Chapter 27 – New Life Lute, age 12.
The Demon Continent was in the exact opposite place from the Fairy Human Continent.
There were no four seasons, the weather was always cloudy.
The soil was so barren it was hard to grow crops.
By necessity, legumes that had high nutritional value and can be grown even in barren soil had become the staple crop.
Unlike the Fairy Human Continent, they only have 2 meals here: breakfast and dinner.
The food was simple, consisting of bean soup, salad, simple meat dishes, and sometimes fish.
For seasoning, it’s mostly just salt.
Maybe because the Demon Races didn’t have any interest in food, even the high n.o.bles had mostly similar menus to the common rabble.
However, they poured their souls into their afternoon tea parties and nightly evening parties.
Demon Race people of all ages just love sweet snacks.
So almost all of the flour, sugar, and fruits they imported were turned into snacks. They also imported scented tea leaves in large quant.i.ties.
“Rather than baking flour into bread, make cakes!” was their national motto.
In exchange for importing flour and sugar from the Fairy Human Continent, the Demon Continent exports minerals like iron ore, coal, gold, silver, copper, magic stones, and gems.
Their soil is barren, but to make up for that, numerous resources were buried within.
This was a land not unlike Arabia in my previous world, that was rich in petroleum.
But there were no such things as “countries” in the Demon Continent.
Whenever there was an important matter that needed to be settled, representatives from each family would meet together and decide on a course of action.
Even if they wanted to consolidate into a country, the Demon Races themselves were made up of a wider range of clans compared to other races, so it was difficult.
Mermen and birdmen can’t possibly be expected to adopt the same way of living. It was also impossible to force them into the same way of thinking and doing things.
For those reasons they could not come together as a country.
In the eyes of the other races, they were uncivilized barbarians.
There are even those who look and act similar to monsters.
Then perhaps it was inevitable that discrimination progressed into war.
About 1000 years ago, a war between the union of the Fairy, Human, and Beast races and the Demon Race broke out.
At the start, the Fairy Human Beast alliance dismissed them as disorderly mobs, but when push came to shove, the Demon Race had a higher sense of unity than they imagined.
The war finally ended in a draw, but considering the Demon Race’s high individual skill and magic power, it was possible that the Fairy Human Beast alliance could have lost if the war dragged on.
Moreover, the Demon Continent is a country full of resources where minerals like ores, precious metals, magic stones, and gems were buried in great amounts.
They were discriminated against because their appearances were similar to monsters, but the Fairy Human Beast alliance came to know that they were a race that should not be made enemies of.
After the war, it became bad manners to treat the Demon Race with discrimination.
Because there were no countries in the Demon Continent, the t.i.tle of Count Dan Gate Vlad who bought me―”Count” was given to him by a small Fairy Human Continent country together with a plot of land for his services there.
Right now that land seemed to be under the management of master’s acquaintance.
Just what kind of services did he do….
Count Dan Gate Vlad was born as the third son of a vampire family head.
He couldn’t hope for an inheritance.
But thanks to the magic talent he was born with, he became an A ranked magician.
Then once he graduated from magic school, master immediately registered with the Adventurers’ Guild, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with frontier spirit, and rushed out to the Demon Continent.
He went around the world, embarking on all sorts of adventures―like slaying monsters, hunting robbers, getting into fights with dragons, destroying Legions that made an enemy of him all by himself, and exploring dangerous dungeons.
At first people around him took their distance because he was a Demon Race.
But because of his sociableness, strength, and gentlemanly conduct, the animosity that was there at the beginning was quickly blown away, and he made many friends and colleagues.
That master was going hunting for pirates when he met madam.
Mrs. Seras Gate Vlad was well known as the former female captain of a pirate-hunting ship.
She was a competent person with a B+ rank in magic.
Those two met, and immediately fell in love at first sight.
On the same day, master delivered a bracelet to madam and married her.
All their friends at the time could not keep up with their speed, and everyone was surprised.
Then the two returned to the Demon Continent, and set up a trading company.
Thanks to madam’s sailing skills forged in her pirate-hunting days and Master’s knowledge of language and also connections and intermediaries built with his sociable att.i.tude, the company soon reaped huge profits.
What earned them a particularly large amount of profit was hiring Dwarves to process raw gemstones, gold, and silver in the Demon Continent and exporting them.
The company handled everything from mining the raw materials, processing, and transportation.
To that extent, it was possible for them to establish a system that can achieve high quality, implement designs the customers like, and respond to orders no matter how small.
