The desperation to keep his promise stabbed at a corner of his chest, but Beni’s stamina had become ragged from the grueling work in the greenhouse.
To be precise, maintaining the already organized greenhouse wasn’t particularly difficult. But Beni craved perfection beyond that. If he had only done as much as he could slowly, it wouldn’t have been this hard.
Moreover, he worked leisurely in the mornings so as not to show Ruan he was struggling, then rushed to catch up after lunch, which made it even more overwhelming. The moment he showed even the slightest sign that he couldn’t handle it alone, it seemed like Ruan would call in a new servant.
The reason Beni was trying so hard was purely out of greed. The yearning to cultivate the greenhouse beautifully and splendidly as quickly as possible to show Ruan, and the desperation to prove his own worth—that he could do this much—made Beni push himself relentlessly.
As a result, when his work barely finished for the day, Beni would become completely exhausted and go straight to the communal bathroom, wash up half-asleep, then skip dinner almost entirely.
At least it was fortunate that this was the Demon King’s Castle, where the communal bathroom used by servants was always open.
Compared to any aspect, the Demon King’s Castle had a much better environment than the Count’s household. At the Count’s household, bath times were set, and even then, Beni had to wash quickly and quietly, mindful of the other servants’ attention. Moreover, at the Count’s household, claiming water was precious, they often locked him in his room for days. The reasoning was that a beastkin half-breed who had nowhere to go didn’t need to wash every day.
The Count’s violence, Trellou’s pranks, the servants who looked at him with hateful eyes—everything was agonizing, but not being able to wash freely even when dirty caused Beni great stress.
Only after going a whole week without bathing and losing so much hair that his scalp showed in patches did Beni finally get to wash once every three days.
Beni really loved this castle. Even if he did the greenhouse work a bit poorly, the kind Demon King probably wouldn’t kick him out of the castle. …Though he wasn’t quite sure what would happen if he was found out to be a rabbit beastkin.
Separate from the fact that the Demon King liked rabbit beastkin, he had already been deceiving the Demon King for so long that it had become awkward to tell the truth.
When he should be honest with the Demon King but was instead lying, the guilt made him want to become useful even faster.
Nnngh… Beni barely lifted his upper body and crawled toward the ladder, careful not to hit his head on the ceiling. Then he descended the ladder, holding his breath. Today’s Ren had blown out the candle before sleeping, and not even the moon was out, making the room pitch black.
It was the moment he tried to step on the next rung by feel.
“Ah!”
At the same time his foot slipped, the strength left his arms, which had been aching from continuously disposing of dead plants all day. His body tilted backward, and Beni squeezed his eyes shut and wrapped both hands around the back of his head. He had to protect his head well. Among the servants who took the Count’s beatings, those who suffered major head injuries mainly disappeared before long, like his mother.
Bracing for the impact to come, he felt not an impact but a shaking sensation on his body. Immediately after, Ren’s urgent shout rang out.
“Hey, what’s wrong!”
Only then did Beni open his eyes to find himself curled up on the floor, hands wrapped around his head. What? Beni looked up at the ladder in bewilderment. He’d definitely fallen from there, hadn’t he? Even though he’d slipped from the very last rung of the ladder, Beni’s body had completely toppled backward. There should have been no way to avoid hitting the floor somehow.
As Beni lay sprawled on the floor in a daze, Ren glanced at the bunk bed and helped Beni up.
“What were you doing to suddenly be lying there? You didn’t fall from the bed, did you?”
“Uh… thanks. I just… wanted to go to the bathroom for a moment.”
Was he not feeling pain because he wasn’t fully awake? Sometimes when Trellou would come in while he was sleeping and kick him, there were times when he was too disoriented to feel pain. More than that, since Ren had woken up, it seemed wrong to go to the Demon King’s bedroom today too. That felt quite regrettable, so Beni hesitated for a moment.
“Sorry for waking you…”
If he endured his sleepiness and went again once Ren fell back asleep, wouldn’t that work? But what if His Majesty the Demon King was already asleep by then?
