Paladin of a Fallen Order (Novel) - Chapter 43 - Liar (Part 4)

Chapter 43 – Liar (Part 4)

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Translated by Pratt

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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While waiting for the chief to wake up, the Goddess of the Rusty Shield handed down an oracle.

—Elbridge. I went and asked the God of the Brass Cup.

The God of the Brass Cup symbolized many things.

However, the most representative among them was the peace and well-being of the community.

In other words, it was identical to what the ‘God of the Eternal Voyage’ whom Osric spoke of symbolized.

In addition, there was one important characteristic to the God of the Brass Cup. Namely, that he was known as an elder-class deity among the numerous gods in the heavens.

It was said that at the time the God of the Brass Cup ascended, people did not know how to work iron. In those days, brass and bronze were said to be the finest metals.

Since the God of the Brass Cup ascended that early, he was bound to know whether a god possessing the same authority as himself had appeared. In many ways, he was a deity suitable for uncovering the inside story of this incident.

The Goddess’s oracle continued.

—The God of the Brass Cup said that, excluding himself, there is no god symbolizing the well-being of the community. He said he has never even heard the name of the God of the Eternal Voyage…

Elbridge slowly nodded his head and said,

“Understood, Goddess. Thank you.”

*

The three confiscated Thibault’s staff and bound him to a chair.

A mage cannot use magic without a staff. Although there are occasionally those among high-ranking mages who use magic even without a staff, even in that case, the power drops significantly, so it does not become a big problem.

“Ugh…”

When they waited for a moment with thorough preparations complete, Town Chief Thibault groaned and woke up.

The chief realized he was tied up, and looked around in panic.

“W-what is the meaning of this?”

The party watched Thibault without a word. Thibault seemed to ponder why he was tied up here.

Elbridge thought about what the first words Thibault would spit out would be.

Untie me? Save me? Wouldn’t it be something like that?

However, Thibault’s first words were different from expectations.

“…So a day like this finally comes.”

Thibault spoke like that and completely relaxed his entire body.

Strangely, he looked the most comfortable among his appearances seen since arriving in this town.

Elbridge, leaning on his sword like a cane, asked Thibault,

“Chief. Why did you peddle the name of a god who doesn’t even exist?”

At that question, Marcus and Rombel were even more flustered.

“What? The God of the Eternal Voyage does not exist?”

Since conveying the conversation shared with the Goddess of the Rusty Shield directly was troublesome, Elbridge made a suitable excuse.

“That is what I believe.”

“I naturally thought this fellow had impersonated an archbishop…”

In a way, Rombel and Marcus’s reactions were natural.

Because when religious swindlers occasionally appeared, such people were without fail the type who claimed to be high-ranking clergy and defrauded others of profit.

However, Town Chief Thibault did not refute Elbridge’s conjecture. As if admitting that Elbridge’s conjecture was fact.

“…My goodness. Is it real?”

Impersonating a high-ranking clergy was already a great crime, but to invent a fake god.

Since this was a form of blasphemy seen for the first time, Elbridge found it difficult to know what to do with Thibault.

Marcus asked,

“What were you thinking when committing such an act? You didn’t seem like someone whose brain didn’t work.”

Then Thibault answered,

“The story becomes a bit long, would it be alright?”

Elbridge nodded his head.

It was not because of goodwill toward Town Chief Thibault. He merely needed sufficient information for an accurate judgment.

Thibault slowly began his story after retracing his memory for a moment.

“…Like any other mage, my master was someone who wished to become a god. However, because he was a far superior expert than any ordinary mage, my fellow disciples and I believed that master would become a god.”

Thibault’s voice cut off for a moment and then continued.

“However, master was ultimately unable to become a god. Failing to become a god and ascend to the heavens, he was buried in the ground as a human. Like other people.”

Numerous mages wish to ascend to the heavens. However, among them, the mages who truly ascend to the heavens are an extreme minority. Most meet an end like Thibault’s master.

“I felt completely drained. If master couldn’t even become a god, can I become a god? So I left the mage tower. However, in the end, I could not discard my dream. That was why I pondered deeply. Why was master unable to become a god?”

Thibault’s voice turned gloomy.

