Chapter 2 : Demon Hunting (1)
Chapter 2 : Demon Hunting (1)
Deltain had been fast asleep for two straight days since that day.
Neither the embarrassment of Agnes's erratic behavior nor the shame of having touched her bare skin could keep him awake.
Why wouldn't he be?
Just staying awake is hard enough for 70 hours.
No, considering his pure research time alone, it would be more accurate to say Deltain had been awake for over 80 hours.
If he had a sturdy body like the knights, it might be different, but he was a mage.
It was impossible for him to shake off accumulated fatigue in a short amount of time.
By the time his sleep time exceeded 40 hours, Deltain opened his eyes, frowning.
<166 days remaining until the blooming of Demon Flower Extrias.>
He cleared the interface that popped up before his eyes and sat up.
'I'm dying.'
Perhaps it was because he had slept for too long.
Deltain's body was so stiff that it screamed at even the slightest movement.
He stretched widely, then rubbed his eyelids with his fingers to clear his head.
"Count-nim, it is time for your meal."
The man who had just entered was the butler, Gerhart.
Deltain waved his hand vaguely, grabbed the bread Gerhart offered, and bit into it.
It was a daily routine whenever he slept for such a long time.
"Any special reports while I was asleep?"
"Duke Levadein left words of gratitude. A letter and some jewels as well...."
"What about the Cuckoos?"
"There is no new information."
"Useless bastards. How does it make sense that they've taken so much money and have zero results?"
"...Since you only gave them a name and told them to find the item, it must be difficult for them as well."
"That's what the organization exists for."
Deltain muttered curses while chewing the bread with a still-dazed face.
Cuckoo.
That was the name of the organization he had commissioned to find information regarding the DLC materials.
As an organization that collected all information existing on the continent, they were exceptionally capable, but the difficulty of the DLC was the problem.
'Excluding the Demon Flower I already knew about, it's only been two in three months.'
The speed was slow compared to the money he was pouring in.
That was irritating Deltain's temper.
Deltain manipulated the interface with a glance to open the quest window.
<Collect the materials for the contract.>
Chambler's Dream (Complete)
Gaias's Heart (Incomplete)
Token of Endless Winter (Incomplete)
Deep Sea Jewel (Complete)
·
·
·
The quest progress remained the same.
Deltain stared at it with an expression plastered with annoyance, then soon swallowed the rest of the bread and got up.
"I'm going to wash up. Prepare a cup of tea."
"Yes."
Deltain threw off the clothes he was wearing carelessly and headed to the shower room.
A cold shower without anyone to attend to him was also strictly tailored to his preferences.
*
The mansion's study.
Sitting in a chair with his legs crossed, Deltain was staring at a black hole opened in the air.
<4th Tier Magic: Activate Subspace.>
The identity of the hole was Subspace.
It was a miracle that existed in the form of an inventory within the game, and now, it was magic that Deltain had created himself.
Inside the black Subspace, there was a glass display case divided into exactly nine sections.
The peculiar thing was that only two of the sections were filled, and the items were far from things that would typically be displayed.
They were the DLC quest materials.
Deltain looked at the section in the display case labeled with the number 'No.1'.
Inside was the brain of a living creature.
Unlike a human's, which is divided into left and right, it was composed of 4 masses, with each brain further divided vertically.
'Chambler's Dream.'
It was a material extracted by opening the skull of the Demon of Delusion, Chambler.
Next, Deltain's gaze turned to the spot marked with the number 'No.4'.
This item, too, was a part of a creature's body—an eyeball.
The creature's eyeball, the size of a human head, had a deep blue pupil that was still repeatedly contracting and expanding.
'Deep Sea Jewel.'
It was a material extracted after going into the deepest part of this land's sea and killing a magical beast.
Deltain continued his thoughts while sipping tea.
'Aside from the fact that they are unheard-of materials, the names of the materials themselves are intuitive.'
