WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Order
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Chapter 167: Great Divinity
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In short, the deal with the white hands went better than expected.
Elbridge had two main reasons for refusing Hands's offer.
First, he had an instinctive aversion to buying faith with money.
Second, he simply lacked the means to pay for such a deal.
The Goddess of the Rusted Shield solved the second problem with ease. She shifted the cost of buying seats onto the Order of Spring Rain and Moss.
"Goddess. I understood that the Order of Spring Rain and Moss had no intention of bearing this kind of expense..."
- Elbridge. Your goddess's virtue is enough to overcome even such limitations. The Goddess of Spring Rain and Moss will not refuse your goddess's request.
"Virtue... I see."
Elbridge answered absently. It was hard to believe the goddess's oracle.
Two possibilities came to mind. Either she had thrown a tantrum, or she had found some weakness to exploit.
Of course, Elbridge didn't voice such irreverent thoughts.
He looked up at the brightly starry night sky.
After watching the stars for a while, Elbridge returned to the temple. The priests would normally have gone home by this hour, but every priest in the Order had gathered there today.
Tonight was special.
It was the final night of the year, when priests and Paladins from every Order stayed awake through the night. This year's voting had ended only moments ago, so the election results would soon be announced.
Elbridge, Matilda, the five newly hired priests, and even the Goddess of the Rusted Shield herself.
Everyone sipped beer as they waited for the results.
Elbridge drew beer from a wooden barrel and smiled faintly.
'No wonder he was so confident.'
By coincidence, the barrel the priests had bought bore the name Bart Brewery.
Bart had said he would make a fortune in Dickens Viscounty and open a brewery in Solenion. It seemed he had achieved that goal without much trouble.
'Then again, someone willing to take that much risk wouldn't fail to establish a single brewery.'
Unlike Elbridge, who was fairly relaxed, everyone else was tense.
There was only one reason for it. No one could clearly predict how many seats they would receive.
Matilda predicted seven to eight seats. Elbridge went one step further and believed nine might also be possible.
Matilda muttered, "It'd be nice if we got eight seats... but realistically, there's still a good chance we'll get seven. Even if the results are disappointing, let's not be too discouraged. Increasing our seats by three in one year is no small feat."
In last year's election, the Order of the Rusted Shield had won four seats.
Two came from Solenion, while the other two had been secured by the dwarves.
This year, the new believers Matilda and the priests gained in Solenion amounted to roughly two more seats. Finally, the deal with the white hands a few days ago was worth around two and a half seats.
That should have put them at eight or nine seats in total, but the world was not so generous.
What concerned Matilda most was the situation in Mountain City Barquntol.
"I should've at least given Sir Elbridge a heads-up. I should've told him to make time somehow and visit the mountain city..."
Elbridge hadn't visited Mountain City Barquntol since last summer.
Believers weren't fish caught in a net. Just as the current believers of the Order of the Rusted Shield had left other Orders to join them, it wouldn't be strange for them to leave unless they were consistently cared for.
The Goddess of the Rusted Shield, however, delivered a confident public oracle.
- Matilda. There is no need to worry about that. The faith of the dwarves in the mountain city is firmer than stone, so the number of believers will have barely fallen. It may even have increased.
The priests got down from their chairs and knelt at the sudden public oracle. It looked a little strange to see them kneeling with beer glasses in hand, but they didn't care.
Matilda offered a prayer.
"Goddess of the Rusted Shield. Did you perhaps make arrangements in Mountain City Barquntol?"
- Of course, Matilda. Your goddess is wise and always thinks one step ahead, so naturally I made preparations.
The priests marveled at the confident oracle.
"Ohh...!"
If that was true, eight seats were as good as secured.
Still, Elbridge felt a faint unease.
'The only thing the Goddess could do in the mountain city would be deliver an oracle... It's not as though she can grant them a practical divine power.'
He quietly stepped outside the temple and prayed.
"Goddess."
- I am listening, Elbridge.
"May I ask what arrangements you made in the mountain city?"
- Hehe.
The Goddess of the Rusted Shield laughed confidently.
Elbridge grew more uneasy. The Goddess of the Rusted Shield often laughed like that right before causing trouble.
- Elbridge. Do you know what inconvenience troubles the dwarves most?
"I do not, Goddess."
- After beginning exchanges with the outside world last year, the dwarves have always been troubled by the lack of trade. A thirst endured for centuries cannot be quenched by a few drops of water... Your goddess recognized their hardship and made a campaign pledge.
"A campaign pledge?"
- At the entrance to Mountain City Barquntol... in other words, near the Red Mountains, I pledged to push for the construction of a trading post.
"...?!"
The idea itself was unexpectedly good.
But there was one problem. Was it realistically possible?
And if they were going to establish a trading post, Elbridge or Matilda should have known about it.
"Goddess, how do you intend to carry out this pledge? It would cost a great deal, but money alone wouldn't be enough. I don't think it would be easy to make merchants brave the danger of demonic beasts to travel all the way to a trading post. Of course, I would never presume to question your wisdom."
- Hehe. Elbridge, you are so innocent. The Goddess of the Olive Tree told me...
The instant the Goddess of the Olive Tree was mentioned, Elbridge's unease peaked.
The Goddess of the Olive Tree was a true Great Divinity, holding the second-highest number of seats in the Heavenly Council.
Yet she often passed suspicious knowledge on to the Goddess of the Rusted Shield. It had been the Goddess of the Olive Tree who taught her that dubious method of proselytizing called a pyramid or something in the past.
