Anagin Chronicles

Chapter 111. Hippomenes (3)

The first reason Anagin was surprised by Hippomenes was the enormous amount of gold.

The mountain of gold loaded onto a massive cart was attractive enough to tempt even Anagin.

However, that shock did not last long.

To begin with, Anagin was not the type to obsess over gold, and there was something vaguely suspicious about that gold.

The second thing that surprised him was the uncomfortable expression on Atalanta’s face when Hippomenes appeared.

The great warrior woman who had stood proudly even before Erysichthon looked flustered when she saw Hippomenes, which Anagin found quite strange.

Well, it wasn’t that strange. Human relationships had their peculiar sides.

For example, Anagin’s master being extremely respectful toward the village chief.

Even though his master surpassed the village chief in both intelligence and strength, within the village the chief stood above him, while the master remained below.

Human relationships were that complicated.

Depending on the time, place, position, and circumstances, someone who seemed like nothing to an outsider could be a difficult person for the one directly involved.

However, the thing that surprised Anagin the most was when Hippomenes’s face turned into a pig.

Even though he confessed that he had conquered Barbarland to become someone worthy of Atalanta, when Atalanta’s reaction was lukewarm, Hippomenes’s face briefly changed into that of a pig.

‘But that is fine. I have already steeled myself. I intend to offer two gifts to the great King Isos of Arcadia.’

As if Atalanta’s feelings no longer mattered at all, Hippomenes openly revealed his greed.

His face twisted, transforming into a shape that looked like a mixture of pig and human.

Anagin told everyone present about that fact. Naturally, the reaction was.......

“.......”

“.......”

“.......”

Not very good.

First of all, it felt like they did not even understand what he was saying.

Well, he wasn’t particularly disappointed.

Even Anagin himself didn’t fully understand what he was saying.

He had simply described exactly what he saw.

“......What do you mean by that? You’re saying he looked like a pig from time to time?”

Still, perhaps the relationships they had built so far were not meaningless, because instead of dismissing Anagin’s words as nonsense, they asked what he meant.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much Anagin could add.

“It’s exactly what it sounds like. That guy Hippomenes’s face looked like a pig from time to time.... Looks like I’m the only one who saw it.”

At those puzzling words, everyone’s gaze naturally shifted toward Ponytail.

Since Ponytail had been moving together with him, it was an unspoken question asking if he knew anything.

Unfortunately, Ponytail’s reaction was basically, ‘What kind of nonsense is that?’

Anagin wasn’t particularly upset. Ponytail wasn’t lying; he was simply saying what he saw.

If the situation were reversed, Anagin would have reacted the same way.

“Can you explain it in more detail?”

Tramachus showed interest and asked Anagin to explain further.

Having no reason to refuse, Anagin explained in detail.

How the gold Hippomenes brought felt suspicious, so he refused to accept it. How he found their reactions to Hippomenes interesting and watched from the side.

And how Hippomenes’s face briefly turned into a pig during his conversation with Atalanta.

Anagin added one more thing.

“Don’t ask why I’m the only one who saw it. I don’t know either.”

“Then… can I ask what kind of drugs you’re taking?”

Ponytail asked half-jokingly.

“Most drugs don’t work on me.”

“Ah, right. You were like that.”

Ponytail immediately understood, recalling how Anagin had remained perfectly fine even after being injected with poison dozens of times during the battle with the Monster Merchant.

“Could it be some kind of transformation magic?”

Irida cautiously voiced her suspicion.

Monsters could also learn magic, and particularly intelligent ones sometimes learned transformation magic and turned into humans to hide among crowds.

Naturally, everyone’s gaze turned toward Sphinx.

It was quite an unpleasant situation. It felt like they had formed a trust and friendship that went beyond the boundary between monster and human, yet here they were.

At that moment, Anagin spoke.

“No, it feels a bit different from that.”

“Feels?”

Irida asked back. There was a hint of exhaustion in her voice.

Her head was already complicated enough, yet Anagin kept saying unsettling things based purely on “feelings.”

But Anagin, who was naturally lacking in consideration, paid no attention to such things.

“Yeah, a feeling. Believe it or not, your choice.”

After casually throwing out words that stirred people up, he was shamelessly acting like that. Irida found herself slightly irritated with Anagin.

Yet strangely, she also trusted what he said.

It was ridiculous. He offered no explanation and didn’t even try to persuade them, yet that very fact somehow made his words more trustworthy.......

The members of the New Argonaut Expedition Team began voicing their opinions one by one.

Setting aside whether Hippomenes’s face had truly turned into a pig and why only Anagin could see it, they discussed the possible reason his face might have changed like that.

The most likely possibility was, as expected, transformation magic.

The theory that a monster skilled in magic had transformed into Hippomenes and arrived with some ulterior motive.

To be honest, the possibility wasn’t that high, but it was at least somewhat plausible.

Among the monsters that devoured humans to steal the blessings of the gods, some were more cunning than humans themselves.

Such a cunning monster could also fit the “great danger” Lynceus had seen.

