Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Eternal Apprentice (3)

“Ho—! You’re not joking?”

Ponytail laughed like he’d just heard a good one.

But it wasn’t actually funny. He was startled.

Saying he’d beat Peripetes to death…

Anagin spoke at that unusual reaction.

“I don’t joke about stuff like that.”

“Yeah, I figured. Which is why I’m telling you—don’t. Not unless you want life to get real exhausting.”

“So he’s strong, I take it?”

Anagin responded like he’d already guessed as much.

That Lanky Baldy from before… he definitely wasn’t ordinary.

His physique, his walk, his presence—he was someone who knew what he was doing.

At the very least, he was the strongest person Anagin had met since leaving his hometown.

“Strong? Of course he’s strong. He’s an executive of the Forest Brotherhood.”

“Forest Brotherhood? What’s that?”

“You really don’t know a lot, do you.”

“I subscribe to the ‘don’t bother knowing what I don’t care about’ philosophy. Though I’m curious now.”

“Aren’t you something. Anyway, good thing you’re curious now. Getting on the Forest Brotherhood’s bad side is a pain.”

“Are they a nation? Or some Ascetic family?”

Anagin asked, recalling what the Master had told him.

Once you set out on the path of ascetic training, you’d pass through the territories of nations and Ascetic families—so unless you wanted trouble, it was best not to stir up problems with them. Unless you didn’t mind the trouble, of course.

“Not a nation, but they’re a headache even for nations. They’re the Bandit Alliance. They span all of Hellas.”

A bandit alliance spanning Hellas, the center of the world ruled by gods.

An ordinary person would be shocked by the scale—but Anagin zeroed in on the “bandit” part.

“Bandits? I know what those are. Two-legged beasts that hide in the mountains and pillage, right?”

“Not wrong, but you might want to watch your mouth. Any bandits listening would take offense.”

“So they’re the type to get angry when you tell the truth.”

“The point isn’t the truth—it’s that there’s a terrifying number of them. Most forests and mountains in Hellas are the Forest Brotherhood’s front yard. Lately they’ve been expanding into Anapic, too. You know what that means?”

“No.”

“It means if you get on their bad side for no reason, life gets very exhausting. If you’re an Ascetic, you’ll be wandering all over the place—you don’t want to fight armed bandits every time you do, do you?”

Ponytail was stating plain common sense.

Ascetics—especially those from the Giant lineage—were incomparably stronger and tougher than ordinary people, but they were still human.

Giants had to eat, had to wash, had to sleep, and sometimes had to relax and rest.

And yet, getting ambushed every time you left a city? That wasn’t exactly pleasant.

Because of that, even decent Ascetics didn’t openly oppose the Forest Brotherhood. And even when they did, it was only on a local scale.

“The organization’s huge and spreads everywhere like poisonous mushrooms, so it’s hard to root out. On top of that, some of the executives are pretty strong.”

“Like that Lanky Baldy from before?”

Ponytail nodded.

“Club Peripetes. A fixer belonging to the Forest Brotherhood who built his reputation by beating promising Ascetics to death with a club. I don’t know why, but if you don’t want trouble, you’re better off not fighting him.”

Ponytail advised him with uncharacteristic seriousness. Their first meeting hadn’t gone well, but Anagin was a fun guy, and he didn’t want to see him dead so soon.

But Anagin’s attitude hadn’t changed from the start.

“I dunno. I don’t particularly want to cause problems either, but if we meet again, I’m pretty sure I’ll beat him to death.”

“Why, though?”

“Just a feeling. He’s got a punchable face.”

“……”

“Maybe it’s because he’s too tall. I hate looking up at people. Or maybe it’s because he’s bald. I hate bald people.”

Ponytail was horrified by the absurd nonsense.

Killing someone for being tall? Sure, killing someone for being bald was also bad, but still!

“Good thing I’m just the right height. And I’ve got a full head of hair… Anyway, I’m telling you, live like that and you won’t last long.”

