Chapter 113 : Chapter 113
Chapter 113 : A Good Person (2)
I looked down at the brat who was desperately pulling at me and Ria.
He was a good kid.
This child, whose name I didn't even know, was certainly what the world called a good child, and he would probably grow up to be what people called a good person.
Because the reason he overcame his fear and ran to us must have been pure consideration.
It was not an easy thing to possess both thick faith and a spirit of sacrifice at the same time.
“I wasn't kind to you because I'm a good person.”
I said as I slowly shook off the brat's gentle touch.
And I looked away from the child's questioning eyes and stared at the second floor of the cabin, where someone was currently killing time so the father and son could escape.
“That guy…… it's not because that man is a bad person that he acts like that, or is it…… not?”
As I changed my words because I lost a bit of confidence while speaking, the cabin boy looked up at me with confused eyes.
“I don't know what you're talking about right now. I also don't know why you're shielding that criminal.”
“I'm not exactly shielding him.”
“If you're being threatened by that man, now is your chance to escape.”
The fellow said, sounding frustrated.
It was only natural.
It would be even stranger if someone could accept it all at once when something that betrayed the deeply rooted truths and morals of the world was happening right before their eyes.
The people of Abalan were not yet ready to live in a collapsed world.
“Think carefully. About what almost killed you today, and what it was that saved you and your father. If you quietly ponder it every day, a day will suddenly come when you realize something. Then judge again at that time. What kind of people we are.”
The brat looked back and forth between Ria and me with anxious eyes.
“What if I don't know even if I think about it every day? When is that 'someday'? Can't you just run away with me now?”
The brat reached out again, but this time I didn't let him catch me.
“No, that day will definitely come. It might be as early as today or tomorrow.”
Because the protagonist would definitely make it so.
After I finished speaking, I pushed the brat strongly toward his father.
“Now run for your life. Because there's no good person like the one you're looking for here right now.”
After hesitating for a moment, the brat literally began to run for his life.
I didn't know if the brat ran because he listened to me or because he saw Ratel coming down the stairs.
After watching the retreating backs of the limping father and son for a moment, I turned my head away without lingering regret.
***
In the end, leaving the unconscious guide in the cabin, the boat departed.
If the river completely dried up, he might become the first victim of the Orcs, but honestly, it was none of our business.
Ria looked at the receding cabin with a worried face.
“What should we do? Even if we arrive at Rimis like this, there's no one to prove our identity.”
“We have the seal and the competition winner's certificate, so it'll work out somehow.”
Jing answered nonchalantly.
“Does that man also know that we have the seal?”
At my question, Jing slightly avoided my gaze.
“If he's lucky, he'll find out soon. Even if he's a little less lucky, he'll die before he notices.”
It meant that if he escaped before the Orcs swarmed the cabin, he might notice, but if he didn't wake up until then, he would probably never know.
It was an answer that would have been unimaginable from him in the past.
I couldn't tell if it was because he had accumulated many feelings toward the man, or if Jing was starting to resemble Ratel.
Moreover, there was one more person who didn't even care about the guide.
“Do you think the Orcs might swim and attack the boat?”
It was Ria, who couldn't take her eyes off the island while rowing on the opposite side of Jing.
Whether her fear of the Orcs was stronger than her reluctance to abandon the guide, Ria seemed to have already forgotten about the guide who would be unconscious in the cabin.
Watching her, I couldn't help but have a question.
Am I the only one here who cares about the guide?
Perhaps she was quite shocked by the strength of the Orc that had been dragging the cabin boy's son away; her face was full of grimness and anxiety.
If she was that scared, she could have just stayed with the guide.
Nevertheless, Ria had quite readily chosen to cross the river with us.
It was as if the trouble of persuading Ria had been saved.
In the original work, she had the purpose of finding Idan, but there's no reason for that now?
Although things were resolved easily, it was true there were suspicious parts, so I think I stared at her intensely without realizing it.
“W-What is it? You're not regretting taking me on the boat now, are you? I can't even get off anymore.”
As if she understood my gaze that way, Ria's voice was filled with nervousness.
