Paladin of a Ruined Order - Chapter 12

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◈ Paladin of a Ruined Order

Chapter 12

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Employment Agency and Lucky Charm

After his talk with Felix, Elbridge sank into thought.

'The first thing that needs attention right now is obviously the demon.'

But every variable connected to the demon was outside Elbridge's control.

No one could tell when the demon would finally start moving in earnest.

When the connection between the incident in Dickens Viscounty and the demon would go public depended on the Order of the Golden Tray's decision, because they were the ones who had received Baron Riverford's letter.

But the bigger problem was elsewhere.

Even if the demon appeared right now, there was not much Elbridge could do with his current abilities.

Demons and demonic beasts were on different levels.

Even the hardy paladins, knights, priests, and mages of old had gone into battles with demons prepared to die. Elbridge had been no different.

That had been true back then. What about now?

In the end, the course Elbridge had to take was clear.

'Raise my skill as much as possible until the demon surfaced.'

He was not even hoping to surpass his old level before the demon appeared.

He just had to get close to it, at least, if he wanted to take the lead in this situation.

The one fortunate thing was that talking with Felix had given him a clue for how to improve.

'Demonic beast hunting.'

If the Order of the Rusted Shield hunted demonic beasts the way the Order of the Bloodstained Spear did, it would slowly gather believers too. Naturally, the power the goddess could grant Elbridge would also grow little by little.

On top of that, he might be able to build up divine power from the fragments of an evil god inside demonic beasts. Hadn't he already seen a small effect just from being splashed with a demonic beast's blood in the last battle?

'But hunting demonic beasts alone is too risky.'

He needed companions.

And Elbridge knew a place where he could find them.

* * *

Elbridge stayed at the temple and quietly did the work that needed doing. Because the temple had been empty for so long, there was more than enough to do.

From time to time, he also talked with the goddess.

- The God of the Bloodstained Spear admitted that their paladin had done wrong, but said they had no intention of punishing that paladin. They did not even seem inclined to send an oracle to prevent the same thing from happening again. It was truly a miserable affair.

"Someday, when Your Goddess's seat surpasses the God of the Bloodstained Spear, that deity will regret what they did."

- That would be nice. But Elbridge, I would rather that moment never come. Your goddess only wants her one and only paladin to stay out of dangerous trouble. There is plenty of time to solve things without you taking needless risks.

While they talked about one thing and another, the goddess's voice naturally trailed off.

Elbridge let time pass without calling on the Goddess of the Rusted Shield.

After quite some time had passed, Elbridge whispered softly.

"Goddess."

There was no answer. Elbridge whispered again.

"Goddess. Are you listening?"

There was no answer this time either.

'Her gaze has shifted away.'

Believers were the window through which a god looked upon the world. Where there were no believers, a god's gaze could not reach.

But even where believers existed, a god could not take in everything.

Just as one adult could not watch over a hundred children at the same time, the more believers a god had, the harder it became to pay attention to each one individually.

That was all Elbridge had known about the 'god's gaze' in the past.

But thanks to the church collapsing overnight, he'd learned one more thing. A god did not watch believers all day long.

Thinking about it, that was only natural. Even the gods of heaven must need rest. They must also need time to interact with one another.

Elbridge had waited for the goddess's gaze to shift away so he could enter the temple of the God of the Bloodstained Spear without drawing her attention.

The Goddess of the Rusted Shield disliked Elbridge going there.

'Still, I have to go.'

The day Felix had visited the temple of the Rusted Shield not long ago, he had suggested to Elbridge, "Let's have tea together sometime."

Elbridge planned to use that as an excuse to visit the temple of the Bloodstained Spear and look for a paladin to hunt demonic beasts with.

From the old days, the paladins of the Bloodstained Spear had been quite skilled, so they would surely be a big help in hunting demonic beasts.

As Elbridge looked around inside the temple of the Bloodstained Spear, a young priest suddenly jumped up from his seat and walked over to him.

"Welcome to the temple! You're someone I haven't seen before... Are you perhaps hoping to join the faith?"

The priest's tone was so bright and friendly it was almost overwhelming, and Elbridge immediately waved it off.

