Chapter 175. Regrouping (1)
Sssssss.......
The sound of water receding echoed from all directions.
The fishing harbor of the Nereid village, once submerged in seawater, revealed itself once more.
The air was thick with the salty stench mixed with the smell of fish, and those that failed to escape flopped helplessly on the ground.
And beside them, Anagin lay sprawled out, mentally retracing the events that had just unfolded.
Everything had been so chaotic that he decided to take this chance to sort out the situation.
‘Let’s see, where did things start going wrong.......’
So much had happened in such a short time that Anagin retraced the events step by step.
Well, no matter how he thought about it, it must have been when he handed the bracelet to the fisherman mage.
More precisely, when the bracelet he gave rejected the fisherman mage.
With a crackling sound, the bracelet rejected him—and from that moment on, the fisherman mage showed an unusually crude, almost primitive anger.
As if something deeply personal had been touched.
After that, nothing particularly complex happened.
The cornered ugly one babbled something incomprehensible and tried to persuade the fisherman mage, and he completely fell for it, betraying not only Anagin but even his fellow mages.
The doll mage, the flame mage, the defense mage who had been providing support from the sky, and even the transformation mage he had been riding.
And then he tried to finish Anagin off.
“Brother, are you okay?”
He failed only because Sphinx appeared and provided support.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Really?”
Sphinx approached cautiously and asked again, her tone full of doubt.
Understandably so—even though the flames on his right chest had calmed down and the minor wounds had healed, his right arm and abdomen, which had been pierced by the ugly one, hadn’t fully recovered.
It felt similar to the flames left behind by Tramachus.
Still, it wasn’t to the point where he couldn’t move. Just… annoying.
“I’m really fine, so don’t worry. You helped at the right moment, so I avoided anything fatal. Thanks.”
Anagin reassured her again and expressed his gratitude.
It wasn’t just lip service.
He truly had avoided a fatal blow thanks to her.
It was just a feeling, but that harpoon from the fisherman mage looked like it would’ve hurt a lot.
After all, it was powerful enough to kill the transformation mage, who prided himself on his durability, in a single hit.
“Ugh...! What in the world is this.......”
Anagin shifted his gaze slightly and looked at the grieving mages.
They were gathered around the transformation mage, whose back had been pierced by the fisherman mage, mourning his death.
It wasn’t hard to understand.
To be honest, Anagin had never trusted the mages in the first place, so even though he was betrayed, it didn’t really feel like betrayal—more like being deceived, if anything.
But for the mages of Magno, it was different.
They had been true comrades.
Unlike Anagin, they had truly been betrayed and had even lost one of their own.
Both physically and emotionally, the damage they suffered was on a completely different level.
“Hmm.......”
Following Anagin’s gaze, Sphinx let out a sympathetic sigh as she looked at the mages.
Well, she had grown somewhat close to them while preparing their meals.
She claimed it was just to maintain smooth relations, but Anagin didn’t buy it.
Maybe that had been her original intention, but along the way, she had clearly grown attached to them.
Not that it was surprising.
She was the type to grow attached easily. Anagin knew that and allowed it.
As if empathizing more than expected with the mages’ betrayal, Sphinx muttered,
“It’s a shame. That fisherman mage got away.......”
Surprisingly, the fisherman mage had escaped.
At the very moment, he tried to deliver the final blow to Anagin.
Sphinx descended from the sky with a vortex, and Anagin swung the Beast Devourer, attacking from above and below simultaneously—
And yet, he blocked it.
Let that be clear: he didn’t dodge it. He blocked it.
By wrapping his entire body in seawater and turning into a giant.
Fortunately, the attack must have been stronger than expected, because instead of continuing the fight, he fled along with the ugly one.
And once they left, the seawater receded, leading to the current situation.
‘Hmm… even thinking back on it, I still don’t get it.’
The reason behind the fisherman mage’s betrayal still puzzled him.
But it wasn’t like he had gained nothing.
At the very least, he now knew the scale of this situation was far larger than expected, and had a rough idea of where to start unraveling it.
Before that, though, there was something he needed to ask Sphinx.
“Pinku-Pinku. But why are you here?”
“You just thanked me, and now what’s that supposed to mean?”
“No, no. I’m not complaining. Well, I do enjoy messing with you, but still.”
Sphinx gave him a look that said here he goes again, but her previously stiff expression softened slightly. It wasn't bad.
