"I never thought, Shirou, you were my nephew! That jerk Paul didn't even bring you to our main family to show your face; he's being way too distant."
"Well..."
Shirou looked a bit awkward at Therese's reaction.
Because he knew the reason Paul hadn't brought him to the Latorea family probably wasn't because he was distant but because of their previous fight.
After that whole mess, Paul naturally didn't have a chance to introduce him to Zenith's family.
As Shirou thought this, he quietly explained, "But I'm not Paul's real son. I'm his adopted son."
"An adopted son... Oh, that makes a lot more sense! How could Paul have a kid as amazing as you, Shirou?!"
Therese didn't hesitate to put Paul down.
And after learning that Shirou wasn't related to Paul, her gaze towards Shirou became complicated, as if she had found some kind of goal.
Shirou didn't know what was going on with her, but he instinctively felt he should quickly change the subject.
So he asked, "What about the holy child? Did she get back safely?"
"The holy child is the treasure and hope of the Miris Church. Of course, she's being taken care of with the church's best protection. After I get promoted, I'll take over all the responsibilities of taking care of her."
Therese wore a serious expression as she spoke.
Then she looked at Shirou with a burning gaze and said, "By the way, since Paul isn't bringing you home, Shirou, how about I take you to see my mother? She's your grandmother, after all."
"Therese, your mother, that is Zenith's mother?"
"Yes, yes."
Therese seemed to be strangely excited about bringing Shirou home. She strongly encouraged Shirou to go with her to the Latorea family.
Even though Shirou didn't know much about the Latorea family, he figured he should at least go and see them since it was Zenith's original family.
That way, if he could get Zenith back, he could let them know right away.
So he nodded in agreement.
Seeing Shirou nod, Therese immediately looked excited: "Wow, I didn't know I had a Sword Saint nephew! Even my mother will be happy to meet you. Oh, right, Shirou, how old are you now? When will you be a grown-up?"
"Why are you so interested in my age?"
Shirou felt Therese's gaze was getting stranger, but he honestly answered her age.
After going through the transfer events, he was now seventeen years old, which was basically an adult according to this world's laws.
"I see, already an adult... But is it still a bit early? But if I don't act fast..."
Therese said things to herself that Shirou couldn't understand.
In Shirou's eyes, she didn't feel like an older family member at all. She felt more like a girl his own age.
In fact, they weren't that far apart in age.
As they talked about various topics, like the Miris Holy Kingdom, the holy child, the Latorea family, and Shirou's travels, noise gradually came from inside the forge.
Shirou thought his magic sword, Wind Break, had been fixed, but when he looked, he discovered it was something completely unrelated to him.
Many blacksmiths were walking in and out.
There were even many knights in full armor, wearing silver-white armor.
Judging by the color, these people were from the Holy Knights, the most special group among the three knight orders, because they didn't serve the Miris Church but the Miris Holy Kingdom.
They fought for the entire country, so they only got involved in the most important situations. They never participated in any internal church fights.
Seeing the Holy Knights show up, Shirou realized that the situation might be more complicated than he thought.
And it was true.
From what Shirou could see, many knights seemed to be very concerned about a weapon the blacksmiths were working on. Of course, it was more like fixing than making.
The Miris Holy Kingdom had very skilled blacksmiths, after all, it was close to the Mine Tribe, which made it easy to get advanced forging skills.
So generally speaking, there shouldn't be any weapons they couldn't fix.
But this time, something unexpected had really happened.
"What's going on?"
Shirou asked with curiosity.
Seeing how interested he was, Therese smiled and said, "I'll go ask for you, Shirou. I'm a member of the Latorea family after all. I even became the captain of the Temple Knights with my Water God Style intermediate level skills because of this status. Leave it to me."
"Well..."
Shirou couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed by Therese's attitude of using her background and showing it off.
But he was curious about what was going on in the forge, so he didn't stop her.
Therese quickly went inside the forge, asked the knights there about it, and then ran back excitedly, her eyes wide: "I just heard some big news!"
"What big news?"
"The foundation of the Miris Holy Kingdom, Saint Miris's Holy Sword, has been found!"
"???"
Shirou was shocked by Therese's words.
He quickly asked for details and finally figured out what had happened.
It turned out that after the Miris Church was created in this world, Saint Miris established the Miris Holy Kingdom. At the same time, to protect the country, he left his Holy Sword in the Miris land to defend the country in times of danger.
