Saving The Monster Race Starts With Breeding The Elf Village

The moment the other centaurs saw their commander be rode upon, the last thread of their composure snapped.

Daughters and elders alike dropped to their knees, their cries rising to the heavens.

”No...it’s over. It’s all over now.”

”Our commander...her innocence...gone...”

Some of the older centaurs began speaking through their tears, their voices heavy with nostalgia and grief.

”I-I used to train her when she was just a foal.” One veteran whispered. ”She was such an eager little thing. So bright. So stubborn. So full of fire!”

She clenched her fist.

”But now...seeing her like this...knowing I could do nothing to stop it...I am utterly ashamed of myself! Ashamed to call myself her knight!”

Another elder wept openly.

”How could I let the younger generation suffer like this while I still stand!? I-I should have protected her. I should have done something!”

Poppy was sobbing uncontrollably.

”Sigrid...Sigrid, I’m so sorry! It’s because of me! It’s all because of me! This is my fault...”

Thea did her best to comfort her queen, but her own heart ached for Sigrid.

Sigrid had always valued her honor and dignity above everything—above her own life, even.

To see a human sitting upon her back, treating her like a common steed...it was something even someone as open-minded as Thea struggled to accept.

—

While the older centaurs wept in stunned silence, the younger ones burned with righteous fury.

They glared at Luca through tear-filled eyes, their voices shaking with outrage.

”How could the Hero do something like this!?”

”How could he humiliate us in such a manner!?”

”He planned this from the very beginning! He wanted to ride the commander from the very start!”

”He took Queen Poppy’s pride, and now he’s taken our Commander...”

”I’ll beat him down!” A young centaur whispered, her fingers bleeding against her hilt. ”I swear I’ll regain her dignity!”

Luca felt the murderous intent directed at him from thirty different angles and raised his hands nervously.

”Hey! I didn’t want this! I literally begged her not to!”

No one listened. The glares only grew darker.

Even Sigrid’s face burned with a fresh wave of mortification.

She was already performing the most humiliating act of her life, and now he was making it worse by acting as though he had never wanted this.

It was like a man who had just slept with a woman and then, immediately afterward gave her a one-star review.

But still, she managed to calm herself down.

She slowly turned her head, forcing a smile onto her face that looked more like a grimace.

”C-Congratulations, Hero.” She forced out, her voice tight. ”Not only...have you won the duel...but you have gained...a fine steed.”

”Don’t you dare say congratulations with tears in your eyes!” Luca snapped back in panic.

Sigrid quickly wiped her cheek with the back of her hand.

”I—I apologize, Hero. It is simply...my first time experiencing such a thing. Despite my resolve, it is...difficult to process. Forgive my weakness.”

The crowd lost its mind.

”HE’S MAKING HER APOLOGIZE!”

”HE RAVAGED HER PRIDE AND NOW HE’S ACTING LIKE SHE ISN’T EVEN GOOD ENOUGH TO RIDE!”

”MONSTER!”

The older centaurs wept harder. The younger centaurs seethed with barely contained violence.

The entire brigade, which had seemed so mighty and confident when they first arrived, was now collapsing into chaos—crying, raging, falling apart at the seams.

Even the queen herself was sobbing like a child, her face buried in Thea’s shoulder.

Luca looked at the devastation surrounding him and felt a cold, creeping realization settle into his stomach.

He had fucked up.

Really fucked up.

If he had simply kept his mouth shut and hadn’t acted so arrogant, he could have ended this encounter on amicable terms.

He could have gained allies instead of enemies.

But no.

Because of his actions, the centaurs looked ready to fight him to the death. He was in a worse position now than when he had first arrived.

The trust he had begun to build, the respect he had earned through his swordsmanship—all of it had been swept away in a tidal wave of grief and fury.

’How did I end up here?’ He wondered, staring at the scene of chaos before him.

’A simple duel. A simple bet. And now I’m sitting on the back of the most prideful centaur in the nation, her people are crying, her queen is sobbing, and everyone wants to kill me.’

