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◈ Paladin of a Ruined Order

Chapter 6

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Gaze

By the time night gave way to dawn, Elbridge caught a faint, gamey smell in his sleep.

'Wolves?'

Elbridge sat up. He saw mercenaries moving about, waking people.

"Wake up."

The people who had been roused gathered close together, using the carts and wagons as shields.

As before, the wolves did not retreat easily and kept circling the group.

Unlike last time, though, no one was especially shaken. That was because of Knight Walter.

Walter puffed out his chest proudly.

"They came to us before I even had to go looking for them. That works out better."

Walter's horse had no barding. Just like paladins, knights did not ride their horses into battle.

Unless it was a special mount, it could not bear the strain of a knight using mana.

Walter stared at the wolves and tapped the ground with the blunt toe of his sabaton, digging up the dirt.

Watching that, Elbridge thought.

'The way knights set their footing hasn't changed at all.'

After scraping away the dirt several times, he had made a pit about half a handspan deep. Walter put his right foot into the small hole, then bent his knee.

"Everyone, move aside."

The very next moment, dirt burst up and scattered from behind Walter's right foot.

A knight's dash.

Walter, clad in heavy armor, ran faster than a warhorse at full charge. The physical abilities of a mana-using knight were on a completely different level from those of an ordinary human.

That was already a familiar sight to Elbridge.

But there was one thing that differed from what he expected. Even after closing to point-blank range with the wolves, Walter did not draw his sword.

Instead, Walter lowered his stance a little more and thrust his shoulder pauldron forward.

"Goddess of the Golden Tray!"

Bang!

Walter's pauldron slammed into the lead wolf.

The wolf, bigger than an ordinary calf, was flung away without even managing a scream. The one rolling across the ground was almost a bloody mess.

"Oh...!"

Knights often used their shoulder guards to shove opponents. But that shove usually was not strong enough to crush an animal as large as a wolf.

'...He fights in an unusual way.'

There were many concepts and objects that symbolized the Goddess of the Golden Tray. Still, the most direct one was unquestionably gold.

Because of that, the powers of the Goddess of the Golden Tray shared many traits with gold's nature. For example, gold's heft, which was far greater than that of other metals.

Increasing the weight of an object was one of the secondary powers granted by the Goddess of the Golden Tray.

Elbridge remembered that clearly, because priests serving the Goddess of the Golden Tray had occasionally been hanged for cheating scales by using that power.

Instead of cheating scales like the priests, Knight Walter had increased his own weight.

Walter, whose body weight had multiplied several times over, crashed into the wolves at a speed beyond that of a warhorse. No matter how large the wolf was, there was no way it could endure that.

'Even if a god isn't specialized for combat, there is still room to use divine power in battle.'

It was a rough method, but the result was better than simply cutting the wolves down with a sword. The wolves, worn down by Walter's overwhelming force, slowly backed away.

After confirming that the wolves were fleeing, Walter asked the merchant with some pride.

"How many wolves did you say there were yesterday?"

"There were seven. One died, so now there are six."

"But the wolves that showed up now make nine."

"Yes. The pack has grown by three."

"No. That isn't a pack of nine. A leader demonic beast commanding hundreds of wolves merely sent nine of them here. As you expected, it is certain that a demonic beast is involved."

The merchant said, a little tense.

"Then didn't we really need more knights? Sir Oswald or Sir Eberhard could have..."

Walter laughed and waved it off.

"Don't worry. Oswald and Eberhard are off hunting that very wolf demonic beast."

"Really?"

"Viscount Dickens asked Baron Riverford for help. He said they'd confirmed the wolf demonic beast's location and were tracking it, and asked him to send knights. That's why Oswald and Eberhard aren't here. In any case, the wolf demonic beast is near Dickens Viscounty, so there is no need to worry."

"Oh, so that was it."

Unlike the merchant, Elbridge could not relax. It was because of the God of Fox Rain that Marcus served.

'No. The God of Fox Rain isn't an evil god, so that god wouldn't deliberately bring bad luck. Sir Walter and I were probably just insurance in case a wolf pack appeared. And in practice, both of us did end up doing our part, more or less.'

Still, Elbridge could not fully let his guard down.

Walter decided to travel with the group for three days.

That was more than enough time to get out of the territory of an ordinary wolf pack, and out of Riverford Barony as well.

