Chapter 191
The disappearance of a demon god’s divine Relic…
Although things were a complete mess for the teachers, the students had no idea about what was going on.
Anyway, I felt a little guilty about making them look for something they wouldn’t be able to find…
What should I do?
If I told others that I had it, my head would go flying, so I couldn’t do that.
Saturday…
I didn’t go out to do my early morning exercise.
It would have been impossible for me to just calmly exercise while knowing that the nuclear bomb in the form of a sword might explode in my face. Adriana seemed to be waiting for me, but I just couldn’t leave.
Even when I was just sitting still in my room, I couldn’t sleep properly because of the pounding of my heart.
What if someone finds it?
If the Temple teachers find out about all this, would I be able to get out of Temple somehow?
With Sarkegaar’s ring, is it possible to somehow get away from Temple?
I didn’t really mean it.
However, it sure was a huge mess when my thoughts wandered to the worst cases that could happen.
A Royal Class student brought a strange item back to Temple that was thought to be cursed.
However, it was later found out that it was presumed to be a demon god’s divine Relic.
Then it suddenly disappeared, but it turned out that the same Royal Class student who had brought it had it with him.
When investigating the student, it turned out that he was the descendant of the late Demon King, the Demon Prince that had survived.
—If all that got revealed, it was obvious that not even 100 million achievement points were enough to get me out of that!
Anyway, that situation seemed so contrived and much too coincidental.
The cursed sword I found in the Darklands somehow turned out to be a god’s divine Relic, and it had been mistaken as the Relic of a demon god, then it suddenly appeared in my room.
That just didn’t make any sense unless someone artificially created the situation to screw me over!
Damnit.
I felt like the world itself hated me.
Certainly…
Nothing would have happened if I just threw that thing away in the Darklands, saying that it felt too ominous or something.
Even if someone had created that situation, I couldn’t say anything against it because the situation was the result of my decision, after all.
I had many opportunities to give up that cursed sword, but I tried to take it for myself somehow, and that was how that situation came to be.
Anyway…
I didn’t go out for my early morning exercise and wasn’t able to sleep properly, but I still tried to organize my thoughts on how to deal with the situation by lying on my bed.
The corrupted Tiamata…
Once it reached Temple, they had tried to interpret or lift the curse placed on it. However, they didn’t seem to be aware of the detailed mechanisms behind divine power.
Wouldn’t the results be a little different if they were to approach it not as a cursed item but just as a corrupted divine Relic that had to be restored to its original form? Those were my thoughts on the matter.
I wasn’t a priest or a wizard, so I knew their methods were wrong, but I couldn’t tell how they were wrong.
However, in fact, I couldn’t leave it in the hands of Temple’s priests anymore. Telling them that the cursed sword that had suddenly disappeared had returned to my grasp would be suicide.
I would be mistaken as an apostle of a demon god, and whether I wanted to or not, every religious force would try to catch and kill me.
If I said something like, “I’m really not a demon god’s apostle, you know?” they’d just go, “Yeah, right.” and cut my head off. Who the hell would believe someone who had something like that? I wouldn’t believe myself, either.
The lost Relic of a demon god… Me having it…
A situation in which I couldn’t get any help from Temple…
There were only three people I could ask for help in that situation.
One would be Ellen. She trusted me completely and would probably help me. Of course, I had to be prepared to get a beating. However, I didn’t know if Ellen could actually help me at that point.
Next would be Dettomolian, who had performed the ritual.
I could ask him what the ritual he did before was actually supposed to do and then make him proceed with the rest of it to complete it.
I didn’t know what the goal of the ritual was, but I was more than certain that it awakened the corrupted Tiamata’s powers or ended up making some changes to it.
The result was that Tiamata, which had been kept somewhere else, suddenly returned to me.
If I completed the ritual, it might complete our soul bond, enabling me to control the sword. As the corrupted Tiamata didn’t really have a negative effect on its surroundings on its own, I could just toss it somewhere hidden from others and leave it there and summon it when I needed it.
And the third person…
One of the biggest reasons why I didn’t get brainwashed by that cursed sword.
Trait – Sacred Spirit.
Its original owner, Olivia Lanze.
