Chapter 154 : Chapter 154
Chapter 154 - Learning
Ratel had his sudden, out-of-nowhere moments, but there was always some reason of his own behind them.
There had to be a reason he had suddenly started saying something this insane.
I couldn’t think of any particular trigger that would have made the bastard change his mind.
The only thing that came to mind was the brief time on top of the cliff, when Ratel and the leader had been left alone together.
“Kkwek, what did the leader say on top of the cliff?”
Perhaps my guess was right, because Ratel spent a moment organizing his thoughts before opening his mouth.
“There’s an enemy threatening your life. You have one final chance left to run away or attack him.”
Even at the sudden start of his hypothetical situation, I quietly listened to him.
Because his expression was too serious to dismiss it as nonsense.
“What do you think could be important enough to throw away that only chance?”
No retort came out asking where such a thing would exist.
Because the various choices this bastard had made in the original work, choices where he threw away his own life, immediately came to mind.
But those bastards were orcs.
I had already confirmed the orc instincts they possessed several times over.
So, here and now, I should dismiss Ratel’s suspicion by answering that he was simply mistaken.
Then why, of all times, did the leader and the cabin father and son overlap in my mind right now?
And why, of all times, did the useless fact that the leader had watched those two closely enough to memorize human habits come to mind?
***
While I could not answer, Ratel resolved his own agitation by himself.
As if asking my opinion had all been my imagination, the bastard’s gaze grew firm again.
“No, I asked something unnecessary. That isn’t what matters.”
He spoke while looking at me, but it also sounded like he was speaking to himself.
The bastard turned the topic to what he considered important, the half-wit we had to catch.
“How are you planning to lure the half-wit back? Everything we knew about him until now was just something that bastard put on. We know nothing about the half-wit.”
“Kkwek, yeah. Kkwek, even if it was only for a moment, he fooled us so thoroughly we forgot we should even suspect him.”
I willingly followed the bastard’s changed topic.
Ratel nodded.
“We were completely off from the start.”
No, everything was finally returning to its proper place.
Because from now on, the one we had to face would be the leader from the original work.
The one who had stepped away a moment ago was no longer the half-wit, but the crafty and cruel leader from the original work.
In other words, the situation could only be advantageous to this side.
I could be confident that I would win the match against the half-wit.
But along with that certainty of victory, an uneasy certainty also began creeping into shape.
A certainty that even if we defeated the half-wit, we would not be the ones laughing at the end.
Before that unease could ripple through my heart, I shut the door on it and opened my mouth.
“Kkwek, first, there’s something we need to do right away.”
At Ratel, who asked what that was with his eyes, I gestured toward the leader.
“Kkwek, knock that bastard out first.”
“Kkwek!! What the hell is this bastard......!”
The leader, who had been called out while off guard, tried to protest, but his words could not continue to the end.
Because Ratel struck the back of his neck hard, as if he had been waiting for it.
***
The food storage was the most important place after the center the leader had guarded.
Since they lived underground on an island surrounded by a river, the inside of the cave had its own system prepared for that.
In other words, more important and less important things were thoroughly divided.
If it looked like water would surge into the food storage, other passages naturally collapsed and prevented water from invading inside.
If one used this well, then no matter how strong the opponent was, one could seize a position favorable to oneself.
The opponent in the original work who had used this better than anyone against Ratel was the leader.
The current half-wit.
***
As long as three problems were solved, catching the half-wit and locking him up together with the leader would not be very difficult.
First, the first problem was the leader.
I looked down at the bastard, who had lost consciousness cleanly from Ratel’s single blow.
This was a problem that could not be solved by my hands right now anyway.
For now, when the given choices were not to my liking, the best method was to put the problem off until I found another solution.
Leaving the first problem on hold, the second remaining problem was the movement of the river water that had screwed us over several times.
I looked down beneath the rock wall, where the water was slowly beginning to drain.
At that speed, it would not even take thirty minutes for the water to drain and reveal the passage leading into the food storage.
As long as the river water did not move on its own again.
And the final problem.
I secretly took a deep breath and turned my head toward the remaining problem.
“Kkwek, I think it’d be better for you to head back around here.”
“......”
Fortunately, there was no reaction along the lines of asking what nonsense I was spouting.
Ratel listened to me far more calmly than expected.
At least it wasn’t the worst.
“Kkwek, as you saw, the leader will eventually die at the half-wit’s hands. Kkwek, I’ll stay here and watch to make sure the half-wit doesn’t do anything useless.”
Ratel still did not interrupt or cut me off.
Right. After several rounds of endless arguments with that protagonist bastard, even if trust had not bloomed between us, this much should be enough for acceptance and understanding to sprout.
“Kkwek, I’ve already said many times that the river water’s movements are suspicious, so you know that well too. Kkwek, nothing good will come from delaying any longer.”
Of course, it was not only because of the reason I was explaining to Ratel.
I did not think there was any need to say aloud my extremely personal opinion that it would not be good for the bastard to remain here and confirm the end of the leader and the half-wit.
