Paladin of a Ruined Order - Chapter 17

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

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Chapter 17: Magic Tower-made Armor (1)

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Three days later, Elbridge received the one hundred gold coins he had been promised.

"..."

Elbridge had always thought of himself as someone detached from money.

But that had been an illusion. He had simply never had enough money to know better.

When he piled the small heap of gold coins on the table, his hands trembled for no reason. It was a different kind of tension from when he faced a demon.

Elbridge imagined how many things he could do with this money.

For some reason, he felt like he could understand the people who served the Goddess of the Golden Tray.

Elbridge sank into thought while stacking the gold coins into a tiny tower.

'How should I spend this money? It probably ought to go toward spreading the faith...'

He had heard countless times that expanding a church's influence cost a lot of money.

Maybe that was why he had vaguely thought that if he had money, expanding the church would not be difficult.

But that had been another illusion. Earning money and spreading the faith were completely different problems.

'...How am I supposed to spread the faith? Should I stop passersby, press money into their hands, and tell them to believe in the Goddess of the Rusted Shield?'

No matter how he thought about it, that did not seem right.

Nor was he in any position to go to another church and ask them how they handled proselytizing.

'No matter how I look at it, the only thing I can think of is spreading the faith while hunting demonic beasts...'

As Elbridge worried over it in earnest, the goddess's oracle descended.

- Elbridge. You are facing all this gold, and yet you look deeply troubled. What on earth is unsettling your heart?

Thanks to the five bottles of anointing oil he had offered, the goddess's voice had grown much gentler over the past few days.

Elbridge answered.

"I was wondering what to spend the gold coins on. I was thinking there might be a good way to expand the church's influence..."

- Elbridge. Your goddess is the Goddess of the Rusted Shield.

"Of course I know that."

- Your goddess believes that keeping what is already by your side matters more than gaining something new. Why don't you think back on what matters most in our order?

"What matters most... Then I should have the temple repaired. Come to think of it, the temple is pretty old."

- No, Elbridge. The most important thing in the order is not the temple, it's you. You are the child I cherish most. Your goddess wants you to have the means to protect yourself.

"Something to protect myself with... Hmm."

As Elbridge hesitated, the Goddess of the Rusted Shield laughed.

- You already know the answer. Did your close friend Marcus not tell you?

Had Marcus said something like that?

Elbridge thought it over, then remembered one of Marcus's offhand remarks.

'If our poor Sir Elbridge could buy himself a proper set of armor as the reward for his devotion, that would be a wonderful ending.'

Elbridge asked the goddess, "Goddess. Do you want me to get armor?"

The Goddess of the Rusted Shield answered with obvious satisfaction.

- Yes. That would be the most valuable investment for our order.

That was tempting.

Elbridge had been feeling the need for armor as well.

Setting practicality aside, walking around with only a sword and no shield or armor felt strangely empty.

"I will follow your words, Goddess."

Elbridge gathered up the gold coins and headed for the lower town of Solenion.

* * *

Elbridge had never bought weapons or armor with his own money. The order had always provided everything for him.

In the past, the Order of the Rusted Shield had been a fairly successful order, so it had no trouble equipping its paladins with good swords and armor. Compared to other churches of a similar size, it also had far fewer paladins in the first place.

He had never paid for weapons and armor himself, but Elbridge still had a rough idea of how much they cost. He had heard plenty over the years.

When he talked with unfamiliar paladins from other churches, the conversation usually drifted toward topics that were easy to bond over.

In that sense, weapons and armor were excellent conversation topics.

They were easy to relate to, gave rise to plenty of follow-up stories, and were practical too.

'Roughly fifty gold coins should be enough to get a decent set of armor.'

Proper armor was more expensive than most people imagined.

If he compromised over and over, he could probably get armor cheaply enough, but the goddess probably would not want a paladin wearing a gambeson and a Jack Chain. Elbridge certainly had no desire to wear that either.

'Let's see. A smithy...'

Because of the noise, smithies rarely stood in the middle of a bustling district.

So Elbridge headed into an alley slightly away from the center of the commercial district.

As expected, the sound of hammering made the smithy easy to find.

And Elbridge found a rather run-down smithy.

'That's the one.'

Shabbiness was a sign of age, so Elbridge guessed there was a skilled craftsman inside. It also looked cheaper than a flashy shop.

The moment Elbridge was about to enter the run-down smithy, the goddess's oracle came down.

- Elbridge. You are not seriously trying to get armor from that old smithy, are you?

"Yes, I am."

- Your goddess wants you to protect yourself with the finest armor.

"But there is definitely a skilled craftsman in that smithy."

- No. Your goddess cannot be satisfied with that.

Because the goddess's voice was firm, Elbridge pointed to the smithy across the street.

"Goddess, do you want me to go to that clean, large smithy?"

That smithy was big and neat, and it had a separate showroom attached to the side.

The armor on display also had all kinds of ornate patterns. They were the sort of things that would catch the eye of rich customers.

Yet even this did not seem to satisfy the goddess.

- No, Elbridge. Your goddess once went onto the battlefield clad in armor herself, so she knows better than anyone that armor with only decorative flair is of no help at all.

"In that case, where do you want me to go? I don't know any smithies or workshops."

- Elbridge. The answer is to the east.

Elbridge looked east, just as the goddess said. He did not see a workshop.

Instead, he saw a tower rising high beyond the other buildings.

It was the cradle of mages in the eastern continent, the Eastern Magic Tower.

Only then did Elbridge understand the goddess's intent, the meaning of "the finest armor."

