He understood with his mind that it was referring to when he was a rabbit. However, the hot breath brushing past his ear and the low vibration made him feel strangely peculiar.
The stuffiness that seemed to press down on his lungs wasn’t an unpleasant discomfort, but rather a thick sensation he had never felt before in his life. Feeling as though this unfamiliar sensation would devour his entire body if he stayed like this, Beni hastily opened his mouth.
“Y-Your Majesty! Weren’t you going to explain about the exclusive servant earlier!”
“Ah, that’s right.”
Beni’s bulging cheeks, flushed as if about to burst, caught Ruan’s eye. He wanted to continue like this, but if he went too far, this delicate rabbit might flee far away. Pushing aside his regret, Ruan finally released the arms that had been tightly holding Beni.
As soon as the restraint was released, Beni unwrapped the blanket faster than ever and sat up.
“I already gave you permission long ago to come up on my bed, Beni. So there’s no need to go down.”
At the calm voice, Beni hesitated while reading the situation. His toes, which had been about to descend below the bed, halted, and he soon found a compromise of sorts by kneeling demurely on the sheets. Ruan also didn’t get greedier with Beni, who was looking at him while maintaining a certain distance.
“What an exclusive servant does isn’t particularly difficult. Coming to wake me in the morning and staying by my side to serve me until I fall asleep—that’s what a typical exclusive servant does.”
Then would he no longer be able to manage the greenhouse? Though he had wanted to work by the Demon King’s side, he had grown attached to the greenhouse work, so he felt quite regretful.
Beni couldn’t easily ask, worried that asking such a thing would make it seem like he only wanted to do what he liked.
“However, since Beni has the greenhouse management you’ve been doing, you won’t need to be by my side at all times. Though the time you spend working in the greenhouse will decrease.”
Beni’s face immediately brightened.
“Is that really okay?”
“Of course. But if I call for you, I’d like you to come to me as soon as possible.”
“That’s only natural! I’ll come running whenever Your Majesty calls!”
Beni was happy to the point where he wondered if it was a dream. It felt as though his abilities had been recognized by the Demon King to that extent.
Beni, who had been purely delighted, hesitated. Come to think of it, his abilities had never been particularly notable. Ruan liked rabbits, so he hadn’t driven away Beni, who was both a rabbit beastkin and had come as the previous Demon King’s concubine.
Then… was Ruan offering him the exclusive servant position because he was a rabbit?
He had also said there was no need to always be by his side… Of course, having his rabbit form loved was also a happy thing for Beni. He had never once thought he would receive love in that form from anyone.
‘Then what if I, who can only turn into a rabbit, become an exclusive servant and cause trouble?’
Wasn’t greenhouse manager exactly the right position for him? While Beni was lost in thought, Ruan carefully added.
“However, if you become my exclusive servant, you’ll have to move your quarters, Beni.”
“…My quarters?”
This part bothered Ruan as well. Beni seemed to rely on that chimera named Ren and they seemed to get along well, which made him jealous, but he didn’t particularly want to separate them.
However, being the Demon King’s exclusive servant would publicly announce that their relationship had become much more intimate. He couldn’t keep Beni in the Niar Palace quarters, which were relatively easy for outsiders to access. If Beni, who had suddenly become the Demon King’s servant, stayed in quarters full of other servants, there could be internal dangers as well.
Seeing Beni’s face, which seemed to be fluctuating much more drastically than before, what Ruan had resolved wavered easily. Still… he might prefer that chimera over himself.
“It’s not a demand. It’s just a suggestion, so if it’s burdensome, you can refuse, Beni.”
Beni’s mouth moved, but in the end he couldn’t say anything.
Was it because he had poured out tears for the first time in a long while? His pressing eyelids grew heavy and Beni couldn’t overcome the fatigue washing over him. On top of that, when Ruan’s permission fell, quietly whispering that it was okay to sleep, he dozed off. And so, Beni was only able to rouse himself and return to his quarters after midnight.
Ren, who had been awake until that time, fell asleep as if collapsing the moment he saw him.
