Chapter 120 :

Episode 120 - Cowardly

At the surprisingly unfamiliar sound of laughter, I was left dumbfounded and silently looked down at the fellow.

Unless the fellow had gone insane, the reason for that burst of laughter was obviously me.

"Kwek, what’s so funny?"

When I asked to find out what on earth the fellow’s unknowable laughing point was, his laughter grew even louder.

Now I was starting to feel offended.

"Kweeeek, stop laughing now. Kwek, shouldn’t we decide what to do from here?"

When I frowned, Ratel’s shoulders, which had been trembling finely, gradually stopped moving.

No, it seemed he was trying to stop them.

"......Hoo, fine. Before that, we need to go over what has to be addressed."

The laughter still remaining on the fellow’s face bothered me, but anyway, his effort was commendable, so I decided to forget it.

Ratel’s golden eyes turned straight toward me.

"Is that the secret you’ve been hiding until now? The ability to transform into other living things?"

"Kwek, ......yes. Kwek, but it wasn’t something I could use from the beginning......."

"Wait, shut your mouth for a bit."

The fellow, who had crumpled his face at my passionate explanation, finally covered his face with both hands.

The fellow lowered his head and let out a dry sigh, unable to raise his face for quite some time.

"Kwek, what’s this all of a sudden? Kwek, are you hurt somewhere? Kwek, as expected, earlier........"

"Your mouth......! Just......shut it."

The fellow, who had raised his head as if to say something, shoved his face back toward the floor the moment he saw my face.

At the same time, I realized that the fellow was neither injured nor holding back anger.

The protagonist bastard was holding back laughter.

"Kwek, why? Kwek, why don’t you just laugh until your stomach bursts like earlier?"

When I muttered in hollow disbelief, Ratel eventually could not hold back and burst into laughter again.

"Ahahahaha!!!"

Fine, laugh as much as you want.

Having lost even the fighting spirit that had been lying at the bottom, I crossed my arms and waited for the fellow’s laughter to stop.

But Ratel’s roaring laughter showed no sign of stopping anytime soon.

The moment the fellow managed to gather even a little of his laughter and raise his face, our eyes inevitably met, and the bastard once again helplessly failed to endure the contraction of his diaphragm and bent over.

At this point, I was starting to feel offended.

"Kwek, stop now......."

“Kk......! Uahahaha!!!”

.....Right now, maybe right now, couldn’t I hit him once?

It was the moment I wondered whether or not to let the chance of a lifetime slip away before my eyes.

I had imagined a few times the moment Ratel discovered that I had been hiding my ability.

Among the many assumptions, there had not been a situation where it was exposed in such a ridiculous and empty way.

Somehow feeling the tension I had carried until now completely loosen, I waited for Ratel’s laughter to subside.

Perhaps he was having a truly hard time holding back laughter, because the fellow clutched his side and raised his head.

"….....Fine, you said you couldn’t use the ability from the beginning?"

"......Kwek, yes."

Thinking that he seemed to remember the conversation that had been interrupted, I answered briefly.

"Exactly when were you able to use the power?"

This time, Ratel asked fairly sharply.

"Kwek, not long ago. Kwek, I remember it was before autumn came."

This too was the most honest answer I could give.

Because it was true that the seventh prince before I possessed him had no ability whatsoever.

Unlike my expectation that he would doubt whatever I said, Ratel’s reaction was extremely mild.

So mild, in fact, that I, who had answered nervously, was flustered.

"Fine. Then first, we need to move this fellow back to the center. How long can you maintain that ability?"

The fellow approached the leader orc, lifted one arm, and asked.

I silently followed the fellow and lifted the old orc, but I could not answer hastily.

How should I explain this?

When I remained silent, Ratel, who had grabbed and lifted the orc, looked at me with puzzled eyes.

"I won’t laugh now, so answer properly. How long can you maintain that form?"

I rolled my eyes a little.

"Kwek......, I’m not sure."

"Don’t give me a vague answer. Tell me properly. Until when can you maintain it?"

Sensing something ominous, the fellow stopped moving and asked again.

I thought about how to make my idiotic answer sound even a little less pathetic, but soon gave up.

"Kwek, I can’t return to being human. Kwek, I might return tomorrow, or it might take longer."

"Longer, you say......."

"Kwek, in the worst case, I’ll have to live like this for the rest of my life."

The fellow dropped the old orc.

Would there ever be another day when rare experiences piled one after another like today?

