Wiro Sableng - Volume 1 - Chapter 16

Wiro Sableng Book 1 Chapter 16

Once the Four Beards of Sanggreng Cave vanished from their sight, Wiro Sableng immediately released the accupoint blok at Nilamsuri’s neck. The girl looked around dazedly. She looked just like someone that just woke up from a dream, but she could clearly see the remains of battle around her.
“What just happened?” asked the girl.
Wiro laughed. “Nothing whatsoever,” he answered.
“I don’t believe you. I could hear the sound of horses galloping towards this place.”
“Ah, you’re dreaming. I didn’t hear anything.”
Nilamsuri thought it over and tried to remember. Her expression suddenly changed. Her eyes looked closely at Wiro Sableng. “Just then, you jumped at me and…” the girl rubbed the artery on her neck. “Right, you accublocked the artery on my neck?”
Once she realized that, Nilamsuri promptly unsheathed her sword! “What have you done to me?” asked her, shouting.
This Sinto Gendeng’s disciple cursed in his heart, “Fudge! I helped her and instead she accused me wrongly!”
But in the face of the girl, this youngster still put a smile on his face. “I hope you don’t think wrongly about me, sister.”
“Then what need do you have to accublock me?!”
Wiro scratched his head. He didn’t want Nilamsuri to know who he really was. Thusly, he had to answer with a lie. “Did you remember how crazed you were when you fought against those Four Beards of the Sanggreng Cave?!”
“Yes, and then?!”
“Listen sister, I only know a bit about accublock skills. Since I know that you won’t be able to best them, I had to accublock your artery and hid you behind the bamboo thicket. When they left I brought you back here and I released the accublock on your neck.”
“I don’t believe you!” replied Nilamsuri.
“I’m indeed not asking you to believe me,” said Wiro Sableng.
“Who in the world are you anyway?!”
“Huff…,” Wiro Sableng took a long sigh. “Haven’t I told you my name? It was you who still keep your name a secret!”
Nilamsuri felt even more disbelief in her indignance. The thought to test out the young man crossed her mind.
“Alright,” she said, “If you still don’t want to tell me, I’ll let my sword do the talking!” right after saying that, the girl quickly made a lightning-quick thrust towards Wiro Sableng’s chest!
Wiro was surprised and scrambledly jumped to the side. “Sister! What the hell? Why did you attack me?!”
Nilamsuri replied with a chained attacks. Her sword swirled all over, rendering Wiro could barely hold back anymore and he had to jump away swiftly. “Now you can’t hide anymore, brother!” said Nilamsuri. “Receive this Eagle Snatching Pigeon technique!”
The sword in Nilamsuri’s hand flashed from the left towards Wiro’s shoulder. When the young man dodged, the tip of the sword suddenly stabbed towards his ribs just like the attack of an eagle! Wiro flicked his left hand, creating a strong wind that clashed with the sword, parrying the weapon from its target!
“Sister!” Wiro Sableng shouted, “Unfortunately I still have something else to do. See you next time!” Finishing his words, the young man jumped forward, lightly pinched the girl’s chin and escaped in a flash.
“Despicable boy!” cursed Nilamsuri. She swung her sword with all her might, but Wiro Sableng already vanished from her sight. It was only his laughter that still rang from afar. The girl stood in a daze. Her beautiful features looked crimson. That young man was truly a busybody! But at least now she knew that the young man was not even a bit stupid or crazy. He wasn’t a person that didn’t know any martial arts! She had been attacking with her formidable sword technique and that young man managed to dodge all of them and instead struck back his sword with his bare-handed technique that created that gust of wind! Even though she was incensed inside with the young man’s curiosity, but her liking and admiration couldn’t be kept hidden. A trace of smile rose from her lips when she rubbed the chin that was pinched by Wiro Sableng.
*****

