Heart-Pounding First Adventurer Exploration! (2)
“Just as I thought—nothing. This feels off, doesn’t it?”
“So they’re moving without a chieftain?”
“No way. Even humans know barbarian tribes always have a leader, right?”
Oh, this is bad. The feeling is extremely bad. Or maybe there’s something else going on. My stomach is churning like it’s about to boil over. Whenever I get this exact gut-twisting sensation, something terrible always follows.
“Guooooaaaahhh!”
“Whoa, what the hell was that sound?”
“W-wait, what are those? Black orcs?”
When I looked where Rella was pointing, a swarm of black orcs had gathered just outside the village. They were on the opposite side for now, so they probably wouldn’t reach us immediately. But the kid and the Red Claw leader looked like they were in serious danger. At a glance, these orcs were clearly not ordinary. The way they were openly encircling their prey screamed that they had known about us in advance. Which meant this was almost certainly a trap.
“Black orcs? Hold on, that’s not normal.”
“Black orcs? Shit, those are High Orcs!”
Huh. Just the name sounded high-spec. Very high-spec.
“Are they strong?”
“Each one is chieftain-level, and they’ve got orc shamans too! Yuri, can you block their vision?”
I had no idea what they were talking about, but I decided to shut up and listen. So they were elite monsters, basically? Got it. From the way everyone was reacting, even the Red Claw leader seemed to be struggling. On top of that, this clearly wasn’t something they had anticipated. The High Orcs were waiting for them, openly surrounding the area. This was a disaster.
They looked surprisingly intelligent. Was this going to be okay? The entire Red Claw party was in rough shape.
“These things are actually pretty smart, huh?”
“There’s too many of them! It’s impossible!”
“Captain! Rota! Get out of there! High Orcs incoming!”
Our archer Rella was waving frantically at the two men. They must be seriously dangerous if she was this desperate. In that case, shouldn’t I be the one running away right about now? Even if I awaken as a saintess, I’m still just a healer. Combat is not my role.
“High Orcs?”
“Damn it, was this a trap? These bastards actually used their heads?”
Okay, but this still felt way too ominous. The bad feeling was practically screaming at me.
“So… should we run?”
I was still wavering. If I got caught here, wouldn’t I end up captured by orcs and subjected to all kinds of awful things? That would be annoying. I came to a fantasy world, not a dark fantasy one. I’m begging for some mercy here. Does that author bitch really have it out for me? Or maybe she doesn’t actually expect me to handle this myself?
No. This was my own damn fault. I chose to come here even though I knew there was a risk. I should have just imagined it and written about it instead. Or maybe switched to a different genre entirely.
“Don’t worry! We can still escape from this much!”
Rella was saying it was fine while breaking out in a cold sweat beside me. As always, that kind of confidence tends to get betrayed. Yeah. Just looking at the situation now, the answer was obvious. This felt extremely ominous. These monsters had set up an open trap. They must have prepared everything else already—something to thoroughly crush the prey that walked into their snare.
“Hah. What the hell? Why are there so many monsters? There’s way too many High Orcs!”
“Are we completely surrounded?”
“N-no way… right? At least from what I can see… it shouldn’t be…”
Rella’s voice was losing strength with every word. Yeah. Just from that, I could tell exactly how things were going. This was very, very bad.
“Damn it, Rota! Use the smoke screen!”
“On it!”
The Red Claw leader somehow managed to escape from that spot. It was thanks to Yuri the mage’s spell and the smoke orb that Rota guy was carrying. However, calling this escape “safe” would have been a stretch. After all, those black orcs had already set up camp all around this area.
“This is weird. How can something like this happen so close to the capital?”
“Maybe it’s happening before the Demon King awakens?”
Yeah, that was one way to look at it. We had already passed the first part of the story, so it was about time for things to start getting serious. Which meant this was dangerous. In our current state, we didn’t just lack numerical superiority—we might even be inferior in quality. The Red Claw leader was grinding his teeth.
“This is no time for jokes!”
“It’s not a joke. I saw it in old records. This is what happens before the Demon King revives.”
“No, saying it’s before the Demon King revives sounds like a stretch.”
It wasn’t a stretch. It really seemed to be the case. When the Demon King’s revival draws near, monsters grow stronger. Not all of them, apparently—some individuals become stronger while others don’t. At the very least, these High Orcs were among those that had powered up. This was going to be incredibly annoying.
“That’s right. They’ve probably figured out our position too. We need to get out of here! Hurry!”
A chase between us and the orcs broke out. And not just any orcs—the kind that appear right before the Demon King awakens.
“Grrrrraaaaaahhh!”
“Shit, they spotted us!”
“Graaaaaaaaahk!”
“We have to block their vision with magic somehow!”
“I’m almost out of mana! I need a mana potion!”
Oh no. Was this A-rank party, Red Claw, really falling apart like this? Not that I cared if they fell into the abyss. My own life was far more important. Right?
