Chapter 10 — Are You Eating Well? (1)
Chapter 10 — Are You Eating Well? (1)
"This is absurd... No, it would be unwise to jump to such conclusions."
Two pointed hands covered in black chitin pressed against a head, but the remaining two hands continued tirelessly stamping the next document for approval.
It was possible only because she was of the Arachne species, possessing eight limbs in total.
Her surprise was, at least, a mild one. Liron, seated before her, had his jaw hanging open so wide it seemed about to fall off.
The Arachne Chancellor Aranya and the Lich serving as Treasurer, Liron, had just heard Minoreus's tale of survival from his morning report.
"Treasurer, your jaw..."
"...Ah, yes."
It had genuinely fallen off. At Minoreus's worried words, the Lich Treasurer finally realized his own state. Expertly fitting his dangling jaw back into place, Liron marveled.
"Huh, a wondrous thing."
"I consider it close to a miracle."
Minoreus exhaled heavily. Recalling that moment still made his heart pound.
Minoreus was currently attending the afternoon council with the Chancellor, Aranya, and Liron.
It was a late afternoon as the sun began to set. Though evening was near, the shock of the morning remained fresh even upon a third reflection.
"Whatever the reason, it is truly a fortunate event."
Aranya spoke as she finished organizing the documents, pushing the stack to one side of the desk.
"From our Evirgio's perspective, we have not lost a valuable talent."
"You are too kind."
"But still, you should have been more careful."
"My apologies."
Minoreus looked at the Chancellor with an awkward face. Aranya's human-like face was filled with a bitter smile.
"It is not just a day or two that I have been anxious, not knowing when we might lose someone, but the Knight Commander and the Corrections Officer are in a different position. You are members of the Small Council. I know it is not easy to resist His Majesty's power. I know it, but..."
Aranya faced Minoreus with a serious expression.
"If a situation like that ever arises again, please try to survive, at least you alone."
Minoreus bowed his head. Her tone was warm, but the content was not. As Chancellor, losing even one more retainer would be a difficult thing to accept.
This was the world of demonkind. One's own life was ultimately one's own to safeguard. A being who worried about another's death was exceedingly rare.
"I should speak to Shwikviena as well."
Aranya touched her chin with one hand. Just then.
"Forgive my tardiness."
Shwikviena entered the council chamber. The modestly sized room was dyed red by the evening glow streaming in through the window.
"Not at all. I heard your morning report was quite the ordeal?"
After Aranya's kind words, Liron's rebuke followed.
"What were you possibly thinking, having to pull yourself together even more when before His Majesty!"
"...My apologies, Treasurer."
Though officially, there was no hierarchy among the Treasurer, Corrections Officer, and Knight Commander, the Treasurer's age far eclipsed Shwikviena's and Minoreus's combined. Thus, no one could reproach him for scolding them. Shwikviena murmured with a crestfallen face.
"I truly should not have reported in the bedchamber..."
"I know it was unavoidable since it was early morning. But asking His Majesty to come out to the office at that hour was impossible, wasn't it?"
Aranya wore another bitter smile. It had become an almost daily expression for her since becoming Chancellor.
"Ah, now that I think of it. Everyone."
Shwikviena sat down in a chair with a cautious movement and spoke.
"Do any of you know where His Majesty has just been?"
"...Huh?"
"You mean His Majesty went somewhere again?"
Liron and Minoreus asked in astonishment. Aranya silently awaited Shwikviena's words, but she, too, watched the Succubus with a face full of questions.
After all, they had already heard from the attendants following this morning's reports from Shwikviena and Minoreus that His Majesty had even stopped by the library before going to his office to summon the human princess.
'I think the library visit might be his first since his enthronement... and the office, his first in nearly a year.'
The office visit a year ago was, in truth, for doing something with women anyway.
Aranya had once found the secretary crying, curled up in a corner while cleaning. Pride in her work was likely something she held, so she must have been quite distressed.
