Anagin Chronicles

Chapter 053. An Unexpected Invitation (2)

To draw the attention of the city guard, Anagin jumped out the window and came outside.

Leaving behind the loot he’d obtained from the Thieves’ Guild and the Giant’s Bed.

For a moment, he thought, Ah, damn.

He’d planned to engage them just enough and then slip away himself, but like this, wouldn’t he have to go back into the inn again?

But soon, he decided it didn’t matter.

Going back into the inn and coming out again would just look a bit awkward and be somewhat troublesome, nothing more.

What mattered right now was drawing the guard’s attention before they entered the inn, and giving Sphinx and the kids time to get away.

Standing out unnecessarily would only make things more troublesome. It was actually better to go back into the inn and come out again if needed.

In any case, the moment Anagin appeared outside, the encircling guards stopped all at once.

‘So they really did come because of me?’

He’d hoped—if only with a one-in-ten-thousand chance—that they’d come for some other reason….

With that pointless thought in mind, Anagin looked around.

It was still night, but since all the guards were holding torches, visibility wasn’t an issue.

‘Huh?’

Anagin’s gaze stopped at one point.

At the end of his line of sight stood a man.

He was equipped far better than the other guards—apparently, their captain.

But that wasn’t why Anagin’s eyes lingered.

It was because he looked quite similar to the thug whose jaw Anagin had crushed earlier while smashing the Thieves’ Guild.

‘His name was… Pono, was it? A Gigant.’

Even the scent felt similar somehow.

As Anagin watched silently, the man stepped forward.

“Are you Anagin?”

“Yeah.”

When Anagin answered briefly, the man raised his voice.

“Hero of the Outskirts, Anagin! The City Lord requests your presence!”

The guard captain shouted so loudly that it felt like the whole neighborhood would hear.

Rather than being startled, Anagin felt puzzled.

An invitation, all of a sudden?

There was no way they didn’t know he’d caused havoc in the back alleys. And some of that money had surely gone to high-ranking people.

‘Hmm, did it go to the City Lord’s opposition?’

Anagin let his imagination run for a moment.

Wondering if the Thieves’ Guild had been paying tribute to a faction hostile to the City Lord.

It wasn’t an impossible idea.

His master had once said that cities where countless people lived were bound together by complex interests, and power struggles were always happening.

Perhaps they genuinely wanted to thank Anagin for cutting off an enemy faction’s source of funds….

Still, Anagin decided not to jump to conclusions.

There were possibilities, but nothing was certain. Until he saw it for himself, he had to keep his mind open without getting caught up in any one idea. Otherwise, he might end up trapped by his own assumptions.

‘So is it a trap? Invite me and then slice me up? Or are they trying to approach me amicably and put me to work? Like, “we’ll let what happened in the back alleys slide, so do us a favor”?’

Anagin speculated about the reason for the invitation.

It wasn’t a long time, but it did take a moment.

The guard captain who had delivered the invitation spoke again, sounding displeased.

“Hey. Didn’t you hear me?”

It seemed he was annoyed that Anagin hadn’t responded immediately to the City Lord’s invitation.

Anagin brushed it off casually.

“Ah, sorry. I thought I’d seen you somewhere before.”

“Me?”

“You look like a guy from the Thieves’ Guild named Pono.”

The guards murmured among themselves. Was he someone famous in the city?

But the captain’s expression was oddly complex.

Rather than sadness, it was something more mixed and difficult to read.

“Do you know who he is?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh? Who?”

“The City Lord’s illegitimate son.”

* * *

Anagin’s mind froze for a moment.

So… the thug whose jaw Anagin had crushed in the back alleys was the City Lord’s illegitimate son? And the guard captain looked like that thug?

Which meant the guard captain and the thug were brothers.

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t give a damn about a guy like that. The City Lord feels the same.”

It seemed the brothers’ relationship wasn’t very good. Maybe the relationship between father and son wasn’t either….

That wasn’t strange. If they were on good terms, with the father being the City Lord and one brother serving as a guard captain, there’d be no way the other would be trafficking people in the back alleys.

Having roughly grasped the family situation, Anagin decided to stop thinking about their household. He had no interest in it, and there were other things to worry about.

First, Anagin accepted the City Lord’s invitation.

A request from someone high up wasn’t really a request—it was an order disguised as one.

He didn’t like following orders, but he wanted to know why he’d been invited. And making an enemy of the city wasn’t particularly appealing either.

“Give me a moment. I need to gather my things.”

The guard captain looked suspicious, but gave his permission.

He seemed to judge that Anagin had no intention of running.

Anagin went back into the inn and packed his belongings.

He put the Giant’s Bed, the loot taken from the Thieves’ Guild, and the doll called Pygmalion into his Interspatial Bag.

The Interspatial Bag, which could store anything regardless of size, swallowed up all the items as if by magic.

'Ah, it's not like magic; it is magic, isn't it?'

By the time Anagin finished packing, Sphinx, who had woken the kids, quietly approached.

“What’s going on?”

“I was invited.”

“I heard that too. What's the reason?"

Kori and Pais, the two kids, listened to the conversation in a drowsy state, perhaps because the sleeping smoke hadn't completely worn off. They didn't seem to know what was happening.

“I haven’t heard the reason yet. That’s why I’m going to find out.”

“Ah….”

Sphinx was about to ask if that wasn’t reckless, but swallowed the words.

Refusing the City Lord’s invitation would cause problems in its own way.

Normally, accepting an invitation from the high ranks was proper etiquette, and from the guest’s perspective, it wasn’t a bad thing either. Just showing your face to someone powerful was beneficial.

Rejecting such a favorable offer usually meant you had something to hide.

A thief, a criminal, a fugitive, a wanted person, a spy.