And Elbridge's ominous feeling was correct.
- She said that pushing for something means exactly the same thing as doing nothing.
"What?"
- It means the outcome is that I tried to push for it, but unfortunately failed. Your goddess did not lie to the dwarves of the mountain city.
As expected, the Goddess of the Olive Tree had imparted another strange lesson. Elbridge prayed earnestly.
"...Goddess, I know this may be presumptuous, but I think it would be best for you to keep your distance from the Goddess of the Olive Tree from now on."
- I will consider it positively.
She had used an elegant expression she had never used before. There was a high chance the Goddess of the Olive Tree had taught her that one as well.
- Elbridge. You seem very worried.
"Yes. A little..."
- The Goddess of the Olive Tree, and even the God of Fox Rain on occasion, make campaign pledges to believers. There is no need to worry. The only difference is whether those pledges are fulfilled.
Wasn't that a rather serious difference?
While Elbridge wondered whether he should lecture her a little more, children from the Order of the Golden Tray began running through the streets with sheets of paper in their hands.
'The election results are out.'
The Hillside Slums fell silent.
Not only the Order of the Rusted Shield, but even the Paladins of the Order of the Bloodstained Spear next door couldn't hide their tension.
Elbridge returned to the temple and waited beside the priests.
Then-
"Here!"
One child delivered a sheet bearing the election results to the Order of the Rusted Shield.
Matilda gave the child three silver coins for their trouble, hoping good news would follow.
She spread the rolled-up sheet across the table and checked the voting results from the top.
[1. Order of the God of the Golden Tray, 56 seats (-2)]
[2. Order of the Goddess of the Olive Tree, 31 seats (-5)]
While the Order of the God of the Golden Tray's decline was fairly gradual, the Order of the Goddess of the Olive Tree was falling sharply.
Elbridge thought to himself that it served them right.
The next Order that caught his eye was the Order of the God of Fox Rain.
[7. Order of the God of Fox Rain, 12 seats (+3)]
The God of Fox Rain had gained three more seats.
The Order had also risen two places. The others didn't think much of it, but Elbridge found the result strange.
'...How does the God of Fox Rain produce results like that without even using divine power?'
Then came the most important part.
[8. Order of Spring Rain and Moss, 11 seats (+4)]
[9. Order of the Goddess of the Rusted Shield, 10 seats (+6)]
"Whoa!"
More seats than expected meant much larger bonuses. The priests cheered, clenching their fists.
Even considering that it was a favorable time for combat churches to expand, their rise was exceptionally steep.
Matilda looked pleased, but also somewhat bewildered.
"I was only hoping we wouldn't get seven seats. How did we end up with not eight, not nine, but ten?"
The Goddess of the Rusted Shield delivered an assured oracle.
- Matilda. The dwarves of the mountain city faithfully follow your goddess, so the possibility of seven seats never existed in the first place.
Elbridge narrowed his eyes. He had just heard how the Goddess of the Rusted Shield had kept the dwarves loyal.
Even taking that into account, ten seats far exceeded his expectations. Elbridge considered it carefully.
'First, the fact that the dwarves didn't leave was certainly important. After last year's election, the Order's name must have spread, and believers likely emerged on their own across the continent.'
When an Order began to rise, those quick to judge the situation often built new temples. If they gained a god's recognition, they could seize the position of diocesan head in one stroke.
It benefited both the diocesan head and the god, so the gods didn't look unfavorably on such actions.
'But even if temples established on their own gathered believers...'
Someone came to Elbridge's mind.
'Miles.'
Miles was the priest who had built fake temples in the west.
Elbridge had absorbed Miles's fake temples into the Order. That was the only possibility that could explain the current situation. It seemed Miles had gathered quite a large number of believers.
'Murvach, Marquis Hagenrot, and Leodel's ruler must have actively supported the Order as well.'
The goddess's frivolous laughter rang in Elbridge's ears. He could vividly picture her laughing with her mouth open as wide as a large wooden bowl.
Elbridge ended the year with a prayer much like the one he had offered last year.
"Goddess, congratulations on becoming a Great Divinity once more."
* * *
The voting ended, and the new year arrived.
They had settled the urgent matters within the Order. Now it was time to deal with what they had set aside for a while.
'I need to eliminate the Master of the Central Magic Tower.'
Sonia, Rombel, and Marcus had thought the same thing. The three arrived at the temple as though they had made an appointment.
Sonia raised her right hand in greeting.
"Hi! You gained a whole lot of seats, didn't you?"
"Yeah. The Goddess has become a Great Divinity again as well."
"That means you're now a Paladin with ten seats. You might be the first Paladin ever to wield the power of ten seats..."
That was surely true. Elbridge smiled awkwardly. He hadn't fully grasped it himself yet.
Rombel spoke.
"All right, let's think this through. How are we going to eliminate that bastard, the Master of the Central Magic Tower?"
Elbridge's group didn't know the Master of the Central Magic Tower's exact location.
There was a high chance that the Master had hidden in Middlemarch again, but they couldn't rule out the possibility that the Master was elsewhere.
Fortunately, someone might be able to tell them where the Master was. Niserath.
Elbridge took out the silver coin Niserath had returned and rubbed its surface with his thumb.
"Niserath."
A moment later, the space around the silver coin split open, forming a deep blue passage.
This time, Niserath didn't cross over to Solenion.
Beyond the deep blue passage, Niserath silently mouthed to them.
'Come through.'
Footnotes:
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