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◈ Paladin of a Ruined Order

Chapter 65

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If You Can't Win

Elbridge headed to Rombel's workshop in the Magic Tower to find him.

After hearing the full situation from Elbridge, Rombel immediately tossed him a sword.

"Never mind that. Check this first."

"Why the sudden sword?"

"You've been putting too much strength into your wrist every time you swing a blade lately, haven't you?"

Elbridge grinned.

"Not bad, that eye of yours."

Most of the time, excess wrist strength while holding a sword came down to inexperience.

But for someone at Elbridge's level, the cause was something else entirely. The sword was too light.

When a sword was too light, the tip tended to wobble.

The wrist and forearm had to compensate with extra force just to keep the tip steady.

And this had happened because Elbridge's physical abilities had recovered so quickly over the past year.

A sword that had once been the right weight for him, back when he had less strength, had now become too light and no longer suited his body.

The sword Rombel had just handed him was at least twice as heavy as his old one.

"What's this blade made of?"

"Mixed a few things together."

"The weight feels right."

"You knew what the problem was. Why didn't you just get a new sword sooner?"

"It was just a little uncomfortable, that's all."

Rombel's face twisted.

"A little uncomfortable? You can say that because you've never had to fight for days on end without rest. If you'd been in a situation like that, that sword could've gotten you killed."

Every word of it was true, so Elbridge felt a bit sheepish.

'I suppose I've gotten a little careless lately.'

Rombel jerked his chin at him.

"Swing it a bit more. If something's off, I need to fix it now."

Elbridge swung the sword in every direction he could think of.

Vertically, horizontally, diagonally.

Downward cuts, upward cuts.

Slow cuts, fast cuts.

And he arrived at one conclusion. The weight, and the balance too, fit him perfectly.

"Hm."

"Well?"

Instead of thanking him, Elbridge deliberately picked a nitpick.

"The scabbard's a bit plain, though."

Complaining about something that trivial meant there was nothing to fault in the parts that mattered.

It was the kind of roundabout praise reserved for someone close to him.

Sure enough, Rombel's expression brightened noticeably.

"What matters isn't the shape, it's the practicality. The scabbard's far sturdier than the blade itself. It won't break or bend."

Rombel said that, then slung an axe from the corner of the workshop over his back.

Even though Elbridge and Marcus had shown up out of nowhere, Rombel seemed ready to follow along without a second thought.

Watching him, Marcus grew nervous on his behalf instead.

"Mr. Rombel, aren't reservations for Magic Tower gear backed up like crazy these days?"

"Yeah. Book now and you'd wait at least three years."

"...Is it really okay for you to just leave your post like this?"

Rombel smirked.

"Marcus. That's exactly why you have to become someone irreplaceable."

The group left Solenion and headed south.

A modest party, really, when it came down to who could actually help Isalvius: just three people.

Isalvius didn't even know how skilled Rombel and Marcus actually were.

But Isalvius wasn't about to complain. Someone willing to help had shown up at all, and that alone felt like a miracle. This wasn't the time to be picky.

Two days after leaving Solenion, Elbridge quietly offered up a prayer.

"Goddess."

- I'm listening, Elbridge.

"Might the Goddess of Spring Rain and Moss be angry about this situation?"

Last summer, the Order of the God of Flowing Water had clashed with the Order of Spring Rain and Moss.

Would the Goddess of Spring Rain and Moss be unhappy about what was happening now?

- No, not at all. Whatever happened at the Grand Festival was practically cute by comparison.

"I suppose it was."

- Besides, the Order of the God of Flowing Water is a tiny shop with just one measly seat. To 'us,' it's downright adorable.

"..."

Lately, the Goddess of the Rusted Shield had taken to gloating whenever she mentioned churches with few seats.

Apparently the years spent without a seat of her own had left her that bitter about it.

'She'll probably go back to normal soon enough...'

- By the way, Elbridge. Why do you ask?