“Ha!”

“What’s so funny?”

“The dumb shit coming out of your mouth. If I wanted to live long, I wouldn’t have become an Ascetic.”

Ponytail was momentarily speechless. Because it was exactly right.

Being an Ascetic was never something for people who wanted to live long and prosper. If that’s what you wanted, you should’ve taken up farming.

An Ascetic was someone who set a goal and would walk through fire to reach it.

For an Ascetic, the only paths were “success” or “death.”

An Ascetic who lives long? In a sense, that was worse than failure or death. It meant being a fake—neither one thing nor the other.

And yet the reason Ponytail reacted this way was that such an attitude was rare these days.

It wasn’t that there were no Ascetics sincerely accumulating Karma, but the reality was that most just wanted to receive a moderate God’s blessing, gain moderate wealth and fame, and live comfortably.

Maybe that was why.

Ponytail suddenly got curious. It wasn’t something he’d cared about before.

“So what’s your goal?”

“Huh?”

“I’m asking what your goal is as an Ascetic.”

“God.”

Anagin answered without a shred of hesitation.

“What?”

“I’m going to become a God. That’s the goal I’ve set.”

“……”

Ponytail was silently stunned.

He’d never seen an Ascetic declare they’d become a God with such confidence.

It wasn’t bravado, nor something said carelessly. Those eyes… they were truly fixed on God as a goal.

For the first time in a long while, Ponytail felt his heart race as a reporter for Talaria News. Even if he was just an Eternal Apprentice. Regardless, it was interesting.

---

After each gathered their spoils, Anagin returned to the Ruins Village with Ponytail.

Ah, correction. More precisely, he returned to where the Ruins Village had been.

While Anagin had been away, quite a few people had already abandoned the ruined village and left.

Even at this very moment, people were still leaving.

The innkeeper, the general store owner, the blacksmith, the peddler couple, and so on.

Fitting for a village of merchants that had sprung up temporarily, the Ruins Village was vanishing in the blink of an eye.

“It can’t be helped. For traders like us, time is money.”

The squat butcher approached Anagin, who was watching the departing people.

He defended himself as if he’d read something in Anagin’s eyes.

“In times like these, it’s best to leave as fast as possible. Once word spreads about what happened here, all sorts of scum will swarm in like flies.”

“Thanks for the explanation I didn’t ask for. But seeing as you’re not leaving, you must still have business here.”

Ponytail cut in.

“I stayed to trade with you. Because you said so.”

“That’s right.”

The squat man admitted it and pointed to one side.

There were countless graves there, and more were still being made. They belonged to the people who’d been victimized by the Monster Merchant. The ones with no one to bury them.

“I buried them all, just as you said. So, as promised, I’d like to discuss the monster carcasses you caught.”

“For something you want to ‘discuss,’ it looks like you’ve already started working.”

Anagin pointed to the riverside below the graves, where a large tent had been newly erected.

Under the new tent, butchers who’d settled in the Ruins Village were gathered, processing the monster carcasses.

Skinning, removing innards, dividing by parts, and so on.

The river ran red from the large-scale work, and a foul stench of blood hung in the air.

“I apologize for that. If we’d left the carcasses as they were, they’d have rotted… If you decide not to sell, I’ll return the processed parts.”

“The kids are working too.”

Anagin said, looking at the children running errands here and there around the tent. They were the brats who’d been soliciting customers by the river.

“There’s a lot of work, so I need the hands…”

“You’ve got an angle, don’t you? To quote you, I can hear the gears in your head grinding.”

Ponytail needled his way in.

At that, the squat man couldn’t deny it and gnashed his teeth.

Ponytail had seen right through him, and precisely.

The squat man cursed Ponytail inwardly and agonized over how to deflect.

That was when it happened. Anagin said something unexpected.

“If I say I’ll sell, do you have the money to pay?”

“…Honestly, I don’t.”

