Chapter 144 — Just Bad Luck (4)
"Hmph. Isn't it only natural that we demonkind are far greater than humans like you?"
One of the minotaurs planted both hands on his hips and spoke boastfully.
"If we were to do this, we'd need at least one cow...."
The human's eyes met the minotaur's.
The human hastily shut his mouth,
and the minotaur blinked.
Fortunately, the human was not torn limb from limb.
Today's work was spreading fertilizer and turning the soil so it would sink deep.
Work that humans could barely accomplish by mobilizing cattle or horses, the demons could manage with little more than a bit of sweat.
For humans, it had been nearly impossible from the start.
The humans, who had come to grasp demonkind's strength firsthand, were at first purely impressed. There had not been much occasion to use such power in the capital.
But several days passed without their suspicions toward demonkind fully resolving.
And that time was
more than enough to turn admiration into fear.
The one who comforted the humans, for what it was worth, was Diobe.
"His Majesty is a man who takes responsibility. Everyone worried at first, but did we not work safely in Basel as well? He will ensure such a thing never happens again."
"We do not doubt His Majesty. We distrust the people here."
"If you do nothing but doubt, there will be no end to it. The people here, as well as I, will protect all of you. Will the people here not someday come to interact with humans like us? His Majesty dreams of a day when humans like us can walk freely through Evirgio as well. Someone must take the lead. Are we not those brave ones?"
Diobe smiled as if to encourage them,
but the humans only forced themselves to smile in return.
A comrade had already died, so it would be difficult for them to easily lay down their anxiety.
I needed more means to protect them.
Diobe swallowed her worries inwardly and followed the farmers out into the field.
But worry, by its nature,
was something easily glimpsed and contagious even without being spoken aloud.
The demon representatives noticed that the humans suspected them, and further, feared them.
"Now, now, I get it, this is good enough, isn't it?"
"My lord. If you plant them stuck together like this, they will not bear fruit properly. You must space them appropriately, as I instructed you...."
An argument broke out.
Having glanced to confirm that the emperor was conversing with another human and not looking his way, the demon lowered his voice and issued a threat.
"Human. His Majesty said it himself. We are not the ones doing the farming anyway. Let us both take it easy. Understand?"
The kobold carelessly scattered the handful of beans in his grip. That was what he had intended to do.
But when the large demon swung his arm,
the human flinched in fear and let out a sound.
"Eek...!"
It was not a loud sound,
but it was enough to make those nearby turn their heads.
The kobold too glanced around and then discreetly withdrew his hand.
Diobe's eyes sharpened,
and Roan, who had already been listening attentively to their exchange, rose to his feet.
"What were you just doing, my lord?"
But the one who reacted before anyone else was the old farmer, Akerman.
No matter how hale he might be, an old man was still an old man.
His withered frame was less than half the size of the kobold's.
Yet the old man fearlessly strode right up to the kobold. Confronted with that blazing gaze, the kobold unwittingly took a step backward and reluctantly answered.
"I did as I was told. I scattered the beans, all right."
"You hurled the seed, did you not!"
The kobold scowled.
How dare he.
This was a human who would fall over with one hit.
A mouthful of tasteless meat, and yet
the sight of him alive and insolently flapping his mouth made rage boil up.
But the kobold miraculously controlled his anger.
As a rule, most people's ability to control their anger grew exponentially in the presence of greater force.
"...Old man. Beans grow as long as they get into the soil, don't they? Is scattering them a little really worth getting this angry over?"
A vein stood out on the wrinkled face.
"If seed grew no matter how you tossed it about, then why would this land be in such a state! You must invest time and care, yet you treat this precious seed so recklessly...!"
"Why, you old fool...!"
Hearing the old man's words, the kobold's anger ultimately exceeded the limits of his patience.
Hearing that the land he lived in was a mess had ignited his fury.
Even if he himself grumbled to his father and mother every day, saying, 'What is the point of playing lord in such a barren land,'
it was the land where he had spent his whole life.
Just as, even if one has a shameful family, one's blood boils when others insult them,
hearing harsh words about the land of his birth made the kobold see red.
The faces of the demons watching this scene also uniformly turned grim.
To them, this land was no different from a sore spot.
"You run your mouth without a shred of fear...!"
In an instant, a fist twice the size of a human's flew at the old man.
The old man, seeing the fist hurtling toward him at speed, froze and squeezed his eyes shut.
For it was human instinct to close one's eyes first when a massive object suddenly loomed before them.
But the kobold's fist did not smash a human skull like a watermelon.
"Kieeeeng!"
Instead, the kobold's pitiful scream rang out.
The eyes of those watching the situation bulged wide in shock.
Diobe, who had instantly swatted away the arm extending toward the human, pulled the kobold's upper body forward and hooked his leg.
Movement far too swift.
His center of gravity thrown to the side, the demon helplessly floated into the air and then crashed to the ground.
The impact must have been as enormous as his weight, and so his scream was all the more miserable.
At a glance, Diobe—who had toppled an opponent twice her size in a flash—quickly drew the captured arm upward with her body and began wrapping her legs around the demon's shoulder, pressing him down.
Screams even more wretched than before began to sound.
"...Enough, Diobe."
Diobe's expressionless face, as she held the armbar, turned toward Roan.
"Your Majesty."
With a hardened face, Diobe—who had not flinched even at the demon's screams—finally, only after seeing the emperor's expression, slowly released the hand that had been gripping the demon's arm.
Roan let out a sigh, rubbed his face dry, and then spoke dryly.
"You. Did you intend to kill a human before my very eyes?"
"Your, Your, Your Majesty."
"Do you not know that the humans are my property?"
"I, I am deeply sorry. In the heat of the moment, I...."
