Paladin of a Fallen Order (Novel) - Chapter 29 - Red Mountains

Chapter 29 – Red Mountains

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Translated by Pratt

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The three headed to the Red Mountains, the homeland of Rombel and the deceased dwarf.

The road heading south toward the Red Mountains was flat. It was just an endless continuation of gentle plains and hills, with occasional forest paths appearing.

The weather was also good. It was the time when summer was ending. The sight of overgrown wild grass swaying as if dancing was peaceful.

Of course, separate from the peaceful scenery, it was a situation where it would not be strange for a magic beast to pop out from somewhere. However, with Elbridge and Rombel together, a magic beast did not pose much of a problem.

Yet, the only relaxed ones were Elbridge and Rombel. Marcus wore an expression like a farm animal being dragged to a slaughterhouse.

Marcus, who was trudging along, asked.

“Mr. Rombel. Does a demon really exist?”

“Marcus, do you not believe in the existence of demons?”

“I didn’t originally believe in them, but I started to believe in them recently.”

Rombel crossed his arms and asked back.

“Then why do you ask?”

“Because thinking that I might actually encounter a demon makes it feel entirely surreal. Anyway, if we keep going south like this, we’ll really meet a demon, right?”

“Correct.”

Marcus’s expression darkened even further.

“Dear lord, I’m going crazy. How did my fate end up like this…?”

Marcus was a mercenary who did not refuse any request as long as it paid well.

However, there were limits to requests. Marcus was willing to accept requests involving magic beasts, but he had no intention of accepting a request where he had to face a demon.

Then why was Marcus by Elbridge and Rombel’s side?

It was simple. Because of the oracle Marcus received from the God of the Sunshower.

“I’m going crazy. Truly crazy…”

Having received the oracle to follow Elbridge closely, Marcus was left with only two choices.

First: Follow Elbridge closely as ordained by the oracle, and then face the demon.

Second: Reject the oracle, and face the wrath of the god that might come down upon him.

Both options were choices he hated enough to die, but he could not simply make no choice.

Ultimately, after deep deliberation, Marcus chose the first option. How could he defy the oracle right after receiving one that said the god would keep an eye on him?

Marcus approached Elbridge with a miserable look on his face.

“Putting aside Mr. Rombel since he is going to his hometown, is Lord Elbridge not afraid of the demon?”

“For now… I am fine.”

“How easygoing. If the reward for this request isn’t truly astronomical, I might die of resentment.”

Elbridge and Rombel chuckled. Rather than being pitiful, the way Marcus worried was simply amusing.

Sometimes there were people like that. People born with a natural clownish temperament.

Rombel said.

“Marcus. Aim high. Who knows if you will be called the Mercenary King of this era in the future?”

“The Mercenary King?”

“Yes. Two hundred years ago, there was a fellow called the Mercenary King. He was neither a knight nor a paladin, but he did more than his share even in the battle against the demon.”

“Is that possible?”

“I’m saying it because it is possible. Marcus. Do you know the three factors that determine a warrior’s capability?”

“Magic power, authority, and talent.”

Magic power meant divine power and mana.

This magic power was the very secret behind how paladins and knights exerted strength exceeding that of ordinary people.

Divine power was accumulated through battles with magic beasts or demons, or through long religious life and training. On the other hand, mana could be accumulated through the secret arts of the Mage Tower.

Authority was a special power bestowed by the god of each order.

The greater a god’s influence was, the more authority they could bestow, but how that authority was distributed to which believer depended on the god’s judgment.

Lastly, talent meant individual capability.

It was the individual combat techniques capable of overturning the battle situation even if magic power and authority were lacking.

In the past, Elbridge was above average in all three factors, but the area evaluated as his most outstanding was talent.

If Elbridge had been a paladin who relied only on authority and magic power, he might have been ruined like other paladins now, having lost a significant portion of his authority and magic power.

No, it wouldn’t have been strange even if he had been pushed behind by paladins with more divine power.

“The Mercenary King accumulated an immense amount of magic power. His talent was also considerable.”

“Hmm.”

“If you think about it carefully, there is no reason at all for a mercenary to be inferior to a knight. After all, isn’t a knight just a mercenary who spent money to accumulate a lot of magic power?”

“Aw, but still, knights and mercenaries are different.”

“It’s no joke. You can surpass a knight too, Marcus.”

“Well. I don’t even wish for such a thing, I just want to live a normal and peaceful life.”

