The Mysterious Child: An Adventure Tale Beginning with Numerology

I want to die.

I couldn't remember how many times I'd had that thought.

How long had I been alive?

Before I knew it, I had become an immortal body, wandering the world aimlessly.

I only have clear memories from about a thousand years ago, but I know I've been alive for much longer than that. I had a sense and knowledge of living far longer than the history that remains in this world.

I can't even remember if I was originally male or female.

The form that felt most natural was that of a black-haired, black-eyed young girl.

Perhaps this was my form before becoming immortal. But now there's no way to confirm, and I can change it however I like if I want to.

My true form, age, gender, everything was ambiguous. I've spent countless nights fighting the fear that if I let my guard down, even my sense of self and mind might lose their shape.

There's nothing certain.

Even the name Roze was taken from the skill that granted immortality.

"Numerology of the Eight Million: All Creation"

That was the cause of her immortality, her greatest and worst "God-realm skill".

It's a numerology skill that allows one to continue living no matter what state they're in, by being all things.

Because of it, she didn't need food or sleep, lacking the three major biological desires.

Even voluntary changes, as long as she understood the structure, she could become anything. Changing into lightning to attack was her specialty, and whether in the deep sea, vacuum, or inside lava, it made no difference. Even if a star exploded and she was thrown into the void, she could live—no, she couldn't die.

That's why she had always been searching for something that could kill her.

That's how she had lived.

Roze, continually tormented by the pain of having an undying body.

Seeking a way to die but finding no clues, she was starting to become desperate enough to consider destroying this world—it was then.

When she met that strange girl.

"Leave this to me! Go on ahead!"

It was when she was walking aimlessly through a forest.

For Roze, neither deep forests, poisonous mists, nor bottomless swamps—not even monsters—posed a threat. If she wanted to move forward, nothing could stop her.

She wasn't even interested in where she was.

She heard the voice deep in the forest.

There was a party of adventurers there.

A group of four: two swordsmen and two mages. They were battered and wounded, sitting with expressions of despair. They had probably fled from deep in the forest. In their line of sight, a giant snake monster—a Basilisk—was licking its lips.

It should have been a common sight of adventurers challenging an enemy beyond their capabilities and being defeated... if not for the 10-year-old girl brandishing a wooden sword in front of the Basilisk.

"What are you resting for? Leave this! To me!"

The girl was fending off the Basilisk with her wooden sword. The Basilisk looked down at the girl with an amused expression, as if seeing something interesting.

The adventurers, though confused, followed the girl's words and fled, abandoning their weapons. After confirming they had escaped, the girl, for some reason smiling, continued:

"Alright, come on, you snake! Listen well, I'm going to marry my childhood friend when I get back! I decided this would be my last adventure before that! And my grandfather always said, justice never loses! Also, um... that's right, I can't stay in a place like this, I'm going back to my room! Hehehe, hehehehehehe..."

She started laughing in a somewhat creepy way.

The girl, who had just raised a series of what are commonly called death flags, was approaching the Basilisk with a melted smile for some reason. She was even drooling with excitement.

Even the Basilisk seemed perplexed.

"Come on, hurry up, snake! You're going to swallow me whole and slowly dissolve me with your gastric juices, or squeeze me to death, or kill me with your venomous fangs, right? Oh, but wait, come to think of it, poison and petrification don't work on me. I have a skill that nullifies status effects, so keep that in mind and do your best! Come on! Hurry up and come here!"

The girl threw away her wooden sword and spread her arms wide.

Needless to say, her expression was one of ecstasy.

The Basilisk's face twisted, and it quickly turned its back and returned to the depths of the forest. Its instincts probably warned it not to get involved with this girl. A perfectly reasonable decision.

"Ah, wait! Why are you running away? Look, I'm delicious prey!"

This was the meeting between Roze and the girl who would later be called the Hero, a complete pervert.

At just 10 years old, she was already level 40, had over 30 skills, and possessed innate toughness and an indomitable spirit—though whether that could be called indomitable is questionable. Roze couldn't just leave her alone.

The Mystic King Roze, who wanted to die, decided to stop looking for a way to die for a while and instead raise this girl.

There was a feeling that something might change by taking care of this girl whose balance of abilities and personality was extremely precarious.

In conclusion, that was correct.

Roze lived with the girl for five years until she awakened as a hero and defeated the Demon King. Just five years out of the thousand years she could remember. That was all it was, but it was the most fulfilling time.

The hero defeated the Demon King as Roze's disciple and saved the world.

