"Underground in Dragon Gold City?"
Wasn't that the one Hope stole?
"Are you talking about the Saint's Sword Sheath? The one you once hired a Tiefling to retrieve from Saint Ann Cathedral? Afterward, you showed it to the Morning Light tribe, then finally returned it to Dragon Gold City?"
No matter how he tried, Tang couldn't make the sequence of events fit together.
"Tick, tock."
Seconds and minutes passed in silence.
Hot air spurted from the Collector's neck, and he hurriedly drank some machine oil.
"I searched my memories for a long time, but I couldn't find the Tiefling you mentioned. I don't believe I ever hired an adventurer to steal the sheath for me. In fact, that sheath did come from the cathedral, but the Lionheart Lord entrusted it to me so I could investigate its history."
Arthur raised his hand at just the right moment. The Holy Emblem on his chest attested that no one present knew the cathedral better than he did.
"This Saint's Sword Sheath you're talking about—is it the one enshrined in the tomb beneath the cathedral?"
Tang described the sheath he had seen. "White jade throughout, with a rose-gold sun engraved at the tip... In short, it looked very luxurious."
"Then that's not it." Arthur shook his head matter-of-factly.
"It was a very plain sheath. The bishop mentioned it before. He said there was indeed a mysterious power attached to it, but it wasn't magic, nor was it a spark of divinity. It was something... opposite to those."
"What was it?" Tang asked, puzzled.
Arthur shook his head.
"Something opposed to the gods—perhaps a demon, or an evil god? In any case, the bishop told us that if we wanted the answer, we would have to travel across this continent. Our experiences in life