“Graaaaaaaaaahhh!”
High Orcs were swarming in from all directions, chasing us. This was the absolute worst. To think creatures that looked like that would be so popular. If they were popular with men—or rather, women—I might understand. But being popular with orcs was a hard pass. And I definitely didn’t want to get caught by them here.
I had come this far. I couldn’t let myself get done in by mere orcs. This was all the Red Claw leader’s fault. If things got really bad, I could just use them as bait and run away alone. After all, with their lives on the line, would they really try to protect their client? I doubted it. People tend to value their own lives most when danger strikes. They might abandon a non-combatant like me and flee.
“Damn it. How many are there?”
“The numbers keep increasing! This is bad!”
See? Somehow we had ended up hiding. Crouched in the underbrush, the orcs seemed to be looking for any opening to escape. But did they really think those monsters would just leave? Of course not. These were clearly elite troops. They would probably search for a long time. Since they had even surrounded us, they would comb through every last corner. This was dangerous. Was this seriously a bad ending flag? If I kept following these people, I might actually meet my end here.
Besides—
“Isn’t it a problem that we have a non-combatant with us?”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m just saying. If that woman wasn’t here, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“Rota, you little—! We’re getting paid for this job, remember? Though yeah, she is a bit clueless…”
That damn brat was the problem. The kid was grumbling nonstop and badmouthing me. It looked like they were trying to plan an escape that involved leaving me behind. Rella and the others were scolding him, but would it really matter in the end? When things got truly desperate, they would abandon the non-combatant and run. That was the survival instinct.
In that case, I should use that survival instinct too.
“In times like this, you sneak away.”
I decided to pull back. I had no obligation to die with them, and I had zero intention of being discarded as dead weight. Besides, I could fight a little. Even if I ran, they would probably manage on their own. We had originally been hiding in a thicket quite far from the village. The plan was simple. I would move a bit further away and throw a stone toward where the Red Claw party was. The strong orcs would discover them and attack, and I could escape safely. Then I could run to the adventurers’ guild and say I barely managed to flee alone.
Honestly, if they were reduced to hiding like this, they probably couldn’t win anyway. But what if, by some one-in-a-million chance, one of them survived? Then I could just say I got lost or blame it on that damn brat.
“What should we do? Luring them is out of the question at this level.”
“I’ll go ahead and draw their attention.”
“No, that’s not good either. You’re the captain.”
“Then should I buy time with magic?”
“They’ll find our position anyway, won’t they?”
I slowly distanced myself from the Red Claw party as they held their strategy meeting. They were all focused on the orcs right now, so they wouldn’t have time to notice me leaving. I put some distance between myself and the Red Claw members. As expected, after scolding Rota, they immediately went back to watching the orcs’ movements. That was it, then. Now I just needed to pick up a stone and throw it.
The moment I reached for a rock, a shadow fell over me.
“Kikikikikik?”
“Uwaaaaaah!”
It was an orc. A small one holding a staff. Was this an orc shaman or something? No, that wasn’t important right now. Fuck. I was currently an unarmed civilian. And not just any civilian—I was in the body of a frail, powerless girl. The whole saintess awakening thing was because that damned author had slapped on the setting “It turned out she was a saintess,” and that lich had awakened it. Anyway, I was now painfully realizing just how screwed I was.
“Giiiiiiiaaaaahk!”
“Ah, fuck. I’m done for.”
The orc bastard shouted something and charged at me. And not just any charge—it was intense, like a beast, with clear intent to pin down and trample a woman. Ah, shit. This was genuinely pissing me off now.
To be honest, I could use magic. But the original Milene hadn’t learned any attack spells in order to look good in front of the prince, and she had no idea how much mana she could actually use. The thing I used in the Judgment Space that day had been pretty much useless too. In short, I was seriously screwed.
“Giiiiiaaaaaaaaahk!”
That stupid orc was shoving its filthy face right at me. Fuck it. At this point, it was all or nothing. This was a head-on confrontation. Relying on this frail, powerless body—the only good thing about it being the “saintess” spec—I charged at the orc.
Yeah. To anyone watching, this was clearly suicidal. It would be like a rat squeaking at a cat right before getting eaten. If I died here, I would become a vengeful ghost haunting that author with her weird writing style. Being a lingering spirit wouldn’t be so bad. That’s how it should have gone.
Whoosh—!
The instant I was about to headbutt it, light suddenly burst from my outstretched hand. A purple light that completely swallowed the orc. By the time the light faded, the orc was gone. Nothing remained.
“Uh… fuck. What the hell was that? That’s terrifying.”
Wasn’t the original Milene supposed to be a saintess? In the story’s ending, Sophia gets chosen as the saintess, but that girl was artificially elevated by people. Her body was just that of an ordinary civilian girl. Had the original story gotten twisted, and I—the one who became Milene—somehow awakened here?