Anagin Chronicles

Chapter 109. Hippomenes (1)

Lynceus returned late at night.

However, no one in the group had gone to sleep first.

Whether it was because they were waiting for Lynceus, or because the unfamiliar environment made it hard to fall asleep, or because they dreaded the unpleasant tomorrow, each had their own reason, but none of them slept.

Thanks to that, they were able to hear about the “great danger” Lynceus had seen.

However, it did not carry much weight.

The New Argonaut Expedition Team, who knew Lynceus’ abilities well, took it quite seriously, but those who did not—Anagin, for example—did not regard it as very serious.

And understandably so.......

“What kind of danger, specifically?”

“I didn’t see that. I can only see the aura.”

“Then when is it coming?”

“I don’t know that specifically either. I only know that it’s coming.”

Well, there wasn’t a single concrete answer among them.

This, they said, was the nature of prophecy.

You could know that something would happen, but not the specifics, thus making it difficult to stop or avoid.

At this point, one had to wonder why prophecy even existed.

If you couldn’t stop it or avoid it, wasn’t prophecy practically useless?

Well, that was only Anagin’s opinion. The others seemed to think differently.

Based on what she heard from Lynceus, Irida went to her father and suggested postponing the Groom Tournament.

But perhaps because of the nature of prophecy,  the walking corpse seated upon the throne dismissed his daughter’s request outright.

If he were to retract decisions every time a prophecy warned of danger, he would never be able to do anything.

Anagin was rather offended by the fact that he shared a line of thought with the walking corpse.

In any case, the important fact was that the Groom Tournament would proceed as scheduled.

And the next morning.

“Change into this.”

Irida arrived with attendants, bringing new clothes and accessories.

She said that dressing up a bit more would make it easier to blend in.

After finishing breakfast, they headed out with Ponytail to the royal forest, where the Groom Tournament venue was being prepared, and he understood what she meant.

At the site, filled with countless chairs and tents in preparation, people dressed far more lavishly than usual crowded the area.

“Since the occasion is what it is, there are a sickening number of people.”

After reacting with distaste at the swarming crowd, Ponytail quickly came to a conclusion.

“Alright, I’m going to slack off. My motivation just dropped instantly.”

“Sure, I’ll slack off with you.”

At Anagin’s words, Ponytail’s face twisted into a deep frown.

“...You’re not actually going to slack off, are you?”

“That’s why I’m saying it.”

“As expected, pairing you two in the same group was a wise decision.”

While Anagin and the Ponytail were exchanging words, Irida appeared, fully dressed up.

She truly looked like a princess.

Behind her followed Tramachus, Thyreos, Lynceus. And Sphinx, Kori, and Pais.

The awkward atmosphere between the Kori–Pais siblings and the Chiron Tower members seemed to have almost disappeared.

All of them were dressed up as splendidly as Irida. Dressed up so well that.......

“Wow, you look like a princess.”

Even Anagin praised someone by calling her a princess.

Everyone flinched at the very un-Anagin-like remark.

Ponytail grinned as if the situation amused him and draped an arm over Anagin’s shoulder.

“Oh? Who looks like a princess?”

“Kori.”

“Ah.......”

At Anagin’s answer—without even a second of hesitation—someone let out an exclamation.

It was unclear who had made the sound, but Kori blushed while expressing her gratitude.

“Th-thank you brother.... Does it really suit me?”

“Yeah, I can’t lie about things like that....... Sphinx.”

“What?”

“You look good, too.”

“......Brother, why are you suddenly acting so out of character?”

Sphinx looked pleased, but just as much on guard. The words were far too uncharacteristic of Anagin. She seemed suspicious that he was plotting something.

“Why? I’m actually good at compliments. I learned it from my father.”

“How to pick up women?”

“No, how to keep peace in the household. He told me that even if a woman isn’t pretty, you should always tell her she is.”

“Brother, are you crazy?”

“.......”

Sphinx failed to suppress the surge of anger for a moment and cursed at him. Kori, too, looked at Anagin with a rare glint of disdain.

Fortunately, his next words eased their feelings.

“Well, since I can’t lie, I didn’t fully inherit that teaching.”

“...You can’t lie?”

“I can talk bullshit, but I can’t lie.”

“What’s the difference?”

“The heart behind it.”

This time, Ponytail looked at Anagin with disdain. To think someone could be even more shameless than himself.

After exchanging some idle chatter, they confirmed their respective roles.

There was nothing particularly special.

In the first place, this was not an official mission but rather a few individuals moving privately. Even if they divided roles, it only sounded grand—it wasn’t anything remarkable.

“I’ll walk around with Ponytail and check for suspicious people. But don’t expect anything special.”

Anagin grabbed Ponytail by the shoulder and said he would carry out the patrol Tramachus had requested. That said, while he would do the job, he did not promise results.

