Became the Queen of the Legion

“Orc mercenaries are too expensive…”

“Is this all the grain you’ve brought? Huh, then what about slaves? How many did you bring?”

The city of Luen. While not particularly large in absolute terms, it’s a fairly sizeable city for this frontier region.

As a result, all the logistics and trade in the area converge here. It serves as a gateway for the scattered small powers of the frontier to connect with the outside world.

They gather here to exchange what they need or obtain things they can’t get elsewhere.

Even a mere goblin tribe was able to acquire Seira as a female slave here by exchanging her for demonic beast by-products they had hunted.

Even tribes or factions that are on bad terms to the point of raiding each other can’t be hostile here.

Because that’s what the owner of this place decided.

“Hmm, income has decreased more than expected.”

And the ‘actual’ owner of this place also disliked unnecessary discord and strife.

The more the demon races spread throughout the area fought and quarreled with each other, the more the city’s economy was hit.

“It’s not a lot, but income has clearly decreased. Have you found out the cause?”

“It’s not certain, but some strange things have been noticed recently.”

At his words, the subordinate who brought the report nodded.

The subordinate had dark brown skin but looked very similar to a goblin. However, he was much taller and larger than ordinary goblins.

The subordinate, with a build similar to an adult human male, was a hobgoblin like him.

As a higher species on a different level from ordinary goblins, even individuals without any special powers are far more intelligent and stronger compared to normal goblins.

“Strange things? What are they?”

He too was a hobgoblin like his subordinate.

Moreover, he was a special individual ranking high even among hobgoblins, which is why he was granted the authority to govern this city by his lord.

“Upon checking, we found that the frequency of wild goblins from the north visiting the city has dropped sharply. The demonic beast by-products they usually bring are in short supply to the point of scarcity.”

“Those guys…?”

He frowned at the mention of the wild goblins from the north.

A frontier among frontiers, not even worth conquering.

The wild goblins living there form their own villages and live. And the demonic beast by-products they hunt and bring are one of the city’s main economic goods.

“Damn them, getting so lazy. This is why we shouldn’t pay them too well.”

He openly expressed his annoyance. The wild goblins were certainly good workers.

As long as they were supplied with weapons or females they needed, they would hunt difficult and dangerous demonic beasts and bring their by-products.

While weapons and female slaves were easy to obtain, the demonic beast by-products clearly had value, so they had been making quite a tidy profit from trading with the wild goblins so far.

But now there was a problem with that system.

“How should we handle this?”

“If they won’t come, we’ll have to go to them! Issue permits to merchants who want to trade with them. And tax those permits.”

In the end, it was a case of the thirsty digging a well.

Even though trade had only been cut off for a few days, problems were already arising, so they had no choice but to take action.

“Sniff! Is that true? If we want to trade, we have to go find them ourselves in the northern forest?! This wasn’t mentioned before!”

“What can we do? The sellers aren’t coming. We can’t forcibly drag them here either.”

The order of Bekins, the hobgoblin mayor of the city, soon spread throughout the city.

Most of the merchants visiting the city couldn’t help but be flustered. Especially those who came to the city aiming for the by-products.

“Damn, look at these. Are we supposed to take these to the forest?”

An orc pointed to the wooden cart behind him.

In the wooden cart with bars, females of various races were loaded, tightly bound. They were female slaves that goblins go crazy for.

“We’ll have to raise the prices.”

“Heh, of course we will.”

The orc slave traders grinned at the words of the hobgoblin official who clicked his tongue. It’s natural that prices increase as transportation costs increase.

The problem is that what the goblins will pay with isn’t light currency, but heavy by-products.

Ironically, the more expensive they sell, the greater their loss. It meant that the orcs would inevitably suffer losses.

“To make up for that loss, we might as well sweep through the goblin villages and take only the most valuable and lightweight things.”

“But boss, if we’re caught doing that, we might be kicked out of the city.”

“What does it matter! If we don’t meet the quota, we’ll be killed by the captain. We just need to make one big score and run!”

The leader of the orc slave traders, unable to bear such losses, came up with an extreme plan.

The idea was to enter the north under the pretense of trading with permits, then attack and sweep through the wild goblin villages there.

‘We can’t be tied down to such an uncivilized backwater that has nothing anyway.’

The orc leader chuckled and glanced at the slaves loaded in the cart.

If they weren’t going to sell them anyway, it seemed better to thoroughly enjoy them until they break rather than continue carrying them around heavily.

“Alright. You may pass.”

“Ahem, then we’ll see you later.”

