Previously
Ariella is shocked by the poverty of Ludvic's realm, witnessing a group of Orcs raiding Kobold farmers while Ludvic personally intervenes to fight them off. She deduces that the territory is so poorly defended and resource-depleted that it lacks even basic trade value.
Groib tilted his head for a brief moment before beginning to show Ariella around.
Given how tiny the castle was, exploring it didn't even take an hour.
After that, the two stepped outside. The demon sentries at the castle gate were still busy cracking jokes, giving her only a halfhearted greeting.
‘Even their discipline has hit rock bottom.’
Ariella kept walking, committing their faces to memory.
‘If this area surrounds the castle, it should be the very heart of the domain, yet it looks just like what I saw when I first arrived…’
Compared to the place where she had witnessed the raid, there were only a few more houses; the overall atmosphere was practically the same.
“If this place is the equivalent of a kingdom’s capital, something is terribly wrong.”
The side road was completely deserted. Even assuming everyone was working the fields right now, it still seemed suspicious.
‘Foot traffic is practically nonexistent.’
Questions kept crowding inside her head.
Just how did this country's economy function?
An unceasing desire to ask and learn welled up within her. Instinctively, she pulled a small notebook and a writing utensil from between the folds of her clothes.
She had carried them everywhere since childhood out of habit. Whenever she hit a snag while studying magic on her own, she had made a point of jotting down formulas until the habit became second nature.
She flipped her notebook open and began peppering the Kobold with a barrage of questions.
“Is there a currency in the demon realm?”
“Does the state provide housing, or is it left to the private sector? And how much does it cost each month to live in a house like this?”
“Do you rely entirely on self-sufficiency for food? What about markets where trades take place?”
Whenever he answered, she jotted down every single word without missing a thing.
Watching her, Groib began to smile, revealing the sharp teeth set between his pointed jaws. It was the first time Ariella had ever seen a Kobold smile.
He adjusted the monocle over his right eye and made a quip.
“You seem awfully curious. You aren't a spy sent by another Demon King, are you?”
Ariella quipped back in kind.
“Is there anything left in this territory worth plundering besides crops?”
Through these questions and answers, she formed a clear picture of Ludvic's domain.
The south was considered the least developed region in the demon realm. And within that south, this territory lay at its absolute outer edge.
A remote village possessing nothing that could tempt greedy rival kings.
Groib shrugged.
“Actually, we do have something. The people.”
· · ·
When a bewildered look crossed her face, Groib pointed a finger toward the sky. Ariella’s head tilted upward naturally.
‘Ah… the sun.’
There hung a sun in the middle of the sky, its color slightly distinct from the blazing sun of the human world. Even looking straight at it with the naked eye, she felt no painful glare.
What astonished her more, however, was that she could see several other suns within her field of vision.
“In the human world, there is only one sun, isn't there? In the demon realm, however, there are over a hundred. As many as there are Demon Kings in this world.”
The sun that hung above a Demon King's realm cast its gentle rays downward.
The light radiating from it formed a clear boundary separating the kingdom's lands from the outside world.
“Every sun is directly tied to a Demon King. And the expanse illuminated on the earth reflects the breadth of that king's territory.”
In truth, Ariella already knew this much. She had read about the demon realm's ecology over and over until the pages wore thin.
Yet she didn't know the exact details of the reciprocal bond between a sun and a Demon King.
“And how does a sun grow? Is it enough for the Demon King to become stronger?”
“A Demon King's might is important, of course, but the decisive factor is something else. It is the population residing within his lands.”
Ah, so that was why he brought up the people from the start!
Ariella listened intently, her eyes sparkling with eager curiosity.
“The better a Demon King governs his kingdom, the more his population grows. His bound sun enlarges, and the reach of its light expands. As that light expands, the Demon King's power increases.”
“A virtuous cycle, then.”
There were several ways for a Demon King to increase his power—contracts with humans, for instance—yet they remained secondary compared to the most vital factor: growing his realm's population.
“That is why population density is of paramount importance. The concept of patriotism does not exist in the demon realm. If life in one territory turns grim, the people flee straight to another kingdom. Because of that, Demon Kings are compelled to pour their utmost effort into governing their lands.”
Ariella sank into deep thought for a moment, then murmured.
“It seems the demon realm is an ideal environment for nurturing good rulers. A king must develop his land and improve his people's livelihoods if he wants to endure.”
“Is it any different in the human realm?”
