Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Ruins Village (1)

“Hoo, is that it?”

Anagin had walked a long way before climbing to the top of a hill, and now he muttered to himself as he gazed past the horizon.

At the end of his line of sight was a glittering river, and beyond it sprawled a large, many-colored village. A village of tents and makeshift buildings, with a small mountain rising behind it.

That had to be the “Ruins Village.”

A temporary village that springs up near the “Ruins.”

It seemed he had properly arrived at the place the Market Rio had spoken of.

“The Ruins, huh…”

Anagin mumbled and stepped forward. At the same time, he replayed his conversation with the Market Rio in his mind.

The man who had asked Anagin to back him—once things had gone well, he’d abruptly asked if Anagin knew about the Ruins and told him about one. He’d said a Ruins had recently been discovered nearby.

Anagin hadn’t known what that was, so he’d asked. What in the world was a Ruins…

It had been barely a day since he’d left the village, and that fellow called Master had never told him.

“Come to think of it, that pisses me off. What kind of person is he? He never properly explained anything… Or did I just not listen?”

Well, that was entirely possible too.

He hadn’t cared about stories of the outside world, so he’d listened to half and let the other half go in one ear and out the other.

He did feel some regret that he should have listened more carefully if he’d known it would be like this, but he soon let it go. It was a problem he could fix by listening properly now.

Anyway, Rio had explained about the Ruins. That they were a kind of training ground for Ascetics. That the Ruins held all sorts of trials and dangers, and that Ascetics challenged the Ruins to improve their level of attainment.

“What kind of bullshit is that?”

Anagin, having heard the explanation, asked honestly.

It wasn’t like “youth is pain” or anything—people willingly walking into a place full of trials and danger to suffer, and that raising their level of attainment? He couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

Just because you say something doesn’t make it true.

Fortunately, Rio agreed with Anagin’s thinking.

He too did not agree that suffering raised one’s level of attainment.

“But it’s not really suffering. There’s a reward, you see.”

“A reward?”

“The Ruins hold all manner of treasures.”

The Ruins weren’t only trials and dangers.

If you overcame the trials and crises and went deep into the Ruins, you could obtain not only straightforward treasures like jewels and gold, but also metaphorical ones—God’s blessing, ancient magic, magic tools, relics, and more.

“I haven’t seen them myself, since I’m not an Ascetic, but it’s common knowledge even among ordinary people that such treasures exist in the Ruins. Otherwise, there’d be no reason for those shrewd, greedy Ascetics to risk their lives entering them.”

Only then did Anagin grow interested in the Ruins.

He had no intention of begging God for a blessing, but taking a blessing by force was a different story.

If he obtained God’s blessing through his own power, then it wouldn’t be begging.

Beyond that, he was also curious about ancient magic, magic tools, and relics.

He had never seen magic in his life, and the only magic tool he’d ever seen was a subspace bag.

In any case, with that curiosity in his heart, Anagin arrived at the river directly in front of the Ruins Village that the Market Rio had spoken of.

A river glittering silver under the sunlight.

It flowed quietly and looked peaceful at a glance, but it was wide enough that he would need help to cross.

Just then, a small ferryboat approached and spoke to Anagin.

“Hey there, young friend. Looking to cross the river? One olive silver coin and I’ll take you across.”

Anagin looked over the ferryman.

He was stunted, as if he’d taken the brunt of the years head-on, and the boat he sat in looked quite old as well.

“No thanks. If I get on, that boat looks like it’ll sink.”

“It won’t sink just from carrying one more person. And if you’re thinking of haggling down the fare, give it up. I’m not overcharging. There are so many customers that one silver coin is already cheap.”

Just as the ferryman said, there were quite a few people around heading to the Ruins Village. However, the ferryman’s guess was wrong.

Anagin had only refused because he really thought it would sink if he got on.

Anagin didn’t want to babble unnecessarily, so he jumped straight down into the river.

The ferryman was startled by this.

