Paladin of a Fallen Order (Novel) - Chapter 75 - Request for Rescue

Chapter 75 – Request for Rescue

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Translated by Pratt

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Rombel spoke in a serious voice.

“Just how long do we have to walk?”

Dwarves, having short legs, find it difficult to travel long distances, and having bushy beards and plump bodies, they dislike damp or hot places.

And now, Rombel had to walk for a long time in a damp and hot place.

Moreover, there was no way of knowing how much further he had to walk.

For any ordinary dwarf, it would not have been strange to lie down and let whatever happens happen.

The reason Rombel walked silently even in such a situation was simple.

Because he was afraid that, by any chance, the Chief God might be watching him, click his tongue, and remove his name from the ‘candidates for the next god.’

However, it was now clear that Rombel had reached his limit.

Elbridge purposely suggested a hopeful opinion.

“There is also a saying that it is darkest before the dawn. We are tired now, but if we walk just a little more, will not the Great Forest end?”

“I feel like I heard that story a few days ago as well.”

“The night might be a bit long. Like a winter night…”

Until just the day before yesterday, he had laughed it off heartily, but in Rombel’s opinion, the party’s situation was gradually becoming serious.

Had not the hard biscuits brought from the town also nearly run out?

Losing their way after sending the guide away. At a glance, they might look like fools.

However, Elbridge’s party also had an excuse.

Even if they were unfamiliar with the Great Forest, they were reasonably experienced travelers. They knew how to gauge direction using the sun and stars, and also knew how to find their way in the forest.

They had even continued walking in the direction Isalvius was guiding. Yet, they simply could not escape the Great Forest.

In the end, Rombel’s steps stopped.

“No. No matter how I look at it, this is wrong. Do you remember the story Isalvius told us before?”

“What story?”

“That merchants from other regions often get lost and die after entering the Great Forest.”

Marcus’s expression turned serious.

“Do not say such ominous things, Mr. Rombel.”

“Marcus. I am not trying to scare you for no reason. I am saying let’s think about it. Did the merchants die because they did not know how to go straight in one direction, or because they did not know how to retrace their steps? We must find some way.”

“Do you have any good ideas…?”

“Nothing comes to mind right away. Still, one thing is certain. Instead of moving blindly, we must think first.”

It was a persuasive statement, and they also happened to be hungry.

The three of them fell into their own thoughts while preparing the meal.

Elbridge glanced at Marcus. It was because he had expectations that the God of the Sunshower might reveal some answer.

However, the God of the Sunshower did not send down an oracle. Whether he was busy or had no way to help.

Today’s dinner consisted of a few wild berries picked along the way, some bird eggs, and a few small fish Marcus caught in the stream.

As Marcus lit a fire to grill the fish, smoke billowed up noisily.

Marcus turned his head to avoid the smoke and grumbled.

“I dislike this about the trees in the Great Forest. They contain so much moisture that they only produce tons of smoke. The fire is just lukewarm like dying embers…”

Hearing that story, Rombel’s eyes flashed.

“Can we not set fire to the Great Forest?”

“…What kind of crazy talk is that again?”

Elbridge gave him a scolding, but Rombel looked quite serious.

“People who are stranded also light fires. If smoke rises in the forest, would not people come to rescue us?”

“However, if a forest fire breaks out, they run away. Besides, you would not be able to set a fire as you please. You know how much moisture is in the trees of the Great Forest, right?”

“No. I do not care even if that is the case. It is fine if people do not come to rescue us. I just want to see this goddamn Great Forest burn to ashes…”

Just as Rombel was about to start spouting more nonsense, the Goddess of the Rusty Shield delivered an oracle for the first time in a while.

– Elbridge.

Elbridge stopped Rombel so that Rombel’s cheap words would not disturb the goddess’s ears.

“Rombel, stay quiet. The Goddess is about to give an oracle. Goddess, your faithful knight Elbridge is prepared to receive your oracle.”

– You are even more polite than usual, Elbridge.

“I have always been so, Goddess.”

Elbridge secretly expected. Was the Goddess of the Rusty Shield going to show them the way?

– Elbridge. Someone nearby has offered a prayer to your goddess, asking for help.

Elbridge’s ears perked up.

There were no believers of the Order of the Rusty Shield in the Great Forest.

However, it was possible for someone who offered a prayer to the Goddess of the Rusty Shield to exist.

