Anagin Chronicles

Chapter 96

It sounded like some bullshit nonsense, but it was true.Pais was locked up in the underground prison of Chiron Tower.

Of course, he wasn’t confined like other serious criminals, but considering the kid’s age, that was only natural.

Isn’t he just a damn brat?

What mattered was the reason Pais had ended up in prison.

“What the hell does a kid have to do to get thrown into an underground prison? I didn’t even know this place had one.”

“It’s not that serious.”

Contrary to expectations, Irida said that.

Her usual relaxed, playful air was gone, so it had seemed like something grave had happened, but unexpectedly, that wasn’t the case.

‘No… Has she been like that ever since meeting Erysichthon?’

There were cases like that. When someone encountered a wall they absolutely couldn’t overcome, their personality could change completely.

What people called falling into despair.

Well, understandable. Erysichthon’s presence had been that overwhelming.

Of course, that was none of Anagin’s concern.

“If it’s not serious, why lock a kid in an underground prison? Don’t you usually just beat them a few times and call it a day?”

Anagin asked Sphinx jokingly.

Normally, she would’ve said, “You hitting them is the bigger problem,” but this time she didn’t.

She was too worried about Pais to play along with that kind of joke.

The kids were one thing, but Sphinx was really something else. It was fine that she liked children, but this was excessive. Was it an illness at this point?

“It’s not something that can be settled with a few hits… He hurt some kids. Pretty badly.”

“Kids?”

“The trainees on the first floor of Chiron Tower. One of them nearly lost an eye from a stone Pais threw.”

* * *

Anagin and Sphinx followed Irida toward the underground prison where Pais was being held.

On the way, they ran into Kori, her face gaunt.

She was the granddaughter of the old carriage driver who had first given Anagin a ride, and Pais’ older sister.

There was no need to ask why her face looked so worn down. It had to be because of her little brother was locked in prison.

The moment she saw Anagin, her dark expression brightened and she ran toward him.

“B-Big Brother Anagin!”

As if she hadn’t been eating properly, Kori couldn’t even steady herself while running and practically collapsed into Anagin’s arms.

Seeing her weakened state, Irida’s expression stiffened slightly.

‘Well, that’s none of my business.’

Anagin steadied Kori in his arms and asked,

“Whoa, look at you. You’ve gotten lighter. Haven’t been eating properly?”

“Ah… I-I’m fine. More importantly—”

“Do you remember when we met again?”

Anagin cut her off.

Kori looked confused.

Her younger brother was locked in an underground prison, and here he was asking whether she’d eaten and if she remembered when they met again—questions that made no sense to her.

Especially the second one. It didn’t fit the situation at all.

It had been when she lost her grandfather and was captured along with her brother by Paia’s gang.

Things were a little better now, but that didn’t mean the pain from back then had disappeared.

Time and various events had merely covered the wound for a while.

Remove that cover even slightly, and the despair and pain from that time would rise up and torment her again.

“I-I remember…”

“That’s good. Then do you remember the first order I gave you?”

What was it again? Kori thought for a moment, then recalled.

“Food… You told me to eat first.”

“That’s right. I told you to eat first. That I don’t travel with an idiot who can’t even take care of their own meals.”

Anagin placed his hand on Kori’s head.

His hand was firm and warm.

“Someone who doesn’t eat properly has no intention of doing anything. You need a full stomach to fight, to run, to look after your brother… Right?”

Looking down at her, Anagin asked, and only then did Kori understand the true meaning behind what he had said back then.

And why he had asked if she had eaten just now…

Apart from her worry for her brother, Kori felt embarrassed.

As if she hadn’t properly acted as an older sister.

This was exactly when she needed to keep herself together.

After confirming that Kori had regained her composure, Anagin asked again,

“Alright, we’ll eat together later. Now explain what happened. From what I’ve heard, Pais got into a fight with kids his age and, in a fit of anger, started throwing stones… Is that true?”

Sphinx, who was silently comforting Kori, and Irida, who had been leading the way, both waited for her to speak.

“Y-Yes.”

“Is that so…”

“But it wasn’t Pais’ fault! It was because of me.”

“Hey, hold it a second.”

Anagin stopped Irida, who had been walking ahead.

Not as a request, but as a command.