The current wasn’t rough, but the river was extremely deep—he could easily drown.

Splash!

Yet when Anagin plunged into the water, everyone around, including the ferryman, looked even more shocked.

His build appeared ordinary, but like a heavy boulder dropping, a huge column of water shot up—as if a heavy rock had fallen.

The people around looked below the surface where Anagin had gone in.

Once the water column settled, there was only a ripple—and a moment later, Anagin was seen climbing out on the opposite bank.

He had walked across the river along its bottom.

“Why do I keep falling into water so often?”

Anagin muttered as he shook off his wet body after emerging from the water. Then he looked over the Ruins Village again.

Seen up close, it was much larger, and true to a village built to do business with Ascetics, it was bustling everywhere with traders and barkers.

“Whoa! Are you a hero?! Have you decided where to stay, by any chance?!” “Aren’t you hungry? We sell bread—won’t you have some?! It’s delicious!!” “Thank you for your trouble coming so far! By any chance, do you need a lucky charm to help with your exploration?” “Shall I carry your luggage? I’m strong!”

The barkers crowded around Anagin and chattered noisily.

It was one of the common sights in a Ruins Village.

Most Ascetics had deeper pockets than ordinary people. Everyone was eager to fleece them.

Thanks to having heard about it from the Market Rio in advance, Anagin wasn’t all that surprised even when the barkers swarmed him.

Still, something was off.

“Why are they all kids? And why is the village so big?”

Anagin felt doubts as he looked at the young barkers and the size of the Ruins Village.

They said the size of a Ruins Village was proportional to its visitors, but this one was bigger and busier than he’d expected.

It could be that there were many visitors, but that didn’t quite make sense.

From what Anagin had heard, Anapic was a kind of outlying region.

There were few people, and naturally few who would go out of their way to visit a Ruins. At least, that was what the Market Rio had said.

Unless it was an extremely famous Ruins, it was somehow unnatural for a village this size to form around a Ruins discovered only recently.

Even Anagin, who knew nothing of the local situation, could tell that much.

“Hey, kids.”

When Anagin, who had been standing still and ignoring them, opened his mouth, the shouting barker kids all shut up at once.

“Is there a butchery here? A Monster Butchery?”

Monster Butchery. Just as the name suggested, a place that butchered dead Monsters. There was always one or two in any Ruins where Monsters appeared. The Monster Butchery bought Monsters caught by Ascetics at high prices, processed them, and resold them—and perhaps because they dealt with Monsters, they had considerable knowledge about them.

Since it was the first time a stranger visiting the village had asked such a question, the children looked at each other in bewilderment, then someone pointed in the direction the river flowed.

“If you go straight this way, you’ll find a red tent in the corner. That’s the place.”

“Thanks.”

As soon as he heard the explanation, Anagin pulled a handful of coins from his pocket and scattered them to the children.

As the glittering coins fell to the ground, the kids scrambled to pick them up, and Anagin tossed one silver coin to the kid who had answered before walking along the river, following the outer edge of the Ruins Village.

“It’s definitely an interesting place.”

Anagin marveled as he scanned the village made of colorful tents.

Fish and chicken skewers sizzling over charcoal, pig’s feet bubbling in a large pot. A burly blacksmith displaying flashy helmets and armor, swords and spears. A peddler selling rope, lanterns, and dried food. Alchemists and sorcerers selling suspicious drugs and charms, and so on.

Even the outskirts of the village, which should have been relatively quiet, was crowded with merchants jostling together.

In a sense, it was more city-like than Disis Polis, which the Market Rio governed.

This liveliness, this bustle… That was why it was strange.

No matter how he thought about it, this scale didn’t add up.

“Did the Market Rio tell me wrong?”

Anagin pondered for a moment but soon let it go. He had reached his destination while walking.

The Monster Butchery.

The Monster Butchery was a tent as huge as a building, and from its ceiling hung countless Monster serpent carcasses.

Beneath the monstrous serpent carcasses, broad-shouldered, hulking men were continuing their work with large knives and tongs.

