漫画大王

Chapter 190

If I got caught with this thing, I’d lose my head. There was no room for excuses.

If I told them that it just appeared out of nowhere, that would only make things worse.

The Temple might not be in a visible state of chaos right now, but I knew for certain that it was. After all, the Demon God Relic had suddenly vanished.

Who could it be? Who would do something like this to mess with me?

If anyone caught me red-handed, I wouldn’t even be able to offer an explanation. It wouldn’t matter if they found out I was the Demon King’s son; they’d kill me for being possessed by the Demon God Relic.

I immediately grabbed a training sword case from the training ground and put the cursed sword inside it. Carrying a sword wasn’t out of the ordinary, so it wouldn’t raise any suspicions.

Feigning nonchalance, I headed out of the dormitory and towards the main Temple grounds as night fell. Then, I threw the sword away in a secluded spot where it wouldn’t easily catch anyone’s eye and returned to my room.

The Temple would be plunged into a frenzy as the teachers and authorities tried to find it; someone would eventually discover it since it was a dangerous object, and it was likely that everyone would be warned not to touch it.

And then...

“...”

I soon realized that no one had placed that cursed sword in my possession to mess with me.

“What... the...?”

The cursed sword lay on my bed in the exact same position as before.

No one had put it there. It was impossible, given the circumstances.

I threw the cursed sword outside several times. But every time, again and again, the sword would reappear on my bed in the same manner.

No one could have put it there, hence, the sword had come back on its own.

There was no other explanation besides that.

Wasn’t this like one of those stories? Like the cursed doll that always returned home no matter how many times the protagonist threw it away?

This time, though, it was happening with a demonic sword.

I finally understood the message that had been displayed regarding the reward when the event had been triggered.

The reward had already been given.

It wasn’t about revealing Tiamata’s true nature or anything like that.

I had already become the master of the corrupted Tiamata, and Tiamata would keep returning to me.

The goal of the event wasn’t for me to purify Tiamata and claim it.

The event centered around the Holy Sword Tiamata and how it was misunderstood as a Demon God Relic.

The cursed sword that kept coming back to me, no matter how many times I discarded it, had already accepted me as its master.

The ritual from the day before must have had some influence on it. Perhaps the waning power of the sword had been reawakened.

Were things in such an ambiguous state because the ritual hadn’t been fully performed?

No matter how many times I threw it away, the sword would find its way back to me. If it became known that I had become the master of a Demon God Relic, I would not be left alive.

If anyone saw me with it, they would know me as someone who had been soul-bound to the Demon God Relic. Even if I said it kept coming back on its own and that I had nothing to do with it, no one would believe me. Claiming it was actually the Holy Sword Tiamata wouldn’t convince anyone either.

I was trapped, no matter which way I turned.

The objective of this event was to somehow deal with this situation.

***

This was no time to go to the library and read books.

The moment I grabbed that sword in the Dark Land, I had somehow become its master. However, until this moment, the sword hadn’t constantly made its way back to me.

Thanks to the ritual the day before, something had changed within Tiamata, and the sword that had been quiet so far now kept returning to its master—me.

Who would have thought I’d live to see a day when a sword had an obsession with me? Was it possible that the sword itself had some kind of will? Was it testing how long I would keep discarding it?

‘Let’s see how long this goes on.’

If this really was Tiamata, I’d be recognized as Ouen’s champion. At that moment, though, I was the only one who knew the truth. All the chaos that would ensue was because the sword was presumed to be a Demon God Relic.

The disappearance of what was believed to be the Demon God Relic had to have thrown the Temple into an uproar. It was certain that Ellen and I, the ones who first found it, would soon be summoned.

I didn’t know whether the authorities would suspect us or not. I was stuck, unsure of what to do, when suddenly someone knocked on the door.

Knock Knock.

“Reinhart, come out.”

It was Ellen’s voice. Her tone sounded uneasy.

I quickly hid the cursed sword, not on the bed, but underneath my clothes in the drawer of my wardrobe. There was no way Ellen could see this. She’d keep the secret, but nothing good would come of her seeing this mess.

Clank.

“Hey, what’s up?”

Ellen’s expression was grave.

“Mr. Effenhauser wants to see us.”

The Temple had already started investigating the disappearance of Tiamata.

Cold sweat trickled down my spine.

***

Mr. Effenhauser was waiting for us outside the Royal Class dormitory. His normally stoic expression was even more serious than usual.