The Holy Sword he left behind was very powerful. As long as someone met the qualifications and was recognized by the sword, they could unleash amazing power and defeat all enemies.
But during the second Human-Demon War five hundred years ago, the Miris Holy Kingdom became the main battlefield, and no one in the church at that time was able to gain the Holy Sword's approval to swing it and destroy the enemies.
In the end, when the Miris Holy Kingdom fell.
The Holy Sword that Saint Miris left behind disappeared in the war.
When the war ended, the Miris Holy Kingdom spent almost all its power trying to find the Holy Sword, but it was all in vain.
That's why when the Pope saw the Galatine at the blacksmith Muramasa's auction, he bought it without hesitation as a replacement for the Miris Holy Sword.
However, a replacement was still just a replacement. Although it gained recognition from the church for a short time, it still lacked further divine potential.
The Pope knew that the Holy Sword was essential to the Miris Church, so he had been trying to find the sword's whereabouts all these years.
He didn't have much hope.
But unexpectedly, they found a weapon that looked very similar to the Holy Sword in the home of a poor old woman.
The old woman didn't want to sell the weapon at first, but when the church said they were willing to pay any price, she immediately asked for a lot of money, demanding two Asura silver coins!
Faced with such a large sum of money, the Miris Church immediately paid without hesitation and brought back the Holy Sword overnight.
But when they finally got their hands on it, the church realized that the Holy Sword had worn down a lot over the past five hundred years.
The once indestructible blade had become severely damaged due to the war and the passage of time, and it had also not received any maintenance.
If it weren't for Saint Miris's iconic pattern, which was still clear after wiping off the dust, no one would believe that this weapon, which was hanging in an old woman's house and used to dry food, was the legendary Holy Sword.
In short, because of the Galatine, the Pope deeply realized that the power of the Holy Sword itself didn't matter; what was more important was that people recognized it as the Holy Sword.
He immediately ordered to fix the Holy Sword at all costs. He even wanted to ask the current Mine God for help.
But this was immediately stopped by the Cardinal.
The Cardinal's official reason was that the Holy Sword was the national treasure of the Miris Holy Kingdom and couldn't be tainted by other races, which would ruin the holiness of the Miris Holy Sword.
In reality, the Cardinal was trying to prevent the Pope's faction from becoming stronger, so he came out to stop it.
After all, the Cardinal's faction had barely balanced the Pope's faction with the appearance of the holy child. If the Pope's faction had the Holy Sword, which was as good as the holy child, they wouldn't even have a chance to fight back.
Also, the Cardinal's faction really hated all races other than humans. They were absolute human supremacists and looked down on not only demons but also the Mine Tribe.
On the other hand, the Pope's faction believed in equality for all and didn't even discriminate against demons.
That's why the Cardinal's faction didn't allow the Mine Tribe to be involved in reforging the Holy Sword. They used all their power to suppress it.
In the end, the Miris Holy Kingdom could only rely on its local blacksmiths to repair the Holy Sword. But because of the lack of skill, the repair work made no progress at all.
Even though the Holy Sword had been found for a long time, there wasn't even a sign of it being fixed.
All the blacksmiths were confused in front of this legendary weapon from thousands of years ago.
"I see..."
Shirou finally understood what was causing the chaos inside the forge. As he thought, a blacksmith hurried over and handed him the fixed magic sword, Wind Break.
Shirou casually asked how the Holy Sword repair was going.
Seeing that he knew about it, the blacksmith thought he was someone important, sighed, and replied, "There's no way. With the forging skills of the Miris Holy Kingdom, it's impossible to fix the Holy Sword. If we could get the Mine God from the Mine Tribe, there might be a glimmer of hope. Otherwise, it would probably take the best human blacksmith to have some chance of fixing the Holy Sword."
"The best blacksmith..."
Therese, who was next to him, felt that something like that was almost impossible. It had been a long time since a top-level blacksmith had emerged in the human race. They were generally not as good as the blacksmiths from the demon and Mine tribes.
Only a blacksmith named Muramasa had been very famous in recent years.
But he had disappeared for the past two years.
Therese thought that the forging of the Holy Sword was probably hopeless.
Shirou, on the other hand, fell into thought and realized that this might be an opportunity for him.
Because he was the blacksmith Muramasa himself.
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