Volume 1 - CH 4.7

“Hahahaha, they have sunk into a slave mentality! They deserve to be my livestock throughout their life, never to escape. After your work until noon, you will again be fed and rested more than you can comply with, remember? Be prepared for all of this from now on, okay?“

“Three times… Having meals given three times a day. It’s as if I am living out a fairy tale.”

“To let the kids eat their full throughout their childhood. My mom and I would satisfy ourselves with just a single meal a day.”

“We used to work so hard that we would continue to work in the fields without knowing how to sleep.” 

“Fa-Ha-Ha! If you were to diminish in numbers due to hunger and overwork, it would reduce my assets. My wealth WILL NEVER REDUCED! I don’t allow that to happen! Never! You will work for me forever and ever, unallowed to die without my permission. Live and serve me indefinitely. As for me? I only need to pay you minimum wage, got it? Oh, how wicked Demon King I am!”

“I am given proper food, shelter, and even paid for what I do!”

“Even though our king and nobles would just make us work to the bone, not even bothering to pay us a single copper coin.”

“Rather, they would take away the already scarce produce through tax and what not…”

“Please, Demon King! We implore you! Please tear down our country from its very roots!”

“Please turn our country, our kids, and wives; turn everyone into your livestock!”

“We implore you, My Lord!”

“Master Kengo!”

[TL: this brought me to tears somehow lol.]

“Hahahahahaha! How incompetent and incapable people are these! Of all people, to think that out of everything, you would want to sell the very souls of your family to this Demon King! However, that is fine. They will surely be bought at the highest bid! Fuhahahahahahaha!”

Thank you very much, our Demon King!°

“Master Kengo!”

—And so, Kengo had made sure to provide them with the minimum benefits possible, and with it, the right to their lives.

In fact, he wanted to treat them without such theatrical intricacies, but the role of Demon King got in the way of doing so.

He made sure to laugh loud enough, but due to this, his stomach and lungs ached again this morning.

The eyes of the maidservants and the demon soldiers were all over him, watching him all the time. There was also a sign and feeling that someone was watching over him from somewhere afar. Thus, he had no choice but to continue to act like that.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

And indeed, there was someone who was watching the ‘The Demon King’s feeding routine’ using the far-sight spell.

It was the Demon General of Sloth, the beardy-dandy with an M-shaped moustache, Beruhara.

Inside the Demon King’s castle, in one of the rooms dedicated to vassals was the Grand Duke of Belphegor, Beruhara, who was lying down on top of the chaise lounge.

While everyone was awake long before, this fellow… never got up until he had business to attend to.

Even breakfast… needed to be put into his mouth like a baby who needs to be fed. 

The very definition of Sloth. 

That very Beruhara was now,

“To think he would go attend personally, every morning, just to feed some cattle. Really, what a strange Majesty we have this time.”

He chewed his food lying down while continuously looking down at the scene where Kengo was feeding the cattle with his magical eyes and commenting on it. 

In spite of being exasperated by Kengo’s behaviour, his tone was imbued with a strong sense of respect. 

Beruhara was a man who couldn’t even bother to move his own body, but that didn’t mean he minded using his brain for the same. Rather, he was a man who was very passionate about using his wisdom to make his life easier, lazier and even more comfortable than it already was.  

That very Beruhara was now lost in thought, trying to find the answer to his contemplations.

“Compared to us demons, the human race is extremely vulnerable. Then why is it that after so many years going by, we are yet to conquer and inhabit the human world completely?”

“Yes, Beruhara-sama. It’s because of the intervention of the hated Heavenly Emperor at every crucial time. The angels that he dispatches are formidable foes whose strength is in no way inferior to ours.”

The sweet voice which answered his question was a skeleton that was also feeding Beruhara by spooning food into his mouth.

“Also, the mutants who call themselves braves, even if they are mostly humans, possess an unconquerable power and pose a threat against us. They are like a bone stuck in our mouths… It wasn’t only once or twice that Our Majesties were attacked and assassinated by them. It was due to them that our great invasion strategy could never achieve success,” answered another skeleton while massaging the top of Beruhara’s head.

The living room was full of servants, all of whom were at least a Greater Skeletons without exception.

They were powerful undead that Beruhara himself had brought back to life with his signature necromancy magic. 

A close friend of his, Demon Levi, even once recommended, “AT LEAST A CUTE AND LOVELY GIRL ATTENDANT!” with tears in his eyes, yet, for Beruhara, he found it troublesome to recreate the genitalia of said undead brought to life. [EN: Bruh.]

He also thought that, since they were the undead that he personally resurrected, they would never betray him, so he had no worries of being betrayed or backstabbed.

A true sloth.