Chapter 46

Chapter 46: Magic (1)

The Old Man’s grandson and granddaughter…

In other words, Pais and Cori ate their meals properly, just as Anagin told them to.

Not just on the first day they agreed to travel with him, but the next day too, after they stopped by a village to ask for directions to the city, and the day after that as well.

Well, it was only natural, really. Anagin had told them he wouldn’t travel with a bunch of helpless brats who couldn’t even feed themselves, so they had no choice but to eat whether they liked it or not.

What could someone who can’t even take care of their own body possibly accomplish? Let alone kids who claimed they were going to avenge their grandfather.

Anyway, at first they forced themselves to eat, but as they got food into their mouths, their appetites seemed to return—Pais and Cori were soon able to eat normally. And in the midst of that, they even revealed their names.

“I’m… Cori. And my little brother is Pais.”

“Huh?”

“I was hoping you could call us by our names, if possible…”

“Uh… no.”

Anagin being Anagin, he responded with his usual contrariness, but regardless, Cori had recovered enough to tell him her name and her brother’s.

That wasn’t all, either.

“Breakfast is ready.”

Thanks to eating properly and walking every day, she now even helped Sphinx with preparing meals.

She’d recovered enough stamina to do things on her own.

“What’s on the menu?”

“Barley porridge! And I grilled the fish and deer we caught earlier!”

“Got it, I’m coming.”

“Yes!”

Cori turned back as Anagin answered from where he’d been washing himself in the shallow river.

Anagin stepped out of the water, dried himself with a towel, and headed over to where Sphinx, Cori, and Pais were.

After Anagin left, only the bounty hunters who had come for him remained by the riverbank. Lying there with broken legs.

“Ughhhh……”

---

“I’ll teach you how to sling stones.”

After finishing off the barley porridge, grilled fish, and whole roasted deer that Sphinx, Cori, and Pais had prepared, Anagin made the suggestion out of nowhere.

Actually, it was closer to a declaration than a suggestion, but either way.

Pais and Cori, who had been helping Sphinx clean up after the meal, blinked.

“Sling… stones?”

“Yeah, what I did this morning. You saw it, right?”

Of course they’d seen it.

Anagin had woken up that morning saying he was craving meat, then loaded a stone into his sling and hurled it at a passing deer.

Thwack!—the deer’s skull shattered with the sound.

Thanks to that, Pais and Cori got to learn just how powerful a sling could be.

“Out of nowhere?”

Sphinx asked, watching Anagin spout nonsense right after a good meal. Though her wording was a bit off.

It wasn’t out of nowhere.

“Why are you so surprised? These kids need a way to fight too, don’t they?”

If this journey were just a simple trip, maybe it wouldn’t matter—but unfortunately, it wasn’t.

The reason Pais and Cori were traveling with Anagin was to get revenge on the Forest Brotherhood for killing their grandfather.

On top of that, Anagin himself was a problem. The Ascetic Family had put a bounty on his head. The bounty hunters with broken legs near the riverbank were proof of that.

Like it or not, the two brats needed a way to protect themselves.

And Anagin had judged that the sling was the most efficient method.

It was an attack method that even children whose bodies hadn’t fully grown could use with sufficient force, and ammunition was relatively easy to come by.

He’d considered whether there was a better way, but in the end, he concluded that the sling was the most suitable.

When Anagin explained this, Sphinx only frowned and couldn’t say anything.

She wanted to stop him, but she knew that wouldn’t be the right answer.

‘She’s soft on kids.’

Anagin thought, observing Sphinx’s reaction.

But that was that, and this was this—he had no intention of changing his decision.

Even children had to take responsibility for what they chose to do. If they decided to fight, they had to learn how to fight.

“Take one each.”

Anagin handed a sling to Pais and Cori, ones he’d made in his spare time. They were slings he’d made by unraveling and re-braiding the magic tool ‘Stretching Rope.’

The two took the slings, hesitating.

“They don’t look like much, but they’ll do the job well enough.”

“Th-thank you.” “Thanks, big brother.”

The two thanked him as they gripped their slings.

The sight of two small children expressing gratitude was enough to bring a smile to anyone’s face—but unfortunately, they were dealing with Anagin.

“If you’re really grateful, start practicing now. I’ll show you how to throw.”

“Now?”

“Then when? You want to ask the bandits to wait because you’re not ready yet?”

The two children scowled at his mocking tone, but they shook their heads.

“Then go pick up some stones first. About a hundred each.”

“A h-hundred?”

“You need to throw at least a hundred times. Don’t want to?”

Cori, knowing he wasn’t asking out of genuine curiosity, shook her head and took her younger brother Pais to go gather stones.

Sphinx, who had been watching from the side, spoke up.

“You could’ve at least given them a cloth to carry the stones in, Oppa.”

“That’s something they need to figure out and speak up about themselves. If I take care of every little thing for them, they’ll get spoiled.”

Anagin answered, drawing on his Master’s teachings.

Sphinx stared at Anagin for a moment, then sighed.

“Haah, you’re strict… Can I ask you just one thing?”

“What.”

“The kids went to gather a hundred stones each, so that’ll take quite a while, right?”

“Yeah.”

“But there’s this much dishwashing left.”

“Yeah.”

“You’re obviously not going to help, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Is it strange that I’m getting angrier and angrier?”

“Pinku Pinku.”

“Why?”

“I think you’re prettiest when you’re doing the dishes.”

“Could you shut up?”

---

While Sphinx happily did the dishes.

