Chapter 158. Rescue (1)
Midas.
Everyone, including Tramachus, tilted their heads as if hearing the name for the first time, but soon they recalled who it was.
One of the “Rebels” who opposed the gods alongside Erysichthon—Midas of the Golden Hand.
An incarnation of greed who, out of excessive avarice, received a blessing that turned everything he touched into gold. A monster blinded by gold who even turned his own kingdom and daughter into gold.
However, seeing him in person made it hard to believe.
For someone said to be mad for gold, his appearance was far too ordinary.
The clothes he wore, his belt, even his shoes—everything was at the level of an ordinary wanderer. He wore no jewelry at all.
If there was anything unusual, it was the flesh-colored gloves on his hands.
His attire was simple and practical, with not a trace of wealth to be felt.
Compared to Erysichthon, whose mere presence had been overwhelming to behold, his aura was utterly unremarkable.
Even so, the New Argonaut Expedition Trio, including Tramachus, did not let their guard down. More precisely, they could not.
Because even though he claimed his condition was poor, it was obvious that Orpheus was tense.
Grrip…!
Orpheus clenched the lyre in his hand tightly.
After a brief silence, he opened his mouth.
“…What brings you here?”
“Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.”
In response to Orpheus’s question, Midas raised his index finger and wagged it from side to side.
As if scolding a foolish child.
“That’s not what you’re curious about.”
“………”
“And besides. If you’re a practitioner, you shouldn’t be trying to talk. You should be rushing at me. Ah, are you afraid to?”
Crack.
Clearly, no sound had been heard, yet the New Argonaut Expedition Team heard it. The sound of a man’s pride being scratched apart and snapping.
As if to prove it, Orpheus struck the lyre roughly and launched an attack at Midas.
In an instant, without even a chance to stop him.
Not only that, he even bestowed blessings of enhancement upon the bodies of the New Argonaut Expedition Trio.
As light shimmered around them, vitality surged through the bodies of the New Argonaut Expedition Team, and in proportion to that, they felt the world slow down.
It felt as though they had grown several times stronger.
Yet the New Argonaut Expedition Trio felt doubt rather than exhilaration.
What kind of past could there have been between Orpheus and Midas to provoke such a reaction?
And was Midas so strong that Orpheus would immediately apply blessings of this magnitude?
Holding such questions, the New Argonaut Expedition Team looked ahead at Midas.
Thanks to the blessings, their enhanced bodies could see the slashing strikes flying toward Midas and the countless waves of curse energy.
There were almost no openings—dodging them would be physically impossible.
In response, Midas calmly removed the glove from his hand and extended it into the air.
And then……
Clang—!
All the attacks and curses headed toward Midas turned into golden dust and scattered through the air.
Golden dust sparkling brilliantly in the atmosphere.
At the beautiful yet utterly irrational sight, not only Orpheus but even the New Argonaut Expedition Team froze stiff.
To nullify blessings not by blocking them with powerful magic or Energy(Γι), but by rendering them meaningless altogether…… they couldn’t quite comprehend it.
And now, yet another incomprehensible thing was unfolding before their eyes.
The attacks and curses of Orpheus that had turned into golden dust moved on their own as if possessed of will, gathering into Midas’s hand, and then transformed into gold coins.
A hand wearing a crown on the front, and a donkey on the back.
They had become Coins of Greed.
A foul object that had stirred kin-slaying and bloodshed in Hellas over a decade ago.
“Aaaaargh—!!”
The first to move was Thyreos.
At this point, the battle had all but begun.
Tramachus and Lynceus followed immediately.
Perhaps thanks to Orpheus’s blessings, their bodies felt as light and fast as they themselves perceived, almost to an unbelievable degree.
However, Midas was far faster than that.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Just as it seemed he stepped forward, Midas’s form distorted and vanished.
Then, appearing briefly at their side, he lightly tapped Thyreos’s arm, Tramachus’s shoulder, and Lynceus’s eye with the hand on which he had put the glove back on, and simply passed by.
