The Demon King's Ingredients
1213 Words
"Little Ti?"
Three seconds after Ira softly called out, a cute figure gradually appeared in front of him, kneeling on one knee as they gazed at Ira, who was reading a book.
Through the training ground, Ti had sensed Ira's call through the Virtual Realm and instantly appeared before him. The entire process took just three seconds.
As usual, it felt like being a servant was really a waste of talent.
Ti kept waiting for Ira’s instructions, but after a long pause, when Ira didn’t speak, the succubus finally lifted his head, noticing Ira just staring at him.
His face immediately turned red.
"I'm sorry, I was just wondering... with your natural talent for traveling through the Virtual Realm, I was curious if your mana is different from that of an ordinary succubus."
Noticing Ti's face turning red, Ira quickly apologized, realizing how easily his words could be misinterpreted. He moved behind Ti, looking at the slightly stiff male succubus, and said, "Please don't resist."
Ira immediately noticed how his words could be misunderstood and hurriedly explained before Ti could come up with any other ideas. "What I mean is, I need to touch your monster traits and extract a bit of your mana."
As soon as Ira finished speaking, he reached out and grabbed Ti's tail.
"Mm~?" Ti let out a surprised sound, and Ira ignored it, extracting the mana before immediately letting go. He pretended not to notice Ti’s flushed face, not thinking about how the other felt at that moment.
Ira focused on the mana flowing through the wing pillars. It seemed there was no noticeable difference—whether stored in any wing pillar, the mana was the same as any other succubus.
"Little Ti?"
"Yes!"
"Where's Selina?"
Ti paused at Ira’s question, then immediately faded into the virtual space, reappearing about six seconds later, saying, "She's in the kitchen, discussing ingredients with Mr. Lime."
"Thanks. You can continue with your tasks."
Ira said this and immediately left the room. He had started to appreciate how useful his servants were—though it was only little Ti so far.
Virtual Realm Travel truly was a convenient ability.
"Hahhoo" Ti took a deep breath, trying to calm the fluttering in his chest. He rubbed the spot on his tail where Ira had grabbed him, his body slowly becoming transparent as he vanished from the room.
To be honest, the feeling of mana being extracted was... particularly unique for a succubus.
The kitchen door wasn’t closed, and as Ira reached it, he could hear Lime’s voice, tinged with frustration.
"The small slime reports that our food reserves are severely depleted."
"It’s still enough to feed the Demon King's castle, but the residents in the Demon King’s territory have no surplus food left. Eggs, milk, sheep's milk, and meat are almost entirely gone!"
From Lime's words, it seemed he wasn’t just the head chef of the castle but that his slimes were also involved in the cooking for the entire territory, not just reserving a portion for the residents.
However, one thing stood out in his words—despite the apparent rationing, it seemed the demon residents were able to eat meat... which struck Ira as unusual.
! This was a godly place?
Ira was shocked. If it were the Empire, even the poorest peasants or slaves would be incredibly grateful if they could get a piece of white bread given to them by nobles. But here in the Demon King's territory, the demons could eat meat?
"Not only that, the only vegetables left are carrots. The portion reserved for the castle is also limited to carrots and cloud lettuce. Meat, eggs, and milk need to be rationed, so the residents of the Demon King’s territory will only be able to eat blue fungus and carrots from now on, at least until the caravan arrives in six days."
It sounded like Lime was on the verge of losing his mind. The Demon King's territory was now in a state where the main food was blue fungus, carrots were abundant, but everything else was in short supply.
But the real issue was... they actually cared about the residents of the territory.
Ira squinted his eyes as he thought. He couldn’t help but feel a little more fond of the Demon King’s territory. Such care, even if motivated by "taking care of one’s property," still felt nice.
The caravan arriving in six days?
If a nation’s food supply depended on caravans, it would suggest an unhealthy structure.
But actually, that didn’t seem to be the case. The food was sufficient—what was lacking was variety. In Ira's old world, many countries were both major food exporters and importers to maintain food diversity.
But in this world, at least in the Empire, there was no need to import food.
The dwarves constantly had to import food because they couldn't grow many types of crops, but that wasn’t the issue here.
Moreover, if the Demon King controlled the area, the various races and territories under their control would generally pay taxes in the form of produce. And as long as there was no war, there would be stable trade routes with the elves, dwarves, and orcs. So there should be no need to wait for caravans to come.
But what if the caravans didn’t carry enough food for trade?
It seemed they could probably just feed the demons in the Demon King’s territory blue fungus.
If they were humans, dropping from a high-quality lifestyle to a low one could lead to rebellions. But with the demons' inexplicable loyalty, unless their own leader rebelled, they would obediently starve if necessary.
That was the nature of the race.
The leaders of the various races in the Demon King’s territory, like the ones Ira saw at court, didn’t seem like the type to rebel. So there was no need to worry.
Ira felt that for now, the residents could probably tough it out.
"This is indeed a dire situation," Selina said seriously. "I’ll report this to the Demon King. It seems we need to prioritize forming a hunting team, and I’ll bring it up in tomorrow's meeting."
"I understand," Lime responded, then seemed to remember something. "When can we start using the fertilizer Mr. Ira provided? What do you expect next season’s harvest to look like?"
Unfortunately, Selina didn’t have a clear answer. She walked toward the kitchen while responding, "I'm not sure, but next season... at the latest, the season after next, we should see much better harvests."
Hearing this, Lime seemed relieved. "Please thank Mr. Ira on my behalf... no, I’ll thank him personally later."
"All of the Demon King’s territory should be grateful... to Lord Ira?"
As Selina walked out of the kitchen, she was surprised to see Ira waiting outside. After a moment of hesitation, she quickly regained her composure, curtsied, and asked, "Good afternoon, Lord Ira. Are you here to see Mr. Lime?"
"No, I’m here to see you."
Ira answered bluntly, "Let me touch your tail."
"..."
"Huh?"
"No, that's not what I meant. Please give me some of your mana."
As Selina blushed and voiced her surprise, Ira calmly corrected himself—though even he realized that his request sounded somewhat strange.
- Writer
