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Chapter 168

“Drop the sword!”

Ellen and Eleris were more shocked by me grabbing the sword than the battle being over. They had no idea that I wasn’t being controlled by the sword.

“It seems it doesn’t affect me at all.”

“Just let go of it!”

“Let go! Quickly!”

“Alright. Alright.”

Thunk!

Hearing the urgency in their voices, I stuck the sword into the ground. Both of them stared blankly in amazement at the fact that I had not only gripped the sword, but then voluntarily let go of it as well.

The sword, which had been moving on its own, was now perfectly still as if it were dead. It didn’t move; there was no reaction at all. The battle had ended so quickly, and Ellen and Eleris were just approaching me.

“Are you okay?” Ellen asked.

“... I feel a bit tired.”

Ellen looked exhausted, probably due to the aftereffects of using Mana Reinforcement. She had even coughed up blood.

This whole situation was absurd...

Ellen had suddenly used Mana Reinforcement in a real battle, despite never having learned it before.

I was perfectly fine even after holding onto a cursed sword that supposedly controlled its wielder’s mind.

And Eleris, who had been masquerading as a low-level wizard, had suddenly unleashed high-level attack magic.

“...”

“...”

“...”

The three of us had each done something that was difficult to explain.

***

The three of us had done things that were hard to put into words. Ellen had done something that was generally considered impossible. I was somehow immune to the cursed sword, and it seemed that the sword had been neutralized. And Eleris had been hiding her true abilities until now.

Ellen, looking exhausted, staggered towards me.

“For now, I won’t ask why you’ve been hiding such power,” Ellen said to Eleris.

“... Okay.”

Although Ellen was suspicious of Eleris, there was too much to think about at the moment. In the end, despite her suspicions, Ellen did not choose to escape using the Teleportation scroll.

“This sword. Do you know what it is?”

“Oh... I’m not sure either. Let me try using Detect on it first.”

Eleris moved her hand closer to the strange sword that had stopped moving. As a precaution, she didn’t touch it.

The sword itself did not look particularly special. Just like how Lament wasn’t extremely flashy except for the glowing runes engraved on it. The one peculiarity of note was that this sword lacked a cross-guard. It was a straight sword, resembling an ordinary longsword but with a somewhat dark hue.At first glance, though, it did not look like a cursed sword at all.

The hilt was wrapped in worn-out leather, and a teardrop-shaped black gem, or possibly obsidian, was embedded at the end of the pommel. Eleris, who appeared to be scanning the air around the sword for a while, finally sighed.

“I can’t really tell... If it were an object imbued with magic, I could identify what kind of magic it is, but this sword... I don’t know.

“It seems to be cursed, but I can’t determine what kind of curse it is. Curses generally don’t have standardized magical forms, so their causes and effects can be very diverse. Since this isn’t an object created through a deliberate ritual, there’s nothing I can do.”

So, although she knew some stuff about curses, and it was clear that the sword was cursed, the exact nature of the curse itself was unknown. That was probably the nature of curses—they were inherently unpredictable.

“But while we may not know the cause of the curse, we have seen its effects. This sword controls the mind of its wielder, and emits an evil aura strong enough to raise undead around it, and probably controls the nearby undead as well.”

“So, it’s a dangerous object then.”

“Yes, very much so.”

Though the Divine Spirit’s protection prevented me from being controlled by the sword, it would likely be different for anyone else. I couldn’t predict what would happen if Ellen or Eleris were to grip this sword.

“I’ll find a way to dispose of this sword...”

“No, wait a moment,” I interrupted Eleris. “I think I might be able to use this.”

“... What?”

“Reinhart!”

Both Eleris and Ellen seemed flabbergasted.

“No, look. I’m fine, aren’t I?” I said, casually gripping the sword again, Ellen’s face reddened with anger.

“What are you doing!” Ellen yelled at me, losing the last of her composure.

It was the first time I had seen her so furious.

“P-Please let go, quickly!”

Neither of them could believe that I was perfectly fine while holding the sword.

