Chapter 154 :

Chapter 154 - Learning

Ratel did have some sudden, out-of-nowhere sides to him, but there was always a reason of his own behind them.

There must be a reason he suddenly started saying something this insane.

I could not think of any particular trigger that would have made him change his mind.

If there was anything that came to mind, it would only be the short time on top of the cliff when Ratel and the leader had been left alone together.

“Kweek, what did the leader say on top of the cliff?”

Perhaps my guess was right, because Ratel organized his thoughts for a moment before opening his mouth.

“There is an enemy threatening your life. You have one final chance left to either run away or attack him.”

Even though a sudden role-play had begun, I quietly listened to him.

His expression was far too serious to dismiss it as nonsense.

“What do you think could be important enough to throw away that one and only chance?”

No rebuke came out, asking where in the world such a thing could exist.

Because several choices in the original story, where this fellow standing right before my eyes had thrown away his life and ruined things, came to mind immediately.

But those fellows were orcs.

I had already confirmed the instincts of orcs several times.

So, right now, I should dismiss Ratel’s suspicion by answering that he was simply mistaken.

But for some reason, right now, the leader and the father and son in the cabin overlapped in my mind.

And for some reason, right now, the useless fact that the leader had watched those two closely enough to memorize human habits came to mind.

* * *

While I was unable to give any answer, Ratel resolved his agitation on his own.

As if asking me for my opinion had all been my imagination, the look in his eyes hardened again.

“No, I asked something unnecessary. That is not what matters.”

He said it while looking at me, but it also sounded like he was saying it to himself.

The fellow turned the topic to what he considered important, the dimwit we had to capture.

“How do you plan to lure the dimwit back? Everything we thought we knew until now was all something he had fabricated. We know nothing about the dimwit.”

“Kweek, yes, though it was only for a moment, we were completely deceived to the point that we even forgot we had to suspect him.”

I willingly followed the topic he had changed to.

Ratel nodded.

“We were completely off from the beginning.”

No, everything is finally returning to its proper place.

Because from now on, the one we had to face would be the leader from the original story.

The one who had just left was no longer the dimwit, but the cunning and cruel leader from the original story.

In other words, the situation could not help but be favorable to us.

I could be confident that I would win against the dimwit.

But along with that certainty of victory, an uneasy certainty also slowly began to reveal itself.

A certain conviction that even if we beat the dimwit, we would not be the ones laughing in the end.

Before that unease could create ripples in my heart, I covered that door and opened my mouth.

“Kweek, first, there is something we have to do right away.”

What is it?

To Ratel, who asked with his eyes, I gestured toward the leader.

“Kweek, first, knock that bastard unconscious.”

“Kweek!! What is this bastard saying now...!”

The leader, who had been pointed at while off guard, tried to protest to me, but his words did not continue to the end.

Because Ratel, as if he had been waiting, struck the back of his neck hard.

* * *

The food storage was the most important place after the center guarded by the leader.

Since they lived underground on an island surrounded by a river, the inside of the cavern had its own system prepared for that.

In other words, what was more important and what was less important were strictly divided.

If it seemed like water would rush into the food storage, other passages would naturally collapse and prevent the water from invading inside.

If this was used well, one could seize a position favorable to oneself no matter how strong the opponent was.

The one who used this better than anyone else against Ratel in the original story was the leader, the current dimwit.

* * *

If only three problems were solved, capturing the dimwit and locking him up together with the leader would not be that difficult.

The first problem was the leader.

I looked down at the fellow who had cleanly lost consciousness from Ratel’s single blow.

This was a problem that could not be solved by my hands right now anyway.

For now, if the available choices were not to my liking, postponing the problem until I found another solution was the best method.

After putting the first problem on hold, the second remaining problem was the movement of the river water, which had made fools of us several times.

I looked down beneath the rock wall, where the water was slowly beginning to recede.

At that speed, it would not even take thirty minutes for the water to drain and reveal the passage leading to the food storage.

As long as the river water did not move on its own again.

And the final problem.

I secretly took a deep breath and turned my head toward the remaining problem.

“Kweek, it would be better for you to go back around here.”

“.......”

Fortunately, there was no response like asking what nonsense I was spouting.

Ratel listened to me far more calmly than expected.

At least it is not the worst.

“Kweek, as you have seen, the leader will eventually die by the dimwit’s hands. Kweek, I will stay here and watch to make sure the dimwit does not try anything else foolish.”

Ratel still did not interrupt my words or cut me off.

Yes, after several pointless arguments with that protagonist bastard that never reached a conclusion, this much seemed enough for acceptance and understanding, if not trust, to bloom between him and me.

“Kweek, I have already said since earlier that the movement of the river water is unusual, so you know that well too. Kweek, delaying any longer will not do us any good.”

Of course, that was not the only reason I was explaining it to Ratel.

There was no need to say out loud my extremely personal opinion that it would not be good for Ratel to stay here and witness the final moments of the leader and the dimwit.

