Finally, the greenhouse cleaning was finished, and the time to plant new seedlings approached. When Beni asked what would be good to plant, Tallos answered like this.
〈If you go to Acre Farm, James will pick out something suitable for you from the seeds or seedlings.〉
Acre Farm—he hadn’t been there once since becoming a servant. It was a place he’d gone to every single day when living as a rabbit, so Beni’s steps toward the farm bounced lightly. Beni wanted to go to the farm so much that he even declined Ruan’s suggestion to play with him more after lunch.
As he got closer to Acre Farm, a familiar smell wafted over. Standing in front of the fence, Beni looked around the farm with fresh eyes. When he was a rabbit, the fields were always full of plants, but somehow it looked desolate. Did he come to the wrong place? Beni turned around to check the sign, but it clearly read “Acre Farm.”
Beni, who entered opening the fence gate, looked around and locked eyes with someone crouching in a corner of the field. It was James. That farmer he’d helped for several months! Beni’s face brightened as he quickly approached, and James stood up with a grimace.
A green apron signified the lowest rank in the Demon King’s Castle. James thought a clueless servant had wandered in out of boredom and didn’t hide his discomfort.
“Hello!”
Even at Beni’s bright greeting, James didn’t soften his expression. Rather, he held out one hand as if telling him not to come closer and spoke stiffly.
“What’s your business? Don’t you know you can’t just enter the farm?”
Since he’d come without thinking deeply in his happiness, Beni bowed with both hands politely clasped together with an ‘oops’ expression. He wasn’t a rabbit right now. No, even if he had been a rabbit, James wouldn’t know he’d pulled weeds for him. It was an intimacy only Beni possessed alone.
As his waist bent, his fluffy hair looked just like… cotton, making James’s eyes twitch.
“I’m sorry! It’s just that I’ve been put in charge of His Majesty the Demon King’s greenhouse this time. Tallos-nim told me that James-nim of Acre Farm would tell me about seedlings or seeds suitable for planting in the greenhouse, so I came.”
Beni took off the brooch attached to his apron and showed it to James. James, whose face had been constantly wrinkled, relaxed his expression upon seeing the pattern delicately carved inside the bright red gem, but suspicion still remained.
“Ah. Come to think of it, they said the path to His Majesty the Demon King’s greenhouse was reopened this time.”
“Was it originally blocked?”
It was an innocent question, but James looked down at Beni suspiciously as if asking how he didn’t know that. Was it something he should have known? Beni hastily made excuses.
“I, I just got employed at the Demon King’s Castle not long ago…!”
“A new servant is in charge of the greenhouse? What’s your name?”
The more he spoke, the more tangled it became. He should have said yes when Tallos offered to go together.
“It’s Beni…! So I said I wanted to do greenhouse management, and His Majesty told me to do it.”
“His Majesty the Demon King? He listened to a servant’s words?”
Even for himself, the only opportunity to converse with the current Demon King was when selling traces of that rabbit. Even that opportunity to converse disappeared because he kept them instead of selling them, but the Demon King he knew didn’t have the disposition… or personality to listen to a mere servant’s words. James found it suspicious, but seeing the topaz-like eyes restlessly wandering in the air, his desire to question further disappeared.
Did the Demon King also feel similar emotions looking at the servant in front of him right now?
It was an unknowable question. James rubbed the back of his neck and took a step.
“It’s not really my business anyway. Follow me.”
“Yes!”
What a relief. Beni let out a sigh and resolved to prepare answers for various situations from now on. Where the steps stopped was a fairly large warehouse in one corner of the farm. Beni’s head tilted back to see the door that rose all the way to the roof.
The door, which seemed like it wouldn’t open due to its size, was surprisingly easily pushed when James pushed it.
“Things good for planting in the greenhouse will be between rows G-J. When you take them, there’s an empty cart inside so load them there. Don’t forget to bring it back when you’re done using it. I’ve never entered the Demon King’s greenhouse myself, so I don’t know what the environment is like, but for saplings you need to go to the Managrove forest outside the south gate, not here.”
