WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

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◈ Paladin of a Ruined Order

Chapter 4

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Wolf and Fox Rain

"Phew-"

Elbridge only let out a relieved breath after the last six wolves finally backed away.

Even for Elbridge, taking down all six wolves without a scratch was no easy feat. His body was in terrible shape, and there were plenty of people behind him who had no idea how to fight.

While Elbridge brushed the dirt off his clothes, a slightly excited Rick came up to him.

"El! That was amazing!"

"Ah, yes."

"But how did you do that just now?"

"I was just lucky."

"As if something like that could happen just by luck..."

Rick trailed off, then asked in a knowing, sly voice.

"You... are a mercenary, aren't you?"

When the village had recruited Elbridge, Rick had heard him talking about being a paladin and all that.

But Rick had judged that Elbridge was not a paladin.

The way Elbridge fought was different from the way paladins fought.

The knights Rick had seen usually relied on overwhelming strength and speed brought out through mana.

They ran at speeds that were hard to call human, and subdued opponents with strength beyond ordinary people.

He had even seen an armored knight ram a bear with his pauldron and send it flying. He had heard paladin combat was not much different.

By contrast, Elbridge, however good his movements were, did not show speed or strength beyond human limits.

Fighting with technique while staying within the bounds of ordinary physical ability was closer to a mercenary's style. Not an ordinary mercenary, but an extremely seasoned one, to be sure...

Elbridge had no intention of explaining the whole situation in detail.

"Something like that."

"I knew it. Still, that kind of skill at your age... impressive."

"I've never been told I'm impressive."

"Being too humble isn't attractive either. If you took down a wolf pack by yourself, it would be better to brag a little. That's the kind of feat you'd expect from a knight."

"···Huh? What do you mean by that?"

Elbridge could not brush off Rick's praise lightly. Something about it felt odd.

The phrase wolf hunter, or bear hunter, was one of the insults aimed at knights and paladins.

It meant a knight was so lacking in skill, or so cowardly, that they were only sent out to deal with wolves or bears.

Given the circumstances, it was not strange for Rick to praise Elbridge, but bringing up knights specifically felt unnatural.

Someone as well-traveled as Rick could not have been unaware of that fact.

'...No. Maybe something changed over the past two hundred years?'

No matter what Elbridge thought, Rick was still grinning broadly.

"I mean it exactly as I said. When you're young, it's fine to show a little reckless spirit..."

"No, not that. I'm talking about the part where you said it was knight-level work."

"Why? Is something strange about that?"

"That's not it... Do knights hunt wolves?"

"When wolves gather together and kill livestock or raid homes, it's normal to ask the nearest lord for help. If the lord receives the request, sending knights is the usual response."

But unlike Rick's explanation, Elbridge's memory of wolf hunting had always been that it was the job of seasoned hunters or mercenaries.

Calling a knight a wolf hunter was an insult, just as sending a knight out to deal with wolves was an insult to the knight.

Then what did knights and paladins hunt in Elbridge's time, if not wolves or bears?

Elbridge said, "Aren't knights busy hunting demonic beasts and demons?"

When Elbridge said that, a few of the people who had been tense let out small laughs. They thought Elbridge had thrown out a joke to ease the mood.

Rick also burst out laughing.

"What? That's nonsense. Demonic beasts aren't even common... And demons? Where in the world are there any demons?"

"No demons? But surely..."

"You're surprisingly innocent. Demons are stories paladins and priests made up to save face. Have you ever even met anyone who said they had seen a demon?"

Elbridge froze.

Even in the past, demons had been growing steadily rarer. It had been the result of knights and paladins risking their lives to fight them one by one and seal them away.

And two hundred years ago, the Archdemon itself had finally been sealed away.

If people in the present world no longer believed demons existed.

If the world had reached a point where the blood paladins and knights had shed long ago was treated as nothing more than boasts.

