an animal again?’

It felt like a scene he had seen countless times during her days as the wild Marigold was overlapping.

Lancel couldn’t shake the anxiety that she might run off into the forest again, but thankfully, that didn’t happen.

Marigold only behaved like that when she was relaxing in a place where others couldn’t see her.

Lancel knew this very well because she would pretend nothing had happened when he approached.

“Ahem, you were in the mansion, Sir Lancel.”

“…Well, yeah.”

“Shall I make you some tea?”

“Please.”

Marigold brewed hibiscus tea without even removing the traces of her intense animalistic behavior from her clothes. She had a brazen look on her face.

‘Did she give up on being human after gaining Mana Affinity stats?’

Of course, that was nonsense.

No matter how versatile Marigold possessed, she couldn’t change racial traits value itself.

How could the bloodline determined from birth change? If that were possible, Marigold would be a divine being in some sense.

“Miss Mary.”

“Yes, Sir Lancel.”

“Come over here.”

“Yes?”

But the strangeness didn’t end there.

“Sir Lancel, you’re a knight, but don’t you go to parties or anything?”

“Sorry I don’t have anything better to do. Bring your head over here.”

“That’s not what I meant… Ah!”

Lancel picked off the leaf that Marigold had been dangling from the top of her head since morning with his fingers.

He had been watching to see when it would fall for half a day before finally giving in and taking action.

Marigold, who had suddenly ended up in Lancel’s arms, began to fidget.

“S-Sir Lancel? If you do this suddenly…”

“…? Why isn’t it falling off?”

“Wait, just a moment, you’re too close…”

“Hold still.”

With a bit of force, there was a popping sound as something was pulled out, and the leaf fell.

“Ouch!”

Marigold, with tears welling up in her eyes, sent him a resentful look.

“Ugh, how could you suddenly pull a lady’s hair, Sir Lancel?”

“No, it’s not hair…”

Lancel looked back and forth between the leaf in his hand and Marigold, flustered.

What he held in his hand was definitely a leaf. A vibrant, fresh leaf, like a newly sprouted bud.

“Look. This was pulled from your head, this.”

“Yes?”

Marigold took the leaf with a puzzled look.

“Are you saying I’m a plant?”

“Is that how it works?”

“Maybe you pulled it out with my hair?”

“…Maybe?”

Until then, they dismissed it as a strange occurrence.

But the same thing happened again.

“Ouch!”

Lancel, carefully observing the newly sprouted bud he had pulled out again, opened his mouth.

“Mary, it seems like grass is growing out of your head.”

“Could it be… the fruit seeds I ate a while ago are growing in my body?”

It was nonsense, but Lancel didn’t particularly refute it.

Because he couldn’t think of anything else.

‘Is she gradually deviating from being human as her Mana Affinity increases?’

That was the only thought that dominated his mind.

Even though it shouldn’t have been.

“Another one sprouted?”

“Ow, that hurts!”

When they finally pulled the third sprout from Marigold’s head, their expressions became increasingly serious.

“Sir Lancel, does this mean I can’t eat fruit anymore?”

“Don’t talk nonsense. It can’t be because of the fruit. Is that why you looked so gloomy?”

“…Did the one I couldn’t resist eating secretly last week grow out…”

“Seeds that go into your mouth don’t grow out of the top of your head, so stop saying strange things. Eating fruit late at night isn’t good for you, so refrain from it.”

Grass is growing out of Marigold’s body.

It wasn’t just a feeling.

It was really growing.

“I guess there’s no choice.”

Lancel grabbed Marigold’s shoulders and said with a serious look.

“Try not to tell anyone and pull them out whenever they appear. That’s the only way.”

“Eek!”

“Don’t worry. It’ll only sting for a moment. What if you get caught and people start calling you the human with grass growing out of her head? You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

“Hmm, that’s true…”

“Come here.”

“Hiii!”

That week, Lancel pulled five leaves from Marigold’s head.

‘What would happen if I didn’t pull them out and let them keep growing?’

The thought briefly crossed his mind.

‘It wouldn’t turn into a tree, would it?’

Lancel desperately tried to shake off the terrible imagination.

5.

Fortunately, the only other strange phenomenon was the grass leaves growing on her head.

“Remember,”

Lancel, as the only person sharing the secret, firmly warned Marigold.

“Look in the mirror every morning and check, and keep pulling them out. There’s no point in walking around with grass leaves on your head and getting caught. Understand?”

“If I just let them grow… would that be bad?”

“I won’t stop you. But you’ll end up being captured as a test subject by some unknown magic society.”

“…!”

“…Torture, dissection, Black Magic, research material, human experimentation, flame reaction…”

“Every day! I’ll pull them out every day!”

Yes.

As long as she endured a slight sting every morning, there would be no problem.

The only thing left was Marigold’s lifestyle, which had become a bit animalistic.

“Kyao!”

Strange screams that could be heard every time she took a bath.

“Don’t just eat fruit, eat other things too.”

“……Yes……”

“And quickly hand over the fruit on your plate to Lord Lancel. Now.”

“……”

“What is it?”

“I gave it to you! I gave it to you!”