‘Even if it’s an evil and suspicious weapon, it’s powerful. Isn’t it a waste to dispose of it if I can use it perfectly well? Are you guys crazy?’

Ellen and Eleris were both at their wit’s end, just like I was.

***

In the end, after much argument, I had to let go of the sword. I couldn’t refute the logic that while I wasn’t immediately controlled, the longer I held onto it, the more dangerous it could become.

Ellen, already exhausted, massaged her temples and groaned. My stubbornness only seemed to tire her further.

In the end, we decided not to dispose of the sword right away, but to take it to the Temple to verify its safety.

Anyway, thanks to Eleris’s assistance, Ellen awakening her Mana Reinforcement power, and the protection of my Divine Spirit, the complicated reconnaissance mission at Altz Point had been fully resolved.

Ellen fixed her gaze on Eleris. “Now, explain yourself.”

There was no need to say it explicitly. It was clear what she wanted to know. She was asking why Eleris had deceived us all this time by pretending to be a low-level mage.

Eleris’s lips twitched, and she looked utterly dumbfounded.

“W-Well, um... how should I put it... a concept, maybe...?”

She probably had an excuse prepared, but found it hard to articulate it herself.

“... A concept?”

“You know... The concept of being an apprentice mage on an adventure.”

Ellen glared at Eleris as if telling her to stop messing around. “What nonsense are you talking about?”

“I, I am actually... a dragon, here on a whim... you know...”

“...?”

I had already told Eleris nearly everything that happened in the Temple. I had told her about the senior, the little brat named Rudina, who believed she was a dragon. I’d even asked if a real dragon could lose their memory just for a little fun, and Eleris’s response had been negative.

I never imagined that she would use the exact story here.

Eleris continued, stammering, “Well, I wanted to experience adventures and various activities like humans, but if I showed my true power, it wouldn’t be an adventure anymore... yeah. So... I was hiding my abilities, but it was an emergency... I was worried you all might be in danger... so I had no choice but to abandon the concept... So that’s what’s going on...”

A Vampire Lord, claiming to be a dragon just having some fun...

At this point, telling the truth would be even more absurd. It would make more sense if she were actually a dragon.

“So... I was looking for good companions at Saints Point who would be easier to travel with compared to high-ranking adventurers... and Reinhart happened to help me when I was in trouble... so...”

“...”

Since her skills were real, she wanted to find people she could enjoy the adventure with, rather than rough ones, and that happened to be us. That was her reasoning.

“There’s no such thing as a dragon,” Ellen said, cutting her off immediately. She clearly wasn’t buying any of it.

“Wh-Why not? I’m right here in front of you...”

Seeing Eleris insisting on her dragon concept made me feel like I was going crazy too.

‘Is this some sort of trend?’

“And besides, whether I’m a dragon or not... the fact is that I saved you from a dangerous situation, didn’t I? I wanted to help you, that’s all...”

What she was basically saying was, “You should just be grateful that I saved you!”

She was completely insistent on her point.

“Proof. Can’t you show something to back it up? I’ve heard that dragons can cast magic without casting spells.”

“Th-That’s just a myth!” Eleris offered, as a feeble excuse. But then again, everything about dragons was a myth. Nobody knew what was true and what was false.

Eleris didn’t even believe in the existence of dragons in the first place.

“W-Well... it’s difficult to show my true form...”

Eleris suddenly closed her eyes and then opened them.

Blood-red eyes with pupils that were vertical slits...

“These are dragon eyes... it’s a trait of dragons.”

She let her eyes be seen for a moment, and then closed them again. When she opened them, they had returned to normal.

It had to have been an illusion spell, or something similar.

“... Was that real?”

“Yes, it’s real...”

The problem with stories about dragons was that there were many legends, but there was no definitive consensus on what they actually were.

It was unclear whether their forms were even that of winged lizards or not.

Hence, when asked to prove that she was a dragon, anything could serve as evidence, since no one knew anything about dragons. Pointing out dragon eyes or anything else didn’t actually constitute evidence, because no one had ever seen a real dragon.

