The Musafir
The Man Named Weird
MANTINGAN lifted his face to look at Chitra Anggini, then said weakly, “Should all love end in pain?”
“Sure not everything.” Chitra Anggini shook his head, assuming definitely with that answer. “There is so much love that ends beautifully in this world, Mantingan. So many lovers who marry and live together until death separates, so can they be called not to end happily?”
“Why is Dara not so?”
“You interpreted her feelings too deeply and excessively.” Chitra Anggini smiled bitterly. “Didn't you and the North River Angel do? You really need to know, Mantingan, broken heart is a very common thing in the martial world, just like death. You do not need to be surprised or dissolved in this problem.”
Chitra Anggini then re-telling how love Kiai Kedai with Pendekar Anggini did not end beautifully, but they seemed to be able to easily forget all that and stay alive as they should.
“Be aware also your position as Sky Stakeholder, swordsman above all warriors. You should reflect the attitude of a true swordsman, not a coward who becomes weak just because of love.”
Mantingan looked at Chitra Anggini briefly before bowing his head again. With a long breath. However, the words of Chitra Anggini sound very spicy, but what it says is the truth that should not be denied.
“Let's forget about this for a while,” the woman continued later. “We still do not know the contents of the secret letter.”
The swift mantle shifted a sheet of ejection given by a strange person at Dara's auction silently. The ejection was scoured by cipher characters, which may also have been coded. The mantan really cannot read it, because it does not come from the underground network of the martial world that always has to deal with all the ciphers. Maybe Chitra Anggini can read it.
After lifting and looking at the sheet very carefully, just the eyes of Chitra Anggini bought.
“This is the passphrase of the Leaf Dancers Group! Really I can recognize him, and how I never thought I would see him again in this place!” Chitra Anggini looked at the young man in front of him in excitement. “Is this perhaps a message from my brother?”
“We will know until the contents of the letter are revealed,” said Mantingan who although quite surprised but can remain calm. “Can you read it to me?”
“Can't now anyway.” The beautiful woman nodded slowly. “Aksara and this passphrase cannot be read directly. I had to pair it with some of the most possible ones, because some characters have almost the same shape. It will take a little time.”
Mantingan nodded his head before rising up from his stool saying, “I will not bother you here. If you're done with your work, meet me downstairs.”
Chitra Anggini nodded back anyway. “Whatever you're thinking, I'm asking you to keep using common sense. Don't do something that will just—”
Before Chitra Anggini managed to finish his words, Mantingan had first flicked the woman's nose, making his speech unbrokenly cut off.
“Don't be chatty, I can take care of myself.” The mantan laughed softly as he walked away, while Chitra Anggini could only snort while rubbing her flushed nose.
***
The atmosphere of the tavern on the first floor of the inn can be said to be quiet. There were only a few visitors among the dozens of tables that were there. Non-rigid.
The mantel runs slowly towards the booking table. His head was bowed; his eyes were blank. It's just free all the advice Chitra Anggini had, like a second-hand yawn.
The young man drowned again in turmoil. He felt a huge voice of guilt. How he could not prevent Dara from deciding such a crazy thing, which really changed his whole life. Now everything feels too late. Sorry for being useful and useless.
“Looks so upset you, young man?”
Mantingan raised his head to find a woman behind the booking table smiling broadly at him. However, he really did not feel interested at all to return the greeting or just a smile.
The mantle did not answer immediately. Think it. Kiai Guru Kedai had clearly warned him not to drink palm wine or smoke hornbill smoke, but under these circumstances, was there a better solace than wine or shellfish?
The mantang opened its mouth to answer, but then closed it again without a word had come out.
“Ah, so you don't have enough money? No problem, I can give it for free as long as you want to let me drink together.”
When the shopkeeper lady turned around and was about to step away, Mantingan immediately said, “No need, Mother.”
The shop owner's mother turned her body back. “Youth well apparently, yes?”
Mantingan only smiled to respond to that, then he said, “Bawikanlah a cup of bitter tea, Mother, it is more than enough.”
“I'll serve you something.”
The mantel selects a table in the corner of the room adjacent to the window. A long time ago, a place like this had indeed become his choice every time he visited the tavern. From there he can monitor all the contents of the room without being seen monitored and also without the need to be the center of attention. Rarely does anyone notice people in the corner of the room.
Not long after, the shop owner's mother came with a tray containing two cups of clay and a jug of tea water from a small hole in the lid that looks like steam is rising.
Seeing what the woman was carrying, the Mantin could not hold back his forehead to not wrinkle in surprise.
“Give me this drink for free,” said the mother of the store owner while putting her tray on the table, “but let me drink with you.”
The coat nodded slowly and welcomed. He has no right to object, what else if it is forbidden. No matter how much she is the owner of this shop.
“Your attitude reminds me of someone.” The mother of the owner of the shop told me while pouring tea on two cups. “Daddy. That's the man's name; the shop. What a weird name, isn't it?”
The stunned, shocked, and stunned mantle was not a reed of the braids, but it was fortunate that it was only shown in his mind and not in the look of his face that would clearly provoke the suspicion of the tavern owner's mother!
The mantan remained calm. The look on his face hardly changed at all from just raising one eyebrow as a sign that he was interested enough to listen to the next story.
So that's how the mother of the owner of the store told me, “That happened a dozen years ago. Maybe at that time, you were still learning to climb trees with your friends. Precisely when the night was late, and this shop had no visitors until I was sleepy and ready to close the shop, but only appeared a sword-wisher with a very bad condition.
“The bad situation I mean does not mean that his body is injured or he is dying, but that his soul is really very bad. If you were by that time beside me and saw his face at that time, you would surely know how miserable it was.
“She came straight to me, saying briefly with her voice that really sounded really raucous. Actually my attention had become fragmented at that time because it was aware of the situation, but I could tell that the man named Kedai ordered a wine jug and a hunk.
“Kutahu that he is a swordsman who should not be touched by his feelings, then immediately I take out the best tuak and pipe cangklong I have. It was beyond a long time that he sat contemplating the wine jug and the shell, but not in the least the two objects were touched by him. I just watch him secretly.
“A moment later, he suddenly called me and relayed a request. It was really unexpected, she asked the best prostitute in town to accompany her that night! Five stones were taken out of his pocket, which I knew was worth five thousand gold pieces, more than enough to build the same five shops and inns that I had at the time.
“I immediately called the network I know keeps the best botanicals in Kotaraja Koying. After I told you the amount of money the man spent, they immediately agreed.”