Just as she said, I couldn't exactly drop her in the middle of the river, so why was she so tense?
“Why didn't Ria follow that brat? That might have been safer. Or you could have left with the guide.”
When I asked, Ria frowned as if she had heard something ridiculous.
“What are you talking about, Ran. The probability of survival is higher over here than over there. That man is slow on his feet, and he's the type of person who would throw me into their hands and run away alone if he encountered Orcs. At least the people here wouldn't do such a thing.”
Her logical answer was quite rational, so I nodded obediently.
As she said, following the two who didn't seem human would have a higher survival probability than being with the guide.
Ria, who was looking at me after I was convinced, continued speaking.
“Besides, Ran didn't follow that child either.”
Ria toyed with the arm that had been held, perhaps remembering the cabin boy.
It was impressive.
Because the fellow, who was supporting his limping father, kept looking back until we completely disappeared from sight.
“It wouldn't have lasted long anyway. I wasn't the person that brat expected.”
Moreover, I was in a position where I had to live in hiding until Ratel overthrew the Imperial Family.
To run away from Ratel only to become a fugitive again, what kind of contradiction was that?
At my simple answer, Ria nodded with a much more relaxed face.
“Exactly.”
“Where in that conversation was there something for Ria to be convinced of?”
As I looked at her with questioning eyes, Ria continued.
“I thought that if I went with Ran, at least I wouldn't be betrayed.”
“I'm good at betraying.”
At my serious answer, Ria burst into a small laugh.
“See. Because you don't want to betray, you're warning me that you will. You're not trying your best to deceive me.”
Ria's pleasant smile faded slightly.
I could tell who the person she was thinking of was without even putting it into words.
Ria, who seemed to have sunken for a moment, soon looked at me with a bright face.
“Maybe that's why, but I feel like if I follow the path Ran takes, at least it won't be a path to a cliff. It's a bit shameless, but I thought following Ran was the right choice for now.”
Why does the conclusion suddenly end up like that?
Ria's heavy trust, which was completely off the mark, made me feel uncomfortable.
To me, who planned to run away from the protagonist's group, nothing was as ominous as the words that she would follow me diligently.
“Look over there!”
I, who was about to give a warning in my own way that it would be useless to regret it later, turned my head at the sudden shout.
As if he had discovered something, Jing was pointing toward one side of the island with his finger.
Narrowing my eyes to focus, I could vaguely see something dark green crawling like earthworms on the island.
“They're Orcs.”
At Jing's low voice, Ria gasped, and only then did I realize that those clay-like things on the island were Orcs.
“What should we do? It doesn't look like just one or two. They won't cross the river and attack us, will they?”
To Ria, who poured out her worries like rapid fire, Jing gave a smirk.
“I don't think the Orcs will swim across the river, but even if they do, well, up to ten should be fine.”
At Jing's nonchalant answer, Ria's mouth hung open in surprise.
“Can Jing and Ratel handle ten Orcs?”
“Ten by myself. Ratel can probably handle even more than that.”
Ria looked back and forth between the two as if she couldn't believe it, but thanks to that, her fear of Orcs seemed to vanish, and she began to row with a much more comfortable face.
On the contrary, it was Jing whose expression became serious.
“By the way, it's strange. I heard that Orcs cannot endure sunlight.”
He muttered without taking his eyes off the Orcs across the river.
“Yes, I've heard stories of Orcs who couldn't return to their burrows and were caught wandering during the day, but I've never heard of them moving under the sun in groups like that.”
Jing furrowed his brow as if it were a headache.
-Kkweeeek!! Kkwek!!
It was the same for me as I watched those fellows walking while making unpleasant sounds.
In the novel, Ratel wipes out the Orcs after stopping by the Rimis Temple and stealing the holy object.
It wasn't in the middle of the day like this either.
“It doesn't seem like they've noticed us.”
When I spoke in a low voice, Jing gave a small nod.
Ria's anxious gaze, which had been unable to look away from the primitive meal of the Orcs, turned toward Jing.
“Even if they notice us, Jing and Ratel can take care of them, right?”
