Chapter 195

Chapter 195. The First Meeting (3)

“This place was once one of the Empire's major shipyards. On average, it employed two to three thousand workers and produced dozens of ships every year. Those ships sailed across that sea over there.......”

Aesop, the leader of the Barbaroi Cult, suddenly offered to give Anagin and Sphinx a tour of the Ruin. More accurately, it had once been an Imperial shipyard.

Anagin accepted the unexpected offer instead of refusing it. There were several reasons why.

“Are you listening?”

“I am.”

One reason was that he wanted to keep the conversation with Aesop going.

Instinctively, he felt that if he turned down the offer to be guided around, the conversation would end right there.

If he exaggerated a little, it even felt as though Aesop had answered all of his questions only so he could make this offer.

A feeling like, 'I'll tell you what you're curious about, so hang out with me for a bit.'

That was the impression he got.

Almost like an old man with too much free time.

It was nothing more than a gut feeling, but Anagin trusted his instincts and accepted the unspoken invitation.

After all, it would have been a shame to end his conversation so soon with a man who, despite being the Cult Leader, answered every question so willingly.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason.

“This is where the carpenters and blacksmiths each made the parts and tools needed to build ships. Keels, stem posts, stern posts, ribs, reinforcements, nails, chains, wedges. They all had fiery tempers, so every workday was filled with shouting.”

“You talk like you saw it yourself.”

“Not every day, but I've seen it a few times.”

As embarrassing as it was to admit, Anagin had become personally curious about what this shipyard had once been like.

Even he couldn't understand it. He normally had no interest in this sort of thing.......

Maybe it was because he'd spent so long traveling outside the village, or maybe the sheer scale of the place had piqued his curiosity. Either way, he wanted to hear Aesop's tour.

“Once the ship was finished, they placed it on greased wooden planks and pushed it out into the sea. These crumbled boards here are those very planks. Once the ship was safely afloat, they struck it with a wine bottle to divine its fortune. If the bottle shattered, it had received the gods' blessing. If it didn't, the ship was considered cursed.”

Of course, that wasn't all he was curious about.

The shipbuilding process and those little customs were interesting, but there was something that interested him even more.

A word he had never heard before, despite having left the village six months ago.

That word was.......

“Interesting. So every time they finished a ship, they broke a wine bottle?”

“Not anymore. That was an old custom of the Empire.”

The Empire.

That was it.

Half a year.

A short time, yet a long one.

This was the first time Anagin had ever heard the word Empire.

No one had ever mentioned it.

He could have dismissed it by assuming his own knowledge was lacking, but somehow...... it didn't seem that simple.

After all, Anagin had seen and heard far too much to call himself ignorant.

He had met a practitioner family that protected an entire region, visited Chiron Tower where heroes were raised, even been welcomed as a guest of a kingdom alongside a princess. He had even met a god, albeit a lower-ranking one.

Yet throughout all those journeys, he had never once heard the word Empire.

“Do you know what the Empire is?”

“.......”

Sphinx answered with silence.

With hearing as sharp as hers, there was no way she hadn't heard him. And if she didn't know, she would have simply said so.

Which meant she didn't want to answer.

Anagin didn't press her.

He could always find out himself.

“After finishing their day's work, the laborers would head home along this road and stop over there to wash away the day's exhaustion with alcohol.”

Aesop pointed toward an empty patch of land where only the foundation remained.

“A tavern?”

“Indeed. It was quite a large one.”

Looking at the traces scattered among the weeds and piles of rubble, Anagin nodded.

It really must have been enormous.

It was bigger than most of the grand mansions he had ever seen.

Well, it was built beside a shipyard that employed two or three thousand workers.

Using the remaining traces, Anagin imagined what the tavern must have looked like in the past.

It must have been bustling.

A tavern that large could only survive if business was booming. It was probably packed every day, with plenty of employees running around. It must have been as lively as a festival every single night.

“Brother.”

Sphinx called out to Anagin, who had unknowingly let his imagination run wild.

Returning to reality, Anagin found Sphinx looking at him with concern.

Meanwhile, Aesop continued his explanation without pause.

“Are you okay?”

“Ah, I got so absorbed in the story without realizing it. It's more interesting than I expected. That old man Aesop.”