He let out a long, heavy sigh.

’I am so, so fucked.’

—

As depressed as Thea felt watching the scene before her, she understood the atmosphere couldn’t be allowed to fester.

Her people were scattered across the field in various states of exhaustion and misery. Even Poppy on her back had resorted to using strands of her own mane as a tissue.

Worse still, both Sigrid and Luca now stood locked in matching expressions of gloom, neither willing to look at the other directly.

She cleared her throat.

”Alright, everyone!” She called out, her voice carrying the crisp authority that had steadied this brigade through worse days than this one.

”Today’s proceedings are concluded! There’s no reason for anyone to linger further!”

A few recruits raised their tear-stained faces to protest, but Thea cut them off with an unyielding glare.

”Move it along! Our people back in the inner village are waiting to hear how the match went.”

She said firmly, adding in a softer, more pressing tone,

”Not to mention, someone needs to head back to the forge to check on Mavis and make sure she doesn’t do something incredibly reckless out of temper.”

At the mention of the little blacksmith, the older centaurs winced.

They knew her temper, her pride, how her sharp tongue could get her into trouble when her emotions were running high

Exchanging weary, heavy-hearted glances with one another, they offered Sigrid one last mournful look before slowly turning toward the trail.

Thea then moved among the younger warriors, physically nudging them along.

”Up on your feet! Just because we took a loss today doesn’t mean our lives are over!”

”You were given a front-row masterclass by the Hero himself. Take those lessons, train hard, and grow strong enough to surpass him in the future!”

The words sparked a tiny ember of fight back in their eyes. Nodding solemnly, the recruits pulled themselves up and began marching back toward the settlement.

Within minutes, the crowded valley emptied out entirely.

Poppy, still perched on Thea’s back, sniffled pitifully, her eyes swollen and red.

”Thea...I want to go talk to Sigrid. I want to apologize...it’s all my fault...”

Thea gently shook her head.

”It’s fine, My Lady. Sigrid doesn’t blame you at all. You know her—she never points fingers at others for the burdens she chooses to shoulder.”

Poppy let out a small, miserable huff, knowing her guard was right.

”Sigrid is infinitely stronger than she looks.” Thea offered a gentle, reassuring smile. ”Just give her some time to process everything.”

Poppy reluctantly nodded. Thea cast one last glance toward Sigrid before walking away, her queen still sniffling on her back.

—

Soon, all that remained were the banners set aside for the duel, the earth stamped here and there by countless hooves, and finally—Sigrid and Luca.

Two figures who seemed, if anything, even more depressed than the rest.

One rubbed his forehead with a blade-hand, wondering how in the world he was going to deal with this entire mess.

The other was trying desperately to make her heart stop beating so fast, though it was proving utterly impossible.

’He’s so close...’ Sigrid thought, her ears twitching.

Amidst the lingering smell of dust and sweat, a surprisingly pleasant scent drifted up from his clothes.

’He actually smells...really nice...’

It was not the harsh, sweat-stained musk she might have expected from a warrior who had just spent the better part of a day fighting.

No, it was something subtler. Clean, but with an undertone of something warm and distinctly masculine. Like sun-warmed leather and honey and something else she couldn’t quite name.

She caught herself inhaling a little deeper and immediately wanted to kick herself.

’What in the name of the ancestors is wrong with you, Sigrid? Focus!’

But then—

She noticed something else. A rather bizarre sensation on her back like something was digging into her equine spine.

At first she tried to ignore it, tried to convince herself that it was nothing—maybe just a fold in his clothing, maybe just her imagination playing tricks on her.

But the pressure didn’t go away. If anything, it seemed to grow more pronounced with each passing second.

Slowly, she turned her head to look back at him.

”Hero...”

Luca, who had been lost in his own thoughts, blinked and looked down at her.

”Hmm? What is it?”