The shop was quite empty. The night wind blew coldly from the valley. Wiro Sableng entered inside carefreely while whistling. The old man owner of the shop welcomed him with an anxious, pale face.
“Young lad,” he said, “you better leave this place quickly!”
“Why is that?” he asked.
“Soon probably those four bearded men will be returning here.”
“Who’s afraid of them!” Wiro rebutted.
“But young lad, you may not know who they are.”
“Who cares about who they are,” Wiro answered while sitting on the chair. Further, the shop owner again told him, “They are bandits feared around this Cimandilu River! They are the Four Beards of the Sanggreng Cave!”
“Even if they are the Four Demons of Hell, I still couldn’t care more!”
The shop owner became silent. Just this afternoon he indeed saw how the young man gagged the mouths of the Four Beards of Sanggreng Cave with his bananas. Thus he asked, “Young lad, who exactly are you and where do you come from?”
Wiro rubbed his smooth chin. This actually reminded him of Nilamsuri’s chin that he pinched before and made him smile unprecedentedly. The old man started to doubt whether this young man was actually sane!
“Have you been living here for long, sir?” Wiro asked.
“Since I was a little baby.”
“Hmm… then you should be familiar with the name Ranaweleng, right?”
“Well of course… sure… He was a kind Village Chief. But it was a pity….”
“Why was it a pity?”

The old man didn’t reply promptly. He looked outside the shop as if trying to pierce through the darkness of the night, as if he was reminiscing something. “He passed away already,” he added.
Wiro Sableng gulped. “Do you know who killed him?” This question made the old man looked carefully at Wiro’s face.
“Everyone knows…,” he said. And then he recounted the story of Ranaweleng and Suci Bantari’s death seventeen years ago. Wiro had heard of this story as clear as it could have been by Wiro Sableng from his teacher, Granny Sinto Gendeng.
“There was one weird thing on that event seventeen years ago though,” the shop owner continued.
“What weird thing?” asked Wiro curiously.
“At that time Mahesa Birawa and his men were burning the house of the late Ranaweleng. In that incredibly fierce fire a baby’s cry was heard! It was Ranaweleng’s baby! Everyone was anxious… how could they save the baby from that giant fire? At that intense moment, everyone saw a flash of black shadow. That black shadow moved incredibly fast charging into the fire and then disappeared. And after that the cries of Ranaweleng’s baby was also gone! When the fire died down everyone went to search for him, but they couldn’t find the bones of that baby.”
Wiro Sableng sat in silence. He knew real well that the baby that was being told was indeed himself, and the black shadow flashing was his master’s, Granny Sinto Gendeng!
“Up until now, was the whereabouts of Ranaweleng’s baby still unknown?” Wiro asked
.

