An Unborn Hero

"I think that wipes away the need to invent Grace's engagement..." mumbled the [King], watching as the entire room stared at the nonsensical world notification. To those that spoke the local language, the name was rendered correctly, but the broken age remained.

"Don't be so sure," cautioned the [Royal Knight]. "With her appraisal blocker, they have no means of confirming Rose's name. All they have to go on is the glitched age. I suggest you say something, rather than leaving them to their own devices."

Sure enough, a quiet susurration had spread across the hall, rapidly evolving into murmuring and then desperate conversation. Before long, there would be shouting.

The [King] stood, and his [Royal Presence] rolled across the room. Even Kellela and Rrillandral turned to look. Mystery would have, but thanks to [Multi-focal], she'd already been looking.

"Let me offer my congratulations to Mystery for earning her first legendary achievement. May it be the first of many. I also give thanks on behalf of our kingdom to Rrillandral Lehibeborn, for risking her life to aid the [Hero] on her quest as her final party member."

He sank back into his chair, muttering, "And since you can speak her language, please teach that [Hero] some damned common sense," on the way down, just loudly enough to ensure anyone employing listening skills could hear him.

The voices on the floor started back up again, this time with more than a spot of frustration.

"No-one from Flinel was surprised at Rrillandral's behaviour," said one. "I can understand the [King] keeping himself sufficiently under control to not give anything away, but not one of the guards around the room twitched despite someone casting magic in the vicinity of the hero's party."

"You think this was staged?"

"No. They were all surprised at the world notification. Even the [King], although he hid it well. I think this whole event was a way of introducing the [Hero] to that damned immortal hedonist."

"Immortal hedonist? Rrillandral? Who is she? Not just a random envoy from the Vale, then?"

"Heck no. She's one of their princesses. And she practically collects heroes. And now she's latched onto another one. With Flinel's full support, apparently."

"Didn't guide the [Hero]... My arse he didn't! He carefully arranged for her to meet the people that he wanted!"

"Not only the people he wanted. Don't forget that we were both up there and shook their hands. If this Mystery truly is Kellela's unborn child and is utilising something like [Astral Projection] to watch, anyone with a method of perceiving her and the ability to speak her language could have pre-empted Rrillandral."

"And she was so sure no-one would, she even waited till last. Dammit. We've been played, but I don't think there's anything we can do."

"I'm not sure there's anything we want to do. We need to confirm everyone back home got the same world notification, but assuming they did, this could be considered a good thing. We've seen some increased activity from the demonic forest, but it's not at a level where we'd be shouting demon lord. And yet the [Hero] is already out killing demons. As their [King] said, this cycle could end with a lot less destruction than normal."

"That's an optimistic way of looking at it. Alas, I suspect my [King] is going to be pissed regardless."

Outside the walls of the capital, Fylith shivered. What had been an uncomfortable itch in the back of her mind had suddenly bloomed into a sharp thorn, jammed into her brain. She glared straight at Mystery—her position obvious despite the numerous walls and enchantments that separated them—her face screwed into a mask of hatred.

"Are you okay, milady?" asked the polite but uninteresting man opposite her. Looking interesting was ill-advised in his line of work; a simple, unmemorable face made for a good backup when stealth skills failed.

"I'm fine," she replied through clenched teeth. He didn't call her out on the obvious falsehood, mostly because treating a client like that would be impolite, but also because he was busy reading a world notification.

"So, to clarify. The target is the unborn child of the [Court Mage] Kellela, whom she has named Mystery."

"Yes, yes. I literally just said that," snapped Fylith, who had spent enough time stalking the hero's party to know well the names of everyone involved. "As I said, you don't have to get the mother. Just kill her child. Slip her some poison that will trigger a miscarriage or something."

The [Arbiter of Death] nodded politely as he gestured with a hand under the table. The room immediately became a flurry of activity, by the end of which quite a lot of blood that should have been inside a body wasn't.

"Pity," muttered the local assassins' guild leader, checking his men to ensure none were in imminent danger. "If she was what I suspect she was, we just missed out on a rare achievement at the least. Maybe even an epic."

