Chapter 144 :

Chapter 144 - Influence (2)

Just because I sided with Ratel did not mean the group immediately collapsed or a fight broke out.

The leader still needed my guidance, and I needed to confirm that he would be eaten by dimwit.

Thanks to that, we sat down to rest while divided into the leader and dimwit on one side, and Ratel and me on the other, caught in a strange boundary between tension and discomfort.

It was not exactly a pleasant atmosphere.

Aside from the dimwit, who was delightedly picking fish off the ground and eating them, no one opened their mouth carelessly.

The rest period, during which even the small quarrels between Ratel and the leader had vanished, was quiet.

Now that I thought about it, there had never been a friendly atmosphere to begin with, so perhaps quiet was better.

“What are you going to do now?”

Ratel asked quietly while I chewed on a salty biscuit in silence.

I looked at the dimwit, who was glancing at Ratel and me from far away, and opened my mouth.

“Kweek, for now, the first objective is to trap the leader inside the food storage as planned.”

“So, in the end, you still intend to stay here alone like the original plan?”

Turning my eyes away from the leader and dimwit, I looked at Ratel, who was somehow managing to chew and swallow raw fish.

“Kweek, I can’t exactly do that now. Kweek, I already said I would protect you.”

But after saying it aloud, I became newly aware of his rather impressive build, which made him seem somewhat unsuited to receiving my protection.

If I had to choose which of us needed protection, I could confidently say it was me, but the water had already been spilled.

Damn it, it was ridiculous no matter how much I thought about it.

Me, protecting Ratel?

Wait.

Protecting Ratel?

As I let out a hollow laugh, I frowned at the unpleasant feeling that some vague memory was about to surface.

I had heard that somewhere before, hadn’t I?

“What is it all of a sudden? Did you hit your head when you fell earlier after all? If you’re hurt, say so now. We need to stop it before you become any stranger than you already are.”

Apparently, I looked strange after suddenly frowning, because Ratel offered me worried advice.

“Kweek, there is no one stranger than you here. Kweek, and yes, that includes the dimwit. Kweek, also, how exactly do you plan to stop someone’s head from becoming strange?”

When I asked in disbelief, I saw strength enter Ratel’s right fist.

“Everything in the world stops, even for a moment, once it receives an impact. If I hit you once, you should stop for at least a little while too.”

Along with that ignorant explanation, his clenched fist looked especially large.

As expected, he was far too imposing for me to protect.

“Why did you suddenly change your mind?”

“Kweek, what?”

I had been staying alert for when he would unclench that massive fist, so I reacted half a beat late to his sudden question.

“You were going to leave the island while abandoning the orcs, weren’t you? I’m asking why you suddenly changed your mind.”

Ah, that.

“Kweek, because dimwit seems to know even less than I thought.”

And what does that matter?

Seeing the question plainly written on Ratel’s face, I stopped chewing my biscuit and turned my whole body toward him.

“Kweek, I intended to trap the two of them inside until they killed each other. Kweek, it would have been troublesome if he knew some secret passage inside that I didn’t.”

I had assumed he knew the layout of the cave inside and out, just as he had led Ratel and his group around in the original story.

“You’re saying it no longer matters if we leave those two behind and depart?”

“Kweek, yes.”

His eyes wandered through the air for a moment as though he were thinking about something, then returned to me.

“What if he actually knows everything, but is pretending not to and deceiving you?”

That could happen.

“Kweek, then my staying close would do no good either. Kweek, if he is that intelligent, he will realize that becoming leader does not mean he can survive. Kweek, leaving the island so he can lower his guard would not be a bad choice.”

“.......”

Even after I agreed, he silently stared straight at me.

Right, I had not expected him to accept it obediently this time either.

“Kweek, I am not trying to trick you into escaping alone, and I am not planning to trick you and run away either.”

When I cut off his suspicion in advance, Ratel narrowed his eyes.

“I was tricked by you again just a moment ago. Do you think I’ll believe that?”

My conscience was always in a deficient state, but I could not easily say that his worry was unnecessary.

I had tricked him far too many times.

“Kweek, I owe you my life twice.”

I gave the most universal reason, but perhaps my answer was unexpected, because his expression changed strangely.

