Chapter 11 — Are You Eating Well? (2)
Chapter 11 — Are You Eating Well? (2)
The correction officer repeated the very same discourtesy she had committed mere seconds ago. But the Demon King met her eyes and spoke with emphasis.
"Make sure you feed them something delicious. Food is important. I emphasize this. Food is important."
"...Yes... Ah, I understand..."
With that, Roan left, having so earnestly urged the correction officer.
The reason he hadn't brought himself to say "do not kill them" was Shwikviena's words from that morning, when she mentioned that humans were a primary food source.
'If I say not to kill humans and it causes a starvation crisis inside the imperial palace, that's its own kind of trouble.'
First, he needed to figure out where humans stood in the local food chain. The time the Hero spent in the game was mostly in the Kingdom of Merde. The food supply situation in Evirgio, the demon kingdom, never appeared in the game.
But if he claimed to be looking after the slaves while demons starved because of it, he'd be a failure as a Demon King.
If possible, the best option was to have the humans replace labor on other fronts. Ideally, they would be properly paid for their work.
But the road ahead was long.
'First, I need to keep them alive...'
Living in quarters like those would only breed sickness in the healthy. Reports actually said many died of illness there before the demons could even eat them.
"A long road ahead."
Listening to Roan's lament, Diobe thought to herself.
'If anyone heard that, they'd say it sounds exactly like something a king would say.'
Had Roan seen the blinking affection value beside her face, he would have confirmed that the number was -98.
Strolling through the deep-green garden, a rare atmosphere amid the desolate city and imperial palace, the Demon King worried about the next day's schedule.
'The prison holds demons too, so... surely it can't be as bad as that. The servant quarters have to be much better. Still, I should check on how everyone's doing. I probably need to meet with the Chancellor as soon as possible, too.'
For all he knew, there could be someone who shouldn't be there locked up in the prison, just like Princess Grünent.
'No, really, the more I think about it—humans supposedly taste terrible... so why are they a primary food resource? I have to ask about this, too.'
In truth, the issues he had to worry about piled up like a mountain. He had to check whether he could use swordsmanship and skills as well as the original Demon King. He had to raise the princess's affection. Diobe was also a long-term affection target, so he had to pay her attention. If that didn't work, he could at least stick a guard on her.
Though his head was a mess, the Demon King quietly gazed at the flower field with an elegant bearing that revealed none of it. The red sunset beyond the palace walls blazed upon the Demon King's back.
The tumultuous first day in the world of the game was drawing to a close.
***
"His Majesty sent these."
"...?"
Grünent took the bouquet the demon maid handed her and found herself unable to speak.
She was surprised, but she also had not yet decided in her heart how she ought to treat the demons.
Though a fair amount of time had passed since she arrived in Basel, she still could not be sure whether she was allowed to conduct herself as one of the Demon King's consorts.
Back in Erde, she had felt practically discarded like surplus inventory. After that, from the moment she crossed the Evirgio border, she had been treated outright like a criminal.
Spring blossoms had been in bloom when she left Erde, but it was already early summer now. The dry, cool summer night wind unique to the east of the continent tickled the princess's cheek. It was the outside air she was feeling for the first time in the months since she'd entered the imperial palace.
"His Majesty also sent his words along."
"...What did he say?"
A polite register maintaining appropriate distance would be best.
After all, in prison she had felt in her bones exactly how weak humans were in Evirgio.
I cannot be sure the Demon King has definitively decided to treat me as a protected person, and it's ambiguous whether I outrank this maid or am merely a guest.
With that thought, the princess courteously addressed the vampire maid in her neat attire. The maid likewise answered without meeting the princess's eyes in their ambiguous hierarchy.
"As the maids you originally brought with you are in poor health, His Majesty said he would look into it personally and then send them to your residence."
"His Majesty will look into it personally?"
"Yes."
The princess blinked her jewel-like eyes.
It was true that her maids' condition was poor. Throughout their stay in prison, they had not been able to eat properly, and the guards had constantly harassed them. In the end, one of the maids could not withstand the hardship and died there.
At the wretched memory, Grünent bit her lip slightly.
After abandoning them for so long, now suddenly seeing to her and her maids—his behavior made no sense. Was there some ulterior motive?
'Could the political situation have changed?'
Yet there was no factor by which Erde could dramatically seize the advantage against Evirgio. At least, not before she had left. And there was a high chance that her assessment would not be far off.
The Demon King's actions were unfathomable, but one thing was clear.
He had power. If that man only set his will to something, his driving force would sweep forward with tremendous momentum.
'If he is truly a man who acts as he says, that is.'
"The cleaning was hurried and is thus insufficient, but please sleep in a guest room for tonight. You should be able to move to formal quarters tomorrow. Now then."
The Demon King's guest quarters, normally neglected when it came to entertaining anyone, had been in such a mess that the imperial palace staff spent an unprecedentedly frantic afternoon. In the end, the demon maids left the room without attending to the human princess, but her mood was not sour.
If anything, the thought that she would soon be able to meet her own maids left her a little buoyant.
She had spent months in prison. Washing herself, changing her clothes, and going to bed alone was nothing at all.
With a fluttering heart, she began filling a vase with water. The late-blooming hyacinth gave off a lovely fragrance. It felt as though she might fall asleep in a genuinely good mood for the first time in a very long while.
*
"Damn it, I couldn't sleep a wink."
