Paladin of a Fallen Order (Novel) - Chapter 48 - Sewers

Chapter 48 – Sewers

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Translated by Pratt

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Let’s go in.”

Deep in the night.

Elbridge, Marcus, and the three clients. A total of five people slipped into Middlemarch’s underground.

As they moved through a somewhat stiff atmosphere, Elbridge threw out a question.

“Mr. Mitchell. Around when will the sewers appear?”

At that, Millia’s older brother, Mitchell, replied looking slightly bewildered.

“Aren’t we walking in them right now?”

“Are you saying this is the sewers?”

“Why, of course… By the way, Mr. El, what did you think the sewers would be like?”

“A narrow passage with filth, only wide enough to crawl through…”

Then Mitchell’s younger sister, Millia, laughed.

“The sewers being that narrow?”

“…Yes.”

“Solenion certainly seems less developed. Middlemarch’s sewers look like this. We have been walking in the sewers since a while ago.”

Solenion’s sewers were so narrow that a person could barely crawl through.

In fact, even that was a spectacular facility. Since ordinary cities did not have anything like sewers.

People living outside Solenion did not even know what sewers were.

However, Middlemarch’s sewers were wide enough for two people to stand side by side and pass through.

On the left of the walking path, a ditch of uncertain depth was dug, and the filth was flowing only through that ditch.

‘…The scale of the sewers is beyond imagination.’

Mitchell also burst into laughter and asked Elbridge.

“Then, Mr. El, how were you planning to travel through the sewers? Crawling all day long?”

“I did not think so. Although the sewers I imagined were not this wide, they were not this long either. I thought we would reach our destination by crawling briefly only at necessary points.”

“Haha! I suppose you could think that way.”

Thanks to Elbridge showing a slightly clumsy side, the stiff atmosphere softened a little.

It was not intended, but it was a good situation. Because people tended to tire quickly in silence.

The five of them, while still maintaining their tension, moved along while occasionally sharing quiet conversations.

Meanwhile, Millia stopped the party.

“The underground barrier is here.”

“There is a barrier in the sewers?”

Marcus looked around searching for the barrier.

On the other hand, Elbridge quickly noticed the existence of the barrier. A faint shimmering blocking the passage.

However, judging by its shape and color, it was not a powerful barrier.

“Since the sewers connect to all sorts of places in the city, petty thieves could use them, right? The Mage Tower set up barriers in the sewers to prevent such situations.”

“What do we need to do to pass through the barrier?”

“Mr. Marcus and Mr. El don’t need to worry. If you possess magic power or divine power above a certain level, you can pass through the barrier without triggering the alarm.”

“…We can just pass through? Why did they make such a barrier?”

“Accumulating enough magic power to breach the barrier costs quite a lot of money. Anyone with that kind of wealth wouldn’t need to commit petty thefts.”

With Millia leading, the entire party crossed the barrier. Indeed, the barrier remained completely quiet.

Now, Millia used magic to create a compass in the air.

“From here, I don’t know the way either, so we have to navigate solely by direction. Follow me.”

Their movement slowed down a bit.

Before the returning tension could crush the party, Elbridge spoke up.

“Miss Millia.”

“Yes?”

“Up until we met in front of the Mercenary Guild yesterday, I thought you wouldn’t enter the sewers yourselves.”

“Why is that?”

“Since a request is meant to delegate troublesome work to others. Why did you enter the sewers directly?”

Millia smiled with her eyes.

“Actually, if we were confident in our own skills, we wouldn’t have even sought the help of Mr. El and Mr. Marcus. For a secret task, isn’t it better to have fewer people?”

“Indeed.”

“But among the three of us, Patrick is the only one with real combat experience. I only did research at the Mage Tower, and my brother only repeated training and magic infusions.”

He had heard a story with a similar nuance yesterday as well.

However, Elbridge thought Millia’s words were a bit perplexing.

Although a mage’s lack of real combat experience was the same in the old days, it was extremely rare for a knight to accumulate that much magic power without combat experience.

“…Ultimately, Patrick is the only one we can rely on, but rather than placing the entire burden on Patrick alone, we thought it would be better to have experienced mercenaries.”

Elbridge evaluated calmly.

“That is wise.”

The biggest problem with inexperienced people was that they did not accurately gauge their own capabilities and rashly caused trouble.

However, since the siblings Millia and Mitchell accurately recognized their limits and sought someone to help them, they might have lacked experience, but they were not rash.

“And, there is one more reason.”

“What is it?”

“If we wander the sewers and get discovered and caught, Mr. El and Mr. Marcus can get caught in our stead while we escape.”

“…?”

Suddenly, an unconscionable remark popped out.

Elbridge stared blankly at Millia. At that, Millia put on a playful expression.