Having gazed into the kobold's complicated pupils for a moment, Roan let out a sigh.
Seeing his action of throwing away the seeds, he finally understood.
He had thought about it wrongly.
The conflict he was witnessing now was not actually a problem born of demons and humans.
The difference in how they treated those tiny beans was
a problem of communication between those who had power and those who did not.
Those who were served and those who served.
Those who had lived with full bellies and those who knew hunger.
These demons would have treated fellow demon farmers the same,
and these human farmers, had they been teaching noble children and found themselves in such a situation, would have suspected and feared them just the same.
Problems born from such inequality were probably occurring all across Evirgio.
Because this country's culture accepted the gap between the haves and the have-nots far too naturally,
Roan's very attempt to bridge this temperature gap was being received as something unfamiliar.
How was this to be resolved?
Having turned over countless thoughts, Roan decided to focus on the demon before him for now.
"You. You have never starved, have you?"
"Pardon? Pardon?"
It was a question that felt as if the emperor himself had done so, but no one could point out that contradiction.
The kobold was bewildered by the emperor's question.
But Roan waited patiently, and the demon, belatedly realizing that the emperor was waiting for an answer, answered in a fluster.
"N-no, I have not...."
"Then do you know how many of your domain's people are starving?"
"...Ah."
The kobold's face twisted.
Though he was the third son who had not properly received lessons in lordship, he had at least heard that the people of his domain had once starved so severely they could not even eat human meat.
His father the lord, as well as his eldest brother who was receiving lordship lessons, had often lamented the food situation. That was why they had sent him here in the first place.
"Y-yes.... Before last autumn, about one in ten.... Still, in the winter, relief wheat came down, so...."
"In the land where you live, one-tenth of the food you ate was offered up by your people while they starved."
At the emperor's harsh words, the kobold stared blankly at him, mouth agape.
But Roan, in a tone that did not sound angry at all, looked around at the other demons and spoke.
"The rest of you are likely in a similar situation."
The demons, who had been staring absently at the emperor with expressions similar to the kobold's, hastily bowed their heads.
"Hunger is agony. You were fortunate. You inherited fine bodies from fine parents, and you were given the chance to eat. What is the crime of those who starve? They were simply unlucky."
Roan's voice was calm,
but his eyes seemed to spark with fire.
The demons, blinking only out of fear, listened intently to the emperor's words. Terror focused their every nerve upon the emperor.
But in truth, they found it hard to understand.
The common people starve? And so what of it?
The humans, too, were taken aback by the emperor's words.
For his words felt as if they were speaking for the hearts of their own kind—those who had nothing.
But no matter how much dirty work he did with his own hands, he was the Demon Emperor.
And so the humans, too, could not understand the emperor's heart.
Because politics had conveyed all too clearly that he could not be easily understood by anyone,
Roan grew lonely.
"Then, do you fortunate ones imagine that you would not suffer if you went even a single day without putting something in your mouths?"
Everyone knew the answer.
Yet no one could answer.
In the silence,
Roan closed his eyes and slowly opened them again.
It was because Fiora, who still rested in Roan's hand and had thus felt his surging anguish in full, whispered,
[Calm yourself.]
After a short while,
Roan spoke calmly, as if he had at last quelled his anger.
"Yes. This wretched world is not fair. It may be hard to understand why I must agonize over the lives of the common people. But even those who rule over others and enjoy wealth and glory—their fortunes are not eternal. Not even mine own. Because, quite literally, this world is unfair."
The demons' eyes all flew wide open.
Words that would have been treason had the emperor himself not spoken them.
But Roan's speech continued.
"That is why those who rule over others must ensure that fortune is evenly distributed among the people. Those with power must lead, to guide others, to show a better world, to keep others from starving. That is the price of that fortune."
For one person to understand another was an exceedingly difficult thing.
Yet Roan exerted every effort. 'Appeal'—the skill that had blossomed through such efforts of his—did its utmost to transmit his anguish in full to the demons and humans standing there.
Just because one could not understand one another
did not mean one should remain ignorant.
Nor should one give up.
Because change came from that which was uncomfortable and painful.
If they endured the present discomfort,
everyone might yet see a better tomorrow.
Roan's agony and pain slowly seeped into their hearts.
And into the cracks of hearts that had thus begun to be moved, 'Charisma' began to wedge itself in alongside.
"What we are planting here is for the people of the East Yellow Territory. Do you intend to leave this East Yellow Territory barren for all eternity? If you rule over a worthless land, a dead land where nothing grows, then your people, and you yourselves, will ultimately die."
There was no answer.
The emperor's words, delivered to make the demons understand, sounded almost like a lament filled with his own regret,
and so all who stood in the field listened intently to the emperor's words, wearing mournful expressions as if entranced.
"You think lightly of these humans. Yet their courage is something you lack. They could have remained in Basel and worked in safety. They are people who have no reason to care whether demonkind starves or not. Yet they have risked danger to come here and impart their knowledge to you. Do you know why?"
From the mouths of a few demons who guessed the answer, small sighs escaped.
"It is because these farmers understood that the people of this land are fighting against a barren earth. Though human, they understand your people better than you do, with your full bellies."
For they felt shame.
"That is why they are my helpers and my teachers. I will not forgive treating them recklessly because humans are weak. The knowledge they possess is as precious to us as your strength is."
The demons, unable even to breathe properly from shame and fear, had no choice but to listen to Roan's words.
"Looking after the mouths you must feed is never an easy thing. Bow your heads. Learn what you do not know. Bear responsibility for the fortune you hold."
A warning from the emperor that shook their hearts.
Because Roan's words contained his experience and sincerity, Diobe—who had risen to her feet and was dusting off the soil—found herself smiling.
Diobe was proud of her emperor.