Chapter 177 – Excess
—Yes. Through that, you can obtain three things. In exchange, you must give up one thing. Are you prepared to do that?
There had been something puzzling about the thousand-year-old squirrel bastard’s mocking words from the beginning.
Three things I could obtain?
Besides Jing’s life and the power hidden within the cave, what else was there for me to gain?
Besides, I wasn’t even the one who would receive that power.
The mystery was resolved soon afterward.
—Kweek, so you’re saying I have to die once to regain my original form?
—Why would you say something so horrifying?! Do you truly think I would sound this delighted while telling you to die?
El vehemently denied it and scoldingly struck my head with his tiny fist.
—Kweek, then what do I have to give up?
Even though my voice was tinged with annoyance, El seemed delighted that I was showing interest and paced back and forth across my shoulder.
—It’s simple. The one thing you have been unable to relinquish until now.
Perhaps he had finally calmed down, because he climbed down from my shoulder and settled on my hand.
When I glared at him, silently urging him to stop drawing things out and answer, El gave me a crooked smile and opened his mouth.
—Your freedom......
—Kweek, I refuse.
When I rejected him without hesitation, the smile that had never left his face finally faded slightly.
—Why are you refusing without even hearing me out?
—Kweek, the first two words were enough.
—You only heard two words! This isn’t something you should judge so hastily!
He certainly had a lot to say for someone proposing what obviously sounded like a slave contract.
—Kweek, if you want to deceive someone, you should at least make an effort not to look like a fraud. Kweek, you openly declared it a slave contract, so what is there left to consider?
—Who said you had to become a slave?! I meant that you would no longer be able to run away!
That was the same thing.
It seemed pointless to keep listening to the bastard as he confidently spouted nonsense.
When I turned away, deciding to find a way out on my own first, he urgently grabbed hold of me.
—Didn’t I tell you? There are three things you can obtain as well! Getting what you truly want naturally requires an equivalent price.
—Kweek, what do you know about what I want?
—You dislike the one named in the prophecy being forced to kill against his will, don’t you?
—Kweek, ridiculous. Kweek, do you have any idea how often that will happen to him in the future?
Having shouldered such a heavy burden, he would inevitably encounter countless deaths he did not desire.
I wasn’t his father. I could neither prevent every single one nor did I have any obligation to do so.
—You are correct. Since he was born as the child of prophecy, he will kill just as many people as he saves.
El readily admitted it, but judging by his arrogant expression, he clearly had not given up on persuading me.
—Kweek, if you understand, then stop scheming and.......
—However, if you join hands with me, this time there may be an entirely different outcome.
He interrupted me, but I was not offended.
Between the amusement and misleader filling the thousand-year-old squirrel bastard’s eyes, I had noticed an unmistakable seriousness.
I also realized that he had already persuaded me halfway.
* * *
In the end, I might merely have been dancing to the tune of that thousand-year-old squirrel. This time, however, I could not reverse my decision.
He was hardly trustworthy, but he was also a lunatic willing to sacrifice his life for the prophecy and Ratel.
I had no choice but to trust him once.
Just as I tried to raise the sword with my trembling hand—
“This is why I can’t trust you. Every time I believe you, I get stabbed in the back far too many times.”
A murderous voice came from directly behind me.
The fact that it sounded far too close for someone speaking from outside the fog was not my imagination.
A hand suddenly reached out from behind and seized Sierra’s sword.
“What? How did you get in here?”
I blurted out the question in surprise, yet part of me found Ratel’s unpredictable actions perfectly understandable.
The protagonist always defied common sense.
That did not change the fact that the squirrel bastard’s credibility had just fallen by about two levels.
“I had to go through some trouble. I smashed apart something I couldn’t even identify.”
But there was no time to waste blaming El.
The thoroughly enraged protagonist was glaring at me as though he might kill me at any moment.
His grip on the sword steadily tightened.
