Chapter 169 — Change of Plans
Right. There was no way Jing would have stood by and done nothing while Lia was driven this far.
More importantly, Jing would never have sent Lia away alone in the first place.
Unless they had been forcibly separated by a power too overwhelming to resist.
For instance, a curse left behind by an imperial family member from a thousand years ago who was worshipped as a god.
“When you say he was devoured, do you mean he died?”
Ratel boldly voiced the dreadful possibility that had surfaced in his mind.
Lia’s shoulders flinched as she struggled to catch her breath. Reason slowly returned to Lia’s eyes.
The survival instinct that had forcibly sustained her melted away, and tears filled its place.
As though she had exhausted every ounce of strength she had used to endure until now, Lia collapsed to the ground.
“Ratel, Ran is…. Where is Ran? Something black came out of the sword and swallowed Jing. Jing told me to find Ran, so I...”
As Lia incoherently poured out what she had witnessed, Ratel silently looked down at her wounds and the sword soaked in her blood.
Ratel slowly raised the sword.
At first glance, he appeared not to have lost his composure.
Of course, his next action revealed that he was not merely losing his composure, but was on the verge of losing his reason entirely.
Before the clusters of light beginning to bloom around Ratel could touch her, I grabbed Lia and retreated.
Startled, Lia let out a brief scream, but the sight unfolding before her shocked her too much to resist any further.
A light so powerful that it was difficult to look at erupted from Ratel’s hand.
For the first time since his battle with Dito, he was drawing out as much of his power as possible.
But I already knew what the outcome of that desperate struggle would be.
His radiance gradually lost its brilliance, like an incandescent bulb with a blown fuse.
I allowed Ratel to clench his teeth and pour power into his hand again.
Once.
Twice.
Each time he repeated the action, the light grew weaker.
Ratel must already have known that it was useless.
The current Ratel did not possess enough power to destroy the holy relic.
And both he and I knew what that meant.
To avoid losing someone precious, he would have no choice but to return to the path he had once fled.
* * *
After catching her breath, Lia calmly explained everything that had happened outside the island.
The people from the temple had arrived carrying the holy relic. While fleeing from them, Jing had been devoured by the holy relic.
Lia had borrowed the holy relic’s power to swim all the way to the island.
The closer her story came to the present, the paler Lia’s face became.
By the time she described what had happened just before she fell into the cave—when she had been attacked by an orc—all the color had drained from her face.
“That orc could speak too. So….”
“Wait. You said it could speak?”
Ratel, who had been listening to Lia’s explanation expressionlessly, interrupted her.
Seeing his grave expression, Lia nodded without understanding why.
“Yes. It clearly told me that I smelled like a human…. Why do you look like that?”
Lia’s face, which had remained calm as she described what she had seen and heard, became serious along with Ratel’s.
I probably did not look much different.
The position of leader was supposed to pass to only one orc.
That was why I had never doubted that the dimwit had tried to eat the leader’s neck.
Then why could the orc that attacked Lia speak?
When I reviewed the events of the original story, that orc was undoubtedly the future leader.
The orc who was supposed to die at Ratel’s hands.
Had there been another leader between the one-armed orc and the dimwit?
The instant I finished organizing my thoughts, Ratel lowered Lia to the ground and leaped into the water.
Unlike me, he did not know the original story, but he must also have understood that another orc was supposed to become leader in between.
“Ratel! Where are you going?!”
Startled by Ratel’s sudden action, Lia hurriedly tried to rise and follow him.
She collapsed again before getting far, perhaps because her strength had left her.
Her legs appeared to have given out.
“Kweek, are you all right?”
Rather than approaching carelessly, I asked from where I stood.
Lia flinched and stared at me with confused eyes.
Then again, it would have been stranger if she felt comfortable being worried over by an orc she had just met.
“Kweek, you might not like it, but if you can’t move, I’ll have no choice but to carry you. Kweek, if your condition is that bad, tell me now.”
At my insistence that we could not wait any longer, Lia stared at me in confusion before nodding.
“I can move. Still, you’re incredibly kind for an orc....”
