The Seventh Prince Runs Away from Awkward Situations Chapter 145 : Chapter 145

Chapter 145 - Timing

The remaining path to the food storage was one-way.

That ant three orcs and one human no longer needed to keep forcing themselves to travel together.

In other words, we ended up walking split into two groups: the leader and the half-wit, then and Ratel.

Since there was only one path in one direction anyway, I wondered what aning there was in keeping distance like this, but this way was quieter, so I had no particular complaints.

Thanks to the leader’s wariness toward Ratel reaching its peak, the bastard had grown even noisier than before.

The leader reacted sensitively to every little movent Ratel made.

Especially whenever the distance between Ratel and the half-wit seed like it might shrink even a little, the bastard would scold the half-wit to an excessive degree.

“Kkwek!! Don’t go near that human bastard!!”

Including the one just now, the number of tis the leader had shouted at the half-wit must have exceeded ten.

“Kkwek!! And you bastards, stop dawdling and hurry up!!”

The number of tis he had lost his temper at and Ratel, who were walking ahead, had also gone over ten.

For soone following behind, he had a lot of demands.

“Kkwek, what exactly did you do to the leader that made him so frightened?”

At my jab, Ratel shrugged.

“I didn’t do anything. I only returned his sword.”

If he had rely returned it kindly, there was no way the leader bastard would have dragged out the half-wit with such a pale face.

Still, judging by the way things had passed, it did not seem as though he had gone as far as making a physical threat.

While recalling the leader’s green hand that had suddenly stretched out, I chewed over the fact that the mont the bastard sensed sothing strange from Ratel, the thing he secured first was the half-wit.

I had thought before that his obsession with the half-wit was a little excessive, but now I felt like I understood the reason.

Even now, recalling the mory of when I first beca the orcs’ target was enough to chill my liver.

The mont the three orcs realized I could speak, they regarded as an attack target.

Hiding among them as an ordinary orc in the sa situation and becoming a candidate for leader, thus becoming their target, were entirely different matters.

I looked around the cave, surrounded by rock on every side.

It was obvious, but this place was the orcs’ stronghold.

An island surrounded by rivers on all sides, where no other creatures lived and where the orcs themselves could not leave.

The fact that there were only orcs ant that every orc aiming for the leader’s position was the sa as those three who had been swept down beneath the pit.

Having to stay on edge toward everything one encountered in the cave in order to avoid dying and protect one’s position was exhausting.

Thinking that way, the leader’s excessive wariness was not impossible to understand.

I rolled my eyes and looked at the leader, who was following behind while keeping his distance from us, never taking his eyes off us as we walked ahead.

He had probably lived like that from the ti his body began to age.

No, perhaps even before that.

“Kkweeeek!! Damn it, stop picking things up and eating them already!! Kkwek, if you’ve stuffed yourself that much, you could starve for a week and still be fine!”

Instead of being wary of an orc threatening his position, the bastard was being wary of the half-wit’s stomach bursting as the half-wit picked up flopping fish from the ground every three steps.

......Neither side looked comfortable, but still, the latter was probably better than having one’s life threatened.

“......You still haven’t changed your mind about the half-wit having bitten off the leader’s neck?”

Perhaps Ratel had also seen the half-wit driving the leader crazy, because he muttered as if he found the bastard suspicious.

“Kkwek, now that I think about it, that’s probably proof that he ate the leader’s neck.”

The orcs who had marked as a target had all been fanatical about biting off my neck.

As if nothing in this world mattered more, like racehorses fitted with blinders, the bastards rushed at .

But only the half-wit was different.

Even after seeing the leader, and even after learning that I could speak, the bastard did not rush in and aim for our necks like the three orcs.

It was probably so side effect that occurred because the leader’s position had not fully transferred over.

The fact that the leader felt at ease around the half-wit because the half-wit had failed while biting off his neck was ironic.

The future where he would eventually have to fight the half-wit over the boss position was strange in its own way too.

How would the leader react if he realized the orc who had attacked him was the half-wit?

Would he kill the half-wit?

Thinking of the bastard who had tried to drop in the pit without much guilt, the answer ca easily.

What the leader needed was a stupid subordinate, not a stupid bastard threatening his position.

