Paladin of a Fallen Order (Novel) - Chapter 99 - Black Cat

Chapter 99 – Black Cat

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Translated by Pratt

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Even while walking alongside Rombel and Sonya, Elbridge frequently looked back.

Solenion was bathed in a warm darkness. However, there was no particular discomfort in his vision. He could clearly see the expression of a person far away. It was a feat possible only because it was a dream.

People danced clumsily, or with skill. Instead of dancing, some stood leaning against porches to share stories, while others quietly disappeared into their houses.

Young people meeting for the first time today, as well as elderly couples who had forgotten the flutter of excitement, looked at each other face-to-face.

“It is peculiar.”

Sonya replied to Elbridge’s muttering.

“Of course it would be. How often would one have a reason to enter such a strange dream?”

“I mean it is peculiar even when judged by the standard of a demon’s authority.”

“In what sense?”

“There are many demons that make people desire each other. Those that stimulate carnal lust are representative examples.”

Elbridge thought so as he spoke. Had those demons that stimulated carnal lust perhaps once been gods who symbolized fertility, abundance, or growth?

“In places seized by such demons, grotesque spectacles unfold. Dozens, hundreds of people entangle together, spewing their desires until they die. However, that is different. It is not simple lust.”

It appeared that way to Sonya as well.

People looked not at each other’s bodies, but at each other’s eyes. Not physical desire, but a slightly more essential and deep emotional exchange.

Perhaps that was why, even though it was a spectacle created by artificial intervention, it was not particularly unpleasant to watch.

Sonya spoke up.

“But why was Marcus alone the incarnation of desire?”

That was a part that was hard for Elbridge to understand as well.

“…Perhaps his preferences were just exceptionally distinct.”

Sonya gave up on understanding and shook her head from side to side.

“I don’t know what those people’s feelings are… but will they continue even after they wake up from the dream?”

“Who knows.”

At least Marcus seemed likely to be so.

However, if asked if the woman dancing with Marcus would also be so… he could not be sure.

Rombel, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, spoke.

“I don’t know about others, but I hope Marcus gets dumped.”

“Why?”

“Because that would be funnier.”

It was a clear answer. It was also a reason that forced agreement.

– ♪♬

Although no one had fixed a destination, the three naturally moved in the direction from which the music drifted.

The most bizarre thing in the current situation was that music.

Had not the people, who had been somewhat complacently relaxed, begun their movements along with that music?

The steps of the party left the residential quarters where people gathered to live and entered the area where large and small temples clustered.

Sonya said.

“Elbridge.”

“Why?”

Sonya hesitated for a moment, then asked.

“You. That fairy tale from two hundred years ago… right?”

A question cut down here and there, with only a skeleton remaining. However, he knew what she wanted to ask.

“Yes.”

“I see…”

Sonya had heard what Elbridge said after gathering the chief paladins and archbishops of each order. She had seen them bow their heads before Elbridge, and she had heard the rumors spread in Solenion.

It was not a speculation, but already in the realm of certainty. She had simply wished for the most definitive answer.

The steps of Rombel, who had been walking ahead, halted. Sonya and Elbridge stopped as well.

On the roof of a discarded temple, which was even smaller than the shabby temples nearby, there sat a tiny cat.

It was not particularly large, nor was its shape grotesque.

It was merely a cute black cat with shiny fur. A cat that could be commonly seen anywhere, which one would pass by without much thought.

However, Elbridge’s party experienced a strange sensory concentration.

Among all the objects captured in their vision, everything except for that cat was merely a background. As if the cat alone was spanning across a different world.

Elbridge felt a sense of anomaly half a beat late.

‘It is a dream.’

In dreams, all senses often concentrate on a specific object. The current situation was exactly like that.

The cat, which had been licking its forepaw, stood up and stretched with its forepaws extended forward. Right after, the cat jumped down from the temple roof.

The direction the cat jumped was the rear of the temple. In other words, a direction Elbridge’s party could not see.

Yet the party clearly ‘saw’ the cat jumping down.

The angle of the gaze that watched the cat was also strange. It felt as if they observed the cat from up in the sky where nothing existed, rather than from their current standing position.

Rombel muttered.

“I’m already going crazy.”

It was a feat possible only because all of this was a dream.

