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◈ Paladin of a Ruined Order

Chapter 86

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Rombel

Sonia grew confident again after seeing Elbridge and Rombel's reaction.

"Well? Now you're starting to think you need my help, aren't you?"

But Elbridge didn't give Sonia the answer she wanted.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Sonia. I asked you your goal. But your answer is still missing that goal. Your goal, and Viscount Dickens's goal too."

Elbridge tapped his finger against the floor.

"The first thing I want to ask you is why Viscount Dickens gathered demon cores."

Heinz and Walter looked startled. Only now did the two of them realize the orbs Sonia had been talking about were demon cores.

Sonia laughed a little awkwardly.

"They say men get a girlish side in their hearts once they get older... Maybe my dad just wanted to start collecting pretty things?"

"Ha!"

Rombel laughed even though it was a lame joke. He looked a little more excited than usual.

But no one else reacted to Sonia's joke. Vice Bishop Heinz's reaction in particular felt almost menacing.

"Miss Sonia. This isn't something to brush off with a joke."

"I know that. But how would I know what's going on in my dad's head? I didn't even find out what those orbs were until I got to the Magic Tower... no, it was a good while after I got in that I found out."

Sonia Dickens looked genuinely wronged.

Honestly, it would have been stranger if Sonia had actually known what Viscount Dickens was thinking.

Some secrets in this world couldn't even be shared with your own blood.

Still, there was something to guess at.

Most people who broke demon seals shared similar goals. Some empty belief that a demon would grant them power or wealth and glory, that sort of thing.

Viscount Dickens probably wasn't much different.

'The viscount probably wanted the demon's power. Since it'd be hard to find a mage he could trust with handling a seal, he must have sent his own daughter to study at the Central Magic Tower.'

Sonia's circumstances roughly fit that picture too. The only part that didn't line up was that the disaster had struck before Sonia made it back.

Elbridge asked the next question.

"Fine. Let's move to the next question. Sonia. What are you trying to do here?"

"What do you think I'm trying to do? My dad caused the worst disaster in continental history. If I can't clean this up, I die. Isn't that right, Father?"

The story that began as an answer to Elbridge's question ended as a question directed at Heinz. Sonia's eyes had settled on Heinz too.

Heinz wore the priest's robes of the Order of the Golden Tray. And anyone with a decent eye could tell Heinz was a high-ranking priest.

Sonia was paying attention to Heinz because she'd roughly guessed his standing.

Heinz was someone who could go back to his church and put Sonia on the pyre with nothing but his tongue.

'That's the power of a great church. The power of collective punishment.'

Plenty of people disagreed on whether collective punishment was right.

But there was little disagreement on one point. Few deterrents worked as effectively as collective punishment.

Heinz answered Sonia's question.

"Yes. That's better than sitting around doing nothing."

If Sonia sat around doing nothing, she'd die. And the time given to her wasn't long.

In that time, what Sonia had to prove wasn't her own innocence. Sonia had to prove her value and her usefulness.

"You're planning to get into the lord's castle, aren't you?"

"That's right."

Sonia had no other option. So she made her demand, desperate and defiant at once.

"I don't want to die at the stake. And I can be useful to you. Isn't that reason enough for us to work together?"

The answer came from Rombel.

"Of course. More than reason enough."

After the conversation ended, Elbridge stepped outside. Marcus and Rombel moved with him.

The three of them stretched a little, a short distance away.

Then Marcus leveled his sword at Elbridge.

"Here I come."

Elbridge nodded. Marcus lunged at Elbridge, swinging his sword.

Marcus's blade caught the faint moonlight and glinted.

'He was a mess when he started. Now he's actually gotten decent.'

Half of it came from his improved physical ability as his divinity built up. But the other half came purely from Marcus's own skill improving.

Thud, tap tap.

Elbridge stepped forward and swung his scabbard to catch Marcus's sword. Sword and scabbard tangled a few times.

Once, Marcus couldn't have even managed two clashes of steel. But now he handled basic exchanges well enough. Sometimes he even threw in an attack of his own, hunting for an opening in Elbridge's guard.

Marcus came to Elbridge almost every day to learn the sword. On the road, and just as much while they stayed in Solenion.

And this sparring helped Elbridge too.

Elbridge's swordsmanship was excessively battle-focused. Marcus was even worse. Marcus had never learned from anyone else, surviving instead on a self-taught, haphazard swordsmanship all his own.

To teach someone with absolutely no foundation, Elbridge had to look back at the basics of swordsmanship he'd learned so long ago.

'The basics always leave you with some new realization. There's a reason they're called the basics.'

Marcus seemed to retreat, then twisted his balance and went for Elbridge's armpit. Elbridge caught the attack easily with his shield.

"Why not pick up shield work too? Seems like you'd learn it well."

"I'm barely keeping up with one sword. What am I supposed to do with a shield..."

Elbridge closed the distance and swung his scabbard.

Clack.

Marcus's sword caught Elbridge's scabbard steadily. But the next moment, Marcus lost his balance and went sprawling. Thud.

Marcus looked down. Elbridge's foot had already made contact with his leg. His shin throbbed.

"That's what happens when you only focus on what's in front of you. I told you, you always have to be aware of what's happening outside your field of vision."

"I know that, I just can't manage it yet. Damn it."

His voice was genuinely frustrated.

Marcus was always like this. He knew perfectly well he couldn't beat Elbridge, and he accepted losing as a given.

But when he failed to do something he was capable of, he got angry at himself.

That was also why Elbridge still taught him.

When a student's skill didn't improve, or when they lacked sincerity, the teacher tended to lose interest too.

