Chapter 1 – The Revival of the Zontark Kingdom?

 

 

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“At this rate, demons are definitely going to die out! I declare here and now that I will revive the demon kingdom!”

The demon queen (a ten-years-old girl) announced after visiting us all of a sudden. To be honest, I feel like telling her to go for it, if she feels like it. But, since it’d turn into a diplomatic issue, if we got involved in this, we naturally won’t help her, nor have we any reason to do so.

“Once we found our kingdom, I’d like to form an alliance of equals with the Helmut Kingdom and Holy Empire Urqhart in the future. Accordingly it’s not like we came here today to bug you about it.”

“We’d become indebted to you, if we were to get your assistance, and it would likely put the Zontark Republic on guard. Your Majesty, you sure have a keen, discerning eye.”

“Mmh, this is yet another result of your education, Lyra. You have my gratitude.”

“Those words are wasted on me, Your Majesty.”

Lyra-san, the prime minister, seems to have a decent level of judgment. Despite being rather young, the demon queen doesn’t seem to harbor dreamy views of the world either.

“But, why now?” Luise asked.

“The demons have been under a stable rule as a country, without being invaded by foreign powers, for more than 10,000 years. And because of that excessively peaceful life, the demons’ instincts have clearly decayed. But, now we were able to confirm the existence of two human countries. This will cause big changes among the demons. There might be good and bad parts about it, but there’s no guarantee that the Zontark Republic will make decent decisions. Therefore we decided to make our stand now!”

“Having two countries also comes with the pragmatic reason that at least one of them should be able to pull through.”

This demon queen is pretty grounded in her thinking for a ten-year-old. Because she’s a girl, she might be growing mentally faster than boys her age. Her prime minister Lyra-san is also the levelheaded type of woman, so maybe the women are exceedingly superior within the current demon population?

“You say the demons would be destroyed by us humans? You think that’s realistic?”

It was only natural for Erw to be puzzled about this. All demons are magicians and they excel humans in magic engineering by centuries.

No matter how you spin it, the humans would be the ones getting decimated. Rather, the demons’ advantage is so overwhelming that it justifies us getting worried instead.

“As you have already noticed, the demons’ population is declining due to low birthrates. On the other hand, humans are constantly growing in numbers. Once the development of the Lingaia Continent finishes, you’ll likely extend your hands for other islands and continents. Certainly, us demons excel in magic engineering, but even that advantage can vanish, if enough time passes. Her Majesty rose now as her outview is directed at a very long term.”

“I rose up,” Elisabeth boldly declared while pushing out her chest.

But, unfortunately she was still lacking in the departments of height and chest size. Though I believe her intention to be quite splendid…

“Still, will you be able to become independent all of a sudden? Won’t it all be over once you get suppressed by the republic’s police unit?”

Well, considering it normally, it’ll conclude in a way similar to what Ina has mentioned. The Zontark Republic has many problems as well, but they aren’t in such a disarray that they’d split apart.

“Independence is still a matter of the future. It’ll probably be impossible during my lifetime. But, it’s quite possible to establish a base of operations! Well, you can just watch our great exploits.”

“Your Majesty, it is about time for you to go back home.”

“Yep, my teacher told me to get back home before it becomes dark outside.”

“”””””””””Err?””””””””””

I feel like she was just now talking about founding an independent state and so on, and yet she listens so attentively to what her teacher tells her to do? What a surreal being…

“Well then, see you until we meet again!”

“Excuse us.”

The two left the room after having said all they wanted to say. They took with them the high-class cream puff I gave them as a souvenir and the forest mate tea which Elise had kindly filled into a takeaway bottle for them.

 

＊

 

After seeing off the demon queen and her prime minister, I ended up brooding about the true motive behind their visit and announcements.

“Dear, this is a fairly dangerous story, is it not?”

I can understand Elise being anxious about this.

If the demon queen, who was believed to have no power in this country anymore, were to plot an independence from the republic right after meeting us, it’d very likely be interpreted as me and the Helmut Kingdom behind me scheming to divide the demons.

However, there was someone who laughed down all those worries. Lumi, our local news reporter.

“I doubt there’s any need to worry ’bout this.”

“Hey, newspaper report, this would usually count as a perfect chance for you to stir your readers by claiming that such a plot was afoot, no?”

“We’ve got many higher-ups who do as told by the politicians of the CRP, and that’s being regarded as a problem, but even so, our newspaper is the bestselling paper on the market. No need to fall back on yellow journalism.”

“So you want to say you’re a quality paper?”

“Right, that’s it! That! Earl Baumeister-san, I’ve taken my job hunting seriously after all, unlike my juniors.”

“””We’re taking it serious too!”””

Mall and the other two heavily objected to Lumi’s remark.

A crushing defeat after seriously looking for a job, huh…? In their shoes, my heart would have been broken by this. My job in my previous life was quite taxing, but it’s good that I was able to find a decent job.

“In the first place, the defense force isn’t vigilant about this at all! The defense force is occasionally criticized for scandals and they’re being hated by certain anti-militaristic groups in society as the defense force stands in the way of those people, but in reality, they have a lot of excellent personnel.”

Whenever you try to land a job with them, the competition seems to be quite high. It’s probably because the income and salary is quite stable since defense force members are public servants, so it’s easy for them to gather skilled people.

“Anyway, let me tell you that it’s nothing to worry about.”

“It’d be great if you’re right about this…”

 

＊

 

And then, on the next morning, the details of the declaration of independence by the demon queen and her prime minister were made public. Lumi had brought in the morning newspaper of Everyday Journal.

“It’s come out. Look, it’s written here.”

“Let me see.”

The article had been placed in the newspaper’s category for livelihood matters. I wonder why. What’s with this sense of discomfort I’m feeling?

“Umm…『Her Majesty the Queen of the olden Zontark Kingdom has taken office as ruler of the reborn Zontark Kingdom』. The crucial details of the article…”

As I kept reading the article, something along following lines was written in there:

 

At present three quarters of the island inhabited by the demons is deserted. In the past, up to three quarters were inhabited, but the population gradually shrunk, leading to land being abandoned.

The uninhabited area decayed and fell into ruin. Often nature took over, and sometimes those abandoned places also turned back into monster domains.

Young demons, who left exploitative companies with bad pay, and jobless folks have started to revive those deserted places. They basically lead lives of self-sufficiency. As for the infrastructure necessary for them to survive, they repaired and reused those which had been abandoned.

Their main source of income mostly depends on the sale of the agricultural produce they planted themselves. Their average pay is generally low, but because they provide for themselves, they don’t live in poverty. Rather, you can even say they’re leading bountiful lives that are good for their mental health.

Is their challenge going to work out smoothly?

It’s something I’d love to keep an eye on to see where it’s going.

 

“…”

All I could feel when reading this article was a deja vu. This was something that also happened in countries on Earth, wasn’t it? I mean the one where city folks started to live out in the sticks while using ghost towns and abandoned farmlands. ¹

If I remember correctly, they talked about farm village revival as work-out, LOHAS, or some such, didn’t they?

