Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Eternal Apprentice (1)

The moment the bag Anagin swung connected with the Monster Merchant fused from serpents, blood and chunks of flesh burst out like a red firework.

Blood droplets and gobbets of meat pattered down.

The head of the massive serpent, composed of Monster Serpents, was half torn away, sending it reeling.

"Whoa there—!"

Anagin grabbed the serpent writhing in agony and hauled himself back onto it.

Then he raised the bag again and brought it down with all his might.

Spla-squish—!

A loud, wet crunch rang out, and the firework of blood and flesh burst once more.

The half-severed head was completely crushed, and the reeling body, far from regaining its balance, lurched even more violently.

"Guess splitting apart isn't so easy, huh?"

Anagin, drenched head to toe in blood and flesh, said as he looked at the Monster Merchant.

If it could split apart, it should have by now. The fact that it hadn't told him that once merged, it couldn't separate.

"That's just great for me."

Anagin raised the bag and swung again.

Spla-crunch—!

Flesh and blood burst, and the serpent's neck flew off, revealing large and small snakes writhing between the cross-sections.

But Anagin paid it no mind, swinging the bag over and over, hammering down on the giant serpent made of Monster Serpents as if carving it away.

Crunch—!

"The Market was right!"

Crunch—!

"This is one sturdy bag!"

Crunch—!

"It's still holding up after all this swinging!"

Crunch—!

"What are you gonna do? At this rate, you're gonna die, you know?!"

Crunch—!

"Not that I mind being able to look at your ugly face!"

Writhe!

Through the layers of serpent cross-sections, the robed Monster Merchant surged upward.

From beneath its robes, it flung poison snakes dripping with deadly venom.

"Where do you think you're going!"

Anagin answered by bringing the bag—raised high above his head—down half a beat faster.

Kwaaang—!!

The bag connected before the serpent could move. Flesh burst, and blood sprayed like sea foam.

As the burst droplets settled, the Monster Merchant appeared, robes in tatters.

At the instant the bag was about to connect, it had defended itself with the surrounding snakes.

"Persistent bastard."

But it hadn't escaped unharmed.

The heavy bag, packed tight with broken rock fragments and stones, easily smashed through the wall of serpent flesh and struck the Monster Merchant beyond it with force to spare.

As proof, the tattered robes, their life at an end, peeled away, revealing the Monster Merchant's true face beneath.

Ssssss—

It was a serpent. Beneath the shed robes, the Monster Merchant's form was— A malformed snake with a short, thick body compared to its enormous head. It had surrounded itself with countless snakes to mimic a humanoid shape.

"……." "……."

The Monster Merchant, its true form exposed, and Anagin stared at each other as if time had stopped.

And then,

"Pwahahahahahat!"

Anagin burst out laughing.

"You're not just ugly—you're deformed! A cripple snake!!"

Cripple. Despite being a lowly creature, the Monster Merchant's face twisted with humiliation, and it flung the snakes coiled around its body to seize Anagin's bag.

Since poison didn't work, it had chosen to interfere with his weapon instead.

Troublesome as it was, Anagin paid it no mind and tried to swing the bag.

And then—just then.

The Monster Merchant regurgitated a horn from its mouth as if throwing it up and blew it toward Anagin with all its strength.

Bwaaaaang—!!

The horn's blast, sharp enough to split eardrums, bore a shockwave as it crashed into Anagin.

Caught off guard by the unexpected blow, the unstable footing gave way beneath him, and Anagin was left floating in midair.

He had lost his grip on the Monster Merchant's hair.

Assessing the situation, Anagin hurled his subspace bag without hesitation. Then he drew Bander's sword from his hip.

Schwing!

The blade that emerged from its sheath was in terrible shape.

Caked with blood and fat, the edge chipped and broken—it was in no condition to be used.

A faint relief bloomed on the Monster Merchant's face, stiff with tension.

It had concluded that such a ruined blade couldn't possibly harm it.

