An Unborn Hero

The [Royal Knight] read the guard contingent's final report. That Kellela had suddenly grown inexplicably trusting toward the unknown creature was a concern, and may have weighed against his decision to quietly and politely get them out of the capital had he been making the decision now.

And 'unknown creature' was still the best he could do. Perusal of several monster encyclopaedias and directed questions to some experts had failed to uncover any species that could join with a human host undetected without using skills. That suggested it was modified in some way, or perhaps completely artificial. Again, that pointed back at third party involvement, and hence would have been a mark against letting her move around unsupervised.

On the other hand, it had continued to exhibit only benign behaviour. It wandered around and looked at stuff. It made little lights. It apparently was listening to Kellela's language lessons, or at least not wandering off and wreaking havoc while she gave them. Each report the guards had sent spoke more warmly of it, as its behaviour convinced them it was friendly.

On balance, he saw no reason to modify his plan. The desire to keep Hayedalf readily available and willing should the kingdom have need of his skills sat on one side of the scales, while the threat posed by an unidentified creature weighed down the other. He'd sent instructions to Karn's Vigil to keep them under surreptitious watch, and the report confirmed he was correct to assume Kellela would put in the work to open communications. There was no need for further action.

There was one point of concern, though. He tapped at the paragraph of the report that described the creature casting [Light]. Why, then, hadn't someone from the ministry of records sent over a report about the [First Spell] achievement? Had they missed it? Never one to leave loose threads in an investigation, he hastily penned a note to check.

Of all the body parts Mystery was currently missing, one she hadn't given much thought to was her bum. As a carriage rattled down the frontier road from Karn's Rest to Karn's Vigil, Kellela and Hayedalf would have paid quite a lot to do something about the pains in theirs.

Passenger carriages generally weren't built for comfort. Comfort cost money, and if the passengers had money, they'd have taken the teleport network. Not to mention the roads on the border weren't the best. If a cargo wagon could run them without the merchandise getting damaged, they were good enough.

"Next rest stop, I'm enchanting this bloody carriage," swore Hayedalf. "I don't care if the driver can't afford it; I'll do it for free. I've lost all feeling below my waist."

"Lucky you," said Kellela, who hadn't.

"Wimps," smirked a slightly older man sitting opposite them, with biceps as thick as Hayedalf's legs and legs as thick as his torso. He was the largest of a group of three, all with heavy luggage and wearing thick travelling cloaks. "Are you sure a couple as soft as you should be heading this way?"

"No," said Kellela, who wasn't.

"Hah. We aren't afraid of a couple of goblins."

"A couple of goblins? Yesterday a pack of wolves thirty strong attacked a farm. That's why we're heading over. The guild's put up a standing quest to thin the population of the forest. Good money to be made."

"One or a hundred makes no difference. Weak monsters are weak."

"Speak for yourself; I'd rather not deal with a hundred of anything. Stamina only goes so far, you know."

"I'm an enchanter. A good ward will keep the chaff out however many there are."

"Fair enough. Well, nice to meet you. I'm Platus, the [Axe Wielder], and this is my lovely wife."

"Melody, the [Fencer]," chimed in the petite woman sitting next to him.

"And this is our daughter, Rose, the [Apprentice Swordsman]. Stop hiding and say hello."

The girl sandwiched between the pair of adventurers pulled back the hood of her cloak, revealing a young teen. "Hello," she greeted quietly, not quite managing to look them in the eyes.

"Nice to meet you all. I'm Hayedalf, the [Master Enchanter]," said Hayedalf, introducing himself and causing the opposite family's eyes to widen.

"Kellela, the [Court Mage]," added Kellela, causing the three to almost topple from their seats.

"Why the heck are people like you in this carriage?!" was what all three of them carefully didn't say, although their expressions made it perfectly clear what they were thinking.

The reason for them being in the carriage, meanwhile, had been training her [Astral Projection] by perching on Kellela's head. Kellela hadn't made any further attempt at communication during the journey, not wanting to appear completely insane to the other passengers, which left Mystery to make her own entertainment. Head-perching was a harder stunt than it sounded, given that Kellela's head wasn't tangible to Mystery's projected soul and was bobbing all over the place thanks to the jerky carriage. She kept accidentally plunging into brain-matter, or bouncing into the air, or on one occasion being tossed out the back of the carriage, forcing her to fly flat out to catch up.

ding
For a riveting circus performance, [Astral Projection] advances to level 14.

She'd failed to follow the conversation, but had at least picked up on the introductions. She knew what Kellela's and Hayedalf's names looked like, and from there had extrapolated the names of the others. She even picked up on Rose; Kellela grew roses in their capital garden, so she'd heard the word during their first language lesson.

The moment she'd removed her hood, though, Mystery had instantly lost all interest in the conversation. Rose had revealed a full head of sky-blue hair, with matching eyes and cute features. The obsessive Mystery was left with only one thought on her mind.

"She is perfect magical girl material! That protagonist-class hair, and her slightly-bashful-yet-brave expression. The whole way she flicked her hood back to reveal herself. She's even a swordsman! Or swordswoman; stupid sexist class names. But she's spoilt my naming scheme already! I mean, roses can be blue, but it's not the first colour people would think of, and the ones in our garden were the traditional red. Would calling her 'demon slaying magical girl Rose Blue' work, or would everyone think that was stupid? Then again, it wouldn't be much of a secret identity if it had her real name in. Actually, I can't think of any variety of flower where that shade of light blue would be my first thought. Ah well. Let's just go with Aster Blue, and if I come up with a better naming scheme later, I can change it. It's not like I'm ever likely to see her again once we get off this carriage."

Mystery shuffled around for a bit, as the implications of that echoed back to her.

