Beni finally realized why Ren alone wrapped a towel around his waist and changed clothes in a corner facing the wall with his back turned.
Unintentionally, Beni forgot all about his gloomy feelings.
* * *
Ren’s day was simple.
Whether it was because of his appearance that clearly showed he was a chimera, even though he was a servant belonging to Niar Palace, he’d always done menial work that didn’t involve encountering the concubines, but when Niar Palace was closed, he was assigned completely to the outskirts.
The Inferno Core mining site in the Managrove Forest that occupied a large area at the south gate—it was quite far from the quarters and dining hall.
“If it’s, like this, move, the quarters.”
Each time his words cut off, a large axe was raised high and struck down on a thick tree.
“Too!”
Ren, gritting his teeth, raised it even higher and thwack, chopped the tree, and with a cracking sound, the tree split. At the same time, a fragrant scent wafted strongly.
“Haah…”
Ren, who threw down the axe, wiped the sweat flowing down his forehead and cast his gaze at the bright red interior of the exposed tree. Looking closely, sparkling fragments were embedded here and there—these were mana crystals.
Special crystals that only formed in trees growing inside the Demon King’s Castle, different from ordinary mana crystals.
Demon Kings had resided in this castle for thousands of years through generations, and accordingly, the mana of various Demon King races had seeped into nature. These mana crystals were also mana crystals of the Demon Kings accumulated through generations, called Inferno Cores in the Demon Realm. They couldn’t be obtained anywhere else and were a specialty unique to the Demon King’s Castle, with prices skyrocketing astronomically the larger they were. It would be better to extract them through automatic processes, but if impurities accidentally got mixed in, it would be a loss instead, so it was better for those who emitted almost negligible mana, with less risk of contaminating the crystals, to extract them.
Chimeras were originally beings designed to absorb surrounding mana. So they were completely unsuited for this work.
The development purpose of chimeras was clear. Living mana crystal generators. Bodies modified to draw in surrounding mana but unable to naturally discharge the mana accumulated in the body like ordinary demons. The absorbed mana gradually hardened and grew into crystals inside the body, which were then harvested for use.
Moreover, they were designed so that impurities were automatically filtered inside the body during the process of absorbing mana, so the purity of the crystals produced was extremely high. Because of that, they couldn’t help but become enthusiastic about chimera experiments at one time.
However, the difference between theory and reality was too great. The mortality rate during the modification process was excessively high, and even among the completed individuals who survived with difficulty, most had defects. The monsters obtained as materials for chimeras included many rare species, but with an even higher failure rate, interest in chimeras gradually cooled.
Ren was also one of those defective chimeras. He could barely absorb surrounding mana, and the mana generated inside his body was also extremely minimal. As a result, Ren became a being who couldn’t handle magic even less than a two-year-old demon.
Ren plucked out the crystals carefully with large tweezers so as not to scratch them, while inwardly cursing both the Demon King and everyone in the Demon King’s Castle. After concentrating like that for a while, a large demon with big horns appeared from the cabin.
“Hey! Stop now and go eat!”
Ren, who had been bending over, glanced back and picked up the Inferno Core collection basket he’d extracted all morning. When he approached the demon, he snatched away the basket like grabbing it and felt around Ren’s body.
“I’m not stealing it.”
“How do I know that?”
The demon who opened his eyes triangularly only let him go after touching all over Ren’s body. It had been several months since he’d worked here, yet they still didn’t trust him. This was the treatment chimeras generally received.
Ren grumbled and walked for a while to arrive at the servants’ dining hall. He glanced once toward the dining hall entrance and indifferently entered inside.
“Ren!”
A cheerful shout seemed to echo faintly in his ear.
I wonder if that guy is eating and working well. He’d looked quite emaciated for a while, but lately he seemed to be eating well, with flesh on his face and color returning compared to before. But he’d never dreamed that guy would be a beastkin half-breed. A rabbit beastkin, no less—if anything, he’d think it would be a predator’s half-breed.
