Chapter 195
This incident had come to a close.
The most worrisome thing in that situation was that Dettomolian might have to suffer quite a bit because of me.
It seemed like he had already returned to the dormitory after he had been investigated throughout Saturday, maybe because he was a Temple student or because the investigation revealed that they had reached a dead end.
Olivia Lanze had already realized that she and I were the joint owners of the Holy Sword.
“Well, I don’t really want to use it, so I think it should be all yours, Reinhardt.”
Olivia Lanze tried to help me regardless of it being a Holy Sword or not, so she seemed a little soured that she was also soul-bound to Tiamata.
By the way, that girl slept in my room until after lunchtime like that.
Despite seeing her disheveled state, her beauty hadn’t been ruined… What? How come her beauty hadn’t reduced even after just waking up?
“Hrmmmm!”
Olivia Lanze stretched and then slowly opened her eyes and looked at me.
“By the way, I want to show you something really interesting, Reinhardt.”
“Wh-what would that be…?”
If it was something weird, I didn’t want to see it! Sh-she shouldn’t! It couldn’t be that she had gotten used to all that in just a single day or something like that, right?
“Look at this.”
Olivia Lanze raised her right hand and closed her eyes.
-Uuung
“…What is this?”
I couldn’t help but be shocked at the energy gathering around Olivia Lanze’s hand.
That young lady was able to use tremendous amounts of divine power. Just the day before I saw her using Towan’s divine power during the ceremony.
“Hehe… I think I understood the true nature of divine power.”
However, the energy enveloping Olivia Lanze’s hand was too evil and too dark to be considered Towan’s divine power.
“No way… This… Is it that?”
“Yeah.”
I felt a certain insidiousness, completely different from before, emitting from Olivia Lanze’s eyes as she opened them.
“I think I now know how to use the power of Towan’s other side, so to speak, Kier’s power.”
Towan was Kier.
Olivia had understood that Towan’s divine power could also be used as its opposing force if one manifested in a different way.
And the day before, while performing the ceremony to restore Towan’s Relic to its original state, she seemed to have understood the principle behind that power.
It looked like Olivia Lanze was able to use Towan’s divine power, the power of purity, as well as the power of the demon god Kier, the god of Corruption.
She was able to use both sides of that divine power even though they were completely different from each other.
The power of purity, and the power of corruption.
“Does that mean… I’m the only true believer of Towan? That’s kind of funny.”
She was able to completely understand her Goddess because she forsook her. She might be able to call herself the one and only true believer of Towan for understanding her power as well as her ambivalence, enabling her to both use the power of Towan, who she abandoned, and Kier’s power.
Anyway, Olivia Lanze had become the only person in the world who could use both the power of a goddess and a demon god.
Just what should I say?
I felt like I had just witnessed the birth of a monster, an event much more important than the Holy Sword, Tiamata’s appearance.
“Ah, so what about this?”
-Blink
Sitting in the bed, Olivia Lanze summoned the Holy Sword Tiamata to her hand. As we were sharing its ownership, Tiamata was mine as well as Olivia Lanze’s.
She looked at me with a sinister smile on her lips and an ominous gaze in her eyes.
“Should I corrupt the restored Holy Sword Tiamata and turn it back into the demon sword Tiamata again?”
“Wh-what are you talking about, you bastard!”
Hey, I’m just kidding, just kidding-.”
If I hadn’t stopped her, she would have totally done it!
Ultimately, it was true that Olivia Lanze had saved me from a serious crisis. To be exact, I wouldn’t have been able to use the item in its cursed state, but I was very pleased that the soul-bond had been properly established so that I could completely control Tiamata.
It was a secret that I had the Holy Sword in my possession, so, as I had thought, I dumped it at the bottom of the Irene River where no one would find it. I didn’t even have to go there to place it there. Just by thinking of sending it there, I could feel that it actually traveled to that place.
Although I had saved Olivia Lanze’s life, I still expressed my gratitude in my own way.
Olivia was quite magnanimous.
She said, “If you’re so grateful, just buy me a meal later”, and went back to her own room to rest for the remainder of the day.
* * *
Ellen felt rather refreshed, so after Reinhardt woke up and went back to his room, she also returned to her room to wash up.
Sunday…
She couldn’t concentrate properly the day before, so she wanted to try to stay a little more focused. Reinhardt might also come to the gym, as the problem holding him back had been resolved.
