Chapter 7 : Surgery (1)
Chapter 7 : Surgery (1)
<190 days remain until the Demon Flower Extrias blooms.>
A few days after entering the Imperial Palace, Deltain, who had come for his usual check-up, tilted his head at Agnes's complexion.
"Are you sick?"
"...Hm?"
"Your complexion is bad."
It was no exaggeration; Agnes's complexion, which hadn't been great to begin with, had turned as dark and gray as someone about to die. Yet, since there were no other changes in her physical condition, a question naturally arose.
Agnes parted her lips for a moment before letting out a murmur.
"Deltain."
"What."
"What would you think if your friend was your mom?"
"What kind of fucking bullshit is that?"
"...No, it's nothing."
Disgust appeared on Deltain's face.
"Do you have to imagine things like that? I'm not saying you have to live in reality, but draw a line."
"Yeah, there is a line. But why on earth...."
Agnes's brow furrowed. A question briefly crossed Deltain's mind at her strange behavior, but he didn't dwell on it.
After all, was it just a day or two that she'd been saying weird things?
There was no point in worrying about it and just getting a headache, so Deltain chose to change the subject instead.
"Your body will gradually feel more comfortable. Since the Demon Flower has developed a resistance to Drought, drying out the mana is meaningless. From now on, your vitality will return as much as the mana refills."
"Okay."
"Ah, and I won't be coming in ten days because I have a schedule."
Agnes's gaze turned toward Deltain.
Deltain continued speaking while keeping his eyes on Agnes's wrist.
"I have to go to a banquet."
"A banquet?"
"Yeah, it's work."
Deltain's attitude was indifferent. However, Agnes felt displeased by it.
It was because of what she had heard from Elina a few days ago.
-He's handsome, isn't he? Count Hebron. I remember there were quite a lot of young ladies who wanted to at least talk to him if he ever went out to a banquet.
'...This is annoying.'
She wasn't worried that Deltain would be seduced by someone. But separate from that, it was inevitable that she would feel annoyed by the gazes eyeing what was hers.
She wanted to throw a tantrum if she could, but....
'...It's a bad move.'
Controlling Deltain's actions was not a good strategy. Not yet.
Since there was no indulgence like when he was under the Temptation, showing such behavior now could potentially have a negative impact on their relationship.
Agnes knew she needed to use the remaining 190 days more strategically.
"Okay, have a good time."
Agnes said that with a bright smile. At that, Deltain's gaze turned to her.
"You're not complaining for once."
"Why? Did you want me to hold you back?"
"Like hell I did."
"I'm letting you go because I'm confident."
Agnes scratched Deltain's wrist, right where the trace of the Thorn Bush Tattoo was.
"Because you'll come back to me wherever you roam."
"That level of confidence is a disease."
"I'm just stating facts."
Agnes giggled and added.
"I'm waiting every night. For you to sneak in."
Deltain let out a dry laugh.
"Keep waiting for a hundred days. See if I come first."
"We'll see."
Tap. Tap.
Agnes's index finger was still tapping over the trace of the tattoo. She deepened her smile as she did so.
'Yeah.'
This was just right. Slowly increase the threshold with the level of provocation he could tolerate, and limit his actions after that.
It would be better after she became a little more special to Deltain.
"It's a shame. If I could follow you, I would."
"......."
The moment she said that, a look of contemplation appeared on Deltain's face for some reason.
While Agnes tilted her head at that, Deltain continued.
"......I'm thinking about it."
"Hm?"
"A way for you to walk. You threw a tantrum saying you wanted to go out when you were under the Temptation. I said I'd do it."
Agnes's eyes widened.
"Oh...."
"Don't misunderstand. I just don't want to see you whining again. And if I research that, I might find a way to suppress the Demon Flower... yeah, I'm just approaching it from a different angle."
Only after saying that did Deltain make a satisfied face.
It was because he thought it was a pretty plausible reason.
For Deltain, who was displeased with himself for caring about such things, the reason that had just popped into his head was becoming a pretty good excuse.
Of course, this was coming across as a positive signal to Agnes.
The face that had been furrowed just a moment ago, the faint smile that had appeared just now, and the pressure on his wrist that had softened along with it. And his breathing, and his posture becoming more comfortable.
Agnes gathered clues from every single one of those reactions and peered into the depths of his emotions.
'Pretty fast, huh?'
Feedback faster than she had thought. Agnes pondered the cause.
Was it because they had slept together? Or was it some other external factor?
Whatever it was, it was enough to just count it as good news, but Agnes didn't do that.
'I need to find the cause and focus on attacking it.'
It wasn't a question that would have an answer right away, so she would have to spend more time thinking about it. Agnes buried the thought that had surfaced in a corner of her heart and opened her mouth.
"I'm excited. About that."
"......What?"
"It sounded like a confession. You saying you'd make me walk."
"Hearing what you want to hear is a bad habit. I clearly said a different approach to the Demon Flower...."
"I wouldn't know even if you said that. I have no knowledge of magic."
"If you don't know, study."
"I am studying."
Agnes grabbed Deltain's wrist. Then, she brought it to her mouth.
Her tongue poked out. It licked the tip of Deltain's index finger. At the sight of Deltain flinching, Agnes curved her eyes and said.
"How to seduce. How is it? Don't you feel aroused?"
Slap!
Deltain slapped Agnes's hand away.