“I see. So you said it would be fine because you knew that the demon queen and her supporters were participating in those activities.”

“I mean I’m a reporter, so I’m aware of such things going on. But, the ones in charge of that are the folks at the Livelihood department and I’m an outsider for them, so I only got to know the details today.”

“You sure are saying some things you’d expect out of the mouth of a government official, Lumi.”

“Earl Baumeister-san, you understand the demon society way too well!”

No, I don’t really know the demons all that well. It’s just that it resembles a social phenomenon in a country I know all too well.

“Is this really an independence? To me it looks like they’re merely doing some farmland reactivation campaign…”

“Who knows? I can’t tell,” Erw cocked his head upon my question.

 

＊

 

Just as all of us were worrying in front of the new article, the demon queen and her prime minister showed up.

“Forgive me for visiting in a normal dress today.”

“Her Majesty attended school today.”

Today Elisabeth wore a common one-piece dress. And a kindergartener backpack…

It looks like demon children go to school while carrying such backpacks.

Personally I think her outfit is more like casual wear than demitoilet, but…well, it’s cute, so who cares.

“Is this an independence movement?” Ina showed them the newspaper.

“Quite so! People who are unhappy with their current life or have no job, have gathered on the land abandoned by the republic folks, and formed into groups. A journey to distant shores begins with a single step! We aim to increase the subjects in such a matter, eventually reaching a quota that allows for the independence of our kingdom!”

It might be more appropriate to call them union members or group members than subjects. She’s calling it a kingdom, but no matter how you look at it, this seems to be closer to a company or a NGO. I think any government official would perceive it as such after receiving the documents.

Otherwise, the state would have long assigned defense force members to monitor the situation.

“Her Majesty has taken the post of president for the NGO which carries out all these activities. I ceased my part-time job which I had been attending so far to devote my undivided attention to my duty as vice-president and accountant. Her Majesty has to go to school on the days outside school holidays. As such, it is planned for me to usually run the organization.”

A NGO which gathers farmland located in abandoned regions, eh…? Elisabeth and Lyra-san are groping for a way to become independent by gathering unemployed youths in areas which are labeled as worthless by the republic’s government.

The number of people, who cease to receive welfare, has been increasing, and deliberately hindering those people from living in the abandoned areas would only come with drawbacks, as long as those people pay some taxes, even if just a bit. In the first place, the demon queen and her people aren’t considering to arm themselves.

No wonder the defense force hasn’t said anything about them thus far. After all, there exists no confrontation between the demon queen and the republic’s government.

“But, that is insufficient. It will probably be difficult to achieve during my lifetime, but my children and grandchildren’s generations will vastly expand our organization. It should be possible to achieve independence in a peaceful manner without having to rely on military might.”

“Nothing less of you, Your Majesty. That is an extremely clever plan.”

“What, isn’t it all thanks to your suggestion, Lyra?”

That sounds more like simply expanding the scope of an organization than going independent…

Even the NGO guys are probably using the demon queen as a figurehead for that very reason. If you discreetly tout a little girl who happens to be the current demon queen, it won’t trigger any alarm bells with the authorities. Besides, the common people usually like kings or queens.

They’ll likely just watch over this young demon queen with gentle eyes as long as they don’t suffer any inconveniences, even if they were to let her be a little dictator. Above all, the demon queen is a pretty girl.

“Your Majesty, it is time for you to go to school.”

“Oh, it’s already this late? I must work hard at studying well so that I’ll become a demon queen who’s loved by everyone.”

The demon queen went to her school together with Lyra-san. She seems to properly take her education seriously without skipping on school.

“Though there are some people like us who can’t find a job even after having studied well.”

Mall, I don’t want to hear any such depressing, ambitionless stories.

“Truly, reality is cruel.”

“””Wilma-chan! You’re so me────an!!”””

“Do these people actually suffer from some sort of major issue?”

“””Katharina-san, you’re just as heartless!!”””

Even though they look like this, Mall and his friends are smart and their specs should be pretty high. Maybe they’re unlucky after all.

“Dear, it’s good that it hasn’t turned into a problem.”

“True that.”

 

＊

 

Once school ended, the demon queen showed up again. It looks like she has taken a liking to us. Currently she’s doing her homework while drinking the forest mate tea brewed by Elise and eating the cake we bought at another high-class Western-styled confectionery.

But rather than that, for some reason the demon queen has started to frequently visit our room. I don’t think it’s a good place for studying since my babies are here too.

“Earl Baumeister, your babies are cute. Children are a country’s treasure. Next the division of fractions, huh…?”

The demon queen occasionally threw a glance at my sleeping babies while solving math exercises as her homework.

“I must also give birth to a fine successor once I become an adult. Though it’s questionable whether I’ll find any partners for a formal marriage interview…”

“Isn’t it okay to marry out of love? Political marriages are dated.”

“Just when I wondered what you’d say…us of noble standing marry for the sake of our land and country. A romantic marriage is fine, but you four male demons over there aren’t even married, are you?”

“Your Majesty, the things you say are quite harsh────”

Having the reality of being single pointed out to them by the demon queen, Mall’s group felt depressed.

“I regard my research as my lover and wife.”

Of course, only Arnest didn’t mind it though.

“Certainly, marriage with a noble or another royal would be the most desirable, but it is also possible that you will find a wonderful husband.”

“Does that mean you found a good husband, Elise?”

“Yes.”

It’s embarrassing to be told so directly, but I’m happy to know that Elise thinks of me like that.

“It means there is a chance of a Prince Charming to show up for me as well, huh? I guess I’ll put some hope into that. By the way, Earl Baumeister, I don’t understand this calculation.”

Elisabeth showed me her math homework. It seems like she doesn’t have the option of skipping on her homework by using her authority as demon queen.

“Division of fractions, right…?”

All the answers to the problems, which the demon queen had done during class, were marked with an X. That’s because she had divided the fractions without inverting the numerator and denominator. Like this it was no different from a multiplication of fractions.

“(1/2)/(2/3) is 3/4.”

It’s been quite a while since I last had to do schoolwork, but when it came to the division of fractions, which I had learned during elementary school, I wouldn’t forget it so easily.”

“Earl Baumeister, why do you turn the numbers around here?”

“Please ask the people over there since they got lots of smart people.”

Arnest is a former professor of a famous university with the highest education in this country. Mall’s group actually belongs to the selected few who managed to graduate from the same university. And Lyra-san also graduated from a good university.

It’ll be much safer to ask them than me, who only went to a second-rate Japanese university.

“Wend, you’re incredible!”

For some reason me having simply solved elementary school arithmetic earned me deep respect from Luise. I suppose that’s because it’s enough to be able to read, write, and do basic arithmetic calculations on the Lingaia Continent. Something like division of fractions is unnecessary if you don’t go to the academy.

That place was a den of study freaks who made even Elise draw back. By the way, I never went to the academy myself.