Tramachus nodded as if that was enough.

He knew himself that expecting more in this situation would be unreasonable.

“Lynceus will rest since he overused his blessing yesterday. Irida has to remain in her place as a member of the royal family. Only Thyreos and I will be checking the surroundings.”

“Do as you please.”

“Brother, we can also.......”

“You two just watch the Groom Tournament. You won’t be much help anyway. Is that okay?”

Tramachus nodded.

With their roles divided like that.

Soon after, as time passed, the Groom Tournament began.

* * *

“Oooh, it’s starting. It’s starting.”

At noon, the scheduled Groom Tournament began.

Ponytail, who had been looking around for anyone suspicious, suddenly made a fuss and began explaining that even Groom Tournaments had different formats.

A restricted type that limited the qualifications of participants, and a free type that did not.

An enclosed type where the princess and participant met alone in a room, and an open type where they met publicly in a wide, open space.

Naturally, Atalanta’s Groom Tournament was the free type and the open type.

Thanks to that, countless people stepped forward as suitors for Atalanta, and far more people gathered to watch those suitors.

Anagin was the same. Though he scanned the surroundings for suspicious individuals, he could not help but look at what stood out so prominently.

The first participant was a prince named Lycaon.

Wearing a wolf-skin cloak, he presented a massive lion’s fang that gleamed like gold to Atalanta.

“This is the fang of the Golden Lion, Princess. I hunted it myself while passing through our kingdom. I believe you must have heard of it.”

Prince Lycaon explained the gift he had brought in a voice filled with confidence.

It did not seem to be baseless confidence. Even though he was the first participant, murmurs erupted immediately.

From pure admiration to doubt, certainty, testimony, and renewed admiration—various reactions rippled through the crowd.

When Anagin failed to understand the flow of their emotions, Ponytail explained to help him.

“There’s a theory that the Golden Lion is the offspring of the Nemean Lion.”

“The Nemean Lion?”

“Ah, right. I need to explain from there for you.”

Ponytail looked at Anagin as if freshly realizing just how lacking his knowledge as a practitioner was.

It was not an expression Anagin liked, but it was true, so he said nothing.

“If I explain in detail, it’ll get too long, so just think of it as an incredibly formidable monster.”

“More than the Monster Merchant?”

“Hah! It’s not even comparable to that. It’s of royal blood!”

At the word royal blood, Anagin paused. Monsters had royalty?

However, since he had already asked something earlier, he refrained from interrupting. Otherwise, the explanation would get tangled. He focused on Ponytail’s words for now.

“The Golden Lion is a monster presumed to be the offspring of the Nemean Lion. Aside from that, it being a 6-star monster also plays a part.”

Star.

A measure indicating a practitioner’s rank.

He had properly learned about it at Chiron Tower, and thanks to that, he knew that 6-star was quite high.

Meleager the Immortal and Atalanta, members of the Argonaut Expedition Team and called great heroes, were said to be 7-star, so he could roughly gauge it.

From that perspective, the very first participant could be considered quite strong.

One rank lower, perhaps, but it was still true that he had hunted a formidable monster.

‘Judging by the size of that fang, the lion must not have been ordinary. That old man must not be ordinary either.’

Of course, he did not know whether Lycaon had hunted it alone or with others, but even so, Anagin could tell that Prince Lycaon was no common figure.

And there were not a few people like that in this Groom Tournament. Experts who did not fall behind even the members of the New Argonaut Expedition Team.

He did not know about stars or ranks in detail, but his instincts told him so.

Honestly, he was a little surprised. That there were so many powerful individuals.

Was it because this was Hellas?

Yet at the same time, it made sense. His master had said the world was vast; naturally, there would be many strong individuals as well.

One only had to look back at the past. Periphetes the Clubber had nearly wiped out the New Argonaut Expedition Team.

‘Not bad. I knew the world was wide, but it feels like I’m truly realizing it now.’

“......Therefore, I sincerely hope that Your Highness will choose me.”

While Anagin patrolled the surroundings and entertained idle thoughts, the first suitor, Lycaon, stepped down.

Seemingly brimming with confidence in the gift he had brought, he boldly declared himself a warrior worthy of the princess.

But it is not over until it is over.

The next participant in the Groom Tournament also stepped forward confidently.

“I have brought arrows crafted from the sacred wood of Lady Artemis.......”

* * *

The explanation that the Groom Tournament was a gamble where one could turn their life around in a single stroke felt almost meaningless—because everyone brought out extraordinary treasures.

No, perhaps it was precisely because it was a gamble that they brought such extraordinary treasures.

If they won, they would gain all of those treasures, after all.

Perhaps because of that, the participants truly seemed to have scraped together everything they had to prepare their offerings.