Realizing that everything would be ruined if he took the holy relic from me, I quickly reached out with my other hand and grabbed the blade.
The edge dug into my hand, drawing blood.
Seeing my determination not to surrender the holy relic, Ratel’s eyes grew even more murderous.
“You must know this isn’t something you can solve by trying to outthink me. Preventing you from doing anything would be effortless.”
Grinding his teeth, Ratel seized me by the collar with one hand and lifted me into the air.
As he had said, once my feet left the ground, I could no longer do anything with the holy relic or anything else.
“What are you scheming this time? Why are you suddenly trying to cut off that orc’s head?”
He asked while watching me choke and struggle to breathe.
“Shouldn’t you be grateful? I’m trying to handle an annoying task for you.”
I regretted the words as soon as I barely managed to force them out.
His grip tightened, making it even harder to breathe.
“Don’t interfere. This is something I must do. You were the one who said killing him would allow me to increase my power.”
Of course I knew that.
I also knew that he had already shown his reluctance to cut off the leader’s head once before.
You already chose to abandon that power rather than kill the leader.
Unfortunately, I knew him well.
I knew that despite how much older that damned protagonist bastard appeared, he was only seventeen.
I knew that he had never killed anyone without a purpose. And I knew that such acts did not truly suit his nature.
“Don’t do something you’ll regret. Just leave this to me.”
Mockery entered his eyes as he glared at me for standing in his way.
“If something this minor were enough to make me regret my actions, I would never have tried to survive in the first place.”
“No. You’ll regret it. That’s the kind of person you are.”
As though irritated by my unwavering response, he hoisted me higher by the collar.
“What do you think you know about me?”
“More than you think.”
“Hah.”
A sneer appeared on Ratel’s lips.
“Yes, you said you knew that I wasn’t a good person. Then you should also know this. Killing one or two orcs means nothing to me.”
I stared unwaveringly into his quietly gleaming eyes. This time, I did not even need to struggle to conceal a lie. This was a truth I had read repeatedly over the past fifteen years.
“I know that you actually prefer saving people to taking revenge.”
His eyes turned cold.
“Don’t make assumptions about me. I.......”
“Then why did you go straight to the tower from the temple in the capital?”
When I interrupted his rebuttal with the question, he frowned.
“What?”
Contrary to his menacing expression, the slight loosening of his hand openly revealed his bewilderment.
His grip was still absurdly strong, but breathing became somewhat easier.
I did not miss the opportunity to continue.
“You didn’t attack the priests at the temple. You didn’t assault the other members of the imperial family staying there either. You came straight to the tower.”
The priests and members of the imperial family whom he despised so much had been gathered at the temple, not within the isolated tower he had visited.
Either choice would have been reckless, but if revenge had been his priority, he should have gone to the temple rather than the tower.
Even so, Ratel had climbed the tower without hesitation.
“Because you knew the children in the tower would die.”
That was the protagonist of the novel I had read.
No matter how disagreeable he was, no matter how cruelly he spoke, and no matter how long he held grudges, his choices always moved toward saving lives.
Apparently, in a delusion befitting someone his age, he believed himself to be a monster willing to do anything for revenge.
That was why I had followed him.
While Ratel hesitated, unable to find an answer, I knocked his hand away and picked up Sierra’s sword, which I had dropped.
But I was different.
I had lived ten years longer than him. I was less sensitive to emotion. And I could confidently say that my personality was worse than his.
More importantly, I knew myself well.
I had already experienced how guilt could be worn away by enough time.
That was the kind of person I was. I was different from a novel’s protagonist or a hero.
But there were also things that only someone unfit to be a protagonist could do.
I could never become a righteous hero, but even someone like me had things he could accomplish.
As long as I sent the leader away without pain, I could continue living without overwhelming guilt.
Once again, the hand gripping the sword to cut off the leader’s head failed to accomplish its original purpose.
