How to Save a Time-Limited Heroine

Inside the underground sewer system.

Illuminating the dark surroundings, Deltain looked at the interface and continued his thoughts.

‘Quests have clues in their names.’

Every quest he had done so far had been like that.

This was evident even when he was gathering DLC materials after clearing the main story.

The quest to obtain the No.1 Chambler’s Dream was called .

True to its name, upon entering Chambler’s domain, Deltain had to spot the differences in the landscape reminiscent of his pre-game life.

The quest for No.4 Jewel of the Deep Sea was similar.

The quest was called , and Deltain had to rely solely on his senses to capture the beast in the pitch-dark depths.

‘Hide and seek.’

Deltain focused on that word.

Hide and seek was a game where one seeker found players hiding all over.

Contextually, he was likely the seeker, and the other players were the demons.

‘Assume one is already caught.’

The demon of lust, Protogenia.

That demon, suspected to be the cause of his infection, must have been one of the players.

As he considered this, a new interface appeared before Deltain.

Deltain let out a bitter laugh.

‘Would it hurt to tell me in advance?’

It was always like this.

The interface never provided clues until Deltain figured things out.

Deltain attributed this characteristic to the interface’s inability to recognize things outside his awareness.

Clicking his tongue, Deltain moved on.

For about four hours.

Deltain found nothing but an astonishingly clean sewer system.

*

‘Not a single one?’

It was strange.

Considering the was spread out on the surface of the capital, the only place left for demons to hide would be the underground sewers, yet there was no trace of any demons here.

There was no doubt of another form of temptation coming at him.

Deltain had maintained a mental barrier continuously since he was first tempted by the demon.

Mental Check was a spell that would alert him if it detected any changes in perception or behavior from his state at the time of casting.

In other words, Deltain himself hadn’t experienced any perceptual changes since falling into temptation.

‘… my approach was wrong.’

Deltain pondered.

To recall what he might have missed.

And he could come up with an answer fairly quickly.

‘… the problem was from the time of casting.’

Mental Check sets its reference point at the moment of casting.

In other words, if there was already a problem at that time, such a phenomenon would make sense.

Deltain let out a wry smile.

And at that moment.

An anomaly occurred.

*

“Have you woken up?”

The highest and most scenic room in the Levadine Duchy.

Agnes, who was lying in the bed there, turned her head at the sound of the voice.

There was a woman with ash-gray hair, impressively towering over two meters and boasting rugged muscles.

“… Kaltara.”

“Oh, you remember my name.”

Kaltara grinned widely.

Agnes frowned, recalling what had happened before she fell asleep.

And she asked.

“Where is Deltain?”

“Gone to catch the demon.”

“Why are you here?”

“Didn’t the boss say? I’m here to guard the princess.”

“That’s unnecessary.”

“Hmm, I don’t particularly want to do it either. But what can I do? The princess might try to kill herself.”

Agnes’s frown deepened.

Kaltara chuckled at her expression.

“You’ve really been charmed. That frown suits you quite well.”

“Bring Deltain here.”

“No.”

“I want to see him.”

“Well, the boss probably doesn’t want to see the princess.”

Deltain was someone who extremely disliked losing control of his emotions.

Given that, he wouldn’t want to meet Agnes while he was under the influence of temptation, but the context of the conversation was the issue.

No, Kaltara deliberately said that in this context.

Agnes’s expression hardened.

“That’s not true.”

“It is.”

“Deltain would want to see me.”

“I swear on my neck, even if the princess begs, the boss won’t come here.”

“We promised each other.”

“I heard about that. The princess seemed like quite a desperate dog. How about 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.

A look of disdain appeared on Agnes’s face.

“Get lost.”

“If you need me later, just say the word. You won’t regret it. There were quite a few women who liked it.”

“Homosexuality? That’s truly barbaric, isn’t it?”

“I don’t see people sexually. I just chose this to shut those women up. One poke and they would scream. Some even begged on their knees for more…”

“Disgusting.”

Saying so, Agnes turned away from Kaltara.

She curled up into a ball.

“… I won’t eat anything until Deltain comes.”

“Do as you wish. I wasn’t ordered to make you eat.”

Kaltara thought.

There was no brat like this brat.

Even though amplified emotions were the cause, it was still the case.

‘That’s probably her true nature.’

When stripping away the authority and pretense from Agnes Levadine, that was what she’d look like.

Kaltara felt curiosity stir within her.

She wondered what Deltain’s reaction would be to seeing her like this.

‘This will be fun.’

Just as Kaltara was thinking that and smiling.

[Screeeeech-!!!]

A scream echoed from above the mansion.

Agnes’s body jolted.

Kaltara tilted her head, then made an sound.

“A demon. Judging by the scream, it’s a demon of contempt.”

“A demon? Why is there a demon here? The city’s surface is…”

“Are you talking about the boss’s magic? Well, it seems they found a way to get through it. Given that the boss was under temptation, it wouldn’t be strange for anything to happen.”

Kaltara said as she stood up.

Agnes’s face was filled with astonishment.

She was already soaked in temptation, accepting all emotions to their extremes.

“Is Deltain in danger?”

“No way, the boss can never be in danger. It’s the people of the city who are in danger.”

Kaltara laughed loudly and continued.

“Oh, but the boss’s pride must have taken a big hit. I remember what he said when he made the streetlights. If a demon breaks through this, he’d applaud and praise them.”

Kaltara felt a strange regret.

Deltain was someone who kept his word no matter what, and his memory was extraordinary, never forgetting what he said.

If he found the demon responsible for this phenomenon, he would indeed praise it.

‘I should have stayed by the boss’s side.’

It would have been quite an entertaining scene.

[Screeeeech-!!!]

The demon’s scream echoed again.

This time, it sounded closer to the mansion.

Agnes’s body flinched.

Kaltara laughed and picked up a pen from beside the bed.

“Can I borrow this? Oh, I won’t be returning it.”

“… then it’s not borrowing.”

“I’ll steal it.”

Saying so, she strode to the terrace door and opened it.

Cold wind poured into the bedroom.

After stepping out onto the terrace, Kaltara looked up at the sky.

There was a flying mass of flesh.

If you turned a person’s skin inside out, it would look just like that.

The giant hands that spread like wings were webbed between the fingers, and the body was made up of bumpy red nodules wrapped around intestines.

The head looked like an anus, gaping as it let out sounds.

Demon of Contempt.

Judging by its monstrous size and grotesque appearance, it was at least a high-ranking demon with a name.

Kaltara wasn’t curious enough to wonder what that name was.

‘Hmm, I just need to kill it.’

She stirred her mana.

The mana that erupted from Kaltara’s heart spread like smoke around her, then imbued itself into the pen in her hand.

The pen began to tremble.

With an indifferent face, Kaltara flicked her arm and threw the pen.

It looked like she was tossing a piece of paper into a wastebasket.

But the result was horrific.

Boom-!

The pen lodged itself in the demon’s body, and the demon exploded.

The torrent of mana that erupted from the pen shredded the demon’s body.

Splatter.

The demon’s blood and flesh rained down on the mansion’s garden.

“Oh dear, the gardener will have a hard time.”

That was Kaltara’s only comment.