The startled squat man answered a beat late. At the same time, perhaps catching a whiff of something, he didn’t scheme and told the truth.

“It’s true I made a profit in the Ruins Village, but even accounting for that, I don’t have the funds to buy that much all at once. If I had that kind of money, I wouldn’t have been drifting in the first place.”

“Then how do you plan to pay?”

The squat man swallowed hard, standing before the biggest deal of his life.

“Credit. I want to buy on credit.”

“Credit?”

“I mean I’ll pay for the goods later.”

“I know what credit is. And I know it’s dangerous.”

“Because there’s a chance he’ll get stiffed.”

“I won’t deny what this obnoxious Ponytail said. Credit deals are dangerous.”

The squat man admitted it, jabbing a finger at Ponytail. He really wanted to hit him.

“And you’re still saying you’ll do it on credit?”

“Because there’s no other way. Of course, I’m not asking to just take it. I—”

“—Fine. I’ll let you have it on credit.”

“What?”

The squat man asked again in shock at Anagin’s words. Had he really heard that correctly?

“I said I’ll sell it to you on credit.”

“…Are you serious?”

“I bullshit, but I don’t lie. In exchange, I have a condition.”

He bullshits but doesn’t lie. Well, it sounded like nonsense, but the squat man let it slide for now. Before an enormous deal, he could let small crap go.

He steeled himself and asked what the condition was.

“What do you want?”

“Make those brats your responsibility.”

Anagin pointed at the kids running errands at the butchery.

“Looks like you took care of them to get on my good side, so if you’re going to do it, do it properly. Then I’ll sell to you on credit.”

“……”

The squat man stared at Anagin with his mouth open.

It was true that he’d taken care of the kids after seeing Anagin bury them, thinking it might help the negotiation—but he hadn’t expected the other side to bring it up first.

How to put it? It was beyond his imagination. He was almost dazed.

“What? Don’t like it?”

“No, I’ll take it. It’s a far better deal for me.”

“Good.”

“Honestly, I’m surprised.”

“What, out of nowhere?”

“When I first saw you, I thought you were some clueless Ascetic whelp. You’re far more of a hero than I expected.”

“? Me?”

Anagin frowned. The squat man nodded, unfazed.

“That’s right. Among Ascetics, there are those who do little acts of charity to play at being heroes, but none who’d just hand over a deal this big for the sake of a bunch of orphans.”

“Ah… Well, I guess it could look that way. But it’s not. I’m just doing it to ease my own conscience.”

“?”

“If I hadn’t seen them, fine, but I did see them, and leaving them to die would feel like shit. It’d nag at me, y’know? So instead of giving you credit, I’m entrusting them to you. So I don’t feel like shit.”

It was similar to why Anagin had taken the lead in burying his hometown’s people. Rather than purely to mourn them, it was because not burying them would’ve nagged at him.

Mourning and nagging unease…

They might seem no different, but the subject was different. Was the other person the center, or was he? Anagin was always the center. His own feelings.

“Ha—!”

The squat man burst out laughing at the answer. It was a somewhat obnoxious laugh.

“What’s with you? You’re asking to get hit.”

“It’s because I met an Ascetic I like for the first time in a while, so understand.”

“Your words got short again.”

“So you’re going to hit me?”

Anagin thought it over, then shook his head.

He was already speaking casually too—hitting someone just because they spoke casually didn’t seem right.

“Working in monster butchery, you meet a lot of Ascetics, whether you want to or not.”

“I didn’t ask.”

“Listen anyway.”

“……”

“Ascetics all look similar at a glance, but there are actually many types. In temperament, in training methods. Some of them are greedy humans, but there are also humans gripped by some strange sense of duty. Which kind do you think lasts longer?”

“Not interested.”

“The greedy ones last better. People who think they’re sacrificing themselves either don’t last long or turn strange. From my position as a trader, greedy ones are better. Even if they’re obnoxious, I can keep trading with them for a long time. Even if they can’t make big deals…”

Anagin tilted his head, not understanding what the last part meant.

