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Translator/Editor: Order

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◈ Paladin of a Ruined Order

Chapter 37

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Rules of Decency

Criticizing the God of the Iron Anvil in public had been planned long before Rombel arrived in Mountain City Barquntol.

But even Rombel had not expected the God of the Iron Anvil to deliver an oracle in such a public fashion.

Still, once it had started, there was no stopping it.

Rombel shouted without backing down an inch.

"You call that blasphemy? It is called blasphemy because you fail to show respect to one who deserves it. How could it be blasphemy not to show respect to someone who is not even worth respecting?"

The listening dwarves froze.

They had spent their entire lives worshipping only the God of the Iron Anvil.

Right or wrong, what Rombel had just said was far too extreme.

"God of the Iron Anvil! Answer me! What did you do in the face of the calamity that struck Mountain City Barquntol? Nothing! All you did was watch from that lofty heaven!"

The God of the Iron Anvil answered.

- Your view is narrow. Bringing you to this place was part of my arrangement from the start.

It seemed the God of the Iron Anvil had delivered an oracle to Mayor Baldrek, and Mayor Baldrek had asked for outside help. But Rombel snorted.

"If Marcus had not happened to meet a dwarf, if Marcus had not asked Elbridge for help, if Elbridge and Marcus had not come looking for me. If even one thing had gone wrong, Mountain City Barquntol would have been destroyed. That was not your arrangement, but the result of one lucky break after another, so do not twist our goodwill into your plan!"

Then Rombel raised his axe toward the sky.

"Remember this clearly! All the feats of today were achieved directly by me, my companions, and the dwarves of Barquntol. When our people's fate hung by a thread, you were the only one who did nothing! And you will surely keep doing nothing. God of the Iron Anvil, you are not worthy to bear the fate of our people!"

Could a face hold anger and exultation at once?

To Elbridge and Marcus, Rombel's expression was exactly that.

Rage toward the God of the Iron Anvil, and the joy of finally unleashing two hundred years of pent-up resentment.

The two emotions did not blend or cancel each other out. Each stood fully on its own.

"Do you think this is only happening now? No! It was the same long ago! Two hundred years ago, you did not give even the slightest help to the warriors who fought demons with their lives at stake! Your very existence was the greatest shackle on the dwarf warriors!"

The dwarves stirred.

They had spent their whole lives serving only the God of the Iron Anvil. Their hearts could not easily accept such vicious blasphemy.

At the same time, their minds knew Rombel's story made sense.

The air in Mountain City Barquntol rumbled.

Everyone there realized the God of the Iron Anvil was furious.

- I gave no help at all? You say it has always been so? Fool. Only someone who has never truly lived through those ancient times could say that. You do not even know how fortunate a time you live in.

Elbridge and Marcus did not know the dwarves' distant past.

But Rombel and the other dwarves did. They knew how their ancestors had lived in those far-off days, more than a thousand years ago.

- When I was young, every dwarf was a slave. No race existed that did not covet dwarf craftsmanship. Every dwarf was born a slave, lived as a slave, and died as a slave. Their descendants had to keep living the same life forever. There was no way out.

- I fled with nothing but a pickaxe and finally reached the Red Mountains. For more than three hundred years, I bored through these mountains with one purpose: to create a place where my people could live freely.

- And so I built a great city in these mountains. I was the first to make a furnace in this city and light its fire, and I was the one who burned through my whole life for my people. That feat was recognized in heaven, and I became the only dwarf to become a heavenly god.

Because dwarf culture and customs were so closed off, their faith had never been widely known.

Only now were Marcus and even Elbridge learning how the God of the Iron Anvil had ascended to heaven.

Rombel shouted.

"I will not deny even that feat! I do not think you lacked the right to become a god. But a thousand years have passed since Mountain City Barquntol was built and the dwarves were freed. You are using faded glory to bind our people and standing by while crisis unfolds! Every problem the dwarves faced today came from your own lack of virtue!

- My lack of virtue? Foolish one. How could the appearance of a demonic beast have anything to do with my lack of virtue?

The air in Barquntol rumbled again. A few elderly dwarves trembled and dropped to their knees.

But Rombel did not yield, and he shouted even louder.

"No! Your lack of virtue created every problem. Who does not know that you killed every hero from two hundred years ago? If even one warrior from that era had been left alive, none of this would have happened."

The younger dwarves were hearing it for the first time.

But among the older dwarves, not a single one did not know that fact. They had simply been too afraid of the God of the Iron Anvil to say it out loud.

"You feared the fortress you built a thousand years ago would collapse, so you trampled every sprout growing inside its walls and tore it out by the roots. If a strong wind blows and the walls shake because there are no trees to shield them, that is not the wind's fault. It is yours for ripping out every seedling that could have become a hero."

Marcus looked around uneasily as he listened.

The excitement of battle still had not left the dwarves around him, and many of them carried weapons. At their whim, Marcus's life could vanish in an instant.

But even sharp-eyed Marcus found it hard to guess what the dwarves were thinking now.

Rombel, who had been shouting nonstop, steadied his breathing.

His next words were a little calmer.

"God of the Iron Anvil. As a dwarf, I respect the feat you accomplished a thousand years ago. But a feat from a thousand years ago belongs to a thousand years ago. The dwarves followed you and gave you a thousand years to prove yourself. But tell me, God of the Iron Anvil. Since that first feat, have you succeeded in drawing a better future for the dwarves over the past thousand years?"

No new voice came from heaven.

