Chapter 164. Disguise (2)
When Anagin took out the Beast Devourer and lightly scratched the faces of the village men.
The men let out grotesque screams, each making bizarre noises like ‘Uoooh... Aaaargh—...!’, ‘Grrrk...... Guuuuuurk......!’.
Then, centered around the small wounds Anagin made, scales seemed to sprout, and soon they revealed their true forms.
They turned into giant fish-men with disturbingly long limbs.
Not quite on the level of Hippomenes, but since their faces intermittently looked like fish, his guess had hit the mark when he tried it once.
Anagin carefully observed the appearances of the fish-men.
Once their disguises were undone, the fish-men were about 1.2 times taller than when they were in human form, their limbs had elongated, and from those elongated limbs, sharp claws and webbed hands and feet had grown.
“Ugh...!”
Even the mage who had come to capture a priest of the Barbaroi Cult let out a groan, as if instinctive disgust had overtaken him at the grotesque sight.
Well, it wasn’t hard to understand.
That appearance, a mixture of human and beast, was hardly pleasant to look at.
Fortunately, Anagin was fine.
Having already met a guy like Hippomenes, he had built up a tolerance.
‘They’re similar to Hippomenes, but quite different. Not just the magnitude of power, even the texture feels different.......’
While Anagin compared the differences between the fish-men before him and the pig-man (Hippomenes), one of the fully transformed fish-men tried to swing its massive claws at him.
He had been watching to see if they were beasts ruining the fields, and it seemed they indeed were.
It was both regrettable and welcome.
Because now, there was nothing holding him back.
Anagin immediately tried to behead it with the Beast Devourer, but—
Slash!
With a sharp sound, the fish-men collapsed almost simultaneously.
It all happened in an instant.
An ordinary person might have missed it, but Anagin caught a very thin stream of water piercing through the fish-men’s skulls.
Wondering what it was, he turned his head toward the direction the water stream had come from, and saw a fisherman mage who had wet his own hand with water from a flask.
The fisherman mage also silently looked at Anagin.
“.......”
“.......”
After a brief moment.
“How did you do it?”
The fisherman mage asked Anagin, sounding curious.
“Do what?”
“How did you see through what those fish were? And how did you make them reveal their true forms?”
The fisherman mage was curious about how Anagin had seen through the villagers’ identities and how he had made them reveal themselves.
He wasn’t the only one. The other mages were also curious. Even the captive female subordinate.
Since Anagin also had something he wanted to ask, he didn’t act spitefully and answered readily.
“I’ve got good eyes.”
“That’s not funny.”
“It’s the truth, though.”
The fisherman mage, for some reason overly suspicious, didn’t believe him.
But Anagin patiently explained a bit more.
“Their faces looked like fish every now and then.”
“......Are you serious?”
The fisherman mage stared at him for a while, as if trying to judge whether he was telling the truth, before speaking again.
“Believe it or not. But I found out Hippomenes' identity the same way.”
Anagin stated the truth as it was. The mages all looked surprised.
After all, no one had ever seen through the Barbaroi Cult’s disguises in that way.
Neither mages nor practitioners.
“Is it some kind of blessing?”
One of the mages couldn’t hold back his curiosity and asked.
“I don't receive things like blessings. Begging to a god isn't my style.”
To someone unaware, it might have sounded like a boastful remark, but having just witnessed his achievements, the mages couldn’t dismiss it lightly.
As proof, instead of brushing it off, they asked seriously.
“How did you make them reveal themselves?”
They were asking how creating a small wound had forced out their true forms.
Anagin shook the Beast Devourer in his hand.
“If I give them a slight cut with this, they reveal their identities on their own while screaming. But don't ask me about the principle. I don't know it either.”
At that, their attention shifted to the Beast Devourer.
The mages’ eyes burned with a strange greed.
However, Anagin didn’t particularly care. If they tried anything funny, it would only be better for him.
“Now then, let me ask a question as well.”
“A question?”
“Yeah, it’s unfair if only you guys get to ask.”
The fisherman mage nodded without denying it.
“What are you curious about?”
“Are all the Barbaroi Cult bastards like this?”
Anagin pointed at the fish-men with their heads pierced through.
He had heard they worshipped beasts, but he hadn’t heard whether they themselves turned into beasts.
Hippomenes had also transformed into a beast, but he had thought that was a special case.......
“Not all of them. Starting from priests who receive the blessing of a barbarian god, they gradually become more beast-like.”
Meaning ordinary believers were not like this.
Nevertheless, Anagin was amazed.
The fact that there were humans who worshipped a barbarian god, even though they turned into such ugly sights was quite fascinating. Wasn’t that strange? How could someone accept turning into a beast?
That aside, another question arose.
“Then these guys are at least priests?”
“Probably... not.”
“...?”
“I’ve studied a few priests, but they’re a bit different. They’re probably mixed-bloods.”
“Uh—what?”
Anagin frowned.
Mixed-bloods.......
That meant humans had to do... that... with things that looked like that...
“Ugh, I feel like throwing up.”
“Those kinds are occasionally found in Anapik. They tempt villages exposed to danger or poverty and plant the bloodline of the Barbaroi Cult...”
“I knew they were bastards, but I didn't know they were this much of a bastard.”
“More importantly, this is unexpected.”
“What is?”
“I thought the Barbaroi Cult had only built its influence relatively recently, but it seems they’ve been establishing it for much longer than we expected.”
There was one reason the fisherman mage said that.
The existence of mixed-bloods.
