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nThe Demon Prince goes to the Academy

nChapter 190

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nNothing good would come from telling the teachers that the cursed sword had suddenly appeared before me.

nUp until then, I had been thinking about how I should take Tiamata because people mistook it for something that was not Tiamata, but something that belonged to a demon god. Just for having it, they would probably kill all three generations of a family.

nIf I was caught having it, they would cut off my head—no questions asked.

nJust why did it appear there so suddenly? That would create an even bigger commotion.

nAlthough I couldn’t see the situation in the temple right then, I figured it should be in quite the mess because the demon god’s Relic suddenly had disappeared.

n‘Who is it?’

n‘Who the ** is doing this to me?’

nIf they found me like that, I wouldn’t even be able to make any excuses.

nI would die not because they found out that I was the son of the Demon King, but because they would treat me as someone possessed by a demon god’s divine Relic.

nI immediately brought a training sword from the training room and put the cursed sword in the training sword’s scabbard. It wasn’t that unusual to walk around with a training sword hanging from one’s waist, so there was no reason for anyone to be suspicious.

nI tried my best to pretend to be calm and went out of the dormitory towards the temple in the middle of the night.

nThen I threw it to some place where people couldn’t see it too well and returned to the room.

nTemple should be in quite the hurry to find it, so someone would surely find it. They also should have heard that they should be careful not to touch it, as it was a dangerous item.

nAnd…

n“…”

nI soon found out that no one had actually brought that cursed sword into my room to ** me over.

n“What… the…?”

nOn my bed, lying in the same position as before, there was the cursed sword.

nIt wasn’t a person who brought it there. No one could do that in such a situation—I threw that cursed sword away several times in a similar fashion.

nBut no matter how many times I did it, the sword would return to laying on my bed like before.

nNo one would be capable of putting it back every single time.

nThe sword had come back by itself…

n—That was the only explanation I could think of.

nWasn’t it that?

nA cursed doll that kept coming back even if one threw it far away…

nWas that thing the magical sword version of that?

nI then understood what the reward message of the latest quest had meant.

n—It said that the reward had already been given.

nIt wasn’t that it confirmed the identity of the sword Tiamata…

nI had already become the owner of the corrupted Tiamata which kept coming back to me.

nThe purpose of that quest wasn’t to purify and acquire Tiamata.

nTiamata, the Holy Sword that had been mistaken as a demon god’s divine Relic…

n—A cursed sword that kept coming back to me no matter how I tried to throw it away.

nIt seemed like that sword had already accepted me as its master. I felt like the previous day’s ritual had influenced it somehow, as it had been quiet up to that point. Its weakened power might have awakened.

nWas it because the ritual wasn’t completed but had stopped halfway through?

nEven if I threw it away, it would just come back to me wherever I was.

nIf I was found out to be the owner of that supposed demon god’s divine Relic, there was no way I would survive.

nI was obviously soul bound to that demonic Holy Sword. It was useless to tell anyone that I had nothing to do with it, that it just came to me on its own—no one would believe me.

nIf I told them that it was actually the Holy Sword Tiamata, no one would believe me either.

nI was in a situation where, no matter what I did, I would always fall into some trap.

nThe goal of that quest was actually to somehow deal with that situation.

n***

nThen wasn’t the time for me to go to the library to read books.

nI presumed that I had already become the sword’s owner the moment I grabbed it in the Darklands, but until then, it had never returned to me like that or anything.

nHowever, the ritual had caused some changes in Tiamata, and the sword, which had been calm up to that point, kept on coming back to me, its owner.

nFor there to have been a day where I was kind of obsessed with that sword… Could it be that it had a will of its own? Was it thinking something like ‘Let’s see how long you can keep throwing me away’?

nIf it was Tiamata, I would be treated as Towan’s champion, but I was the only one who knew the truth for the moment.

nThat mess happened right after they started to believe that it was a demon god’s Relic.

nTemple must be flipped on its head by then because said demon god’s divine Relic had disappeared, and it was clear that they would soon approach Ellen and me, the ones to have discovered it.

nI had no idea if they would harbor any suspicions against us. I just couldn’t figure out what to do in that situation, but then I suddenly heard someone knocking on my door.

n-Knock, knock

n-Reinhardt, come with me.

nI was Ellen’s voice. Signs of unease could be heard from it.

nFor the moment, I hid the cursed sword under the clothes in a drawer of my closet, not under my bed. Ellen absolutely shouldn’t see me in that situation. I’d just keep it a secret, nothing good would come from seeing that damn thing, after all.

n-Rattle

n“Wh-why?”

nEllen’s expression was dead serious.

n“Mr. Epinhauser told me to get you.”

nKnowing that Tiamata had disappeared, it seemed like Temple had started their investigation right away.

nCold sweat ran down my spine.

