The Melancholy of the Demon Army Officer
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Millinia
Read at Watashi Wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 015 – Apostle and Demon Army’s Food Situation
—Maou Castle
It was a huge castle built by Maou Ssulal and was the base of the Demon Army.
Therefore, not only did the maou and majins live here, it was also packed with many demon soldiers.
The demons which came in and out of the castle were from the Demon Army including demon generals, some demon captain executives, and demon soldiers who served as castle guards.
Maou castle was reserved for elite demon soldiers which made it a popular occupation — actually, that’s a lie.
It wasn’t a popular assignment, because the maou and majins were mostly people with their respective quirks; meaning if they suddenly asked for unreasonable tasks or if they somehow were in a bad mood — the soldiers might have ended up dead.
However, despite such circumstances there were still many demon soldiers who wished to join the guard unit.
While most of them were based there due to having ulterior motives such as gaining the favor of people who lived there, that wasn’t the sole reason. There was something more important — a basic, but compelling reason that drove one to live.
And that was — food.
“Hey, what are you eating today?”
“I feel like eating Uppii, how about you?”1
“I’d like a Kawazugake. I love~ that slimy sensation…”2
One of the demon soldiers was on break and having a discussion about food with a fellow soldier, also on break.
Dining room. It was a place made by Maou Ssulal so her subordinates could eat properly.
There was a simple reason why the demons had looked forward to the meals in the Maou Castle; the food in demon society was not as developed as human society’s food.
But that was also inevitable, because there were only a few demons who actually cooked.
There were some demons who could cook specific food, but they rarely ever had a chance to eat anything else.
There were even cases where demons attacked human settlements just to order the humans to cook food for them. Some demons had even looked forward to such opportunities.
Demons mostly ate what they harvested as is, or maybe just exposed it to fire for a bit.
Therefore, meal time was considered the most enjoyable time of the day for the demon soldiers.
—And now, such a precious place of their relaxation, was about to be robbed.
“…”
“Ngu… crunch crunch… Oh, this uroron is quite something. It had a peculiar texture, but it wasn’t bad. This Neginegipon is also irresistible. This fragrant smell sure whets my appetite.”3
In the center of the dining room.
There were two majins sitting while facing each other, and the demon soldiers continued their banter.
“Galtia-sama, how much does he intend to eat…?”
“He already ate over ten peoples servings worth… look at that.”
“Rather, it’s amazing he could eat normally despite being glared at by Leonhart-sama like that…”
The person who was currently eating was a mushi user man who recently turned into a majin — Majin Galtia.
And the person who scowled with his pair of red eyes at Galtia, who ate without care, and had the space between his eyebrows wrinkled — Majin Leonhart.
Ever since the two majins sat at the center of the dining room, the other demons ate their food in the far corner of the dining room while feeling cramped there.
The demons saw their superiors, the rulers among the demon society, eating there. There was no way they could relax.
The demon soldiers decided to quickly shovel food into their mouths, without recognizing its taste, and leave the dining room as if to escape.
“The demons sure eat pretty good food. Ooh, this omelet is a sweet one, that’s nice.”
“…Galtia.”
“This ikurauni is also delicious. I can feel its flavors dancing on my tongue — oh, sorry. What were you saying?”4
“—You, how much are you going to eat—?!”
Leonhart’s loud voice echoed in the dining room. The demon soldiers around didn’t look in that direction, but agreed inside their hearts.
It was what everyone had thought ever since Galtia turned into majin.
“You’re eating an absurd amount every single day…!”
“Oi oi, I made sure I ate everything I took with me.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about!! Seriously…”
“Ah… but I can’t help it. My body has been like this ever since I turned into a majin. Besides, I can’t exactly let them starve.”
“…Yes, but there should be some limit—”
Leonhart shifted his gaze to Galtia’s stomach. There was a big gaping hole, and there was a strange figure of a girl peeking out from inside.
“—?”
“…Cih.”
She tilted her head, seemingly unable to understand why he stared at her. When Leonhart saw that, he clicked his tongue and went silent.
To think that Galtia and his mushis’ food intake would be this much…
—Ten days ago.
Ssulal, who turned Galtia into a majin, immediately ordered the Demon Army to withdraw.