Lia’s suspicious reply trailed off.
As she studied me uncertainly, shock gradually spread across her face.
“C-Could you be Ran?”
Impressive. She figured it out.
Relief spread across Lia’s face when she realized I was not an ordinary orc.
“Kweek, yes. Kweek, but there’s no time to explain right now. Kweek, as I said, we’re heading to a place where the orcs have gathered. Kweek, so prepare yourself.”
Lia’s perceptiveness, which had allowed her to identify me merely from my manner of speaking, proved useful once again.
Although she still looked confused, she nodded obediently.
“I’m confident that nothing could surprise me now.”
That was certainly a reassuring resolve.
“Kweek, then let’s go. Kweek, don’t sink this time.”
A solemn determination appeared on Lia’s face at my warning.
“Yes. Swimming isn’t so difficult as long as I don’t breathe.”
....She really is all right, isn’t she?
* * *
Ratel’s party was not the only one to benefit from the dimwit’s escape.
There was another orc who had narrowly avoided sinking thanks to the weakened current.
“Kweek...! Cough!”
After vomiting the water that had filled him up to his throat, the orc looked around with fierce eyes before he had even fully regained his senses.
The wet walls.
The dark interior.
The smell of water.
Through the information entering his five senses, the orc realized that he had once again been swept into the cave.
Trembling with fury, the orc suddenly froze at the unfamiliar pain in the back of his neck.
His hand searched his neck and felt something sticky.
Even after seeing the viscous green blood coating his hand, the orc could not believe it and touched his neck again.
Then he was forced to acknowledge the horrifying truth.
The injury, which should have healed long ago, had not recovered at all.
Overcome by faint fear and violent rage, the orc sniffed the air and frantically searched his surroundings.
But there was no trace of the long-haired human.
Few things were more infuriating than losing prey directly before one’s eyes.
Having also suffered a counterattack from prey he had believed was already captured, the orc could no longer see reason.
However, the only thing he could do was face a reality he refused to accept.
He could not leave the cave through his own strength.
Nor could he command the other orcs in his current state.
The agitation that had risen to the top of his head did not cool merely because he had been submerged in cold water and swept away.
“Kweeek!!!”
Unable to contain his boiling rage, the orc roared.
This was the second time that a goal he had believed was already within his grasp had slipped through his fingers.
And it reminded the orc of his first dreadful failure.
His first failure had been losing the opportunity to claim the position of leader when it had been right before him.
Enraged by the resurfacing memories of defeat and failure, the orc began thrashing wildly.
His body repeatedly struck the rocks, creating small scratches that healed and vanished, but he could not calm his frenzy.
The mind of an incomplete orc who had failed to become leader was unclear.
His thoughts were slow.
His speech was clumsy.
He could not suppress his impulses.
Because his mind did not function properly, every emotion immediately became action.
That meant the orc’s frenzy continued for quite some time.
“Kweeek!!!”
After releasing as much anger as he wanted, the orc’s mind slowly regained its normal temperature.
Yes.
He had no time to waste chasing a human who might already be dead.
More important than anything else was reclaiming the position of leader.
Everything else could be handled afterward.
He would find even the escaped human’s corpse and make her pay dearly for stabbing his neck.
But before that, he had to find the source of all this. He had to find the enemy who had reduced him to this state.
He had to capture the wretched bastard who had stolen his opportunity to seize the position of leader.
He planned to tear off the bastard’s limbs and throw them to the other orcs.
Only after seeing the bastard torn apart and devoured until not even a trace remained would his anger be satisfied.
“Kweek, I-I’ll kill him.”
Muttering to himself, the orc repeatedly sniffed the air and began walking in an attempt to determine the direction.
He could not shake the feeling that he was moving deeper into the cave.
Even so, he could not stop.
If he did not find the leader soon, he might lose the position of leader forever.
He did not know exactly what future awaited him if he failed to find the leader.
With his mind only half-awakened, he could no longer live alongside the other orcs as he had before.
He would have to spend the rest of his life separated from them by an insurmountable sense of alienation.
He did not understand any of that.