Chambler's Dream was the thinking organ of the demon named Chambler.
The Deep Sea Jewel was truly the treasure of a magical beast in the deep sea.
Demon Flower Extrias was the same; even though it took the form of mana, wasn't it ultimately a flower?
'If I only knew the etymology of the names of the remaining materials, I could find them....'
Deltain's gaze turned to the still-empty 'No.2' spot.
'...The one I can find right away is that one.'
'Gaias's Heart,' which was written as number 2 on the quest window.
Deltain thought that this, too, might be the organ of some demon, just like 'Chambler's Dream.'
However, the clues were too scarce to find information based on the name alone.
In the end, Deltain could not continue his deep thinking today and closed the Subspace.
'...Right, this isn't what's important right now.'
Deltain twisted his expression.
That was because there was still a more urgent matter for him than locating these materials.
What more is there to say?
The extraction of the Demon Flower Extrias was exactly that.
'I've pushed back the deadline. I have to start researching again slowly from now on.'
He would view the Demon Flower from the perspective of a plant and test its characteristics one by one.
By doing so, he would find a way to tear the Demon Flower out.
There was something he had to do for that.
'...Damn bitch.'
He had to spend time with Agnes Levadein.
No, he even had to make contact.
-Pretty. Really.
Suddenly, Deltain's teeth ground together.
It wasn't that he didn't have anger toward Agnes, but for him, who had strong pride, the most infuriating thing was his own reaction of being flustered and running away at that moment.
As the end of anger with nowhere to go usually is, Deltain was at some point rationalizing his own behavior.
'Right, that day I was too tired. I had just finished over 70 hours of research, and my mana was drained from performing surgery, so my condition wasn't good.'
If he went back, he wouldn't show such an unsightly display as that day.
Deltain steeled his heart and got up.
"Gerhart!"
"Yes."
"I'm going to the Levadein Duchy. Contact them in advance."
Gerhart tilted his head at the sight of Deltain, who seemed full of anger for some reason, but soon let out an answer.
"Yes."
After all, his master was a man who spent the most time of the year being angry.
*
From Deltain's perspective, Agnes Levadein was the same as ever.
She was greeting him with the same smile as before, as if she didn't have much impression about her life being prolonged.
However, the greeting she uttered was different from usual.
"Is there nothing different about me today?"
Deltain let out a dry laugh.
"What, do you want to hear something like your hair is different today? Give it up. I'm not a delicate person who pays attention to such changes one by one."
"Pfft!"
Agnes laughed, shaking her shoulders.
While Deltain's brow furrowed even more at the reaction whose meaning he couldn't grasp, she finally burst into laughter, tapping the blanket, and said,
"Wow, you're really too much. You're really a bad man, aren't you?"
"...What kind of bullshit is that?"
"Anya wasn't there. You were guided by someone else all the way to this room, and you didn't even notice?"
"Ah."
Deltain only then realized that the maid who had guided him through the mansion today had changed.
"Anya went to the estate. She's going to be the head maid of the estate castle."
"Well, good for her."
"Aren't you sad?"
"Why would I be?"
Deltain was truly not sad about her situation.
No, he wasn't interested in the first place.
Agnes wore a smile that felt somewhat satisfied with his indifference and continued speaking.
"So, is this the fifty-second failure today?"
"I'm not doing it for a while."
"Why?"
"Because I'm going to investigate the Demon Flower."
Deltain said, sitting in the chair he always sat in.
"I figured out roughly how I should approach it. I'll do the next surgery only after investigating the Demon Flower more."
"Then did you come today because you missed me?"
"Is there a problem with your memory? I told you I came to investigate the Demon Flower."
"Sorry, I'm not the type of person with a heart wide enough to overlook even such excuses."
Deltain clicked his tongue and held out his hand.
It was a declaration by the doctor that he would finish the conversation and start the treatment.
However, Agnes just stared at that hand blankly.
"Give it here."
