I walk through the beautiful corridors, they are so detailed that I can call them a work of art, even a museum falls short of the beauty of this castle.
The dark tone on the outside is different from the lighter tone inside, although there is still a gothic theme on the inside, this theme is lighter, which makes the view comfortable.
I see as I walk through the corridors that there are many servants.
"Elena, didn't you say we didn't have many servants by culture?"
"Yes, but Your Majesty cannot have too few servants in your castle, and it takes many people to keep the castle running, it is also important to always have servants to attend to Your Majesty."
"Which rooms do you consider most important in the castle?"
"It would be the rooms in the order: Your Majesty's bedroom, the Throne Room, the Treasury, and the Meeting Room."
"...Do we have a Treasury room?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, it currently has a large number of items, accessories, weapons, and precious minerals, as well as a large amount of money and gold."
"But I don't have any of that..." Technically, I'm kind of poor since everything I have comes from things I'm gaining, mainly things that Elena gives me.
"Everything I have is Yours, naturally the mansion's treasury also belongs to Your Majesty, and we also obtained some things from dungeons, assassinations, robberies, looting, and other things we did in human cities."
"Since I didn't have much to spend, I ended up accumulating a lot to the point where it had no use, many noble demons also have a vast accumulated treasury that they don't use."
"How do you manage to accumulate so much?" Now I'm doubtful, I didn't see the treasury, but it's obvious that the amount of things there is absurdly large, I say this considering that Elena said she accumulated enough to have no more use, the same Elena said that this huge castle is small.
"Many noble demons simply accumulate because they have nothing to spend it on, unlike humans who waste their money on futile attempts to show off in their insignificant lives."
"In demons, especially nobles, we have a high life expectancy, so naturally everything we obtain we keep, and over decades, centuries, and millennia, these treasures tend to only increase."
So they don't spend much, and the money just keeps increasing, so during all that time it's obvious why it just keeps increasing.
"So what about servant's pay?"
"I don't understand?"
"...You don't pay the servants? How do they accept staying?"
"I think Your Majesty is considering what you've learned from books about human culture, the servants actually see this as a great opportunity to change their lives."
"No matter how bad a master is to his servants, he still offers protection from the outside world, demons are very competitive and destructive, naturally based on the law of the strongest."
"That's why weaker demons tend to have difficult lives, to the point where being tortured in the mansion of a noble is sometimes better than living on the streets, and the greater the prestige of the demon, the more honored the servant is."
"Servants don't need money, because everything they need and want is given to them by their master, usually when they want something, it is passed on to the head maid, and if approved, what they want is bought."
"So demons don't have laws?" Now going out on the street seems super dangerous, not that I would be under threat, but it doesn't change the fact that the streets seem to have this aspect of danger.
"We have laws, but they are much more lenient based on the hierarchy, for example, if a noble demon decided to capture another demon from the street and use him as a lab rat, there would be no problem as long as he didn't exceed the limits by capturing a large amount."
What Elena says makes me think that the demonic society is extremely chaotic, but if it still exists, it means that somehow they really manage to make this ideology work.
"In the future, we will give Your Majesty classes on our culture."
"Wait, since you said the society functions with the law of the strongest, that means even if I kill other demons or even noble demons, nothing will happen to me?"
"Correct, Your Majesty is our king, the absolute top of the demons, for most demons it would be an honor if Your Majesty decided to spend your time to kill them personally."
'I think this is just Elena's distorted view speaking...' I don't think demons would like to be killed by me, I don't see how anyone would like to be killed, but it is still a fact that no law applies to me, I am the law itself.
We are still walking and now I just want to sit down, this castle is so big that the idea of walking to the throne room now seems bad.
"Elena, I'll go ahead." With the Dance of Shadows, I can teleport to shadows of places I've already been, but I can also teleport to shadows in the environment.
Luckily, we are close to the throne room, so I use the shadows of the throne to move.
[Dance of Shadows]
Not having to speak to activate the ability is very convenient, as soon as I think of the ability and that I want to use it, I just need to put in magic and it activates, then I enter my shadow and come out in the shadow of the throne.
I walk elegantly and sit on the throne, it's a bit too big for me, I see that there are 4 people kneeling with their heads bowed, as if waiting for my presence.
"GREETINGS YOUR MAJESTY" They speak in unison, still with their heads bowed, I notice that they are 3 women and one man.
"You may rise...and introduce yourselves..."
'These must be the servants that Elena spoke of, so they are all noble demons.'
"I am Thalor Windrider, an Oni from the Windrider family, and I swear my loyalty to Your Majesty." He is a large man, his skin is dark as if he's been heavily tanned, on his head he has two small white horns that match his black hair, his clothes are somewhat out of place because they remind me of a general, in my mind Thalor seems like someone who would look good in beachwear and a Hawaiian shirt.
"I am Kaelith Duskmantle, a Homunculus, and I swear my loyalty to Your Majesty." My copy, the homunculus created in my image to stay in the realm.
"I am Freya Frostfall, an Ice Demon, and I swear my eternal loyalty to Your Majesty." A beautiful demon with pale skin and platinum white hair, with sky blue eyes like the clear sky after a snowstorm, her clothes are a beautiful white dress.
"Calypso Crimson, I am an Elemental Demon, and I swear to be eternally loyal to Your Majesty until the day of my death." She has a very... voluptuous body, very large breasts, super sensual curves, fiery red hair, fair skin, and a scaly tail that reminds me of a dragon, while on her head she has two medium-sized horns. Her outfit is a dress that shows a lot, to the point where they could call her a pervert if she went out wearing it.
