Chapter 137 :

Chapter 137 - Raid

After washing down the thick biscuit blocking his throat with water, the dimwit squatted there and looked at the leader, who was talking with Ran with an unfamiliar expression.

The leader orc repeatedly grew angry and softened, being swayed by the unfamiliar orc.

The dimwit took in every single change in him with his eyes.

Until the low voice of a human sounded right beside him and made him leap up.

Even that much, he could not fully do.

Because the body he had half-raised could not fly up to the end and was caught by Ratel’s arm before being dragged back down.

The dimwit was horrified as if he had shoved his arm into a pit of fire and tried to shake that hand off, but as if he had no interest in the dimwit’s reaction, Ratel stared for a moment at the path they had come from.

The dimwit, who regained his composure at his quiet eccentricity, wriggled the arm Ratel had grabbed.

At that, Ratel finally put strength into his hand and turned his gaze toward the dimwit.

“It’s a life you went through so much to preserve. You should protect it until the end.”

“Kweeek...”

At the threat telling him to listen well, the dimwit stopped his timid resistance and weakly relaxed his body.

Ratel looked at Ran, who was talking with the leader.

Perhaps intending to pull out the information he wanted before the other party died, the royal who had become an orc was asking various questions that were useless to humans.

That bastard had definitely finished preparing his heart to live his whole life in that bizarre form.

At first, he had been suspicious that Ran was using some filthy trick, but now he felt like he was starting to understand little by little.

That bastard did not leave lingering attachment to the people around him.

No, not just people. That bastard had no greed for anything else either.

Was there any other human as calm as that madman in a situation where he might have to live as an orc for the rest of his life?

Ratel recalled the face of the prince bastard who had abandoned his original form without hesitation.

Adapting too quickly to a new life might also mean having no affection at all for the previous one.

How could a person be like that?

Ah, he was not a person anymore.

Shaking off idle thoughts about Ran’s ambiguous state, Ratel furrowed his brow.

Could a life with no purpose, simply living day by day, be called a human life?

At least Ratel had never imagined such a life.

Every single day, whenever he opened his eyes, not even for a moment had he failed to repeat the purpose of his life to himself, and that became the standard for all his choices.

But that bastard was different.

As long as he was alive, nothing else mattered, so there were many things he easily gave up on or threw away.

As if it would not be strange for him to abandon everyone around him and run away right now.

“That won’t do.”

At Ratel’s low murmur, the dimwit, who had been stiffly watching Ratel’s reaction, flinched.

Ratel recalled Ran’s face, which had looked disgusted and avoided the dimwit every time he clung to him.

There was no way a purpose that bastard had to chase would appear right now.

Ratel did not have the ability to create something that noble, nor were they in that kind of relationship.

But conversely, he could probably create an obstacle that the bastard would be horrified by and try to avoid.

“There’s no need to be that scared. Like I said, I won’t kill you right away.”

Since that was no different from saying he could kill him whenever he wished, even if not right away, the dimwit swallowed.

“Kwee, kweeek...!”

The dimwit eagerly pointed at Ran with his hands to appeal that he was making an effort to prove his innocence.

“Yeah, well done.”

At the unexpected praise, the dimwit doubted his own hearing and dug at his ear.

“Just keep doing what you’ve been doing until now.”

As if confirming that there was nothing wrong with the dimwit’s ears, Ratel praised him again.

“Kwee, kweeek?”

“Keep going. Stick right beside that bastard. So much that he’ll be annoyed to death. Thoroughly teach him that living as an orc is nothing but troublesome and exhausting.”

It was not exactly an appropriate remark to make to an orc, but the dimwit was not in a position to feel displeased by that.

Before the madness of the human who flashed his eyes expressionlessly, the dimwit had no choice but to nod.

Ratel was quite a generous commander.

Generous enough to subtly tell this cowardly orc what he should do next.

“Good. Soon, three orcs will attack this place. You know what you need to do, right?”

“Kweeek?!!”

Though, unfortunately, the content lacked a little consideration.

* * *

Unfortunately, the conversation between the leader and me could not continue.

It was because of the smell of the raiders drifting through the air.

I thought I had become a little used to it while being pressed between the leader and the dimwit, but the body odor of new orcs felt through the air was not very pleasant.

How did they get all the way here?

Was there some side path I did not know about?

It was not an impossible possibility.

The only paths I knew were the path Ratel had used in the original work and the path in the Red Book.

Just because the answer I had was not wrong did not mean other answers could not exist.

At my sudden action of lifting my head and furrowing my brow, the leader looked puzzled and followed my gaze.

“Kweeek, what is it all of a sudden?”

“Kweeek, orcs. Kweeek, judging by the fact that there aren’t many, I don’t think they noticed you were here and chased after you.”

At my explanation, the leader sprang to his feet.

“Kweeek, those bastards are nearby?”

