Chapter 42 — Everything Now Belongs to Your Majesty (2)
Chapter 42 — Everything Now Belongs to Your Majesty (2)
Lisa, whom he had met during the very first Tutorial Quest, was a sex slave back then.
He had heard she started working in the castle, but he hadn't expected to see her outside like this.
Upon hearing that they were His Majesty in disguise, a concubine, and a guard, Lisa didn't know what to do with herself.
"Y-yes, Your Maj... I mean, Ro... Roan..."
"It has been a while."
He exerted a slight amount of 'Mihon' toward Lisa, who seemed utterly flustered. It had been a long time.
Only then did Lisa finally seem a little pleased, showing a languid expression before closing her mouth.
She had been saved, and slave treatment had improved dramatically afterward, so it was only natural for her Affection to have risen, and seeing it at this level pleased him.
Diobe spoke to the now-calm Lisa.
"You were just getting off work, right, Lisa?"
"Yes, Diobe."
"Could you guide these people tonight and show them around the Harvest Festival for a bit?"
Lisa's eyes grew round.
However, her hesitation didn't last long.
"Yep, I understand."
"Please forgive my rudeness for not being able to guide you myself."
"Not at all. We were the ones who interrupted. It's a relief to see you working well."
"When you return to the castle later, please come visit."
Diobe saw Roan, Grünent, and Rauka out to the front of the Commercial Guild.
"Well then, shall we go?"
Having quickly regained her composure, Lisa said brightly.
She suddenly started climbing a staircase attached to the corner of the guild.
Rauka asked,
"Where are you going?"
"Ah, to the 'passage.'"
"...Passage?"
Lisa pointed to the street below, which was packed full of crowds.
"If we travel through there, humans like us or smaller demons risk their lives."
"Ah..."
Rauka opened her mouth.
There was a Human Passage?!
No one had taught me that!
There wasn't anything like that in the castle either...
...Now that he thought about it, he, the Demon King, was the standard for the castle. It was natural there wasn't one.
For starters, the corridors of the castle were huge.
Rauka looked at him with slightly reproachful eyes. He avoided her gaze, but Grünent clung to his arm and said,
"That's because there's no need for such things inside the castle."
"Hm."
Grünent hung tightly onto his arm, as if trying to dodge the thick crowds.
Her soft breasts enveloped his arm muscles.
Lisa glanced at the scene briefly before turning her head away.
Her cheeks were flushed.
"Th-then, there's a place where stalls have been set up recently, shall we go check it out?"
Lisa said she had been working ever since the early days of the labor dispatch system.
"I worked at a tavern in Merde. So I knew my way around doing a bit of everything."
She skillfully navigated past the Goblins, Imps, and Lizardmen, guiding them.
The numerous sky bridges connecting the buildings were exclusive passages meant for the smaller demon races.
"But after learning a bit more etiquette and skills in the castle, I decided to try dispatch work. Right now, I'm working for a noble family in the city."
"That's admirable."
When Grünent smiled while clinging to Roan, Lisa hesitated for a moment before answering.
"Yes. It is all thanks to His Majesty."
Rauka narrowed her eyes.
"Thanks to His Majesty, I was able to live, and now I can even save up money and dream of settling down. My life was once entirely as good as dead..."
Her words were sincere.
A satisfied smile spread across his face.
"That's a relief, Lisa."
"Yes. Thank you. Your Maj... Roan."
After finishing her greeting to Roan, she pointed below as if they had almost arrived at their destination.
"That's the festival center over there."
"Ohh... What's that? Guide human."
"Roan, wow, look at that! What is that?"
Whoa...
It was a ferris wheel.
A fantasy world really was something else.
There was an amusement park in a vast empty lot.
A ferris wheel, a Disco Pang Pang, a Gyro Drop.
Amid the smiling demons screaming, a single carriage whooshed past along the rails.
A roller coaster.
"Demons really like extreme stuff..."
