The second holy relic (2)

The archbishop led us into the church without anyone impeding us.

With the status that the archbishop had, it wasn't as if anyone would actually try to stop him.

Though once we were in the church, there was someone that did stop us.

"I knew that you would try to one up us like this. Bringing the hero to the church first without even coming to see us." 

I could see that faint smiles appeared on the faces of the group from the church when they heard this.

I also revealed a faint smile when I looked in the direction that the voice came from.

The voice wasn't one that I recognized, but the face of the person that this voice belonged to was one that I recognized. After all, this was a face that was famous when this world was still a game.

The person who spoke ignored the archbishop and the rest of the church group. Instead, he walked over while looking at me.

The way that he looked at me was as if he was very interested in me, but I could also see that there was a trace of disappointment.

When he was done walking over, he said, "I am the king of this Abel Kingdom, Abel XIV."

I was surprised by the formal way that he introduced himself since there had been that trace of disappointment in his eyes, but I similarly gave a formal response. With a bow, I said, "Greetings your majesty. It is my honour to meet the king of the Abel Kingdom as one of your lowly subjects."

A faint smile appeared on the king's face before he waved his hand and said, "There's nothing lowly about any of my subjects. Every one of you is fundamental to the glory of our Abel Kingdom."

Though he said this, I could hear that this was just a perfunctory response.

Instead, there was something else that he wanted from me.

So I raised my hand in front of me and pulled out the hero's sword.

The moment that it came out, the king immediately moved forward to look at it.

It was as if he completely lost interest in me and was focused on the hero's sword alone.

It was certainly awkward with how the king almost seemed like he wanted to take the hero's sword from my hand, but it seemed that he was holding himself back in the end. After all, it wasn't as if he could just take the hero's sword from me.

The hero's sword was a special item, it wasn't something that could be wielded by just anyone.

So even if he tried to take it, it wasn't as if he would have been able to do so.

Once he was satisfied, the king finally moved back and said with a cough, "It's good to see that the hero has finally appeared. We've heard things from the territory of the demons, it's said that the demon king has appeared."

Everyone revealed serious looks the moment that they heard this.

They might not have taken this seriously if it wasn't this person who said it. But since it was the king of the Abel Kingdom who was saying this, that meant that this information was reliable.

The only person that had a different reaction was…

"It seems like they've already started using that demon idiot. They're already using him as bait for the humans, it'll only be a matter of time before they start coming in herds for him." 

A trace of bitterness appeared in me as I thought this, but it wasn't as if there was anything that I could do for Val Zahad.

Instead, I said, "Then do you need me to take care of the demons?"

The king shook his head with a faint smile before saying, "Do you really think that we're so incapable that we would need a fresh hero to fight on the front lines for us? It's not your time yet, you just have to focus on becoming the real hero."

The archbishop said with a nod of agreement, "Right now, it's more important for our hero to take the path that will help him become a true hero."

I wasn't really surprised that they would say something like this.

Unlike the demon race that relied on strength, humans had a different way of handling things.

And I was even less surprised by what they said next.

That was because this was what I was waiting for the entire time.

"I'm sure that you're wondering how one becomes a true hero." The archbishop said as he started heading in a certain direction.

The king didn't say anything as he followed the archbishop, so there was nothing that I could say either as I followed them as well. 

It didn't take us long to arrive in front of a stained glass mural.

This stained glass mural had quite the interesting story on it.

But once again, I wasn't surprised by this.

Rather, I was a bit excited to see this mural for myself.

This mural was a special one since it was a famous scene from the game in the first place.

This was a mural that depicted the tale of the hero and what he had to do to become a true hero.

In this mural there were five different items that were shown.

These were the five relics that the hero had to collect.

The hero's sword was just the first out of five relics.

The second relic was…

"The hero's seal. You will have to travel to the Isra Church to the north to retrieve it. It won't be a simple journey, but we believe that you will be able to do it since you're the one that received the hero's sword." The archbishop explained as he pointed at one of the items that was depicted in the mural.

I once again wasn't surprised since I knew that this was what was coming.

The only thing that I was waiting for was…