Chapter 144 - Influence (2)
Just because I sided with Ratel did not an the group imdiately fell apart or a fight broke out.
The leader still needed my guidance, and I needed to confirm that he would be eaten by the half-wit.
Thanks to that, we took a rest, split into the leader and the half-wit, and and Ratel, sitting on the strange boundary between tension and discomfort.
It was not exactly a pleasant atmosphere.
Aside from the half-wit, who was excitedly picking up fish from the ground and eating them, no one opened their mouths carelessly.
The rest period, where even the small argunts between Ratel and the leader had vanished, was quiet.
......Now that I thought about it, there had never been a warm and friendly atmosphere in the first place, so maybe quiet was better.
“What are you going to do now?”
Ratel asked quietly while I was silently chewing on the salty biscuit.
I opened my mouth while taking in the half-wit, who was glancing at and Ratel from a distance.
“Kkwek, for now, the first objective is to trap the leader inside the food storage as planned.”
“So, in the end, you’re saying you’ll stay here alone according to the original plan?”
I turned my gaze away from the leader and the half-wit and looked at Ratel, who was sohow chewing and swallowing raw fish.
“Kkwek, I can’t exactly do that. Kkwek, for now, I did say I’d protect you.”
But after saying it out loud, the bastard’s build, sowhat too sturdy to be under my protection, entered my eyes anew.
If I had to choose which of the two of us needed protection, I could confidently say it was , but the water had already been spilled.
Damn it, even thinking about it again, it’s ridiculous.
, protecting Ratel.
Wait, protecting Ratel?
As I let out a hollow laugh, I furrowed my brow at an unpleasant sensation, as if sothing hazy was about to co to mind but would not.
I’ve heard that sowhere before, haven’t I?
“What is it all of a sudden? Did you hit your head when you fell earlier after all? If you’re hurt, say it now. We need to stop it before you get any stranger than you already are.”
Perhaps I looked strange with my sudden frown, because Ratel offered worried advice.
“Kkwek, there’s no one stranger than you here. Kkwek, even including the half-wit. Kkwek, and how exactly are you going to stop my head from getting strange?”
When I asked in disbelief, I saw strength enter Ratel’s right fist.
“Everything in the world stops, even if only for a mont, when it takes an impact. If I hit you once, you should stop for a mont too.”
Together with that ignorant explanation, his clenched fist looked unusually large.
As expected, the bastard was too sturdy for to protect.
“Why did you suddenly change your mind?”
“Kkwek, what?”
I had not let down my guard over when the bastard would open that sturdy fist again, so I reacted half a beat late to his sudden question.
“You’re saying you’ll leave the island without the orc bastards, aren’t you? I’m asking why you suddenly changed your mind.”
Ah, that.
“Kkwek, because the half-wit seems to know even less than I thought.”
And so what?
At the question written plainly on Ratel’s face, I stopped chewing the biscuit and turned my body fully toward him.
“Kkwek, I’d planned to lock the two of them inside until they killed each other. Kkwek, it would’ve been troubleso if the bastard knew so secret passage even I didn’t know inside.”
Because I had thought he must know the cave’s geography inside and out, like when he dragged Ratel all over the place in the original work.
“You’re saying it’s fine to leave those two behind and go now?”
“Kkwek, yeah.”
His eyes wandered through the air for a mont as if he was thinking about sothing, then turned back toward .
“What if that bastard knows everything but is pretending not to and deceiving you?”
That could happen.
“Kkwek, then there’s nothing good about staying close to him even more. Kkwek, if he has that much intelligence, he’ll realize that becoming the boss doesn’t an he can survive. Kkwek, leaving the island so he lets his guard down isn’t a bad choice either.”
“......”
Even after my affirmation, the bastard silently stared at .
Yes, I didn’t think he would obediently move on this ti either.
“Kkwek, I’m not trying to deceive you and make you escape alone, and I’m not planning to deceive you and run away either.”
When I cut off his suspicion in advance, Ratel narrowed his eyes.
“I was tricked by you again just a little while ago. Do you think I’ll believe that?”
I was always lacking in conscience, but the words you’re worrying for nothing did not co easily.
I had tricked him too many tis.
“Kkwek, I owe you my life twice.”
I gave the most universal reason, but perhaps my answer was unexpected, because his expression changed strangely.
But it was true that I felt grateful.