"You haven't sent me an oracle in a few days, Goddess. I was worried something might have gone wrong."

- That's... there was another reason for it.

"May I ask what happened?"

- Do you remember Hakon and Scarlet, the paladins of the Order of Spring Rain and Moss who took part in the Grand Festival with you?

"Of course."

Scarlet was the name of the red-haired knight who had served as team captain, and Hakon was the short, dwarflike one.

- The two of them have had a bit of a pink cloud drifting between them lately. It's been quite entertaining to watch... so forgive your goddess if her attention wanders elsewhere for a moment. I'll still answer your prayers right away, so pray if something urgent comes up.

Sounded like she was doing just fine amusing herself without needing his attention. Elbridge felt a weight lift off his shoulders.

Elbridge's group moved at a pace suited to Isalvius's stamina. When luck was on their side, a few coins or a silver piece bought them a ride on a wagon or cart.

Right now, the four of them had met a caravan at a convenient spot and were riding along in an empty cargo cart.

"By the way, Mr. Rombel, why do you work at the Magic Tower?"

Rombel answered Marcus's question.

"Because I turned my back on the God of the Iron Anvil."

"I don't see the connection. If anything, turning your back on the God of the Iron Anvil should mean giving up blacksmithing altogether, shouldn't it?"

"Since I don't serve a god anymore, I can't build up divinity. And whatever divinity I had left was bound to fade away over time... So I made a decision. I'd use mana as my source of power instead, like the knights do."

"So that means..."

"I made money as a blacksmith, and used that money to build up mana."

Elbridge clicked his tongue.

'No wonder his money math was always so precise.'

Rombel had even added the cost of the sword he'd given Elbridge to his ledger.

Looked at unkindly, it was a forced sale without asking the customer's opinion, but it had clearly come from goodwill. Rombel had set aside every other order piling up to make Elbridge's sword first.

There was no reason to feel bad about the cost, either. If it came to it, he could always have the Marquis of Solenion cover it.

The rattling cargo cart eventually stopped at a village near a massive forest.

Unlike most forests, which had no particular name, everyone on the continent knew the name of this one.

The largest forest on the continent. The Great Forest.

"We'll have to walk from here."

The trees of the Great Forest stayed green even in the dead of winter.

Actually, the weather itself wasn't winter weather to begin with. If he had to describe it, it felt more like a slightly humid spring day.

"I've heard the south doesn't have winter, but I didn't think it was actually true."

Marcus, who ran hot easily, flapped at his own clothes as he spoke, and Isalvius laughed.

"The opposite is true for us southerners. We don't understand winter at all. I saw snow for the first time when I came east."

"I see."

"The cold was unfamiliar too. The coldest thing I'd ever experienced in my whole life was a chilly night breeze. But the cold in the east was nothing like that. The north must be even worse. The world is so vast, and so full of mysteries."

Elbridge steered the conversation elsewhere.

"Mysterious places, you say... Isalvius. Do you know anything about the Lake of Eternity?"

"Of course I do. The believers of the Order of the God of Flowing Water live near the Lake of Eternity."

"Is it a special place?"

"Yes. It's a mysterious place. Time doesn't pass at the Lake of Eternity."

"...Time doesn't pass?"

Everyone in the group leaned in to listen.

Isalvius looked uncomfortable with all the sudden attention.

"To be precise, it's a bit different from that... It's hard to explain exactly. You'd understand better if you saw it yourselves. Assuming we even make it to the Lake of Eternity safely."

After five more days of steady walking into the Great Forest, Elbridge's group finally spotted a city.

Discovered was the right word for it. Unlike eastern cities, visible from far away, this one appeared suddenly right in front of them.

The massive trees of the Great Forest had hidden the walls until then.

"You'd need to know the exact route to find this place."

"That's exactly why merchants hesitate to enter the south, even knowing there's good profit to be made. It's not rare for merchants to lose their way and die out here. We should stop around here."

