Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Eternal Apprentice (2)

The hideout of Diodia's gang was in the forest, not far from the Ruins Village.

They ate and slept there, and kept the profits they earned from the Ruins, or so he'd heard.

"So it's less a hideout and more a fortress. Palisades, watchtowers, armed guards—the security's tight as can be... Not that any of it means a thing to you."

Ponytail, who'd been running his mouth to scare him, wrapped up the story in a deflated voice.

And no wonder. Anagin had beaten down the master of that terrifying fortress, and he'd smashed up the Monster Merchant—someone even worse.

Yet the fortress had tight defenses?

It was a meaningless thing to say.

"Man, boring."

Ponytail muttered, watching Anagin show no particular reaction.

If there was no easy money to be had, the trip itself should at least be fun, but there was none of that either.

He couldn't imagine Anagin getting scared, nor the fortress putting up a fight.

The number of people guarding it was obvious at a glance... No, it was questionable whether they were even still guarding it.

At this distance, they should know something had gone down in the Ruins Village. For all he knew, they might have already fled.

"Hold on... if we're unlucky, they really might have all run off. Those types have a weird instinct for these things—the moment something feels off, they bolt. The problem is, they don't just run. They grab anything worth money on the way out. Our money."

"Our money?"

When Anagin repeated it back, Ponytail looked wounded.

"Aw, come on. I didn't help much, but I did help, didn't I? I'll pull my weight, so just call it ours."

Ponytail shamelessly pressed up against Anagin. He'd judged that taking it by force or stealing it on the sly wouldn't be easy—Anagin was too strong, and too sharp-eyed for that.

Anagin let it go and moved on to the next topic—maybe he'd been joking.

"We don't even know if they ran. Isn't it too early for this?"

"Hmm, that's true, but somehow I don't think they ran. Looking at you, I get that feeling."

Anagin wondered if Ponytail had some kind of illness.

A guy who'd been agonizing a moment ago over what to do if he bolted had just declared there was no way. Waffling was one thing, but this was something else.

A short while later, Anagin arrived at Diodia's hideout with Ponytail.

Whether Ponytail had an illness, he couldn't say, but he had to admit the man's instincts were good.

Because the remnants of Diodia's gang hadn't fled—they were still at the fortress. Though, in a form he hadn't expected...

"They didn't run, just like you said?"

"More precisely, they couldn't run. Looks like a visitor came first?"

Ponytail spoke, looking at the hole-riddled palisades, the corpses strewn all over, and the precious metals and coins spilled across the ground.

It looked like someone had ambushed the remnants of Diodia's gang as they were gathering valuables to flee.

The question was who that someone was.

"What a waste."

Ponytail picked up a coin and a gold necklace from the ground.

He didn't know who the visitor who'd arrived at the fortress first was, but they didn't seem the type to care about valuables.

'Or maybe they had something they were more interested in than treasure.'

"Are we going in?"

Ponytail asked, picking up the fallen valuables.

"I've got no reason not to. If you're nervous, you don't have to follow."

"Aw, what do you take me for... I'll bolt if things go south. Don't worry."

It was a shameless thing to say, but Anagin liked it. It meant he didn't have to worry about him.

Anagin walked into the fortress without hesitation.

Inside, the situation wasn't much different from outside.

Broken storehouses and corpses, and coins, jewels, and ornaments scattered on the ground as if no one cared.

From the scene, Anagin could sense irritation and annoyance—like someone had finally dealt with a task they'd been putting off and putting off.

"I can't stand this."

Ponytail looked at the valuables strewn messily about and raised both hands.

At that, two hoof-shaped tattoos moved along his skin and reached each of his palms. The hoof-shaped tattoos that arrived popped out of his skin and were gripped in both of Ponytail's hands.

"The Greed Magnet Set. A magic tool that pulls valuable precious metals toward the user in proportion to their greed."

Even though no one had asked, Ponytail explained the magic tool and demonstrated its function.

Clack—!

When he struck the Greed Magnets in his hands together, a vibration rang out and the valuables scattered around were drawn toward Ponytail.

Light things flew as if leaping to stick fast to the magnet, while heavy things like necklaces crawled along the ground and gathered around Ponytail. All that was left was to pick them up.

"What's this, a crow chick?"

From a half-collapsed building, a man walked out.

"Oh, he's tall?"

An impressively large figure, easily two meters fifty centimeters.

