Chapter 4 : Tag (3)
Chapter 4 : Tag (3)
Above the capital city of Tardan.
Deltain was floating there, his body trembling.
He had his hands covering his face.
<2nd-tier magic: Flying is in use.>
The cold night wind brushed past Deltain.
He cooled the heat rising within him and narrowed his eyes.
'Calm down.'
This heat was an effect of Agnes's abnormal behavior.
It was an emotion he could control, as he knew the cause.
...Or so he thought, as Deltain desperately ignored the fact that he couldn't create an emotion without this temptation and channeled his mana again.
<3rd-tier magic: Chase is in use.>
A blue lens appeared and flickered over Deltain's left eye.
It was a lens that visualized the concept of 'tracking' within his cognition.
While wearing it, Deltain could track demonic energy in the form of blue solid lines.
'Gaias is definitely within the capital.'
Whether it was on the surface or underground, that was correct considering the range Gaias had influenced so far.
Floating above the capital of Tardan and looking down, he should be able to at least grasp its path.
With that thought, Deltain rolled his eyes, but his expression grew darker as time passed.
'...It's not there.'
The path wasn't visible.
All he could see through the lens now were a few blue dots indicating people already seduced by the demon.
There were no paths connecting them.
Annoyance crept onto Deltain's face.
'Yeah, you're not going to make this easy, are you.'
Mana boiled around Deltain's body.
It flowed out, becoming a deep blue mist that dyed the night sky of the capital.
<Accessing Cartridge.>
Black pits rose around Deltain's body.
He reached into them and pulled out a strange-looking mechanical device.
<4th Weapon: Summoning Auto-drone.>
A mechanical device with a long, streamlined body and round propellers attached to both sides of its waist.
It was in the shape of a drone that Deltain used to play with as a hobby before he fell into this game.
Of course, it wasn't just a simple drone.
Every weapon he stored in his cartridge was a miracle woven from 4th-tier mysteries.
<Please enter code.>
Deltain carved letters with mana onto the back of the drone he had pulled out.
True to the name 'Auto-drone', this weapon could autonomously utilize five of the spells Deltain could use to conduct exploration.
Deltain packed five spells into the Auto-drone.
The 3rd-tier tracking magic Chase he had been using until just now, two combat spells, one vision-sharing spell, and even a phase-shift spell.
Deltain intended to swap positions with the drone the moment it found Gaias.
Kiiiiiing-!
The drone hummed.
And it floated up into the air.
"Go."
At the same time as those words, the drone was shot toward the capital of Tardan.
Deltain gathered his mana and steadied his breathing.
'Then...'
The Auto-drone would search the surface of the capital.
Then there was only one place he needed to go.
It was the underground waterway.
*
Inside the underground waterway.
Deltain, having illuminated the dark surroundings, looked at the interface and continued his thoughts.
'The quest has clues in its name.'
That had been the case for every quest he had done so far.
This was something he could have known even just from the moment he was collecting DLC materials after clearing the main story.
The quest to obtain No.1 Chambler's Dream was 'Spot the Difference'.
True to its name, the moment Deltain entered Chambler's territory, he had to look at the scenery of the place he lived before falling into the game.
And he had to find the differences from his memory within it.
The same went for No.4 Deep Sea Jewel.
The quest name was 'Catch Me If You Can', and Deltain had to catch the magical beast relying only on his senses in the pitch-black deep sea.
'Tag.'
Deltain focused on that word.
Tag is a game where one seeker finds and catches players scattered everywhere.
In this context, he must be the seeker, and the other players must refer to the demons.
'I can consider one already caught.'
Demon of Lust, Protogenia.
That demon, presumed to be the cause of his infection, must have been one of the players.
While he was thinking that, a new interface popped up in front of Deltain.
<Clue discovered.>
<Remaining players: 6.>
Deltain let out a dry laugh.
'Would it kill you to tell me in advance?'
It was always like this.
The interface never gave him clues until Deltain noticed them himself.
Deltain judged that this characteristic was because the 'interface' could not perceive things outside of his own awareness.
Deltain clicked his tongue, "Tsk," and moved on.
About four hours passed like that.
What Deltain confirmed was a surprisingly clean underground waterway.
*
'There's not a single one?'
It was strange.
Since 'Saint Hall' was spread over the surface of the capital, the underground waterway should be the only place for demons to be, but there was no trace of any demon here.
He had no doubt that perhaps another form of temptation had struck him.
<3rd-tier magic: Mental Check is in effect.>
That was because Deltain had been maintaining a mental barrier continuously from the moment he was seduced by the demon until now.
Mental Check is a spell that sends an alarm if changes in cognition or behavior are detected from the mental state at the time of casting.
In other words, it meant that Deltain himself had not experienced any changes in cognition since he fell into the temptation.
'...The approach is wrong.'
Deltain pondered.
To recall what he had missed.
And he was able to come up with the answer quite easily.
'...There was a problem from the moment of casting.'
Mental Check takes the time the spell was cast as the reference point.
In other words, if there was already a problem with him at that time, this phenomenon makes sense.
Deltain let out a dry laugh.
And at that moment.
<Auto-drone enters combat.>
An anomaly occurred.
*
"Are you awake?"
The highest and most scenic room in the Levadein Duchy.