Rombel clicked his tongue and laughed.

“Marcus. Once you have caught a god’s attention, you cannot go back to the past. If you want to survive, you will have to accumulate strength in earnest starting from now.”

“It’s not like that is up to me…”

Elbridge, who was walking quietly, draped his right arm over Marcus’s shoulder.

And stretching out his left arm, he pointed to a tree standing far away.

“There is indeed a way. Marcus. Do you see that tree? The zelkova tree that is slightly larger than the surrounding trees.”

“I see it, but…”

“It is an individual that has just begun magic-beastification.”

Elbridge tapped Marcus on the back.

“Go chop it down.”

“…All of a sudden?”

“All beginnings are like that. Now, off you go!”

Elbridge pushed Marcus’s back vigorously.

Marcus walked with a highly intimidated stride.

However, Marcus’s stride gradually grew confident. Unlike the magic beasts he had seen so far, the tree’s appearance was not different at all from the other trees beside it.

There was no strange luster flowing, nor was there a face on the tree.

Although it was larger than the surrounding trees, it was not abnormally huge.

‘This is probably just a trick to tease me.’

Marcus corrected his posture in front of the tree.

‘The trunk is too thick to cut down with a sword. Just cutting a branch should be enough to save face.’

Marcus raised his sword toward a branch passing above his head.

The tree still stood still, only swaying lightly in the wind.

Marcus swung his sword.

Swoosh—

“?”

Normally, the sword should have either cut through the branch or been blocked by it.

However, there was no sensation of the sword catching on anything.

Looking up, the branch he had just aimed at was bent slightly upward. As if it had backed away a little to avoid the sword.

Chills ran down Marcus’s spine.

At the same time, something grabbed Marcus’s ankle.

Looking down, he saw a tree root. A tree root that had burst out from the ground was wrapped around Marcus’s ankle.

“W-What the fuck—!”

Marcus desperately struck down with his sword.

Thud, thud.

Nicks were carved into the tree root. However, the thick root showed no signs of severing. Cutting a tree with a sword was no easy task.

A branch approaching from behind Marcus stealthily wrapped around his arms and upper body. Marcus, his face turning pale, screamed.

“H-Help me—!”

Just then, a short human figure burst out from behind Marcus. It was Rombel.

Rombel raised the double-bitted axe he carried on his back high and swung it toward the base of the tree.

A single swing of the axe.

Yet, with that single strike, the tree, whose girth exceeded an armful, was easily cut through.

Tilt—

The magic beast tree fell backward while still holding Marcus with its branches and roots.

At the moment when he thought he would be quite severely injured even if he did not die, Marcus felt the pressure on his limbs disappear.

Thud—

The tree collapsed. However, Marcus was not flung down along with the tree.

Looking back, he saw Elbridge holding a sword. He had skillfully cut away only the tree branches and roots so that Marcus’s limbs would not be harmed.

Elbridge clicked his tongue.

“I had a feeling you would approach it defenselessly. I knew it would turn out like this.”

“…”

Marcus’s ears flushed red with embarrassment.

Good grief, he thought he had rolled around enough while working as a mercenary, yet he had acted so foolishly.

‘Did I get carried away after seeing a magic beast half-heartedly?’

However, Elbridge did not rebuke Marcus.

“All beginnings are like that. You will gradually get used to it.”

“…Gradually?”

“While we head south, we will hunt every magic beast that catches our eyes. Naturally, you too, Mr. Marcus.”

Marcus’s face turned pale white.

*

A fortnight later.

Marcus’s attire had become ragged like a defeated soldier’s, and his eyes had become hollow and sunken. The problem was that the past journey had been anything but easy.

Elbridge’s words about hunting down every single magic beast had been no joke.

Elbridge and Rombel searched out and hunted all kinds of magic beasts, and Marcus had to take the lead in almost every magic beast hunt.

Yet, the journey was not delayed.

This was thanks to the speed of the magic beast hunts being extremely fast, and their relentless movement to shorten the schedule as much as possible. Marcus had accumulated a considerable amount of divine power over the past fortnight, but he was so exhausted that he felt like he would collapse at any moment.

‘…I would have no further wishes if I could just sleep deeply for half a day.’

Unlike Marcus, over the past fortnight, Elbridge, far from being exhausted, saw his movements grow lighter and lighter.

Elbridge slowly moved his body and thought.

‘The speed at which my divine power is recovering is beyond expectations.’