With a weak heart too, a rabbit—the thought that it seemed fitting came at the same time as his worry only grew. Worry about whether the Demon King, that bastard, was doing something strange in the greenhouse.
But if he’s a beastkin half-breed… there’s that thing, isn’t there? If he can transform into an animal, it seems he inherited more beastkin characteristics.
Ren was eating lunch alone while thinking about Beni.
“Where did the idiot go, eating alone these days? Was he abandoned after all?”
Pepe sat down across from Ren with a smirk. Steam was rising from his tray as if he’d just gotten his food. Ren glared at him but didn’t bother responding, ignoring him and chewing his meat. He didn’t want to be interrupted while eating. Ren looked around the dining hall without even looking at Pepe. There were definitely more demons than before. Some weren’t in servant uniforms but were dressed in noticeably luxurious clothing.
There were a total of 4 servants’ dining halls in the Demon King’s Castle. One each in the east, west, south, and north. This was the northern servants’ dining hall, and from what he heard, only this servants’ dining hall had suddenly improved in food quality. Because of that, servants from other places and even attendants were secretly coming to eat.
Ren chewed the salad sprinkled with fragrant sauce, recalling that the time when the food quality improved was similar to when Beni appeared.
This, it must be that, right?
Ren wanted to continue being lost in thought, but the other person didn’t seem to have any intention of fulfilling that wish.
“Hey, are you ignoring me?”
“……”
At the continued ignoring, Pepe’s face turned red and blue as he asked.
“What’s your relationship with him, exactly?”
Ren’s brow twitched. Don’t tell me this bastard…? No wonder he’d been picking more fights than before since Beni came. Ren narrowed his eyes and stared intently at Pepe.
“Wh-what, why!”
As Ren leaned his upper body forward and closed the distance, Pepe’s nape gradually flushed red. Even so, Ren didn’t stop and even stood up from his seat, bringing his face close to Pepe’s ear and whispering.
“Mind your own business, asshole. We sleep in the same bed.”
He froze, and Ren smiled victoriously, not only stuffing all the remaining meat into his mouth but also stabbing with his fork the chunk of meat on Pepe’s tray. Just like that, Ren leisurely left his seat. It was a shame about the remaining food, but it was a satisfying meal since he’d eaten double the meat.
And it was the meat of the guy who’d been bothering him at every turn.
The meat was so big that even after leaving the dining hall, Ren chewed and headed toward the annex to catch some sleep.
Suddenly, goosebumps rose all over his body. Ren instinctively turned his face toward the source that his instincts were reacting fiercely to. There, the Demon King was standing quietly, looking at him.
The bright red eyes gave an inexplicable sense of déjà vu, but this wasn’t the time to be spacing out. Ren bowed his head. He hoped the Demon King would just pass by him like this, but the sound of footsteps only drew closer.
“Are you the one called Ren?”
…Why does the Demon King know my name? …Beni, that bastard!
Ren pressed his lips tightly shut before answering in a suppressed voice.
“Yes, Your Majesty the Demon King.”
“Do you have ulterior motives toward Beni?”
“…Pardon?”
Did Beni and the Demon King decide to take turns spouting nonsense? Ren involuntarily frowned and raised his eyes at such an absurd question. Though he immediately lowered them again.
“It seems you don’t.”
“I don’t have even a shred of such feelings.”
“That’s fortunate. Continue to keep those feelings unchanged, and I’m counting on you.”
He couldn’t ask what he was counting on him for. Because the Demon King suddenly glanced back and murmured quietly.
“Still, it would be better for you to refrain from sleeping in the same bed.”
At the warning tinged with coldness, Ren could only bow his head in instinctive fear. Only after the Demon King had completely disappeared did Ren kick a pebble with his foot.
The bright red eyes he’d seen through the room window before—it was definitely the Demon King. Creepy bastard. Still, one thing was certain: the Demon King didn’t seem to regard Beni as just a toy.
Though he seemed to be trying to hide it, the jealousy emanating from him was no joke.
