Chapter 162 — Peeking
It was said that people sometimes displayed superhuman strength when faced with the fear of death.
Lia desperately hoped that such a miracle would come to her as well, but the world was not forgiving enough for everything to be solved through prayer and determination alone.
In the end, Lia’s full-powered strike failed to sever the orc’s neck.
Despite its size, the nimble orc was not foolish enough to simply watch Lia fall toward it.
Twisting its body, the orc easily avoided Lia’s strike and swung its hand as though swatting her away.
Horrified, Lia barely managed to raise her sword and block the orc’s hand.
That small movement saved her life.
Lia was certain that her neck would have snapped had she taken the blow directly.
Even the poorly landed attack carried enough force to send her entire body flying.
Lia rolled helplessly across the ground several times.
The sword slipped from Lia’s inexperienced grasp and fell to the ground beside her.
“Ugh .......”
Fortunately, the bag struck the ground first and reduced the impact, but it could do nothing about the pain in the area that had already been hit.
Lia curled up and exhaled, trying to endure the bone-rattling agony.
However, even that had to stop when a massive shadow fell over her body.
She did not need to raise her head to feel the creature’s gaze fixed on the back of her skull.
Should she get up and run immediately?
No.
This time, doing so would undoubtedly result in her body being torn apart.
Lia’s instincts told her as much.
Turning her back now would be no different from inviting death.
There was one thing Lia had learned from her limited experience.
It was how to face an enemy stronger than herself.
Make the opponent lower its guard and then aim for a vital point. She would probably have only one chance to attack.
She had to use it wisely.
Lia slowly relaxed the hand clutching the bag against her chest.
Then, like an injured animal, she let all the strength drain from her body and quietly watched the orc approach.
Her heart pounded so violently that it felt ready to burst out of her mouth, forcing Lia to grit her teeth.
Without hesitation, the monster reached toward the injured human.
As the rapidly approaching shadow fell over her, Lia squeezed her eyes shut.
The moment the orc’s hand grabbed Lia’s shoulder and began lifting her, she urgently but quietly felt around the ground.
Just as she managed to grasp the sword, her body was forcibly hauled upward.
The orc opened its mouth as though it intended to swallow Lia’s head whole.
Lia quickly shoved the bag in her left hand into the orc’s mouth.
Something inside the bag burst, and white powder poured through the opening and drifted between the orc and Lia.
Because of the overpowering odor, Lia realized a moment too late that it was Orc’s Pool.
She also discovered that it was quite effective at numbing an opponent’s nose.
“Kweeek!!”
While the orc staggered and shook its head from side to side, Lia raised the sword in her other hand high.
Then, without hesitation, she stabbed it into the orc’s neck.
“Kweeeeeek!!!”
With a scream of agony, the orc hurled Lia away.
Thanks to her determination not to loosen her grip until the very end, the sword embedded in the orc’s neck was ripped free and struck the ground alongside Lia.
The pain of having the sword violently torn from its neck must also have been considerable, because the orc screamed again.
There was no time to savor her small victory.
Lia quickly forced herself upright.
Her spine screamed after being slammed into the ground twice, but this was her final chance to escape from the orc.
Lia ran while dragging legs that refused to obey her properly.
Behind her, the heavy footsteps of the orc, which had belatedly recovered and begun chasing her, echoed through the forest.
However, Lia felt that if she looked back, terror would freeze her body in place.
There was one thing Lia failed to notice as she ran frantically on her injured legs.
It was the sword clutched in her hand.
More precisely, she failed to notice the heat and light emitted by Sierra’s holy relic.
She merely assumed that the wound cut by the blade was hurting.
She already had her hands full worrying about the orc closing the distance, leaving no room to notice such subtle changes.
At last, the orc covered the small distance Lia had barely managed to create.
Its hand was just about to touch Lia’s head.
Whoooooooooosh.
For a moment, Lia thought fear had caused her ears to stop functioning.
Either that, or the impact from the orc’s blow had damaged her eardrums.
However, she soon realized that the reason her ears had gone numb was none other than the tremendous roar shaking the entire island.
“K-Kweeek......!”
The orc, just as bewildered as Lia, seemed to forget her existence for a moment and looked around in every direction.
The source of the deafening roar soon revealed itself.
Lia stared blankly as the distant river swelled like a living creature. Every river surrounding the island moved in the same way.
It was as though they intended to leave no place whatsoever to escape.
Overwhelmed by a surge dozens or hundreds of times larger than the waterspout that had formed to swallow the ship, Lia could not even bring herself to move.
She could only remain rooted to the spot.
The river flooded the island in an instant.
“Kweeeeeek!!!”
Terrified, the orc abandoned Lia and began to flee.
However, Lia knew that its struggle was meaningless.
Unless someone redirected the current, like the person who had drawn the river away before, escape was impossible.
There was no one here capable of causing such a miracle.
Without realizing it, Lia tightened her grip on the sword in her hand.
As the water swallowed the island at a terrifying speed, absurdly enough, the only thing she could rely on was that monstrous sword.
