WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

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Chapter 34: Mountain City Barquntol (4)

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Marcus did not understand Rombel's last remark.

"Mr. Rombel. What are you talking about?"

"Have you ever heard of the Silent Paladin?"

"···."

Marcus had only learned about the Silent Paladin very recently.

When he first met the wolf demonic beast, Marcus had thought Elbridge fought astonishingly well.

But when they faced the crow demonic beast, the skill Elbridge showed had been on a completely different level. After that fight, Marcus had become certain that Elbridge was no ordinary man.

That was why Marcus had one question.

'Why would someone that skilled stay in some obscure order? Even mercenary work would be better than this...'

If it came to that, he had planned to tell Elbridge to give up being a paladin for that strange order and become a mercenary instead. So Marcus had gathered information on Elbridge and the Order of the Rusted Shield.

Of course, it was nothing impressive. He had just bought a round of beer for some mercenaries he knew and casually asked around.

And Marcus's effort had not been in vain.

"The Order of the Rusted Shield? You don't know that fairy tale? The Silent Paladin."

"I don't."

Marcus's childhood had been bleak. His parents had never told him old stories at bedtime, so he had never heard of the Silent Paladin.

"You idiot. You know, that story about a paladin sealing a demon. The order in that story is the Order of the Rusted Shield. The paladin's name was El... what was it again?"

"Elbridge?"

"Ah, right. Elbridge."

A little later, Marcus heard during the Grand Festival tournament that Elbridge was a descendant of the Silent Paladin.

That made sense to Marcus. Ah, so bloodlines really did matter after all. That must be why Elbridge fought so well. He left it at that.

But now Rombel was talking about another possibility.

That Elbridge might not be a descendant of the Silent Paladin after all.

Marcus could not easily accept that.

Was it because he could not believe that someone from centuries ago, neither dwarf nor elf, was still alive now?

That was part of it.

But the biggest reason was something else.

Marcus could not believe that such an extraordinary person was standing beside a nobody mercenary like him.

"That doesn't make any sense... It can't be."

Rombel did not deny it either.

"Right. It doesn't make sense. Honestly, even when I met that guy at the Magic Tower, I thought I was dreaming."

"Yeah. I don't buy it. Do you know how many people have tried to fool me so far? I'm not falling for it..."

Still, Rombel's story did clear up a few of Marcus's questions.

Why was Elbridge's skill so unnaturally high?

Why did Elbridge show courtesy to everyone else, yet treat Rombel, who was older than anyone else by far, like a friend?

And why had the God of Fox Rain given an oracle to someone as lowly as a mercenary like him, telling him to follow Elbridge?

Rombel said, "Whether you believe it or not doesn't matter. What matters is whether Elbridge can take on that role. Hey, Elbridge. Is it possible? If it isn't, I'll look for another way."

"Hold on. Let me think for a moment."

Elbridge said that and lowered his head, lost in thought.

At that calm response, Marcus shuddered.

No paladin would have said they could do this. The fact that Elbridge was even considering it proved that he was the legendary paladin, didn't it?

Marcus looked at Elbridge with eyes full of a small but genuine awe.

Just what kind of grand battle was playing out in Elbridge's mind right now...?

But the truth was a little different.

Elbridge was pretending to think while offering a quiet prayer to the Goddess of the Rusted Shield.

"Goddess. May I borrow Your divine power?"

There were now around a thousand believers in the Order of the Rusted Shield. They still had no seat, but the situation was far better than when Elbridge had been the only believer.

Still, it was unclear whether the goddess had enough power left to grant any at all.

The Goddess of the Rusted Shield responded through an oracle, sounding smug.

"Elbridge. Your goddess saved what little divine power she had left for this moment. I even kept the leftovers from two hundred years ago, carefully hoarded..."

Elbridge felt a faint sense that something was off.

For someone who claimed to have saved things carefully, the oracle had delivered a little too much petty chatter.

"Goddess. Didn't You say last time that divine power was needed even to deliver an oracle?"

"Elbridge. That could not be helped. Your goddess had to endure boredom and loneliness for nearly two hundred years, unable to look upon the lower world or send oracles..."

"···."

"The important thing is that your goddess can still grant a paladin a little divine power. Elbridge. What kind of power do you want?"

There were many kinds of power the goddess could grant.

But right now, Elbridge only needed one.

"The sealing authority."

"I can grant that power. But the situation is not favorable, so I can only bestow it. How long it lasts will depend entirely on you, Elbridge."

"I understand. Thank you, Goddess."

Elbridge ended his quiet exchange with the goddess and answered Rombel.

