Chapter 30

Chapter 30: The Dolos Family (1)

They passed through the crowd and arrived at the estate built on the central hill of the village.

Up close, the estate looked less like a house and more like a fortress.

A very sturdy fortress at that.

But the moment Spanichi approached, the fortress's ironclad gate opened with surprising ease.

"Welcome, young master!"

Through the open gap in the gate, the Dolos family's butler came out and greeted Spanichi warmly.

After that, the conversation was much the same as before.

Already finished your mission? Are you hurt anywhere? That sort of thing…

It was the same with the villagers, too. He was starting to understand why Spanichi was so polite and uncomplicated.

"Unlike _some_ people."

"Is that about me?"

The Robe Girl sniped, and Anagin sniped right back.

In the middle of all that, the butler asked Spanichi a question.

"Ah, by the way, young master. Did something happen, by any chance? You returned earlier than expected…"

Perhaps because he served an Ascetic Family, the butler was glad Spanichi had returned early, but also puzzled by just how early it was.

According to the Dolos family's own assessment, even someone like Spanichi should have had a hard time defeating the Witch and returning this quickly.

As if he'd expected the question, Spanichi smiled and pointed at Anagin.

"Thanks to meeting some distinguished guests… I received a great deal of help."

"You mean these two?"

The butler had supposedly been too busy greeting Spanichi to notice them, but he spoke as though he'd been aware of Anagin and the Robe Girl from the very start.

"The young lady wrapped in that robe is a mage. She gave me all sorts of advice on the way to the Witch's Tower."

Out of consideration for the Robe Girl, Spanichi left out the fact that she was the Witch's disciple and mentioned only the help she'd provided.

"Oh, a mage… It is an honor to meet you."

"The pleasure's mine."

"And this gentleman is an Ascetic."

"My name is Anagin."

"Anagin… was it?"

The butler paused.

"Yes."

The startled butler looked at Spanichi, and Spanichi nodded as if to confirm it.

Having verified it, the butler composed himself, took a few steps toward Anagin, and greeted him courteously.

"It is a true honor to meet the hero whose name has spread of late. Though the elder is not present, on his behalf, I welcome you with all sincerity. Please, make yourself at home."

The butler was excessively formal. But Anagin wasn't flustered. He could more or less guess why.

Probably because of that absurd reputation he'd earned from beating up people he didn't like.

What was it again? Hero of the Fringe, was it?

It was a truly ridiculous situation.

He'd only beaten up some people he didn't like, and now he was being called a hero.

But Anagin didn't bother correcting it.

Grabbing one or two people to explain it was a misunderstanding would've been pointless, and doing so would've just looked ridiculous.

So he decided to let it slide.

"Thank you for the welcome."

"Is Grandfather away from home?"

As Anagin accepted the hospitality, Spanichi asked the butler. Had something big happened?

The butler smiled as if it were nothing.

"Don't worry. He'll return soon. A giant boar has appeared in the western forest, so he simply took the younger elder and our cousins out to deal with it."

Anagin, listening from the side, tilted his head.

He didn't know how big the boars were around here, but dragging the entire family out just to hunt a boar seemed like overkill.

Unlike Anagin, Spanichi took it as good news.

"Ah… Then that's a relief. Everyone was about due for some exercise anyway."

"They should return before sundown at the latest."

At the butler's explanation, Spanichi answered as if that were perfect.

"Good. Then, shall we rest in the meantime? How about a bath first? It'll help wash away the fatigue."

---

The moment he learned the family was away, Spanichi suggested a bath before anything else.

Anagin didn't refuse.

After fighting the Witch, his body was filthy and he wanted to wash up.

As someone who valued cleanliness, he wanted it even more.

Anagin happily entered the bathhouse with Spanichi, and was soon surprised by two things.

One was that the bathhouse was large beyond anything Anagin had imagined.

"Is this a palace…?"

Baths filled with hot and cold water. Marble floors, walls, and ceiling.

It was the luxurious bathhouse from his boring Master's stories that had actually caught his interest.

"Thank you for seeing it so favorably. But this is nothing, really. There are far better bathhouses out there."

At those grating words, Anagin narrowed his eyes and glared at Spanichi.

Receiving that sharp look, Spanichi wore an aggrieved expression. He'd only stated a fact, and now he was being criticized for it! He hadn't even been trying to show off.

This bathhouse might be good by Anapic standards, but compared to central Hellas, it was nothing.

Their own bathhouse was barely big enough for two or three people, but in Hellas, even merchants had bathhouses meant for dozens of users.

Not only that, they decorated the interiors with gold and statues.

Bathhouses were practically the pride of civilized people, so whenever they could afford it, they made them as luxurious as possible.

"Oh, now I'm a little curious."

"Is that so?"

Spanichi asked, sounding surprised. Personally, he'd assumed Anagin wasn't the type to care about luxury.

Unexpected, perhaps?

When he said so honestly, Anagin replied.

"I'm not a pervert who enjoys suffering and poverty. I know how to enjoy good clothes, good food, and a good house."

