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Chapter 31: Mountain City Barquntol (1)

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Thirteen more days passed after that.

"Is there really no way in?"

At the nameless knight's question, Rombel bowed and answered.

"Yes. There was no way at all. The knight from Hugen County waited a full month, then passed away the day before yesterday."

"Eh. I see."

With that, Rombel had sent away the fifth group that had come to the Red Mountains.

Rombel's acting was truly astonishing.

Of the five groups of reinforcements he had faced so far, not a single one had doubted his words.

As Rombel came over looking pleased with himself, Marcus said, "By the way, not a single dwarf who went to ask for help has come back."

"They must have sent out only dwarves whose time was already near. Every dwarf who went to ask for help would have been branded with a Demon Brand. So they would die before they could return."

The Demon Brand was a trace found on the upper bodies of the dwarves who had died in Holy City Solenion.

As far as Elbridge knew, every demon branded its victims.

The method of branding varied.

Sometimes a demon killed first, branded the soul, and kept it as a trophy. Sometimes it branded first and killed afterward.

The most common method was to brand a living person, then kill them and take their soul if they failed to erase the brand within a set time.

That was why Elbridge had thought of a demon when all the residents of Dickens Viscounty vanished without a trace.

The demon must have branded every single resident the moment it appeared.

Marcus asked back, "The God of the Iron Anvil wanted the dwarves who left to never come back? Why on earth?"

"That bastard only barely let warriors out even when it was for a battle with a demon. If a dwarf who had gotten a taste of the outside world came back and started talking about other gods, how annoying would that be? Better to stop it in advance."

It was a truly vicious method.

Elbridge asked Rombel, "Now that I think about it, it's strange that dwarves even followed the God of the Iron Anvil. Dwarves may be born smiths, but surely not all of them are blacksmiths."

"They don't follow him because they're smiths. The God of the Iron Anvil is the only dwarf-born god, so there's a strong sense that they should 'of course' follow him. For a god, he's worse than a dog."

Rombel kept criticizing the God of the Iron Anvil over and over.

And every time, Marcus flinched.

"Mr. Rombel. The God of the Iron Anvil isn't really hearing this, is he?"

"He can't hear it anyway. The God of the Iron Anvil abandoned me, and I already said I turned my back on the God of the Iron Anvil too."

"You didn't say you turned your back on him. Then which god do you follow, Mr. Rombel?"

"I'm an unbeliever. I haven't followed any god for two hundred years. Do you think I entered the Magic Tower for no reason?"

When Elbridge had met Rombel in the Magic Tower, Rombel had spoken as if he still followed the God of the Iron Anvil.

Now that they were on the same ship, he had spilled everything, but back then, perhaps he had been reluctant to admit that he had been expelled from the church.

Elbridge folded his arms.

"Still, no matter how I look at it, the God of the Iron Anvil is a little strange. The Heavenly Council already banned retaliation against believers who change faith, didn't it? If he blocks you from going in, isn't that retaliation?"

"He'll probably Take It Easy and dress it up somehow. Something like, this isn't revenge, the Red Mountains are a place only my believers can enter... that sort of thing."

"Would that excuse really work?"

"I don't really know what goes on up in heaven. But he probably hasn't crossed the line by much. The more despicable someone is, the better they are at reading the room, right?"

While they were chatting, Elbridge sensed a new presence.

But this one was different from the ones he had felt before. It wasn't a presence approaching the valley from far away. It was being felt from inside the valley.

When he turned around, he saw a female dwarf standing there with a blank expression.

Her short arms and legs were unmistakably dwarven, but unlike the male dwarves, she did not have a thick beard, which made her strangely cute.

"Uh...?"

The female dwarf crept closer and asked, "Who are you all? Could it be...?"

That was for Rombel, her fellow dwarf, to answer.

"I am Rombel. I came here from Solenion with my companions after hearing that our kin in the Red Mountains were in grave trouble."

The female dwarf fidgeted and said, "I'm Bruni. But... why are you waiting here? Why didn't you go into the valley?"