“Well, if it’s a simple problem…”

If I get unnecessarily cocky here, it’s possible that I’ll shoot my own leg by being asked to do harder calculations. The best is to push it on the demons who have studied it all properly.

“My specialization is archeology.”

“I belong to liberal arts.”

“Me too!”

“Arithmetics are unexpectedly difficult. If it’s mathematics…”

However Arnest and his former three male students didn’t live up to my expectations. I thought they’d be able to divide fractions, but they probably can’t explain why you have to invert the numerator and denominator of the divisor during the calculation.

“What’s the point in having you guys around if you’re of no use during such times!?”

“Earl Baumeister, this is an affront. I am useful when it comes to the discovery of underground ruins.”

Now that he mentions it, I suppose Arnest contributes quite a bit. Though he’s got various issues if it comes to everything besides ancient ruin excavation.

“Okay, what about you three then?”

“Our work is to assist your group during your stay in this country, not to explain the theory behind the division of fractions…”

“Right, right.”

“I, liberal arts.”

Since those three were lost cases, I decided to rely on the talented Lyra-san for an explanation here.

“Division of fractions, you ask…?”

“Yes, why are the numerator and denominator of the divisor switched?”

“Please ask the school’s teacher about that. It’s that person’s reason for existence. Her Majesty understands the special traits of the subjects serving her. Using the right people for the right work is crucial for a ruler. By the way, Your Majesty, about the inspections starting tomorrow…”

She friggin’ dodged i────it!!

Because she didn’t know herself, Lyra-san switched the topic without providing an answer. Still, it was a skilled way of sidestepping this topic.

“The inspections? I sure look forward to them.”

“The subjects of all villages have been looking forward to Your Majesty’s visit.”

“Mmh, I see. Those are my cherished subjects, indeed.”

I cannot help but feel like she’s being used as a figurehead for a simple farm village revival project, but I guess that’s still better than reckless talking about revolutions. Even if they did something like that, they wouldn’t have any chance against the defense force as an enemy to begin with.

That means Lyra-san is a realist.

“Earl Baumeister, won’t you come with me?”

“Hmm, let me think…”

The all-important negotiations haven’t proceeded at all up until today. The frequency of us being a topic of interest in the Zontark Republic has decreased significantly, too.

I hear a famous singer got married and that news has been dominating the frontpages. We seem to be seen as less important than that singer, and the newspapers have even stopped writing about the negotiation teams of both countries for the most part.

According to the leaks from Lumi, the negotiations seem to be so stuck that it’s not even laughable anymore. The government has apparently pressured the media to not report on the negotiations too much as they connected the failure at the negotiation table to the popularity decline of the CRP.

When I heard her say that, I cried out, “Hey, what’s with democracy!?”

“Being told so by you, Earl Baumeister-san, sure strikes hard! Many members of the CRP were originally newspaper reporters. It’s tough if you’re being told by your former seniors to not write about something. The tiny amount of news making an appearance in the politics category is the best the young reporters can offer as resistance!”

It’s a nasty story, but because such circumstances also played a role, we now had nothing to do. Therefore I think it should be okay to go out to visit the farm villages.

“The question is whether the defense force will approve of it.”

This was my sole worry, but the defense force readily agreed to it.

“Ah, you mean that farm village revival project? Sure. Given that those villages contain no people that would require extra surveillance, the guarding should be easy too.”

“Eh? They don’t have any?”

“Look, Her Majesty the Demon Queen stands at the top, even if as the figurehead of that movement, right? Those who hate nobility and royals, won’t approach. But that’s only natural since they have a bad compatibility.”

Certainly, activists of that sort have many members who hate nobles. I guess they’ll stay away with the demon queen being the top dog.

Because we got permission, we decided to travel all over the place in the countryside of the Zontark Republic starting with tomorrow.

 

＊　　　＊　　　＊

 

 

The next day was Day of Five. Day of Five is like the day’s names in my previous life. A week goes from Day of One to Day of Seven with school apparently being off from Day of Five to Day of Seven.

A three-day holiday from school every week…that’s quite enviable…

“You sure have a lot of free days.”

Not only Ina, but all of us humans thought so. As long as nothing really special was going on, Roderich allowed me to only have one day off per week.

“If they were to rush and finish the curriculum quickly, the higher schools would be hard pressed on what to do with all the students.”

According to Mall, this seemed to be a desperate measure to lengthen the education time. Even if they finished their education quickly, they’d just add to the unemployed because of the lack of jobs. And given that the criticism of the government would grow in proportion to the number of unemployed, they simply stretched out education by increasing the holidays.

Basically, they bypass the criticism by calling the young demons students instead of unemployed.

“You could also call it procrastination.”

“Arnest, that’s way too blunt.”

Just because he himself got a job doesn’t really give him the right to be so nasty about the education policies here.

“Earl Baumeister-dono, we have arrived.”

Because I heard the village we were going to visit had an old port, we moved through the underpopulated area with our private, small magic airship. We were also accompanied by a small ship of the defense force.

Interest in us vanished quickly, but we’re still state guests so far as it goes, so we’re being guarded.

“Your Majesty, thank you kindly for visiting our humble village.”

When we reached the village together with the demon queen, we were greeted by around a hundred young demons. Going by their appearance, all of them were around twenty, but since demons don’t really grow old visibly, I can’t determine their genuine age. But, all of them should still be below 100 years.

“All of you, thank you for deliberately coming out to greet me today. I’m happy to see the village thriving with energy.”

“Everyone is full of motivation.”

“Your Majesty, farming is fun.”

“Sometimes we’re depressed because the produce doesn’t grow as expected, but those feelings are quickly blown away when you hold your own harvest in your hands and actually experience the fruits of your work.”

“Your Majesty, I have started to raise chickens. And just recently they finally became big enough to lay eggs for me. This is much more fulfilling than my previous job where I sold expensive down quilts to old people.”

This made me think that a society, where the young folks can’t find work, has serious problems. Yet, since they found their meaning in life by living as farmers, the demon queen, even if she might be no more than a figurehead, can be quite useful for everyone.

“Today there are also many visitors with you.”

“Indeed. Earl Baumeister-dono and his family have come visiting us from the Helmut Kingdom, a nation located in the far east on the Lingaia Continent. They are my guests.”

“We must welcome them appropriately then. Given that now is the time for harvesting potatoes, we were planning to go dig for them today.”

“Potato digging?! I’m so looking forward to that!”

Even if she might be the demon queen, she’s still a child. As fitting for her age, she frolicked around as soon as heard that she’d be able to dig for potatoes from the village’s representative.

“Potato digging? That sounds fun.”

Of course, I’m also looking forward to it. Or rather, I’m completely fed up with living in that hotel which has nothing to do.

The government’s treatment of us is too irresponsible, so we started to actually doubt the purpose of us being here.

“I wonder if I can make some baby food out of potatoes.”

“That’s a great idea.”

“We can also eat potato dishes.”

“However, freshly harvested potatoes aren’t all that tasty, so the ones picked up today will be preserved. The ones we will offer all of you are potatoes we harvested a few weeks ago,” a young demon explained apologetically.