Can’t make big deals? Did it mean that because they’re greedy, they can’t make bold deals?

“In that sense, I’ve started to like you. You’re straightforward… All right, I’ll take responsibility and look after those kids. I’ll give them work and teach them the trade so they can stand on their own. I was short on hands anyway!”

The squat man said it loudly, then dragged Anagin over to the tent and wrote him a clean credit receipt.

And that wasn’t all.

“Here, take this as thanks for your help. Expressing gratitude empty-handed isn’t my style, either.”

The squat man handed Anagin a thick, crudely made sword.

It was a longsword slightly shorter than the squat man himself, and the bandages wrapped around the hilt were worn smooth, making it seem very old. Characters were engraved on the gleaming blade.

「I skin the beast, cut its flesh, and sever its bones.」

“A magic weapon, huh.”

Ponytail said upon seeing the longsword.

“Beastcleaver. A magic sword imbued with Yeom that lets you cut monsters and beasts more easily. Take it.”

Anagin didn’t decline and accepted the sword the squat man offered.

His sword taken from Bander had broken, so he’d needed a new one.

The squat man added,

“It’s a magic sword, but it’s not so amazing that it’ll slice every monster like cheese. It just helps you cut a little better.”

“That’s enough for me.”

Anagin replied after examining the longsword. He wasn’t sure if it was enchanted, but it certainly felt like it would cut monsters better.

“You’ll be leaving too—where are you headed?”

Anagin wet his finger with saliva and held it up lightly.

“That way. The wind’s blowing that way.”

“If you stop by a town and need help, show that sword to the lord there. He knows me.”

Anagin, who’d taken the sword without hesitation, paused for a moment.

The squat man hadn’t simply given him a good sword—he’d vouched for his identity.

“You serious?”

Anagin asked. Even he, who had lived out in the backwoods, knew that vouching for someone's identity wasn't something done lightly.

If anything, having lived in the backwoods, he understood the difficulty better. If trouble arose, you were the one who took the fall.

"Think of it as a kind of investment. Pay me back when you make it big later."

The squat man crossed his arms and spoke arrogantly.

And in truth, this sort of thing happened often enough.

A promising Ascetic who saved a village would be treated well—or even have a daughter offered to him for a night. And if he really did become a big name, you could claim a share of that fame, so as long as he succeeded, it wasn't a bad deal.

Anagin examined the sword, then hung it at his waist.

"I'll do things my own way."

"Suit yourself."

Anagin nodded and immediately walked off in the direction the wind was blowing.

"You're leaving right now?"

"My business here is done, so there's no reason to stay."

That was all Anagin said before leaving without hesitation.

Without even saying goodbye to Ponytail and the squat man.

The two of them silently watched Anagin's retreating back.

---

Not long after Anagin left, flies began trickling into the Ruins Village one by one.

Just as flies and beasts gather where there's a carcass, they too had come sniffing around for whatever scraps they could pick up.

And there was, in fact, plenty to eat.

The massive stockpile of monster carcasses Anagin had left behind was a prime example.

But all of them left without even getting a taste.

The butchers who had rallied around the squat man had built themselves a fortress of sorts.

Veterans of this sort of thing, they had prepared thoroughly, and most of the flies had to go home empty-handed.

"So why haven't you left?"

The squat man, having stepped out to take a break from the work, asked Ponytail, who was lounging around nearby.

The man had stayed put here even after Anagin left.

"Aw, come on. Didn't I tell you I'm waiting for someone? I even paid you, so don't be so cold."

The squat man was puzzled. Just who on earth was he waiting for out here?

He wondered if the man was sticking around to steal something, but that didn't seem to be it either.

"Hey! We've got more scum coming!"

While Ponytail and the squat man were talking, a butcher who had been standing guard appeared and gave the report.

Judging by his tense expression, this batch of raiders didn't look like pushovers.

