Temple demanded to Dettomolian, Ellen, and I to keep quiet about the demons' Divine Relic.
It was the first time in human history that a Demonic Relic had been discovered, and because of that reason, it wouldn't be good if that information got to the demon god worshippers or the general public.
Even if what we brought back turned out to be the Divine Relic of a demon god, Ellen and I were still told that we did a good job. We had brought it there before it could pose a bigger threat, and before it could cause more chaos in this world.
However, since the item we had found was a Relic, it couldn't be revealed openly, so it might have been a historic moment, but it would eventually just be buried beneath the shadows, as it was something no one should ever know.
I couldn't go back to the dormitory the prior day, but that didn't pose any problems.
On Friday, I had Magic Sensitivity Training II, Comprehensive Physical Education II, and Demon Ecology with Ellen, Liana, and Harriet.
The Demon Ecology class started with a brief overview of demons. In fact, most people had never encountered demons
The Demon World War had also ended, so it was all unnecessary knowledge unless you were someone who planned on going to dangerous places.
Ellen put her all into that class, but honestly, I couldn't concentrate at all.
What was more urgent to me than learning about the ecology of goblins and orcs was somehow getting my hands on the Holy Sword Tiamata before it got sealed.
After all of my Friday classes, Ellen, Harriet, Liana and I went back to the dorm together.
"That was interesting. I never thought goblins would build houses. I guessed they'd live in caves or something."
Liana seemed to enjoy having acquired that useless knowledge.
"B-by the way… I was more shocked to hear that an orc village consists of more than a thousand of them if it's a large one…"
Harriet's face turned pale at the thought of an orc village containing a thousand of those rugged orcs she had encountered on the deserted island. Ellen looked into the distance as she reviewed the contents of the class without even uttering a single word.
No, she probably wasn't actually reviewing, but instead thinking about dinner.
"Shall we eat out for dinner today?"
Classes were over, so we had more than enough free time over the weekend. Harriet asked us if we wanted to go out to eat dinner. Ellen and Liana nodded to her suggestion.
"I have to go somewhere."
However, I had to check something, so I didn't plan on having dinner with them. Harriet looked at me with a mischievous expression on her face.
"Huuh? I didn't even ask you to begin with, you know?"
"Oh, okay. Imma go, then."
"Eh… Huh? Ah, okay."
Harriet seemed a little surprised when I just left without retorting like I usually did.
* * *
I was in the Royal Class dormitory's library. If one went through the middle way and not the left and right ways where the dorm rooms were located, one would find multiple auxiliary buildings like banquet halls, and one of them was a library.
I didn't know how many books it contained, but it seemed to be an incredibly huge amount. Harriet and Adelia would often borrow many books from the place to study magic, but that was actually my first time going there.
Tall bookshelves and ladders to climb them filled the area.
It actually looked like the building was completely made of books. I couldn't believe that they built such a huge library for only about 120 students.
The more I witnessed just how privileged the Royal Class was, the more I thought that it was a bit too excessive.
I saw some students reading books, sitting inside reading rooms, however there were less than three around, and none of their faces seemed familiar.
"What book are you looking for?"
A man who appeared to be a librarian came towards me as soon as I came in.
"I'd like to read some books about the five Divine Relics."
"Ah, Yes. Understood. Please wait here."
Since the volume of books in the library was so vast, it seemed like students didn't look for the books they wanted to read themselves but rather let the librarian get the books for them.
The librarian went off somewhere and soon brought about five books with him, putting them down in front of me.
"I will put them back, so you can just leave them here. If you want to borrow them, make sure to fill out this card. The rental period is a week."
"Yes, thank you."
I didn't plan on renting any of them, so I took a seat at one of the reading room tables and opened one of the books—they weren't really thick.
[The History of the Five Divine Relics]
I opened the book.
[God of war, Als – Alsbringer]
[God of the sun, Salaam – Lapelt]
[Goddess of the moon, Mensis – Lament]
[God of courage, Ritter – Alixion]
[Goddess of purity, Towan – Tiamata]
The table of contents contained the names of the Five Divine Relics. I wasn't interested in the others, so I went straight to the page on Tiamata.
[Sword of Purity, Holy Sword Tiamata]
Towan, the goddess of purity, is a deity that rejects all unclean beings and sincerely desires for all of them to be purified and eradicated. Therefore, Tiamata, the Holy Sword imbued with the power of the goddess, is known to exert power incomparable to the other Divine Relics in its role of destroying unclean beings.
