Chapter 175 – Long Time No See
My body burned as though I had sprinted a short distance at full speed, and breathing was difficult.
The symptoms themselves were not much different from what I experienced after overexerting my power.
The only difference was that it felt at least twice as exhausting as usual.
When I placed a hand on the ground to raise myself, I saw that it was no longer green.
Human skin felt strange. I opened and closed my hand several times, feeling skin that was far softer than before.
“I never realized it before, but the human body really is as fragile as tofu.”
After observing my skin for a moment, I sensed someone staring and raised my head.
Ratel, Lia, the leader, and the dimwit were all staring at me in astonishment.
My appearance must have been quite shocking because all four of them had frozen, forgetting even to move.
Lia was hanging from Ratel’s arm while he held Sierra’s sword, and the leader and the dimwit were clinging to each other in terror off to one side.
Thanks to that sight, I did not need an explanation to understand what had been happening moments earlier.
The protagonist bastard had been moments away from ignoring my instructions and causing trouble.
“First, put that thing down and.......”
I could not finish telling him to move away from the two orcs.
“Ran! Is it really you?! I’m not seeing things, am I? Are your arms and legs all right now? Is there anywhere that didn’t regenerate properly?”
Lia abandoned Ratel’s arm, rushed over, and poured out questions while examining my limbs.
“Yes, you aren’t seeing things. My arms and legs are fine, and everything has returned properly. I’m not even missing a fingernail.”
When I raised both hands to show her, Lia finally lowered her head in relief.
“Ugh....... Please, I’m begging you. Next time, at least warn us before doing something like that.”
Judging by the sniffling, she was clearly crying.
It would probably be better not to tell her that something similar would likely happen again—or that I could not be certain how much control I would have over it.
“......Anyway, what matters is that I learned how to get Jing out.”
When I subtly changed the subject, Lia abruptly raised her head.
“What is it? What do we have to do?”
At her urgent question, I turned toward Ratel, who was approaching with the holy relic in his hand.
He had been standing there with an uncharacteristically vacant expression. When our eyes met, he seemed to regain his senses and returned to his usual emotionless appearance.
“......Are you certain Jing is still alive?”
I nodded at the belated question.
Then I turned around and looked at the black fog as it began gathering into a single mass again.
“Yes, he’s still alive. It seems all four of his limbs are still attached too.”
“Still?”
Yes, still.
In other words, he did not have much time left.
Neither did those two.
Beyond Ratel and Lia stood the leader and the dimwit. I walked past Ratel and approached them.
“Kweek, w-what is it?!”
The leader, who had been studying me with uncertainty, challenged me in a guarded voice.
“As you can already see, we don’t have much time.”
“Kweek, what are you talking about? Kweek, why should I care how much time you humans have left?!”
The leader protested incredulously.
“You have plenty of reason to care. We need to decide which one of you will become the leader.”
Hostility instantly filled the two orcs’ eyes.
Their reaction was understandable.
My words were practically equivalent to saying that I would kill one of them to save my companion.
The leader might have been impatient, but he was not foolish.
He looked at the dimwit hiding behind him and then at the three humans who would be his opponents.
The leader’s gaze lingered especially long on Ratel before he quickly acknowledged his defeat.
That did not mean he obediently accepted my demand.
“......Kweek, we simply won’t fight.”
“We can force you to do it.”
The leader gave a dry laugh at my threat.
“Kweek, no matter what you do, do you think my body will endure it?”
The leader was right.
His body looked even worse than when I had last seen him, and he did not seem capable of enduring anything resembling torture.
So he had nothing left to fear.
However, if I had learned anything from traveling with the two orcs for so long, it was what the leader truly wanted.
That was both an advantage and a disadvantage for me.
Nothing good came from spending too much time together.
I looked at the leader defiantly glaring at me and the dimwit gripping his shoulder, then opened my mouth.
“I’ll give you some time. Decide which one of you will become the leader.”
“Kweek, did you hear nothing I just said?! Kweek, when we both clearly know we’ll die anyway, why would I ever.......”
“Only one of you will die.”
When I corrected him, both orcs’ eyes widened.
“K-Kweek, what do you mean?”
“You said threats won’t work, so I’m proposing a deal.”
The leader could not immediately accept my claim that I would break the absolute rule that had governed the orcs for so long.
The hope that briefly appeared in his widened eyes soon changed into disappointment and then self-reproach.
“Kweek, foolish human bastard. It isn’t as easy as you claim. Kweek, this isn’t something a human can decide as he pleases.”
“Then are you simply going to die?”
“Kweek, I never cared when I died anyway.”
“I don’t think that’s true. Unless you don’t understand what it means for only you to die.”
I indicated the dimwit standing behind the bluffing leader.
“I’m saying that one of you won’t have to lose his memories.”
The leader’s mouth fell open at my added explanation.
It seemed he finally understood what accepting my proposal would mean.
“I’ll give you five minutes. Decide which one of you will die and come back.”
“Kweek, you bastard. The way you refuse to listen to anyone reminds me of.......”
The leader, who had begun protesting in anger, suddenly stopped.
He started examining me with a strange expression, but I had not given him time to admire my face.
“You have nothing to lose by trying, do you? All you need to do is become the leader and decide who will die.”
Without waiting for his answer, I turned away.
