Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Robe Girl (1)

The sunlight grew warm, and life began to stir, one by one — spring.

“Aaaagh—!! You sons of bitches…!!”

Anagin roared at an enemy he had no hope of beating.

For the first time in his life, Anagin — who had never feared anyone — felt utterly helpless.

Just who was this enemy?

It was none other than laundry.

……

You didn’t mishear. Laundry. That’s right.

“Ah, damn it… Another hole.”

A stream in the woods.

Standing in nothing but his underwear, Anagin pulled a soaking-wet garment from the water and sighed.

The clothes were torn all over, full of holes — no better than rags.

What on earth was the problem? He’d only washed them with all his effort — so why were they tearing and falling apart?! And over ten sets of them!!

“Ah, I swear…”

Anagin barely swallowed the curses rising in his throat as he looked at the other clothes, now reduced to rags.

They were clothes he’d picked up from the Bander Peddler Band and Diodia’s gang. Anagin, who prized cleanliness, changed his clothes every single day.

He simply couldn’t stand it if he didn’t change into fresh clothes…. It was a matter of his sensitive skin. He couldn’t help it. He was precious, after all!

But even that had hit its limit.

He’d picked up plenty of clothes from the Bander Peddler Band and Diodia’s gang, but before he knew it, he was running short on spares. In the end, Anagin steeled himself and resolved to tackle his piled-up laundry.

This kind of fiddly chore wasn’t to his taste, but if he kept putting it off, he’d end up walking around naked.

It was annoying and he hated it, but he decided to think of it as one of the trials an Ascetic was meant to endure.

But what was this? Laundry turned out to be far harder than he’d expected.

He’d figured it would be nothing compared to punching a house-sized boar to death with his bare hands, or chasing down a wolf smarter than a man and skinning it — but it was far harder than that.

What on earth was the problem?

“Ah, forget it. I’m done! Done—!!”

In the end, Anagin couldn’t hold back his temper and stormed out of the stream.

Every piece he’d washed had turned to rags, and he couldn’t bring himself to touch them anymore.

Anagin turned his back on the pile of laundry and walked over to the campfire, where a huge boar was roasting, to dry off.

Since he’d already committed to catching up on laundry, he’d decided he might as well eat properly too.

For convenience’s sake, he’d been getting by on dried bread, fruit, and jerky, but honestly, Anagin preferred real food.

Sizzling freshly-grilled meat, bread slathered with a thick slab of butter, fresh fruit, meat stew with bones and meat boiled down rich and hearty……

That kind of cooking — made with care over a warm fire. He was precious, after all.

More than anything, dried food didn’t fill him up, no matter how much he ate.

He didn’t regret the path he’d chosen, but the annoyances were unavoidable.

So, since he was doing laundry anyway, Anagin decided to at least eat properly.

In spring, the season of life, there was no shortage of beasts to hunt and eat.

“At least the meat came out well. A bit lean, though.”

Anagin tore off a hind leg of pork, examined it, and shoved it into his mouth.

Maybe because he’d left it over the fire while doing laundry, it was crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside. It was a little bland, seasoned with nothing but salt, but……

Anagin thought back to the food he’d eaten in the Ruins Village. The food the Market Rio had served him, too.

It stung his pride to admit, but it had been better than the food he’d eaten in his village. Better than what he’d grown up eating back home.

Maybe that was why the roast boar he was eating now felt a little lacking. The aroma, the depth……

It wasn’t bad, but compared to what he’d eaten there, something was missing.

The bigger problem was that the only dish Anagin knew how to make was roast meat.

It was edible enough for now, but give it a little time, and he’d obviously get sick of it too. For a man who enjoyed good food, that was a rather sad story.

Back in his village, he’d never had to agonize over laundry or cooking, but……

This was a moment that drove home the saying: leave home, and you suffer.

“……”

Anagin felt gloomy for a moment, but soon shook his head and cast off the stray thoughts. There was no point longing for what he’d already left behind.

Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!

His reluctant feelings went down along with the meat.

Anagin silently tore into the grease-dripping meat and seriously mulled over how he’d handle laundry and meals going forward.

‘Laundry is… no matter how I think about it, doing it myself is impossible. Either walk around naked, or buy lots of clothes and wear them one day and toss them. For food — is there no way to store and carry it properly? Not dried rations, but real food? Or maybe I could learn to cook…. Ah, forget it. Me, cook?’

Anagin quickly made his decisions.

Truthfully, there was nothing to decide.

There was nothing he could do.

For now, he settled on not washing clothes and throwing them away after wearing them one day. Since he couldn’t do laundry, that was effectively the only option. He couldn’t exactly walk around naked, could he?

Food was the same. He’d just have to endure it. Unless he learned magic that kept food fresh, eating properly on the road was impossible.

No matter how he thought about it, Anagin didn’t see himself learning to cook.

‘Maybe roast meat, at most…’

The misery washed over him again. Anagin grumbled.

“Aaah…. Isn’t there anyone around who’d do annoying chores for me?”

Rustle!

At the sound of brush shifting, Anagin raised the knife he’d used to hunt the boar, ready to throw.

It was the Beastcleaver, the sword he’d received from the squat butcher. True to the man’s word, it cut beast spawn remarkably well.

“Come out on three. If you don’t, I throw. One, two…”

“Kyaa! Wait! Wait just a second—!!”

Before Anagin could even finish, a scream burst from within the brush.

Through the swaying foliage, a woman in a robe tumbled out, nearly falling, and hurriedly raised her hands, begging him not to throw.

At the sudden appearance of a stranger, Anagin stared at her, and she stared right back at him.

“……”

“……”

An odd silence settled between them.

Grrrrrowl—!

