Chapter 20
Chapter 20. The Woman in the Robe (1)
The sunlight grew warmer, and life began to awaken one by one—it was spring.
"Aaargh—!! You sons of bitches…!!!”
Anagin was screaming at the top of his lungs against an enemy he simply couldn’t defeat.
It was the first time in his life that Anagin, who had never feared anyone, felt true despair.
So… who was his opponent?
None other than laundry.
……
You didn’t mishear. It was laundry.
“Ah, damn it… another hole.”
A stream deep in the forest.
Wearing only his undergarments, Anagin groaned as he pulled his clothes out of the water.
They were torn all over, full of holes—nothing short of rags now.
What on earth was the problem? He had only tried to wash them properly—why did they tear apart like this?! And not just one or two, but more than ten sets of clothes!!
“Ah, for crying out loud…”
Anagin barely managed to hold back the curses rising in his throat as he stared at the heap of ruined garments.
They were clothes he had scavenged from Bender’s caravan and Deodia’s crew. Since Anagin placed great importance on cleanliness, he changed outfits every day.
He couldn’t stand not changing into clean clothes. His skin was sensitive—he couldn’t help it. He’s precious, after all!
But even that had reached its limit.
He’d gathered quite a few outfits from Bender’s caravan and Deodia’s crew, but before long, he was running out of clean ones. In the end, Anagin decided to take care of the mounting pile of laundry.
It wasn’t exactly his kind of task, but if he kept putting it off, he’d soon have to walk around naked—so he had no choice.
Annoying and miserable as it was, he decided to treat it as one of the trials a practitioner must endure.
But surprise, surprise—doing laundry turned out to be far more difficult than he thought.
He could kill a house-sized boar barehanded or chase down a wolf smarter than most men and skin it, yet this was harder.
What the hell was the problem?
“Forget it! I quit! I quit—!!”
In the end, Anagin lost his temper and stomped out of the stream.
All the clothes he’d washed were reduced to rags, and he couldn’t bring himself to touch them anymore.
Ignoring the pile of ruined laundry, Anagin sat by a campfire where a whole boar was roasting and began drying his wet body.
Since he had decided to do the laundry, he figured he might as well have a proper meal too.
For convenience, he’d been surviving on dried bread, fruit, and jerky, but truth be told, Anagin preferred something more real.
Sizzling, freshly grilled meat. Thick slices of bread smeared with butter. Fresh fruit. A hearty broth of bones and meat simmered over a warm fire…
Homemade food cooked with care. He’s precious, after all.
More than anything, dried food never left him full.
He didn’t regret the path he’d chosen, but damn, some things were just unavoidable.
So, since he was doing laundry anyway, he decided to eat properly too.
Spring—the season of life—was overflowing with beasts to hunt and eat.
“At least the meat’s cooked well. Bit scrawny, though.”
Anagin tore off a chunk of the boar’s hind leg and shoved it into his mouth.
Since it had been left roasting while he did the laundry, the outside was crisp while the inside remained juicy and tender. A bit bland with only salt for seasoning, but…
He was reminded of the food he’d eaten in the Ruin Village—the dishes Rio had served him.
It stung his pride to admit it, but the village meals were far tastier. Even better than what he’d had back home.
Maybe that’s why the boar roast now felt lacking—in aroma, in depth… something was missing.
It wasn’t that it tasted bad, but compared to the food he’d had there, it just fell short.
The bigger problem was that roasting meat was the only cooking Anagin knew.
For now, it was still edible, but in time, he’d surely grow sick of it. For a man who took pride in good food, that was a tragedy.
When he lived back home, laundry and cooking were never things he had to worry about…
Now he truly understood what people meant when they said life on the road was hard.
“…….”
Anagin fell silent for a moment, a shadow passing over his face. But soon, he shook his head, brushing off the thought.
There was no point in longing for what he’d already left behind.
Chomp. Chomp. Chomp.
With the meat, he swallowed his lingering regret.
Quietly chewing the greasy boar meat, Anagin began to seriously ponder how he was going to handle his laundry and meals from now on.
‘Laundry… no matter how I think about it, there’s just no way I can do it myself. I’ll either have to walk around naked or buy a ton of clothes and throw them away after wearing them once. As for food… is there no way to store it properly? Something better than dried rations? Or maybe I could try cooking— no, forget it. Me? Cooking? Yeah, right.’
Anagin quickly made up his mind.
Not that there was much to decide anyway.
He didn’t have any real options.
First, he concluded that he simply wouldn’t wash his clothes—he’d wear them once and toss them out. Since laundry was out of the question, there really was no other choice. He couldn’t just walk around naked, could he?
The same went for food. He’d just have to endure it. Unless he learned a spell to preserve food magically, there was no way to eat properly while traveling.
No matter how he thought about it, Anagin couldn’t imagine himself actually cooking.
Maybe roasting whole meat at best…
Frustration welled up in him again, and he muttered to himself,
“Ah… is there seriously no one out there who can do these annoying chores for me?”
Rustle—!
At the sound of something brushing through the bushes, Anagin immediately grabbed the knife he’d used to butcher the boar, ready to throw it.
It was the Beast Cleaver, a sword he’d gotten from that short butcher—and just like the man had said, it was indeed excellent for cutting down beasts.
“Come out on three. If you don’t, I’m throwing. One, two…”
“Kyaaa! Wait! Wait, please—!!”
Before Anagin could finish, a panicked scream burst out from the brush.
Through the trembling leaves, a woman in a robe stumbled out, throwing up her hands frantically in plea.
Anagin stared at the stranger who had appeared so suddenly, and the woman, in turn, stared right back at him.
