Chapter 158 :

Chapter 158 - The Leader and the Dimwit (4)

It did not take long for the leader, who had brought the dimwit out and climbed back up, to regret his choice.

The dimwit was truly astonishingly lacking in every aspect.

When ordered to go hunting, he would get shoved around here and there by the others and barely manage to catch one small bird.

If he could not even catch a bird, he would steal bird eggs and bring them back, only to break all of those as well.

“Kweek!! You stupid bastard!! Kweek!! Of course eggs will break if you hold them in both hands while coming back!! Kweek!! It would have been better to bring the whole nest instead!!”

The fellow even nearly rolled off the cliff while sleeping.

“Kweek!! You idiot!! Kweek!! If it looks like you are going to fall, you should somehow take a spot on the inside!! Kweek!! Do you want to fall again and die!!”

The leader had never known how to speak gently to begin with, but thanks to the dimwit, the number of times he shouted increased greatly.

It felt as if his physical condition was worsening from shouting at the fellow.

But even so, the reason the leader did not kill the dimwit was, ironically, because he was that stupid.

The number of fellows waiting for him to grow weaker was increasing little by little.

The frequency with which he crushed those who dared show such signs also increased.

At dawn, when everyone was deeply asleep, the leader quietly rose again today.

After confirming that no one but himself was awake, the leader slowly moved his feet.

There was one purpose to his secret stroll.

The leader’s secret hobby, or perhaps his new habit, unknown to anyone.

It was slipping out of the cave before dawn ended and watching the two humans across the river until the sun rose.

Well, to be precise, the leader thought of it as surveillance.

No matter how he thought about it, he could not understand how two humans could stubbornly continue living in a place where a human had been torn apart and eaten by orcs.

Moreover, one of them was physically impaired, and the other was a human so young he could not even look after himself. That was another thing the leader found questionable.

‘Perhaps those bastards are watching us too.’

So that whenever the river dries up, they can invade the cave.

If that was the case, he thought he would eat those bastards before anyone else the next time the river dried up.

‘So this is surveillance, nothing more, and necessary surveillance at that.’

The leader whispered to himself as if making a vow, then looked at the door far away that was still firmly shut.

In truth, there had been no great change like the leader had been wary of until now.

As if the river having dried up completely had been a lie, it was now flowing proudly with full abundance, and the humans on the other side of the river repeated the same fixed routine every day.

Today too, the large human would come out first and maintain the boat tied by the riverside, and before long, the small human would follow him out.

Among fellows for whom it was only natural that each day was a fierce succession of power struggles, the dimwit….seemed to have no thoughts at all.

Even as anger surged up, the leader could not help but admire it.

How did a fellow like that come into being?

No, perhaps the fall from the cliff had made his deficiency even worse.

The fellow’s greatest interest seemed to be only how he could eat more food than what he had caught himself.

Moreover, whenever he looked into the fellow’s blank eyes, even amid his rising anger, he felt a slight sense of relief.

At least that bastard did not seem likely to covet the leader’s position.

Besides, getting angry at a fellow with not a single outstanding ability as an orc had an unexpected effect.

It seemed the sight of him shouting at the fellow looked different in the eyes of the others.

When one showed strength, others naturally became wary.

After realizing that the sight of him raising his blood pressure over the dimwit’s stupidity appeared to the others as proof that he was still strong, it became easier for the leader to endure his murderous intent toward the dimwit.

In a way, a symbiotic relationship had been formed.

* * *

After several meaningless quarrels between the two, the father would say, “That little mouth of yours!” and stretch the small human’s mouth, and the small human would struggle.

That playful argument meant the true beginning of morning.

It meant the large human would take the boat out to fish, and then the small human would watch his parent grow distant with anxious eyes.

This was the daily life of the two humans that the leader knew.

He could not possibly watch beyond that.

Because staying under the sunlight any longer than that was something his skin could not endure.

‘If those bastards did not keep having useless arguments, I could confirm more.’

While the leader hid himself, swallowing his complaint, the door of the house finally opened.

“Kweek, what?”

The leader muttered without realizing it at the one who appeared after opening the door, then quickly shut his mouth again.

The one who had opened the door and come out was the small human.

As if expressing with his whole body that he had come outside first without his father knowing, the child carefully and awkwardly closed the door of the house.

As if he did not know that the only people near here were his father and himself, he kept looking around again and again.

Well, there is one orc secretly watching here.

The small human did not seem to notice that.

Judging by how he approached the boat tied by the river with a greatly relieved face.

The human child began clumsily imitating his father with awkward hand movements.

He repaired the net, organized the boat, and loaded bait onto the boat.

Watching that, a sneer appeared on the leader’s lips.

Because he expected that today’s argument between the large human and the human child would grow long.

The things the small human had touched in his own way looked utterly sloppy even to his eyes.

To the point that all of them would have to pass through the large human’s hands once again anyway.

