The Mysterious Child: An Adventure Tale Beginning with Numerology

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Author Notes:

  [Today's two updates as well. 1/2

  The second update will be around noon.]

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"Well, well, that little mage girl sure has some incredible talent."

"Yeah! It was amazing, like BOOM! And then KABOOM!"

"Hey, won't you join our party?"

"Mm... um..."

The journey had resumed, with everyone swaying in the shared carriage.

The three members of the "Demon Warding Book" were excited, recalling last night's battle.

Elenora was flustered, being pressed by their leader, the middle-aged swordsman, and the two young male and female mages.

I was sitting a bit away next to Roze, watching the scene unfold.

"Are you okay with not helping your princess?"

"Recruitment is free, and if she's really troubled, she'll come over here. More importantly, Master, where were you all last night?"

In the end, Roze didn't return to the campsite until dawn.

I thought briefly that if Roze had been there, she could have wiped out the Gray Wolves in an instant... but I didn't say anything, knowing this master probably wouldn't have intervened anyway. She would have likely claimed it was training and the result would have been the same.

"I was doing a little research."

"In a place like this?"

"Well, you know."

She didn't seem inclined to explain further.

Well, Roze has transfer techniques, so location probably doesn't matter much to her.

"How was it for you, Ruruk? Did you get a good look at the elf's fighting style?"

"I observed it perfectly. Mererosu-san's spirit techniques were amazing. It seemed like she had incorporated effect-bestowing techniques into the proto-spirits themselves. It looked like a fighting style where she imbued weapons and her body with them—"

"To be precise, it's more like generating effect-bestowing techniques as proto-spirits."

"Mererosu-san!"

Without me noticing, Mererosu had approached and provided her own explanation.

I eagerly shifted my bottom to make room next to me. My lady, I've warmed this floor for you!

Mererosu sat down in the cleared space and smiled at Roze.

"Hello, mysterious mystical arts user."

"...Did I introduce myself as a mystical arts user?"

"Ah, sorry, I'm not trying to trap you or anything."

Mererosu continued smiling despite Roze's unfriendly response, patting my head as she spoke.

Whoa, being a kid has its perks!

"Judging from yesterday's battle performance, I thought Ruruk-kun must have a skilled master. Since Ruruk-kun calls you 'master', I figured you must be his mystical arts teacher. Mystical arts users are rare these days, aren't they?"

"I see. But you're a mystical arts user too, aren't you?"

"Well, I'm an elf. I've lived for about 120 years, but I've only seen a handful of mystical arts users among other races."

So they really are that rare, huh.

Wait, Mererosu is about 120 years old? As expected of a race known for longevity, she looks about 20 but has lived for so long.

...Somehow, it feels like all my acquaintances except family are of indeterminate age.

"More importantly, Ruruk-kun, your mystical arts are amazing. Was that flying slash yesterday an intermediate transfer technique? I couldn't quite understand the principle, and since there was hardly any disturbance in the spirit elements, I couldn't tell at a glance that it was mystical arts."

"'Blade Shift' is an application of copy techniques. It's an original technique that deliberately uses the instability of copying to project the blade to a desired location for a very short time."

"Heh~ An original, no wonder I didn't know it. But you can hit the target in such a short time. And against running Gray Wolves too, you must be incredibly fast at constructing techniques."

"My master's training is Spartan, you see."

I couldn't have achieved that level of precision in just five days on my own.

Mystical arts are like mathematical formulas.

Yesterday, I envisioned the result of "copying" "the blade of the short sword" "that I swung" "to where the Gray Wolf would move to" and incorporated these four effects into the technique. In the case of "Blade Shift," all information except the coordinates is stored in my status as a skill, so in practice, only the coordinate information needs to be recalculated instantly as a technique.

Even so, that recalculation is still quite immature. It wouldn't even graze an opponent that can run faster than a Gray Wolf. Apparently, the time from calculation to activation is also affected by proficiency.

"What other mystical arts can you use?"

"Well, there's also—"

"Ruruk."

"...I'm sorry. It seems I can't say any more."

I was enjoying the conversation with a fellow mystical arts user so much that I got carried away, but Roze shut it down with a single word.

Mererosu gave a wry smile.

"I should be the one apologizing. It's adventurer etiquette not to pry too deeply into other party members' techniques, isn't it?"

"No, no, I was just enjoying the conversation, so please don't worry about it."

"Thank you, Ruruk-kun is so kind."

"Besides, even if it became known, you could take responsibility."

"Eh, responsibility?"

"Yes. You could either become a party member or even marry me if you'd like."

"Haha, Ruruk-kun, you're really funny."

I was brushed off lightly.

Is it because I look nine years old? That's a shame.

After that, we continued with safe conversation topics and slowly enjoyed the journey.

There were no further incidents, and as expected, we arrived at the next town five days later.

□ □ □ □ □

"I've confirmed the quest completion, so here's your adventurer card and reward."

The place we arrived at was more like a village than a town, it was so small.

The population seemed to be around a few hundred. The Adventurers' Guild branch was a box-like building reminiscent of a village police box, with just one guard at the entrance and one elderly woman at the reception.

After putting the silver coins from the quest reward into my pouch, Roze started walking without a word.

Elenora and I followed behind her.

"Are we staying in this town?"

"Of course not. We'll end our shared carriage journey here and head for the border on foot from now on."

We didn't really need the carriage to come here in the first place, but we used it for the convenience of the transport quest. If Roze was serious, we could have moved here in a day.

Well, thanks to that, we were able to interact with Mererosu, so it was rather lucky.

Speaking of Mererosu, her escort duty ended here. She was planning to head for the border on foot from here and invited us to go together, but unfortunately, Roze declined.

With a brief "See you again someday," Mererosu casually continued on her journey ahead of us.

I felt a bit lonely at the abrupt farewell, but for long-lived elves, partings must be an everyday occurrence.

"So, shall we follow the main road?"

"Don't be so naive. We're cutting straight through the forest. It's faster that way, and there are monsters, so we'll level up too."

"...Understood."

Well, I thought it might be something like this.

After that, Roze bought provisions from a stall near the town entrance, and we set off immediately.

At that time, we had no idea that Elenora would encounter such a terrible experience in that forest.