"I see. Then I'll do my utmost to treat you well."

The moment Spanichi spoke, two women entered the bathhouse.

They were bath attendants there to help with the washing. Anagin was startled.

"Whoa, you scared me… What's this?"

"They're attendants to help us bathe. These two are well-trained—"

"—Ah, that's fine. I'm good, so tell them to leave. I'm not old enough or young enough to need someone washing me."

Anagin firmly expressed his refusal. It was a culture he wasn't used to.

At his firm attitude, Spanichi hesitated for a moment, but didn't push further.

Somehow, he felt that if he insisted once more, Anagin would just walk out……

Once the two bath attendants left the bathhouse, Anagin apologized to Spanichi.

"Sorry. I'm a shy person."

Spanichi didn't believe him. For someone shy, he was far too calm. But he didn't press the point.

This was a guest he'd invited to build a good relationship. There was no reason to nitpick something so trivial.

"Oh, but is she washing up too?"

"You mean the young lady?"

Young lady. It meant the Robe Girl. Since he didn't know her name, that was what he called her.

Anagin nodded, and Spanichi answered.

"Yes, there's another bathhouse, and the butler should have guided her there. She's probably washing up nicely by now."

---

"That feels great… Oh, you're here?"

Just as Spanichi had said, the Robe Girl seemed to have washed up nicely.

The way she was sprawled out in the guest lounge after finishing first made that clear.

"Hm? Did we not provide you with clothes, by any chance?"

Spanichi, who had come out with Anagin, asked the Robe Girl.

Guests who finished bathing were naturally provided with clean, comfortable new clothes, but the Robe Girl was still wearing what she'd had on before.

Though it did look clean, as if it had been washed……

Spanichi looked at the butler as if pressing him. It was a rebuke—what kind of hospitality was this?

As the butler bowed apologetically, the Robe Girl cut in.

"Ah, I was the one who refused, so don't blame him. I can't really calm down unless I'm wearing my own clothes. The butler did offer me new ones, but I turned them down. And I washed these while I was bathing, so they're clean."

She'd meant it as a defense, but Spanichi's expression only worsened.

They should have been washing the invited guest's clothes for her, yet the guest had washed them herself. While bathing, no less.

As the host, it was embarrassing.

Anagin stepped in to console him.

"She likes doing laundry, so it's no problem."

"No, I don't like doing laundry, _oppa_."

"No, you do."

"I'm telling you I don't."

"If you say you don't like it, the butler will feel bad, won't he?"

Struck by the flaw in that logic, the Robe Girl realized her mistake and conceded.

"Ah… I love doing laundry."

"You like cooking too, right? Enough to do it for free."

"Don't push it."

"But did you send away the person who was going to wash you?"

"Yeah, I refused because it was embarrassing. You too?"

"I refused because it was embarrassing too."

The conversation drifted off on tangents as naturally as breathing.

Fortunately, the mood lightened, and Spanichi's expression improved considerably.

Spanichi asked the butler.

"Have Grandfather and Father returned?"

"No, they haven't arrived yet. I'll let you know the moment they do."

"Please do… Ah, and could you prepare something light to eat?"

"Of course. I'll bring it as quickly as possible."

"Thanks."

The butler bowed and withdrew, and before long he returned with wine and sliced fruit arranged over ice.

"Good heavens—peaches, plums, grapes, watermelon… In spring? Do you have a greenhouse here?"

As Anagin examined the unfamiliar fruits, the Robe Girl asked in surprise.

Whatever else might be the case, these didn't seem like fruits you could eat right now.

"We bought them from the city. This village isn't wealthy enough yet to run a greenhouse orchard."

"They must have been quite expensive."

It was an indirect question—was it really all right to treat them this well?

Hospitality toward guests might be the mark of a civilized person, but guests had to return it in kind.

Spanichi only smiled.

"Don't worry. It's no trouble at all. More than anything, you're the first guests I've ever invited myself, so I want to treat you as well as I can."

It was an answer full of pure goodwill. Even so, the Robe Girl showed signs of discomfort.

Kindness was something to be grateful for, but excessive kindness was sometimes more dangerous than clumsy ill will.

The Robe Girl knew this from experience, so she couldn't simply accept it.

Could it be—

"This fruit is really good! What's it called?"

In contrast to the thoughtful Robe Girl, Anagin was already eating the fruit faster than anyone, full of admiration.

In his hand was a fruit with striking bright red flesh.

"It's called watermelon. Strictly speaking, it's a vegetable, though. Does it taste all right?"

"Amazing."

Anagin put the watermelon in his mouth as if he meant it.

A crisp texture, and a sweet flesh that spread through his mouth.

Anagin ate with the momentum of someone about to wipe out the entire pile of watermelon on the ice.

The Robe Girl hadn't had a single bite!

"_Oppa_? I haven't had any!"

"You kept testing it, so I figured you didn't want any."

"Uh… I'll have them bring more."

"No, no. It's fine. She doesn't seem to want it. Leave her be."