Anagin looked up at the man, tilting his head back.

He had limbs as long and powerful as his height, and thick eyebrows that gave him a heavy, intense look. Add to that a close-shaven head, and he looked thoroughly vicious.

"Peripetes?"

Ponytail called the lanky baldy by name, as if he knew him.

Anagin asked.

"You two know each other?"

"Would we know each other?"

"Then how do you know him?"

"That's because—"

"—I'm pretty famous."

The lanky baldy cut off Ponytail and answered for him.

Anagin asked.

"I wasn't asking you."

Perhaps it was an unexpected response, because the lanky baldy—Lanky Baldy, for short—let out a snicker.

"You're a fun one... Not a crow, then."

Crow was a derogatory term for those who made a living picking over the debris of battlefields and Ascetic fights.

"One of you knows about me. The other's the one who smashed up the Monster Merchant."

Lanky Baldy had recognized Anagin. He'd seen the fight with the Monster Merchant.

"You didn't come to pick up scraps—you came for the spoils, didn't you?"

"You too?"

"I just came to get something that was promised to me."

Lanky Baldy raised the book in his hand to show it.

It looked like a very old object.

"Something Diodia was supposed to give me. But the way things have turned out, it doesn't look like I'll be getting it from him... So I came to get it myself. Did you take down Diodia too?"

"For now... Did you do this?"

Anagin pointed with his thumb at the corpses around them.

Lanky Baldy grinned.

"What, is there a problem?"

"No, I was just curious. Is that the only thing you're taking?"

Anagin glanced at the book.

"Yeah. You planning to stop me?"

"No."

Anagin shook his head. Ponytail was startled.

"Really?"

"Why are you so surprised?"

"I'm surprised too?"

Lanky Baldy chimed in as well. He'd apparently been expecting a fight.

"Your fighting's far from ordinary, so I figured you'd be greedy too."

"I'm not interested in some worn-out book."

Ponytail countered.

"That's an artifact found in the Ruins. It's precious in itself."

He wasn't wrong. Artifacts in the form of records mostly had no practical use, but that didn't mean they were worthless. Even simply put, their rarity made them sell for high prices among collectors, and if you offered one to a temple, it might on occasion catch a god's eye and earn you a blessing.

Above all, the fact that Lanky Baldy had killed people to get it was proof enough of its value.

Yet Anagin's attitude didn't change.

"Doesn't matter. I'm not interested. The title is... 'On the True King'? Just looking at it, it seems boring. I'm really not interested."

Anagin read the faint ancient script written on the withered book.

"Hold on, you... can you read this writing?"

Lanky Baldy looked a little surprised.

"I just read it, didn't I? Is there a problem?"

"There certainly is. Not just anyone can read ancient script."

That was true.

The ancient records kept in the Ruins were mostly written in ancient script, and no one but those with specialized education could read them. Only high priests, powerful nobles, royalty, and Ascetics of wide renown—people like that.

Because that was how God had decreed it.

So even nobles of decent standing, or low-ranking priests, couldn't read ancient script. Let alone anyone else.

"How were you able to read it?"

"Why should I answer that?"

Anagin shot back.

He could read ancient script thanks to his Master's teaching, but he had no reason to explain that to him.

Lanky Baldy watched Anagin in silence for a moment.

Anagin asked seriously.

"If you've got what you wanted, just leave. Or what? Are you disappointed I'm not getting in your way?"

"...Puhahahahat!!"

Hearing the question, Lanky Baldy burst out laughing. After laughing for a good while, he spoke.

"Ah... I'll decline. You yielded to me, so it's only right I yield to you in turn, isn't it?"

It wasn't that he'd yielded because he wasn't interested, but he didn't bother saying so.

Lanky Baldy looked back and forth between Anagin and Ponytail, then passed by.

"See you next time. I feel like we'll meet again."

"I don't particularly want to see you."

Anagin said with sincerity.

It was just a feeling, but if they met next time, one of them was bound to end up in a sorry state. Not that he'd dislike it, but he wondered if there was really any need.

"Hey, you look like an Ascetic, so as a senior in this line of work, how about a piece of advice?"

"No, don't. I don't like advice and that sort of thing."

Anagin declined immediately, but Lanky Baldy didn't listen.

"Come on, hear me out. It'll put meat on your bones. Watch your surroundings. No matter how harmless someone seems, everyone in this world's got their own agenda."

