WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

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Chapter 91: Cowin (1)

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Elbridge ran while looking back.

Lightning seemed to flash inside the clouds, the night sky flickering again and again.

But unlike the violent sight, no thunder followed at all.

Wherever Rombel had set fires while fleeing, smoke and flame rose here and there, thick and acrid.

'This looks like a world that's completely fallen apart.'

It hadn't been a peaceful world to begin with.

Several demons had likely already broken free of their seals and were active somewhere, and there might be others who'd held their breath for two hundred years, waiting for their moment.

But tonight, another dozen or so demons had been set loose. The world would only grow more chaotic because of it.

Maybe it was because Elbridge's expression looked so grim.

The Goddess of the Rusted Shield delivered an oracle in a voice more serious than usual.

- Elbridge. My most cherished child. All of this was set in motion long ago. There was nothing you could have done. None of this is your fault.

"Thank you for your words, Goddess."

But as things usually go, his heart didn't settle. It still felt tight in his chest.

"Goddess. Why did the God of the Bloodstained Spear do something like this?"

- Your goddess isn't well informed on rumors, Elbridge.

"Won't the Chief God punish the God of the Bloodstained Spear?"

- The Chief God only punishes gods who wield power they haven't been permitted to use. He does not judge whether an act was right or wrong.

Elbridge knew that already. There was no such thing in this world as good gods and evil gods.

There were only gods who lived within the boundaries the Chief God had drawn, and gods who didn't.

He wanted to scream, just to release the pressure.

But screaming might draw the demons' attention, so he couldn't.

If trouble broke out now, it wouldn't just be Elbridge's life on the line.

'Sonia.'

Only then did Elbridge look over at Sonia.

Just a while ago she'd been screeching at the top of her lungs, and now she swayed along in a daze.

It wasn't relief. It wasn't exhaustion, either.

She simply couldn't process what had happened, this unbroken chain of extreme events over the course of one night.

In Sonia's not-particularly-long life, tonight had to be the worst night she'd ever lived through, and nothing would likely ever come close to matching it again.

'...She's not going to lose it, is she?'

Elbridge had seen plenty of people lose their minds. He'd watched the process happen, step by step.

And he'd seen the opposite too, people who held firm no matter the situation.

Those who held firm no matter what shared two things in common.

Movement, and talking.

The harder the moment, the more they moved their bodies. And they poured out whatever filled their heads to whoever would listen.

Elbridge set Sonia down from under his arm.

"Sonia. Walk on your own from here."

"Uh, y-yeah..."

Sonia stumbled at first, but before long she was walking steadily.

Some focus returned to her dazed eyes.

Elbridge opened the conversation.

"Sonia."

"Hm?"

"Any idea why Viscount Dickens was collecting seals?"

Sonia spilled her thoughts as if she'd been waiting for the question.

"It must've been because of Mom."

Elbridge and Sonia weren't the kind of people who traded small family stories. Not until yesterday, at least.

So all Elbridge knew about Sonia's mother was that she'd once taken Sonia to the Grand Festival in Solenion.

"Dad wasn't someone with big mood swings. He wasn't in a position to accomplish anything great no matter how hard he tried, but he wasn't lacking for much either."

A frontier lord was still a noble, plain and simple.

And Dickens Viscounty wasn't as small as Riverford Barony. A viscount like Dickens could rightly call himself the big man on the block.

"After I left to study in the central region, I came back to the territory once a year. I was fourteen when I came home and found out Mom had passed away. Dad was half out of his mind."

"It must have been hard on him."

"Right. If it happened now, I'd stay by his side... but I was young back then. I couldn't stand the atmosphere, so I left home again and went back to the Magic Tower."

Their path ahead was engulfed in flame. Elbridge cut toward a direction where the fire hadn't spread as far.

He glanced back over his shoulder. Thankfully, no sign of demons closing in.

"When I came back to the territory a year later, Dad looked more or less back to normal. That was around when he started talking about bringing Mom back... I think that's around when he started collecting demon seals."

"Sonia. The dead can't come back."

The soul of someone who died settled into a new body and gained a new life.

For bringing back the dead to be possible, the soul that had already taken a new life would need to be pulled out of that new body.

That was obviously impossible. How could anyone pull a soul out of a body when no one even knew which body it had settled into?

"I thought so too. But Dad believed that if he finished his preparations before Mom's soul found a new body, he could bring her back."

"He wasn't after the demon's power, was he?"

Sonia shook her head.

"Dad wasn't bold enough to actually use a demon's seal. I think he thought of the seals as some kind of precious offering. He said if he prepared enough offerings to give to a god, the god would give Mom back to him in return."

"You knew that orb was a demon seal, didn't you?"

"I only found out last year. And by then... it was already too late."

Elbridge's instinct had been right.

Like breaking open a new channel for a dam about to burst, Sonia poured out everything. Her eyes gradually steadied as she spoke.

Elbridge listened in silence, walking through the burning streets of Dickens Viscounty.

* * *

Before long, Elbridge rejoined the others.

Rombel threw up a hand to greet him.

"See? I told you Elbridge would make it out alive."

A thought suddenly occurred to Elbridge.

He stopped walking.

"Rombel. Just asking, but... you didn't set those fires for some specific purpose, did you?"

"Purpose? Don't you know Starwaves hate fire?"

"...No. Never mind."

As expected, Rombel had only thought that fire was the answer once a Starwave appeared, without ever considering that a Starwave avoiding fire might move straight toward Elbridge instead.

Elbridge felt a quiet relief.

'Well, it's not like Rombel would think of something I hadn't thought of myself.'

Then Elbridge's eyes met Marcus's.

"Marcus. Please pass along my thanks to the God of Fox Rain."