Irida had intended to ignore him and keep walking, but when Anagin simply stopped in place, she had no choice but to halt as well.

Naturally, displeasure showed on her face, but Anagin didn’t give a damn. He didn’t give a damn because he simply didn’t.

Turning fully to face Kori, Anagin said,

“Tell me exactly what happened. Keep it short and concise.”

* * *

One of the hardest things for a child was keeping things short and concise.

In a child’s eyes, everything looked big and important.

Kori was certainly mature for her age, but she was still a child.

Nonetheless, she managed to do it.

Matching Anagin’s demand, she explained what had happened—short and concise.

Thanks to her natural cleverness, and thanks to being thoroughly drilled while staying with Anagin.

In any case, according to Kori, the reason Pais had nearly blinded a boy his age with a thrown stone was to protect her, his older sister, and furthermore, to protect Anagin’s honor.

‘My honor?’

‘Y-Yes….’

The exact timing was after Anagin had left to obtain Orichalcum.

Even after Anagin left Chiron Tower, the Tower remained noisy.

All because of the ridiculous article written by the Ponytail reporter:「The Practitioner Killer Who Protected Practitioners from Erysichthon! Turns Out He’s a Practitioner Protector?!」

Contrary to Anagin’s expectation that it would die down quickly, the contents of the article lingered within the Tower instead of disappearing.

Seeing that Irida didn’t deny it, it seemed to be true.

Pathetic. How little did they have to do to obsess over something like that?

The article that circulated inside the Tower eventually drifted down to the first floor, like filthy sediment settling.

On the first floor of Chiron, children around ten years old are usually trained in basic physical conditioning. Kori and Pais stayed there most of the time, since they were around the same age.

Though Kori and Pais were guests, they were guests brought by Chiron himself, so they were allowed to observe and occasionally join the training.

The problem began after the article spread.

Quite a few of the children training on the first floor had older brothers on the upper floors, and most believed what their brothers said.

Those brothers believed Anagin had committed fraud.

What happened next was obvious.

Kori defended Anagin. She said he wasn’t a fraud, but a brave hero.

A hero who had saved them—and even saved the New Argonaut Expedition Team.

But the first-floor children denied it and insulted him, and eventually the argument turned into a fight.

Naturally, Kori ended up getting beaten. No matter what. The first-floor children were officially trained by the Tower, and there were more of them.

That didn’t mean a bunch of boys beating up one girl was right, of course.

Well, up to that point, you could say it wasn’t a huge issue. At the end of the day, it was just a children’s fight.

The real problem was that Pais saw Kori getting beaten and charged in like a madman.

Seeing his sister get hit, Pais rushed in like a lunatic and beat the boys who had hit her. They, in turn, relied on their numbers and beat Pais even worse.

In the end, both Kori and Pais were beaten.

Kori couldn’t finish her sentence. It seemed she had heard something too foul to repeat.

In the end, Pais couldn’t hold back. He picked up a piece of stone from the ground and threw it, hitting the mouthy brat right in the eye.

Even without a sling, Pais, who had beaten bandits before, had accurate aim with thrown stones, and that day, the sound of a child’s shriek tearing through the air echoed across the first floor of Chiron Tower.

That was how Pais ended up locked in the underground prison.

“That’s fucking stupid.”

It had sounded stupid the first time he heard it, but hearing it again made it sound even more stupid.

For a moment, Anagin wondered if he had misheard, but since Irida couldn’t deny it, that didn’t seem to be the case.

From this, Anagin learned two things.

One, that his hearing was perfectly fine.

Two, that Chiron Tower was a more fucked-up place than he’d thought.

Whether this was a blessing or a curse, he didn't know.

Having finished her explanation, Kori seemed to find some stability as her emotions settled, while Sphinx showed clear signs of disappointment toward the Chiron Tower.

Anagin told Irida, who looked uncomfortable with the situation, to keep moving.

Irida complied without protest, and soon they were able to meet Pais in the underground prison.

Maybe because he was a child, they had only locked him in a cell. They hadn’t shackled him or anything like that.

Though there were still faint traces of being beaten.

“B-Big BBrother?”

For once, Pais looked frightened.

Usually, he was the type to laugh no matter what Anagin said.

“Ah, but I doubt you dragged me here just to release a brat… Is someone coming? Mr. Chiron?”