That is why in all periods Tiamata appeared, the land was ravaged by undead, vampires, and other unclean things opposed to anything pure. Each time, Tiamata has purified the world in the hands of a champion who executed Towan's will.
It can be said with certainty that there is no unclean being which could resist the Power of the Holy Sword Tiamata. As such, it is the strongest power in terms of exorcism among the other Divine Relics.
The first time the Holy Sword Tiamata appeared…
.
.
.
.
Following that was a complete list and description of every person who had carried the sword Tiamata. It described what they had done with Tiamata and which evil beings they had repelled.
It wasn't something I needed to know, but I was able to find out what kinds of powers the Holy Sword Tiamata held.
It was the strongest weapon against the undead. I pondered if I really needed something like that, but the weapon's specs alone weren't bad. There was nothing wrong with having it.
As I carefully read through it, I came to the last entry.
Towan's last champion, Leigorn.
The numerous achievements he made after acquiring the Holy Sword Tiamata were listed under his name.
He wasn't a powerful hunter of the undead.
What he mainly hunted weren't the undead, but demon god cultist believers. He crushed numerous Demon worshipers that were spreading throughout and devouring the Empire.
Many such feats were listed in succession, and soon I reached the last record.
It was a record in the year 30 of the Imperial Calendar.
We were in the 332nd year of the Imperial Calendar, so it was about 300 years from our time.
Year 30 of the Imperial Calendar…
During an incident that occurred, an unknown group seized Tiamata. In the process, Towan's champion, Leigorn, was killed.
It has been presumed that they took Tiamata and then fled to the Darklands. Towan's biggest Paladin Order has been sent to the Darklands to track them down, but none of them returned.
From that point on, priests and paladins of Towan were sent to search the Darklands to retrieve Tiamata, but none of them could bring back any results and only increased the number of people sacrificed to the Darklands' demons.
In the end, the Church of Towan failed to recover Tiamata to this day.
Nothing conclusive can be said about that unknown group that killed Leigorn or why they stole Tiamata.
However, the theory considered as most convincing is that the believers of the Church of the demon gods, the cult Leigorn was ordered to eradicate at the time, systematically killed him and hid Tiamata out of fear that another champion of Towan might appear.
300 years ago…
* * *
I believed that was the time when the power of the Church of the Demon Gods was faltering. Leigorn, the champion of Towan, the goddess of purity, did many things to exterminate the Church of the demon gods, another of his main enemies, not the undead.
However, he was eventually killed by the believers who later fled to the Darklands. There didn't seem to be any conclusive evidence, but going by the circumstances, it seemed to be almost certain.
The Holy Sword Tiamata had disappeared somewhere in the Darklands.
And more than 300 years later, an unknown cursed sword had been discovered in the Darklands.
The believers who served Kier, the god of corruption, must have hated the believers of Towan and their deity, who was diametrically opposed to theirs. And it went without saying how much they hated her champion, Leigorn.
As such, that strange situation where those who actually believed in the same god hated each other the most came to be.
Anyway, Kier's believers killed Leigorn, then stole the Holy Sword Tiamata and fled to the Darklands.
They probably tried to corrupt the Holy Sword, fitting for those who worshipped the god of corruption. The result of their actions was that cursed sword.
I didn't know why that sword ended up in some grave somewhere in the Darklands. Though I could come up with some reasons, like the paladins of Towan had actually found the believers of the Church of the demon gods who stole Tiamata and somehow succeeded in annihilating them all after fighting them.
And without recognizing Tiamata in its corrupted form, they had labeled it an evil relic and sealed it in the graves of the dead believers along with their burial goods.
Or there was also a big possibility that the believers couldn't handle the corrupted sword themselves and had decided to seal it. That sword was able to control one's mind, after all.
So either Towan's paladins or the demon gods' believers themselves sealed it.
Of course, I didn't really care what really happened in the past.
"…"
The important thing was the strange situation of the Holy Sword Tiamata demonstrating the powers of Kier, an opposing god.
Maybe there wasn't any set attribute for 'Divine Power'.
If one followed the doctrine of Purity and believed in Towan, one's divine power would be pure.
If one followed the doctrine of Corruption and believed in Kier, one would be able to use the divine power of corruption, even though they also believed in the same being.
It was true that they actually believed in the same being.
However, in the end, depending on the orientation of their faith, two totally different types of power could be realized.