Despite his stiff manner of speaking, Aesop had a way of drawing people into his stories before they even realized it.

Maybe the reason Anagin had become so fascinated by these ruined remains was simply because of Aesop's storytelling.

“I know. But...... don't let your guard down too much.”

Sphinx agreed, yet warned him at the same time.

Still, it wasn't quite an outright warning.

Don't let your guard down too much.

It sounded more like he might be dangerous... or he might not.

Maybe his personality is harder to read than it seems.

As if checking whether Anagin had been paying attention, Aesop suddenly asked,

“What do you think?”

“Restricting gambling houses around the shipyard? I don't know. Personally, I'd be disappointed. I tried gambling once in Festival Village, and it was pretty fun.”

Even while lost in thought and chatting with Sphinx, Anagin had kept one ear on Aesop's story.

So he answered without missing a beat.

For someone who looked like that, the old man had surprisingly unconventional ideas.

Since there weren't enough workers, his solution had been to raise wages, then recover the extra money by opening gambling houses nearby.

“I'm glad someone finally understands. I told my friend it would be far more efficient to pay the workers more and operate gambling houses instead, but he refused to accept it.”

“He sounds boring. Why'd your friend oppose it?”

“He said honest labor would lose its value, families would fall apart, and society itself would crumble.”

Aesop looked toward another area along the broken road.

Like everywhere else, it was an empty stretch of land with only traces of what had once stood there.

Judging from the remains, it had probably been a residential district.

“It's smaller than I expected.”

“Part of it collapsed when the land gave way.”

That was unexpected.

The land had collapsed?

Then did that mean this place hadn't originally been just an island?

As Anagin was about to ask, Aesop had already begun walking in another direction.

Toward the steep slope of a hill overlooking the coast.

Anagin instinctively followed.

And soon, he saw it.

Standing alone atop the hill was a weathered monument so eroded that it was impossible to tell what it commemorated.

Around it lay scattered blood, corpses, and unmistakable signs that countless people had been sacrificed there.

Anagin was stunned.

Not by the gruesome sight itself—but by the complete absence of the smell of blood.

“What is this?”

“The airship shipyard. More precisely, what's left of it.”

“Airship?”

“This place built not only ships, but airships as well. There used to be a tall mountain here.”

“I don't see any mountain.”

“It collapsed. When the land shattered, so did the mountain. But.”

Tap.

Aesop placed his hand on the weathered monument.

“It certainly existed.”

Apparently, that worn monument was proof that an airship shipyard had once stood here.

Anagin nodded in understanding before lifting Sphinx off his shoulder and setting her down beside him.

Instead of asking why, Sphinx quietly complied.

Even so, she couldn't hide the concern on her face.

Cracking his joints, Anagin raised one hand.

“I've got a question.”

“Go ahead.”

“What exactly happened here?”

Pointing at the signs of human sacrifice, Anagin asked.

“It seems they were trying to retrieve the treasure sleeping beneath this Ruin.”

“Treasure?”

Anagin repeated the word, then quickly understood.

Come to think of it, Aesop had only said he wasn't interested in the treasure.

He had never said there wasn't any treasure here.

Simply because the Cult Leader himself wasn't interested and had moved the Barbaroi Cult members, Anagin had jumped to conclusions.

Then ugly one and her subordinates were trying to take the treasure for themselves?

Anagin reflected on that for a moment.

Not for long, though.

He still had Aesop to deal with.

As if on cue, Aesop gestured toward the surrounding scenery and asked,

“Are you angry?”

“No. Not really.”

Judging by the number of sacrifices, most of them had probably been people working with the Barbaroi Cult.

Why would he get angry just because people like that had died?

What interested him more was.......

“What kind of treasure is buried here that made them go this far?”

“A fragment of the Emperor.”

“The Emperor?”

Another word he had never heard before.

Perhaps sensing his thoughts, Aesop explained.

“Think of him as the King of Kings, the true King. The ruler of the Empire.”

“I've been wondering since earlier. What exactly is this Empire?”

“A nation that existed during the Age of Humans. A true kingdom, unlike these false ones that now run rampant.”

Damn it.

Another thing he had never heard before.

The only eras Anagin knew were the Age of Giants, when giants ruled the world, and the current Age of Gods and Humans.