The group stopped behind a cluster of trees, out of sight from anyone on the walls.

Tension was written clearly across Isalvius's face.

'Are paladins of the Order of the God of Flowing Water being held captive in this city too?'

A few figures could be seen keeping watch from atop the walls. Two of them even looked like paladins. It made it all the more certain that this city was caught up in the war between the churches.

"Isalvius. How many people live inside this city?"

"I'm not sure exactly... maybe around fifty thousand."

"That many?"

Based on the length of the walls and the size of the city, Elbridge had estimated a population of at most twenty thousand.

Actually, he'd thought it more likely to be under fifteen thousand. The massive trees inside the walls would have eaten up a lot of the space people could live in.

"Unlike the east, where you can settle anywhere and put up a wall or fence, the south doesn't have much land where people can gather and live. People are packed tightly onto whatever limited land there is. With a smaller population, the south has fewer seats too..."

"Even so, that's still too many people. Do southerners stack people up somehow?"

"Something like that."

"...?"

"You see the trees inside the city? Southerners build houses in the trees too. Some people even live inside the trees themselves."

Elbridge had no idea what kind of city this even was anymore.

"Do you happen to know how many paladins are in there?"

"I couldn't say for certain. But if this is the stronghold of one faction, it wouldn't be strange for there to be over a hundred paladins. As far as I know, the total number of paladins caught up in this war is at least six or seven hundred."

At least six or seven hundred paladins.

That alone was overwhelming, but there was something even more frightening buried in what Isalvius had said.

His words hinted at a possibility Elbridge's group hadn't even considered.

"...Wait. One faction? Isalvius, I thought there were only two sides fighting over the Order of the God of Flowing Water."

"What?"

"The church that used to have close ties with the Order of the God of Flowing Water, and the one that barely had any contact with it. I thought it had split into two like that."

"That's how it started. But once things get heated enough, people turn on each other, don't they? Each faction has kept splitting and merging with others over and over... At this point, I don't even know exactly how many factions there are."

"..."

Rombel, who had already given up on making sense of it, spoke up.

"Elbridge. Got any bright ideas?"

No clear answer came to mind.

The more parties involved in something like this, the more exponentially complicated it got.

And this wasn't a situation they could pick apart one enemy at a time, either.

More than a hundred paladins inside that city?

If it came down to a hundred one-on-one duels, he might actually be able to win.

But it was a different story entirely if a hundred people came at just two of them at once.

Picture a hundred paladins of the Order of the Bloodstained Spear all hurling their spears at Elbridge at the same time, and it was easy enough to understand. A hundred spears reinforced with divine power, coming at him all at once, and even Elbridge would struggle to survive.

And the current situation was even worse than that.

Multiple churches had banded together to form this faction, which meant all kinds of divine powers, mixed together, would be looking for any opening in Elbridge's group's defenses.

'Pushing straight through is impossible. We don't have nearly enough information to find a weakness.'

Even Elbridge couldn't come up with an easy answer to this one.

The Goddess of the Rusted Shield, who was surely watching all of this unfold, hadn't sent down an oracle either.

Even if he prayed, there was a good chance the Goddess of the Rusted Shield would just pretend to be asleep and not hear him, so Elbridge decided against wasting a prayer on it.

Then, an unexpected person offered a solution. Marcus, of all people.

"Sir Elbridge, just asking to be sure, but the four of us can't exactly attack that city and take it down, can we?"

"Of course not."

"And it's not like standing out here fretting outside the walls is going to solve anything either."

"That's true."

Elbridge and Rombel nodded at the same time, and Marcus went on.

"It's not really the kind of approach that suits a paladin like you, Sir Elbridge... but we mercenaries have a saying that fits this exact situation perfectly."

"What is it?"

"If you can't win, join them."

Marcus calmly began tying Isalvius's two hands together.

"Let's get inside the walls first, and take a look at the situation from there."

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