There was no talk about a dwarven village being destroyed at all.
Loren thought that a village being destroyed was a rather brutal thing, but it seemed like the demons didn’t share the same opinion.
Part of it was due to the village’s location. Even though it was inside demons’ territory, the village was in the mountainous area, a region closest to the territory of another race. Another reason was, there were only a dozen dwarves that disappeared. Also, demons were the type that had no concerns for others, so as long as things were going well for them, then it was all good. A dozen or a hundred of dwarves disappeared wouldn’t make the news, Lapis said.
“Do think so too, Lapis?”
“I… no matter what you say, I’m a demon that has been strongly influenced by humans’ way of thinking, so I can’t have such a clear distinction between ‘us’ and ‘them’ like that.”
Lapis answered with a wry smile that seemed to say ‘Sounds bad, doesn’t it?’, but Loren found it to be a very satisfactory answer.
They were currently in a demon town. Their party had used the great tunnel dug by dwarves to get into demons’ territory, and had been attacked by the horde of spiders living in there. They escaped outside, but were met with a destroyed dwarven village, a group of dark goblins that probably had something to do with the destruction, a swarm of ghosts and in the end, were attacked by a man in black armor. They managed to repel the man and escape with great difficulty thanks to Lapis, though Loren and Gula were injured and lost consciousness. Loren believed Gula was down not because of the clash between the forces Lapis and the man used, but because she was covering for him.
Luckily for them, the people who noticed and came to check the uproar were from Lapis’ household, and they had brought them to this town, where Lapis’ home was.
“Hows’ Gula?”
Since he was alright, nothing too bad should happen to Gula, someone stronger than him. However, if Gula really was injured because of protecting him, he had to confirm her status in case anything happened.
“It’s just some minor injuries compared to yours. Just some burns and cuts.”
Lapis explained. When he thought about her choice of words more closely, he realized that his injuries weren’t the same. Even though he was still feeling a bit sluggish, there were no wounds on his body, and he didn’t feel like he had been in a bad shape like he was told. He had been properly healed, and he could only feel thankful for it.
“By the way, Lapis, you really are a lady, aren’t you?”
They were walking towards Gula’s room, and the hallway was large enough for them to walk comfortably side by side. Moreover, they had been walking for quite a while, but still hadn’t reached Gula’s room yet. The house was considerably large, and they had passed by numerous women wearing maid outfits on the way. They looked at Loren with a puzzled expression on their face, but once they noticed Lapis walking next to him, they immediately showed hospitable smiles and politely bowed. All of them had purple eyes, and Loren found it a bit odd that there were even demons who worked as maids.
“How should I put it… My mother is just one of the current Demon Kings.”
Lapis slightly waved and nodded at the maids and said, somewhat embarrassed.
“The demon king system is not a hereditary one, but a meritocracy one. The term of office is four years, and even though my mother is currently serving as one of the Kings, if someone more capable emerges, she’ll need to hand over her seat.”
“What is the process of such a thing?”
“Candidates will announce their candidacy at the end of the term.”
“Will everyone engage in a fist fight?”
“Something similar. But it’s not just about physical strength.”
Lapis said that there was always an exception to everything, and ended the story there. Looking at her, Loren suddenly wondered if Judie wanted Lapis to succeed her as a Demon King. Probably yes, considering how Lapis’ parents cut off her limbs and removed her eyes and hid them away. They seemed to be the type of parents that made their kids learn through hardships, but he felt that they went a bit too far.
“Being the daughter of a Demon King seems to be so troublesome.”
As Loren muttered, Lapis stopped before a door. Loren did the same. It seemed like this was their destination. Lapis knocked lightly a few times and said:
“Gula? It’s Lapis. I bring Loren along too. Can we come in?”
Lapis sounded very cautious, but Loren thought it was totally understandable. Gula was the Evil God of Gluttony, and sometimes her actions and speech were just plain unimaginable. Something trivial like exposing herself just to tease Loren, for example. It wouldn’t be strange if she was waiting inside stark naked just to make Loren embarrassed. That was why Lapis was cautious, and Loren thought he shouldn’t set foot inside that room until Lapis had checked the situation first.
Lapis knocked again.
“Gula?”
No answer.
