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◈ Paladin of a Ruined Order

Chapter 97

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Deep Sleep

On the day Elbridge met with the leadership of each combat church, he'd gained valuable information.

Other regions of the continent had people playing roles similar to Cowin's.

'If I leave the east, I might be able to make contact with whoever's behind this.'

But Elbridge hadn't been able to bring himself to leave Solenion right away.

He'd worried the demons freed at Dickens Viscounty might show up in Solenion.

But it had been a little over a month now since the incident at Dickens Viscounty.

If a demon had been heading toward Solenion, it should have shown up by now.

No demons had appeared, though, and more importantly, no purple clouds either, the most telling sign that a demon was about to manifest.

'Time to start moving, then.'

Elbridge's thoughts turned toward something more concrete.

Once he left Solenion, which direction should he go?

'Not the south, for one.'

The south had always been a region where demons rarely appeared, so it was unlikely whoever had recruited Cowin had been working the south.

'Central, north, west.'

Elbridge crossed the west off the list right away.

'The west's too far.'

His mind leaned toward the north.

Since ancient times, the north had held many powerful combat churches, and demons had appeared there often too. That meant plenty of demons were probably still sealed somewhere up north.

'I'll head north.'

Right around the time Elbridge made up his mind, Matilda arrived for work and greeted him.

"Good morning, Archbishop. Did you sleep well last night?"

"I slept well. And you, Matilda-ssi?"

"I slept soundly for once."

Matilda was always lively, but even she tended to look a little groggy in the mornings.

Today, though, her eyes were unusually clear. It seemed her claim of sleeping soundly hadn't been an exaggeration.

"You're single, Archbishop, so you probably don't know, but a parent with kids in the thick of growing up has a hard time sleeping deeply. Just when I'm about to drift off, the sound of the kids moving around wakes me, and when I'm trying to catch a little more sleep, their whispering chases the drowsiness right away... ugh."

Matilda went on for a while about the struggles and rewards of raising children before starting her usual work.

Some time passed. Rombel showed up at the temple.

"Here."

Rombel tossed a sword to Elbridge. It was the sword Elbridge had entrusted to him a few days earlier.

Anyone who used a sword had to maintain it constantly.

But simple maintenance alone couldn't keep a blade in top condition forever. Every so often it needed to go to a skilled blacksmith.

Elbridge drew the sword from its sheath and examined it.

The blade, which had picked up small chips here and there, looked practically new again. Just as Elbridge had wanted.

But one thing caught him off guard. The time Rombel had shown up.

"It's not even lunchtime yet. What's got you here so early?"

"Felt good today."

Rarer than Matilda's clear-eyed morning was Rombel moving around energetically before lunch.

Rombel liked to say that people slept less as they got older.

But young or old, everyone needed a certain amount of sleep.

Rombel usually woke early, but not because he'd gotten all the sleep he needed.

More often than not, he spent his mornings half dazed, dozing off here and there. For him to be up and about this early was unusual.

"Did you finish the work yesterday?"

"Mostly finished it yesterday, wrapped it up this morning."

"What got into you?"

"Better to knock it out than drag it on for no reason."

Elbridge slid the sword back into its sheath.

"Sounds like you're feeling good today too."

"Slept deep for once. Guess it's because I skipped the drink and turned in early last night."

Rombel collected a gold coin for the sword work and left.

Nothing else notable happened for the rest of the day.

Elbridge trained alone, meditated for a while, and had a short conversation with the Goddess of the Rusted Shield.

The paladins of the Order of the Bloodstained Spear shot him a few pointless glares here and there, and Elbridge ignored them.

He told Marcus to finish preparing, since they'd leave for the north the day after tomorrow. Marcus let out a long sigh and nodded.

An ordinary day.

But the following day, a few sharp-eyed people noticed something was off.

The next day, Matilda came in a little later than usual.

"Sorry, Archbishop. The bakeries near my place didn't open on time. I had to wait for the bread to come out."

"It's fine. I doubt the goddess wants you starving your children just to get here early, Priestess Matilda."

Summer sunlight was harsh. People tended to get up a bit earlier and move around before the heat set in, rather than work through it.

And there were people who had to wake up even earlier than those early risers. Bakers.

So that people heading to work before dawn could eat breakfast, bakers had to rise earlier still and bake the bread.

But bakers were only human, and they overslept sometimes too.

If enough coincidences lined up, two bakeries could end up opening late on the same morning.

Not long after, Rombel showed up at the temple with Marcus. Marcus was carrying a large loaf of bread.

Rombel spoke with a serious look on his face.

"Elbridge. Something's off."

"What is it?"

"Three bakeries near the Magic Tower opened late today. This one here, Marcus, says the bakery next to his inn opened late too."

Rombel nudged Marcus, and Marcus spoke up.

"Had nothing but soup for breakfast today, thanks to that. This bread's what I managed to grab on the way over."