"That is because I cannot go into that valley."

"What? Mr. Rombel, you're a dwarf, aren't you?"

It seemed Bruni did not know Rombel.

Rombel put on a sorrowful expression.

"The truth is... I have circumstances that prevent me from going inside."

"What kind of circumstances?"

"Two hundred years ago, I was cast out of the Order of the Iron Anvil."

"What? How does a dwarf get cast out of the order?"

"It happened because I committed a grave sin when I was young. Let me show you the proof."

Rombel acted as if he was about to approach the valley, then once again showed off his special move of throwing himself out from beside the corpse in a flash.

Once again, the valley made a loud noise as it closed and opened again.

"Recently, some people said they heard a noisy sound coming from the valley. So that was because of Mr. Rombel?"

"That's right. I was looking for a way into the Red Mountains."

"This is the first time I've met someone who doesn't serve the God of the Iron Anvil, so I don't know what I'm supposed to do... May I ask why you were cast out?"

Rombel made a bitter face.

"Miss Bruni. Two hundred years ago, I was one of the warriors who left the Red Mountains to fight the demon."

"I've heard about that war... from my mother."

"Back then, I was young and foolish. After rubbing shoulders with a group that served all kinds of petty gods, the moment came when my faith started to waver."

At once, confusion appeared on Bruni's face.

"So you turned your back on the order?"

"That wasn't it. I made the mistake of keeping someone who had turned their back on the order by my side."

Rombel's expression looked calm enough at a glance. But Elbridge noticed that Rombel's jaw had clenched hard. He was definitely struggling to hide what he really felt.

"The God of the Iron Anvil gave me several chances. But I was too foolish to notice them."

Of course, that was different from the truth. The God of the Iron Anvil had cast Rombel out of the order without saying a word.

But that was not something he could say honestly in front of Bruni.

"Regret came too late. But it was already too late. My prayers did not reach the God of the Iron Anvil."

"There's no way, you believed in another god?"

"No. I wasn't foolish enough to repeat the same mistake again. So I spent two hundred years waiting for the day the God of the Iron Anvil would hear my prayers."

"Wow..."

"And then, about a month ago, I heard that our kin had fallen into trouble. The moment I heard it, I realized something. This was the God of the Iron Anvil giving me one last chance! I grabbed my axe at once and left Holy City Solenion. Then I waited here in front of the Red Mountains until now."

At first glance, it seemed as though Rombel was speaking to Bruni, but in truth, this was a message to the God of the Iron Anvil.

For a proud dwarf warrior, it was an unbearable humiliation.

But if he wanted to swing an axe and take an enemy's head, he first had to get within axe range.

Rombel had endured that humiliation so he could cut down the faith of the Order of the Iron Anvil.

So he could show that he, an unbeliever, was solving the problem the God of the Iron Anvil had failed to solve.

So he could shake the dwarves' faith to its core.

And so he could bring the God of the Iron Anvil to ruin.

"Miss Bruni. Please guide me into the Red Mountains. I want to wash away my sin with this chance and become a servant of the God of the Iron Anvil once more."

Bruni thought for a long time.

She did not seem sure whether bringing Rombel into the mountain range was the right choice.

"Um, all of you. How long have you been waiting here?"

"About half a month."

"Weren't there other people besides you all?"

Elbridge could guess what Bruni was thinking.

Rather than letting the troublesome Rombel into the Red Mountains, she wanted to find out whether there were other people involved.

'She's not stupid.'

But Rombel's acting swept away Bruni's doubts with ease.

"Other people? Did you ask for help somewhere besides Holy City Solenion?"

"Um... that's what I heard."

Rombel's expression grew utterly serious.

"As someone who once served the God of the Iron Anvil, I swear on the faith I rebuilt over these two hundred years. No one has approached this valley in the past half month. Miss Bruni, you are the first."

Rombel made a promise to Bruni on a faith he did not even have.

It was a shameless statement, but Bruni did not notice the contradiction.

