Mir's bedroom was on the second floor, adjacent to his siblings' rooms. It was the smallest one, but he preferred it that way.

The package Murray had delivered to his room immediately fell under his gaze as he entered.

"A book?"

Curious, he put his bag down and grabbed the package, weighing it for a second.

Pretty light. Much lighter than his textbooks.

Mir tore the wrapping and found himself holding a thin, red diary, bound by leather covers. On its front, the sigil of the Church had been carved on the leather. This was the same sigil on Murray's new uniform- a palm crushing a ball of light.

Lord Sunbreaker. This was the god the church worshipped. Or more accurately, one of his forms. Before the advent of the sun's curse, this church existed in obscurity. But now...

Sunbreaker's worshippers outstripped many of the ancient, orthodox religions on the planet.

Mir opened the diary. No introductions, no printed pages praising the lord. It seemed like an unofficial creation, something a bored and overly religious person would make.

The diary contained fifty pages, a rough count told him.

On the back, a number had been stamped on the leather.

1-99

"A date? Or A serial number?" Mir couldn't tell. It could be the 99th day of the year this diary was created, or maybe someone had made 98 other diaries at least.

"It's an identification serial," Murray said from behind.

Mir turned to look at him, unimpressed.

"You know, I'm not sure how this is of any benefit to me. I don't have a habit of keeping diaries, and I'm not gonna start at the age of seventeen."

Murray seemed to have been expecting it. He nodded and said, "I probably shouldn't tell you this, but the identification serial in Church is used to keep track of supernatural objects that the church has managed to collect so far from the surface, especially from the sacred grounds."

Mir froze.

A second later, the diary was thrown at Murray's face. Scampering to a corner of the room, Mir screeched, "What kind of prank is this?! Are you trying to get me killed?"

Supernatural objects collected from the surface? Any law enforcer had the authority to kill when pursuing someone holding those artifacts!

Even if the law enforcer didn't kill you, the artifact in your possession might!

And death wasn't even the worst outcome when it came to the myths surrounding sacred artifacts.

"I wasn't joking. This artifact is indeed for you. I rented it from the church. If it's of any use to you, I'll just file an application to use it as a permanent personal tool. No laws were broken, relax."

For a good few seconds, Mir suppressed the urge to shout that he didn't want to be anywhere near an artifact from a sacred ground. His rationality took over his instincts.

If Murray thought this artifact could be useful, it probably wasn't anything particularly dangerous. The Church wouldn't be stupid enough to rent out something too destructive to a trainee Deacon either.

"What does this do? What's the gimmick?" he asked cautiously.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Gimmick? How dare you, ignorant sheep!" Murray shouted dramatically, eyes wide in mock fury.

"This artifact has been graced with the touch of the lord, forming a divine connection beyond mortal perception! Fool, it is a sacred treasure. Where is your respect?"

"You wrapped that sacred treasure with dirty newspaper. The article on it was about male genitalia hygiene."

"...Does the lord not love cleanliness? What are you trying to imply, simpleton?"

"...Nothing. So what does this do? Quit the act, bro."

Murray sighed and threw the diary back at him casually.

"If you write something on it, the diary makes it real."

"Wow, the church is renting out the power of god to its new recruits?"

Mir's frustration got the better of him. His voice rose an octave as grabbed a pen from nearby and opened the diary, prepared to write.

"Shall I write...five Billion units in our account?"

"That won't do anything," Murray snorted, scratching his head.

"That was my first thought too when I read its description. The diary indeed makes the words written on it come true, but there are some conditions."

"Would it have cost you something to say all of them in one go?"

"I just wanted to see your reaction. Anyway..." Murray trailed off, trying to recall the conditions.

"Firstly, the diary cannot manifest material objects in the real world. So you can't write that you have tons of money, or another mythical artifact, or good results in your exams."

"Useless!"

"Secondly, the diary only works on its owner. So if you write something in it, it will only affect you, not anyone else. You could write that nobody in the world can play that shitty online game you've been hiding in your data terminal, since that's not technically a materialistic wish. But this wouldn't work on anyone except you. So as a result, you'd become the only one who can not play that game."

