—Next morning.
“It’s an emergency~♪”
Sonya’s voice woke me up.
I raised my upper body off the makeshift bed of straw and cloth.
…Yeah, this bed situation can’t continue. I should ask fox-eared Arisa, or go into town myself and procure actual furniture.
Some nights there are four of us in here, after all…
That aside.
“What’s wrong?”
“A monster is ravaging the crops~♪”
Here’s the thing about Sonya: she is fundamentally always smiling… and her delivery is permanently unhurried and at her own pace.
Short as our acquaintance has been, the only serious expression I’ve ever seen from her was yesterday, when Cornelia showed up.
“The field is being RAVAGED by a MONSTER, yes? Why does your delivery contain zero urgency?”
“Ahh. Well, it’s not the CARROT field being ravaged, so~♪”
“Yes, yes. Of course. Silly me.”
With a sigh, I grabbed the hoe propped by the bed and headed out.
—Normally the palm-top rabbits guard the fields.
But when they’re all out hunting, monsters and wild animals do occasionally get into the crops.
At which point I go out and end the matter with one “ka-boom.” Standard procedure.
So out to the field I went, except…
”…And you are?”
Ravaging the field… no, not quite.
Helping themselves to my crops, harvesting without permission, were several five-meter cyclopes.
And leading them: a striking beauty.
Height around 167.
Age, late twenties at a guess.
Just a bit shorter than me, slender and long-limbed. Excellent figure.
Long red hair against pale, bluish skin. The purple rouge suits her disturbingly well.
Chest isn’t large, but the shape is fine.
Wardrobe-wise: high exposure rating, seductive vibes — but a different genre from Maria’s sexy-dynamite energy.
Hmm… how to put it. The unhealthy, shadowed allure of a nightlife hostess with a tragic backstory?
Yeah. That’s the one.
“I am Ouroboros — aide to Demon Lord Cornelia.”
Ouroboros… a snake monster, then.
Cornelia’s supposedly a dark evil dragon, so her subordinates run reptilian?
Then again, she’s clearly also commanding cyclopes, so who actually knows.
“So why are you ransacking my field?”
“Taxation. Carrots fine enough for palm-top rabbits to endorse… sold to the demic realm’s gourmet nobility, they would fetch their weight in gold dust.”
Wait — my carrots sell for THAT much?
I’ve been handing them out to Sonya’s crew like they’re seventy yen apiece…
“Taxation?”
“You there. Do you commit these outrages KNOWING this is Demon Lord Cornelia’s domain?”
“I mean, I knew that part, but…”
“You hunt the magic beasts of these lands without so much as a greeting to Lady Cornelia — and farm her soil besides. Insolence of the highest order. Therefore — your assets are forfeit, all of them. We will be taking the valuables in that cabin as well, understood?”
Oi oi. Life here FINALLY got on track, and now this?
And what is that Demon Lord’s deal, exactly?
We became best friends yesterday, and today she flips the table and sends the world’s scariest debt collector?
“Count yourself lucky, though. Had Lady Cornelia come instead of me… everything here would already be char beneath the Dragon Sovereign’s flame. I dislike needless slaughter, hence this… generous arrangement.”
Ah. This person doesn’t know the Demon Lord and I are friends now.
“Cornelia? She was here yesterday. Seems to have taken quite a liking to me, actually. Said she’d come by again to hang out?”
At that, Ouroboros clutched her stomach and started laughing.
“Lady Cornelia? Taking a liking — to a mere HUMAN? Spare me the jokes, and take a breath between them!”
“No, but see…”
“That lady, fond of a human? Impossible — unless the human in question could make CURRY!”
Curry really is the load-bearing pillar of this entire political system, huh.
Sounds like curry-production capability is a universal skeleton key here.
“Right, so, about that…”
“SILENCE, churl! Such lies — I’ll grant your nerve in not fearing a Demon Lord is impressive, but as her aide, I cannot let it pass!”
Ouroboros turned to her cyclopes.
“Proceed rougher and cruder than originally planned! Once everything is seized — raze the house and crush the fields!”
“Seriously, wait—”
And right then—
“Mm! Thou! — ‘tis I, as promised yesterday!”
“Oh, Cornelia. Wait — it’s been ONE day… what are you here for?”
“Why, to eat katsu curry?”
“IT’S BEEN ONE DAY!”
Oi oi. She did say she’d come again, but… twenty-four hours have not elapsed, madam.
Cornelia’s face bloomed into a full-strength smile.
“Morning curry, obviously. MORNING curry.”
Is she serious…
I’m becoming genuinely concerned for her stomach lining.
Though — fine, in my teens and early twenties I ate exactly like that with zero consequences.
Then I glanced over at Ouroboros—
Her face had gone paper-white, and she was down on one knee, head bowed, trembling.
“Now — why, pray tell, are Ouroboros and cyclopes HERE of all places?”
“That’s my question, honestly. They showed up out of nowhere talking ‘taxation’ and tried to walk off with everything I own. Oh, and there were plans to raze the house and crush the fields.”
At my words, Ouroboros’s trembling escalated dramatically.