If You Can't Win
Elbridge headed for the Magic Tower workshop in search of Rombel.
After listening to the full story, Rombel wordlessly tossed a sword at him.
“Forget all that. Test this first.”
“Why the sword out of nowhere?”
“You’ve been putting way too much force into your wrist every time you swing lately, haven’t you?”
Elbridge gave a crooked smile.
“Sharp as ever.”
Most people who over-tighten their wrists while swinging a sword do so because of inexperience. But for someone of Elbridge’s caliber, the reason was different: the sword was simply too light.
An excessively light blade tends to waver at the tip. The only way to control it is to grip harder with the wrist and forearm. This problem had only arisen because Elbridge’s physical abilities had recovered at an astonishing rate over the past year. A sword that once felt perfectly balanced when he was weak now felt unbearably light.
The blade Rombel had just handed him was at least twice as heavy as his previous one.
“What’s this sword made of?”
“A little of everything.”
“The weight feels just right.”
“If you knew there was a problem, why the hell didn’t you get a new sword sooner?”
“It was only a minor inconvenience.”
Rombel’s face twisted into a scowl.
“A minor inconvenience? You can say that because you rarely fight for long stretches. If you ever had to battle for days without rest, that sword could have gotten you killed.”
It was an irrefutable point. Elbridge looked slightly sheepish.
I suppose I have grown a little complacent lately.
Rombel jerked his chin at him.
“Swing it a bit more. If anything feels off, I’ll fix it now.”
Elbridge tested the sword in every manner he could think of—vertical cuts, horizontal slashes, diagonal arcs, downward strikes, upward swings, slow forms, and lightning-fast blows. His conclusion was simple: both the weight and balance were perfectly suited to him.
“Hmm.”
“Well?”
Instead of offering straightforward thanks, Elbridge deliberately nitpicked.
“The scabbard looks terribly plain.”
Such petty criticism from him was the highest form of indirect praise—something he only offered to those he was truly close to.
As expected, Rombel’s expression brightened noticeably.
“What matters isn’t appearance but practicality. The scabbard is far sturdier than the blade itself, so it won’t break or bend.”
Having said that, Rombel slung the massive double-headed axe that had been leaning in the corner of the workshop over his shoulder. Despite Elbridge and Marcus’s sudden visit, he was ready to follow without hesitation.
Marcus, watching him, grew visibly anxious on his behalf.
“Rombel, sir. Aren’t your orders for Magic Tower weapons backed up for years at this point?”
“They are. Even if someone placed an order right now, they’d have to wait three years.”
“…And you’re just going to leave your post like this?”
Rombel grinned wickedly.
“That’s why you have to become an irreplaceable talent, Marcus.”
The party left Soleneon and traveled south.
A meager group of only three people willing to help Isalbius. Moreover, Isalbius had no real idea how skilled Rombel and Marcus actually were. Yet the old priest voiced no complaints. The mere fact that anyone had offered help was already a miracle. This was no time to be picky.
On the second day after leaving Soleneon, Elbridge quietly offered a prayer.
“I am listening, Elbridge.”
“Goddess. Is the Goddess of Spring Rain and Moss displeased with this situation?”
Last summer, the Flowing Water Order had clashed with the Spring Rain and Moss Order. He wondered if that deity might take issue with their interference.
“Not at all. What happened at the Grand Tournament was barely more than a childish squabble.”
“Besides, the Flowing Water Order is nothing but a single-seat hole-in-the-wall. From ‘our’ perspective, they’re positively adorable.”
“…”
Lately, the Goddess of the Rusty Shield had taken every opportunity to boast whenever she mentioned orders with few seats. The years spent without any must have been truly bitter.
She’ll probably go back to normal soon…
“By the way, Elbridge, why do you ask such a thing?”
“You haven’t given me any oracles these past few days, so I was worried something might be wrong.”
“That is… because there was another reason.”
“May I ask what it is?”
“Do you remember the paladins from the Spring Rain and Moss Order who participated in the Grand Tournament with us? Hakon and Scarlet?”
“Of course.”
Scarlet was the red-haired female knight who had served as team leader, and Hakon was the short, dwarf-like man.
“There has been a rather pinkish atmosphere between those two lately. The mood is so delightfully entertaining that… even if your goddess’s gaze does not reach you immediately, please understand. I will still answer prayers promptly, so call upon me if anything urgent arises.”
It seemed she was simply enjoying the show. Elbridge felt a weight lift from his shoulders.
The party traveled at a moderate pace, mindful of Isalbius’s stamina. When they were lucky, they paid a few coins or silver pieces for rides on carriages or wagons.
At that moment, the four of them had met a merchant caravan at a suitable location and were riding in an empty cargo cart.
“By the way, why exactly do you work at the Magic Tower, Rombel?” Marcus asked.
“Because I turned my back on the God of the Steel Anvil.”
“I don’t see how those things are related. If anything, turning your back on him should mean you have to stop being a blacksmith, right?”
“Since I no longer serve a god, I can’t accumulate divine power. The power I had built up would eventually scatter with time… so I made a decision. I would treat mana as my source of strength, just like the knights do.”
“Which means…”
“I earned money through blacksmithing and used that money to accumulate mana.”
Elbridge clicked his tongue.
No wonder his calculations were always so precise.
Rombel had even recorded the cost of the sword he gifted Elbridge in his ledger. At first glance it might seem like a forced sale made without asking the customer’s opinion, but it had clearly been an act of goodwill. After all, Rombel had set aside all his other piled-up orders to forge Elbridge’s new blade.