Although there are dreams that feel as realistic as reality, the sensations of a dream and reality are strictly different. Fragmented sensations, strangely exaggerated senses, and unacceptable information poured in.

Even now, Elbridge’s party stood blankly, occasionally experiencing the movements of the black cat. Without seeing or hearing it, they vaguely knew where the cat was heading.

What was even more bizarre was that they could not immediately feel a sense of anomaly before this absurd sensation. The sense of anomaly always followed at least one step late. Even the belated anomaly was not clear. If their concentration wavered even slightly, they felt as if they would forget that this was a dream. Just like dreams that are not lucid dreams usually are.

“Let’s follow it.”

That cat had never shown any strange behavior.

However, without any logic or causality, Elbridge’s party knew that this black cat was the entity that had created this entire situation.

As soon as they moved a few steps forward, the space changed.

As Elbridge, who had fully raised his guard, hesitated, Sonya said.

“Don’t think it strange. In dreams, the process of moving is often omitted. The moment you make up your mind that you must go somewhere, you arrive at the destination as if it is only natural—that is what a dream is, isn’t it?”

“…Sonya, your adaptation seems strangely fast.”

“Mages often train using dreams. Through dreams, they adapt to various laws they have never experienced before, and to familiar yet unfamiliar worlds. There is nothing like a dream for cultivating flexibility of thought and senses.”

Rombel muttered significantly.

“A dream, and an unfamiliar world. Somehow, it feels like I’m about to remember something…”

Naturally, Elbridge and Sonya let those words slide in through one ear and out the other.

Elbridge ran a couple of steps forward. Then, a new space unfolded abruptly. Before they knew it, the three were standing on the roof of a temple they had never even climbed.

The cat, which should have been in this place, had moved far away at some point and was merely flicking its tail.

“…How am I supposed to accept this naturally?”

“What are you going to do if you don’t accept it? We have to catch that cat in the dream. Just jump anywhere!”

“Anywhere?”

“It doesn’t matter. Just run while thinking that you are following the cat!”

…I feel like I’m being conned.

Even while thinking so, Elbridge ran blindly, just as Sonya had said.

The space shifted rapidly. Before he knew it, he jumped down from a high wall, and just when he thought he landed softly, he was running along a main street. The cat still showed only a vague glimpse of its back at the edge of his vision.

“Over there!”

When they went inside a temple, the interior of a blacksmith’s shop appeared out of nowhere. When they turned back and walked out of the blacksmith’s shop, the interior of a temple appeared this time.

The path they had passed just moments ago unfolded before their eyes, and only the result of having traveled a path they had never been to remained in their heads. Time flowed by in the blink of an eye, and the time that had flowed slipped back covertly, returning to the past.

The world, time, changed and jumbled up at whim. A phenomenon possible only because it was a dream.

The party ran blindly without even knowing the direction. Yet, the distance between the party and the cat was gradually narrowing.

Now Elbridge fully understood what Sonya’s words meant. In a dream, only the fact that you are following the cat is important; space or direction is not important.

“Be trapped!”

As Sonya shouted so and brandished her staff, the ground and walls around the cat formed the shape of two hands, trapping the cat inside. However, without any omen or process, the cat lightly leaped and escaped out of the two hands.

Had it been when they first started dreaming, it might have been different, but now Elbridge had also managed to adapt to the dream world.

Before he knew it, Elbridge had arrived beside the cat. Without any room to weigh this or that, Elbridge reached out toward the cat. However, the cat skillfully kicked the air and dodged Elbridge’s hand.

The cat sneered at Elbridge.

– Meow.

However, Rombel was still left.

“Just die!”

Just as he had done in the Viscountcy of Dickens not long ago, Rombel threw his giant axe using centrifugal force.

The axe flew toward the cat while spinning horizontally.

‘Does he not even plan to capture it alive?’

However, that was a groundless worry. The black cat lightly leaped, landed gracefully on top of the spinning axe, and then,

– Meoooww-

disappeared into the night sky while spinning along with the axe.

A spectacle that could never exist in reality, possible only because it was a dream. All three were lost for words.

“…How do we catch that?”

Then, the black cat that had disappeared into the night sky stealthily revealed itself beside Rombel.

Pushing the giant axe slightly with its white forepaw to return it to Rombel, the black cat said.

