Paladin of a Fallen Order (Novel) - Chapter 81 - Golden Platter
Chapter 81 – Golden Platter
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Translated by Pratt
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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The man with dry blond hair looked a bit uncomfortable with Marcus’s approach.
“Who are you? I’ve never seen you before.”
“I am Marcus. My skills are nothing special, but I’ve played the mercenary for quite a long time.”
There was a subtle emotion loaded in Marcus’s voice.
Mercenaries disliked hearing the stories of their clients.
Because if they heard their story, they were bound to lose their cool, and losing their cool increased the probability of making a foolish choice.
And clearly, Marcus was in a state less calm than usual.
“Hey, you. You know the innkeeper’s son here, don’t you?”
“I mean, I know him, but…”
“What kind of request did you connect him to? No, how many guys accepted the request together with him? Tell me that first.”
Instead of answering Marcus’s question, the blond man looked around.
The mercenaries who were with him also looked uncomfortable with Marcus.
“Marcus, why are you doing that to Dieter?”
“Wait a second, I’m just trying to ask him a few things. I think this fellow did something stupid.”
Rombel, who had been watching the situation, did not understand how things were rolling.
“Elbridge. That guy named Dieter connected the client with the innkeeper’s son, right?”
“Yes.”
“Even if something bad happened to the innkeeper’s son, it doesn’t seem like a matter to take up with that fellow. The client is the one who caused the trouble, not this guy.”
“No. That guy might be responsible too.”
Unlike Rombel, Elbridge knew a bit about the nature of mercenaries, so he could vaguely guess why Marcus was angry.
Ultimately, Dieter answered Marcus’s question.
“The innkeeper’s son, Ned, and two of his friends, making three in total. Since they kept begging me every day to introduce them to some work, I just connected them with a simple request. That’s all.”
“I see. Are you well-acquainted with that client?”
“He probably isn’t anyone strange. He looked like an important person.”
“Who asked that? Do you know who the client is? How many times have you done business with him?”
“…”
Marcus continued his interrogation.
“You must have known that the innkeeper’s son had no experience at all. And it’s an unwritten rule that for a novice, you only connect them with requests from trustworthy clients. I trust you’re not planning to make excuses that you didn’t know that.”
People in the world considered mercenaries to be of poor quality. But there was one thing people overlooked: bad clients were far more common than bad mercenaries.
An ordinary person had no reason to look for mercenaries. Even the best class among those looking for mercenaries would at most be merchants seeking urgent escorts.
Other clients often sought mercenaries for reasons that could not be disclosed to the outside.
And such people often tried to silence the mercenaries to keep secrets or to save on commission fees.
An experienced mercenary would, even in such situations, accept requests by weighing the risks and rewards… but a greenhorn who had just become a mercenary did not know how to screen and accept requests.
The number of greenhorn mercenaries who had blindly accepted a request without even knowing it was dangerous and then vainly lost their lives was beyond count.
For this reason, brokers or mercenary guilds did not connect unfamiliar clients with novice mercenaries.
This was the minimum consideration, commercial morality, and an unwritten rule. An unwritten rule established by the Mercenary King long ago.
Marcus interrogated him.
“Since other mercenaries refused the work but you coveted the commission fee, you must have gently coaxed the clueless half-wits and passed the work onto them. Isn’t that right?”
Dieter’s pupils trembled frantically.
“No. It wasn’t like that. If no one took the job, I was in a situation where I would have been humiliated. The client’s atmosphere was…”
At that, Marcus snorted.
“If you are going to play the broker, you should have braved that much risk yourself. Did you think only good-natured clients would come? Do you think the mercenary guild was created for no reason? Because you were afraid of getting hurt yourself, you pushed three clueless kids down a dangerous path. You bastard.”
“By any chance… did something bad happen to Ned?”
It seemed the name of the innkeeper’s son was Ned.
Marcus answered that question with action.
Crack.
Marcus bent two of Dieter’s fingers backward.
“…!”
Dieter clenched his teeth and endured the pain.
If he screamed, it was bound to draw the attention of the people in the inn. If that happened, Dieter might be beaten to death by the crowd.
In fact, even the mercenaries beside him did not look upon Dieter kindly. The unwritten rule of the Mercenary King carried that much authority.
Dieter looked at the innkeeper couple, clutching his broken fingers. They still seemed to know nothing.
Marcus hoped that the couple’s peaceful ignorance would not be broken. And Dieter saved his life thanks to that.
Elbridge and Rombel approached Dieter’s side.
The other mercenaries slinked away to give them space. Under the circumstances, it was clear that Dieter had caused trouble, and Elbridge’s armor looked expensive.
Elbridge asked.
“Hey, Dieter. Do you remember the appearance of the person who gave that request?”
Dieter did not seem to want to unfold the story of the client, but he had no choice.
“Can we talk outside?”
“Let’s do that.”
Elbridge’s party took Dieter and arrived at the boundary between the village and the forest.
Dieter checked his surroundings to ensure no one was around, then let out a deep sigh.
“…He was a priest.”
“A priest of which order?”
“He was wearing the priestly robes of the Golden Platter Order. He probably wasn’t a fake. Since his way of speaking wasn’t like that of an ignoramus like us…”
Unexpected story sprang out.
“Did you see that priest’s face?”
“I couldn’t see it because of the robe. Really.”
He did not seem to be lying.
Dieter was not a man with enough guts to casually tell lies even in this kind of situation.
“Is there anything else you know?”
“No… Ah, his build was quite large. That’s the end of it.”
“…Understood. Go.”
As Rombel gestured with his chin, Dieter trudged back to the village, clutching his broken fingers.
If someone exposed Dieter’s fault, Dieter could lose his life. Within a few days, Dieter would end up leaving the village.