Why is he doing something so useless?

Does he want to prove his usefulness?

It was like a completely useless fellow creating more work by doing something unnecessary.

The small human, knowing none of this, approached the door with a proud face.

Well, is he going to boast about that mess to his father?

Thinking that there could be nothing more pathetic than that, the leader watched the small human.

But contrary to the leader’s expectations, the human child did not go into the house and call his father.

Instead, he bent over and crouched in front of the door.

Unable to understand what in the world he was doing, the leader glared at the small human, and his eyes gradually widened.

The small human was clearing away the large and small stones on the ground.

The leader blankly stared at the small human’s back.

Suddenly, the leader realized that the small human had grown quite a bit.

Yes, he is a human child, so of course he grows.

The reason he had newly become aware of this fact was that the leader had watched the human every day, but the leader himself did not know that.

The leader right now did not have the leisure to think about such things either.

The leader hurriedly tore his eyes away from the small human and turned his body.

There was still plenty of time before the sun rose, but he did not want to stay any longer.

His chest felt soft, and he felt as if he would vomit.

It must be because those human bastards are disgusting, the leader vaguely thought.

Today too, the leader sorted the prey his subordinates had caught, distributed it, and guarded his place.

It was something that had been repeated every day, yet today, strangely, he could not focus, as if his mind were floating.

It was because of stray thoughts unlike himself that kept interfering.

Had the large human gotten angry after seeing the messy work the small human had prepared?

His head said of course he had, but his instinct strangely said the large human would have shown a different reaction.

He could not imagine exactly what reaction it would be, but he just vaguely felt that would be the case.

And tomorrow too, they would probably fight over something trivial as if nothing had happened.

Those bastards would probably spend each day like that until they died.

No, would it not continue even after death?

The small human would grow up and make another small human, and even after the large human died, those days would continue forever for them.

And the more that certainty grew, the more his stomach churned again.

It felt like unease, or like he might vomit. What the hell is wrong with me?

As the leader irritably struck his chest, an unsettling assumption crossed his mind.

‘Could my physical condition be worsening again?’

The leader could no longer be as certain of his strength as before.

He did not have confidence that he would definitely win if someone challenged him.

Though he was always raising his voice and trying hard not to reveal that anxiety.

But today’s leader was not in a state where he could skillfully hide his agitation as well as usual.

And among them, there were always quick-witted fellows.

“Kweek...”

The leader, who had been sitting in the center, lost in blank thought, looked up at an orc who had come to offer him prey.

The leader noticed that the fellow’s gaze had changed subtly.

The other party had probably noticed his abnormality too.

That meant this fellow could decide at any moment to attack him and seize the leader’s position.

The leader glared at him while hiding the tension in his eyes.

A silent battle of nerves continued.

The one who let go of the taut string of tension first was the opposing orc.

Because the fellow had finally decided to attack the leader.

The leader, confirming murderous intent filling the fellow’s eyes, quickly gripped his weapon.

Even so, he could not completely erase his unease.

Because the softness in his chest had not yet fully faded.

Thinking that all of this was because of humans, the leader rose.

It was the moment he was about to begin a fight in which he could not be certain of victory.

Something round flying toward him entered the leader’s view.

What is that?

When he frowned at the presence that made it impossible to focus on the battle, the opposing orc also noticed something strange and turned his head, following the leader’s gaze.

Crack.

The sound of something thin breaking spread, along with a fishy smell.

“Kweek...!”

A small scream from the orc, who had taken the flying object to the face, spread along with it.

The source of the fishy smell was an egg.

One egg that had suddenly fallen from the sky had interfered.

After kicking the orc, who was repeatedly wiping away the raw egg that had gotten into his eyes, the leader turned his head toward the direction the egg had flown from out of nowhere.

The dimwit was there.

Holding a small nest preciously in his arms, the fellow was watching the leader’s mood.

He was a bastard who listened disgustingly well to a single word.

If he could only bring eggs, he had truly carried out the leader’s advice to bring the whole nest instead.

“Kwee, Kweek...!”

When their eyes met, the frightened fellow hurriedly performed the meaningless act of hiding the nest behind his back.

The moment the leader saw that pathetic sight, he let out a hollow laugh without realizing it.

He probably had not done it on purpose.

He must have tripped over his own feet and almost fallen again.

While trying to regain his balance, the recoil must have sent one egg flying all the way here.

But the moment the leader saw the fellow’s blank eyes, he could not help but feel the tension drain away.

That fellow probably would not change.

He had been stupid and blank since birth.

At least until the leader died, he would probably stay that way.

Thinking that, his suddenly churning insides became comfortable.

Once again, he did not know the reason, but he did not care about such things.

‘My heart has become comfortable, so what do I care about anything else?’

After that day, the leader stopped going up at dawn to secretly watch the humans.

Thinking that watching those bastards was only disgusting and brought him nothing good.