From the Golden Lion’s fang, to arrows made from the sacred wood of Artemis, the severed head of the Minotauros pirate captain, a magic sword forged from Orichalcum, a crystal belt that slowed aging, armor made from the hide of a sea monster, and so on.......

So many strange and wondrous items appeared over several days that it was hard to even list them all.

They were so impressive that mediocre treasures barely stirred any reaction, and some participants even declared their withdrawal midway through.

For reference, even if participants withdrew from the Groom Tournament, they still had to forfeit their gifts, but it seemed they at least wished to avoid the disgrace.

Even so, there were those who endured the humiliation and did not withdraw.

Such as Meleager’s cousins.

Perhaps they still believed Meleager would help them. Despite a few jeers and mocking remarks, they continued to participate without giving up.

But looking at it calmly, it also felt like a rather good business.

Since the winner of the Groom Tournament was decided by Atalanta’s choice rather than any concrete victory conditions, couldn’t someone simply swallow up all the treasures if they played their cards right?

When Anagin brought this up during the tournament, Ponytail reacted with interest.

“Oh, I didn’t expect you to think of that?”

“I’m honest, not stupid.”

“Judging by how irritating you sound, I guess you didn’t hit your head.... Anyway, it’s not wrong. But it’s not exactly right either.”

Beginning like that, Ponytail said Anagin was not the first to have such thoughts.

Anagin agreed on that point. Not everyone in the world was an idiot.

“There are two reasons why pulling something like that is difficult. A principled reason and a practical reason.”

“The principled reason is that it’s bad to commit fraud?”

“More precisely, you’d receive the curse of a god.”

“And the practical reason?”

“If it’s too obvious, it could be treated as outright fraud, and the tournament itself might be invalidated. Naturally, the honor of those who cheated would plummet to the ground, and if things go badly, they could face retaliation.”

It was only natural.

Other people were not blind fools or simpletons; such blatant fraud would be hard to pull off.

Even if one tried to manipulate things, they would at least need to bring a gift of comparable caliber.

In that sense, one could see just how bold Meleager’s uncle and cousins were.

They had been suggesting something completely absurd.

“Wait, then if someone brings an overwhelmingly superior gift in everyone’s eyes, does that mean she’d have no choice but to choose that guy, whether she likes it or not?”

“Well, yes? That’s the kind of tournament this is.”

“Huh.......”

Anagin let out an unexpected exclamation.

He did not know about great heroes or great warriors, but the thought that Atalanta—who had boldly stood against Erysichthon—might have to choose a man she did not want felt somehow absurd.

How should he put it? At this level, the absurdity itself felt like a form of art.

Whether it was unfortunate or fortunate, no one had yet brought such an overwhelmingly superior gift, but even so, the atmosphere around Atalanta and those near her was not good.

Even without an overwhelming gift, in the end, she would have to choose someone as her husband.

Judging by the walking corpse’s reactions throughout the tournament, it did not seem possible to postpone or evade it.

Unless the parties involved gather the courage.

Truly, a suffocating situation.

And Anagin felt just as stifled.

Despite a considerable amount of time having passed, they had not found the assassin sent by Erysichthon.

At this point, he even wondered if Ponytail had been given faulty information.

They had examined the list of assassin candidates thoroughly, yet not a single one stood out.

Time passed like that, and the final day of the Groom Tournament arrived.

As before, quite a number of participants presented impressive gifts, but none that made one think, This is it.

This was not merely Anagin’s personal opinion—the overall atmosphere reflected it.

“Who do you think will win?”

“It’s not easy. I really don’t know.”

“If I had to guess, perhaps.......”

“In that case, we might have to predict Arcadia’s next policy direction based on the nature of the gift.”

“Still, there doesn’t seem to be anyone superior to the princess.”

“Aren’t tournaments like this always like that?”

At the closing stages of the Groom Tournament—boring if you found it boring, enjoyable if you found it enjoyable—people voiced differing opinions.

The King of Arcadia surveyed the atmosphere as if he did not dislike it and rose to declare the end of the proposals.

Once he declared the end, after letting a day or two pass, Atalanta would choose her husband, and the tournament would officially conclude.

Just as the King of Arcadia was about to open his mouth, one of his officials rushed over and whispered something urgently in his ear.

It was impossible to hear what was said, but the king’s expression subtly stiffened.

It did not seem unpleasant... more like surprised.

In any case, he announced a new participant.

“I shall introduce the final suitor.”

At the words final suitor, the surroundings stirred once more.

Because he had not been scheduled.

Accepting a participant who had not been on the schedule was rare, and such rare exceptions were made only for someone special.

Just who could it be?

As everyone wondered, the King of Arcadia made the announcement.

“The conqueror who subdued Barbarland...... Hippomenes!”