Lanky Baldy glanced sidelong at Ponytail. As if to say he was up to no good.

He didn't know what intent was behind it, but Anagin gave some advice of his own.

"How about I give you some advice?"

"?"

"Next time, you'd better not run into me. If you do, I don't think you'll live long. That's the feeling I get."

Anagin gave Lanky Baldy his sincere advice. If they met again, someone was bound to end up in a sorry state, and no matter how he thought about it, he didn't think it would be him.

Perhaps his sincerity got through, because Lanky Baldy snickered again and left.

---

After Lanky Baldy left, Anagin searched the ruins with Ponytail and gathered the spoils.

There was a fair amount of wealth earned from the Ruins, and plenty of food and weapons besides. There were even magic tools.

"Man, none of these magic tools are any good. Tsk—!"

Ponytail clicked his tongue after examining the magic tools.

He knew how to appraise magic tools, so he'd volunteered on the condition of extra pay, but there wasn't a single decent item in sight.

"They're that bad?"

"Yeah, want me to explain? This subspace bag. It lets you carry anything lightly, but the amount you can put in can't exceed the bag's volume."

Ponytail shook a shabby bag with a scowl. It was worn and obviously looked low in value.

"Actually, it's not even a subspace bag. It's just a bag that's easy to carry."

The requirement for a subspace bag was the ability to put 'a large amount of cargo' into 'a single bag' and carry it 'lightly.'

If it failed even one of those, it couldn't be called a 'proper' subspace bag. It was just a defective product with the appearance of a subspace bag.

To an ordinary person it would be a valuable item all the same, but to a proper Ascetic it wasn't worth using. It was at the level of just being better sold off.

That wasn't the end of it.

"This rope is an infinitely extending magic rope."

Ponytail held up a short rope about the length of his arm. There was an iron band around the middle of the rope.

"Infinite?"

"It says infinite, but in reality it has limits. Magic tools tend to have a bit of exaggeration."

"Still, it looks useful?"

"Not necessarily? To extend it, you have to pull it with physical strength."

Ponytail demonstrated right away.

When he grabbed both ends of the rope and pulled hard, the rope stretched little by little.

"Your arms are weak."

"That's because this is weird!"

Ponytail flared up.

"Anyway, you have to pull it with strength to use it, and the longer the rope gets, the harder it is to pull... It's too inconvenient. The other magic tools here are each missing a screw, too."

Ponytail pointed at the other magic tools laid out on the ground. It meant they were worthless.

Anagin examined the worthless magic tools. From his own view, they seemed pretty decent. Wasn't the value of an object relative anyway?

"Explain them all to me."

"Really?"

"They look useful to me."

"Ah, normally appraisal and specialized techniques are paid per item..."

"Fine. Sell it with information thrown in."

"What?"

"After you appraise the magic tools, answer my questions, and I'll give you half of what's over there."

Anagin pointed at the pile of coins and precious metals stacked on the table.

The wealth Diodia had accumulated over time. Naturally, the sum was beyond imagination.

Ponytail responded immediately.

"Come right in. What would you like to know first?"

Ponytail rubbed his hands together and kindly explained the magic tools one by one, step by step.

"To put it in words..."

A cloak that repairs itself by absorbing the user's energy. A tent that's absurdly heavy but unfolds and folds on its own.

Just as Ponytail said, the magic tools in Diodia's hideout each had a screw loose somewhere.

"But that's only natural. Precious magic tools are usually carried around personally. Proper magic tools are hard to get even with money. The only things left lying around in a place like this are the ones missing a screw. Like your bag."

Ponytail pointed at the bag of Anagin, who'd beaten up the Monster Merchant.

Sturdy and capable of holding a lot, but it didn't reduce weight at all—a half-baked subspace bag.

Anagin put all the magic tool items he'd looted into that subspace bag. He figured they'd come in handy someday.

"Hmm! Hmm! So, I'll take half of those sparkly friends, then?"

"Hold on, you have to answer my questions first."

"Aw, and here I thought you'd forgotten. What are you curious about?"

"That Lanky Baldy from before."

"Lanky Baldy?"

"It's short for lanky baldy."

"Puhahahat! That's a killer nickname. So what about him?"

"That guy. What is he?"

"Why are you curious about that?"

Ponytail asked back, looking surprised. Anagin didn't seem the type to take an interest in other people.

Anagin told him why he was interested.

"Because I feel like I'll beat him to death if we meet again."