But in truth, Roze was the one saved by having a disciple.

Loneliness is not something that can never be filled.

That's what she was taught.

However, one day, that hero disappeared. While traveling the continent in search of powerful opponents, she vanished without a trace.

Of course, Roze searched for her, but couldn't find any clues.

The king, once again embracing loneliness, still began to look forward.

From now on, she would take on disciples.

She would find people she could truly love, like that girl, teach them, and raise them.

As time passes, when her current memories fade, she will truly become lonely again.

Before that happens, she would find someone like her again.

Thinking this, she continued to take on disciples.

That became Roze's purpose for living.

For hundreds of years after that, she found promising individuals and made them her disciples, raising them.

But she couldn't meet anyone she could love as much as that girl. Moreover, for the immortal Roze, no matter how long-lived the race of her disciple, she was constantly faced with the truth that the disciple would die first.

Gradually, the curse of loneliness began to entangle Roze's feet once again.

She spent her days taking on disciples over and over, imparting knowledge.

Recently, she taught botany to an elf boy who loved literature.

She taught pharmacology to a half-elf girl who loved fortune-telling.

She taught magic to a human adventurer girl.

It was then that she met them.

A sheep-folk girl with magical aptitude several heads above anyone she had met before.

And a boy with mystical arts talent that surpassed even her own.

Roze felt relieved.

That new emotions had sprouted while she still had memories of the hero girl from long ago.

That boy was strangely mature, but also somewhat childish and twisted, a little rascal.

He was smart but precarious, and she couldn't help but take care of him. He loved stories so much that once he started reading a book, he would become absorbed without even drinking water. His bad habit of getting excited about legends and myths overlapped a bit with that hero child.

...Ah, this is fun.

Roze truly felt this way while spending time with him.

He would eventually die before her.

So at least until then, she wanted to protect him. Such selfish feelings would surely be a bother, so she couldn't show them in her attitude, but she wanted to be at least that much of a support for him.

That's what Roze thought—therefore.

"...Too dangerous..."

It was then that she met her.

A girl who somehow had a similar scent to him.

But a girl carrying something overwhelmingly large.

"Numerology 1"

She had finally found it.

The seed of the only skill that could kill Roze.

That potential which was said to be able to kill even gods, which she had once sought.

If the order of meeting had been different, she would have surely begged to be killed.

But it was too late now.

Roze had already wished.

Rather than erasing herself along with her loneliness, she wanted to protect the world where he existed.

That's why Roze was wary of her.

Swearing to carefully nurture her so that her skill wouldn't tilt towards the negative.

"But if... if she ever truly hates the world..."

Roze made a silent vow.

It was a vow she could never tell him.

"I will save the world—save him, even if it means killing her."

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Author Notes:

  [～Afterword Tips: Skill Evolution Edition～

○Basic Skill Information Review

There are 5 types of skills:

• Common Skills (e.g., "Calm and Collected," "Intimidation," etc.)

• Race Skills (e.g., healing types, attribute bestowal types, physical enhancement types, etc. Some individuals have multiple)

• Magic Skills (e.g., "Healing Breath," etc.)

• Mystic Art Skills (e.g., "Relative Transfer," "Blade Shift," etc.)

• Unique Skills (e.g., "Universal Growth," etc.)

Each skill has {Activation Type} and {Automatic Type}, and if it has both, it's denoted as {Automatic Type}.

As a premise, both {Activation Type} and {Automatic Type} skills are basically self-contained.

However, multiple skills can sometimes integrate to become higher-level skills. (e.g., "Alchemy," etc.)

○{Activation Type} Skills, {Automatic Type} Skills

• {Activation Type} skills can be used freely with practice and may be used unconsciously.

• {Automatic Type} skills basically activate automatically, and even if unconscious, an activation notification may appear, making the user aware. Often, there's no activation notification if the user is unaware or lacks visual leeway.

○Evolution, Regression, and Negativization of Numerology Skills

Numerology skills are not self-contained and may grow or regress along with their owner.

Ruruk thinks of it as something like a skill tree, but it's not something where you can choose the evolution path yourself. It depends entirely on the owner's heart and environment, and there aren't that many branching paths.

There are three directions of change for numerology skills: evolution, which is an upgrade to a higher-level skill; regression, which is a downgrade to a lower-level skill; and negativization, where the nature changes to the opposite direction.

The reason Roze is wary of Saaya's "Numerology 1" is because of this negativization.

Actual examples of skill changes are planned to be described at the end of the Heart Chapter.]