The servant who supposedly just arrived not too long ago—not only had the Demon King personally appointed him as the greenhouse manager, but he’d even given him a communicator that was so expensive James himself had only used it briefly. Come to think of it, he’d heard these past few days that the Demon King had been frequently calling a certain servant to his lounge. And that voice—impossibly gentle and affectionate for the Demon King.
Most decisive of all!
The Demon King said he had a designated mate. Since that mate had never shown even a hint of their presence, everyone had been thinking it was just something he’d said, but turns out he already even had a child.
“Good heavens…….”
“James? Are you feeling unwell?”
“Hup!”
James jumped at Beni, who had somehow gotten right in front of him without him noticing. At his excessive reaction, Beni also flinched in surprise.
“T-That is…….”
“……Why are you suddenly speaking formally?”
Beni asked purely out of curiosity, but James didn’t hear it that way. He had no idea why the Demon King was hiding his mate and child, but there must be a good reason for keeping them so perfectly concealed.
‘I need to pretend I don’t know.’
That’s what he had to do. He’d been reading the room at the Demon King’s Castle for years now. He’d even developed enough discretion to never get caught once when the previous Demon King would summon all sorts of servants and attendants to beat them. James cleared his throat several times with a cough and put on as nonchalant a face as possible.
“N-No. Shall we go move the cart now?”
“Sure! Thank you so much for helping!”
“It’s nothing…….”
Somehow James seemed to have less energy than before. Beni wanted to ask why, but once they started moving the luggage, he didn’t have any mental space for that. He was simply confused when James suddenly apologized out of nowhere, saying, “Sorry for interrogating you like that at first.”
* * *
“Haah…… That was harder work than I thought.”
The two who had returned to the warehouse with an empty cart plopped down heavily on the chairs in front of the warehouse. Moving the cart was work, but more than that, organizing the seeds and seedlings had been harder. It took twice as long because James had looked around the greenhouse and told him suitable places to plant based on the plants, then helped organize everything together.
While Beni wiped his sweaty forehead, James got up without even resting and suddenly brought water.
“Please let me do things like this! Thank you.”
“……It’s fine. I can do it too.”
James was definitely acting a bit strange. The atmosphere had somehow become even more peculiar than before, making things awkward. Just as Beni was about to say something, a notebook on the table caught his eye. More precisely, the paper stuck between the pages of the notebook.
What appeared to be a beast’s paw seemed to be drawn on the glimpse he could see.
“What’s this?”
James seemed to hesitate for a moment, but soon pulled out the paper and showed it to Beni. Beni couldn’t help but be shocked when he saw the drawing. And no wonder, because what was drawn large on that paper was…….
So fluffy that its face was being devoured by fur…… and pure white…… a rabbit.
This is me!
Beni’s pupils shook as if struck by an earthquake. He couldn’t believe it even seeing why a drawing of him in rabbit form was here. Could a bounty have been put out? No, that couldn’t be—the owner of this castle, the Demon King, loved rabbits very much.
He hadn’t been able to go at night lately, though—could it be because of that?
Beni looked sharply at James with an expression seeking explanation. James wasn’t looking at him but only at the drawing with somewhat sunken eyes. He carefully took the paper back.
“You must not have seen it. This is a rabbit that lived at the Demon King’s Castle.”
Flinch—Beni couldn’t respond at all and just waited for James’s words.
The rabbit in the drawing looked quite similar to him. Of course, if you examined it point by point, there were differences.
His own ears were a bit shorter, and the rabbit in the drawing had bigger eyes. And his front paws weren’t this plump and large. Nevertheless, the overall appearance was similar enough to be mistaken for himself.
It was a natural progression to recall what Ren had said a few days ago.
〈Hey, that’s you. The rabbit the Demon King raised—that’s obviously you. As if the Demon King would have originally kept a rabbit……. It’s obvious the Demon King already knows everything and is just pretending not to.〉
As Beni stared intently at the drawing in James’s hand, he let out a deep sigh and gently stroked the picture.