Cori and Pais came back with stones. A hundred each.

“Oh.”

Anagin was slightly surprised.

Even though stones were scattered all over the ground, gathering a hundred of suitable size for throwing each wasn’t an easy task.

It required the sharp eye to scan the ground and spot stones, the speed to move quickly, and above all, physical stamina.

Even more so without a piece of cloth to carry them in.

Yet Cori and Pais had overcome those disadvantages and gathered the stones faster than Anagin had expected.

‘Is it because their grandfather was an Ascetic?’

Whatever the reason, it wasn’t bad.

A sharp eye, stamina, footwork—all essential in a fight. If they polished just those properly, they could avoid dying for nothing.

‘If it comes down to it, they can run. If you don’t die, you haven’t lost.’

“Watch closely.”

Anagin said that to the two siblings, who were drenched in sweat from gathering stones, then carved an X mark into a tree about fifty meters away. Then he walked back, pulled out his sling, loaded a stone, spun it around, and let it fly.

Fwip—!

A sharp sound cut through the air.

Moments later, the stone flew fast and embedded itself dead center in the X mark.

“Both of you will throw stones at that tree today, just like I did. You have to throw at least a hundred times, and you have to hit it at least once.”

Having laid out the conditions and goal, Cori cautiously asked.

“Um… what if we can’t hit it…?”

“What do you mean, what. You throw again until you hit it. At least a hundred times each. And you retrieve the stones yourselves.”

Cori and even Pais looked stunned at the training intensity, which was beyond what they’d imagined. It was far more grueling than expected.

But Anagin had no intention of going easy on them. If they couldn’t even endure this much, they might as well give up entirely.

“What if… we can’t hit it? What if even one of us can’t?”

Cori asked cautiously, based on the training details. It wasn’t so much fear of failure as a desire to know the risk of failing.

“Then because of you two, we stay here all day. And just so you know, if even one of you fails, we don’t leave. Both of you have to succeed for us to go.”

“Ah……”

“Why, want me to go easy on you?”

Cori hesitated for a moment, then straightened her expression.

She hadn’t forgotten the point.

The reason Anagin was doing this wasn’t for fun or out of spite. It was to make sure Pais and Cori could pull their weight in the fight against the Forest Brotherhood.

Wanting to follow Anagin had been their own choice. And now to ask him to lower the training intensity? That was absurd.

“No…! It’s fine! We’ll succeed quickly!”

Cori steeled her resolve.

Her younger brother Pais, watching his sister, steeled his resolve the same way.

The two siblings, their determination renewed, began throwing stones, recalling the stance Anagin had shown them.

Whip-whip-whip—! Thwack!

They loaded the gathered stones into their slings, spun them, and released.

Overall, their form was decent. Considering it was their first time throwing.

Fwip! Fwip!

Though the stones couldn’t even graze the tree, let alone hit the X, no one could be full after a single bite.

The siblings, intimidated by their failure, kept glancing back at Anagin behind them.

Anagin gave them a warning.

“The target’s in front of you, so why are you looking behind? Focus.”

Cori gave a small nod and resumed practicing her throws, and her younger brother followed suit.

Whip-whip-whip—! Thwack!

Each throw with care and effort.

Anagin only watched, occasionally correcting minor adjustments to their form.

“Everyone’s working hard.”

Sphinx returned after finishing her war with the dishes.

In her arms was a large basin piled high with cleanly washed dishes, pots, and the like.

With four people, they went through a lot of dishes and cooking tools.

Cori, knowing this, paused to apologize to Sphinx.

“Ah, big sister. I’m sorry.”

“Forget it, just practice. Pinku Pinku likes doing the dishes.”

“No, I don’t, Oppa.”

“Yes, you do.”

“I said I don’t.”

“I told you before, I can do this all day. You like doing the dishes.”

“Ah, fine. I like doing the dishes. Happy now?”

“Yeah, happy. You’re prettiest when you’re doing the dishes.”

“I’m really sorry……”

Cori apologized on his behalf for Anagin’s outrageous verbal abuse.

Sphinx patted Cori’s head.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not because of you two—it’s my fault for not recognizing a villain.”

At those words, Cori apologized again and then focused on her sling practice.

The sound of stones cutting through the air echoed repeatedly for quite a while.

Whip-whip-whip—! Thwack!

Though more often than not, they couldn’t even graze the tree, let alone hit the X.

By the time they’d thrown almost all hundred stones.

“Isn’t this too harsh?”

Sphinx voiced her concern.

Even so, really. Telling kids who’d never slung a stone before to hit something fifty meters away…

Fifty meters might seem short at a glance, but it was longer than people thought.

“On Rhodes Island, they start by having you hit targets twenty meters away…. Isn’t fifty too far?”

“I don’t know what Rhodes Island is, but it doesn’t matter. These kids don’t have that kind of luxury.”

It was a cold thing to say, but it wasn’t wrong.

They never knew when they might run into the Forest Brotherhood.

If he went easy on them now just because it was hard, they could end up paying with blood instead of sweat.

Sphinx understood that too, so she couldn’t say anything more.

“Big sister. We’re fine! We’ll get it soon, so please wait just a little longer!”

Cori, having thrown all her stones, said that to Pinku Pinku and went to retrieve the stones.

Her whole body was drenched in sweat from throwing over a hundred stones.

“Hmmmm……”

Sphinx crossed her arms and let out a deep hum. Then, as if she’d made up her mind, she proposed to Anagin.

“Could you teach the kids some magic?”