CH 41

The Devil’s Castle always greeted the morning a little later in comparison to other places.

Unlike the people who have been busy moving around since dawn, the gates were opened slowly a little later in the morning, and the people wandering around the castle only noticed one by one. It wasn’t too late then for all the demons to act. There were those who got up from the wind at dawn and went out hunting.

However, that did not mean that the morning of the Devil’s Castle arrived quickly.

After all, the morning of the castle started when the Devil woke up.

[Are you awake, Devil?]

“Um… did you sleep well, Deran?”

I stretched lightly and got up from my bed.

Unlike Deran, who greeted me politely, Derakal next to him was nodding while half asleep.

Deran clicked his tongue and tapped Derakal’s head with his foot.

[It looks like you went out hunting in the early morning. No matter how violently you run, you will fall asleep again as soon as you arrive.]

“Don’t wake him up and leave him alone. It must have been frustrating to hide from the humans while guarding Tina.”

I lightly stroked Derakal’s hair.

I was about to get dressed and go outside, but somehow, the castle sounded noisy.

“Did I oversleep today?”

[You slept a little longer than usual. The princess and the person who came yesterday are already waiting for you downstairs.]

“Oh, right. The prince.”

I remembered Shud, who had entered the castle at dawn yesterday.

“…That picky eater.”

I also remembered the remarks he had made.

Well, I know it’s inevitable.

Unlike Tina, who lived here with me since she was young, the prince probably grew up with only luxurious and delicious food, so the dish that I made must have been bad.

Yeah, I understand.

[Devil.]

I actually cooked poorly, and even Tina cooks better than me.

[Devil?]

The royal family didn’t even teach her how to behave.

Of course, she was embarrassed and apologized after she said something without even realizing it.

[Devil!]

“Oh.”

Only then did I raise my head. While lost in thought, my two legs were moving steadily towards the main hall.

“Sorry, I was thinking about something else. What did you just say?

[Not here, but at the tea table in the garden.]

“What? Why this morning?”

[If you go… you will know.]

I tilted my head and walked towards the garden.

Why in the morning? But, in fact, I knew that it was now closer to lunch than breakfast.

For a noble prince, it was not a strange time to have a cup of tea in the garden.

The reason my face, which had a harsh look while facing the garden with my arms crossed, gradually loosened, was because of the good smell coming from the garden.

To be precise, it smelled delicious.

“A party in the garden…”

The mouth that was salivating playfully stopped.

Far away in the garden, a pretty blonde brother and sister were really having tea with laughter.

It’s a big deal to say it’s a party, but on the garden table, there was a lot of delicious looking food.

“…What’s this?”

“Oh my.”

“The Devil is here!”

The two siblings greeted me with wide smiles. I paused for a moment at the garden in the morning where the warm sunlight was falling, and the two people were smiling brightly at me.

It was a dazzling loveliness that could have been fatal.

I stood there for a moment, closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and walked towards them again.

“You are welcome, Devil. My brother just brought me a freshly grilled steak!”

“Come and eat before it gets cold.”

“Uh huh.”

It was like a picnic on a spring day.

Was the garden of the Devil’s Castle always this cute? It was obviously a place called the Garden of Hell. Today, the flowers here looked like sunflowers instead.

The two of them smiled brightly, so hell looked a lot more like heaven.

Tina pushed me to her seat, and all kinds of food were placed in front of me. They were not expensive and luxurious dishes, but they were delicate enough to show their sincerity.

When I took a bite with a fork, the taste was beyond my imagination.

“Who did all this?”

I had to ask again because I couldn’t believe it at all.

Unless Tina had been to a cooking academy, it’s hard for her cooking skills to rise so suddenly.

Then there was only one option left.

“I did.”

Shud said, gently scratching the back of his neck, as if he was embarrassed.

“Yesterday, I had disgraced the Devil. I made it myself to repay the kindness you showed me yesterday, and I hope it suits your taste.”