There was no need to feel burdened by the price. If necessary, he could always ask the Marquis of Soleneon to cover it.
The rattling cargo cart came to a stop near a village beside a colossal forest.
Unlike most nameless woodlands, everyone on the continent knew the name of this one.
It was the Great Forest, the largest forest on the continent.
“We’ll have to walk from here.”
The trees of the Great Forest remained green even in midwinter.
In fact, the climate itself refused to behave like winter. If one had to describe it, it felt more like a slightly humid spring day.
“I had heard that there is no winter in the south, but I didn’t realize it was literally true,” Marcus said, flapping his collar to cool himself. Isalbius chuckled.
“Conversely, we southerners cannot comprehend winter. I myself saw snow for the first time when I came to the east.”
“I see.”
“The cold was unfamiliar too. The greatest chill I had ever experienced in my life was a cool night breeze. But the cold of the east was on another level. The north must be even worse. How vast and mysterious the world is.”
Elbridge gently changed the subject.
“Speaking of mysterious places… Isalbius, do you know about the Eternal Lake?”
“Of course I do. The believers of the Flowing Water Order live near the Eternal Lake.”
“Is it a special place?”
“Yes. A truly mysterious one. Time does not flow at the Eternal Lake.”
“…Time does not flow?”
Everyone in the party leaned in to listen.
Isalbius looked slightly uncomfortable with the sudden attention.
“To be precise, it’s a little different… It’s hard to explain accurately. You will understand better once you see it for yourselves. Assuming we can reach the Eternal Lake safely, that is.”
After five full days of relentless marching through the Great Forest, Elbridge’s party finally discovered a city.
The word “discovered” was appropriate. Unlike eastern cities visible from afar, this one appeared abruptly before their eyes.
The massive trees of the Great Forest had concealed the city walls.
“You would need to know the exact path to find this place.”
“This is exactly why merchants hesitate to enter the south even though they know they could make a fortune. Quite a few get lost and die. It would be best to stop here for now.”
The party had halted behind a cluster of trees, a spot difficult to spot from the wall.
Tension was clear on Isalbius’s face.
Are the paladins of the Flowing Water Order being held captive in this city as well?
Several figures could be seen patrolling atop the walls. Two of them even appeared to be paladins. It was now even clearer that this city was entangled in the war between the orders.
“Isalbius, roughly how many people live inside the city?”
“I’m not certain, but… I believe it’s around fifty thousand.”
“That many?”
Based on the circumference of the walls and the scale of the city, Elbridge had estimated the population at most twenty thousand.
In truth, he had thought it might be fewer than fifteen thousand, since the enormous trees inside the walls would steal much of the living space.
“Unlike the east, where people can build walls or fences almost anywhere, the south has very little land suitable for large settlements. People crowd together on what little usable ground there is. Because the population is small, the south also has fewer seats in the assembly…”
“Even so, fifty thousand seems excessive. Do they stack people like cordwood in the south?”
“It’s not far from the truth.”
“…?”
“You can see the trees inside the city, yes? Southerners build houses in the trees as well. Some people even live inside the trunks.”
Elbridge could not even imagine what sort of city this was.
“Do you happen to know how many paladins there are?”
“That I cannot say. But if this is a stronghold for one faction, it would not be strange to find over a hundred paladins. As far as I know, the total number of paladins involved in this war is at least six or seven hundred.”
Six or seven hundred paladins at the very least.
That alone was daunting, but the truly terrifying part was something else.
Isalbius’s words hinted at a possibility the party had not considered.
“…Wait. One faction? Isalbius, I thought there were only two sides fighting over the Flowing Water Order?”
“Pardon?”
“The orders that frequently interacted with the Flowing Water Order and those that barely interacted at all. I believed it had split into two camps.”
“It began that way. But when situations intensify, factions inevitably turn on each other. The groups split, merged, split again… At this point, no one knows exactly how many factions exist.”
“…”
Rombel, who had already given up on trying to make sense of it, asked bluntly.
“Elbridge. Any ideas?”
No clear answer came to mind.
The more independent actors there were, the more exponentially complicated the situation became.
Nor was the enemy small enough to defeat them one by one.
Over a hundred paladins inside those walls?
If it were a hundred one-on-one duels, he might be able to win. But if a hundred men targeted just two people, the story changed completely.
It was easy to picture a hundred paladins from the Bloodied Spear Order hurling spears at him. Even Elbridge would struggle to survive a hundred divine-power-enhanced spears flying toward him.
The current situation was even worse.
Multiple orders had formed factions, meaning all kinds of divine powers would be mixed together, aiming precisely at the party’s weaknesses.
Breaking through head-on is impossible. We lack too much information to even find an opening.
Even Elbridge could not easily produce an answer. The Goddess of the Rusty Shield, who was surely watching, had offered no oracle. Since she was likely pretending to be asleep if he prayed now, Elbridge decided not to bother.
It was then that an unexpected person offered a solution—Marcus.
“Sir Elbridge, I’m only asking just in case, but there’s no way the four of us could attack and capture that city, right?”
“Of course not.”
“And worrying outside the walls isn’t going to produce any brilliant ideas either.”
“Correct.”
When both Elbridge and Rombel nodded at the same time, Marcus continued.
“It’s not exactly the sort of method a paladin like Sir Elbridge would prefer… but among us mercenaries, there’s a saying that fits this situation perfectly.”
“What is it?”
“If you can’t win, join them.”
Marcus began calmly tying Isalbius’s hands together.
“First, let’s get inside the walls and see what the situation looks like.”