At the information pouring out in an instant, Beni’s head became a little dizzy, but he stared only at James’s mouth trying to listen without missing anything. His ears, slightly covered by white hair, twitched subtly.
James, who chuckled quietly, waved his hand and came out of the warehouse to settle at a table near the entrance. On top were a few books, bread, and a basket containing bottled drinks. Beni realized this was the place the farmer would come to when he said he was always going to rest.
“I’ll be here, so if there’s anything you don’t know, don’t touch things randomly and call me right away.”
“Yes! Thank you!”
Beni, who bowed twice, turned around and entered the warehouse. James, watching that retreating figure—specifically the soft, pure white hair—let out a deep sigh.
“…He must be alive.”
The voice that fell weakly was tinged with sadness.
It was not long after Beni had entered the warehouse.
“Um… James-nim…”
James, who had been lost in thought alone, only turned his head at the tactless call.
“I still don’t know much about plants yet, so could you possibly recommend something suitable for planting in His Majesty the Demon King’s greenhouse?”
Is this guy really the greenhouse management supervisor? James seriously had such doubts but quickly erased them. It wasn’t anything else—he was wearing a brooch engraved with the Demon King Race’s crest. That was something one could only possess if the Demon King personally handed it over.
Normally, when receiving something like that, it was typical to rise in status or become a consort or mate. However, seeing that this guy called Beni was still wearing a green apron, he still seemed to be just a servant. Was it really given only for greenhouse management?
He was a mysterious guy. Whether the Demon King cherished him or simply entrusted him temporarily for work, as a mere farmer of the Demon King’s Castle, it was hard for him to figure out.
James stood up from his seat and glanced at Beni, who was peeking only his face out from the door. An innocent atmosphere to the point of wondering if he was really the same demon race, a thin and small physique that was shabby but an appearance that surpassed that. After sending away all his concubines, was the Demon King thinking of laying hands on a servant?
It didn’t seem like the Demon King would harbor malice if he nagged him, but it would be better to treat him moderately well.
“I’ll tell you, so follow me.”
“Thank you!”
At Beni smiling brightly, James felt somehow ticklish around his chest. He wanted to deny it, but this guy strangely resembled that rabbit.
* * *
James had definitely intended to just roughly tell him a few things.
“This is moonspine herb. The tip of the leaf is curved just like a crescent moon, and when it receives moonlight at night, the leaf veins glow faintly in silver. You have to grow it in a shaded place rather than where direct sunlight comes down. If it’s directly exposed to sunlight, the leaves turn black and crumble.”
Beni nodded his head and mentally sorted out places suitable for planting moonspine herb.
“And it absorbs mana well, so it’ll be good for His Majesty too. Since it also absorbs the Demon King Race’s mana, it was probably originally planted in His Majesty’s greenhouse. When it grows eating mana like that, it’s also characteristic that the leaf tips turn red.”
“Oh my, I see. But why does His Majesty like it when it absorbs His Majesty’s mana?”
Beni’s reaction of asking additional questions with sparkling eyes as if attending a class at school stirred an impulse to tell him more.
“I know that the Demon King Race has mana generated to overflowing in their bodies from generation to generation, so they need to periodically extract it. Especially if they’re enough to become the Demon King, that means they’re acknowledged as the strongest among the Demon King Race, so more mana would be generated. The reason the Demon King’s Castle is surrounded by Lake Belluard is also to prevent monsters from approaching due to the mana flowing out from the Demon King.”
“I didn’t know…! James-nim really knows a lot. That’s amazing!”
James awkwardly scratched the back of his head and stole a glance at the hand clumsily holding a pencil. To put it nicely, the handwriting looked like a child’s scribbles on a wall, but he could see the effort to write down all the explanations he’d given.
James was secretly impressed. Not just that he was writing diligently, but among servants, there were more who didn’t know letters. For them who only had to do as their superiors ordered, illiteracy wasn’t particularly a big problem. They could live their entire lives just by being able to recognize only the letters they frequently encountered.
“You went to school a bit, I see?”
“No! I couldn’t even go outside.”
“…Outside?”
Was he somewhere as a slave…?