"Now wait a damn second-"

"Thirdly, the effect of the diary is not permanent, nor omnipotent. Regardless of whatever changes you implement using this artifact, everything will return to normal within a while. The extent of time the effects stay on you depends on the scale of changes. For example, you can write that you'll study 15 hours tomorrow. If you originally don't want to study at all and your heart feels averse to studying tomorrow, the diary cannot make you study fifteen full hours. But it'll still force you to study, the number of hours depending on how hard you resist the change.

Again, let's say you oversleep tomorrow. You won't get the opportunity to study 15 hours in that case. So the diary can only make you study the remaining hours and its effects will be lost as soon as the day ends."

Clapping his palms together, Murray finished the explanation and exclaimed, "Isn't it simple? All you can do using that diary is to improve your habits! It'll be of great help to you, now that you're just three months away from the National exam. Use it well! And in case of any anomalous development, inform me first even if there's a church nearby. I didn't tell them that I was renting it for my little brother."

"What was your excuse?" Mir asked, now much calmer after realizing how useful...no, how useless the diary was.

"I told them I feel strange urges around Sister Agatha. Very...physical urges. They pointed this artifact out to me, saying this has helped many deacons and priests before me combat their degenerate nature. I thought you needed it more than me."

"...." Struck dumb once more, Mir could only watch his brother leave the room in a suave fashion, a palm slapped on his chest performing the standard Church Salute.

That evening, Mir locked the door of his bedroom and sat in front of his data terminal, ready to participate in the seasonal event of his favorite game.

Just as he was about to turn the terminal on, his eyes fell on the red diary, sitting on top of his textbooks a few feet away.

Should he...give it a test run?

He had another dissection class tomorrow. Just like today's class, he would have to study a couple of online articles, go through several pages of his textbook dedicated to mutated arthropods, and memorize some essential data if he wanted to perform well in the lab.

Nifiya's fuming expression appeared in his mind, swiftly replaced by professor Corwin's scowl.

But he didn't want to study, not at all. He had lost all enthusiasm for it, and he had no confidence in being able to perform well enough to achieve anything in the National Exam.

Everybody had been so certain that Murray would get into a good university and become a new pillar of the family. And then, his performance in the exam had landed him in jail, despite his innocence.

Nobody except their family members believed that he had been set up by someone.

Thankfully, the judges understood that the crime was accidental. Murray's punishment had been light, especially due to being underage, as well as being one of the best students National College-013 had produced in the recent years.

But the damage had been done. Mir had lost the little faith he had in the education system. If possible, he didn't even want to participate in the National Exam. But...

From the depth of his memories, his mind pulled up an image. An image where his parents were transferring half of their accumulated wealth to his College, hoping to provide him the best education curriculum, the best training for reaching the Evolution Standard, the best series of resources they could manage.

Mir's hands shook slightly as he reached for the data terminal. Just before clicking it on, he stopped.

"No harm in trying it once, I guess. One seasonal event would only cost me a new skin for my avatar."

It wasn't that his heart had changed, losing its addiction to the game. Neither did he suddenly feel obliged to repay his parents for the hopes and efforts they had invested in him.

He was feeling rather curious about this diary. Even though it seemed nearly useless in the real world, he wanted to experiment what kind of influence it could exert over his mind.

Mir picked the diary up and opened it, this time determined to write something in it.

As his pen touched the first page, he noticed a tiny piece of paper stuck between the pages. Opening the page where from where it stuck out, Mir realized where it had come from.

Someone had torn a bunch of pages from the middle of the diary. The tiny piece that stuck out was still bound to the stitching line.

"A sacred artifact, and yet someone dared to damage it?"

Mir's surprise was not unwarranted. Artifacts, no matter how weak, were still a source of supernatural powers. For someone to damage one willingly, they had to have been confident of being able to face the backlash of its source of power...in this artifact's case, which could be Lord Sunbreaker himself.

It was debatable whether he was truly an existing being, but his church had existed long before the sun's transformation, and they claimed that they knew it would happen. In many of the sacred grounds explored by mankind till today, artifacts which only the Church could identify and use had been discovered in large numbers. This was one of the most influential factors that empowered the church.

"Who'd be so daring? Challenging a god?!"

Shaking his head, Mir turned the pages over and began to write on the first page in large letters.

"I, Mir, abhor erotic games, and love studying."