Chapter 48

Chapter 48: Stas Polis (1)

After Cori and Pais succeeded at their sling practice, Anagin's group set off walking toward their destination, the city.

To be precise, their goal was the Thieves' Guild inside the city, though.

"So there really is a Thieves' Guild? In that city? What was it called again...?"

"Stas Polis?"

"Yeah, that one."

Stas Polis.

A name they'd learned while stopping in a village to ask for directions to the city.

A city built right in the middle of the border between Hellas and Anapic—and the very city Anagin was headed to now.

"There might not be a Thieves' Guild there, you know?"

"No, there is. Every decent-sized city has a Thieves' Guild, and Stas has been well past 'decent' for quite a while now."

Sphinx spoke with confidence, and it was true.

Stas Polis had originally been nothing more than a small fortress city on the outermost edge of Hellas, but as Hellas's influence expanded into Anapic, its role had changed.

As befitting a fortress city, Stas Polis had held command over the main roads and the surrounding area. It transformed from a simple fortress into a hub connecting Anapic and Hellas.

Thanks to that, the countless goods and people traveling between Hellas and Anapic all passed through Stas Polis—and so the city was growing by leaps and bounds every year.

"Cities that get fat always have thieves, and wherever there are thieves, there's a Thieves' Guild. The problem is figuring out how to meet them, though."

That was the thing. Every decent city might have a Thieves' Guild, but that didn't mean they were easy to find. Frankly, it would've been stranger if you could just walk up and make contact.

"You really don't know a way?"

"I told you, I tried to avoid getting tangled up with people like that. If I had a contact on that side, it'd be easy, but unfortunately, I don't. What about you, Oppa?"

Sphinx asked Anagin, but there was no way Anagin knew anyone like that either.

"I'm too nice to know people like that."

"What?"

Besides, it hadn't been long since he'd left his village. There was no way he knew any thieves...

"Hm?"

A certain small-time thief popped into Anagin's head. The Ponytail he'd met in the Ruins Village. Somehow, he had a feeling that guy might know about the Thieves' Guild.

"Why? Do you know someone?"

At Sphinx's question, Anagin thought for a moment, then shook his head.

If Ponytail were here, maybe—but he wasn't. Getting help from Ponytail was such a worthless thought it barely qualified as a delusion.

"Well... let's go and figure it out. Once we're there, we'll find a way."

Since no clever idea came to mind, Anagin gave up on thinking and decided to just walk for now.

Plans could get twisted at any time, after all. Which meant, conversely, a good idea could suddenly strike him too.

So rather than racking his brain right now, he decided to focus on the present.

For that reason, Anagin took breaks along the way to drill Cori and Pais in slinging. And in meditation for magic, too.

Thanks to that, their pace slowed a bit, but he didn't regret it. This was more productive in the end—and they arrived at Stas Polis without incident.

"Oh..."

Arriving at the city, Anagin let out an exclamation before he even realized it.

Stas Polis was bigger than he'd imagined. He'd assumed it would be about the level of Disis Polis, the first city he'd ever visited—but it was far larger. Of course, that wasn't the only reason Anagin was surprised.

"That's the Horion River."

Sphinx pointed out an enormous river and told him.

A river so vast you could barely see the far bank. That river, she said, was the Horion River that divided Hellas from Anapic. In the middle of that great river sat an island, and Stas Polis was built on top of it.

"Now I get why you have to pass through here to cross from Hellas into Anapic."

Anagin said, looking at the massive bridges erected on either side of Stas Polis. To cross that huge river, it seemed you had no choice but to take a boat or cross a bridge.

"Crossing by boat isn't easy. It might not look like it, but the current is fierce. The stretch of river around here is actually one of the calmer parts—but Stas doesn't allow it."

"Oh..." "Whoa..."

As they drew closer to the river, Cori and Pais kept marveling at its sheer size.

"Wow, it's really big... The river." "The bridge is huge too."

Anagin agreed. The bridge was far more eye-catching than the city visible in the distance. Building a bridge this size couldn't have been ordinary work either.

"I heard the Giants built the bridges."

"Giants did?"

"Yeah. The power of giants is a great help for building things too."

"That's impressive."

Anagin praised.

