Chapter 148 :

Chapter 148 - Time Limit

Becoming the one-armed leader meant that he, too, had devoured the previous leader and become the leader of the group.

Contrary to my expectation that, no matter how stupid he was, he would at least remember the leader he had devoured, he became visibly flustered and could not answer my question at all.

“Kweek, you must have once lived as that creature’s subordinate too, right? Kweek, and yet you have no memory of him?”

“Kweek, wh-why does that matter?”

I asked again, but the leader avoided answering.

It seemed he truly remembered nothing.

What exactly was the position of leader to them?

It was said that climbing higher was a living creature’s instinct, but I had a feeling there was something more than that.

“Kweek, you said it yourself. Kweek, that after killing the leader, such things would naturally become known. Kweek, then does that mean if I kill you, I will also come to know everything you know about humans?”

“K-Kweek, I told you I will make you the leader! Kweek, I said I did not need the leader’s position!”

He shouted in terror before anything even happened.

“Kweek, you said such things were not originally decided by my will.”

“Kweek, f-fine, I take that back too. Kweek, someone as bland as you is not suited to being a leader. Kweek, you would not be able to handle it.”

He spoke as if becoming a leader would inevitably make one hate humans.

What a remarkably unsurprising story.

After all, every demonic beast in this world hated humans anyway.

Now that I thought about it, the book had never explained the reason for that.

But was that not how things usually were?

Conflict begins from small differences, and once it grows beyond control, the starting point disappears from everyone’s concern.

What remains is only emotion that has festered until it rots.

When I did not seem to sympathize with his words, the leader beat his chest in frustration.

“Kweek, we were deceived by humans. Kweek, they made us into this. Kweek, we were deceived!”

“Kweek, what promise did humans make?”

I asked while killing the expectation that I might finally learn the truth.

At last, the leader’s mouth slowly opened.

“Kweek, they did not give us what they promised. Kweek, and......”

The leader suddenly stopped speaking.

“Kweek, and what?”

When I urged him to answer, the leader frowned.

“Kweek, I do not know. Kweek, I have no reason to teach you.”

......Should I just kill him here?

Perhaps my expression, mixed with pathetic disbelief and irritation, looked rather amusing, because a smile appeared on the leader’s face.

Apparently, seeing me get angry pleased him.

“Kweek, do you even know what you are saying right now? Kweek, you hate humans as if you want to kill them, even though you know nothing?”

“Kweek, and what of it?”

The leader asked with his brows furrowed.

What of it?

Naturally, that was a serious problem.

“Kweek, when you hate someone, you need to know the exact reason.”

“Kweek, why should I?”

The leader asked as though he still could not understand.

Not even knowing such an obvious truth—orc-kind truly had many problems.

“Kweek, because only by knowing the reason can you hate them more certainly.”

Perhaps my answer was unexpected, or perhaps he still found it difficult to understand, because the leader tilted his head to the side.

“Kweek, what happens if it is not certain?”

“Kweek, if your direction is wrong, you will not be able to return.”

By the time one realizes that the reason they had been chasing was ultimately nothing at all, it is already too late.

Anger is like driving a nail, so force must be focused in one place.

Just as hammering a bent nail is meaningless.

If the nail’s direction is even slightly crooked, it may pierce a place it was never meant to.

And once a hole is made, some trace remains no matter what one does.

After chewing over my words, the leader seemed to conclude that thinking was annoying.

He shook his head fiercely.

“Kweek!! But it does not change the fact that they deceived us. Kweek, because humans broke their promise, we live like this.”

What did he mean by living like this?

If he meant being trapped and isolated on the island, was that not something he should resent Sierra Abiran for?

“Kweek, the one who imprisoned you here was Sierra Abiran.”

When I corrected the leader’s misconception, his face hardened.

“Kweek, what?”

Several emotions stormed across the face of the leader as he stupidly asked again.

Anger, emptiness, fear, then anger again.

While that simple and obvious series of changes passed, the leader stared blankly into the air like someone who had lost his mind.

“Kweek, hey, are you all right?”

Startled by his abnormal state, I called out to him, and the leader’s eyes, which had been wandering vacantly, turned toward me.

After his quiet yet violent fluctuations ended, the leader returned to his usual self, filled only with displeasure.

“Kweek!! But it does not change the fact that they deceived us. Kweek, because humans broke their promise, we live like this.”

As if the memory in the middle had been erased entirely, the leader repeated the same words.

As though he himself had not noticed that such a violent emotional change had struck him.

* * *

There had been no mention in the original story that orcs suffered from short-term memory loss.

More precisely, there had also been no scene where the protagonist conversed with them this much.

There had been no need.

What reason would he have to converse with demonic beasts that could be massacred most simply?

The same was true of every demonic beast the protagonist met afterward.

Why would they need to face each other and hold some friendly conversation?

They were going to kill and be killed anyway.

Right.

They were going to kill and be killed.

When I remembered the rule that had been obscured by the sudden intrusion of this new truth, my mind cleared.

Whatever Sierra Abiran had done in the past, and whatever promise humans of the past had made with the orcs, there existed a future that would not change.

Once my direction became clear, I could choose the next question to ask the leader, who was looking at me with a puzzled expression.

For now, I only had to extract whatever information I could from him.

Whether that truth would help the protagonist advance the story or not was a matter to judge later.

“Kweek, from when do your memories begin?”

“Kweek, what?”

“Kweek, I am asking which memories from after you were born remain, and how far back they go.”

The one-armed orc stared at me blankly, as though he had been struck on the head.

“K-Kweek, no. Kweek, I do not remember much from before I became leader. Kweek, before that, I knew nothing and simply......”

Perhaps my question had been sudden, because the leader, who was groping through his memories, trailed off.

