"Okay, got it. Tell him that as an additional in the reward, when he comes again, I will prepare a meal for him personally. Oh, and tell him I want to buy shells from the ants, the more the better. I'll pay good money for it."
Putting away the communication tool given to him by Sian, the demon lord, Claygramor leaned back in his chair. Putting both hands behind his head, he stretched out his feet and propped them up on the table as he let out a sigh of relief.
Although getting rid of the ants was a few experience points less, Claygramor was still satisfied. Sian getting rid of the ants was better than risking losing some crops as happened last year.
Moreover, since he has acquired some enemies since he took over as lord, he has to be on his guard. If he is careless, he may end up suffering some mishaps while having to deal with the ants.
In preparation for these mishaps, he did some countermeasures and increased the city's guard temporarily. Fortunately, it turned out to be unnecessary.
Sian's presence nearby was something that made Claygramor's subordinates uneasy, but that turned out to be an unnecessary worry. In fact, his presence in the monster forest proved to be quite beneficial.
In the demon continent, although strength reigns and survival of the fittest prevails, if the monsters were to devour everything, the rulers would be left with nothing to govern. This is why the city serves as a fortress to prevent the strong monsters from devastating the smaller villages, but now this was no longer so necessary.
Most of the monsters that could cause trouble were being used as training tools for the girls living in Sian's mansion. Thanks to this, only a few weaklings came out of the forest to trouble, which generated fewer casualties in Claygramor's territory and allowed him to strengthen his territory.
While Claygramor was rejoicing in his good fortune, a woman opened the door to his room and entered.
Her straight silver hair was tied up in a long ponytail. Adding this to her long-sleeved white blouse and pencil skirt gave her a special charm.
But because of her serious face, the three horns on her forehead, her dark brown skin and the huge pair of bat wings on her back, she emanated a menacing presence.
This was Claygramor's secretary and assistant, Sorzaruth or as he likes to call her, Ruth.
"My lord," she bowed briefly and continued, "It is high time we prepared for combat. We need to take more soldiers to the outpost and leave the magical barriers in place."
According to her, the scouts confirmed that the ants were starting to gather in the valley. There is a chance that they will stampede in three or four days, but if they are unlucky, it could happen sooner.
Still relaxed in his chair, Claygramor said, "Your information is a little out of date."
"Does that mean?"
"We won't have to fight the ants this year, Sian has already taken care of that and we only need to pay a tenth of what we would spend if we went to the fight."
Ruth's cold face showed a rare expression of surprise.
"The undefeated king?"
"The very one."
"Why would someone like him do that?"
Her question was understandable, and there were two reasons for it. First, even Claygramor and his army had a hard time dealing with the flood of ants last time and still had several casualties. So why would he bother to face them alone?
Second reason, Sian is not altruistic and also doesn't usually take the initiative to help others, even if it would earn him a lot of gold. If he simply needed money, he would steal from someone.
"I don't know the details," Claygramor replied. "But from what Milka said, they were using the ants for a training session."
The words 'training session' made Ruth's expression falter momentarily as she instinctively swallowed dryly.
As someone who received Sian's training with her, Claygramor understood how she felt.
It was like facing hell on earth.
"I'm curious," Ruth said. "How did you become friends with the undefeated king?"
"How do we know each other, huh?"
"That's right," she said. "He's completely irrational and hard to deal with. I can't imagine how you two met."
This was a story that Claygramor avoided telling, especially if it was to Ruth, since it might displease her.
"You don't want to hear it," he said.
"I'm all ears."
"It's a long story."
"Since we don't have to deal with the ants, I have time."
"To save you time, I'll summarize. It was thanks to you that I ended up meeting him."
"It's very ambiguous, I need details."
"It's a really long story..."
Pulling up a chair, Ruth sat the front of the table, "Proceed."
Trapped and with no option, Claygramor had no choice but to tell.
***
Before reincarnating, Claygramor had a reasonable life, but because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, he was caught in a gunfight. Luckily for him, death was not the end, he found the opportunity to have a new life in Tauphus.
When he awakened his consciousness, he noticed that his appearance and physique were no longer human.
Although his body was still humanoid, his mouth was full of sharp fangs and on the sides of his head he had two short horns.
But he was not the only one like that, there were many with different looks like his.
The region where he was reincarnated was the Phitos continent, also known as the demon continent, which in itself was already self-explanatory.
Although he was initially expecting a life full of hardships, this was not the case. He had good parents and lived a normal life while growing stronger with the help of the system he received from a yellow shadow.
Of course, all the parts related to the system and about his reincarnation were things that Claygramor was omitting when telling his story to Ruth.
