Chapter 13

Chapter 13: The Trap (1)

Ponytail called him a madman.

Anagin paid it no mind and walked on.

He didn't care what anyone said.

Anagin shoved aside the barricade blocking the entrance and started up the winding mountain path.

"Huh? What the—?"

He hadn't climbed far when he ran into another group of armed men partway up the path.

They hadn't heard the signal from the entrance, so they were startled to see Anagin—but then they spotted their comrades lying at the entrance and quickly grasped the situation.

"You little—!"

A burly, bearded man in a breastplate and helmet drew his sword and tried to shout.

But before he could finish, Anagin closed the distance in a single breath and seized the hand drawing the sword.

The helmeted brute was so startled he couldn't get a word out.

Anagin tore off his helmet, grabbed him by both shoulders, and flung him clean over the edge of the slope.

"Huh...? Huh...?!"

Too stunned to even scream properly, the helmeted brute tumbled down the steep mountainside.

It had all happened in a single breath.

One of the two comrades behind him thrust a spear at Anagin.

Anagin yanked the incoming spear to throw him off balance, hooked his leg, and sent him down the slope as well.

The last one, sensing something had gone very wrong, tried to shout—but Anagin swung the helmet he'd just taken and silenced him first.

Clang!

With a ringing clash of helmet against helmet, the troublemaker lost consciousness and dropped down the slope.

"What was that?"

The crisp sound drew a reaction from the armed men lounging at the end of the path, in front of the Ruins entrance.

He'd hit too hard with the helmet. Not that he particularly minded.

His plan had been 'head-on. Boldly. With force' from the start.

Whether he was found out or not wasn't a consideration.

"Who the hell are you, you bastard? You wanna die?!"

The men who'd been killing time sitting in front of the Ruins entrance scrambled to arm themselves and shouted at Anagin.

They put back on the helmets they'd taken off out of frustration and picked up shields, swords, and spears—some grabbed slings and bows.

Thwack! Whoosh!

The men armed with bows and slings attacked first, aiming at Anagin as he strolled leisurely up from below.

But there weren't many projectiles, and their skill was poor, so they posed little threat. Even walking straight, the shots mostly missed—he only needed to casually dodge the occasional one that came at him properly.

"Hey, you idiots!"

The men armed with melee weapons cursed at their comrades' pathetic performance and moved.

They put their shield-bearers in front and came pouring down.

Leaving their position with that many men and all coming down together—at first glance it looked like a foolish choice, but since there was only one path up to begin with, it wasn't a big problem.

If anything, sending men up piecemeal against an Anagin who'd taken out their comrades in an instant might have been the riskier move.

That was their reasoning, anyway.

"Who the hell are you, you bastard?! Do you know whose territory this is?!"

But as if to mock that reasoning, Anagin planted his hand on the slope without hesitation and kicked off the ground.

His body flew up light as a feather, and he scaled the cliff to the Ruins entrance in one burst.

"Huh?!"

At this completely unexpected turn, the armed men who'd been descending to stop him made stupid noises and stared blankly up at him.

"Hey, you idiots!"

The ranged fighters at the Ruins entrance returned the very insult they'd just heard, frantically drawing bows and loading stones into slings.

Just as the arrows and stones were about to fly, Anagin—climbing the wall—hurled the helmet he'd taken earlier upward.

Thwack!

The helmet flew with a whoosh and struck down a ranged fighter above.

Two of them at once, no less.

The helmet traced a clever arc, hit the archer beside the head, bounced off, and struck the slinger next to him.

At that uncanny skill, the other ranged fighters froze in shock.

Anagin didn't miss the opening—he shot up as if flying and reached just below them.

"Eek!"

Seeing Anagin arrive right beneath them, the ranged fighters let out shrill screams.

Instinctively they tried to back away and flee, but Anagin stretched out his arms, grabbed their ankles—

Whoosh—!

—and threw them down the mountainside.

"Aaaargh!"

The ranged fighters screamed as they tumbled down.

Anagin stepped up onto the Ruins entrance just like that.