“……”
“……”
A strange silence lingered between them.
Growl!
Then, a loud rumble echoed from the woman’s stomach.
“Uh… first time seeing you, mister. Mind sharing some of that meat…?”
She pointed toward the half-eaten roast boar as she spoke.
* * *
“You’re kind. Thanks to you, I’m alive. Though it’s my first time seeing you, mister.”
The robed woman clasped a rib in each hand and thanked him. Then she opened her mouth wide and tore into the meat.
The ribs cracked as she bit them, and the flesh slid into her mouth.
Anagin said nothing in reply; he kept tearing at his own meat while watching her.
The robed woman was small and compact, her whole body swallowed by a robe far too large for her frame. All that showed beneath was tawny skin peeking from under the robe, blonde hair, blood-red lips, and the small hands clutching the ribs.
Her red mouth looked very small when closed, but when she ate, it opened wide, and when she opened it, stark white, sharp teeth stood out.
Altogether, she seemed catlike.
“What is it, mister?”
“I’m wondering why you call me ‘mister.’ You don’t look younger than me.”
“Do you have bad eyes? I look way younger, don’t I?”
“Sorry, but my eyesight’s pretty good. It’s so good I can see right through lies.”
"That's some extreme bluffing."
"I gave you meat, so I'm allowed to bluff a little."
“Mister, you don’t seem like someone who’d be popular with women.”
"I was very popular, actually."
Anagin answered flatly. It wasn’t bravado—he really had been popular. He’d hunted the beasts that threatened the village and handed out meat every day. Rumor spread that marrying him meant eating meat every day, and many girls showed interest.
“Besides, I don’t like hearing that kind of stuff from someone I don’t even know.”
“You curious who I am?”
“No.”
Anagin shook his head at once. A suspiciously robed woman in the woods might be worth wondering about, but he didn’t want to ask—it sounded like a hassle.
“I don’t care who you are. Eat the meat and be on your way.”
Anagin brought the last piece of boar’s leg to his mouth.
He froze.
Just as he was about to chew, he suddenly threw the leg far away.
Startled, the woman turned and saw two wolves standing where the leg had landed.
Anagin had thrown the boar leg to the wolves.
Grrrr…
The gray wolves, looking famished, eyed the leg and Anagin in turn, tense.
“I’ll give you that, now go. Try anything more and I’ll kill you.”
Anagin conveyed his message to the wolves curtly.
They seemed to understand; after a moment’s hesitation, they took the roast leg and departed.
The robed woman, surprised, asked,
“Wow… can you talk to animals?”
“No. I just said it. Whether they listen is on them.”
Had they not understood and attacked, today would have been the day Anagin ate wolf meat.
“Heh… you’re a kind mister. I thought someone who talked like that would have a mean heart, but I was wrong.”
“You’re the type to be sparing with words.”
“Alright, I’ve decided! I'm going to follow you, kind mister!!”
“What the hell are you saying, you bastard?”
* * *
“Swearing at people is a bad thing, you know.”
The robed woman spoke up after hearing his firm rejection.
Anagin shot back without backing down.
“So is deciding on your own to follow a stranger after mooching food off him.”
“Would it be right to turn away someone in need of help?”
“Judging by the way you talk, you don’t look like you need help.”
“Do I look fine to you, wandering alone in the middle of a forest, a frail little girl like me?”
“Frail, maybe not. But you do look like you’ve got something wrong with your head.”
“Hey—!”
“Ah, please don’t talk to me so casually, miss I-just-met-you. I’m kind of shy with strangers.”
Anagin even started speaking politely, doing whatever he could to shake her off.
That didn’t mean he got up right away—he still had meat left.
He stuffed his mouth full, planning to bolt as soon as he finished eating.
The robed woman kept trying to persuade him.
“Usually, when a small girl like me asks for help, people offer to take her back to the village, don’t they?”
“I’m not most people.”
At that shameless remark, the woman looked at him in disbelief.
“Besides, I don’t plan on going to any village right now. I’ve got something to find—just walking wherever the wind takes me.”
At that absurd excuse, the robed woman gave him a suspicious look, but it wasn’t a lie.
It had been quite some time since Anagin left the Ruin Village, but he hadn’t forgotten the Monster Merchant.
He was still wandering wherever the wind blew, chasing after that bastard—so he could smash that ugly head and tell him once more just how ugly he was.
“Then how about this, I’ll head to the village myself, just take me halfway there?”
“No. Too much trouble. I don’t plan to look after anyone, least of all some shady, robed woman I just met.”
When he had first left the village, he’d traveled with the old wagon driver because he didn’t know where to go. But now that he had direction, he had no intention of traveling with anyone.
No grand reason behind it—he just couldn’t be bothered. It was annoying, that’s all.
The robed woman seemed to realize that and stopped pushing.
Her tone was playful, but it was clear he had made up his mind.
“Hmm…”
She glanced around, deep in thought, searching for any way to convince him otherwise.
Meanwhile, Anagin silently continued eating. Only one piece of meat remained.
Once he finished that, he planned to get up and leave.
After all, he’d already decided to throw away all the ruined laundry—all he needed to do was grab his bag and go.
“…Hey, mister. What if I help you out a little? Would you take me with you then?”
“Hm?”
Anagin made a sound as he looked at her—not because he hadn’t heard, but as if to say, And just how exactly are you going to help me?
As if reading his thoughts, the woman pointed proudly toward the heap of laundry behind her and smiled confidently.
From beneath her hood and golden hair, her golden eyes gleamed faintly.
“I may not look like it, but I’m a mage, and when it comes to laundry, I’m pretty confident.”