Ratel with such a stupid expression.

* * *

There is nothing as foolish as clinging to a past that has already passed.

It is not as if time can be turned back, and something that has already happened cannot become something that never happened.

It meant that since I had already become an orc, and if I could not change back, resolving the matter right before my eyes was the top priority.

"If this is still some damned joke, stop it right now. I’m really starting to get angry."

So Ratel’s reaction like that meant there was something slightly troublesome about it.

"Kwek, I’ve said it several times, but this is not a joke. Kwek, my body won’t return to being human."

At my answer, Ratel’s expression hardened even more.

How serious he is.

When there is an urgent problem right in front of us.

The plan to lock the leader back behind the waterfall had literally gone down the drain, but we had gained something in return.

I approached the leader orc, which showed no sign of waking while still unconscious.

Beside the leader orc was an orc I had never seen before.

It was the fellow that had stubbornly clung to Ratel’s and the leader’s legs the entire time we were being swept away by the water.

It really followed all the way to the end.

I carelessly pushed the fellow aside and grabbed the leader’s one remaining arm, lifting it up.

The leader orc’s body was pulled up more lightly than I expected.

"Kwek, at this rate, I could become the leader myself."

When I said that while looking down at my large body that had turned green, Ratel’s sharp gaze immediately followed.

"Are you saying that as a joke right now?"

"Kwek, of course it’s a joke. Kwek, I can’t do something as troublesome as being a leader."

I put the half-raised leader back down on the floor.

"Kwek, still, one thing is certain. There’s no longer any need to keep this fellow locked beyond the waterfall. Kwek, because I can watch him myself."

"You insane bastard, is that the problem right now? You might have to live the rest of your life in that state."

Perhaps his patience had run out, because the fellow questioned me as if he would charge at me any moment.

But there was not really anything more to say, and it was just a repetition of the same words.

"Kwek, nothing is certain yet. Kwek, I might suddenly return to normal tomorrow."

If I could not find a method, I would probably have to live like this for the rest of my life.

"You might have to live the rest of your life as a monster, so why are you so calm? Does your life seem like a joke to you?"

Ratel raised his voice, unlike himself, to the point that anyone watching might mistake him for the one who had turned into an orc instead of me.

Why is this bastard making more of a fuss than I am?

It is not like I would want to abandon my original appearance and stay like this.

The moment I realized I had become an orc, I tried to return to being human, but there was no change.

"Kweeeek, I’m acting like this because I’m serious. Kweeeek, I haven’t caught some fatal disease, and it isn’t something I can solve right now. Kwek, right now, it’s better to do what I can with this body."

Besides, though I could not tell the fellow, it was not as if I had no thoughts at all.

A thousand-year-old squirrel imperial family member might know something.

Even to receive the fellow’s help, meeting Jing and Lia, who should be across the river right now, was the first priority.

The fellow, who had no way of knowing this plan of mine, was glaring at me after cooling some of his excitement.

"I’ve suspected it for a long time, but now I know for sure. There’s something wrong with your mind. Or else your head is half empty. I’m saying you might not be able to return to your original form. Do you not know how serious that problem is?"

Even though he was saying harsh words seriously, perhaps my mind really was wrong as the fellow said, because I did not feel a great emotional stir.

But Ran Abiran’s appearance was not my original appearance either.

Becoming the nineteen-year-old seventh prince had not changed much.

There had been incidents where I became the seventh prince overnight and also gained a strange ability overnight.

Thanks to that, I had been caught up in far more bizarre events than expected, but even so, I did not feel like my life had changed greatly.

Because whatever body I was in, the me inside did not change.

I still hated commotion, had no ambition, and was simply me with no particular goal.

Well, now I had just become me with the appearance of an orc.

"Kweeeek, it’ll be a little inconvenient. Kweeeek, still, there should be good points too. Kwek, it’s a face that makes you laugh just by looking at it."

The last part had truly been a joke, but embarrassingly, the fellow did not reply at all, and this time he did not laugh either.

"You look very happy."

There was familiar sarcasm.

"Kwek, yes, I’m so happy I could die. Kwek, now I don’t have to act as a guide for a bastard like you, who doesn’t listen to what others say even as much as an ant’s tear."

When I answered because I was starting to get irritated too, the bastard glared at me.

What, you punk? Did I say anything wrong?

I would not be able to wander around inside the empire in this state, so the destruction of the first holy relic would be the period at the end of my journey with the protagonist’s group.

