Chapter 128 :

Chapter 128 - Sides

Perhaps dividing the strong and the weak was an instinct natural to all living beings.

Trying to divide hierarchy because one wanted to enjoy even a little more, and continuing large and small fights throughout life for that purpose.

Unless one was so exceptional that it did not matter even if one lived alone in the world, this was like a yoke that no living creature could escape once born.

In that sense, the leader orc was a creature that followed its biological instincts very faithfully.

Seeing how he could not let his guard down toward me and Ratel even for a moment.

Thanks to that, whenever the creature seemed to show even the slightest weakness in front of me, he tried to bluff like an animal puffing itself up before an enemy.

This led to the result of wasting even more of the creature’s already lacking stamina.

In truth, from the moment he made the decision to expose his back to Ratel, his vigilance had become almost meaningless, but there was no way the creature would know that.

The leader reacted especially excessively toward me, who was of the same species.

He was probably protecting his pride against the one who seemed likely to threaten his rank.

Whether I wanted the leader’s seat or not was not important.

Because the wariness toward me was probably something his instinct as an orc was screaming.

Well, that did not mean it would be any less ridiculous to persuade him to trust me.

Considering that I was aiming for his neck, what that instinct was screaming was not exactly wrong either.

“Kweeek!! Watch this one and that human carefully!!”

This time as well, the creature, who had stumbled again, deliberately raised his voice to hide it.

“Kweeek!!!”

At the leader’s scolding, the startled dimwit let out a cry as if answering.

When the dimwit’s booming answer rang through my eardrums, Ratel looked at him with an irritated gaze.

“Kwee, kweeek.......”

The creature, whose spirit was quickly crushed, murmured quietly this time with the volume lowered even more.

At that timid sight, a vein rose on the leader’s forehead.

“Kweeek!! You idiot!! How can you lose your nerve to a mere human!!”

“Kweeek.......”

Even at the leader’s rebuke, the dimwit could not stop watching Ratel’s mood.

It was only natural.

Because the one beside him was someone exceptional enough to ignore the instincts of living beings and still live just fine alone.

At the sight of the dimwit failing to come to his senses until the end, the leader eventually sighed and pressed his forehead.

“Kweeek, of all things, the last one left had to be the stupidest one.......”

“Kweeek, was he a creature who made a lot of mistakes normally too?”

When I responded to the leader’s lament-like mutter, the creature glanced at me.

“Kweeek, if you’re thinking of making him your subordinate, stop. Kweeek, if you take him around, he is a creature who will make you lose more than you gain.”

Unlike my expectation that he would react sharply, the leader answered obediently.

Though his face somehow looked soaked in exhaustion.

“Kweeek, does that mean you knew him normally too?”

“Kweeek, do you think a creature like that would not stand out in the group?”

Well, true. If there was an individual among the orcs who kept making mistakes like that, he would have no choice but to stand out.

“Kweeek!!”

As if proving the leader’s words, the dimwit let out a cry.

“Kweeek, once we return, I’ll immediately......”

As if even hearing his voice made his blood boil, the leader spoke through gritted teeth and turned his body.

“Kweeek, what will you do?”

At my sudden question, the leader, whose body had been half-turned, awkwardly stopped, and I asked again.

“Kweeek, I’m asking what you’ll do after you regain the leader’s seat.”

“Kweeek, what does that have to do with you?”

“Kweeek, will you kill him?”

Ignoring the gaze that glared at me as if asking why he had to tell me such a thing, I asked, and the creature crumpled his face.

“Kweeek, what nonsense are you trying to spout this time?”

“Kweeek, what if you don’t need that dimwit?”

Perhaps my repeated questions irritated him, because the one-armed orc again moved his one remaining arm threateningly.

“Kweeek, if you have something you want to say, say it. Kweeek, do not just keep saying things I cannot understand.”

“Kweeek, I’m asking whether you can beat that dimwit with strength.”

At the same time as the question, I saw something resembling laughter from the leader for the first time.

A sneer was, in any case, still laughter.