It wasn't like there were no demon gods.
Those entities didn't have any kind of attribute to begin with, so were they only lending strength according to their beliefs?
There was neither Towan nor Kier—those gods were merely divine power dispensers.
If one believed in the goddess of purity, they would give you the power of purity, and if one believed in the god of corruption, they would lend you the power of corruption.
Put differently, deities could either be demon gods or human gods.
What determined one's divine power wasn't some god, but the direction of one's faith. The fact that the power of a demon god already existed itself had already been proven by Tiamata's corruption, after all.
In conclusion, Tiamata was corrupted. They had corrupted the relic of their most hated goddess, but in the end, they both still believed in the same deity. The power of the deity was used to change the same deity's relic's orientation itself.
Like that, the Holy Sword Tiamata became a cursed sword.
After corrupting Tiamata, did the demon gods' believers realize that Kier and Towan were the same entity?
Just as the orthodox believers wouldn't be able to accept that, the believers of the Church of the Demon Gods wouldn't have been able to acknowledge something like that either.
If corrupting it was possible, then it should also be possible to reverse it.
The demon gods believers corrupted Tiamata.
Then if a priest who believed in Towan purified the cursed sword, it should return to being Tiamata.
However, up until then, Temple had taken various measures. Wizards might have tried to recognize and interpret the curse placed on the sword or even tried to release it.
Then why didn't it return to its original state?
The way the priest had done it up to then might be wrong.
The demon gods' believers deliberately tried to corrupt the Holy Sword Tiamata…
However, the priests of Towan only tried to identify and purify or remove a curse.
That was the wrong way. First of all, that sword wasn't a cursed sword, but it had its orientation twisted. There was never a curse to begin with.
They had to "Restore" it, but all they did was continuously push the "Delete" button. If only they knew that the sword was actually a Holy Sword, then the priest would be able to restore Tiamata.
However, before that…
Would the priest of the Church of Towan even accept that the Holy Sword Tiamata had been corrupted?
Would they be able to accept that it wasn't the power of the demon god Kier that resided in the sword, but that it was the corrupted power of Towan?
They had to accept the fact that it was possible to corrupt Divine Relics. They also had to accept that the Relic of Towan, the goddess of innocence and purity, had been corrupted to the point where it held the opposite power.
The priest would never acknowledge that the Relic was Tiamata.
Just saying that the cursed sword was Tiamata would likely lead to me being put on trial for heresy.
Knowing the truth that the cursed sword was Tiamata enabled me to get some clues.
However, the priest might not believe me, and even if they did, they might not accept the possibility that a Divine Relic could be turned into a Relic of a demon god.
Even if they knew how to do it, it just had too many prerequisites such as convincing the priests, and something close to a Religious Reformation had to happen to their thought process to proceed.
And what authority did I even have to say anything more about that Relic that had already been identified as a Relic of a demon god?
It was no longer the business of some student, so no matter how many things I had been able to find out, my words would fall on deaf ears.
The Imperial Family and the Five Great Churches would also pay a lot of attention to the discovery of the first Divine Relic of a demon god.
And then I would come in saying something like that?
'I know that it isn't a Relic of a demon god, but the Holy Sword Tiamata. (17-year-old)'
It would be weird if I were able to escape with my neck still attached to my body.
That incredible event would go down in history. Even if I was the one who discovered it, the adults wouldn't believe me at all.
What was even the point of finding a way to turn it back? Tiamata had been gone for a long time already.
Should I try something with the help of Charlotte and Bertus? However, it would also look quite bad if I were to obsess over something that was believed to be a demon god's thing as well.
For the moment, I was certain that it was impossible for me to exert any kind of influence over Tiamata unless some other force, not my own, helped me out.
Eventually, I left the library and trudged back to my private room.
"…?"
Then, right when I returned to the room, I saw something strange.
"…What?"
I was unable to comprehend the situation to the point where I could only just stand there, completely dumbfounded.
Why was that here?
A longsword without a cross guard and a slightly blackish blade.
"What's with this?"
The cursed sword was placed on my bed.
Why was something I absolutely shouldn't have in my room right at that moment?
I didn't know what happened, but the bottom line was this:
"…Aren't I screwed?"
Totally screwed.
It had just been taken away.
I had no idea why it happened, but the situation could be perfectly misunderstood as me having stolen an item that had been identified to be a demon god's Divine Relic.