It was an unexpected farewell, but perhaps this would become a chance to safely leave the original work.

Of course, that would only be if that bastard did not forget his goal and followed it properly.

It was necessary to wrap up this verbal fight, which I had already lost count of how many times we had repeated.

In the end, the one who raised the flag of surrender first was me.

Fine, the reason the fellow was dissatisfied like that was ultimately because of the lie I had started.

If this were my original world, the other person would only be around a high school student, so I should be the one to extend a gesture of reconciliation first.

After letting out a breath like a sigh, I looked into the fellow’s eyes, which were still only threatening.

"Kwek, it feels like our words keep going in circles, but if it’s because I deceived you about my ability, I apologize. Kwek, I’m sorry."

"Stop making that damned pig squeal."

This is why one should not do things one is not used to.

Even while my patience was slowly reaching its end, Ratel did not stop speaking.

"What does that matter right now? What are you going to say to Jing and Lia? That the companion they traveled with turned into an orc in an instant, so they should abandon him?"

Even while the attempt at reconciliation that had been flung aside by the fellow’s words rolled across the floor like trash, my head, which had briefly grown hot, cooled surprisingly coldly.

Because silencing the alarm ringing in my head was more urgent.

His face, full of anger while he did not even know what he was saying, made my heart uneasy again.

An uneasiness similar to when I had seen Lia’s smile on the boat, filled with deep trust in me.

Fortunately, I knew an effective way to resolve this uneasiness.

It was a little cowardly to do against a youngster ten years younger than me, but fortunately again, most of my conscience was missing.

"Kwek, since when were we tied together as companions? Kwek, we’re just traveling companions."

It seemed clear that my point made the fellow’s mood crawl even lower.

Ratel stared at me with eyes whose depth could not be known.

"From the beginning until now, not for even a single moment, have you ever trusted any of us."

There was emotion in Ratel’s words, to the point that someone hearing them might mistakenly think such trust existed between us.

"Kwek, isn’t that the same for both sides?"

"Yes, it is the same for both sides."

The fellow obediently admitted it.

"Then let me ask one more thing."

When Ratel asked a question in this way, most of the time, in one way or another, it was something that blocked my words, so I had no choice but to tense.

"Why did you go out of your way to use your power now? You’ve hidden your ability so thoroughly until now, so why did you turn into an orc right now of all times?"

It was not a difficult question to answer.

There was no reason for a question with a fixed answer to be difficult.

"Kwek, I had no intention of turning into an orc. Kwek, my goal was to draw in the water and trap that leader fellow again. Kwek, my body grew larger than expected, so everything else got dragged along too."

Contrary to what the other person wanted, I just had to mix truth and lies appropriately and give an answer.

The relaxed atmosphere froze like a sheet of ice.

The fellow’s expressionless face that had returned probably played a large part.

"It seems I was included among the things dragged along too?"

At the question as stiff as his expression, I again decided on my answer without difficulty.

"Kwek, yes. Kwek, sweeping you outside along with the water was part of the original plan."

His original intimidation threatened me, but ironically, the discomfort that had been tormenting me disappeared.

Feeling my heavy heart grow lighter, I continued speaking.

"Kwek, I don’t know what you’re misunderstanding, but from the beginning, I only helped in order to survive. Kwek, my life is always the first priority."

"Saving Jing’s son and saving Lia from her brother were also just for you to survive."

"Kwek, if it’s to survive, I can endure troublesome things as much as needed."

"Troublesome things......."

Repeating my words, one corner of Ratel’s mouth rose.

This time, it was not a pleasant laugh like earlier.

It was a colder sneer than usual.

"Does talking in such an obnoxious way make your heart feel a little more at ease?"

"Kwek, isn’t that exactly the same for you and me?"

"......."

The fellow looked at me with eyes that had sunk even deeper.

A taut tension flowed between me, who was estimating how far the orc’s body could withstand Ratel’s attack, and the fellow, who was probably estimating how much of a pulp he would have to make me into to feel satisfied.

"Kwek......."

The owner of this weak pig squeal that broke the tension was not me.

I turned my head toward the two orcs that I had briefly forgotten because of Ratel’s obstinacy.

The leader still had not regained consciousness.

The remaining one, the orc that had stubbornly clung to Ratel’s leg, was looking back and forth between Ratel and me with a blank expression.

"Kwek......"

The fellow blankly looked at me once, Ratel once, and then finally shifted its gaze back to me.