Of course, he might not come if something else happened, but what would she do if he didn’t?
Ellen left her private room to go to the gym when her eye met with someone else’s.
—Someone who looked slightly tired but couldn’t help but draw others’ attention nevertheless.
It was Olivia Lanze, the senior who had helped Reinhardt.
She had probably spent the whole day in Reinhardt’s room and was just then returning to her own dorm.
“…?”
Olivia Lanze tilted her head as Ellen looked at her.
“Oh, you’re Reinhardt’s friend, right?”
“Ah… Yes.”
“Do you have something to say to me?”
Reinhardt had certainly been in danger. He would have been in huge trouble if that person hadn’t helped him.
In that case, she should have felt grateful towards her. Before, she had felt weird and offended for no reason whatsoever, so now she felt guilty towards her.
She felt like she showed contempt to the person who helped Reinhardt with nothing but good intentions for no reason. Ellen looked around.
No one was around them.
“Thank you very much. Erm… I heard that you helped Reinhardt. It must have been really hard, but thank you for helping him.”
“Ah, yes. You’re really close to Reinhardt, aren’t you?”
Olivia only smiled sweetly and nodded whole saying that she only did what she should have done.
She really was someone who helped Reinhardt with pure intentions.
Ellen became a little ashamed of herself for that feeling she felt yesterday.
“By the way, you do know that Reinhardt is mine, right?”
“…What?”
Olivia showed her a slightly sinister smile as she left her with those words. Ellen only stared at Olivia’s back.
At the same time…
I don’t like that person.
I like Harriet, so why do I hate that person?
Ellen couldn’t explain why she felt that way.
* * *
Getting my hands on Tiamata didn’t really change anything.
Unless a huge incident like an army of undead appeared in the capital, I had no real use for it. I wasn’t sure if I would go back to Darklands again or not, but even then, the item was only powerful against undead monsters.
Of course, according to what Olivia Lanze had demonstrated, Tiamata could also use its opposing power.
Although she was joking, it was true that she would be able to corrupt the restored Tiamata again.
The Holy Sword Tiamata was a weapon that could exert incredible strength against unclean beings.
In its cursed state, on the other hand, the Demonic Sword Tiamata could make use of its opposing power.
It would exert its absolute power to eliminate the living.
In the end, Tiamata could become a weapon that would exert absolute power against both the living and dead, depending on whether it is used in its original or corrupted state.
Of course, it was impossible for me, who couldn’t wield divine power, so I would need Olivia Lanze’s help.
It was both a Holy Sword and a Demonic Sword at the same time.
With Olivia’s help, Tiamata could become a very versatile weapon.
Of course, it would be best not to use it in its corrupted state. However, I did know that I would definitely end up having to use it someday.
Monday…
After our common classes ended…
“What did you say? You want to treat Detto to a meal?”
“He went through a lot because of me, so I should pay him back somehow.”
“…Seeing you care about such things sure is really surprising, isn’t it?”
I was heading towards Main Street with Dettomolian and Charlotte de Gardias on my way back from school.
* * *
Translator – KonnoAren
* * *
It seemed like B-8 Dettomolian didn’t have to go through anything bad. Still, he was a suspect. Anyway, he was released, in the end, at my request.
Tiamata was secured as well, and I was just as indebted to that guy as I was to Olivia Lanze.
I personally felt quite sorry for him because of various things, so I wanted to do something for him, even if I didn’t know the details of what went down.
In the end, he also told me that all I needed to do was buy him a meal.
And I didn’t actually call Charlotte; she simply tagged along.
When I said that I would buy Dettomolian a meal when I was in Class B’s dorm, Charlotte tagged along with me as if she just witnessed something incredible.
It seemed like the Princess had a lot of time to spare.
Still, I was rather happy with the outcome.
Dettomolian was originally quite the gloomy and silent guy, so when I told him I’d buy him a meal, he simply followed me, however, he didn’t really say anything.
That silence devoid of conversation was resolved by Charlotte, who tagged along out of boredom.
“Siigh… I won’t ever get used to those swimming lessons. I’m dead tired.”
It was still September. The last lesson among our common P.E. classes were still swimming lessons, as the days were still rather warm. Still, I didn’t feel as tired as I did when we first started our lessons.
Dettomolian was also tired, but he didn’t seem like he was about to die of exhaustion.
“Is there anything you want to eat?”
“…Sashimi. Beef Tartare.”
