Chapter 138 :

Chapter 138 - Test (1)

Facing the three bastards full of dissatisfaction, I calmly opened my mouth.

“Kweeek, I mean it literally. Kweeek, if we keep going like this, we’ll run into those three bastards, so there’s no need for the four of us to move together like this.”

After all, only two of us would be able to deal with those bastards anyway.

“Kweeek, are you saying you’ll stay behind alone and face the three of them?”

This time, the leader narrowed his eyes and asked.

I could not tell whether he saw me as an dimwit with an outstanding spirit of sacrifice, or as an orc strong enough to face three of them at once.

Whether it was one of the two or both, it did not matter.

Either way, it was a wrong judgment.

I gestured with my eyes toward Ratel, who was glaring at me from one side with a stiff expression.

“Kweeek, of course not. Kweeek, I’ll stay with the dimwit. Kweeek, you take that ‘bait’ and keep advancing.”

“Kweeek?!”

The dimwit, who had been singled out, jumped from his spot.

Startled by the words that he would stay with me, the dimwit looked back and forth between me and Ratel.

Why is he watching Ratel’s reaction in this situation?

It was an action I could not understand, but in any case, sending those two away came first right now.

“Kweeek, hurry up and go.”

As if he could not hear my urging, Ratel did not move at all.

“What are you going to do with just you and the dimwit remaining? Join forces and defeat the three orcs?”

“Kweeek!! If that’s the case, I’ll stay here too! Kweeek, there might be one among those three who attacked me!”

Following Ratel, the leader also joined in and expressed opposition.

Even though the most likely culprit was standing blankly beside him, watching the leader get heated.

“Kweeek, it’s the opposite. Kweeek, if it’s just me and the dimwit, we might not need to fight.”

I did not know why the three orcs were following us, but at least it was probably not because of the leader or Ratel.

It had not been that long since both of them had been drenched in Orc’s Pool.

As long as I sent those two ahead first, there would be no reason for the remaining dimwit and me to fight those bastards.

It could end as a coincidental encounter between companions who happened to meet in the cave.

“Kweeek, but the moment you two are seen by the orcs, a fight will break out immediately.”

“You’re going to attack them while they let their guard down?”

“Kweeek!! Then what happens to me if you just kill those bastards!”

As soon as Ratel finished speaking, the leader noisily chattered.

“Kweeek, shut up. Kweeek, who said I’d kill them?”

When I furrowed my brow, the leader flinched and glanced at my reaction.

“Kweeek, if you’re not going to kill them, what are you going to do?”

“Kweeek, I’ll just send them back for a while. Kweeek, so they can’t chase after us until we reach the food storage.”

“Assuming a fight doesn’t break out, what are you going to do after that? Politely ask those bastards to please go back?”

As soon as I finished speaking, Ratel cut in this time and asked.

If both of them had that many questions, their lives must never be boring.

“Kweeek, that doesn’t sound bad either.”

When I answered Ratel’s sarcasm seriously, the bastard looked at me with a dumbfounded face.

“You’re joking right now? There’s no way those bastards will listen to your request.”

“Kweeek, I’ll try persuading them well. Kweeek, to go back like this.”

If they kept refusing, it would be accompanied by just a little physical force.

“Kweeek, anyway, it’s better for both you and the leader to stay away, so I’m telling you to go first. Kweeek, I said I’ll catch up quickly, didn’t I?”

While diligently persuading the bastard, I narrowed my eyes and stared at Ratel.

“Kweeek, and didn’t you clearly say earlier that you wouldn’t lift a finger?”

“What does that have to do with this?”

Ratel faced me without smoothing out his expression.

“Kweeek, if you’re not going to do anything anyway, there’s no reason for you to stay here, is there? Kweeek, or was saying you wouldn’t move even a finger a lie after all?”

“.....”

In the end, the group was divided into Ratel and the leader, and me and the dimwit.

It was a composition that made no one happy, but because everyone was equally unhappy, it at least maintained balance.

While Ratel and the leader moved far enough away that their figures grew faint, the dimwit and I prepared to greet the three orcs without moving from where we stood.

By preparation, I meant giving the dimwit a few instructions.

“Kweeek, don’t move rashly until I give you a signal. Kweeek, if we don’t attack first, they have no reason to charge at us.”

“Kweeek!!”

Whether he understood my words or was merely reacting reflexively, the dimwit let out a questioning cry.

Then, with a tense face, he stared fixedly at me.

“....Kweeek, there’s no need to put that much strength into yourself already. Kweeek, those bastards haven’t even arrived yet.”

“Kweeek!!”

The bastard, who answered energetically this time too, finally relaxed the strength he had fully pumped into his body.

Even looking again, he was far too different from the leader in the original work.

Until now, I had thought that maybe the bastard was acting like he was stupid, but because of the clue the leader had casually dropped earlier, one more hypothesis had been added.

That the bastard had not completely inherited whatever was passed down to the leader.

Whether it was intelligence or knowledge, if the gap between the leader in the original work and the dimwit now originated from that, then it would be hard to expect the intellect from the original work from the current dimwit.

I watched the bastard look around with blank eyes, then opened my mouth.

“Kweeek, the ones we have to deal with now are only three, but once we reach the front of the food storage, a number of orcs incomparable to this will gather. Kweeek, since you said you would personally become bait, you should know that well.”

“Kweeek...!”

The dimwit answered as if he knew, but it did not seem like he fully understood my words.

“Kweeek, it means there aren’t many chances left to become the leader easily.”

At the incitement disguised as advice, there was no answer this time.