He had tossed and turned.
Being a sound sleeper was one of his few proud traits, but with his worries piled one on another, he had kept drifting off and then stirring awake again and again.
When he'd ordered the princess's maids brought to her, he was told that not one of them was in decent shape. Receiving the correction officer's belated report, he went to the treatment room to find everyone already drugged out of their minds.
"...Shwikviena. Why are they all out of their senses like this? Is it because of the conditions in prison?"
"No, Your Majesty. It is a memory-altering drug."
At the correction officer's thoroughly composed words, Roan registered the shock a beat late.
"...Altering their memories?"
In response to the Demon King's question, Shwikviena explained as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Although the human princess is isolated here, if her maids were permitted to roam the palace, there is no telling what they might do. The princess is Your Majesty's rightful property, but if you would grant me, the one in charge of the servants, permission to discipline the maids, I would be most grateful."
...That was a line straight out of an adult game.
"Train them... how?"
He wouldn't deny his own personal curiosity. Roan had to suppress the urge to swallow hard. Shwikviena smiled softly.
"The average human cannot resist this drug. After administering it and rewriting their memories to firmly imprint that Your Majesty is their master, we continue supplying it in reduced doses. This drug causes the memories accepted while intoxicated to be perceived as happiness. Once the drug is reduced, they become unable to endure without it."
The succubus's smile was radiant.
"They will not hesitate to kill the princess herself for Your Majesty's sake."
'That's brainwashing!'
Roan restrained the urge to press a hand to his forehead and spoke to the correction officer.
"Shwikviena. If possible, please refrain from using this drug in the future."
At the Demon King's gentle tone, Shwikviena answered in surprise.
"Your Majesty, had you some other arrangement in mind?"
"There will be a proper time to explain later, but I require the princess's trust. If she suspected I had tamed those around her with drugs, I doubt she would appreciate it."
"Are you telling me that a lowly human would dare defy Your Majesty's will and present a differing opinion? Your great Majesty need not trouble yourself with such trifles. Moreover, the princess would never be able to discover the brainwashing process. The obedience this drug brings is so perfect."
With an uncomprehending expression, Shwikviena repeatedly explained, as if trying to reassure Roan, but the Demon King firmly refused her proposal and ordered the brainwashing stopped.
'...Good thing it was at a stage where it could be undone.'
Princess Grünent was sharp-witted and perceptive. If by any—by even the slightest—chance it was discovered, things would become truly troublesome.
As Roan had lain tossing and turning sleeplessly in bed, he irritably raked his hand through his now-disheveled hair.
Among the pile of worries, the one that nagged at him most was whether the Demon King's martial strength remained fully his own. His stat values remained intact—he could access skills and his stats were the same—but magic and swordsmanship were things ingrained in the body. How proficiently he could wield them compared to the original Demon King was something he would not know until he tried.
His swordsmanship was directly tied to Roan's life. Moreover, swordsmanship was the foundation of the Demon King. His current position, authority, even the very existence of this nation was precariously maintained on the premise of his overwhelming power.
Just as he was about to drift off, forgetting that burden for a perilous moment, someone knocked on the door.
"...What is it!"
The not-yet-awake Demon King's voice was sharp with irritation. A terrified voice answered from outside. It was not Diobe, but a chamberlain he had never heard before.
"Your M-Majesty. Tonight's slaves."
"...?"
Sitting dazedly on the bed, it took Roan a little time to understand what those words meant.
So, sex slaves had come to his bed every single night? And what, he killed every single one of them?!
The Demon King clutched his head and answered.
"Send them back. Alive."
"...Yes."
No follow-up question was permitted, but in the pause before the answer came, Roan understood the chamberlain's confusion.
However, he was in no mood to kindly explain himself.
And so, half-asleep and half-awake, he tossed and turned until the pale light of dawn broke. He felt he'd barely closed his eyes, and then he opened them again to find it was morning. It seemed he had slept for what felt like a few hours in a fleeting instant.
"Stifling. It's stifling."
Was this poetic justice? Roan indulged in an incongruent thought.
Power he couldn't have dreamed of in his original world. Status. Appearance. Authority. Factors that would let anyone with even one of them enjoy a colossal life were all concentrated in a single character.
I see. So to balance that out, the cost was his personality and knowledge.
The fact that his high health stat meant the lack of sleep had little effect struck him as absurd. He felt like he should be sleepy, but his body felt so absurdly refreshed from just a few hours of sleep that it seemed like a lie.
"Fine, let's be thankful for what I've got."
Even in his twenties, back when his stamina was at its peak, his body had never felt this light. All the gold in the world couldn't buy this.
Roan decided to think positively.
How magnificent would breakfast be today?
His mouth watered. Yes, a Korean fights on the strength of his meals. Others called it slop, but even in his original world's military, he'd lived perfectly content on the meals alone. Every single meal, three times a day—back then was the first time in his life he'd ever had that.
Roan stretched and got out of bed.
The Demon King's sword, which he meant to test today, was carefully stored in the bedchamber. The blade he hadn't touched once all day yesterday.
So I'll finally get to use it. The Demon King's demon sword, famous even in the game—Fiora. Before he called for the attendants to change his clothes, Roan gingerly laid a hand on the artifact counted among the finest in the game.
"...?"
Roan pulled his hand away, then touched the sword again.
"...Why are you acting like this?"
Affection +30.