Still, it was true that I felt grateful.

When Ratel jumped down into the pit, he had truly looked like a hero to me.

Feeling embarrassed because it sounded as though I was making too much of a fuss over someone younger than me, I was about to say that, for that reason, I would follow what he wanted without complaint at least once.

“Why twice?”

Ratel corrected me expressionlessly.

“Kweek, what?”

“Why twice? Even by my memory, it should be at least four times.”

His childish reaction to the number at a time like this was enough to make me sigh.

“Kweek, how is it four? Kweek, even if I count the first time at the river, when you followed me on your own, it would still be three.”

But I could not lose.

If I acknowledged everything here, I could clearly imagine him robbing me of both my liver and gallbladder later.

When I glared at Ratel with the firm determination not to yield even once, this time he looked at me pathetically.

“Forget it. What is the point of counting every single thing like this?”

He turned his eyes away, as if withdrawing from the childish argument he had started first.

......Why did it somehow feel like I was the only one being wronged?

“In any case, this is not the first time I have saved you. That still does not explain why you suddenly changed your mind.”

While I was debating whether to sacrifice the last of my pride and continue the childish argument, Ratel changed the subject again.

In the end, I was the only one left as the childish person, but I decided to answer his question obediently.

“Kweek, because this time, you really did save me.”

He frowned as if considering what the difference from before could possibly be, then opened his mouth with an “Ah.”

“Putting the leader aside, it seems the one I knocked down was stronger than expected......”

Perhaps he interpreted my words as meaning that the situation a moment ago had been that serious, because Ratel’s expression suddenly turned grave.

He looked back and forth between me and the leader resting far away.

“Are you perhaps weak even among orcs? So weak that you could not handle even that one alone?”

Although that unexpectedly insulted even Ran Abiran’s physical abilities, his expression was so serious that I could not even get angry.

Perhaps it was because I had realized that there had been a fairly high ratio of sincerity in all the teasing he had directed at me until now.

“......Kweek, if I were that weak, I would never have dared to remain here and watch those two.”

After reassuring the protagonist, I pointed toward the pit we had emerged from.

“Kweek, I had no idea whether there was water below or bare ground. Kweek, to survive, I had to subdue that leech-like bastard while falling, but there was always the possibility that things would go wrong.”

After choosing one of the many reasons and finishing my explanation, I brought up the true purpose for having answered his question.

“Kweek, even if we leave the island like this, I cannot follow you all the way into Limis. Kweek, you know the reason well enough.”

After spreading both arms to emphasize my orc body once, I continued.

“Kweek, Jing probably has not gone to Limis yet. Kweek, because I told him never to touch the holy relic without you.”

“Yes, he is someone who would have a hard time refusing your words.”

Ratel calmly agreed with me.

Jing’s obedience probably stemmed less from human trust in me and more from the habits and guilt engraved into his heart over many long years.

In a way, he was using me as a substitute for the imperial family without even realizing it.

For someone whose family had all been killed in a single day by the hands of the imperial family, it could not have looked pleasant.

I was in no position to offer comfort.

In any case, in his eyes, I was also a member of the imperial family who had enjoyed every luxury thanks to my bloodline.

That was how it had to be.

It also meant that a realistic answer would be better than comfort here.

“Kweek, while Jing obeys my words, we should make use of whatever we can. Kweek, it will not last long anyway.”

Because once the holy relic was destroyed, he would quickly come to his senses.

Perhaps having understood the omitted words, Ratel gave a faint laugh.

“You talk well. Even though you look as if you are uncomfortable enough to die whenever Jing so much as speaks to you.”

It seemed he had not understood the omitted words, but had instead noticed my discomfort.

Feeling needlessly awkward, I changed the subject.

“Kweek, I cannot follow you all the way to Limis. Kweek, if I go with you, I will not merely attract attention. Every soldier in Limis will gather to subdue me.”

I had been about to present the reasonable plan of waiting until he brought back the holy relic.

“......An orc hunter should not be a bad cover occupation.”

I would have done so, had his unreasonable answer not left me momentarily speechless.

Did that bastard just say he was going to drag me around as game?

I looked at Ratel, hoping I had misheard, but his expression was calm.