"Goddess. Do you want me to buy enchanted Magic Tower-made armor?"

- Yes.

Ordinary armor and Magic Tower-made armor were different in many ways.

Magic Tower-made armor was crafted using special metals imbued with magical effects instead of ordinary iron.

The materials were not the only difference. The blacksmith had to be far above ordinary skill, and a mage was needed separately to handle the enchantment.

As a result, Magic Tower-made armor gained functions that set it apart from normal armor.

There were all kinds. Armor with a self-repair function. Armor enchanted to reduce its weight. Armor that defended against spatial distortion. Armor that protected the wearer from heat or cold. Armor that strengthened the wearer's strength... All of them were extremely useful.

But there was one important problem.

"Of course I want to wear Magic Tower-made armor too. But with the money I have now, I can't afford it."

Magic Tower-made armor was ridiculously expensive.

The materials were expensive, the labor was expensive, it took a long time to make, and supply was limited. That was only natural.

As a result, most paladins could not get their hands on Magic Tower-made armor.

Even paladins of Elbridge's rank were no exception.

To reliably obtain Magic Tower-made armor, one would have to be at least a High Paladin of a mid-sized church or larger.

Then a thought suddenly occurred to him.

"Goddess. Do you perhaps have some spare money I don't know about? Or did the Magic Tower ever promise to make armor for me sometime over the last two hundred years..."

The goddess's voice clearly grew quieter.

- As I said last time, there are two silver coins under the first table in the prayer room.

...Meaning there was no spare money or promise from the Magic Tower.

Elbridge answered with a little regret.

"Goddess. I'll get ordinary armor. With fifty gold coins, I should be able to buy a set comfortably. Even after that, I'll still have more than sixty gold coins left."

From what Elbridge had seen so far, the Goddess of the Rusted Shield would often make a firm case, then change her mind after respecting Elbridge's opinion.

But this time, the Goddess of the Rusted Shield had no intention of backing down either.

- No, Elbridge. Even if you have to save up and buy it piece by piece as money comes in, you must get Magic Tower-made armor. That would be the finest way to ensure your safety.

It was not a very realistic oracle.

As Elbridge remembered it, the price of a Magic Tower-made gauntlet alone had already been well over one hundred and fifty gold coins.

Then how was he supposed to persuade the goddess?

Simple. He only had to show the Goddess of the Rusted Shield the price of Magic Tower-made armor.

Even a god had to bend in the face of a price tag that far out of reach.

* * *

A female mage on the first floor of the Eastern Magic Tower said to Elbridge, "With one hundred and twenty gold coins... you should probably be able to buy a cuirass and gauntlets."

"Excuse me?"

Elbridge was startled.

The reason was that the price was lower than he had expected. It was less than half of what he had anticipated.

Of course, it was still an outrageous price. But because he had expected it to be so much higher, the current price felt relatively reasonable.

An unfamiliar greed surged in Elbridge's chest.

'At this rate, could I really wear Magic Tower-made armor one day...?'

Of course, Elbridge's funds would not be enough to buy a full set of armor. Still, buying it piece by piece, just like the goddess suggested, seemed entirely possible.

The mage continued her kind explanation.

"Expensive, isn't it? If you want something a little cheaper, you can also buy ready-made pieces. Self-repairing ready-made items are a bit cheaper. They are heirlooms left behind after the original owner died, though... If the size fits you, they are a sensible choice."

Then the oracle came again.

- Elbridge. Off-the-shelf armor won't do.

Elbridge wholeheartedly agreed with the goddess's opinion.

If the goal were just to show off to other people, wearing ready-made armor would not matter. But Elbridge needed armor for actual combat.

Armor made to fit someone else's body could not bring out his best.

In a voice about three times more confident than usual, Elbridge said to the mage, "I'll go with custom-made. How long is the waiting list?"

"There isn't one."

That was unexpected too.

'In the past, I heard there were plenty of cases where people ordered armor and waited, then had their orders canceled when they died before delivery.'

The world had probably grown more peaceful, and fewer people were looking for Magic Tower-made armor.

The mage said to Elbridge, "This way. We need a consultation to give you an exact estimate."

The mage led the way, and Elbridge followed behind her.

He had thought she was taking him to a consultation room, but that did not seem to be the case.

'Considering I can hear metal clanging, maybe she's taking me to the craftsman who makes the armor...'

The mage walked toward the lower levels of the tower, not the upper ones. Elbridge realized for the first time that the Magic Tower had a basement level.

"Because we have heavy materials and the noise is an issue, the workshop is in the basement. You can handle the consultation inside."

After saying that, the mage darted off. Elbridge entered the inner room with trembling steps. Who would be making his armor?

There was only one person in the spacious workshop.

At first glance, only his back was visible. His height barely reached Elbridge's chest, yet his forearms and torso were almost twice as thick as a normal person's.

'A dwarf.'

That was not surprising. Solenion, the Holy City, was full of all kinds of people, so meeting a different race here and there was natural.

As Elbridge approached, the dwarf turned around.

"A customer?"

Right after that, the dwarf's expression twisted strangely as he looked at Elbridge.

"You... no, you."

With his brows drawn together, the dwarf tilted his head slightly and pointed at Elbridge with the stubby index finger of his right hand.

Even stranger, without realizing it, Elbridge had ended up pointing at the dwarf in exactly the same pose.

The dwarf said, "You're Elbridge, aren't you?"

"...Rombel?"

He had grown a little older, but it was a familiar face.

Rombel, a dwarf warrior of the Order of the Iron Anvil.