Chapter 36
Chapter 036. Wanted (1)
“Back already?”
At the outskirts of Dolos Village, the robed woman squatted on the dirt road, waiting for Anagin.
“Your clothes are strangely ripped.”
The robed woman commented as she looked at Anagin.
Just as she said, his clothes were in an odd state.
The right sleeve looked burned away, shredded to nothing.
Anagin pulled a fresh top from his Interspatial Bag and put it on.
“Why are you here?”
“I waited. For you, mister.”
“Why?”
The robed woman gave a bitter smile at the pointless question of ‘why.’
She didn’t really know what she was supposed to say.
“…I was worried?”
Worried. That was the answer she finally squeezed out after a long moment.
Even she thought it was a stupid reason.
So she quickly corrected herself.
"Because I was curious. Why you saved me."
It was something she said without much thought, but strangely, the moment she said it, she felt something inside her swing wide open.
Like the saying that simplicity is the answer, the careless words she spat out came closest to what was actually in her heart.
Yes. The robed woman was curious.
Why Anagin saved her, and why he saved a monster.
“Unbelievable. I saved you, and now you want the whole bundle thrown in? Why would I tell you that?”
But Anagin simply brushed off her question.
“Ugh…. Can’t you just tell me? You saved me, so it’d be nice if you told me the reason too, right?”
“I don’t think so.”
For the first time since she left her mother and set out on the road, the robed woman felt a surge of emotion rising in her throat.
How could every single word out of his mouth make her want to punch him…?
She muttered without meaning to.
“If only it weren’t for that transformation magic, I’d really….”
“That’s your vow?”
Anagin caught the muttering and asked.
"The one about you having a human appearance."
“…How do you know that?”
The robed woman asked back only after a long delay, clearly startled.
‘Did he actually know about her vow?’
"Beats me? I find it strange too. Why do I know this? Something my master once said suddenly came to mind."
She wasn’t sure if he was joking or not, but she had to admire it.
She’d dismissed him as just a guy with many odd talents, but it seemed he really was someone who knew a lot.
He even knew about the magical vow.
“Yeah, that’s my vow. To maintain a human form semi-permanently, I swore not to harm people.”
A vow.
A kind of magic.
The concept was extremely simple.
You desired a certain outcome and placed a matching restriction upon yourself.
Basic magic—something anyone who studied magic even a little would know.
But knowing it was one thing; actually using it was another.
Or rather, using it wasn’t hard—but the conditions were difficult and dangerous.
“To get the result you want, you have to place a restriction worthy of it. If the balance between result and restriction is off, it won’t work. And if you break the vow, you pay the price.”
“Then why do you still look like that?”
Anagin asked.
The robed woman, at first glance, looked like an ordinary woman, but not if you looked closely. She had almost been exposed and nearly killed in the Dolos Family mansion, after all.
She looked almost human, but that meant a part of her was still monster-like.
Like the sharp nails and claws, and the tail hidden under her robe.
“I almost fooled them. I think someone must’ve spied on me in the bath.”
It wasn’t a baseless excuse.
The robed woman remembered the unpleasant sensation she felt when entering the bath.
There was probably some magical surveillance device inside.
A mistake born from not expecting the Dolos Family to have a mage.
By the time she stepped into the bath, it was already too late. She just hoped she wasn’t found out… but of course, things blew up anyway.
“I couldn’t hide a few things, but it can’t be helped. Transformation magic is hard enough already, and keeping it going like I do is extremely difficult. Especially when the size difference is big…”
“Size? How big are you normally?”
“…Don’t use the word ‘size’ for a woman.”
“You’re the one who brought it up.”
Ahh… the robed woman felt the heat simmer inside her again.
“Sigh…. Still, judging by the way you’re talking, you seem okay…. What happened to the Dolos Family?”
“They won’t have the mind to chase you.”
“Does it have anything to do with that light earlier?”
She referred to the flash she saw earlier in the distance.
It had been bright enough to be seen from the outskirts. Soon after, the village became noisy, and then Anagin appeared.
She assumed it must have been the final exchange of blows in his fight with the Dolos Family.
“It’s nothing you need to worry about.”
Instead of answering, Anagin cut it off flatly.
Because of that, the robed woman couldn’t pry any further.
All she could do was…
“Thank you. Really.”
“…….”
“Thank you for helping me. For saving a mon—”
“—Have you ever hurt a person?”
Anagin abruptly cut in.
Like other monsters, had she ever harmed or eaten people?
His intuition told him she hadn’t.
But even so, he wanted to hear it from her mouth. Whether she had eaten people or not.
Under her robe, her hidden face twisted into a bitter smile.
The robed woman spoke first.
