WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

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◈ Paladin of a Ruined Order

Chapter 27

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All In

After several hectic days, the excitement that had swept through the Hillside Slums during the Grand Festival finally began to die down.

Bibeka, seated in a chair, stretched with a satisfied look on her face.

"It was a success, wasn't it?"

Working together over the past few days had brought Elbridge and Bibeka a little closer. They were comfortable enough with each other now to speak without much distance.

"Was it? It was my first time proselytizing, so I don't really know."

"It was impressive. No one would have guessed that so many people would come."

"Bibeka. Of the people who visited the temple, how many usually join the church?"

When Elbridge asked casually, Bibeka thought for a moment and answered.

"Let's see... If one in ten joined, that would be excellent."

That was about the same ratio Felix had mentioned.

"Is it usually that few?"

"People don't come to the temple already resolved to switch churches. They don't change churches as easily as you think."

However, based on what Elbridge had confirmed through the Goddess of the Rusted Shield, one in seven of the people who came to the temple prayed to the goddess. That was far higher than Bibeka had expected.

"But that's the story for an ordinary church. For the Order of the Rusted Shield, you'd need to lower the bar a little more than that. Our church has healing power, but honestly, the Order of the Rusted Shield doesn't have any power that's useful in everyday life. If one in fifteen or one in twenty becomes a believer, that's a respectable result."

"Hmm."

"Of course! Still, you don't need to be disappointed. So many people came, after all."

As Bibeka had said, far more people had come to the Order of the Rusted Shield than expected.

On top of that, the proselytizing success rate had also been meaningful, so in just over ten days, the number of people who had prayed to the goddess had passed nine hundred in total.

Of course, the Order of the Rusted Shield still had a long way to go before it could win a seat in the Heavenly Council. Still, even this much meant it could use far more divine power than when it had only one or two believers.

Elbridge asked, "What about paladins? Do paladins usually switch churches at about that rate too?"

"Well. I don't really know about that. It's rare for paladins from other churches to come to our church already planning to switch."

Unfortunately, not a single paladin who had come to the Order of the Rusted Shield had prayed to the Goddess of the Rusted Shield yet.

When Elbridge stood up with a bitter expression, Bibeka asked, "Elbridge. Where are you going?"

"I need to go to the Magic Tower. There's something I have to pick up."

"What about proselytizing?"

"It seems like most of the people who were going to come have already come, so I think we can wrap up proselytizing for now."

Bibeka's brown eyes shone.

"Got it. And... Elbridge. Don't you have anything to say to me?"

"You were a huge help these past few days. Thank you, Bibeka."

Elbridge thanked her politely, but Bibeka's expression still looked off.

So Elbridge added one more line.

"Should I bring you a snack on my way back?"

Bibeka glared at Elbridge.

As soon as Elbridge arrived at the Magic Tower, he went to find the dwarf Rombel.

Rombel was drenched in sweat as he hammered at a lump of metal.

"What is it, Rombel? Is it still unfinished?"

Only then did Rombel set down the hammer.

"No. Your commission was finished a few days ago. Why did you take so long to come?"

"There was a lot going on, so I was busy."

"I thought you'd come right after the Grand Festival ended. Were you busy recruiting believers or something?"

Elbridge was a little surprised.

"What? Rombel, you came to watch the Grand Festival?"

"Of course I did. It's one of the few pleasures I get... Anyway, I watched it. Your skill's still the same."

Saying that, Rombel handed over the items Elbridge had ordered.

A gauntlet enchanted with a grip-strength enhancement spell and a cuirass enchanted with a distortion defense spell.

He couldn't test the enchantment on the cuirass right away, but he could check the gauntlet's performance immediately.

Elbridge put on the new gauntlet, grabbed a wooden block lying around the workshop between his thumb and forefinger, and pulled.

As a result, he tore the wooden block apart without much trouble.

"Excellent. No wonder it was expensive."

