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Translator/Editor: Order

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◈ Paladin of a Ruined Order

Chapter 45

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Middlemarch

"Finally···."

One autumn evening, Elbridge's party arrived in Middlemarch, the largest city in the central part of the continent.

Unlike the Holy City Solenion, where almost no one was screened on entry, getting inside Middlemarch's gate took quite a while. There was a checkpoint attached to the gate.

Several clerks were working the checkpoint, and their attitude toward the group was a little different from what Elbridge's party had expected.

When Marcus said he was a mercenary, the clerk glanced at his flashy sword and replied.

"That probably won't happen, but if you cause trouble inside the city, there could be problems. Please keep that in mind."

It wasn't meant to be insulting, just a routine reminder.

But when Elbridge then said he was a paladin, the clerk smiled faintly.

"A paladin, huh... You came from Solenion?"

"Yes."

"Hmm. Unlike Solenion, paladins in Middlemarch are not a privileged class. If you cause trouble, you could be punished or expelled, so please keep that in mind."

Unlike with Marcus, this was a more direct warning.

Elbridge did not answer and just looked at the clerk quietly.

Then the clerk averted their eyes slightly and replied.

"Uh... Sometimes paladins from outside the city cause trouble, so I'm telling you this in advance, just in case. Please don't misunderstand."

They had no intention of causing trouble the moment they entered the city, so Elbridge gave a small nod and let it pass.

What left Elbridge and Marcus most speechless, though, was the clerk's reaction when the clerk saw Rombel.

"Good sir. Have you visited Middlemarch before?"

"Once, twenty or thirty years ago. There was a dispatch request from the Eastern Magic Tower."

"May I ask your name?"

"Rombel."

"Please wait a moment. I'll look up the records."

The clerk sprang up from their seat, quickly flipped through the documents, and compared the records with Rombel's face. Their attitude grew noticeably friendlier.

"Mr. Rombel. What brought you to Middlemarch?"

"I had business at the Magic Tower."

Rombel had an enormous double-edged axe slung across his back, as big as his own frame. But the clerk did not issue him even the slightest warning and simply treated him with deference.

"Understood. We'll take you to the Magic Tower right away, so please wait outside for a moment. I hope you have a peaceful journey."

Then the clerk wrote something on a sheet of paper with a quill, took out a wand, chanted a spell, and waved it.

The paper folded itself, took the shape of a bird, and flapped its wings as it flew out the window. So the checkpoint clerk had been a mage.

"···."

Elbridge and Marcus looked doubtful, but Rombel said proudly, "They'll come get us soon, so let's go wait outside."

As soon as they left the checkpoint, Rombel said, "If Solenion's nickname was the Holy City, then Middlemarch's nickname was the 'City Where All Roads Lead.' Welcome to the City Where All Roads Lead, country bumpkins."

Of course, Elbridge and Marcus gave him a sharp response.

"It's a city that only has one thing to boast about: being in the center of the continent."

"Mr. Rombel. Don't act like a local from the central region when you didn't even know the way here. You said you'd only been here once before."

"Haha. Did I?"

The three of them looked around as they walked.

As the City Where All Roads Lead, Middlemarch lived up to its name from the layout of its buildings alone.

Middlemarch's layout was closer to the Mountain City Barquntol than to the Holy City Solenion.

That was especially true because, instead of a jumble of small buildings forming a maze, the buildings were arranged neatly at precise intervals.

And among the countless buildings, one stood out with an unmatched presence. That was Middlemarch's pride, the Central Magic Tower.

Marcus clicked his tongue.

"···It's enormous. It's hard to even compare it to the Eastern Magic Tower."

In eastern Solenion, the center had been a hill packed with temples.

But in the very center of Middlemarch stood the Central Magic Tower. It was almost as if the city belonged to mages, not gods or humans.

Unlike the purely impressed Marcus, however, Elbridge frowned slightly.

"Was my memory wrong?"

"Why?"

"Two hundred years ago, the Central Magic Tower was on the edge of Middlemarch, not in the center."

Rombel answered plainly.

"It got rebuilt."

"What did?"

"The tower."

