Anagin Chronicles

Chapter 062: Negotiations Broken Down (1)

I’ll say it again.

The fact that the Anti-Forest Brotherhood and the Western Alliance agreed to meet in a forest crawling with bandits was no coincidence.

It was both a kind of compromise—meeting in the middle because neither side wanted to swallow their pride by going to the other—and a kind of contest meant to indirectly determine who was stronger.

At first glance, it might seem crude, but in truth, it was quite a wise method.

Compared to settling things with fists, this sort of indirect approach was far less likely to leave bad blood.

After all, isn’t losing a footrace better than getting punched in the face?

And the winner of that wager was the Anti-Forest Brotherhood.

With Sciron’s guidance, securing the shortest route, overwhelming power in the form of blessings, and even a forced march on top of that, the Anti-Forest Brotherhood was able to arrive three days earlier than the Western Alliance.

In the meantime, they set up a camp—erecting fences and tents—and washed away their fatigue by bathing in the nearby river. While they were doing so, the Western Alliance finally arrived.

Anagin swept his gaze over the Western Alliance and first took stock of their numbers.

‘Fifty-seven. The Dolos Family isn’t here.’

He couldn’t say whether fifty-seven was many or few, but given that most of them were practitioners, it wasn’t a weak force.

Practitioner families, after all, received divine blessings—if they were Gigants, the entire clan awakened the strength of Giants, and even if they weren’t, blessings granted them power on a comparable level.

And yet, for some reason, the Western Alliance looked terrible.

They were in a beggarly state, as if they had just gone through a brutal battle. Their clothes were torn, smeared with dried blood and grime, and here and there one could spot people nursing injuries.

“Heeeh…….”

Among the onlookers, along with Anagin, someone let out a subtle laugh.

It wasn’t simple amusement that colored that sound, but twisted superiority, the smugness of the victor, and a sense of satisfaction.

Because it had been decided who was stronger between the Anti-Forest Brotherhood and the Western Alliance, and who should hold the initiative. The faster, stronger side.

“Just as expected, our side will take command.”

“Our side? The New Argonaut Expedition Team will take it.”

Sphinx said this as she brought snacks she had made to Anagin, Kori, and Pais, and Anagin shot back immediately.

She’d only said it casually, but Sphinx snapped at Anagin for picking at her wording.

“You know what I mean, don’t you?”

“You should get the subject right. If you’re a scholar, that’s the kind of thing you ought to do properly.”

Sphinx trembled slightly, clearly vexed.

Anagin’s tone annoyed her, but at the same time, the fact that he remembered she preferred being called a scholar rather than a mage made her feel oddly pleased.

She really was a complicated person. Like a hybrid made by mixing bitter seawater and honey half and half.

“The New Argonaut Expedition Team is on our side, so doesn’t that mean we won?”

Kori, chewing on honey-coated fried bread, asked the question, apparently thinking she’d grown quite close to Anagin during the smashing of the Forest Brotherhood.

“They’re on the same side, but also, you never know.”

Muttering something cryptic, Anagin smoothly took the fried honey bread Kori had been eating and stuffed it into his own mouth. One gulp, gone.

“That was my bread.”

“If you ask a question, you have to pay the price. Don’t you have anything you’re curious about?”

Seeing his sister’s fried honey bread get stolen, Pais pulled the bread he was eating closer to his chest and shook his head side to side.

“Mister, then what about me? I brought you snacks, don’t I get anything in return? I took time to make them.”

“I’ll give you a new thing to wash. Here.”

Anagin proudly handed Sphinx the plate he had completely cleaned out.

Thanks to him scraping off every bit of honey with bread, it would be easy to wash, but for some reason, Sphinx glared at Anagin with eyes full of contempt.

Ignoring her, Anagin asked whatever he pleased.

“So, then, are we moving right away?”

Sphinx glared a little longer, then let out a deep sigh. Like she was looking at a troublesome family member who never listened. Still, she answered properly.

“…Right away will be hard. We might’ve rested a bit, but the Western Alliance hasn’t. Just looking at them, it seems like they’ll need some time. And even if they lost the wager, they won’t bow their heads immediately. They’ll… hesitate a bit.”

Anagin didn’t bother asking why they would hesitate.

Probably something about practitioners’ pride.

Looking at it now, he could kind of see why they’d gotten beaten up by bandits. Practitioners were a damn troublesome bunch.

He wondered if they were always like this.

He didn’t quite remember what a practitioner was supposed to be, since he hadn’t listened properly to his Master, but at the very least, he didn’t recall it being this suffocating.

To begin with, wasn’t it strange that a path aimed at reaching higher ranks with nothing but one’s own body would be this cumbersome?

Many questions crossed his mind, but Anagin decided to wait leisurely.

He didn’t like waiting, but there was no rush, and while he was here, he’d seen some fairly interesting things.

