Side Story: The Orc Empress (2)
"There's no way Min-seo would lose to a mere orc."
Lee Jun could not possibly believe that Choi Min-seo had been defeated by orcs. She was the S-class hero White Rabbit — a woman who, if she put her mind to it, possessed the strength to take on an entire nation's military and every hero they could field, and win.
And she had lost to something as paltry as orcs? And Psycho Kino had fled alone? Even granting that Gaunt Orcs had the peculiar habit of burrowing into dens to live, the whole story simply didn't add up.
In the end, he decided to hire heroes and enter the Gate himself to find her. Someone like her would never have been killed by orcs.
I have to save her. No matter what!
But finding heroes willing to enter the Gate proved extraordinarily difficult. In fact, the raid itself had come to a complete halt — and the biggest reason, of course, was Choi Min-seo's disappearance. A Gate that two nation-level S-class heroes had entered and failed to clear, and one of them had never come back. The government deemed it too dangerous and suspended all operations for the time being.
Finding anyone willing to step into a Gate like that was, at ordinary rates of pay, all but impossible. In the end, Lee Jun had to liquidate everything he owned — the house, the car, all of it — just to scrape a rescue team together.
One might think a single person's entire fortune wouldn't amount to much, but the money Lee Jun earned as a hacker was more than most people imagined. And the income of S-class hero White Rabbit Choi Min-seo could stand toe-to-toe with that of a major corporation's CEO. They had poured every last bit of money the two of them had ever earned into this. It was a sum an ordinary person would never see in a lifetime.
The rescue team that took a full six months to assemble consisted of twelve heroes, ranging from a peak A-class down to a minimum of C-class. Including Lee Jun, thirteen people stepped through the Gate.
Soldiers had the entrance thoroughly locked down. A Gate that two S-class heroes had failed to clear. If its existence leaked out and the things inside started attacking people, there would be no greater catastrophe.
"I'll handle this."
A woman stepped forward — black mask, black tights covering her from head to toe. Her hero name was Catwalk. Known as Cat's Footsteps, she was less a hero than something closer to a villain. To be precise, she was a freelancer who would take any job, righteous or wicked, as long as the money was right. As her name suggested, her abilities were easiest to understand if you thought of her as an assassin. She possessed physical enhancement, along with the power to conceal her presence by melting into shadows.
She seemed to sink into a shadow — and then she was behind the soldiers, dropping them one by one. In moments, the Gate stood completely unguarded.
"If a monster comes out of that Gate now, we're all dead, aren't we?"
"..."
The man whose A-class hero name was Iron Wall muttered under his breath. He wasn't wrong. The soldiers couldn't take down monsters themselves, but they could send a signal if something came bursting through from the other side — and then heroes would rush in to hold the line. With those soldiers unconscious, there was no one left to raise the alarm. It was an extremely serious problem, but Lee Jun clenched his jaw and ignored it.
Other people's safety didn't matter to him right now. Only Choi Min-seo. She was the only thing on his mind.
"Who asked you to worry about that? If you didn't want this kind of job, you shouldn't have taken the money."
"Well. Can't argue with that."
Iron Wall, the one who'd spoken up, nodded at Lee Jun's sharp words. With the soldiers dealt with, the rescue team stepped through the Gate.
Their vision warped — and what appeared on the other side was a vast grassland. Everywhere the eye could see was thick with green vegetation, and every time the wind stirred it made a pleasant rustling sound.
"If this weren't a Gate, it'd be the perfect place for a nap."
None of the other heroes rose to Iron Wall's mutter. From this point on, they were in dangerous territory where a monster could burst out and attack at any moment, from any direction. Nobody had the luxury of playing along with jokes like that anymore.
"Tch."
It was only because he was an A-class hero that Iron Wall could toss off a light remark like that.
"Alright. It's clear this Gate is no ordinary one."
Gaunt Orcs weren't particularly dangerous monsters, but this was still a Gate where an S-class hero had gone missing. Being careful couldn't hurt. True to his name, Iron Wall — whose ability was to harden his body — took the lead. The rest of the party formed a protective ring around Lee Jun, their charge, and advanced slowly.
How much time passed? The party found a burrow, and beside it, traces that someone had been there.
"They were here."
"Then let's search the area."
If anyone had entered this Gate besides the current party, it could only have been White Rabbit and Psycho Kino. These traces had to be theirs.
"According to Psycho Kino's testimony, there was a tunnel connecting to the settlement, and that's where White Rabbit went missing. We just need to find the biggest tunnel around."
Finding the tunnel that led to the settlement wasn't difficult. They simply had to find the largest one in the area.
"We're going in."
"Everyone stay sharp. Don't fall behind me."
Iron Wall thumped his chest with confidence and slowly stepped into the tunnel. The dark, cold air of the burrow washed over the party. They hadn't gone far when a pack of Gaunt Orcs appeared ahead of them.
