Chapter 150 :

Chapter 150 - I Noticed

One human and one grumbling orc climbed upward, while the dimwit and I, who remained, began working step by step.

Splitting the rock was not that difficult once one learned the trick.

After all, all we had to do was create a path along which the rock could split, like the perforations made so that a stamp could be torn off easily.

The task more troublesome than making holes in the rock was obtaining the tool needed to make those holes.

In the process, several more rounds of persuasion had to take place in order to borrow the leader’s rusted sword for a while.

As a result, moved by my sincere efforts, the leader handed over his sword.

Though it came with excessive praise: “Kweek, take it, you tiresome bastard.”

Fortunately, despite the rust covering its exterior, the leader’s sword was sturdy.

After all, even as I repeatedly chipped away at the rock’s outer surface, it showed no sign of breaking until the remaining width of the rock became thinner than the blade.

There was no way he had made it himself, so had he taken this from humans too?

Thud!

After confirming that water was flowing down through the sword I had driven in, I turned my gaze toward the dimwit, who had been diligently clearing away the rock debris beside me.

The ropes connecting me and the dimwit respectively extended outside the pit we had dug out.

Above, Ratel and the leader would be waiting for us to send a signal.

As long as they did not get distracted by another pointless fight, there was nothing to worry about.

The problem was that the two fine specimens above could not stop having those junk-food-like fights.

I suddenly began to feel uneasy.

Surely they would not commit the foolish act of losing their grip on the rope while fighting among themselves again, but entrusting one’s lifeline to another person’s hands was still not desirable.

Thunk!

I pulled out the sword I had driven in with speed and made another hole right beside it, and the gap between the two holes widened, increasing the amount of water flowing out.

“Kweek, there is not much left now. Kweek, once the remaining part breaks, the water will rise in an instant. Kweek, when I give the signal before the current grows stronger, climb up. Kweek, understand?”

When I spoke to the creature carrying the piled-up debris outside, the dimwit, who had been moving the debris like a mole, nodded.

Two more strikes or so would probably create a path wide enough for the water to pass through.

The work had proceeded more smoothly than expected.

The dimwit had also moved more briskly than I had anticipated.

After swinging the sword once again, I caught my breath for a moment and looked at the dimwit, who was quietly waiting for the work to finish.

This time too, he was calmly sitting near the entrance while following my movements with his eyes.

Suddenly, the knot tied tightly around his waist caught my eye.

Though I had followed the leader’s explanation, perhaps because I had tied it myself, it particularly drew my attention.

There does not seem to be anything unusual about it.

It was merely a common knot that could be seen anywhere.

Could be seen anywhere......

Thunk!

The instant one fact surfaced in my mind, I forgot to control my strength and swung the sword.

The tip of the sword, having lost its direction, struck a place completely different from where I had originally aimed.

“Kweek?”

Perhaps sensing that something was strange, the dimwit rose from his seat.

I turned back and took my time examining him.

More precisely, I examined the shape of the knot tied around his waist.

The reason I had thought it could be seen anywhere was because I had personally seen that way of tying a rope with my own eyes not long ago.

And from very close by, at that.

The child from the cabin and the owner of the cabin had tied ropes in that manner too.

Perhaps because of the final excuse of asking to have the boat untied, the knot in my memory was unusually clear.

The dimwit was looking at me with a face that knew nothing.

The cabin’s father and child had said they never came outside at night.

That was an order from the temple, so there should have been no lie in those words.

If so, that meant the leader had secretly gone out during the day and watched the cabin’s father and child.

More often and more stealthily than I had imagined.

Being able to imitate even the small habits of another just by watching from afar could not be explained by merely saying he had watched them, and the fact that the cabin’s father and child never learned of it until the end meant that this behavior had continued in secret.

The leader had observed the cabin’s father and child.

But why?

The leader was someone who constantly spoke of how much he hated humans.

Why would he endure the pain of his skin burning to secretly watch something he found so horrible with his own eyes?

What made this even more confusing was the correlation between the dimwit and the leader.

Although clumsy, the dimwit also had the habit of tying knots in a similar way to the leader.

Had he observed the cabin together with the leader?

Or had he done it secretly without the leader knowing?

I looked at the dimwit, who had fallen silent along with my silence.

The eyes I had thought were merely dull now felt like an abyss whose depth I could not know.

It seemed I had unconsciously lowered my guard toward him because of his foolish appearance.

In the original story, he had been someone who had fooled Ratel even without particularly great strength.

“Kweek, why did you observe humans together with the leader?”

Even at my direct question, he neither denied nor affirmed it.

Nor did he panic as usual or tilt his head with an expression that understood nothing.

He simply looked at me quietly.

It seemed he no longer intended to continue pretending to be the dimwit in front of me.

“Kweek, why did you go outside with the leader and observe humans?”

“.......”

Even at the continued question, the dimwit still gave no answer.

