Chapter 116 :

Episode 116 - Lie Contagion

In the end, Ratel grabbed me and started running away.

The problem was that the place he grabbed was the back of my neck.

Of all the many body parts, the fellow had to grab my windpipe and started running just like that.

Thanks to that, I had no chance to catch my breath, and with my neck being choked, I could only be dragged along wherever the fellow led me like a deflated balloon.

If he was going to save me anyway, he should have just untied the rope.

The fact that I had realized Ratel had no intention of killing me could be called a misfortune both for me and for the fellow.

For him, the misfortune was that I was not such a conscientious and moral adult that I would let this good hand pass by with my eyes wide open, and from my perspective, the misfortune was the fact that I had learned a rather uncomfortable truth.

I tried to resolve my guilt to some extent by enduring the pain Ratel gave me as he recklessly dragged me by the nape, but I soon had to change my mind.

Because at this rate, I really felt like I would suffocate to death.

— Kkweeeek!!!

Only after the cries of the orcs chasing after us gradually grew distant was I finally able to secure enough breathing room to speak, and I tried to teach the protagonist bastard a simple solution.

"At least grab my torso!!"

But Ratel only ran while looking ahead and did not even pretend to hear me.

Ratel, who had been running while dragging me along with one hand, finally stopped.

When I raised my head amid the nausea that felt like I had ridden an amusement ride, the reason that had stopped the fellow’s bull-like charge came into view.

It was a path split into three.

If we tried to check one by one where the three paths led, it was obvious we would be caught by the orcs chasing us with terrifying momentum.

To handle that number, Ratel would eventually have no choice but to use Manis.

Then the best-case scenario would be that we were swept away by water again and returned to the place where we had originally woken up.

As for the worst case, even I could not know where that bottom would be.

Fortunately, if it was a three-way path, there was a description from the original work that came to mind.

As my eyes quickly moved to find proof that my prediction was correct, something entered my sight.

A crude stone pillar located on the right side of the path that ran through the middle of the three routes.

At a glance, it did not seem particularly different from the other pillars inside the cave.

But if examined closely, one could find a shape different from the other stone columns formed by rock melting down over many long years.

Moreover, the thing rising at the edge of the central path showed signs not of having grown from below, but of having been inserted from above.

I looked back at the path I had not been able to properly observe because I had been dragged here by that Ratel bastard.

Though the intervals were wide, similarly unnatural pillars were planted along the path.

It seemed we had been dragged along a route similar to the original work after all.

Feeling a slight relief that this world still moved gently around the protagonist bastard, I raised my hand and pointed to the center among the three paths.

"That way. Just keep going straight ahead."

At my guidance, which was filled with quite a bit of certainty, Ratel narrowed his eyes.

"The book’s directions must have been quite detailed."

"They were written in detail in the book."

Though the book you know and the book I’m talking about are a little different.

Swallowing those words inwardly, I grabbed the wrist of the fellow who was about to start sprinting again.

"......If you just let go and go ahead, I can follow on my own."

At my earnest gaze, the fellow looked at my bound legs.

"That only sounds like you’re saying you’ll pull some other trick."

Then I wanted to snap at him to just untie this rope he had tied me with, but I knew it would not work at all.

"......If I could, I’d rather pull tricks than sweep the ground with my body."

Ignoring my mutter, Ratel stubbornly grabbed the back of my neck, and I had no choice but to relax my body to breathe even a little more comfortably.

* * *

As I moved with the feeling of being dragged by a running bicycle while tied around the neck, each minute and second felt far too long.

How long did it feel?

Long enough that I had the illusion that now, I might have enough time to smack the back of the protagonist bastard’s head as he dragged me along like a bicycle with broken brakes.

Fortunately, before the lack of oxygen made me make a rash judgment, the bicycle stopped running.

"Hey, it’s a forked path. Which way this time?"

When I raised my head while gasping for breath, I saw a wall blocking the front and a forked path.

When I lifted my gaze a little higher, I could also clearly see three rocks embedded about three meters up.

Feeling sure and relieved that we had arrived properly, I let out a breath, then showed my bound hands to Ratel, who was still gripping the back of my neck and waiting for an answer.

"How about untying this now?"

At my suggestion, the fellow frowned.

"At this point, it almost seems like you’re enjoying being chased by orcs. Seeing how you waste time with meaningless words."