Agnes, who was lying on the bed there, turned her head at the voice she heard.
There was a woman with grey hair, over 2 meters tall, with impressive, rugged muscles.
"...Kaltara."
"Oh, you remember my name."
Kaltara grinned.
Agnes frowned and recalled what had happened before she fell asleep.
And asked.
"Where is Deltain?"
"He went to catch a demon."
"Why are you here?"
"Didn't the Boss say so? I'm guarding the Lady."
"I don't need it."
"Hmm, I don't really want to do it either. But what can you do? The Lady might commit suicide."
Agnes's brow furrowed even more.
Kaltara chuckled at that look.
"You're properly bewitched, alright. That scowl suits you quite well."
"Bring Deltain here."
"No."
"I want to see him."
"Well, I don't think the Boss wants to see the Lady."
Deltain was a person who extremely disliked his own emotions getting out of control.
It was a remark pointing out that he wouldn't want to meet Agnes while under the influence of temptation, but the context of the conversation was the problem.
No, Kaltara had deliberately uttered those words in this context.
Agnes's expression stiffened.
"No."
"Yes, he does."
"Deltain will want to see me."
"I'd bet my neck on it. Even if the Lady begged to see him right now, the Boss would never come here."
"He promised to sleep with me."
"I heard about that. The Lady is truly like a horny bitch. How about it? Should I take care of it for you instead?"
Kaltara extended her middle finger and wiggled it.
It was twice as thick as an average adult man's finger.
Contempt appeared on Agnes's face.
"Get lost."
"If you need it later, just say so. You won't regret it. There were quite a few chicks who liked it."
"Homosexuality? You're really barbaric, aren't you?"
"I don't look at partners sexually. I just chose this as a way to shut up the screeching chicks. Once I poke them, they go crazy. Some even knelt and begged me to do it just one more time..."
"You make me sick."
Agnes said that and turned her back on Kaltara.
Her body was curled up.
"...I won't eat anything until Deltain comes."
"Do as you please. I never received an order to feed you."
Kaltara thought.
There's no brat like that brat.
The amplification of emotions might be the cause, but even considering that, it was still like that.
'She must be like that by nature.'
If you strip away the authority and pretense from Agnes Levadein, the form revealed would be like that.
Kaltara felt a sense of curiosity.
It was curiosity about how Deltain would react when he saw her like this.
'This will be fun.'
The moment Kaltara was thinking such things and smiling.
[Kieeeeeeeek-!!!]
Such a scream was heard from above the mansion.
Agnes's body jolted.
Kaltara tilted her head and made an "Ah" sound.
"It's a demon. Hmm, judging by the cry, it's a Demon of Contempt."
"A demon? Why is a demon here? The surface of the capital is..."
"You mean the Boss's magic? Well, I guess they found a way to break through it. Since the Boss was also in a state of being seduced from the beginning, it wouldn't be strange if anything happened."
Kaltara said that and stood up from her seat.
Agnes's face was full of bewilderment.
She was already pickled in temptation, accepting all emotions to the extreme.
"Is Deltain in danger?"
"No way, the Boss is a person who can never be in danger. The ones in danger are the people of the capital."
Kaltara laughed heartily and continued.
"Ah, but I think the Boss's pride will be greatly hurt. I remember what he said when he made the streetlights. Something about how if there was a demon that could break through this, he would even applaud and praise it."
Kaltara felt a strange sense of regret.
Deltain was a person who somehow kept his word once he said it, and his memory was extraordinary, so he was a person who rarely forgot what he had said.
If he actually finds the demon that caused this phenomenon, he will praise it.
'I should have stayed by the Boss's side.'
It would be quite an interesting scene.
[Kieeeeeeeek-!!!]
The demon's cry was heard again.
This time, the sound rang out from a place closer to the mansion.
Agnes's body flinched.
Kaltara laughed heartily and picked up a pen next to the bed.
"I'll borrow this. Ah, I won't be returning it."
"...Then that's not borrowing."
"I'll be stealing it."
Saying that, she strode to the entrance of the terrace and opened the door.
Cold wind poured into the bedroom.
After going out to the terrace, Kaltara lifted her head and looked at the sky.
There was a lump of flesh flying in the sky.
If you were to turn a person's skin inside out, it would look exactly like that.
The huge hands that sprouted like wings had membranes between the fingers, and the part forming the body was wrapped in intestines, with a body made of bumpy red protrusions.
The head part looked like an anus, throbbing and spewing out sound.
Demon of Contempt.
Judging by its house-sized stature and grotesque appearance, it must be at least a high-ranking demon with a name.
Kaltara didn't bother to be curious about its name.
'Hmm, I should just kill it.'
She raised her mana.
The mana that erupted from Kaltara's heart rose like smoke around her, and soon settled into the pen in her hand.
The pen began to tremble.
Kaltara swung her arm and threw the pen with a bored expression.
It looked like throwing a tissue into a trash can.
However, the result was terrible.
Pwhoaak-!
The shot pen stuck into the demon's body, and the demon exploded immediately.
The torrent of mana that burst from the pen had ground the demon's body to pieces.
Thud-thud-thud.
The demon's blood and flesh poured down like rain into the mansion's garden.
"Oh my, the gardener is going to have a hard time."
That was the end of Kaltara's commentary.