Come to think of it, sweet potatoes won’t become sweet if you don’t let them rest for a few weeks.

“Sad. A bit tasteless.”

“But, Wilma! I got my magic to make the impossible possible!”

I can mature monster meat and tuna with my magic. There’s no reason why that wouldn’t work on potatoes.

“As always, I can’t really make up my mind whether you’re incredible or not, Wend.”

“No, that’s amazing magic we cannot use.”

“Despite being demons?”

Erw cocked his head in doubt as the young demon admitted they couldn’t mature potatoes through magic, but even if you have mana, this will be the natural outcome if you don’t practice your magic. It’s something anyone can immediately understand with a look at Mall and his friends.

“It’d be great to be able to eat the potatoes we dug out ourselves.”

“It’s as Ina-chan says. Let’s get pumped and dig!”

Ina and Luise become very eager about this, and after entrusting our babies to the maids, all of us participated in the potato digging. I also used my own two hands to dig out the potatoes without relying on my magic.

“Huh? Aren’t these kind of small?”

“Hubby, the ones you dig up are all small.”

I psyched myself up and pulled out a potato vine, but all the potatoes on it were small. Seeing that, Katia laughed at me.

“Katia, you’re in no position to say that, seeing how your potatoes aren’t big either, you know?”

 

 

“Eh? Potatoes are our family’s specialty, though…”

Certainly, these resemble sweet potatoes, but aren’t they different from maroimo?

“Because we don’t use any synthetic fertilizers, their size varies and can be lacking.”

Synthetic fertilizer? Is that something like a chemical fertilizer?

I understand what the demon queen wants to say, though. Basically, they’re doing what was called organic farming in previous life.

“Since we don’t meet the crop standards, we cannot sell them through regular distribution channels. But, supporters of this movement buy our produce and the reputation is quite good, too.”

More and more I feel like this is a movement I’ve heard about before. They’ve reverted to using the old methods for farming and they finance the expenses by selling their produce to those supporting them. I feel like wanting to call this an organic farm.

“Hubby, what’s synthetic fertilizer?”

“It’s fertilizer that uses sorcery craft, right?”

“It only extracts the elements necessary for crops to grow. It’s a fertilizer that’s being produced at factories, I’ve been taught at school,” the demon queen answered my question.

Soil was staining the tip of her nose as she had been engrossed with digging out potatoes, but this is also part of the fun. She’s usually behaving like a level-headed adult, but in the end she’s a child, nonetheless.

“Your Majesty, you got dirt on your nose.”

“Uh huh, quite irksome.”

Noticing the dirt, Lyra-san wiped it away with a handkerchief.

Looking at the two of them, they seem to share a relationship of mother and daughter rather than queen and servant.

“Heeh, if big bro got that, it would make it much easier for him to grow maroimo too, wouldn’t it?”

“I don’t know. In the first place, if the negotiations in regards to commerce don’t conclude in some way, importing the fertilizer will be quite hard.”

“Those guys sure are tough for being able to have meaningless talks every day on an uninhabited island. You think so too, don’t you hubby?”

I don’t know whether it’s meaningless, but it’s a fact that their talks aren’t going anywhere at all. So I can fully understand Katia’s point.

“I heard that my big bro is struggling quite a bit with fertilizer production.”

Come to think of it, Veith-san was growing the maroimo while only using natural fertilizer. Would he be able to produce a lot more easily a great number of maroimo if synthetic fertilizer were to be imported?

“Synthetic fertilizer has its merits and demerits, too. It’s convenient for uniformly producing a large amount of produce, though.”

In short, it’s a matter of how you use it and it depends on each case. Using natural fertilizer properly is important, explained the youth serving as village representative to us.

This young man was unable to find employment at the big farm of his family, despite being the son of a certain large-scale farming enterprise. Now he’s teaching the participants of this movement the techniques to grow crops while approving of the movement’s ideas.

The demon queen arbitrarily mentioned that he was a candidate to become her future Minister of Agriculture.

“We’re using natural fertilizer because the costs for buying synthetic fertilizer are nothing to sneeze at.”

Because this is a movement trying to live without needing money, it’d be pointless if they were troubled by expenses for fertilizer. It’s the same with types of agricultural chemicals. It’d make no sense for the farmers to become poor while only the producers of fertilizer and agricultural chemicals profited from this.

“As long as you do it correctly, you can grow delicious produce even with just natural fertilizer. The bug repellent we use to get rid of harmful insects is our own creation, too. We also weed without using herbicides. We send the produce with good shapes and sizes to our supporters while eating the rest ourselves. With this it’s more than enough.”

“Wend, this one is quite big.”

“Hehen! Mine is bigger.”

“At times it is also good to go back to such a childish mindset!”

“You think my daughter would be happy if I brought her here?”

“Every once in a while it is not bad to get your hands dirty with soil.”

From the young folks to the three middle-aged guys we got with us, everyone enjoyed this. Because it also served as a regular harvest, all the potatoes on the village’s fields were safely dug out by the villagers and us.

“Are we going to use these to make baby food?”

These are potatoes that grew completely naturally, so they might be perfect for babies.

“Wilma, Friedrich and the other babies still don’t have any teeth, so it needs to be as soft as possible. I’ll turn them into a paste.”

“Wend-sama, you know a lot about this.”

I used to deal with baby food in my previous life after all. For some reason, my company acted like a major trading company during an era of declining birth rates and got involved selling baby food, but ultimately failed. I had learned enough about baby food that I knew how it was made, but the section chief in charge of this segment was ousted to a branch office of some country I haven’t heard of much. He was apparently told by his wife that she’d stay back in Japan since that country’s public order was too dangerous for her and their kids to follow him, so he became all teary-eyed during the farewell party.

“Too strong flavors aren’t good for babies, so I’ll rely on the natural tastiness of the ingredients. wait, wait, don’t use honey.”

Babies below one year in age don’t have a working environment in the intestines , so you should avoid feeding them honey.

“Wend, as always, you got a bounty of knowledge about weird stuff…”

“I read up on it.”

In my previous life, that is.

My knowledge isn’t that great, but it’s unexpectedly often seen as amazing in this world.

“Earl Baumeister, it’s almost as if you’re a person of this country.”

There are surprisingly many similar parts after all.

“Elise, I think it’d be better for you to use a strainer.”

“You’re right. I think the flavor should be okay like this.”

“It’s sweet enough, yeah.”

Elise, Therese, and Lisa finished up the baby food and fed it little-by-little to Friedrich and the others.

“Daa───”

“I see, so it tastes well, huh? That’s great to hear, Leon.”

“Erw-san, he’s eating it so happily, isn’t he?”

Erw and Haruka fed the baby food to Leon as a couple.

“It’s enviable to see you have so many children. There are no children among us.”

I think the demon queen fully qualifies as a child, but there are definitely no other children besides her here.

“Children are a treasure for a country, but the majority of those participating in our movement are formerly unemployed. Most of them are single, so there’s naturally no way for them to have children. Our nation’s founding plan is facing many difficulties.”