“The Demon God Relic has vanished.”

“N-No way...”

Ellen’s eyes widened in shock at the mention of the missing relic, and I felt my legs go weak.

For reasons I couldn’t explain, I couldn’t confess that the relic was currently in my room. Telling them that the relic kept returning to me no matter how many times I discarded it wouldn’t do any good.

The master of Tiamata was recognized as Ouen’s champion. If the relic of the god of corruption, Kier, kept finding its way to me, it meant that this relic had chosen me as its master. It wouldn’t take much for people to start to think of me as Kier’s apostle or champion.

If I were lucky, they might just cut off my head; otherwise, I’d be subjected to horrendous suffering before death.

I had to keep this a secret at all costs.

Ellen looked stunned, and I was just as bewildered, but for different reasons.

“Do you know anything about this?”

“No...”

“No, sir, I don’t either...”

“Hmm, I see. Considering B-8 conducted the ritual, it’s reasonable to assume you wouldn’t know why this happened...”

The ritual had been abruptly interrupted, and then the relic had disappeared. Mr. Effenhauser seemed to think the answer lay with Dettomorian and not us. Dettomorian was from Class B, and their supervising teacher, Ms. Mustang, would likely handle that.

“Isn’t this a dangerous development?” Ellen asked Mr. Effenhauser, her expression tense.

“Yes. This situation cannot be considered under control at all.”

This situation could hardly be said to be under control, not even as a joke. An object presumed to be a Demon God Relic had suddenly vanished from the heart of the Temple.

“Is it possible to track the relic’s energy to find it?” Ellen asked, concern evident in her voice.

Mr. Effenhauser shook his head. “I’m not an expert in such matters, but it seems that it has literally vanished. It’s been said that the relic’s energy has completely disappeared... While it would be great if it has vanished for good, that doesn’t seem to be the case.”

That was some good news, at least. The wicked energy that had emanated from the cursed Tiamata had completely vanished, which meant that the mages and priests were having trouble tracking it.

If it were otherwise, they would have stormed into my room by now. Since that hadn’t happened, I knew I wasn’t being tracked, at least for the time being.

“It’s not good for other students to know about this, so keep this matter under wraps. We’ll handle it ourselves. And do not, under any circumstances, try to find it yourselves.”

“Yes, sir.”

“... Understood.”

If rumors spread that a Demon God Relic had appeared and then suddenly vanished, chaos on the scale unleashed by the previous terrorist incident in the imperial capital would ensue. For now, it was clear that Mr. Effenhauser didn’t suspect either me or Ellen.

After Mr. Effenhauser left, I hesitated for a moment.

Should I tell Ellen the truth? That the cursed sword seemed to have chosen me as its master and kept making its way back to my room no matter how many times I discarded it?

“...”

Ellen was staring at me.

Seeing the look in her eyes made me abandon any thoughts of coming clean.

‘See, I told you bringing that was a bad omen,’ her eyes said.

Ellen had consistently resisted me bringing this sword back with us. She had wanted to leave it in the Dark Land, or let the suspicious wizard, Rellia, handle it.

It had indeed been my greed that led to this situation. Even if I told her it was actually the Holy Sword Tiamata, she wouldn’t believe me.

If I confessed, “It’s in my room and keeps coming back no matter how many times I throw it away,” she’d probably beat the crap out of me. She’d go, “I told you so!”

She wouldn’t actually kill me, but I’d definitely be left half-dead.

‘Damn it. I’m so scared...’

Getting beaten up by Ellen was scarier than being put on trial.

Was this what a husband felt like just as he was about to get caught buying a gaming computer behind his wife’s back?

No, this felt more like secretly buying a supercar and getting caught. It wasn’t just a slap on the wrist kind of thing; it was a “beat you senseless and divorce you” sort of offense.

Of course, the two of us weren’t in that kind of relationship, though...

But if I came clean, I’d go beyond getting scolded and truly get beaten to a pulp.

Ellen’s murderous glare made me feel like she might devour me on the spot. My lips trembled as I stood there, unable to speak.

“S-Sorry...” I mumbled in a voice that sounded as small as I felt.

“It’s probably better that it disappeared. If you had insisted on using that thing, I—”

“Well, if I insisted on using it, what were you going to do?”

Ellen glared so fiercely that I felt my life-force drain out of me. “Do you want to know?”

“N-No! Absolutely not!”

‘I-I’m so sorry, that thing is in my wardrobe! I wanted to throw it away, but it wouldn’t let me!’

