Paladin of a Ruined Order - Chapter 127

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

Chapter 127: Parent of the Elves (4)

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Elbridge wasn't the only one interested in Jin and Bella.

Rombel had never been one to care much about other people, but Marcus and Sonia were both rather nosy. As soon as Jin and Bella left, Marcus and Sonia spoke up.

"There seemed to be something going on with Jin and Bella."

"Right. Those wistful, sorrowful looks..."

Sonia, in particular, was especially enthusiastic.

Unlike Marcus, who was busy mingling with the Pre-Sentinels and learning various things, Sonia had nothing to do and was bored.

"I don't think they have an ordinary relationship. Now that I think about it, they've always been together."

Sonia chided Marcus for his guess.

"That's because Jin and Bella are married."

"Married?"

"You didn't know? Jin and Bella live in the same house."

"...How would I know where they live? More importantly, how do you know that, Sonia?"

"Because I followed them."

Elbridge and Marcus were horrified by Sonia's bold statement. Even Rombel, who had been minding his own business, was startled.

She had followed a Sentinel? Had Sonia finally lost her mind?

Yet Sonia looked completely confident.

"Don't worry. I didn't get caught."

"At least that's a relie... No, it isn't. What were you thinking, doing something like that?"

"Jin is cool. He's handsome, and even though he seems reckless, he sometimes has this melancholy expression and wistful air about him..."

Put simply, she had been stalking Jin.

From what Elbridge and the others had seen so far, Sonia cared quite a lot about the appearance of the opposite sex. Perhaps because she came from a noble family, her standards were high as well.

People with high standards like Sonia had one thing in common. Whenever they found someone who caught their eye, they became very proactive.

After hearing of Sonia's secret misdeeds, the group was overcome with fear.

They feared this journey, which had brought them together for their separate purposes, might end in a crime of passion.

Marcus and Rombel each gave her a serious warning.

"Sonia. If Bella finds out, you might get stabbed. No, you definitely will."

"I've never heard of a Sentinel killing someone. You might be the first, Sonia."

Still, Sonia remained confident.

"It's fine. I didn't go around prying without any tact. I just talked to the elves about various things and slipped in a question here and there."

It seemed she had not only followed them, but gathered all sorts of information as well. Marcus felt dizzy.

Whatever else could be said, Sonia's initiative was worthy of respect.

"So what did you find out?"

"It seems nobody knows how old Jin and Bella are. I didn't ask every elf, but... that's the general feeling. I suppose no one has ever really questioned it."

"Why not?"

"Elves don't seem to care much about age the way humans do. They live long lives and stay young-looking for nearly all of them. Besides, Jin and Bella have been around for so long. It's like no one wonders when a mountain or river came into being."

Marcus sighed in relief.

It was better that Sonia had found nothing.

"So you didn't get anything useful."

Sonia took that response as disappointment.

"Not yet."

"...Not yet?"

"There's one elf who should know about Jin and Bella. Orion, the Third Sentinel."

The other three thought the same thing. Surely Sonia wasn't planning to seek out Orion and interrogate him about Jin and Bella.

But ominous predictions had a way of coming true.

"I'm going to ask Orion while I have the chance."

"Will he answer willingly?"

"There's always a way."

That method, however, went far beyond anything the group had imagined.

"I'm thinking of using my looks to win Orion over."

The statement was so shocking that it bordered on bizarre. Marcus was speechless, and even Rombel could only click his tongue.

It was true that Sonia was fairly attractive. But that only applied among humans. Elves were a different matter entirely.

"You've finally gone mad. Well, you've had plenty of things to be traumatized by."

"Sonia. You have seen female elves, haven't you? If Orion chooses you over them, it won't be because of your looks. It'll be because Orion has an abnormal fetish."

Rombel and Marcus gave their cruel assessment.

Elbridge quietly nodded as well, making it clear that he agreed.

Sonia only snorted.

"Just wait. I'll show you what kind of woman I am."

* * *

Three days later, the sun rose in the west.

In other words, Sonia had been seen sitting alone with Orion. Orion even looked rather cheerful.

"..."

Elbridge and the others were confused by the sight.

"...What's this world coming to?"

"I guarantee Sonia will be smug the moment she comes back."

Sure enough, Sonia returned to the cabin brimming with confidence.

"The most important part of winning someone over isn't a pretty face. Confidence, atmosphere, and knowing how to speak to someone's heart are more important. Besides, I'm a woman whose inner beauty surpasses her outer beauty."

Elbridge privately suspected Sonia. Perhaps she had used magic to cheat somehow.

Sonia continued proudly.

"The most important thing this time was how I spoke to Orion. I knew how to soothe his wounds. Poor Orion has an inferiority complex about his looks."

Marcus doubted his own ears.

"...He has what?"

"It seems Orion has a lot of bad memories related to his appearance. He devoted himself to training to overcome that inferiority complex, and that's how he became a Sentinel."

Marcus recalled Orion's appearance.

He had the tall, slender build typical of elves, firm muscles built through years of training, thick eyebrows, and a sharp jawline. There was nothing lacking in his looks.