Throwing a fit was better than being depressed.
“I’m grateful you came to help. But your plan was to hide your strength, right? So why did you suddenly reveal it?”
When they had decided to work with the mages, Sphinx had whispered to him.
That she would avoid using magic and wouldn’t participate in combat as much as possible, to prepare for unforeseen circumstances.
Anagin had agreed.
He hadn’t intended to involve her in the fight anyway, and as she said, it was better to conceal one’s strength.
So while staying with the mages, Sphinx handled chores like laundry and cooking.
To give the impression that she wasn’t a combatant, just a servant.
Well, she had always handled chores anyway!
In any case, he was curious why she broke her own rule and revealed her power.
It wasn’t possible that she came immediately after seeing him get stabbed in the back—distance and timing didn’t match.
She would’ve had to move in advance.
What had she seen that made her act beforehand?
Shift.
Instead of answering verbally, Sphinx gestured with her eyes.
They pointed toward the subordinate woman.
The wretched woman who roamed Hellas and Anapik for the Barbaroi Cult, luring sacrifices.
The idiot who got captured by the Magno mages.
And the mysterious woman, the horse-head kept trying so hard to rescue.
Given all that, calling her just a “subordinate woman” didn’t seem fitting anymore.
That kind of lowly title didn’t match how suspicious she was.
‘Should I just call her a crazy bitch?’
At that moment, Sphinx leaned in and whispered,
“That woman looks like she wants to ask you something.”
“The crazy bitch?”
Anagin uttered the new title for the subordinate woman.
Sphinx looked confused at first, then quickly understood and let out a deep sigh.
“Haah.... Don’t call her that, please. But yes, that’s right.”
“What exactly happened between you and her?”
“Just… we talked about a few things.”
It didn’t feel like “just a few things.”
He’d have to ask her later.
He could ask now, but Anagin knew how to prioritize.
For now, he decided to postpone that conversation.
Her identity was interesting, but there was someone even more pressing.
“Hey.”
Anagin called out to the mages, who were still grieving.
And no, he wasn’t trying to criticize them.
But even if they were grieving, things still needed to be done.
“......What is it?”
That sounded hostile.
Probably because of his secret deal with the fisherman mage.
Maybe they even thought the betrayal was Anagin’s fault.
To be fair, the fisherman mage’s betrayal had been triggered by that damned bracelet.
But in Anagin’s view, that wasn’t the real reason.
The bracelet was just the trigger—the true reason lay elsewhere.
And that’s what he wanted to know.
So he asked directly.
“Do you know why that fisherman mage betrayed us?”
“What?”
Judging by their reaction, they didn’t.
Well, he hadn’t expected much.
They clearly hadn’t seen it coming either.
So he changed his approach.
“Tell me everything you know about him.”
“...Why should we?”
The mages asked back, their tone laced with accusation.
As expected, they didn’t have a good opinion of him either.
Whatever camaraderie they had built until now seemed completely gone.
Not surprising.
He had tried to claim the bishop for himself and even made a private deal with the fisherman mage.
Regardless of the betrayal, they had no reason to like him.
The only reason they weren’t acting against him right now was because the situation didn’t allow it.
Anagin paused briefly, considering how to respond.
Should he be honest and say he needed something out of this?
Or come up with a convincing excuse?
A few decent lies came to mind, but he dropped the idea.
No point. They wouldn’t believe him anyway.
So instead of explaining, he gave them a reason they couldn’t ignore.
“A chance to get revenge on the traitor.”
“......Against Piscinis? You intend to continue?”
“Of course. I don’t like getting hit and leaving it at that. Besides, there’s something I need to take.”
Anagin declared that he would kill the ugly one and reclaim what was his—and settle the score with the traitorous fisherman mage.
The mages looked dumbfounded, yet impressed.
They were half-broken from the shock and losses, already close to giving up.
“And you’ll do that alone?”
“Alone or together, it doesn’t matter. I’ll find a way. The question is whether you’ll do it or not.”
“.......”
“Well, it’s your choice. Decide for yourselves. I’ll give you time until we deal with that.”
The mages looked at him like he was talking nonsense, then quickly understood.
After the battle, as the seawater receded from the harbor, a crowd was rushing in.
Armed people.
And among them—
“Capture them! They’re weakened after the battle!! We have to capture them!!”
