Vol. 2 Chapter 2: Demons (Part 2)

He separated from them after entering the castle. For now, he needed to speak with the castle administrator to schedule a meeting for tomorrow and have all the five dread lords gather. If Rytus alone announced it, not everyone would take him seriously.

However, there was one problem, the administrator was not an easy person to approach. Therefore, he would need to schedule the meeting through the administrator’s secretary. The good thing was that she was pretty easy to find.

He entered the room through a pair of big doors and what greeted him were books upon books placed on numerous shelves. The thing was, this secretary always used her free time to read books. In fact, it made him wonder if she had read the entirety of the library.

He was quite confident that he would find her at the current time since mostly the administrator had no work to do that required her help, so the assistant would end up stuck here. Stuck but enjoying it to a high degree.

After searching around the library, it was as he had expected, she was here, he had found her by a table where stacks of books were placed.

“Isn’t that a lot?”

He said to her as he approached.

The girl turned her eyes to look at him. Behind the round glasses were pretty red-violet eyes. Her glasses bore no distortion which implied they were only there for aesthetics — her words. She started wearing those when she saw a human wear one and she ended up being interested in eyeglasses in terms of fashion.

She had short yellow-green hair that reached above her shoulders. To the sides of her head were her furry elongated triangular ears almost resembling those of a wolf, and they were all slanted down making her look innocently cute.

She had a short and petite stature which made her appear to be younger than her true age. She wore a dark blue suit and a black short skirt, with dark gloves covering her hands. Her socks almost reached her knees and she wore long boots.

She truly gave off an innocent and cute demeanor.

“Rytus, you have returned.”

“Yeah, I have an urgent matter to report.”

“Is that so? Then… Can you please help me put these on the shelves?”

He wanted to sigh, he would prefer not to deal with books this many. However, he didn’t want to displease this girl.

“... Alright… where do you want to bring these?”

“I have a new shelf created, please follow me.”

Rytus gathered all the books in his arms, it covered his view so he would have to shift his head to the side. They were thick and heavy, a normal human would have struggled a lot, but it was a different case for demons.

“Arin, don’t tell me these are a new supply of books.”

He said as he followed the girl named Arin.

“It is. We obtained it thanks to our human suppliers. Human books are quite interesting and wonderful. If only demons would create even a few.”

These books were not demon-made but of humans. In fact, almost all of the books in the library were human-made. Some were confiscated in the far past when demons overtook this land and most they obtained from beyond their lands.

Demons after all were not generally a race that did a lot of literature, unlike humans that always had a number of books created every year. That fact was what Arin disliked about the demon race, and she was quite open about her fondness for human creations, especially books.

Demons had no qualms about humans, nor were they disgusted by them. For them, humans were just like another and any other race in this world. That was why a person like Vezeres was also fond of human women — since a lot of demon women were not exactly a favorable bunch.

In short, they appreciate the existence of humanity. But of course, that didn’t mean they could co-exist and be peaceful to each other. Well, demons in particular didn’t want to equally stand with humans, and that was what made humans afraid and wary of them.

Demons were violent in nature and always wanted to conquer and expand their domain. That in turn always resulted in warfare. Perhaps that was just the way they were made by their creator.

The demon race must rule.

“Huh, you must have spent a fortune.”

“Vezeres was kind enough to give me some money.”

Rytus chuckled at hearing that.

“What a generous man.”

“Don’t sound so sarcastic, he is a generous man.”

“Yes yes.”

A short while later they arrived at an empty bookshelf. Rytus carefully put down the books since he didn’t want to damage anything and anger Arin. She wasn’t exactly a threatening demon. It’s just like, it was scary to anger a person who was always quiet and behaved.

He then placed the book on the shelf with Arin.

“So, what is it that you want?”

“I would like to assemble a meeting tomorrow, all dread lords present.”

“Must be very important then.”

“I’ll brief you tomorrow.”

“Alright then, what about before nightfall?”

Rytus wanted it to be in the morning, but if she set it at that schedule, then it must not be easy to have others attend that early. With no other choice, he had to accept it.

“I think that’s fine, whenever everyone is available. I just prefer not to waste a lot of time.”

“I understand, I will work on it immediately after finishing this.”

“Very reliable, thanks.”

***

Later that night after having his dinner, a female servant wearing a maid’s outfit was leading him to his room. She had red skin and black hair with orange eyes. Like Rytus, she was also an imp but only in her partial transformation.

“Sir Rytus, we have arrived.”

“Yeah, it was being maintained while I'm gone, right?”

The maid chuckled. “You have no need to worry about that.”

“Good, good. Thanks.”

He entered inside after thanking the maid whom he was familiar with. He had a royal bed inside his room with a shelf filled with books. A bright chandelier hanging from the ceiling. An incredibly luxurious room completely contrasting the normal homes outside the castle.

But demons generally had no great desire for a luxurious abode, the dread lords were just an exception since they needed to show they were above the hierarchy, and this would also be a home for their god.

He took in a deep breath, this was home. When he looked closely at the shelf of books, he noticed there were a few new books placed upon it. He pulled out one and given the written language, it was from humans.

He of course understood human writing as someone who worked in the human lands and had lived for a long time. If he didn’t even understand human writing, he wouldn’t have been given the task to infiltrate the land of humans. Furthermore, Rytus was one of the smarter demons as one who studied plenty of things.

Other demons you see, were not even that bright, some couldn’t even read their own demon writings. Everyone who resides in the castle was all educated — well, with the exception of most common foot soldiers since they have no need to operate inside, working on papers and such.

Rytus returned the book to the shelf, as he was mentally tired, he had no intention to read for the time being. He was not fond of serious reading anyway, he just often did it to pass the time.

He opened his closet and changed his clothes.

After that, he laid down comfortably on the bed.

“Aaaah, wonderful.”

He immersed himself in the exquisite softness of the bed and pillows, unlike the cheap inns of the humans where he had to stay with his companions.

He placed his hand at the back of his head and heaved a long sigh then closed his eyes.

As he was getting relaxed and comfortable, he heard a loud roar echoing from afar. He sprang up from his bed and instantly went for the window. After opening it, he squinted his eyes towards the direction of the sound.

“Haaah.”

As he expected, that loud roar was coming from a massive creature with wide wings, illuminated by the faint light of the moon piercing through the dark clouds. Rytus was familiar with it as well as all other demons.

It was a fearsome creature with red scales covering its body and a pair of wide wings on each of its sides, a long tail extending from behind it, it was being called a dragon.

Threatening it may appear, it was not an enemy of the demons. This occasionally happens. Every time that dragon felt bored, it would often stretch its wings and fly around at night.

At the moment, fire breathes out from the dragon’s mouth, lighting up the night sky.

Hm, at least this time it isn’t burning a few demons.

With that in mind, he closed the windows and returned to bed.

He didn’t care if a few demons got killed outside the city. It didn’t matter much to him anyway if a couple of demons died because of that dragon. He had no luxury to worry about strangers.