When he reached the age where he could protect himself, his parents threw him out of the house, which was not unusual. It was from that moment on that his life really began.
This was the moment when he chose his own name and would walk his path without depending on his parents. Until then, he was known as the second son of Mabalot, his father.
As he did not want to forget his origins, he used his old name as a basis to create his new name. In this way, Cleiton Grado de Moraes became Claygramor.
Over the years and through his travels, he met even more different races. In the midst of his travels, he met his soul mate, Serina.
She was a rabbit girl, literally, her appearance was like that of a humanoid rabbit.
Strange as it may seem, he was not very repulsed by it, in fact, as a fan of furries, this was a factor that amplified his love for her even more.
But everything went wrong when the lesbian demon lord set her eyes on her beloved and took her away from him.
Although he didn't have many complaints about his new life, the place where he lived had a simple rule, the stronger rules and the weaker obeys. If he wanted to get his beloved back to his side, he had to challenge the demon lord.
To accomplish this feat, he had to be strong, much stronger.
Even though he trained regularly to get stronger with the help of the system, he never went to the extreme of hunting monsters for days on end in order to increase his level.
Although he was only 17 at the time, his strength was enough to beat those who were much older than him. Because of this, he just hoped to strengthen himself safely and gradually. Following this line of thought, he credited that in a few more years, his strength would reach the desired heights.
However, the situation that hit him did not allow him to follow his long-term plans. Therefore, he was currently training on the outskirts of the monster forest, the most dangerous place in the region.
Unfortunately, since he wasn't strong enough, he couldn't go deep where there had an abundance of monsters. But without being able to go deeper, he couldn't get stronger any faster. If he was careless, he could die even though he was only on the outskirts of the forest.
In any case, he could not die, otherwise his beloved would live in the arms of another against her will for the rest of her life.
Taking a wooden bowl made by his beloved from the inventory, Claygramor took the ladle and began to pour himself the black beans he had prepared.
"That smells good."
Startled by the voice that spoke next to him, Claygramor jumped back and faced the unexpected visitor.
"W-Where did you come from?" Claygramor shouted.
The Claygramor race has a special feature in its horns. They work like a kind of radar, so nothing can get close without being noticed.
However, this fellow was so close, but was only discovered when he spoke. That meant two things, either he was very strong, or he was good at concealment. But since he didn't even give Claygramor a glance after showing himself, it was likely that he was the former.
The unwelcome visitor was a well-dressed young man with a red bird on his shoulder.
"Hmm, although it smells good, it seems to be made with innards..." the young man said while looking at the contents of the bowl in his hands.
Strangely enough, in the young man's hands was a wooden bowl just like the one Claygramor's beloved had given him.
"That's normal around here, master."
Right next to the young man was a busty cowkin girl.
The addition of the new visitor made Claygramor even more alert, since he had not noticed her standing next to the young man.
Facing the two of them, Claygramor noticed something strange and looked at his own hands.
His bowl was gone!
To be more specific, his bowl and the ladle ended up in the young man's hands without him realizing it.
While Claygramor was alertly looking from one side to the other wondering what to do, the cowkin girl interrupted the young man who was about to serve himself.
"Master, eating other people's food is rude."
But as if he hadn't heard the girl, he filled the bowl and tasted the beans.
"It's much better than I expected," the young man said.
"Really?" Seeming surprised at the young man's reaction, she took the bowl from his hands. "Let me taste it too."
Despite telling the young man that this was rude, the girl turned the bowl over in her mouth.
"It's delicious!" she said.
"Hey, that's my plate," the young man took the bowl from the girl's hands.
Although Claygramor wanted to shout that the plate was his, he chose to remain silent.
"Ah!" as if she had remembered something, the girl turned to Claygramor and bowed slightly. "Excuse me~~"
Then, as if they owned the food, the two approach the pot that was on the fire and begin to serve themselves.
Seeing that the two didn't seem to be paying attention to him, Claygramor prepared to flee.
"Where are you going?"
The instant he turned around, the girl called out to him.
"I-I was thinking of giving you two more privacy," Claygramor said politely for fear of angering them both.
"Don't be shy," the girl said. "Come and help yourself too, there's plenty for everyone."
Although angered by the blatant words, all Claygramor could think about was how to get out of this situation alive. But to his misfortune, despite his insistence on leaving the two of them alone, this did not happen.
As if he were a child who refused to eat, the girl dragged him to the pot, making him serve himself and sit down to eat with them.
This was without a doubt one of the strangest encounters Claygramor has ever had in his life.