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Chapter 194

I couldn’t gauge how tired or exhausted she was, but watching her made me feel restless. I kept thinking about what I could do to help.

‘Should I wipe off her sweat or something?’

Honestly, it seemed like it wouldn’t matter if I just went to bed, but I couldn’t bring myself to think that way, so I continued watching over her.

For more than twelve grueling hours, she worked on one singular task without the slightest movement.

Yet, it was evident that her efforts were effective. Though the progress was painfully slow, I could see her purification ritual slowly taking effect. The cursed sword’s form was changing, as if its outer shell was being peeled away.

The cursed Tiamata was reverting to its original state, and the once-dark blade was gradually regaining its milky-white appearance. Olivia Lanche’s purification ritual was undoubtedly yielding results.

It didn’t suddenly flash with a white light and turn into a holy sword in a grand burst of holy radiance, but underwent a slow and steady transformation.

But just like scales peeling away layer by layer, it was as though the Divine Power was burning the curse away. Bit by bit, the cursed sword’s outer layer gradually turned red and disappeared.

The holy sword was slowly but surely being restored through a process of a steady, if undramatic, transformation.

“...”

Olivia Lanche continued praying, seated quietly in my shower, maintaining the same posture she had assumed from the beginning. I stood leaning against a wall in my dark room, watching the scene as if it were my duty. Both Olivia and I remained in the same positions throughout the night.

During the endless hours of silence, the only noticeable change was the gradual transformation happening to the cursed sword.

The final scale of the cursed sword peeled off.

“It’s finished,” Olivia whispered.

“Thank you for your work,” I replied.

“... Yeah,” she replied softly.

The ritual came to an end just as the first bit of light began to turn the horizon dark blue.

“Please get some rest. Thank you.”

“Yeah... I should.”

Olivia didn’t have the strength to stand on her own, so I supported her and helped her onto my bed. She must have been extremely exhausted from performing the ritual as she fell asleep almost instantly, as though she had passed out.

I reached out my hand toward the sword lying on the floor of the shower.

With a soft swishing sound, the sword vanished from the shower floor and reappeared in my hand. Now that Tiamata had been fully restored, it seemed the soul bond between us was fully reestablished.

Olivia Lanche had taken over the work left incomplete by Dettomorian and finished it, albeit in a different manner.

The ivory-colored blade seemed to have a warm texture, different from that of cold steel. Though the sword was still missing a crossguard, some ancient characters were engraved into the fuller, similar to other Holy Relics.

I could read them:

Purify the world with wrath.

Wrath...

It was a rather ominous phrase for a holy sword.

The restoration of the Holy Sword Tiamata was complete.

[Event Complete - Holy Sword Tiamata]

I had fully claimed the reward that had initially been given to me in a cursed state.

[Additional reward granted.]

[You have become the master of Tiamata due to your Divine Spirit, the trait you share with Olivia Lanche.]

[Reward: You share the Holy Sword Tiamata with Olivia Lanche.]

With that, I was granted an unexpected reward upon completion.

***

Tiamata returned to my desk drawer when I dismissed it. It instinctively moved to the place where I wanted to store it.

I could pinpoint its location effortlessly. This was the true essence of a proper soul bond, and that bond was shared with Olivia Lanche; we co-owned Tiamata.

Olivia Lanche had fallen into a deep sleep, and I was equally exhausted.

Of course, I couldn’t sleep next to her, so I locked Tiamata in the drawer and stepped out into the hallway. It wasn’t time to wake up yet, so the corridor was empty in the dim light of dawn.

I decided to grab some sleep on one of the sofas in the lobby. I was so tired, I felt like I would collapse. Surprisingly, after fasting for so long, I wasn’t even hungry.

Now that Tiamata had been restored, it didn’t matter if someone discovered it. Whether people believed the cursed sword was the true Tiamata or not was irrelevant; the sword I had was the genuine article. The results spoke for themselves, and the world only cared about results.

I had been certain that the cursed sword was a Holy Relic, and now that it had been purified, it had returned to its holy state. The Temple had mistaken the Holy Relic for a cursed object, and had intended to dispose of it or seal it away. Since I was in the right, no one could say anything to me.

The cursed Tiamata had caused me so much stress over the past two days that I was worried I’d end up with bald patches from the anxiety.

As I staggered towards the lobby, I noticed someone sitting idly on the sofa.

It was Ellen.

“What are you doing up and not asleep?” I asked.

“... Just... nothing,” she replied.

Ellen, who had been sitting on the sofa and staring blankly ahead, looked up when she noticed me. She didn’t seem to be heading out for her usual early morning workout.