What should I say?
It was kind of like him, wasn’t it?
Of course, I knew that him hailing from a primitive northern tribe didn’t have anything to do with him wanting to eat raw food.
How should I put it…?
It just seemed to fit him…
I looked towards Charlotte.
“Are you fine with that?”
“Huh? I told you I don’t really care about what we eat.”
In the end, we decided to go for beef tartare.
* * *
I was aware of the fact that there were all kinds of restaurants located inside of Temple, but I didn’t expect there to be a restaurant specializing in beef tartare.
Dettomolian seemed to go to that place often on his own, so he led the way.
He continuously ate pieces of beef tartare, opening his eyes wide as if that was the first time eating something like that, then he stuffed more into his mouth.
Like the real thing.
I knew it was really disrespectful and rude to think about him like that, and I did feel sorry for him, but…
Seeing the skinny Dettomolian stuffing his face with beef tartare was a little…
Anyway, it just sort of felt like that!
Of course, the taste of the dish itself was pretty decent.
Most of the food sold at Temple was made from the best ingredients.
“Detto, try this too. It’s very delicious.”
“Yes…”
By the way, Charlotte had been calling Dettomolian by his nickname, so I kind of felt like shit on the inside.
Wasn’t I the epitome of a twisted hypocrite?
Did she call others by nicknames as well?
Or was it just her classmates?
“Do you usually treat everyone like that?”
“Huh? Ah…”
Charlotte smiled bashfully when I asked her that as I watched her putting aside various things for Dettomolian.
“Hm… Well, it’s just… he reminds me of the past, so… I just do these things unconsciously…”
Oh.
Was it like that?
Dettomolian always looked as if he was starving. The reason for that was because I set him up as the scrawniest anchovy that would never gain any weight in this world. That was why Charlotte was taking care of him like that—it reminded her of when she was nearly starving to death in the Demon Realm.
Wh-what the…
What a sad reason for taking care of someone…
“No matter how much I eat… I won’t gain weight…”
When Ellen said something like that, the other girls looked at her as if to say “Are you bragging?”. Even though that guy said exactly the same thing, he looked kind of sad.
Then what if he ate butter bibimbap every day? Wouldn’t he gain weight then?
Well, before he gained weight, he might actually get heart problems first, right?
“Erm, well… Anyway, I’m sorry. I dragged you into this. You must have had a hard time.”
That was the main point of all of that.
“Aside from just buying a meal, I do have some money, even though I’m like this. And if you don’t want to have any money, just tell me if you need any help or want me to get you something.”
It was unknown to me what would have happened if the priest of Towan decided to actually make a move. I wasn’t all that sure if Temple or Charlotte would have been able to protect him, so Dettomolian certainly was in a great deal of danger because of my unnecessary request.
I couldn’t even tell him the truth about everything, so I felt double the guilt. Dettomolian slowly shook his head at my words.
“It’s okay… Temple prepares… anything I would need…”
He answered slowly while still stuffing himself with the meat.
“I’ll tell you… If I need help with anything…”
‘A-ah… Okay.”
I wondered what Dettomolian would need help with.
I hoped it didn’t have anything to do with ghosts…
Although I would be able to exorcise any ghost with the Holy Sword in one shot… I couldn’t be sure I wouldn’t die of a heart attack before I could! I was the kind of person who had died from a heart attack just by reading some malicious comments before!
Dettomolian would let me know later if he needed help with something, so it seemed like things were settled for the time being.
I wasn’t sure what reputation that guy had in Class B at the moment. However, in the original, everyone still felt quite reluctant towards him.
He had a gloomy air about him, was quiet, and always muttered strange things to himself.
However, because he had the invincible connection, Charlotte, who was taking care of him by his side, I wondered if he had gotten closer to the others.
“By the way, out of curiosity, what were you trying to achieve with the ritual the other day?”
“Ah. That…”
Charlotte wasn’t there to witness it in person, but she must have gotten briefed on it. Dettomolian had attempted to perform a ritual on the cursed sword, after which it just up and disappeared.
Dettomolian began to explain as he continued to nibble on the beef tartare.
“I wanted to talk to it.”
“…Talk to it?”
“I was trying to communicate with the energy housing the sword… But the energy was dormant… So I tried to slowly wake it up until it would be able to answer me… Well, I managed to half-awaken it, only getting very little information from it… Then the ritual got interrupted mid-way.”
