Chapter 137 - Raid
The half-wit washed down the dry, chalky biscuit blocking his throat with water, then crouched there and stared at the leader, who was talking with Ran with an unfamiliar expression.
The leader orc kept growing angry, then softening, again and again as he was dragged around by the strange orc.
The half-wit took in every one of his changes without missing a thing.
“Your boss still doesn’t seem to have noticed.”
Until the human’s low voice ca from right beside him and made him spring up.
Even so, he failed to do it completely.
His half-raised body never managed to leap all the way up, because Ratel’s arm caught him and dragged him back down.
The half-wit recoiled as if he had shoved his arm into a firepit and tried to shake that hand off, but Ratel seed uninterested in the half-wit’s reaction and only glared for a mont at the path they had walked from.
Once the half-wit regained his composure at that quiet oddity, he wriggled the arm Ratel had grabbed.
Only then did Ratel finally put strength into his hand and turn his gaze to the half-wit.
“You went to all that trouble to keep your life, so you should protect it to the end.”
“Kkwek......”
At the threat telling him to behave, the half-wit stopped his timid resistance and weakly let the strength leave his body.
Ratel looked at Ran, who was talking with the leader.
As if he intended to extract the information he wanted before the other party died, the royal who had turned into an orc was asking various questions that were useless to humans.
That bastard had definitely already finished preparing himself to live the rest of his life in that bizarre form.
At first, Ratel had been suspicious that he was using so dirty trick, but now he felt as if he was gradually beginning to understand.
The bastard did not cling to the people around him.
No, not even to people. The bastard had no greed for anything else either.
Was there any other human as calm as that madman in a situation where he might have to live as an orc for the rest of his life from this mont on?
Ratel recalled the face of the prince bastard as he discarded his original appearance without a shred of lingering attachnt.
Adapting too quickly to a new life could, perhaps, also an having no affection at all for the life before it.
How could a person be like that?
Ah, he wasn’t even a person anymore.
Shaking off his idle thoughts about Ran’s ambiguous state, Ratel furrowed his brow.
Could a life with no purpose at all, one that simply continued day after day, really be called a human life?
At the very least, Ratel had never even imagined such a life.
Every single day, whenever he opened his eyes, there had not been a single mont when he did not rise while reminding himself of the purpose of his life, and that had beco the standard for every choice he made.
But that bastard was different.
As long as he was alive, nothing else mattered, so there were many things he easily gave up or threw away.
As if it would not be strange for him to abandon everyone around him and run away at this very mont.
“I can’t let that happen.”
At Ratel’s low murmur, the half-wit, who had been stiffly watching Ratel’s mood, flinched.
Ratel recalled Ran’s face as he avoided the half-wit with a fed-up look whenever the half-wit stuck close to him.
There was no way sothing like a purpose that the bastard had to pursue would appear right this mont.
Ratel did not have the ability to create anything so noble, and their relationship was not one that would allow for it either.
But on the other hand, he could probably create at least an obstacle that would make that bastard recoil and flee.
“You don’t have to be so scared. Like I said, I won’t kill you right away.”
Since that was no different from saying he could kill him whenever he felt like it, even if it was not right away, the half-wit swallowed.
“Kkwe, kkwek......!”
In order to show off his efforts to prove his innocence, the half-wit eagerly pointed at Ran with his hand.
“Yeah, good job.”
At the unexpected praise, the half-wit doubted his own hearing and dug at his ear.
“Just keep doing what you’ve been doing.”
As if confirming that there was nothing wrong with the half-wit’s ears, Ratel praised him again.
“Kkwe, kkwek?”
“Keep it up. Stick close to that bastard. So close he’ll be annoyed to death. Thoroughly teach him that living as an orc is nothing but troubleso and exhausting.”
It was not a particularly appropriate thing to say to an actual orc, but the half-wit was in no position to feel offended by that.
Before the madness of the human whose eyes glead expressionlessly, the half-wit could only nod.
Ratel was a rather generous commander.
Generous enough to hint at what this timid orc should do next.
“Good. Three orcs will attack this place soon. You know what you have to do, right?”
“Kkwek?!!”
Though the contents were a little lacking in consideration.
***
Unfortunately, my conversation with the leader could not continue.
It was because of the sll of intruders drifting through the air.
After being wedged between the leader and the half-wit, I had thought I had grown sowhat used to it, but the scent of new orcs in the air was not very pleasant.
How did they get all the way here?
Was there so side path I didn’t know about?
It was not impossible.
After all, the only paths I knew were the path Ratel had used in the original work and the route in the Red Book.
Just because the answers I had were not wrong did not an other answers could not exist.
At my sudden action of raising my head and furrowing my brow, the leader followed my gaze with a puzzled expression.
“Kkwek, what’s this all of a sudden?”
“Kkwek, orcs. Kkwek, considering there aren’t many of them, I don’t think they noticed you were here and chased you down.”