"I'll go first."
Catwalk melted into the shadows, burst out behind a Gaunt Orc, and drove her blade into its throat. That was the start of the fight.
It didn't last long. The Gaunt Orcs were reduced to hunks of meat tumbling across the floor in moments. Iron Wall's power, in particular, was considerable. With skin like solid steel, the orcs' attacks didn't even register.
Having dealt with the Gaunt Orcs, the party pressed deeper and deeper, until they came upon a massive settlement — a village carved from stone, looking for all the world like some ancient ruin.
"Holy shit. How many of them are there?"
Iron Wall spat a quiet curse. There had to be at least several hundred.
"Even I can't take all of those."
"We need to fall back and come up with a plan."
Lee Jun ground his teeth at the thought of turning back without finding Choi Min-seo. But there was no other choice. His head was burning, yet he forced himself to think coldly. If he charged in now, unable to contain his rage, he might only put Choi Min-seo in more danger.
Just as the party started to pull back, one figure caught his eye. An orc a full head shorter than a typical Gaunt Orc.
Just a low-rank orc, probably.
Among orcs, a large build meant great strength. An orc that small was surely nothing more than a low-grade laborer. No need to worry about it.
They turned to leave —
BOOM!!
A small sound, and the little orc vanished.
"Wh-what?!"
The other heroes had been watching that orc too, apparently. They whirled around in shock when it disappeared.
"Behind us!!"
It was Iron Wall who shouted. He spun around and activated his ability. His skin transformed into hard metal, and he swung his fist at the creature. A fist made of solid metal was a threatening weapon just by being swung.
But the small orc casually blocked his hand. With a single hand.
"Wh-what the—?!"
Iron Wall strained to pull his fist free, but it wouldn't budge.
"Kirik!"
The creature bared its fangs in a sneer and clenched its fist. The fist it was holding — Iron Wall's fist — crumpled. The metal-hardened skin split apart, and crimson blood welled up from within.
"AAAAAAGH!!!"
Iron Wall screamed at the agony of his fist being crushed.
"Attack it!!"
This time Catwalk slipped into the shadows and went for the creature's back. The small orc, preoccupied with Iron Wall, failed to react to her strike. No — it didn't need to.
THUNK!
"Wh-what?!"
The blade bounced off without so much as scratching the small orc. Leaving Iron Wall and his completely shattered hand behind, the creature turned its gaze on Catwalk.
A chill raced down her spine. She spun to flee — but the small orc closed the distance in an instant, seized her by the throat, and slammed her into the ground.
CRASH!
"Guhhhk!!"
A sound of expelled breath, and Catwalk lost consciousness.
After that, it was one-sided. The small orc dispatched the heroes in moments. The men it killed. The women it left alive, to be used as breeding sacs.
"Goddamn it!"
Watching his party get demolished in an instant, Lee Jun spat a curse. He had come to save Choi Min-seo, and instead he had fallen to the orcs himself.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The orc approached to kill him. With no combat ability whatsoever beyond his hacking, Lee Jun accepted his death and closed his eyes.
But even when the orc came right up to him, it didn't attack.
"Snff! Snff! Snff!"
It sniffed at Lee Jun, tilting its head. It couldn't tell whether he was female or male. He was already small and slender, with a pretty enough face that people sometimes mistook him for a woman — and with Choi Min-seo's disappearance, he had lost even more weight. The small orc simply couldn't determine his sex. The scent was clearly male, but he looked female.
"Grrrr? Grnn!!"
The small orc decided to take Lee Jun with it for now. It chopped him across the nape of the neck to knock him out, slung him over its shoulder, and walked back toward the settlement.
How much time had passed?
The place Lee Jun came to his senses was somewhere that carried a peculiar scent.
"Ugh!"
He clutched his throbbing head.
"This has to be inside the settlement."
He slowly looked around. It was definitely the interior of the orc village.
"What's that sound?"
A strange noise drifted from beyond a door carved from rock. No — Lee Jun knew exactly what that sound was.
"Hngh♡ Haaah♡ Haaang♡"
"H-harder, pleaseee♡♡"
A female's pleasure-soaked cries. Only then did he realize that Catwalk and the other female heroes who had been captured with him were gone.
"I have to save them."
He moved slowly toward the sound. And when he saw what lay beyond the door, Lee Jun swallowed his breath.
"Hyaaah♡♡ Haaah♡"
"Orc-niiim♡ I'll do anything you tell me♡♡♡ Please, just shove it in my pussy♡"
The valiant heroes who had been carving through orcs just a short while ago were now fawning over them, reduced to whimpering breeding females.
And at the center of it all, he saw a familiar woman.
"M-Min-seo."
It was Choi Min-seo. She was watching the heroes-turned-females with a look of deep satisfaction — stroking a belly swollen as large as a mountain.