Thanks to that they had a good reputation with their customers and orders keep coming in.
The other Demon Race people tried to copy master, but they couldn’t do what he did, and caused cultural friction with the Dwarves.
They also didn’t have connections to the upper crust of the Fairy Human continent like master did.
Thus they could not sell the goods even if they could make them.
If that’s the case, then it doesn’t matter how much they could produce.
That way, contrary to other people’s struggles, master’s business kept on growing rapidly.
Right now, the two were all but retired.
The business was mostly left to their subordinates, and they only came in to check every now and again.
What do they do on the days they’re not at work―
Madam would throw tea parties, a.s.sembling n.o.ble wives in similar situations for all kinds of gatherings. She was a person with such tastes.
Master would be busy, earnestly training.
Generally speaking, he seemed to like building his muscles.
When I met master while working in the corridor, he would instantly take of his clothes and pose.
“Lute! What do you think of my muscles! Strapping, aren’t they!”
“Y, yes. They are very strapping. I think they are very well trained.”
“That so! Hahahahahahaha!”
Satisfied with my reply, he vanished behind a corner.
Then from behind the corner, the sound of Mercè-san saying “they are very strapping, magnificent” was heard, and once again master’s laughter resounded.
He didn’t have to be so loud that everyone can hear…
Also, master and madam would go on trips with just the two of them several times a month.
They looked to be intimate, cuddly trips, not unlike newlyweds.
It was everyone’s ideal slow life.
However, there were those who are jealous of master’s success and graceful days, they were the main family’s eldest and second sons, in other words, master’s older brothers.
The main family was an ancient house, they had land, and generally they were also considered the upper crust of society.
But the sum total of their a.s.sets were totally dwarfed by master’s.
It seemed that at any rate, they couldn’t stand it.
Once upon a time, the eldest and second brothers, coming up with a suitable excuse, started a war with master.
The enemy was from the vampire clan’s main house, numbering 1000 people. This includes 50 magicians.
On the other hand, the Vlad house’s fighting force, including master and madam, comes to under 50 people if you take them together.
But it ended in the Vlad house’s complete victory.
The Vlad house’s allies were madam’s former subordinates and master’s adventurer colleagues who were indebted to him. They were heads and shoulders above the main vampire house’s subordinates in terms of battle experience and loyalty.
And the most critical thing of all is master himself.
Master’s A rank magician t.i.tle was not just for show.
A rank magician is a t.i.tle that only a handful of talented magicians can reach after much effort.
During the time of the war, master trampled down the main vampire house’s subordinates, bathed in all kinds of magic, without even getting a single injury.
Yet despite this, there was not a single casualty.
It was something he can do precisely because he had overwhelming difference in power.
The eldest and second brothers immediately apologized for causing a war out of their own accord.
Master just laughed and forgave them.
Furthermore master did not demand money or anything besides an apology out of them, for one reason.
That reason is―”It was fun to have something make my muscles shake again after a long time! But I couldn’t give my muscles the joy of exercise unless you had a little more spine! Hahahahaha!”
At these remarks of master’s, even madam seems to have let out a strange laugh.
Not sure if it’s their caliber as people, or if this couple was just a pair of huge idiots….
Master was willing to forgive and forget in good faith, but the eldest and second brothers still held a grudge from this war.
It was rumored that they were restrained from asking for a rematch by the people around them.
It was for master and madam’s only child Chrisse Gate Vlad’s 10th birthday that I was bought to be a blood bag and steward by mistake.
For vampires, blood was a luxury good, like coffee, tea, or tobacco.
Human blood had an especially good flavor.
The concept of birthdays doesn’t exist in the Fairy Human Continent.
At best, there was only a coming of age celebration when one reaches 15 years of age.
But the Demon Continent did have the idea of birthdays.
It ends at the age of 10.
At age 15, they celebrate their joining the world of adults.
After that there were not really any birthday celebrations.
On one occasion, I asked master and madam.
Concerning ojou-sama’s being hikikomori.
“Why didn’t master and madam do anything to solve ojou-sama’s hikikomori problem?”
It’s not like they didn’t do anything, that much I understood.
They bought and gifted me as a blood bag for her birthday, helping her with a chance to change for the better.
But they built a bath and toilet in her room, as if to say it’s fine if she didn’t come out of there, nor were they any signs of them giving her treatment to heal her trauma (though I don’t know if such a thing exists in this world).
