Chapter 2 : Demon Hunting (2)
Chapter 2 : Demon Hunting (2)
The dining room of Count Hebron's estate.
Sitting alone at a long dining table that could easily seat ten people, Deltain was slicing meat when he suddenly let out a dry laugh and raised his eyes.
-You're going to confess to me. Begging pathetically.
It was because Agnes's words wouldn't leave his head.
Deltain was angry at those words.
'Don't give me that bullshit.'
That would absolutely never happen.
Deltain could add certainty upon certainty.
After all, he had never asked anyone for a favor in his life, and he had certainly never been pathetic.
This time would be the same.
Deltain vowed not to show even the slightest opening to Agnes, who was provoking his temper.
"Count-nim."
As his thoughts continued, Gerhart entered.
"Why."
"A guest has arrived."
"Tell them to fuck off. I'm eating."
"...It's Marquis Montvert."
Deltain's brow furrowed.
It wasn't anger.
The expression that appeared on his face this time was clearly in the form of 'annoyance'.
*
Marquis Parvian Montvert.
A gentleman who was turning 60 this year.
As the Imperial Archmage and one of the heroes who saved the continent alongside Deltain during the demon invasion, he was not a very welcome figure to Deltain, despite that past.
"Sorry for the late hour."
It wasn't for any other reason.
It was because whenever he sought him out first like this, annoying work always followed.
Deltain opened his mouth without even giving him a glance.
"What are you here for this time?"
"Would I seek you out if I didn't have business?"
"You are here because you have business."
"I can't deny that."
Deltain let out a deep sigh at his words.
"If it's annoying, I'm not doing it."
"It's demon hunting."
"Not doing it."
"I need you."
Clack-.
Deltain set his cutlery down roughly.
And only then did he look at Marquis Montvert and open his mouth.
"Why would I do that? Did the hunters go on a group vacation? That shouldn't be the case; none of the bastards I taught were that thoughtless."
"Your disciples are currently dispatched. It's not like there's only one or two places swarming with demons."
Deltain's expression crumpled further.
There was only one reason he was venting his irritation like this.
It was because he no longer felt it was worth investing time in unproductive work like demon hunting.
"I even caught the Demon King for you. I closed the dimensional gates, too. So what more are you trying to work me for? I'm busy."
"Even if the gates are closed, aren't there still many demons left? Besides, there's no one who knows more about High Demons than you."
"I've done enough. No, I'm still doing enough."
His words weren't just empty talk.
Since the day the disaster ended, the achievements Deltain had made over the past three years were indescribably phenomenal.
Why wouldn't they be?
The streetlights illuminating the Imperial Capital Tardan and the geometry embedded in their arrangement.
All of it was a single magic circle that Deltain had meticulously constructed.
<4th-rank Magic: Saint Hall is currently active.>
The Imperial Capital Tardan is enveloped in a barrier.
The spark ignited by a great mage is protecting their night.
Marquis Montvert laughed lowly.
He didn't seem the least bit angry at Deltain's irritable attitude.
"This time, you'll be quite interested as well."
"I can't possibly be interested in anything related to demons."
"Gaias's Heart. I heard you're looking for an item like that."
Deltain's body stiffened.
Marquis Montvert continued, smiling calmly.
"Cuckoo is an organization under the Montvert family. You didn't think I wouldn't know, did you?"
A translucent window popped up on Deltain's retina.
<Reward: Clue regarding Gaias's Heart.>
'Damn it.'
Deltain's expression crumpled.
"...So what is it?"
"Please come with me to the underground sewer."
"This is truly nauseating."
Deltain clicked his tongue.
Marquis Montvert, who had been with him since he was a penniless fallen noble, knew.
That was a sign of acceptance.
"Thank you."
"Shut up."
Deltain Hebron.
The first demon hunter set out on a hunt.
*
There is a massive sewer beneath the land of the Imperial Capital.
A sewer that has existed since the distant past when the Empire was founded.
It certainly possessed a structure as complex as its history.
Emergency escape routes in preparation for war, traps for enemies who might invade this place, and beyond that, hideouts for lost vagrants where no order could be felt.
Deltain stood at the entrance of the sewer and furrowed his brow.
It was because of the humidity clinging to his skin and the stench piercing his nose from the start.
"So, is this everyone going in?"
Marquis Montvert said with a calm smile.
"That's right."
"They're just kids."
There were those who flinched at his words.
They were young knights with the Imperial crest on their chests.
Marquis Montvert answered with a chuckle.
"These are demon hunters trained by the Imperial family this time. They're rookies, but their abilities are all outstanding, so don't worry."
"Was a demon an opponent you could fight based on ability? I didn't know that."
Deltain snorted, but no one denied it.
It was natural.
Demon.
It was a race that differed in trajectory from any creature that had existed on this land until now.
Demons target the soul, not the flesh.
They inflict mental violence, not physical violence.
As such, if one's mental barrier isn't thick, even a Lord-class knight would collapse in an instant.