“You worry about things like that too, mister? The clichéd notion that monsters harm people and practitioners save people—”
“—Cut the bullshit and just answer the question. Have you ever hurt a person, or not?”
Under the robe, her golden eyes glared at Anagin.
Anagin looked straight back with an expression that said he couldn’t care less.
After a brief silence, the robed woman finally answered.
“No. But not because I like people or anything. It’s only because I have to keep my vow.”
“Got it.”
Her prickly, irritated reply didn’t faze Anagin at all.
He didn’t doubt her, not even a little.
It was the sort of reaction that said: ‘Mm, yeah? Then that’s good enough.’
The robed woman was caught off guard.
“That’s it?”
“What else should there be?”
He spoke in his usual tone, which made it more obvious he meant it.
“…Why, though?”
“What do you mean, why?”
“Why did you save me?”
The same question he had ignored earlier.
But this time, he didn’t ignore it.
Anagin looked at her briefly, then answered.
“I hate shit.”
“What kind of shit?”
“Beasts ruining fields. Corpses left to rot. Idiots making a fuss. Humans screwing beasts. Kids crying…. And shitty bastards acting shitty.”
“…Like framing someone?”
“Yeah, something like that. Watching it pisses me off.”
“I’m still a monster, you know?”
“And so what?”
Anagin replied in a lazy, bothered tone.
There wasn’t a shred of kindness in his voice, and maybe because of that, the sincerity came through even more.
That casual honesty gave the robed woman an odd sense of comfort.
A comfort that let her stop overthinking everything.
“I still don’t really get what monsters or practitioners even are. From what I’ve seen out here, they’re all more or less the same. So I’ll divide things the way I always have.”
“And that is?”
“People, beasts that ruin fields, and everything else. Why, got a problem with that?”
The robed woman shook her head.
“No, it’s simple. I like it. Where are you going?”
“The wind’s blowing this way, so this way…. Why are you following me?”
Anagin had taken a few steps when he noticed the robed woman trailing after him.
She shamelessly replied:
“Why? What? I’m following the wind too. This path doesn’t belong to you, mister.”
“Are you insane?”
“Even if you saved me, you can’t just talk however you want. I’ll have you know I was raised like a princess.”
“Oh, I see. You are insane.”
He said it with full sincerity.
She was, genuinely, insane.
“Or are you embarrassed? Walking with a beauty like me?”
Anagin was about to say ‘What the fuck are you talking about’, when the robed woman suddenly took off her robe and revealed her face.
Brown skin smooth like polished stone, eyes golden like a cat’s, blood-red lips, a sharp nose, long golden hair that curled like waves—and beneath it, catlike golden ears.
“What is this?”
Anagin touched one of the cat ears hidden under her golden hair.
“Kyaak!?!!”
The robed woman recoiled and slapped his hand away.
“Ouch.”
“What are you doing!!”
“It looked interesting.”
“If you saw a bottle of poison for the first time, would you drink it?”
“I’ve drunk most poisons already.”
“Kyaaaah!!”
The robed woman screeched, furious that things were going nothing like she imagined.
She’d taken the robe off with some courage, too….
“Well, you’re clearly not embarrassed.”
“About what?”
“Your appearance. It’s not my type.”
“……Who asked about your type, mister??”
She barely stopped herself from exploding into curses.
“Ugh… anyway, if we’re heading in the same direction, let’s just walk together quietly. Then, when our paths split, we part. Someone like me, who can’t even defend herself, benefits from having a companion like you, and you—”
“—You’re doing the laundry.”
Anagin started walking again.
The robed woman blinked, then hurried after him, nodding.
“Sure, that’s fine.”
“And you’re doing the cooking too.”
“Hold on, cooking too?”
“Don’t want to? Fine.”
Anagin sped up.
“Okay! Fine! I’ll do it! I’ll cook!”
Only then did Anagin slow his pace.
For the first time in a long while, the robed woman felt the urge to punch someone.
“Sigh… but I have one condition.”
“What?”
“Hey, you. Don’t call me ‘hey’ or ‘that thing.’ Call me by my name. I do have one.”
A name, huh.
“What is it?”
“Sphinx.”
“That’s too long. You’re Pinku-Pinku now.”
“…….”
* * *
Whispering, murmuring, bustling...
Dysis Polis, a city built in western Anapik.
The city was enjoying prosperity for the first time in a long while.
It had always been a place where refugees with nowhere else to go flocked to, but most couldn’t adapt and left for other places.
But this time, it was different.
A considerable number of people were settling down.
All because the exploiters known as the Bender Caravan were gone, and people were now able to keep the full fruits of their own labor.
"And that's not all, is it? We also have the judgment of the City Lord, who invested all the profits back into the city's industrial development."
The short and stout butcher Karnos spoke while sitting at an outdoor tavern in the marketplace.