Still, he might hesitate a little more than when he had tried to kill .

There was no way he had not felt the difference between the half-wit and the other orcs that I had felt.

He might think the half-wit was too much of a waste to kill.

“Kkwek, the half-wit is a bastard too useful to simply kill.”

Perhaps he heard my small mutter, because the sharp-eared protagonist’s face turned toward .

His expression asked whether I knew what I had just said.

Well, there was no way the bastard had misheard, so it was a reasonable suspicion.

“Kkwek, you saw the other bastards too. Kkwek, compared to them, the half-wit was practically cute.”

“What exactly did you grow up looking at to see that and think cute?”

Seeing the bastard doubt my aesthetic sense made feel a little stubborn.

“Kkwek, he’s a bit vacant, but he listens well, doesn’t he? Kkwek, what’s the difference between him and a puppy?”

“......Just know that you greatly insulted puppies just now.”

“Kkwek, I know puppies are beasts in the end too. Kkwek, they’re just so close to humans that there’s no need to show it. Kkwek, if you release them into the mountains, they aren’t much different from other animals.”

When I refused to withdraw my claim until the end, Ratel stopped walking.

“Just because that bastard follows you around, does it really feel like you’ve gained a new subordinate? He must have intended to kill you.”

“Kkwek, who said otherwise?”

At my casual answer, Ratel’s mouth, which had opened to argue back, froze.

His eyes, which had widened slightly, soon returned to normal.

“......You knew that, and still watched him cling to you like that?”

Watched him? I had even made so effort to keep him together with the leader.

“Are you insane? Or did you forget what you said with your own mouth? If, as you said, the half-wit was deceiving the leader......”

“Kkwek, then he would’ve judged , who can also speak, as an enemy he had to defeat. Kkwek, if there was an opening, he would’ve aid for .”

When I nodded and answered, Ratel’s expression twisted.

“You were probably too dull, sleeping like a rock, to notice, but if the half-wit had made up his mind, you would’ve died several tis already.”

Ah, is that so?

Well, the leader had also said he had been attacked while sleeping, so it was a thod that suited the bastard if nothing else.

Should I learn how to sleep with my eyes open?

“......You don’t look very surprised.”

I had tried to put on a startled expression in my own way, but it did not seem to have made much of an impact on him.

“Kkwek, what, should I leap into the air in shock?”

At my indifferent answer, the bastard, who was still glaring at suspiciously, widened his eyes.

“......You’re not surprised because you knew.”

“Kkwek, knew what?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know. Since when?”

“Kkwek, why don’t you get into the habit of adding subjects?”

“I told you not to change the subject. I’m asking when you noticed that I told that half-wit to watch you.”

Ah, that.

“Kkwek, from the beginning.”

I had known from the beginning.

That so kind of deal must have passed between him and the half-wit, and that the half-wit following was not necessarily the bastard’s own will.

It would be strange not to notice when the half-wit suddenly started following around while watching your mood.

“You knew all along that I told that half-wit to stick to you so you couldn’t think of anything else......”

I didn’t know you went that far, you bastard.

While I lost my words in disbelief at that shaless confession, Ratel continued.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Kkwek, then what was I supposed to say? Kkwek, what was I supposed to say to the bastard who was so suspicious of that he even put an orc on as a watcher? Kkwek, was I supposed to beg you to trust already?”

“That’s not why I threatened that bastard.”

Ratel gritted his teeth and denied my words.

“Kkwek, can you say there was none of that intention at all?”

“......”

Perhaps unable to lie even so, the bastard chose to shut his mouth at this question.

“Kkwek, you said it yourself. Kkwek, deceiving and being deceived is human life. Kkwek, there’s nothing new about it, so what exactly are you dissatisfied with? Kkwek, this ti, we each deceived the other once, so let’s call it even and move on.”

“I don’t want to compete with you.”

The bastard muttered behind as I spoke lightly and turned away.

I pretended not to hear and moved forward.

After all, my ears were not as good as his.

***

The leader’s expression was dark as he looked up at the rock that stood far taller than he was.

“Kkwek, why did the river suddenly move on its own like that......?”

The bastard looked at the massive rock blocking the path up and down, then muttered unhappily.