After distancing myself from the two orcs, I watched the black fog condense.
According to Lia, it had looked much the same when I emerged through the fog.
She had said that the black shape took on a human form and then I emerged from within it.
The image I imagined resembled the description of an orc’s birth from the book.
I looked down at the hand that had returned to human form.
After all, it had worked through roughly the same principle.
While I was lost in thought, a large shadow fell over my hand.
“What happened inside?”
I raised my head at the abrupt question.
“Nothing particularly noteworthy.”
A thousand-year-old squirrel had intercepted me, spouted all kinds of bizarre nonsense, and forced me into a somewhat unfair deal.
“What? Nothing happened, yet you suddenly returned knowing how to save one of those two?”
“I never said nothing happened. I said it wasn’t anything worth making a fuss about. It wasn’t that serious.”
When I vaguely brushed aside the question, Ratel glared at me in displeasure.
“Where’s Lia?”
I pretended not to notice his gaze and changed the subject. Ratel pointed toward one corner with his chin.
The pale-faced Lia sat against the wall, resting.
It might have been more accurate to say she was half-unconscious.
“Well, she did go through far too much. She was barely able to stand, yet she even had to stop a rampaging Godzilla.”
“What’s a Godzilla?”
“......It’s something.”
Ratel narrowed his eyes. He might not have known exactly what Godzilla was, but he seemed to understand that it was an insult.
“What are you glaring at, punk? If you have time for that, give me the holy relic and check on Lia. Tell her we don’t know what will happen to the island after we destroy it, so we may have to run immediately.”
When I extended my hand, he reluctantly placed Sierra’s sword on my palm.
Surprised that he had obeyed so readily, I looked up and met the gaze of the bastard glaring at me in displeasure.
Anyone watching might have thought he was handing over one of his own severed arms.
He probably suspected that I was planning some other ridiculous act.
Yet his willingness to hand over the holy relic without complaint made me feel even more uncomfortable.
“If you don’t trust me, just say so openly. Everyone already knows your paranoia is terminal.”
“What difference would saying it make? You won’t tell me what happened anyway.”
That was true.
When I readily nodded in acknowledgment, Ratel’s face twisted.
His expression openly revealed that he could not believe anyone could be so shameless.
“I don’t say anything unless it’s necessary.”
“Do you know that making excuses about what kind of person you are without ever trying to change is incredibly cowardly?”
It was such a painfully correct statement that I wanted to smack him.
Precisely because he was right, I had no response.
“Fine. This coward intends to keep living exactly as he is, so you don’t need to know what’s going on inside a coward’s head. Whatever happens, I.......”
“Won’t do anything harmful to me.”
He interrupted me and completed my sentence, then tapped his chin thoughtfully.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. I think I have a rough idea of what goes on inside your head now.”
Wondering whether he had somehow noticed that I wanted to smack him, I stiffened.
The corners of his mouth curled into a sly grin.
“Look at you, suddenly pretending to be a prophet. If you can see through my thoughts that easily, then keep overlooking it whenever I stay silent from now on.”
“That’s exactly why I’m letting it go now.”
Ratel answered casually and gestured toward the leader and the dimwit, who had put some distance between themselves and were whispering with their heads together.
“Even I can tell that what you gave them wasn’t time to decide who would become the leader. You gave them time to say goodbye.”
After calmly saying only what he needed to say, Ratel turned away and headed toward Lia without hesitation.
I glared at the back of his head for a moment before turning toward the black fog again.
As expected, absolutely nothing good came from spending too much time with someone.
* * *
At the center of the den, the leader watched the humans with suspicious eyes.
Fortunately, one of them seemed to have no strength left to pay attention to this side, while the other two appeared preoccupied with their conversation.
Once the leader was certain that no one was paying attention to him or the dimwit, he quickly spoke.
“Kweek, there’s no need to obey those human bastards. Kweek, we’ll wait for an opportunity and escape.”
The dimwit’s eyes brightened at the rapidly delivered plan, and he nodded.
“Kweek, l-let’s escape. Kweek, I like that plan too.”
Satisfied by the dimwit’s agreement, the leader raised the corners of his mouth and lowered his voice further.
“Kweek, that brown-haired human over there has no strength left. Kweek, if we take her hostage, the other two won’t be able to do anything until we escape.”
“Kweek, w-we won’t take her with us. Kweek, that human is precious to them. Kweek, let’s release her halfway.”
The leader silently stared at the dimwit, who had offered his opinion with an uncomfortable expression, then nodded.
“Kweek, fine. Kweek, while I draw their attention, hurry over and seize that human.”
“Kweek! U-understood!”
The leader watched as the dimwit hurriedly rose.
In truth, the plan did not matter.
Neither part of it would ever be carried out.
The leader briefly stopped the dimwit before he could run off.
“Kweek, be careful. Kweek, if it looks dangerous, you must run away no matter what.”
It seemed like excessive concern over the simple task of capturing one human, but the dimwit did not dislike the leader worrying too much about him.
“Kweek! Understood! Kweek, l-leader, you be careful too!”
“Kweek, I no longer have anything to be careful about.”
The leader deliberately rebuked the dimwit as he answered with a bright expression, then tightened his grip on his sword.
The moment the dimwit completely turned his back, the leader struck the back of his neck.
The dimwit collapsed without even managing to scream.
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