“As I said yesterday, our family has a lot of money. Even if you get caught in the sewers, there’s no evidence of a great crime, so we can use money to get you released.”

“That is an ingenious joke. Hard enough for someone with an ordinary conscience to come up with.”

“Actually, a bit of truth is mixed in as well. Would you like to take this?”

Millia unclasped the necklace she was wearing around her neck and placed it in Elbridge’s hand.

“Why are you giving this to me?”

“If you look like you’re about to get caught, drop this necklace in the mire and then retrieve it. And if you say I commissioned a request for you to find this… wouldn’t everyone be fooled?”

“Well. The excuse itself is quite plausible, but it’s not something I’d want to accept quietly, that sort of…”

Elbridge’s footsteps, which had been chiding Millia, suddenly stopped.

“Wait.”

“Hey, don’t be mad. I didn’t mean for you to really get caught. I just meant as an excuse in case such a situation arises…”

“Shh. Stop.”

As their steps and conversation ceased, only the sound of slowly flowing water could be heard.

However, Elbridge detected an anomalous sound amidst that water flow.

A rhythmic sound.

‘Something is approaching.’

Because sounds echoed in the sewers, it was difficult to accurately determine the direction.

Yet after listening a bit more intently, Elbridge managed to confirm even the direction.

‘To the right of the intersection ahead.’

But this was not the sound of shoe soles touching the ground.

It was a sound like someone treading barefoot on the ground or brushing their hand against the wet wall.

Would there be anyone wandering barefoot in this giant sewer?

No.

Elbridge stared forward, writing letters on the sewer wall with his finger.

Magic beasts. Three of them.

The atmosphere sank low. Elbridge gestured toward the back.

Understanding Elbridge’s action, a person approached and stood beside him. Millia’s older brother, Mitchell.

Elbridge spoke with his mouth shape.

‘Please take care of just one.’

Mitchell nodded.

The splashing footsteps drew closer. Elbridge waited quietly while gathering his breath.

Then, a magic beast revealed itself from the right of the intersection.

‘Rat.’

Three giant rat-shaped magic beasts. The period when the mutation began was extremely recent. Up until now, they were literally just rats with larger bodies.

Elbridge waited for Mitchell to target a beast first and move.

Mitchell’s gaze landed on the nearest magic beast. The moment Mitchell drew his sword, Elbridge kicked off the slightly slippery ground and sprang forward.

Elbridge’s targets were the two rats that Mitchell was not aiming at.

A sword was swung, but because the sewers were dark, there was no flash of steel.

A quiet and stealthy blow.

The two rats had their heads severed without even being able to let out a shriek.

“Squeak!”

But Mitchell was different. Instead of aiming for the target’s neck, Mitchell stabbed deeply into its flank.

This was certainly a fatal blow, but it was not a blow that could prevent it from making any sound.

“Squeak, squee-squeak!”

The injured rat squeaked and, surrendering to its instincts, began to run.

“…!”

As if only now realizing his mistake, Mitchell fumbled in panic.

If an inexperienced companion made a mistake, handling the aftermath was the role of the skilled one. Elbridge immediately threw his sword and sliced the magic beast’s hind leg.

Following that, Elbridge retrieved the sword embedded in the rat magic beast’s leg, and leaped up by stepping on its back.

Finally, as Elbridge turned a somersault and swung his sword, the magic beast’s neck was severed this time as well.

Even after seeing that movement, Marcus showed a reaction of about ‘since it’s Elbridge, he can do that,’ but the three clients were different.

Millia did not even know what she had just seen, and Mitchell had a flustered expression at Elbridge’s movement that exceeded his expectations. And Patrick’s face was frozen stiff.

Elbridge kicked the rat carcass to drop it into the ditch, and then spoke as he returned to the party.

“Mr. Mitchell. That was a good attack. However, it would have been better to aim for the neck and deal with it quietly in this situation.”

Mitchell nodded dejectedly.

It would have been wonderful if it had ended like that, but unfortunately, the situation did not wrap up cleanly.

As if they had heard the shriek let out by the fleeing magic beast, signs of human presence began to be felt in the distance.

“People are coming.”

The taciturn Patrick spoke up.

“What should we do? Should we go back?”

Patrick, of course, as well as Mitchell and Millia, were looking at Elbridge.

Entrusting the decision to the person who showed clear skill was a natural reaction.

“There is no need for that. Since Mage Tower people moving will make it easier for us to slip inside.”

Millia and Patrick nodded once more.

But Mitchell still had a serious expression. He looked as though he believed the situation got tangled because of the mistake he committed.