“Kweeek!! I did not know you well enough!! Kweeek!! You were not a black-hearted one, but simply an empty-headed one!!”

I quietly waited for the creature to stop laughing at me.

Soon, when the laughter died down, the leader turned his body again.

“Kweeek, there is no need to beat that one. Kweeek, that thing was never born with the ability to act as the boss.”

“Kweeek, you don’t know that.”

When I refused to agree until the end, the leader’s eyebrow twitched.

“Kweeek, think carefully. Kweeek, just because he looks stupid does not guarantee that he will listen to your words well.”

The creature glared at me as if he did not understand the advice carrying a warning, then turned away as if there was no value in hearing more.

“Kweeek!!!”

A scream-like cry from the dimwit came from behind again.

I slowly followed behind the creature as he went to check on his one remaining subordinate.

Survival of the fittest was the simplest and clearest law of nature.

But within the laws of nature, irregularities always existed.

Just as the individual with the strongest power did not necessarily occupy the peak of the hierarchy.

What greeted me and the leader, who belatedly followed the dimwit’s scream, was the dimwit’s backside.

“Kweeek!!!”

And a desperate cry.

“......Kweeek, how did this happen?”

“Can’t you tell by looking? His head is stuck.”

Ratel, who had been standing quietly beside the remaining body of the dimwit, answered.

Do you think I asked because I did not know that?

“Kweeek, I’m asking how he ended up like this.”

I asked again while pointing at the dimwit, who had only his body left thrashing because his head was stuck in a gap in the wall.

“How would I know? He was being noisy, so I gave him a warning, and then he suddenly slammed his head in there.”

The creature frowned, as if even recalling it irritated him.

I felt like I roughly understood.

He must have been slowly avoiding Ratel, then got scared when Ratel suddenly spoke to him.

Or perhaps the “warning” Ratel spoke of was a little different from what people commonly meant.

“Kweeek, normally, giving someone a warning does not involve weapons or other physical actions. Kweeek, you do know that, right?”

When I asked again out of concern, the fellow narrowed his eyes.

“Are you doubting me right now?”

“Kweeek, at least in front of me, you shouldn’t be talking about conscience. Kweeek, not in front of someone who received threats from you like they were routine.”

When I narrowed my eyes, the fellow eventually shrugged once.

“I didn’t say much. He was making kwek-kwek noises, so I merely told him that if he wanted to keep using his neck properly in the future, he should spare it a little.”

Depending on the person saying it, it might have sounded like thoughtful advice.

But it was not very difficult to imagine how the dimwit, who had already had his neck strangled by that fellow’s hands, had taken those words.

Though even then, I could not understand him stupidly slamming his face into the wall like that.

“Kweeeeek!!!”

In a way that made me embarrassed for having warned the leader, even briefly, to be careful of that creature, the dimwit struggled desperately to pull his head out of the gap in the wall.

“Kweeek!! You stupid bastard!!”

The angry leader struck the dimwit’s shoulder.

“Kweeek!!”

The dimwit, who was suddenly hit while unable to see anything, screamed and clutched the place he had been hit.

“Kweeek, now, of all things, you can’t even walk properly?! Kweeeek, shouldn’t there be at least one thing you can do properly?!”

After venting all his irritation, the leader bent his waist to pull out the dimwit’s leg with his one remaining arm.

But perhaps because the dimwit’s struggling had been quite violent, the deeply stuck dimwit’s leg showed no sign of coming out.

Whether his neck was swelling or his head was becoming wedged even further inside, the part of his neck caught in the hole looked dark bluish because blood was not flowing through it.

Unable to watch any longer, the leader tried to break the edge of the hole, but if the one-armed creature used brute force, there was a risk the wall would collapse.

The dimwit being crushed was one thing, but if the passage ended up being blocked completely, that would also be troublesome.

As the dimwit’s screams grew louder accordingly, impatience appeared on the leader’s face.

“Kweeek, damn it, how the hell did you get stuck this tightly?!”

Unable to watch any longer, I slightly signaled to Ratel with my eyes.

“Kweeek, try cutting away just the edge a little. Kweeek, that much should leave the wall intact and let us get that dimwit out.”

