Chapter 142 :

Chapter 142 - This Time

Unless the leader’s weight had suddenly doubled, the heaviness pulling on me made no sense.

When I looked down, I saw an orc clinging to the leader’s body and dragging him downward.

Its thoroughly soaked appearance was rather pathetic, but its vicious eyes alone made it look sufficiently threatening.

“Kweek!! Let go of me!!”

The leader violently shook his body in an attempt to kick away the creature clinging to him.

Thanks to that, a sinister cracking sound came from between my arm and torso.

An instinctive fear seized me that the expression ‘my arm feels like it is about to fall off’ might soon cease to be an exaggeration, and the strength left the hand holding him.

“Kweek!! You are not allowed to let go!!”

Terrified by the sudden sensation of his body sinking, he looked up at me and screamed this time.

Fortunately for the leader, who was busy screaming both upward and downward, I did not actually lose my grip on him.

That was because the fall of me, the leader, and the remaining orc happened first.

Crack, clang—

Unable to withstand the weight of three orcs any longer, the rock collapsed and the sword was pulled free.

The fall down the uneven pit was far from smooth.

Only after colliding with the walls several times did I finally manage to cling to one side.

The fall stopped, but a sense of crisis greater than any relief at surviving washed over me.

“......Kweek, what a pleasant sight.”

This time, the leader looked down at me from above as he muttered.

It was because the positions of the three orcs had been completely reversed during the plunge.

Unlike the leader, who had luckily landed on a protruding ledge, all I could do was barely cling to the wall.

Even more unfortunately, the next target of the orc that had been clinging to the leader was now me.

—Kweeeeek!!!

I brandished the leader’s sword to threaten the creature baring its teeth at me.

Had it possessed even a little reason, I might have tried negotiating with it.

—Kweeeeek!!!

Seeing an opponent capable of nothing but roaring, I quickly abandoned that option.

The orc briefly withdrew, but apparently annoyed by the sword in my hand, it opened its mouth and aimed for my wrist this time.

I tried to kick its jaw away, but the hand braced against the wall could not endure the large movement and slipped, forcing me to abandon even that.

After barely regaining my balance, I suddenly looked up.

The moment I met the leader’s dry gaze as he watched me struggle, I became certain of one thing.

He had absolutely no intention of helping me.

If anything, he wanted to drop me together with that insane orc.

After all, another opportunity to eliminate two orcs at once would never come.

My mind became surprisingly calm.

Was it because I had never expected anything from the leader?

I felt no disappointment at his selfish desire to make me fall together with the enemy.

Considering the obsession he had shown toward his position as leader, it was not a surprising decision either.

There was, however, one thing I wanted to confirm.

Had I avoided establishing dominance over the leader until the very end—had I not threatened him at the cliff—would he still have regarded me as a thorn in his side and tried to kill me now?

“Kweek, is the reason you want to kill me because I threatened your position?”

Perhaps he thought it absurdly carefree of me to ask such a question while on the verge of death, because the leader let out a hollow laugh.

Then he gave a small nod.

“Kweek, you are too strong to leave alive. Kweek, it might have been different if you were at least as stupid as dimwit.”

I gave a faint laugh at his unexpectedly serious yet ridiculous answer, and the leader frowned.

I opened my mouth to leave him with one final warning.

“Kweek, I fell because of an accident.”

“Kweek, what is that supposed to mean?”

The leader, who had been preparing to drop me at any moment, finally lost patience and asked.

“Kweek, you will understand when you drop me and reach the top.”

If someone waiting above asked, he would eventually realize that answering that way was his only chance of surviving.

The leader appeared to decide that I was merely spouting nonsense to buy time.

His gaze moved between me and the orc clinging to both my legs.

The final destination of his eyes was my own.

We did not maintain eye contact for long.

It felt lengthy because I could barely breathe, but it could not have been more than five seconds.

Still, that was enough time to understand what decision he had made.

Without hesitation, I followed the leader’s reaching hand with my eyes.

His movement had a clear purpose and contained no restraint.

Well, I did not watch him for long.

Continuing to stare at him would not improve my situation.

Below me, perhaps sensing something strange, the clinging orc had stopped attacking and was struggling to climb up my body.

Over its shoulder, I stared silently into the seemingly endless darkness.

Judging by approximately how long it had taken Ratel and his companions in the original story to reach the bottom, even if water had collected below, the impact could still shatter my entire body.

Well, I might survive if I were lucky, but my luck tended to be relatively poor, so being shattered was probably more likely.

The one fortunate point was that the pit grew narrower the farther down it went.

If I could wedge this orc clinging to me like a leech into the narrowing passage like a cork while we fell, I might be able to survive.

In truth, I had no other choice.

It would be better to release my grip voluntarily than waste my strength struggling with the leader.

Having made my decision, I took one final deep breath to prepare for the fall.

I was about to let go before the leader’s hand could reach me.

Suddenly, the leader stopped moving.

So did I.

Whoooooosh—

The sound of wind assaulting my ears was drawing closer so quickly that it made us freeze.

