Paladin of a Fallen Order (Novel) - Chapter 79 - First Step

Chapter 79 – First Step

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Translated by Pratt

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Elbridge arrived at the forest along with his party.

“It is this forest.”

Marcus wore a slightly surprised expression.

“This is a forest I have passed through quite a few times, to think the Great Demon’s seal was here…”

Rombel looked around like someone inspecting a house site.

“Surprisingly, it’s a place with no special characteristics. Now, where do we go from here?”

Elbridge shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t know that well either.”

“You don’t know? Didn’t you spend two hundred years here?”

“I did spend two hundred years, yes. But it wasn’t on the ground, but underground—and in a stone chamber where barely a single ray of light entered at that. How would I know the location?”

“In the end, you would have come out of the stone chamber and found your way, wouldn’t you?”

“In the midst of being utterly bewildered, I just walked aimlessly through a forest I was seeing for the first time in my life. It would be stranger if I remembered the path.”

Rombel made a reluctant expression. Just by looking at that expression, it was easy to tell what he was thinking.

‘I’m tired, can’t we just return to Solenion?’

Of course, that would not do.

Fortunately, unlike the shiftless Rombel, Marcus was an enterprising and experienced mercenary.

“Let’s search step by step first. Sir Elbridge, is there no one who might know the location of that stone chamber?”

“There might have been, but… there is no one likely to be alive now. Even in those days, there probably weren’t many people who knew the place.”

“That’s surprising. I thought everyone who should know would know.”

“There is an important principle when sealing a demon. Have as few people as possible know the location where the seal is left.”

“Why is that?”

That answer came from Rombel, not Elbridge.

“Because there were crazy bastards who went around releasing seals.”

“Eh? Who did that?”

“Many did. There were quite a few who worshipped demons. There were also those who hated or envied the paladins fighting demons… Come to think of it, there was even a guy who claimed that demons were another form of god, so they must be released.”

“Isn’t the last one the truth? It’s a bit suspicious…”

At Marcus’s serious reaction, Rombel snorted.

“Since there were so many fellows who just spouted whatever, some happened to hit the mark. Besides, even if there is a part that touches upon the truth, what difference does it make? The solution is completely messed up.”

“Well, that’s true.”

“Thinking about it, there were also those who died after breaking the seal, thinking the demon would reward them like in old tales. Anyway, the world is wide and fools are as many as stars in the sky.”

Listening to the story, Elbridge chuckled softly.

And he was slightly surprised at himself.

At the time, he had been utterly sick of and hated those kinds of people, but looking back, they all felt like memories. Time has a way of beautifying even ridiculous memories.

Marcus asked Rombel.

“Can’t each order keep the seal? I think that would be much safer.”

“When the orders fought among themselves in the south this time, did you see what a guy whose eyes flipped would do?”

“Ah… I saw.”

The paladin of the Order of the Sinking Shadow could not contain his rage and triggered a stampede.

Similar things could happen anytime.

“Anyway, since there is no one to ask about the stone chamber’s location, we have no choice but to find it ourselves.”

“Is that even possible? It might not be as big as the Great Forest, but it’s not a small woods either.”

Rombel showed a rather skeptical reaction. However, Marcus paid no mind and asked Elbridge.

“Is there any information we can use as a clue? Anything.”

“Hmm…”

“No, it might be better to hear it from the very beginning. I have something I’m curious about first; why did you enter the seal, Sir Elbridge? Like in the south this time, or at the Central Mage Tower last time—a paladin isn’t usually sealed along when sealing a demon.”

“There were several mages in charge of the Great Demon’s seal, but they all died while fighting the Great Demon. Mages are a bit sluggish, so if you take your eyes off them for a moment, they die.”

“…Geez, you say that as if a chick got bitten to death by a badger.”

Rombel, who was listening to the story, chuckled. Marcus’s analogy wasn’t noble, but it had an accurate side to it. It was novel too.

“Anyway, in a situation without mages, the Great Demon’s nucleus was unstable, as if it would break free at any moment. We had to finish the seal immediately, even if as an makeshift measure.”

Elbridge’s explanation was without any blockages.

Since it was a memory he had looked back on so many times, there was no need to retrace it separately.

“The expedition leader called for volunteers. Several brave paladins stepped forward. I was one of them too… In the end, the expedition leader chose me.”

“Because you were the strongest?”

Elbridge shook his head.

“I might feel special now, but in those days, there were many paladins stronger than me.”

When Marcus glanced at Rombel, Rombel got annoyed.

“No. There weren’t many. A level similar to that fellow… a so-called paladin-grade holy knight was something you might barely find one or two of in a medium-sized or larger combat order. The paladins who were clearly superior to that fellow were far fewer. Likewise, my skill was also quite decent. Even when viewed by the standards of those days.”

“Did anyone say anything?”

“Marcus. I am not so dull as to not understand your disquieting gaze.”

Marcus and Rombel looked at Elbridge at the same time.

The two were demanding a cold evaluation.

“Rombel belonged to a non-combat order, but he was better than most combat order paladins. To the extent that he could make up for the lack of authority with his talent.”

“Hmm.”

Perhaps displeased by Marcus’s lukewarm reaction, Rombel’s voice grew slightly louder.

“Explain in detail. This bastard thinks I’m a small fry.”

A more concrete expression.

Elbridge thought quietly and then said.

“Seventy-five points.”

It was a vague but somehow intuitive number.

Marcus nodded, but Rombel seemed to have a bit of lingering regret.

“I won’t ask for eighty points, but isn’t seventy-five a bit low? Even looking coldly, I feel around seventy-eight or seventy-nine would be appropriate…”

Elbridge let Rombel’s request for reevaluation go in one ear and out the other.

