Chapter 115 :

Episode 115 - Save Me

"Haaah!!!"

Oxygen that had been lacking rushed in through my mouth and nose, which opened before my eyes did.

As my stiffened lungs absorbed the air they had been deprived of, my chest hurt, but resolving this thirst came before the pain.

However, even when I expanded my lungs to draw in as much oxygen as possible, the air did not enter as fully as I expected.

It did not take long to realize that a strange tightness in my chest was interfering with my breathing.

Damn it, why is it so suffocating?

As oxygen circulated through my body, the desire to resolve the cause of this suffocation grew even more desperate.

When I struggled to open my eyes and lowered my head, the first thing that came into view was......rope.

And it was wrapped tightly around my body.

My last memory was definitely of the protagonist bastard clinging to my pant leg like a water ghost, so why was I tied up like this?

At the sight that was hard to understand, I lowered my gaze a little more, and this time, something black and large positioned near my legs entered my view.

At the naturally frightening shape, I swallowed my breath and jerked my legs, and the large figure raised its head.

The owner of the face revealed in the darkness was someone I knew very well.

At the familiar golden eyes, I lost strength and opened my mouth amid the hollowness rushing in at the same time.

"......What are you doing right now?"

"Can’t you tell by looking? I’m tying you up so you can’t move however you want."

Did you think I asked because I didn’t know that?

Even after being caught midway through binding a person, the fellow was not flustered in the slightest and tied the final knot with deft hands.

My bag dangled from his shoulder.

He took this rope out of my bag too, didn’t he?

"I left enough slack between your legs, so you should be able to walk."

Ratel spoke to me, who had lost my words in absurdity, as if granting great mercy.

I pulled the rope that hung exactly shoulder-width between my two legs taut.

Just as the fellow said, there was a certain amount of slack between my skillfully bound legs, so it seemed I could walk, however uncomfortably.

Though I would not be able to run freely.

".....Am I supposed to thank you?"

"Of course you should thank me."

The fellow answered me when I asked out of sheer disbelief.

The protagonist bastard, who had somehow even stolen my bag and slung it over himself, rose and looked down at me with cold eyes.

"Because I’m giving you one last chance to make an excuse."

In truth, from the moment I decided to jump off the boat, I had prepared myself to some extent.

I was not optimistic enough to hope that Ratel, who had senses as sharp as his damnable personality, would notice nothing.

Though I did not know I would be caught like this before I even had time to prepare an excuse.

"Even so, couldn’t you at least have the common sense not to tie up someone who swallowed water this tightly?"

I could not help pointing out the behavior of the fellow who had tied up an unconscious person with rope as he was.

"You’re not just any person. Your body should be twice as sturdy as ordinary humans."

It was an answer filled with certainty that I was hiding Manis.

"You’re wrong. If my body were that sturdy, I wouldn’t have been beaten so helplessly by Edan. No, there’s no need to go that far back. I don’t think I would have fainted just from falling into a river either."

There was no particular rebuttal, but from his gaze, which did not exactly seem to believe me, I sighed and raised myself up.

Though in the process, I suffered the humiliation of staggering once thanks to my two arms being bound together with my torso.

I checked my tightly bound torso once, then the two legs tied with just enough rope hanging between them to barely let me walk, and sighed.

Should I at least say it was fortunate he had tied me in a way that allowed me to walk?

"You probably have a lot to say, but before that, there’s something I absolutely want to ask you."

I opened the conversation one step ahead of the fellow, who looked as if he would start pressing me at any moment.

Ratel, who looked at me as if he found it absurd, crossed his arms and twitched his brows as if telling me to go ahead.

"Are you really insane?"

The fellow let out a hollow laugh.

But whether the bastard completely lost what little patience remained or not, I had to point out this ridiculous situation as well.

Ratel also did not seem to be in a particularly good mood, because the fellow uncrossed his arms and took one step forward.

"The insane one would be you. I don’t think that’s something you should say to your lifesaver."

"How are you my lifesaver?"

At my rebuttal, Ratel tilted his head to the side.

"I dragged a limp piece of luggage that had lost consciousness all the way here. Is there any other way to describe that besides lifesaver?"

"From my perspective, it’s also called useless meddling."

From the beginning, the reason the fellow had jumped after me had not been entirely to save me either.

But I did not want to dig deeply into the unpleasant abyss beneath this whim either.

I glared straight into Ratel’s golden eyes as he looked down at me indifferently.

"Don’t ever interfere again, saying you’ll save me."

At my warning, Ratel raised one corner of his mouth as if sneering.

"You have no consistency. Didn’t you once tell me to keep you alive if I wanted to achieve my goal?"

Yes, I had said something like that.

Back then, it was a time when I was worried the bastard might kill me.

If I had known, on the contrary, that he would become that stubborn about keeping me alive, I would never have given such a warning.

"I’ll decide when I need your help. Today, you were nothing but a hindrance."

If the protagonist bastard had not clung to me, I would have safely landed on the island by now.

