Chapter 107 :

Chapter 107 - Cabin Father and Son (2)

Even while obediently answering my words, the thousand-year-old young imperial family member could hardly relax.

Why was this guy, who was supposedly an imperial family member, this frightened?

Was the ability he possessed really only turning into an animal?

And every time, the animal he turned into was just a squirrel.

“Hey, considering how many things you taught me, I’ve never seen you transform into anything else.”

“Hmph, I have no need to transform into anything else. This form is the most stable.”

“So are you saying you can transform into other forms, or that you can’t?”

When I asked a little persistently, the guy narrowed his eyes.

“Why the sudden interest?”

“I told you. You won’t be able to hide your identity from Ratel forever. After I leave, are you just going to keep hiding secretly and only watch over him like now?”

At my questioning, the guy flinched for a moment, then frowned again.

“You always speak as if you are ready to leave at any time.”

Of course.

Even coming this far was already more than enough involvement.

Adventures were not something one should do personally.

A journey where lives were on the line was only enjoyable when one was in the position of an observer.

“So answer me. Can you transform into other animals or not?”

“….I can’t.”

After hesitating for a moment, the guy answered quietly.

“Then do you have any other abilities you’re hiding?”

“….”

The guy moved his lips as if he did not want to answer.

“Judging from how you talked about killing me or not killing me back in the capital, didn’t you have something you believed in?”

“Why are you bringing that up again!”

I had not particularly meant to dig up the past, but the guy raised his voice as if embarrassed.

“If you want to follow Ratel without hiding secretly like now, this will be your chance. Because he will need your power in order to destroy the holy relic.”

At my advice, El rolled his black eyes once.

“The master of the prophecy will not try to kill me, will he?”

He probably would not try to kill him.

Though he would not leave him alone either.

“He won’t kill you. If I disappear, you will replace my usefulness.”

At my answer, El’s expression changed subtly.

“Since earlier, you keep saying usefulness, usefulness. Are you saying the master of the prophecy is a human who decides whether people live or die according to practicality?”

“About half.”

I looked at the guy quietly waiting for my next answer, then turned my gaze to the other side of the river.

El did not know just how much Ratel hated the imperial family.

Nor did he know how hot the revenge hidden inside that seemingly thoughtless guy was.

So the only explanation for why I was still alive was that my appearance at least did not bring the imperial family to mind, and that I was useful.

“What exactly do you mean by usefulness?”

After lowering his head in thought for a moment, El suddenly looked at me and asked.

“Obviously, whether you can be helpful in bringing down the imperial family.”

“No, not that. I am asking what usefulness means to you, child.”

“Whether it helps me survive, I suppose.”

At the answer that came out without hesitation, El tilted his head as if he could not understand.

“That is a little strange, child. If surviving is your most important goal, should you not have tried to become a little closer to those children in Lucha Village?”

His pitch-black, transparent eyes looked at me as if piercing through me.

“I know humans very well. Humans are weak, and because they are weak, they act charming. Because they are weak, they try to gather together. So what you should have chosen in Lucha was not trying to distance yourself from them, but trying to become a little closer to them. So that they could like you even a little more. Am I wrong?”

“.…”

I could not answer rashly.

It was a sharp question, unlike the guy who usually only spat out arrogant words.

No, perhaps I actually knew the answer, but simply did not want to say it out loud.

“Are you not going to answer?”

The guy urged me.

“….You didn’t answer either. I asked why you suddenly did that in front of the river earlier.”

In the end, what I gave was not a clear answer, but a cowardly change of subject.

“Squeak!”

Fortunately, both he and I had many things we were hiding.

“It seems there is a reason we shouldn’t get too close to the river.”

At the sight of the guy turning his gaze toward the river with a stiffened face, I felt a small sense of relief and lifted him up.

The questioning that had begun simply to change the subject became more intense than I had first expected as El’s resistance grew fierce.

“I’m asking what is in the river.”

“There is nothing! Earlier, I was just clearing my throat for a moment!”

The guy put forward a laughable defense, claiming that his mistake had been intentional.

As I looked at him telling such an obvious lie, one hypothesis came to mind.

Could this also be a question where his life was at stake depending on the answer?

“W, what is it?”

Reading an ominous aura from me after I suddenly became quiet, the guy tried to turn around and run away, but right now, I was bigger and quicker than him.

I grabbed the guy who tried to flee and lifted him up.

If it was hard for him to say, I could simply check directly.

Considering the time we had spent together, I was more than willing to show that much consideration.

“Hey, you crazy bastard! Put me down right now!”

“Can you swim?”

When I asked the guy who was struggling, El looked at me with an uneasy expression.

“Surely you are not thinking something strange, are you? I trust that you are not such a narrow-minded fellow.”

El took one step back from me and revealed a trust he was usually stingy with expressing.

“I trust you too. If you’ve lived a thousand years, you must have learned how to swim at least.”

At my answer, the guy began to go wild, but it was useless.

No matter how reckless he was, he was not reckless enough to risk turning into his original form when Ratel was right nearby.

“Uwaak!!! You rude, foolish, petty little bastard!! Are you doing this because I stirred you up a little earlier?! I know everything!!”

The guy confessed that he had intentionally stirred me up and screamed, but there was less personal emotion in this than he thought.

This was an experiment considering a part of the original work.

In the original work, this wide river surges greatly once, at the moment Ratel tries to destroy the holy relic.

If the water reacts to power, then could something unexpected happen when crossing the river?