A person who is truly desperately in need of help often offers prayers to any god in a desperate attempt to grasp at straws.

For if they are lucky enough to have a god who listens to that prayer, they might receive divine aid.

It was essentially a sort of random request for rescue.

And in Elbridge’s opinion, this request for rescue was highly likely to be helpful to Elbridge’s party as well.

“The Goddess said that there is someone nearby asking for help.”

“Is it right to go help? If anything, we are in a position where we should be asking for help…”

Unlike the grumbling Rombel, Marcus understood Elbridge’s intention at once.

“We must go immediately. How do we know if that person might become our guide?”

“Is that so?”

“At least it will not be a loss. There is no situation that could get any worse than this anyway.”

“Hmm.”

Rombel fell into thought.

Although he grumbled because he was dissatisfied with the situation, responding to this request for rescue was also a good thing for Rombel.

Rombel’s goal was ascension. And the first step toward ascension was to catch the Chief God’s eye.

If he wanted to leave an impression on the Chief God, he had to get involved in as many situations as possible. Like the matter of the Flowing Water Order not long ago.

Rombel stood up, chewing on the slightly burnt grilled fish.

“Alright. Let’s go.”

*

Elbridge offered a prayer to the Goddess while moving through the Great Forest.

“Goddess. Which way should we go from here?”

– You just need to keep going straight in that direction, Elbridge.

“By any chance, do you know what kind of difficulty the person asking for help is facing?”

– Your goddess has only heard a short prayer. However, they clearly mentioned a stampede.

Elbridge was greatly taken aback. Had not the stampede been concluded?

Marcus noticed Elbridge’s agitation.

“Sir Elbridge. What is the matter?”

“A stampede…”

“What? Was that not all finished?”

“Who knows.”

Rombel hesitated.

“Are you sure it will be of help if we go? I am not keen on it if we are just going to get caught up in it for nothing.”

Unlike Elbridge, who managed to perform more than his share of the role in the last stampede by borrowing the Goddess’s authority, Rombel had been completely helpless. A stampede was not a situation that an individual could handle.

“I would rather fight a demon if told to. But there is absolutely nothing I can do in the face of a stampede. You know that, right?”

“…Even so, we must go and see for now.”

That was all Elbridge could say as well.

The Goddess’s authority was not limitless, and the most Elbridge could do was delay the stampede slightly.

Even so, the three of them moved diligently. Since they had to arrive even a little earlier to reduce the casualties. Although they could not block the stampede, there was a possibility of rescuing the people and escaping.

And a moment later, Elbridge’s party confronted a strange sight.

“Is this… a stampede?”

There was a small village surrounded not by stone walls, but by a wooden palisade. A tiny village where at most dozens of people would live.

And there were ground boars so numerous they were difficult to count.

If the standard of a stampede was the density of ground boars, this was definitely a stampede.

Gurgle.

However, the ground boars’ eyes were not rolled back, nor were they running wild as if to trample everything.

They merely loitered around leisurely as usual, occasionally making foolish cries.

The ground boars could not even cross the sharp wooden palisade to enter the village.

Perhaps feeling relieved upon seeing that, Rombel became visibly brave.

“It does seem like something is going on. Let’s find out what happened.”

Elbridge’s party approached the village, gently pushing aside the ground boars blocking their path.

As they stood before the palisade, a woman’s voice carried over from inside the village.

“We cannot open the palisade right now, so get in by whatever means you can!”

Elbridge and Marcus could stealthily bypass and climb over the palisade, but Rombel was short, so climbing over the sharp wooden palisade was not comfortable. Elbridge threw Rombel over the palisade.

“Up we go!”

Led by Rombel’s splendid landing, Elbridge and Marcus also stepped inside the village.

The woman who had spoken to the three was looking at Elbridge’s party.

Was she slightly past thirty? Wearing a slightly dirty apron, she was the spitting image of a neighborhood housewife.

The woman held out a hand as rough as any man’s, offering a handshake to Elbridge’s party.

“With the village in such a mess, you managed to think of entering. How did you come here?”

Elbridge shook her hand and said.

“My Goddess delivered an oracle. She said that there is someone seeking help in this direction.”

At those words, the woman was quite surprised.

“My goodness. I offered a prayer just in case, and it seems a god truly heard my prayer. Which order did you come from? The Blind Guardian? The Fifth Chest?”