“The conclusion I reached back then was that master’s followers were insufficient. Unlike master, who was followed by barely a few disciples at best, I heard that most other gods had many followers even before ascending. The essence of a god is not the one who leads, but the ones who are led. In other words, might it not be the followers… That was what the young me thought.”

Elbridge’s party was still without a word.

It was also a situation where words were not necessary. Because just by listening up to here, one could guess the picture the young Thibault had drawn.

“I wanted to verify my hypothesis. That was why I wandered in places with sparse human presence and found a small town.”

“Are you saying that is here?”

“That is correct. It was a remote town that merchants’ footsteps did not even reach. No, it was a place too poor to even be called a town. Since it was at best a place where about twenty or thirty slash-and-burn farmers gathered…”

Elbridge, who had been listening silently, said,

“You committed a terrible deed, Chief.”

Thibault did not deny it either.

“I was young. I was reckless, and I was not thoughtful. Although I didn’t think so… I might have been evil. I didn’t think about how people would receive it. With the single-minded determination to prove my hypothesis and become a god, I invented the plausible name of the God of the Eternal Voyage, and said I was that god’s archbishop.”

A god stays in the heavens, and the believers stay on the ground.

No matter how young Thibault was back then, he probably couldn’t say that he was a god himself. Thus, the alternative he chose would be the archbishop.

“Without authority, how could you possibly… No, I get it. Damn it.”

Rombel was about to ask Thibault, but realized the answer himself.

“…Yes. Naturally, I did not possess authority. What came to mind then was the God of the Brass Cup. Because a vague authority like the harmony of the community might be something I could mimic. However, if that was all, no one would have followed me. That was why I lied.”

Thibault caught his breath for a moment, then spoke as if spitting it out,

“That the destruction of this world is approaching. That you can be saved only by believing in me… I told a lie that left them no choice but to believe in me if they were even slightly shaken by my story.”

“It’s an unmanageable lie. Foolish.”

“That’s right. The lie brought on another lie. The fact that I was a mage was also a problem. I had never actually believed in a god myself, so how could I imitate a real priest and order?”

Thibault, lowering his head deeply, stared intently at the pottery fragments rolling on the floor and the emblem engraved on those fragments.

“The first thing I did was inventing the emblem symbolizing the god. However, that was just the beginning. Since people asked if there were no symbols or relics in our order, I also made those myself. I even bought old things and simply carved the emblem into them.”

“They were fooled by barely that much?”

“I know. It is clumsy. However, these people were pure enough to be fooled by even that clumsy lie. Since they are people who cannot even read… They believed in me absolutely.”

“…”

“Still, I couldn’t feel at ease. That was why I helped them to win the people’s favor and avoid suspicion. Since they wouldn’t harbor suspicion only if they had no complaints, and only if they didn’t harbor suspicion would they not doubt even a halfway authority like the community’s harmony.”

Thibault let out a deep sigh.

“Every time I opened my eyes, new slash-and-burn farmers appeared and settled in the town. Like that, twenty people became fifty, then a hundred… At first, I thought things were going well. However, in the blink of an eye, the people exceeded five hundred. Since the town grew too quickly beyond expectations, only then did I suddenly become frightened. Thinking, ‘Is it okay for me to do this?’”

“Of course it’s not.”

“Yes. It’s not. Once I realized that again, I wanted to run away.”

Rombel clicked his tongue.

“However, in the end, you didn’t even run away. Was your greed to become a god that great?”

Town Chief Thibault shook his head.

“No. By that time, the thought that I must become a god didn’t even occur to me.”

“The front and back of your words don’t match. If you had no thought of becoming a god, you should have left. Ultimately, is it not that you couldn’t put down your greed?”

“…The reason I couldn’t run away was due to another cause.”

“What reason?”

“The problem was that the people who gathered being fooled by my lie were too many. I’ve fooled this many people, so what should I do if I run away? While people are building houses saying they will stop being slash-and-burn farmers…”

Although he had started the lie for selfish and evil reasons, Thibault was not evil enough to shamelessly push it to the end. However, he was also not good or brave enough to confess his sin and seek forgiveness.

Every person of the world Elbridge had seen until now was like that.