This ti, I agreed with him too.

Why the damned river occasionally went wild and blocked our path, or whether it wanted to control the direction of our route, I could not tell.

While the voice in the water kept telling to keep a promise I had never made, it also seed not to welco getting closer to the center.

Thanks to that, even an unexpected obstacle had appeared.

The only passage opened in the rock wall was blocked by a large rock.

When I placed my hand on it, I felt a damp surface that had not yet dried.

Normally, this was where the entrance leading to the other side should have been.

It was not that great of an obstacle.

The path we had walked so far, and the path we would walk from now on, were far too rough for a re rock to count as a serious problem.

Compared to that, I could confidently say sothing like this was nothing.

Still, I could not erase the feeling that I was being obstructed in a subtle, truly subtle way.

Like a barely noticeable stone root catching my foot once in a while, even when things were going well, sothing always had to get tangled up.

I erased the unsettling feeling, like a finger cut by paper.

Because the leader, who looked even more uncomfortable than , had his mouth stubbornly shut while not taking his eyes off the top of the rock.

“Kkwek, are you thinking of climbing over it?”

When I spoke to him, the leader’s brow furrowed.

The bastard swept his eyes over his one remaining arm and the high cliff.

He had rested, but his stamina must have been greatly drained by the fight against the three orcs.

He would not want any more activity that required a lot of physical exertion.

After all, once we arrived at the food storage, a greater fight would break out.

The bastard looked back and forth between his hand and the half-wit, then soon opened his mouth as if he had made his decision.

“Kkwek, we’ll break the rock and cross.”

It was a rather reckless plan, but it was probably the result of his own calculation for stamina managent.

If they climbed the wall, each person’s labor would be decided, but if they broke through the rock, he could push the stamina consumption onto the half-wit.

But things would not go as he wanted.

“We need to climb over.”

The one who opened his mouth was Ratel, who had been quietly listening to the leader’s plan.

A vein stood out on the forehead of the leader, who had been making an effort to ignore Ratel’s existence.

Ratel and the leader’s gazes clashed in the air.

“Kkwek, human bastard, know your place and stay out of it.”

“The only thing not knowing its place here is your bloated pride that can’t keep up with your ability.”

The leader’s body trembled with rage after his warning was returned with Ratel’s biting sarcasm.

At the anxiety that I might end up seeing the leader die from high blood pressure right in front of , I opened my mouth.

“Kkwek, there’s no need to think while sinking too deeply into one side.”

I had ant that he should try thinking in a more varied way, but sparks flew from the leader’s eyes.

“Kkwek, are you siding with the human again?”

Then did you expect to side with you?

It was not as if I had spoken while standing on Ratel’s side, but the leader’s question was shaless beyond asure.

Unless he was absolutely convinced that siding with a human was more unreasonable than siding with a bastard who had tried to kill , he could not have been that confident.

“Kkwek, I’m not trying to divide sides right now.”

“Kkwek, if this isn’t taking sides, then what is it?!”

There was no greater waste of ti than dealing with soone words did not work on.

“Kkwek, even if I am siding with the human, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Because he had neither the right nor the authority to argue with .

At my cold words, the leader flinched.

It seed he realized anew that he had failed to kill , and that he would not have another chance to kill in the future either.

With a face that showed his pride was wounded, the bastard clamped his mouth shut, and the place his gaze went was the half-wit.

That small movent brought to mind the condition the leader had put forward in exchange for obeying my words.

It probably ant that he was that obsessed with his one remaining subordinate.

If he trusted the half-wit that much, then at the very least, he would not think the bastard was siding with the human.

I swallowed a sigh and opened my mouth.

“Kkwek, what do you want to do?”

“Kkwe, kkwek?!”

The target of the question was the half-wit, who had been watching the situation from one step away from the leader and Ratel.

As if he had never imagined I would suddenly call on him, the half-wit jumped in surprise and rolled his eyes around.

His spinning eyes observed the three of us in turn.

This ti, the leader also remained silent and waited for the half-wit’s choice.

In the silence, the half-wit, realizing there was nowhere left to retreat, eventually hesitantly lifted a finger.

The place the bastard’s finger pointed to was not the passage, but above the rock wall.