“Kkwek, I’ll teach you the way out. Kkwek, the path we came from is probably submerged now. Kkwek, once the entrance is revealed, go inside and climb upward. Kkwek, if you keep climbing, the leader’s nest will come out. Kkwek, you’ve already been there once, so you can find the way from there, right? Kkwek, if you go out that way and use your power, the river water will start going wild again, and then you......”
My voice, which had been explaining on and on, gradually grew smaller.
While my instructions continued this far, Ratel remained silent.
At this point, my relief was turning into anxiety.
There was no way that bastard would listen to me this obediently.
“......”
“......”
In the end, when I stopped speaking, only then did Ratel roll his eyes and stare straight at me.
Those calm golden eyes quietly pressured me.
The one who raised both hands first in the end was me.
“......Kkwek, say something. Kkwek, if you don’t want to go, just say you don’t want to go.”
At my powerless declaration of defeat, Ratel’s mouth finally opened.
“No, you’re right. In this situation, it’s right for me to leave. I’ll follow your words.”
Anxiety evolved one stage further into fear.
“......Kkwek, are you sick somewhere?”
Yes, there was no way to explain this unless he was sick.
And if he was sick somewhere, that was even more of a problem.
The bastard could not be sick right now.
If he was going to be sick, he had to be sick after destroying the holy object.
The bastard quietly stared at my worried face, then slowly nodded.
For him to say with his own mouth that he was sick, he had to be truly, seriously sick.
While I wondered whether I had to go find some legendary elixir to heal him, Ratel continued speaking.
“To be honest, I am a little tired. I’ve been troubled by orcs until now, and I also fought an orc to save you, so it’s understandable that I’d be tired.”
......If he meant what happened in the pit, hadn’t the orc that fell below been sent flying with a single kick from Ratel?
Somehow, the more the bastard spoke, the closer his words seemed to get to nonsense, so my brows drew together.
But the nonsense from before was nothing but logical compared to the bullshit that followed.
“I’m so tired that I might use Manis without realizing it on the way. If that kind of accident happens before I leave the island, no, in front of the food storage, it would be a serious problem. The tragedy of all four of us being helplessly trapped in the storage would unfold.”
I glared at Ratel, who was shamelessly pretending to be weak.
It seemed the protagonist bastard had learned a new method of pissing people off.
Who taught that bastard something so useless?
***
The one-armed orc opened his eyes in surprise at the sensation of someone shaking him awake.
At the same time, the memory from just before he lost consciousness flowed into his head.
-Kkwek, knock that bastard out first.
A calm voice, and those unlucky eyes looking down at him.
And the intense impact to the back of his neck.
Realizing what had happened, the leader raised himself with anger as his driving force.
“Kkwek, that damned bastard......!”
The leader, who had raised himself while muttering curses, met the eyes of someone quietly looking down at him.
The horrified leader nearly screamed, but fortunately, he avoided that pathetic disgrace because he immediately realized who the owner of the gaze was.
The one looking at him was neither the arrogant orc nor the human.
“Kkwe, kkwek......! What are you doing?!”
The leader lowered his voice and scolded the half-wit.
If it had been like usual, the half-wit would have been frightened in advance and retreated, but this time was different.
Startled by the hand hurriedly covering his mouth, the leader widened his eyes.
The half-wit placed a finger to his lips and gestured for silence. Only after becoming certain that the leader would no longer raise his voice did he slowly withdraw his hand.
The leader opened and closed his mouth, finding the half-wit unfamiliar as the bastard calmly pointed to the other side of the cliff.
“Kkwek......!”
Only after the half-wit let out a small sound at his slow reaction did the leader come to his senses.
The one-armed orc looked back and forth between the half-wit and the direction the half-wit was pointing.
“Kkwek, what is it? Kkwek, you want us to cross over there?”
At the leader’s whisper, the half-wit nodded.
His eyes were filled with certainty.
Had this bastard ever acted with such firm will before?
He was a lacking bastard who never did anything properly no matter what he was told to do.
If left unwatched, he always caused accidents, and unless it was a situation like this, he was never even the slightest help.
Just a half-wit.
But the orc pulling him along did not have any lacking parts. If anything, words like agile and quick-witted seemed to suit him.
As if bewitched, the leader rose and moved his feet as the half-wit led him.
After confirming that the leader was following him well, the half-wit carefully lowered himself beneath the cliff.
Startled, the leader looked down, then let out a hollow laugh when he found the half-wit nimbly climbing down the wall.
Yes, now that he thought about it, that was the natural appearance of an orc.
It was only that the half-wit had grown far too slowly. If he were originally an orc, he should have been able to climb up and down a cliff of that level as much as he pleased from birth.
Then why had he been pretending to be lacking all this time?
-Are you really unaware, or are you pretending not to know?
The answer to the question that rose in his mind circled inside his head.
-That the one who attacked you was the half-wit.
Humans could not be trusted.
The arrogant bastard who mingled with humans was the same.
It was only the human bastard running his mouth however he pleased.
Why would the half-wit attack me?
The leader struggled to erase the voice repeating inside his head and carefully stepped down the cliff after the half-wit.
The leader, busy forcing away his unease, did not even notice the half-wit’s gaze following behind him.
Nor the half-wit’s two eyes, which refused to leave the nape of his neck where the wound had not yet healed.