When Ratel jumped down into the pit, he really looked like a hero.
It was the mont I felt embarrassed, thinking I was making too much of a fuss over a young bastard, and was about to say that this once, I would follow what he wanted without complaint.
“Why twice?”
Ratel corrected my words expressionlessly.
“Kkwek, what?”
“Why twice? Even from what I rember, it’s at least four tis.”
At the childishness of the bastard reacting to the number in the middle of all this, I nearly sighed.
“Kkwek, how is it four tis? Kkwek, even if we count the first ti at the river, when you follow on your own, it’s three tis.”
But I could not lose.
If I acknowledged everything here, I could clearly see the bastard later robbing of both my liver and gallbladder.
When I glared at Ratel with the firm determination to not yield even once, this ti, he looked at pathetically.
“Forget it. What’s the point of counting every single thing like this?”
Despite being the one who started it first, the bastard turned his eyes away as if withdrawing from the childish fight.
......Sohow, I feel like I’m the only one who ended up wronged here.
“In any case, this isn’t the first ti I saved you. That doesn’t explain why you suddenly changed your mind.”
While I was debating whether I should offer up the last of my pride and continue the childish fight again, Ratel changed the topic once more.
In the end, I was the only one left as the childish human, but I decided to answer his question obediently.
“Kkwek, because this ti, you really did save .”
As if thinking about what exactly was different from before, the bastard furrowed his eyebrows, then made an ah sound and opened his mouth.
“Leaving the leader aside, the bastard I knocked down must have been stronger than expected......”
Perhaps he had taken my words to an that the situation a mont ago had been that serious, because Ratel’s expression suddenly turned grave as he muttered.
The bastard looked back and forth between and the leader resting far away.
“Are you perhaps weak even among orcs? To the point where you can’t deal with even one of them alone?”
It was an unexpected insult to Ran Abalan’s physical ability as well, but the bastard’s expression was so serious that I did not even feel angry.
It might have been because I realized there had been a rather high proportion of sincerity in all the teasing he had directed at until now.
“......Kkwek, if I were that weak, I wouldn’t have even dared to stay here and keep watch over those two.”
After reassuring the protagonist, I pointed toward the pit we had escaped from.
“Kkwek, I didn’t know whether there was water below or bare ground. Kkwek, to survive, I had to subdue that leech-like bastard while falling, but there’s always a chance sothing could go wrong.”
After choosing one among several reasons and finishing my explanation, I brought out the real purpose behind answering the bastard’s conversation.
“Kkwek, even if we leave the island like this, I can’t follow you all the way into Rimis. Kkwek, and you know the reason well enough.”
After spreading both arms to emphasize the orc body once, I continued speaking.
“Kkwek, Jing probably hasn’t gone to Rimis yet. Kkwek, because I told him not to lay a hand on the holy object without you.”
“Right. He’s soone who finds it difficult to refuse your words.”
Ratel calmly agreed with .
Jing’s obedience probably ca not from human trust toward , but from habits and guilt engraved into his heart over many years.
In other words, he was unconsciously using as sothing like a substitute for royalty.
From the perspective of a bastard who had lost his entire family to the hands of royalty in a single day, it was probably not a very pleasant sight.
I was not in a position to offer comfort.
In any case, in that bastard’s eyes, I too was royalty who had enjoyed all kinds of luxury thanks to my bloodline.
That had to be the case.
This also ant that a realistic answer was better than comfort.
“Kkwek, while Jing obeys my words, I should make use of whatever I can. Kkwek, it won’t last long anyway.”
Because once the holy object was destroyed, he would soon co to his senses.
Perhaps realizing the words I had left out, Ratel gave a small laugh.
“You talk well. Even though you make a face like you’re so uncomfortable you might die whenever Jing so much as speaks to you.”
He had not realized the omitted words, but the discomfort in my heart.
Feeling needlessly awkward, I changed the subject.
“Kkwek, I can’t follow you to Rimis. Kkwek, if I go with you, it’ll go beyond standing out. Every soldier in Rimis will gather to subdue .”
I was about to present a common-sense plan, saying I would wait until he brought the holy object back.
“......If we call ourselves orc hunters, it wouldn’t be a bad cover occupation.”
I would have, if not for the bastard’s nonsensical answer that made lose my words for a mont.
Did that bastard just say he would drag around as a hunting trophy?