“Kweeek!! Cut what?! Kweeek!! Do you think I don’t know you’re trying to cut this one’s neck like that?!!”

Though the one I had spoken to was Ratel, the leader bastard got excited and glared at me.

“Kweeek, what would I gain by cutting that guy’s neck right now.......”

“That is a good method.”

Ratel cut off my words as I was trying to calmly explain out of frustration and took one step closer to the two orcs.

Why are you suddenly acting like this again?

“Kweeek, what did you say?”

I tried to stop Ratel, but the leader, whose temper was likewise no joke, had moved away from the dimwit and was approaching Ratel threateningly.

“Cutting off his head. I said it is a good idea. Even if you keep pulling on him so stupidly like that, the blood won’t circulate and it will rot, so it would be better for that dimwit to cut it off cleanly instead.”

“Kweeek??!!!”

At Ratel’s claim, which did not reflect his own opinion in the slightest, the dimwit’s arms and legs began flailing again, but neither of the two cared about that.

“Kweeek, then hand your sword over to me. Kweeek, I will widen the hole myself.”

“Why? After that, are you going to gulp it down, saying you can’t hand such a dangerous thing to a human?”

“.......”

The utterly useless quarrel that began between the two fellows led, as expected, into a meaningless battle of nerves.

Fatigue washed over me at the precarious atmosphere where a physical fight seemed ready to break out at any moment.

“Kweeek, are you done fighting now?”

At my question, the gazes of the two ignorant bastards gathered on me.

“Kweeek!! Why are you just standing there?! Kweeek!! You should teach that human bastard, who does not know his place, his position!! Kweeek, hurry up and steal his sword!”

The leader gave me an unreasonable order.

The protagonist bastard did not bother saying it in words, but sent me a look that implied he would not leave me alone either if I did something useless.

“Kweeek, yes, then.”

At my affirmation, which it was unclear who it was directed toward, the leader and Ratel opened their eyes wide.

I trudged toward Ratel.

The fellow glared at me with such force that he seemed ready to cut off my arm if I so much as touched his sword with one finger.

You’re going to burn a hole through my face, you bastard.

But my target was not the sword hanging at his waist.

It was my bag, which I had not received back even once since entering the cave.

When I casually took the bag slung over his shoulder, Ratel watched what I was doing without any particular sign of stopping me.

It would be a little funny to insist on keeping it when the original owner was me anyway.

I rummaged through the bag and soon pulled out a small dagger the size of my palm, which in an orc’s hand was only about the size of a finger joint.

You are not the only one with a weapon.

Holding the blade, I approached the wall where the dimwit’s head was stuck again.

Perhaps because his head was properly wedged in, the back of the dimwit’s neck was exposed as it was.

I grabbed the dimwit’s neck in advance to prevent him from struggling.

Then I raised my hand just like that and drove the dagger into the wall above his head.

“Kweeek!!”

The startled creature screamed, but I paid no attention and quickly dragged the dagger down to the edge of the hole where his neck was caught.

Small broken fragments fell with a clatter, and the entrance of the hole widened a little.

As the gap opened, the dimwit pulled his head out as if he had been waiting.

The creature, suddenly regaining freedom, looked at me with a startled face.

“Kwee, kweeek......!”

Perhaps because he had not been getting enough oxygen while stuck in there, his darkened face had eyes that were completely bloodshot.

I felt no sympathy.

I mean, why would you shove your head in there?

I pushed the freed dimwit toward the leader.

Perhaps because the matter had been resolved too anticlimactically, the leader did not even get angry and caught the dimwit.

After confirming that the two orcs had no particular complaints, I immediately walked over to Ratel and hung my bag back around his neck.

“Kweeek, satisfied now?”

Judging by his expression, it did not seem like a method of resolution he liked, but still.

“Kweeek, well, it wasn’t originally yours anyway. Kweeek, you took it and kept using it.”

So let’s call this even.

Ratel silently glanced at me, then soon turned his head.

In the end, it had ended with neither side really winning or losing.

Only my stamina had been slightly worn down.