The old man shrugged his shoulder. “If he is still alive, then he would be around your age, young man,” he said.
“How about Mahesa Birawa, is he still alive?”
“He is. Up to two years ago, he was still staying here. But I don’t know where he is now. But whether he is here or not it doesn’t matter, it is the same. His four lackeys are as evil and cruel as himself, and the four of them are still wandering around this village. They never pay if they are eating here!”
“Are they that so called Four Beards of Sanggreng Cave??” Wiro asked.
“No… no! In fact those Four Beards of Sanggreng Cave deliberately came here from afar to settle some score with Mahesa Birawa’s lackeys that settled down here! And those Four Beards are definitely not good people. They are robbers that don’t lose in terms of savagery and despicableness from those Mahesa Birawa’s men! But when they reached this place, Mahesa Birawa’s lackeys weren’t here… they happened to be outside the village. It has been four days if we count today as well.”
Wiro stretched his hand to take a banana hanging near him, “Heeeyy… do you have money to pay for that banana, young man?” asked the shop owner.
Wiro laughed, “It’s okay if I consider this my debt right?” he replied.
The old man silently complained… it meant another one of his “regular patron” would eat without paying anything!
While eating the banana Wiro Sableng asked, “What kind of grudge do those Four Beards of Sanggreng Cave brought with them here?”
The old man once again looked outside his restaurant. And then he answered, “You ought to know. The leader of those Four Beards, the one who use the Bergola Wungu nickname, was actually a resident of this Jatiwalu Village! Mahesa Birawa’s lackeys that was in charge here then killed his father, as well as his mother, and also ruined the chastity of his sisters. Bergola Wungu himself managed to escape. When he returned here he instead had become someone who was as evil as Mahesa Birawa’s men!”
Wiro Sableng fell silent for quite some time. Suddenly he remembered a name that was mentioned by Nilamsuri. “Do you know someone named Kalingundil?”
The shop owner’s forehead wrinkled with his frown. “Your question just now was really silly, young lad?” he said.
“Why is that?”
“Because Kalingundil was Mahesa Birawa’s men that was in charge here and acted as the leader of the other three!”
Of course Wiro Sableng was surprised over this revelation. But he hid his surprised expression. He then thought, why was the girl in the graveyard this afternoon asked whether both of his parents were killed by that man named Kalingundil?
Wiro put the banana peel on the edge of his table. “This afternoon, the Four Beards of Sanggreng Cave ganged up on a beautiful young girl. That girl was even about to be gang raped by them. Do you happen to know the cause why such thing might happened? Maybe you also know this girl?”
“The girl wore a blue robe?”
“That’s right.”
The old man sighed. “Actually, Bergola Wungu asked me many times whether someone else is living in Kalingundil’s house. I told him that I don’t know. I don’t want to get in trouble, young man. If I said someone is and Kalingundil finds out, my neck would definitely be a sheathing stone for Kalingundil’s sword, as that girl is Kalingundil’s own daughter!”
Now it was clear for Wiro Sableng why Bergola Wungu was so determined to kill the blue robed girl. “Kalingundil did the crime, the daughter had to shoulder his sin,” hissed the old man.
Wiro nodded. “Revenge is like a rusted, broken iron that often knows not of proper payback.” He said. “Sometimes it is karma for someone that does accursed conducts!”
“You speak the truth, young man.” the old man continued. And then he put his face closer to Wiro Sableng’s. “Back when Bergola Wungu found out that you were tricking him, this face of mine was repeatedly slapped on!”
“That was your own fault,” said Wiro uncaringly. “Who told you old man to lie anyway!”
The old man grunted and cursed here and there inside his heart. And he cursed yet again when he heard Wiro said, “Please get me some tea, sir.”
While the old man was brewing a glass of sweetened tea for him, Wiro Sableng was lost in his own thought. He didn’t expect that the blue-robed girl that attracted him was actually Kalingundil’s daughter, a lackey of Mahesa Birawa that had killed both of his parents.
When the old man brought his tea Wiro Sableng asked again, “Do you know the name of Kalingundil’s daughter, sir?”
“Nilamsuri. It’s a good name, the person in question was also pretty, but alas… her father was a fiend!”
“When Mahesa Birawa was committing the murder over Ranaweleng, did Kalingundil also took part in it?” Wiro asked further.
“It wasn’t just Kalingundil, but every single one of his lackeys,” blurted the old man. Wiro was about to ask further, but his mouth was shut tightly as he listened that outside were the galloping sound of horse’s hooves. The four riders passed by in front of the restaurant in haste. They weren’t the Four Beards of Sanggreng Cave! And when Wiro Sableng turned his head to the old restaurant owner, then the old man took a deep breath and said, “Those were Kalingundil and his lackeys. There is definitely going to be a clash with Bergola Wungu.”
“In your opinion, who do you think would win between the two of them?” asked Wiro. The old man just shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not hoping anywhich of them to win! If possible then I pray to God Almighty to make them kill each other. Both Kalingundil and Bergola Wungu don’t make any difference to me! They are both evil! They never wanted to pay when they ate here!”
Wiro Sableng laughed. He gulped the tea in that glass, and then he stood up. “Even though today I am not paying for the banana and the tea, but please don’t put me in the same breath as Bergola Wungu or Kalingundil.” Finishing his words, Wiro immediately left the restaurant.
The old man picked up the glass that the youngster used to drink, yet something attracted his eyes that had started to grow blurry. On that glass he could see a series of numbers… He paid an even more careful attention, and there was no mistake! It was indeed a series of number 212. The old man could never comprehend how those numbers can be printed there. He tried to wipe it clean with his cloth. He tried to wipe it again and again, but the 212 numbers kept on lingering and inerasable!

“Well, well… this world is getting weirder as it is getting older.” The old man exclaimed inside.