At my explanation, the leader sprang to his feet.
“Kkwek, those bastards are nearby?”
He flared his nostrils to catch the scent, but perhaps he could not sll anything, because dismay and helplessness appeared on his face.
It probably was not only because of the Oaks grass.
Judging by the fact that he was not greatly shocked, this did not seem to be the first ti his old organs had failed to function properly.
The leader imdiately regretted confessing out loud that he had not noticed the orcs’ presence.
Pretending not to see the look of dismay on his face, I turned my head toward the water’s edge.
Ratel and the half-wit also seed to have noticed the intruders about to rush in and were getting to their feet.
“Kkwek, it seems like four at most.”
“No, exactly three.”
Ratel approached while correcting my estimate.
That was a relief.
If there were three, it was a number we could try dealing with.
If we needlessly spread even the scent of blood, we could gather every other orc aiming for the leader’s neck before we even reached the food storage.
We might end up watching with our eyes wide open as the leader died in vain.
Or before that, I might end up seeing Ratel’s crazy self-harm show with my own two eyes.
Either future was one I would firmly decline, so I looked at Ratel with a warning in my gaze.
If he could fight, things would be resolved more easily, but we could not reveal Ratel’s monstrous strength in front of the leader.
If the leader realized that the unlucky, arrogant, insane human he had thought was, at most, bait was actually hiding enough strength to threaten him, it was obvious how he would react.
Please, just stay still.
The bastard read the desperate plea in my gaze and ostentatiously crossed his arms to show that he understood.
“Kkwek, don’t untie that until we cross the river. Stay back like that. Kkwek, don’t step forward.”
This ti as well, Ratel obediently stepped back behind and the half-wit.
“Kkwek, you cross the water first with the leader. Kkwek, the half-wit and I will follow behind. Kkwek, even if sothing unexpected happens, you stay right there and......”
While I was listing the things he had to keep in mind, I trailed off at a sudden sense of dissonance.
“You an all I have to do is maintain this formation?”
Seeing him ask back so ekly made the sense of dissonance grow until it finally exploded.
......Did this bastard eat so much fish earlier that a parasite crawled up into his head?
I was not sure, but I had heard that could happen if you ate freshwater fish wrong.
They said most poisons did not work on Ratel, but the book had not said what would happen if a living creature invaded his body.
As I seriously wondered whether this world had deworming dicine too, one of Ratel’s eyebrows slowly began to rise.
“My head is fine, so stop looking at like that.”
“Kkwek, how was I looking at you?”
“Like you need to pry open the lid of my skull right now and check inside.”
That was roughly correct.
I had been thinking about how to remove the parasite that might have spread through his head.
When I neither confird nor denied it, Ratel sighed.
“Just think of it as you and I agreeing right now. Sothing like this can happen once in a while.”
As if.
There had been quite a few tis when he and I agreed.
And every ti, Ratel himself had twisted the road just to screw over.
The very fact that he was saying sothing like that now was the sa as admitting he had so sche.
In any case, I did not have ti right now to analyze the reason behind his whim.
“......Kkwek, anyway, stay still. Kkwek, you rember, right? Kkwek, until I say it myself......”
Do not even think about saving .
Even without finishing the sentence, Ratel understood my words and gave a small laugh.
“I have no intention of doing that.”
It was the most reassuring sentence he had said since entering the cave, but I could not erase my suspicion completely.
When I looked at Ratel with the suspicion still brimming in my eyes, he raised both hands as if he understood.
“Like you said, I won’t do anything. Until we cross the river, I won’t lift a finger and will only watch.”
Ratel’s expression as he spoke, almost like he was making an oath, was quite serious.
“Kkwek!! You said this was urgent, so what are you doing?! Kkwek, hurry up and get over here!”
Since the impatient leader’s urging began just then, I eventually decided to set aside my remaining suspicion for the mont.
***
The fact that those three orcs had chosen this path among the countless paths inside the cave ant all three of them possessed intelligence and physical ability superior to other individuals to so degree.
Thanks to that, even while we waded through water lapping below our knees, the distance between us and the orcs did not widen and instead only kept shrinking.
We might have to face those three before we reach the other side.
I turned back and checked the path we had walked.
We had only just barely passed half of the pool.
The three orcs did not seem to have reached the water’s edge yet, but it was only a matter of ti.
“Kkwek, damn it, why is it so far......!”
The leader’s walking speed, as he deliberately complained to hide how out of breath he was, had slowed noticeably compared to the beginning.
I finished making my judgnt without difficulty.
Since we would run into them anyway, there was no need to keep moving like one body.
This position was not bad either.
“Kkwek, let’s split up here.”
At my suggestion, three pairs of eyes turned toward at the sa ti.
They did not contain particularly positive emotions.
“Kkwek?!”
“Kkwek, are you saying we should abandon one of us and go?”
“Forget about staying behind alone.”
It seed certain that all three of them had understood sothing different.
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