None of those labels was good to be misunderstood as.

‘Of course, Mister is a wanted person.’

In any case, the point was that if you were invited, it was better to go.

If he refused, every city connected to the Stas Polis might start viewing Anagin with suspicion.

“Just in case, you all should leave the city first.”

Having decided to accept the invitation, Anagin gave instructions to Sphinx and the kids.

They could go together, but since he didn’t know the reason for the invitation, he judged it safer to move separately.

Sphinx agreed with Anagin’s reasoning and didn’t object.

“Hoo… okay. Still, it’s a shame. I thought we’d finally be sleeping under a roof tonight.”

A light complaint mixed with a joke—but there was some sincerity to it.

After a long stretch of sleeping rough, they’d finally thought they’d sleep under a roof, so the disappointment was inevitable.

“If nothing happens, I’ll let you sleep under a roof all day tomorrow. So for now, just do as I say.”

“…….”

“Why?”

“No… It’s just… that doesn’t sound like you at all, mister.”

“I want to sleep under a roof all day, too.”

“…….”

“Why? I’m precious, you know.”

Sphinx smiled faintly at that.

Come to think of it, Anagin had also been sleeping rough for a long time, and even after entering the city, he hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep.

He’d also once said that he preferred the warmth of inn food to the harsh fare of the wild, and a roof over his head more than the great outdoors.

‘I’m precious, you know.’

For some reason, it was a little funny.

“What are you smiling about?”

“Nothing. So… where should we stay outside the city?”

“That big tree I pointed out on the way in. If I’m not back by morning, start moving on your own. Take this.”

Anagin tossed over two Interspatial Bags.

They were the Interspatial Bags belonging to Procrustes, the owner of the Bed Inn.

One contained the looted goods, and the other held the magical tools he owned.

“If I come back before sunrise, return them. If I don’t, they’re yours from then on. Use them as you see fit.”

“Mister?”

“But don’t get your hopes up too much. I don’t plan on giving them to you.”

“…….”

“Got something to say?”

“No.”

Sphinx shook her head and gathered the kids.

After finishing the conversation, Anagin went outside the inn, and while the guards’ attention was focused on him, Sphinx led Kori and Pais out of the building.

Reassuring the worried children that everything was fine.

* * *

“Mind your manners when you meet the City Lord.”

The guard captain warned him outright, apparently having heard the rumors about Anagin.

“The City Lord’s grandfather was a hero who rendered great service by building this city’s bridge. That’s why everyone in this city respects the City Lord.”

“Oh, really?”

Anagin’s curiosity was unexpectedly satisfied.

The civilized land of Hellas and the developing frontier of Anapik.

He’d wondered who could have built such a massive bridge over the Horion River, the boundary separating those two vast lands, only to learn it was the City Lord’s grandfather.

Well, after suffering through something like that, becoming City Lord made sense.

“If you show disrespect to the City Lord, it may not be the City Lord himself, but others might not let it slide.”

Whether it was a warning or a threat was unclear, but Anagin nodded.

He had no intention of causing trouble himself. As long as the other side didn’t try anything funny first.

“Here we are.”

When they arrived before a huge, lavish building erected atop the highest hill in Stas Polis, the guard captain spoke.

“This is where the City Lord resides.”

Anagin didn’t know who the City Lord of Stas Polis was, but he immediately assumed the man was filthy greedy.

First, because he accepted tribute from a Thieves’ Guild that made its money through human trafficking.

Second, because the building he lived in was obscenely extravagant.

It surpassed both the city hall of Dysis Polis, the first city Anagin had visited, and even the mansion of the Dolos Family, the first practitioner family he’d encountered.

To be honest, it was closer to a palace than a house.

One of those unnecessarily massive residences that kings built to flaunt their authority.

Normally, Anagin would’ve spent some time looking around, but since he had business to attend to, he followed the guard captain straight inside.

Just as it looked from the outside, the interior was vast.

After walking for quite some time, Anagin stopped before a large, ornate door. It seemed this was where the City Lord of Stas Polis stayed.

Thud. Thud.

The guard captain knocked on the door using the handle.

A heavy sound echoed briefly, then a voice came from within.

“Let him in.”

The guard captain pulled the handle and opened the door, and Anagin entered through the opening.

Contrary to his expectations, there weren’t one, but two people in the room. Usually, wasn’t there only one in situations like this?

‘Am I being too prejudiced?’

Reflecting on his own narrow-mindedness, Anagin looked back and forth between the two.

One of them was easy to identify.

The City Lord of this city.

A middle-aged man who looked exactly like Pono, the thug whose jaw Anagin had crushed, and the guard captain. His lavish attire made it obvious. As expected, he had the face of someone obsessed with money.

‘But that man over there….’

Anagin looked at the man sitting across from the City Lord.

Aside from being male, he was the complete opposite of the City Lord.

As if he’d been locked up somewhere, his clothes were worn and filthy, and he was very young—late teens, maybe early twenties?

In any case, he stood in stark contrast to the City Lord.

What was interesting was that the City Lord was showing him a certain degree of courtesy.

Despite the City Lord looking like someone far removed from manners.

“Hm?”

Anagin let out a sound without realizing it.

He felt like he’d seen the man sitting across from the City Lord somewhere before.

Coincidentally, it seemed to be in the back alleys where the Thieves’ Guild was.

“Were you one of the people who were locked up?”

While smashing the Thieves’ Guild, Anagin had tossed a dagger to the people he found imprisoned, telling them to escape on their own.

He was pretty sure he’d seen this man then.

The man seemed to remember Anagin as well, standing up to greet him.

He did so before the City Lord.

“Greetings. My name is Sanchonius. I am an attendant assisting the New Argonaut Expedition Team.”