“Or it could be the Barbaroi Cult.”

Tramachus carefully suggested another possibility.

The surroundings suddenly fell silent.

“......The Barbaroi Cult?”

“Yes. Barbarians who worship barbarian gods.”

Since the topic had shifted to something he didn’t know well, Anagin closed his mouth and opened his ears.

Normally, he would have just ignored it, but for some reason, he felt like he should listen this time. Besides, he had nothing else to do.

“You know how big brother Meleager earned the title of great hero, right?”

Everyone, including Irida, flinched.

“......By capturing a bishop of the Barbaroi Cult.”

Tramachus nodded as if confirming it.

“That’s right. That’s when he earned the title of great hero. After that, big brother once spoke about the Barbaroi Cult. He said that the more power they receive from the barbarian gods, the more their appearance becomes twisted. Like growing fangs or molars.”

Anagin recalled the attendants of Hippomenes he had seen earlier that day.

They hadn’t looked particularly pig-like. They didn’t have molars or fangs either.

“But if the level of power they receive surpasses a certain point, they actually start to look normal again. They receive something like a blessing from the barbarian gods that allows them to hide their appearance.”

“A blessing? From barbarian gods?”

Irida asked back, sounding shocked.

“Even if they’re evil barbarian gods, a god is still a god.”

“.......”

“Anyway, if it’s barbarian gods, it’s entirely possible. Maybe even more likely than a monster using transformation magic. Especially since barbarian gods tend to lure in humans who strongly crave something.”

Everything began to fit together perfectly.

They had wondered how Hippomenes, whose ability was lacking, managed to conquer Barbarland, but if the Barbaroi Cult was involved, it roughly made sense.

It also explained why his face occasionally looked like a pig...... though how only Anagin could see through it remained a mystery.

In any case, all the suspicious aspects of Hippomenes’s sudden return were explained.

Based on this information, Irida was about to go find her sister and father.

Just then—

Click.

Anagin stood up, fastening the Beast Devourer at his waist.

A strangely uneasy feeling.

Unable to hold back, Irida finally asked.

“What are you trying to do right now?”

“I’m going to beat up Hippomenes, or Pigpomenes, or whatever his name is.”

* * *

Shock and astonishment.

The members of the New Argonaut Expedition Team, still around twenty years old—young enough to almost be called children—had nevertheless experienced plenty in their lives. Yet even they were truly astonished for the first time in a long while.

Even if Hippomenes seemed suspicious, the idea of immediately going to beat him up was shocking in itself.

And yet Anagin had said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

In the middle of someone else’s royal palace, he was talking about beating up a guest—no less than the current frontrunner of the Groom Tournament.

That was practically a declaration of war against the Kingdom of Arcadia.

No, since it was just one individual challenging a kingdom, it was closer to suicide than a declaration of war.

In other words, sheer madness.

And Anagin was about to carry out that madness right now.

“Wait!”

Irida stopped him. To prevent something like that from happening in her own palace, to save a comrade she had fought beside, and to save a friend.

However, that friend was not cooperative.

“Why?”

“What do you mean why....... We can’t do something like that based only on suspicion.”

Irida first tried to persuade Anagin with plain common sense.

She expected him to ignore her, but surprisingly, Anagin listened.

”Hmm... You have a point. Then, what are you going to do?”

Irida faltered for a moment at the unexpected turn of the conversation. What are you going to do? Time passed, and once she regained her composure, she explained her plan.

“First, I’ll tell my sister and my father.”

“I don’t think that’s a very good solution.”

“......Why not?”

”What do you mean ’why’? It obviously won’t work. Didn’t you see your old man’s eyes?”

”Hey!”

Tramachus, who was listening nearby, shouted a warning. How dare he refer to the king of a nation as ”your old man!”

But Anagin didn’t back down.

“Shut up and listen. This is the important part.”

“...?!”

A vein bulged on Tramachus’s forehead at Anagin’s overbearing tone, but Anagin ignored him and looked at Irida.

He was genuinely curious.

“If your father hears that, what do you think he’ll do?”

Irida, who had finally had enough, grabbed Anagin by the collar and yanked him close until he was right in front of her face.

For someone who specialized in the bow, it was a disadvantageous distance rather than an advantageous one—but the rage boiling inside her made such details irrelevant.

Fortunately, Anagin didn’t throw a punch. He simply repeated his question.

“I still haven’t gotten an answer. What do you think your father will do? Answer me.”

“.......”

Irida tightened her grip on his collar and ground her teeth.

But she couldn’t give an answer.

Was it because she didn’t know? Not at all. If anything, she knew far too well.

“He won’t do anything.”

Since the person involved couldn’t answer, Anagin stated the truth for her.

Of course, even if he called it the truth, it was nothing more than Anagin’s own conclusion. But he was absolutely certain.

Because it wasn’t a baseless certainty.

The condition Hippomenes had proposed at the Groom Tournament was simply too tempting.