Anagin himself was a Giant, but he couldn't remember using his power for much beyond hunting beasts. Occasionally propping up a building pillar, maybe? Anything beyond that was too much trouble, so he didn't bother.

But building bridges, huh. He didn't know what kind of people they were, but he'd give them credit for patience alone.

"Damn it! Don't cut in line!"

"Who's cutting in line? You're the one cutting! This was my spot to begin with!!"

"Liar!"

"Cheater!"

Once they climbed onto the bridge to enter the city, they could see countless people shouting and fighting.

They were the ones lined up to get into the city.

The bridge was already packed full of them.

So arguments broke out constantly all along the long bridge.

"Stop pushing!" "You stop pushing!"

Peddlers and travelers.

"My cart isn't dust!" "Don't make me laugh!"

Street hawkers and street hawkers.

"You really want to do this?!" "Fine, come at me then!"

Even armed men among themselves.

Because of the nature of the bridge, the quarrels were rougher and noisier, and even the city guard couldn't properly control them.

Perhaps because of that, the line barely moved.

"This is a total mess."

Anagin didn't bother hiding his irritation. At this rate, he'd be stuck standing in line all day in this racket.

"Well, can't be helped. A hub city draws in every kind of humanity. Especially Stas Polis."

Most people who visited Stas Polis were either hardened by the harsh life of Anapic or were wrecks who couldn't endure life in Hellas and left.

With people like that gathered in one place, it was only natural that fights never stopped.

But Anagin didn't care about any of that.

"All I care about is that I don't want to stand in this line."

"I agree. I don't like lines either, but there's no way around it, is there?"

Sphinx readily agreed with Anagin, but said there was nothing to be done.

There really did seem to be no other way.

It wasn't as if they could tell the people ahead of them, "We're tired, so please let us go first."

Besides, they needed to move quietly without causing a commotion if possible.

Whether word of Anagin's wanted status had spread this far, he didn't know, but it was better to be careful if he could—

"All right, decided."

"Decided what? Why do I feel nervous?"

Sphinx asked, sounding genuinely uneasy. Whenever Anagin said something like that, he'd pull something.

An entirely reasonable suspicion.

And that reasonable suspicion soon proved to be fact.

Clink.

Anagin pulled a very heavy coin pouch from the subspace bag slung over his shoulder.

It was a pouch he'd set aside for the coins he'd picked up from the bounty hunters who'd ambushed him and from Paia's bandit camp—and it held a fortune most people would never touch in their entire lives.

Sphinx's eyes wavered with unease.

"Oppa... you're not seriously...?"

Whoosh—!

The unthinkable happened.

Anagin reached into the pouch and began flinging coins high into the sky.

Copper, silver, and gold coins scattered in all directions.

The coins, gleaming in the sunlight, instantly drew everyone's attention as they fell to the ground.

"W-what?!" "Si-silver coins?!" "There's gold too!!"

People bored in line, people quarreling as if they'd tear each other apart, even the guards—all of them lit up and started scrambling to pick up the coins on the ground.

"Move, that's mine!" "I saw it first!!"

Naturally, the line that had somehow been holding together collapsed from the back.

"Oppa..."

Seeing the chaos unfolding before her, Sphinx gathered Cori and Pais and called out to Anagin as if scolding him. Anagin shrugged as if he'd been wrongly accused.

"What? What did I do?"

And then, as if scattering feed, he flung coins high into the air once more.

Clatter, clatter.

"Uh...? Uhh...!"

At the fresh shower of coins, the crowd stirred up again. The line collapsed, and Anagin pushed through the people, advancing forward. Sphinx kept Cori and Pais close and followed him.

"Isn't this a bit much, even if you hate waiting in line?"

"Not really. I think standing in line is the bigger offense. It's boring."

Anagin threw coins over the heads of the people at the front of the line once more.

People who'd turned their heads at the commotion behind them had their gazes drawn to the coins glittering in the sky, and everyone started tangling with each other to snatch the coins off the ground.

Sphinx watched the scene without a word. Actually, it was closer to being unable to say anything because she had far too much to say.

They might clash with the guard for causing a disturbance—and he was pulling a stunt like this.

But it was already far too late to argue.

