Chapter 16
By the time Se-on came out of the inn, Yubel and Riella had vanished without a trace.
That was the situation Se-on now found himself in.
“You guys!! Where are you?”
No matter how many times he called, he got no answer.
What on earth was going on?
Had they been kidnapped or something?
Thud.
Just then, he sensed someone behind him.
“Ah! There you are……”
“Yes?”
The person behind him was the innkeeper.
Se-on tried to hide his disappointment, but it was already written all over his face.
The innkeeper noticed and cautiously spoke up.
“Did your companions disappear, by any chance?”
“Yes……. Do you know what’s going on?”
Se-on was very confused, but he asked calmly.
After hearing what had happened from Se-on, the innkeeper fell into thought for a moment.
“Hmm, then it might be because of the hallucinogenic mushrooms.”
Hallucinogenic mushrooms.
The name alone sounded ominous.
“Hallucinogenic mushrooms?”
“Yes. Mushrooms that bewitch people grow in the forest up ahead. But their effects are mild, so people in this village used to make alcohol with them.”
Se-on’s face turned pale as he listened.
Mushrooms that bewitched people? No matter how he looked at it, they had to be the cause of this.
His companions must have gone into the forest while under their influence.
Wait, but this forest…….
This was the forest where the orcs lived.
If they got lured in by the mushrooms and ran into orcs…….
“N-no…… Damn it!! I have to go!”
“O-oh, yes…… Be careful.”
Whoosh!
A lot of time had already passed.
At this point, every split-second decision could determine whether his companions lived or died.
[Adrenaline!]
Se-on rushed into the forest.
As he ran, he recalled what he knew about orcs.
When he’d asked the innkeeper earlier, he’d been told that orcs raped any woman they took a liking to until she died.
If Yubel and Riella were subjected to something that horrific…….
“Ghk, no!!”
Se-on shook off the horrible thought that had sprung to mind.
His body trembled with fear, but his feet kept moving steadily.
“Now’s not the time to think about that! Hoo, get a grip. First, I need to look for tracks.”
Looking around, he spotted oddly broken branches and human footprints.
He just had to follow those tracks.
Ever since he’d been summoned to this world as the Hero, Se-on had gained unbelievable power.
His senses in particular were exceptional, enough to be considered superhuman.
Thanks to those heightened senses, he could assess his surroundings and quickly dodge or block attacks.
Now was the time to use everything he had to find his companions.
Footsteps gradually came into earshot.
A scent unlike the fresh green fragrance of nature—the smell of another living creature.
“!!!”
Creeeeak——
Se-on stopped running and stared at a tree in the distance.
“……”
He’d found them.
He’d heard a sound from behind that tree.
He immediately ran toward it.
Thud-thud!
“You guys, there you are!”
Just as Se-on ran toward the tree, a massive green figure nearly three meters tall burst out from behind him.
An orc.
“Ghk! Orcs already…….”
There was a reason Se-on let his words trail off.
In the orc’s left hand was a club as big as a person, and in its right was a bow he recognized all too well.
The bow Hadrien had given Riella as a gift.
Her favorite weapon.
Huh?
“You…… What are you holding? Tell me right now!!”
Se-on shouted, worked up into a rage.
“Kreik?”
Orcs were demons.
In other words, they could understand language.
The orc that had spotted Se-on answered him.
“Kreik! Male, die! Kreeeik!”
The orc ignored Se-on and took up a fighting stance.
Se-on drew his longsword and readied himself, too.
“Fine. I’ll kill you.”
[Adrenaline]
Boom!!
Se-on stamped down hard and launched himself at the orc.
“Kreik!?”
The orc was taken aback by the incredible speed of a human.
Even so, it swung its left arm.
Whoosh——!
A club swung horizontally right in front of Se-on’s eyes.
Clang!!
“Ghk……!”
The force was like ten goblins striking down at once, and Se-on was sent flying.
“Kwooooooar!!!!!”
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The sound of the orc charging rang out.
I don’t have time to waste here!
[Undress]
The fur around the charging orc’s waist came off.
And a massive cock popped out.
Se-on frowned.
“Kwoooooar!!! Kre, kreeik!?”
The orc didn’t stop running. If anything, it kept charging.
They had no sense of shame.
But the orc stepped on the fur that had fallen around its ankles and slipped.
“It’s over.”
Stab!
The orc’s head came hurtling toward him, unable to stop.
Se-on thrust his longsword straight into its crown.
“Kreeeik……”
Thud!
The orc’s body collapsed.
But Se-on was already running before it even hit the ground.
“I have to find them, fast!!”
These were orcs that killed people.