"The mage in charge of the enchantments put a lot of effort into it. They probably barely slept."

"Tell them thanks for me."

As Elbridge sat in a chair, flexing his fists open and shut, Rombel took the seat across from him.

"So. Did the believer recruitment go well?"

"We gathered quite a few regular believers, but no paladins actually wanted to join the church. The Order of the Bloodstained Spear seems to have gotten quite a few new paladins, though... I don't understand why."

Then Rombel laughed.

"Elbridge. That's only natural."

"Natural?"

"The paladins who go to the Order of the Rusted Shield and the paladins who go to the Order of the Bloodstained Spear are after different things."

"Different things?"

"Yeah. The paladins who go to the Order of the Rusted Shield are probably interested in you, not the church. It's admiration for a paladin, or maybe something like awe."

Elbridge felt a little disappointed.

He had been expecting too much from paladins who had no intention of joining the church in the first place.

"What makes the Order of the Bloodstained Spear different from me?"

"Those guys won the Grand Festival. The paladins of minor churches probably wanted to leave their miserable lives behind and go to the Order of the Bloodstained Spear so they could spread their wings. In other words, they planned to join the Order of the Bloodstained Spear from the start."

Elbridge sighed.

"If we'd won without forfeiting, our church could have recruited new paladins too, right? If I'd known this, then..."

Rombel shook his head.

"That wouldn't have happened."

"Why not?"

"Because what you can show is your personal ability, not the church's strength. And your fighting style is an even bigger problem. The paladins would probably think you're amazing, but they wouldn't want to fight like you."

Elbridge scratched the back of his head.

"I don't get it."

"Imagine sitting a bunch of children down and showing them a fight. If you showed them paladins fighting with discipline and precision, they'd love it. But if they saw you fighting while taking holes through your palms and shoulders, every single one of them would burst into tears."

"Rombel. Those people are paladins. Not children."

Rombel slapped the table with his thick palm and burst out laughing.

"Haha! Elbridge, your head is still stuck two hundred years in the past. Those paladins are children, all right."

"Even if I were two hundred years older, that wouldn't make those paladins children. They're thirty or forty years old too."

"Elbridge. Paladins and knights grow through experience, not age. If they can't build up experience, then even if they live to a hundred, they still can't become paladins who can carry their own weight. They're just kids with swords."

Rombel was talking about the mindset of the paladins from two hundred years ago and the paladins of the present.

The old paladins had rolled through battlefields and survived, becoming willing to pay any price to kill their enemies.

Modern paladins wore shining armor and trained in safety.

Rombel seemed unwilling to recognize the latter as true paladins.

"But... it wasn't that brutal a fight. You know that too, Rombel. The Order of the Rusted Shield wasn't a church that used especially brutal tactics."

"I know. If we're talking brutal, those Bloodstained Spear or Echoes of War bastards were worse. But what does that matter? This isn't that era anymore, and there aren't many people left who remember it."

Rombel rested his chin on his short arm and went on.

"Elbridge. I know you're getting impatient because you want to recruit believers and paladins as quickly as possible. But there's no need to rush at all. Before long, demons will appear and the world will fall into chaos, and people will come flocking to the Order of the Rusted Shield."

"Honestly, I'm not so sure about that either. Our church is a little lacking in the benefits we can offer believers..."

Rombel cut off Elbridge and snorted.

"Benefits? Back in the day, do you think anyone went to a combat church looking for that? Not a single one!"

Rombel was right.

Back then, the believers of combat churches never brought up benefits. People served the gods of combat churches only to survive.

The believers wanted the god to watch over the paladins one more time in their place.

That way, the paladins of the combat churches could make use of a little more divine power and hunt a few more demons.

It was not an era where there was room to distribute limited divine power to ordinary believers.

Of course, noncombat churches existed then too.

But the believers of noncombat churches couldn't openly speak of their own churches with pride. They were liable to be treated as shameless people who couldn't set aside their own greed even though the world was in danger.

