It failed

'What the actual fuck?'

Just now, the thing I felt on my arm... Was that Alaric trying to pull me back? But he ended up falling in the water as well?

'But he was far away from me!'

The last time I looked at him, he was at least four meters away from me!

"IAAANN AAAHHH MMNPHH-"

Alaric yelled out my name and screamed before his head dived into the water once again.

'Oh my gosh!'

He is drowning!

The water was flowing at a fast speed, that swimming in the opposite direction was almost impossible for my fragile body. I had no way of going over to where Alaric was and helping him out of the water. Instead, I moved my body slightly to the side towards the fairly big stone that was on the path of the river and reached out my right hand.

THUD

My back hit the stone hard, so much that I felt as if I heard some cracking sounds, but that helped my body stop moving with the flow of water and stop, stuck to the stone.

Next, I reached spread my right hand out, towards the man who was still moving in the water, and waited for him to arrive at my side. In less than two seconds, Alaric's collar got grabbed by me, and his body stopped swaying.

I raised my hand up and pulled Alaric's head out of the water.

Cough cough cough

The young man spat out mouthfuls of water and coughed so violently that he seemed to be about to die. It was impossible to hold him up like that in this water, so I put all my strength on my right arm and pulled it to the left, where the elevated surface of the earth was closer to us than on the other side. I tilted my body a little bit and moved my arm at a high speed.

"AAAHHH!"

Alaric let out a scream as his body bounced off the water and he was thrown towards the surface of the ground.

THUDD

His back hit the elevated ground and his face contorted from pain but was instead out of the water. The young man pulled himself up and started to cough again and again.

'Ah, good. Now goodbye!'

I twisted my body once again and attempted to return back to the flow of water while Alaric was busy catching his breath.

"Ian!"

Just when I was about to move away from the big stone with an aching back, Alaric called out to me.

"Grab my hand! Hurry up!"

He was leaning forward towards the river while grabbing a tree root with one hand and reaching out his other hand to me.

"..."

"Hurry! Grab my hand!"

'No, I actually don't want to-'

But wouldn't it be too obvious if I refuse his offer right now? Like, I'd be screaming that I want to run away and everything was an act from the beginning.

"What are you waiting for?"

I gritted my teeth and reached out my hand.

'Look, my hand is wet so it is natural that it might slip out of your grasp-'

Alaric grabbed the sleeve of my shirt instead of my hand and pulled it towards himself.

"...."

'I guess, my escape was not successful... And there is no way to insist on it right now.'

With a heavy hurt and a sore back, I moved towards where Alaric was and climbed up to the ground.

Drip

Drip

Drip

Water was dripping down from my clothes and hair and I felt a little bit cold. Under my body was mud and wet grass that stuck to my clothes and made them dirty. There was a tree nearby. I moved towards it and leaned my back on the sturdy surface of the tree, massaging my aching back with a hand.

Cough cough cough

Alaric on the other hand was still busy coughing.

"Why did you jump into the water?"

"Huh?"

The young man, whose expensive clothing had gotten wet and dirty, raised his head to look at me with a confused face after hearing my question.

"Why did you jump into the water when you can't swim?"

"I didn't jump! I fell when I tried to grab you!"

"Then why did you try to grab me!?"

I knew that he wanted to help me, but I never asked for help! I was so irritated at the moment that I wanted to jump at Alaric and beat him. I should be grateful for his help, but I was instead annoyed.

"Because you were falling to the river... Why wouldn't I?"

"Tsk!"

I clicked my tongue and looked away from the young man, but his somehow dejected expression didn't escape my sight. Yeah, you'd feel if the person you tried to save by putting your life in danger suddenly got mad at you. Right! I'm the bad guy! Tsk!

With my hand on my back, I stood up from the place I was sitting like an old man with muscle pain. Seeing me move, Alaric also got up to his feet.

"...But where are we now?"

"How would I know?"

"Didn't you say it was common knowledge-"

Alaric shut his mouth as soon as he received a cold glare from me. He lowered his head solemnly and kept quiet the whole while I was wringing my clothes to dry them a little bit.

"Are you mad?"

After a long while of silence, he suddenly asked hesitantly.

"...."

"But why? I wanted to save you..."

"I could save myself."

"...."

Alaric nodded his head.

"What will happen now? Are we lost?"

I shook my head.

"We can move back to the base if we follow the path of the river in the opposite way we came from."

"Oh!"

"Ranger will cut our heads."

"..."

Now that my plan failed because of this dude, I can only vent my anger by scaring him a little bit.

"But... But it's not our fault that we fell into the river!"

I checked if I could dry my vest move by wringing it once again as I kept on talking in a low voice.

"Not only did we go to the jungle without permission, but we also didn't take a guard with us. Then we fell into the water, no, I fell into the water and dragged my master as well and put him in great danger. You also acted without considering your position and condition and accompanied a servant like me."

Alaric stopped moving in the middle of taking off his shoes as if frozen.

"We'll be fucked for sure. Raped, probably."

"...."

"You might be prohibited from leaving the camp for the rest of the trip and I will probably get expelled-"

Wait, get expelled?

'Isn't that... Isn't that perfect?'

That's one way of running away from this damped group!

"Excellent!"

I couldn't hold myself back and exclaimed loudly, making Alaric blink his eyes with a horrified face.

"Why are you s-so happy all of a sudden? You'll get expelled!"

I just grinned in his response.

"...Do you want to get expelled?"

'Oh, you are not that dump Afterall!'

I didn't give him an answer and just busied myself with drying up myself.

"..."

Alaric didn't move at all after his last words and stared quietly at me.

"You were the one who said we shouldn't take Liam with us... And were mad that I wanted to save you..."

He stated and tilted his head, narrowing his eyes.

"And now you are happy about getting expelled..."

"..."

I stopped playing with my wet hair as I waited for my master's next words.

"Did you... Jump into the water on purpose?"