As Anagin held Spanichi back, the Robe Girl grabbed some watermelon and put it in her mouth too.

"It really is delicious… Stop eating so much!!"

The Robe Girl, who had been calmly savoring the flavor, finally shouted at Anagin, who was inhaling the watermelon, and only then did Anagin stop his hand mid-destruction.

Spanichi, watching this from right in front of them, spoke while stifling a twitching smile.

"Pfft…! Ah, sorry. Anyway, I'm glad the two of you like it."

Anagin nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, it's really good. The other fruits are good too, but this one's _really_ good. It almost makes me glad I became an Ascetic."

"Haha, is that so?"

"Yeah. I never planned on becoming an Ascetic, originally. But now that I'm eating something this good, I'm starting to think it's not so bad."

Spanichi paused for a moment.

He never planned on becoming an Ascetic?

It wasn't a strange thing to say. No one was born saying, "I'm going to be an Ascetic, _waaah_."

Still, there was such a thing as nuance.

That phrasing sounded like someone who, until very recently, had had no intention of becoming an Ascetic at all.

That thought brought back the brief conversation he'd had with Anagin.

Anagin hadn't known even the basic knowledge an Ascetic should have, like what a "0-star Ascetic" was, let alone things like "divine weapons" or "Harpies."

Just like someone who'd come from a remote place with no contact with the outside world.

When asked about it, Anagin had nodded readily.

"That's not wrong. I came out after living in a deep forest."

"A deep forest—where exactly do you mean?"

"I don't know. We just called it the forest. All I know is that it's very deep and dense."

It didn't seem like a lie, but rather than resolving Spanichi's doubts, it only deepened them.

How many deep, dense forests were there in the world?

"By any chance, could you tell me where you first arrived after leaving the forest? A village, or a city."

Spanichi racked his brain and asked where he'd gone first after leaving the forest.

Just that much would let him roughly guess the geography.

"Hmm… A city called Disis Polis."

"Disis?"

"Yes. Do you know it?"

"Of course I know it."

Disis Polis.

A city built in Anapic by a merchant from Hellas.

It was a city with a surprisingly proper appearance for one built in Anapic, so everyone around here knew it.

More than anything, when the Bander Peddler Band had attacked, they had once asked our Dolos family for help.

"Though Grandfather refused…"

"It's the place where your reputation first began, isn't it? Then your hometown must be somewhere near there."

Spanichi seemed convinced. Even in Anapic, around Disis Polis—the outermost edge—there was a good chance of villages whose existence no one knew of.

"No, it's probably not."

"What?"

"I think I came from too far away for it to be called nearby."

Anagin recalled the time he'd been thrown by his Master.

It had been long enough that he could say he'd flown through the sky. It was absolutely not a distance anyone could call near Disis Polis.

"Didn't you say the first place you arrived was Disis?"

"That's true, but I arrived there after falling out of the sky…"

"???"

"It'd take too long to explain. Anyway, it's probably not near there…"

As the incomprehensible words piled up, even Spanichi's expression furrowed.

He tried a different question.

"By any chance, since when have you been an Ascetic?"

"Since I decided to leave the village."

"So when was that?"

Anagin counted on his fingers, sank into thought for a moment, then answered.

"About ten days?"

"Ten days?!"

Spanichi shouted in shock. Loudly enough to leap to his feet.

He was saying that within ten days of leaving his village, he'd smashed the Bander Peddler Band, destroyed Diodia, and beaten down the Monster Merchant?

Of course, he'd known the incident itself had happened in a short span of time, but he'd assumed the Ascetic period itself would last at least a little while.

At least a year or so. Because that was the norm.

Yet Anagin had pulled off something that defied all common sense.

"You don't have to believe me."

Anagin said, seeing Spanichi's bewildered expression.

Spanichi shook his head.

"No, it's not that I don't believe you. We'd already heard the story. I was just surprised that you went through all of that the moment you left your village."

He had a point.

A Giant's fate was famously harsh, but running into the Bander Peddler Band, then meeting Diodia and the Monster Merchant the instant you left your village to become an Ascetic—that was beyond what common sense allowed.

"Hearing it put that way, I'm a little surprised myself."

"Yes, it's impressive. To build a reputation like that in less than ten days after deciding to become an Ascetic."

"I was lucky."

It wasn't false modesty. Whatever else might be true, if his Master hadn't thrown him out, he doubted he'd have left the forest in even a year's time. The forest was so deep that even Anagin hadn't been able to see past it.

Just then, Spanichi asked a question.

"Did you learn swordsmanship from your Master as well?"

Anagin nodded while eating the last piece of fruit.

Every fighting technique he had, he'd learned from his Master. Not that he was remotely grateful for it.

"Why do you ask?"

"Your swordsmanship is exceptional. If you don't mind, would you—"

Just as Spanichi was about to make some kind of proposal.

The butler entered the guest lounge.

At the same time, the sound of the front gate opening came from outside.

"Young master. The elder has returned. He's caught a boar as well."