His face was already as red as an apple.
"......Are you a crazy bitch?"
"Ah, should I say I'm crazy about you here?"
"That's a line from a third-rate romance. Only a seven-year-old would like that."
"Then you must be seven. Baby Deltain with a red face. Want some milk?"
Agnes said, slightly lifting her collar.
Deltain's eye twitched. What followed was a dry laugh.
"I really need to check if you have a mental illness."
"I'm normal. I can be sure now. I've seen what a real mental illness is."
"What are you talking about?"
"More importantly, I'll be looking forward to it. You saying you'll make me walk. It would be nice if you could do it within ten days. I want to walk arm-in-arm with you at the banquet."
"Get lost."
Deltain stood up abruptly.
Even as the door slammed shut with a 'thud', Agnes did not erase her smile.
She thought inadvertently.
'Cute.'
A feeling she hadn't even recognized herself.
Immediately after, the moment the maid entered through the closed door, Agnes forgot the thought she had just had.
*
Deltain, who had returned to the Count's estate, was still fuming.
There was something that greeted him.
"Count, a gift has arrived."
Gerhart said, bowing his head deeply. In the hall of the Count's estate, large boxes, as tall as a person, were neatly wrapped and stacked beside him.
Deltain exhaled deeply and looked at the boxes.
"The Aristocratic Faction?"
"Yes, it is Marquis Grobin."
Marquis Grobin was a man called the representative of the Aristocratic Faction. There was only one reason he was sending gifts to Deltain like this: to recruit him and increase his influence.
Since Deltain had not yet refused these gifts or taken a negative stance toward the Aristocratic Faction, they saw Deltain as an investment worth making.
Deltain calmed the anger that had welled up at Gerhart's words.
It was because Marquis Grobin's gifts always contained useful items that were hard to find with money.
"What are the items?"
"Some paintings, sculptures, and Mana Herbs that grow in the polar regions."
"Polar regions?"
"Yes, it seems they obtained information about what you were looking for."
"Ah."
Deltain nodded. There was something that came to mind when he thought of the polar regions. It was none other than the 'No.3 Token of Endless Winter'.
Since the other materials had intuitive names, he had judged that this, too, would be a material related to 'winter', so he had tasked them with investigating the polar regions.
The information must have leaked to them as well.
"I'll have to have a word with Marquis Montvert."
"Even if they are owls, Marquis Grobin's reach must have been too much to handle."
"That's no excuse. The request content shouldn't leak no matter what, right?"
He said that, but it wasn't as if Deltain felt bad about it.
It was because the more organizations there were looking for DLC materials, the better it was.
'And there's no way those guys know what I'm going to do by collecting this.'
In the first place, even Deltain didn't properly know what the 'Eternal Contract' was.
As such, there was no loss in terms of information, either.
"Then the gift...."
"That's that. It's polite to gratefully receive what is given."
There was no reason to refuse something given for free.
Deltain revealed that intention and tore open the wrapping of the gift.
The paintings or sculptures were secondary, as Gerhart would take care of displaying them, and what he was looking for was the Mana Herb from the polar regions.
'Just what I needed.'
There was something he was planning for Agnes's mobility. Marquis Grobin probably didn't send this gift knowing his intentions, but for Deltain, it was a gift he quite liked.
"Just send a letter of thanks."
"Will that suffice?"
"Yeah, they'll be sucking each other off saying 'Count Hebron sent us a letter'."
The Aristocratic Faction was a group that honored noble blood and noble achievements.
Naturally, there was a hierarchy among them, and although he was an outsider, Deltain was a figure who stood at the very top of their hierarchical logic.
Deltain himself knew that well.
"They really are golden goblins."
Gerhart felt a sigh escape him for some reason at the sight of Deltain chuckling while stroking the deep blue Mana Herb.
"......Then I will handle it as you said."
"Yeah."
*
In the basement of the Count's estate, there was a room with an atmosphere far removed from this world.
It was Deltain's private laboratory.
Filling the all-white space were various flasks and mechanical devices. And the mana circuits he had devised himself.
This place was a room where a repository of knowledge that had raised the continent's civilization by ten levels lay dormant.
Deltain was refining the Mana Herbs one by one in the middle of the laboratory.
These were the materials for the magic engineering product he was going to create anew.
'Ten days.'
That much time remained until the banquet.
Deltain recalled his determination to make sure he completed this by then.
'Deadlines help with focus.'
It was more correct to see it as him heating up his competition with himself rather than specifically for Agnes.
He was a man who became strongest in front of a challenge.
'What should I try with?'
There were a total of five models he had in mind.
Deltain, who had finished trimming the Mana Herbs, ignited his mana.
The deep blue mana embroidered the air and transformed into a blueprint.
It was a blueprint so huge that it covered the entire white space.
Deltain felt a pleasant tension.
Designing a blueprint and creating a miracle.
Whenever he did things like this, he could remind himself of what kind of person he was before falling into this place, so he was bursting with willingness for it.
Deltain's hand was raised.
On his face, as he stirred the air to manipulate the mana, hung a soft smile that he had shown to no one since falling into this world.
That moment.
<Creating a magic tool.>
<Setting the hierarchy.>
<Adjusting the grade.>
·
·
·
<Expected grade: Transcendence.>
<Challenging a masterpiece.>
An achievement welcomed him.