Kidnapped
I was kidnapped.
I dreamed.
I was back in my old body, untouched by scars, a hunter once more—the trade I’d had before becoming a hero. I’d just finished skinning a polar bear and was heading to the market to sell the pelt and meat. Yustitia, Karman, and Jeren were there too. They knew the wealthy buyers who paid well for our catches, and before long the four of us had become partners. We drank together at taverns, fought, laughed, and promised one another a future. We were friends.
Pierta was someone we met in the back alleys while working. He looked shady and carried nothing but blades, so misunderstandings were common, yet he was the first to help us when we tried to sell goods in those same alleys. That was how our bond with him began.
After that, as we roamed farther and wider, Marian, Kain, Evan, Sevia, and Siphel joined us. Crossing to another continent brought Felt, Yuda, Chris, Selma, and Yuz into the fold as well. We were like family—caring for one another, watching each other’s backs, yet close enough to bicker constantly. We were certain we would stay together for decades.
Then, just as the fifteen of us were about to launch a grand hunting-and-transport business, the Demon King’s invasion began.
From beyond the Returnless Gulf, the Demon King—who had lain dormant for decades—built a bridge of monster corpses and poured his forces onto human lands. Civilization, once prosperous, began to crumble. Until the kingdoms could unite, everyone was powerless against the Demon King’s army and died in droves.
One day an unknown man appeared. He united the kingdoms, rallied their armies, and began to push back the catastrophe that was the Demon King’s forces. He was the one later called the Hero.
Like a savior in a time of chaos, he poured his entire lifespan into the war, determined to lead humanity to victory even if it cost him everything. Rumors claimed he had already been fighting the Demon King for decades, but in the midst of war, the truth of such stories hardly mattered. What mattered was who would stand with him—who would sacrifice themselves for humanity.
At first, no one stepped forward. But when we, who had found no hope in the transport business, were moved by his story and became the first fifteen warriors to march onto the battlefield, others gradually followed. Their only goal was humanity’s salvation—the restoration of a world where everyone could be happy again.
We all became heroes and fought on the front lines. Yustitia, Jeren, and Karman, who had always shown talent for magic, studied under the royal knights and blossomed into exceptional mages. Those of us with sturdy bodies—Kain, Evan, Piereta, and myself—wielded weapons and tore through monsters with everything we had.
All I wanted was to return to the days when we laughed together over drinks. That was why I fought with everything I had.
After countless brutal battles, the stage was finally set for the Hero’s final confrontation with the Demon King. We were supposed to hold the line outside while he fought, but in the end we could not secure victory.
Felt and I arrived too late, breaking through the encirclement only to find the Hero’s corpse. Chris helped us escape the castle just before the Demon King noticed us. Humanity had already lost once.
We had staked everything on the Hero, and the Hero had fallen.
Yet we were not dead.
The fifteen of us hunters rallied the demoralized survivors, retreated briefly to regroup, and then returned to the battlefield. Even though our absence had pushed the front lines back and placed humanity in even greater peril, we declared that the moment the Hero had wounded the Demon King was our only chance. We reignited everyone’s will to fight. In doing so, we earned the title of true heroes and became the Fifteen Heroes, pushing the front lines forward once more.
Even so… we could not win.
The Hero’s sacrifice, everyone’s sacrifice—everything became meaningless.
If only I had tried harder. If only I had been stronger, perhaps I could have finished the Demon King with my final Counterattack’s Potential. If only I had been a little stronger, maybe even the Hero… wouldn’t have had to die.
“…Ugh…”
But the dream ended there.
The moment consciousness returned, a violent nausea surged through my body. Clutching my solar plexus with both hands, I forced my eyes open and sat up. “Ugh…”
Where was this place? I stared in confusion at the antique room dominated by white, centered around a pitch-black bed. My stomach churned violently, as though someone were kneading my insides.
“Ugh…?”
While I was still reeling from my condition and the unfamiliar room, I suddenly noticed that my pained groans had become strangely high-pitched. For some reason, my wrists and forearms looked impossibly slender. And above all—
“My hair…”
My head felt strangely heavy and cumbersome. My chest, too—this wasn’t the chest I’d had before. There was no muscle. The burning ache of muscle that should have been there every single day was gone. My body felt… comfortable. There was no post-war pain, no wounds. It was impossibly smooth.
I had no choice but to approach the mirror standing in the corner of the room.
And then I saw it.
“…Ah.”