The demon generals were confused, but they could only obey since Maou commanded them. The demon soldiers were disappointed since they couldn’t pillage the town, but they soon began to prepare to return. Since they couldn’t go against Maou anyway, they simply gave up.
The problem was the change that occurred with Galtia when he turned into a majin.
Galtia’s appearance itself didn’t change much, with the exception of two things.
A big hole opened up on his stomach as he turned into a majin.
We couldn’t see its contents, only a black void was visible.
However, Galtia himself didn’t seem to care since it wouldn’t hinder his movements.
At that time, when Ssulal and I had an unconvinced expression, three strange figures emerged from him. They had a strange appearance; they had what seemed to be a human body mixed with other creatures.
And those three went and embraced Galtia. All three of them. At first, I thought they went to prey on him, but that wasn’t the case. They rubbed their bodies on Galtia, appearing to be pleased.
Galtia looked at that and had a surprised expression as he noticed something, then he also showed happiness like they did. When Sussal and I were in awe of the three mutants, Galtia introduced them, “They are my mushis.” Like that.
Don’t tell me, these are? I tilted my head, but Ssulal seemed to notice something and her expression tensed as she said this.
—They turned into apostles.
Apostles.
They were similar to how majin were to the maou.
A majin could grant another creature a blood contract and turn them into apostles, a servant of their own.
The creatures which had turned into apostles were not only similar to majins in the way they transitioned, but they also no longer had a lifespan, and their abilities were enhanced. So, if a majin made an apostle, the majins blood would become thinner, their strength would diminish, and there were also other various pros and cons of that act, but that wasn’t the main concern here.
The question was, why did the mushis inside of Galtia’s body turn into his apostles despite the fact that they didn’t enact a blood contract?
Ssulal mentioned it might be due to the characteristics of mushi users.
Originally, mushi had no soul. They lacked a sense of self, so whatever they did was out of instinct.
However, the mushi of mushi users could have thoughts of their own, and speak words just like the humans and demons did. They also had their own will.
This was because of the effect of the souls fusion between the mushi user and their mushis, which granted them influence over the soul of their host — which in turn generated a personality for them.
According to that logic, that would mean Galtia’s transformation into a majin also affected the mushis inside his body. Furthermore, the transformation didn’t turn all of his mushis into apostles on their own, but they fused to become three entities instead. Perhaps that was because Galtia’s power, with his majin blood, didn’t have the capacity to turn them all individually. So the mushis had made their choice — they decided to reborn into three beings and become Galtia’s apostles. At least, that was Ssulal’s hypothesis.
However, even as Galtia listened to that theory, he merely exhaled a “Hoo,” without seeming to care much about how the apostles worked or why it ended up like that.
Galtia wasn’t sure about the details, but the fact of the matter was that he would be together with his mushis, which was a joyous thing that brought on laughter. That was all that mattered to him.
Since they were now reborn, he had to name them, and so Galtia stared at his three apostles and began to name them in order.
The first apostle appeared to be a girl with long, black hair who had the lower body of a spider — Launea.
The second apostle with brown skin and white hair, and having developed limbs of white monkey — Thalgo
The last apostle with pale pink hair, wings, and legs that looked like a bird — Samezan
I asked him how he easily decided their names, but it seems he didn’t think too deeply and just named them what he came up with.
”Anything’s fine, right? As long as it’s not a bad name.”
Galtia said so and stroked his apostles’ heads. His apostles looked overjoyed.
Ssulal and I unintentionally laughed as we saw Galtia’s straightforward personality and his bond with his mushis. It couldn’t be helped, we said.
Then all of us, including the whole Demon Army, returned to Maou Castle. And then with our new comrade…
… Unfortunately, it didn’t end there on a good note.
As our conversation settled and we were about to depart for our return, Galita groaned,
“I’m starving.”
…And that was the beginning of hell.
We all knew well that mushi users ate tons of food. On top of that, Galtia had just turned into majin after many things happened to him. He must have felt exhausted.
Fortunately, we brought a lot of food supplies with us. There was also food stockpiled by the Demon Army battalion stationed here. The battle in this land ended and it would be troublesome to bring all that food back anyway. So I thought it would be okay to give him a bit of it.