How high were the elves' standards? Marcus felt both despair and a sense of deprivation. Were those greedy elves trying to take even ugliness away from others?

Elbridge offered Sonia some advice.

"Sonia. Be careful not to play with a Sentinel's sincere feelings and earn his resentment."

"It's fine. We're at that fluttery stage without actually dating. Orion understands very well that I have to leave. Anyway, I learned quite a lot while we talked all day. It seems Jin and Bella told Orion quite a bit about their past."

"They're fellow Sentinels, after all. It would be easier to open up to each other, and they've probably spent a long time together."

"That's right. Where should I start... Ah, I'll start with Jin and Bella's old story."

Sonia cleared her throat a couple of times before beginning.

"Jin and Bella weren't originally from Thornbush Forest."

"Then where were they from?"

"To be more precise, Thornbush Forest didn't exist when Jin and Bella were young."

Elbridge looked out at the trees beyond the cabin. Great trees rose straight toward the sky.

How distant was the past, if it had been a time before those trees existed?

"Elves usually settle down in forests, but Jin and Bella were curious. They traveled the whole world together and took in everything they saw."

"Those must've been easy days."

"Apparently not. They traveled while risking their lives to avoid the gods' gaze. Even then, they were extraordinary elves."

"Avoiding the gods' gaze...?"

Unlike Marcus, who looked confused, Elbridge understood roughly when this story had taken place.

It was the era the Black Cat, the God of Naps and Breezes, had described when the people of Solenion had recently fallen into strange dreams.

Before a parliamentary system was introduced in heaven, the gods of heaven had regarded beings on the ground like insects.

'Just how old are they?'

Thinking about it, though, it wasn't strange for them to be that old.

Niserath, the half-elf Elbridge had met in the south, remembered the days when the Goddess of the Rusted Shield had been human. That meant Niserath was older than the Goddess of the Rusted Shield.

Niserath had said, "Elves older than me are rare."

Jin and Bella must have been among those rare elves Niserath spoke of.

Niserath was older than the Goddess of the Rusted Shield.

Jin and Bella were far older than Niserath.

If that was the case, it wasn't strange for Jin and Bella to have lived since such a distant age.

"Jin and Bella had a daughter while traveling the world. But their daughter was frail."

Elbridge had never heard that Jin and Bella had a child.

Still, it probably wasn't important. She had most likely grown old and died by now.

Yet Elbridge felt an odd itch in the back of his mind. It felt as though he was missing something.

"Did their daughter die young?"

Sonia shook her head at Marcus's guess.

"No. If that were it, I wouldn't have brought it up. And it seems her body wasn't that weak."

"They could have gone to a temple, made a huge donation, and had her treated."

Sonia clicked her tongue.

"There were no temples back then. There weren't any gods who healed sick people, either."

"...How far back are we talking?"

"Just listen. It was an age when getting sick meant you simply died, but Jin and Bella couldn't let their daughter die. After thinking it over, they came up with an idea. If her frail body was the problem, what if they let their daughter cast off her body?"

"How?"

Sonia pointed upward.

She wasn't pointing at the roof.

Beyond the roof was the high sky.

In other words, heaven.

At that moment, Elbridge remembered something Jin had said a few days earlier.

'I don't respect the Goddess of Thornbush.'

'But I love the Goddess of Thornbush more than anyone.'

Now Elbridge thought he understood what Jin had meant.

Sonia continued.

"Jin and Bella wandered the world, extending their daughter's life little by little through every method they could find. They were searching for a way to catch the Chief God's attention."

By then, not only Elbridge but Marcus and Rombel could vaguely guess what came next.

"Like ordinary elves, Bella and Jin didn't know how to fight back then. But as they traveled the world for so long, they naturally learned how to fight. They roamed every corner of the continent and even went beyond the sea. They met countless people and became entangled in innumerable events."

In that distant past, Jin and Bella chose to walk a thorny path for their daughter.

"And in the end, they caught the Chief God's attention."

After hundreds of years, sprouts emerged from the blood they had shed. Trees grew and bore fruit.

"When Jin and Bella were given the chance for Ascension, they begged the Chief God to send their daughter to heaven in their place."

The parents of an elf gave that fruit to their beloved child.

"The Chief God granted their request. That was how the Goddess of Thornbush came to be."

The child who received the fruit grown from her parents' blood and lives wished to repay their boundless love.

"After ascending to heaven, the Goddess of Thornbush gave Jin and Bella a chance to enjoy a new life, in return for devoting their entire lives to her."

That was the divine power of longevity, and the reason those elf parents were still alive.

Yet Jin and Bella did not wholly accept even that repayment.

The love parents gave their children was greater and heavier than the love children returned to their parents.

That was why Jin and Bella still guarded the pure white sacred tree, which was like their daughter's other self.

The forest had grown around the sacred tree only afterward.

"That's what I heard. It's probably true, since Orion told me."

After Sonia finished, Elbridge and the others each fell into thought.

Before long, though, Elbridge's ears perked up.

"I hear footsteps. Someone's coming this way."

A moment later, someone knocked on the door. Knock, knock.

Elbridge stood and opened it. Orion was standing outside.

"What is it?"