"I'm not interested in converting."

The priest's tone went oddly flat after that.

"Then what brings you here?"

"I came to meet Sir Felix."

"Oh, dear. Sir Felix is away right now."

The timing was poor, of all things. Elbridge asked with a bit of hope left.

"Do you know when Sir Felix might return?"

"It'll take at least a few days. A summons went out this morning."

"A summons?"

"A call-up for demonic beast subjugation. There have suddenly been a lot of reports of demonic beasts appearing lately, so all the paladins have left the temple."

Elbridge could not hide his disappointment.

"That's unfortunate. If I had come just a little sooner, it would have worked out well for both sides."

"Do you have something urgent?"

Elbridge thought for a moment about making up an excuse, then decided to be honest.

"No. I was thinking of helping Sir Felix if there was any demonic beast hunting to be done."

"Oh, so you're a mercenary."

"I'm a paladin, not a mercenary."

The priest looked Elbridge up and down, then gave him a very doubtful expression. It was no wonder. A man who claimed to be a paladin without even wearing armor sounded unreliable.

So Elbridge added one more line.

"...I'm with the Order of the Rusted Shield. I trust you know the temple next door."

"Oh..."

The priest's suspicion vanished in an instant. In its place came pity.

Elbridge was glad the goddess could not see that look in the priest's eyes. If she had seen it, it would have hurt her deeply.

Still, the situation moved in a fairly positive direction.

The priest, feeling sorry for Elbridge, eagerly offered a solution.

"If you're interested in hunting demonic beasts, why don't you go to the lower village?"

"The lower village?"

"Yes. The Solenion Mercenary Guild Branch is in the lower village."

"As I said, I'm not a mercenary."

"It doesn't matter. Even paladins from struggling churches go to the mercenary guild now and then. Paladins want to help their church's finances too, after all."

"..."

That was also something it was fortunate the goddess did not hear. If she had heard that remark, she would have spent three days and three nights crying.

Still, Elbridge remembered something Marcus the mercenary had told him on the road to Solenion.

"I'm after demonic beast hunting, not money. And I heard mercenaries don't actually fight demonic beasts. When one shows up, they can abandon the client and run away without being held responsible... It doesn't sound like the mercenary guild would take in work related to demonic beasts."

"That depends on the contract. Besides, work related to demonic beasts is not left only to mercenaries. Knights and paladins handle demonic beast subjugation by default, and mercenaries are only hired one or two at a time when there aren't enough people."

Ah, so that was how it worked.

As Elbridge nodded, the priest added,

"Besides, money earned from hunting demonic beasts is not the only money there is. Escort work and other odd jobs are still much better than doing nothing. It would all help the church's finances."

The priest looked as if he wanted to help Elbridge by any means necessary.

'...Do our church and I really look that poor?'

Elbridge felt a little down.

* * *

From there, Elbridge left the temple of the Bloodstained Spear and arrived at the mercenary guild.

He had never expected the mercenary guild to be cheerful or tidy. Still, the atmosphere there was even shabbier than he had expected.

The people waiting inside the guild either sat quietly on uncomfortable-looking chairs or got up and shuffled about for no apparent reason.

In one corner of the office, the cheapest tea and hot water were laid out, and the people tired of waiting brewed tea for themselves.

'What a gloomy place...'

Elbridge walked up to the receptionist at the mercenary guild and greeted her.

"Hello."

The female receptionist responded in a tone that was friendly enough, but kept the proper distance of a professional.

"Is this your first time here?"

"Yes, that's right. I'm wondering if there's a process I need to go through first to receive requests."

"Are you a mercenary?"

"I'm a paladin."

He had expected her not to believe him, of course, but the receptionist did not doubt him at all.

"Yes. Please tell me your church and your name."

"I'm Elbridge, a paladin of the Order of the Rusted Shield."

"Please have a seat and wait."

"...You believe I'm a paladin?"

"People have their own circumstances. Not every church is wealthy, after all... Oh, and the fee is collected from the client, so you don't really need to worry about anything else."

While Elbridge sat among the others and waited, a familiar person approached him and greeted him.

"Oh, hello. Sir Elbridge."