"And if she wasn't, that was a major payday you just threw away," responded his second in command.

"Pah," spat the master. "I may have no particular loyalty to this kingdom, but I am fairly invested in the continued existence of humanity as a whole. As you damn well should be, too, unless you're wearing a really convincing disguise."

"Think we should warn anyone, then?"

"No thanks. I've done my civic duty for the day. From what that wannabe client described of their abilities, they're perfectly capable of taking care of themselves."

Mystery watched the elf give herself a fascinated examination, poking and prodding at her new costume, the ball forgotten and the spectators far from her mind. So much so that she even made an attempt at stripping, which thankfully didn't achieve anything. Even the wreath was fixed to her head.

"It's nice that she's so enthusiastic, but English!" moaned Mystery, before getting bored with waiting and whizzing around to see what she'd been missing. "Oh, wow. Grace and Rose look amazing! Maybe there is something to the long-dress theory after all? Not that I had anything against it; it's just not really appropriate for magical girls. At least not in combat situations. Maybe I can design princess forms for them, like a certain set of sailor scouts? It's not just them, either. Everyone here is dressed to the nines and back. Must be important. Well, the king is over there, so yes, it probably defaults to important if he's involved. And that must be the queen and the kiddies. Wonder why there's a gap?"

At this point, Mystery finally spotted the family resemblance between Grace and the other pair of girls at the table, and recalled the level-up message talking about a certain princess's marriage prospects.

"Uh... wait. She's really a princess?! Does that mean the other half of the message was true too?! Eep! What did I do? Elf lady, I need you!"

Mystery zipped back, but came to an abrupt halt at the sight of something that certainly had no place at a ball.

"Is that slug... wearing a suit? It's even got a little bowtie beneath its... uhh... chin? Roll of fat? How does that even work? It has sleeves on its jacket and trousers over its back. Or trouser might be more accurate; it only has one leg. But it can't possibly go all the way around, or how would it walk? I suppose just because it looks like a slug doesn't mean it moves around the same way. And it's bigger than I am! I mean, bigger than an average human is, given that even a regular slug would be bigger than me right now."

Mystery had finally met a zycrian, which chose that moment to poke a tentacle out of a sleeve, wrap it around a suspicious lump of green on a table, and toss it into his mouth.

"Eww," thought Mystery, and then she spotted the other zycrian.

"Nope," she thought, rushing back to Kellela. "Looking at that for any length of time would spoil ballgowns for me forever. Argg! now I have the image of a slug magical girl stuck in my head! Do not want! That had better not interfere with the spell the next time I cast it. I've apparently already mucked up Grace's life enough without turning her into a slug. No wonder she always seemed so angry."

She returned to Kellela just as she was finishing an explanation to Rrillandral, albeit somewhat abridged given the mildly hostile setting.

"So... this is a sort of uniform that Mystery gives to her allies, and it provides magical defences and a boost to physical abilities? I've never seen anything like it. How interesting," beamed the elf, delighted to have seen something new before even having a proper talk with the [Hero].

"So the other English heroes you knew never talked about that sort of costume?" asked Rose, resisting the urge to ask Mystery to show off her own version. Grace had taken some pains to drill into her why that would be a bad idea.

... Many of which no longer seemed to apply now that someone else had done it first, but Rose was determined to behave.

"No, never. But the last English speaker was a long time ago, and you humans live such short lives. Time flows faster here than the world the English come from, but nevertheless, much could have changed since then."

"I keep forgetting you're not my age," grumbled Rose. "That appearance is unfair."

"So you think, yet I would give much to be young again, to see the world anew."

"Welcome aboard," said Grace, erecting an unsubtle brick wall in front of that topic. "I look forward to working with you."

"And I you. It will do the world some good to once again cull the demon population, and never before have I seen a [Hero] so... expeditious. This cycle may truly be unique, which is not something I have been able to say in a very long time. Alas, our unborn ally appears to be growing impatient."

Indeed, Mystery had given up waiting, and was flashing white in the middle of her group of magical (mostly) girls.