Walter showed interest in Elbridge throughout the journey.

"Elbridge. I can judge a man's skill just by looking at his hands. Those are the hands of someone who has handled a sword a lot."

"My hands are a bit rough, yes."

"This isn't roughness you were born with. They were deformed by too many scars. My hands are similar, so I know."

Walter showed Elbridge his hands.

"When I was young, people often said my hands were pretty, too."

Most of the fingernails were crushed or gone, and every joint was bumpy. Beneath the wrinkles carved in by time were scars of every size.

"Thirty years ago, they were even less presentable than they are now. Rough calluses covered my hands..."

Yet Walter seemed to miss those hands from back then.

"Rough hands are a knight's pride, aren't they?"

"That's right. Back when I served the God of Vines and Knots, those kinds of hands looked incredibly cool. I trained day and night to get hands like this."

The God of Vines and Knots symbolizes effort that is never betrayed and achievements that are properly earned.

Still, the God of Vines and Knots that Elbridge remembered seemed to be a god scholars preferred more than knights or paladins.

"So you followed a different god when you were younger."

"My parents served the God of Vines and Knots."

"How did you end up following the Goddess of the Golden Tray?"

"After becoming a knight, I came to understand exactly what a knight's life was like."

Walter said that while stroking the horse's mane.

"When I was young, I thought knights were always people fighting enemies. But when you look at an entire life, the time a knight spends fighting enemies isn't that long. A knight spends most of life fighting life itself. And when you fight life, there is no one more trustworthy than the Goddess of the Golden Tray."

"I see."

"Of course, a knight's salary isn't exactly low. But raising children properly costs an awful lot of money. I have six children, so even more so... And, as a bonus, I also wanted my wife to live a little more comfortably. So I decided to follow the Goddess of the Golden Tray."

As Walter said that, he lowered his voice and whispered.

"In my case, I had unusually good luck with money for five years. I earned more than half of everything I've made in my life during that period."

It seemed the Church Transfer Bonus Benefits Event, whatever its official name was, had already existed even then.

Of course, not all of that money luck had been arranged by the Goddess of the Golden Tray.

"Thanks to that, I live fairly comfortably now. I never became the greatest knight, but I did at least manage to call myself a decent father and husband."

Walter's white-haired face carried the easy confidence of a man who had lived hard.

Elbridge raised his opinion of Walter a little. Walter looked that impressive.

"So, while we're at it, how about you start serving the Goddess of the Golden Tray too?"

Elbridge's opinion of Walter slipped a little again. Setting aside the suggestion that he change faiths, Walter had already repeated three times his request that Elbridge mention his name to a priest as a referral.

As they walked and talked, the sun began to sink.

The sky behind them, and the clouds across it, burned red. Long shadows stretched eastward, guiding the party onward.

How much time had passed as they walked like that?

A wolf was sitting where the party's shadow fell.

A wolf blacker than the evening shadows.

'Just as I thought.'

When Elbridge stopped, Walter also pulled back the reins and stopped. Naturally, the whole group that had been walking with Walter and Elbridge at the front came to a halt as well.

"What's wrong?"

"There is something strange ahead."

Walter stood still, furrowing his brow as he looked into the far distance, then muttered weakly.

"God..."

When the party stopped walking, the wolf finally got up and started approaching.

That wolf was more than twice the size of an ordinary wolf, and its fur was jet black with a metallic sheen.

Just from its appearance, Elbridge gleaned a few clues.

'A sheen... an enhancement type, then? I'm glad it isn't a distortion type or a special type. The sheen on its back looks darker than the sheen on the rest of it. It seems like the demonic-beast transformation had only just begun. I won't know the details until I get closer, but...'

While Elbridge slowly judged the demonic beast, Walter took out a metal rod made of several pieces and assembled it.

In an instant, a metal spear was completed.

After finishing the assembly, Walter struck the shaft against the ground, thud, thud, setting it even more firmly in place.

The heavy sound of the spear striking the ground drew everyone's attention to Walter.

Walter pointed in the direction they had come from, west, and said, "A demonic beast has appeared. Everyone, turn back."

The caravan manager said hesitantly, "But you said the demonic beast was in the Dickens Viscounty..."

"I thought so too."

"Then... is there no chance of driving it off? Sir Walter, you have fought demonic beasts before."