She hesitated for a moment before cautiously asking, “Are you going for a workout?”

“... No,” I answered as I took a seat opposite Ellen.

I hadn’t slept, but it seemed like she hadn’t been able to sleep either. She didn’t say anything, and neither did I. I did not offer any explanation, since explaining something to someone when they hadn’t inquired about it would be odd. If she asked, “Why are you telling me all this?” it would look like I was just making excuses out of nowhere.

Despite that, everything was resolved now, one way or another.

In the end, I decided to talk to her. Perhaps it would be easier once I explained everything, even if it meant getting punched a bit.

“Hey,” I said.

“... Yeah.”

“Promise me something.”

Ellen tilted her head, puzzled by my sudden request. “What kind of promise?”

“Promise not to beat me up until I finish talking.”

I was fine with getting punched after explaining, but I didn’t want her hitting me in the middle of it.

‘At least let me get everything off my chest first... Please...’

Ellen looked at me, clearly confused by what I was saying.

I led her to a quiet training hall since no one would overhear us there even if we caused a bit of commotion.

“So, there’s something I need to tell you. You know that Demon God Relic? Yeah, well, I had it.”

Ellen seemed taken aback, unable to grasp what I was saying. “What? What do you mean?”

I continued, “To be precise, it seemed to recognize me as its owner. So it kept coming back to me. I didn’t steal it; it just kept appearing in my room no matter where I tried to discard it. That’s what was happening...”

‘Damn it.’

With each passing second, Ellen’s expression grew increasingly displeased, and I began to lose track of what I was saying.

“...”

Her expression turned cold, and the atmosphere became tense, causing my words to trail off. She didn’t shout, and her fists weren’t raised; she just glared at me.

It was clear that she was really angry, as if daring me to explain myself further. “Go on, explain,” her eyes said.

“Should I... continue?” I asked hesitantly.

“Yes. Keep talking,” she replied.

Her gaze was so intense it felt like she would kill me if I said a word wrong.

***

Under Ellen’s icy gaze, I continued my story nervously and eventually reached the end of my explanation. I recounted how the cursed sword kept appearing before me, how I’d sought Olivia Lanche’s help to resolve the situation, how she’d informed me that the cursed sword was Tiamata, and how she performed the purification ritual overnight.

To show her proof, I hastily summoned Tiamata in front of Ellen.

“No way... That really is Tiamata,” Ellen muttered, still finding it hard to believe that the cursed sword had turned into Ouen’s famous Holy Relic. Yet, as unbelievable as it was, the reality lay before her eyes.

What had been presumed to be a Demon God Relic had turned out to be Tiamata in its cursed state. With the reality right in front of us, there was no point in arguing further.

It had begun as a dangerous item, and we had considered abandoning it, but despite numerous trials and near-death experiences, this was the result. Instead of bringing back a Demon God Relic, we had retrieved the Holy Relic of Ouen from the Dark Land.

While finding a Demon God Relic would have been noteworthy, reclaiming a Holy Relic lost for three hundred years was an extraordinary achievement. And now, I had formed a soul bond with Ouen’s Holy Relic.

This essentially meant that I was now a champion of Ouen, the god of purity.

“So... it was destined for you to have this... or something like that,” Ellen mused.

The cursed sword had failed to take over me, and Ellen seemed to be pondering if the fact that I was now the master of Tiamata had been some sort of inevitability.

“It’s just a coincidence. That senior wasn’t affected by the sword’s curse either,” I reasoned, explaining how Olivia Lanche had purified the sword.

“... That could be,” Ellen acknowledged.

After dismissing Tiamata, I carefully watched Ellen’s reaction.

“Sorry... for not telling you,” I apologized, expecting her anger to explode at any moment.

Given the circumstances, she had every right to yell at me for my stubbornness and the danger it had brought us, even if the outcome had been good.

Instead, Ellen just looked at me thoughtfully, contemplating the series of events that led us to this point.

“... Fine. Just don’t do it again,” Ellen said with a slight pout.

She had seemed both shocked and somewhat angry at first, but now she appeared to have calmed down.

I had braced myself for a serious beating, but it seemed Ellen was more mildly annoyed than anything else.

‘Am I... not going to die then?’

“I promise not to let greed get the better of me from now on. I don’t want to end up dead,” I said sincerely.

I meant it. The outcome had been favorable, but things could have gone horribly wrong. At best, I could have had to flee the Temple; at worst, I could have lost my head.

True, without this risky venture, I wouldn’t have obtained the incredible weapon that was the Holy Sword Tiamata, but one could not always expect such results.

Ellen sat down on the training hall floor and took a deep breath.

“So, what are you going to do?” she asked.

