Chapter 145 :

Chapter 145 - Timing

The remaining path to the food storage was one-way.

This meant there was no need for three orcs and one human to forcibly continue accompanying one another.

In other words, we ended up walking as two groups: the leader and dimwit, and Ratel and me.

Since there was only one path in the same direction anyway, I wondered what meaning there was in walking apart like this, but it was quieter this way, so I had no particular complaints.

Thanks to the leader’s wariness toward Ratel reaching its peak, he had also become even noisier than before.

The leader reacted sensitively to every single movement Ratel made.

Especially whenever Ratel and the dimwit looked as though they might get even a little closer, he would become excessively angry at the dimwit.

“Kweek!! Do not go near that human bastard!!”

Including just now, the number of times the leader had shouted at the dimwit had probably exceeded ten.

“Kweek!! You stop dawdling too and hurry up!!”

The number of times he had shouted angrily at Ratel and me, who were walking ahead, had also exceeded ten.

For someone following behind us, he certainly had many demands.

“Kweek, what on earth did you do to the leader to make him so frightened?”

At my rebuke, Ratel shrugged.

“I didn’t do anything. I merely returned his sword to him.”

If he had simply returned it kindly, there was no way the leader would have dragged the dimwit away with such a pale face.

Still, considering how things had passed, it seemed he had not gone as far as making a physical threat.

As I recalled the leader’s green hand thrusting out earlier, I reflected on the fact that the moment he sensed something strange about Ratel, the first thing he protected had been the dimwit.

Even before, I had thought his obsession with the dimwit was somewhat excessive, but now I felt I understood the reason.

Even now, recalling the first time I had become the target of the orcs was enough to chill my liver and gallbladder.

The moment the orcs realized I could speak, they considered me a target of attack.

Hiding among them as an ordinary orc in the same position was completely different from becoming a candidate for leader and turning into their target.

I looked around the cave, surrounded on all sides by rock.

It was obvious now, but this place was the orcs’ stronghold.

An island surrounded on all sides by rivers, where no other creatures lived and even the orcs themselves could not leave.

If there were only orcs here, then all the orcs aiming for the position of leader were the same as the three who had been swept down the pit.

Having to remain on edge toward everything encountered in the cave in order not to die and to protect one’s position was exhausting.

Seen that way, the leader’s excessive vigilance was not entirely incomprehensible.

I rolled my eyes and looked at the leader, who was maintaining his distance behind us while never taking his gaze off us.

From the moment his body began to grow old—no, perhaps even earlier than that—he must have lived like this.

“Kweeek!! Damn it, stop picking things up and eating them already!! Kweek, if you have eaten that much, you could starve for a week!”

Instead of guarding against orcs that threatened his position, he was guarding against the dimwit’s stomach bursting as the latter picked up flopping fish from the ground every three steps.

......Neither option looked comfortable, but the latter was still probably better than having his life threatened.

“......You still haven’t changed your mind that the dimwit must have bitten off and eaten the leader’s neck?”

Ratel also seemed to have seen the dimwit driving the leader mad, because he muttered in suspicion.

“Kweek, now that I think about it, that is probably proof that he ate the leader’s neck.”

Every orc that targeted me had been fanatical about biting off my neck.

As though nothing in this world mattered more, like racehorses with blinders on, they had rushed at me.

But the dimwit alone had been different.

Even after seeing the leader, and even after learning that I could speak, he had not rushed at our necks like the three orcs had.

It was probably a side effect that occurred because the position of leader had not fully transferred.

How ironic that the reason the leader felt at ease around the dimwit was because the dimwit had tried to bite off his neck and failed.

The future in which he would eventually have to fight the dimwit over the leader’s position also had something strangely ironic about it.

How would the leader react if he realized that the orc who had attacked him was the dimwit?

Would he kill the dimwit?

If I recalled the way he had tried to drop me into the pit without any particular guilt, the answer came easily.

What the leader needed was a foolish subordinate, not a fool who threatened his position.

Still, he might hesitate slightly more than when he tried to kill me.

There was no way he had not felt the same difference between the dimwit and the other orcs that I had felt.

