I gulped and asked.
“…Then until when are you planning to stay here?”
My true feelings were naturally this. When are you going to get lost?
But I couldn’t dare say it out loud. If I misspoke, my neck would fly off first.
But Damian calmly opened his mouth.
“Until I fall for the seduction.”
“……What?”
What kind of bullshit is this?!
“…You’re, you’re going to stay here until then? No, what about sleep? What about meals? Don’t tell me, here…?”
Damian nodded as if it was obvious.
“……!”
This can’t be. That large bastard wants to settle into the inn?
In Happy’s case, he was small enough to somehow hide, but this guy clearly had a build that easily exceeded 2 meters at a glance.
And look at that bulk. If Happy was satisfied with one bowl of gukbap, this guy would obviously be a glutton who’d empty my entire pot.
“That’s absolutely…!”
The moment I was about to urgently refuse, Damian continued in a low voice.
“However, I’ll prove it.”
“……Prove?”
At my dazed voice, Damian tilted his head. His unnecessarily flowing hair kept drawing my attention.
“In human language, compensation would be more fitting. We demon beasts always prove ourselves when we step into another demon beast’s territory. If the territory’s owner is strong, we face them in battle to display our strength, and if weak, we exercise that strength in their stead.”
Damian narrowed his red eyes and looked me up and down. Then he declared briefly.
“You are weak.”
“…….”
What is he even saying?
So if I was strong, he’d charge in and fight, but since I’m weak, he’s saying he’ll exercise his strength in my stead? At times like this, should I be happy or not about having no strength or backing?
As I was cursing inwardly, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
…Wait a minute.
If a demon beast exercises strength in my stead, all the small fry loitering near the inn might crawl away on their own.
I immediately looked over Damian before my eyes again. A height that easily seemed to exceed 2m, that large build—he was clearly extraordinary at a glance. Moreover, he was humanoid.
Why emphasize humanoid? Because humanoid forms are never common in the demon beast world. Most demon beasts are trapped by instinct and solidify into monster forms, but only those strong enough to suppress that instinct maintain a human appearance.
In other words, the more human-like they look, the more dangerous they are. And this guy was perfect except for the horn on his forehead. His skin, muscles, even his movements were no different from a human’s. So the option of driving him out with my strength simply doesn’t exist.
Then there’s only one method.
“Anything more to say?”
Since it’s come to this anyway, how about making him do chores? Dishes, demon beast extermination, cleaning—if I assign all that, it’s zero labor costs with security secured.
Isn’t this a total jackpot?
Damian’s red eyes shone as if piercing through my intentions, but I quickly squeezed out a smile and made the most innocent face possible.
“……I welcome you!”
Since I can’t send him away anyway, might as well milk him dry as free labor.
***
Labor my ass.
My grand plan all went up in smoke. No, it had to from the start.
Why?
What else?
“So, the horn… can’t you hide it somehow?”
No matter how humanoid he was, his appearance was the problem. His height alone easily exceeded 2 meters and would draw attention, and anyone who saw his dark red hair and blood-red eyes burning like flames would flinch.
But the real problem comes after that.
His face is so beautiful that if you admire it for even a moment, the horn prominently stuck on his forehead enters your vision. And your mouth would drop open.
Right.
Just that horn alone is 100% demon beast certification, and if I brazenly stick that inside the inn, customers’ hearts will sink before they even eat gukbap!
“The horn is a symbol of dignity. It’s right to proudly display it.”
“…….”
On top of being crazy, this demon beast is so absurd he raises my blood pressure. In the end, free labor my ass. Reality was just that one more freeloader had increased.
The freeloader—no, with Damian in front of me, I fell into serious contemplation.
…Where on earth do I hide that thing?
The fortunate thing was that since it was subjugation season, there were almost no customers. At most, they were all humans buying meal kit gukbap for the subjugation.
Today was a day off, so even if that demon beast brazenly wandered around inside the inn, the problem was tomorrow. The moment business started and a customer saw Damian, nine times out of ten they’d shout “It’s a demon beast!” and draw their sword first.
Jeffrey was generous enough to listen to my unreasonable logic, but other customers were human weapons armed with hot blood and muscles.
I’d be grateful if they just didn’t break the tables. Could I expect courtesy from such people?
Moreover, this demon beast bastard brazenly prowled around the inn. He even unnecessarily peeked at the door entrance, so I really thought my heart would fall out.
So even though it was a day off, just in case, I forcibly pushed Damian into a room and locked the door. Watching me carefully, Damian suddenly asked in a serious voice.
“Do you want to mate?”