Well, it was a reasonable judgment. What could anyone do with a sword that broken? But as if betraying that expectation, Anagin spoke.

"What're you looking so relieved for, idiot?"

Floating in midair, Anagin gripped the broken sword of Bander with both hands.

A moment later, unease swept across the Monster Merchant's face.

Because it saw a light bright enough for even a Monster's eyes to perceive gathering on Bander's blade.

"You can't mean—Yul—"

[Vertical Slash]

Anagin, still suspended in midair, brought the sword down.

The Gi gathered on the broken blade of Bander shone dazzlingly even under the sun, cleaving the air cleanly.

Zzzzt….

The light on the blade sliced cleanly through the Monster's hard hide—which had even blocked an axe—its tough muscle, and its sinew, and only sticky blood came dribbling out between them.

Spla-squish!

The sticky blood gushed up like a fountain, and the serpent's body collapsed. Blood and flesh pouring in all directions dyed the earth red.

Tap!

Anagin landed on the ground and looked around.

The Ruins Village in ruins. People staring at him as if their souls had been stolen. Corpses visible here and there. The foul stench of it all mixed together.

The Ruins Village had quite literally gone to hell.

Anagin pulled the magic staff stuck in the ground free and tossed it to Ponytail, who had approached before he'd noticed.

"Thanks for the loan."

"Oh? You actually gave it back?"

Ponytail looked surprised, as if he'd assumed he'd never see the staff again.

Well, it was a pretty decent magic tool, so maybe that was fair. It had been convenient, too.

It just wasn't to Anagin's taste.

"I don't lie. If I say I'm borrowing something, I actually borrow it."

"Nobody doesn't lie. Everyone tells lies, big and small."

"I don't lie. I bullshit, sure."

It was utter nonsense, but Ponytail only laughed.

"Kuh kuh kuh, you're crazier than me, saying crap like that…. Well, the winner can say whatever nonsense he wants! So anyway, how's it feel?"

"Feel about what?"

Anagin asked, rummaging through the collapsed Monster's carcass.

"You smashed Diodia on your own, and now you've carved up the Monster Merchant too, right? Those two both strut around here like they own the place."

"I see."

"Especially the Monster Merchant—he's fairly famous even in Hellas. Your name might end up in Talaria Weekly, you know?"

"Talaria or Tallulah or whatever it's called, I don't care—I didn't manage to kill that snake bastard."

"What?"

Anagin stopped rummaging through the Monster's carcass and answered.

"I said I couldn't kill it. I aimed to split its skull, but it dodged by a hair."

"Seriously?"

Ponytail, who had seen the earlier strike, asked in disbelief.

A sword strike that carried not only keen swordsmanship but a vast amount of Gi should have been that much harder to evade. At least, that was how it had looked to him.

Ponytail wasn't the only one who found it hard to believe—so did Anagin.

He had swung with the intent to split its skull in a single breath, yet the thing had twisted its body desperately and dodged by the narrowest of margins.

Though it hadn't escaped completely and had taken a fatal wound, its torso sheared through, the important fact was that it had avoided dying on the spot.

A result born not of reflexes but of a sheer attachment to survival.

For a Beast Spawn, its will was remarkably strong.

Well, admiration was admiration and killing was killing, so he'd immediately swung his sword to finish it off, but….

"That failed. It pulled a magic tool from its mouth and vanished like smoke."

"Vanished like smoke, huh. A teleportation escape magic tool. Those are precious—lucky it got its hands on one."

"Can you tell where it went?"

Ponytail shook his head.

"No one but the user can know. That's the kind of thing it is. All I can say is it couldn't have gone far—not close, but not that far either."

"That's a shame."

Anagin was genuinely disappointed.

A beast that spoils the field only grows craftier and more vicious, so you have to kill it while you can.

The boar he'd killed before leaving his hometown was a fine example. Hadn't the damned thing come charging in to avenge its family, for all that it was a lowly creature?