“Still, some got married after meeting here. Given that several women are pregnant right now, the outlook isn’t that pessimistic either.”

Leaving aside the demon queen, Lyra-san seems to regard the situation in a different light.

“But, what are you going to do about school?”

This place is quite far away from the towns where demons live. Because they revived a place that had been abandoned to begin with, there was no school nearby for the children to go to later on. Even the demon queen couldn’t really come here to inspect things unless she had no school.

“I guess it’ll be necessary to take care of education for children in order to create a country.”

“There are several retired teachers and people with the qualification to teach among us. Somehow I’d love to build a school where we can carry out compulsory education for our children. I think it’d be fine to call it lucky, but we also got a building that used to be a school.”

“Are you going to get permission to do this?”

That was the point worrying me the most. Assuming this is a country resembling Japan, you probably must hand in many documents to build a new school. Lyra-san will probably become the landlord and negotiate with the public office in charge of this area, but it should be an arduous and difficult path.

“You do have a point that it’s bothersome because you have to meet a lot of conditions on top of handing in too many documents.”

If the children must leave this village to attend school, it’d be like putting the cart before the horse. If they can’t build a school that would allow the children in the countryside to get their basic education, I think it’ll be difficult to expand the village’s scope.

“Also, what are you doing about medical care?”

“Doesn’t healing magic cover that part?”

“Well, as a matter of fact, doctors are forbidden to use healing magic in this country without the necessary qualifications.”

“Seriously?”

“That’s quite an amazing truth.”

Not only Elise, but I was startled as well. It seems like unlicensed people are in danger of landing in jail in the worst case, if they use healing magic in the current demon country.

“Who would come up with such a dumb idea?”

From Therese’s point of view, it appears to be unbelievable that the demon country would impose a restriction on the use of something as convenient as healing magic, if people can use it.

“If you hear the reason, it does sound dumb indeed…”

The demon country developed magic engineering to the extreme for the sake of granting its citizens a prospering, abundant life. As a result of that, the country’s flourishing is powered by a wide spread of extremely fuel-efficient magic tools.

Demons possess a lot of mana from birth, so they don’t need to increase their mana through unreasonable training regimes. Rather, if they used convenient spells, the mass-produced magic tools wouldn’t sell. And if they don’t sell, the county will fall into a recession.

Accordingly, the state has set relatively strict rules when it comes to the use of magic and magic tools. For example, magic bags that are capable of storing food for a long period of time aren’t available. In addition, people, who aren’t qualified as doctors, are forbidden to cast healing magic, just as mentioned before. They reason here seems to be: 『Are you going to take responsibility if you, as an amateur in medical care, cast healing magic on someone and something happens to them?』.

If they put it like that, it’s surely a problematic issue. The number of people practicing offensive magic appears to be fairly low, too.

Even the members of the defense force seem to perform training similar to the military and police forces of advanced countries on earth such as how to use the weapons provided to them──it’s unnecessary to use magic since the weapons can be used by pouring mana into them──and physical training. For example, at the times when terrorists appear──though those seem to be mostly demonstrations about wanting to get employment──the defense force would receive heavy criticism by the media and demon rights organizations, if wounded or casualties were to appear after the defense force suppressed the terrorists with offensive magic.

Lightning-based magic, which would be suitable as means for mob suppression, is difficult to adjust so that it won’t cause any casualties, so hardly anyone uses it as demons usually don’t practice magic. But, they do have tranquilizers that will shoot the optimal charge of electric current to stun an opponent, if you pour mana into them. Because it’s easier to use these, only few people go out of their way to use magic.

“It’s quite a waste if you don’t use your abilities despite being blessed with them innately.”

“If you use magic inside a town, you’ll be arrested,” Mall explained to Therese.

Using a magic tool is no problem, but you’ll be criticized for using magic.

Because of their wariness about what they should do, if they suddenly used offensive magic and injured or killed some bystanders, demons never use magic in places with many people. Magic tools, on the other hand, are built so that you know their effect if you look at them after pouring mana into them.

That’s why everyone thinks it’s fine as long as you have the necessary mana to use magic tools.

“We use some spells in this village. A lot of the infrastructure has been neglected for many years, so we have no choice but to compensate for the things we cannot repair with magic.”

There’s lots of documents about magic left behind, so they seem to be referencing those documents to use magic for carrying heavy stuff, tilling fields, or maintaining roads.

“Doesn’t that mean you went back to the past?”

“We don’t have money, so it’s this village’s rule to do what we can do by ourselves. Fortunately, we have someone with the qualifications of a pharmacist and various types of medical plants have been growing in this area, too.”

I suppose that means they contort magic potions to prepare for injuries and diseases.

“A healing magician with the qualification of a doctor has been interested in this village, so I think we’ll be able to resolve the issue with the healing magic soon.”

The village where the demon queen served as village headman, was continuously taking shape.

“Let’s leave the difficult talk at that. I’m hungry.”

“Me too.”

The baby food that used the potatoes we had harvested was done as well, and my babies had eaten it while enjoying it very much. Maybe it’s a good idea to keep increasing the ratio of baby food from now on.

“We also finished other dishes.”

With Elise and my wives helping out, dishes such as tempura, mashed sweet potatoes, and so on were completed. We began to eat them together with the villagers.

If you cook and eat ingredients you harvested yourself, they naturally taste good. It might be my imagination, but taste is nothing you only experience with your tongue.

“Look, Earl Baumeister-dono, aren’t my citizen candidates enjoying themselves?”

The young villagers happily ate the food they had harvested and cooked together. Because each of them had also brought over extra dishes, booze, and sweets, this whole event seemed just like a harvest festival.

“Jobless or unable to marry? If such people are interested in this village, I’ll accept them. And at some point the revival of the Zontark Kingdom will become a possibility, too.”

“Your Majesty, the preparations for that are steadily proceeding. We have settled on a store to sell the produce of this village. The clients will know the names and faces of the producers. It’s a setup to allow the customers to buy their produce with peace of mind, even if it’s slightly more expensive.”

“Oohh, that’s a marvelous idea!”

What, I actually know that method quite well myself…

“We will revive several other abandoned villages and gather the produce in the village that’s closest to the capital to regularly hold a market. Let us develop special products based on the local produce. We have named the market, where they will be sold, as 『Crossroad Market』

“That’s a great idea! Nothing less of you, Lyra.”

“I’m honored to receive your praise.”

“…..”

Umm…Lyra-san, that sort of stuff has existed in Japanese farming villages for centuries now.

Still, I’d be troubled if I were to be told, “So what about it?”, and thus I remained silent…

“If we can expand the scale at a good pace, I think we will be able to revive the Zontark Kingdom without a doubt.”

“Ooohhh! That’s totally what you’d call a plan of a millennium to revive the kingdom!”

“Hey, Wend.”

“It might really be possible to revive the kingdom, so they’re rejoicing over that. It’s better to not pay too much attention to it.”

