The dining hall became quiet in an instant. Everyone had wanted an entertaining spectacle, but they hadn’t wanted that kind of spectacle. Only after Beni dunked not just his mouth but even his nose into the stew did he belatedly realize. That he wasn’t a rabbit right now.
“Ah…!”
When Beni hurriedly lifted his face, thick stew broth and ingredients dripped down plop plop.
Pepe, who had been walking over, saw that sight and sat right back in his seat, and Ren stared at Beni speechless at the idiotic behavior he was seeing for the first time in his life.
“That’s…!”
Though Beni’s face turned bright red at his absurd mistake, his lower face wasn’t clearly visible because of the stew broth, so only his eyes and forehead appeared reddened.
Even wanting to make excuses, he couldn’t say it was because he’d lived as a rabbit for months, so Beni just stuttered.
Ren, who let out an empty laugh with a huff, took out a worn cloth from his pocket. Then with familiar gestures he roughly wiped Beni’s face and said.
“Kid? You bury your face in there? How old are you, really?”
Beni’s eyes grew round. After Ren finished wiping his face, he folded the cloth and put it to one side. The cloth soaked in stew broth was placed as if stuck to the table.
Didn’t he dislike him? Beni felt somehow embarrassed and muttered.
“Th-thank you…!”
Though Ren didn’t answer, unlike before, he looked Beni over once from top to bottom. Was he somewhat of an idiot? Though his face looked like he grew up in some greenhouse. Well, if that were the case, he wouldn’t have entered as a servant of the Demon King’s Castle.
At Beni’s unusual behavior, Ren relaxed the frown he’d been constantly wearing.
“How old are you?”
When Ren finally showed interest in him, Beni smiled broadly.
“I’m twenty.”
“…Don’t talk nonsense.”
“…It’s true though?”
Beni’s face was only pure as if not telling any lies. Ren tried several more times to find signs of lying, but just because he stared didn’t mean he could discover anything. Ren’s eyelids trembled finely before he lowered his arms that had been propped up on the table.
“…So you’re a hyung.”
At that word, Beni’s pupils dilated and his face became subtly flushed.
Hyung—Trellou had said this word was a term only used between those considered close. Along with saying there would absolutely never be an occasion for him to call Beni hyung.
He’d thought there would never be an occasion for someone to call him, a beastkin half-breed, by a friendly term…
“What are you staring at, think I’ll give you something for being hyung?”
“No, it’s not that, it’s just the first time someone called me hyung…!”
“…”
Beni’s reaction went against all his expectations. But that deviation seemed to be in the direction of being lacking somewhere rather than being extraordinary or genius-like, so Ren felt somehow ridiculous for being wary of this guy.
‘There aren’t usually people who’d call someone hyung when they’re twenty years old and bury their face in stew…’
Ren smacked his lips and waved his hand perfunctorily.
“Just eat. Hold your fork and spoon properly.”
“…Yes!”
“It’s uncomfortable to hear, so just talk casually.”
“Oh, yes, ah, okay!”
Mm, he really does seem to be an idiot. For the first time since entering the Demon King’s Castle, Ren waited for his companion to finish eating. Because if he left first now, there’d be more than one or two guys who’d bully this one.
Afterward, rumors about Beni spread secretly in the Demon King’s Castle. That the newly entered servant had an extremely outstanding face but seemed like a fool.
* * *
Starting tomorrow, he’d properly live as a servant of the Demon King’s Castle. Beni lay on the bunk bed and blankly stared at the ceiling that seemed to touch right before his nose. From below, the sound of Ren turning book pages could be heard softly—rustle, rustle.
On the white ceiling, red light flickered due to the lamp lit on the nightstand below. Beni still couldn’t believe the current situation was real.
After all, even Beni himself hadn’t known he’d become a servant of the Demon King’s Castle this easily. If he’d known it would be like this, he thought it would’ve been better to get caught by the head servant earlier.
Becoming a servant more easily than expected, vague anxiety flooded in. Because there was no way his life would flow this smoothly. So he had to do well.
Without mistakes, without being bothersome, he would live in this castle until death as a servant of the Demon King’s Castle. What Beni realized over three months, and including today, was that no matter where he went, there was no place where he could live as well as here.
