Paladin of a Fallen Order (Novel) - Chapter 45 - Middlemarch
Chapter 45 – Middlemarch
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Translated by Pratt
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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“Finally…”
An autumn evening.
Elbridge’s party arrived at Middlemarch, the largest city in the central continent.
*
Unlike the Holy City Solenion, which barely monitored people entering and leaving, entering through the gates of Middlemarch took quite a bit of time. This was because a checkpoint was attached to the inside of the gates.
There were several employees handling administrative work at the checkpoint, and their attitude in treating the party was slightly different from what Elbridge’s party had expected.
When Marcus first declared his identity as a mercenary, the employee looked at Marcus’s ornate sword and answered.
“I’m sure you won’t, but if you cause a disturbance in the city, there may be trouble. Please be mindful.”
It was not something said to make him feel bad, but merely a formal request.
However, when Elbridge next declared himself a paladin, the employee showed a subtle smile.
“A paladin… You came from Solenion?”
“Yes.”
“Hmph. Unlike in Solenion, paladins are not a privileged class in Middlemarch. If you cause a disturbance, you can be punished or expelled, so please be mindful.”
Unlike during Marcus’s turn, it was a slightly more direct warning.
Elbridge did not answer and quietly stared at the employee.
At that, the employee slightly avoided Elbridge’s gaze and answered.
“Er… sometimes paladins from other regions cause disturbances. I’m just letting you know beforehand, just in case. Please don’t misunderstand.”
Since he had no intention of causing a disturbance as soon as he entered the city, Elbridge simply nodded his head slightly and let it pass.
However, what flustered Elbridge and Marcus the most was the employee’s reaction upon facing Rombel.
“Sir Dwarf. Have you ever visited Middlemarch in the past?”
“I came once about twenty or thirty years ago. There was a dispatch request to the East Mage Tower.”
“By any chance… what is your name?”
“I am called Rombel.”
“Please wait a moment. I will look up the records.”
The employee jumped up from his seat, swept through the documents, and cross-referenced the records in the documents with Rombel’s face. The employee’s attitude grew slightly more soft.
“Lord Rombel. What business brings you to Middlemarch?”
“I have business at the Mage Tower.”
Rombel carried a double-bitted axe as large as his own body on his back. However, the employee bowed and scraped without giving Rombel even a minor warning.
“Understood. We will escort you straight to the Mage Tower, so please wait outside for a moment. Have a peaceful journey.”
Subsequently, the employee wrote something on a piece of paper with a quill pen, then took out a wand, chanted a spell, and waved it.
Then, the paper folded itself, taking the shape of a bird, and fluttered its two wings as it flew out the window. To think a checkpoint employee would be a mage.
“…”
Elbridge and Marcus wore skeptical expressions, but Rombel spoke triumphantly.
“They’ll come to pick us up soon, so let’s go out and wait.”
*
As soon as they left the checkpoint, Rombel said.
“If Solenion’s nickname is the Holy City, Middlemarch’s nickname is ‘the City Where All Roads Lead.’ Welcome to the City Where All Roads Lead, you country bumpkins.”
Of course, Elbridge and Marcus’s responses were crooked.
“It’s a nickname given because being in the center of the continent is the only thing it has to show off.”
“Mr. Rombel. Don’t act like a Central native when you didn’t even know the way here. Didn’t you say visiting once in the past was all you did?”
“Haha! Was that so?”
The three looked around, surveying the surroundings.
Middlemarch, the City Where All Roads Lead, fully lived up to its name starting from the layout of the buildings.
Middlemarch’s building layout was closer to the Mountain City Barkuntol than the Holy City Solenion.
This was especially true in that instead of small buildings being erected haphazardly to form a maze, the buildings were arranged neatly with precise intervals.
And among the numerous buildings, there was one that showed off an unrivaled presence. Middlemarch’s pride, the Central Mage Tower.
Marcus clicked his tongue in amazement.
“…It is immensely huge. To the point where it’s hard to even compare it with the East Mage Tower.”
In the center of eastern Solenion, there was a hill filled with temples.
But in the very center of Middlemarch, the Central Mage Tower stood. It was as if telling a story that the master of this city was not god or human, but mages.
However, unlike Marcus who was purely admiring, Elbridge frowned slightly.
“Is my memory wrong?”
“Why?”
“Even just two hundred years ago, the Central Mage Tower was on the outskirts, not the center of Middlemarch.”