“It could be bad to dampen their spirits by pouring cold water on them, huh?”

It seemed like Ina wanted to say something about this, but I gently stopped her from doing so.

“Having said that, it’s not like we aren’t troubled at all. Please look at this.”

“I see. Damage to the fields by wild animals, eh…?”

The plan to revive the Zontark Kingdom──I guess it’d be more appropriate to call it a plan to revive abandoned farm villages──seemed to proceed well, but it wasn’t as though they had no worries at all either. After eating the potatoes, we were led to foliaged vegetable fields. The plants there had been tragically devoured.

“Because it’s been only around hundred years since this land was abandoned, it hasn’t declined into a monster domain yet, but there’s a lot of wild animals around, so the damage to the fields is quite intense. We’ve spanned nets, but the effect is rather lacking.”

“If your fields get damaged, you have no choice but to cull.”

“Cull…you mean like killing the animals? I feel that would be too pitiful.”

This girl is the demon queen, and yet…

Feeling sorry for the wild animals who ravaged the fields…my image of a demon queen audibly crumbled apart inside my mind.

“You’ve got a point…killing animals is pitiful, or rather…”

“Can’t we handle this by simply chasing them away somehow?”

“We’ve also had plans to set up barbed wires or scatter chemical agents to keep the animals away.”

“If you come in contact with wild animals, home centers sell ropes that paralyze those touching them with lightning magic. Since you can supply the mana yourself, I feel like that would be a possible way to deal with it.”

“We’ve tried to set up such ropes before, but their output was too low and they got severed quickly. I wonder what we should do about this?”

The young villagers were similar to the demon queen. Because they were close to modern people, they held reservations about killing wild animals. Although they’re demons themselves…

This made me wonder what they were doing about the cattle meat they usually ate, but…they resembled Earth in this regard as well.

“The animals, who tasted your wonderful farm produce once, will come back here no matter how often you chase them away. You have no choice but to exterminate them in order to prevent the damage to your fields.”

Wilma stated her own opinion.

“But, we occupied this land and started living here on our own accord. I feel it’d be pitiful to drive away the animals as a result of that…”

“Then you just don’t need to live here. You can survive, even if you stay in the city. At times it’s necessary to become selfish for the sake of your own ideals.”

“””””……”””””

The demons fell silent due to Wilma’s fair argument. It wasn’t as though they’d starve if they remained in the city, but as they hated a life that felt like they were simply allowed to live, they had moved to this inconvenient place as they wanted to do something productive.

If it required the extermination of wild animals to protect their own living space, they shouldn’t hesitate to carry it out.

“It’s just as Wilma-san says. We hated the life of relying on welfare while receiving food to survive in the city, so we came here.”

“It’s a home we’ve finally obtained for ourselves.”

“It’s bad if we can’t hunt down wild animals for the sake of protecting this place.”

“Alright, let’s do our best!”

Demons quarreling whether they should exterminate harmful animals or not…if people on Earth heard of this, they wouldn’t be able to believe this… I mean, the demons in books have a considerably brutal image.

“Wend-sama?”

“Yeah, maybe it would be better to teach them?”

“Katharina, Katia, you too.”

“You’re right… These people are completely different from the demons I read about in old documents…”

“But they sure do have a lot of mana…”

Afterwards, Katharina, Katia, and Lisa, centered around Wilma who was also known as Fishing Girl or Hunting Girl (outdated), taught the demons how to kill harmful animals and how to lay traps since they were used to it.

“I didn’t expect you to be able to lay traps, Wilma.”

“I can do it, but they aren’t overly efficient.”

“I see.”

“It’s faster for me to ambush the prey and take it down myself. It also yields me more game, but seeing how the main objective is to make sure that no harmful animals visit the fields, it’s not necessary to catch a huge amount.”

“I understand. Hunting with traps cannot yield you that much game.”

Since I’ve heard that the number of young people, who got a license to hunt with traps, was increasing in Japan, I thought you’d be able to catch more with that method. In my case, it’d be faster to search and kill prey with magic instead of wasting time on laying traps…

I’ve never used something like a trap.

“Luckily, we had traps in the storehouse.”

“Yeah, it looks like the previous inhabitants left them there when they abandoned this place.”

The traps were the cages. You place bait inside the cage, and once an animal enters, the entrance closes, trapping the animal within. I’ve seen those on TV in my previous life.

“This is…a rope trap? And over here we have a foothold trap.”

“Wend-sama, well-informed.”

I’ve just seen it on TV before.

“You’re not going to use these?”

“It’d be terrible if people got caught in them.”

Figures.

Since they’ll be set up near to the fields, they might cause injuries among the local demons. One needs to consider such things as well when setting up traps.

“Wilma-san, what would be the best place to install this box trap?”

“Over here.”

We didn’t have a clue where to place box traps in this area, but Wilma briskly instructed the demons where to set the traps up. Those were box traps that had been left behind in the old storehouse of an abandoned village, but they didn’t break down, which made me realize the high level of engineering the demons possessed.

“I think it’ll be fine to use produce as bait.”

“Will we be able to catch the animals with those, Wilma-san?”

“At first, yes. The prey isn’t accustomed to traps yet.”

In the beginning, the animals will have a low sense of danger, so they’ll likely be able to catch a lot of harmful animals who gather here to eat the fields’ plants.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Since the animals would eat the plants at night, we decided to wait for a night after setting up the traps. We went back to our ship and spent the night over there.

 

 

We went back to our ship to rest. When we came back to check the box traps early in the morning, several boars and deer had been caught.

Just like the ones in the undeveloped areas of the Baumeister Earldom, these animals greatly differed in size, fur color and fur pattern from the ones on Earth. Moreover, they were quite ferocious. Especially the big boars had continued to charge against the cages, earning themselves a bloody snout.

“Quite brutal, aren’t they? And big on top of that…”

“Umm…Your Majesty, what have you been doing for a while now?”

“You see, we regularly get research projects as homework at school, so I’ve been recording this event in my diary. Luckily, Lumi has agreed to share some of her pictures later.”

“I’m having you and Earl Baumeister-san help me out with the news coverage, so it’s only fair. Besides, isn’t this a great topic for a research project?”

The demon queen had been noting down the state of the box traps in her diary. She apparently planned to draw pictures based on Lumi’s pictures below the text afterwards.

So it’s a diary with illustrations, huh…? I think it’d be no problem for her to just attach the pictures themselves, though.

“So, what are you going to do with the caught prey?”

“Of course, you finish them off, drain their blood, and eat them.”

“So it’s come to this after all? Don’t you pity the animals?”

“””””””””””Eh?”””””””””””

Us humans could only be astonished by the demon queen’s comment. The image of a demon king or queen I had harbored so far finally shattered altogether.

“I already thought this yesterday, but I believe it’ll be just fine if we release them in some distant place. If we do it like that, they won’t come back her anymore, right?”

Demons certainly have moral values close to modern people in this regard. They had judged that it’d be a good call to return the caught animals to nature. In my previous life, I also saw how a captured bear was returned to nature. I think it’s the same idea here.