His answer, saying he had not the slightest intention of untying me and that I should obediently give him the direction, once again tempted me with the urge to smack the back of his head.

But I soon came to my senses.

Because if I actually carried it out, what would be smashed would not be the back of his head but my fist.

"I’m saying this because it’s neither left nor right."

I answered calmly and pointed upward with my chin.

"From here, going up is the fastest and safest way."

I shook my bound hands once again.

"Just as you said, in this situation where every moment counts, unless you want me to perform the trick of climbing a wall with one hand, I think it would be better to untie me."

At my urging that there was no more time to waste, Ratel looked up at the wall with a face whose thoughts I could not read.

The silence did not last very long.

As always, he was not someone who spent a long time making decisions.

The problem was that it had never once been advantageous to me.

Before I could properly resist the strong force pulling my nape, my body floated into the air.

The fellow leaped three meters with a light movement and grabbed a protruding rock with the hand that was not holding me.

There was some distance to the next support that could serve as a handhold.

This meant the fellow would use the rebound once again to spring upward.

And it also meant that I, held like luggage, would have to taste the pain of being choked again.

"You lunatic! Where would I even run from here for you to keep being so stubborn?!"

At my protest, the protagonist bastard snorted.

"Did you jump off the boat because there was somewhere to run there?"

"Yes, there was then."

"I’m choosing the best option now too."

The words, Only for you, did not come out.

Because my claim that my choice on the boat had been the best was also only from my perspective.

Of course, it also seemed that if I opened my mouth any further because of the fellow who suddenly leaped up again without warning, I might bite my tongue.

As my field of vision grew farther from the ground, I belatedly saw the orcs that had chased after us sniffing and trying to find our direction.

It would only be a matter of time before the fellows found us heading upward.

That is why I told you to untie these hands already.

Swallowing a sigh, I twisted my body somehow in that uncomfortable posture and reached toward my bag slung over the protagonist bastard’s shoulder.

"What are you doing?"

The sharp question was not easy to deal with while I was pulling at the bag in an uncomfortable posture.

I succeeded in taking out a dirty cloth pouch sticking out through the hole the protagonist bastard had torn into the bag.

Ratel must have judged that I was once again using some strange trick.

The protagonist bastard, whose suspicion disease was in its final stage, tried to snatch the pouch in my hand, but fortunately, the fellow had no free hands right now.

That is why I told you to just let me climb with my own hands.

Though I greatly wanted to provoke the fellow, there was something more urgent right now.

Without needing to think further, I gripped the pouch with both hands and threw it as hard as I could toward the lower right.

There was a thudding sound as the pouch burst, and then the belated murmuring of the orcs that had sensed something strange could be heard.

A bitter smell intense enough to sting my nose followed after that.

* * *

The pained screams of the orcs, thrown into utter confusion by the terrible stench that stimulated their noses, filled the space below.

Perhaps intending to use this gap to climb up, Ratel put strength into the hand gripping the back of my neck.

"Wait just a little."

When I lowered my voice and spoke, fortunately, as if he had decided to listen to me this time, the fellow’s movement stopped.

— Kwek, kwek!!!

It was not exactly a pleasant smell even for me, a human, but for the orcs, it seemed to be a stench quite difficult to endure, because the fellows began scattering to both sides.

Most went in the opposite direction from where the Orcs grass had burst, and some went toward the direction where the Orcs grass had burst.

Once the fellows had completely disappeared, I exhaled the breath I had been holding for a moment.

"What did you throw?"

At the same time as my exhale, a question came down from above.

"It’s Orcs grass. It’s used for treating wounds too, but if used in large quantities, it can also drive the orcs away like that because of the smell they hate."

"If you had something like that, why didn’t you use it earlier?"

At the question that sounded like a reproach, I struggled to raise my head and looked at Ratel.

"Because I was busy being choked by the bastard who turned me into this state, seized my bag, and dragged me around."

When I fluttered my two hands, where blood was not circulating well, the fellow frowned.

"So if you had said so from the beginning....."

"You would have tied my legs too while asking what kind of damn trick I was trying to pull."

"......."

Perhaps unable to find anything to say in rebuttal because of his conscience, the fellow closed his mouth.

It seemed he was aware that if his remaining hand were not holding onto the rock wall, he would have blocked my movements.

"If you’re done doubting everything you want to doubt, then keep going up. Until there are no more footholds left."