“………”
“………”
“………”
A light tapping that didn’t hurt at all.
Even so, the New Argonaut Expedition Trio stiffened as if their throats had been cut by a blade.
Because the moment Midas’s hand touched them, they felt death.
Their hearts dropped, a chill ran between their legs, and their minds turned blank—like the sensation of having narrowly escaped death.
Leaving the overwhelmed New Argonaut Expedition Trio behind, Midas walked forward, and Orpheus, standing before him, struck the lyre—
“Are you still wallowing in misery, clutching the relic of your dead wife?”
Orpheus’s fingers sliced through the air, and before he realized it, the lyre was in Midas’s hand, who had already stepped to his side.
Before Orpheus could even react, the lyre in his grasp had been snatched away.
Enraged at losing his lyre, Orpheus tried to swing his fist—
Thunk.
But when Midas, having removed his glove, extended his index finger straight out, he froze.
With Midas’s finger just about to touch Orpheus’s forehead, he had no choice but to stop.
It was no different for the others.
The New Argonaut Expedition Team, too, thought they should intervene, yet they were so overwhelmed by Midas that they could not move.
Just like when they had faced Erysichthon in the past.
After some time had passed.
Midas moved his ungloved hand.
He did not touch Orpheus’s forehead, but raised the extended index finger slightly, then slowly lowered it.
To avoid the finger touching him, Orpheus had to lower his head, and to lower his head, he had to bend his knees……
“Hahahahahaha.”
Just before Orpheus’s trembling knees gave way, Midas burst out laughing and withdrew his extended hand.
As if it had all been a mischievous prank.
Then he casually tossed Orpheus’s lyre, which he had just taken, onto the ground and put his glove back on, showing his defenseless back.
“………”
It felt as if he were saying, ‘None of you can do anything to me.’
And that was the truth.
Even with Midas turning his back, neither Orpheus nor the New Argonaut Expedition Trio dared to move.
Orpheus merely stared at the lyre fallen on the ground, chewing over his rage, while the New Argonaut Expedition Team, their fighting spirit half-broken, could do nothing.
“Don’t be afraid. I have no intention of doing anything to you.”
His tone was as if there were someone else present.
The New Argonaut Expedition Team thought of someone, and Orpheus did as well.
“……Anagin.”
“………”
“What is your relationship with him?”
Orpheus asked with conviction.
After all, Midas had appeared the moment Anagin fled.
It was far too precise to be a mere coincidence.
Based on that, Orpheus questioned Midas.
Despite it being neither the place nor the situation, he tried to extract information from Midas’s reaction.
“My disciple.”
But what was this?
Contrary to expectations, Midas frankly revealed his relationship with Anagin.
It almost felt wrong for him to do so.
“Why? Ah, did you think it was some tremendous secret?”
Midas asked the flustered Orpheus in return. And that was understandable……
“Do you think he’d have hidden it if you asked him about my traits? If you asked whether his master was Midas?”
Midas shifted his gaze toward the New Argonaut Expedition Team.
Feeling that gaze, they almost shook their heads from side to side without realizing it.
If it were Anagin, it somehow felt like he wouldn’t have hidden it. But……
“Even so, is it really something you can tell us? If we were to—”
Tramachus wanted to say, ‘What would you do if we told others?’, but he couldn’t bring himself to.
Fortunately, Midas seemed to understand everything.
“Oh, are you worried about my disciple? After throwing your spear at him?”
“………”
“Well, ordinarily, wiping you all out would be the proper course. Dead men tell no tales.”
The New Argonaut Expedition Trio flinched, but at the same time felt relieved.
The very fact that he said that meant he had no intention of killing them.
Still, there was a question.
Why wasn’t he killing them?
Soon, the man himself gave the reason.
“No matter what choice you make. It will all be that fellow’s fate anyway. Do as you please.”