Rombel replied coolly.
“They said they rebuilt it.”
“What?”
“The Mage Tower.”
The Central Mage Tower was a giant building that was at least dozens of stories, and if high, might easily exceed a hundred stories.
Elbridge did not know much about architecture, but he knew very well that such a building could not be built easily.
The materials and manpower required would also transcend imagination, and all kinds of magic would have to be mobilized to keep the building from collapsing or falling over.
The time and cost involved in that process would surely transcend imagination.
“They rebuilt such a large building?”
“It’s a building they built once, so there’s no reason they can’t build it again. Isn’t that right?”
“Then what happened to the temples that were in the center of the city?”
“They moved them. Conveniently, they are right next door.”
Rombel pointed to the building on the right of the three with his short, thick finger.
The building was a wide three-story building, with three emblems symbolizing deities attached to the front of the building like signboards.
And three placards hung next to the entrance.
[3rd Floor – Order of the Library of Wisdom]
[2nd Floor – Order of Soot and Wine]
[1st Floor – Order of the Left Hand’s Lantern]
“…”
The placards were saying that three temples were stacked layer upon layer inside this building.
This was a terrible method of sacrilege that Elbridge and Marcus had never even imagined, but the people of Middlemarch did not seem to care.
Elbridge suppressed his agitation with difficulty.
“…Is this common sense in this neighborhood? If I were a priest staying in the temple on the first floor, I think it would be hard to bear having two more temples right above my head.”
Rombel let out a noisy snort and then mocked Elbridge.
“How old-fashioned. This is the latest style.”
“What is the world coming to… It is the end of the world. The end of the world.”
But at the same time, a curiosity too huge to handle bloomed inside Elbridge’s chest.
In the past, Middlemarch was a city not much different from cities in other regions. What had happened to this city over the past two hundred years that caused it to change so bizarrely?
While Elbridge was lost in thought for a moment, a rattling sound was heard. A horse was passing by, pulling a carriage.
Seeing that sight, Marcus showed a mischievous smile.
“Hmph. Mr. Rombel. Didn’t you say on the way here that in the Central region, carriages run without horses, and balloons carrying people fly in the sky?”
“I did.”
“In that case, what would that animal pulling the carriage with its mane fluttering ahead be?”
Rombel glanced at the carriage and then frowned.
“I said there are also horseless carriages, I never said all carriages have no horses. Marcus.”
“Ah, did you say so…?”
However, the next carriages and carts that appeared were all pulled by horses. Marcus sneered.
“Th-That is… Well, at least it was a mule this time, not a horse. Still, since a mule is half horse, Rombel’s words were about half correct.”
Elbridge quietly nodded at Marcus’s words, teasing Rombel along.
If it were the usual Rombel, he would have raised his fist and warned Marcus and Elbridge, but today Rombel maintained his composure remarkably well.
How much time had passed like that? A sound of wheels rolling was heard this time as well.
“Now, this time for sure… Huh?”
Marcus’s words cut off.
The carriage that appeared now was the most expensive and luxurious carriage they had seen while waiting. And, just as Rombel had said, there was no horse pulling the carriage.
Marcus and Elbridge stared blankly at the carriage.
What was even more surprising was that the carriage slipped to a halt in front of the three.
The door of the carriage opened, and a young mage asked.
“Are you Mr. Rombel?”
“I am.”
Rombel nodded arrogantly. At that, the mage bowed politely in greeting.
“You said you have business at the Central Mage Tower. Please board. We will serve you comfortably.”
Subsequently, the back door of the carriage opened on its own, revealing a luxurious interior.
Not to mention Marcus, even Elbridge had never seen a carriage this luxurious.
“…”
Rombel enjoyed that reaction, and then asked the driver in a slightly arrogant manner.
“May I bring two subordinates along?”
*
The carriage moved toward the Central Mage Tower.
This was because both Elbridge and Rombel’s business lay at the Central Mage Tower, or more precisely, with the Central Mage Tower Lord.
Rombel wished to obtain information on ascension to become a god himself, and Elbridge wished to hear news of Sir Leonhardt, the former Chief Paladin, through the Central Mage Tower Lord.
Elbridge and Marcus looked out the window with nonchalant expressions, pretending not to be shaken.
Whenever their eyes met with the residents of Middlemarch occasionally, the residents would look at the horseless carriage with eyes filled with faint longing and envy.
