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◈ Paladin of a Ruined Order

Chapter 98

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Genuine Happiness

For the past several days, just as the paladins had scoured every corner of Solenion searching for the demon, Marcus had roped in idle mercenaries to search alongside him.

But like the paladins, the mercenaries found nothing.

Marcus grumbled.

"I might not have fought a demon head on and won, but I've laid eyes on plenty of them, haven't I? And these past three days, I haven't seen so much as a whisper of one."

It baffled Elbridge too.

'I've failed to subdue a demon plenty of times. But this is the first time I've failed to even find one.'

Three days without progress. And yet a lot had changed over those three days.

First, the time people woke up kept slipping later and later. By now, most people didn't stir until close to noon.

The unrest among the residents had grown serious too.

Since every single person in Solenion suffered the same strange affliction, there had never been any hope of covering it up.

Everyone feared the phenomenon and tried to avoid sleep.

But once deep night fell, an irresistible drowsiness swept over them, and they lost consciousness wherever they stood. People fell asleep anywhere and everywhere, only waking the next day.

Small mercy that it was summer and not winter. Sleeping outdoors didn't cause much harm, at least.

A strange phenomenon with no known countermeasure. The people of Solenion grew anxious and started lingering near the temples.

Of all of them, the temple that drew the largest crowd was, without question, the Order of the Rusted Shield.

Word had spread that the High Paladins of each church were gathering there to hold council, and Elbridge had shown the clearest results against demons in recent battles.

The slightly uncomfortable rumors about Elbridge, the one about him killing Cowin over a misunderstanding and formally apologizing to the Order of the Bloodstained Spear, nobody cared about that anymore.

Naturally, the number of believers praying to the Goddess of the Rusted Shield kept growing.

On an ordinary day, the goddess would have bragged to Elbridge about her growing following and gotten a little smug about it. But the goddess wasn't like that right now.

"Goddess. Could you grant an oracle regarding this matter?"

Elbridge prayed, and the Goddess of the Rusted Shield delivered an oracle in a deflated voice.

- There is nothing I can tell you. I'm sorry.

"Goddess. Please tell me at least whether this is something you know but cannot share, or something you simply don't know."

- What a demon does on the mortal plane isn't a heavenly secret, so if I knew anything, I would tell you freely. Your goddess is useless to you right now simply because I know nothing about this demon.

"I understand. I'll find some way to resolve this, so please don't trouble yourself too much."

- I'm sorry I can't be of more help, Elbridge.

The other gods proved no more useful. Even the ever-reliable God of Fox Rain.

"Marcus. Has the God of Fox Rain given you any oracle?"

"Says there's nothing to know."

"..."

Another day ending with nothing to show for it.

In the dim night, Elbridge paced his room, unable to lie down.

'At this rate, tomorrow I won't wake until past noon.'

If the hours of sleep kept stretching longer and longer, what would happen when the day finally came that no one woke up at all?

Would all of Solenion simply starve to death in its sleep?

'What about evacuating everyone out of the city?'

Not realistic. Moving this many people in such a short time was impossible, and there was nowhere for them to go anyway.

The shrinking hours they could stay active were a burden too.

'What do I do...'

Then a powerful wave of drowsiness crashed over him.

Elbridge hurried to lie down on the bed.

His consciousness went dark.

When Elbridge woke, the first thing he noticed was darkness.

'It's dark.'

By all expectations, he should have woken to bright daylight.

But now it was pitch black night.

It didn't feel like he'd missed a night of sleep. His whole body felt refreshed, like he'd slept deeply and well.

Cold sweat broke out along his spine.

'Don't tell me an entire day passed while I slept.'

Had the demon changed its pattern on a whim?

There was no rule saying it couldn't.

Elbridge clenched both fists and blamed himself.

'I was careless. Far too careless.'

But another thought came to him at the same time.

'It's already happened. No point dwelling on it.'

A somewhat careless thought, sure. But blaming himself wouldn't solve anything.

Elbridge took a slow breath.

'Let it go.'

His mind settled with startling speed.

Elbridge rose from bed and stepped outside.

People had emerged from the other temples in the Hillside Slums too, looking around in confusion.

They looked no different from him.

'They probably don't understand the situation either.'

Then Elbridge realized he wasn't hungry.

No hunger meant he hadn't slept through an entire day.

Even though he'd only slept a short while, he felt as refreshed as if he'd slept deeply.

That realization lightened his mood a little more.

Now his thoughts drifted in a more optimistic direction.

The idea that the sleep hours would keep stretching until one day no one woke up at all.

Wasn't that just a baseless guess?

Maybe the demon wasn't tied to sleep at all, but to laziness. Maybe it had made people a little lazy for a few days, and in exchange, gifted them refreshing rest?

Elbridge left the temple and started down the hill with light steps.

The endless night sky stretched out above him. Maybe it was because his heart felt lighter, but the starlight seemed brighter and clearer than usual. Even the dim night sky felt strangely warm.

Step by step.

Past the temples of the non-combat churches, a broad street opened up.

Just like up in the Hillside Slums, people had woken with no idea why and were looking around, bewildered.

Their faces showed clear confusion, but their expressions weren't dark.

Then, from somewhere, the soft sound of a string instrument drifted in.

- ♪♬

Music that fit a cool summer night perfectly.

