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The Duke of the Duchy of Goldsand woke up to some good news, it seems that the wild boar meat he had requested over a month ago had finally arrived at his doors, and his chefs were swiftly beginning to cook it for him after he gave his servants a few orders.
He had been craving for this delicacy for a while, and with so many responsibilities as having to maintain an entire duchy, from the enormous mountains of paperwork to the constant remodeling of the duchy, to having to deal with the underground organizations and while trying to please the annoying Merchant Association so they don’t suddenly disjoint themselves from his duchy and leave him with a pummeling economy, he really just wanted to have some break and eat something delicious.
He already had overweight problems because he ate every time he was stressed or nervous, and that was every day, every single week, and every month, and year… Nonetheless, he had family as well, a beautiful pair of twin daughters that were slowly growing into the treasures of the duchy, while his loyal wife often helped him at paperwork, although she had other duties such as taking care of the entire castle affairs for him, and also attending the reunions in the Production-based Guilds such as the Alchemist Guild and the Blacksmith Guild. She was just as busy as him.
“Hahh… I can finally eat wild boar again. These commoners really took a long time now. The Hunters only have to do this single thing once or twice per semester and they take so long!” sighed the duke. “Some ended getting wounded or something… Hahh, not like I have time to worry about some commoners lives when my duchy already gives me so many concerns. The poor will always be poor, so they might as well be useful, they’ll get better or something… Later, I guess.”
The duke was very responsible for his duchy and his people, although he was always more inclined about just earning as much money as possible and maintaining the entire place, his father, the King of the Goldriver Kingdom has given him the task to raise this small duchy into a place that could truly make the Kingdom feel proud of it, and through these last 20 years, he had been doing everything he could possibly do to reach this point.
However… he couldn’t wait to retire, but the ones that he could give his duties to, his twin daughters, were still on their six years of age, he would need to wait at least another 12 years for them to get into an age where they would be able to work for the duchy and finally let him rest and retire.
But until then, he had to endure… Nonetheless, he was a selfish man that only cared about himself and his family and didn’t seem to value the lives of the commoners as much, at least those outside of his duchy such as the farming villages were not much of his concern, his duchy was already surrounded by farms he had started himself, as he thought that outsourcing the production of cattle and vegetables and fruits to faraway villages was completely stupid and something that only lazy aristocrats did.
However, he often did these selfish requests, asking for wild game to eat, his family also enjoyed the food, and it was quite a delicacy. And even then, his duchy still acquired around 40% of the production of resources from these many small villages surrounding the duchy, so he had yet to completely gain independence from them.
The farmers and the hunters in such villages were especially useful, he had to admit it, even though they were so far away from him that he had a hard time caring about them.
At the very least, now that the wild boar meat was here, he felt happy and even joyous, his family was coming here in a few minutes, and he couldn’t wait to see his two little princesses, which were the two shining stars of his life and his beloved and smart wife, who always took care of things when he was too exhausted.
However, as he waited while sitting on his throne and reading some documents, a soldier approached him with a large wooden box that seemed to have been isolated with ice magic from the inside, which made it release an icy aura.
“L-Lord Duke… there is a gift sent to you by one of the Hunters that came along with the frozen wild boar meat.” Said the soldier. “The hunters said that you had to specifically open it, as it was some premium demon meat they found from a strange and strong demon they fought.”
“Demons? Hm… I see, let me see, I bet it is some good steaks then?” wondered the Duke. Eating demon meat was not rare in the world of Spiritias. Demons have populated the entire world and although they were not as common as monsters, they were actually more common than wild beasts. And in some areas, there were large concentrations of demons that were often hunted down.
Demon meat seemed to be toxic while they are alive, as they’re packed with demonic energy. However, when the demon dies and the meat is left to rest for over a day, the demonic energy naturally disappears and the meat can be consumed, often said to have a smoky flavor, although their taste and texture varies. Very so often, strong demons had a delicious meat while weak demons such as Imps had a mediocre-flavored meat.
In a world accustomed to consuming the meat of monsters, consuming demon meat was nothing far-off, and they were so common that most people already associated demons to just another type of monster rather than anything else, even though their true origins came from the Demonic Towers spread around the vast world of Spiritias.
The Duke slowly opened the box relaxedly, as his eyes slowly changed from disinterested to morbidly disturbed and disgusted!
“W-What the…?! What’s the meaning of this?!”
What the Duke found inside the box was the head of a blue-skinned demon sticking its tongue out disgustingly!
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