He’d heard there were demons who could be reasoned with, but the orcs in this forest weren’t among them.
“Yubel, Riella……!”
Dadadad!
Se-on ran off again, searching for tracks.
***
Orcs.
Whenever people described them in a single word, one always came up.
Woman-crazed creeps.
Orcs satisfied their lust with females and attacked males because they had cocks.
They were a race that put ‘Kill the men, rape the women’ into practice to the letter.
But the orcs in this forest were a little different.
“Kreik! W-who brought an elf here?! Kreeeik!”
“S-scary! Kreik! We’re going to get raped! Kreik!”
“Huh?”
The orcs trembled as they looked at the females they’d brought into their hut.
It was a strange reaction for orcs who were supposed to violate females.
The reason was Riella.
Because elves lived such long lives, ordinary sensations hardly excited them.
So plenty of elves would target orcs trying to mate with females and force themselves on them.
‘Damn it, hey! Get harder!’
‘Kreik! Elf, please spare us! We were wrong. Kreeeik!’
‘Aw, damn……. Another dud today. Just die.’
-Shaaak!
In the end, the orcs singled out by elves either died from sexual exhaustion or had their heads chopped off because the elves weren’t enjoying themselves.
That was always how it ended for orcs who kidnapped elves.
These orcs seemed to have run away after being tormented by elves.
They’d been living together in a little cluster, telling each other to ‘always avoid elves,’ when they saw two females enter their village.
It was dark, so they hadn’t realized the women were elves and had brought them into a hut.
That was why the orcs were panicking now.
“Kreik! I’m scared! Kreeeik!”
“I-I’ll cut off my cock! Kreik!”
I’m jealous you’ve got a cock to cut off.
Mine disappeared when I woke up.
Of course, Yubel and Riella couldn’t understand the orcs.
Their kidnappers were running away because they were scared of their victims.
They just looked pathetic.
Were orcs actually a race with a phobia of elves?
Or maybe they were nice orcs?
“Uh…… Hey, are you guys okay?”
“Kreik! Don’t come closer! Kreeeik!”
“Elf! Get out right now! Kreeeik!”
Shuffling backward.
As Riella approached the orcs acting strangely, they recoiled in terror.
Seeing that, Yubel suddenly had a good idea.
Are the orcs scared of us?
I might be able to use this.
“Ahem, you lot!! Go find the man outside and kill…… No, don’t kill him—just teach him a lesson!”
“Kreik! Understood! Please spare us! Kreeeik!”
“We’ll obey! Kreeeik!”
In a panic,
the orcs rushed out, and the hut fell silent in an instant.
“Heh heh heh……”
This made it less likely the Hero would come this way.
Now, let’s think of a plan to keep Riella and the Hero apart.
Beside Yubel, Riella stared with a blank expression.
“Yubeel……. What just happened?”
“Hmm, maybe they’re scared of you?”
“M-me?”
Riella asked as if she had no idea what was going on.
“Who knows? Maybe they recognized how super strong you are, Riella.”
“Eeh? You think so…… Heehee.”
Riella’s expression turned into that of a child trying to hold back a laugh.
She’s so simple.
“A-ahem! Well, it can’t be helped! Yubel, leave this to me! I’ll rule over all the orcs!”
“Wow. Riella, the supreme archer who rules the orcs. That’s so cool.”
“I’m Riella, the Supreme Super Ultra Archer!”
Riella was getting carried away, completely enamored with herself.
Despite calling herself an archer, she didn’t even have a bow in sight.
Supreme Super Ultra? More like an idiot——
Ah.
A good idea came to me.
“Riella.”
“Yeah?”
“Umm……. Orc c—”
“Orc c?”
Ugh.
Why was this so embarrassing to say?
“……Orc cocks are really big!!”
“Oh.”
Riella’s expression turned strange in an instant.
She couldn’t understand what Yubel meant.
“Umm…… Wouldn’t an orc’s cock be better than the Hero’s little one?”
Riella looked at Yubel as if to say, ‘What are you talking about?’
Then a possibility suddenly occurred to her.
Huh? Could this be……?
Yubel’s story?
“Yeah! Tell me more, Yubel!”
“Y-yeah!”
Yubel cheered inwardly.
A way to free Riella from the Hero’s clutches!
The plan was to say Riella had run away for love with a kind, gentle orc, then have Yubel go back to the Hero.
Fortunately, Riella had gotten a little lewder, and her eyes sparkled as she listened.
I think this might work if I just push a little further.
“Honestly…… The Hero’s cock is small, and he’s not even manly! So I think an orc with a bigger cock would be better!”
“Yeah……. I understand!”
Yubel sure has unusual tastes.
I’ll tell Se-on later.