Chapter 146 :

Chapter 146 - Collapse of Authority

The moment the dimwit’s finger timidly pointed upward, the leader’s face twisted.

“Kweek!! You little.......”

The leader raised his voice as though he were about to pounce on the dimwit, but suddenly, the anger in his expression faded.

“Kweek, so you also think we should climb up.”

The leader muttered in a drained voice.

However, that loss of fighting spirit lasted only for a moment.

After catching his breath for a while, he seemed to grow angrier the more he thought about it, and in the end, he could not hold back and raised his voice again.

“Kweek!! Even so, taking that human’s side here!! Do you have any thoughts in that head or not?!”

Terrified by his mood swings, which were almost manic, the dimwit hid behind me to avoid the charging leader.

I pushed the dimwit back toward the leader and calmed him down.

“Kweek, he only answered what I asked. Kweek, there is no need to get angry.”

The leader, who had been breathing harshly, looked back and forth between Ratel and me.

“Kweek, so what is your choice? Kweek, up or down? Kweek, which side is it?”

“Kweek, if I have to choose, then up.”

At my unhesitating choice, his face distorted.

“Kweek, after we break through this passage.”

At my added words, doubt appeared on the face that had been distorted a moment ago.

“Kweek, what does that mean? Kweek, why do we have to do something so troublesome?”

“Kweek, exactly what I said. Kweek, we will use the path above. Kweek, but if we do not open the one below, there is no meaning in it.”

“Kweek, are you joking right now? Kweek, or are you vaguely dodging because you do not want to take either side?”

The leader pointed at Ratel and demanded an answer.

Seeing his arrogant attitude return, it seemed he had forgotten his place again.

“Kweek, why would I bother doing something that troublesome?”

Whether the two of them were close or distant was the last problem in life that I needed to care about.

“Kweek, and even if that were true, nothing would change.”

At my stiff reply, the startled leader hurriedly closed his mouth.

At that direct response, which contained not even a speck of detour, the dimwit’s gaze fixed on me again.

As though he were observing me.

When I met those eyes without avoiding them, the dimwit turned his head and pretended not to notice.

That was one of the reasons I had never been able to completely let go of my suspicion toward him.

The dimwit looked at me strangely often.

Naturally, I had assumed it was vigilance toward a leader candidate.

I had also thought that his pretending to follow me must have been hiding some other scheme.

However, judging from his actions so far, the dimwit did not seem capable of performing such flawless acting.

Was there another reason I could not understand?

No matter how much my body had transformed into that of an orc, I was ultimately in an ambiguous state, neither human nor orc.

It would probably take just as much time to understand the unique values the orcs had formed over many long years.

Well, the conclusion was that there was nothing I could do about it right now.

There was no need to understand deeply, either.

Even if I simply accepted them as they were, there were more than enough ways to use them.

For example, just knowing these three things was enough to obtain what I wanted: the leader’s greatest desire right now was to reclaim his position, he would do anything for that purpose, and the dimwit had failed while trying to devour the leader.

“......Kweek, I have no idea what kind of foolish nonsense this is. Kweek, fine, then. Kweek, the dimwit and I will break down the rock and go below, so the rest of you can climb the wall or follow me as you please.”

When the leader, unable to let go of his attachment until the very end, said this, Ratel clicked his tongue.

“The more stubbornly you insist, the more you expose your own bottom, so you would be better off simply keeping your mouth shut.”

“Kweek!! What stubbornness are you talking about?! Kweek! It is obvious that breaking through and passing would be faster than climbing up!”

The leader, whose pride had suddenly been trampled, shrieked.

At his desperate outburst, Ratel did not hide the pathetic look in his eyes.

“That is why I told you to shut your mouth. You cannot hear anything because all you do is shout.”

“Kweek, wh-what?”

At Ratel’s point, the leader faltered and closed his mouth.

Watching this, the dimwit and I also joined him.

It did not take long to understand Ratel’s words.

It was not that my ears reacted like his.

I simply noticed that the fishy smell of water piercing my nose was especially strong.

“Kweek!!”

The dimwit also seemed to sense something strange, because he buried his face in the gap where the rock and entrance met and began sniffing.

“Kweek!! Kweek!!”

The dimwit pointed at the blocked entrance and barked questions.

“The moment that rock breaks, the water that has been blocked will flood out.”

Ratel kindly explained the situation to the creature that still had not accepted it.

“Kweek, it also means that you and the dimwit alone cannot reach the food storage on the other side.”

When I followed up by adding to Ratel’s explanation, the leader’s face hardened.

I could not tell whether he regretted his own impatience for failing to notice such a simple fact, or whether he was shocked that his sense of smell was inferior to the dimwit’s.

* * *

“Just explain it with words. I will picture it in my head.”

When I picked up a stone again to explain, Ratel stopped me.

At this point, the thought slowly began raising its head that perhaps there was not even the slightest intent to tease me in his evaluation of my drawing skills.

“Kweek, now, this is our current position.”

Before my suspicion could grow any further, I trampled it down and pretended not to hear Ratel, then drew a long passage and a passage blocked by a rock on the ground.