* * *
The next day, after Beni went to work at the greenhouse and met Ruan again at lunchtime, Ruan didn’t separately bring up the topic of the exclusive servant. Beni also couldn’t speak up first, so the matter of the exclusive servant felt like a midnight dream. Though he couldn’t bring up anything, in truth, in a corner of his heart, lingering attachment flickered subtly like a small ember.
After finishing all his tasks and washing in warm water before returning, Beni asked Ren while fussing with his still-wet hair.
“What kind of people usually serve as His Majesty the Demon King’s exclusive servants?”
The touch of Ren’s hands, which had been carelessly ruffling his hair, stopped. Ren looked at Beni intently, as if puzzled.
“How would I know that?”
“Ah…!”
Beni just nodded with an ‘oops’ feeling, but Ren read the situation first. It felt like his words had come out too bluntly. Ren subtly sat on the edge of the first-floor bed and opened his mouth.
“Well… from what I’ve usually heard, I think I heard it’s often done by children of high-ranking nobles.”
Children of high-ranking nobles. Beni fell into thought for a moment. Though he had sworn before Ruan to abandon his surname, he was also of Count lineage. It’s just that no one in the Count household acknowledged that fact. Some people even thought of Beni as a slave who received somewhat special treatment.
He didn’t even know if the Count household was high-ranking nobility in the first place, but if no one acknowledged it, could it really be considered a noble’s child? Beni himself had never thought of himself as being of Count lineage, but just for now, he felt like he needed that title.
“If it’s the Demon King’s exclusive servant, it’s completely different in class from ordinary servants, so it would probably be cultured, pureblooded demons. Well, that previous Demon King would take anyone as an exclusive servant as long as their face was to his taste. But I think they were almost all nobles.”
Cultured and pureblooded demons. Both conditions felt like high walls Beni couldn’t reach. He had been confined to the mansion and barely learned to read, having received so little education that there was no way he could have culture.
Whether Ruan had offered because he was a rabbit or not, no matter how much Beni thought about it, he felt the position of exclusive servant was too much for him and too heavy a position. Even this peaceful life he was enjoying now was like a dream he couldn’t have imagined just a few months ago for his former self.
Because he absolutely didn’t want to lose it, he was also afraid that if he wished for greater happiness and fortune than this, unbearable misfortune might come instead.
‘Right, let’s abandon any greed beyond this.’
Beni thoroughly buried again the lingering attachment that remained in one corner of his heart. Then he went to Ren’s side and sat on the edge of the bed.
“That must be it, right? Thanks for telling me, Ren.”
“Why? Did the Demon King tell you to be his exclusive servant or something?”
Beni’s shoulders shot up with a start. Without even a chance to hide it, his head nodded rapidly. Ren was truly amazingly quick-witted.
“Then what’s there to agonize over? Just do it. He’s the one who asked you to do it first.”
“…That’s true, but…”
The answer trailed off weakly. Beni’s gaze slowly flowed downward. His fingers, neatly folded on his knees, were unconsciously stroking each other. Whenever Beni was mulling something over, he couldn’t keep his hands still.
“It’s not like I have any particular abilities. Even the greenhouse work now, honestly, if His Majesty hadn’t taken care to install the facilities, I couldn’t have done it alone. I feel like if I get greedier, I’ll just cause trouble for His Majesty…”
His trailing words grew thinner and thinner before eventually fading away. Worry hung at the ends of his drooping eyes.
“What kind of work does an exclusive servant do?”
“Wake His Majesty in the morning… and he said to stay by his side and serve him until he falls asleep.”
Beni himself didn’t know in detail either. He was just fumbling through what he had briefly heard from the Demon King. He couldn’t accurately gauge how much heavier a position exclusive servant was compared to a regular servant. However, that brief explanation seemed to be enough for Ren, as his brow furrowed.
“You have to be by the Demon King’s side all day?”
“Mm-hm, but I don’t know much. Like etiquette and things like that…”
“That’s true. But can’t you learn things like that?”
“…From who?”