“That’s no good. It won’t reduce the damages caused by the wild animals.”

However, Wilma immediately rejected that idea.

“Why is it not good?”

“These boars and deer have already experienced the taste of crops. Since they can eat delicious crops over here, they’ll prefer coming here over food they can procure in the wilderness. If you don’t maroon them in a fairly distant place, they’ll come back here again. And even if these boars and deer don’t return, other animals will start to eat the crops over here. It might be pitiful, but you have no choice but to cull them regularly.”

“Wilma’s opinion is sound, I think.”

I think the demons are against culling the captured animals as they also feel guilty for having stolen the animals’ living space, but seeing how they’ve started farming, wild animals will keep approaching the fields to eat the crops. As such they have only the two choices of regularly culling the animals or accepting the damage to their fields.

Given that they won’t be able to harvest crops if they leave the animals to their own devices, they won’t have any other option but taking the departure from this village into consideration.

When I mentioned that, I was told, “Leaving here is out of the question. We’ve finally managed to build a foundation for a good life over here. But, I also believe that it’s necessary to be merciful towards the animals. That’s what you call the benevolence of a rule.”

“You think so?”

“Earl Baumeister, do you object to Her Majesty’s words?” Lyra-san snapped at me with a dangerously low voice.

I get that her loyalty is high, but we’re talking about a small girl here. It’s necessary to correct her if she says something wrong.

“Your Majesty, why did you go out of your way to revive the farm village in this area?”

“For the sake of reviving the lively demon kingdom as it existed in the past. Their lives are guaranteed, but having no job, being unable to marry, and being unable to give birth to children is just too sad a fate for the demons.”

“Your Majesty, that is a splendid mindset.”

“If it’s for the sake of that goal, you people have to stick to your own principles, I’d say. This also applies to the harmful animals ravaging your fields.”

But even if they don’t do that, the demons don’t have to worry about their livelihood. They don’t really have to live out here and produce their own crops. After all, they’ll be provided the least amount of necessities if they live in the city. As such, no one is forcing them to revive farm villages and do their own agriculture.

If the people of Lingaia knew about the demon country, not a few of them would see it as paradise. Yet, the demon queen and her followers willingly relocated their living space to this place.

“If you don’t remove the elements harming your living space by yourself, you won’t be able to maintain your self-reliance. If you believe the animals to be pitiable, you can simply go back to the city and live your old life there.”

However, seeing how they’ve started to live out here because they hated the welfare life, they must remove the harmful animals, even if it might be cruel, to protect their own livelihood.

“Everyone should have gathered in the place because they couldn’t fill the void in their hearts, even if they had no need to worry about food and shelter. If you cannot put in the necessary effort to protect your new life, I think it’ll be just fine to go back to the city under the protection of the welfare system. I mean, no one is going to blame you for whatever choice you make.”

“It’s just as Wend says. If we hadn’t killed the harmful animals in the territory of my family, it’d have affected our harvest, resulting in people having too little food. That’d trigger new problems. It’s not like I like killing animals or anything like that, but I’ll do it for the sake of survival.”

“Right! It is the same with adventurers hunting monsters! People cannot survive unless they kill other creatures!”

“Yep. I do feel sorry for the animals, but in such a case, I think it would be best to not kill more than necessary while making sure to not waste any of the materials provided by the culled animals.”

Erw, Doushi, and Elise stated opinions that contradicted the demons’ view. From the eyes of Lingaia inhabitants, the demons must look like pure spoiled brats.

“If you hate the idea of killing animals, it’d have been best if you had left this place alone.”

“…No, we’re already fed up with just being kept alive by being provided a little allowance, food, drinks, and shelter in the city.”

“That’s right. We can live in the city without having to starve, but the days over there are empty…”

“The looks by our families are painful.”

“When I heard them talk about my cousin having married, I got disgusted by my parents being awfully gentle.”

“I hate being unable to answer whenever the grannies and grandpas in the neighborhood asked me where I was employed! I don’t want to leave this place!”

“Me neither!”

Many demons opposed Wilma’s remark. They had no intention to go back to their old lives.

“In that case, your only option is to protect this village and its fields. I’ll teach you how to process the game. You can thank them for their lives by eating them without wasting anything.”

“Understood! Please teach me!”

“I want to learn it too!”

“Me too!”

Because Wilma usually isn’t very talkative, her words do carry persuasiveness whenever she talks. The demons began to passionately learn how to dismantle the boars, deer, and also rabbits as well as badgers which got stuck in the box traps.

“Wilma, you sure are good at this…”

“Eventually, everyone will be capable of this much.”

Erw, Ina, Luise, Katharina, and I…certainly, almost all of us are able to do this. Amalie-san is naturally able to dismantle game as well since we wouldn’t have been able to eat meat in the former Baumeister Knightdom otherwise.

“As expected, for me…”

Former Duchess Therese couldn’t do it, but since she helped out with the work anyway, she was still better than Lyra-san whose face had gone ghastly pale after seeing the blood and intestines of the animals.

“I’ve gathered quite a bit of experience on the battlefield despite my appearance, so I guess thou can say I’m somewhat okay with this.”

“I’m the prime minister, so if I don’t get used to things like this…”

“No, you don’t really need to do that, do you?”

No matter how you think about it, the revival of the Zontark Kingdom and a war with another country or power won’t take place within Lyra-san’s lifetime.

“No, Her Majesty is challenging herself! So I must shape us as well!”

“Come to think of it…”

Given that the demon queen is a child on top of having received a higher form of education, I had wondered how she’d stomach all of this, but she was watching Wilma’s work attentively.

“It’s a pity, but we won’t be able to eat any meat if we don’t kill living beings like this.”

“Even the meat sold in the city’s store has been processed like this by someone else.”

“Now that you’ve mentioned it, I must admit I didn’t realize it at all. There are many people supporting a country by doing such hard and strenuous work, I suppose.”

Animal husbandry is popular in the Zontark Republic. You can eat meat in any store without any hesitation, but that’s only true because some people have dismantled the livestock. The demon queen has apparently understood that harmful animals and cattle are no different in regards to being living beings.

“Fish, vegetables, and grains are living beings, too.”

“It’s just as you say. Humans, demons, other animals, and even monsters cannot survive without killing other living beings. I have comprehended that truth just now.”

“That’s why it’s okay to be grateful for their life without capturing them pointlessly.”

Wilma taught the dismantling to the demons by actually doing it herself. It was no exaggeration to describe her skill as outstanding. But, that was no wonder for someone who had mastered hunting, gathering, and fishing in order to procure her own food at a tender age.

“It’s done with this.”

“If you hunt them down to an extent, the animals will become vigilant and the number of animals ravaging your fields will decrease. It might also be good to put up fences and nets. You could also research products for exterminating harmful animals and adapt them for your village,” I added some advice from my side.

It wasn’t necessary for them to catch all harmful animals. If they let the wildlife know that this was demon turf, the number of animals requiring catching might decrease.