”I...I don’t mind you sitting on my back. Truly, I don’t. I accepted the terms of our bet, and I intend to honor them fully.”

”O...kay?” Luca said, clearly not understanding where this was going.

”But...” She glanced downward, toward where the pressure was most concentrated. ”Is it possible for you to push aside the dagger you have on you? It’s really...pushing into my body. Quite firmly.”

Luca blinked, completely caught off guard. He looked down at his waist.

”Dagger? What dagger? I didn’t bring a dagger today. I only have my sword attached to my arm.”

He tapped the metal blade bound to his right forearm with a dull clack.

But Sigrid immediately shook her head.

”No, no, no. You most definitely have a dagger! I can feel it poking into me. It’s just so...hard. And long. And it’s even a bit weighty as well.”

She paused, searching for the right words. ”Like it has some real heft to it.”

”Seriously, Sigrid, I don’t have one!” Luca insisted, genuinely confused. ”Where exactly is it poking you?”

”Right there!”

Sigrid blurted out, turning her upper body further and pointing a trembling finger at the spot directly beneath his lap.

”Right over—”

She froze.

Her words died in her throat. Her sapphire eyes widened to the size of saucers in sheer, unadulterated horror.

Luca’s crotch, which had been completely normal throughout the entirety of their duels, was now bulging obscenely!

It looked as though some sort of massive monster was hiding beneath his pants, straining against the fabric with desperate intent.

She realised in that moment, the dagger she had felt...it wasn’t a dagger at all.

Sigrid stopped breathing.

Her eyes began to shake. Her finger, still pointing at the offending location, trembled violently. She was hyperventilating now, her chest rising and falling in rapid succession, her mind completely unable to process what she was seeing.

Luca, realizing what had happened, felt his face ignite with embarrassment.

He quickly covered his crotch with both blade-hands, his voice coming out in a nervous rush.

”Oh! Oh, gods. Sorry about that!”

He chuckled nervously, the sound high and strained and completely unconvincing.

”That’s just my...well, you see, um...” He scrambled for words, any words, that might make this situation less catastrophically awkward.

”It’s my first time riding a centaur, you know? And even though I told you I’m not exactly sexually attracted to your lower half, the fact that I’m still riding a woman one way or another kind of...excited me a bit. Just a bit.”

He glanced down at his crotch, then back at her, his expression deeply apologetic.

”Sorry about the bit of...activity down there. I can get off if you—”

Before he could even unmount, Sigrid’s brain completely short-circuited.

The lingering trauma of the erotic dreams, shattered her military discipline into a million pieces.

”NOOOOOOOOO!”

A high-pitched, wild shriek that sounded dangerously close to a terrified mare’s whinny tore from Sigrid’s throat!

”L-LUCA, WAIT—DON’T—!”

But unfortunately, it was already far too late.

Sigrid reared up her entire body using just her hind legs alone, rising up into the air like a horse that had been spooked by a snake.

And Luca, who had nothing to hold onto—no reins, no saddle, no handholds of any kind—just went flying.

”WHOA—!”

He plummeted toward the earth, but Sigrid’s horse instincts had gone completely feral.

As he fell, she dropped back down onto all fours, whirled her hips, and delivered a full-force, dual-hoof donkey kick straight into his chest!

BOOM!

The impact sounded like a cannon firing! The sheer force sent Luca flying across the highlands like a ragdoll, hurtling fifty feet through the air before crashing into a dirt mound in the distance!

Sigrid, meanwhile, had already bolted.

”No no no no no—”

The words spilled from her lips in a desperate, panicked chant as she galloped away at full speed.

She had thought it was a strange weapon. Some unconventional device, like the ones her sister created.

But no.

It was that. The monster she had seen in her dreams!

The one that had haunted her thoughts ever since she had first glimpsed it.

And it had been pressing into her. Touching her.

The trauma of that realization alone was enough to send her galloping into the horizon, her elegant form growing smaller and smaller until she vanished entirely from sight.