Ruan hadn’t given any hint about the guest coming to this morning’s breakfast. Had His Majesty forgotten to mention it?
When Beni could only blink without saying anything, the Head Chef, as if he’d expected as much, told him to go ahead and walked toward the back of the kitchen.
Beni belatedly remembered the Demon King’s words that he would be joining him for breakfast going forward, but he wasn’t a guest.
Besides, the kitchen had long since become noisy with breakfast preparations, so Beni ended up leaving for the dining room entrance without saying anything.
While Beni waited quietly outside the dining room door for the Demon King to arrive, the demons passing nearby all glanced at him. The castle was incredibly large and overflowing with workers, so only a few people had known Beni when he was a servant.
However, since yesterday, there wasn’t a soul who didn’t know his name, so they whispered among themselves while sneaking glances at Beni. Beni also felt those gazes and wondered nervously if he was doing something wrong.
“Oh? Beni-ssi!”
He ran into Yuri, who was carrying baskets full in both hands. Beni’s expression brightened at the familiar face. Yuri forgot all about her errand and approached Beni, marveling at his changed appearance.
“My goodness, I almost didn’t recognize you! I heard you became His Majesty’s personal attendant? They say not just anyone can be a personal attendant—I’m worried I might have been rude to such an important person all this time.”
At Yuri’s worried words, Beni quickly waved both hands in denial.
“No, no, not at all! I’m still just me. You don’t need to worry about that.”
“How kind of you. Still, now that you’re working in the main palace, we’ll be able to see each other often.”
Yuri kept marveling inwardly as she looked at Beni’s refined, young nobleman-like appearance. She’d known he was outstanding-looking to begin with, but he’d always worn shabby servant clothes, so seeing him in these clothes made him look completely different.
Just as Yuri had completely forgotten her errand and was chatting away, a deep shadow fell across both their faces.
“Beni.”
The low voice was somehow chilling.
Yuri looked up to the side and turned deathly pale at the Demon King’s menacing expression. She hastily bowed at the waist and then backed away until she disappeared. All while praying inwardly that Beni would please be safe.
“Ah, Your Majesty. You’re here!”
“If you’re my personal attendant, you should only pay attention to me, Beni.”
Ruan’s sulky reprimand flew at him. Only then did Beni realize his mistake. A personal attendant had to maintain dignity and refrain from conversation even when the master wasn’t present.
“I’m sorry! I’ll be careful from now on!”
At the immediate apology, Ruan’s mood lifted right away. Beni, who had bowed and straightened, pushed open the dining room door and guided the Demon King to the seat the Head Chef had told him about. Since he came at a regular time, the Head Chef and servants were already out quietly bowing. Whether this Demon King disliked commotion, the Captain of the Royal Guard had once come to tell them to only bow when greeting.
Beni went to the head seat of the long banquet table and silently lifted the back legs of the chair to pull it out for Ruan to sit comfortably.
“Please sit, Your Majesty.”
However, Ruan didn’t sit. Instead, he picked Beni up and sat him in that chair, then pulled over a chair from the other side and sat next to him. When Beni looked at him in confusion, Ruan propped his chin on his hand and twisted his body toward Beni as he said,
“We agreed to eat together from now on.”
“Ah…!”
Beni understood, but most of those in the dining room, including the Head Chef, couldn’t help but be dumbfounded at the sight. The only servant next to the Head Chef who wasn’t surprised whispered quietly.
“See? I told you he does that…”
It was one of the servants who had always taken formal dinners to the greenhouse. When the stunned servants didn’t set the table, Ruan, who had been grinning, glanced once at the Head Chef. The killing intent contained in that brief moment was dizzying, and only then did everyone come to their senses and set the table.
* * *
While Beni was adapting well as Ruan’s personal attendant, Ren’s face was turning red and blue with anger as he fumed in his room.
“Get out, get out! Why the hell is your kind coming here!”
Despite the angry shouting, the person sprawled out on the first-floor bed didn’t move an inch, only wiggling his toes before responding irritably.
“You’re going to burst my eardrums. For a half-breed bastard, you’ve got a loud voice.”
It was Pepe. Not long after Beni left, the servant who had been sharing a room with Pepe ended up leaving the castle. Recently, as servants who were children of noble families left, the servants who had come with them also left the castle, causing many personnel changes.
Because of that, personnel were naturally redistributed to the servant quarters as well. Of course, this only applied to ordinary servants, and if it had been Tallos managing Niar Palace, he would never have done something so horrible as putting him and Pepe in the same room. Even before Beni came, Tallos had understood his situation of being discriminated against by other servants and had specially let him use quarters alone.
There must have been some kind of mistake in between.
“This doesn’t make any sense… Fuck, it doesn’t make sense…”
Ren turned away from Pepe, who was already lying sprawled out, with a look like he’d lost his mind. He had to go tell Tallos about this. Sleeping with Pepe, of all people—even if they were the only two left in this demon realm, it absolutely couldn’t happen.
The moment he tried to walk toward the door, Pepe sat up abruptly and grabbed Ren’s tail. It didn’t hurt, but just the fact that Pepe had touched his tail gave him goosebumps.
“Let go.”
Ren frowned and swished his tail, ending up hitting the back of Pepe’s hand with a thwack. Despite the stinging pain, Pepe showed no particular reaction and just rubbed the back of his hand.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to Tallos. To tell him to take you back. Tallos must have misunderstood something.”
“Not at all?”
Pepe shrugged his shoulders. At the look that suggested he knew something, Ren glared at him, and Pepe added while fiddling with Ren’s book,
“I’m the one who said I’d share this room.”
Ren froze for a while. Because he couldn’t understand at all what he’d just heard. Only after quite some time had passed did Ren ask back,
“Why the fuck would you say something like that?”
Ren looked at Pepe with eyes that truly didn’t understand, and Pepe answered while slightly averting his gaze.
“…Just because.”
“Huh?”
And so Ren and Pepe became roommates.
* * *
Beni’s daily routine after becoming a personal attendant became much more relaxed than when he was a servant. In the morning, he followed by Ruan’s side and occasionally did tasks he requested, ate lunch in the greenhouse as before, then managed the greenhouse as usual. Then when 5 PM came, Ruan would come over to where he was and spend teatime with simple refreshments.
Ruan held meetings with the lords of each region about once a week. During these times, because of the order to stay in the greenhouse all day if possible, Beni had no choice but to stay in the greenhouse until the meeting ended that day.
He wondered if, as a personal attendant, he shouldn’t be by Ruan’s side, but he just resolved to work harder, thinking it was probably because he was still inexperienced, and didn’t get too depressed about it.
And the High Priest visited the castle more often than expected. When that happened, Ruan seemed subtly in a bad mood. More precisely, he looked annoyed.
“Ah… nothing to do either. Coming and going from the castle like it’s his own house, that damned old man.”
Ruan sprawled on the greenhouse couch and muttered as if lamenting. Beni looked at Ruan sympathetically and poured warm tea into his empty cup. It was tea steeped from herbs Beni had grown a few days ago.
“You’ve worked hard, Your Majesty.”
Ruan, who had been sprawled against the backrest like a blanket, glanced at Beni. Even when told to sit, Beni insisted he had to stand when pouring tea, so he stood next to Ruan.
Since he’d been in the greenhouse all day, Beni was wearing the greenhouse work clothes he’d been separately supplied. With overalls that covered up to his chest and a checkered shirt underneath, Beni looked exactly like a farmer rabbit.
It’s a problem that everything looks good on him. Ruan spread his arms and murmured to Beni.
“Beni, comfort me.”
While saying that, he tapped his thigh with one hand.
