ALL NOVEL Ch. 5
Deltain’s appearance was wretched.
Even though he had used a cleansing spell to tidy himself up, his exhaustion from not sleeping for three days was glaringly evident.
His eyes were sunken.
Having not eaten, his cheeks were hollow, and his once vibrant red hair looked somewhat disheveled.
Despite this, the two women did not perceive him as tired.
It was all because of his eyes.
His golden eyes shone more brilliantly than at any other time they had seen.
“Hey.”
Deltain called out to Anya again.
“Get out.”
He pointed at Anya with his index finger and then gestured towards the door.
Anya was taken aback by this series of actions.
Deltain had never treated her this way before, and his domineering attitude left her stunned.
The shift in her emotions was slow but certain.
First came disappointment in Deltain’s demeanor, followed by the thought that he might be indifferent to her.
However, another thought emerged.
Despite his blazing eyes, the rest of his appearance clearly screamed fatigue, allowing Anya to rationalize it as
Indeed, the romantic dreams of a young girl still hoped for a fairy-tale romance with a prince on a white horse.
She concluded that Deltain was just too exhausted to think straight.
With that in mind, Anya awkwardly smiled and left the room, her steps clumsy and her face flushed with embarrassment, perhaps the only part of her acknowledging reality.
Click.
The door closed.
Agnes had been watching Deltain expressionlessly until then.
She still laid on the bed, not even bothering to greet him.
Ignoring this, Deltain sat down on the chair next to the bed.
“Hey, undress.”
Agnes’s fingers trembled slightly.
Her cherry blossom-colored pupils finally began to show some emotion as they focused on Deltain.
After a brief silence, Agnes smiled faintly.
“So, you finally want to lay a hand on me?”
“Yes.”
Agnes’s expression hardened.
“… did I hear that right?”
“No, you heard it correctly. I need to touch you. Specifically, below your left chest, the rib area. I need to place my hand there.”
It was precisely where the heart was.
Although his wording was easy to misinterpret, Deltain did not realize it.
He was solely focused on proving himself, pushing his body to its limits.
He was incredibly impatient.
“Do you want me to undress you?”
“…”
Agnes stared at Delta, or rather, at his golden eyes.
Then she opened her lips.
“Yeah. Undress me.”
Agnes sat up, a mysterious smile forming on her face, usually overshadowed by a deathly aura.
“Start from the top button. Should I take off my undergarments too?”
“No need for that.”
Snap.
Deltain snapped his fingers, and mana moved.
Pop, pop.
Agnes’s pajama buttons all came undone in an instant.
Agnes muttered, sounding deflated.
“No mood at all.”
“Why would you need that now?”
Deltain grinned crookedly, meeting Agnes’s eyes.
“Get ready. I’m going to show you real
“Oh, the fifty-second failure? Is that why you’re here?”
“It’s not a failure, just a mistake. No, today will be a success for sure.”
A solid certainty filled his voice, leaving no room for doubt.
Agnes couldn’t help but curl her lips into a smile at his declaration, it was an uncontrollable reaction.
“Whoa…”
Her eyes turned into crescents.
“… now I’m really looking forward to it.”
Agnes decided to play along with his bravado.
As her fully unbuttoned pajamas slid off, revealing her shoulders, her thin arms, and the ribs peeking through her waist, a crease appeared in the center of her undergarments, pushing down her flesh.
“You’re the first man to see my bare skin.”
“Whatever.”
“You’ll have to take responsibility.”
Agnes’s smile deepened.
*
Deltain admitted it.
He had made quite a
‘The approach was wrong from the start.’
The curse’s name was magic flower.
In other words, it was a flower and a plant.
The reason he hadn’t been able to break it until now was that he had been binding inappropriate healing techniques to kill the plant.
When he finally realized this from his butler Gerhart’s words, “Plants are sensitive to their environment,” Deltain could only laugh like a madman.
‘It must have loved it.’
The magic flower would have thrived.
It had been able to continuously absorb the enormous mana mass from the ineffective healing techniques.
All the digging he had done so far had only promoted the magic flower’s growth.
Deltain felt his insides twist.
He thought this must be what it felt like to be hit on the back of the head.
‘No way.’
It was blood-like mana and blood-like time.
So, Deltain thought of a way to get compensated.
‘Kill the plant.’
He started approaching from that perspective.
The 70-hour research was solely for that purpose.
Understanding the curse called
The interface was useful.