When Deltain said it in an annoyed voice, Agnes smiled and replied,
"It feels like I've become a dog. Having to give my hand when asked."
"You bitch."
"Wow, are you really treating me like a female dog now?"
Agnes said that and only then overlapped her hand on top of Deltain's.
Then, she uttered the word in a playful tone.
"Woof. Woof."
"Shut up before I sew your mouth shut."
"Chi-."
Deltain was quite satisfied with the conversation so far.
It was natural since he had suppressed her without showing a single gap, and hadn't shown the same embarrassment as before.
Now, all he had to do was finish the diagnosis and go back.
While Deltain's heart was relaxing with that thought, Agnes opened her mouth.
"But you know. Was it good?"
"What."
"Touching my chest."
Flinch.
Deltain's body trembled.
It was a vibration that Agnes, who was held by him, could definitely feel.
Agnes's smile deepened.
"You said it was ribs, but your hand touched my chest. And you saw all of my bare skin too."
"...It was a medical procedure."
"For someone who says that, your face was red before you left. Ah, that was funny. You were staring at my cleavage until you left."
"Don't talk bullshit."
Deltain's eyes were bloodshot.
There was an air of him about to vent his anger, but immediately after, he composed his expression, raised the corners of his mouth crookedly, and spat out a different reaction.
"Hey, do you like me? Why are you so desperate to get involved with me?"
Deltain didn't want to show himself being flustered by her one by one.
Deltain Hebron was a man who enjoyed suppressing his opponent rather than being attacked.
So, he intended to find his pace by responding to the opponent's attack in accordance with his own nature.
Agnes's eyes blinked.
A sense of anticipation about what she would say began to fill Deltain's insides.
However, if she were a woman who would be defeated so easily, Deltain wouldn't have been racking his brains from the start.
"I won't say."
"That sounds like a yes."
"Don't you want to hear that?"
"Do you think I like you?"
"Yes."
Agnes smiled.
"And you will confess to me. While clinging to me pathetically."
Deltain let out a "Ha!" and a dry laugh.
This time, he reacted that way because he was so dumbfounded that he wasn't even angry.
"What kind of confidence is that?"
"I'm stating a natural fact. It must have looked like confidence."
"Is there any basis?"
"Yes, because I'm beautiful."
"Look here, narcissism is a mental illness at that level. You should fix your head before your heart."
"I don't want to hear that from you."
Deltain had a lot he wanted to say.
Most of it was accompanied by severe profanity.
However, as the feeling of losing came to mind if he spat it out, Deltain did something else instead of speaking.
He let go of Agnes's hand and rolled up his shirt sleeve.
"Do you see this?"
"It's a tattoo."
On Deltain's exposed forearm was a tattoo in the shape of a thorn bush.
It wasn't a simple tattoo.
This was a kind of defense mechanism he had engraved to protect himself from the Demon of Lust when he was in the middle of the main story.
"It's a tattoo that proves my virginity. It was engraved to block the Demon of Lust, and it's a tattoo that has been maintained even after that Demon of Lust died. Do you know what this means?"
"That you're a virgin?"
"It means there hasn't been a woman on this land worth my time. None of the women who seduced me were tempting enough to make me want to give them my body. Do you think you're any different?"
"Yes."
"What kind of confidence is that?"
"Because I'm prettier than them."
"..."
Deltain was rendered speechless.
He had unknowingly agreed with that statement even while he was supposed to be refuting it.
Even in the midst of that, Agnes just let out a chuckle.
"But you know."
"...What."
"If you lose your virginity, does that tattoo disappear?"
"Yeah, but you can't."
"Hmm..."
Agnes's smile deepened.
She was feeling truly pleased that Deltain was bragging about his virginity.
After all, it was natural, as one more trophy that would become hers had increased.
Inside her eyes, which were folded into half-moons, her cherry-blossom-colored pupils engraved the tattoo onto her retina.
That look was, without a doubt, that of a hunter.