No, at the very least, if not for the fellow grabbing my leg like a demon, I would not have been so startled and helplessly swept up in the movement of the water.

I might even have been able to obtain some clue about the owner of the unidentified voice that had spoken to me.

In other words, I would not have panicked, flailed around, and been dragged along wherever the current led.

At my harsh assessment, Ratel bent his legs and brought his eye level to mine.

"The biggest reason my suspicion keeps growing is that baseless confidence of yours. You have no ability, yet you jumped into that vortex, and you tell me not to be suspicious?"

"Yes, the reason I was confident I would survive was not because of my ability, but because of my bloodline."

"......."

At my firm explanation, Ratel’s mouth opened as if he were about to say something, but in the end, no rebuttal came out.

The fellow would know too.

During our not-so-long journey, both Jing and I had consciously avoided talking about my origin or bloodline as much as possible.

Because I did not want to deliberately emphasize my connection to the protagonist’s enemy either.

After letting out a short breath, I repeated what I had said slowly and clearly enough for the fellow to chew over.

"I’m saying I was confident that the blood of Abiran flowing through me would save me."

My answer seemed to cool the fellow’s head more coldly than the early-winter river water.

The fellow, who had been pressing me as if he would charge at any moment, grew quiet.

Normally, I would not have deliberately emphasized to him what my bloodline was.

Because there was no need to bring up an uncomfortable truth on purpose and provoke the fellow.

But not now.

To be a little cowardly, I had realized that the fellow would no longer kill me for that reason, and to be even more cowardly, I hoped the fellow would break free from his misunderstanding on his own.

It had some effect too.

Taking advantage of the moment when Ratel shut his mouth, I lifted my bound wrists and opened my palm.

Fortunately, the wound from when the fellow had clung to me on the boat was still there.

Ratel’s eyes shook a little when he discovered the wound crossing my palm, still unhealed.

"See? It’s just a wound. It hasn’t healed, and it’s just the same. If I had the power of Abiran, a wound like this should have healed long ago. What the water reacted to wasn’t my power, but the blood flowing in my body."

"......."

While the fellow silently stared at my wound, I looked around the cave surrounded by damp stone walls.

There were only rocks everywhere, so I could not establish a point of reference.

Was this a path Ratel had passed through in the original work? Or perhaps we had entered a completely new path.

In the original work, after the river dried up, Ratel’s group used this place to invade the lair where the orc horde had gathered.

All that entered my vision as I looked around was the huge stalagmites supporting the entire cave.

The problem was that there were dozens more like these around.

I had to decide whether to find a way out, or achieve my original goal with Ratel stuck to my tail.

While I was wondering which would be less troublesome, there was a sound that awakened my mind.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

"......What is that sound right now?"

"Did you forget where this is?"

When I muttered at the huge, heavy sound echoing through the cave, Ratel answered.

It was annoying, but it was a clear answer far too good for my stupid question.

This was an orc cave. If there was a presence, especially with a sound boasting such a huge presence, there was only one possible owner.

"Hey, you said you dragged me all the way here. Do you remember which hole you used to enter the island?"

Growing anxious, I hurriedly asked, but Ratel leisurely shook his head.

"The current was strong, so I don’t know exactly which route we came through. After being swept away by the water, I couldn’t even open my eyes."

Why, as the protagonist, were you unable to even open your eyes underwater?

In the end, hearing that we had completely lost our way, I grabbed my head.

Since I did not know the starting point, there was no way I could know our current location, and I could not know which direction was safe either.

That did not mean we could stupidly sit here and wait for the orcs.

I raised my bound hands.

"Untie this, you lifesaver bastard. We have to run first, don’t we? If a fight breaks out here, every single orc inside the cave will gather."

But even at my urging, Ratel did not budge.

In a situation where every minute and second was precious, the sight of him dragging things out made uneasiness creep up inside me.

"What are you doing right now?"

At my question full of anxiety, the protagonist bastard tilted his head to the side.

"Didn’t you tell me earlier not to save you?"

"I said to save me only when I ask you to. And this is just killing me."

I protested at his absurd nitpicking, but the protagonist bastard still did not move an inch.

Right until I was just about to put my wretched plan of crawling away into action.

At the moment I felt the orcs’ sounds draw threateningly closer, the fellow finally opened his mouth.

"Then try asking me to save you."

"What?"

"Since you desperately need my help, tell me directly to save you."

Would you look at this childish bastard.

At the absurd demand, my mouth opened without me realizing it.

Was this a protest?

Because I got angry that he had saved me however he pleased, was this a protest saying he would not move this time unless I directly asked for help, just as I had said?

Or did he think my pride would be hurt by something like this?

Whichever it was, it did not matter.

I was a little irritated, but if it was to survive, I could play along with childish nonsense of this level as much as needed.

"Are you joking right now? This is exactly the time I meant when I said you should save me. Untie this right now and save me!"

At the same time I shouted, orcs poured out from both passages at once.

I swallowed a curse as I felt the grip strength snatch the back of my neck.

My pride was not hurt, but seeing the fellow’s satisfied face was truly infuriating.