Paladin of a Fallen Order (Novel) - Chapter 52 - Central Mage Tower Lord
Chapter 52 – Central Mage Tower Lord
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Translated by Pratt
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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“Ugh···.”
Rombel, who had been knocked out, woke up before long.
And after touching his chin and falling into thought for a moment, he poured out curses toward Elbridge.
“Why the hell did you suddenly hit me?”
Elbridge sighed. It would have been clean if Rombel had lost his memory.
However, such a convenient thing did not happen.
“There was a reason that even you would agree with.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“As soon as I woke up, I saw your face not even a span away.”
“And?”
“A situation where I stayed still while hugging you, and a situation where I threw a punch at you. Which situation would you feel worse about?”
“That would be···. Hmm.”
Rombel was almost convinced by Elbridge, but then he grimaced fiercely.
“Talk sense. It wasn’t even my fault, so why do I have to be hit?”
“How is it not your fault? You got onto my bed.”
“Elbridge. That is not your bed, but my bed. I returned to the room after finishing my work, and since you were sleeping soundly on my bed, I was going to beat you awake, but then I decided to just pull out my pillow···. No. Why am I explaining this?”
Rombel, who was muttering, wore a serious expression.
“Anyway, you usually sleep like you’re dead. Why did you suddenly do that today?”
“I had a dream of the old days.”
“The old days? Two hundred years ago?”
“Yes. A dream of my childhood, before I became a paladin.”
A subtle interest flickered on Rombel’s face. The same went for Marcus, who was polishing a sword he didn’t even use until it shined.
“Come to think of it, I’ve never heard your childhood story···. How did you end up becoming a paladin? Did your family die to a demon?”
It was a remark that might sound rude at first glance, but by the standards of the old paladins, it was not an impolite question.
Because in those days, it was rare for a paladin not to have lost their family to a demon or a magic beast.
“I don’t know well.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“I haven’t seen my family since my childhood.”
“For someone like that, you seemed to hate demons a lot.”
“Rather than hating demons, I was in a situation where I had to hate them.”
Marcus did not understand what that answer meant. However, Rombel was different.
“Were you sold?”
“Yes. My mother sold me.”
It was an era when countless people harbored grudges and wished to become paladins.
However, not everyone could become a paladin, and even those who did with difficulty were prone to dying quickly.
Paladins were always in short supply in those days.
If there was a shortage of people, one had to go out and look for them personally.
The orders would pay a small reward to orphanages and bring children.
By the standards of people today, it would be justly criticized, but it was different back then.
It was not a bad deal, not only for the orphanage staff but also for the children being sold.
Because being able to sell a child to an order was the most powerful motivation for adults to take in a child who had no place to rely on.
Rather than dying in a burned city without any help, wasn’t it better to be rescued by an adult, stay in an orphanage, and then be sold off?
Orphanages were not the only ones. It was also extremely common for parents struggling with the cost of living to pretend to be orphanage directors and sell their children.
Since the people of the order could not possibly fail to distinguish between orphanage staff and biological parents, it was a transaction where they turned a blind eye. But it was an era where they had to do even that.
Because it was a time when the child, the parents, and the order all needed such transactions.
“I had two younger siblings, and my older sister had a bad leg. In the end, I decided to enter the order. Before selling me to the order, my mother hugged me tightly and requested. Tell them you hate demons···. I hugged my mother back too. It was that kind of dream.”
Marcus wore a sympathetic expression.
“···That is a pitiful story.”
“I have never particularly thought of it that way. There was no paladin without a story, and in my case, the circumstances were on the rather decent side.”
“For someone who says so, your hostility toward demons seemed quite remarkable, though.”
“Children who lacked hatred and hostility toward demons were sent back. Naturally, the reward would be reclaimed too···. I had to put on a face of hating demons every single day. In a way, hatred was an obligation that young me had to shoulder.”
However, such shallow hatred is only needed in the beginning.
Anyone who has fought a demon is bound to lose a lot. Loss brings deeper anger and hatred, so after that, there was no need to force oneself to recall the hatred.
Rombel made a dissatisfied expression.
“Still, your parents were a bit too much.”
“Why?”
“Even if they did, they should have sought out another order. How could they sell you off to the Order of the Rusty Shield?”
Elbridge laughed.
“I wasn’t a member of the Order of the Rusty Shield from the beginning either. I ended up entering the Order of the Rusty Shield after many twists and turns.”