The kind of music you'd only hear at a noble's banquet, or some grand event. Maybe it was the unearned luxury of it, but the mood lifted a little.

In that lifted mood, a middle-aged couple in nightclothes quietly joined hands.

At first just their fingertips brushed, then their hands laced together properly. The two of them looked at their clasped hands a little bashfully, then gave their arms a light sway.

"It's been a while... how's this?"

The light swaying slowly turned into a clumsy dance.

The couple, who probably hadn't danced together in years, danced in the open street like a pair of shy young lovers. They didn't seem to care who was watching.

No one laughed at them either. If anything, more and more people started following their lead, dancing along to the music. The streets of Solenion swayed gently.

"Um..."

A girl with a face gone bright red approached Elbridge and shyly held out her hand.

She wanted him as her dance partner.

But Elbridge shook his head lightly.

The girl didn't seem ready to give up easily. Just as she was gathering her courage again, a thick, hairy forearm shoved its way between her and Elbridge.

A gruff voice followed.

"Not now, so scram. Shoo."

The girl's face crumpled a little, and she quietly stepped back.

Luckily, her disappointment didn't last. A boy about her age appeared and took her hand. The two of them vanished into the swaying crowd together.

"Kids these days, so forward... What's the world coming to."

The dwarf who'd chased the girl off, Rombel, grumbled.

On this strangely giddy night, Rombel was the only one wearing an expression like he'd bitten into something sour.

Actually, not the only one.

Sonia had appeared out of nowhere too, wearing an equally sour look.

"Something seems off about all this. Don't you think?"

Rombel nodded at Sonia's words.

"Off doesn't begin to cover it. Somebody's definitely pulling strings."

"Rombel. What exactly is off?"

Rombel jabbed a finger at Elbridge, swaggering a bit.

"Yeah, this one's no different either. Look at that dopey face... completely gone."

The oddly buoyant mood that had settled over Elbridge dropped away in an instant.

That's the kind of power Rombel's finger-pointing and sarcasm carried.

But one thing was certain. Something was wrong.

"Explain in detail."

"Same as you, probably. I woke up the instant I fell asleep. Waking up early should've put me in a rotten mood, but weirdly, I started feeling good. More than good. I nearly started feeling happy."

That snapped him fully awake.

A moment ago, Elbridge had been thrown off by the strange situation, then found calm again almost instantly. Right after, he'd started thinking positively without any real reason. That never happened to him normally.

"Feeling good for a moment, sure, that can happen. But happiness is different. I'm the kind of bastard who can only be happy once I ascend to heaven. If I start feeling happy without any real reason... that means someone's messing with me. Probably that demon."

Rombel's goal was Ascension. Sonia's was revenge against her father's killer. Neither of them could be happy until they achieved their goals.

No, more than that, they were people who refused happiness outright.

That was why Sonia and Rombel hadn't been swept up in the strange current.

Sonia said to Elbridge, "And this, it's a dream."

"A dream?"

"Want me to show you?"

Sonia pinched Elbridge's forearm, hard.

But instead of a sharp jolt of pain, he felt something dull and muted, like the pain had been filed down. He wasn't even sure it was right to call that sensation pain.

"See? Feels different from usual, doesn't it?"

Elbridge asked, "Then how are the two of you here in my dream right now? No, wait. Are you two just part of my dream too?"

Sonia shook her head.

"An ordinary dream isn't this detailed or specific. I've barely been in Solenion any time at all, there's no way I'd know every corner of this city this vividly, or draw the faces of so many strangers I've never even seen. This isn't a normal dream."

"Then what?"

"I think it's one shared dream. Every single person in Solenion has stepped into the same dream together."

If Sonia's guess was true, it would explain why, unlike the past few days, people had woken up the instant they fell asleep tonight.

They hadn't woken early at all. Everyone was simply dreaming the same lifelike dream together.

Elbridge said, "...We need to find the demon again."

Maybe the reason days of relentless searching had turned up nothing was that the demon wasn't in the waking world at all. It was inside the dream.

"Where's Marcus?"

Marcus would be useful. He was sharp and quick-witted.

"Not far from here. But don't count on Marcus."

"Why not?"

"Already tried. Beat him half to death and he didn't even flinch."

Rombel pointed at a spot down the long street.

Marcus was dancing there. But his expression looked strange. Like the word happiness had been written across his forehead.

Elbridge's gaze shifted to the woman dancing with him.

A woman with lots of freckles, a little plump, plain auburn hair. The kind of person you'd find anywhere.

But one detail stood out. That woman carried a weapon to rival the one belonging to the girl next door from Marcus's memories.

Rombel and Sonia couldn't reach genuine happiness inside the dream, which was why the demon's trickery hadn't been able to sway them.

Marcus, on the other hand, had found genuine happiness inside the dream, so there was no way to pull him out of it.

Sonia muttered, her voice thick with open contempt.

"Men."

Elbridge quietly turned his head away.

Privately, Elbridge considered himself a man of good character.

He and Marcus had known each other for a full year now.

Even if he couldn't cheer Marcus's happiness on, at the very least he shouldn't get in the way of it. That much a man of good character ought to manage.

"...Let's just look for the demon ourselves for now."

Leaving a happy Marcus behind, the three of them vanished into the streets of Solenion.

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