“……Wha, what?”
He looked at my stiffened face, then slowly lowered his gaze up and down.
And said matter-of-factly.
“You can’t handle it.”
“……!”
No, I’m not doing it! Who said I would?! Handle or whatever, I’m not even starting!
I knew from the time he was spouting crazy nonsense about seduction that he wasn’t normal, but what exactly is he looking at to say such things?
Of course, I had neither the desire to know nor the courage to look into it.
I just trembled and asked.
“About staying here… couldn’t you reconsider just once?”
Damian tilted his head slightly, then answered firmly.
“No.”
Damn it!
Lunch passed chaotically like that.
When night came and it grew dusky, my heart regained some peace.
…Only briefly though.
I’d just calmed down a bit, but because of the fundamental problem, I ended up tearing at my hair all the same.
“Argh…. Really. This damn curly hair.”
But was it because of the terrible curly hair? Every time I raked through my hair, my fingers caught on it, so I eventually gave up on tearing at it too, and I glanced up at the second-floor stairs.
And thinking of Damian who would be staying quietly(?) inside, I sighed heavily.
While someone’s sighing like the world has ended, the demon beast is happily rolling around on the bed.
…No, no. Right, he shouldn’t come out! What if he comes out and ruins the business!
If you asked whether I was scared of the demon beast in the room, I’d naturally answer yes, but there was something scarier to me than demon beasts.
My depleted money.
My money, my inn, the freeloader eating up my ingredient costs—that was the real terror.
“What do I do now….”
I have to start business again tomorrow, but when customers rush in, what about that large demon beast?
As I sipped plain water—not even a glass of soju—with gukbap set out and sighed, Damian came out of the room and suddenly approached.
“What about mine?”
“…Huh?”
When I looked at him with a dazed face, Damian snorted and tapped my bowl.
Clatter—
“…….”
……Damn freeloader.
But I couldn’t not give it to him either. I’m a weak human anyway. That guy was clearly a dangerous demon beast at a glance.
In the end, instead of the small bowl I usually gave Happy, I filled a ttukbaegi full of gukbap and offered it.
Fortunately, Damian didn’t eat with his nose stuck to the bowl like Happy. Instead, he picked up a spoon, but the spoon in his hand looked so small it might as well have been a teaspoon.
Moreover, his long nails were sharp like blades, so if I got scratched, it obviously wouldn’t end with just a scrape.
Right, if I think about it coldly, I’m the stranger one for worrying about the inn in this situation.
……But still.
The basis for that composure was surprisingly simple.
The original work.
《The Saint Wants to Live Peacefully》
Knowing the original work was pretty useful insurance for surviving in this world.
For instance, when war breaks out in the future, I could leave first for a city with less damage, or I know demon beast habits and weaknesses that ordinary people don’t know. All of that was the weapon called knowledge given to me. —Though I lack the knowledge naturally needed for people living here to get by.—
And right now, I was thoroughly benefiting from that.
Humanoid demon beasts, unlike beasts that move only on instinct, are beings that move and calculate rationally. In other words, I had calculated that this large monster would consider other gains before immediately tearing out my throat.
In short, the possibility of him tearing me to death right now is low. That fact alone was reason enough not to run away like other humans, but to catch my breath slightly like now.
After all, that’s right, isn’t it?
If a famous restaurant owner dies, would the customers just sit still? Even in reality, they’d immediately report to the police and a search would begin. Would this place be different? Wherever you go, a hot spot owner’s death case would spread like wildfire.
Consoling myself like that and catching my breath, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
The Demon King in the original work was also humanoid.
“……No way, it can’t be.”
Of course, humanoid demon beasts are extremely rare.
However, the Demon King in the original work had centipedes as subordinates and was described as having green hair and green eyes. Moreover, he sometimes appeared with his lower body in snake form.
Suddenly, I looked over this demon beast before me.
Dark red hair. Blood-red eyes. And a single horn extending above his forehead.
It was definitely different from the description in the original work.
Decisively, a horn? That’s completely different.
Anxiety slowly crept up my body, but I soon shook my head vigorously.
No, it’s different. Totally different.
Then, Damian, who had been eating gukbap, slowly raised his head. Our blood-red eyes collided head-on, and just as my back was stiffening coldly, he muttered lowly.
“Refrain from seducing during meals?”
“…….”
……How do I shut that trap?
Why am I of all things an innkeeper? If I’d possessed as a mage’s servant at least, I would’ve memorized a silencing spell or something.
“……Or I need a hood to cover that damn horn.”
Like that, the night passed vaguely.
