Chapter 15 – Episode 15 ― Are You Eating? (6)
Episode 15 ― Are you eating? (6)
Aranya and Liron look bewildered. Minoreus and Schikwiena found it a little funny to see the seniors finally going through the difficulties they had the morning before. Of course, they also could not understand the intention of the question posed by their master.
After a while, Aranya opened her mouth.
“Usually, when food is scarce, demons would consume humans.”
“Uh… Mmm.”
The demon king let out a small groan.
This is the worst of the expected answers.
Still, according to the lady-in-waiting, there seemed to be no shortage of food in the castle… Roan asked, hiding his embarrassment.
“Even though you are nobles, do you lack food? Or lack of food in the city or the capital.”
“Oh, not really. Would you like to know why the humans in the castle are being eaten, Your Majesty?”
Aranya was quick to notice her. The chancellor narrowed the scope of Roan’s question after hearing the stories of Schikwiena and other servants who had already shown strange attitudes toward humans.
When Roan nodded, Araña gave a gentle smile.
“The humans inside the castle are later supplied to the citizens of Basel outside the castle at a low price. Eating humans in the castle is a matter of taste.”
“Even if you don’t eat humans, you’re saying it’s okay in the castle, right?”
“That’s right. Your majesty.”
“If the people of the capital don’t free the slaves now, will it have a big impact on the food supply?”
Aranya’s expression was the same as a smile, but her mind was more complicated than ever before. She never imagined she would be able to have a conversation like this with her king. Are you talking about politics? Do you understand all of this? What whim are you?
However, it doesn’t seem like the demon king was joking or asking without thinking. Sitting at the top of the table, his attitude is as serious as I’ve ever seen.
Aranya answered the demon king’s words while slightly rolling her eyes at Minoreus, who had a look on his face.
“If it is confined to the capital, it will not be a huge problem right away. Basel is a place where many resources come and go, and there are times when it is impossible to buy crops or meat, even if prices are high at times.”
“Not now, in the long run?”
“I am presumptuous, Your Majesty. I have never contemplated a time when I would not be supplied with humans. It’s okay for the first few months, but if it goes on for months or years, I think it will definitely have an aftermath.
I don’t know what form it will be, but I think it will definitely be the direction that the value of other food goes up. Your majesty.”
Hearing Aranya’s words, Roan hesitated for a moment.
Beyond correcting the demon lord’s behavior, the demon lord will still remain an enemy of mankind if he does not stop engaging in hostile acts such as war and cannibalism.
Roan weighed the importance of the act of not starving the demon people and the act of not being accused of being the main enemy of mankind. But neither can give up.
Roan made up his mind.
“If we use the national finances to obtain food and supply it to the people of Basel instead of humans, is it possible?”
“Yes?!”
“Eww… Hmm. Well. Your majesty.”
Minoreus and Shkviena, who had no right to speak at this place, only opened their eyes wide, but Aranya’s voice jumped out as it was. She was chewing on the king’s words, unaware of the rudeness she had committed. The only one who responded calmly was the finance minister.
Treasurer Rich rubbed his chin with a bony finger.
“As materials captured from the war are coming up, there is no room left in the national treasury… I’m not sure how long you’re thinking, but… , It will be possible for a considerable period of time. But…”
Richie’s shapely eyes looked at the demon king. Since he was only bone, his eyes glowed, but he couldn’t tell whether they were staring, smiling, or questioning.
“How long-term do you think, Your Majesty? Consuming food because of cheap food, human beings, is actually a juggernaut.”
Lilon’s clear voice sounded like she was blaming the demon lord, so Shyk Viena shrank her body. However, as if the demon king was not concerned, she said to Lilon.
“Until it is. Investigate and report how much food can be supplied if the capital’s finances are burdened.”
“All right. Your majesty.”
Even though he did not hear an answer to his question, the treasurer lowered his head. However, the next words of the demon king again embarrassed the servants of the small meeting.
