NOVEL NEXT Ch. 42
There was no time to dwell on other thoughts.
Deltain swiftly approached Agnes and grabbed her wrist.
Whoosh!
Blue mana surged and enveloped Agnes’ body.
Soon, it seeped into her.
Deltain’s expression crumpled.
Naturally, even the
‘This is bad, seriously.’
Deltain exhaled a breath and gazed at Agnes, whose regression had already begun.
She was now in the body of a ten-year-old.
Despite taking the swiftest possible action, the regression had progressed further.
Had he been just a little later, she might have regressed into an infant and disappeared entirely.
Though the worst outcome had been avoided, it was no time to relax.
Due to her mental defense of 0.1, the regression was still ongoing.
“Deltain. What’s going on?”
Agnes asked.
She was now so small that she barely reached his chest, having to crane her neck to look up at him.
“… did you get taller?”
“No, you shrunk. The Demon of Retrograde got to you. You’re now in the body of a ten-year-old.”
At his words, Agnes looked down at her hand and made a small sound of realization.
“Oh, you’re right. No scar on my palm. I got it when I was around fourteen, from hitting a shelf corner.”
“This isn’t the time to be so carefree. I took measures, but they didn’t fully work.”
“Mistake?”
“Yeah, a mistake. I underestimated how messed up your body is.”
Deltain clicked his tongue.
Then, he scanned Agnes’ body with mana.
‘At least the Heart Supporter is functioning properly.’
Since it was a masterpiece, it seemed unaffected by the curse.
In fact, it had even adjusted to Agnes’ reduced body size and was continuing to support her.
At least her heart wasn’t under strain, which was a relief.
‘With a mental defense of 1, it would take a week for the regression to complete.’
At 0.1, it was safe to assume it would be ten times faster.
Even with the effect halved, she had only about two days before the regression would end.
“We’re changing course. We need to find the demon first.”
The only way to break the curse was to kill the demon hosting it.
He would need to track it using the fragments of its tail.
As Deltain was preparing to summon the hounds for the hunt, Agnes grabbed his wrist.
“Deltain.”
“What.”
“How’s the magic flower?”
“It’s still there, obviously. It’s a higher-tier curse than temptation.”
“Hmm… things aren’t going smoothly, are they?”
Though her words sounded disappointed, Agnes was strangely relaxed.
She continued to examine her body curiously and even gauged the height difference between herself and Deltain.
Deltain let out a dry chuckle.
“Hey, you’re the one at risk of dying. Shouldn’t you at least pretend to be worried?”
“You’ll save me. Anyway, how do I look?”
“What do you mean?”
Agnes smirked.
She poked her now-rounded cheeks with her finger and said.
“Don’t I look cute, being this young?”
She giggled.
Her pallor had faded, and the mischievous expression that surfaced was quite endearing. Deltain finally understood why Duke Levadine never stopped gushing about his
Though his response was gruff as ever.
“Maybe I should just leave you behind with this curse.”
“That’d be child abandonment.”
“You’re not a child. Just in a child’s body.”
“My mind’s young too. I’m a sheltered flower in a greenhouse, oblivious to the world.”
“What a brag.”
Deltain sighed and cut off the conversation with a note of caution
“The magic works based on my proximity. Don’t stray too far from me.”
“Hmm, then pick me up.”
“What?”
“It’s tiring to keep craning my neck to look up at you.”
Agnes spread her arms and even stood on her tiptoes.
Deltain stared at her for a moment, hesitated briefly, then let out a deep sigh and hoisted her up with one hand.
Agnes steadied herself by placing her arms around his shoulders.
“Whoa, the air up here is so fresh.”
“Stop fooling around. I might just toss you away.”
“That’d be child abuse.”
“So, what.”
Agnes chuckled.
Then, as if just remembering something, she asked Deltain.
“By the way, now that my body’s reverted to the past, does that mean my hymen…?”
“That’s enough.”
Deltain’s eyes glinted dangerously.
“One of the things I hate most is when people make comments like that about children’s bodies. Just hearing it makes me want to snap their necks.”
“Uh, sorry.”
Agnes quickly apologized.
The look in Deltain’s eyes had been more than enough to convince her of his sincerity.
“It was just a joke. It’s my body, after all.”
“Even as a joke, I hate it.”
Deltain’s face was deeply troubled, as if he was recalling something unpleasant.
Noticing this, Agnes asked cautiously.
“Have you… encountered something like that? Someone like that?”
“I’ve seen it and almost experienced it myself.”
That, too, had happened on Earth.
It was something that had happened when he was about eight years old, a threat that often loomed over a small Asian child abandoned in a foreign land like America.
It was an incident that still left scars on him to this day.
Agnes shuddered slightly at his words.
“Hmm…”
She gently tapped Deltain’s shoulder with her finger and said.
“I guess they deserve to die then. The ones who tormented you.”
“He’s already dead. His wife found out later and stabbed him with a knife.”
“… it was a man?”
“Let’s drop this topic. It’s making me feel sick.”
“Alright.”
With that, the conversation ceased.
The hounds returned shortly after.
They flinched when they saw the small Agnes in Deltain’s arms.
Meanwhile, Kaltara laughed heartily.
“Ha! You really got hit hard!”
“Enough. Hand over Cargo.”
“Ah, whoops!”
Kaltara said this as she dismounted from the motorcycle.
It was then that something caught Agnes’ eye.
Cardinal Cargo was lying on the back seat of the motorcycle, his cheeks sunken.