Anagin saw right through why Irida had brought him here.

There was no way they’d just let him go simply because he came. Not without some other reason.

For example…

"Is the Master your friend!?"

A crowd of people came rushing down into the underground prison.

Faces that looked somewhat familiar.

Looking closely, they were the ones who had confronted him with the Ponytail reporter’s article before. The same guys who had swarmed him in the dining hall.

Among them was an even more familiar face.

Tramachos of the Flames. One of the members of the New Argonaut Expedition Team was among them.

A guy he had once fought alongside against the Forest Brotherhood.

Perhaps that was why. Meeting him like this wasn't pleasant at all. It wasn't particularly pleasant to begin with, but it was even less so now.

“Seems Mr. Chiron doesn’t know about this situation?”

“Watch your tone! And Master isn’t someone with enough free time to involve himself in something like this.”

The one who had snapped at Anagin in the dining hall shouted. His name was… Who knew. Anagin didn’t care.

"I'll call him what I want. He may be your master, but he’s not mine. And besides….”

Anagin trailed off briefly, then continued.

“That’s not why you’re here, is it? Get to the point.”

Anagin skipped all the trivial talk and demanded they move to the main issue.

“You roughly know what’s going on, right?”

“Yeah.”

“We want an apology.”

“An apology? For what?”

“You and that brat hurt my little brother. Both you and that brat over there should bow your heads and apologize."

Anagin narrowed his eyes. It was a gesture asking whether he had heard correctly.

Apparently, he had.

Even Sphinx, who rarely frowned at anything, now wore an expression like she had just chewed into shit.

Still, just in case, Anagin confirmed one last time.

“My brat injured your brat?”

“He’s not a brat. He’s my little brother.”

“Skip the minor details. Am I right?”

“Yeah.”

Having confirmed it, Anagin opened his mouth.

“You should be thanking me instead.”

“…What?”

The one who had demanded an apology for his injured brother now wore the same expression as Anagin.

An expression that said, What kind of bullshit is that?

But it wasn’t bullshit. At least not to Anagin.

“Thanks to our brat, your brat learned a lesson—not to flap his mouth recklessly. So you should be grateful. Now, say it. 'Thank you.' Hurry up."

* * *

“Ah...! Thank you for accepting my sincere apology! Thank you! Truly, thank you!”

Top floor of Chiron Tower, Chiron’s office.

Ponytail, a junior reporter for the Talaria Weekly, repeatedly expressed his gratitude to Chiron across the desk.

But something was off about Chiron’s tone.

“Since I’ve accepted your apology, there’s no need to worry. Honestly, even just sending a letter would have sufficed.”

“Thanks again for your mercy! Actually, I wanted to just send a letter myself, but I was ordered from above to come in person.”

Ponytail hadn’t come to Chiron Tower out of interest.

For a free-spirited person like him, Chiron Tower was one of the places he least wanted to visit.

However, his superior, senior reporter Nurius, had unofficially instructed him to go alone and apologize, so he had no choice.

It was Nurius’ tactic to strike first before the situation escalated.

Though he had to follow the order, Ponytail dragged his feet under the guise of reporting and, by chance, ended up following Anagin to Chiron Tower.

Hoping something interesting might happen.

Of course, nothing had happened yet.

“Do you really need to follow orders?”

Chiron asked, as if unable to understand. Which made sense…

“Why be so rigid? It’s better for everyone if things go smoothly; one should show a bit of flexibility.”

“That sounds like you intend to stay here for a while.”

“As expected of Chiron, the Master of heroes. Your insight is extraordinary. May I stay just a bit longer? I have a feeling something interesting is about to happen.”

Something interesting…

Chiron had a feeling he knew what that would be.

Coincidentally, the subject of the article written by Klephthys was currently in the Tower.

And because of that article, minor complaints were also brewing.

Inevitably—

—Slam

“Master.”

The head butler opened the door and entered just in time.

Judging by the fact that he opened the door immediately without knocking, one could guess that an incident had occurred.

“A sparring match is currently taking place.”

A Sparring.

An everyday occurrence in Chiron Tower.

Gathering young, hot-blooded practitioners, it was only natural.

However, the problem lay with the participants.

“It is Anagin and Lord Meleager! And it isn't just a simple spar; it is practically a real fight!”