"I can do it."

The awe in Marcus's eyes deepened even more.

* * *

But three people could not open a massive iron gate.

Elbridge's group went straight to Mayor Baldrek, and Rombel took the lead in explaining the plan.

Yet when Mayor Baldrek heard it, he turned pale.

"You want to open the iron gate?"

"Yes."

"That's impossible. Absolutely not."

"Didn't you say to tell you anything we needed?"

"I never thought you'd say you wanted to open the iron gate. That gate is a matter of life and death for every dwarf living in this city. Besides... if something goes wrong, there's no way to close it again."

It was not hard to understand Mayor Baldrek's reaction. Even to Elbridge and Rombel, the plan was clearly dangerous. If the mayor had agreed immediately, that would have been stranger.

"If you're against it that strongly, then you must have a good alternative. Do you have some clever idea?"

"Wouldn't it be better to use the side gate and have the three of you go over?"

"We don't have time for that."

"Then please wait for now. Since you all came all the way to the mountain city, couldn't more people arrive to help? The iron gate still stands firm."

Rombel hesitated.

He had just turned away the people who had come to help the dwarves. Even if the dwarves of the mountain city did not know that...

'No. If I hadn't sent those guys back, our group wouldn't have gotten in either. Elbridge and I are probably more useful together than all of them combined. No need to feel bad at all.'

While Rombel was trying to talk himself out of it, Elbridge asked Mayor Baldrek, "Mayor. How much longer can the iron gate hold?"

"At the shortest, three months. At the longest, it can hold for over a year."

"Are you certain?"

"If you saw the thickness of that gate, you would certainly agree with me."

"Understood. But please prepare for any situation that might arise. Gather those who can fight and build fortifications."

"Understood. We will begin as soon as the urgent matters are settled."

"This is the most urgent matter. Put everything else aside and do it. Starting today."

"···Understood."

On the way out of city hall after their talk with the mayor, Elbridge said, "We won't last ten days."

Marcus asked back, "Why do you think that?"

"Places that say three months usually get broken through within five days, and places that say one year usually collapse within ten days at most."

From Elbridge's experience, when demonic beasts or demons were involved, things rarely went the way anyone wanted.

Elbridge thought this time would be no different.

* * *

A large city was always noisy. But the noise in Mountain City Barquntol was louder than in most cities.

Part of that was because the city was so large. Part of it was because the noise unique to a great city echoed off the cliffs. Noise that kept bouncing around did not fade easily.

Over the past few months, it had become even louder than before. That was because the usual noise had been joined by the sounds of demonic beasts pounding on the iron gate and dwarves building barricades.

In the middle of all that racket, the sound of the demonic beasts battering the iron gate suddenly stopped.

"···."

In ordinary situations, noise swallowed silence.

But very rarely, a small stretch of silence swallowed a huge stretch of noise.

That was exactly what was happening now. As the noise that had gone on for months suddenly vanished, the dwarves building the barricades stopped working and looked toward the iron gate.

That silence spread across all of Barquntol, and the sudden stillness pressed down on the enormous city.

'What is it?'

At that moment, Marcus was climbing the stairs to check beyond the side gate.

He rushed all the way up the stairs and looked at the situation on the other side.

The first thing he saw was the distortion-type demonic beast.

Until now, it had always stayed far away, the farthest thing from the gate.

But now the distortion-type demonic beast had moved close to the iron gate. In contrast, the other demonic beasts had stopped battering the gate and pulled back to a distance.

Marcus realized it.

The moment Elbridge had predicted. The moment the iron gate would give way. It was now.

The distortion-type demonic beast's maw opened even wider. Until now, whenever it had shown that form, it had spat out a new demonic beast, but now the foreboding felt different.

A huge black arm shot out of the demonic beast's maw. It writhed as though made of black flame.

'...My God.'

It was something he had never seen before.

But Marcus realized instinctively. That black arm did not belong to the demonic beast.

'It's a demon's arm.'

The demon's arm, now out to nearly the shoulder, raked through everything around it. One unlucky enhanced-type demonic beast was seized in the demon's hand.

Kieeek-!

It was an insect-type demonic beast, its entire body covered in a hard carapace.

The insect-type demonic beast seemed to sense its fate and thrashed wildly, screaming strangely. But it could not escape the demon's grasp.

A moment later, the demon's arm hurled the insect-type demonic beast at the iron gate.

Bang-!

A deafening crash rang out. The demon's power was so overwhelming that the insect-type demonic beast burst apart and died.

The demon's arm raked through everything nearby.