Wouldn't that mean the world those dead knights had dreamed of had finally arrived?

After a brief moment of thought, Elbridge asked, "Come to think of it, I haven't met anyone who said they'd seen a demon directly. Have you, sir?"

Then he waited, a little tense, for Rick's answer.

"That's right. Demons are the kind of thing drunks and blowhards talk about. Or the nonsense of a half-wit who saw a demonic beast and thought it was a demon."

Elbridge could not help but smile.

That was exactly the kind of answer he had wanted to hear most.

While the two of them were talking, signs of movement came from the front.

When he turned his head, he saw the mercenaries. Three of the mercenaries escorting the caravan ahead of them.

Among them was the mercenary with the scar across the bridge of his nose, the same one who had been rude to Elbridge earlier.

"What is it?"

When Rick asked, the scarred mercenary replied, "There was a small clash with a wolf pack a little while ago. I thought the wolves might attack this group, but luckily nothing happened..."

As he spoke, the scarred mercenary's eyes landed on the wolf corpse. One of his eyebrows rose crookedly.

"Why is that wolf dead?"

"He killed it. We almost had a disaster, so it was a huge relief." Rick pointed at Elbridge. The scarred mercenary looked surprised.

"He took down a wolf by himself?"

"Yes."

"Not bad. A real skilled one, despite appearances."

Elbridge gave a light nod.

"It was just luck."

"Someone without skill can't grab hold of luck. Especially against a wolf that big... If you're going to say odd things in the village, why not introduce yourself as a mercenary? If you had, you might have been able to move with our caravan."

When Elbridge gave an awkward smile, the scarred mercenary gently rubbed his left forearm with a finger.

"No, if that had happened, the people here wouldn't have made it. In the end, I suppose luck was on our side... Anyway."

The scarred mercenary turned back to Rick.

"Our employer says there could be trouble because of the wolves, so we're supposed to stay together tonight."

Elbridge pictured the caravan leader, the one with the plump body. Despite that greedy-looking face, the leader seemed to be fairly considerate.

It was also a reasonable decision for the caravan ahead. The more people gathered together, the lower the chance of wolves attacking.

'A pretty wise person. Well, I guess that's why the leader is in charge of a caravan...'

Rick and Elbridge's group of around forty people joined the caravan ahead of them.

Once they were able to spend the night among sword-bearing mercenaries, the faces of the tense travelers showed signs of relief.

People lit campfires all around and settled down to sleep.

The mercenaries included with the caravan took turns deciding their watch duty, and the first one to stand watch was the scarred mercenary.

He stretched lazily, then squatted in front of the campfire.

Elbridge also could not sleep, so instead of lying down and trying to drift off, he sat across from the mercenary.

The mercenary spoke cheerfully. "This must be fate, right? Call me Marcus. I'd appreciate it if you didn't hold what I said last time against me."

Elbridge gave a small nod.

"Yes, Mr. Marcus. Are we only staying together today and splitting up again tomorrow?"

"Our employer has a good nature, so I doubt there'll be any fuss over that. Still, you won't have much to worry about starting tomorrow."

"Why is that?"

"Our employer sent someone to the nearby barony. Apparently, the employer has quite a bit of familiarity with the lord... A knight will be arriving by tomorrow evening, so there'll be no need to worry about wolves."

Like Rick, Marcus also seemed unconcerned by the idea of a knight hunting wolves.

Elbridge said, "Mr. Marcus. Are wolf packs attacking people a common thing? Rick... I mean, the leader on our side said that if a lot of people gathered together, the wolves wouldn't dare attack."

Elbridge did not know much about wolf behavior. He had almost no experience hunting wolves, so that was only natural.

"It's not common. Wolves will happily pounce on someone who's alone, but once the number of people goes past ten or so, they get cautious."

"So what Rick said wasn't wrong."

"Rick has been working as a merchant around here for years. There's no way he wouldn't know wolf behavior."

"Looks like you're acquainted with him, then."