This mystery, whose principle had not yet been precisely elucidated, helped Deltain improve the spell further.
He repeatedly revised it meticulously.
Thus, he perfected the spell.
He created a recipe close to perfection.
It was 40 hours had passed since the research began.
What did he do for the remaining 30 hours?
The answer to that would likely bring a wry smile to anyone listening.
Relentlessly revising to eliminate just 0.1%.
Deltain, who became a perfectionist in front of the concept of
Now, only the reward remained.
As always, the serene atmosphere of the bedroom prevailed.
Deltain extended both hands and placed them just below Agnes’ left breast, on her ribs.
Then, to find the exact position, he slightly moved his hands upward.
“Ah…!”
Agnes’ body stiffened.
Delta didn’t mind her reaction.
No, more accurately, he had no time to mind it.
His focus was solely on this one spell.
Blue mana burst forth.
Simultaneously, another world that only Deltain could see unfolded.
A landscape made of mana.
In it, Deltain observed the seed and root-like mana enveloping her heart.
The Magic Flower Actrias.
The curse that had plagued Deltain for three months was there.
‘Take it slow.’
Deltain floated mana above Agnes’ heart.
The mana gathered into a dot and formed a line.
The line spread out at various angles to form a cube.
The empty faces of the cube were filled with other dots, creating an octahedron.
A magic manifesting three-dimensional
The great miracle this land called the Third Realm began to manifest.
The octahedral cube began to spin.
The spinning accelerated, starting to emit heat.
There was only one reason for this phenomenon.
Drought, as the name implied, was a magic that dried up the mana in space.
Now, the Magic Flower Actrias would lose the mana it relied on for sustenance.
‘You can live without mana.’
As much as he would drain the mana from her heart, Agnes would feel fatigue.
But it wasn’t important.
Enduring fatigue was better than dying from the curse draining her life.
‘I can’t completely kill the curse.’
It was one of the main quests of the DLC, after all.
It was clear that a single 3rd tier magic wouldn’t be enough to resolve it.
However, it would be enough to buy some time.
As the heat intensified, the magic flower weakened.
Agnes’ body grew increasingly rigid.
Her intermittent suppressed groans were the only signs of her survival.
With each positive sign, Deltain’s smile deepened.
The news was all good.
Finally, Deltain heard the fanfare.
Once again, he emerged victorious.
<168 days remaining until the blossoming of Magic Flower Actrias.>
With the alarm, all the mana dissipated.
Deltain felt a spine-tingling thrill.
Only then did he withdraw his hands and lift his head.
There was Agnes, with a startled face, drenched in cold sweat.
It was a face marked with intense fatigue.
But she probably didn’t even feel the fatigue.
‘You know your body best.’
She must have felt her lifespan extend, so fatigue couldn’t matter.
This was it.
This was what Deltain wanted.
The expression of someone who had always looked down on him finally acknowledging him.
Proving himself by punching the face of someone reminiscing about failure.
The thrill of once again rising to the position of victor.
All of this was undoubtedly a stronger drug for Deltain than anything else in the world.
Deltain’s smile deepened indescribably.
In his golden eyes, a flame of ecstasy flared up like a log set ablaze.
“I told you.”
Now, only the declaration remained.
To arrogantly raise his chin while trampling those who had ignored him.
“I may make mistakes, but I never fail.”
It wasn’t a complete victory.
The magic flower was still residing in her heart, and all he had done today was delay its growth.
So what?
This was just one step.
Deltain had no doubt he would take many more steps than this.
The magic flower would eventually be just a mishap.
He would overcome this trial and become the victor.
“I don’t know the meaning of failure.”
Deltain chuckled, savoring his deserved reward.
At that moment.
Thump.
Agnes placed her hand on Deltain’s cheek.
Then she stroked under his eye with her thumb.
Deltain’s body slightly stiffened.
Only then did something catch his eye.
A thin, white, emaciated body exposed by removing the upper garment.
And the white skin gleaming with cold sweat.
… no, more than that, eyes that took his breath away.
Agnes’ gaze was fixed directly on Deltain’s eyes.
The emotion contained in them was of a kind Deltain couldn’t understand.
Cherry blossom-colored eyes set in the middle of dark circles.
That alone was so vivid.
The contrast of pink dots on a black canvas was so dreamy and quietly glowing that it left Deltain speechless.
A sudden silence ensued.
In that silence, Agnes’ lips curved into a long arc.
“Beautiful.”
She murmured such words.