I felt like crying for real.

***

Bedtime came, and I sat on my bed in the darkened room. In front of me, like a haunted doll that kept returning, was the cursed Tiamata.

I had somehow become the master of this cursed Tiamata. No matter how much I wanted to discard it, it wasn’t happening.

I didn’t know the mechanism which caused the sword to return to my room instead of my hand, but the cursed Tiamata seemed to have recognized me as its master the moment I’d touched it. When I’d grasped this sword back in the Dark Land, the zombies that had been animated by its power had all collapsed, turned back into lifeless corpses.

From the moment I grasped it, I had already become Tiamata’s master. Only someone who could withstand the sword’s curse could become the master of the cursed Tiamata, it seemed.

All this time, though, throughout all the investigations conducted by the Temple, the sword had never returned to me. The ritual conducted by Dettomorian must have impacted it somehow. That ritual must have somehow drawn out the sword’s power or done something to influence it. As a result, the sword now continually recognized me as its master and returned to me.

I stared at the cursed Tiamata in my hand.

Then a thought struck me.

‘Do I really need to purify this sword to use it?’

This idea unexpectedly popped into my head.

Since I’d become its master, the sword hadn’t emitted any malicious energy around me. Aside from the ritual, where Dettomorian had forcibly drawn out its power, it hadn’t displayed any other evil influence.

As long as I didn’t wield it with malicious intent, the cursed Tiamata couldn’t exert its malevolent influence. In other words, though cursed, it wasn’t having a particularly negative effect on me or my surroundings. Moreover, since I had become its rightful master, the sword couldn’t be used for impure purposes without my will.

If I wanted to purify Tiamata, I wouldn’t be able to do it myself; someone else would have to undertake that task.

If it was revealed that I was the master of this Demon God Relic, I’d lose my head. But if it was discovered that I was the master of Ouen’s Holy Sword, I’d receive a lot of unnecessary attention—continent-wide attention.

Ellen wasn’t going out of her way to hide that she was the sister of Ragan Artorius and the master of the divine sword Lament for no reason. Even if I wasn’t the Demon King’s son, I would prefer to avoid such a troublesome life. Given that I had my own secrets to keep, it was best not to have to deal with all the attention.

So, this situation wasn’t necessarily bad for me.

I’d figured out that the cursed sword was actually a Relic, and it had fallen into my hands. As long as I was its master, it wouldn’t cause any special harm.

Sure, there would be a lot of commotion surrounding the disappearance of this supposed Demon God Relic, but was I willing to step forward, purify the cursed Tiamata, announce that it was actually the Holy Sword Tiamata, and declare myself its master, just to quell this commotion?

Did I really need to?

Laying low seemed to be the best option in this situation.

However, even if I decided to use the sword as it was, there was an important premise to consider.

Despite its current form, this was still the Holy Sword Tiamata. Given that Ellen’s Lament and Alsbringer could both form soul bonds, this sword likely had the same capability.

Perhaps the sword had already become soul-bound to me?

Ellen could summon and dismiss Lament at will. Normally, it was kept in a sword case in her room, but she could summon it or dismiss it whenever needed.

I raised my hand into the air, trying to summon Tiamata.

“...”

‘Damn it.’

Of course, nothing happened.

The sword remained on the bed, completely stationary.

I tried every way I could to make the cursed Tiamata come to my hand, but it didn’t budge an inch. I couldn’t tell whether the sword was soul-bound to me or not, but it clearly didn’t respond to my will.

There didn’t seem to be any special method needed to summon a soul-bound sword.

In any case, it was clear that the bonding was only half-done. The cursed Tiamata was an incomplete artifact, and I was its incomplete master.

Keeping it hidden in my room was at best a temporary solution. The servants in the Royal Class dormitory came in to clean the rooms. I couldn’t keep telling them not to enter under the pretense that I’d handle the cleaning myself, since that would raise suspicions.

For now, I could hide the sword in a place where the servants wouldn’t touch, but if they suddenly decided to do a thorough cleaning, I’d be out of luck.

Even if I left the sword as it was, it wouldn’t harm anyone as long as I, its master, didn’t wield it.

But for that to work, I’d need to complete the soul bond with the sword, which would enable me to summon and dismiss it at will.

If that wasn’t possible, then keeping the cursed Tiamata in my room was insanity.

‘I need to think of something...’

I had to do something about this—one way or another.