A woman I had never seen before in my life stood inside the mirror, staring blankly back at me. A woman I had never laid eyes on was mimicking my every movement, wearing the same shocked expression I wore.
I could never believe that woman was me. My height had shrunk several times over. My chest was absurdly large. My waist looked small enough to encircle with both hands. My hips were strangely developed. It didn’t make sense. This wasn’t a human body. Even Yustitia, who had always had an excellent figure, hadn’t looked like this.
“…”
My face… somehow reminded me of the man I used to be. It was subtly different, yet disturbingly similar.
“Yustitia…”
Even my voice didn’t sound like mine.
While I was still reeling from the sight, memories of my comrades—Siphel and the others who had still been breathing when I last saw them—surfaced. Recalling Yustitia’s final moments, I clenched my fists in fury.
“…The Demon King. What the hell did the Demon King—”
I glared at my transformed reflection in the mirror, but then the memory of my own final moments returned. I remembered that it was the Demon King who had brought me here.
“Why did the Demon King take me…?”
As I looked around the room, I unconsciously touched my lips with my fingertips, recalling the kiss the Demon King had given me in my last moments. Just before I lost consciousness, the Demon King had whispered something to me. For some reason, that part was hazy.
“…”
While I tried to gather my thoughts despite the dizziness and nausea, my gaze kept drifting back to the mirror.
“Damn it… Why did my body change like this…?”
I was confused by the strange, almost desirous questions rising within me, but then I thought—well, it was my body now. It wouldn’t hurt to touch it a little, would it? Just as I began to move my trembling hands—
Click—
The door opened.
I reacted instantly, clenching my fists and turning toward the door, ready to counter an ambush. But what appeared beyond the open door was… another woman?
“…You’re awake.”
“You… Who are you?”
I kept my guard up, my voice laced with threat, as if I might attack her at any moment. If the Demon King had captured me and brought me here, then this woman was surely one of his allies.
“I am Jemma, servant to Lady Gematria, one of the Demon King’s executives.”
Contrary to my expectations, she bowed politely and answered in a courteous tone. Now that I looked again, her outfit resembled that of a butler. She adjusted her collar slightly. While I stared at her in a daze, she spoke again.
“His Majesty ordered me to check on your condition, so I came to examine you. It seems His Majesty’s surgery was a complete success.”
The woman who introduced herself as Jemma approached me with soundless steps.
“W-What are you doing…?”
“I was told to check your physical condition in detail, so if you’ll allow me—”
She grabbed my wrist, lifted it, and began to touch my side, the underside of my breast, and my armpit without hesitation.
“S-Stop… Have you lost your mind!?”
Startled by the sudden contact, I tried to yank my wrist free, but—
“Ugh…”
When I had been a man, I could have easily shaken off such a grip. Now, however, I felt as though I were being pulled along by this servant’s hand. Despite my resistance, she thoroughly examined every part of my body. A strange sense of shame washed over me. I twisted my body and could only glare at her.
“Fortunately, there appear to be no external issues.”
“I-If you’re done, get out…!”
All I wanted was to be alone again. Jemma’s actions were unpleasant, and only when I was alone could I plan an escape or do anything at all.
“Do you have a headache, or any discomfort in your stomach?”
She kept drawing closer until her breath was almost on my face, staring straight into my eyes as she spoke. The pressure was unbearable. I wanted to run. I desperately wanted to run. Her physique was larger than mine, so I had to look up at her naturally. It felt wrong. Normally, I would have been looking down at everyone of this height.
“N-No… I do…”
In the end, I couldn’t even meet her gaze properly and gave a half-hearted answer.
“I see. That will require management… I’ll inform His Majesty.”
“You’re going to tell the Demon King…?”
The mention of reporting to the Demon King made me gradually understand what was happening to me.
“…Is the Demon King here?”
I asked to confirm.
“Yes. At this hour, he should have finished his duties on the throne and be resting.”
Jemma answered while glancing at the clock hanging in the room.
I was beginning to realize—
“Then…”
Why was this antique room here? The Demon King’s successful surgery. A Demon General’s servant managing me? And then—
Thud—
“Move.”
“I’m sorry, I was so focused on managing the Demon King’s servant that I didn’t notice Your Majesty’s arrival—”
“Shut up.”
From behind the servant, a presence radiating overwhelming pressure stepped into the room. I saw it clearly.
“It’s none of my concern. Get out.”
She was the Demon King.