Olivia Lanze was so powerful that she was even called Saint of the Eredian District, but she ended up abandoning her faith. Although she had already been disillusioned by her faith, she still held enormous divine powers.
I had saved her life. There was a pretty good chance that she would help me.
If she presumed that the sword was actually Tiamata, the Holy Sword, and not the divine Relic of a demon god, she might be able to perform a purification or restoration ritual on it.
And she might be able to take over the ownership of the sword from me as well.
Regardless of whether it was possible to transfer the ownership of that sword to others, I wouldn’t know anyone to give it to, even if I could.
Anyone who touched the sword would get their mind taken over, after all.
The only ones who were definitely immune to that curse were Olivia Lanze and me, who had the trait “Sacred Spirit”.
Just as I became the master of the sword after I grabbed it, Olivia wouldn’t be affected by the sword’s curse either if she held it.
If it was possible to transfer the ownership, the only one I could transfer it to would be Olivia Lanze.
Of course, I didn’t know if she would help me out or not.
It was the weekend…
Eventually, I was forced to leave the room, so I locked the corrupted Tiamata in a drawer. Even if a staff member came in to clean, they wouldn’t open that.
However, I kept feeling uneasy even while I was eating breakfast.
I felt like I had gone out after I watched some porn on my pc and had forgotten to close the tab.
No one would come into my room, but what if someone did? What if they saw?
My head was full of such thoughts.
The crucial difference between those two situations was that if I got caught, it wouldn’t just end in my humiliation, but in the loss of my head.
Anyway, it felt the same! I felt fucking uneasy!
Fortunately, no one was able to sense my abnormal state of mind, which meant that my anxiety wasn’t evident on my face.
* * *
Translator – KonnoAren
* * *
After breakfast…
I first tried to visit Dettomolian in Class B’s dorm.
However, he wasn’t in his room.
“If you’re looking for Detto, he hasn’t returned after Mr. Mustrang called him yesterday.”
When I asked Charlotte if she had seen Dettomolian after meeting her in Class B’s dorm, she just shook her head slightly as she answered me.
“Oh… Is that so?”
“Hmm… You must feel worried as well.”
Charlotte sighed slightly as if she was aware of the situation and patted me on the back. It was quite the huge deal that a demon god’s divine Relic had been discovered, so it seemed like she thought I was going to try something.
“It’s okay, Reinhardt. The teachers will take care of everything. Don’t worry too much and rest. It’s not your fault.”
Urgh.
Charlotte’s eyes that showed her unconditional trust in me hurt my heart.
The Imperial Family must have been thrown into a state of turmoil by the appearance of an item believed to be a demon god’s divine Relic, and its disappearance would have caused an even bigger uproar.
I didn’t know much about the internal affairs of the Imperial Family, but the atmosphere inside of it should have gotten quite serious.
Damnit.
The item I brought was so incredible that it had managed to turn the whole city upside down.
It was just like a rotten apple spoiling everything around it.
Of course, if it were known that it actually was the Holy Sword Tiamata, they’d be in a festive mood, but that was only if they were willing to accept that it was Tiamata.
‘This might cause this world’s version of the Yesong Controversy. ‘
Was it really Towan’s will that cursed Tiamata to hold her opposing power, the power of corruption? Was that really the corrupted Tiamata or not? If the divine Relic of the god of purity could be corrupted and restored again, would it still be a Relic representing the power of purity?
—They would fight over the verity of the matter like that.
It wasn’t just a nuclear bomb in the material sense, but in the ideological one as well. The fact that divine Relics weren’t absolute items would cause an enormous uproar in the religious world.
Anyway, I was planning on asking Dettomolian what ritual he was trying to perform, but it seemed like he was still held up by the teachers.
I hoped that he wasn’t going through any hardships. After all, the most suspicious individual in this incident wasn’t me but Dettomolian. After he performed the ritual, Tiamata had disappeared.
That ritual certainly didn’t seem all that sacred to them as well. It was such a blasphemous sight.
However, Dettomolian didn’t perform the ritual because he wanted to, but because Temple ordered him to.
Since I couldn’t consult Dettomolian first, I immediately headed to the fifth-year dormitory and asked for Olivia Lanze.