“Did you ever go look for your family after that?”
“No. I didn’t search for them.”
“Why?”
“Because if they had lived happily without me, I would feel somewhat left out, and if they hadn’t lived happily, I would feel sad. That’s why I don’t know how long my family lived after that.”
“That’s a funny reason.”
“Human hearts are like that.”
Rombel and Marcus stretched wide and started doing their work.
Rombel scrutinized some unknown blueprints, and Marcus was polishing a sword he didn’t even use until it shined.
Watching that scene, a thought popped up in Elbridge’s mind.
Why on earth did he dream a dream he hadn’t dreamt in a long time, right at this moment?
‘Was it because of the oracle?’
Before fighting the demon, the Goddess of the Rusty Shield had told Elbridge. To fight the demon but not to hate the demon.
Since this was an oracle difficult to understand even upon thinking about it again, Elbridge offered a prayer to the Goddess of the Rusty Shield.
“Goddess. Are you listening?”
However, no oracle came down.
*
After sealing the demon in the underground, the mages’ gaze toward Elbridge and Marcus changed beyond recognition.
“···Somehow, it feels strange.”
“You will get used to it.”
Even just a few days ago, the mages had treated Elbridge and Marcus like invisible men, or like Rombel’s subordinates.
But now, the mages were blatantly displaying interest, curiosity, and respect.
This was true for Elbridge, who sealed the demon, and also for Marcus, who had no particular active performance.
Because in the mages’ eyes now, Marcus was not a mediocre mercenary, but an expert who had not yet revealed his skills.
The quick-witted Marcus felt an immense burden from those gazes.
“People’s expectations are too heavy···.”
“You don’t need to pay attention.”
And Elbridge came to learn an interesting fact.
Namely, Elbridge’s name was better known in the Central continent than in his hometown, East Solenion.
“Sir Elbridge. By any chance, what is your relationship with Sir Elbridge the Silent Knight?”
“He is my distant ancestor.”
There were many reasons he could think of.
The fact that unlike the East continent, the Central continent people did not accept demons as absurd legends.
Or the point that since there were so many mages who loved recording, old records would not have been buried.
However, such mages’ interest was nothing compared to the knights.
Unlike the mages who merely showed curiosity and interest, the knights wanted to test their skills against Elbridge directly.
There were all kinds of knights.
Knights requesting a spar out of simple curiosity and interest, knights wishing to gauge the demon’s strength through Elbridge’s skill, and knights wanting to acquire the honor Elbridge gripped by pressing him down···.
“Could you please spar with me just once?”
“It is difficult.”
Naturally, Elbridge refused all requests. If he accepted a spar even once, it was certain that five times as many knights would swarm to request a spar.
While living in seclusion half by his own will and half by force, the person they had been waiting for finally visited the party.
An elderly female mage. The Deputy Tower Lord of the Central Mage Tower.
The Deputy Tower Lord spoke in a voice full of goodwill.
“You said you came to meet the Tower Lord, correct?”
“That is correct.”
“Follow me.”
They had heard that the Central Mage Tower Lord was on the top floor of the Mage Tower.
However, instead of leading Elbridge’s party up the stairs, the Deputy Tower Lord headed to the center of the Mage Tower.
“Is there another staircase in the center?”
When Marcus asked in a small voice, Rombel answered pompously.
“No. In the center of the Central Mage Tower, there is an elevator.”
“What is an elevator?”
“It is a device that allows one to travel between the upper and lower floors of a building without using stairs. Since a considerable amount of magic power is consumed for its operation, no one other than high-ranking figures can ride it.”
“You seem to have ridden it before, Mr. Rombel.”
“I rode it twice in the old days. Once when going up, once when coming down···.”
The elevator was a cylinder about the size of a small room.
As the four of you boarded the elevator, a strange sensation was felt along with a whirring sound.
The Deputy Tower Lord and Rombel were calm, but Elbridge and Marcus stiffened with tension due to the unfamiliar sensation.
A moment later, the elevator doors opened on their own.
Slide-
What was seen first was a short hallway.
However, what captured the party’s eyes was a small glass window in the hallway.
Through the glass window, the scenery of the top floor of the Central Mage Tower was contained.
Not to mention Marcus, even Elbridge marveled without hiding it.
“Wow···.”
Humans live their entire lives at a similar eye level.
Occasionally they climb onto roofs or trees, but it is rare to stand at a height beyond that.