‘Seeing what blessings actually are with my own eyes was the biggest gain. I’d only heard about them, so I never really understood…. Ah, I should ask about Chiron Tower and how to handle Energy(Γι), shouldn’t I?’

Only then did Anagin remember something he needed to do.

He felt a brief pang of realization, then shrugged it off. Well, he could ask when there was time.

Right now, the timing was awkward—maybe right after they roughly wrapped up negotiations with the Western Alliance.

‘Nothing’s going to happen in the meantime.’

And then something happened.

* * *

The Western Alliance did not enter negotiations right away.

Led by Tramachus, they exchanged greetings with the New Argonaut Expedition Team, but stopped at greetings alone and went into rest.

Up to that point, everyone more or less agreed.

Once you arrived at your destination, it was only proper to rest first—and this side had done the same. Judging by the state of the Western Alliance, they clearly needed rest as well.

Wanting to show a measure of goodwill, this side also extended a helping hand in setting up their camp.

Of course, it wasn’t the combat personnel who did so, but non-combatants like Sanchonius and Sphinx.

‘Go, Pinku-Pinku! I choose you.’

‘Mister, you’re really going to get me killed at this rate.’

The Western Alliance finished reorganizing on the day they arrived and the following day, and afterward met again with the New Argonaut Expedition Team to discuss what to do next.

Joining forces to fight the Forest Brotherhood was a given.

They mainly discussed who would hold command, what strategies would be used, and how the spoils would be divided.

In other words, they were discussing who would be the master of this board.

“They’re already talking as if they’ve won?”

“Honestly, it wouldn’t be strange to think we’ve already won.”

Sphinx said confidently.

The Forest Brotherhood had numbers and were good at running, making them troublesome, but in terms of strength, they were being steadily pushed back.

The others thought much the same as Sphinx. In the end, it felt like only a matter of time—it was no different from already having won.

“That’s why it makes me uneasy.”

“Uneasy?”

“Usually, when things go this smoothly, that’s when you need to be the most careful…. Why are you looking at me like that?”

“No…, it’s just. I didn’t expect you to say something like that, Mister.”

“What? I’m not an idiot. I’ve got confidence, not arrogance.”

“When you say it, it’s oddly convincing. So? Are you going to watch the meeting?”

“Even if I watch, what could I do? I’ll just wait.”

Setting aside the friction that arose in the process of joining hands with the New Argonaut Expedition Team, once they had joined forces, Anagin neither clashed with them nor involved himself in any way.

Saying he didn’t know enough to make decisions, he left everything to them. A sharp contrast to the others, who voiced their opinions whenever they had the chance.

The New Argonaut Expedition Team, too, was surprised by Anagin’s attitude, and afterward neither caused further friction nor interfered with him.

However, others were not the same.

The New Argonaut Expedition Team and the Western Alliance.

The very fact that these two practitioner groups were clashing was an entertaining spectacle in itself, and with the distribution of spoils and fame at stake, interest only grew.

Depending on how the New Argonaut Expedition Team and the Western Alliance divided things, the shares allotted to those below them would also change.

Fortunately, the negotiations were led by the New Argonaut Expedition Team.

While the Western Alliance had a greater number of practitioners blessed by the gods, the New Argonaut Expedition Team was judged to hold the advantage in actual combat power.

After all, it was the Anti-Forest Brotherhood that had arrived at the meeting place three days earlier.

The Western Alliance had their own arguments. They claimed the bandits they had faced were particularly strong and savage.

Of course, that didn’t really work.

The Anti-Forest Brotherhood had also fought the Forest Brotherhood on the way here, and it wasn’t as if the numbers or ferocity had been any less.

As proof, Tramachus displayed the weapons and shields taken from the defeated bandits.

Piles of weapons stacked like small hills.

It was far more than what the Western Alliance had secured, and the Western Alliance was left even more at a loss for words.

They had arrived later, yet the Anti-Forest Brotherhood had taken down more bandits. On top of that, the Western Alliance had even revealed their own vulnerable state.

Before long, the Western Alliance seemed to declare surrender and began currying favor with the New Argonaut Expedition Team.

“Hahaha! Truly, one can’t stand against young blood. Or is it because you’re from Chiron Tower? I’d heard rumors and knew you were no ordinary lot, but to think it was to this extent…!”

“It’s nothing.”

Tramachus, who was handling the negotiations, responded with light humility, as if well accustomed to such situations.

In negotiations, one had to be most careful when the other side showed its belly. Sweet flattery was a shallow but effective tactic to extract benefits.

If one wasn’t careful, their hard-earned efforts might be sold off cheaply in exchange for momentary good feelings.

“Modest as well! Why not rest a bit and continue the discussion over a meal? We’ll host!”

With no reason to refuse, Tramachus accepted, and preparations for the meal began at once.

From expensive Interspatial Bags, they took out various ingredients and cooking tools, preparing whole roasted meat and stews packed with meat.