Without even glancing at the servant, the woman who entered the room and dismissed her was unmistakably the Demon King. One broken horn. A body wrapped in bandages. An expression so indifferent it seemed she cared for nothing but slaughter. Eyes so sharp they looked ready to cut. There was no doubt—this was the Demon King.
“…”
Yet even after seeing her, I could do nothing. Once the servant left and closed the door, I could do even less. After all, even when I had been the male Belberman, it had taken the combined sacrifices of everyone and vomiting blood just to break one of the Demon King’s horns. Now I was being manhandled by a mere servant. I couldn’t even muster the will to try anything.
I wasn’t even sure whether I should be inhaling or exhaling. The threat to my life was that palpable.
“…”
But revenge. I had to take revenge. Perhaps even Siphel had already fallen into her hands. Yustitia, Karman, Jeren, Piereta, Marian, Sevia, Felt… Kain, Evan, Yuda, Chris, Yuz, Selma. If it was the Demon King, she had surely killed them all.
The thought made my fingertips begin to tremble. She was now walking leisurely toward the bed after confirming the servant had left. If I acted now, even in this body, I might be able to inflict a meaningful fatal wound. I clenched my fists.
I had faced threats to my life countless times even when I was a man. I had no weapon now, but if it was with my bare hands, and if the Demon King was completely unguarded—
I stared at her, steeled my resolve, shut my eyes tightly, then opened them again.
Step—
“Hik…!”
“…”
At some point, the Demon King had come to stand right in front of me, looking down at me with those pitch-black eyes.
“Ugh…”
Even the burning desire for revenge I had felt moments ago was crushed beneath the killing intent radiating from her. I could only tremble helplessly. This was what the Demon King standing before me was like.
Even compared to the servant earlier, her height was absurdly tall. Her physique was impossibly well-proportioned—like a woman’s body pushed to its absolute limit, yet without any roughness, perfectly smooth. It was an impossible body, and precisely because of that, the killing intent it exuded was terrifying.
The moment I realized she had approached, my mind went blank. I felt as though I might die at any second.
“Move aside.”
The Demon King spoke while carefully removing her outer garment.
“I need to use the wardrobe.”
“Ah…”
She had only approached because I was blocking the wardrobe. She took off the coat-like garment made of sturdy fabric and held it out to me.
“Will you put it away?”
“…”
Now dressed only in a thin cotton shirt that clearly revealed her figure and leather leggings, she looked at me.
“…Yeah.”
I stared at her in a daze, still unsettled by the fact that she hadn’t done anything to me. Before I could even process the emotion, I found myself putting her clothes into the wardrobe.
“…I’m tired.”
After I finished, the Demon King stretched her neck briefly, then climbed onto the bed and sat down comfortably. While I stood there blankly watching her, still confused by the situation—
“…”
She looked at me standing there and, without a word—
“…Hm?”
“……”
With a completely expressionless face, she patted her thigh with her palm.
“What…”
At first I didn’t understand and was confused, but then the Demon King frowned at my inaction and spoke.
“…Come here. Sit.”
“Ah.”
Only then did I climb stiffly onto the bed, like a small wild animal entering a cave it had never seen before, and settle into her lap.
“Uh…”
It felt strange, even though it was happening. I looked up at her, wondering if this was right, but the Demon King, looking satisfied, closed her eyes and wrapped one arm around my body.
“…Hm…?”
Just like that—
“Uhh…???”
She fell asleep.
I could only be bewildered. I couldn’t understand this situation at all. I had no idea what was being done to me or what I was doing. It was absurd. I was still a man at heart—Belberman was still a man. My male soul was burning within me. But…
“……”
Slide—
The Demon King’s head, resting against me as she slept, slowly tilted, and her hair fell onto my shoulder. The scent was strangely pleasant. I had never liked this kind of fragrance before. What was this? What exactly was this feeling? Something had taken root in my heart and was slowly changing everything, bit by bit. This strange sensation—
But before I could find an answer to that strange feeling, once again—
Thud—
“Mmph…!?”
The arm wrapped around me suddenly grabbed my chin and pulled me close to her face. Startled, I looked at the Demon King in panic.
“……”
She gazed at me with half-lidded eyes, her head slightly lowered.
“W-What… Why…”
I could only stare at her in confusion, but the Demon King smiled faintly and whispered.
“Such a beautiful face…”
For some reason, even that single compliment felt like a different kind of threat.
Whoosh—
“Haaah—!”
It wasn’t a needless fear.
The Demon King immediately devoured my lips with violent intensity, as if trying to consume them.
“Ugh…!!?”