"Dammit, I'm never going to see her again! If I let her go now... I mean, this is the first time I've ever been outside the snobby part of that big city, and logically there must be lots of appropriately aged kids around somewhere. And given that the first one I've seen is so perfect, chances are good I'll run into others... Argg, logic has no place here. This is fate, dammit. Fate!"

Mystery continued staring at Rose, giving up on her balancing act and floating up into the air to get a good look at her physique.

"An aster has more petals than a lotus, but they're thinner. They're normally flatter, too, so not naturally skirt shaped. Hmm. Maybe the same sort of petalled skirt would work if the petals were straight rather than curved? Or would that make her look like too much of a cone? And a yellow leotard top? Or would that be too similar to my 'Lotus Pink' design? The team does need a unifying design feature... Gah, I wish I had a whole team assembled right now, so I could design things properly and consistently."

Back in the real world, the adventuring family were still floundering. [Court Mage] wasn't a class one could get directly; it required an appointment to the position. Someone with that class was automatically a noble. A noble was in the carriage with them. How were they supposed to react to that?

"No need to worry about etiquette and all that jazz," said Hayedalf, in an attempt at reassurance. "We had more than enough of that back at the capital. We're just another pair of nobodies headed out to start a new life at the frontier."

Platus stared for a few more moments before bursting into booming laughter. "Well, I take everything back. There's no helping a sore backside if this is your first time riding a public carriage, but you sure ain't soft, giving up a cushy life in the capital to head all the way out here."

Melody, being the thinker of the party, didn't voice her question of why they were riding a carriage rather than teleporting. Unlike Platus, she successfully guessed that leaving wasn't entirely their own choice.

Rose missed the exchange completely, being focused on something far more immediately important. After blinking a few times and rubbing her eyes, confirming what she was looking at was in fact real, she screamed, clawing at her clothes as she tried to rip them off.

"Rose? What's wro... Your clothes are glowing!"

"I can see that! Don't just stand there stating the obvious and help me!"

"Wait," said Kellela, already focusing her mana. "No-one touch her, and Rose, stay still and don't panic. It doesn't seem to be any sort of attack."

She started chanting out a spell of insight, hoping to find out what it actually was, but Rose wasn't great at not panicking. To be fair to her, having the inexplicable glow spread to her skin and cover her hands was pretty good panic material. It even started climbing her neck and touching on her face. Her hair lengthened by a few inches, the dullness caused by the dirt of travelling fading slightly.

Rose grabbed at her seat, the wood splintering in her hands.

And then it all cut out.

"The hell?" asked Hayedalf.

Kellela finished her spell, a wave of mana rolling over the carriage. "Alteration magic, but the magic failed before completing," she concluded. "Could have been a magic item that burnt itself out... Are you carrying anything you wouldn't normally?"

Hayedalf frowned, knowing full well he'd have spotted any items with that sort of enchantment.

"No," confirmed Rose shakily.

"No-one around here casting, either."

"Wait a moment. Before all that..." said Platus, staring at the wooden shelf they'd been sitting on. Then he grabbed it himself and squeezed.

Nothing happened.

He squeezed harder, veins bulging over his wrists, and finally there was a crack. He let go and plucked a few splinters of wood out of his bleeding hand.

"Dear?" asked Melody with concern.

"Rose? Your hand?" asked Platus, ignoring both his wife and his wounds.

Rose held out her uninjured and unblemished hand.

"You're sure that was alteration magic? Not enhancement?" he asked.

"That does appear to be a powerful physical enhancement effect..." agreed Kellela hesitatingly. "But the spell was definitely an alteration one."

"Oh, for goodness' sake," muttered Hayedalf. "You know as well as I do that was your bloody Mystery again. But if you want actual evidence, [Detect Scrying] stopped pinging the moment the effect cut out."

"... Fine. Yes, it was probably that again."

"That? Are you telling me what just happened to my daughter was your fault?" snapped Platus, suddenly forgetting any sort of social propriety.

"It's... complicated," admitted Hayedalf. "Some sort of ghost-like thing is bunking down with Kellela. We have no idea where it came from, but it's intelligent, doesn't speak any language we've tried so far, and has a nasty habit of causing chaos everywhere it goes. And apparently it can do magic now."

"So that's why you were forced out of the capital, then," guessed Melody.

"Well, not forced. Not officially. Anyway, sorry for the chaos."

"I think we'll need slightly more than an apology," said Melody. "What just happened, and is Rose in any danger?"

Of course, Kellela had no idea, making placating the adventuring family a difficult proposition. And the one who could answer the question had indeed left the carriage, as Hayedalf had claimed, but not because she'd run back home to her body. Instead, she was flapping around behind the carriage, being yanked along by her tether.

Casting a spell for which you didn't have sufficient mana was generally considered a poor life choice. The attempted casting of [Magical Girl Transformation] hadn't been entirely intentional, but that didn't change that fact that her two levels of [Increased Attributes] were insufficient to manage it successfully. A normal human mage would have had their concentration disrupted, or, with superhuman focus, would have fainted. Mystery wasn't in any way a 'normal' mage, and had accidentally completely emptied her soul of mana.

That turned out to have deleterious effects on her ability to control her movement, leaving her hanging at the end of her tether, unable to head back to her body.

"This hurts," she groaned. "Stupid spells. Do I really need to be careful not to think too hard about something just in case it happens?"

Thankfully, her mana was recovering quickly. They were already close enough to the demonic forest that levels of background mana had started to rise, and Mystery's soul greedily lapped it up. It would only take a minute or two before she'd absorbed sufficient mana to drag herself back to her embryo to recover properly.

Alas, a lot could happen in a minute or two.

For example, a carriage could drive over a particularly nasty bump, sharply jerking everyone within.

The tether snapped.