“Reinhardt! Long time no see. It’s so nice to see you!”
“A-ah! What’s wrong with you?!”
As soon as Olivia Lanze saw me, she instantly became happy and came rushing towards me, hugging me recklessly.
“I’m sad! Didn’t you miss me? Hm? Didn’t you take much too much time to come visit me? Hmmmm?”
“H-hey! Let go!”
“Don’t waaaant tooo!”
I knew things would turn out like that!
* * *
Olivia Lanze.
She had been a believer of the god of purity, Towan, and everyone expected her to become the commander of the Knights Templar.
However, after learning of the Knights Templar’s corruption, she tried to renounce her faith, and originally, she should have already left the main stage of the story, ending up being broken or dead.
Some time back, Adirana and I had been able to save Oliva Lanze from Riviere Lanze, the former commander of the Knights Templar, by doing various things.
As such, Olivia Lance lost all trust in her faith. She was beyond disillusioned with the corrupt Knights Templar, she was deeply disappointed in the faith’s god itself.
Every time she saw me, she would tell me something like, “Don’t see anyone else, Reinhardt, because you’ll marry me later, after all.”
That was why I would be peppered with jealous girls by others, and I even got the title of “guy who only hangs out with girls” by them.
In fact, things weren’t that different from that, after all, so I couldn’t really say anything against it.
Anyway, if I was asked how close I was with Olivia Lanze, I’d say not that close.
That person just showed some one -ided affection towards me. The only problem was that the way she showed her affection was a little too aggressive.
“I felt sooo sad… I had nowhere to go, so I was stuck here all vacation, and you didn’t even visit me once. I thought you’d come here to tell me about what happened in the Darklands…”
“Why would I tell you about that?”
“Aren’t we supposed to know everything about each other?”
“What the hell are you saying?!”
And I couldn’t stand myself for not even being able to push her away, even though I didn’t like that at all!
When I was with that person, I felt like I was having a mental breakdown in real-time. Anyway, we talked about various things outside of the Royal Class’ dormitory. I couldn’t even look into her eyes as she clung to my arm and smiled.
“I heard a bit. You’ve solved some huge incident, got rewarded, and ranked up a lot as an adventurer.”
“Where did you hear that from?”
“My, there are actually fewer people who don’t know about you two, you know? You and the girl called Ellen went to the Darklands, although no one knows the details, there are rumors that you came back after solving a huge case, right?”
It had already been weird for two freshmen to go to the Darklands, and it was obvious that we came back after solving some huge incident there. It seemed like that story had already spread.
“So, I was kind of expecting you to tell me some things…”
Olivia Lanze pouted and showed her disappointment. ‘No, if you were so curious, you could have come and asked me yourself.’ Why was she waiting for me to come visit her?
“Senior.”
“Hm, what?”
She pretended to be upset, but she obviously wasn’t. She was doing that on purpose.
“I asked you to meet up with me because I wanted to consult you on a certain matter.”
“A certain matter…?”
“Yes. Before that, I want to ask you something…”
I looked directly at Olivia Lanze as I posed my question.
“What I’m about to say… can you keep it a secret, no matter what might happen?”
“Of course~?”
Olivia Lanze, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, tilted her head and smiled bashfully.
“I’m not joking around.”
However, after she returned safely after being held captive, I could trust her no matter what she said because her attitude to most things seemed as light as a feather.
I had no idea if she was joking around or sincere in her words. She always had that mischievous and flirtatious look in her eyes, no matter what she said.
Olivia Lanze’s expression tensed up as I was saying that I wasn’t joking.
“You need help.”
The smile completely disappeared from Olivia Lanze’s face, realizing that I was really serious.
She gently let go of the arm she was clinging to and looked at me with a firm expression on her face.
“…Yes. I need your help.”
“I don’t know if you’ll believe me or not, but…”
Olivia smiled slightly, unlike the wide grin she wore up until then.
“I’m on your side.”
It somewhat resembled the slightly sad smile she had on her face when she was called The Saint of the Eredian District.
“Trust me.”
It felt like she was telling me that she would be ready for anything I would tell her.
“Because I trust you as well.”
Olivia spoke those words so very calmly.