* * *
“Huup…!”
Was it because of the Siren whose song wrecked ships?
Sphinx was struggling mightily just to swim through the raging current.
The water was so violent and fast that merely not being swept away took all her strength, and worrying about Anagin on her back made it several times harder.
But more troubling than any of that was the presence of Orpheus and the New Argonaut Expedition Team, who could pursue them at any moment.
Orpheus the Musician, who had suddenly appeared and attacked.
And the New Argonaut Expedition Team, who had appeared later and hurled a spear.
“Grrrrr—!”
As she recalled it, Sphinx let out a beastly growl without realizing it.
Despite suppressing such sounds for years to avoid being treated as a mere monster, the surging rage forced it out.
For what possible reason had they done this…? No, the reason was predictable.
It was likely for the same reason that one favors their own kind.
The Argonaut Expedition Team and the New Argonaut Expedition Team were aligned.
And in contrast, Anagin, a practitioner who rejected blessings.
Whether they knew the full situation or not, they would have had no choice but to save Orpheus.
Even so, her anger did not subside.
Rather, it flared even hotter.
No matter what, still… they had called him a friend.
‘As expected, humans and our kind are…’
Just as Sphinx was about to sink into negative thoughts under the mental strain—
Oink, oink.
From behind, the Interspatial Boar, Pairon, swam toward her at high speed.
It seemed he had recovered Anagin’s equipment and then jumped down from the cliff.
Despite its massive size and weight, it swam well—rather, it seemed that its very bulk and mass prevented it from being swept away by the raging current.
Oink, oink.
Having reached them in an instant, Pairon indicated that she should climb onto its back, and Sphinx gladly did so.
Using hands and legs transformed into those of a beast, she grabbed onto the coarse boar bristles, climbed onto Pairon’s back, and immediately laid Anagin down.
“………”
As she examined Anagin’s body, Sphinx hesitated for a moment, unsure whether to feel relief at their fortune or curse their misfortune.
Compared to when he had fought Orpheus, he was clearly in better condition, but the wound in his chest had not healed beyond a certain point.
That was because the flames produced by the explosion lingered as tiny embers, as if deliberately interfering with the recovery of Anagin’s wound.
Ssssss….
Was this the power of the new blessing Tramachus had gained?
In a situation where pursuers could appear at any moment, it was far too dangerous.
And on top of that, the real problem was that Sphinx had never learned healing magic.
Healing magic was difficult to begin with, and another reason was her very nature, which made it hard for her to master it.
“Grrrrr……”
Reminded of her origins in such an unwelcome way, Sphinx once again let out a beastly sound.
“Calm down. Calm down. Getting angry won’t fix anything.”
She soothed herself, speaking quietly.
If she got agitated now, nothing would work out. She needed to calm herself, even briefly, and coolly assess her surroundings.
It was true that the situation was dire, but it was not the worst possible outcome.
Since Orpheus and the New Argonaut Expedition Team had yet to appear, it was possible that they had lost track of them, or that something had happened.
Honestly, it didn’t seem very likely, but it wasn’t impossible either.
And Anagin’s wound, too, was not the worst case.
The ember in the chest wound was burning it, but it was only hindering recovery, not worsening it.
An utterly incomprehensible level of resistance to fire.
If his stamina held out, it might be possible to suppress that ember and let the wound heal.
“The problem is time.”
Reaching that conclusion, Sphinx searched from Pairon’s back for a place where they could hide and rest.
Somewhere they could conceal themselves without being noticed by people.
Then, as the sheer cliff-like terrain gave way, flat land came into view.
And on that flat ground, she spotted a group of people who had settled there.
“……Sir Anagin?”
It was the Pebble Traveling Troupe, who should have been on the outskirts of the Festival Village.
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(T/N): I just had a realization… I think I mistranslated the word ‘반역자들.’ I think it should be ‘Rebels,’ not ‘Traitors.’ LOL. My apologies.