He might even think it would be a waste to kill him.

“Kweek, the dimwit is the kind of creature that would be a waste to simply kill.”

Perhaps he heard my small murmur, because the sharp-eared protagonist turned his face toward me.

His expression seemed to ask whether I even knew what I had just said.

Well, there was no way he had misheard, so it was a reasonable suspicion.

“Kweek, you saw the others too. Kweek, compared to them, the dimwit was on the cute side.”

“What do you have to grow up seeing for that to count as cute?”

Seeing him doubt my sense of aesthetics made me feel oddly stubborn.

“Kweek, he is a bit slow, but he listens well. Kweek, what is the difference between him and a puppy?”

“......Just know that you have greatly insulted puppies just now.”

“Kweek, I know that puppies are ultimately beasts too. Kweek, they simply have no need to reveal it because they live so close to humans. Kweek, if you release them into the mountains, they are not that different from other animals.”

When I refused to withdraw my claim until the end, Ratel abruptly stopped walking.

“Because that creature follows you around, do you really think you gained a new subordinate? He must have intended to kill you.”

“Kweek, I never said he didn’t.”

At my unconcerned answer, Ratel’s mouth, which had opened to argue, stiffened.

His eyes widened slightly, then returned to normal.

“......You knew that, and still watched as he clung to you like that?”

Watched?

I had even made some effort to keep him together with the leader.

“Are you insane? Or have you forgotten what you said with your own mouth? If the dimwit was deceiving the leader, just as you said—”

“Kweek, then he would have regarded me, who can speak, as an enemy he had to bring down as well. Kweek, if he had an opening, he would have targeted me.”

When I nodded and answered, Ratel’s expression twisted.

“You probably failed to notice because you were sleeping like an idiot, but if the dimwit had set his mind to it, you would have died several times already.”

Ah, is that so?

Then again, the leader had said he was attacked while asleep, so it was a very dimwit-like method.

Should I learn how to sleep with my eyes open?

“......”

“......You don’t seem very surprised.”

I had tried to put on a startled expression in my own way, but apparently it did not make much of an impression on him.

“Kweek, should I jump in shock, then?”

At my indifferent answer, Ratel, who had still been staring at me suspiciously, widened his eyes.

“......You are not surprised because you knew.”

“Kweek, knew what?”

“Don’t pretend not to know. Since when?”

“Kweek, how about you get into the habit of adding subjects to your sentences?”

“I told you not to change the subject. I’m asking when you realized that I told the dimwit to keep watch over you.”

Ah, that.

“Kweek, from the beginning.”

I had known from the beginning.

I knew that some sort of deal had probably been made between him and the dimwit, and that the dimwit following me was not entirely of his own will.

The dimwit suddenly started following me around while constantly watching your reactions.

It would have been strange not to notice.

“You knew all along that I told the dimwit to stick to you so you could not think of anything else......”

I did not know you had gone that far, you bastard.

While I was too dumbfounded by his shameless confession to speak, Ratel continued.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Kweek, what was I supposed to say? Kweek, to someone who suspected me so much that, after everything else, he even attached an orc to me as a watcher, what exactly was I supposed to say? Kweek, was I supposed to beg you to trust me already?”

“That was not why I threatened him.”

Ratel ground his teeth as he denied my words.

“Kweek, can you say there was not even a little of that intention?”

“.......”

Perhaps unable to lie, he chose to close his mouth at this question.

“Kweek, you said it yourself. Kweek, that deceiving and being deceived is human affairs. Kweek, there is nothing surprising about it now, so what exactly are you dissatisfied with? Kweek, this time, we each deceived the other once, so we can just call it even and move on.”

“I am not trying to compete with you.”

He muttered behind me as I spoke lightly and turned away.

I pretended not to hear and moved forward.

In any case, my ears were not as good as his.

* * *

The leader’s expression darkened as he looked up at a rock far taller than himself.

“Kweek, why does the river water suddenly move however it pleases......”

He muttered discontentedly while scanning the enormous rock blocking our path up and down.

This time, I agreed with him.