The three began to talk again.
The first to open his mouth was Rombel.
“A priest of the Golden Platter Order breaking the seal. Can we believe that?”
Marcus answered that question.
“Dieter probably didn’t lie. But there is no guarantee that fellow knows the truth either. If I were the guy who gave the request… I would at least not have come looking for Dieter wearing the priestly robes of my own order.”
Elbridge thought so too. A schemer usually made every effort to avoid revealing their identity. Rather, because he wore the priestly robes of the Golden Platter Order, the probability of the Golden Platter Order having plotted the work was the lowest.
Furthermore, the Golden Platter Order had nothing to gain but loss if the demon returned.
Wasn’t the Golden Platter the order that benefited the most because the demon vanished, and wouldn’t the Golden Platter be the order that suffered the greatest loss if the demon returned?
“Someone who would benefit by breaking the seal. And someone who holds a grudge against the Golden Platter Order…”
As Elbridge muttered, Rombel spoke.
“I suspect the combat orders the most.”
“Combat orders?”
“The ones who benefit the most when a demon returns are the combat orders, aren’t they? And it’s not like there are only one or two combat orders that secretly look askance at the Golden Platter Order… Of course, it’s definitely not the Order of the Rusty Shield!”
Perhaps fearing that a lightning bolt would strike, Rombel hastily added the latter words.
Indeed, no lightning bolt fell. Rombel’s effort must have had some meaning.
“Now that I think about it, that client seemed to have easily killed three pitiful young men. The probability of a paladin from a combat order being the culprit goes up slightly.”
However, Elbridge did not agree with Rombel’s opinion.
“No. A paladin would never have broken the seal. Although their order’s influence would expand if a demon returns… the ones who die first are the paladins of the combat orders.”
“Elbridge. A paladin’s value of existence is as the adversary of the demon, and having one’s value of existence denied is a bigger problem than you think. I believe there is a sufficient possibility that a paladin of a combat order broke the seal out of yearning for the glory and prestige of those days.”
Elbridge immediately refuted.
“It doesn’t make sense. The paladins of this current era have never experienced the glory and prestige of those days. Even if they wanted to yearn for it, they couldn’t.”
At that, Rombel burst into laughter.
“Because they haven’t experienced it, they can’t yearn for it? No. Definitely not. A person can harbor nostalgia for a time they have never experienced.”
Rombel crossed his arms.
“When about fifty or sixty years had passed since the war with the demon ended. The paladins who had fought the demon had mostly retired or died of old age, but in those days when the demon had not yet become a legend. Assuredly, the young paladins of that era were the ones who yearned for the war with the demon the most.”
“Does that make sense?”
“Of course it makes sense. They vaguely knew of those magnificent days, while they did not know the pain and fear of that time. Therefore, they could yearn for those days more purely than anyone else.”
A story understandable by the mind, but unacceptable by the heart.
Did a paladin of a combat order really unleash the seal of the Great Demon?
It might be wild speculation. But there was certainly a possibility.
“You can’t believe it?”
“…Well.”
“If so, there is a way to find out a bit more accurately.”
Shrinking slightly, Rombel shouted toward the sky.
“O Goddess of the Rusty Shield! If I have spouted nonsense without a single point of possibility, please strike a lightning bolt over there beside me to scold me!”
No lightning bolt fell.
And now was a time when the Goddess would not be asleep.
Gods could not convey the stories of heaven to the earth, and the beings of the earth did not know the exact scope of that rule.
But now, the Goddess of the Rusty Shield might be supporting Rombel’s guess by omission rather than commission.
Marcus took a step further from Rombel’s guess.
“I suddenly have a thought that occurred to me, you see.”
“What thought?”
“If it is true that a paladin released the demon… whether it was a solo crime or not. That is what I am most curious about.”
If it was a solo crime, it is the deviance of a foolish individual.
Although it would leave a large scar on the world, the matter could be wrapped up by punishing the party involved.
But if it was not a solo crime.
If the entire order, or the god leading the combat order, wished for the demon’s reappearance, it would become a problem of a different dimension.
And it was clear Marcus believed the possibility of it not being a solo crime was higher.
Elbridge shook his head.
“No. It’s wild speculation.”
Whether it was a wishful thinking or if he really thought so, even Elbridge himself did not know.
Marcus did not force his guess onto Elbridge either.
“Well, maybe so. Let’s wrap it up here. It’s not like there is a way to dig deeper anyway.”
The clues Elbridge’s party possessed were not many.
That the client wore the priestly robes of the Golden Platter Order, and that he possessed some level of martial power. And several other pieces of circumstantial evidence…
Since the clues had run out, the reasoning of the three was also at an end here.
At least, Elbridge and Marcus thought so.
But Rombel was different.
“Why wouldn’t there be a way to dig into it?”
“Is there anything more?”
“There is. If we can’t find it, we can just leave the investigation to someone else.”
“To whom?”
“The Golden Platter Order.”
Rombel pointed in the direction where Dieter had disappeared.
“There’s no need to add useless guesses. We just need to spread the rumor that the Golden Platter Order seems to have broken the seal, just as Dieter testified.”
“Rombel. You don’t actually suspect the Golden Platter Order, do you?”
“Of course not. Do you think I’m a fool?”
“…If so, is there a reason to spread the rumor? It would just make innocent victims.”
Rombel replied flatly.
“Of course there is a reason.”
“What reason?”
“There is no perfect secret in the world. And one out of five people in the world belongs to the Golden Platter Order. Someone must have a clue.”
Only then did Elbridge and Marcus grasp Rombel’s intention.
“Rombel. You…”
Rombel smirked meanly.
“Just watch. Even if it’s just to clear their name, the Golden Platter Order will find the culprit.”