The Central Magic Tower was a massive building, at least several dozen stories tall, and if it was especially tall, it might have been well over a hundred.

Elbridge did not know much about architecture, but he knew very well that a building like that could not be built easily.

The amount of materials and labor it would take would be beyond imagination, and all kinds of magic would have to be used so the building would not collapse or fall over.

The time and cost involved would also be beyond imagination.

"You rebuilt a building that big?"

"It's already been built once. There's no reason it can't be built again, right?"

"Then what happened to the temples that used to be in the city center?"

"They were moved. Conveniently, they're right next door."

Rombel pointed with his short, thick finger at the building to their right.

It was a broad, three-story building, and three emblems symbolizing the gods were attached to the front like signs.

And beside the entrance, three plaques were hanging.

[3rd floor – Order of the Library of Wisdom]

[2nd floor – Order of Soot and Wine]

[1st floor – Order of the Left-Hand Lamp]

"···."

The plaques were saying that three temples had been stacked inside this building, one on top of another.

To Elbridge and Marcus, it was blasphemy of a horrifying kind they had never even imagined, but the people of Middlemarch seemed unconcerned.

Elbridge barely managed to settle his agitation.

"···Is this normal around here? If I were a priest staying on the first floor, I think I'd have a hard time putting up with two more temples stacked above my head."

Rombel snorted loudly and mocked Elbridge.

"How old-fashioned. This is the modern style."

"What's the world coming to... The end times. The end times."

At the same time, though, a huge curiosity rose in Elbridge's chest.

In the past, Middlemarch had been a city not so different from other cities in the region. What had happened in the past two hundred years to make this city change so strangely?

While Elbridge was lost in thought, he heard the clatter of hooves. A horse was pulling a carriage past them.

Marcus smiled playfully at the sight.

"Hmm. Mr. Rombel. On the way here, didn't you say that in the central region, carriages ran without horses and balloons carrying people flew through the sky?"

"I did."

"Then what was that animal up ahead, the one tossing its mane as it pulled the carriage?"

Rombel glanced at the carriage and frowned.

"I said there were horseless carriages. I never said every carriage was horseless, Marcus."

"Ah, was that so...?"

But the next carriage that appeared, and even the cart after that, were all pulled by horses. Marcus scoffed.

"Th-that is... Still, this time it wasn't a horse but a mule. Since a mule is only half a horse, half of what you said turned out to be true, Mr. Rombel."

Elbridge silently nodded along with Marcus's words and joined in teasing Rombel.

If it had been the usual Rombel, he would have raised a fist and warned Marcus and Elbridge, but today Rombel kept his composure remarkably well.

How much time passed after that? Once again, the sound of wheels rolling drew near.

"All right, this time for real... Huh?"

Marcus's words cut off.

The carriage that appeared now was the most expensive and lavish one they had seen so far. And, just as Rombel had said, there was no horse pulling it.

Marcus and Elbridge stared at the carriage, dumbfounded.

What surprised them even more was that the carriage quietly stopped in front of them.

The carriage door opened, and a young mage asked, "Are you Mr. Rombel?"

"Yes."

Rombel nodded smugly. The mage bowed politely.

"You said you had business at the Central Magic Tower. Please get in. We will take you there comfortably."

Then the back door of the carriage opened by itself, revealing a lavish interior.

Neither Marcus nor Elbridge had ever seen a carriage this luxurious.

"···."

Rombel enjoyed their reaction, then asked the driver in a slightly smug tone, "Can my two subordinates ride along as well?"

The carriage moved toward the Central Magic Tower.

That was because both Elbridge and Rombel had business there, more precisely with the Master of the Central Magic Tower.

Rombel wanted to gather information on Ascension so he could become a god himself, and Elbridge wanted news of Sir Leonhardt, the former High Paladin, through the Master of the Central Magic Tower.

Elbridge and Marcus pretended not to be shaken and looked out the window with indifferent expressions.

Every so often, when they met the eyes of Middlemarch residents, those people would look at the horseless carriage with faint admiration and envy.

That alone made it clear enough. The horseless carriage was something only the privileged could ride.