From my point of view, they seemed to have an att.i.tude as if they didn’t have an interest in ojou-sama.
That sweet, gallant ojou-sama having parents that don’t care about her―I don’t think that such a thing was possible, but I won’t be satisfied unless I asked them.
Master and madam exchanged glances and sunk into silence.
“…. Lute, do you know of a bird called a Continental Sea Swallow?”
Madam suddenly asked me a question I didn’t understand.
I shook my head.
“The Continental Sea Swallow are migratory birds, they go back and forth on the Central Sea between the Fairy Human Continent and the Demon Continent. But the Continental Sea Swallow aren’t always in flight. In my pirate-hunting days, I often saw them stop on masts, resting.”
Madam took a sip of scented tea.
“I think of Chrisse right now as like one of those swallows that are taking a rest. She’ll take a rest for a while, then some day she’ll fly again. So in that time, we give her an environment where she can rest to the fullest.”
“….. Madam really believes in ojou-sama.”
“No, that’s not it. It’s just that I have confidence in my daughter.”
“Hahahahahahaha! She’s my and Seras’ daughter! Sooner or later, not to mention her room, she’ll fly off, away from the Demon Continent!”
“Just like you and me long ago, right. It looks like she’s really going to be like that. She can’t fight what’s in her blood.”
Then the two laughed happily.
They had faith in their daughter.
“……”
I became a hikikomori back in my previous life.
Just like ojou-sama, I stayed inside, afraid of being bullied again by the world outside.
That time, my parents didn’t say anything and let me shut myself inside.
Perhaps they believed in me, their son, just like master.
They believed that one day I would summon my courage and come out of the room on my own.
But in the end, I kept on staying home like that, and finally had to be thrown out by my parents.
Either go work at an acquaintance’s metalworking factory, or receive 1 million and leave the house.
At the time they said that, I resented them, saying “Some parents they are! Isn’t it their job to take care of the son they gave birth to!?”
But I wonder how my parents felt at that time.
I was only thinking of myself, and didn’t think of how my parents felt.
At best, I sulked and said―I have a more accomplished younger brother than myself so excuse me if I don’t do my job.
If I could go back to my previous life, j.a.pan, I want to face my parents and talk to them.
Telling each other our feelings while drinking sake.
Then I want to know what they were thinking at the time, what they wanted, even if it’s too late.
Then before I realized, one year had pa.s.sed since the time I met with master, madam, Chrisse ojou-sama, Merry-san, Mercè-san, Gigi-san―with everyone.
Recently I’ve been living as Chrisse ojou-sama’s guard, steward, and blood bag.
Now that I’ve turned 12, my daily living schedule was like this….
The day starts by me firstly getting out of bed and changing into my butler clothes.
I would open the windows, and let the fresh morning air into my room.
There would sometimes be mice right under the window. They were good guys that would eat bad insects.
They looked totally like hamsters.
They seemed to like sweets just like any other Demon Continent creature, I would sometimes give them leftover cookies and they would happily eat them.
Like I can’t help returning the crane’s favor, I did it because I wanted to return the mice’s favor.
Once I got out of my room, I would meet up with the demon race, hamster clan head maid Mercè-san and head towards ojou-sama’s room.
We went to wake up ojou-sama who would still be sleeping.
We would knock and enter the room, but most of the time, ojou-sama would still be sleeping in her large bed even when the sun’s already up.
The figure of little ojou-sama sleeping in a canopy bed where three adults could fit with room to spare was very cute.
I wanted to enjoy looking at her sleeping face like this, but I steeled my heart and woke her up.
Even being a hikikomori, it’s bad for her health if her circadian rhythm gets disrupted and she became a night owl.
“Ojou-sama, it’s morning already, please wake up.”
Chrisse ojou-sama would twist her body like a mayfly, turning her back towards me.
She usually wouldn’t wake up even if I called out to her.
So I would open the bulky dark-screen-like curtains covering the windows.
It was cloudy as usual today, but it was bright.
About a year ago, ojou-sama was bullied and became very afraid of the outside world.
Therefore at that time the windows would be kept covered with the bulky dark-screen-like curtains, but it’s not the case nowadays.
She was no longer afraid of the light.
But she still couldn’t come out of the room.
She would become nauseous if she were forced to come out. At worst, she would turn pale as if she were anemic and faint.
Ojou-sama’s heart was wounded with trauma to that extent.
But she managed successfully bask in the light.
We should keep this up and slowly confront and heal her mental trauma.