"Mystery, I know you're excited, but you need to wait," said Kellela, despite knowing full well she wouldn't understand. "There will be plenty of time for you to talk once this event is over."

"Do you want me to write that in English?" asked Rrillandral.

"Yes please. Oh, actually, better idea. Write that the spell I'm about to cast is translation magic, and she should picture 'meaning' entering her head as she hears or looks at language. It's important she doesn't picture herself reading out loud. She shouldn't be trying to understand the sounds, just to let herself be exposed to another language and have the meaning pop up in her mind."

Rrillandral briefly considered if they were trying to render her redundant, but the fact was she already had [Hero's Party Member]. Not only that, but thanks to the world announcement, anyone who knew the requirements of [Diligent Hero] knew it.

And that was an achievement she hadn't seen in a long time, too. There had been periods of history, when the kingdoms surrounding the demonic forest had been weakened by war, disease or famine, when desperation had resulted in heroes as young as six being pushed to the front lines, but in these fatter times, heroes were being coddled, in her opinion.

Never before had she seen someone as young as Mystery fight, though. That was brand new, even for her.

She wrote up the message, and Mystery flashed green, before buzzing off to sit on Kellela's head. She cast the spell as promised, and Mystery, with both image and the magic words, settled down to practise.

With a small amount of concentration on her omnidirectional vision, she watched a buffet be laid and promptly consumed. There was more dancing, at which the princes and princesses left their raised platform to join in, but the magical girls mostly tried to stay out of it, much to the disappointment of everyone asking them to dance.

And, by the time the king and queen took to the dance floor, Mystery's efforts had been rewarded.

ding
Through unwavering effort, you have unlocked the [Translate] skill.

"Has anyone figured out the significance of that age yet?" she heard.

"No, but it can't possibly be the real age. Even the oldest known immortals don't have that many digits. It's not even close."

"Someone needs to teach them about computing, and how signed integers and integer wrap around work," giggled Mystery to herself, assuming they were talking about her achievement, then bringing up her status to stare at. After so long with no new skills, she'd managed four at once!

And then she noticed the problem with her status. Not a big problem, as such. Not yet. But Mystery really didn't want it to get worse.

"I think it's time I laid off the achievements..."

Spoiler

μ̵̼͉̐υ̴̡̽̿σ̷̭͓̃̀τ̸͉̤̾̆ή̶͎̱͌ρ̸̤͕̏̿ι̷̬̾͜ό̸͈ (Human)
Age: -10 months
Occupation: Hero (L)
Skills:
- Soul's Eye (U) (32/90)
>> Sense Vitality (U)
>> Sense Soul (R)
>> Sense Mana (U)
>> Sense Light (C)
>> Sense Sound (C)
>> Pierce Illusions (U)
>> Sense Miasma (R)
>> Multi-focal (R)
- Astral Projection (U) (20/60)
>> Sure Navigation (U)
>> Uncontainable (U)
>> Tether of Will (L)
- Robust (C) (18/40)
>> Hardened Soul (R)
>> Secured Mana (U)
>> Pain Tolerance (C)
- Stealth (C) (3/20)
>> Camouflage Vitality (R)
- Magical Girl Transformation (R) (19/30)
>> Age Correction (R)
>> Gender Bending (R)
- Light (C) (10/20)
>> Heterochrome (U)
- Increased Attributes (C) (8/20)
>> Mana Storage (U)
- Investigation (C) (2/10)
- Cosplay (U) (1/10)
- Mana Absorption (U) (2/20)
>> Drain Mana (U)
- Translate (U) (1/10)
Achievements:
- Early Bloomer II (R)
- First Skill (C)
- Journeyman (U)
- Survivor of Zarklaxxos, the Arcane Infernal (R)
- I Broke The System, And All I Got Was This Lousy Achievement (E)
- Astral Explorer I (R)
- First Spell (C)
- I Broke The System Again, And Now The Administrators Hate Me (E)
- Spell Forger (R)
- Demon Slayer II (E)
- Monster Slayer V (E)
- Curiosity (U)
- War Veteran (U)
- Royal Audience (C)
- Diligent Hero (L)

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