But Marcus took the teaching in stride, and he was serious every single time.

"You've improved a lot, at that pace."

"Feels strange hearing that after getting knocked down and beaten every day."

Elbridge smiled. He knew better than anyone that no words offered comfort in a situation like that.

"Still, it's good to see you working hard."

"A chance came along, so I've got to work hard."

Marcus said as he got back to his feet.

"Once you catch hold of a thing called opportunity, you've got to somehow grab it and stuff it in your pocket. Then someday you get the chance to pull it out and use it."

That was the kind of thing only someone who'd missed his share of chances would say.

If there was any relief in it, it was this. Marcus hadn't let the late-arriving chance slip through his fingers.

"My turn now, right?"

Rombel stepped closer.

Rombel hefted his massive axe with one arm, bounced on the spot a couple of times, then suddenly dropped his stance low and kicked off the ground.

Thump-

The explosive burst typical of a dwarf.

Elbridge's expression turned serious too. If the sparring with Marcus had been a teaching match meant to instruct, the sparring with Rombel was closer to real combat.

Vwoom-

The axe, heavier than most people's own body weight, swung and clashed against Elbridge's shield.

Clang-

Elbridge kept his stance low, but his feet were pushed back a little.

Rombel wasn't someone to take lightly. Rombel had survived countless battles against demons without ever relying on a god's divine power. In raw strength and talent alone, he outmatched most paladins.

Screeeech-

Elbridge shoved Rombel back with his shield and spoke.

"You. You'd better not act too friendly toward Sonia."

Sparring time was meant for sharpening themselves and keeping their senses honed. But it was also a time for two, or three, people to talk.

Rombel used the momentum to swing the axe again and asked back.

"Why?"

Elbridge lowered his stance to dodge Rombel's axe. He dodged it cleanly, but the back of his neck went cold anyway.

"You don't even belong to a church. It'll be a problem if you end up giving the Order of the Golden Tray the wrong idea."

"Not hugging her was already plenty of distance, if you ask me. How many guys out there would show that much restraint?"

Shield and axe clashed again. Bang!

"Restraint? Was it that touching, watching her try to atone for her father's sins?"

"That's part of it. But you know what? Honestly, I think Viscount Dickens is adorable too. Never even met the man."

Elbridge thrust his sword, and Rombel leaped back to dodge the attack.

Looking sluggish while moving with startling agility, that was a dwarf trait.

"Viscount Dickens?"

"Yeah. If he were close by, I'd have given him a kiss."

Elbridge let his sword drop. Rombel set his axe down on the ground too.

"Elbridge. Back then, I fought for the same reason you did. I fought because I had to fight demons, because I believed it was right. But things are different now. As you know, my goal is to become a god."

Rombel plopped down next to his axe.

"You know what I feared most during the two hundred years you were sealed?"

"Getting old?"

Rombel laughed.

"Close. What I feared most was time passing with no sign of a chance to ascend to heaven. I'm about three hundred now, so I've got maybe a hundred years left. And out of that, the years I can stay active and sharp are, at best, thirty or forty."

Elbridge pictured the old Rombel. A young dwarf, barely a hundred years old.

But now that dwarf's hair was half gray.

"Every single day felt like my head was about to burst. And then you showed up. Saying the archdemon's seal had broken! At first I was stunned. But that night, lying down to sleep... I felt my heart race."

Rombel smiled, looking genuinely happy. Elbridge and Marcus both listened closely to his story.

"I might be the best blacksmith in the Eastern Magic Tower, but there are plenty of smiths better than me in Barquntol. Several of them left behind masterpieces that'll be remembered in history. The only thing I do better than other dwarves is swing an axe."

"Hm. You've got some self-awareness, at least."

"Of course I do. Two hundred years with nothing else to do but that, how could I not."

Rombel ran a finger lightly along the axe blade.

The edge of the massive axe was honed razor sharp. A thin bead of blood rose on Rombel's finger.

"This axe is the only way I've got to reach heaven. But I never actually got the chance to swing it. My whole life, and my dream of becoming a god, were melting away with all that waiting. But then Viscount Dickens broke your seal... That means it was Viscount Dickens who gave me my chance to shine, my chance to ascend to heaven, right? There's no way I could hate Dickens or Sonia."

Elbridge understood now why Rombel had seemed unusually excited in front of Sonia.

To Rombel, Viscount Dickens was a benefactor, and Sonia was that benefactor's daughter.

"You've changed a lot, Rombel."

"That's how long two hundred years is. You'd know better than anyone how long that really is."

Rombel got up and brushed off his pants.

"The reason I fight and the goal I'm fighting for have both changed from two hundred years ago. If there's any relief in it, it's that the direction I'm moving hasn't changed. No, maybe that's not quite right either. It might not be exactly the same, but it's roughly close enough..."

Roughly similar also meant not the same.

When two people walking together are headed to different destinations, it might look like they're walking the same direction at first, but the moment eventually comes when they have to part ways.

"What happens when the roads split?"

"I suppose we'll think about that when it comes."

Rombel patted Elbridge on the back, then disappeared along with Marcus.

A quiet night. Elbridge sank quietly into thought.

- ...

And Elbridge's senses, sharpened by the sparring, picked up on the Goddess of the Rusted Shield watching over him in silence.

Under the night sky, Elbridge offered a solitary, reverent prayer.

"Goddess. Swapping day and night around isn't easy on the body. You should get some sleep now, even if just for a little."

The Goddess of the Rusted Shield didn't answer.

And very quietly, she withdrew her gaze from Elbridge. As if she'd gone to bed a long while ago.

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