Marcus had mocked Rombel more than a little before, but now he asked in excitement, "By the way, how does this carriage even move?"

Rombel answered grandly, "It runs on mana. There was a box under that carriage that stored mana. When mana flowed out of that box, the machine moved the way the engineers had designed it."

"What is an engineer?"

At Marcus's question, Rombel answered coolly.

"Some people bring complicated blueprints to a skilled craftsman and make demands like, make this, make that. That's their job."

"Oh, so they're gifted blacksmiths, I guess."

"No. They're the sort who have never even hammered iron themselves. But after assembling the things the craftsman worked so hard to make, they often end up making even more money than the craftsman does."

"There are all kinds of people in Middlemarch. They do say the world is wide..."

This time Elbridge asked, "That's all fine, but why did the Central Magic Tower send a horseless carriage to fetch you?"

"To turn an engineer's imagination into reality, you need a skilled artisan. And artisans as skilled as me aren't common."

While the three of them chatted, the carriage came to a stop. They had arrived at the Central Magic Tower.

The Central Magic Tower had looked large from a distance, but up close it was far bigger and taller than expected.

If someone had shown Elbridge the Central Magic Tower before Rombel's explanation and said, "This is a pillar holding up the sky," he might have believed it.

"This way."

The mage who had driven the carriage led the three of them into the tower.

They had expected to be taken straight to the Master of the Central Magic Tower, but in reality they were led to a luxurious room instead of the master's office.

With a bed, sofa, and table all in place, it looked like a room prepared for guests.

The moment Marcus saw the bed in this room, he realized something.

That one bed was more expensive than the combined price of every bed he had ever slept on.

Rombel looked at the mage with a smug face.

"Hey, mage."

"Yes."

"I came to meet the Master of the Central Magic Tower."

"The Master of the Central Magic Tower has stepped out for important business. Please stay in this room for the time being."

"How long will it take for the Master of the Central Magic Tower to come back?"

"I can't say exactly."

Rombel frowned, and the mage bowed and said, "I will contact you as soon as the Master of the Central Magic Tower returns. Until then, we will do our best to look after you, so please call for us anytime if you need anything."

"Understood."

After the mage bowed and left, Elbridge, Rombel, and Marcus all did the same thing. They unpacked every piece of luggage they had brought, then, without waiting for one another, threw themselves onto the bed.

The bed gave beneath them.

And all at once, they marveled.

"That's ridiculously soft."

"It's fundamentally different from a bed stuffed with straw or feathers. This firm yet soft feel is···."

Elbridge enjoyed the sensation for a moment, then sat on the edge of the bed and said, "Rombel. I don't think you've ever said you knew the Master of the Central Magic Tower."

"There was no need to mention it."

"···Are you close to him?"

"Not really. We just got involved because of work."

"Then let me ask one thing. What kind of person is the Master of the Central Magic Tower?"

Rombel thought for a moment, then said, "Someone who, long ago, was recognized for their achievements as a mage and ascended to Heaven."

"And?"

"Someone who became a god, then returned to mortality."

That was Elbridge's biggest question.

Nobody was unaware that Ascension existed, but plenty of people did not know that one could return to mortality after ascending. Gods coming back to the world below were that rare.

By common sense, after all the hardship it took to become a god, why would anyone return to the world below?

"Why did the Master of the Central Magic Tower return to the mortal world?"

"I only heard this as a rumor."

"What rumor?"

Rombel said with a serious expression, "For seven hundred years after the Master of the Central Magic Tower ascended to Heaven, there supposedly wasn't a single follower left."

"···Then what happened?"

"Nothing happened at all."

Marcus cut in and asked, "What does that have to do with anything?"

Rombel answered quietly.

"Without followers, you can't even look down on the world below, can you? The Master of the Central Magic Tower spent seven hundred years with nothing to do."

Elbridge could fully understand that suffering.

Loneliness and boredom. Was there any greater suffering than that?

With a trembling voice, Elbridge asked, "Then what did the Master come back to the mortal world for?"

"I heard the dream was to gather a huge number of followers to serve the Master of the Central Magic Tower, then ascend again."

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