"Of course. Rick's followed the caravans I escort at least six or seven times. This is the first time we've all camped together like this, though..."

According to Marcus, the merchants did not really like Rick's habit of tailing caravans.

Elbridge could understand that well enough. From a merchant's perspective, Rick, trailing after them like a stray dog looking for scraps of meat, would be irritating.

Elbridge changed the subject.

"Still, wolves are more timid than I expected."

"Why do you say that?"

"You said they back off once there are more than ten people. Looking at that wolf pack earlier, I thought ordinary people could hunt them easily even if twenty or more gathered together."

At Elbridge's words, Marcus tilted his head.

"Well. That wolf pack was a little strange."

"How so?"

"Up in the cold north, wolves can gather in large packs, but the wolves in the east don't do that."

"Then how do they usually gather?"

"At most, an eastern wolf pack is usually just two parents and several pups. Sometimes another adult wolf will join them, but even then, it's usually only three or four adults."

Two adult wolves, then.

At that number, it made sense that wolves would not attack when there were around ten people. The east was not a region short on food like the north, so wolves had no reason to take such risks.

"What rotten luck. Seven adults with no pups at all. Why they were gathered up like that..."

Elbridge muttered, and Marcus said, "Actually, I do have one possible guess."

When Elbridge silently looked at Marcus, Marcus poked at the campfire with a branch for no reason. Sparks that wanted to become stars rose into the night sky.

"What kind of guess?"

"Starting a few months ago, rumors spread among mercenaries that a demonic beast had been seen in this area. At first, I thought it was just nonsense. Demonic beasts are so rare that you can go years without ever seeing one..."

Elbridge thought, 'So there really aren't many demonic beasts these days.'

Two hundred years ago, demonic beasts had not been that rare.

Naturally, knights and paladins had to run themselves ragged dealing with them.

Marcus continued, "But as time passed, more and more people said they had seen one."

"Hmm. But what does that have to do with the wolves?"

"Unluckily, they said the demonic beast was a wolf type."

"···"

There were many kinds of demonic beasts.

There were demonic beasts that had their own distinct forms, but animals in the middle of demonic-beast transformation were also called demonic beasts.

And animals undergoing that transformation naturally rallied and ruled over their kin nearby.

The behavior of demonic beasts was different from ordinary animals, so it was not unusual to see the animals under a demonic beast behave strangely too.

When Elbridge made a displeased face, Marcus laughed heartily.

"Haha, don't worry. Even if they say it's nearby, the place is almost ten days away from here."

"Ah, yes..."

That was not especially reassuring to Elbridge.

"Besides, I started following the God of Fox Rain in the winter of the year before last. As you know, when you live as a mercenary, there are plenty of moments when your life is in danger. But since that winter, the God of Fox Rain has granted me incredible luck. Thanks to that, I've managed to stay alive and well until now."

As he said that, Marcus rolled up his left sleeve and showed his forearm.

A raindrop tattoo, the symbol of the God of Fox Rain, came into view. Elbridge felt even more uneasy.

"···"

The God of Fox Rain was a god associated with luck.

Still, the God of Fox Rain had not been a particularly popular deity two hundred years ago. Even gamblers often worshiped the Goddess of the Golden Tray, who symbolized financial luck, rather than the God of Fox Rain.

'In that era, the God of Fox Rain barely held onto one seat in the Heavenly Council...'

Elbridge asked, "Mr. Marcus. How many seats does the God of Fox Rain hold in the Heavenly Council?"

"Was it eight seats this year? By seat count, that would put that god around tenth. A proper mid-tier deity and then some."

"I see..."

After answering that, Elbridge let out a long sigh in his heart.

He had realized what kind of luck the God of Fox Rain had arranged for Marcus.

There was also one more thing Marcus had not realized.

To make luck shine as clearly as possible, a person needed a moment of danger great enough to match it.

'...What a pain.'

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