When the Barbaroi Cult, rooted in Barbarland, tries to establish influence over a long period in places like Anapik or Hellas, one of their primary methods is planting these mixed-bloods.
Persuasion, enticement, threats, or deception. They use any means necessary to gradually mix in the Barbaroi bloodline and secure influence step by step.
It was a very long-term plan, and an important one that required significant effort.
Which meant that.......
“It means the security could be much tighter than we expected... Why did you lie?”
The fisherman mage glared at the captured female subordinate.
At that, another mage roughly grabbed her arm.
After all, according to her, the Barbaroi Cult hadn’t been spreading its influence for that long.
“I didn’t know either.”
“Bullshit!”
One of the mages shouted angrily.
But on the other hand, they muttered among themselves that it wasn’t impossible.
“It’s not entirely impossible.”
“They might have secretly mixed blood with just a few people.”
“But doesn’t something feel off?”
The last mage voiced his suspicion, and Anagin agreed.
From what the female subordinate had said before, there were oddly vague or awkward parts in her statements.
It felt like she didn’t know what she should know, but knew things she didn’t need to.
Above all, despite being surrounded by enemies, her attitude was strangely confident....... In many ways, she was peculiar.
“We should interrogate her further to properly—”
“Wait.”
Anagin cut in.
Just like when he had shown the Beast Devourer, all eyes turned toward him.
But this time, their gazes were different.
Before, they had glimmered with greed, but now they were sharp, as if they had found a weakness.
Seeing him interrupt before harm could be done to the female subordinate, they seemed to have misunderstood something.
That Anagin had taken a liking to her, or that he was meddling out of some misplaced sense of heroism.
However, no one asked directly.
After all, asking outright if she was his weakness would only make them look like fools, and they wouldn’t get a proper answer anyway.
So Anagin didn’t bother explaining and simply said what he wanted.
“I think we should revise the plan.”
“The plan?”
At the mention of the plan, the mages tilted their heads.
The sharpness in their eyes eased slightly.
“What do you mean? We already discussed everything.”
“Yeah, we did. Disguise ourselves as merchants, investigate the village directly, and gather information. But I thought of a better way. A more certain method without wasting time.”
“......What is it?”
The fisherman mage showed a willingness to at least hear him out.
In response, Anagin raised the Beast Devourer.
Bang!
He smashed the fish-man’s head.
The fish head became separated from the body.
“Ask the people involved directly.”
* * *
Disguised as merchants, Anagin and the mages arrived at the fishing village.
Because of the fog, the chilly sea breeze, and the rough ocean, the village gave off a desolate atmosphere.
However, they already knew that wasn’t truly the case.
They had already heard that the Rumga Merchant Guild, which the fisherman mage had visited in order to maintain his merchant disguise, was purchasing a considerable amount of fish from this village.
Even if only half of that was true, the village was well off.
As if proving it, the village itself was quite large.
It only looked bleak because of the eerie atmosphere.
“Hmm, I don’t recognize your faces.”
The village chief of the fishing village came out with several men and spoke to the fisherman mage.
It was a line similar to what they had heard from the fish-men earlier.
“I don’t know why you’re here. And today isn’t a trading day, is it?”
His suspicion didn’t subside at all as he continued pressing them.
It was clear that he was highly wary of outsiders.
Normally, they would have shown identification and reassured him with a prepared lie, but the plan had changed.
“In truth, we didn’t come because we had business here. We came to guide someone else.”
“Hm? Someone else... what do you mean?”
The village chief frowned at the nonsensical answer and asked back.
He had sensed that something was off.
But it didn’t matter. Whether he noticed or not, it wouldn’t make much difference from here on.
"Because the one who truly has business here is me."
Anagin stepped forward.
Naturally, the looks from the village chief and those around him weren’t good.
A porter-looking guy suddenly stepped forward and spoke arrogantly. But that only lasted for a moment.
When Anagin dropped the load he had slung over his shoulder and pulled out the fish head he had separated earlier, the situation quickly changed.
“Well, looks like you recognize it. I like that, it makes things faster.”
The village chief looked shocked upon seeing the fish head, and the large man standing beside him lunged at Anagin.
Without hesitation.
Just like the village men they had met outside, he had pale skin and unnaturally large eyes.
Which meant.......
Slash!
“Oaaah......! Oaah...!”
That he was a fish-man.
As Anagin drew the Beast Devourer and cut off his head, the creature returned to its original form.
Though all it could do was flop around.
“Ghk! Ghk...!”
The village chief gasped in shock.
So shocked that he nearly collapsed to the ground.
“W-What, what in the world? Why? Why?”
The village chief barely caught his breath and stammered like a fool.
To someone watching from the side, it might have seemed like tormenting a frail old man, but Anagin felt nothing in particular.
Because the village chief wasn’t surprised by the existence of the fish-man itself, only by the fact that it had been killed. From that, it was clear he had been involved in creating the mixed-bloods.
"Old man. Instead of asking 'why,' wouldn't it be more appropriate to ask who I am first?"
Even so, Anagin kindly gave him the right answer.
Perhaps because he was indeed the village chief, he quickly steadied his heaving chest and asked.
“W-Who... are you?”
“Anagin. I’ve come under a request from the Chiron Tower to investigate this place.”
Anagin said it without changing his expression in the slightest—a complete fabrication. Not just a lie, but a bold-faced bluff.
Since they had screwed him over, this much would be fine.
Even if it wasn't fine, he didn't care.
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