“About what?”

“About the fact that the cursed sword is actually Tiamata. Are you going to report it to the Temple authorities?”

The Temple was still in chaos, with all the staff frantically searching for the missing Demon God Relic. Hiding Tiamata wasn’t difficult anymore since I could summon and dismiss it from anywhere. I could even store it in the Irine River and retrieve it whenever I needed it if I wanted to.

“I’m inclined to think telling them is the right thing to do—” I began.

“It’ll be a hassle. A big one,” Ellen interjected.

“Exactly.”

There was a reason why Ellen hid the fact that she was the sister of Artorius and the wielder of the Holy Sword Lament. It wasn’t for nothing.

The immense expectations from others, the fame, all of it would become an enormous hassle for Ellen. She would be seen as a hero, and that would mean being under subtle pressure every single day.

“Don’t tell anyone. It’s better if it’s forgotten. Now that Tiamata is restored, there won’t be any major issues,” Ellen suggested.

She was right. Problems would arise if it were truly a Demon God Relic, but now that it had returned to its form as Tiamata, no such issues would occur. Ellen believed it was better to keep the fact that I had become Tiamata’s master a secret.

“Yeah, you’re right. It’s better this way,” I concurred.

There would still be some lingering commotion while everyone searched for the vanished Demon God Relic, but if nothing happened for a while, the situation would eventually quiet down, just like how it did after the terrorist incident in the imperial capital.

***

The issue with the cursed sword had finally been resolved, and Tiamata had been restored to its holy form. I had braced myself to get beaten up by Ellen and told her the entire truth, and to my surprise, while she had initially seemed angry, she was ultimately relieved that everything had finally been resolved.

Ellen and I sat leaning against the wall of the training hall.

“Didn’t you sleep at all?” Ellen asked, noticing my pale complexion.

“... No. I couldn’t sleep while someone was working through the night because of me,” I replied.

“... I guess you wouldn’t have been able to,” she agreed.

Though it wouldn’t have mattered if I’d slept, the guilt, remorse, and gratitude I felt had kept me awake, vigilantly watching over the ritual.

“I planned to let Olivia sleep in my bed while I rested in the lobby, but then I saw you there and figured I might as well talk to you,” I explained.

“Oh,” Ellen’s eyes widened slightly as she realized that I had forced myself to stay awake because of her.

“... Get some sleep here, at least,” Ellen suggested.

“Yeah, I think I will,” I replied, lying down on the training grounds.

The floor was hard, but I was so tired that it didn’t bother me at all.

***

Ellen watched intently as Reinhart lay down and fell asleep haphazardly on the floor. The nagging irritation she had been feeling inside seemed to fade away.

She was angry, and hearing what had happened had made her furious. She’d been infuriated to the core.

She had warned Reinhart multiple times, yet his greed had led him into a dangerous situation.

Still, she had decided to hear him out, suppressing her anger for the moment.

As she listened to my story, Ellen found her anger subsiding without her realizing it. She felt as though she had the right to be angry; after all, Reinhart had done something foolish and put himself in danger. But her anger had already dissipated, leaving her with nothing to be mad about.

The fact that it was the Holy Sword Tiamata hardly mattered to her. Other than a bit of surprise that it was a Holy Relic, she didn’t have much of a reaction.

‘Yeah. See? This was what it really was. There was no way things could have been any other way. There was a reason behind everything.’

Her mind was filled with these thoughts, along with a sense of relief, frustration, sadness, and an array of other emotions. Then, something strange happened: they all vanished at once, leaving a peculiar sense of calm.

The retrieval of the Holy Sword Tiamata was indeed something that would astonish the world, but Ellen wasn’t particularly surprised by it. Something else seemed to be more important to her.

Hugging her knees, Ellen watched Reinhart intently as he fell asleep the moment he closed his eyes. She looked at him as if seeing a fascinating new animal for the first time, although she had been observing him all this time.

It almost felt like she was truly seeing him for the first time.

‘Sleeping like that must be uncomfortable,’ she thought.

Ellen unfolded her clasped hands and stretched her legs out. Then, gently lifting Reinhart’s head, she placed it on her lap.

‘This way, it won’t be uncomfortable for him,’ she rationalized.

It was just for that reason, and nothing more. Just because it would otherwise be uncomfortable for him.

And also because she felt guilty. Guilty for all the misunderstanding. She felt sorry for feeling hurt and for doubting Reinhart. She was doing this simply because she was sorry.

She decided not to think about anything else. Why else was she doing this? She decided not to dwell on it any further.

Ellen gently brushed her hand through Reinhart’s hair as he slept, and without even realizing it, she found herself smiling faintly.