“I have been to prison. Cannibalism takes place there too? Is it because there is not enough food?”
“No. Usually, there are fights between prisoners, or there are many cases where they kill and eat because they have a lot of anger toward the captive human beings.”
“Then, in the end, you won’t starve to death even if you don’t eat humans. Done.”
And.
Words to say goodbye to the heavenly comrades came out of the devil’s mouth.
“From now on, I will try not to eat humans and their own people in the castle.”
“Yes?!”
Aranya shouted, raising her gigantic body, and the other three committed disrespect to the demon king with their mouths open.
However, Roan’s words did not waver.
“In this castle, even the weak will find use in the future.”
“Useful means something other than eating… , You mean?”
“Okay.”
Just in case, Aranya asked cautiously. When the demon king affirmed, the treasurer and the knight leader turned their heads toward the corrections officer. Shikvienna’s face turned red.
‘… What?’
When the demon king looked at the corrections officer and the prime minister as if asking the reason, Aranya answered as if he was a bit embarrassed.
“Actually, I heard that Your Majesty told us to keep the humans alive yesterday and today, and to feed them well even in the slave quarters and prisons.”
The correctional officer is not making eye contact with anyone with his head down. Roan didn’t know her language, so he could only look at her and Aranya. Aranya’s words continued.
“Seeing that you are trying to fatten the human slaves you didn’t even care about, we thought that Your Majesty was preparing a harvest festival without fail…”
“A harvest festival?”
“Yes. I thought it was being prepared on purpose to be given to the nobles and servants in the castle at the harvest festival in autumn.”
If the shell hadn’t been for the demon king, his face would have turned white all at once.
So, a pig or a hen caught on a feast day… , It’s the same thing…
When the Demon King silently put his hand on her forehead, a strange silence ensued. Yes, Shikviena followed me all along. It should be said that she thinks like a demon.
Aranya was considerate of avoiding her gaze, but Lee Ron looked at me like she was going to pierce through. The correctional officer’s face turned red with embarrassment and became like an angry bird in a cell phone game.
‘I’m going to explode like that.’
While the demon king, who swallowed a sigh, thought about something strange, Minoreus opened his mouth for the first time with a slightly excited voice.
“Your majesty. To say that it is useful is, of course, the physical slave you mentioned yesterday morning…”
“I’m not going to use you as a sex slave.”
Minoreus, whose opinion was denied in a single blow, lowered his head a little. There wasn’t much change in his expression on his cow-like head, but anyone could see that he was looking sullen. Roan said firmly.
“Not as sex slaves or food, everyone look for and report on human usefulness.”
“Your Majesty, maybe…”
The chancellor looked at the demon king. The reduced overwhelming presence clearly seems to be traces of His Majesty adjusting the level of the skill himself. He was the one who acted without such consideration. However, His Majesty’s appearance since yesterday morning has been very different.
Even so, I couldn’t be relieved. There have been too many people whose necks have been blown so far.
The young Minoreus or Shik Viena seemed to accept Her Majesty’s change quickly, but the years of blood she saw in Aranya were long. So her Aranya’s questions were cautious.
“Is it okay if I ask your opinion as to why His Majesty made such an order?”
An unexpected answer came back.
“I intend to stop the war.”
I heard someone gasp.
“We have been at war for many years. The war of attrition continues. I think this is very useless for Evirzio.”
‘… Nonsense.’
The chancellor had a complicated state of mind. Even when she heard the story of yesterday morning, she honestly did not believe all of it. The Knight Commander and the Correctional Officer did not live even half of Aranya’s age. So she thought their stories were mixed with exaggeration.
It is impossible for His Majesty to suddenly show mercy.
But she finally realized that her thoughts were careless.
Araña barely caught her mind and looked around her. Not only did she experience this situation for the first time like herself, but Minoreus and Sheek Viena, who had already noticed that the demon king had changed a little, were listening to the demon king with their eyes wide open.