In an instant, the positions had flipped.

Anagin surveyed his surroundings and spotted a sling and pebbles lying on the ground.

"Hurry up! Get up here, now!"

Below, the armed men who'd lost track of Anagin were climbing back up.

They must have been in a hurry—unlike on the way down, their formation was a mess.

Anagin loaded a pebble into the sling, spun it round and round, and let it fly.

The curses of the climbing men were swallowed by the sharp whistle of something cutting the air, and the stone struck the helmet of the man shouting.

He dropped unconscious and fell down the slope path.

The startled shield-bearers hastily clustered together to form a wall, but rattled as they were, their shield wall was full of gaps.

Anagin threw more stones into those gaps, inflicting damage.

Only then did they start fleeing rapidly—downward, not upward—and Anagin stopped his bombardment.

Even with the stones stopped, they showed no sign of coming back up and kept descending.

Then one man caught his eye.

He pulled a fist-sized conch from his waist and shouted that an intruder had come.

It was his first time seeing one, but he had a rough idea what it was. Probably...

"That's a Comm Shell. A magic tool that lets you communicate."

At the unexpected voice, Anagin turned to find Ponytail standing there.

"Why are you here?"

"I followed you."

"No, how did you follow me?"

He'd clearly come up a steep slope—yet Ponytail had an answer to that question.

He raised both arms, and tattoos moved along them.

A tattoo like a beast's claw crawled like a worm, and when it reached his hand, it pushed out through his skin and settled into his palm.

"Cuff-Spike, anywhere I need it. And this is Surprise Spike."

Ponytail showed him the shoes he was wearing. Thick, sturdy spikes jutted from the toe and the sole.

"Magic tools?"

"Correct. And that thing from earlier is one too. The Comm Shell."

"It lets you communicate with other people?"

"Yeah. That's why you're supposed to take out the guy holding one first—but dammit, he got away."

Ponytail sighed, looking at the armed men who'd fled.

"By now the bastards here probably all know you're here. If things go wrong, I could get dragged into it too."

"Then why did you follow me?"

"A madman's about to do something crazy—how could I possibly not watch? You know what I mean?"

It sounded like nonsense, but honestly, he did kind of get it. Back home, Anagin did the same kind of stupid things with his friends. Men had a desire to watch crazy stunts.

'That's a crazy idea. Let's do it right now!'—that kind of thing...

"If you've seen enough, go home."

"I came all this way, so I'll just keep following. I want a share of the Ruins too."

"Then get it yourself."

"Aw, come on, why not? I even answered your questions, didn't I?"

"I didn't come here for treasure."

"That's fine. I'll get my own share."

"I'm not going to protect you either."

"That's fine. I can look after my own skin, at least."

Ponytail answered confidently, flexing his arm.

It looked like bragging, but Anagin neither laughed at him nor dismissed him.

Even if he'd said he was holding back, the man had taken a punch from him and stayed standing—and even with a magic tool's help, he'd climbed that steep slope in one go...

True to his word, he had the confidence to protect himself.

When Anagin said nothing more, Ponytail grinned.

"I'll take that as agreement. So what are you going to do? What's your reason for coming here, if not treasure?"

"I told you, there's something I want to find out."

"So what is it you want to know?"

"The source of my discomfort and unease."

With that, Anagin stepped into the Ruins.

---

"So it's you lot?! I'll—"

—Smack!

The Diodia's gang (presumed) came charging in shouting, and Anagin swung the club he'd picked up along the way, knocking the man down.

By the time he'd beaten down Diodia's gang members one after another, he'd lost count of how many it had been.

Honestly, he wasn't even sure they were Diodia's gang. He'd just knocked down everyone who came at him.

Well, the fact that they attacked was what mattered, so whether they were Diodia's gang or not wasn't all that important...

In any case, Anagin took the belongings off the unconscious men, just as he'd done before.

Clubs, daggers, shoes, belts, packs, rings, the clothes off their backs—everything but their underwear, their last shred of dignity.

"You said you didn't come for money?"

Ponytail asked, watching Anagin strip them of everything but their underwear.