“Well, we can take care of them, but I hope such a situation doesn't happen if possible.”
-Kkquweeeek?!!
At that moment, timed perfectly, one of the Orcs across the way raised its head and sniffed around, twitching its nose.
As soon as Ria sucked in her breath at the sudden reaction, the fellow began to charge toward the bushes with thumping sounds.
Soon after, what appeared in the fellow's hand was a fairly large chipmunk.
The creature, unable to avoid the suddenly appearing pack of Orcs, tried hard to free its caught tail, but it was useless.
The poor small animal disappeared into the Orc's mouth just like that.
Crunch.
Following the sound of small bones being crushed, the sound of the fellow smacking its lips vividly reached us.
Although it's a natural phenomenon for one living thing to eat another, the raw sight that stimulated my vision and hearing made me naturally furrow my brow.
-Kkweeeeek!!
Fortunately, their purpose didn't seem to be hunting.
Except for the fellow who had eaten the chipmunk, they didn't catch other animals and moved forward little by little in a group.
Once they were a bit further away, Jing looked at Ratel's wet arm.
“……Their noses are sensitive. If the scent of blood spreads, they'll gather all at once. It's a relief that the wind direction is at least opposite to the island.”
Jing accepted it as a small incident that gave a lesson, but I couldn't just input what happened before my eyes as a mere cautionary point and move on.
Because a certain assumption that flashed through my mind at that moment gripped me.
Fortunately or unfortunately, my minor realization was pushed to the back thanks to Jing's voice announcing a newly occurring hardship.
“What is that?”
Along with a murmur that reeked of ill omens, Jing narrowed his eyes and looked at the back of the boat.
Where his gaze followed, as expected, a hardship suitable for screwing us over was waiting with its mouth wide open.
It was a wave that literally looked like it was opening its mouth wide.
Jing turned around and grabbed the oars with a face of dismay.
“Damn it, what kind of wave is in a river!”
Because that wasn't just a wave; it was an attack created by residual power.
The thing that elicited Jing's harsh curse—the thing that was embarrassing to even call a wave—bulked up its size as if to swallow our boat.
As if it were alive and moving.
Moreover, it was all too clear who the person it was targeting was.
***
The Orcs were seen gathering at the water's edge of the island, which was getting closer.
Among them, there was a fellow who looked lacking, stuffing fish into his mouth because he couldn't endure his hunger.
Ria was flustered and pacing about, not knowing what to do.
Compared to that, Jing and Ratel were incredibly calm.
Because with this many people and this lineup, they wouldn't be very threatening opponents.
The problem was whether we, once we entered the island, could come back out safely.
The thousand-year-old power of Sierra wouldn't let the master of the prophecy, once discovered, escape outside the island.
However, it was also not an option to just kill time inside there forever.
The solution was simple.
The problem was that the process was a bit rough.
“Squeak!! Squeak squeak!!!”
Whether it felt my heart beating faster or couldn't endure the commotion, El, who was hiding in my chest, poked its head out.
As I looked at the face of the fellow who couldn't bring himself to speak and only squeaked, I somehow felt my heart calming down and grasped the fellow's body in my hand.
Before the flustered El could struggle, I stuffed him into Jing's bag.
If it were a normal squirrel, it would have been a harsh treatment, but well, since he's a thousand-year-old squirrel, it shouldn't matter.
Ignoring the fellow who was crying out fervently, I closed the bag and quickly stood up on the stern.
The water pillar, which had bulked up its size to the maximum, was smacking its lips as if to swallow the boat right now.
“What are you doing right now?”
The fellow, who flinched at my voice, looked back and forth between me and Ria.
“Run away with us!!”
When the flustered Ria spoke while holding on with strength, the fellow shouted as if he were frustrated.
And while checking his cabin, not knowing when Ratel might come out, he applied strength again.
“You two aren't bad people. If you hang around with a horrible criminal like that, it's no different from you committing a crime in the end. If you two help, we can even take the fallen people of the temple with us.”
The two immature hands wrapping around my arm were trembling.