Lapis sounded even more cautious now. Loren reached for his shoulder, where the hilt of his greatsword was always at, but then remembered that it wasn’t there now and dropped his hand.
Lapis wasn’t really aware of it before, but the white greatsword she had taken out from her home and passed to Loren was actually the property of Judie, a Demon King. As Judie had no recollection of letting the sword go, she asked him to return it for now. Loren himself didn’t want to stick with something he didn’t really understand either, so he handed it over to her.
But Loren couldn’t find a replacement weapon right away, and was currently barehanded. He was feeling confused and lonely because of the loss of the familiar weight, but he comforted himself that it couldn’t be helped.
Anyway, neither knocking nor calling produced any responses, and Lapis had begun to get a bit irritated.
“What is she doing? Is she still sleeping?”
Before one knew, Lapis had started knocking with her full fist. Her knocks were packed with power, and each of them shook the door and the wall. Loren was worried if she would eventually break them, but he was also worried that those knocks would turn his way if he uttered too many a word, so he decided to keep silent on the matter.
“Isn’t it strange that she still doesn’t respond after such knocking?”
From what Loren could see from the side, Lapis’ knocks had developed into fist attacks with serious power. The door, which seemed to be quite sturdy, didn’t show a scratch or crack though, so she must be restraining herself to some extent.
“Isn’t it strange? With this level of sound and vibration, everyone should have come to check by now.”
“This is something normal at our home.”
“Normal… is it…?”
Loren wasn’t sure if he should be amazed by the maids, who were still unfazed despite being subjected to this kind of disturbance, or admire the building, which still stood tall despite having to withstand such impact on a frequent basis.
When Loren was caught in such thoughts, Lapis had given up knocking, instead she turned the door knob to open it. Loren believed it was bad manners to open a door without any consent from the person inside, but it couldn’t be helped in this case. The two of them poked their heads into the small gap Lapis had opened and peeked inside.
“Ngh… Nnn… Nghhh… Nnn!”
“This child is not a demon, isn’t she?”
“But she had the same eyes as us… She has a different aura though.”
What Loren and Lapis heard were the groans of someone being crushed to death, and small laughter that seemed to try to cover the groans. With a bad hunch in mind, they looked more closely and saw that, for some reason, some maids had climbed onto the large bed. From between the maids, they were able to snatch some fleeting glimpse of hands and feet and golden hair.
“What’s with this child? She looks like the one Lapis-sama brought along.”
“Hey, look, this child is really interesting. Even if we shove a baguette into her mouth, she eats it all in a blink. It’s the seventh one already, isn’t it?”
“Without drinks?! Just seven baguettes? Let’s add three for now.”
“Gah?!”
They saw the person on the bed flail their arms and legs with a scream, but the maids easily pinned them down and crammed not three, but six more baguettes into the person’s mouth. The maids who didn’t participate looked on with sparkling eyes as if they were watching some curious scene. The baguettes disappeared little by little, and Loren and Lapis were able to see who the person on the bed was.
“Her mouth must be dry, right?”
“It’s a miracle that she didn’t choke.”
“Hey hey, should we try with dry-cured ham next?”
“Her stomach doesn’t expand at all despite being stuffed with such an amount… Very interesting.”
Loren wondered what the hell they were doing, but Lapis gently pushed at his chest. They moved their heads away from the gap, then Lapis softly closed the door as if to not disturb the maids inside. The conversation inside became inaudible, and Loren wondered if it was alright to just leave things like that, but Lapis looked like she had given up and weakly said:
“I’m sorry, Loren. It’s hell inside. Gula… Let’s go get her a while later.”
“No, but…?”
“If we go in now… We might become the same, right?”
It wasn’t that bad to be pushed down on a bed by women in maid uniforms. But it was a different story altogether if they began shoving huge breads and cow or deer legs down your throat after.
Gula might make it somehow because she was the Evil God of Gluttony, but if a mere human like Loren was put in her position, it would be life-threatening.
“They’ll get bored after a while.”
If Lapis, who knew best about the affairs of this house, said so, then it must be so. Loren avoided asking any further. He didn’t know what he would say to Gula later, but for now, he could only pray that she would be alright. He quietly closed his eyes and clasped his hands to pray that the maids’ interest towards Gula would go out soon.