“The castle wouldn’t have had the right ingredients.”

“I woke up early in the morning and went grocery shopping in town with Tina. I chose the best ones to suit the Devil’s standards as much as I could, but…”

He put down a steaming apple pie in front of me like he just made it recently.

“Does it suit your taste?”

“I helped him make this pie!”

Tina, who sat next to me, helped. I then ate a piece of the apple pie while their anticipated eyes were shining.

“…Wow. Crazy.”

Warm sweetness and soft yet crispy pastries filled my mouth. Tina’s favorite restaurant has never had a pie as delicious as this.

“How is it? Is it good? How good is it?”

Unlike Shud, who was hesitating to ask for my opinion because he was shy, Tina was beside me demanding for an answer.

Instead of a long explanation, I put a small piece of pie into her mouth. Tina, who had been chewing for a while, soon covered her mouth with her hands. Both of her eyes turned round.

“It’s really good!”

“Right?”

“Are you… “

We had a moment of eye contact with each other. At the same time, she turned her head and looked at Shud. Shud was still red-faced and focused on hiding his embarrassment.

“…I do need someone to cook.”

I led the mood pretending to be bored.

“That’s right. I was worried about how you would be doing alone after I left for the Academy. Well…”

Tina’s eyes squinted at her brother. It was only then that Shud, who began to notice something was suspicious, began to falter back.

“W-why are you doing that? Tina, why are you looking at me like that?”

“…Hmph. I don’t really want to be with you.”

“Really? I’m your family, and the castle of the Devil is huge. I’m a good cook, and I don’t care very much.”

“Well, I can’t help it if the Devil wants it. Instead, I’ll come here after the academy every day to monitor you. Anyways, don’t act ridiculously toward the Devil.”

“What the hell does that mean, Tina?”

A voice filled with resentment echoed.

‘What do you mean, you’re the one who will move in.’

~*~

It was around this time last year that I started sharing letters with Haron.

As expected, Haron had skipped many quests.

I gave him some of the quests that I remember that gave him a lot of fame, or information that often comes into the castle of the Devil.

Since Duke Blake and the Temple tried to restore the value of the fallen Warrior, his situation improved much more quickly.

No, he had a better reputation now than before the Devil’s Castle subjugation incident. Ironically.

[Here’s the letter.]

Sagna threw the letter that he was biting with his beak onto my desk.

[Anne just brought it. It must have been hard going back and forth on long-distance round trips, so she went to rest now.]

“Yes, it is hard.”

[It’s him again, isn’t it? There are so many other guys, why the Warrior?]

“That’s because the Warrior is the most appropriate person for my plan. Isn’t it nice to have mutual assistance?”

I tore the envelope open with a knife and a smile. I was really surprised.

How many of these are there?

There were as many as ten letters pouring out of the envelope. No wonder the envelope was so thick.

I’ve only sent one page. It was a simple letter where I didn’t even fill half of a page because I only wrote what I needed from him.

“It’s always like this anyways.”

It was so like him that I smirked.

No matter how many times we sent Anne in secret, it was only once or twice a month that we sent her with letters because we might get discovered if it was too frequent of an exchange.

‘Do you have that much to say?’

I tilted my head slightly.

My only experience in sending long letters to others in my life was when I had to send a tearful message of protest to the operator because the server suddenly went down while I was raiding a hard level dungeon in the past.

It’s amazing to be able to write such a sincere letter to someone. Not just once, but consistently.

“…It’s not that I don’t like it.”

Haron’s handwriting resembled his beauty, which was remarkable. The content written in his beautiful handwriting was also very smooth.

Nevertheless, I could clearly feel that he wrote every single sentence with all his heart.

[What?]

“Well, the story is roughly as expected.”

I folded the letter back in.

Even in the long story, the important sentences definitely caught my eyes.

“I understand what you are talking about. Everything is done according to Lucia’s will.”

A roar of laughter flowed out from me.

“You are a good listener.”