The Musafir
Dirty Lodging; The Return of Chitra Anggini
“I'm so grateful to you, Rashid. If it wasn't for you, maybe I would have wasted a lot of time on unnecessary debates with that woman.”
MANTINGAN conveys gratitude while smiling sincerely. All of his words were no pleasantries. It all comes from the bottom of the mind. Meanwhile, his feet continued to step down the hallway of the inn. Rashid also walked, next to him.
“I'm the one who should thank you, Hero. Your repot came to this place just for myself.” Rashid laughed softly, deliberately spitting out the smoke from his mouth. “Night Barisan Inn is not the best inn in the city, Heroes, even the worst. There are hardly any visitors who want to spend the night in this place. Just imagine, the price set for one night is very high, but the rooms rented seem clearly not maintained. Renting a room here is almost nothing like renting a room in the street-side dining shops.”
The mantle frowned, but did not fade his smile of anything at all. In a way, he agreed with Rashid. Room Line Inn looks very unkempt. Thick dust settled on the floor of the hallway. Spider nests hang in the corners of the roof.
However, there was something he still could not understand from the words of the bearded and sacrificial man: why did Rashid still survive in this inn after all the facts were revealed?
As if he could read his way of thinking, Rashid once again laughed. “For a fugitive like myself, this inn is a very safe hideout. No one would have guessed that Rashid, the Tell-gatherer of the Passage who said there was no shortage of treasures, would choose an ugly inn like this to torment his life!”
Mantang nodded his head slowly with a grin on his lips. How he was amazed by Rashid's thoughts that can be said quite carefully.
“You're also a fugitive, Hero, though in this case you're very different from me. If if only—once again if—Koying managed to catch you, then you will be given the treasures of women to drunkenness berkelimangan. But if Koying succeeds in capturing me, ouchai, I will be beheaded right then and there!” Rashid laughed loudly. It was as if saying all of that reality without any burden and fear at all. “But no matter how in the end, the two of us are royal fugitives. And, how crazy we actually visit directly to the capital!”
The mantan laughed too. “As the saying goes.”
“True.” Rashid nodded in agreement. “I still remember his words: you'll find treasure in a place you never thought you'd find, you look for, and you watch.”
The words made Mantingan drown in contemplation of goods for a moment. Is not the same with Kembangmas which is said to be hidden behind a thicket of bushes is meaningless until someone who has been a match will find it there?
No one has been able to defeat Kembangmas, at least until now. Every warrior who fought with him almost always had to meet death without having had time to give a meaningful fight. There were only a handful of warriors who managed to escape the most deadly of a single magical flower, one of which was Birawa—paman from Arkawidya who gave him so many records about Kembangmas.
Even the thousand high-skilled warriors who tried to attack him simultaneously perished in the blink of an eye. Making the search for Kembangmas must be completely stopped by Salakanagara, as well as all the information and news about the Kembangmas destroyed so that no more warriors who seek the flower in the time of immigrants.
With all that reality, it is as if there is no way of anything to be able to get Kembangmas. Unless it is really a match with the flower, so to get it is not necessary any kind of fight that can result in bloodshed.
However, what if Mantingan is not paired with Kembangmas?
“We're here, Hero. This is the room you booked.”
Rashid's words perfectly broke the Mantingan's contemplation. Making her flinch, like waking up from her long dream. Mantingan looked around, finding himself standing right in front of a large door.
“You booked the best room in this inn—something I couldn't even do.” Rashid said while shaking his head slowly. The smoke in the pipe was sucked back. “It seems, people's assumptions about me are a big mistake. Look, Rashid will seem very poor when compared to Hero Man.”
“Ah, don't you like being called a hero by many people, Friend?”
“I absolutely don't deserve that nickname.” Manten shook his head.
“After everything you did?”
“What I did still wouldn't be worthy enough to earn that nickname, Rashid.” The wide smiling coat. “Again if I accept it, is not it the same as letting the sense of high self soar?”
“It is true what Chairman Rama said, your thinking is completely different.” Rashid smiled back while patting the shoulder of the Mantingan. “Well, man, I thought I'd only get here to drive you. You can't ask me to accompany you into the room, can you? Finish your book as soon as possible, I know that you have an urgent dharma in the city even though I do not know exactly, so it is good if the book is completed as soon as possible.”
“I'll finish as soon as.” The mantle nodded steadily.
***
HAMMERING open room doors. A shadow shot in while sending a gust of wind to shut the door again. The shadow stopped, standing upright, not far from the Mantingan who was sitting poking at the ejection sheets.
Against that shadow, the Mantang shook. As if I never thought it existed. Keep moving her lontar stick. The breeze from the window slightly waved his hair. Seen out there, the sky has darkened, sprinkled with stars that are like no limit to, compared to the bright lights of the city.
Time to enter Dark Kala. The pagoda emitted a blue glow. Just now the eleventh canang punch stopped clanging. The twilight has passed.
“Are you really going to throw myself, Mantingan?”
In the end, the shadow made a sound. A voice no matter how Mantingan knows that it belongs to Chitra Anggini. But now, that voice sounded very hoarse and slow. Not as usual. Could it be that she had been crying all day?
“It was your own decision.” Mantingan retaliated without stopping his activities of curling, without taking his eyes off the sheet.
Silent moment.
“What if my decision is to come back to you?”
“That means, you must obey my rules absolutely. If you don't agree, then you can go.”
Chitra Anggini sobbing stuff one time. Making the Mantingan become a little surprised. This woman is not like any other woman. He is strong, very strong even. Hardly ever did Mantingan meet Chitra Anggini who was crying!