“Anyway, when I volunteered as the nucleus of the seal, the paladins completed the sealing. My memory was cut off briefly… and when I woke up, I was in an underground stone chamber. That’s the end of it.”

He had merely listed memories; there was no information regarding the location.

However, Marcus continued his deduction using the limited information.

“This forest is a normal forest with nothing special. It’s not a place with particularly many passersby, and a large city is not close… Do you know what that means?”

“It is not a place where an underground stone chamber would likely be.”

“Exactly. That stone chamber was probably a place constructed to keep the seal.”

Rombel asked back.

“What about it?”

“It means if you search the surroundings from the perspective of the person building the stone chamber, you will get the answer.”

Marcus’s steps strayed from the forest path.

“If it is a stone chamber to store a secret seal, well, they wouldn’t have built it in a place where strangers could easily step. They have to select a place where people won’t easily visit.”

Marcus pointed deeper, toward the deepest part of the forest.

“Building it deep inside would be best, but… if it is that deep, moving materials is hard.”

“Materials?”

“Since it is called a stone chamber, it would need materials. If they were in their right minds, they wouldn’t have carved a whole boulder to make the chamber. Anyway, if I were a laborer, I would avoid such a deep place using any excuse.”

“Laborers?”

Marcus clicked his tongue.

“The paladins wouldn’t have dug with shovels themselves to make the chamber. If I were a paladin and they told me to hold a shovel and build the chamber myself, I would make an excuse first. Saying that if it’s built sloppily and the chamber collapses, the seal might be broken… Ultimately, they had to call laborers.”

It was a correct point.

Only there was something on his mind. How did they silence those laborers?

It would have been wonderful if they used quiet and trustworthy laborers, but bad means might have been employed.

‘…It’s not something I can do anything about.’

Marcus walked around with long strides and continued speaking.

“It won’t be here or there because streams flow. Ground softens if there is a stream. It would be troublesome if it rains a lot and water overflows… In the same context, it would be good if the ground is even slightly higher than the surroundings. Hills drain water well.”

Rombel wore a slightly resentful expression. It seemed his pride was quite hurt that Marcus, a human, was brighter than him in this direction. But architecture was not Rombel’s specialty.

Of course, it wouldn’t be the specialty of Marcus, a mercenary, either, but… Marcus had all sorts of miscellaneous knowledge.

“But it would definitely not be a place too high. It would stand out easily, and they couldn’t be caught working. If so, the likely places are narrowed down to a few… Sir Elbridge. Do you remember anything about the scenery you saw upon coming out of the stone chamber?”

Elbridge retraced his memory.

Elbridge was not someone who knew the names of trees or plants well. But there is a tree that even someone like Elbridge had no choice but to know.

A tree with pure white bark, unlike other trees.

“White birch.”

That day, Elbridge had offered a prayer to the Goddess in front of a white birch tree. Certainly.

“White birch. By that point, we’ve basically found it. Let’s take a look.”

Marcus took Elbridge and Rombel along, wandering here and there in the forest.

A place far apart from the path people traveled, but not too deep in the woods, with the ground slightly higher than its surroundings, and having a white birch tree…

How long did they wander the forest like that?

Stamping the ground with his heel, Marcus grinned.

“It is here.”

Elbridge also tapped the ground.

Unlike other places in the forest composed of soft dirt, a heterogeneous sensation was felt.

Coincidentally, there was also a pure white birch tree right in front of them.

“Let’s see. There should be an entrance somewhere around here.”

“…Thicket. There was a thicket nearby.”

Marcus and Elbridge swung their swords to cut away the surrounding thickets.

Sure enough, a staircase hidden among the thickets revealed itself.

Marcus stroked his chin.

“This is in a place too easy to find, compared to what I thought. It is a position that a quick-witted person could find if they put in a little effort.”

“Other people probably wouldn’t have as many clues as we do.”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

The three descended into the dust-filled underground.

The stone chamber was not wide. About the size of a small stable where two or so horses could enter.

“You held out for two hundred years just sitting quietly here?”

“It was worse. Because I was shut inside a tiny seal.”

“What did you spend your time doing?”

“Nothing.”

Though pretending to be calm, Elbridge was feeling an unbearable suffocation.

His breathing grew increasingly shallow and rapid, and in contrast, his heart beat fiercely as if it would explode.

It felt as if the walls of the stone chamber were closing in from all directions. Cold sweat trickled down his spine.

Elbridge took a deep breath and thought.

‘It’s an illusion. My senses are tricking me.’

After closing his eyes and breathing a few times, his condition improved slightly.

Although it was still unbearable to the point of suffocation…

Marcus pointed to the inner part of the stone chamber—to a pattern elaborately carved on the wall.

“Is this the seal?”

Elbridge shook his head.

“To be precise, this cube is the seal. The patterns on the wall are circuits to stabilize the seal.”

In the center of that pattern, a semi-transparent cubic cube protruded slightly.

The size was roughly that of a human’s upper body.

Elbridge stroked the cube.

A cool and hard cube. Elbridge had endured two hundred years sealed inside this small cube.

Elbridge stared quietly at the semi-transparent cube.

And, he discovered something strange.

“Hrup!”

Elbridge grabbed the slightly protruding part of the cube and pulled it out from the wall with all his might.

A bit of stone dust and dirt trickled down.

And, the three discovered a small but clear crack on the inner side of the cube—that is, the direction where the cube had been embedded in the wall.

“…This is.”

A crack as if someone had placed a sharp chisel and struck it with a hammer.

That was not the end.

There was something far more important.

Beyond the wall, which should have been blocked with dirt and stones. Because there was an empty space there.

Rombel muttered.

“Some fellow dug a tunnel from the other side and came in. They broke the seal from behind so as not to be caught.”

Niseras’s guess was correct.

There is someone who broke the seal.