"Um. I understand. If you put it that way."

Bruni took one step into the valley.

Unlike when Rombel had entered, the valley stayed quiet.

Still, Elbridge and Marcus were a little tense.

'It won't shut late and trap us inside, will it...?'

But Rombel followed right after Bruni without hesitation.

Elbridge did not want to look tense in front of Rombel, so he followed behind him, and Marcus was forced to follow after Elbridge because of the oracle given by the God of Fox Rain.

After they had taken a few steps like that, Rombel stopped walking.

Bruni turned back and asked, "What's wrong?"

"No, nothing. Let's go."

Bruni started walking again.

But Elbridge realized Rombel was looking for something.

Rombel crouched down and picked up a tiny object from the ground.

It looked like a white pebble, or maybe a splinter of bone.

Rombel clenched his fist tightly and kept walking after Bruni.

* * *

Once they passed through the valley, the dwarven city came into view.

The dwarves' city was a little lower than the entrance to the valley, so the party could look down on it all at once.

Rombel drew in a deep breath and said, "Welcome to Mountain City Barquntol."

Elbridge and Marcus looked on in open admiration.

"Wow..."

"Amazing."

Ordinary cities form naturally as people gather together.

Their shapes usually look like tiny pieces hastily patched together.

But the city inside the Red Mountains was different.

Every building was crafted like a precise sculpture, radiating outward from a single point in the center. It looked like hundreds of concentric circles had been stacked one after another.

Its shape was not the only thing that was refined. Its scale was beyond imagination too.

It was enough to understand why this single city alone could take up three seats in the Heavenly Council.

He had heard that there was a dwarven city in the Red Mountains, but only dwarves had ever personally visited it. A non-dwarf visitor had probably not come here in a very long time.

Marcus grinned and whispered to Elbridge, "This is like a dream. I never thought I'd come to Barquntol."

"Neither did I."

The dwarves were only barely tall enough to reach Marcus and Elbridge's chests.

The party naturally drew every dwarf's gaze.

After walking a little farther, one dwarf stopped them.

"Well, well, if it isn't Rombel!"

"Gundrick. It's been a while."

Judging by the atmosphere, he seemed to be an old friend of Rombel's.

But Gundrick hesitated just as he was about to offer Rombel a handshake.

"...Rombel. I heard a rumor that you were cast out of the order. That's just nonsense, right?"

Rombel answered, "It isn't nonsense."

"In that case, you..."

"Right now, I'm an unbeliever. I don't serve any god."

The expressions of the dwarves gathered around them turned grave.

The dwarf called Gundrick was no different.

Gundrick said, "Rombel. If you were human, maybe it wouldn't matter... but for a dwarf who doesn't follow the God of the Iron Anvil to set foot in this mountain city is a vile insult. Declare right now that you will serve the God of the Iron Anvil."

Rombel shook his head.

"No. I cannot do that now."

"This is not something you can delay. Rombel. Right this instant..."

Then Rombel answered.

"I am a sinner who was cast out. To wash away a sin, I need merit of equal weight."

Gundrick's eyes went wide.

"You... don't tell me."

"I came to stop the threat that has fallen on Mountain City Barquntol. Only then can I wash away even a little of the blasphemy I committed against the God of the Iron Anvil."

Was it because the statement itself sounded convincing? Or because Rombel's acting was simply too good?

The hostile atmosphere melted away like snow.

Gundrick smiled with satisfaction and offered Rombel his hand.

"Welcome home. Rombel."

"Thank you, my friend."

Rombel took Gundrick's hand, and a few of the dwarves clapped as if they had been moved.

But Elbridge watched the scene with a trace of fear in his eyes. He understood the grudge, but wasn't the lie a little too natural?

Then the goddess's voice reached his ears.

- Elbridge. I have changed my mind.

"What do you mean, my lady?"

- Since your goddess believes a paladin should be truthful, I think one paladin is enough for our order...

Elbridge was deeply moved by the goddess's wisdom.

Footnotes:

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