He claimed he had no interest in the throne of the Kingdom of Arcadia and only cared about Atalanta. All he asked of Isos was permission to take Atalanta with him and return to the land he had conquered.

At that moment, Anagin had seen Isos’s eyes.

Eyes filled with greed, like someone who had just found gold lying in the street.

Well, it was only natural.

The reason he had held the Groom Tournament and planned to pass the throne to his son-in-law was merely a second-best option. He had failed to obtain a son himself and was approaching death.

Judging by the way he treated his daughters, it was obvious he was not a man with ordinary possessiveness.

If someone like that were asked whether he would rather pass his kingdom to his own son or to a son-in-law, the answer was painfully obvious.

And then Hippomenes appeared—offering a golden apple that could cure his illness and a divine relic that could give him a son, while declaring he would leave of his own accord.

After hearing conditions that perfectly scratched every itch he had, would Isos really listen to Irida simply saying it was suspicious?

A man who had forced the Groom Tournament on his eldest daughter despite her wishes?

“No matter how I think about it, I don’t see that happening....... And honestly, I don’t think you don’t realize that either.”

Irida clenched her teeth and said nothing before finally letting go of Anagin.

She wanted to deny it, but she couldn’t.

Even though his collar had been grabbed so forcefully, Anagin merely brushed it off with a couple of pats and didn’t get angry.

“......What if I tell my sister?”

“Sorry, but that won’t help either. If she could have resisted in the first place, things wouldn’t have gotten this far.”

“Don’t talk so carelessly. You don’t even know what kind of situation we’re in.”

Irida hadn’t grabbed his collar this time, but her voice carried even stronger emotion than before.

Her eyes were moist, as if tears might burst out at any moment from the injustice she felt.

It was clear she had plenty she wanted to say about this absurd situation.

But her opponent was Anagin.

“Yeah, I don’t know. I’m an outsider. And you don’t know my situation either.”

With that, Anagin tried to leave.

Thyreos placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him. However, the gesture felt closer to a request than a forceful restraint.

Anagin stopped without resistance.

“Are you doing this to help Lady Atalanta?”

Thyreos tried to guess the reason behind Anagin’s sudden behavior.

Although Anagin had seemed indifferent about the Groom Tournament, Thyreos had noticed the negative emotions he felt about it. He had also realized that Anagin was, in his own way, rather considerate.

Anagin shook his head.

“No. That king was annoying as hell, but I don’t like his daughters either. Watching people with power act like idiots and just take it is frustrating....... I just want to beat up Hippomenes.”

“Why?”

“Because it feels like I should.”

Anagin answered honestly.

Just like when he had crushed the Bender Caravan, the Monster Merchant, the Harpy Witch, the Dolos Family, and the Forest Brotherhood—it simply felt like he should.

Especially that pig face. It felt like it needed to be smashed several times over.

Ah, and there was one more reason.

He might as well test the performance of Beast Devourer.

Maybe that was actually the bigger reason.

Grumbal had said he would know whether the attempt succeeded or failed once he used it.

Faced with that insane declaration, the New Argonaut Expedition Team finally drew their weapons. If he went like this, he would definitely cause trouble.

Irida took up her bow and arrows, Tramachus raised his spear, Lynceus drew his sword, and Thyreos lifted his hammer and shield.

All of them were stronger weapons than the ones they had used before.

No matter how dissatisfied they were with the current situation, Anagin’s actions were unacceptable.

As tension instantly filled the room, Sphinx moved the children to a corner, while Ponytail watched with interest.

A spark about to ignite in the most unexpected place.

Just as that spark was about to spread—

“If you want to fight, we can fight. But wouldn’t it be better to just let me go?”

“.......”

“If something happens, you can just say I acted on my own and attack me then. That wouldn’t be a problem, right? Isn’t that why you brought me here in the first place?”

“......!”

Tramachus stiffened.

That wasn’t the only reason they had brought Anagin—but it was certainly one of them. Had he known all along?

“Well, I’m going my way. Stop me if you want, or don’t. But if you really care about your sister, you’d better not stop me. It’s not like you can do anything anyway, right?”

Anagin said to Irida as he began walking forward, toward the outer exit.

With weapons in hand, Tramachus, Lynceus, and Thyreos did nothing.

They simply looked at Irida.

Because this was her problem.

Just as Anagin was about to open the door and leave, Irida stopped him.

Not with an arrow, just with words.

”Is it wrong to obey one’s father?”

”Not in this way.”

Anagin answered firmly.

Irida hated that confident attitude. So she ended up saying something petty.

“You think something like this will never happen to you? You have no idea what it’s like to struggle between family members—!”

But once again, Anagin answered without hesitation.

“Yeah, it won’t. My family’s all dead.”

“.......”

“Want a piece of advice?”

Anagin slightly turned his head and looked at Irida.

He looked a little sad.

“If there’s something you truly care about, move. If you don’t do anything, you’ll regret it. Like I do. I mean that.”

With those words, Anagin opened the door and walked outside.

Irida simply stared at his departing figure in a daze.