Building a Harem in a Noble House

Chapter 115: Order of Paladins

I spent the entire walk to the Order of Paladins thinking about this past week. Mostly because Meredith, who had finally warmed up to us enough to be casual, would not stop talking about how hungry she was, but also because when you’re walking into an exam that dictates the rest of your life, your mind tends to drift.

I did a lot this week. Too much, honestly. I should have taken a morning of the damn exam off, but Meredith insisted we get in more practice, and I am apparently a sucker for people who believe in me. Or maybe I am just bad at saying no when someone is looking at me like I hold the secrets of the universe. Either way, it happened.

Trial dungeons. So many trial dungeons. I swear, if I never see another room filled with fake goblins swinging padded clubs, I will die happy. At first, I found them fun, especially with Meredith as a good teammate, as she was. She’s sharp, but sharp is different from experienced. She kept pausing in the first few runs, making slight errors with her judgment, then getting angry and going on a warpath.

But then she adjusted. Fast as hell. The funny part was that she didn’t realize just how quickly she learned. Lyra had figured out my fighting rhythm like she had been born inside my skull. She always knew where I was going to stand, when I would dodge, and how far I could push myself.

Meredith was not Lyra. No one ever will be. But Meredith had this way of trusting her gut that got sharper each day we trained. She saw details that other people missed, even people much stronger than her. Her physical strength was solid enough, but her analysis filled every gap.

By the fifth day, she stopped hesitating and just moved. She would call out openings. Tell me when an enemy is pulling aura from the wrong direction. Warn me about footprints where they should not be. She was building instincts one after another. It was satisfying to watch. Almost nostalgic.

It was around the seventh or eighth run that I realized she was reading me almost as well as Lyra did. Not fully, of course, but close enough that I had to adjust my own patterns just to keep her on her toes. She would pick up instantly when I shifted my pacing or focused my attention somewhere without indicating anything, and somehow she made it work without panicking.

And now here I was, walking next to her on our way to the Order of Paladins’ building, feeling like an exhausted parent dragging a hyperactive kid to school.

The Order of Paladins sat across from the main library in Podros, something that only accentuated the differences between the two. The library was a miracle of architecture with spires and arches everywhere. The Order, meanwhile, looked like someone took a courthouse, slapped paint on it, then decided that was good enough. It had pillars, sure, and a very official-looking emblem over the door, but otherwise it was boring. Too symmetrical. Too groomed. Nothing about it made you think "stronghold of Paladins".

Inside was worse. Lavish, yes. Judicial, definitely. Boring in every way. Whoever designed it clearly wanted to impress foreign nobles. Marble floors, silent hallways, detailed carvings on every visible surface–but the vibe was as dry as old wood. No life. No energy. No sense of purpose. Just seriousness pretending to be righteousness.

We followed the crowd into a massive waiting area. It looked like a courtroom mixed with a classroom. Dozens of benches lined the room, and people filled every available seat. At the head of the room was a raised chamber. A podium for Paladins to yell at everyone from. Above us, a row of enchanted screens hung from the ceiling. They were blank now, but later they would show the trial in real time thanks to the high-level spell used to project live footage.

As we sat, I caught the usual reactions. A few people whispered when they recognized me. "Five Star Adventurer", "Head of House May". All that impressive sounding stuff I never asked for but somehow ended up with. Some nodded respectfully. A couple looked at me like I was an endangered animal they were lucky to see.

And then there were the recruits who did not recognize me at all. They glanced at me, saw just another guy in comfortable clothes, and went back to talking like nothing mattered. Those were my favorites. They reminded me of when I first started, when status meant absolutely nothing and all that counted was whether you survived the next week.

Meredith caught sight of a few familiar faces across the room. House Hilington had two siblings here, both glaring at the walls. House Nightingale showed up in a trio in matching silver outfits that made them look like traveling bards. House Everwinter recruits were easy to spot because they carried themselves like they were royalty, even though they absolutely were not. House Odelium had a couple of people, too, and I mentally noted that because they had a reputation for being irritating.

There were also plenty of normal adventurers. Some veterans. Some hopefuls who looked like they had no idea that death was, in fact, possible during the exam–and that the revival fees would not be covered by the Order. A handful were unregistered paladins like me, I also realized. People with different oaths, different affiliations, or some who just wanted a proper license for some job somewhere.

I was scouting the room when two Odelium guys wandered over. I knew the type. Cheap armor made to look expensive. Wooden training swords, they painted them metallic to hide the fact that they could not afford steel. And the kind of posture you only got when your entire personality comes from being slightly better than someone once in childhood.

They stopped right behind Meredith, coughing obnoxiously to get our attention before smirking the moment we made eye contact.