Luckily the family had money, and a vampire’s beauty won’t tarnish even if they lived a long time.
As ojou-sama became bathed in sunlight, she seemed to be dazzled by it and rub her eyes awake.
If she still doesn’t wake up, Mercè-san would take drastic measures: tear her quilt off and shake her shoulders.
“Ojou-sama, good morning”
“Good morning”
“Good morning. Mercè-san, Lute-san.”
It seemed like the sunlight could wake her today.
Sleepy-eyed, she wrote her morning greetings on the mini blackboard.
Once ojou-sama had woken up, Mercè-san would take her along to the bathroom inside her room.
While they get her dressed for the morning, I would go finish preparing breakfast.
On the first floor, Malcolm the chief cook from the demon lizard race has finished preparing the breakfast and is placing it on a push cart.
Good morning Malcolm-san. I have come to get ojou-sama’s breakfast.
“……(Gulp)”
Among the employees, Malcolm is the most silent.
His appearance is that of a lizard walking on 2 legs with cooking clothes on and a neatly maintained cooking knife in his hand.
He has the look of a fierce bloodthirsty carnivore, but in reality he eats no meat, he’s a vegetarian.
But he has a sweet tooth and it seems he is taking more pride in making sweets than ordinary food.
He came to me and politely bowed his head to learn how to make pudding, custard cream and mille crepe.
Of course I wasn’t stingy and taught him all the recipes I knew.
Because of that, occasionally he shares the remaining sweets from the afternoon tea party and evening party preferentially with me.
The cooking is transported by a push cart.
I carry it to the second floor with help of the body strengthening art, moving that is heavy work.
In ojou-sama’s room the cooking is lined up on a table and awaits her after finishing dressing.
While ojou-sama is having her meal, I and Mercè-san are serving her as waiters.
After the meal is finished, it’s cleaning it up.
I ask other maids to aid ojou-sama while I finish my late breakfast in the employee dining room.
When breakfast is finished Mercè-san returns to ojou-sama.
I go to head butler Merry-san.
In the morning Merry-san holds a study session for demon continent language apart from butler studies.
Reading and holding ordinary conversations in the demon continent language is no problem but I’m not yet used to writing.
Also as a butler I’m still too inexperienced.
Merry-san taught me everything―from how to bow my head, footwork, speech, posture, how to carry tea, how to deliver letters, to common knowledge―so I can become a butler that won’t embarra.s.s the Vlad house.
In the afternoon, I prepared the ojou-sama’s tea party.
Malcolm-san prepared the [Mille Crepe] that ojou-sama liked in high spirits.
Every once in seven days, ojou-sama’s childhood friends―[Three-eyed Barnie Bloomfield] [Lamia Muir Head] and [Centaur Karen Bishop] came over to play.
On those days Malcolm-san became more psyched making the snacks.
The girls seem to often come over to play with ojou-sama who had become a hikikomori for years.
Not only Malcolm-san, but also Mercè-san, Gigi-san, Merry-san, and the other maids, at least as her servants, received them in high spirits as thanks for being ojou-sama’s friends.
They seem to genuinely want to come see ojou-sama.
They happily started girls’ talk during the tea parties.
The three-eyed race, Barnie Bloomfield, girlishly talked about things that interest ojou-sama, like cute accessories, interesting books, and snacks she bought from all around town.
The Lamia, Muir Head, was so voluptuous and s.e.xy you wouldn’t think she was the same age as ojou-sama.
She usually had the role of listener and being the group’s mediator with the standpoint of a big sister.
Ojou-sama, too, when she had something to consult, she would stealthily go talk to Muir.
The Centaur, Karen Bishop, was everyone’s target of ‘affection’. She was hotblooded, a military girl who would rather go with swords than accessories.
She would often get teased by Muir, and ojou-sama and the others would happily laugh at her reaction.
Once the tea party was over, I would have combat training with the head of the guards: Demon Race, Wolf clan, Gigi-san.
He was a former slave, 10 years ago he had saved up and bought himself back from master.
He could do this because he was a strong person, a magician with B+ rank.
Normally, it was all but impossible for slaves to buy themselves back.
After buying himself back from being a slave, he stayed with master and become the head of the guards.
According to himself,
“My family died long ago. I don’t have a place to come back to so I stayed here.”
Currently he was working here as an employee, getting paid proper wages.
I took off my butler clothes and changed into some rough sportswear.
We went to the backyard for training.
