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Chapter 191

But what could I do?

I couldn’t exactly confess that it was in my possession just because I felt bad. That would be the equivalent of putting my neck on the line.

***

Saturday came, and I skipped my usual early morning exercise.

Leaving my room while an unpredictable bomb lay inside wasn’t something to be done nonchalantly. Adriana might have been waiting for me, but I couldn’t bring myself to go out.

Just staying in the room made my heart pound, and I couldn’t sleep properly.

‘What if someone sees it? What if the Temple teachers find out about this? Can I somehow escape the Temple using the Ring of Sarkegar?’

The thoughts came, unbidden, and constantly thinking about what would happen if things turned for the worse was terrifying.

A Royal Class student brought some cursed, mysterious object to the Temple, and upon inspection, it was suspected to be a relic of Kier, the god of corruption...

Then it suddenly disappeared, only to be discovered to be in the possession of the very Royal Class student who had brought it back.

Upon investigating the student, it was discovered that he was the sole surviving descendant of the Demon King. Even with a billion achievement points, it was clear I wouldn’t be able to survive if that was revealed.

Moreover, the sheer number of coincidences that led to this situation was infuriating. I just happened to find a cursed sword in the Dark Land, which just turned out to be a Holy Relic, that was mistakenly identified as a Demon God Relic. And it just so happened to keep finding its way back to my room.

The situation felt absurdly contrived. If this situation wasn’t artificially designed to screw me over, then it made no sense at all. It felt as if the entire world hated me.

Of course, if I had just gone “Oh, this looks ominous,” and ditched it back in the Dark Land, none of this would have happened in the first place. Even if it had all been orchestrated this way, it didn’t change the fact that my own decisions had led me to this mess. There were many moments when I could have abandoned the cursed sword, but my greed made me hang on to it until I was finally brought to this point.

Anyway, although I hadn’t slept properly and did not show up to the morning exercises, I lay in bed trying to sort out the situation.

‘The cursed Tiamata.’

The Temple had tried to understand the curse on the sword in order to dispel it. I didn’t know the intricate mechanics of Divine Power. Perhaps if they approached it from the angle of attempting to restore its original form, viewing it as a relic rather than a cursed object, they might get different results.

That was just a thought.

I wasn’t a priest or a mage, so even if their approach had been wrong, I couldn’t pinpoint exactly in what way they were wrong. The important thing out of all this was that I could no longer entrust this to the Temple’s priests, since admitting that the cursed sword had found its way back into my possession would be suicidal.

I would be mistaken for an apostle of the demon god, and whether or not it was my intention, the religious factions would try to hunt me down. If I said, “I’m not the demon god’s apostle,” they’d retort with, “Sure you are,” and then execute me. Who in their right mind would trust the bearer of such an object? Certainly not me, if I were in their shoes.

With this supposed lost relic of a demon god in my possession, and without the Temple’s support, there were only three people I could turn to for help.

One was Ellen. Ellen would undoubtedly believe me completely and offer tangible help. Of course, I’d have to brace myself for a severe beating. However, I wasn’t sure what kind of assistance Ellen could provide.

Next was Dettomorian, who had conducted the ritual.

I could ask Dettomorian what the ritual we’d attempted that night was truly about, and if it was possible to carry out the remaining part of it. Though I didn’t know the specifics of the ritual, it had clearly awakened the power of the cursed Tiamata and brought about some change. That’s why Tiamata, which had been dormant, now kept coming back to me.

If I completed the ritual, the soul-binding might be finalized, allowing me to control the sword with my will. Since the cursed Tiamata didn’t exert a malevolent influence on its own, I could stash it away somewhere secret and only summon it when needed.

There was a third option, and the main reason why I hadn’t been dominated by the cursed sword.

I could approach the originator of the Divine Spirit trait, Olivia Lanche.

Olivia Lanche, who had such powerful Divine Power that she was called the Saintess of Eredian. However, she had abandoned her faith. Despite losing her attachment to her faith, she still retained immense Divine Power.

