To humans, other races are nothing more than monsters.
At best, beautiful elves or dexterous dwarves receive slightly better treatment.
But most are seen as seeds of evil that must be eradicated from this world.
The most representative of these races? Orcs.
They were the first race Lucia decided to visit.
-Step.
“Who…is that…a human!!”
“A human has come!!!”
The moment she landed on the ground, chaos ensued.
…If other humans saw this, they would find it puzzling.
Orcs are notorious for their ferocity.
With their muscular builds and intimidating presence, aren’t they widely regarded as the epitome of a warrior race?
But the orcs in front of Lucia?
They were nothing like that—skinny, shriveled, and far from muscular.
At the sight of an intruder, they were more inclined to run away.
To the untrained eye, one might even mistake them for goblins.
“Hmm.”
‘I thought they wouldn’t even have the strength to run, but I guess they’ve got a little energy left.’
Of course, Lucia wasn’t the least bit surprised.
She already had a clear understanding of the situation in this village, thanks to Teo’s magic.
She also knew the orcs were on the verge of starving to death.
In fact, that was precisely why she had chosen to visit this tribe first. There was no reason to be shocked.
‘Explaining things will take too long… This will be faster.’
“Hey, you lowly creatures. Pay attention.”
Snap!
The sound of her snapping fingers echoed.
And then…
-Crash!!!
“……!!!!!”
‘Wha—what?! Food is pouring down!!’
An assortment of food tumbled down in heaps.
Bread and fruit, ham, cheese, and even wine.
Though simple by any standard, to them, it was a feast beyond their wildest dreams.
These were relief supplies taken from Teo’s subspace.
Gulp. The sound of orcs swallowing their saliva echoed through the cave.
“You can eat.”
“……?”
“Why aren’t you—oh, you don’t understand Korean, do you? Hmm, can you hear me now?”
“……!!! The human speaks Orcish!!”
“Stop panicking and just eat. These are gifts from the merciful Lord Teonar.”
Lucia graciously granted them permission to eat.
To make sure they understood, she used a translation artifact.
‘If we eat that, we’ll be captured! They’ll drag us to a gladiatorial arena and force us to fight to the death…!’
Even so, the orcs hesitated for a long time.
“……!!! Grukshar, what are you doing!!”
“I’m eating!! Grukshar is hungry!!”
A small orc suddenly rushed forward, breaking the tense atmosphere.
He dove in and began devouring the ham ravenously.
“Eat slowly. According to Auralia, if you eat too fast after starving, you could get refeeding syndrome…”
“Ugh!! Gulp!!!”
“…If it looks like you’re about to die, I’ll just bring you to Lord Teo. Now, the rest of you, come and eat.”
“D-Durku will eat too!!”
“Grush’tak will eat as well!!!”
The other orcs swarmed in.
They all fell to the ground, scrambling to grab the food and devour it.
For the first time, sunlight seemed to pierce the gloom of the cave.
“Let go of that! Durku grabbed it first!!”
“Durku already ate! This one’s for Grush—”
-Crash!
“There’s plenty of food, so eat and be grateful for Lord Teonar’s mercy.”
“…Thank you!!”
“We will never forget this kindness!!”
The orcs’ chaotic and messy feast lasted a surprisingly long time.
Their frantic gulping, barely chewing, made it clear just how desperate their hunger had been.
“Urp, I feel like my stomach’s going to burst.”
“This is not just survival. This is true living…!”
“No one else is hungry, right? Then let’s move on to the main topic now.”
“…?”
“The great dragon, Lord Teonar, has…”
It was only after thirty minutes that Lucia got to the point.
Even after waiting that long, she began explaining with calm precision.
A nation for the other races, one that Teo was striving to create.
A utopia free from hunger and fear of extermination.
A place called the Millennia Federation.
“But for now, food resources are still limited. The foundation is set, but we’re short on manpower.”
“That’s why we need you orcs—to be workers in our Millennia Federation.”
“Come with me. From now on, live only for Lord Teonar, and thank him for his mercy.”
The reason she sought out the orcs first?
To use their physical abilities and endurance to make them farmers.
“There are other tribes, stronger and more powerful than us. Why must it be us?”
“Grukshar!! What are you saying…?”
“I plan to bring the other tribes once the food situation allows.
If they see you settle down first, it’ll lessen their resistance.”
The reason she specifically chose the weakest orc tribe?
By making these docile orcs the first citizens, it would reassure others and pave the way for their integration.
“You’re not just planning to drag us off to the gladiatorial arena, are you?”
“The arena? I’ve got plans for something similar, but not now. And when we do, it’ll be more like WWE than UFC.”
“W-WWE? What is that?”
“You don’t need to know. What’s important is that you’ll never have to worry about starving again.
You’ll eat like this every day.”
“……!!!”
To the orcs, it sounded like a dream.
After a moment of exchanging glances, they knelt down on one knee, bowing deeply.
It was a tradition of loyalty they hadn’t abandoned, even after decades of being hunted.
“We will follow you from now on!”
“Not me—Lord Teonar. The last dragon in this world, Lord Teonar is our true master.”
“Lord Teonar! Understood!!”
“Orcs never forget kindness!!!”
On that day, Teo gained 80 loyal subjects.
* * *
…Of course, not everything ahead of them was a rosy future.
“Lady Lucia? Why are you here at the fields?”
“Since you all seem to have settled in, I think it’s time to start teaching you Hangul.”
One week after they had entered the Millias Great Forest,
Lucia suddenly brought up the idea of education.
She claimed she would teach them something called Hangul.
It was, unsurprisingly, something the orcs absolutely hated.
Orcs were a race that had chosen physical prowess over intelligence.
To them, it made no sense to strain their brains when their bodies could do the work.