"All of you, raise your heads...I accept your loyalty..."
I'm not too sure what I should say, until I notice the girl named Kaelith.
'She is... the Grand Duchess...' the girl is very similar to me, almost an exact copy except for the angelic halo and tail, I don't know how they made such a well-made homunculus but she is perfect...or almost.
Her aura is so insignificant, I don't know why but I feel this, compared to the others she seems a bit out of place with the environment, and that alone makes her completely different from me.
However, in her gaze I see deep admiration when she looks at me, I use my eyes to see the feelings, they all have the color that demonstrates loyalty, but the color that Kaelith has is also covered by a deep pink color along with a dark red, a mixture of the two colors, with a dark touch.
"Kaelith..." I start to speak to her, as soon as I call her name, she opens a huge smile, and it's so strange to see her, when I saw her in the human realm she was so cold and indifferent, I'm probably the "Idol" that she has and cannot be insulted.
"Answer honestly...what do you feel for me?" I don't know why, but this color is strange.
"I love Your Majesty, Your Majesty is my everything, I've always looked forward to meeting you, I've loved you since the moment I was born, I wish Your Majesty had my all..."
I simply ignore, she starts rambling about how she loves me, I've already understood very well what her colors represent, the others look at her with disdain as if she were disgusting.
Although the fact that she is saying that she would like to bear my children is a bit bizarre when she has such a big smile, what would a child between me and her be? She is a homunculus, as far as I know a form of artificial life.
Can she even have children? Besides, we are both women, how the hell would I get her pregnant?
"SHUT UP" Freya yells at Kaelith, who doesn't stop talking about love, honestly I was thinking of hitting Kaelith when the topic suddenly shifted to Kaelith saying that as soon as she had children, she could make sure that all of us had... a "Night Together".
In addition to wanting to have children with me, she wants me to have children with my own children, although I strangely don't find the idea disgusting, I still find it very inappropriate for her to say that, what kind of servant talks this way to their own king, although I know I asked her to be honest, I didn't expect that much honesty.
"B-But Your Majesty asked what I felt" Kaelith complains to Freya. Now it's more than obvious why it's difficult to control demons, if they act this way in front of their king, imagine how they don't act normally?
"It's okay Freya, and Kaelith, that's enough explanation...although it doesn't make much sense how we could have a child? We're both women."
"O-Of course we could have a child, Your Majesty, y-you just need to..." Calypso buries Kaelith's head in the ground.
"I'm sorry about that, Your Majesty...I hope you can forgive this mistake, Kaelith is... a bit difficult to handle, but she loves Your Majesty very much, she never stopped talking about how she was looking forward to meeting you."
"I-It's okay, no need to explain...Elena, good that you've arrived." Elena soon enters the door.
'Wait...can I get other women pregnant?' Now I'm curious, how does this bizarre biology of mine work, I'm a woman, so how would I supposedly make another woman have my child?
'Let's not think about it, I'm too young to already be thinking about having children.' I decide to ignore it.
"I see everyone has already introduced themselves to Your Majesty." Elena glares at Kaelith, her gaze is as if she knows exactly what she did.
Kaelith is still with her face buried in the ground while Calypso holds her.
"Calypso, you can release Kaelith..." Maybe if I didn't order Calypso, she would have held her like that until the end of this meeting. She soon releases Kaelith, who kneels properly and remains silent, but never loses that smile, it's like a girl lost in love.
'Would I be a narcissist if I called Kaelith beautiful?' There are so many unnecessary topics that I end up thinking about.
"Elena, could you explain a little more about... them?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, although we have all lived together over the past few years, in reality each one here has their own territory, with wide influence."
"Except for Kaelith, each one here rules over a part of the demonic territory, Calypso rules over the entire North, Thalor rules over the entire West, and Freya rules over the entire South."
"So you rule the East, Elena?" I ask with doubt since she didn't mention herself.
She gets a little embarrassed.
"N-No, Your Majesty...my mother is the current ruler of the East...but she sees me as a failure...so I ended up not inheriting the East."
I already feel anger towards Elena's mother, I feel like I want to break her face, how dare she think my subordinate is a failure.
"And... why does she see you as a failure?" My voice has poorly contained anger.
"I...am weak...although compared to normal demons I am strong, when compared to demons like Freya, Thalor, Calypso, and Kaelith, I am very inferior, if my mother placed me as the ruler of the East, other demons would steal that position from me."
"Although I compensate for my lack of strength with strategy, it is still not enough for my mother...I couldn't even pass the test she gave me...that's why I never inherited nor will ever inherit the East."
"I apologize for my incompetence, Your Majesty." Elena bows while apologizing.
"It's no problem, Elena, I don't care that you don't have the East, if I want, I can take that territory even by force." I doubt Elena's mother would challenge me, and even if she did, I already have 4 apparently strong subordinates.
"It wouldn't be necessary, if Your Majesty asked, my mother would be happy to help..." Elena speaks, but I notice that she really doesn't seem to want to meet her own mother.
"Well, let's leave that subject aside for a while, I'm glad you all decided to swear your loyalty to me, and I hope we can get along well." I say to everyone with a smile as I get up from the throne.
"Elena, I want to see my room." I say to Elena as I walk up to her, I realized I'm kind of... liking Elena too much, I can't say I've fallen in love with her, but I clearly see her as someone important.
'I wonder if Elena sees me as important...' I know I'm important as the demon king, but I'd like to know if she sees me as something beyond the demon king, maybe as a friend.