“It was His Majesty the Demon King’s rabbit, and you wouldn’t believe how smart it was. If it heard my voice, it would come running on its own, you know?”
Ah, I guess it’s not me. Beni had absolutely never run toward James’s voice. Rather, he’d only tried not to be seen by him. So this is His Majesty’s rabbit…….
Beni thought that the Demon King’s rabbit—that is, Ben—looked much cuter and prettier than himself, but to this extent, it made sense that the Demon King would mistake him for his rabbit.
“Did you draw this, James?”
“Yeah, I drew it from actually seeing it. If you saw the rabbit, you’d say I drew it exactly like it.”
James drew well, but as he proudly showed his drawing, anyone could see he was full of affection for the Demon King’s rabbit.
“You must have liked the rabbit a lot.”
James paused for a moment but soon nodded self-deprecatingly as if reluctantly admitting it.
“Yeah. Actually, I was annoyed at first about why I had to care for some rabbit, but thinking about it now, I think I cherished the little guy too. Seeing how down I am now that it’s disappeared.”
Ben really was a loved rabbit. Beni gazed at the wistful James.
He still…… didn’t know about being loved yet, but since entering this Demon King’s Castle, Beni had met people who liked and cherished him. Before, he worried he’d be kicked out if it was discovered he was an unloved existence, but perhaps the truth was that entering this Demon King’s Castle was what made one a loved existence.
If Ben had come to the Count household, he absolutely wouldn’t have been loved like this. Just as Beni himself hadn’t been.
Beni strengthened his resolve to find the Demon King’s rabbit even more firmly. If it was a rabbit this loved, he had to somehow get it back to its home. If it was this smart, it absolutely wouldn’t have died.
“The rabbit will come back soon.”
James’s gaze, which had been on the drawing, turned to Beni. Looking at the sparkling yellow eyes, James smiled faintly and placed his hand with a thunk on top of Beni’s head. James’s hand had prominent knuckles and blunt ends, making it feel particularly heavy. Unable to bear that weight, Beni’s neck was pressed down firmly.
“Yeah, it’ll come back.”
James, who had been roughly tousling the white hair with his coarse hand, suddenly pulled away with an ‘oops’ expression. He watched Beni’s reaction, but he was just smiling.
He didn’t particularly want to get involved with someone who might be the Demon King’s child, but…….
“If you have time, come visit the farm and hang out.”
“I can do that?”
James grinned and pointed at the inside of the warehouse with his thumb.
“There’s still a lot you haven’t heard. There aren’t many guys in this Demon King’s Castle who are interested in plants. They’re ungrateful bastards. Everything that goes into their mouths—who do they think grows it all?”
“Sure!”
And so Beni made another new friend.
* * *
“Grow well.”
In one corner of the greenhouse, in a spot with good sunlight, Beni placed a small pot. He’d planted what looked like the most intact seed among the Surface seeds he’d received from James. It was an unnamed seed, but later when it grew, he could ask James about it.
James had said it wouldn’t grow, but somehow Beni felt confident he’d be able to see a sprout. Behind Beni, a golem waddled over with a watering can perched on it.
“Thank you.”
Though golems were said to have no emotions, Beni always gave thanks and tapped the golem’s back area lightly. Then the golem would always tremble its entire body finely as if pleased.
After finishing watering the pot, Beni stood up and looked around.
The bright and warm greenhouse. The dying and rotting trees and plants had all disappeared, and in their place, new plants full of vitality had taken root and become lush and green. Finally, the greenhouse had taken on a proper appearance to some extent.
Beni, who had been looking around the greenhouse with satisfaction, finally checked the condition of the plants with the Plant Observer, then put on his fur coat. Today’s work was more or less finished. These days when the sun set quickly, he had to finish another task before it got darker.
Beni, who had firmly donned even the ear muffs the Demon King had given him yesterday, hurried toward Acre Farm.
“James!”
At Beni’s call, the figure who had been crouching near the fence raised his hand high.