After all, it was the final object bearing traces of Jing.
Clutching the sword tightly against herself, Lia squeezed her eyes shut and braced for the approaching impact.
She remained unaware that the holy relic in her arms was the beginning of all this, the true source of the disaster.
The river swallowed the unsuspecting Lia whole.
She was swept away by the current.
Toward the center.
To correct the broken promise.
* * *
Why is this guy so desperate?
There is nothing more I can do now.
Thanks to the dimwit clinging stubbornly to me and the rapidly rising water level, the fall happened faster than expected.
There was only one countermeasure available to me.
I inhaled as deeply as possible.
At the same moment my lungs began to ache from holding so much air, I struck the surface of the water.
Splash.
My prediction that the dimwit would devour the leader proved spectacularly wrong once again.
I looked down at the dimwit, who had chosen to fall with me while desperately clinging to my torso.
Not bad.
The dimwit had successfully screwed over Ratel this time as well, just as he had in the novel.
Not that I was in any position to criticize him.
Even though I already knew the dimwit’s methods, I had still fallen for them so blatantly.
I had no time for self-reproach anyway.
With two orcs tangled together, the speed at which we plunged was naturally even greater.
The only thing I could do was prepare to fall into the river, which now boasted a much higher water level.
Unlike me, who was considering various possibilities, the dimwit continued to cling to me with all his strength.
The sound of air bubbles escaping brushed past my ears, and I finally felt the dimwit let go.
Even he probably had not been prepared to drown together with me.
Unfortunately, I could not follow him back toward the surface.
I looked down at the whirlpool coiling around my ankle.
Why were there so many things eager to drag me underwater today?
Struggling would only consume my strength and accomplish nothing.
Leaving escape for later, I quietly surrendered myself to the force pulling me downward.
I was certain I had been submerged in rivers more often during the past few days than I had gone swimming throughout all twenty-nine years of my life in the real world.
On top of that, I also became convinced that the owner of the power lingering within the river must have possessed a similarly nasty personality.
Judging from how even the remaining power behaved entirely according to its whims, the actual First Abiran probably had a filthy temper as well.
The one fortunate point was that the water’s movement was not as violent as before.
As though keeping me trapped was not its purpose, the water slowly wrapped around me.
That did not change the unpleasant sensation that, from my perspective, felt like being swallowed whole.
[Keep the promise.]
If sound possessed color, the voice burrowing into my mind had become vividly distinct, as though achromatic tones had suddenly been painted in full color.
I am telling you, I have absolutely no intention of keeping some promise on someone else’s behalf.
Why should responsibility for an unfulfilled promise be passed on to that person’s descendant?
Besides, half of me was practically a complete stranger.
I had rejected the voice in the water and come this far because I refused to yield.
This time, however, I had a feeling I could no longer delay.
Every escape route had been sealed, leaving me no choice but to listen to what it had to say.
The one comforting fact was that I was alone in the water.
There was no one around me anymore.
Neither the leader waiting for a chance to kill me, nor the dimwit observing me as though studying me.
Most importantly, the protagonist was absent.
I could not decide whether I should be grateful for the consideration or marvel at the thoroughness.
Right.
For now, the only thing I could do was listen.
It did not seem like the voice intended to let me leave quietly this time either.
Holding my breath, I focused on it.
[Keep the promise. Si .......]
Fortunately, I gained something from it.
I discovered that the warning did not end with the vague command to simply keep the promise.
The voice was not speaking directly to me.
The reason it had always felt like a one-sided proclamation was that the voice was not addressing me from within the same time as mine.
There were faint words that continued beyond it.
My breath grew increasingly tight, but I ignored it and relaxed my body.
As I sank deeper into the water, the voice became slightly clearer.
[Keep the promise, ....... Otherwise.....the price.......]
The faint voice drifted farther away, almost within reach yet impossible to grasp.
It felt as though I would be able to hear it clearly with only a little more concentration.
I was aware that I resembled an insect throwing itself into a blazing hell, but I allowed myself to sink farther.
I descended until I knew it would be dangerous to climb back up in time to catch my breath.
At that moment, I finally heard what I wanted.
[Keep the promise, Sierra.]
As far as I knew, there was only one being in this world named Sierra.
Right.
There was no way the owner of a power that had endured for a thousand years was unrelated to this matter.
Judging from the circumstances, it had now been revealed that Emperor Sierra was indeed the one who had broken the promise.
One thing had become certain, but a new question arose at the same time.
Who was the person warning Emperor Sierra within this memory?
I wanted to sink farther and resolve my curiosity, but I truly could not breathe anymore.
Just as I prepared to rise and draw breath, the final thing that caught my attention was the voice, now slightly clearer than before.
[If you do not keep the promise, the ones who pay the price will be the humans.]
The words spoken by the monotonous voice were remarkably vicious.
It seemed that this was the extent of the kindness the unknown voice was willing to offer.
As though it had never intended to explain the contents of the promise from the beginning, the current suddenly became violent.
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