– Quite decent for a first try. Make sure to try catching me tomorrow.

The cat disappeared while wagging its tail.

*

“…”

Elbridge only woke up a bit past noon.

As he sat blankly on the edge of the bed and put on his upper garment, the Goddess of the Rusty Shield delivered an oracle.

– Elbridge. Seeing you unable to wake up early in the morning, somehow your goddess’s mood feels strange…

“Me too, Goddess.”

It was only a short while ago that he offered prayers asking the Goddess of the Rusty Shield to sleep early and wake up early, but now their positions had reversed. Of course, it was not because Elbridge had done something wrong.

Sonya also appeared with a disheveled look.

Sonya, despite being a non-believer, was still staying at the temple of the Order of the Rusty Shield.

Since she had no money and knew no one, the option of independence did not exist.

Sonya said to Elbridge.

“You dreamed, right?”

Elbridge nodded.

Indeed, yesterday’s dream was not a simple dream.

After a short while, Rombel appeared.

“Sonya, Elbridge. Any good ideas?”

“Well.”

Just as Elbridge was about to shake his head like Sonya, a thought suddenly came to him.

If the Goddess of the Rusty Shield helped, wouldn’t something be possible?

Elbridge immediately clasped both hands and offered a prayer to the Goddess of the Rusty Shield.

“Goddess. Can you perhaps see my dreams as well?”

An oracle came down immediately.

– A dream is merely an imagination occurring inside the head and not reality, so no matter if one is a god, they cannot intervene. Did you have a strange dream last night?

The Goddess of the Rusty Shield seemed to know nothing about last night’s dream. Elbridge nodded.

“Yes. A strange thing happened… but the explanation might be a bit long to tell right now.”

Rombel nudged Elbridge’s side.

“Elbridge. What did the Goddess say?”

“She says she cannot help with things inside a dream.”

“So she is the same as usual…”

As soon as those words were finished, a thunderbolt struck down, hitting the ground in front of the temple. Crack!

A situation where it wouldn’t be strange to be hit by lightning the moment one walked out of the temple.

Rombel immediately fell to his knees and offered a prayer.

“Goddess. Since this dwarf bastard has lived three hundred years for nothing, his mind is fuzzy and nonsense slips out occasionally. Please forgive me generously just this once!”

– Tell him I will forgive him only this once. Elbridge.

“The Goddess said she will forgive you only this once. Offer some donations before you go back.”

“Oh, thank you.”

Rombel stood up, rummaged through his coin pouch, took out a couple of silver coins, and dropped them into the donation box.

Although yellow things were briefly visible inside the coin pouch, Elbridge and the Goddess of the Rusty Shield were not relentless enough to demand gold coins instead of silver coins.

Rombel sat opposite Elbridge with a confident look, as if he had paid for all his sins.

“Anything, just talk about whatever comes to mind.”

Elbridge and Sonya poured out their stories in turn.

“The remaining time seems to be at most five days. After that, there is no guarantee we can wake up.”

“We cannot catch that cat by normal means. Since I often maintain a semi-awakened state while studying magic, I am quite familiar with dreams, but that cat’s level is far higher than mine.”

“Will catching the cat even solve all the problems? It might be a plan to make us focus on a random thing to waste time. It was also slightly anomalous to be called a demon.”

“Anomalous…”

That cat was certainly an anomalous entity. It toyed with the dream world at whim and led all situations at whim. It was behavior that a demon would show.

But that cat lacked the grotesque appearance unique to demons, nor did it evoke an unpleasant feeling.

“That cat, no matter how much I think about it, doesn’t seem to be its true form.”

Rombel agreed with Elbridge’s words.

“My thoughts are the same.”

“And what is strange is that the cat wasn’t particularly hostile to us. Rather, it felt slightly favorable. Is that cat really a demon?”

Demons are hostile to humans.

No, it was no exaggeration to say they were hostile to all entities on earth, not just humans. Although there were relatively mild individuals like Starwave… even so, it was merely a difference in degree.

“If it isn’t a demon causing such bizarre phenomena, then what is it?”

“I don’t know. However, there is no need to be hasty. We still have five days of leeway, don’t we? And there are several people who can help us.”

Rombel stood up from his seat.

“See you tonight.”

Rombel left the temple with a slight hint of tension.