“Kweek, three people dragging around one orc would certainly avoid attention.”

“If you are good at pretending to be dead, we might not be discovered. You are good at that, aren’t you?”

“Kweek, when have I ever been good at pretending to be dead?”

As I was about to argue, what happened in the capital surfaced in my mind.

Ah.

I had pretended to be dead in front of Dito.

Thanks to that, I had secured at least one final escape route.

From the second prince’s perspective, I was dead.

However, there was no guarantee that rumors of a trio carrying around an orc corpse would not reach the capital.

If that happened, Jing’s existence would be revealed, and it would only be a matter of time before Dito grew suspicious of whether I, whom he thought had died together with Jing, was truly dead.

I could not allow my final insurance to be wasted so pointlessly and meaninglessly.

Once my thoughts reached that point, I shook my head firmly.

“Kweek, in the capital, I really was half dead. Kweek, I had fainted slightly.”

“You have experience, so the second time should look more natural. Judging by how you normally behave, there is not much difference between you being dead and walking around alive, so don’t worry.”

Why does this bastard want to kill me so badly?

“Kweek, why go that far when there is an easy method of simply hiding in the forest?”

This time, Ratel’s eyes changed as though he were looking at the greatest idiot under heaven.

“Do you think the forest will be any different? If anyone sees you, hunters will gather anyway.”

At the very least, the chances of Dito suspecting that the seventh prince he thought was dead might actually be alive would decrease.

But if I said that, Ratel would obviously accuse me of thinking about ways to run away again.

“Kweek, in other words, until you come back, I will have nowhere to flee. Kweek, if I leave the forest, there will immediately be an uproar about an orc wandering around.”

It was similar to saying that, instead of following him to Limis, I would lock myself in a prison of my own making.

Once I left the island, I would lose every place to hide except the forest.

Perhaps he understood the meaning as well, because for the first time in a while, something other than dissatisfaction appeared on Ratel’s face.

Although suspicion was still mixed in, there was clearly a faint trace of relief in his expression.

“Kweek, so steal the holy relic and return as quickly as possible. Kweek, unless you want to see the ridiculous sight of me being hunted by others and turned into a taxidermied specimen.”

At my joke, Ratel let out a breathy laugh.

That pricked my conscience a little, but since I was usually in a state of insufficient conscience, it did not show very much.

“Fine, I’ll return as quickly as possible. If Jing insists on carrying your taxidermied body around as a family heirloom, that would trouble me too.”

Thanks to his unpleasant joke, my guilt evaporated a little faster.

It was an even more unpleasant joke because it had a strange sense of realism.

* * *

‘How friendly.’

With a dissatisfied expression, the leader glared at the insolent orc and the even more insolent human.

As if there could be anything to discuss with a human, the creature was conversing with him with a rather comfortable expression.

‘Foolish bastard.’

The leader clicked his tongue at the ignorance of the mutant-like orc that had suddenly appeared.

That human bastard was not merely insolent.

Right now, he was hiding his claws because he could not leave the island, but the moment he got outside, he would surely reveal his true nature.

He might join hands with other humans and kill that creature as soon as he left.

Trusting such a human made the bastard, who had acted as though he was so clever, look even more ridiculous.

The leader had no intention of obediently sending them outside.

Who knew what that human bastard would do once he left?

Now that he knew he could not do it alone, he would surely call more humans and launch an attack.

The leader could not simply stand by and watch that happen.

Having resolved to kill that human bastard by any means necessary, the leader turned his head toward the dimwit.

It was to warn him to come to his senses after seeing that pathetic sight, since he seemed to be strangely following the mutant.

And also to caution him not to do anything as foolish as that.

However, the leader had no choice but to close his mouth at the sight of dimwit staring intently at the mutant as he spoke with the human.

The dimwit was so absorbed in watching the two that he did not even notice the gaze directed at him.

The dimwit strangely followed the unfamiliar orc.

The leader did not like that.

There was no opponent as useful as the dimwit, nor one as easy to use.

The current him was no longer the leader he had once been.

At least until he reclaimed his position, the leader had not the slightest intention of letting that creature steal dimwit from him.

The leader quietly stared at his foolish and convenient final subordinate.