“I am Elbridge of the Order of the Rusty Shield. This is Marcus of the Sunshower Order. That dwarf is Rombel.”

“Ah, the Order of the Rusty Shield… It is a place I only heard the name of early this year, but they truly heard my prayer. She must be a wonderful goddess.”

The Goddess of the Rusty Shield never let a compliment slip by.

– That woman’s discernment is quite excellent, Elbridge. If there is an opportunity, it would be a good idea to suggest joining the order.

“I shall do so.”

While Elbridge offered a quiet prayer, the woman introduced herself.

“I am Martha. The chief of this village.”

A village chief.

Cases of a woman holding the position of village chief are extremely rare.

Seeing the reaction of Elbridge’s party, Martha laughed heartily.

“My father was the chief. After he passed away, I filled in for a bit, but since no one else wanted to become the chief in my place, it ended up like this.”

“I see.”

Even while they shared a brief conversation, the gurgling cries of the ground boars carried over without pause.

Elbridge asked Martha.

“By the way, Ms. Martha. Is it correct that you asked for help because of those ground boars?”

“Yes. That’s right. Those rascals dug up and ate all the crops we planted around the village. The corn, the beans.”

“You are quite calm even in this situation, Ms. Martha.”

“It has been quite a while since those things swarmed here. I am a bit used to it now, but when they first appeared, it was a mess.”

Martha crossed her arms and lowered her voice.

“…Actually, I am only pretending to be fine for the sake of the villagers, but the situation is very bad. Because of those things, merchants cannot come, and our villagers cannot go outside. We cannot even sleep at night, worrying that they might suddenly turn and run wild. If they run wild, all our villagers will die.”

Marcus asked Martha.

“Ms. Martha. By any chance, when did those ground boars appear?”

“Let’s see. Has it been about a fortnight? I think it has been a little over a fortnight.”

Elbridge’s party exchanged glances.

If they assumed that the ground boars swarmed here after the last stampede, the timing roughly matched.

“What could be the reason those rascals swarmed to this place?”

“Because of my beauty?”

Martha spoke thus and blinked her large eyes a couple of times, a gesture that suited her oddly well.

There are people like that in the world. Those who try to liven up the mood when the situation is difficult.

Was not Martha one of them?

“…”

“I am joking. A joke. Actually, I do not know the exact reason either.”

“Do you not even have a guess?”

“Hmm…”

“It is not as if we can drive away those ground boars by force either. We must know the cause to solve the problem. Of course, even if we know the cause, there is no guarantee that we can solve the problem, but…”

Martha thought deeply, then listed the stories that came to mind one by one.

“Our village is where the clearest stream in the vicinity flows. The amount of water is plenty, there is a marsh where the ground boars can wallow, and… since ground boars did not come much for the past few years, there should be plenty of food for them.”

The probability that the grounds of Martha’s speculation were the correct answer was not high.

For there was bound to be an unusual reason for an unusual phenomenon.

Besides, if Martha’s guess was correct, there was no particular way for Elbridge’s party to act.

Just then, a thought surfaced in Elbridge’s head.

What if, once the stampede ended, the ground boars naturally swarmed here?

“Ms. Martha. Have ground boars ever swarmed like this in the past?”

“Never. This is the first time such a thing has happened.”

“Hmm.”

Vireon had said that the last stampede occurred roughly twenty or thirty years ago.

If swarming here after the stampede was a natural flow, there was no way the villagers would not remember it.

“Is there nothing else? Something unusual.”

“Let’s see. Nothing major… Ah, come to think of it, some neighborhood kids did tell a strange story not long ago.”

“What kind of story?”

“They said they saw an elf in the forest. You know, that race with long ears.”

“Hmm.”

Elbridge’s and Rombel’s reactions were lukewarm. After all, elves were a race that lived in the northern part of the continent, not the south.

Even in the north, meeting an elf was no easy task. Elves were extremely insular, so it was rare for them to come out of their settlements.

In conclusion, the probability was high that the kids seeing an elf was a lie or a delusion.

‘There must be some other reason.’

Elbridge asked once again.

“Ms. Martha. Do you not have any other guess? Especially focusing on special events that took place last year or early this year.”

“Nothing in particular… Ah! There is one.”

“What is it?”

Martha spoke, supporting her chin with her hand.

“My beauty that has ripened even further?”

Elbridge made up his mind to personally inspect the surroundings of the village.