Tired as he was, his thoughts moved too quickly to keep up with. To Ren, it looked like he was restless, so he grabbed Beni’s wrist.
At that moment, Ren’s entire muscles stiffened at the thick killing intent piercing into the back of his head.
Whip—he looked toward the window, but there was nothing visible.
“Ren, what’s wrong?”
“…It’s nothing.”
Ren, who looked around outside the dark window once more, only pushed Beni to sit on his bed after confirming there was nothing there.
“You sleep on the bottom bunk from now on.”
“Huh? No! It’s fine!”
The flustered Beni tried to get up, but Ren pressed down firmly on his shoulders to keep him seated.
“Forget it. I’ve been thinking we should switch ever since you sometimes bang your head on the ceiling when you wake up.”
Beni still occasionally banged his head on the ceiling in the mornings. As the embarrassed Beni said nothing, Ren headed toward the ladder.
“Instead, from now on I’ll read here before going up to sleep, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, okay! Thank you so much, Ren!”
It was when Ren, about to climb the ladder, waved his hand dismissively and glanced at Beni.
Gasp.
Outside the window, two blood-red eyes were glaring at him.
Before he could even be startled, whatever was beyond the window disappeared. Ren stood there in a daze before rushing to the window. He threw open the locked window and leaned his upper body outside. Beni’s body trembled slightly at the cold wind that suddenly blew in.
“Ren? What’s suddenly wrong?”
Ren turned his head this way and that, but couldn’t see anything. Just the pitch-black sky and the sound of leaves rustling in the wind.
To say he’d seen it wrong… it had been too vivid.
Ren lowered his gaze downward. Though it was the second floor, it wasn’t low enough to easily jump up to.
“…A monster?”
They said that as winter approached, monsters occasionally snuck into the castle. Beni cautiously approached from behind and gripped his clothes tightly.
“Ren, you might fall doing that.”
Only then did Ren pull back his body that had been leaning on the windowsill and closed the window. At Beni looking at him worriedly, Ren pondered for a moment before shrugging his shoulders.
“I think a monster passed by. It’s nothing.”
“…A monster?”
Beni recalled the snake he’d seen before and got chills down his spine, glancing at the window unnecessarily. Seeing his obviously frightened look, Ren flicked his forked tongue and said sullenly.
“Hey, you sleep with a half-monster every day, what are you scared of?”
“How is Ren the same as a monster? Ren’s a good kid.”
At Beni casually spouting embarrassing words, Ren’s eyes widened before he quickly climbed up the ladder.
“Whatever, just go to sleep!”
Beni, not knowing why Ren had suddenly gotten angry, eventually gave up on going to the Demon King’s bedroom today too and fell asleep.
* * *
One day, the Demon King asked.
“Beni, are you tired these days?”
Beni’s heart sank, but he answered as if nothing was wrong.
“No! Not at all! I’m totally fine! Working in the greenhouse is the best! I want to work at night too!”
At those words, Ruan only smiled faintly. Beni, worried he might notice, acted energetic all day that day. Then he returned to the dormitory and fell asleep as if passing out again.
* * *
Rattle, thud thud thud, bang—!
Loud noises leaked out from inside the greenhouse. They were far too rough to be coming from the greenhouse. Since Beni hadn’t been notified of anything in advance, he cautiously threw open the greenhouse door. Inside, demons he’d never seen before were installing something on the greenhouse floor.
No way…!
Had the Demon King finally judged that managing it alone was too much and assigned other servants? It was when he was looking at the four or so of them with confused eyes. One who was notably short swept her forehead with her hand and straightened her bent back, only to spot Beni right away.
Her eyes also widened, and she gestured to those around her. Then the other demons who had been working diligently also saw Beni and took in a small breath. The one who’d first made eye contact approached Beni.
Since she was on the short side, Beni had to lower his head to meet her eye level.
“Are you Beni-nim, the greenhouse manager?”