Ratel had regained his composure and seized my arm again.
Right. He truly was tenacious to an almost admirable degree. His mouth opened and closed as though he had something to say.
“You’re...... You’re the same.”
We both knew that those strained words, stripped of almost every part of a complete sentence, conveyed little on their own.
Even so, they made me feel surprisingly good.
After all, the protagonist of the novel considered me a good person.
The problem was that his judgment was not based entirely on his feelings toward me.
Suppressing the corners of my lips as they threatened to rise, I stared at Ratel.
I knew perfectly well whom he was seeing through me in those confusion-filled eyes.
Unfortunately, I had neither the desire to watch him struggle with that confusion any longer nor the time to listen.
Feeling his painfully tight grip around my arm, I once again chose cowardice.
“Ratel, I’m not your older brother.”
His eyes widened instantly.
Once again, the emotions he habitually suppressed escaped his control. Small droplets of light bloomed around him one after another.
This time, I made no effort to avoid the tiny floating lights drifting without direction.
Bang!
A sharp explosive sound erupted when one of the droplets struck my arm, leaving a shallow wound.
Startled, Ratel loosened the hand restraining me.
See? He always restrains his emotions precisely because he hates it when this happens.
I tore myself free from his weakened grasp with all my strength.
Then I raised Sierra’s sword high.
I could not afford to make a mistake.
At the very least, severing the leader’s neck in one stroke was the final mercy I could offer him.
I swung the sword down toward the leader’s neck.
Slice.
The sensation of bone and flesh separating traveled through my hand and struck my brain.
I could not tell whether that was why everything around me seemed to move slowly or whether it was simply the shock of the moment.
Nor could I tell whether the separation of the leader’s head from his body was truly happening that slowly or was merely an illusion created by my discomfort.
* * *
—Are you truly sane?
I opened my eyes at the sound of someone questioning my mental state.
What?
Did I lose consciousness again?
I hadn’t even sensed that I was about to pass out this time.
The surroundings had changed so abruptly that even after opening my eyes, I felt as though half my mind remained absent.
Wait, where am I?
The only thing I could determine was that I was inside a building.
There was not a single window along the extended corridor, so I could not even tell whether I was above or below ground.
The only thing that could guide me was the quiet conversation drifting down the corridor.
—I am always sane.
I walked toward another voice responding to the one that had awakened me.
Even as I silenced my footsteps, their conversation continued.
—They don’t want to live alongside humans. That is also included in the contract.
—Do you understand that if you borrow the orcs’ power, you will have to pay a corresponding price?
—When have I ever made a promise I couldn’t keep?
By the time the impassive voice asked that question, I had finally reached a small room at the end of the corridor.
—......Never.
The subdued reply of the other person slipped through the narrow crack in the door.
—But this is different from the trivial promises you usually make. This is a contract. You know it won’t end quietly if it isn’t properly fulfilled.
The worried voice continued, still unable to let go of its concern.
—I know that better than anyone in this world. That is why my preparations are perfect. You don’t need to worry about me.
—Who said I was worried about someone like you?
The other person responded resentfully to the calm voice, which carried no tension whatsoever.
—Everything will work out. The plan is perfect.
Apparently, such displays of childish confidence were not unusual for him, because the owner of the voice that had been pressing him continued speaking.
His confident words did not sound arrogant. Perhaps it was because his tone was so dry.
To identify the two people speaking, I brought my face close to the narrow opening in the door.
The gap was too small for me to see clearly, but I could tell that two people were inside.
Both wore robes pulled low over their heads.
Neither had noticed me despite how close I had come, so I could probably continue eavesdropping.
I was considering whether to widen the gap slightly when—
—Who’s there?!
A thunderous roar erupted, and one of them thrust a hand toward the door.
A sharp flame shot from his hand and flew directly toward my eye.
Faced with the danger of having my eyes scorched by the fire, I tightly shut them.
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