Even that much was enough to tell. A horseless carriage was an item only the privileged class could ride.
Marcus, despite having teased Rombel just a moment ago, now asked with a great fuss.
“By the way, how on earth does this carriage move?”
Rombel replied boastfully.
“It moves by magic power. Under that carriage is a box that stores magic power. When magic power flows out from that box, the machine moves just as the engineers designed.”
“What is an engineer?”
To Marcus’s question, Rombel replied coolly.
“There are people whose job is to take complex blueprints to skilled artisans and demand that they make it this way or that way.”
“Ah, they must be outstanding blacksmiths.”
“No. They are fellas who have never even hammered iron themselves. But those guys assemble the things the artisans struggled to make, and then they earn much more money than the artisans.”
“There are all sorts of people in Middlemarch. They do say the world is wide…”
This time Elbridge asked.
“That’s all well and good, but for what reason is the Central Mage Tower even sending a horseless carriage to escort you?”
“To make the imaginations of engineers a reality, skilled artisans are needed. And artisans as outstanding as me are not common.”
While the three were chatting, the carriage stopped. They had arrived at the Central Mage Tower.
The Central Mage Tower was huge even when viewed from afar, but seeing it up close, it was much larger and higher than expected.
If someone had shown the Central Mage Tower to Elbridge before he heard Rombel’s explanation and told him that this was a pillar supporting the heavens, Elbridge might have believed it.
“This way.”
The mage who had driven the carriage guided the three inside the Mage Tower.
They had expected to be guided straight to the Central Mage Tower Lord like that, but in reality, the place they were guided to was not the tower lord’s office but a luxurious room.
Seeing that a bed, sofa, table, and the like were furnished, it seemed to be a space to receive guests.
The moment Marcus saw the bed in this room, he realized.
That this single bed would be more expensive than all the beds he had ever laid his body on combined.
Rombel stared at the mage with an arrogant expression.
“Hey. Mage.”
“Yes.”
“I came to meet the tower lord.”
“The tower lord is currently away for a moment due to important business. Please stay in this room for the time being.”
“How long will it take for the tower lord to return?”
“We cannot know that precisely.”
As Rombel frowned, the mage said, bowing and scraping.
“We will contact you as soon as the tower lord returns. Since we will serve you with all our heart while you wait, please call us anytime if you need anything.”
“Alright.”
The mage paid his respects, then closed the door and left.
At that moment, Elbridge, Rombel, and Marcus acted in the exact same way. After unpacking all the luggage they had brought, they threw their bodies onto the bed, regardless of who went first.
Spring—
And they admired at the same time.
“It is absurdly soft.”
“It is fundamentally different from a bed made with straw or feathers. This firm yet soft sensation is…”
Elbridge enjoyed that sensation for a moment, and then sat on the edge of the bed and said.
“Rombel. I don’t think you ever mentioned you were acquainted with the Central Mage Tower Lord.”
“Because there was no need to say so.”
“…Is your friendship deep?”
“It’s not that. It’s just to the extent that we were entangled because of work.”
“Then let me ask one thing. What kind of person is the Central Mage Tower Lord?”
Rombel pondered for a moment and then spoke.
“One who ascended to heaven in the distant past after his feats as a mage were recognized.”
“And?”
“One who became a god and then returned to being a mortal.”
That was Elbridge’s greatest question.
Although there was no one who did not know that there was such a thing as ascension, there were plenty of people who did not know that one could return to being a mortal after ascension. A god returning to the earth was that uncommon.
Common-sensically, what would be the reason to return to the earth again after becoming a god after all that trouble?
“Why did the Central Mage Tower Lord return to the earth?”
“I’ve only heard about that through rumors as well.”
“What rumors?”
Rombel spoke with a serious expression.
“They say that for seven hundred years after the Central Mage Tower Lord ascended to heaven, there was not a single believer serving the Central Mage Tower Lord.”
“…Then what happens?”
“Nothing happened.”
Marcus chimed in and asked.
“What’s wrong with that?”
Rombel answered quietly.
“If there are no believers, you can’t look down upon the earth, can you? The Central Mage Tower Lord spent seven hundred years with absolutely nothing to do.”
Elbridge could fully understand the pain of the Central Mage Tower Lord.
Loneliness and boredom. Could there be a greater pain than that?
Elbridge asked in a trembling voice.
“Then, what did he come down to the earth for?”
“I heard his dream is to make plenty of believers to serve him and then ascend once again.”