The bastard flared his nostrils to smell them, but perhaps he could not smell anything, because frustration and helplessness appeared on his face.

It probably was not only the influence of Orc’s Pool.

Judging by the fact that he was not greatly surprised, it seemed this was not the first time his old organ had failed to function properly.

The leader immediately regretted confessing with his own mouth that he had not noticed the presence of the orcs.

Pretending not to see the frustration that appeared on the bastard’s face, I turned my head toward the water.

Ratel and the dimwit also seemed to have noticed the presence of the incoming intruders and were rising to their feet.

“Kweeek, at most, it seems like four.”

“No, exactly three.”

Ratel corrected my prediction as he approached.

That’s a relief.

If it was three, that was a number worth facing.

If the smell of blood spread for no reason, we could end up gathering every other orc aiming for the leader’s neck before even reaching the food storage.

We might end up watching with our eyes wide open as the leader died in vain.

Before that, we might even see Ratel’s insane self-harm show with our own eyes.

Either future was one I would strongly refuse, so I looked at Ratel with warning in my gaze.

If the bastard could fight, things would be solved more easily, but we could not reveal Ratel’s monstrous strength in front of the leader.

If the leader realized that the unlucky, arrogant, insane human he had thought to be no more than bait was actually hiding enough strength to threaten him, it was obvious how he would react.

Please just stay still.

The bastard read the gaze containing my desperate plea and conspicuously crossed his arms to show he understood.

“Kweeek, until we cross the water, don’t uncross those arms and stay back just like that. Kweeek, don’t step forward.”

This time too, Ratel obediently stepped back behind me and the dimwit.

“Kweeek, you cross the water first with the leader. Kweeek, the dimwit and I will follow behind. Kweeek, even if something unexpected happens, you stay right there...”

While listing the things he had to keep, I suddenly trailed off because of a sense of incongruity.

“You’re saying we just need to maintain this formation, right?”

Seeing the bastard ask back obediently, the sense of incongruity grew so large that it exploded.

....This bastard, after eating fish like that earlier, did a parasite climb into his head?

I had heard that could happen if you ate freshwater fish wrong, though I did not know well.

They said normal poison did not work on Ratel, but the book had not said what would happen if a living organism invaded his body.

As I seriously wondered whether anthelmintics existed in this world too, one of Ratel’s eyebrows slowly rose.

“My head is fine, so get rid of that look.”

“Kweeek, what kind of look did I give you?”

“The look of someone who thinks he needs to crack open my skull right now and check inside.”

That was roughly correct.

Because I had been thinking about how to remove the parasite that might have spread inside the bastard’s head.

When I neither affirmed nor denied it, Ratel let out a sigh.

“Just think that, for now, your opinion and mine happened to match. Something like this can happen at least once.”

As if.

There had been quite a few times when the bastard’s opinion and mine had matched.

Every time, Ratel himself had twisted the path just to screw me over.

The very fact that he was saying something like that now was the same as admitting that he had some scheme.

In any case, I did not have time right now to analyze the reason for the bastard’s whim.

“....Kweeek, anyway, stay still. Kweeek, you remember, right? Kweeek, until I say it myself….”

Do not think about saving me.

Even without finishing the sentence, Ratel, who understood my words, gave a faint laugh.

“I have no intention of doing that.”

It was the most reassuring sentence the bastard had said since entering the cave, but I could not completely erase my suspicion.

When I looked at Ratel with the suspicion still heavily remaining, Ratel raised both hands as if to say he understood.

“I said I won’t do anything, just as you said. Until we cross the water, I’ll just watch without lifting a finger.”

Ratel’s expression as he said it like an oath was quite serious.

“Kweeek!! You said it was urgent, so what are you doing?! Kweeek, hurry up and come!”

Since the impatient leader’s urging had conveniently begun, I ultimately decided to put aside my remaining doubts for the moment.

* * *

Choosing this path among the many paths in the cave meant that all three orcs were, to some extent, superior to other individuals in intelligence and physical ability.

Thanks to that, even as we walked through water rippling below our knees, the distance from the orcs did not widen and only grew closer.

We might have to face those three bastards before reaching the other side.

I turned around and checked the path we had walked. We had barely passed the halfway point of the puddle.

The three orcs did not seem to have reached the water’s edge yet, but it was only a matter of time.

“Kweeek, damn it, why is it so far….!”

The leader’s walking speed, as he deliberately grumbled to hide his shortness of breath, had noticeably slowed compared to the beginning.

I finished making my judgment without difficulty.

If we were going to run into them anyway, there was no need to move like one body.

At this point, the position was not bad either.

“Kweeek, let’s split up around here.”

At my suggestion, three pairs of eyes turned toward me at the same time.

They did not contain particularly good emotions.

“Kweeek?!”

“Kweeek, are you saying we should abandon someone and go?”

“Give up on the idea of staying alone.”

It seemed clear that all three had understood it differently.