Shwikviena narrowed her eyes and spoke.
"He visited the slave quarters."
"Ah, so that is why you hurried off earlier..."
"Yes."
While heading to the Small Council with Minoreus, Shwikviena had received a message from an attendant and then ran off in a fluster alone. Minoreus hadn't even had a chance to ask her what it was about.
"What did he say?"
"He said to be sure to feed them."
"...What?"
The three demons' faces twisted.
"He ordered that necessary supplies be provided so the slaves could clean their quarters themselves, and that clothing and bedding be issued."
"Why do such things for those who will be eaten anyway?"
Aranya tilted her head curiously to the side. At that, Minoreus spoke with a subtly triumphant tone.
"Indeed, did I not tell you? It seems His Majesty has finally realized the usefulness of humans. Especially flesh slaves..."
"First of all, His Majesty said to spare the slaves he saw this morning."
Shwikviena cut him off, as if hearing the rest was unnecessary.
"He asked if it might not be better to find other uses for them, if possible. He also said he would convene the Small Council soon for that reason."
"What?"
"He is convening the Small Council?"
Liron and Aranya's surprised retorts followed. Minoreus's eyes also flew wide open.
There had been a few instances where the members of the Small Council had implored and begged the Demon King to request an audience. But this was the first time the Demon King had convened the four of the Small Council first.
Looking at the three showing the same reaction she had, Shwikviena felt belated satisfaction. I am not the only one shocked now! She still possessed a bit of the youngest's nature.
"In any case, he said the most important thing was to feed them."
"Hmm... Must we feed them human meat?"
"Do the slaves not dislike it? They seem to refuse it."
"But things other than human meat are expensive, Chancellor."
The Treasurer scratched his skull-stripped head. Being a Lich, no hair remained, only the skull bone.
No crops grew near Evirgio's capital, Basel. The very land of the nation of Evirgio was, on the whole, unsuitable for growing crops.
A barren nation. Thus, harvests were poor, and demonkind plundered the food of the kingdom's humans or captured and ate the humans themselves.
Yet, human slaves would not eat humans. So, they had to be fed crops or animal meat, which meant feeding prey whose food was more expensive than their own purchase price.
The Treasurer's face darkened.
Slaves would not be kept long anyway, so it would not become a major issue, but he loathed any loss to the treasury, no matter how trivial.
As Shwikviena added one more detail, his expression darkened further.
"He said to be sure it was something delicious..."
"Hrrrm. What in the world do humans even find delicious?"
The Lich's somber groan sank into the council chamber. The Succubus relaying the words, the Arachne and Minotaur hearing them, all fell silent, lost in their own thoughts, brimming with questions.
*
After sending the princess away, I saw the head butler of this palace for the first time. At my command to move her quarters and assign maids, he stood gaping as if struck speechless for a moment, but soon vanished to carry out the work.
And immediately after, Roan explored elsewhere in the Demon King's Castle.
"What a mess."
A sigh-laced murmur escaped the Demon King's lips.
Roan had just finished inspecting the slave quarters.
Slaves were at the very bottom of this castle's labor pyramid. Having decided he needed to see the conditions of the lower ranks firsthand, he chose to look at the slave quarters first.
'If I showed myself, they might feverishly clean or hide things as if nothing had ever happened.'
If they only hid away the filth and cleaned, that would be fortunate, but if they decided to 'clean away' the humans, they might eat them to do so.
A cold chill gave the Demon King goosebumps.
From a long-term perspective, understanding how demonkind treated humans was also important.
Seeing their treatment even once would make it easy to grasp the demonkind's general attitude toward humans in this world.
It might even yield knowledge that would help in ending the war.
But the treatment of humans was worse than he had imagined, leaving Roan feeling somewhat helpless.
"Diobe."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Where do you stay?"
By now, she had decided not to be surprised.
"The servants' quarters on the first floor."
