C50: THE NEWLY-WED’S STAY

“…Huh?”

What are you saying, Miss Astres?

…Mrs., rather.

“This series of events made me fully realize that I still have a long way to go. I fell victim to those conspiracists’ shrewd plan owing to my lack of prudence and compassion, making you, Lord Zedan, suffer through a lot.”

Okay, that may be true, but still…

“That’s why I’d like to stay here and train myself. If I work diligently under the Saint’s guidance, I can abandon my past foolish self and turn over a new leaf.”

“I wonder about that.”

Hey, hey. We don’t run training seminars here, you know?

“If that’s how things are, please let me stay here for a while as well.”

“You too, Demon King?!”

Are you really sure?! Won’t your people be troubled with their ruler gone?!

“The war between the human and demon race is currently in turmoil. A ceasefire was issued.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. Thanks to the dragon that came flying in the battlefield, both factions are still shaken. Until both sides have obtained information, no troops will be dispatched.”

Ah…

I saw Veil from the corner of my eye whistling like some innocent bystander.

“My stationing at the frontlines also gave me the chance to discover what was going on, so everything turned out all right in the end. Besides, it has been a while since I spent some time with Astres.”

“Lord Zedan…”

Mrs. Astres totally looks like a woman in love now.

“Of course, only if Lord Saint agrees. What shall it be? Will you permit us to stay here for a while?”

In short, they want to spend their honeymoon as newly-weds here?

“Sure.”

“That fast?!”

I bet they won’t even have the time to do this when they return to the capital, anyway.

Helping lovers like them is also the moral way of life.

“Well, if Dear says so, then we have no objections!”

“But are you really okay with that? If I heard things right, there are people in your faction who are ignoring their leader’s orders. If you leave them be and stay here, won’t they plot some nasty stuff again?”

Platy and Veil even think about the political side of things. After Veil pointed that out, I could’ve sworn I saw the Demon King make a difficult face, but…

“Worry not. For that has also been taken into account,” says the Demon King as he smiles boldly.

As I thought, Demon Kings really are scary.

Thus, my reclaimed land welcomed this married demon couple.

I made a new room separate from the main house for the Demon King and Mrs. Astres to stay in.

They’re newly-weds after all, so they might be heard and stuff…you know?

I entrusted the construction of that same room mainly to the orc team, but the Demon King himself offered to help. I thought it was discourteous of me to let him, but he’s surprisingly skillful with raising pillars and nailing. Thanks to everyone’s help, the building was finished in a matter of days.

But isn’t it a little too fast? Then again, the couple has been emitting this lovey-dovey aura during these past few days. The reason why the construction proceeded at a fairly rapid pace has probably got something to do with that. Nothing beats eroticism in terms of motivation!

There are also all sorts of inconveniences that might occur when a couple attempts to conceive after all, so now that they have a proper bedroom, I want them to take their time.

On the other hand, Mrs. Astres took a break from field work and hunting and started learning how to cook, with my help, of course. In order to become a good wife, one must be good at cooking. But since she’s the Demon King’s wife, A.K.A. the Demon Queen, wouldn’t it be better to leave meal-serving to dedicated personnel? When I pointed this out to her, she wasn’t up for it. Her husband, the Demon King, and even her aides Batemy and Belena, all understand that she’s the type of person who aims perfection in anything she does. And it seems learning to cook from me was the biggest factor why she decided to stay here.

I haven’t had the chance until now to know about how cooking works in this world. It seems they don’t have the concept of adding condiments to enhance a food’s flavor. At most, all they know is salt– not as a condiment, but as a natural food preservative. Spices don’t exist.

That must be the same reason why Platy and Veil crave my cooking so much that they decided to live here.

“Unlike Mrs. Astres, neither of you are showing any gusto towards learning how to cook.”

“We’re fine the way things are, thank you very much!”

“Yeah! You already make them for us, so why do we have to go through the trouble of preparing it ourselves?!”

These two…

I learned something new about this world today.

I guess it’d be best to put more effort into making condiments.

Maybe even start a mass production system of it?