Elbridge glanced at Matilda.

"Funny coincidence. Matilda-ssi said the same thing about the bakeries near her place opening late today."

"You know what, Elbridge? I slept just as deep today as I did yesterday."

"Same here."

Just as Rombel rarely slept deeply, Elbridge wasn't much of a sleeper either. Every time he drifted off, he dreamed of being sealed again.

Rombel said, "You slept well, and I slept well."

Elbridge picked up the thread.

"Matilda-ssi said she slept well too."

"Right. And the bakery owners all overslept, every one of them. Slept like logs, probably."

Elbridge turned to Marcus.

"...Marcus-ssi. Gather the High Paladins of every church right now."

A little past noon, the High Paladins of each combat church had gathered.

They stood before Elbridge, each in proper posture.

Elbridge sat in his chair with his legs crossed and addressed them.

"Everyone's aware something's been a little off since yesterday, right?"

Most of the High Paladins didn't follow what he meant.

"What situation are you referring to?"

"Did anyone hear that the bakeries opened late this morning?"

A few nodded. But several others looked puzzled.

"This is the first I'm hearing of it."

Anyone who found the morning bakery run inconvenient might just eat bread they'd bought the day before. That paladin was probably one of those.

"Doesn't matter if you didn't know. Moving on. Yesterday and today, all of you slept deeper than usual, didn't you?"

This time, everyone nodded.

"The bread being late today is probably tied to the same cause. The bakery owners didn't wake up on time."

Marcus said, sounding unconvinced, "Sir Elbridge. Don't tell me you called everyone here over oversleeping."

Elbridge nodded.

"I think this is the work of a demon. Rombel agrees with me."

Lowena, High Paladin of the Order of the Laurel Wreath, raised her hand.

"Speak, Lowena."

"Are you saying a demon connected to sleep has appeared?"

"That's right."

"But if it's a demon that makes people sleep deeply and wake up refreshed, that doesn't sound like much of a problem. Breakfast might be a little late, but... that's not exactly serious either."

Elbridge answered, "Not every demon in the world is equally dangerous. Just as some demons are especially dangerous, others are less so. But just because the effect a demon causes seems minor right now doesn't mean the demon itself is less dangerous. All kinds of demons exist out there. For example... right."

He looked at Rombel.

"Long ago, there was a demon called the Owner of the Index Finger. You remember it, Rombel."

Rombel nodded and added an explanation.

"Of course I remember. It had the power to control people's index fingers however it wanted, within its territory."

Index fingers. A few paladins snickered.

But Rombel's face stayed stone serious.

"You're laughing because you don't know how much damage a pair of human index fingers can do. Combine that with a demon's power, and it gets even worse... The Owner of the Index Finger was one of the most destructive demons of its time. Two major cities wiped out. At least a hundred paladins dead."

Elbridge added to the explanation.

"In the end, paladins cut off and burned both their own index fingers to drive it back. I remember quite a few of the paladins who fought the Owner of the Index Finger refused treatment afterward and lived the rest of their lives without index fingers."

"Painful memory, that one... Come to think of it, the Reversed-Born was another demon like that. The one that restored lost youth. Remember it?"

Elbridge nodded.

"Only heard about that one. Not a demon I ever had to face myself."

"Restoring youth sounds like a good thing, doesn't it?"

Rombel answered Lowena's remark.

"The problem was there was no limit to how young it made you. You'd get younger, then younger still, turn into an infant, and eventually just cease to exist. And the rate it worked at kept accelerating. Toward the end, a middle-aged paladin could vanish in the time it took to drink a cup of tea. If the elder elves hadn't arrived in time, everyone involved might have died."

"I heard the damage got worse because people trying to exploit the demon didn't report its appearance in time."

Elbridge said that, looking over the gathered paladins.

"What I'm trying to say is this. Something that looks harmless right now can lead to consequences nobody expects, given enough time. Honestly, I'd rather deal with something straightforward like the black giant."

At least most demons had abilities as intuitive and direct as the black giant's. That was some comfort.

But by the same logic, a demon with power over sleep was, if anything, more dangerous precisely because it wasn't straightforward.

Lowena asked, "What should we do?"

"Search."

People only started making real judgments once they could see and recognize something with their own eyes.

The reason people hadn't grasped the situation in time, the reason paladins hadn't felt any sense of alarm even as things grew dangerous, was that no one had actually laid eyes on the demon.

And only by finding the demon's location could they hope to subdue and seal it.

"A demon's power manifests centered on the demon itself. Search anywhere a demon might be hiding. Move quietly, so the townspeople don't get anxious. We'll meet here every day to share progress until the demon is sealed. That's all."

"Understood."

Lowena struck her cuirass twice with her fist, the Order of the Laurel Wreath's way of showing respect.

The other paladins offered their own gestures of respect, each in their church's fashion, and left.

Three days passed.

The demon still hadn't been found.

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