/
To the Demon Capital
A little after, since it was getting close to breakfast time, we all headed to the dining room.
But when we got there there was nothing prepared. Wait, did we get the time wrong?
After a while, Beelzebub came by.
“Hey, breakfast was supposed to be now right?”
Beelzebub glanced around restlessly then stormed off in a huff.
Several minutes later
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry! I can prepare something really quick so please wait in the room for just ten minutes!”
Vahnia seemed like she was about to cry. Wait, no, she was already crying.
Looks like she overslept.
“You, if you embarrass me one more time, you do realize what’s going to happen to you yes?”
“S, Save me…”
I’ve heard stories of how members of the demon race would even execute one or another or something scary like that when they get seriously angry… It’d be nice if nothing as painful or bloody as that were to happen…
“I shall inform the higher ups to punish you with a one year pay cut!”
That’s a relatively rational punishment, although it was still pretty severe.
“P, please, anything but that… I was planning on buying some nice furniture this year, not to mention I’d lose some breathing room financially…”
“If you have the leisure to try and negotiate with one such as I then hurry up and prepare breakfast! Go!”
“Eek, I-I will… I’m terribly sorry…”
While it was Vahnia’s own mistake, I felt a little sorry for her.
“Uhm, we’ve got a lot of free hands here, should we help out? We can at least set the tableware.”
“You mustn’t” Beelzebub immediately replied.
“You are all guests formally invited by the demon race. If word gets out that such distinguished guests helped set the table then it would bring shame not only to one such as I, but to the entirety of the demon race. You absolutely must not help out”
I see. It’s an issue of appearances huh.
“By the way, if you wish for it, I can cut off Vahnia’s horn and present it to you.”
“Nope, no way, you don’t need to do that! She seems to already be reflecting on her mistake!”
“Understood. In any case, please wait a moment. I, too, shall help prepare breakfast…”
Beelzebub went to the kitchen. It pained me to see these two members of the demon race in such a mad rush, but after how firmly Beelzebub told me to not help, I guess there’s nothing else I can do. Maybe I’ll just take a quick nap.
“I did kinda have a pretty bad feeling about this…”
Harukara seems to have remembered something.
“What do you mean?”
“So when I went to take a bath last night, Vahnia-san was there yes. I asked if she’d have trouble in the morning if she were in the bath this late. I asked if she needed to do prep work and she said ‘I won’t oversleep or anything so don’t worry!’ She said it so confidently that I thought it’d be possible for her to screw up…”
Looks like the demon race also had a Harukara on their side, someone prone to making such mistakes.
I was able to sneak in some more sleep so I was grateful for that.
Breakfast was grilled chicken meat wrapped in lettuce-looking leaves.
“These are pretty tasty. Leica, want to try making them at home? Besides the secret sauce they’re using on the meat, it doesn’t seem too difficult to reproduce”
“It does seem so yes. Shall we try it out?”
My two daughters were praising the wraps with ‘so good, so good’. I’m glad I discovered these.
It was only Harukara who found fault with it. “These are good, but aren’t they just a bit too spicy…”, she complained.
“Those are the ones I myself were in charge of making as I had no choice but to help out since there wasn’t enough time”
So it wasn’t that the demon race liked spicy food, it was just Beelzebub…
After we ate, I went to borrow the card games from the gambling hall and played a few rounds with the family. We didn’t bet with money so there were no problems. There were plenty of different games to play which kept us from getting bored.
And just like that we were finally approaching the demon territory — or so I heard from Beelzebub.
“I’d recommend looking again from the observation space. It’s quite a spectacular view”
It certainly was quite grand.
To be precise, there was a wall surrounding the demon territory. It was unusually thick, tall, and long.
It was so absurdly large that it gave the impression that a long thin box had been placed on top of the land.
“A long time ago, the demons were truly afraid that the humans would wipe them to extinction. As a countermeasure, they went all out in making these thick and long fortress walls. To be frank, it was a phenomenal waste of time. The humans never even made it this far so to this day it remains untouched.”
It was like a powered up version of The Great Wall of China.
Within the castle walls I could see various demon settlements scattered here and there. I’m not sure how much longer it is until our destination but we were definitely reaching the end of our journey.
And about an hour later, the “ship” gradually began its descent.
“We are moments from landing. Leviathans aren’t allowed to land in urban areas so we shall traverse the last leg via carriage.”
So basically we’re landing in an airport.
We disembarked in an “airport” in the outskirts of the city and rode a carriage towards the demon’s royal capital. Apparently it was called Vanzeld and it was an enormous fortress city.
There were various kinds of demons within the city. Most of them were similar to how Beelzebub was and how she had her horns. The other kinds kinds were those that looked like animals walking on two feet, some that looked like beastmen, and a few sporting only a single eye.
“The demon race is actually a composition of a multitude of tribes and races. As such, you can understand why it’d be impossible to give a specific physical appearance when speaking of the demon race no? Although beings such as slimes and those that are essentially beasts can’t very well earn a living in the city and as such are treated as more or less like feral creatures.”
“That makes sense. It’s not like you’d see a slime going around begging for bread. Wait, do they even eat bread?”
The structure of the city itself wasn’t much different from the human’s cities. The floor was paved with stone and very well maintained.
“We will now be entering Vanzeld Castle. Although, strictly speaking, we have been within the castle grounds for a while now”
“It is a fortress city after all”
Japan didn’t really have these sorts of fortress cities so personally I always imagined it as being a castle atop a hill surrounded by a city.
“First, I will have you meet the demon lord-sama. Since the ceremony is not until tomorrow, I shall take you around the city after.”
“Wait, demon lord?”