Anagin Chronicles

Chapter 048. Stas Polis (1)

After Kori and Pais succeeded in their slingshot practice, Anagin’s group continued walking toward their destination city.

To be precise, their target was the Thieves’ Guild located inside the city.

“But does that city even have a Thieves’ Guild? What was the name again…?”

“Stas Polis?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.”

Stas Polis.

It was the name they learned while asking for directions in a village on their way to the city.

It was a city built right in the middle of the border between Hellas and Anapik, and it was the city Anagin was currently heading to.

“There’s a chance it doesn’t have a Thieves’ Guild, right?”

“No, it has one. Most cities do, and from what I know, Stas passed that ‘most cities’ level quite some time ago.”

Sphinx said confidently, and she was right.

Stas Polis had originally been nothing more than a small fortress city at the outer edge of Hellas, but as Hellas’ influence expanded into Anapik, its role changed.

As a fortress city, Stas Polis controlled major roads and the surrounding area. Over time, it was transformed from a mere fortress into a hub city connecting Anapik and Hellas.

Because of that, the huge amount of goods and people moving between Hellas and Anapik passed through Stas Polis, and the city grew noticeably year after year.

“A city that fattens will always have thieves, and where there are thieves, there’s a Thieves’ Guild. The real problem is meeting them.”

Indeed.

Even though most major cities had a Thieves’ Guild, that didn’t mean they were easy to find. Honestly, being able to make contact with a Thieves’ Guild easily would be stranger.

“You really have no idea how to find them?”

“I told you, I tried my best not to get involved with that sort of crowd. If someone connected to them were here, things would be easier, but unfortunately, I don’t know anyone. What about you, mister?”

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

“To know someone like that, I’d have to be too wicked, which I’m not.”

“…Excuse me?”

Besides, he had only recently left his village. There was no way he knew any thieves…

“Hm?”

A small-time thief popped into Anagin’s mind.

The ponytail guy he’d met in the Ruin Village.

For some reason, Anagin felt 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.

It would be different if the ponytail guy were beside him, but he wasn’t there now. Relying on the ponytail guy’s help was a thought so worthless it could be called a delusion.

“Well… let’s just go and see. We’ll figure something out when we get there.”

Nothing clever came to mind, so Anagin gave up thinking and simply decided to keep walking.

Plans could fall apart at any moment. In other words, a good idea might suddenly pop into his head, too.

So rather than stressing himself out, he chose to focus on the present.

For that reason, Anagin stopped from time to time to help Kori and Pais practice their slingshot technique and to meditate for magic.

It made their pace a little slower, but he didn’t regret it. This was more productive, and in the end, they reached their destination, Stas Polis, without any trouble.

“Oh…”

Anagin let out a breath in awe as they approached the city.

Stas Polis was far larger than he had expected.

He thought it would be around the size of Dysis Polis, the first city he ever visited, but it was much bigger.

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason Anagin was impressed.

“That’s the Horion River.”

Sphinx pointed to an enormous river.

A river so vast that the far side was barely visible.

That river, she explained, was the Horion River that separated Hellas from Anapik.

In the middle of the massive river was an island, and Stas Polis had been built on top of it.

“So this is why people have to pass through here to cross from Hellas into Anapik.”

Anagin looked at the two gigantic bridges built on either side of Stas Polis.

To cross that enormous river, you either had to take a boat or use the bridges.

“Crossing by boat is not easy. It looks calm, but the currents are strong. This area of the river is one of the calmer parts, but Stas doesn’t allow random crossings anyway.”

“Ah…”

“Wow…”

As they approached the river, Kori and Pais continued to exhale in amazement at the sheer size of it.

“Whoa, it’s really huge… the river.”

“And the bridge is massive too.”

Anagin agreed.

The bridges were even more eye-catching than the distant city. Building something like that must have been no ordinary feat.

“They say the Gigants built the bridges.”

“The Gigants?”

“Yeah. A giant’s strength is extremely valuable when constructing things.”

“That’s impressive.”

Anagin complimented them.