There were even Gigants mixed in.
“Want help?”
Seeing the approaching armed forces, Sphinx asked.
Anagin rolled his shoulders and replied,
“I’m good on my own. Besides, I’ve got questions for them too.”
* * *
Splash—! Splash—!
A small, lonely island floating in the middle of the sea.
With rough waves as their backdrop, a man and a woman climbed onto land.
One was a bishop of the Barbaroi Cult, and the other was a high-ranking mage of Magno—no, more precisely, a former mage.
He had just betrayed his comrades and defected to the Barbaroi Cult.
That didn’t mean he had been swayed by their ideology.
He was simply cooperating out of necessity.
He had devoted his life to Magno to fulfill a lifelong wish, but when it showed no sign of coming true, he chose to join new allies who could grant it.
Looking back, it was an impulsive decision.
But it couldn’t be helped. The fisherman mage was that desperate.
So much so that he urged her the moment they arrived on the island.
“Bishop. It’s time you kept your promise.”
“Heh heh, impatient, aren’t you?”
Thud.
The mage pointed his harpoon at the bishop, who spoke lightly.
It looked like an ordinary harpoon, but it was anything but.
It was a magical tool forged from the accumulated merit of hunting countless sea monsters.
Because of that, the bishop didn’t make any more evasive remarks this time.
“Can’t you wait calmly for a bit?”
“I’m in a hurry. Enough to betray the organization I devoted my life to.”
“I’m not saying I won’t keep the promise. But rushing me the moment we get back is annoying.”
The bishop had a point.
Even with a promise, being pressured immediately without a moment to breathe would irritate anyone.
But the fisherman mage didn’t listen.
“When is he coming? That man.”
At the words “that man,” the bishop’s expression stiffened.
Even among themselves, it was someone they spoke of with caution.
And for good reason.......
Drip.
Blood trickled from the fisherman mage’s eyes and nose as he spoke.
He had expended more power than expected, blocking the earlier attack from Anagin and Sphinx.
It made it clear why he was in such a hurry, and the bishop let out a faint chuckle.
“Hmph.”
“What’s so funny?”
The fisherman mage reacted sharply to the mocking tone.
“I was just wondering if all half-breeds are like this.”
Half-breed.
That word struck something deep within the fisherman mage.
A place no one should touch.
He was furious, but he didn’t shout.
His anger burned cold like ice, not fire.
So he chose to strike back in kind.
“Not as much as you pretending to be a mermaid.”
The jab landed perfectly.
The bishop’s face twisted, flushing red and blue in an instant.
A poor choice.
He had just betrayed his former allies to come here, only to make enemies again.
What if she didn't just break the promise to help, but attacked him instead?
“Seems like you want to die?”
Of course, the fisherman mage had considered that.
He simply had confidence.
“Who’s going to kill who?”
Even with one arm crippled, he believed he could handle the bishop alone.
It was risky—but if he subdued the bishop, he might be able to negotiate directly with ‘that man’.
Judging by the situation, something important was happening here.
A hair-trigger standoff.
But the feared clash never came.
“Why are you trying to fight?”
From an empty shoreline, a third voice suddenly rang out.
Both the bishop and the fisherman mage turned toward the sound at the same time.
And saw a man.
An utterly ordinary man.
The kind you’d overlook in a crowd without a second thought.
He wasn’t particularly tall. His shoulders slouched slightly forward, and his back was faintly hunched.
His face wasn’t handsome, and his clothing was plain.
In short, there was nothing remarkable about him.
And yet.
He exuded an indescribable presence.
Enough to halt the fight between the bishop and the fisherman mage.
“Did you come here to fight? Or to obtain what you desire?”
The man spoke to the fisherman mage in a tone that suggested he already knew the answer.
The fisherman mage frowned.
What is he talking about? He just saw me—how could he know why I’m here?
As if responding to that thought, the man continued.
“You came to have the power of the mermaids we captured implanted into you, didn’t you? To fill what you lack.”
Even though the fisherman mage hadn’t said a word.
It was exactly what he wanted, so he couldn’t deny it.
Still, he couldn’t understand.
How could this man, who had just appeared, speak as if he knew everything?
The answer came simply.
“Because that’s why most demigods come to us.”
“Then you must be.......”
“Aesop.”
The man said it casually.
“Don’t call me by some stiff title. Just call me Aesop.”
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