Every dwarf listening knew it. The God of the Iron Anvil could not answer Rombel's question.

"God of the Iron Anvil, standard-bearer of our kind. If you want to lead your people, you have to take up the banner and stand at the front. A thousand years ago, you raised a shining banner high and led every dwarf. But your banner has frayed and worn away over a thousand years, so your time is over. Now you are not fit to lead our people."

The God of the Iron Anvil still did not answer. So Rombel shouted at every dwarf looking at him.

"Dwarves! It is time to move forward anew. It is time to turn your back on the god who kept you from moving forward. Warriors! You are not weak. Cast yourselves into the world and take back your lives!"

A young dwarf asked Rombel, "Then what god should we follow now?"

Elbridge could guess without much trouble what the Goddess of the Rusted Shield was thinking up in heaven. She probably wanted him to raise his hand right then and start proselytizing.

But Elbridge did not have the shamelessness to jump into the moment and recruit people.

'···Thank goodness the goddess's divine power has run dry.'

Rombel answered the young dwarf.

"Anyone will do. Follow the god you want. Choose not a god who decides the road you must walk, but a god who will walk beside you. Only then will you be able to reclaim your lives."

Then the voice of the god came again.

- I am the only dwarf who has ascended to heaven. Do you think the gods of other races would show you more compassion than I would? I can tell you with certainty that they would not.

As Rombel's voice softened slightly, so did the anger in the God of the Iron Anvil's oracle. In its place, concern filled the gap.

An old dwarf also spoke to Rombel.

"I have never once thought the God of the Iron Anvil was a perfect god. But I do not want to worship a god of another race either."

The God of the Iron Anvil had led their people to the Red Mountains to escape the persecution of other races.

Beneath the feat they had accomplished lay love and pity for their people, but also fear and hatred toward other races.

The feelings the God of the Iron Anvil held became the teachings of the Order of the Iron Anvil and were passed down for a thousand years, so dwarves could not help but carry some amount of fear and rejection toward gods of other races.

That was why Rombel told the old dwarf, "Then wait a little longer."

"Wait for what?"

"For me."

Rombel looked over all the dwarves in Mountain City Barquntol, then said clearly, "I will achieve a great feat and become the second dwarf to ascend to heaven. Wait for the day I become a god and return to the Red Mountains."

Silence fell over the mountain city once more.

He was declaring that he would become a god himself.

It was an outcome no one had expected.

But unlike the others, Elbridge understood everything, even if belatedly.

'···So that was it.'

Elbridge remembered the place where he had met Rombel after two hundred years.

The Magic Tower.

If he had been exiled from the church, was there any reason Rombel would not serve a new god?

If he was an outstanding warrior, was there any reason he had to become a blacksmith at the Magic Tower?

There was no reason.

Like the other mages of the Magic Tower, Rombel had only wanted to become a god and ascend to heaven.

Not merely to shake or tear down the Order of the Iron Anvil, but to rise to heaven, stand above the God of the Iron Anvil, and even slap the god in the face while mourning the death of his wife.

That was the revenge that could satisfy Rombel completely.

Only then did the godly presence that had filled Mountain City Barquntol vanish.

The dwarves realized the old god had stepped back.

"···"

All around, only the rough sound of the dwarves' breathing could be heard.

They could not say it openly, but many dwarves had grown sick of the God of the Iron Anvil.

With this incident, even more dwarves were disappointed in the God of the Iron Anvil and saw the possibility of a new god.

Countless dwarves realized it. Sooner or later, they would turn away from the God of the Iron Anvil.

But Rombel was not a god yet, so they could not worship Rombel.

For dwarves, a gap in faith was more troublesome than betrayal. If that was the case, who were they supposed to worship until Rombel became a god...?

Then a man raised his hand high among the dwarves, and that man was Marcus.

"If you need a god to believe in right now, why not believe in the God of Fox Rain? The God of Fox Rain will grant you unexpected joy."

Elbridge thought as he listened.

'Should I jump in too? I should, shouldn't I?'

If Rombel really did ascend to heaven, most of the dwarves would one day become his believers.

But Rombel could not become a heavenly god in a day or two.

'Even if it took years, if so many people became believers in our church, that would be a huge help...'

But starting to proselytize as if nothing had happened in an atmosphere like this was even harder for Elbridge than talking about money.

While Elbridge hesitated, unsure what to do, Marcus added one more line.

"Or you can go to Sir Elbridge over there. The Goddess of the Rusted Shield is just as great as the God of Fox Rain. Anyway, if anyone is interested in the God of Fox Rain, come find me once things settle down."

After shouting that, Marcus groaned and walked on, clutching the wound the demonic beast had given him.

Now the dwarves had three choices.

Would they continue to serve the God of the Iron Anvil, disappointed though they were?

Or would they follow the Goddess of the Rusted Shield or the God of Fox Rain and wait for the day Rombel ascended?

Among the majority of dwarves disappointed in the God of the Iron Anvil, a few showed interest in the God of Fox Rain. But most chose the Goddess of the Rusted Shield.

It was the expected result. Elbridge had done far more in this battle than Marcus, and the Goddess of the Rusted Shield had shown a far greater presence than the God of Fox Rain.

Marcus knew this would happen.

That was why Marcus asked the God of Fox Rain, "God of Fox Rain. Why did you tell me to mention the Goddess of the Rusted Shield along with your name?"

Then a concise oracle answered.

- Because that's the decent thing to do.

"강철과 모루의 신" and its spaced variant are normalized to "God of the Iron Anvil" to match the glossary.

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