If the God of Fox Rain hadn't taken the risk to intervene on the ground, there was a good chance Elbridge wouldn't have made it out unharmed either.

And even if Elbridge had somehow survived, Sonia would almost certainly have died.

But Marcus looked like he had no idea what had happened.

"Something happen?"

"The God of Fox Rain will tell you."

"Well, guess I'll hear about it eventually. If you're grateful, throw in an offering or something."

It was such a Marcus response that Elbridge cracked a smile.

"I should. By the way, the number of Crows seems to have dropped a lot."

"More than a few people died."

"How did that happen?"

"The demon that woke up alongside the Starwave. That thing swept past overhead. Something like a whirlwind kicked up with it, and for whatever reason the flames suddenly surged."

No wonder the fire had grown so dangerously large in such a short time.

"People who lingered trying to grab a little more before running probably couldn't get out of their buildings in time. Most of them are dead. We couldn't save people like that either..."

Elbridge looked around.

Everyone here had survived standing right on the line between life and death.

Despite the shock they must have felt, most of the surviving Crows wore bright expressions. Bart was one of them.

Elbridge walked over to Bart.

Bart showed off the necklace clutched tight in his hand.

"Worth sticking it out through the last peak season. A necklace like this could set up a whole brewery on its own."

"I heard gem prices have dropped a lot lately."

"Then I'll just build a smaller brewery."

But Elbridge didn't miss the faint tremble in Bart's hand.

Of course it trembled. How could a brewery owner who'd never fought for his life stand calm in the face of death?

Still, Bart hadn't let fear and terror swallow him whole.

"Doesn't matter if the brewery's big or small. Once people taste my beer, they won't be able to help but strike a deal, so it'll grow big in no time. My real problem is deciding what to brew next after beer, wine or whiskey..."

No doubt Bart would push through his fear and rebuild, standing tall to live a new life.

As proof, he was telling Elbridge his grand brewery business plan as if tonight's events meant nothing to him at all.

* * *

Elbridge and his companions made it out of Dickens Viscounty without running into any demons.

The old knight Walter reached out to shake Elbridge's hand.

"Time to part ways, it seems."

"Are you heading back to Riverford Barony?"

"I am. I plan to return as fast as I can and make the case to Baron Riverford again. Convince the people of the barony to leave for Solenion."

Walter had seen the demon. He couldn't stay ignorant any longer. Sooner or later, he'd have to act.

"I'll look forward to seeing you in Solenion."

"Likewise."

Walter set off toward Riverford Barony.

As if that were some kind of signal, the Crows scattered in every direction too. Some toward home, some toward Solenion, some toward the north or the central region...

Now only Rombel, Marcus, and Sonia remained at Elbridge's side.

"Sonia. Are you heading back to the Central Magic Tower?"

Mages were skilled labor, and Sonia was competent enough to hold her own as a mage.

She wouldn't be able to focus on training the way she had under Viscount Dickens's patronage, but if she balanced it with whatever work a mage could take on, she could get by without much trouble.

But Sonia's answer was flat and immediate.

"No. I'm going to the Order of the Bloodstained Spear."

There was only one thing Sonia wanted. Revenge.

"I heard there's a temple of the Order of the Bloodstained Spear in Solenion. Take me there."

Elbridge had no intention of leaving the Order of the Bloodstained Spear alone either.

Until now, he'd thought of them as neighbors from the Hillside Slums. But now that he knew the full situation, he couldn't just let it go.

Elbridge's mind grew tangled again.

Why had the Order of the Bloodstained Spear done something like this? Was it one person acting alone, or something the whole church was behind? If it wasn't a lone act, how many people were tangled up in this?

* * *

A few days later, the group arrived in Solenion.

Marcus muttered, "The mood feels a bit off from usual, doesn't it?"

The city felt unsettled, like something had happened.

A few people recognized Elbridge and nodded in quiet acknowledgment.

Most of it was one-sided familiarity, but one person among them actually knew him both ways. Bibeka, paladin of the Order of Spring Rain and Moss.

"Elbridge?"

Bibeka hurried over with quick steps, then made a sour face at the sight of Sonia.

"Who's this?"

"A mage I know."

"Oh, yeah? Just asking. Doesn't mean anything..."

It wasn't just a cover excuse. In the past, Elbridge had drawn a clear line with Bibeka, and Bibeka had let go of her feelings cleanly.

'Guess it still bothers her a little, though.'

Elbridge asked Bibeka, "The mood in Solenion feels strange. Did something happen?"

"It did!"

Bibeka puffed out her chest, full of energy.

"There'd been signs for a few days, then a demon showed up the day before yesterday. This time it wasn't inside Solenion, it was outside the walls, but we drove it off and sealed it in the end. I did pretty well myself, too."

Bibeka showed off a scratch on her armor, the way old-time paladins always used to.

"Was the damage bad?"

"No civilian casualties, but more than a dozen paladins died. Especially paladins from the combat churches. Still, I think we came out of it with fewer losses than expected."

"Did the Order of the Bloodstained Spear lose a lot of paladins too?"

"Of course. Without you around, the Order of the Bloodstained Spear is Solenion's main force."

"...Right. Let's talk more later."

Elbridge climbed the hill with the others. The temple of the Order of the Rusted Shield came into view before long.

But instead of going in, Elbridge headed straight for the temple of the Order of the Bloodstained Spear.

There was no one around the temple of the Order of the Bloodstained Spear.

Only a single presence could be felt inside.

Elbridge stepped through the entrance.

A man sat still, fully clad in armor.

Cowin, High Paladin of the Order of the Bloodstained Spear.

Elbridge spoke.

"Cowin. I believe you know why I've come."

Cowin answered.

"I know exactly why."

Footnotes:

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