· · ·
Ariella looked quietly toward the sun of Demon King Ludvic's realm—the sun directly tied to him.
Even at a glance, it was far smaller than the other suns hovering in the sky. Plainly, the patch of ground it illuminated was not vast.
The sun over Ludvic's realm looked like a feeble candle that a single gust of wind might extinguish.
“Can a sun ever disappear entirely?”
Though her books had never mentioned such a thing, curiosity coaxed the question into her mind.
“Here, we say the sun ‘goes out.’ And it does happen occasionally, if the population collapses past the point where governing the land remains feasible.”
A shiver ran down Ariella’s spine. She recalled the farmlands that had been subjected to the raid.
Then she glanced at the streets directly in front of the castle, which were nonetheless eerily barren.
“Wait a moment… Is the population growth in this realm declining?”
“It would be more accurate to say our numbers are in a downward trend.”
Groib offered a rueful smile.
“It is difficult to provide exact figures, but since His Majesty ascended to rule, the pace of emigration has at least slowed. Even so, we have yet to reach positive growth.”
In other words, the population was still dwindling.
“And if that continues until the sun disappears?”
Groib scratched his chin, smoothing down the thick tufts of fur there.
“Several side effects would occur, but the very first thing to happen…”
He cast a guarded glance around as if wary of eavesdroppers, then whispered,
“The Demon King will die.”
Ludvic… would die?
“The sun is bound to the king's fate. Ascending the throne of the Demon Kings inherently means shouldering that burden.”
Wait, hold on!
Ariella felt the blood rush to her head.
Even amidst her mounting panic, a simple chain of logic clicked into place.
First, according to the contract's terms, if the Demon King died, Ariella, as his contractor, would die alongside him.
Second, the Demon King was attuned to the sun. If the population continued to plummet unchecked until the sun went out, the king would die.
Following that principle, only one conclusion remained.
‘Which means if this kingdom collapses, I die too?!’
The moment she grasped that reality, a hollow numbness and outright dread struck her all at once. Ariella realized she had celebrated her triumph far too soon.
A comfortable life free of hardship and obstacles, flowing smoothly like running water?
A life of doing nothing but researching magic and living in sweet luxury?
The vividly colorful dream she had envisioned before coming here was slowly washing out into a dull black-and-white sketch.
‘…No, it’s too early to give up!’
Her despair did not linger. Ariella pulled herself together quickly.
Now that she understood the lay of the land, she knew exactly what she had to do.
‘Escaping the Empire wasn’t the end of the story!’
Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
‘If I want to survive, I have to save this crumbling kingdom first…!’
If she could just bring the kingdom to a state where the sun no longer threatened to go out, she could call it a success.
With that, Ariella's ultimate goal became crystal clear.
Early the following morning, Groib came to escort her.
“Was the room comfortable?”
Ariella nearly burst into tears on the spot. Her eyes were sunken from lack of sleep, her face laying bare that she had endured a restless night.
She considered answering honestly, but caught herself at the last second. She had to preserve her dignity. Her pride.
‘…It was quite a refreshing and novel environment.’
The interior of the Demon King’s castle was just as chaotic as its exterior.
The food served had been dreadful. The bread was so rock-hard it nearly dislocated her jaw, and the soup looked like water used to soak a dirty rag.
The sleeping quarters were the worst of all. The sheets were mottled with brown stains of indeterminate origin, and rodents had scuttled across the ceiling the entire night.
“Ah, I see. It is splendid that you spent a fine night.”
Groib replied impassively. In that moment, a distinct realization hit Ariella.
The evasive manners and subtle barbs she had grown accustomed to using among the high nobility carried no weight here.
‘It can’t be helped. I chose this path myself. I have to adapt.’
She hadn't expected special treatment; rather, she was fully aware that her circumstances had changed.
Then she gazed out the window, taking in her surroundings.
In truth, there had been a far greater reason she couldn't sleep last night.
Unlike the human world, the demon realm's sun did not vanish entirely at night; only its brightness and color shifted.
Which made sense. If the sun vanished completely every night, it would trigger a regular wave of sudden deaths across every royal castle.
Thus, even in the dead of night, its light bathed the ground in a soft hue brighter than a full moon.
Inside the dimly lit room, Ariella had tossed and turned for hours until she finally abandoned all hope of deep sleep. As the night wore on, she had sat down to sort through her thoughts, cataloging the information she had gathered in her notebook.
“This way. His Majesty is already inside.”
Groib knocked on the door and announced to the interior,
“The contractor has arrived.”
END