〈Little rabbit, why aren’t you answering me today?〉
〈It is my rabbit after all.〉
〈Let’s sleep more, Ben. Come further into my embrace.〉
A Demon King who loved rabbits this much—no, even looking through all demons, would be hard to find.
Even Trellou who liked raising monsters didn’t sleep with those monsters in his bed and keep them in his embrace.
By now, the Demon King’s rabbit named Ben must be sleeping held in his embrace…
That the Demon King would like rabbits to that extent was truly unexpected.
And the second reason this Demon King’s Castle was good to live in was Tallos.
〈I don’t have bad feelings about beastkin. I think they’re just victims who suffered cruel things. If demons hadn’t abducted beastkin in the first place, beastkin half-breeds wouldn’t have been born either.〉
It was truly the first time hearing such words. Because he’d thought his bloodline naturally deserved gazes filled with disgust and contempt.
So there are demons in the world who think like Tallos…
Beni glanced at Ren who would be below while thinking about beastkin.
Though he still didn’t know exactly what a chimera was, his appearance was easy to mistake for a beastkin half-breed. Nevertheless, it was newly fascinating that he was confidently working at the Demon King’s Castle.
Because the servants and attendants he saw when living as a rabbit all had the neat appearance of demons. He’d thought he’d seen just about everything in the Demon King’s Castle, but apparently not.
Was the Demon King’s Castle lenient even toward those of the same birth as beastkin half-breeds?
A servant of the Demon King’s Castle… Somehow Beni felt a sense of security that he truly belonged somewhere in a group.
Beni pulled the blanket up to his chin and gradually, more leisurely than ever, fell asleep. Tomorrow night, he should secretly slip out… and go to his burrow.
There was something he needed to bring.
* * *
Clang clang clang! The bell in each room rang noisily. Startled, Beni’s eyes flew wide open.
What was it—he recalled that yesterday Tallos had told him that in the servants’ quarters, the bell in each room rang like this at morning wake-up time.
‘It’s noisier than I thought.’
Beni rubbed his eyes heavy with drowsiness when suddenly he felt something strange on top of his head. When he grabbed it with his hand, it was his rabbit ears.
Wh-why did these pop out? Panicked, Beni tried to retract his ears but they didn’t easily go in. At that moment, a rustling sound came from below.
“Hey, wake u…”
Ren stepped up one rung of the ladder.
“…Why are you sleeping with the blanket covering you like that?”
On the bed was Beni with the blanket pulled all the way to the top of his head. Ren reached out and grabbed near Beni’s ankle and shook it.
“Hey hey, wake up. If you wake up late, all the breakfast gets snatched up.”
“U-uh! I’ll get up!”
At the unexpectedly immediate answer, Ren went back down. In the meantime, Beni struggled to push in his ears that wouldn’t go in before he could finally come out from under the blanket.
The first day started exhaustingly.
* * *
A teal apron, top and bottom that were rough but had good insulation, and slip-ons made of leather that were safe and soft even on rough roads. Beni couldn’t hide his curling lips. Though the fit was a bit large, this was more than enough.
When living at the estate, Beni had often gone barefoot. As his body grew, his clothes and shoes often didn’t fit well, and each time it took quite a while to receive other clothes. There, no one cared even if Beni went barefoot.
The place Beni was assigned to work was near the first-floor kitchen of Orte Palace, and his main task was cleaning. Perhaps because the kitchen was a place Beni had frequently come and gone when secretly infiltrating the castle, it felt oddly welcoming.
Though it weighed on his mind that it was the main palace rather than Niar Palace, the Demon King probably wouldn’t come all the way to this corner kitchen. Actually, even while living as a rabbit, he’d almost never seen the Demon King. Come to think of it, what did the Demon King do all day?
Beni was thinking about the Demon King while sweeping when he hurriedly came to his senses. Other thoughts when he’d decided to work hard!
Having luckily deceived the head servant and become a servant, he had to work harder than others to avoid being driven out.
So Beni was sweeping, not tolerating even small dust in corners.
“Hey!”
Someone called Beni and approached from the end of the corridor.
