Chapter 33 — I Can Hear Your Voice (1)
Chapter 33 — I Can Hear Your Voice (1)
"Summon the handmaiden Diobe."
Diobe, who had been in the education ward, was summoned.
Like a human accustomed to demon society, Diobe bowed without cringing before the four high-ranking demons.
"Junior handmaiden Diobe obeys His Majesty's command."
At the unexpected formality in her words, Minoreus studied her with curiosity.
Roan looked at Aranya.
"The humans have been in training for about a month now. As you are all aware, some already work as servants within the palace. I have heard the rest are also shaping up nicely."
"Yes. We received the correction officer's report, Your Majesty."
"Diobe here is a handmaiden who has attended me. She has experienced both demon and human society, so she was placed in charge of human education as a representative."
Roan began explaining the commuter labor leasing plan he had once discussed with Grünent, Shwikviena, and Diobe in the garden.
It was a version refined since that conversation to address issues like wages and meals.
Those hearing the idea for the first time were lost in thought.
The first to voice an opinion was Liron.
"I like the idea of earning money through humans, Your Majesty. Up to now, anything involving humans only showed up on expense reports, after all."
The finance officer gave a positive assessment.
"The humans receive compensation for their labor, and we collect fees for lodging and training. Anyone who hires a human also profits on food purchases.
In that case, we could even use them within the palace at a lower cost than the existing servants.
However, if we don't properly structure the system for subsidizing human food, we might run a deficit. And there will be people who exploit it."
"Could you give an example?"
At the correction officer's question, the finance officer shrugged.
"Is food subsidized indefinitely? If human meal support is suddenly cut off, there will be backlash. If it's a food-cost subsidy, someone might just pocket it."
"You mean they would take the food rations for themselves and give the humans something wretched?"
"If it's merely wretched, that's lucky. They might even give them something humans can't eat."
Liron glanced sideways at Diobe. Catching the implication of human flesh between the lines, Diobe bit her lip slightly. As someone who had lived long in demon society, she recognized the nuance.
Seeing that, Roan answered Liron's question.
"The food will be provided from imperial stores at a price cheaper than the market rate. We had reserves meant to be released in Basel and the major cities anyway. Use a portion of that. The wheat from Arteala will definitely reach us."
Normally, an employer provides a worker with a place to sleep, meals, and separate wages.
Under this system, however, lodging was omitted, so only food and wages were required.
Furthermore, food could be purchased even more cheaply than what ordinary demons ate.
The potential to cover meals at a low cost would hold considerable value for demons.
At the emperor's confident assurance, Liron asked no further.
"Understood, Your Majesty."
"Besides, the commuter system has another advantage here. Humans must report back to a supervisor within the palace every day.
Knowing that, would anyone have the nerve to tamper with a human's food? Or is there a chance a human would lie on a demon's behalf?"
"Hmm..."
Liron nodded at Roan's words. Lies could be discerned with magic any number of ways.
Moreover, under this system, a dedicated administrator was meant to mediate between the human and the employer and also survey the employer's satisfaction.
If people realized the emperor was personally watching over the humans, the aversion would be tremendous. But what if opinions could be relayed and consultations handled through low-ranking demon officials, making hiring humans possible?
To the employers, those humans would feel relatively close, like possessions already managed by fellow demons.
Power that is too overwhelming and invisible tends to have its substance feel faint.
Like a star in a distant sky.
The more Liron thought about it, the more this efficient system intrigued him. Having apprentices leave home and commute instead of living there—imagine that.
Meanwhile, it was now Aranya who spoke up.
"What is the standard of the educated humans at present, Diobe?"
Unlike Grünent, Diobe had moved about the palace and seen Aranya many times.
Despite the clicking of the barbs on her spider legs, Diobe answered calmly.
"Roughly one quarter are already working as servants within the palace: cleaning, organizing, garden work, food preparation, laundry, that sort of thing.
Because they are doing here what they used to do back in the Kingdom, you could put them to work outside the palace at once without issue."
"You mean they meet the palace's own standard?"
"Yes. I've brought them to a level where dispatching them to noble households would pose no problem."
Diobe's words continued without hesitation.
"About twenty percent are humans who were literate or good with numbers. Even with ability, they need to understand demon culture to work effectively.
These people require more time. For now, they are helping the correction officer within the palace while becoming accustomed to demons.
Even as we speak, simple tasks like purchasing and managing supplies, calculating figures, and keeping ledgers are already being handled by them."
"So roughly half remain, then?"
Aranya placed both hands on the table and clicked the barbs she used like fingers once more.
That meant she was concentrating hard on something or had her nerves on edge.
"Yes. The remaining fifty-odd percent are currently learning trades.
These are tasks involving delicate things that demons find inconvenient. Cooking, repair, metalwork, and the like, being taught by palace servants.
Half of this group have completed basic training and can work as probationers, but the remainder... one quarter of the total human population, needs more time."
The air in the room turned cold in an instant.
These humans had been spared solely for efficiency.
If they were just eating up food, they were not worth keeping alive.
Only the faces of Roan and Shwikviena, who already knew the content, stayed serene.
Liron asked in a ringing voice,
"That they need more time—does that mean they're useless?"
"They need time because these are advanced skills."
Diobe answered carefully so her reply would not sound irritable.
"For example, gunpowder manufacturing, demon beast handling, blacksmithing, and construction work.
