Chapter 170. Discussion (1)
After Anagin left alone for Nereid Fishing Village.
Sphinx didn’t exactly spend an awkward time with the mages.......
If anything, it was closer to the opposite.
They were getting along quite well in their own way. Well.......
“Here, I made some snacks, so please have some while you watch.”
Even though no one asked, Sphinx had prepared food and served it to them.
“Ah, thank you! Thanks!”
“Oh wow, that looks delicious. You didn’t have to go this far.”
“Oh my, then shall I leave out your portion, Mage?”
“Huh? No, that’s not what I meant!”
“Then please just enjoy it. It’s not particularly difficult to make.”
Sphinx handed over the simple sandwiches again, and the mage chuckled as he took a bite.
“It’s good.”
This wasn’t the first time the mages had eaten Sphinx’s food.
The time Anagin and the Magno mages had spent causing chaos in the fishing villages hadn’t been short, and during that time, they had to camp out.
Staying in the villages they had just wrecked was out of the question.
Which meant they had to set up tents outside and cook for themselves.
Gigants or mages—at the end of the day, they were human. Humans had to eat to live.
Back then, Sphinx had prepared not only for herself and Anagin, but also occasionally for the mages.
It was both a kind of social tactic and a habit.
A survival method Sphinx had developed while traveling the human world alone, hiding her identity and concealing her true power.
Although she had been born a monster, she had restricted her own power in order to transform into a human, forcing her to wander the world as the weak.
Moreover, she had to occasionally join certain organizations to obtain the information or teachings she wanted.
A representative example is the tower of the Harpy Witch.
For Sphinx, who couldn’t fight, getting along in such groups required social skills, and she had learned them half willingly, half out of necessity.
Smiling, speaking kindly, using friendly forms of address, taking care of chores like laundry, dishes, and cleaning.... Serving delicious food was one of them.
When something tasty entered someone’s mouth, even the most ill-tempered person would become at least a little gentler.
‘No, rather than that, it’s more accurate to say they take out the irritation they would have directed at me on someone else.’
Sphinx suddenly snapped back to reality, her mood cooling instantly.
How should she put it... It felt like she had become aware of reality.
She had left home despite her mother and eldest brother’s opposition to satisfy her curiosity, yet instead of resolving it, she realized that all she had gained were skills in cleaning, laundry, and cooking.
It was only now that she felt something had gone seriously wrong.
“Delicious. Really.”
“Thank you.”
“May I have another?”
Watching the mages eat the food she made without any wariness, Sphinx thought—well, it wasn’t so bad.
It wasn’t that it truly didn’t matter, but that she hadn’t spent her time in vain.
After all, her past self probably wouldn’t have been able to get along with people like this.
It took effort, but living like this wasn’t bad.
In some ways, it was even more impressive than intimidating others with force.
Truly.
After all, Sphinx had dealt with both terrified people and people who were delighted to be served food.
‘Yes, this is better.’
Reassuring herself, Sphinx made more sandwiches and handed them out to the mages.
The mages accepted them and turned their attention back to the crystal orb.
The surveillance crystal orb linked to the one given to Anagin.
If you looked closely, you could see the village reflected within it.
“Could you let me know if something important happens?”
“Gladly.”
After receiving their promise, Sphinx prepared sandwiches for herself and for the subordinate woman.
Then she brought the sandwiches over to her.
She herself was hungry, so the subordinate woman must be as well.
“Please, have some.”
“.......”
The subordinate woman silently stared at the sandwiches.
Even though she must have been hungry.
In the end, Sphinx placed the sandwiches on a plate beside her.
Whether she ate them or not was up to her.
Someone might say the subordinate woman was just being stubborn out of pride, but Sphinx didn’t find it entirely incomprehensible.
After all, it would be strange to sincerely feel grateful while eating food given by the very people who captured you.
But perhaps the subordinate woman interpreted it differently, because she said something odd.
“Is this the good cop, bad cop strategy?"
“Hm?”
Sphinx asked reflexively.
It wasn’t that she didn’t understand the words.
A negotiation or interrogation technique where two people act in tandem.
One threatens, while the other acts kindly, weakening the person mentally and steering the situation as desired—a rather petty and dirty method.
Thinking about it, it made sense she would think that.
After all, Anagin had been extremely rude. In contrast, Sphinx herself had been overly kind.
Making sandwiches wasn’t exactly effortless either.
But.
“It might look that way, but it’s not like that, so don’t worry. My brother isn’t the kind of person who would use such cunning methods.......”
Sphinx trailed off.
She couldn’t confidently say he wasn’t cunning.
He seemed simple and crude, yet oddly sharp, and even had a knack for exploiting that sharpness. He was hard to define in simple terms.
“Anyway, it’s not like that, so you don’t need to worry.”
Even though Sphinx tried to reassure her, the subordinate woman didn’t lower her guard. She looked like someone who had been through quite a lot.
Sphinx felt a bit of sympathy. She knew well that a woman living alone could go through all sorts of hardships.
“If anything, I recommend you eat. Someone once said that you have to take care of your own meals. You need to eat to have strength, and with strength, you can do anything.”
Sphinx awkwardly repeated something Anagin had once said.
For some reason, the subordinate woman in front of her seemed pitiful.
She didn’t even know why she felt that way.
She had heard that this woman was someone who had delivered people to the Barbaroi Cult.
Well, emotions weren’t logical to begin with.
Since it had come to this, Sphinx decided to just go for it. Who knew, maybe things would work out because of her. Or maybe not.