They skinned with long sword-like blades, struck and pulled out scales with hammers, pulled teeth with tongs, and chopped the Monsters into pieces with axe-like cleavers before separating bone from flesh with small, delicate knives.

In the process, the Monsters’ blood and entrails spilled onto the ground, dyeing the river red.

“Watch what you’re doing! That’s all money! We’ve got to earn as much as we can here!”

A short man shouted at an employee’s mistake. He was half the height of the others, but his shoulders and chest were twice as broad.

Anagin approached the short man and spoke.

“Excuse me. Are you the owner here?”

“Hm?”

The short man furrowed his brow and looked his way. He seemed displeased at being interrupted during work.

“Who are you?”

“A customer here to sell something.”

The short man’s expression worsened.

“You’re pretty curt.”

“You too.”

Anagin answered with a slight smirk.

Perhaps he had bad feelings about the word “curt,” because the short man scowled sharply.

Just as he was about to say something, Anagin dropped the bag slung over one shoulder onto the ground.

Thunk—!

A heavy sound rang out as the bag hit the ground.

“…What was that?”

“It’s always like this, don’t mind it.”

Anagin reassured the startled questioner and opened the bag. Incidentally, this bag was the subspace bag the Market Rio had given him. It was something his father had used in his peddler days, and Rio had told him this before handing it over.

“It’s my father’s keepsake. You can put objects of any size in it, its carrying capacity is so large you can’t see the end of it, and it’s sturdy enough to withstand swords or axes… It’s not a very good item.”

“It looks good to me?”

“It has a fatal flaw.”

“What’s that?”

“The bag gets heavier by the weight of whatever you put inside.”

The Market Rio honestly confessed the flaw of the subspace bag he was giving. A normal subspace bag had no problem no matter how heavy the contents, but the bag Rio gave grew heavier the more you put in. It failed to fully make use of the subspace bag’s function of conveniently storing and carrying things. In other words, it was a half-baked item.

The memory of Bander saying he was being cheated came to mind, but Anagin didn’t care. The bastard was dead anyway, and he actually liked that the weight didn’t decrease.

The heavy sound naturally drew the gazes of those around him, and Anagin calmly took a bundle out of the bag.

Compared to the sound, the amount was small, so the expectant gazes soon turned to disappointment—but once the bundle was unwrapped, they turned back to curiosity.

“Do these count as Monsters too?”

Inside the bundle were dozens of snakes as thick as a finger. At a glance they seemed like nothing special, but upon closer look, the snakes had one eye rather than two.

A single massive eye lodged in the center of their foreheads.

“What are these?”

The butchers asked back, seemingly seeing them for the first time too.

“If I knew, would I be asking? I caught them on the way here.”

On the way from Disis Polis to the Ruins Village. Anagin had kept feeling a dirty sensation, as if something was constantly peeking at him. He’d soon looked around, and before long he’d found these snakes.

Snakes hiding in the bushes, staring intently at him. Anagin had caught them all.

Wouldn’t that feel unpleasant?

“Are these Monsters too?” “Aren’t they a bit small for that?” “They’ve got one eye, don’t they?” “Aren’t they just deformed?”

The other butchers poked at the snakes and exchanged opinions. Apparently even the people here didn’t know. Amid the disappointment, the short butcher asked.

“Are you selling these?”

“If you’ll buy them? Do you know what they are?”

“I’m not certain, but they seem to be artificial Monsters.”

“Artificial Monsters?”

“Monsters made artificially. Judging by their standardized form, they were probably made for a specific purpose, but…”

“Things like that just roam around on the street?”

“Careless mages drop them all the time. They don’t seem that dangerous, but you’re lucky.”

“Doesn’t feel like it to me.”

If he’d really been lucky, he would have run into that careless mage. Well, whatever. If it was fate, they’d meet again.

“How much do you want?”

“Who knows? Are you thinking of lowballing me?”