I had saved her life, so it was quite likely that she would help me.

If I explained that this sword wasn’t actually a relic of a Demon God, but that I suspected it to be the Holy Sword Tiamata, she might be able to conduct a purification or restoration ritual.

Perhaps she might even be willing to take ownership of the sword from me.

Setting aside whether it was possible to transfer ownership of this sword, there was no one I could truly give it to even if it were possible.

The sword had the power to dominate the mind of whoever held it. The only ones who were definitely immune to this curse were those with Divine Spirit, like Olivia Lanche and myself.

Since I had become the sword’s master when I gripped it, instead of falling to its curse, it was likely that Olivia Lanche would not be affected either if she held the sword.

The possibility of a transfer of ownership aside, the only person who could possibly take ownership of the sword right now was Olivia Lanche.

Of course, I didn’t know if she would accept my request.

***

It was the weekend, and I couldn’t stay holed up in my room all day, so I kept the cursed Tiamata in a drawer and secured it with a padlock. Even if someone came to clean, they wouldn’t check inside.

However, I felt antsy even while eating breakfast.

It felt like I had adult videos playing on my computer while I was out of the house.

Though no one would enter my room, I worried endlessly—what if someone did? What if they saw it? My mind was filled with those thoughts.

However, the crucial difference was that, if discovered, it wouldn’t just end with embarrassment, but my head getting chopped off.

The feeling was just too similar... I was ridiculously on edge.

Fortunately, my anxiety didn’t show on my face, and no one noticed anything unusual during the meal.

After breakfast, I first went to look for Dettomorian from Class B.

However, he wasn’t in his room.

When I asked Charlotte, whom I encountered at the Class B dormitory, if she had seen Dettomorian, she tilted her head slightly before responding.

“If you’re looking for Detto, Ms. Mustang called him over yesterday, and he hasn’t come back yet.”

“Oh... really?”

“Yeah... you must be worried too.”

Charlotte sighed briefly and patted my shoulder, seemingly aware of the situation. She probably thought that I was restless and trying to do something about the urgent matter of trying to find this missing Demon God Relic.

“It’s okay, Reinhart. The teachers will take care of everything. Don’t worry too much and try to rest. It’s not your fault.”

‘Ugh.’

Charlotte’s unconditional trust in me pierced my heart.

The appearance of an item suspected to be a Demon God Relic had surely stirred up the imperial family. The fact that it had suddenly disappeared would have caused even more of an uproar.

I didn’t know the internal workings of the imperial family, but the atmosphere there must have gotten intense as well.

‘Damn it.’

I had brought back something so significant that it was causing chaos everywhere.

It was like an eel slipping through one’s fingers.

Of course, if the sword had been revealed to be the Holy Sword Tiamata, the atmosphere would turn celebratory in an instant. However, recognizing that Tiamata was cursed would be a different story.

This could spark an historical debate in this world.

‘Is the cursed Tiamata, spewing corruptive power, truly Ouen’s will? Can a cursed Tiamata be considered Tiamata?’

‘If a relic of the god of purity was corrupted and then restored, could it still represent the power of purity?’

Both sides would continue to battle fiercely, and might even shed blood over which side had the truth of it.

It might not be a dispute over the item itself, but a conceptual dispute. The mere fact that relics were not absolute would create turmoil within the religious community.

Anyway, I had intended to find out from Dettomorian what the ritual was about, but it seemed he was being held up by the teachers.

I hoped he wasn’t being maltreated since, in the current situation, the biggest suspect wasn’t me but Dettomorian. After all, it was after his ritual that Tiamata disappeared.

The ritual did not look sacred, to say the least; in fact, it had appeared almost blasphemous.

However, Dettomorian hadn’t conducted the ritual of his own volition; the order to perform it had come from the Temple higher-ups.

Since my first point of contact, Dettomorian, wasn’t available, I headed to the fifth-year dormitory and asked for Olivia Lanche.

“Reinhart! Long time no see. Nice to see you!”