The demonic beasts fled in terror. But the demon's arm seized the next beast, then the one after that, and hurled them at the iron gate.

Bang-! Bang-!

Marcus came back down the stairs, nearly leaping the whole way.

"A demon! It's a demon!"

The iron gate still held firm. But the connection between the gate and the cliff was not as strong as the gate itself. The rock at the edge of the gate cracked, and stone dust sprayed everywhere.

Bang-! Bang-!

Marcus realized it. That distortion-type demonic beast, and the demon beyond it, had not failed to break the iron gate. They had chosen not to break it.

Elbridge, Rombel, Marcus. The dwarves building the barricades.

And every dwarf in Mountain City Barquntol was staring at the iron gate.

No one said a word. They only pricked up their ears and listened to the booms coming from the gate.

A little later, Elbridge muttered, "It's opening."

The thick iron gate crashed down.

Kuuuuung-

With a huge crash, dust and dirt surged upward.

Because they hadn't opened the gate in time, the breach was much larger than it would have been otherwise. Nothing now blocked the space between Barquntol and Bronzimmar.

Through the dust, the distortion-type demonic beast could be seen faintly. A huge arm could be seen being drawn back into the maw of the distortion-type beast.

And where the arm had vanished, a huge eye appeared inside the maw of the distortion-type demonic beast.

A jet-black eyeball. In the center of it, a bright yellow eye swept over the dwarves of the mountain city.

Then a brand was etched onto every dwarf's forehead.

"Uh...?"

To the dwarves, it felt like a sentence being handed down. A death sentence, and a sentence that their souls would be taken by the demon.

Fear swallowed Mountain City Barquntol.

The distortion-type demonic beast, as if it had done its part, backed away with a smile on its not-quite-finished face.

The dust still had not settled.

A few demonic beasts rushed out through the gate.

In the mountain city, now full of fear, there were only two people who had not been crushed by terror.

Elbridge leaped in from the side and swung his sword at the beasts. One of the demonic beasts that had rushed into the city had its belly ripped open and rolled across the ground.

Rombel muttered, "Hah. I kept telling them it would be better to just open the gate, but they wouldn't listen... Elbridge. I'm counting on you."

Elbridge nodded and climbed onto the fallen iron gate.

He was alone, standing before countless demonic beasts.

Behind him, the dwarves' screams rang out.

That was the sound of the beasts that had rushed out as soon as the gate opened, hunting down the dwarves.

But Elbridge knew that worrying about what was behind him in a situation like this would only make things worse.

So Elbridge looked only ahead, at the many demonic beasts that had not yet crossed over, and said, "Mr. Marcus. Please follow the beasts that have already entered the city and take care of them."

"Ah, got it!"

Elbridge set his shield on the ground and laid his sword across both palms.

Then he whispered softly, "Goddess. Please grant me the sealing authority."

The paladin's prayer reached the heavens above.

* * *

Marcus ran toward the city and thought,

'Take care of the beasts? Me? Can a lowly mercenary like me really do that?'

He did not know. He had no confidence that he could manage it.

Honestly, it felt impossible. He'd fought so many demonic beasts on the way here, and not once had he succeeded.

But he could not run away without even trying. That was just Marcus's nature.

'Just try it first. If it fails, that's not on me. If I get unlucky and die... shit, I'll die even if I don't do it. Let's not think about that.'

Marcus chased after the demonic beast that looked the easiest to handle.

It was shaped like a clump of dust, and it at least seemed easier than the others.

Screams rang out from all around.

It was not because the beasts were attacking them. They were simply terrified.

Except for a few brave dwarves, everyone had gone out of their minds.

Then something strange happened.

Just as the silence had spread over Mountain City Barquntol moments before.

Another silence now spread over Barquntol. The screams died down.

Marcus glanced at the dwarves. They stood there blankly, staring at something.

'What is coming now?'

Marcus looked back too.

And then he saw a pillar of light.

The pillar of light was not blinding. It was a soft beam, like moonlight, reaching Elbridge.

And Marcus saw a human form within that pillar of light.

A woman in armor covered in scars, with long golden hair flowing down her back.

The woman in the light held a shield in her left hand and a sword in her right.

Marcus immediately realized who she was.

'The Goddess of the Rusted Shield...'

He had seen paladins unleash divine power more than once.

But this was the first time he had seen a god take form.

No, he had never even heard of such a thing happening.

The Goddess of the Rusted Shield said, "I bestow the sealing authority upon Paladin Elbridge."

It was a small whisper.

Yet no one in Mountain City Barquntol failed to hear it.

Footnotes:

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