I had not expected a major change either.

I did not know whether he really had lower intelligence than in the original work, or whether he was acting stupid, but I only wanted to give him the pressure that there was not much time.

Even if it was not now, it should at least give him some stimulation to attack the leader.

“Kweeek, for now, focus on driving out those three. Kweeek, what matters is drawing all three of them to this area at once. Kweeek, so...”

I paused for a moment at the firm hand grabbing my shoulder.

Unbelievably for a bastard who had not even been able to properly meet my eyes, the dimwit quietly stared at me.

The thought that instantly came to mind was the certainty that the dimwit had indeed been pretending to be stupid all this time.

His grip on my shoulder was quite strong, the place where I was standing happened to be related to the bastard in the original work, and most of all, I felt that his eyes, which had only seemed blank until now, had sparkled for a moment.

It was the moment I put strength into my body to prepare for the force that would push me away.

“Kweeek!!”

With a cry so bright it felt hollow, the bastard nodded.

What is this all of a sudden?

When I furrowed my brow because I could not tell what he was affirming, the bastard suddenly shot out like he had been fired.

And that too along the path we had walked so far, meaning straight toward the approaching orcs.

I had been stunned by the bastard’s sudden action, but soon came back to my senses.

I also understood what the dimwit’s nod meant.

It was clear that he meant he would lure the three orcs over.

I was the one who had said we needed to draw the three bastards all the way here, but that did not mean I wanted him to charge in without any plan like that.

I did not know what he was trying to do, but judging by the dimwit’s actions until now, trusting the bastard and waiting comfortably was not a wise choice.

Swallowing a curse, I slowly followed behind the dimwit as he moved away.

And I made a vow.

Whether the dimwit really was the leader from the original work, or whether he was simply passing orc number one who had been a little unlucky, once everything was over, I would not leave the bastard alone.

It was astonishing.

To think I had still held even a shallow expectation that perhaps the dimwit had come up with his own method to lure the orcs.

Otherwise, there was no way I would feel this dumbfounded while watching the bastard charge forward, swinging both arms around.

“Kweeeeeek!!! Kweeeeeek!!!”

As if trying to gather the attention of every living thing in the cave onto himself, the dimwit flailed his arms and cried out.

Unfortunately, I was not the only one flustered by the bastard’s sudden charge.

“Kweeek?”

Four meters ahead, three orcs appeared.

I had not expected us to meet in such a tensionless form.

I stopped chasing the dimwit and stepped back.

Fortunately, those bastards did not seem to have noticed my presence yet.

The presence of the dimwit charging at them while flailing his limbs as if electrocuted was too large for that.

The three pairs of eyes all focused on the dimwit at once.

The three of them also seemed flustered by this sudden encounter.

Of course they would be.

What they would feel from the dimwit approaching with excitedly flailing limbs was not hostility, but madness.

There are few people who respond to the approach of a madman with an immediate attack.

Confusion comes first.

The dimwit approached the bastards, who could not quite grasp what reaction they should show.

Only then did the three orcs surround the dimwit with eyes full of suspicion.

I could not just let him die like that.

It was the moment I was thinking about how to turn their attention elsewhere.

“Kweeek!!!”

Perhaps the dimwit, who had been charging in with great momentum, stepped on a slippery part of the ground, because he staggered greatly.

The dimwit’s strangely ugly dance to somehow regain his balance continued.

It would have been good if it had ended there, but the problem was the bow the bastard was holding.

And the direction the end of the bow pointed, even while his body was tilting, was an even bigger problem.

No, it would be harder to find something that was not a problem.

Perhaps trying to lean on the bow to avoid falling, the dimwit, just before he fell, drove the bow into the ground.

Without seeing the top of someone’s foot that had already taken its place on the ground.

The end of the bow, carrying the dimwit’s weight as it was, stabbed into the top of the foot of the orc standing in the middle of the three.

“Kweeeeeek!!!”

The orc who had instantly suffered from the sudden and, above all, pathetic attack screamed.

“Kwee, kweeek...!”

The flustered dimwit hurriedly pulled the bow stuck in the ground back out as an apology.

“Kweeeeeeeek!!!”

The orc’s pain-filled scream only grew louder.

To make matters worse, the dimwit could not withstand the recoil of pulling the bow back out and this time fell backward.

It was a sight that was hard to watch with open eyes.

Thanks to the dimwit sliding forward while still lying on his back, the three orcs tangled with him and rolled through the water like bowling pins struck by a bowling ball.

The four of them floundered in the shallow water for a while, then soon came to their senses and raised their bodies.

With this, the three intruders seemed to have perfectly regarded the dimwit as an enemy.

The three orcs surrounded the dimwit in an instant.

After watching for a moment as the flustered dimwit looked around in circles and cried pitifully, I turned my back just like that.

If that bastard fell down about three more times over there, it would buy enough time for Ratel and the leader to reach the other side.

More than anything else, I felt pathetic for having left my original position and run all the way here just to see that scene, so I did not want to stay here any longer.

However, the dimwit was a bastard who had a talent for stopping me from returning to my position in many ways.

“Kweeek!!!”

Even without confirming the owner of the orc cry stabbing into my back, I felt like I knew who it was.

There was no reason for the other orcs to cry out with that much desperation, and above all, it did not seem like there could be another orc that made such a dumb-sounding cry.

Feeling multiple gazes on the back of my head, I obediently accepted my fate.

When I turned around, four pairs of eyes were focused on me.

I glared at the one pair of eyes among them that clearly looked delighted to see me and ground out a curse.

That damned dimwit bastard.