n* * *

nReaper Scans

nTranslator – KonnoAren

nProofreader – ilafy

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nMr. Epinhauser was waiting for us outside of the Royal Class dormitory. Although he normally looked quite cold, he seemed even more serious than usual.

n“The demon god’s divine Relic has disappeared.”

n“!”

n“Th-that’s…”

nEllen widened her eyes when she heard that the demon god’s divine Relic had disappeared, while I couldn’t help but shiver slightly.

nI didn’t know what to do, but I couldn’t tell them that it was in my room right then. Nothing good would come from telling them that a demon god’s divine Relic just kept coming back to me even if I threw it away.

nTiamata’s owner was called Towan’s champion.

nThe fact that the divine Relic of Kier, the god of corruption, kept coming back to me meant that the demon god’s Relic had chosen me as its owner.

nIn other words, people would think that I was Kier’s apostle or champion.

nI’d be lucky if they just ended things by decapitating me. I was pretty sure I would go through a lot of suffering before they would at last allow me to die.

nI had to keep it a secret. Ellen was out of it, and I was as well, though for different reasons.

n“Do you know something about that?”

n“No…”

n“Yeah, me neither…”

n“Hmm, I see. You wouldn’t know much, as it was B-8 who performed the ritual…”

nAfter the ritual got interrupted in the middle, the divine Relic had suddenly disappeared. That seemed to be the reason that he thought that Dettomolian would know something about it, but not us. And his homeroom teacher, Mr. Mustrang, would take care of questioning him.

n“Aren’t we in a very dangerous situation right now?”

nEllen asked Mr. Epinhauser with a nervous look in her eyes.

n“Indeed, our current situation isn’t a safe one, to say the least.”

nEven as a joke, he wouldn’t be able to say that things were okay. A dangerous object presumed to be demon god’s divine Relic had suddenly disappeared in the middle of Temple.

n“Well, perhaps, can’t you try… tracking the aura of that relic?”

nAt Ellen’s worried question, the teacher just shook his head.

n“That is not within my area of expertise, so I can’t say for sure, but it quite literally just disappeared all of a sudden. It has been said that the aura of the divine Relic seemed to have completely disappeared… and that it would be better if it just disappeared like that. However, I don’t think so.”

nThat was some good news, at least.

nThe evil energy that flowed out from the cursed Tiamata had disappeared completely, so the wizards and priests had quite the hard time tracking the divine Relic. If they could do that, they would have stormed into my room right away, but they didn’t.

nThey weren’t trying to track it anymore.

n“First of all, this wouldn’t be good if the other students found out. Keep quiet about this matter. We will do something about this. Don’t even try to find it on your own.”

n“Yes.”

n“…Yes. ”

nIf rumors about a demon god’s divine Relic appearing and suddenly disappearing spread, there would be just as much confusion among the people as the terrorist attack on the Imperial Capital last time. For the time, it seemed like Mr. Epinhauser wasn’t suspicious of Ellen or me.

nAfter he went back, I started to ponder for a bit.

n‘Should I tell Ellen the truth? That the cursed sword chose me as its owner, and even if I keep throwing it away, it just keeps coming back to my room.’

n“…”

nEllen was looking at me.

nWhen I saw that look in her eyes, all my thoughts of speaking the truth completely disappeared.

nSee, I told you not to bring that ominous thing.

nThat was what her eyes seemed to tell me.

nCertainly. Ellen had always been against bringing that sword back with us.

nShe wanted to leave it in the Darklands or with Relya, the suspicious wizard.

nIt was true that I ended up in this situation because I was greedy. She wouldn’t even believe me if I told her that it was actually the Holy Sword Tiamata.

nFor some reason, it was in my room.

nAnd it kept coming back no matter what I did.

nIf I told her the truth, I felt like I’d get beaten up! She’d tell me something like, “What did I tell you?!”

nShe wouldn’t actually kill me, but… She would probably beat me half to death.

nSh-**.

nI was **ing scared…

nI was more scared of getting hit by Ellen than getting dragged away by the inquisition…

nWas that how a husband felt right before he got caught having bought a game console behind his wife’s back?

nNo, not just a game console, wasn’t it more like having bought some kind of supercar without your wife’s knowledge? That wouldn’t just end with some slaps on the wrist but with a huge beating and a divorce.

nOf course, we weren’t like that.

nQuite honestly, I would probably get beat up more than simply scolded!

nFaced with Ellen’s fierce gaze, which seemed to want to devour me, my lips trembled.

n“S-sorry…”

nI muttered as such in a crawling voice with my head bowed.

n“It’s better that it’s gone. If you were to go around to find it because you want to use it…”

n“What then…?”

nEllen stared at me with her eyes gleaming almost red.

nThat look seemed like she would kill me.

n“Do you want to know?”