Rauka muttered, looking sickened.
The streets stretching out beneath the rides were full of food stalls giving off delicious smells.
Roan had never expected to see such a sight in a game background either, so he had to be careful not to look too surprised.
"Roan, let's go down, quickly!"
"Hm. Very well. Lisa, lead the way."
"Yep! Roan."
Perhaps pleased by the enthusiastic reactions of Grünent and Rauka, Lisa grinned.
Grünent wanted to ride the extreme rides, but Rauka flatly refused, insisting she absolutely couldn't.
That was why they decided to look around the stalls first.
Food was also a joy of the festival, after all.
Grünent, who was browsing around, picked out some food. They were small fried doughnuts.
While standing in line, Roan examined the price tag.
Even considering it was a festival, the prices were much higher than the market prices he had previously heard about. Looking around at other shops, it was even a bit more expensive than other foods made of meat or fruit.
"The price is a bit high."
Festival food was expensive, but people willingly opened their wallets. Flustered after having her chest bump into Roan's back from being pushed by the waiting crowd, Lisa panicked, then flinched and raised her head at Roan's words.
"Ah, yes, yes... The price, you mean the price?"
"Hm."
"Yes. Things made from grain are originally quite expensive, Roan."
It was strange.
It had already been a week since wheat started being released to the market.
Just as he was about to ask Lisa something more, Roan's turn came up.
"Which kind would you like?"
"Hm, give me four of the 1 Copper ones."
"Yep!"
1 Copper was a price that could buy several of the plump meat skewers at the stall across the way.
Getting only two palm-sized doughnuts for that amount was certainly expensive.
Roan asked the sweating Cobalt owner who was deep-frying the doughnuts.
"I heard the price of wheat has fallen recently, isn't this too expensive?"
"Oh dear, you can't say that when the festival stall fees are what they are. Not to mention..."
Cobalt quickly transferred the doughnuts into a bag as he spoke.
"They keep saying the wheat will be released, will be released, prices will drop, will drop, but there's no sign of it. Since it's harvest season, prices should have fallen a bit more than usual, but instead, there was nothing of the sort this year. Here, this is your order! It's hot, so be careful!"
Though it was hard to have a longer conversation, it was clear that the situation was different from what he had thought.
Even while holding the bag of freshly fried doughnuts that smelled insanely delicious, Roan was lost in thought. All the companions standing beside him had heard that conversation.
Grünent asked cautiously.
"Could it be... that the trading company isn't actually selling the wheat?"
Roan kept his mouth firmly shut and didn't answer.
The day he first met Grünent.
What she had said came back to him.
— Loyalty squeezed out by fear ultimately goes only so far.
He thought he had revitalized the atmosphere of the castle to some extent, but there was still a very long way to go.
"Hm. Let's look into it later."
Yes. He would look into it later.
If he set the mood like this while holding food, he wouldn't even know if it went into his mouth or his nose.
Especially for Lisa, it must have been like sitting on pins and needles.
"They say you should eat something sweet when you're annoyed."
"What kind of nonsense is... Hooooh."
Rauka's exclamation continued.
"That would indeed be enough to make irritation disappear."
A smile arose on Grünent's face as she bit into the doughnut. Good food makes people smile.
Roan also smoothed out the furrow between his brows.
Even in an unfamiliar space, a festival was a joyous thing.
In the end, Grünent rode the roller coaster together with Lisa. Rauka rode the Gyro Drop and, perhaps feeling motion sickness, couldn't move for a while.
The sun began to set languidly.
A corner of the space filled with the noisy murmuring of the crowd and delicious smells.
In the space where people drunk on the festival atmosphere rested their tired bodies, alcohol was being sold.
"Oh, Roan, Rine. It's mead. It's the most delicious drink I've had while working in Basel. You absolutely have to try it!"
There was no way something with honey in it could taste bad.
After gulping down their large cups, Grünent and Rauka made sounds of admiration once again.
