Chapter 190

Chapter 190

Telling the teachers that a cursed sword had suddenly appeared in front of me wasn’t going to do any good.

All this while, I’d been racking my brain trying to figure out how to get my hands on Tiamata, but to them, this wasn’t Tiamata. It was clearly being mistaken for a Demon God Relic, and just having it in my possession would lead to the total annihilation of my family.

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. REaad updated stories at n/o/vel/bin(.)com

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.

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.