Thanks to hunting magic beasts without rest, Elbridge had recovered more than half of the divine power from his prime.

Elbridge’s current condition was incomparably better than it had been a fortnight ago.

‘Does this mean that while my divine power was scattered while I was sealed, the vessel that contained the divine power did not disappear?’

He still had no certainty that he could subdue the demon.

However, with Rombel by his side, if the compatibility was good, there would be a sliver of hope. If worse came to worst, the God of the Sunshower would help.

While Elbridge was lost in thought, Marcus spoke up.

“Mr. Rombel. There is something I’m curious about.”

“What is it?”

“Why does Lord Elbridge treat Mr. Rombel like a friend?”

In Marcus’s eyes, the current relationship within the party was a bit strange.

Marcus treated Rombel as a superior, and treated Elbridge with respect but relatively comfortably. This was because, in terms of appearance, the age difference between Rombel and Elbridge was vast.

Yet, Elbridge and Rombel actually treated each other like friends. Even though their age difference would be two to three hundred years at the very least.

Rombel answered as if he had been waiting.

“Is there any other reason? It’s just because the young punk has no manners.”

Elbridge kicked Rombel’s butt without any hesitation, and then replied to Marcus.

“It is simply because he doesn’t act his age, so I couldn’t treat him as a superior. You can speak comfortably as well, Mr. Marcus. Aren’t you at least ten years older than me?”

Rombel muttered as he rubbed his butt.

“Look at the way he talks. Completely shameless, completely shameless…”

While they were walking and chatting, a sheer cliff appeared in front of the three.

The slope was steep and the height was immensely high, and no trees or vines that could be held to climb up were visible in between.

Marcus leaned his waist back and looked above the cliff. The color of the leaves was red.

“It seems the name Red Mountains was given because of those trees.”

At that, Rombel grumbled as he replied.

“That’s also true, but there are a few other reasons as well.”

“Other reasons?”

“You might find out soon enough. Follow me.”

Rombel strode forward, leading the way. Soon, a valley appeared before the three.

It was a valley that looked as if the Red Mountains had been struck and split apart by a giant sword.

Judging by its shape, it seemed they could enter the interior of the Red Mountains through that crevice.

However, a fairly intense stench wafted from the entrance of the valley.

The reason for the stench was easily identified. A corpse was rotting at the valley entrance.

If they had discovered a corpse elsewhere, they might have thought he had been mugged by bandits.

However, in Marcus’s opinion, the corpse was not the work of bandits. Because there was no sign of anyone having touched his belongings. The corpse was even half-crushed.

“Was he bitten to death by a beast? No. That’s not it either…”

As Marcus muttered, Elbridge replied.

“That is one of the reasons why this mountain range is called the Red Mountains. It is said that anyone who does not serve the God of Steel and Anvil will die if they attempt to pass through this valley.”

“The God of Steel and Anvil is the god served by dwarves and blacksmiths. Then, does that mean Lord Elbridge and I cannot enter inside?”

“I’ve heard that the god does not harm the guests of their believers, so it should be fine if Rombel leads the way. Rombel, what are you doing? Lead the way quickly.”

“Understood. Wait there for a moment.”

Rombel rubbed his hands together like a fly, then took a deep breath as he stood in front of the valley.

“Phew… Okay. Here I go.”

However, contrary to Elbridge and Marcus’s thoughts, Rombel did not walk confidently.

Slightly, slightly. He narrowed his stride and advanced one step at a time.

Just as Rombel arrived beside the corpse.

Ruuuuuumble—!

Along with a massive vibration, the valley walls on both sides narrowed their distance and shut closed in an instant.

The speed was even remarkably fast.

“…?”

The innocent corpse was crushed once more, and Rombel, as if having anticipated this, threw his body backward to escape from the valley.

Rombel confidently raised his thumb toward Elbridge and Marcus.

“How was that? Nimble, wasn’t it?”

He was indeed nimble. But that was not the important point.

Elbridge cried out in bewilderment.

“Rombel. You are a dwarf, aren’t you? Why did the valley close?”

What was even stranger was that Rombel acted as if he had known such a situation would occur.

“Mr. Rombel. Did you perhaps convert?”

“No. I didn’t convert.”

“Then why…”

Rombel smiled sheepishly.

“Because the God of the Steel Anvil expelled me from the order. It’s already been two hundred years, but it seems this petty fellow still has no intention of pardoning me.”