“Watch your mouth. I’m not the kind of scumbag who rigs the scales.”

“Then give me a fair price. I don’t like haggling.”

Anagin answered that he’d leave it to him. It was a rather arrogant attitude.

The short man glared at Anagin for a moment, then ordered a subordinate to bring a money pouch from the safe.

When the subordinate brought the pouch, he thrust it out in front of Anagin.

“Oh…”

A pouch that was obviously heavy just from looking at it. Anagin let out a short exclamation.

“So artificial Monsters are expensive, huh?”

“I’m buying high because it’s you. I know mages who’d buy them for research. Are you an Ascetic here to conquer the Ruins?”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t look like an idiot, but be careful anyway. You seem like a rookie.”

“Ah, damn…, does it show that much that I’m a rookie?”

Anagin lamented. The short man told him what the problem was.

“You’re young, and your armaments are poor. On top of that, you can’t be bothered to haggle—that says it all.”

“I’m of the ‘don’t do things you find bothersome’ school.”

“Arrogant… Anyway, don’t get your nose cut off. The Ruins are dangerous outside as well as inside.”

“I don’t really agree, but got it. You’re kinder than you look.”

“A customer is a customer. Guard that pouch well—there’ll be plenty in the village after your money.”

The short man warned him once more. Despite his blunt manner, he was rather considerate. Had he sold something better than he’d thought?

Anagin nodded to the short man and went straight into the village.

True to the short man’s words, the Ruins Village seemed to be a dangerous place—the street stalls and shops set up here and there had sizable guards. Where there were no guards, the merchants themselves were armed.

They said that in a Ruins Village where money gathers, drifters after that money gather too… Seeing the beggars on the streets and the shabbily dressed children who looked like pickpockets, it made sense.

By the time the scenery of the Ruins Village was starting to wear on him, Anagin looked toward the small mountain behind the village.

The mountain ringed by forest had a steep slope, with a winding path cut into it. At the very top of that path stood an old-looking stone entrance.

That seemed to be the entrance leading into the Ruins.

“But what are those?”

Anagin looked at the armed men encamped at the Ruins entrance. Something about them was off for people calling themselves Ascetics.

‘Not that I even know what a proper Ascetic looks like yet.’

Since leaving the village, he’d been lucky enough to run into quite a few Ascetics, but unfortunately, none of them had struck a chord.

The kind that made you go, *This is it!*

Personally, it was a shame.

If he met a decent Ascetic, he’d planned to study their approach to ascetic training.

To make matters worse, Rio had been skeptical too.

‘An Ascetic worth studying, you say. I’m not sure. That’s outside my expertise as well. Though I can tell you this—an Ascetic worth studying is a rare thing to find. These days, real Ascetics are few and far between. Most are just people pretending to be one.’

A regrettable story.

Anagin shook his head and decided to focus on the present for now.

First, he had to make a decision. Go straight to the Ruins, or sleep a night and go after.

“Hey there, friend.”

Someone draped an arm over his shoulder and struck up a conversation.

He was a man with a neat appearance, long black hair swept back and tied. He grinned at Anagin with an easy familiarity.

“You here to take on the Ruins too?”

“Yeah.”

“Kyah, you’re one lucky guy, huh? Running into me.”

“Why?”

“Because you can’t just waltz into the Ruins right now. You need an introduction from someone trustworthy. And I’m that trustworthy someone.”

“Heh…. I see. By any chance, do you know a lot about this village too?”

“Oh, a man who gets it. Of course I know it well. Got something you’re curious about? Ask me anything.”

“Before I ask, let’s settle one thing first. Once that’s dealt with, I’ll ask.”

Anagin placed his hand on the man’s shoulder.

The heavy pressure gripping his shoulder made the man sense that something had gone very wrong.

“My shoulder’s hurting, you know? And what’s this problem we need to settle?”

“Getting rid of that grinding sound of your brain scheming. I can’t stand noisy things.”

Anagin smiled and clenched his fist.