Only those two.

But the Age of Humans......?

He wondered if Aesop had simply gone senile and forgotten to mention the gods.

Once again, Aesop spoke as though he had read Anagin's thoughts.

“You've never heard of it because the gods concealed that era.”

“Oh.......”

Anagin didn't hide his surprise.

If anything, he let it show.

The story was just that shocking—and that fascinating.

It even made him think how fortunate he had been not to refuse Aesop's offer to tour the shipyard.

“That doesn't match what I know. As far as I learned, after the Age of Giants came the Age of Gods and Humans. That version makes more sense.”

“And why do you think that?”

“Because the gods defeated the giants. Humans helped them.”

Though he couldn't be certain since he hadn't witnessed it himself, Anagin explained based on what he had heard.

Wait.

Was that really right?

Didn't the old carriage driver say humans fought against the giants while the gods helped them?

Well, what did it matter either way?

“Words are fascinating.”

“How so?”

“Change the phrasing ever so slightly, and both the meaning and the impression become entirely different.”

“Explain it in a way that actually makes sense.”

“It is true that humans and the gods joined forces against the giants. But it wasn't humans who helped the gods—it was the gods who helped humans. The two sound similar, but they're completely different.”

“.......”

Faced with yet another revelation, Anagin scratched his neck instead of answering.

He needed time to sort out his thoughts.

But that was a mistake.

Someone who barely understood anything to begin with wasn't going to find the answer simply by thinking harder.

The more he racked his brain, the more confused he became.

And with that confusion came pointless thoughts.

Like looking at Sphinx and wondering, ‘Did she already know all this?’

Is that why she wanted to know when monsters and humans first started fighting?

There was no reason to think such things.

She was her.

He was him.

Clap!

Just as his thoughts threatened to knot themselves into an impossible tangle, Anagin clapped his hands together.

Brooding alone wasn't like him.

The more complicated things became, the simpler his approach needed to be.

Keeping his palms together, he asked,

“Why didn't the people I know know any of this?”

“Because it happened a very long time ago, because the gods concealed it, and because only those who were deceived became Hellenes.”

Only those who were deceived became Hellenes...

At first glance, it made sense.

Almost everyone Anagin had ever met had either been a Hellene or an Anapik.

Even the Anapik were originally from Hellas, or descended from those who were.

Still, not wanting to seem too easily convinced, Anagin asked another question.

After all, the man standing before him was the Cult Leader that worshipped beasts.

“How long ago would something have to be for people to forget it?”

“This year... would make it 1,024 years.”

“Damn. That really is a long time.”

“They didn't forget because it was old. They chose to forget. Because it was easier.”

“.......”

The weight behind those words left Anagin silent.

Though not for long.

“Wait. Then that means this place is over a thousand years old too?”

He tapped the ground beneath his feet—the Ruin itself.

“That is correct.”

“Then you, Cult Leader, have been alive for over a thousand years too.”

“That is correct.”

“Something I'm really curious about.”

“Speak.”

“Is it really okay to tell me all this?”

For the first time, Aesop hesitated before answering.

“...Do you know why I offered to show you around?”

“You're answering my question with another question? No idea.”

“Because I was lonely. Good memories are like wine. If you enjoy them alone, they become lonely.”

“That's not the reason I expected.”

“No matter how beautiful a memory may be, it only gains true value when it's shared. In that sense, I'm grateful that you listened.”

It didn't sound like empty courtesy.

Still, that alone wasn't enough to convince Anagin.

“You told me all this just because you're grateful? The Empire, the Emperor, the Age of Humans? Those sound like pretty secretive topics. Feels like something you'd want to keep hidden.”

“What is there to hide?”

“......?”

“From a corpse that's about to die.”

The moment those words left his mouth, Anagin felt that strange, ominous sensation he'd sensed from Aesop earlier.

Aesop was clearly standing far away.

“Brother.”

Sphinx's voice called out to him.

Anagin reflexively turned his head.

Two enormous, pale, emaciated hands had appeared, gently cupping Sphinx in her cat form.

He wanted to rush over immediately and shatter those mysterious hands.

But he couldn't.

Because identical hands had appeared beneath his feet and above his head, closing around him from both directions as though they intended to crush him where he stood.