"You are human. Are you eating properly?"
"Yes. Meals are served on time."
"That is a relief."
The Demon King quietly lowered his eyes. Having never seen him look relieved, she could not be sure... but if he were to feel relief, would he not look something like that?
Diobe felt an emotion difficult to describe. It was something she had thought she would never experience in this castle of Evirgio.
'Could it be... he is worried...?'
It could not be. Something in Diobe's mind cut down her cautious speculation with a single stroke.
Diobe had been the one to assist the Demon King from the closest position all this time. Too many had died over the years she had witnessed for her to expect such sentiment.
The Demon King had been capricious, a being farthest removed from consideration.
It would be a much more reasonable inference to assume the direction of his usual erratic behavior had simply, by chance, veered toward what 'appeared to be' altruism.
'Though I really cannot fathom why he is acting this way all of a sudden.'
Diobe glanced sideways at the Demon King. Whether he knew it or not, the Demon King was strolling through the garden, lost in his own thoughts.
'She is really staring daggers at me.'
The Demon King could not possibly be unaware. Since the afternoon, Roan had felt Diobe's gaze boring into the back of his head.
'She must be doing so because I am too different from the previous version....'
There was a reason for his slight guilty conscience, but what could he do when his innards had been swapped? Still, from the general mood, it seemed no one would dare say anything to him for acting like this. Whether that was fortunate or unfortunate, he was not sure.
Anyway, the slave quarters were in a worse state than he had imagined.
'No, wait, these guys eat humans, but they leave the quarters filthy like this?'
Was an old slave market truly like this? Clumps of flesh were rolling around the bare ground, without proper clothes or bedding. Many were already half-dead.
Worse, the filth the slaves produced was left scattered right on the floor.
No one cleaned it for them, and since they were locked up, they could not clean it themselves. The slave quarters were filled with an unbearable stench. The guard guiding the Demon King ultimately could not hold back his vomit.
So, the three women alone in that space, who were clean, stood out even more.
Even in his original world, Roan was remarkably perceptive about people. He had worked for a long time in circles where all sorts of people gathered. He had even spent time in places where only those who were sifted out (in a bad way) converged.
That experience allowed him to notice that the slaves who had served him that morning had already been tormented by the other slaves.
'Humans truly... find it difficult to accept the good fortune of others honestly.'
Roan felt rueful.
Eventually, while he was questioning the guards about the sanitation and the treatment of the slaves, Shwikviena came running frantically from somewhere to the slave quarters.
"Y-Your Majesty.... What brings you... here?"
Looking at her catching her breath with pity, Roan asked.
"Is the Corrections Officer in charge of this?"
Normally, a king should know the entire system, but the original owner of this body likely did not care. As expected, Shwikviena answered as if it was only natural he did not know.
"Yes, Your Majesty. As Corrections Officer, I am responsible for those who assist the retainers of this castle, the servants, slaves, and jailers. Their quarters and what they consume are also all inspected by me."
"Hmm."
Shwikviena looked at Roan with worry.
"Since I do not know the full situation, it is difficult for me to find fault with the Corrections Officer's work, but."
As Roan trailed off, Shwikviena waved her hands in denial.
"Not at all, Your Majesty. Are they not all Your Majesty's possessions? I am merely one who manages Your Majesty's property. Please, issue any command you wish."
"Then, first, give them a space to wash, clothes, and bedding."
"...Pardon?"
Unintentionally, the Corrections Officer raised her head and stared blankly at the Demon King. She was not the only one. The guards around the Demon King, the slaves, and even Diobe behind him stared at him blankly.
Feeling everyone's gaze with his 'Detection', Roan felt a bit embarrassed.
"Huhk! Y-Your Majesty...! My deepest apologies! I understand!"
As Shwikviena bowed her head again in a fluster, everyone averted their eyes from the Demon King as if waking from a trance.
"Hmm and also."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Feed them something delicious."
"...Pardon?"