“Kweek, originally, we would move through this path and climb the wall at the end of the passage. Kweek, but right now, from here to here, it is filled with water.”

When I pointed to the upper side of the half-cut cross-shaped path, the leader leaned his head in to follow my movement.

“Kweek, there is a path here?”

“Kweek, yes.”

It was probably filled with water like liquid poured into a graduated cylinder.

Even if we climbed up and advanced without draining the water, we would ultimately be blocked.

“Kweek, if that is the case, can we not simply drain the water and then take the lower path?”

The leader grumbled as though he did not understand why we had to endure such trouble.

I pointed at the rock blocking the entrance.

“Kweek, look closely. Kweek, it rolled in from inside the passage and got lodged here.”

Even after my added explanation, the leader still looked as though he did not understand.

“Kweek, I am saying it did not fall from above, but came down from the passage. Kweek, there are no other fallen rocks nearby besides that one. Kweek, and if water suddenly floods again, we are less likely to be swept away if we climb upward.”

“K-Kweek.......”

Perhaps convinced by my explanation about the direction we should take, the leader nodded.

Then, as if something suddenly angered him, he raised his head again.

“Kweek! Then you should have said that from the beginning! Kweek, why are you only saying it now?!”

“Kweek, you didn’t ask.”

“K-Kweek......!”

Having lost his words, the leader opened and closed his mouth, unable to find a reply.

I watched him grow heated for a moment, then shifted my gaze behind him.

My eyes met the dimwit’s as he quietly stared at me.

Since earlier, the frustration of feeling that something was strangely bothering me, yet being unable to pinpoint it, had been tormenting me.

If I kept the cause close, perhaps I could identify what it was.

“Kweek, there is no need to smash this huge thing to pieces. Kweek, we only need to break a little of the upper part and let the water drain out.”

“Simple is good.”

Ratel agreed with my words for once.

That only made it suspicious.

Why was he suddenly acting like this?

“......Kweek, the method should be simple too. Kweek, you still have the rope, right?”

Ratel took the shortened rope out of his bag.

“Kweek, we will split into two groups. One side will wrap this around themselves and break the rock. Kweek, meanwhile, the others will climb up first. Kweek, if it seems like they will be swept away by the water, they pull the rope twice. Kweek, so the ones who climbed first can pull them up.”

I planned to make the hole as slowly as possible, but there was always the possibility that something might go wrong.

The already-unpredictable current had a record of screwing us over.

If we did not want to get caught up in it, we needed some kind of safety measure.

“How will we decide who stays and who climbs first?”

Ratel asked as soon as I finished explaining.

“Kweek, it has already been decided.”

I pointed at the dimwit with my finger.

“Kweek, the dimwit and I will stay and clear the rock. Kweek, you climb the cliff first with the leader. Kweek, so that if an emergency happens, you can pull the dimwit and me up.”

“Kweek?!”

“Kweek!! That is absurd!!”

“Do you really think that arrangement makes sense after everything that happened?”

Even the two orcs, who had been quietly listening to Ratel and me, joined in opposing my plan.

It had become a three-on-one fight, but I had no intention of backing down.

“Kweek, where else is there a more efficient division of roles than this? Kweek, even you know leaving the leader and the dimwit together is a bad idea, right?”

When I gestured toward the two orcs with my eyes, Ratel, who had been about to argue, briefly closed his mouth.

Even in your opinion, leaving something to those two must not seem reliable at all.

Moreover, the leader already had a splendid record behind him.

It would also be annoying if we were swept up by the water current again and had to climb back up.

“Kweek, and it would not be very efficient for the leader to stay behind and clear the rock either.”

“Why are you excluding the option where I open the waterway with the dimwit?”

“Kweek, that sounds good. Kweek, there is even the fun of guessing where the dimwit will shove his head this time.”

When Ratel’s gaze followed where I pointed, the dimwit flinched.

“.......”

Perhaps recalling the dimwit’s record, Ratel closed his mouth.

“Kweek, or there is also the method where I go down alone.”

“What about the option where I go down alone?”

“Kweek, obviously not.”

At my firmness, Ratel raised one eyebrow as though asking for the reason.

“Kweek, do not think about abandoning me between those two.”

Just the dimwit alone was already more than enough trouble, but two of them?

Just imagining being tormented from both sides by the dimwit, who strangely followed me, and the leader, who glared at that with displeasure, made me feel as though I had already aged ten years.

Ratel looked at my utterly fed-up face and gave a faint laugh.

What is so funny?

I narrowed my eyes and glared at him, but Ratel did not erase the trace of laughter from his lips.

“Were you not planning to leave the ‘bait’ role to me and stay here? I was wondering what confidence you had to remain behind, when even now you are reacting with such disgust.”

His tone was full of sarcasm, but it did not particularly bother me.

There was something wrong in his words.

“Kweek, it does not matter how long your ‘role’ takes.”

When I turned my gaze, I saw the dimwit looking down beneath the cliff and the leader scolding him.

By then, only one of them would remain anyway.