“Kweek, so you have no memories from before that.”

And this was a problem I had never once considered.

That the old orc in front of me had perhaps never had a single conversation since the day he was born.

An orc’s lifespan was roughly around eighty years.

Judging by how thoroughly aged he was, his age was probably similar.

He likely obtained the leader’s position when he was at his healthiest, perhaps around ten years old.

If so, that meant he had spent roughly seventy years without anything that could really be called conversation, aside from giving orders.

It also meant that until then, he had simply repeated eating, moving, and fighting according to instinct like every other orc, only to one day suddenly find himself among companions whose intelligence was far below his own.

After all, the only person he could have spoken with had already been killed by his own hands.

That is rather......suffocating.

“Kweek, what did you say?”

Perhaps I had muttered aloud without realizing it, because the leader asked back.

“Kweek, nothing.”

Pushing aside useless sentiment, I returned the subject to its original purpose.

“Kweek, so, what were the humans supposed to give you? Kweek, don’t tell me you cannot remember this either.”

“Kweek, I know that much!! Kweek, who do you take me for, a fool......”

He raised his voice in irritation, then trailed off.

Anyone could see that his face was not one of someone who properly remembered.

Seeing his pupils tremble like that, it seemed even he did not properly recognize his own condition.

Whether it was a side effect of having the leader’s position half taken away, or whether some mechanism had been placed to erase the name Sierra Abiran from his memories entirely, I did not know.

The leader clutched his head as though trying to remember something.

“Kweek, I, that is......”

It was the moment he opened his mouth while holding his head as if squeezing out his memories.

“K-Kweek.......”

What interrupted the leader’s effort was a timid cry.

“Kweek, what is it!!”

The leader, who shouted at the sudden interruption, glared at the dimwit, who had somehow approached and joined the conversation.

Though he froze when he saw the dimwit pushing forward not only that tiny voice, but also a modest half-eaten fish.

At the dimwit’s obedient attitude, which anyone could see was an offering of food to him, the anger vanished from the leader’s expression.

“Kweek, calling this prey too......”

The leader muttered in a much softer voice.

Despite his grumbling tone, the one-armed bastard looked rather pleased.

That was only natural.

After all, the fact that the dimwit had offered him food meant that the dimwit still recognized the one-armed bastard as leader.

However, the dimwit immediately dragged the slightly improved mood of the leader back into the mud.

“K-Kweek.......”

Because he carefully held out an intact fish in front of me as well.

The muscles on the leader’s face crumpled.

My own face as I looked at the dimwit was probably not very different.

Why are you giving this to me?

With a complicated expression, I looked down at the fish placed there.

There was no way the dimwit had suddenly been filled with some strange impulse to feed me, and anyone could see this was the posture of an orc bringing food to his leader.

Which meant that the dimwit had accepted me as his leader.

Thanks to that, I felt the one-armed leader glare at me with ferocious intensity.

What changes just because you glare at me?

“Kweek, I do not need it.”

“K-Kweek?”

At my refusal, the dimwit pushed the fish toward me again with a bewildered expression.

“Kweek, I said I am not eating it. Kweek, give it to your leader.”

Perhaps bewildered by the repeated refusal, the dimwit’s hand wandered helplessly over the fish.

“Kweek!! Hurry up and accept it!! Kweek!! Why are you not accepting it?! Kweek, are you saying you cannot accept something the dimwit gives you?!”

Apparently, that sight frustrated him greatly, because in the end, the leader could not hold back and questioned me.

“Kweek, the dimwit or whatever else aside, I do not like eating raw fish.”

The amount I had forced into my stomach because I had no choice had been my limit.

Besides, fish already smelled bad enough, and now the meaning of being offered to a leader had been added on top of that.

It went beyond making me lose my appetite and became outright unpleasant.

The leader narrowed his eyes.

“Kweek!! You eat food given by humans just fine, but you cannot eat what the dimwit gives you?”

I had no idea why the conversation had jumped there, but I shook my head at the unwelcome misunderstanding.

“Kweek, how are those the same? Kweek, your problem was that you hated something because humans gave it to you, while mine is that I hate raw fish.”

“Kweek, if you hate eating fish raw, then what are you going to eat? Kweek, are you going to graze on grass?”

Grass would be better.

Scales going down my throat, slick bodily fluids, and the fishy smell.

Not a single part of it was something a person should eat.

“Kweek, whether I graze on grass or tear into a fish head is not a matter for you to interfere in.”

When I snapped coldly, the leader closed his mouth with a startled expression.

He seemed to listen well at times, but whenever his pride was wounded in front of the dimwit, he rushed in like that.

I could not tell whether he instinctively felt a sense of crisis toward the dimwit, or whether he was simply clinging to his pride.

The thoroughly heated bastard stood up from his spot.

Thanks to his hot-blooded temperament, and thanks to the dimwit’s intervention, the first opportunity to dig out the leader’s secret had flown away.

I did not take my eyes off the dimwit as he watched my reaction, then followed the leader away.

Was it truly a coincidence that, of all times, he had suddenly brought food to both of us now?

* * *

Even above the heads of Ran, Ratel, and their party as they continued their noisy operation, quiet movement began.

It was a small change that occurred in the eternal home of the orcs, now bereft of its guardian.

It began with a small heat.

A small heat that began from the place the leader had always guarded.

The hot energy born in the mire, where the hands of countless orc leaders had brushed past, gradually grew in size.

The moment the stagnant annihilating energy finally exhaled a hot breath, the mire was no longer an empty space.

A black and heated form slowly crawled out and began filling the mire.

Its movements were heavy and slow.

As though it would not tolerate impatience ruining the work, the black substance was shaping its result.

And this meant that Jing, who was wandering through some memory of the past, had little time left.