Eleris was offering up random nonsense as proof that she was a dragon. Ellen, who did not know any better, was starting to consider the possibility.

Ellen seemed to be deep in thought.

Indeed, given Eleris’s excellent physical stamina which allowed her to keep up with our grueling journey without complaint, her exceptional accuracy with a slingshot, her timely use of spells, her vast knowledge, and her ability to unleash high-level magic without hesitation, it was hard to see her as just a low-level mage.

“Whether you’re a dragon or not, I suspected you might not be human,” Ellen said, voicing her doubts in Eleris’s humanity.

“Oh, i-is that so...?”

Ellen seemed to half-believe her story, but in the end, she seemed to conclude that, as long as Eleris didn’t harbor any hostility towards us, it didn’t matter who or what she was. Ellen still looked troubled about having used Mana Reinforcement to protect someone who didn’t actually need protection.

Anyway, whether Ellen truly believed the dragon story or not, she knew that Eleris wasn’t hostile towards us. Meanwhile, I had to struggle to pretend to be surprised along with her.

Eleris was spouting bizarre nonsense, and although I knew it was all garbage, I had to play along, acting amazed at her supposedly unbelievable true identity.

It felt like torture.

We gathered the bodies of the zombies and burned them all, just in case, even though the curse from the sword had dissipated.

For the moment, I sealed the cursed sword by wrapping it tightly in strips of clothlike bandages and slung it over my back. I wasn’t sure if it would be enough, but there was no way Ellen and Eleris would be comfortable with me carrying it in any other way.

Regardless of what had been said, I didn’t want to hand the sword over to either of them. Who knew what might happen?

Eleris remembered seeing Ellen coughing up blood, and said, “By the way, we should examine Ellen’s physical condition. It didn’t seem like you knew how to perform Mana Reinforcement before...”

“Oh, that’s right. Are you really okay?” I asked Ellen.

“... I don’t know. I feel a bit dizzy.”

Ellen was at least aware that she wasn’t at her best.

“May I take a look?” Eleris asked.

“...”

Ellen hesitated, possibly still suspicious of Eleris, but she eventually allowed Eleris to touch her.

“Hmm... It looks like your mana is severely depleted. It’s probably because you overexerted yourself.”

Since she did not know the proper method of harnessing her mana, Ellen had used her power excessively, exerting severe strain on her body.

“I’ll share some of my mana with you.”

A blue light flowed from Eleris’s body into Ellen’s. After a short moment, Ellen’s complexion improved a little.

“Do you feel slightly better now?”

“Yes.”

“Still, I’m not a specialist in treating these kinds of injuries. There will likely be limits as to what Divine Power can do. When you return to the Temple, seek out an expert and receive proper treatment.”

Injuries from Mana Reinforcement could not be healed with Divine Power. I knew this too, since Ludwig had a tough time mastering it.

This meant she needed a chi therapy specialist, someone skilled in Mana Reinforcement. Such individuals could be found at the Temple.

“... Thank you.”

A suspicious mage claiming to be a dragon...

Though Ellen seemed hesitant, she seemed to reluctantly acknowledge Eleris’s genuine intention to help us. Had Eleris helped us more effectively from the start, Ellen might not have felt the need to consider it further.

At any rate, everyone was safe for now.

“Given the circumstances, let’s return via teleportation this time. I’ll transport us all. Don’t waste the scroll.”

Now that she was done with her pretense of concept, she could easily offer us a means of travel that did not involve walking.

“Hmm... but wait a moment,” said Ellen. She seemed to think there was something else to sort out.

“Is there more to do?”

After all, Altz Point was now safe.

“There must still be treasures around here,” Ellen said.

There had to be plenty of unclaimed treasures lying about.

“Is there any reason why we shouldn’t take them?” she continued.

Why leave valuable items behind? We should gather everything. If we leave them, the Adventurers’ Guild or some rogue adventurers would likely come and claim them instead!