For example, if it came into contact with the power of an old imperial family member like him, or Ratel’s power, perhaps it would cause a troublesome reaction.

I looked down at the guy, who still refused to open his mouth, and spoke.

“There is only a little personal feeling.”

“So there is personal feeling in it after all! You snot-sized vessel of a bastard!”

El, who had been struggling desperately, seemed to realize that I was serious, and gradually stopped thrashing before finally declaring surrender.

“Fine, fine! I’ll speak! I’ll just tell you!”

“What? I thought saying something like that would put your life in danger.”

“You ignorant bastard! It’s better than falling in there, so hurry up and put me down!”

Once it was revealed that my consideration had been useless worry, I loosened the strength in the hand holding his tail.

Though that did not mean I released him.

Still, just the fact that I was not immediately throwing him into the river made the guy hang from my hand with a rather relieved face.

After waiting for El to catch his breath a little, I urged him to speak.

The guy glared at me with a fed-up face.

“You selfish bastard, that was a very clever choice.”

The guy, who began with sarcasm, clicked his tongue and continued speaking.

“If you had gone into the water yourself, you would have regretted it. Yes, this river was created a thousand years ago by the remnants of Abiran’s power.”

I knew that much.

This was a part mentioned in the book too.

The river had completely dried up six years ago, the same day Ratel lost everything.

In some way, the lake and the power were connected.

El looked at me as I silently waited for his words and continued explaining.

“When strong power gathers in one place for a long time, a will naturally comes to dwell in it. It has already shown that once as well.”

I recalled the river’s movement that had been described in the original work.

The river before my eyes shows its bottom three times in total.

The first was six years ago, when Ratel’s power first manifested, the second was when Ratel touched the holy relic, and the last was when Ratel destroyed the holy relic.

“Do you understand? That thing is afraid of the power held by the child of the prophecy.”

It was afraid of Ratel, who was trying to destroy it?

I recalled the power of the world that had once gone wild because of my possession.

If the power of the imperial family had grown stronger overall, the will of the river might also have grown stronger.

This time, it might not simply be afraid and run away.

After finishing that thought, I looked at El because of a question that suddenly occurred to me.

“But why are you getting frightened in advance? What it reacts to is Ratel’s power, isn’t it?”

At my question, the guy rolled his eyes again.

“Why? Is it hard to answer?”

When I tried to show consideration again, the guy was horrified and opened his mouth.

“No! No! I’ll answer!”

“What is it?”

The guy glared at me and muttered a few curses, then slowly opened his mouth.

“Contrary to how it fears the master of the prophecy, it will try to draw in those who carry Abiran’s blood and possess Abiran’s power. If something goes wrong, one could be dragged into the center of that power.”

The guy gestured with his eyes toward the island standing in the middle of the river.

“I just used my power too, and there’s no movement, so isn’t that needless worry?”

Even though I, who had just used a transformation ability once, was right beside the river, the river showed no movement at all.

“It may be so now….but if we narrow the distance further, who knows what will happen? That is why I’m telling you not to touch the water if possible.”

I agreed with the guy’s opinion that there was nothing bad about being careful.

“Seeing as there is no movement now, what it reacts to must still be the movement of power.”

At my guess, El nodded.

“Yes. There is nothing bad about being careful. You should be careful too.”

The guy glared at me with a pout as he spoke.

“In any case, you are also an Abiran, are you not? And you possess power too. I cannot be certain what will happen.”

Though he had a displeased expression, in any case, it was worry.

Still, “being dragged into the island”, huh…

“That could be an opportunity in its own way.”

“An opportunity?”

I stared for a moment at the guy’s black eyes looking straight up at me, then turned my body.

“It’s nothing.”

He began complaining that he had told me everything, yet I was glossing things over again, but I familiarly ignored him and headed back to the room.

Perhaps because of the conversation with El, my steps toward Jing and Ratel’s room were not light.

I did not want to involve myself in that guy’s journey any more than this.

Saving the world was something the protagonist and his companions were supposed to do.

I had no desire to wedge myself between them and play hero.

More than anything, I also did not want to see him agonize over what to do with me after he executed every imperial family member.

It would be right for me to disappear before the empty space left by my disappearance grew any larger.

Bang.

Before I could even put my hand on the doorknob, the door opened, and Ratel greeted me.

Since it was obvious that he would have heard my footsteps, I entered the room without saying anything.

“I haven’t told you to come in yet.”

“If you opened the door, that means come in.”

I answered his meaningless quarrel insincerely, closed the door on my own, and Jing, who had been unpacking, smiled at me.

“Lord Ran, what brings you here?”

“There are a few things the two of you must keep in mind before we leave tomorrow.”

At my serious answer, Jing quickly straightened his body and offered me the bed.

“Please sit and speak. It seems the conversation will be long.”

“No, it’s fine.”

Refusing his excessive kindness, I looked back and forth between Ratel and Jing, who had approached at some point, and raised my index and middle fingers.

“First, we have two objectives. The first is to destroy the holy relic. And the second is to strengthen Ratel’s power.”

“Is such a thing possible?”

Ratel’s eyes widened in surprise just as much as Jing, who asked in shock.

“Yes, it is possible. Though we will have to bring the holy relic back here.”

Even before the tempting proposal that his power could grow stronger, Ratel regained his composure quite quickly.

Enough to first check the source of my knowledge.

“Is that also something written in the book?”

“Yes.”

Though it was written in the original work’s book, not the Red Book.