"No need to be impatient, Elbridge. Just keep doing what you do best, quietly. Hunt demonic beasts and earn merit. Then the church will grow naturally. It isn't far off. No, it's not just close. It's practically here. Every church is scrambling to order Magic Tower armor."

"I see..."

The conversation died down, and Elbridge and Rombel each fell into thought.

Then one idea came to Elbridge's mind.

"Rombel."

"What is it?"

"Why don't you take part in the Grand Festival?"

Two hundred years ago, Rombel had been a warrior skilled enough to rank among the very best of all dwarves.

In other words, if Rombel entered the Grand Festival, he could win without much trouble.

He might struggle with taking on five opponents at once like Elbridge did, but knocking down five people one by one would not be difficult at all.

Rombel hesitated.

"...There aren't many dwarves in the east, so it can't be helped. I can't exactly enter the Grand Festival alone, can I?"

"But other churches manage to enter as teams just fine. You could do that too, couldn't you? From the looks of it, you go watch the Grand Festival every time. If you're going anyway, you might as well stand on the stage."

"I'm too busy with work. Unfortunately."

"Hmm."

Elbridge thought that Rombel was hiding something.

But he decided not to press further.

He would probably need to ask for armor again in the future, and it would be troublesome if their relationship turned awkward.

"I should get going soon. By the way, can I keep using the borrowed armor a little longer?"

"Of course. I'll handle any backlash myself, so don't worry about it."

"Thanks. See you later."

After saying a brief farewell to Rombel, Elbridge left the Magic Tower.

Then, as if she had been waiting, the goddess's voice reached him.

"Elbridge. I have good news for you."

"What news is it?"

"A little while ago, a new believer prayed to me, so the number of believers in our church has now passed one thousand. No church in the world has ever increased its believers five hundredfold in just ten days. All of this is thanks to your efforts, Elbridge."

"How could that be entirely my own ability? It was because Your Grace guided me onto the right path."

Just as he was about to leave it at that, a question flickered through Elbridge's mind.

"Your Grace. May I ask you one thing?"

"Ask anything. Your goddess will answer with all her heart..."

"By any chance, was there a paladin who prayed to Your Grace?"

"There was not."

"Ah..."

Elbridge sighed. He had gathered a thousand believers, and not a single new paladin had joined? That was truly regrettable. At this rate, believer recruitment had only succeeded halfway.

Then the Goddess of the Rusted Shield asked Elbridge,

"Elbridge. Why are you so disappointed?"

"The day the demons arrive is drawing near. There isn't a single paladin who will shine Your Grace's name alongside mine... As archbishop, high cardinal, and high paladin, that is deeply regrettable."

But the Goddess of the Rusted Shield answered in a gentle voice.

"Elbridge. You need not feel disappointed at all."

"Your Grace. There's no need to comfort me. This is all due to my own shortcomings..."

"That isn't it, Elbridge. Your goddess watched this Grand Festival carefully and reached a new conclusion."

"What conclusion would that be?"

"Our church does not need any new paladins. For the time being, you, Elbridge, will be the only paladin in our church."

"Yes?"

Because Elbridge could not understand the goddess's words, he asked hesitantly,

"Two hundred years ago, I heard from the archbishop that Your Grace regretted how few paladins there were. But now, for what reason...?"

Then the Goddess of the Rusted Shield answered.

"Elbridge. As you know, the divine power your goddess can grant is limited. But after watching the abilities of the other churches' paladins in this Grand Festival, I did not find a single paladin who satisfied me."

"..."

For some reason, he had a feeling he knew what was coming next.

"Rather than spending divine power on unripe paladins, I have concluded that it would be better to pour all of it into one paladin who stands alone above the rest. For the future of the church and for your safety."

For the first time since the dawn of creation, the Goddess of the Rusted Shield declared that she would stake the fate of the church on an all-in gamble.

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