“Now then, let us enjoy all of the meat of the animals we caught without leaving anything behind.”

“Boar and deer meat, huh? I’m curious how they taste.”

“Which reminds me, that will be my first time eating such meat.”

We, on the other hand, have rarely eaten the meat of cattle ever since we were born…or in my case, since I got reincarnated into this world…

Elise and my other wives cooked the fresh meat and intestines, and the demons helped them with that while seriously taking notes.

Humans teaching demons how to eat wild game…from my point of view, that’s an extremely surreal sight.

“First we’re going to roast it normally and eat it like that.”

The boar and deer meat was grilled on a mesh alongside veggies that had been harvested in the village. If you ate that with the soy sauce and miso sauce prepared by me, it’d have a reliable deliciousness.

“It doesn’t stink.”

“If you drain the blood properly and pay attention to its preservation, the meat won’t stink.”

“We have been taught about dismantling game by you, Wilma-san, but I must say it’s quite a lot of work.”

“Seeing how you have graduated from the convenient life in the city, you must accept this as necessary evil.”

If they had stayed back in the city, they wouldn’t need to go through all this hassle like we have to, but now that they picked a life as farmers, they must do this every day, even if it turns into a bloody mess.

“When I was still young, I worried whether I should have killed the guinea fowl when I was letting its blood drain for the first time. Seeing its intestines, I felt somewhat bad.”

“Hoh, you did, Earl Baumeister?”

“Your Majesty, I’m the eighth son of a former Knight family. Thanks to various twists and turns, I’m an Earl now, though.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Such being the case, I think everyone will soon get used to dismantling harmful animals. If you do it while regarding it as work, you’ll learn it on the job.”

“You’re right. We expressly left the city and started a farm village in such a deserted and abandoned area. From the point of view of the animals, we are definitely invaders. I won’t try to whitewash it. After all, we’re going to establish a country.”

“Your Majesty, you have resolved yourself, haven’t you…? But the sauce around your mouth…”

If you do farming, harmful animals will show up. They were talking about what to do about this particular problem, but for some reason the demon queen and her prime minister made the whole story more grandiose than it was. And then Lyra-san used her handkerchief to wipe away the sauce around the demon queen’s mouth.

“Come to think of it, I was thinking that we might try to keep a lot more chickens once our farming has stabilized. We will be able to get their eggs, but if we can’t process the chickens, we can’t sell their meat. So it’s something indispensable, isn’t it?”

The young demon, who was the one in charge of this village, had reached the conclusion that the techniques to dismantle animals were necessary.

Referencing my previous life’s memories, raising chickens was indispensable for these types of farming village revival movements. For this reason, they had to work hard so that they wouldn’t waste the chickens.

“Wouldn’t it be fine to also sell the meat of the harmful animals? It might sell for its scarcity value.”

“Earl Baumeister, is that something you can sell?”

“Well, it’s rare, so why not.”

Even in Japan, selling the wild game after exterminating harmful animals such as boars, deer, and bears succeeded in some places. Catchphrases like “Support your local farmers by eating this” weren’t overly rare in Japan either.

In other words, it should be a business method applicable to demons who closely resembled modern people.

“Certainly, it is as you say, Earl Baumeister. We haven’t eaten the meat of hunted game for a long time. If we don’t mess up with the advertisement for this, it should garner quite the demand.”

The meat of wild game wasn’t sold in the city of the demons. Given that cattle meat, of which they had too much, was commonplace, there was no room for other meat to get a foot onto the market. But, at this point it’s a blind spot.

“Because it’s rare, you can also sell it for a slightly expensive price. In exchange, you must drain the blood properly and you’ll need perfect your dismantling and processing techniques since it won’t sell if it tastes yucky. You also must use adequate advertisement.”

Officially──the real objective is difficult to achieve at present so it’s not even necessary to consider it──the goal of the demons was to revive the farm village. If they use the earnings for the farm expenses and do the sale for the sake of not wasting any of the meat, it’d be best to honestly inform people about it during the sale.

“Well, kind of like 『Support us by eating』?”

“That’s a nice catchphrase. “It will do very well.”

“I got totally motivated now.”

“I feel you. We must protect our home with our own hands.”

Lyra-san praised my suggestion and the other demons apparently got pumped as well. So it’s probably a good thing if this livens up the village.

“(Wend, they’re demons, so is really alright to teach them all sorts of things?)”

“(It doesn’t really matter, does it?)”

Three quarters of the subcontinent inhabited by the demons is uninhabited. Assuming the young demons were to restart the reclamation at their current speed, it’s questionable how many centuries they’d require to finally reach a point where they’d have the leeway to focus on other continents. Moreover, demons like the demon queen and her followers are an extreme minority.

“(From the human point of view, it will buy us time)”

As long as the humans use that time to catch up technologically as much as possible… In the first place, humans have an overwhelming superiority in numbers, and since the demons basically possess calm dispositions, they probably won’t look for any conflict with the humans if they can profit from trading with humans.

“(It sounds like you’re not just giving advice on weird stuff, but also think of the future…unexpectedly)”

“(The unexpectedly was unnecessary there!)”

I quietly but forcefully retorted against Erw.

“Because Earl Baumeister-dono kindly gave us such a wonderful idea, let us all work hard to make it succeed.”

“It’ll be the first step for my plan of a Millennial Kingdom.”

“It shall be as you say, Your Majesty.”

“””””””””””…”””””””””””

As always, there existed a big gap between what she was saying and doing, but I guess it’s fine either way since she’s peaceful.

“Umm…she said, 『It was this beautiful, young demon queen who devoted all her efforts into reviving the farm village…』. This is the truth. It’s definitely no guesswork, yep.”

Even Lumi cut corners in that area…I mean just how many demons would believe her if she wrote down the conversation between the demon queen and Lyra-san just like that.

“How about we also make smoked meat? It also works as a method for preservation. And it will be demanded as a side dish to go with alcohol.”

“How about selling it as canned food, retort food, and stew? I can get my hands on second hand food processing machinery with broken parts for cheap.”

“I think we should try that.”

 

＊

 

Afterwards, the demons sold the animal meat as wild game, succeeding in raking in quite a bit of profit. However, I would receive a sample of that much later in the future.

『(They’ve used an illustration of the demon queen on the package!)』

『Hey, Wend, Is there any point in this having a drawing of the demon queen?』

『Somehow, according to the accompanying letter, it was immediately sold out as soon as they shipped it』

『For real, Luise? I don’t really get those demons』

It might not be comprehensible for the humans of this world yet, but as a former modern Japanese person, I could fully understand the reason why the wild game products with the demon queen illustration were selling so well.

Those demons definitely resemble the modern people of Earth to a tee.

 

 

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Translation Notes:

1. T/N: In Japan, they have a big issue with the countryside literally dying out. You can basically get old houses there for free. And they got this weird law where you can occupy a place and it’ll become yours, if no owner claims it after x time (it was mentioned in D-Genesis as weird, super technical trivia knowledge kek).