I looked at Ratel, hoping I had misheard, but the bastard’s expression was calm.
“Kkwek, three people dragging around one orc would definitely not stand out at all.”
“If you pretend to be dead properly, we might not get caught. You’re good at that, aren’t you?”
“Kkwek, when have I ever been good at pretending to be dead?”
As I was about to argue, the events in the capital ca to mind.
Ah, I did pretend to be dead in front of Dito.
Thanks to that, I had secured at least one final escape route.
From the 2nd Prince’s perspective, I was dead, after all.
But there was no guarantee that rumors of a trio carrying around an orc corpse would not reach the capital.
Then Jing’s existence would be revealed, and it would only be a matter of ti before Dito began to suspect whether I, who had supposedly died together with Jing, was alive.
I could not let my last remaining insurance be blown away so vainly and pointlessly.
Once my thoughts reached that point, I shook my head firmly.
“Kkwek, in the capital, I really was no different from half-dead. Kkwek, I was slightly unconscious.”
“You have experience, so the second ti should be more natural. Looking at how you usually act, there isn’t much difference between you being dead and walking around alive, so don’t worry.”
Why does this bastard want to kill so badly?
“Kkwek, why do we have to go that far when there’s an easy thod of just hiding in the forest?”
This ti, Ratel’s eyes changed as if he were looking at the greatest idiot under heaven.
“Do you think the forest will be any different? If another person sees you, hunters will gather anyway.”
At the very least, the chance of Dito suspecting that the 7th Prince he thought had died might be alive would be lower.
But if I said that, it was obvious the bastard would scold again, saying I was only thinking of running away.
“Kkwek, in other words, until you co back, there’s nowhere for to run. Kkwek, if I leave the forest, there’ll imdiately be an uproar about an orc wandering around.”
It was similar to saying that instead of following him all the way to Rimis, I would lock myself inside a prison.
Once I left the island, unless I had the forest, I would lose any place to hide too.
Perhaps the bastard understood what that ant, because for the first ti in a while, sothing other than dissatisfied eyes appeared on Ratel’s face.
There was still suspicion mixed in, but faint relief was clearly visible in the bastard’s expression.
“Kkwek, so steal the holy object and co back as quickly as possible. Kkwek, unless you want to see the funny sight of being hunted by other people and turned into a taxidermied specin.”
At my joke, Ratel laughed with a sound like air escaping.
That pricked my conscience a little, but since I was usually in a state of lacking most of my conscience, it did not show much.
“Fine, I’ll co back as quickly as possible. If Jing insists on carrying around your taxidermied self as an heirloom, I’d be troubled too.”
Thanks to the bastard’s unpleasant joke, the pang of conscience evaporated a little faster.
It was an even more unpleasant joke because it had a strange sense of realism.
***
How warm and friendly.
The leader glared with a displeased face at the arrogant orc and the even more arrogant human.
What was there to talk about with a human that the bastard was conversing with such a comfortable expression?
Foolish bastard.
The leader clicked his tongue at the ignorance of that mutant-like orc who had suddenly fallen from nowhere.
That human bastard was not simply arrogant.
Right now, he could not leave the island, so he was hiding his claws, but once he got outside, he would definitely reveal his true colors.
He might join hands with other humans as soon as he left and kill that bastard.
To trust such a human bastard. The one who had been acting so clever in every possible way looked even more ridiculous now.
The leader had no intention of obediently letting them go outside.
Who knew what that human bastard would do once he left?
Now that he knew he could not do it alone, he would surely call more humans and launch an attack.
The leader could not watch that happen with his eyes open.
Having resolved that he would kill that human bastard no matter what it took, the leader turned his head toward the half-wit.
It was to warn him to look at that pathetic sight and co to his senses, since he seed to be strangely following that mutant bastard.
And on top of that, to caution him not to do sothing as stupid as that either.
But the leader had no choice but to shut his mouth at the sight of the half-wit staring fixedly at the mutant talking with the human.
Without even noticing the gaze directed at him, the half-wit was secretly watching the two of them in a daze.
The half-wit was strangely following the unfamiliar orc.
The leader did not like that.
There was no one as useful as the half-wit, and no one as easy to use as the half-wit.
The current him was no longer the leader he had once been.
At least until he reclaid his position, the leader had no intention whatsoever of letting that bastard take the half-wit from him.
The leader quietly stared at his foolish and convenient last subordinate.
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