A person who is good from birth to death, or a person who is evil from head to toe, does not exist.

“Because I was afraid the people would become even more numerous, I requested them not to leak the talk of destruction and salvation to outsiders. Saying that if our town grew larger, there might be people who cannot enter our town in the heavens…”

The adults probably followed Thibault’s words. However, the young children could not. The story Osric spat out with pure goodwill shattered the falsehood Thibault had built up.

It was such a precarious falsehood. To the extent that a single word from a child could destroy everything.

Thibault smiled bitterly.

“Even though I had already sinned, I hated being pointed at. Since some point, my goal became not getting caught by the people. Though it couldn’t be helped after death, I felt I could avoid getting caught until I died. Nearly thirty years passed like that.”

The Goddess of the Rusty Shield whispered in a voice full of regret,

—Foolish indeed. If you have committed a deed beyond your station, a moment where you must bear the consequences is bound to approach…

There was only one difference between Thibault and any other ordinary person.

The point that, thanks to his outstanding ability, he could hide his falsehood for a bit longer.

Thibault continued his story.

“However, a problem arose starting from half a year ago. Even though I had been saying the world would be ruined, I didn’t actually think the world would be ruined, but the signs that the world would truly be ruined appeared.”

“Are you speaking of magic beasts?”

This was merely a conversation between Thibault and Marcus, but Elbridge stealthily avoided Thibault’s gaze.

The appearance of magic beasts was not Elbridge’s responsibility. If Elbridge had one responsibility, was it not that he had only maintained the seal for two hundred years?

No, it was highly likely that it was not Elbridge’s problem either, but the problem of the seal itself.

However, Elbridge felt a faint guilt whenever he heard talk of magic beasts or demons.

Because there was no one to tell him it was not Elbridge’s responsibility, no one to hug the sense of responsibility on Elbridge’s behalf.

“I can defeat ordinary magic beasts. However, ultimately, a magic beast I could not defeat appeared. It was time to have a new worry. I thought every day. Should I request help from the outside to solve the problem?”

“If it were me, I wouldn’t call. I’d rather move the town.”

When Marcus cut in to offer his opinion, Rombel refuted,

“What are you going to do if another problem arises after moving the town?”

“It’s not like there is another way. What will you do if outsiders are called and it all gets exposed?”

“Yes. That was why I also could not readily request help. Since I knew better than anyone how clumsy my lie was. Only innocent people who know nothing would be fooled; there is no way people who know a lot about faith and the heavens like paladins would be fooled. It’s not like I could explain the situation to the townspeople and silence them belatedly either…”

A lie brings on another lie, and a grown lie brings on even more lies.

No matter how skilled a mage Thibault was, he could not manage the lie to the end.

“Unable to do this or that. While groaning in distress, you all arrived. When I first saw you, my heart sank, but at the same time, I thought it was a good thing.”

“…”

“Might it be that by some chance I won’t get caught? I also had such expectations. But well… I got caught in the end. That is the end.”

Thibault gave an awkward smile, then closed his eyes tightly.

With a slightly relieved expression.

On the contrary, the ones who became complicated were Elbridge, Rombel, and Marcus.

How should they punish this liar?

At the end of a long silence, Marcus asked Elbridge,

“Sir Elbridge. There is something I am curious about.”

“Speak.”

“How did the Order of the Rusty Shield punish those who impersonated high priests?”

“There was no such occurrence in our order. However, all orders punished them in the same way.”

“In what way?”

Elbridge answered,

“…They stoned them to death in front of the temple.”

The reason all orders punished sinners with stoning was one.

That if you deceived people with lies, bearing the anger of the deceived people directly is the most righteous conclusion.

However, Elbridge was still confused.

Just because it is the same lie, is it right to punish it in the same way?

For them, who were mere travelers, to punish Thibault, who was the chief, was it not too self-righteous and presumptuous?

Since he could not think of a clear answer no matter how much he pondered, Elbridge quietly offered a prayer to the Goddess.

“Goddess. What should I do?”

—*Static, crackle…*

As if the Goddess of the Rusty Shield was away at that moment, no oracle descended. What was heard was only faint static.

‘Of all times, now…’

Elbridge fell into even deeper contemplation.