Across from him sat Riothes, the City Lord of Dysis Polis.
The two shared cups of wine and exchanged compliments.
“You provided carriages for our Ruin Butchers’ Guild to move here, lent us buildings and land, and even lowered taxes. Anyone could tell how bold your leadership is.”
The Ruin Butchers’ Guild.
A temporary organization formed by the butchers who used to work in the Ruin Village, established by the Monster Merchant and Deodia.
They had received an enormous number of monster corpses from Anagin, too many to process in a short time.
For profit, they created a guild under the simple purpose of cooperating until all the monster bodies were fully processed.
Word of their existence spread, and naturally, it reached Rio, the City Lord of Dysis Polis.
Rio used the city’s trading companies to contact the Guild and made an offer.
He would provide carriages and magical tools to transport the monster corpses, offer workspaces, and lower taxes if they agreed to move to Dysis Polis and work there.
With safety, facilities, and tax benefits all included, Karnos, the representative of the guild, had no reason to refuse.
“More merchants visit the city now, and more jobs have opened. Honestly, I profited from this too.”
Rio replied modestly to the compliment, though it wasn’t entirely false.
There was calculation behind his generosity.
Truthfully, he didn’t want to reduce taxes.
But Rio sacrificed that for the sake of short-term growth.
To increase jobs and draw more merchants into the city.
Lower the margins, raise the total volume—something like that.
Fortunately, the plan had worked.
“Heh heh, so may I know why City Lord has graced us with a visit? A man who needs ten bodies to keep up with his schedule wouldn't come here without reason.”
“It’s nothing major. I simply wanted to know, when you run out of monster corpses, will you leave, or will you settle here permanently? I hear you’re buying monster corpses from outside merchants lately.”
Anapik bordered Barbarland, and Dysis Polis even more so.
Maybe because of that, Barbaroi merchants had started coming to sell monster bodies from Barbarland.
“To be frank, if you intend to take root here, continuing your tax exemption will be difficult.”
“Well, that makes sense.”
Karnos admitted readily.
It was easy to grant tax exemption to travelers passing by, but not to those settling permanently.
For the sake of both sides, taxes had to be paid. Karnos himself had been considering settling down.
But…
“I’d like some time to think. Our guild is a ‘guild’ in name only, more like a temporary alliance. Some people are only here to take their share and leave.”
“If you have members who plan to stay, let me know. There will be butchery taxes, but the processing business will receive a tax exemption for five to ten years.”
Karnos grinned.
This man was no ordinary negotiator.
Butchering paid money, yes—but real profit came from processing monster materials. Naturally, the taxes for that were much higher.
Five to ten years of tax exemption? A nearly irresistible deal.
Enough for even the guild members planning to leave to reconsider.
“I’ll try to achieve the most positive outcome.”
“Good.”
Rio raised his cup at the pleasant business talk.
Karnos naturally raised his as well, and the two toasted.
“But did he truly give those monster corpses on credit? All of them?”
“As insane as it sounds, it’s true.”
“It does sound insane, but I believe it. I’ve experienced something similar, on a smaller scale, but still…”
“So that’s why you’ve been working so hard.”
“From the way you speak, it sounds like you too—”
—Ting, ting. Ting.—
Even in the noisy marketplace, engrossed in conversation, Karnos and Rio heard the clear sound of bells ringing.
Despite its small volume, the bell’s tone cut sharply through the noise and drew attention.
“This must be…?”
“Well now, it seems this land truly has become part of Hellas.”
Both reacted immediately to the familiar sound.
They looked toward it.
There, a man walked through the crowd, shaking a staff with bells attached.
Surprisingly, the man seemed unable to see or speak—his eyes and mouth were covered.
And yet he walked through the busy street with the ease of someone who could see perfectly.
“A copy of the newspaper, please.”
Karnos lifted a hand out of habit.
Even without sight, the man walked directly to him, took a newspaper from the bag at his waist, and handed it over.
“Thank you.”
Karnos accepted the paper and paid him one olive silver coin.
The man nodded, then disappeared into the crowd, bells jingling.
“For the courier to reach here too… At this rate, a temple might be built soon.”
“Yes…”
Rio answered.
Indeed, the arrival of the Hellas newspaper courier meant the spiritual and cultural territory of Hellas was expanding.
Not just physical expansion—but mental, cultural expansion.
Perhaps the name Anapik would vanish someday, replaced by Hellas.
“…You should take a look at this.”
Karnos said, stopping mid-read and handing the paper over.
“What is it?”
Rio took the newspaper and skimmed it—then froze at one point.
【Local News Section】
“Breaking: A Practitioner Killer Appears!”
Short, clear, and shocking.
A practitioner killer.
And beneath the headline was a portrait of a familiar face.
“Anagin…!”