While helping to prepare the meal, Rose and his companions caught the chieftain’s eye.
A sharp, dry sound echoed through the rocky cave. Rose deflected the descending fist. He then seized the opponent’s torso and forcefully threw him.
Defeated by an opponent a size down, the younger guy desperately lunged. Rose grabbed a nearby stick and poked the other’s throat with it.
“Gokho, you’re not getting away with this!”
Others attacked him as if to say, finish them off. This was completely just a lynching. However, the boss didn’t even try to stop it. Instead, he drank sake, using it as a snack. What kind of race is this, or does he simply dislike Rose?
Meanwhile, surrounded by a large group and at a complete disadvantage, no one lent him a hand. Everyone had a face that said, “Glad it’s not me.” In no time, his freedom was taken away, and he became a punching bag. Is this what it means for power to determine hierarchy?
“What happened to your earlier arrogance? This is what happens when you collect all sorts of strange things. That’s right, the fire’s weak. The meat won’t even char. Hey!”
The boss ordered his subordinate with a nod of his chin. Realizing his intent, Rose, who had been calm until now, began to panic.
“Wait, please wait. If I offended you, I apologize! Please forgive me.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
Then he forcibly broke free from his restraints and ran.
“Whoa, where are you going?”
Amused by his desperate state, uproarious laughter erupted. Soon, a subordinate appeared holding his book and handed it to the boss.
“What’s so important about this? It’s just garbage. It won’t even fill your stomach.”
He then casually threw it into the fire. How cruel. I unconsciously clenched my fists tightly. I could feel sweat trickling through the gaps. Rose, with a pale face, leaped into the fire. That spectacle didn’t seem to amuse the boss either.
Just as he was about to throw another book, someone grabbed his arm.
“What, do you have something to say?”
“That’s enough. I think you’ve reflected sufficiently.”
Oh, here comes the one who likes Rose. This development is thrilling, I find myself thinking like a high school girl reading a shojo manga. The boss stood up and glared at the other.
“You dare talk back to me? You’ve got guts. I’ve disliked you from the start. I’ll make sure you can never look me in the eye again.”
Although he was large, he was still a size smaller than the boss. I expected him to back down, but instead, the atmosphere turned to fighting. The onlookers who had been clapping began to stand up and made space. The giants collided. Four arms swung, and large feet crushed the bonfire. The boss lifted his opponent and threw him.
He hit the wall, and the cave swayed violently. It was so much that I worried the place might collapse. After that, it was a total mess. Sake bottles shattered, cracks appeared in the walls, and the onlookers fled. A flying rock even came this way. Before I knew it, Stella was at my feet.
Punching, biting, throwing things—it was chaotic. Despite being smaller, he put up a good fight. While skillfully evading attacks, he moved quickly and landed solid blows. He was inferior in power, but being smaller, he had speed.
“Huff huff, you’ve got skill. You’ve entertained me quite a bit. It’s been a while since I moved this much, not since I took the chieftain’s seat.”
With a roar, the boss delivered a full-power tackle. With that momentum, the opponent was slammed against the wall. Trapped by such a massive body, escape would be impossible. He then grabbed him by the neck and threw him in the opposite direction again.
Raising a cloud of dust, he fell to the ground. But the boss was also at his limit, his footing unsteady. Breathing heavily, he triumphantly grabbed his opponent’s shoulder and pulled him up.
“Tella, you’ve certainly grown. But you’ll have to pay for this.”
So his name was Tella. At that moment, the weakened Tella looked up. With one arm, he held the boss’s head still and, with the two arms growing on his right side, struck him forcefully.
“Ugaaaaaaaaa!!”
Then, with the boss reeling, he used that momentum to lift his massive body and throw him against the wall, just as he had been done. Gasps of surprise arose from the surroundings. The one who was thrown slumped from the wall and stopped moving.
Tella, though battered, looked around dizzily, searching for something. He then retrieved a small bag from the fragments of a broken pot. What emerged from it was the stone rose we had made. It was cracked in half from the impact. He handed it to Rose, who had been watching from the shadows.
“Haa, I’m sorry it’s broken. This is how I feel. You are… a flower blooming in the desert.”
He even said the proposal words we had thought up together. Rose, who received it, tilted his head in confusion.
“Um, what’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”