n“N-no! N-not at all!”

nI-I’m sorry. It’s in my closet!

nI want to get rid of it, but it won’t let me!

nAt that moment, I really wanted to cry.

n***

nPast the curfew…

nI sat on my bed with all the lights in my room turned off.

nIn front of me, sitting on my bed, was the corrupted Tiamata, which kept returning to my room like a cursed doll.

nI thought that I had become the master of that corrupted Tiamata. Even if I tried to throw it away, it didn’t matter where, it wouldn’t work.

nI didn’t know what made it return to my room and not my hands, though.

nIt seemed like I had already become its owner from the moment I grabbed it.

nHonestly, as soon as I held the sword in my hands, all the zombies that were still ‘alive’ and moving around had immediately turned back into corpses.

nThat was the moment that I had become Tiamata’s owner. Was it some kind of concept like only those who could overcome the curse laid upon the sword could become the master of the corrupted Tiamata?

nHowever, during the examination they conducted on it in Temple, nothing like the sword returning to me ever happened.

nIt was more than clear that the ritual Dettomolian conducted had some effect on it. It might have led the sword to regain its power. That was why it kept coming back to me, as it seemed to consider me as its master.

nHolding the corrupted Tiamata in my hand, I stared at it.

nBy the way…

n‘Do I really have to purify it?’

nThat was what suddenly came to my mind.

nIt didn’t spread around evil energy anymore after I had become its owner—except during that ritual performed by Dettomolian that forcibly pulled out its power.

nUnless I used it with malicious intent, the corrupted Tiamata didn’t seem to evoke any bad effects.

nTo put it bluntly, it didn’t seem to be affected by the demonic curse placed on Tiamata, evoking the opposite effect of the Holy sword, and didn’t seem to have any particularly bad effects on its surroundings. And since I was its complete master, it couldn’t be used for any impure purposes without my consent.

nIf I really had to purify it and turn it back into Tiamata, I would need someone to do it for me because I couldn’t do it.

nIf it got known that I had become the master of a demon god’s divine Relic, I would lose my head, but if it got known that I had become the master of Towan’s Holy Sword, I would receive unnecessary attention—the whole continent would have its eyes on me.

nEllen didn’t hide her identity as Ragan Artorius’ younger sister and owner of the Holy Sword Lament for no reason. Even if I wasn’t the son of the Demon King, there was nothing good about leading such a troublesome life. I had a lot of secrets to hide, so I didn’t want that at all.

nI mean, that situation couldn’t be all that bad for me, right?

nI found out that the cursed sword was actually a divine Relic, and it had come into my grasp.

nIt wouldn’t cause anyone any harm as long as I was its owner.

nHowever, there was a huge uproar in Temple because the demon god’s divine Relic had suddenly disappeared, so to calm that commotion, was it necessary for me to purify the corrupted Tiamata and announce that the cursed sword was actually Tiamata all along and that I was its master?

nWhy would I have to do that?

nIf I just did nothing, I would already be halfway at my goal, which was exactly what I planned on doing.

nHowever, even if I used it as is, there still remained one important issue…

nAlthough its orientation was slightly different, it was still the Holy Sword Tiamata.

nAnd it should have been capable of soul unity, like Ellen’s Lament and Alsbringer.

nIf so, then was that sword already soul bound to me?

nEllen could summon and recall Lament as many times as she wanted. It was usually stored in a sword case in her room, but she could call it and send it back whenever she needed it.

nI raised my hand in the air.

nSummon Tiamata.

n“…”

nShit.

nAs expected, nothing happened.

nThe sword relic didn’t even move an inch from the bed.

nAfter that, I tried everything I could think of to call the sword, but the corrupted Tiamata didn’t even budge a little bit.

nI didn’t know if it was soul-bound to me or something, but it sure didn’t respond to my will.

nThere didn’t seem to be any specific way to summon a soul-bound sword either.

nEither way, that made it clear that it was only half bound to me.

nIn the end, the corrupted Tiamata was only a half-relic at the moment, and I was only half its owner.

nLeaving it hidden in my room was just a temporary solution. Staff assigned to the Royal Class’ dormitories would visit every room to clean them, after all. If I told them I would take care of the cleaning myself, they might not enter for a day or two. However, if I kept doing that, it would seem suspicious.

nFor the moment, I could hide it somewhere in the room where the staff wouldn’t find it, but if they suddenly decided to clean all the rooms without my knowledge, that would be useless.

nEven if I left it as is, it wouldn’t harm anyone unless I, as its owner, willed it.

nHowever, in order to ensure that nothing happened, the soul bond between me and the sword had to be properly established so that I could summon and recall it freely.

nIt would be crazy to just leave the corrupted Tiamata in my room while I couldn’t do that.

nSomething…

nI had to do something about that.

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