"Now I'm even playing babysitter... You're really working me to the bone."
"Don't be so grumpy. You need to repay your debt to me, don't you?"
"Don't forget that's the only reason I listen to you, old man. And the debt is being paid off even at this very moment."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Damn old man."
It was a long time ago.
A point in time when Deltain hadn't been sucked into this game for long.
It was Marquis Montvert who reached out a hand to him when he was struggling, unable to even grasp the immediate situation.
The reason why Deltain, who had such a foul temper, showed goodwill to him was because of the debt he owed that day.
Deltain Hebron was the type of person who couldn't stand being in debt.
"...Let's finish this quickly and go back."
Deltain entered the sewer.
Then, following Marquis Montvert's gesture, the knights followed behind.
*
About 2 hours after entering the sewer, all Deltain had done was listen to information about the demon hiding here from Marquis Montvert.
Considering that a briefing should originally be completed before departure, it was quite illogical behavior, but no one cared about that.
It was because Deltain and Marquis Montvert had always operated with immediate feedback like this.
"I think it's a demon with a name."
"The reason?"
"Several merchants in the commercial district are complaining of heart pain. And they said they have the same dream every night."
"I mean, the reason you think it has a 'name'."
"It's because there is a name they heard in common in their dreams."
Marquis Montvert said that with a grin.
"Gaias."
A sharp light appeared in Deltain's golden eyes.
"I get it. You must have come to find me as soon as you heard that name, thinking you could make use of this."
"Please don't speak so coldly."
"It's creepy, so don't talk like that."
Deltain's face scrunched up instantly.
It was because he thought Marquis Montvert's way of speaking resembled Agnes's for some reason.
"Why do all Imperial nobles talk like that? They always try to grate on people's nerves while being slippery."
"You're a noble too."
"I'm from a fallen noble family. And I don't cackle in banquet halls like those guys."
"You should attend banquets sometimes."
"Don't meddle."
Deltain said that and shut his mouth.
He began to shake off the irritation that had risen and fell into deep thought.
'Gaias. It's definitely a demon.'
The initial prediction was correct.
No.2 Gaias's Heart is a demon's organ, just like No.1 Chambler's Dream.
Even while irritation was surging at Marquis Montvert's words, that fact alone was approaching Deltain pleasantly.
'Gaias, Gaias, seeing as it has a name, it's definitely a High Demon.'
The biggest criterion for classifying demons was the 'name'.
Those that have species-level names based on their characteristics are Lower Demons.
And those that act as the focal point for those Lower Demons are Middle Demons.
And those that have come to possess a complete proper noun as an individual are classified as High Demons.
Among demons, which basically have the physiology of a collective intelligence, High Demons were special.
They were beings that gained power by embedding their names into the consciousness of living creatures.
'What's its characteristic? Considering the part about retrieving the heart and the possessed ones complaining of heart pain, it must be a characteristic related to that...'
Deltain's thoughts continued for a long time.
It was a process of deducing the identity of the demon called Gaias by combining the game knowledge he possessed and the knowledge he had newly realized since coming here.
As Deltain kept his mouth shut and silence descended on the sewer.
Rustle-.
Such a sound was heard from somewhere.
Deltain's feet stopped.
Following that, the feet of the knights following him also stopped.
"...It seems to be a vagrant."
It was the words of one of the knights.
Just as he said, at the end of where the sound came from, a few women wrapped in rags were crouching and looking this way.
If there was one peculiar point, it would be that all of them were heavily pregnant women.
"What shall we do?"
Deltain ignored Marquis Montvert's words and just stared at the pregnant women.
The pregnant women shrank back even more at that gaze.
There was a brief standoff.
"...They are getting up."
Just as one of the knights said, one of the pregnant women stood up.
She began to stagger toward Deltain, carefully wrapping her hands around her belly.
"So, some food... the child..."
The words delivered desperately in a parched voice were clearly in a form sufficient to stimulate pity.
At that, some of the knights began to make expressions as if they felt sorry.
That must have been why.
The reason Deltain's subsequent actions felt so shocking.
Splat-!
Deltain kicked the pregnant woman's belly.
Then the pregnant woman's belly burst.
Sounds of "Gasp!" leaked out from here and there.
An unrealistic scene where blood splattered and visceral residue scattered.
The knights felt a deep sense of revulsion at Deltain's actions.
After all, it was because they thought that no matter how great a hero he was, doing such an action didn't make sense.
"Hey."
In the midst of that, Deltain let out a cold voice.
His gaze was already directed at the knights.
"I thought you said you were trained. While this bastard was approaching me, why didn't anyone step up?"
The knights looked at Deltain with dumbfounded faces, then soon hardened their expressions as they looked at where his fingertips were pointing.
"Demon of Craving. Bastards that use human pity to aim for a backstab. I clearly put them on the first page of the manual, so you don't know this?"
What was there was no longer a pregnant woman.
It was a grotesque creature with red flesh and sharp teeth writhing all over it.
"Such useless bastards."
Deltain's expression became menacing.