Since the world was about to look yellow from lack of oxygen, I quickly replied, and strength entered the fellow’s hand gripping my collar once more.

But I did not feel the same pressure as before, to the point where it was hard to breathe in.

Just as I thought the force of his grip seemed to have loosened a little, the fellow leaped with his body.

Thanks to that, I was able to confirm that there was slack in the collar he held, but I had to struggle to support my neck as it bent that much more violently.

As a result, it meant I could no longer tell whether the fellow had done it to screw me over, or whether he had decided to trust me a little.

* * *

Ratel, who had been heading upward as if climbing stairs one after another, stopped moving.

"Hey, there’s nothing left to grab and climb now."

I had given up on supporting my dangling neck and was letting my body hang limp, but I struggled to raise my head and opened my mouth.

"Push the last handhold as it is."

Ratel faithfully followed my instruction, and the sound of rocks grinding against each other was heard.

Fortunately, it proved that we had come through the route from the original work, so I could let out a sigh of relief.

Because that last rock, which looked as though it had been piled there at random, was the secret passage to our destination.

It was a path only the orc leader knew, so at least until the path ended, we probably would not need to worry about an orc attack.

The moment the tension in my body relaxed a little, Ratel warned my loosened tension by stuffing my body into the gap created after pushing the rock aside, like putting laundry into a washing machine.

Certain that there must have been emotion in it, I watched the protagonist bastard close the cave again.

"Are you satisfied now?"

"What do you mean?"

"I’m asking if you’ve tormented me enough to be satisfied now."

Ratel silently looked down at me as I lay exhausted and rolling on the floor.

"If it’s not over yet, tell me in advance. So I can at least prepare myself."

It would be nice if he showed a little more kindness and knocked me out entirely.

The fellow, who had been silently staring at me as I lay crumpled like laundry, opened his mouth.

"I wasn’t trying to torment you."

The shameless words were so absurd that I looked up at the bastard.

"You kept singing ‘lies, lies’, and now you’ve decided to become a liar too?"

At my reply, Ratel’s eyebrow rose.

"Are you admitting yourself that you’re a liar?"

"What can’t a person do to survive? If necessary, you lie and live."

Perhaps my answer was brazen, because the fellow let out a hollow laugh.

"That’s why you never gain trust for your whole life."

It is not like I am going to see your face for my whole life anyway.

"There are things that are easier because you don’t know whether they’re lies or truths. If I couldn’t lie, you would actually be in more trouble than you are now."

Things like how, in the world where I lived, you were merely a character in a book, or how all the misfortune and years you endured were nothing more than three pages of letters in that book—knowing things like that would not be good for you.

Because my body was tired, all kinds of thoughts came to mind.

Still, thanks to being crumpled up, it seemed I could slowly move now.

Just as I was wondering how I could stand up even a little less like a worm—

"I wasn’t only trying to torment you."

Ratel suddenly continued the conversation I had thought had ended.

I looked up at the fellow, wondering if he was still trying to continue that lie, but for that, the bastard’s expression was quite serious.

He was not someone who usually spoke loudly anyway, but the words that followed felt especially low, almost like a whisper.

Perhaps because it was something I had never expected to come from Ratel’s mouth.

"I just wanted to hear you say, save me."

When my eyes widened in surprise, the fellow bent his knees and lowered his body.

The protagonist bastard slowly raised his hand.

Contrary to my resolve to take at least one hit, the fellow’s hand moved not toward my head, but toward the rope binding my arms.

Instead of pain, I felt liberation as blood flowed back into my arms and my breathing became much easier, and I blankly looked at the protagonist bastard.

"This time, you were right. In front of a liar, lies come out more easily."

"......Of course I had to be right. Most of the words that come out of your mouth are worthless bullheadedness."

At my reply, which I forced out, one corner of the fellow’s mouth rose crookedly as he untied the rope.

"Fine, I’ll let myself be fooled by your bluff one last time. But on the day your lie is exposed......."

Ratel trailed off and pulled the rope while holding the last remaining knot.

With a snap, the rope was torn off along with the knot and fell to the floor.

The fellow gathered the remaining rope and put it into his clothes as he added,

"Remember that by then, you won’t have hands or feet left to tie."

After finishing his warning, the fellow rose and moved forward.

I got up and followed behind him without another word.