“...I don’t know why you cooperated with the Barbaroi Cult, but if you need help, being honest might be an option.”
“......To your brother?”
The subordinate woman replied in a tone that suggested she shouldn’t try such cheap tricks.
However, Sphinx interpreted even that positively.
At least they were exchanging words.
That was far better than her keeping her mouth shut.
Just as Sphinx was about to respond—
“Hey, miss!”
The mages called out to her.
Of all times, at this important moment.
Sphinx felt slightly irritated but replied with a smile.
She soon realized they hadn’t called her for nothing.
“The Barbaroi Cult has appeared.”
It hadn’t even been long since Anagin entered the fishing village.
Yet the Barbaroi Cult had openly appeared right in front of him.
Sphinx momentarily forgot about the conversation and approached the crystal orb, while the subordinate woman brought the sandwich to her mouth.
* * *
“You don’t look surprised. Did you expect me to come?”
The Barbaroi Cult woman—shortened to “Barbaroi woman”—rested her chin on her hand as she asked.
“Not exactly expected, but I figured it wouldn’t be strange if we met.”
Anagin replied as if it were nothing.
He had already been attacked once.
And to carry out an attack, they would naturally have to know the target’s location.
Which meant the Barbaroi Cult had been aware of Anagin’s whereabouts all along.
There was nothing to be surprised about.
This area was practically the Barbaroi Cult’s front yard, and Anagin had been going from village to village causing havoc, so it would have been stranger if they didn’t know.
So it wasn’t surprising that the Barbaroi woman had come to find him.
If anything, what Anagin should be curious about was.......
“Why did you come looking for me?”
“Well, I was curious what kind of face the person ruining the place we worked so hard to build has?”
“Take a good look.”
Anagin pointed at his own face.
Perhaps finding that shameless attitude absurd, the Barbaroi woman let out a small laugh.
“For someone going around destroying innocent villages, you’re quite handsome.”
Innocent villages huh....... What a ridiculous thing to say.
Villages that sustained themselves by offering their own people as living sacrifices were sinful just for existing.
Of course, Anagin didn’t bother saying any of that.
Trying to have a moral debate with people who worship fish as gods and create grotesque fish-men was already a loser’s game.
Conversation was something you had with people, not beasts.
And besides, that whole process was too tedious and pretentious for Anagin’s taste.
He took a much simpler approach.
One with no room for debate.
“So, got a problem with that?”
It made him look like the bad guy, but it was a way to cut off pointless arguments in advance.
Got a problem? Then come at me.
Simple and clear.
Ah, of course, it was also his honest feeling.
He didn’t care about the circumstances of villages scraping by while worshiping strange fish, and if anyone had a problem with that, he just wanted them to come at him.
That way, he could beat them up.
Perhaps sensing his sincerity, the Barbaroi woman shook her head.
“I heard you’re working with the Chiron Tower lot, but you really seem to hate us.”
“Ah, that’s a lie. I came here under a Chiron Tower request, but that’s not actually true. I came on my own.”
Strictly speaking, he came because of the mages under Magno, but he phrased it that way to convey the general idea.
Perhaps because it was an unexpected answer at an unexpected moment, the Barbaroi woman looked surprised, then quickly nodded in understanding.
“Ah... so that’s why those mages were that skilled.”
It seemed high-level mages didn’t cooperate much with Chiron Tower.
Well, it was hard to picture mages under Magno working together with the New Argonaut Expedition Team.
Not impossible, but unlikely without a strong reason.
“You’re even more fearless than I thought. To dare impersonate the name of Chiron Tower.”
“What are you talking about? If anything, I raised its reputation. And do you think they’d get mad just because I borrowed their name to smash people who worship fish? If it’s really a place that raises heroes, they’d let it slide.”
Anagin spoke with complete self-centeredness.
Though part of it was also because he had already clashed with Orpheus of Chiron Tower and the New Argonaut Expedition Team.
The Barbaroi woman laughed as if she found it genuinely amusing.
“You really hate us, don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
Anagin nodded without hesitation.
How could anyone possibly like people who worship fish?
“Strange. We just help people in difficult situations in exchange for a small price. Do you know how many people in places like Anapik or Barbarland actually receive proper help?”
Probably not many.
Anapik itself was a place where people who couldn’t endure life in Hellas ended up.
Something Anagin had learned when he first left his hometown.
And Barbarland, said to be even harsher and more barbaric than Anapik, would be no better—if not worse.
But none of that mattered to Anagin.
What mattered was that these people, because life was hard, had done things no human should do.
Just seeing and hearing about that was enough to disgust him.
Of course, Anagin didn’t bother saying any of that either.
He kept it simple.
“So, what about it?”
“.......”
“The food is here.”
While Anagin and the Barbaroi woman were talking, the server brought the food.
A large amount of dishes piled onto the table, and Anagin briefly looked them over before putting some into his mouth.
“Can I ask one more question?”
The Barbaroi woman spoke again as Anagin ate.
“What is it?”
“If you hate us that much, why are you talking to me right now?”
“What’s your rank? A priest?”
“Why does that matter?”
“I need to know to answer.”
“I’m a priest.”
In an instant, Anagin emptied one of the dishes and replied.
“There are two reasons I’m not beating you right now.”
Tap. Tap.
Anagin tapped the empty dish with his spoon.
“One. I’m eating.”
“And the second?”
“I wanted to try talking with the Barbaroi Cult.”
“...Why?”
“I recently had a conversation with the Oracle of the Temple of Delphi. Thought I’d balance things out.”
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