Well, he could just chase it down and kill it, so it wasn't a big problem, but….

"You're not thinking of chasing after it, are you?"

Quick to catch on, Ponytail had read Anagin's thoughts.

"Oh, how'd you know?"

"The vibe was off. More importantly, how would you even chase it if you don't know where it is?"

"The wind's blowing that way, so I'll just head in that direction."

"You're not a boat—what do you mean…. Never mind, it's not my place to argue. Are you going right now?"

"First, I'll take care of the things that are bothering me."

Anagin picked up a shovel from the debris scattered around and walked over to a small child.

The face was vaguely familiar. It was the kid who'd been soliciting customers by the river.

The kid sat numbly in the middle of the ruined Ruins Village, silently looking up at Anagin.

"Is that your little brother?"

Anagin asked, looking at another child lying beside the kid.

This kid, too, was one of the children who'd been soliciting by the river together—already dead.

Killed during the Monster Merchant's attack.

The child didn't answer.

This time, Anagin asked if it was a friend.

The child didn't answer this time either.

"Whatever it was, let's bury it for now. The dead can rest once they're buried. Let go of it already."

The child, whose soul seemed to have left them, finally released the dead child's hand, and Anagin began digging the ground with the shovel he'd brought.

Scrape—! Scrape—! Scrape—!

In the Ruins Village, silent as death, only the sound of digging echoed on in quiet persistence. The people around watched without a word.

Then Anagin opened his mouth.

"If you've got something to say, say it quick."

The ones he addressed were a group of burly figures armed with massive swords—the Monster butchers.

They too looked a wreck, as if they'd been through a war, but even so, they were in somewhat better shape than the others.

Perhaps because they butchered Monsters, during the Monster Serpents' attack they had fought in their own way and protected themselves.

From among them, one representative stepped forward. He was short and stout. The man who had traded with Anagin by the river.

"Boss."

"Whew…. Allow me to greet you properly. I am Karnos, a Monster butcher. On behalf of the butchers, I thank you, hero. I sincerely thank you for saving us."

"Your way of talking's changed."

"Our work is rough, so our manners and speech are rough too—but we're not so ill-bred as to get haughty after receiving a favor. If not for you, we'd all have become snake food. I offer you my sincerest gratitude."

The short, stout butcher bowed with proper courtesy, as if his words were no empty formality. The other butchers followed, bowing their heads in thanks.

Given the nature of their trade, they had fought back in their own way, but in the end, if Anagin hadn't appeared, they would have been overwhelmed by the Monsters' numbers and died—so their reaction was only natural.

That said, they hadn't crowded over here just to express their thanks.

Anagin knew that well enough too.

"Here, take it."

Anagin, who had been digging with the shovel, tossed the shovel he'd been using to the short, stout man.

Then he looked around, picked up the shovels lying scattered about, and tossed one to each of the butchers.

"What's this?"

"You came because of the Monster carcass, right? To sell it, or to ask for it?"

The short, stout man, caught off guard, affirmed with silence.

"Dig some ground and bury the bodies for me instead. Then I'll hear you out…. How about it?"

When Anagin asked, tilting his head, the short, stout man answered by digging. The other butchers followed suit and began to dig.

As the rhythmic sound of shovels digging into earth filled the air, Anagin turned to Ponytail, who was watching him with a grin, and asked.

"You know where Diodia's gang's base is, don't you?"

"Diodia's gang?"

"Don't play dumb. A group that size couldn't be scattered all over the place. And the loot each of them pocketed isn't exactly small change either."

At the precise point, even the brazen-faced Ponytail had no choice but to concede.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't?"

"You know exactly where it is, don't you?"

"Why do you think that?"

"Because a sharp bastard like you couldn't possibly not know something like that. By the same logic, you'd know I won't believe you if you lie. So let's not waste time with bullshit."

"Aiish…. What is it you want?"

"Guide me. I'll pay you for the work."