A group of orc slave traders, who were able to go north first after receiving permits because they brought slaves to sell to goblins, left the city and entered the dense northern forest.

It was rugged, but not without paths. And they had already brought a map marking the locations of major wild goblin villages.

“We just need to be careful of demonic beasts.”

“Aren’t all the demonic beasts living here small anyway? Aren’t the big ones all gathered in the center of the world?”

With sufficient numbers and armed, they were relaxed, laughing and chatting.

They were confident that there was no being in this land that could harm them anyway.

“…But why is it so quiet?”

How deep had they gone like that? As they were approaching the goblin village they had targeted, they suddenly felt something strange.

Even though they were an armed group of dozens of orcs, they should still see aggressive demonic beasts, but not a single one was visible.

Moreover, even goblins who should be hunting or scouting were nowhere to be seen.

“It doesn’t matter. That’s the place right there, so prepare to fight as planned…”

And they soon realized the reason for this.

The forest basin the orc leader pointed to. The place where there should have been a goblin village.

“What is that?”

However, there was only a huge pool of unidentifiable mucus connected to countless tentacles, linked to large internal organs writhing alive.

“Caught you.”

At the same time, with someone’s snickering laugh, countless monsters that had been waiting outside their perception range swiftly and accurately surrounded them who had come deep inside.

“Wh-what are these things!?”

“Demonic beasts! They’re demonic beasts, boss!”

The startled orcs hurriedly drew their weapons and aimed at the unidentified monsters swarming from all directions to surround them.

‘In this world, just how many are there?’

The orc leader’s eyes widened as he drew his large sword.

The number of monsters surrounding them on all sides without a gap seemed to exceed several hundred easily.

“These are demonic beasts I’ve never seen before. Th-that such creatures are in this forest…”

Even the one among them most knowledgeable about demonic beasts had never seen such monsters.

The creatures merely slowly tightened their encirclement, their eyes gleaming between their exoskeletons, as if to pressure them.

‘Are they really demonic beasts?’

The orc leader, unknowingly breaking out in a cold sweat, gritted his teeth and gripped his sword handle tighter.

The smooth black exoskeleton as if wearing armor, the face with only faintly pierced eye holes, the cold aura without the slightest tremor.

There was no appearance of a mere beast he knew anywhere.

“He-here they come!”

“Fight! Break through!”

Without the slightest warning, the monsters surrounding them moved as one body and charged.

Unable to sit still and die, the orcs began fierce resistance.

Certainly, the strength of orc warriors, an outstanding warrior race, is enough to cut down and pierce through one or two enemies charging head-on.

“There are too many! Boss, at this rate…!”

But the difference in numbers was too severe.

Even if they cut down one enemy, two more enemies from right behind would thrust their heads in and try to attack by extending their poisonous legs installed between their heads and backs.

“Argh!”

The orc leader turned pale as he saw his subordinate next to him being slaughtered by poisonous needles pouring from all directions. Whatever they were made of, those sharp poisonous needles penetrated their bodies right through their armor.

‘At this rate, we’ll be annihilated!’

Monsters everywhere he looked.

As long as there’s a limit to stamina, it’s absolutely impossible to kill all these many enemies.

So the only way to escape this crisis is to desperately break through at any cost before stamina runs out.

“Follow me!”

The orc leader, who cut down five or six enemies at once by swinging his greatsword like a windmill, started running forward to break through.

It seemed impossible, but as the magic-enhanced greatsword was swung while humming with a blue light, a path actually began to open gradually.

‘I-I can’t die here to these insect bastards!’

He could no longer care how many of his subordinates had died.

He just wanted to live.

“What the hell is this one!?”

A new type of enemy appeared before the eyes of the fleeing orc leader.

When a huge demonic beast with an incredibly hard-looking shell on its back and a pair of giant blade legs simultaneously swung its blades spread like scissors, the orc leader barely avoided it and cut off one of its arms with all his might.

“Ugh.”

However, the monster swung its remaining arm to thrust its blade to cut his body.

The orc leader, who had consumed a lot of magic power in succession, barely blocked it by planting his sword in the ground. The blade alone was larger than his body. It was physical ability that couldn’t be overcome physically if one didn’t know how to handle magic power.

“…Just where the hell did you guys come from?”

He staggered and looked up, muttering blankly.

Someone had suddenly mounted on top of the shock trooper’s head.

At this point, realizing that they had completely fallen into a trap from the beginning, he gave up on life.

There was no answer. There was only dark red magic power swirling around the spear extending with gleaming red eyes inside the mask, making pink hair flutter.