"Oh my, it's different from the alcohols I've tried!"
"Even demon bastards make drinks like this..."
"R-Rauka, you shouldn't say that here."
"Hmph."
Rauka closed her mouth, conscious of Lisa and the Emperor's watch, and just sipped her drink.
In the human world, it was the kind of drink you'd call a 'seduction cocktail.' Sweet, and seemingly low in alcohol content, but not something you could drink like water.
"Rine. How about stopping now?"
"But Roan, being able to drink outside like this is just too wonderful. And the alcohol is so delicious too. Over here, one mead, no, three more cups!"
And the result was as expected.
"Urgh..."
"Rauka, I'm still far from done."
It turned out Grünent was a heavy drinker.
Without a hint of redness on her face, Grünent sat upright, grinning from ear to ear.
Meanwhile, Rauka sat there clutching her head. Having been drinking right next to her, she had tried to keep up with the pace and collapsed.
"Hnng, Rine, please, it's time to stop..."
Meanwhile, Lisa's face was bright red.
Her face, which had reddened from the first two cups, had now turned a shade of red that looked like it was about to burst.
Waving her hands in refusal, Lisa let out a sigh and placed her large chest on top of the table.
"...Phew."
At that sight, Grünent's eyes sharpened.
"Lisa."
"Yes, Rine."
"Is that, heavy?"
Rauka, who had her head facedown on the table, turned her head to look at Lisa's chest.
Roan rested his chin on one arm and drank his beer, just listening to what these women were saying.
"Violence..."
As Rauka muttered, Lisa nodded her head.
"Yep. It's heavy, so heavy."
"Hnnng..."
Suddenly, Grünent reached out her hand and pressed firmly on Lisa's chest.
"Haaang!"
Having her chest suddenly attacked, Lisa jumped up with a lewd moan. However, Grünent started to knead the chest she had just poked.
"Hut, ung... Rine."
"Ah, it's so squishy. It's the best..."
Grünent muttered.
"If I had something like this too... would His Majesty... come see me a little more often..."
"Pfft!"
Roan spat out a bit of his beer.
While he flusteredly wiped the spilled beer, Grünent spoke without taking her hands off Lisa's chest.
"Hnng, even when a woman like me touches it, it feels this good, so of course he'd like it..."
Grünent, whose face alone was sober, was sobbing.
Then Lisa also started to choke up.
"Ah, no, Rine. Even if you have something like this, it's useless."
Roan's eyes grew round.
Who would say a chest like that was useless!
What a damnable thing to say!
"But still, maybe... I might have been special... I had hoped, just a little, a very tiny bit. Though of course, a girl like me... is just like a water flea..."
"Demon King... trash..."
Following Lisa's words, Rauka, who was still lying face down with only her head turned, muttered.
One of the truths he had realized since coming here.
When in trouble, stay silent.
The Demon King's exterior would sort it out.
Roan kept his mouth shut for the first time in a while and waited for the women to finish talking.
Of course, a drunkard's grumbling wouldn't end until the alcohol wore off completely, but the Demon King's appearance possessed a special power.
As expected, Grünent and Lisa interpreted the Demon King's silence in their own way.
"If you apologize with such a wonderful face like that, what can I possibly do... Your Maj... Roan."
"Our... Roan's pretty face is clouded with worry... It's okay... Roan is a person too precious for one woman to monopolize..."
A world where it was natural for nobles to have multiple wives and concubines. The Demon King had even owned sex slaves.
Thus, it was a world where keeping many women wasn't considered strange.
Which was why they could say things like this in front of a concubine and it would be permitted. Had it been Korea, no matter how drunk they were, a knife or a lawsuit would have flown.
Setting aside the fact that he didn't have concubines in the first place.
Suddenly, Grünent slammed the table as if making a resolution.
"Alright, Lisa. In that case."
Roan looked at her, puzzled.
"We can just share!"
"Pfft!"