Anagin simply kept scattering coins and pressing forward.

"Haha! Amazing...!"

The momentum was so wild that Pais was delighted and full of admiration, while his sister Cori wore a spellbound expression. Admiring, and yet seemingly afraid.

Well, everyone around them was scrambling like they'd bite each other to grab even one more coin off the ground—so it was understandable to be afraid.

Just then, a few people lunged toward Sphinx.

"Move, you bitches! I saw that first—"

Thwack!

Anagin, who had been advancing without even looking back, spun around like a ghost and kicked the man charging at Sphinx, sending him flying.

Even though he'd kicked as lightly as a gentle shove, the man flew five paces back, collided with someone else, and sprawled out flat.

Seeing that, the crowd kept picking up coins but didn't dare approach Anagin's group, clearing the way on their own.

"Follow me."

The one who'd caused this whole mess said shamelessly, then tossed coins into the sky again and walked on.

Sphinx had plenty she wanted to say, but she had no choice but to take the children and follow after Anagin.

Whoosh—!

Anagin tossed coins into the sky.

"Move!"

People bent over to pick up coins and tangled and fought with each other.

Thud. Thud.

With every fight, Anagin steadily advanced.

Of course, the cost was that the line practically collapsed, countless people threw punches, carts overturned, and a few people fell off the bridge.

"What? What's going on?!"

The city guard stationed at the city gate belatedly noticed the commotion, but nothing changed.

Compared to the guards' numbers, there were far too many visitors—they were useless—and the fights over coins had already turned into personal grudges. The confined nature of the bridge played a part too. Even when the guards shouted and swung their clubs, they were only swept up in it, not calming anything.

"Huh?"

When they were nearly at the very front, Anagin looked puzzled.

Despite having thrown coins, everyone was just staring at him with frightened expressions instead of picking them up.

They seemed to have been scared off by the disturbance that had started all the way from the back.

'Well, I did make it pretty loud.'

Anagin felt a bit of regret but decided not to push his luck further.

They'd come all the way from the very back of the line to right in front of the city gate—by his reckoning, that was a decent profit.

"Our faces are going to be everywhere..."

Sphinx muttered, looking at the guards and the people staring their way. A madman had suddenly scattered money and caused a commotion in front of the city... They might even be arrested on the charge of worsening the city's public order.

'Oppa's a Giant so he won't be arrested, but at this rate, getting inside is—'

"Having our faces out there is a good thing. The thieves in this town will hear that some rich guy has arrived."

Sphinx was still lost in thought when Anagin tossed out a casual remark.

At that, Sphinx realized that Anagin hadn't scattered money simply because he hated waiting in line.

"Oppa, you're not saying..."

"Next!"

At the checkpoint inspecting visitors, a middle-aged man bellowed.

A thick beard covering his jaw, a sturdy build, armor that shone brighter than the other guards', and above all, his air. He seemed to be the checkpoint captain.

As Anagin stepped forward, the man stared hard at him.

As befitting an old soldier, his eyes were sharp and weighty. The kind of gaze that made you shrink back on instinct.

Anagin simply looked straight back into the old soldier's eyes.

A brief silence followed, and the old soldier spoke.

"...What's your purpose in visiting the city?"

"I've come to look into a few things."

It was a suspicious enough answer to invite the question, Look into what?—but for some reason, the checkpoint captain didn't ask. Instead, he looked over Anagin, Sphinx, Cori, and Pais carefully.

"Hmm. To pass the checkpoint, you need to declare your luggage and pay a matching transit tax... Anything to declare?"

Anagin glanced at the subspace bag at his waist, then held out the coin pouch in his hand, whole.

He'd scattered a lot of coins, so the amount had halved—but even so, it still held a considerable number of coins.

"I've got a fair amount of luggage, so checking it all would take time. Will this do?"

"...Pass."

There was plenty to question, but the checkpoint captain said nothing and let Anagin through.

Just as they were about to pass, the checkpoint captain called Anagin to a stop.

"Wait."

Anagin turned around.

The checkpoint captain picked up a quill pen.

"What's your name? I have to record the name of every visitor."

Sphinx tried to say something to Anagin, but Anagin opened his mouth a step faster.

"Anagin."