Primordial magic…
It was completely different from the modern standardized magic we knew. Dettomolian had been trying to talk to the energy inhabiting the sword itself.
But he couldn’t communicate with it properly because it was asleep, so he had kept poking it until it had woken up.
Hey, are you asleep? Hey, wake up! Hey, I got something to say. Huh? You don’t want to wake up? Even if I do this? Or that? You’re strong. You’re still not waking up.
Something like that?
It seemed to have woken up slightly, enough that he managed to grasp something akin to sleep talk, but the ritual got interrupted in the middle.
In the end, he managed to awaken Tiamata’s weakened energy while trying to talk to it; that was why the sword suddenly moved to my room and why the soul-bond between me and it was so awkward.
Then, if things had continued like that, the energy of Tiamata in its corrupted state might have fully awakened.
Olivia Lanze had managed to return it to its state as a Holy Sword, but if Tiamata got awakened in its corrupted state, wouldn’t that have caused a huge accident? Anyway, I was still its owner.
In the end, we wouldn’t know if things would have gotten dangerous if Dettomolian finished the ritual.
It was good enough that no accidents happened after it got stopped in the middle.
“By the way, are you sure that it was a demon god’s divine Relic?”
Charlotte tilted her head.
“I’m not… Sure either… All I know is… that it’s something very old…”
“Hmm, is that so?”
The one who started assuming that it was a demon god’s divine Relic wasn’t Dettomolian but one of the high priests who were in charge of securing the safety of everyone during the ritual. It wasn’t actually confirmed that it was a demon god’s divine Relic.
I eventually managed to apologize to Dettomolian, and we continued to eat.
With that, I decided to wrap things up and continue to focus on my life in Temple again.
“By the way, what exactly is sorcery? I’m really curious about it.”
“…What?”
Charlotte tilted her head as Dettomolian stared at her.
“I don’t know about it, you know? It feels like you can do a lot with it. You managed to find out things that Temple’s black magicians weren’t able to find out, right?”
“I wasn’t able to find out everything, though…”
“But you found out a little bit, right?”
Dettomolian shuddered slightly at Charlotte’s praise.
‘What the hell. Is he acting shy now?’
“Erm… Actually, when I visited Detto’s club room the other day… It seemed a bit creepy. I think I misunderstood, though. I’m really sorry.”
“It’s fine… Everyone is like that…”
He responded as if it was nothing new.
“But Detto, really, just what exactly is sorcery?”
“…What do you mean?”
“Well… In magic, there are the fields of destruction magic, illusion magic, alchemy, enchantment, and magic crafting. One would roughly know what kind of magic they encompass, right? But sorcery is… I mean, I know that you can do a lot with it, but I can’t think of anything specific. So what’s the difference between sorcery and magic?”
“Well……”
Because Charlotte had mentioned it, I started to wonder about it as well.
Of course, I was the one who had set up Dettomolian’s talent to be sorcery, but as he isn’t the main character, I didn’t really delve into it that much.
To put it bluntly, specializations like destruction magic, illusion magic, alchemy, enchantment, and magic crafting were all just types of magic.
Sorcery couldn’t be categorized as just a type. Sorcery was primordial magic, and in the past, sorcery was referred to as just magic.
That meant that sorcery referred to something like universal magic—it didn’t just describe a type of magic.
So, simply put, even though Harriet had a talent to master any type of magic, she wasn’t able to use sorcery because it wasn’t just a type of magic, and she didn’t have a sorcery talent. Sorcery was the magic that existed before our magic.
On the other hand, Dettomolian didn’t have a talent pertaining to modern magic but could master any technique of sorcery.
Sorcery was a comprehensive talent as well, after all.
That was how I had set it up. But how would Dettomolian, the owner of that talent, explain it?
“If I had to name a clear difference between magic and sorcery it would be… The clarity of causality…”
“Clarity of causality?”
Charlotte had a bad feeling about that. However, I kind of understood what he was talking about.
“Magic has magic formulas and certain methods of mana management to use the spell Fireball… If you follow these certain procedures, the spell named Fireball will be activated… But it isn’t like that for sorcery…”
“Ah… I get it. You mean that there are no standardized techniques, right?”
“Something like that… Even if one tried to use the same spell, sometimes its effects would be more powerful, other times it doesn’t even activate… Or it could even lead to a completely different outcome…”
Sorcery was an ancient magic system whose causes and effects were really vague.