The squat man went to see for himself, and it was true.

Unlike the other raiders who came to pick up scraps, these ones seemed to have come to make a real killing.

There were dozens of them, and they were decently armed.

These were men who had caught a proper whiff of money. There might even be a Giant among them.

"Don't tell me those are the ones you're waiting for?"

The squat man, eyeing the raiders who had clearly come with serious intent, threw a suspicious look at Ponytail.

Ponytail shook his head calmly.

"I don't call in guys like that. If I want something, I steal it—why would I go raiding like some uneducated brute?"

He spouted such blatant nonsense that it somehow sounded believable.

The other butchers, sensing something was off, also stopped working and came pouring out.

The Monster Merchants were all tough enough to look after themselves, but they didn't seem to care about these newcomers.

"Hey!"

A man who appeared to be the leader of the raiders stepped forward.

He was clad in thick armor from head to toe.

"I heard there was a commotion here—is everyone unharmed?"

"No problems here! Not until you showed up! What brings you here?!"

"We've come to share your burden!!"

The raider shouted shamelessly.

"I hear you've got a massive stockpile of monster carcasses here!?"

"And if we do?!"

"Excess wealth invites disaster! We'll kindly take half that burden off your hands! Just sell us half!! We'll make it worth your while!!"

These weren't ordinary men. Not "hand it over," but "sell it to us." This wasn't the work of amateurs at extortion.

But the squat man was no amateur at this game either.

He strode forward with his greatsword slung over his shoulder and bellowed.

"Cut the crap! We decide whether it's a burden or not. Either quietly get lost, or show us your real colors—pick one!!"

A half-baked raider would have been shaken by his force, but these newcomers smiled—as if they had truly come prepared.

"If that's what you want, then so be it! But remember, you're the ones who started this fight!!"

Just as the raiders were about to close in with their leader at the front—

"Excuse me."

A gentle breeze blew, and a woman appeared in the space between the butchers and the raider band.

"……." "……."

The raider band that had come to plunder and the butchers trying to protect what was theirs both paused at the sudden appearance of the woman.

Because she was wearing the winged sandals "Talaria" and the winged hat "Petasos"—the symbols of the Talaria Weekly.

The mark of a Talaria Weekly reporter.

Proof that she was a human who bore Hermes's blessing and protection.

A being of the heavens, rarely seen by those who lived with their feet on the ground. At her appearance, the two groups that had looked ready to fight at any moment froze.

"Before you fight, is there anyone here who knows what happened in this place?"

As everyone stood tense and silent, one man alone raised his hand with a playful voice.

"Here! I know!"

It was Ponytail.

"You're…."

The woman seemed surprised to recognize Ponytail. And with good reason—Ponytail was also a Knight of the Talaria Weekly who bore Hermes's blessing.

Though he was a perpetual trainee, lacking in motivation.

"Long time no see, ma'am."

"I didn't expect to find you here."

The woman was genuinely surprised.

That a man who wasted the blessing God had given him on thieving, swindling, and womanizing was here—that alone was astonishing.

Within the Talaria News offices, there were even those who wondered why the man hadn't been fired.

"Can't laze around my whole life, can I?"

"You really know what happened here?"

"Yeah. A Monster Merchant set up a fake Ruins and tried to gobble up everyone here."

"Oh dear."

"This is Anapic, isn't it? The land between barbarism and civilization—crazy stuff like this can happen. But he failed. Thanks to a single Ascetic who doesn't even have a star."

"Really?!"

The woman reacted. A star was a grade awarded according to an Ascetic's level.

A starless Ascetic was a nominal Ascetic, one not chosen by a god. And someone like that had taken down a fairly well-known Monster Merchant?

That was a scoop.

"Really and truly. Do you think I'd be stuck in a boring place like this just to lie?"

"Who is he?"

"Anagin. An Ascetic who's trying to become a god through his own strength. Well? Interesting, isn't it?"