A booming stomach growl rang out from the woman’s belly.

“Um…. Hey there, mister I’ve never met before. Could you share some? The meat….”

She pointed at the half-eaten roast boar and asked.

---

“You’re a good one. Thanks to you, I survived, mister I’ve never met before.”

The Robe Girl expressed her thanks while gripping a rib in each hand.

Then she opened her mouth wide and tore into the rib with gusto.

With a crack, the rib meat came away and went into her mouth.

Anagin didn’t bother replying and tore into his own meat, sizing up the Robe Girl.

She was short, with a small, compact frame, and she was covered head to toe in a robe far too large for her size.

All that was visible was the tawny skin faintly showing beneath the robe, blond hair, vivid red lips, and the small hands gripping the ribs.

Her red mouth was tiny when closed, but grew very large when she ate. When she opened it, gleaming white, sharp teeth stood out.

Altogether, she was a cat-like woman.

“What is it, mister I’ve never met?”

“I’m wondering why you call me ‘mister.’ You don’t look younger than me.”

“Wait, is your eyesight bad? I look way younger than you.”

“Sorry, but my eyes are pretty good. So good I can see right through lies.”

“That’s laying it on thick.”

“You gave me meat, so you can afford to lay it on a little thick.”

“You seem like the type who was never popular with women.”

“Who says I wasn’t? I was plenty popular.”

Anagin answered flatly.

It wasn’t bragging — he really had been popular.

Thanks to hunting the beasts that threatened his village and doling out meat every day.

As a result, a rumor spread through the village that marrying him meant eating meat every day, and countless girls showed interest.

“More than anything, I don’t like hearing that kind of thing from someone I don’t even know.”

“You curious who I am?”

“No.”

Anagin shook his head at once.

A suspicious woman in a robe out in the middle of the woods might make anyone curious, but he had no particular desire to ask.

It seemed like it’d be a hassle, for one.

“I don’t care who you are. Eat your meat and be on your way.”

Anagin tore off the last pork leg and brought it to his mouth.

He paused.

Just as he was about to bite down, Anagin suddenly hurled the pork leg into the distance.

Startled by the sudden movement, the woman turned to look — and there stood two wolves.

Anagin had thrown the pork leg to them.

Grrrrrr……

The gray wolves, looking starved, warily glanced between the pork leg and Anagin.

“I’ll give you that, so go. Greed for more, and I’ll kill you.”

Anagin delivered his message to the wolves, short and simple.

Whether they understood his words or not, the wolves deliberated for a moment, then took the roasted pork leg in their jaws and left.

The Robe Girl asked, astonished.

“Whoa……. You can talk to animals?”

“No. I just spoke. Whether they understand is up to them.”

If they hadn’t understood and had attacked, today would’ve been a day Anagin ate wolf meat too.

“Heh…. You’re a kind mister. I talk so badly, I figured you’d be rotten inside too.”

“So you’re the type who should talk less.”

“Okay, decided! I’m gonna follow you, kind mister!!”

“What the hell did you just say, you bastard.”

---

“Cursing at people is a bad thing.”

Having heard his firm refusal, the Robe Girl made her remark.

Anagin fired back without backing down.

“So is mooching meat off a total stranger and then deciding you’ll follow them on your own.”

“You’d turn away someone who needs help?”

“Judging by the way you talk, you seem fine.”

“Does a frail woman wandering alone in the middle of the woods look fine to you?”

“Frail, I don’t know. A headache, maybe.”

“Hey—!”

“Ah, don’t address me so casually when we’ve never met. I’m a bit shy with strangers.”

Anagin even switched to polite speech to shake her off somehow.

That said, he didn’t stand up right away. There was still meat left.

Anagin shoveled meat into his mouth, planning to bolt the moment he finished.

The Robe Girl kept pressing her case.

“Normally, if a tiny girl like me asks for help, wouldn’t you at least walk her to the nearest village?”

“I’m not a normal person.”

At his shameless declaration, the Robe Girl looked at him in disbelief.

“Besides, I’ve got no plan to head to any village right now. I’m looking for something, so I’m walking wherever the wind takes me.”

The Robe Girl shot him a suspicious look at this nonsense, but it wasn’t a lie.

It’d been a while since he left the Ruins Village, but he hadn’t forgotten the Monster Merchant.

Anagin was still walking wherever the wind blew, chasing the Monster Merchant. To smash that ugly head of his, and tell him once more just how ugly he was.

“Then — I’ll find my own way to the village. Could you at least take me partway?”

“No. It’s a hassle. I’ve got no intention of looking after anyone. Especially not some suspicious Robe Girl I just met.”

When he’d first left his village, he hadn’t known where to go and had traveled with the carriage old man, but now that he had a direction, he had no intention of traveling with anyone.

There was no grand reason. He just found it annoying. And a pain.

The Robe Girl seemed to read his thoughts and stopped pushing.

Her tone was playful, but he could tell her mind was made up.

“Hmm….”

The Robe Girl sank into thought, glancing around. She was looking for some angle to persuade him.

Anagin paid her no mind and kept eating. Only one last chunk remained.

Once he finished it, he planned to stand up and leave right there.

Since he’d already decided to throw out all the laundry, he just needed to grab his bag and go.

“…Mister. How about I help you with something? Then will you let me tag along?”

“Huh?”

Anagin looked at the Robe Girl and grunted.

It wasn’t a sound of confusion — it was a question of what exactly she thought she could do to help him.

Reading that thought, the woman pointed at the pile of laundry behind her and flashed a confident smile.

Beneath the robe and her hair, golden eyes gleamed faintly.

“I may not look it, but I’m a mage — and laundry happens to be something I’m quite confident about.”