But right now. Elbridge and Marcus were looking down at the vast world at a single glance.
It was a completely different feeling even from looking down at Solenion from the shantytown on the hill in central Solenion. Incredibly, the clouds were beneath them.
“I remember the day I first climbed to the top floor.”
The Deputy Tower Lord spoke like that, waiting so that Elbridge and Marcus could sightsee to their hearts’ content.
Marcus, who had been staring in a daze for a long time, suddenly shed tears.
“I… I seem to have succeeded. I thought I would live like a stray dog my whole life before dying. To think I would rise to a place higher than birds, even above the clouds···. I have no regrets even if I die right now. Truly.”
Marcus could not easily stop his tears, sobbing and crying.
While the Deputy Tower Lord patted Marcus’s back, Elbridge was seized by another question.
‘Would my prayers reach the Goddess better if I offer them here?’
Elbridge offered a small prayer.
“Goddess. Goddess. Can you hear my prayer?”
At that, the Goddess of the Rusty Shield responded.
– I can hear you well, Elbridge. It is nice to see you enjoying yourself upon rising to a high place.
“By any chance, can you hear my prayers even better right now?”
– It is not much different from usual. And, your Goddess is a bit higher than you think···.
While Elbridge was whispering with the Goddess of the Rusty Shield, Marcus’s tears stopped.
The Deputy Tower Lord spoke while gently opening the door to the Tower Lord’s office at the end of the short hallway.
“Please enter.”
Elbridge’s party entered the Tower Lord’s office.
The office was not as spacious a space as expected. Located at the peak of the Mage Tower that narrowed as it went up, it was only natural.
On the opposite side of the office, a man of hard-to-guess age was sitting.
His hair was snow-white like an old man’s, and his skin was wrinkle-free like a youth’s.
His features looked about forty or fifty years old, but his eyes were deep and gloomy like a thousand-year-old tree.
All of Elbridge’s party stiffened with tension.
‘A person who was a heavenly god but descended to the earth. The Central Mage Tower Lord···.’
The Tower Lord glanced at Elbridge’s party and then pointed to the luxurious chairs placed opposite him.
Exactly three chairs were prepared.
When the three sat in the seats, the Central Mage Tower Lord opened his mouth.
“Rombel. It’s been a while since I saw you. How long has it been?”
“Seems like about thirty years.”
“Is that so···. And the remaining two. You said you helped with the sealing? Thank you.”
Elbridge felt relieved inwardly.
Because he thought he might be an arrogant and high-handed person since he was someone who descended from heaven, but seeing him offer thanks first, he seemed to be a better person than expected.
“You said you had business with me. What brings you here?”
Instead of answering that, Elbridge threw a question.
“First, there is something I want to ask. The demon that was in the underground. What was that about?”
“···That is an experiment to seal a demon using only a mages’ capability. A problem arose this time, but next time it will be fine.”
Elbridge was slightly flustered.
“Wait. Are you saying you will unseal the demon again?”
“Yes. Since we didn’t fully succeed, we must repeat the experiment all the more. That is the way our Central Mage Tower prepares for the coming chaos. This is not for an outsider to discuss, so do not bicker about it.”
“But···.”
“I plan to observe in person next time, so no big problem will arise.”
The Central Mage Tower Lord spoke like that and then asked again somewhat stiffly.
“At any rate, for what reason did you come to meet me?”
Rombel answered first.
“I want to know what is needed to become a god.”
And Elbridge also spoke.
“I want to know what happened to Sir Leonhardt of the Order of the Rusty Shield, the paladin who ascended to heaven and became a god two hundred years ago.”
The Central Mage Tower Lord thought for a long time and then replied.
“Let me say in advance, Elbridge. I cannot answer your question.”
He thought such a reaction might return inwardly.
However, Elbridge found it hard to endure his frustrated mind.
“Is it because of the heavenly rule that you must not carelessly leak information about other gods? But you are no longer a god of heaven, Central Mage Tower Lord···.”
The Central Mage Tower Lord shook his head.
“There is a reason more important than that.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know who Leonhardt is.”
Elbridge thought that remark was highly significant.
It felt as if there had been some immense secret from Sir Leonhardt’s ascension itself, didn’t it?
However, the moment the Central Mage Tower Lord added a word helplessly, Elbridge’s thoughts changed completely.
“I don’t have any close deity friends, so I can’t tell you the news of other deities···.”