For someone who hadn't come for treasure, he was being awfully thorough.

"There's no reason to leave something lying right in front of me."

"You're the one who made them drop it."

Ponytail spoke as if dealing with a madman. Because he really did seem like one.

Whether he cared or not, Anagin kept collecting the things off the ground, and in the process he came to understand anew why this Ruins Village was so large, and why someone had arisen to seize the Ruins for himself.

Everyone he'd knocked out had carried considerable wealth.

They said wealth gushed up like a spring—and that turned out to be true.

Seeing it firsthand, the sheer amount was enormous.

'But...'

He wondered if the Ruins' treasures were always this worn from human hands.

Was it something suited to the Ruins' nature?

"No matter how I think about it, this doesn't seem like an ordinary Ruins."

"Why not?"

"Because gods wouldn't be diligent enough to tuck away things like this."

Anagin said with conviction.

The sorts who ignored him when he prayed wouldn't be so good at managing a Ruins. Which meant someone else was doing it.

A third party managing the Ruins.

"Oho-ho...! That statement is a bit dangerous, you know? Could it be—a Babaroi cult?"

"What are those?"

"Worshipers of things that aren't real gods. Savages who revere scarecrows, pigs, fish, that sort of thing."

"Then no. I plan to become a god, but I don't particularly believe in any."

"Huh?"

Ponytail frowned at the contradictory statement. Anagin didn't bother explaining.

"But you sure know a lot."

"A traveler has to know a lot to beg for his meals, you know."

Ponytail put on airs. By rights, a civilized person was supposed to welcome a guest who came calling—but that wasn't free either. A guest receiving hospitality had to show the host proper respect, and offer news of the world or valuable information in return. Those who couldn't manage that had no right to complain about being treated coldly.

"In other words, the likes of me has to know all the more!"

"Huh..."

Anagin made a sound of acknowledgment at this new piece of knowledge. He didn't fully believe it, though.

It probably wasn't just for that reason. But he didn't press the matter either.

He didn't hear any loud gears turning, so he let it slide and looked around.

Checking for any traces. Animal tracks, for instance.

Thunk!

As he quietly scanned his surroundings, Anagin suddenly hurled the Lockpin he'd picked up off the ground.

The Lockpin flashed, flew like a streak of light, and—thunk!—embedded itself in something across the way.

Anagin walked toward where the Lockpin had lodged.

Beyond the darkness was a wall, and in a gap in the wall, a one-eyed serpent writhed—caught by the Lockpin as it tried to flee.

"Seems there's a sloppy mage here too. Or maybe we have some kind of connection."

Anagin grabbed the struggling one-eyed serpent and jabbed his thumb into its eye.

Pop! The eye burst like a grape, and the serpent went limp.

When he pulled his thumb out, black, red, sticky blood smeared from the socket.

Fresh blood.

Anagin sniffed at the blood, then immediately sniffed the air again.

After a moment, out of the countless scents mingling in the air, he found one similar to the blood on his thumb, and followed it like a thread.

The scent was deep inside the Ruins, and Anagin stepped inside without hesitation.

Along the way he ran into people who looked like Ascetics, but there were no real clashes.

They were absorbed in seeking the Ruins' resources, and Anagin had no interest in them...

The men who seemed to be Diodia's gang occasionally jumped him, but Anagin just clubbed their heads the same way.

However, since he was tracking a scent, he didn't bother collecting the dropped belongings one by one.

Ponytail did it for him instead.

"Damn, you're really raking it in. Diodia's going to be furious, huh? All the treasure his boys found, stripped clean. But why are you so quiet? When it comes to money, you'd think he'd jump up even from a dead sleep."

"He would?"

"Of course! He's not satisfied just seizing the Ruins—he takes protection fees from the merchants set up there, and even runs loans on the side! He's completely money-crazed."

"Is he also dead set on offering money at temples? To get blessings?"

"...Also?"

Ponytail echoed the word. If 'also,' that meant there was someone else.

Just as he was about to ask who, Anagin suddenly stopped.