‘……’

Or being pointed out by Baron Jenis for only picking out the fruit prepared for dessert at every meal.

“Hwaaaaat!”

-Woof! Woof!

-Weeeeeong!

Or chasing after dogs, cats, and rats on all fours whenever she had free time on holidays.

“Mary! What’s with your clothes! People will think my reputation is falling to the ground!”

“S-Sorry!”

“Oh, you’re like a child who hasn’t grown up! Go and change into clean clothes right now!”

“Yes!”

“Oh, you clumsy thing!”

“Keng!”

Or getting a knucklehead from Baron Jenis because of her dirty clothes.

‘Is that thing a Wizard’s disciple?’

The good thing was that she had recently begun to realize it herself. That her current behavior was not at all befitting of a Wizard’s dignity.

“Mary, honestly, it’s a bit unsightly.”

“Even Sir Lancel…!”

Marigold seemed quite shocked by Lancel’s candid remarks.

After that, her barbaric ‘animalistic behavior’ gradually began to decrease noticeably.

-Woof! Woof!

“……!”

She couldn’t help but turn her head sharply at the sound of animals, but once she began to regain her dignity, it was only a matter of time before she returned to normal.

What remained was the unresolved question.

‘Leaves are sprouting from her head, her instincts are like a barbarian, and her diet is somewhere between a human, a stag beetle, and a herbivore…’

Lancel soon realized the substance of what he had been grasping at.

==========

—Growth Event! Marigold’s bloodline (Human-Demi-human hybrid) level has increased! Mana Affinity, Strength, and Charm have greatly increased!

==========

“This is real.”

Marigold.

A hybrid of human and Demi-human.

It was a secret of birth that had never appeared in the game.

.

.

.

“Lord Lancel, Mary has learned Magic.”

“Really?”

That morning, Lancel was greeted by a very surprised Baron Jenis.

“Yes. Come and see.”

Lancel hurriedly entered the mansion. Marigold, with her eyes closed, was standing still in the middle of the laboratory.

Magic Power swirling in the air was enveloping her entire body. The hem of her clothes and her hair were swaying in the air.

“She’s in a magic concentration state. It means she has entered First Rank.”

The compass in Marigold’s hand had rotated once. It was proof that she had become a First Rank Wizard.

It was a change that had appeared in just a few weeks.

“From now on, if we gradually teach her Basic Magic, she will be able to use it sufficiently. She will be able to pass the academy without difficulty. It will also help my research.”

Baron Jenis looked overwhelmed. Still, as her teacher, he couldn’t help but be moved by Marigold’s achievements.

“I didn’t expect her to show this much magical talent. Fate is truly a miracle, Lord Lancel. Both Mary and you.”

“A miracle…”

A talent that surpassed that of humans.

Lancel felt a tingling sensation down his spine as he looked at the Magic Power swirling around Marigold.

Archmage.

Perhaps it was worth aiming for.

“…Sir Lancel! Master!”

Tears burst from Marigold’s eyes as she came out of magic concentration. Tears of emotion.

“Well done! My disciple!”

A few months before the academy entrance exam.

Marigold had finally become a Wizard.

6.

That day, Lancel tossed and turned in bed for a long time. For some reason, it was difficult to go to bed until dawn. He looked out the wide-open window at the unusually bright moon.

Marigold’s bloodline. Demi-human. It kept bothering him. There were not just one or two Demi-humans, but many different kinds. What exactly was her bloodline?

Lancel had been with Marigold for a long time, but he didn’t know much about her.

By the time he regressed, five years had already passed since Marigold’s family had collapsed.

The Marigold County family, which had been branded with the stigma of a traitorous family, had been erased from the records as cleanly as possible. Only the perception that ‘it’s better not to know’ floated among the older aristocratic families.

‘Marigold.’

Her past that she herself didn’t know. The secret of her birth. The downfall and tragedy of the Marigold County family. And Marigold, the fallen Miss who was left alone to wander…

As his thoughts spiraled, he couldn’t fall asleep.

Click-!

At that moment.

“……!”

Lancel instantly drew the blade that was near his bed.

He reacted as soon as he realized that a suspicious shadow was cast in the window. He retreated as soon as he got up.

‘There was no sign of anyone.’

Even if his senses had dulled, how could he not have noticed someone so close?

Lancel looked at the window with sharp eyes.

A woman was sitting there. Her bright golden hair, which looked silver under the moonlight, embroidered the air.

A tall height of nearly 170cm, a robe made of thin and soft silk that revealed every curve of her maturely developed body. From one side of her head, a single horn grew out like a ram’s horn.

Blue leaves and petals bloomed around the gracefully curved horn. It made it feel like it wasn’t a horn, but a well-tended sapling. No. Maybe it really was a tree.

-Shh.

The woman smiled with her eyes as she raised her index finger.

She came down from the window frame and walked towards Lancel.

‘……!’

Why was that?

He felt an energy that he couldn’t stop.

An extraordinary presence made Lancel stiffen.

The moment he instinctively tried to step back, she wrapped her arms around Lancel.

“Mmph!”

Their lips met.

A forced kiss. Lancel’s hair stood on end.