He himself was a Gigant, but he rarely used his strength for anything other than hunting beasts. Sometimes he’d help put up a building column or two, but anything more was too bothersome.

Yet someone had built bridges like these. Whoever they were, he could at least respect their patience.

“Damn it! Don’t cut in line!”

“Who says I’m cutting? You’re the one cutting! This was my spot!!”

“Liar!”

“Swindler!”

As they climbed onto the bridge to enter the city, they saw crowds of people shouting and arguing.

These were people standing in line to get into the city.

The bridge was already packed with such people.

Because of that, fights were breaking out everywhere along the long bridge.

“Don’t push!”

“You stop pushing!”

Peddlers and travelers.

“My wagon is getting covered in dust!”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

Merchants against merchants.

“You really wanna do this?!”

“Fine, come on then!”

Even armed groups were fighting among themselves.

Because it was a bridge, the fights were rougher and more chaotic, and even the city guards couldn’t properly control the situation.

Perhaps because of that, the line barely moved at all.

“This is a complete mess.”

Anagin didn’t hide his irritation. At this rate, they would be stuck in this noisy place all day just waiting in line.

“Well, nothing you can do. A hub city always draws every kind of person. Especially Stas Polis.”

Most people visiting Stas Polis were either roughened by the harsh life in Anapik, or ruined folks running away because they couldn’t handle life in Hellas.

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.

“The only thing I care about is not standing in this line.”

“Agreed. I hate waiting in line too, but what else can we do?”

Sphinx agreed immediately, but added that they had no choice.

And indeed, there didn’t seem to be any other option.

They couldn’t just tell the people ahead, ‘We’re having a hard time, please let us through,’ could they?

Besides, they needed to avoid drawing attention as much as possible.

They didn’t know whether Anagin’s wanted status had reached this place yet, but still, it was better to be careful.

“—Alright, I’ve decided.”

“Decided what? Why does that sound ominous?”

Sphinx asked in genuine dread. Whenever Anagin said things like that, he was about to do something.

It was a very reasonable suspicion.

And it was immediately proven correct.

Clink.

Anagin pulled out a very heavy coin pouch from the Interspatial Bag slung over his shoulder.

It was filled with the bounty hunter’s coins and the coins he’d picked up at Paia’s mountain hideout, an amount of money most people would never see in their entire lives.

Sphinx’s eyes wavered with panic.

“Mister… don’t tell me…?”

Whoosh—!

And indeed, her fear came true.

Anagin reached into the pouch and began throwing coins high into the air.

Scattering in every direction—bronze, silver, and gold coins.

The coins, glinting in the sunlight, instantly drew people's attention and fell onto the ground.

“W–what the?!”

“S–silver coins?!”

“There are gold coins too!!”

People who had been standing in line looking bored, people who had been fighting like they wanted to kill each other, even the guards—everyone’s eyes sparkled as they scrambled to pick up the fallen coins.

“Move, that’s mine!”

“I saw it first!!”

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

“Mister…”

Sphinx called out in a tone halfway between scolding and despair as she held on to Kori and Pais.

Anagin shrugged as if he were being unfairly blamed.

“What? What did I do?”

Then, like scattering chicken feed, he tossed another handful of coins high into the air.

Zarararak.

“Oh…? Oh…!”

With coins falling again, people burst into chaos once more.

The line collapsed, and Anagin pushed through the crowd in the confusion.

Sphinx, still clutching Kori and Pais, followed him.

“Even if you don’t want to stand in line, isn’t this a bit too much?”

“Not really. I think standing in line is what’s too much. It’s boring.”

Anagin threw another handful of coins over the heads of the people at the front.

People who had turned their heads at the noise in the back now had their eyes stolen by the glittering coins falling from the sky, and they all tangled together trying to grab the ones hitting the ground.

Sphinx silently watched the scene. In fact, it was closer to her being speechless because she had too much to say. To cause such a disturbance, risking a confrontation with the guards, was outrageous.

But it was already far too late to argue.

Anagin continued throwing coins and pushing forward.

“Haha! Amazing……!”

