The Romance Fantasy Novel MC is Only Into Me

Marigold’s condition was strange.

She had rarely been normal recently, but this time was especially odd.
Ransell looked out the window at Baron Zenis’s garden.
“Huff! Ha! Huff! Ha!”

Marigold was running across the grass—not jogging for exercise.
Anyone could clearly see she was running on all fours.
‘Has she turned into a beast again?’

It felt like a scene he’d tired of seeing back in her wild “natural” days.
Ransell couldn’t shake the worry, thinking, ‘Is she going to run off into the forest again?’ but luckily, that didn’t happen.
Marigold only showed such behavior when she was relaxed in places where no one could see her.

She would play innocent whenever Ransell approached; he knew this very well.
“Ahem, so you’re at the mansion, Sir Ransell.”
“…Yeah, something like that.”
“Shall I make you some tea?”
“Please.”
Marigold poured hibiscus tea without even removing the evidence of her wild beast-like antics from her clothes. She had a shameless expression.

‘She gained the affinity stat, but has she really given up on being human?’
Of course, that was nonsense.
No matter how many kaleidoscopic variations Marigold had, she couldn’t change her racial value itself.

How could the bloodline she was born with change? If it could, Marigold would be some kind of divine being in a way.
“Mary.”
“Yes, Sir Ransell.”
“Come here.”
“Okay?”
But the strange things didn’t stop there.

“Sir Ransell, don’t you go to parties or anything?”
“Sorry, nothing to do. Bring your head this way.”
“That’s not what I meant… Ah!”
Ransell picked a leaf that had been dangling from the top of Marigold’s head since morning.
He had been waiting half a day to see when it would fall off, and finally lost patience and acted.
Marigold suddenly found herself in Ransell’s arms and became flustered.

“R-Ransell? Doing this all of a sudden…”
“…? Why hasn’t it fallen yet?”
“Wait, wait, it’s too close…”
“Hold still.”
Applying force, a popping sound was heard and the leaf dropped.
“Ouch!”

Marigold blinked back tears and glared at him.
“Geez, how could you suddenly pull out a lady’s hair, Sir Ransell?”
“No, it’s not hair…”
Ransell looked at the leaf in his hand and then at Marigold, bewildered.

What he held was definitely a leaf—a fresh, green shoot that looked like it just sprouted.
“See? This came out of [N O V E L I G H T] your head.”
“Huh?”
Marigold took the leaf with a puzzled look.
“Are you saying I’m a plant?”
“Could that happen?”
“Maybe you pulled out hair and leaf together?”
“…Maybe?”

Until then, he dismissed it as a strange incident.
But the same thing happened again.
“Ouch!”

Ransell examined the new shoot carefully and spoke.
“Mary, it really looks like grass is growing from your head.”
“Could it be the fruit seed I ate recently growing inside me?”
It was nonsense, but Ransell didn’t deny it.

He had no better guess.
‘Is she gradually moving away from being human as her mana affinity rises?’
That thought dominated his mind—even though it couldn’t be true.

“Another one popped up?”
“Ah, that hurts!”
When he finally pulled the third shoot from Marigold’s head, their expressions grew serious.
“Sir Ransell, does this mean I can’t eat fruit anymore?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. It can’t be because of fruit. Were you worried about that and looking gloomy?”
“…The seed I secretly ate early last week grew…”
“Seeds you eat don’t grow from your head, so stop saying weird stuff. Don’t eat fruit late at night; it’s bad for you.”

Grass was growing from Marigold’s body.
It wasn’t imagination.
It was really growing.

“Can’t be helped.”
Ransell grabbed Marigold’s shoulder and said seriously,
“Don’t tell anyone if you can help it, and pull them out every time they grow. That’s the only way.”
“Eek!”
“Don’t worry. It only hurts a little. What if people find out you’re a human with grass growing on your head? You’d hate that, right?”
“Yeah, definitely…”
“Come here.”
“Eek!”

That week, Ransell pulled five leaves from Marigold’s head.
‘What would happen if we left them to grow?’
The thought flashed through his mind briefly.

‘She wouldn’t turn into a tree, right?’
Ransell shook off the terrible imagination.
 
Still, it was fortunate that besides grass growing on her head, no other strange phenomena occurred.

“Remember this.”
Ransell sternly warned Marigold, the only person sharing her secret.
“Check every morning in the mirror and pull them out consistently. It won’t be good if you get caught walking around with leaves on your head. Got it?”
“What if I just let them grow…?”
“I won’t stop you, but you’ll probably get caught as an experimental subject by some unknown magic society.”
“…!”
“…Torture, dissection, dark magic, research material, human experiments, flame reactions…”
“I’ll pull them out every day! Every day!”

Right.
If she could endure a little pain every morning, there’d be no problem.
All that remained was Marigold’s beast-like habits.