“It is not Mr. Mitchell’s fault. Those rats would have attacked us anyway, and since we have no way to dispose of their bodies, we would have been discovered sooner or later. It is better to actively create a situation like this and then penetrate further inside.”

Elbridge wiped his blade on the fur of the two rats that had not yet fallen into the ditch, and pushed their carcasses into the ditch this time as well.

The filth of the ditch could not completely hide the bodies of the magic beasts, and a faint smell of blood wafted even through the stench of the filth.

As Elbridge stood in silence, Marcus asked.

“El. Shouldn’t we hurry?”

“Because sounds echo, they won’t have accurately grasped our position. It’s better to judge accurately and move.”

Elbridge thought.

‘Middlemarch’s buildings were arranged in a grid pattern. The sewers’ structure is highly likely to be a grid pattern as well.’

‘The direction where the signs of people are felt is to the right. The research facility guarded by mages is highly likely to be in that direction too.’

‘We will bypass the direction the mages are coming from and arrive at our destination.’

Elbridge turned around and instructed while walking calmly.

“Follow me. There is no need to hurry. Not making footsteps is more important. Keep conversation to a minimum until we arrive at our destination.”

“Understood.”

A subtle tension was mixed in Millia’s voice, which had been comfortably cracking jokes just a moment ago. A situation where the employers had completely handed over the initiative to the employee.

‘Did it actually become more convenient?’

Elbridge stopped from time to time, estimating the opponent’s position by the faint footsteps echoing in the distance.

“This way.”

Elbridge continued to make judgments as he moved.

‘Magic beasts tend to spawn in large numbers near places where demons exist. The fact that three rats, whose mutations had barely begun, were discovered at the same time is clear evidence that a demon is nearby.’

‘Since ancient times, sealing demons was always the role of mages. Did the Central Mage Tower seal a demon on their own?’

‘The probability that a matter of this scale has nothing to do with the Central Mage Tower Lord is zero. Did the Central Mage Tower Lord secretly seal a demon to prevent the citizens of the central region from panicking? And the mages are guarding the seal?’

It was a quite plausible guess. But he could not rest easy until he verified it directly.

Since battles against demons often did not end in an instant, it was highly likely that a struggle of strength was still continuing.

‘If a demon appears in the Mage Tower basement and the Mage Tower collapses… the loss of lives will be staggering.’

Elbridge walked while repeating his thoughts, then stopped his steps at an intersection.

Then, he slightly poked his head out to look at the left of the intersection. Two young mages were looking around with slightly tense expressions.

“Miss Millia. Please cast an acceleration spell.”

“I understand.”

Millia muttered quietly and waved her staff. At that, the magic power flowing from Millia’s staff headed toward Elbridge.

The divine power contained in Elbridge’s body naturally sought to repel Millia’s magic. However, Elbridge skillfully controlled his divine power and accepted Millia’s magic.

A sensation felt after a long time.

Elbridge looked back and observed the breathing speed of the party. It was completely unchanged from normal. Which meant—

‘Was thought acceleration impossible with Millia’s skill?’

But even this much was enough.

Elbridge briefly gathered his breath.

And,

kicked the ground hard and rushed past the intersection.

Dash—

A situation where magic was added to the physical abilities of a paladin who surpassed humans.

There was no way mages who lacked even combat experience could react to Elbridge’s surprise attack.

“Uh…”

Before the two mages could even confirm Elbridge’s face, Elbridge’s figure brushed past them. At that, the two mages lost consciousness and slumped down.

Then, Elbridge threw open the door behind the mages.

Mitchell and Millia rushed out looking completely excited.

“Let’s go quickly!”

However, the reactions of Marcus and Patrick were different.

Patrick watched Elbridge with a serious expression, and Marcus directly questioned Elbridge’s action.

“El. If we go in now, won’t we just get surrounded? I don’t think getting surrounded will end well.”

“That is likely so.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“We just need to hide a little longer.”

The five people hid their bodies in the darkness and waited quietly.

And a short while later.

The mages who had come out to check the sewers after detecting the noise returned.

And they discovered the two unconscious mages and the wide-open door.

“An intruder knocked out Henry and Giovanni!”

“Paul! Go inside and notify everyone! The rest of you, check places where the intruder might have hidden while slowly heading inside!”

Starting from the entrance, the mages thoroughly searched the surroundings and disappeared inside.

And Elbridge’s party was still hiding in the darkness, watching their actions.

Elbridge quietly proposed.

“Now, we just need to follow those people while maintaining an appropriate distance.”

This was indeed the most reliable way to head straight to the most important place without being discovered by the mages’ search.

Marcus whispered to Elbridge with a suspicious expression.

“…Sir Elbridge. What on earth did you do originally?”

Elbridge said proudly.

“Sometimes there were moments when supplies were lacking.”