Pais was delighted by the spectacle, while his sister Kori looked dazed, awestruck, and terrified at the same time.

Well, with everyone acting like they would bite each other’s heads off for even a single coin, fear was understandable.

Just then, several people rushed toward Sphinx.

“Out of the way, you bitches! I saw that first—”

Thud!

Without even looking back, Anagin whipped around like a ghost and kicked the man rushing toward Sphinx.

It was a light, pushing kind of kick, but the man flew back five steps, crashed into someone else, and sprawled flat on the ground.

Seeing that, the surrounding people, though still scrambling for coins, didn’t dare approach Anagin’s group and instinctively cleared a path.

“Follow me.”

The one who caused this entire disaster spoke shamelessly as he tossed more coins into the air and walked forward again.

Sphinx had many things she wanted to say, but she had no choice except to gather the children and follow behind him.

Whoosh—!

Anagin threw another handful of coins into the air.

“Move!”

People bent down to grab the coins, colliding and fighting with one another in a tangled mess.

Stomp. Stomp.

Every time the crowd fought, Anagin walked forward, slipping through the chaos.

Of course, the cost of this was enormous—the line completely collapsed, countless people broke into fistfights, wagons overturned, and a few even fell off the side of the bridge.

“What the? What’s happening?!”

The city guards stationed at the gate finally realized the commotion, but nothing changed.

There were far too many visitors for the number of guards, making them nearly useless. And because the coin scramble had now turned into emotional fights, the guards couldn’t calm anyone down. The restricted space of the bridge made it worse.

Even when the guards shouted and swung their batons, instead of restoring order, they were swept aside.

“Huh?”

When Anagin was almost at the very front, he noticed something strange.

Even though he threw more coins, nobody picked them up. Instead, they stared at him with frightened expressions.

It seemed the chaos that had started at the far back of the line had scared them senseless.

‘Well… it was pretty chaotic.’

Anagin sighed in disappointment but decided not to push his luck further.

He had come from the very back to right in front of the city gate, so he had made a profitable deal, after all.

“My face is going to be famous now……”

Sphinx muttered as she saw the guards and civilians staring at them.

A random madman suddenly throwing money and causing a riot at the city entrance… they might arrest him for worsening public order.

‘He won’t be arrested since he’s a Gigant, but still, getting inside the city like this is going to—’

“Good. Let it get famous. The thieves in this town will hear that a rich guy showed up.”

Just as Sphinx was thinking that, Anagin casually dropped that line.

She instantly realized Anagin hadn’t done all this just because he hated waiting in line.

“Mister… don’t tell me…”

“Next!”

A middle-aged man shouted from the checkpoint where visitors were inspected. He had a full beard covering his chin, a sturdy build, armor that shone brighter than the other guards, and, most importantly, the aura.

He was clearly the one in charge.

As Anagin stepped forward, the man stared at him.

His eyes were sharp and heavy, the gaze of a seasoned soldier—enough to make most people shrink back.

Anagin simply stared straight back.

A short silence passed before the old soldier spoke.

“…What’s your purpose for visiting the city?”

“I’m here to look into something.”

It was the kind of suspicious answer that begged the question, What are you here to look into?, yet the inspector did not ask further.

Instead, he carefully examined Anagin, Sphinx, Kori, and Pais.

“Hm. To pass the checkpoint, we need to inspect your belongings and charge the appropriate toll… Do you have anything to declare?”

Anagin glanced at the Interspatial Bag around his waist, then held out the half-empty coin pouch in his hand.

He had thrown so many coins earlier that the amount had been reduced by half, but it still contained a considerable sum.

“I have a lot of baggage, so checking it might take a while. Will this cover it?”

“…Go on.”

There were many things the inspector could have questioned, but he said nothing and allowed Anagin to pass.

Just as they were about to move on, the inspector called out.

“Wait a moment.”

Anagin turned back.

The inspector lifted a quill.

“What is your name? We must record the names of all visitors.”

Sphinx tried to say something to warn Anagin, but Anagin spoke faster.

“Anagin.”