“Kyah!”
The strange cries that came every time she bathed.
“Don’t just eat fruit, eat other things too.”
“…Okay…”
“And hurry and give the fruit on your plate to Sir Ransell. Quickly.”
“…”
“You little—”
“I gave it! I gave it!”

‘…’
Getting scolded by Baron Zenis every meal for sneaking fruit desserts.
“Aaargh!”

—Woof! Woof!
—Waaah!
Whenever she had free time on holidays, she chased dogs, cats, and rats on all fours.

“Mary! What’s with those clothes?! If people see this, my reputation will hit the ground!”
“S-Sorry!”
“You childish brat! Go change into clean clothes right now!”
“Yes!”
“You loser!”
“Yip!”
Marigold got flicked on the forehead by Baron Zenis because of her filthy clothes.
‘Is she really a mage’s disciple?’

The fortunate thing was that recently, she herself started realizing her actions didn’t match a mage’s dignity.
“Mary, honestly, it looks a bit disgraceful.”
“Even Sir Ransell…!”
Ransell’s frank comment seemed to shock Marigold quite a bit.

Since then, her wild “beast acts” noticeably decreased.
—Woof! Woof!
“...!”

Though she still quickly turned her head whenever she heard animal sounds, she soon regained her dignity, and it took only moments for her to return to normal.
What remained was an unsolved question.
‘Leaves sprout from her head, instincts are savage, and her appetite is somewhere between a human, a stag beetle, and a herbivore...’

Ransell soon realized the vague reality behind that.
============
—Growth Event! Marigold’s lineage (human-Ain hybrid) level rises! Mana affinity, strength, and charm greatly increase!

============
“This is real.”
Marigold.

A human-Ain hybrid.
Her birth secret never revealed even once in the game.
…

“Sir Ransell, Mary has learned magic.”
“Really?”
That morning, Ransell was greeted by a very surprised Baron Zenis.
“Yes. Come and see.”

Ransell hurried inside the mansion. In the middle of the laboratory lay Marigold with her eyes closed.
Mana swirled around her entire body in the air. Her clothes and hair floated in the air.
“She’s concentrating mana. It means she has entered first rank.”

The compass in Marigold’s hand had completed one rotation. Proof she had become a first-rank mage.
The change happened in just a few weeks.
“From now on, if we teach her basic magic step by step, she should be able to perform it well. She’ll pass the academy exam easily. She’ll even be able to help with my research.”

Baron Zenis was overwhelmed. Still, as her master, he couldn’t hide his joy at Marigold’s achievement.
“I never expected her to show this much magical talent. Fate truly is a miracle, Sir Ransell. Both for Mary and for you.”
“Miracle…”
A talent beyond human.

Ransell felt a chill run down his spine as he watched the mana swirling around Marigold.
A great mage.
Maybe it was worth aiming for.

“…Sir Ransell! Master!”
Tears of joy streamed from Marigold’s eyes as she came out of her mana concentration.
“Well done! My disciple!”

Several months before the academy entrance exam,
Marigold had finally become a mage.
 
That night, Ransell tossed and turned in bed. Somehow it was hard to fall asleep until dawn. He looked out the wide-open window at an unusually bright moon.

Marigold’s lineage—the Ain race—continued to bother him. There were many kinds of Ain races. What exactly was her lineage?
Although Ransell had spent a long time with Marigold, he didn’t really know her.
When he returned in time, five years had already passed since Marigold’s family had fallen into ruin.

The Marigold count family, branded traitors, had been strangely wiped clean from records. The notion “better not to know” circulated quietly among the elderly noble families.
“Marigold.”
Her past unknown even to herself. The secret of her birth. The downfall and tragedy of the Marigold count family. And the lone wandering fallen noble lady Marigold…

As the thoughts piled up, sleep refused to come.
Clack!
At that moment,

“…!”
Ransell suddenly drew the blade by his bed.
He reacted the moment he noticed a suspicious shadow cast by the window.

As soon as he sat up, he quickly stepped back.
‘There was no sign of someone being here.’
Despite his dulled senses, he hadn’t detected the person so close.

Ransell stared sharply at the window.
A woman sat there. Her bright golden hair shimmered silvery in the moonlight.
Nearly 170 cm tall, with a mature, well-developed figure revealed by her thin, soft silk robe. From one side of her head curled a single horn like a ram’s horn.

Around the elegantly curved horn bloomed blue leaves and flower petals. It looked less like a horn and more like a well-tended sapling. Or maybe it really was a tree.
—Shh.
She raised her index finger and smiled with a sly glance.

She stepped down from the window frame and approached Ransell.
‘…!’
For some reason,

Ransell felt an unstoppable force.
Her overwhelming presence made him stiffen.
Instinctively trying to step back, she suddenly hugged him tightly.

“Ugh!”
Their lips met forcibly. Ransell’s hair stood on end.