The reason I did combat training was in order to protect ojou-sama when she needed it the most.
The training menu consists of running around the castle walls to build up strength, unarmed combat, and swordsmanship training.
For unarmed combat, I sparred with Gigi-san seriously.
For swordsmanship, I practiced swings on a wooden sword and exchanged blows with Gigi-san.
At night, I carried ojou-sama’s dinner to her room.
After I finished cleaning up her dinner, I switched with the other maids and had my own dinner at the employee messroom with Mercè-san.
At the evening party, before she sleeps.
Recently, ojou-sama had taken a liking for pudding in her evening parties.
Malcolm-san put the pudding in the center of the plate, and surrounded it with fruits.
It seems that having cold pudding and warm scented tea had become a habit of hers.
I stood beside ojou-sama as her waiter and told her simple stories.
Ojou-sama delightedly listened to stories I told her from light novels, manga, and anime.
Also, every once in 20~30 days, I did my job as a blood bag.
Just before she went to bed, I would pull up a chair beside ojou-sama, roll up my sleeve and present my arm.
Ojou-sama would bring her rose-red lips to my arm, and lightly nibble my skin with her pearly-white fangs.
I felt her teeth sink into my skin―her white throat moving as ojou-sama savored my blood.
There was no pain, it actually felt ticklish.
Miraculously, when ojou-sama parted her mouth, there was no scar left.
There were various theories, but the most prominent one is [is it not not because the vampire’s magic power unconsciously mixes in with their saliva and produces an effect similar to healing light magic?].
Because the scar was small, it didn’t seem to be a problem even for ojou-sama who had no talent in magic.
She drank a small amount of blood.
A shot gla.s.s’ worth, at most.
Once I did my duty as a blood bag, ojou-sama wrapped her small hands around my arm and stroked it to make sure there were no injuries.
Then she smiled with her cheeks red, and wrote her thanks on the mini blackboard.
My heart raced just a little bit.
Then after that, Mercè-san attended to ojou-sama and began preparing for bed.
I was dismissed from service at this point.
“Have a good night.”
[Good night]
I gave my greetings to ojou-sama and retired to my room.
I return to my room in the evening.
When I was bought and taken to the Vlad house I changed into a maid uniform in this room.
Head butler Merry-san.
Chief guard Gigi-san.
Chief cook Malcolm-san.
Head maid Mercè-san.
Normally, servants are not given a room, except those mentioned above.
Normally, you’d stay in a common room, even if you worked many years you’d only get a two-person room at best.
Despite being a newcomer, I, who got my own room, had quite the special treatment.
But the other employees weren’t jealous and easily accepted that fact.
That’s because I’m a human.
In the past, it came to a dispute by the difference in the races lifestyle, customs etc. there were discrimination and as a backlash to it, it developed into a war.
So for that it is impossible for them to force their lifestyle on me the human newcomer.
Through such pride and various circ.u.mstances they fussed about it and gave me a room.
Editor note: yeah whatever… Winter Blues too strong to help out here
In my room I take off my butler clothes so that they get no wrinkles and hang them on a hanger and close the wardrobe.
After I change into casual clothes I will enjoy my little free time.
Eating the snacks from the tea parties and evening parties Malcolm-san left for me, weight training, and doing image training of making the revolver and AK-47 so I don’t forget the intuition of making handguns.
I also made notes using the memo, pen, and inkwell I bought with the money I got from teaching Malcolm-san snack recipes and tips I got from taking odd jobs from the other servants.
I saved up money and sent a letter to Elle-sensei to tell her I was alright. However, I asked her to somehow keep this from Snow.
If she knew about me being a butler in the Demon Continent, she’d drop out of magic school and come running.
I don’t want her to throw away her talent like that.
So I wrote the letter, asking to somehow deceive her if she ever came and asked because of worry.
“*ya~wn* I should go to sleep. I’ve worked all day today.”
Fatigue caught up to me, so I slipped into bed.
Thus ends one day.
Just like that I fell into a deep sleep.
Thank you for reading thus far!
Impression, mistakes and opinions are very welcome!
Update is scheduled on 21hrs, tomorrow, 17th December.
I’m sorry that guns are currently not in the story development!
I really beg your pardon(´；ω；｀)
However, just wait for a little while longer!
Since many guns and Snow’s re-entry will be added after this, your patience will be much appreciated.
I have yet to finish reading the feedback. As I am busy in real life, reply will be slightly delayed……. I intend to reply after finishing, thank you for your feedback.