It was Marcus, the mercenary who had traveled with him on the road to Solenion.

Marcus sat down beside Elbridge and fussed over him.

"You've filled out a little since then. Much better."

"Have you been well too, Marcus?"

"I've been great. I even got something I can brag about for the rest of my life... By the way, what brought Sir Elbridge to the mercenary guild?"

"I..."

At that moment, a man entered the mercenary guild and shouted in a loud voice the moment he stepped inside.

"Escort job to Heinel! Five people with at least three years of experience! The schedule is expected to be ten days. Pay is four silver coins! Anyone interested, get on the wagon!"

A few people got unsteadily to their feet and headed for the wagon.

But Elbridge had no interest in that request at all.

He had come to the mercenary guild hoping for a demonic beast hunting request, so there was no reason for him to be swayed by some unrelated job.

Soon after, other clients began calling out their conditions.

"One person who knows how to fight. Even if you don't take the job, you must not leak the details of the request. If you break the conditions, there may be consequences. It should take about five days! Pay is between ten and fifteen silver coins, depending on how well things go!"

After that, all kinds of people appeared, looking for someone to take their requests. Some looked suspicious, and some looked perfectly normal.

But clients with anything to do with demonic beasts rarely appeared.

Tired of waiting, Elbridge sank back into thought.

'Felix said the Order of the Laurel Wreath was also pretty active when it came to hunting demonic beasts... Should I have gone to their church instead of coming here? No. With the number of demonic beasts increasing, that church might have been emptied out too.'

'...Still, I should check.'

Elbridge looked at Marcus and said,

"Marcus, it was good seeing you."

"Oh? You're leaving?"

"Yes. I remembered where I need to go."

Just as Elbridge was about to get up from his seat, the door of the mercenary guild burst open again.

This time, it was not just one client. Even their appearance was very different from the previous ones.

'...Paladins.'

And not just any paladins, either. They wore armor that looked very expensive.

But those paladins had a different atmosphere from the ones Elbridge had seen before.

Their armor did not have a single scratch, and there were hardly any calluses on their hands or fingers.

There was even one person so fat it was hard to believe they were a paladin at all. It looked as if someone had simply put armor on a person who wasn't a paladin.

'...No way.'

Elbridge looked over their armor here and there. Then he found the emblem of the Goddess of the Golden Tray on their gauntlets.

The fat paladin shouted,

"The job should take no more than four days. Pay is five gold coins!"

The mercenary guild stirred.

For a job that wasn't especially dangerous, pay was usually about one silver coin for two or three days.

Even dangerous or grueling jobs rarely promised more than three or four silver coins a day.

But the pay being offered now was five gold coins.

Since one gold coin was worth twenty silver coins, that was a ridiculous reward, worth at least five times and at most one hundred times the usual request.

A paladin of the Order of the Golden Tray shouted,

"Raise your hand if you've had experience encountering demonic beasts!"

People driven by money rushed to raise their hands one after another. Whether they had truly encountered a demonic beast or not did not seem important.

The gloomy atmosphere of the mercenary guild suddenly heated up.

Then the fat paladin clicked their tongue and added one more line.

"The Order of the Golden Tray is looking for people to help hunt demonic beasts. Anyone who has encountered a demonic beast before and ran away without fighting, lower your hand. Oh, and the pay is after the work is finished."

People hurriedly lowered their hands.

No matter how large the reward was, no one wanted to fight a demonic beast and die.

Elbridge, of course, was an exception. If he had to go along even without being paid, then there was no reason to turn down money on top of it.

And there was one more person who had not lowered his hand. Marcus.

When Elbridge shot him an unimpressed look, Marcus muttered an excuse.

"I didn't run away, and I saw the demonic beast die up close, didn't I? I clearly did my part too... That counts as fighting, doesn't it?"

"Hmm..."

At first, Elbridge had thought Marcus might become dead weight.

But thinking about it properly, traveling with Marcus was actually a good thing.

Marcus followed the God of Fox Rain.

The God of Fox Rain symbolized luck, so maybe Elbridge could benefit from that too if he stayed with Marcus.

Marcus had also shown quite a bit of luck during the last job.