“Kweek, does the leader know you were with him?”

At a word to which the leader had also reacted sensitively, a change finally appeared in the dimwit’s expression.

His face twisted as though he had heard something unpleasant.

It was the moment that confirmed he was indeed the orc who had attacked the leader, but there were still unanswered questions.

Every question stemmed from the fact that I could not understand his purpose.

Why did he pretend to follow me, why did he pretend to be a fool who knew nothing, and why had he observed humans together with the leader?

The first two could be explained to some extent by saying he wanted to make the leader lower his guard.

But what about observing humans?

It felt like the discomfort of a purple puzzle piece of an entirely different type being mixed in.

“Kweek, what were you doing while watching the humans you hate so much? Kweek, were you planning to eat the two of them if only you could cross the river?”

Frustrated by his endless silence, I asked again, and the dimwit finally opened his mouth.

Kwaaaaaaaaa—

But as always, what tormented me most at important moments was damned timing.

The ominous sound ringing in my ears and the impact against my head were once again signals that a disadvantageous situation had begun.

Startled by the powerful current striking the back of my head, I turned my body.

The water current that had been flowing out slower than a stream just moments ago was suddenly bursting through the small gap in the rock.

At the alarming feeling, strength entered my body on its own.

I did not need to think deeply to know what was happening.

Since entering the cave, the causes that brought about this filthy feeling were usually fixed.

Damn it, here we go again.

What the hell is wrong with this damned cave?

Use strength, and it throws a fit.

Do not use strength, and it throws a fit.

Fail to use strength, and it throws a fit.

At this point, I even began to think that perhaps it would not be a bad idea to let the other side run wild as it pleased at least once.

I was sick of the current flooding at all times, but I could not keep complaining any longer.

Because the rock gap, which was widening moment by moment, began breaking apart with a cracking sound.

“Kweek, jump!!”

With a shout, I pulled the rope tied around my waist twice.

More precisely, one and a half times.

Because the moment I tried to pull the rope a second time, an absurd force dragged me upward and I let go of the rope.

Barely avoiding biting my tongue, I realized one thing as I was dragged along.

When he had dragged me around while I was human, it seemed he had at least been controlling his strength to some degree.

* * *

Almost at the same time that the dimwit and I were dragged out of the pit, the rock blocking the entrance failed to withstand the water pressure and shattered into pieces.

Having avoided being swept away along with the rock, the dimwit and I hung from the cliff and looked down at the water rising at a terrifying speed.

Whether he was frightened or overwhelmed by the wondrous sight, the dimwit could not take his eyes off the scene below.

“Kweek, stop looking elsewhere and climb up. Kweek, the water will rise in an instant.”

When I spoke to him, the dimwit finally raised his head.

He looked at me with strange eyes.

As if asking where the attitude that had been pressuring him until just moments ago had gone.

“Kweek, I can only hear your answer if you survive. Kweek, and you are not the only one I can ask.”

I was about to tell him not to do anything foolish and to climb up already when a familiar voice came from above.

“Kweek! What are you doing that makes you so slow?”

“If you are that pressed for time, just jump down. Time might pass a little slower if you are submerged underwater.”

It was the impatient leader’s urging and Ratel’s irritated rebuke from above.

As though reacting to the leader’s voice, the dimwit raised his head.

The leader, who had been glaring at Ratel as if he wanted to kill him, sensed his gaze and looked down.

“Kweek! Why are you dragging your feet! Kweek! Hurry up and climb!”

The reason he was urging the dimwit like that was probably not merely because time was precious.

He was raising his voice because he did not want to show it, but enduring the dimwit’s full weight with one arm would be difficult.

As if proving that, I looked at the lifeline connecting the leader and the dimwit as it swayed dangerously before my eyes.

The dimwit was the same.

At that instant, something resembling ominous resolve flashed through his eyes.

After briefly meeting my eyes, the dimwit gripped his lifeline tightly without hesitation.

Before it was too late, I hurriedly untied the knot at my waist with one hand, while reaching toward the dimwit’s rope with the other.

At the same time, the dimwit pulled the leader down.

The sound of the leader failing to withstand the dimwit’s strength and falling, and the sound of his scream drawing closer, felt incredibly slow.

In reality, it might have only been a few seconds.

Judging by how the faint smile spreading across the dimwit’s expressionless face also seemed so slow.

Whatever grand plan he had, I had no intention of letting the situation go his way.

I drove the hand that had untied my knot straight into the wall.

The impact of the fall struck my arm directly, breaking it for an instant and bringing extreme pain with it.

Thanks to the orc’s recovery ability, it healed quickly, but it was pain that naturally made curses rise.

That insane protagonist bastard sure does these mad things with a calm face.

Resolving to tell him later that what he did was not merely reckless but outright insane, I raised my head upward.

Then I shouted to the one who should now have both hands free.

“Kweek, Ratel, grab the leader!”