As soon as Olivia Lanche saw me, her face lit up and she dashed over, grabbing and hugging me tightly without any warning.

“Whoa, whoa! What are you doing?!”

“How mean of you! Didn’t you miss me? Huh? Don’t you think you took way too long to come see me? Hmm?”

“L-Let go! Let go of me!”

“Nooo!”

‘Damn it. I had a feeling this might happen!’

***

Olivia Lanche...

Once a devout follower of Ouen, the god of purity, everyone had expected her to become the next leader of the Order of the Holy Knights.

However, after discovering the corruption within the Order of the Holy Knights, she had made it clear that she was going to abandon her faith. If things had followed their original course, she would either have faded into obscurity or met a tragic end.

However, Adriana and I managed to rescue Olivia Lanche from the clutches of the former leader of the Order of the Holy Knights, Leverier Lanche.

Since then, Olivia Lanche had completely renounced her faith. Her disillusionment went beyond the corrupt religious order and led to her doubting the very concept of gods.

After that incident, whenever she saw me, she’d go around spouting nonsense like, “Reinhart is going to marry me, so nobody else better touch him.”

Because of that, I received countless glares and ended up with the reputation of being someone who only chased after girls.

In truth, that label wasn’t entirely inaccurate, so I had no real defense.

Anyway, when it came to Olivia Lanche and how close we were, we weren’t exactly friends.

She found me endearing in her own aggressive way, which was the problem.

“I was so sad... I had nowhere to go and stayed here all vacation, but you never once came to see me. I thought you’d at least tell me what happened in the Dark Land...”

“Why would I tell you about that?”

“We’re supposed to share everything with each other, aren’t we?”

“What?! Why are you like this, seriously?”

Despite my distress, I found myself unable to firmly push her away, which made me feel unbearably pathetic. Being around her made it feel like my mental state was deteriorating in real time.

Anyway, we exited the Royal Class dormitory and talked about various things. She clung to my arm and laughed cheerfully while I couldn’t even look her in the eyes.

“I’ve heard some things. They say you resolved a monumental incident, got a ton of money, and your adventurer rank skyrocketed.”

“Where did you hear that from?”

“Oh, hardly anyone hasn’t heard about it. They say you and someone named Ellen went to the Dark Land and took care of something tremendous! Rumors are flying all over the place.”

Just the fact that two first-year students had gone to the Dark Land was a big deal, but it was also clear that we had resolved some significant incidents. It seemed that word about that had already spread around.

“So I was really looking forward to you coming and telling me all about it...”

Olivia Lanche pouted, clearly showing her disappointment.

Seriously, if she was so curious, she could’ve come and asked, instead of waiting for me to visit.

“Senior,” I said to Olivia.

“Hmph. What?”

She pretended to be upset, but it was obvious she wasn’t, and that it was all an act.

“I need to talk to you about that issue, which is why I asked to see you.”

“That issue...?”

“Yes. But first, I need to ask you something...”

I looked Olivia Lanche straight in the eyes. “No matter what happens, can you keep what I’m about to tell you a secret?”

“Of course.”

With a slight tilt of her head and a beaming smile, Olivia assured me that she could, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

However, given her lighthearted, carefree attitude, it was hard to take anything she said seriously. It was impossible to tell where the jokes ended and genuine sentiment began. She came off as someone who just giggled and played around, no matter what she said.

“I’m not joking,” I said.

Olivia Lanche’s expression stiffened at the seriousness of my tone.

Realizing my earnestness, the laughter vanished from her eyes, replaced by a firm resolve. “You need help, don’t you?”

She released her grip on my arm and looked at me with a determined expression.

“... Yes. I need help.”

“I don’t know if you’ll believe this, but...” Olivia Lanche’s smile softened. It was different from the playful one she usually wore. “I’m on your side.”

It was a slightly sad smile, reminiscent of the one she had when she bore the mantle of the Saintess of Eredian.

“Trust me,” she said, as if implying she could handle whatever I had to share. “And I’ll trust you too.”

Olivia Lanche was perfectly calm as she said those words.