It was also called Super Random Magic. (Aren: This sounds a bit lame… I’d call it Roulette Magic but well Super Random Magic was written in there)
After hearing his explanation, Charlotte looked a little tired.
“It… it seems rather dangerous…”
“I’m careful when using it…”
Although he said he would take precautions, we wouldn’t know how careful he was really acting. Charlotte nodded as if she understood him somehow. Seeing that Charlotte was a little scared, Dettomolian shook his head.
“Well… Not all rituals and ceremonies are necessarily dangerous… There are many simple ones… Astrology, physiognomy, palm reading… Rituals pertaining to fortune telling and clairvoyance…”
Palm reading and physiognomy.
Charlotte tilted her head, seeming as if these things were familiar concepts to her even if they weren’t really considered magic.
“Do you also use sorcery to do these kinds of things?”
“Yes, sorcery is… more about perceiving vague things, in the end… I’m rather used to performing these kinds of rituals…”
In other words, it was more likely to see a sorcerer telling someone’s fortune or holding blessing rituals than performing rain dances.
“So something like foresight? Can you predict the future?”
“As I said… I don’t know how to put it.”
Then Dettomolian looked at me and Charlotte alternately before asking us in a low voice.
“Do you… want to see it in action?”
“Now? Can you do something like that right now?”
N-no.
I felt a little scared because it seemed like he was going to predict an ominous and dark future for us. However, Charlotte was looking at him with shining eyes brimming with curiosity. I felt a bit nervous when Charlotte smiled at me.
“How about it, Reinhardt? It looks fun.”
“Huh, what?… Fine.”
Charlotte seemed so excited although he tried to look serious, so I nodded my head even though I didn’t want to.
“Keep in mind that I’m just saying what I’m seeing… I don’t know any specifics… Even if you ask me… Just remember that I don’t know everything…”
“Yes, got it.”
“…Okay.”
Dettomolian stared at Charlotte for about three minutes, doing the same for me.
He didn’t say anything and just stared at us, so I almost felt myself break out in cold sweat.
“Your palms…”
“Ah, yes. Here.”
Dettomolian gazed at Charlotte’s palm. Afterwards, he also checked mine.
…By the way, were my palms still the same as when I was Valier?
I actually wasn’t sure. Then there was my face…
Wasn’t it pretty meaningless performing physiognomy on me the way I was at the moment?
“Both of you… Have a secret you can never reveal to anyone…”
“!”
“!”
At those words, mine as well as Charlotte’s expressions completely hardened. What? What did he see to come to that conclusion?
Charlotte’s and my eyes met.
Charlotte knew some of my secrets. I was the successor to the Rotary Gang and I knew “Valier’s” whereabouts.
And I knew some of Charlotte’s secrets as well. She had been helped by a boy named “Valier”, and she was in contact with him, keeping it a secret from Bertus, and she also had an unknown supernatural power.
Secrets that we couldn’t tell anyone.
Charlotte knew some of my secrets, so she thought I knew what I was hiding, but the reality looked very different.
I had many secrets, one being that I created this world—something no one would believe even if I told them.
He might be wrong, and he wouldn’t know any details, he was just saying what he saw.
However, Dettomolian quickly found out that both of us held secrets.
I could feel goosebumps spreading all over my body.
Then Dettomolian stared at me.
“…Reinhardt. You… have to behave yourself.”
“…What?”
“Otherwise, you’re going to have some trouble with women…”
“…”
…
I couldn’t say anything, as I couldn’t really refute that something like that might happen.
Hearing him say that I should be on my best behavior made cold sweat run down my back. Actually, I hadn’t done anything recently. However, I knew that I was a bit of a bastard.
However, having it pointed out directly like that… How should I put it?
I had nothing to say! What should I do?!
“Ah… Yeah, that’s something one could find out even without fortune telling… Reinhardt is a bit of a delinquent, after all, right?
Charlotte looked at me with a pitying smile tugging at her lips. She seemed to be able to tell that something like that might happen without even knowing how to palm read because all the people I was close to were mostly girls, after all. But wasn’t that gaze just too much? Didn’t she look at me as if I was pathetic?
“You hear, Reinhardt? Just do as Detto said, and…”
“And… Charlotte.”
“Ah, uh…”
“You will marry Reinhardt.”
“…Huh?”
Charlotte was taken aback by that sudden declaration.