“We don’t need Hangul. It’s not necessary for farming.”
“Exactly! Orcs use bodies, not brains!”
And so, they tried to refuse…
-Crackle.
“—Did you just say you don’t need it? The Hangul personally created by Lord Teo?”
“Eek! I didn’t know it was made by Lord Teonar!!”
The thought of refusing vanished in an instant.
No orc wanted to hear, ‘Then die.’
“I’ll learn! I’ll learn Hangul!!”
“Good. Then, just one of you—the smartest one—step forward.”
“…One?”
“The rest need to farm.”
“Ah!”
Fortunately, it seemed that only one orc had to step forward to represent the group.
The orcs’ gazes all turned to one point.
At the end of their collective stares stood a particularly small orc.
It was Grukshar, the orc who had dashed out first a week ago to grab food.
“Grukshar is the smartest.”
“Small and weak.”
“With a body like that, the brain must at least be good!”
Unanimously, they declared her the smartest, following an impressively orcish logic:
if she was weak, she must at least be smart.
“Grukshar is not smart!! Grukshar is strong!!”
Of course, she seemed rather displeased with the conclusion.
[Other tribes have strong warriors. Our tribe doesn’t need…]
‘Well, she was the only one who ever showed signs of thinking, so I guess she’s the best we’ve got.’
“Alright then. Gruk… ugh, that’s annoying to say. Shar. Follow me.”
Lucia appointed her as the trainee.
Too lazy to pronounce “Grukshar” properly, she even gave her the nickname “Shar.”
“Grukshar not smart. Strong orc….”
“Shar. Do you want to follow me or get struck by lightning and then follow me?”
“…Shar will study Hangul very hard!”
And so began the lessons.
No one had ever attempted this before: the project of teaching orcs how to read and write.
“Listen carefully. These are called consonants…”
Sigh.
‘Who knows how long this will take.’
Even Lucia, the teacher, thought it wouldn’t be easy.
Orcs were notoriously unintelligent—not as a metaphor, but in the literal sense. They were the kind of species who wouldn’t know the simplest of symbols if it stared them in the face.
Still, it was Teo’s order. Lucia had resolved to see it through, no matter how much time it took.
“Consonant with a… ‘ga’?”
“…!!!!?”
‘She read Hangul!?’
—It didn’t take as long as expected.
Just three hours.
That was all it took for Shar, an orc, to begin reading Hangul, one syllable at a time.
“How is this possible for such a lowly creature…”
“I get it! Hangul easy!”
“…Then read this character.”
“Consonant with eo… ‘neo’!”
Not only could she recognize letters, but she also started applying the rules to other combinations.
Her pronunciation was still clumsy, she made frequent mistakes, and she couldn’t even grasp the concept of final consonants yet.
But undeniably, she was reading Hangul.
This was why Lucia flew straight to Teo.
“Teo! Teo!! Look at this lowly creature!!”
“Hm? It’s a female orc. Why?”
“She learned to read Hangul in just three hours!!!”
Lucia babbled excitedly into what seemed like an empty clearing. There was no one there—or rather, no one visible.
She began explaining the groundbreaking event: an orc had learned to read! In just three hours!
But Teo didn’t even bat an eye.
“Three hours? Did she learn all the final consonants, too?”
“Uh? No, not yet. Just the basics like ga-na-da…”
“Then that’s a reasonable pace. Keep teaching her.”
“…What?”
Lucia was the one left bewildered.
An orc learning to read at all was practically unheard of.
Yet Shar had done it, even if it was just the basics, in three hours—a feat that had shocked Lucia to her core.
So why was Teo acting so calm?
She couldn’t understand it, but to Teo, it was only natural.
“The problem is Korean, not Hangul. Hangul itself is easy to learn.”
Hangul was a phonetic script anyone could read once they understood the rules.
Even foreigners could master the basics in an hour.
Knowing this, Teo found nothing surprising about the situation.
“A wise scholar named Jeong In-ji once described Hangul like this,
‘The wise can understand it before the morning is over,
and even the foolish can master it in less than ten days.’”
“…!!!”
‘Even the dumbest orcs wouldn’t take ten days!?’
For Lucia, this was a shocking revelation.
But for Teo, it was nothing extraordinary. Hangul’s brilliance lay in its simplicity.
Even Lucia was shocked at how easy Hangul was—so simple that even an orc could learn it.
Once again, she was struck by just how incredible Hangul was.
“To think you created a script that even lowly, dull creatures can learn! Truly, Lord Teo Sejong the Great!! The most merciful of all!!!”
Her misconception that Teo had invented Hangul remained unchanged.
Moved by how remarkable he seemed, she unknowingly dropped to her knees, as if in worship.
“You, what’s your name?”
“G-Gruk… Shar! Strong Teonar, I’m sorry…”
“No, no. Just learn well and take good care of Lucia from now on, Shar.”
“Understood!! I’ll give my loyalty and study hard!!!”
—Fwoooosh!!!
“Raaagh?”
‘Wait, is she evolving?’
Teo remained blissfully unaware of Lucia’s misconception, as a whirlwind of energy enveloped Shar. Her sudden and explosive evolution had started.
‘Well, no helping it now. With things as they are, I might as well assign her as Lucia’s lieutenant…’
Meanwhile, Lucia’s mind was filled with utter devotion.
“Ah, Lord Teo♡ To serve someone like him is the greatest joy and blessing of all♡”
* * *
Ten years later.
“Finally, the last tribe has learned Hangul! There is no illiteracy left in our federation!”
“Moreover, over half of them are now fluent in Millenia, as well. Here’s the report.”
—Rustle.
“…Raaagh.”
‘At this point, we could probably declare the founding of a nation.’
The Millenia Federation, a union of countless diverse species,
had at last passed Teo’s standards.