I had no idea why the damned river water occasionally went wild and blocked our path, or whether it was trying to control the direction we took.

While the voice in the water kept telling me to keep a promise I had never made, it also seemed to dislike us getting closer to the center.

Thanks to that, an unexpected obstacle had appeared.

The only passage through the rock wall was blocked by a large boulder.

When I placed my hand on it, I felt the damp surface that had not yet dried.

Normally, this should have been the place where the entrance leading to the other side existed.

It was not a particularly impressive obstruction.

Considering the path we had walked so far and the path we would walk from here on, a single boulder was hardly a serious problem.

Compared to that, I could confidently say that something like this was nothing.

However, I could not shake the feeling that, subtly—very subtly—we were being subjected to small interferences.

Like an unnoticed stone catching one’s foot once in a while, even when things were proceeding smoothly, something always became twisted.

I erased the unsettling feeling, like a finger cut by paper.

The leader, wearing an expression as if he were far more uncomfortable than I was, had stubbornly closed his mouth while never taking his eyes off the top of the rock.

“Kweek, are you thinking of climbing over it?”

When I spoke, the leader’s brow furrowed.

He looked between his one remaining arm and the tall cliff rising above.

Although we had rested, the fight against the three orcs must have consumed a great deal of his strength.

He would not want to do any more activities that required heavy use of his body.

After all, a greater fight would break out once we arrived at the food storage.

After looking back and forth between his hand and the dimwit, he soon seemed to make a decision and opened his mouth.

“Kweek, we will break the rock and cross through.”

It was a somewhat reckless plan, but it was probably the result of calculating his remaining stamina in his own way.

If we climbed the wall, each person’s labor would be fixed, but if we broke through the rock, he could pass the burden of exertion onto the dimwit.

However, things would not go as he wished.

“We must climb over.”

The one who spoke was Ratel, who had been quietly listening to the leader’s plan.

A vein rose on the forehead of the leader, who had been trying hard to ignore Ratel’s presence.

Ratel’s and the leader’s gazes collided in midair.

“Kweek, human bastard, stop acting beyond your station and stay out of this.”

“The only thing beyond its station here is your bloated pride, which your ability cannot keep up with.”

Having his warning returned as Ratel’s biting sarcasm, the leader trembled with rage.

Worried that I might end up seeing the leader die from rising blood pressure right before my eyes, I opened my mouth.

“Kweek, there is no need to think while sinking too deeply into one side.”

I meant that he should think about it from a wider variety of angles, but sparks flew from the leader’s eyes.

“Kweek, are you taking the human’s side again?”

Then would I take your side?

I had not particularly been speaking from Ratel’s side, but the leader’s question was shameless beyond measure.

Unless he was certain that taking the side of a human was more unreasonable than taking the side of someone who had tried to kill me, he could not possibly act so confidently.

“Kweek, this is not about taking sides.”

“Kweek, if this is not taking sides, then what is it?!”

There was no greater waste of time than dealing with someone who could not be reasoned with.

“Kweek, even if I am taking the human’s side, there is nothing you can do about it.”

You have neither the right nor the authority to complain to me.

At my cold words, the leader flinched.

He seemed to realize anew that he had failed to kill me, and that he would have no chance to kill me in the future either.

With an expression wounded in pride, he tightly closed his mouth, and his gaze turned toward the dimwit.

That small movement reminded me of the condition the leader had demanded in exchange for obeying my words.

It must mean he was that attached to his one remaining subordinate.

If he trusted the dimwit that much, he would at least not think the dimwit was taking the human’s side.

Swallowing a sigh, I opened my mouth.

“Kweek, what do you want to do?”

“K-Kweek?!”

The target of the question was the dimwit, who had been watching the situation from one step away from the leader and Ratel.

The dimwit had evidently never imagined that I would suddenly call on him, because he startled and rolled his eyes.

His spinning eyes observed the three of us in turn.

This time, the leader also kept silent and waited for the dimwit’s choice.

In the silence, the dimwit eventually realized that he had nowhere left to retreat and hesitantly raised a finger.

The place his finger pointed to was not the passage, but the top of the rock wall.