Because there is much to learn, training takes a long time. Additionally, the number of instructors is not large.
But once more of those technical workers have been cultivated, it will greatly benefit the operation of the palace."
"Aha."
Liron, convinced by Diobe's explanation, let out a short exclamation of understanding, and Aranya and Minoreus nodded.
Shwikviena added one remark.
"Those are exactly the kinds of trades that normally require an apprentice system. Usually, one must stay at a master's side all day long.
However, since the humans are currently confined to the palace, we can only mobilize the palace's own craftsmen to teach them. That is partly why the pace is slow."
"Then, except for that one quarter, the rest can be deployed immediately for the work His Majesty described?"
"That is our assessment."
"And the rest seem like they'll be a tremendous help in the long run... This is far beyond what I anticipated, Your Majesty."
Roan could not contain his satisfaction at Aranya's positive reaction.
"Mm. Everyone has done well."
"The public might find it a little difficult to accept this without discomfort at first.
But a privilege that lets them fill a labor shortage cheaply and even secure inexpensive food on top of that... moreover, trained workers who can cover tasks they themselves cannot do... In my estimation, the appeal to catch the people's interest looks fully sufficient, Your Majesty."
"Indeed. It is thanks to the great effort poured into the execution by the correction officer, Diobe, and everyone in the palace. Grünent also contributed the idea."
At the emperor's words, Shwikviena was visibly startled.
"What could we possibly have done, Your Majesty? We merely followed your words."
"She speaks the truth."
Diobe added her support to the correction officer.
Roan felt a strange sensation.
To think the day would come when he heard such a thing from Diobe.
"To us inside the palace, seeing humans is nothing out of the ordinary. But for the common citizens it is different. It isn't that I have no worries, but..."
The finance officer slowly stroked his chin with skeletal fingers.
"That is truly outstanding insight, Your Majesty.
In any case, it is a matter that will be settled with time. Right now, I simply wish to admire Your Majesty's sagacity."
Roan felt a little embarrassed at Liron's genuine admiration, sensed through his Detection.
But it was praise, so he decided to accept it in good spirits.
He had worked hard, after all.
Roan smiled faintly and nodded.
*
Erenier's expression was icy. Anyone at the demon king's castle who had only seen her gentle face would have been shocked.
But this was the face the soldiers had seen on her ever since she arrived at the front.
In a sense, one could say she had returned to her original expression. During her time in the South Black Territory, she had always worn a gloomy, sharp look.
And there was someone looking down on that face with apparent displeasure.
"What in the world is His Majesty thinking?"
It had grated on him from the moment the order came down a while ago not to eat human prisoners where other humans could see. Who on a battlefield pays attention to that sort of thing?
And today, the news conveyed via the magic orb was even more absurd. Word had come that the emperor had officially taken a human concubine.
Though she lacked the status of a consort, a base human had claimed a place at the emperor's side.
It was something that bastard girl, who shared his blood despite being born out of wedlock, still hadn't managed to do.
The eyes of the Dark Archduke, Lord of the South Black Territory, darkened with rage.
"Pathetic. To stoop so low you're even pushed aside by a human now?"
"Father."
But Erenier's voice did not yield to that force. A voice so cold it seemed to freeze everything stood against the archduke.
"Is His Majesty keeping a concubine truly so strange? Not even a consort of the rear palace—merely a mistress."
"From the mouth of a girl who hasn't shared His Majesty's bed even once!"
A fiery rage erupted from the archduke. At the same time, the full force of his aura was unleashed.
"Kgh..."
The archduke's power was said to be inferior to the demon king's, but he was still one of the mightiest in the realm.
A malice that even Erenier, an archmage, could not easily shrug off pressed down upon her.
If she mustered every technique she had and resisted, she might perhaps be able to strike him down. But she could not bring herself to do so.
She had been trained her entire life not to.
And so, Erenier only steadied her breath against the sudden pressure of her father's aura and gathered her mana to defend herself.
A single bead of cold sweat trailed down her firmly shut cheek.
"No matter how much human blood is mixed in, half of it is mine. I thought you'd be adequate. And yet here you are, doing nothing but scrapping on the front line.
Is this truly where you belong!"
The archduke glared at Erenier through clenched teeth.
"Either cling to His Majesty's side and produce an heir, or report his every single move. Even then, I'd barely consider you praiseworthy! Whether you cast magic here or not, do you honestly think any of it even crosses His Majesty's mind?"
"His Majesty..."
But Erenier did not finish her sentence.
In her mind, the image of Roan as she had last seen him surfaced.
The way he'd seemed different from other days. The gentle tone he had used.
Those beautiful violet eyes brimming with the trust he'd placed in her.
—You could turn the tide of this war.
—I'm counting on you.
I will uphold his faith.
Erenier bit down hard on her lip.
It felt as if it might tear at any moment from the surge of blood.
"His Majesty believes in me."
The Dark Archduke gazed at his bastard daughter—Evirgio's most brilliant mage, yet appearing more foolish than anyone—and heaved a sigh of disbelief.
"...You fool. Yes. These days, His Majesty is even coddling the humans inside the palace like a nursemaid.
How very fortunate that must be for a half-human like you."
Red eyes fixed upon her. Eyes the same blood-red as Erenier's own, yet they held not a speck of affection for her.
"See to it that you don't lose your place to a mere mistress."
At the Dark Archduke's frigid words, the mage could only lower her head and hide her expression.