"Even if I'm a knight, hunting a demonic beast alone is impossible. And when we drove one off ten years ago, it took five knights, and one of them died."

"..."

"Leave the baggage. Don't worry about anyone else, and run with everything you have. Even if they're blood relatives, there are no exceptions. Keep moving with everything you've got until daybreak. Even if a village appears along the way, do not stop. A little fence won't be able to hold back a demonic beast."

"Then Sir Walter..."

"I'm a knight."

Where did a knight's rights come from?

A family's glory? Fierce competition? The long years of hardship one had to endure to become a knight?

No. A knight's rights always came not from entitlement, but from duty.

Only those who had the confidence not to back down before duty could enjoy those rights without shame.

And Walter had never once been ashamed of his own rights.

"Go!"

People started running.

The caravan manager took only a money pouch, then climbed onto a pack horse and fled faster than anyone else.

The people who had walked with Elbridge since the last city, and the mercenaries escorting the caravan, also ran.

Unless the enemy was bandits or a normal wolf pack, mercenaries had no duty to fight a demonic beast.

There were a few who acted a little differently, though.

The mercenary Marcus ran a little way, then stopped at an awkward distance.

Rick took preserved rations out of the cart and handed out a fistful to each of the people fleeing.

No, "handed out" was too generous a way to put it. It was more like he shoved a fistful into each person's hands at random. Even then, there was still a fair amount of cargo left on the cart.

Rick stared at the cart for a moment, then finally started tugging it along and walking with great effort.

And Elbridge still stood by Walter's side.

Walter glanced at Elbridge.

'My judgment wasn't wrong, then.'

He understood youthful recklessness. Still, he was glad Elbridge had stayed beside him.

Walter muttered, "Goddess of the Golden Tray, watch over me."

But in Walter's opinion, the Goddess of the Golden Tray was not a very reliable god in a situation like this.

So Walter added one quiet line.

"...God of Vines and Knots. Let your gaze fall upon me as well."

Before long, the demonic beast had drawn quite close.

Walter measured how long he could hold out.

He imagined the best possible outcome, but only poor ones came to mind. For Walter, and for the people who had fled after leaving their backs to him.

Walter asked Elbridge, "Why didn't you run?"

"Do you know what the Goddess of the Rusted Shield symbolizes?"

A god tied to battle usually symbolized victory or glory.

The God of the Laurel Wreath symbolized glory and triumph, and the God of the Bloodstained Spear meant the reward for hard-won victory and sacrifice.

But the Goddess of the Rusted Shield did not symbolize victory. She did not symbolize glory.

"An unyielding will."

At Walter's answer, Elbridge added, "Devotion and sacrifice. Hidden honor. And No Retreat."

Hidden honor.

The symbol fit the young man before him so well that Walter gave a faint smile even with his life hanging by a thread.

This time, Elbridge asked, "Have you ever fought a demonic beast before?"

"Three times. One of them was a wolf type. But unlike that one, its fur was rippling like flames."

"That's fortunate."

Elbridge held out his hand to Walter.

"Sir Walter. If you're going to use a spear, give me the sword. If you're going to use the sword, give me the spear."

Walter thought for a moment. Was it right to hand his weapon to someone else before battle?

But Walter gave Elbridge his sword. He had no confidence that he could cross blades with that demonic beast for even two exchanges.

Elbridge rolled his wrist lightly, then swung the sword through the air.

Walter thought the sword's arc looked exceptionally clean. By Elbridge's standards, though, it was still far from satisfactory.

"Sir Walter. If the Goddess of the Golden Tray grants you her power, can we win?"

"...I'm not sure."

"Then will the God of Vines and Knots be watching over you, Sir Walter?"

"That would be nice, but... a god does not watch over believers who have turned away."

"That would be the case, yes."

Elbridge's gaze fixed on the demonic beast.

'Can I win?'

Elbridge was a highly capable paladin, but he could not hunt a demonic beast alone without divinity or divine power.

But now there was a huge variable in Walter. A variable with some experience, and courage.

Elbridge said, "Sir Walter. Stay right by my side."

"Do you have some kind of plan?"

"Not really."

"Then why?"

"Because the Goddess of the Rusted Shield will surely be watching over me."

Elbridge grinned.

"If you stay right beside me, Sir Walter, then the Goddess of the Rusted Shield will be able to keep you in her sight too, won't she?"

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