Crude, perhaps, but in a roofless campsite, it was a treasure beyond compare.

It was a shame they couldn’t drink freely given the circumstances, but the atmosphere began to loosen rapidly.

“The Western Alliance folks are actually decent guys.”

Gnawing on meat at the edge of the camp, Anagin said as much. At this rate, it felt like he could forget about the bounty on his head.

That was when it happened.

“You here? Come quickly.”

A what's-his-name practitioner whose name Anagin couldn’t recall came looking for him.

“They’re looking for you. Hurry.”

“Me? Why?”

At Anagin’s leisurely question, showing no urgency, the what’s-his-name practitioner frowned.

“…They say they want to see who is the hero who caught Sciron.”

“Hmm…….”

Anagin debated whether he should refuse by saying he wasn’t a hero, or claim that he was actually very shy and too embarrassed to go.

In truth, the real reason was that he didn’t want to move while he was eating, but wouldn’t that look terribly rude?

Being a man who understood manners, Anagin pondered how to refuse politely, then decided to go after all.

If he refused, it felt like the what's-his-name practitioner in front of him, and probably others too, would pester him endlessly.

Thinking of it as paying for the meal, he finally moved his legs.

“Haa…….”

Passing through the crowd, he arrived at the place where the New Argonaut Expedition Team and the Western Alliance were gathered for talks.

It had already turned into the center of a feast, with quite a lot of people gathered there. Among them were Sphinx and the siblings Kori and Pais—and even Sciron.

Sphinx was busily carrying food around, while Kori and Pais were accepting food from the adults.

Sciron, bound like a dog, was diligently sucking on the meat tossed to him.

“Haha! Look at that bastard.”

Some people jeered as they watched Sciron fervently sucking on meat.

After being captured by Anagin, all the magical tools on his person had been stripped away, leaving him completely powerless, which made the mockery even worse.

Despite such humiliation, Sciron didn’t stop eating. Then his eyes met Anagin’s.

Grin…!

Perhaps because it had been a while since he’d had meat, Sciron pulled the corners of his mouth up wide.

“Welcome.”

Tramachus, who had been speaking with the Western Alliance’s representative while watching Sciron, greeted Anagin.

With practiced ease, he brought Anagin before the Western Alliance and introduced him.

“This is Anagin, the man who captured the fleeing Sciron and provided the opening for our offensive.”

At the flattering introduction, everyone’s gaze gathered on him.

Both the Anti-Forest Brotherhood and the Western Alliance.

A middle-aged man who appeared to be the Western Alliance’s representative greeted Anagin. His build was solid, befitting a practitioner.

“Pleased to meet you. I heard you captured Sciron and wanted to see your face, so I called you over. Everyone’s shown their face once, but you were nowhere to be seen…. Is there a reason for that?”

“Nothing in particular. I don’t really have a hobby of looking at men’s faces.”

Anagin answered with complete honesty.

What was there to talk about just by looking at faces, anyway?

Some people were taken aback by Anagin’s reply, but the Western representative burst out laughing.

“Kahahaha! I don’t have a taste for looking at men without reason either! I found it odd earlier that you two were speaking casually, but I see there was a reason. You’re an interesting fellow.”

The Western representative alternated pointing at Anagin and Tramachus with his finger.

“No, we’re not close. He spoke casually first, so I just spoke casually back.”

Anagin drew a clear line. He had no particular desire to get close to Tramachus or the New Argonaut Expedition Team.

“Truly interesting.”

At the repeated praise, Anagin pointed toward Sphinx, who was carrying food. It was a gesture asking if he was only just now realizing how interesting of a person he was.

“I thought you were hiding because you felt awkward around us, that’s all.”

“Huh? Me?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, because I’m called a Practitioner Killer?”

The warm, convivial atmosphere that had been built around hot food froze in an instant.

The word Practitioner Killer, spoken without warning, cut through the pleasant chatter and brought everyone’s eating to a halt.

In the sudden heaviness, gazes converged, and only the crack—crack—of burning firewood echoed.

“No, that’s not why.”

“Really? Then you shouldn’t have put a bounty on my head.”

“I didn’t place it.”

“Your family probably did. It’s a lie anyway, but since you fed me meat, I’ll play along. So now get to the point. Why did you call me?”

Anagin made it clear he had no intention of indulging any more nonsense.

He’d come here in the middle of a meal—what kind of dogshit situation was this…….

Perhaps Anagin wasn’t the only one reaching the limit of his patience, because the Western Alliance’s representative also brought up the main point.

“Listen here. Young hero of Chiron Tower. You came here to stop the Forest Brotherhood’s tyranny, did you not?”

“That is correct.”

“Not to chase empty fame, nor for wealth?”

“That is correct.”

“Then let me ask you this. Why did you accept this man?”

“If it’s because he’s called a Practitioner Killer—”

“No, that’s not what I mean! How could you possibly bring in someone who helped a monster?!”