A tremendous wind sound that should never have been heard inside a deep pit.

“Kweek!! What is that!!”

The startled leader forgot about dropping me and looked around.

I fixed my gaze beyond the shoulders of the creature frantically turning its head.

I could sense something approaching through the darkness.

Along with the vague expectation that I already knew what it was without needing to narrow my eyes and confirm it, an undeniable anxiety circled through my mind.

......Wasn’t it moving too fast?

Whoooooooooosh—

As though mocking my concern, the sound only grew louder without slowing in the slightest.

Apparently I was not the only one terrified, because the leech-like orc hurriedly released me and struggled to move toward the wall.

But the source of the sound appeared before it could do so.

I took my eyes off the orc still clinging to me with one arm, unable to fully reach the wall, and stared blankly at the black figure preparing to land.

I could not observe it for long.

The person who had arrived earlier than expected shot past the leader and me like a bullet.

Thud!!

A tremendous impact struck the area below where the leech-like orc was hanging.

—Kweeeeek!!!!

The leech-like orc vanished into the darkness with a scream.

The force and pain surpassed my expectations, and I nearly lost my grip on the wall as well.

Damn it, I knew he had been moving too fast.

“I am sick and tired of your lies.”

The owner of the scolding voice leisurely passed beside me as I desperately clung to the wall and came to stand next to the leader.

The leader’s expression as he stared blankly at him was quite a sight.

My own expression as I looked up at the hero who had descended from the sky was probably not very different.

Ratel, who had dropped an orc into the depths in an instant, looked down at me with the deepest possible frown.

“I have fallen for your scams quite a few times, but this one ranks among the most unpleasant.”

My surprise at his heroic entrance lasted only briefly before the repeated word ‘scam’ made me uncomfortable enough to return me to reality.

“Kweek, scam? I only told you to go to the other side.”

When I protested my innocence, another wrinkle appeared between his brows.

“That is precisely what a scam is. Deliberately guiding someone into a misunderstanding.”

“Kweek, it was not even enough to call it guidance. Kweek, I merely told you to jump in.”

Ratel twisted his lips at my argument that he was simply that gullible.

“You still chatter remarkably well in that state. Your life is in my hands right now.”

Despite his dissatisfied response, he immediately reached out to me without hesitation.

I silently stared at the offered hand.

Then I placed the leader’s sword I held into it.

Without gripping the sword’s handle, Ratel raised one eyebrow.

I could almost hear him asking, What are you doing?

It would be strange for you to help pull me up in this situation.

With my eyes, I pointed toward the leader beside him, who was staring stupidly at us.

Simply jumping all the way down here had already demonstrated physical abilities beyond the range of an ordinary human.

The leader seemed half out of his mind because of the sudden situation, but even so, if Ratel pulled an entire orc upward, it could not help but arouse suspicion.

When Ratel’s gaze turned toward the leader, the latter suddenly seemed to regain his senses and trembled.

“Kweek, h-human, how did you......”

Apparently losing interest in the leader, who could not even finish his sentence, Ratel turned back, sighed, and accepted the sword.

With all four limbs finally free, I lightly began climbing the wall.

* * *

The leader stared blankly after Ran as he climbed the wall as though nothing had happened, despite the retaliation that was sure to come.

What had just happened?

He had tried to kill the one threatening his position.

He had been moments away from succeeding.

Had that human not appeared from the sky, it certainly would have happened.

Those three facts were everything the leader’s mind had managed to process.

One more could be added: the orc climbing the wall ahead of him was insane.

Leaving behind someone who had tried to kill him, and even turning his back while doing so.

Only someone completely insane could behave that way.

Or was he planning to deal with him in front of dimwit above?

His thoughts continued endlessly, but like most baseless worries, they were of little use.

The leader could not keep up with the situation that had been resolved in an instant, but no one was kind enough to explain it to him.

There was only one person present who could force the foolishly seated leader back to his senses.

Clang!

The leader, who had been lost in foolish contemplation, flinched at the loud sound before him and looked down.

It was his sword, which had been stolen by that insolent bastard.

When he raised his head again, the human stood above him, looking down while still in the posture from which he had thrown the sword.

The leader was about to shout at him for such insolent behavior, but the moment their eyes met, his body trembled unconsciously.

The human’s eyes contained undisguised, intense disgust.

Pure hatred and hostility, completely unmixed with fear.

The leader had long since become accustomed to the murderous gazes of orcs aiming for his neck.

Strangely, however, before those golden eyes that seemed to see through everything about him, he could not move at all.

The leader’s gaze shifted beyond Ratel.

It was toward the direction where the persistent orc had fallen moments earlier.

Ratel looked down at the leader, who could not even breathe loudly and could only move his eyes, before finally following his gaze.

“Pick it up.”

Unable to say anything even in response to the human’s arrogant gesture toward his sword, the leader merely watched blankly as Ratel turned his back and climbed upward.

At that moment, the leader gained a secret he could never tell anyone.

The humiliating secret that a mere human had intimidated him so thoroughly that he had considered jumping into the depths to escape.