“And, if possible, tell them not to take human prisoners and send them to Basel.”
“Is it okay to eat on site?”
When the demon king started talking about the war policy, the knight commander asked sharply. As one of the high-ranking aristocrats capable of moving an entire army, the disposition of humans acquired in wartime was a serious problem.
Roan hesitated for a moment before answering.
“There is nothing you can do on the battlefield. Killing enemies is a natural place. It might be better to just eat it than kill it. But keep the cannibals out of sight of humans. Humans still hate us.”
Roan added, looking at the eyes of the four servants who seemed to ask why.
“It’s not about looking at people’s eyes. A trivial border dispute eventually escalated into a war. It wasn’t that he wanted to overthrow Merde in the first place. After all, it has been going on without a focused offensive for several years.
And there is no point in such a war. Only the people are suffering. More than anything, it’s my fault. I was the one who kept averting my eyes.”
As a person who carefully read and savored each text of the game, I never thought that the setting information that I could remember would be used like this. Roan wanted to praise her past self.
But, unaware of Roan’s thoughts, he listened to his master, keeping his servants silent. From the demon king’s words, they vaguely sensed his rebuke to the foolish king himself and his subjects.
“But it will be different in the future. We must no longer give Merde Kingdom the justification of “Saving humans.” And we need to make the people of the border focus on life, not war. That’s an efficient way when considering the entire country. Is not it?”
“Your Majesty is all right.”
Actually, the beginning was not grandiose. It was simply an idea to prevent the kingdom and warriors from recognizing the demon king as their main enemy.
However, that thought, Roan’s conviction, and skill ‘will’ combined to create an amazing result.
Seeing the demon king proclaiming an end to the war, the four servants felt complicated feelings and fell into their own thoughts.
It is said that the demons despise the weak, but they also have love for their race and family, and based on that, they form a society and live. There was no demon that was happy to see their own people constantly colliding with other races and suffering.
The one who broke the long silence was the elder, Lee Ron.
“… If the harvest had been bountiful, such a quarrel wouldn’t have happened in the first place…”
Seeing a bitter smile on Aranya’s face, Roan thought.
‘As expected, this country can run properly only when it secures food.’
Roan searched his thoughts. In the game, when the hero was still a mercenary, Roan, recalling the rumors he had heard, suddenly asked the treasurer.
“I said there was room in the national treasury. Can’t we buy grains like wheat and rice in bulk?”
“Ugh. We have money, but no human country will sell us grain. Even if Merde is like that, there is power among humans.”
The Demon King, who had been tapping the table slowly with his fingers for a while, spoke.
“First of all, there is something to be pointed out, so let’s implement it like this. And there is something for you to find.”
***
“Carol, Peggy. Barbara too! Is everyone okay?”
“Your Highness, Princess. I’m glad you’re okay.”
A thrilling meeting took place at Princess Grünent’s residence. Is it because the demon king looked at it himself? I never thought people who were half dead would come back in one day.
The medicine man, who was said to have been attached by the demon king, handed several medicines to the ladies-in-waiting instead of potions and disappeared.
The princess cautiously spoke to the demon who brought the human maids.
“Could I, by any chance, convey the message to His Majesty?”
“I will try. Please tell me.”
“I definitely want to say thank you.”
The demon maid looked at the human with awkward eyes. She saw a human for the first time in her life to feel gratitude to her demon lord.
“… All right.”
Looking at the maids chattering with joy even in their exhausted state, Grünent thought he should express his gratitude. Although her current situation was ambiguous, the demon king took her people and sent them back.
No matter how concubines or concubines go, there is a risk in attaching a maid of honor to a princess of an enemy country. Usually they are all replaced by their own servants. He could have been killed while imprisoned. However, the demon king sent them as humans to the princess.
‘As expected, there seems to be something different from what I thought.’
She once again revised her assessment of the King of Evirzio.