"By any chance, is this money-crazed fellow someone with round shoulders and a thick belly?"

"Oh, rude but accurate. How did you know?"

"Because he's over there."

Anagin stopped and pointed across the way.

As the innermost part of the Ruins, it was very dark, but even so Anagin could see Diodia hiding within it.

Just as Anagin had said—round-shouldered and pot-bellied.

"Good eyes."

Diodia came out, having seen that Anagin had spotted him.

Anagin spoke in a tone of disinterest.

"You have business with me?"

"I'll ask the opposite. You barge into my Ruins, attack my men—and you expect me to have no business with you?"

"What are you talking about? What's yours and mine about a Ruins? It's a public resource. Your men attacked first, so I just knocked them down."

"Back at the entrance, you attacked first, though?"

Ponytail pointed out carefully. Anagin told him to let such trivial things slide.

"Anyway, I have no immediate business with you, so move aside. I'll deal with you later."

At Anagin's shameless attitude, Diodia marveled.

"You're beyond anything I imagined. I figured anyone who barged in out of nowhere had to be no ordinary madman, but I never thought you'd be this insolent."

"You're exactly as I imagined. They say you and Bander are the famous names around here—and this is all you amount to."

"...You know Bander? Hold on."

Diodia's eyes caught the sword hanging at Anagin's hip.

A long curved blade that tapered toward the tip. Its distinctive shape made its owner obvious at a glance.

"You want it? Here."

Without a moment's hesitation, Anagin tossed the curved sword.

Diodia caught it reflexively.

Anagin kicked off the ground, closed the distance to Diodia in one breath, and drove his fist into the man's face.

[Face Strike]

Craack!

The sound of splitting firewood rang out. Thanks to the enclosed nature of the Ruins, it echoed loudly.

"Not bad. For a brat."

But Diodia, proving his bulk was worth something, didn't go flying—he held his ground. Only a trickle of blood ran from his nose.

Anagin, however, didn't seem particularly surprised. He just shrugged.

"I can hit harder. Like this."

With those words, Anagin put his hips into it and sent Diodia flying into the far wall.

"Oh, my God."

Ponytail said in astonishment.

To send Diodia flying like that—a man who, backwater Anapic west or not, was a famous figure in these parts.

And Diodia was a Giant. Which meant that anyone who could send a Giant flying like that was a Giant himself.

'Just as I thought!'

Ponytail shouted inwardly. He'd more or less figured it out when Anagin roughed him up.

At the same time, he grew curious. What on earth was so urgent that Anagin had to slug Diodia in the face?

Maybe he just had a nasty temper, but judging by his behavior so far, there seemed to be a reason.

In the end, Ponytail couldn't hold back and asked.

"So, you got somewhere urgent to be?"

"Didn't I tell you?"

"You obviously didn't!"

"Right. Why would I tell you?"

"You son of a—"

Ponytail bristled at the infuriating tone, but the next words out of Anagin's mouth cooled him right down.

"This Ruins is a trap. A trap to feed people to monsters."

"What...?"

Ponytail asked again, startled. More precisely, he asked because he didn't understand what that meant. A trap? And one to feed people to monsters, no less.

He asked again, but Anagin's answer didn't change.

"Artificial Monsters with a similar scent are swarming all over this place. Which means this has to be their nest, doesn't it?"

Anagin spoke based on what he'd seen and heard.

Far too many people for a Ruins. A Ruins overflowing with an excess of wealth. Artificial Monsters with similar scents. And above all, the nagging feeling that some bastard was pulling some bastardly scheme.

Putting it all together, the answer was one.

Lure people in with treasure as bait, then feed them to the monsters.

"You clever son of a bitch."

Diodia rose, blood dripping steadily.

There had definitely been the sensation of his cheekbone shattering, yet he looked perfectly fine.

'Is it because of that?'

Anagin thought, looking at the pill Diodia was chewing.

Bit by bit, as he chewed and swallowed, his caved-in face recovered.

"So you take that stuff and cooperate with them?"

"That's right."

Diodia admitted it with a grin.