“Kweek, I will tell you the way out. Kweek, the path we came from must have been submerged by the current. Kweek, once the entrance is revealed, you go inside and climb upward. Kweek, if you keep climbing, the leader’s nest will appear. Kweek, you have already been there before, so you should be able to find the way from there, right? Kweek, if you go out like that and use your power, the river water will start going wild again, and then you...”

My voice, which had been explaining on and on, gradually grew smaller.

All this time, while my instructions continued, Ratel remained silent.

At this point, my relief was turning into anxiety.

There was no way that bastard would obediently listen to me to this extent.

In the end, when I stopped speaking, only then did Ratel roll his eyes and stare straight at me.

His calm golden eyes quietly pressured me.

In the end, I was the one who raised both hands first.

“....Kweek, say something. Kweek, if you do not want to go, then say you do not want to go.”

At my weak declaration of defeat, Ratel finally opened his mouth.

“No, you are right. In this situation, it would be correct for me to leave. I will follow your words.”

The anxiety evolved one step into fear.

“....Kweek, are you sick somewhere?”

Yes, unless he was sick, there was no way to explain it.

And if he was sick somewhere, that was an even bigger problem.

He could not be sick right now.

If he was going to get sick, he had to get sick after destroying the holy relic.

Ratel quietly looked at my worried face, then slowly nodded.

If he admitted with his own mouth that he was sick, then he had to be really seriously sick.

While I wondered whether I had to find some legendary elixir that would cure him, Ratel continued speaking.

“To be honest, I am a little tired. I have been tormented by orcs until now, and I even fought an orc to save you, so it is only natural that I would be tired.”

….If he was talking about what happened in the pit, had the orc that fell down not been sent flying with one kick from Ratel?

Somehow, the more he spoke, the closer his words seemed to get to nonsense, and my brow drew together.

But the nonsense from earlier was perfectly logical compared to the bullshit that followed.

“I am so tired that I might unknowingly use Manis on the way. It would be a big problem if such an accident happened before leaving the island, no, in front of the food storage. A tragedy might occur where all four of us are trapped helplessly inside the storage.”

I glared at Ratel, who was shamelessly pretending to be weak.

It seemed the protagonist bastard had learned a new way to make people angry.

Who taught that bastard something so useless?

* * *

The one-armed orc opened his eyes with a start at the sensation of someone shaking him awake.

At the same time, the memories from right before he lost consciousness poured into his head.

“Kweek, first, knock that bastard unconscious.”

A calm voice, and an annoying gaze looking down at him.

And the intense impact delivered to the back of his neck.

Realizing what had happened, the leader used his anger as fuel and raised his body.

“Kweek, that damned bastard...!”

The leader, who had risen while muttering curses, met the two eyes quietly looking down at him.

The startled leader nearly screamed, but fortunately, he avoided that pathetic sight because he quickly realized who the owner of that gaze was.

The one looking at him was neither the insolent orc nor the human.

“Kwee, Kweek...! What are you doing?!”

The leader lowered his voice and scolded the dimwit.

Normally, the dimwit would have been frightened in advance and backed away, but this time was different.

The leader’s eyes widened in surprise at the hand urgently covering his mouth.

After placing a finger to his own lips and signaling him to be quiet, the dimwit slowly withdrew his hand only after becoming certain that the leader would no longer raise his voice.

The leader gaped in unfamiliarity at the dimwit, who was pointing calmly toward the other side of the cliff.

“Kweek...!”

Only after the dimwit let out a small sound at his sluggish reaction did the leader come to his senses.

The one-armed orc looked back and forth between the dimwit and the direction the dimwit was pointing.

“Kweek, what is it? Kweek, are you saying we should cross over there?”

At the leader’s whisper, the dimwit nodded.

His eyes were full of certainty.

Had this bastard ever acted with such firm will before?

He was a slow-witted fellow who could never do anything properly, no matter what he was told to do.

If one took their eyes off him, he always caused accidents, and unless it was a situation like this, he was nothing but a useless dimwit.

But the orc pulling him along seemed to have no lacking parts at all. Rather, words like agile and sensible seemed to suit him.

As if bewitched, the leader rose and moved his feet as the dimwit led him.

After confirming that the leader was following him well, the dimwit carefully lowered his body beneath the cliff.

Startled, the leader looked down, and after discovering the dimwit nimbly climbing down the wall, he let out a hollow laugh.

Yes, when he thought about it, that was the natural form of an orc.

It was only that the dimwit had grown far too slowly. If he were originally an orc, he should have been able to climb up and down a cliff of that level from birth.

Then why has he pretended to be lacking all this time?

-Do you really not know, or are you pretending not to know?

The answer to the question that arose circled inside his head.

-That the one who attacked you was the dimwit.

Humans could not be trusted.

The insolent fellow who mingled with humans was the same.

It was just nonsense that the human bastard had spouted as he pleased.

‘Why would the dimwit attack me?’

The leader forcefully erased the voice repeating inside his head and carefully stepped down beneath the cliff, following the dimwit.

The leader, busy desperately erasing his unease, did not even notice the dimwit’s gaze following behind him.

Nor the dimwit’s two eyes, which did not seem to know how to leave the nape of his neck, where the wound had yet to heal.