“… what’s wrong with the Cardinal?”
“It’s better if you don’t know.”
Kaltara picked up Cargo. He looked like a kitten being dragged by the scruff of the neck by its mother.
Cargo trembled, raising his eyelids with a shake.
Deltain spoke.
“It’s demon tracking. There are signs in the bushes over there, so go look.”
Cargo’s throat bobbed as if he had something to say but held it in.
He only managed to speak in a worn-out voice.
“Ah… I understand…”
At least while tracking demons, he could stay far from Kaltara.
With that small hope in mind.
*
In
It was to track, identify, and heal demons.
Cardinal St. Cargo was terrible at identifying, but he was a highly skilled priest in healing and tracking. And that was why Deltain favored him.
Identification was something Deltain could do himself.
Whoosh.
A whirlwind blew around Cargo.
Golden sacred energy revealed the wind’s flow visibly.
The swirling sacred energy slowly moved. After wrapping around a fragment of a tail, it gently floated in a certain direction before scattering.
“North.”
“Well, at least we don’t have to backtrack. That’s a relief.”
Deltain muttered, gazing northward where the whirlwind had dispersed.
Agnes glanced at the tail fragment and commented.
“Is this demon flesh? It’s really gross.”
“This is on the cute side, actually.”
Deltain meant that sincerely.
The squirming flesh was one of the more harmless organs found in demons.
“Ugh.”
Agnes kicked her legs and made a face.
Deltain frowned.
“Stop squirming. It’s hard to maintain balance.”
“Raising children is always a struggle.”
“You’re not exactly at the age where you’d need raising.”
“Waaah.”
“If you want to pick a fight, do it properly. Don’t just irritate me.”
Agnes chuckled mischievously.
“Still, I’m glad we brought Jerry. Otherwise, I’d have nothing to wear.”
Jerry was one of the maids Agnes had brought along. Naturally gifted with mending, she had quickly altered Agnes’ clothes as soon as her body had shrunk.
Agnes fiddled with the hem of her white dress and spoke.
“Should we buy some clothes in the next town? These altered clothes feel too mature for this body.”
“No need. We’ll catch the demon within two days, and if we don’t, you’ll die anyway.”
Deltain said as he got into the car.
Cargo was once again dragged to Kaltara’s motorcycle.
As Gerhart started the car, the motorcycle moved ahead.
It was a shame that their planned camp was canceled, but it couldn’t be helped.
Deltain wasn’t the type to relax when faced with a time attack.
*
And so, once again, he had to sleep in the car.
Though the car was enchanted and the seat large enough for one person to lie down, for Deltain today, it felt cramped.
“It’s so fucking cramped.”
Deltain laid with Agnes in his arms.
Since he needed to maintain constant physical contact with her, they couldn’t be apart even while sleeping.
Not knowing this situation would arise, Deltain regretted not making a double bed, but quickly dismissed the thought.
‘No, that would have just led to teasing.’
The demon of retrograde had been an unforeseen crisis from the start.
Even if he’d prepared a double bed, that lascivious woman would have only spouted nonsense.
The thought of his nerves being frayed made him prefer the cramped sleeping arrangement.
“Deltain.”
Agnes poked her head out.
She was using his arm as a pillow.
“Sing me a lullaby.”
“You seem too caught up in this role. Get a grip. The demon of retrograde makes your body younger, not your mind.”
“Too bad. If my mind had regressed too, you would have sung a lullaby.”
“No, I absolutely would not.”
Deltain shut his eyes tightly.
That signaled he had no intention of continuing the conversation.
But Agnes wouldn’t let him sleep.
“I wonder how much younger I’ll be when I wake up?”
“Stop saying such horrifying things.”
Deltain said this, but he knew.
Horribly enough, she would indeed be younger when she woke.
“Don’t abandon me just because I become a nuisance.”
“Then be obedient.”
“Children usually don’t listen.”
“What the hell…”
“Waaah.”
Agnes grinned mischievously.
Deltain squinted at her, then flicked his fingers with a sharp
“It’ll wear off in four hours. Go to sleep.”
With that, he fell into slumber.
*
The next morning.
When Deltain opened his eyes, he was greeted by five-year-old Agnes staring at him with wide, curious eyes.
Five-year-old Agnes had pale, chubby cheeks, but her features were already defined, making her look adorably cute.
Deltain let out a laugh.
Not because of her appearance, but because of the terrible reality, the ridiculousness of it all made him laugh bitterly.
“Ha…”
Even with magical barriers in place overnight, the regression had been this extreme. What would it have been like otherwise?
The thought brought a blunt comment to his lips.
“Your body is really a piece of crap.”
Flinch.
Agnes flinched.
Deltain frowned. That wasn’t a reaction Agnes would normally have.
“What’s wrong?”
His voice was sharp as he asked, and Agnes flinched again.
Her eyes darted around nervously before she spoke with a trembling, frightened tone.
“Where’s Mom?”
Her voice was babyish and hesitant.
Normally, Deltain would have immediately considered the possibility of something being wrong.
But this was Agnes Levadine, the woman who never missed a chance to exasperate him.
So, his reply was as indifferent as ever.
“You don’t have a mom.”
The words hit five-year-old Agnes like a brick.
Her face froze, then slowly began to contort.
Her eyes welled with tears.
It was then that Deltain realized the
“Waaaah!”
Her mental resistance of 0.1 was far worse than he could have anticipated.
Agnes Levadine’s mind had truly regressed to that of a child.