But his instincts screamed at him to find the leader quickly and escape this incomplete state.
The orc continued walking diligently.
How long had he wandered through the seemingly endless cave?
Far in the distance, a faint figure appeared in the half-awakened orc’s vision.
“Kweek!!”
Excited by the shape, which did not appear to be an orc, he charged without thinking.
It was an action driven by his savage instinct to catch whatever it was and fill his stomach.
The unknown figure stood in place as though waiting for him.
However, the distance between the figure and the orc never seemed to narrow.
Whenever he felt as though he had finally caught up, he would regain his senses and discover that it had once again moved farther away, flickering in the distance.
Infuriated, the orc forgot that he had lost his way and followed wherever the figure led him.
Without knowing whether it was a hand offering salvation—
Or a push into the abyss.
* * *
Lia’s swimming truly resembled that of a sea creature.
It was not merely the vigorous movements of her arms and legs cutting through the water that made her seem inhuman.
She also refused to surface for air, as though she possessed gills.
Her desperate desire to escape oxygen deprivation dramatically increased her swimming speed.
She even overtook me when I tried to stop her, fearing she might die.
Thanks to Lia’s life-risking swim, we reached the entrance of the food storage sooner than expected.
“Cough! Gasp!”
The instant she surfaced and entered the passage, Lia inhaled violently.
“....Kweek, the next time you learn to swim, you should begin by learning how to breathe. Kweek, if you do that in the sea, you really will die.”
“You mean that endless stretch of water, right? I’ve read about it in books. Wouldn’t it be easier to take a ship?”
Still gasping, Lia gave me a weak smile.
“Kweek, just remember that we were on a ship when we first crossed this river.”
At my reminder, the lingering humor vanished from Lia’s face.
“....Do you think Jing will teach me how to swim?”
“Kweek, he probably will, but you should prepare yourself. Kweek, you know what Jing’s training is like.”
“Ha ha, that’s true. You start out wondering, ‘How am I supposed to follow this?’ But before you realize it, you find yourself moving exactly as Jing told you.”
Lia’s quiet laughter did not last long.
I probably looked much the same.
Both Lia and I knew that we were trying to calm our anxiety by imagining a future in which Jing was still alive.
“....We should hurry. We can’t leave Ratel to face the orcs alone.”
Unable to endure the sinking atmosphere, Lia quickly rose.
Since I also agreed that we needed to reunite with Ratel quickly, I pushed myself up and followed her.
Though my reason for hurrying was not concern that Ratel would be defeated by the orcs.
“Kweek, Lia, the orcs aren’t what we need to be wary of. Kweek, once we arrive, there should be a place where something like black mist has gathered. Kweek, when we get there, stay as far away from it as possible—”
As I hurried forward while urgently explaining the precautions I had not had time to mention earlier, I suddenly realized that I could no longer hear footsteps behind me.
When I turned around, Lia was standing in place with a vacant expression.
Her gaze was fixed on her right leg.
What was wrong?
Had she injured it?
“Kweek, what is it? Kweek, did you hurt your leg?”
At my question, Lia suddenly raised her head as though regaining her senses.
“N-No. I don’t think so.”
With that uncertain answer, Lia began walking.
Wondering whether the shock had made her forget an injury, I examined her leg, but as she had said, it appeared unharmed.
Then again, if there had been something wrong with her leg, she could not have swum so quickly.
After confirming that there was nothing strange about her steps, I turned around and hurried onward.
Lia had said that immediately after attacking the orc, she had been swept into the cave by the river.
Together with the third orc, the one she said could speak.
Had the flooding been merely a natural phenomenon, I would not have felt so uneasy.
The problem was that until now, the river carrying Sierra’s will had always moved with a purpose.
There was no possibility that the third orc being swept down together with Lia had been an accident.
What Sierra’s power wanted was the fulfillment of the contract.
One of the conditions required for that was a perfect leader.
That meant there was a high probability the third orc had also arrived where the leader and the dimwit were.
Ratel would probably be forced to make a decision between them.
We had to reach him before he made a rash choice.
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