…I was a fool for thinking so.
Galtia ate and ate. He ate continuously for days. Not once during our way back to Maou Castle, did he stop eating all the food we brought with us.
Eventually, Galtia ate everything we had. When that moment came, I felt a headache as the demon army officer who was responsible for this march. Impossible, that was enough food for sixty thousand demons…!
I underestimated Galtia’s appetite. The person in question was happy he could eat more than he usually did, but this wasn’t a laughing matter. He said he was so hungry because he had just turned into majin, and figured he might not eat as much later, but let’s put that aside for now. No, it wasn’t okay, but the real problem was the situation I was faced with in the moment.
There was still about one day’s worth of travel to Maou castle. What should we do about food until then? I held an emergency meeting to discuss that, which gave me and the demon generals a headache thinking of solutions together.
In the end, we decided to mobilize the sixty thousand troops to scour for food. It was the so-called “fend for yourself” operation. If humans came to know that the Demon Army, under direct command of maou, had to resort this idiotic method, they might’ve laughed. No, perhaps even the other demons within the army might be astonished and thought about how idiotic it was.
In the end, we failed to secure enough food to feed sixty thousand demons, and finally arrived at Maou castle as we all mildly starved.
We were lucky it only lasted for a day. It would be hell if it lasted any longer. Ssulal and I, as maou and majin, wouldn’t die even if we didn’t eat, but it would still damage us mentally. Rather than that, Galtia, restrain yourself from your consumption.
At last, we arrived at Maou Castle, so now I could finally relax. Or at least that’s what I thought.
—The situation wasn’t over just yet.
The first point was Galtia’s food intake steadily depleted the food stockpile in Maou castle. We needed to secure a stable food supply source in the near future. For the time being, the larder could still handle Galtia’s consumption for some time, so we still have some leisure time.
In fact, he no longer ate as much as he did before. Even so, he still easily ate around a hundred demons worth of food, so it was still scary.
The second point was the fact that many complaints were sent to me. We kidnapped a few humans to work as cooks in Maou Castle. It was a bad thing without a doubt, but being a cook guaranteed their personal safety and they could enjoy some privileged treatment. They were scared at first, but they were quite satisfied with their life eventually. These cooks indirectly sent their complaints to me.
The cooks complained to the demon captain who managed them, which got sent to the demon general, and then finally relayed back to me. Apparently, they never got a break ever since Galtia came.
Since Galtia practically ate all day, the cooks also needed to keep cooking for the same amount of time. Because of that, they were practically working all the time outside their sleeping time.
I could easily say “Fuhn, like I care about human circumstances. Just keep working like the slaves you are,” but it would only make more problems for us.
If the cooks collapsed, nobody would be cooking. It would be a problem if people couldn’t eat, and it would also be troublesome to kidnap another set of people to replace them. Because of that, the demon general reported about this with a hard to explain expression.
This matter needed to be solved urgently. So I ordered the demon general to kidnap another set of human cooks, but it wouldn’t resolve my frustrations about it.
So I thought to at least say something to Galtia as I came to meet him.
…However.
“Oioi, it looks like you are thinking about difficult things again. How about having a meal and relaxing for a bit? Here, cockatrice karaage, it’s tasty, you know?”
“…Hah, give it to me.”
“Here you go.”
I brought the dish offered by Galtia to my mouth.
As I chewed it, I could smell its fragrant aroma and feel its warm meat juices coat my tongue.
“…Cockatrice sure is delicious. Also, this meat seems to have been marinated. Its taste is quite good.”
“Ooh, you can tell? The cook sure did a good job.”
“Indeed. It tastes better than what I ate as a human. I felt I could eat as much as I wanted.”
“Then how about comparing our food intake next time?”
“… Like hell I could win, fool.”
“Hahah, too bad.”
Galtia didn’t seem to mind being refused. He lifted a nearby plate and continued his meal.
…Oh well.
I didn’t feel bad to relax sometimes. I thought about work any other time anyway.
It was during that moment I thought about what food I should order.
A demon soldier who entered the dining room approached.
The demon soldier came straight to me and talked to me in a tense manner.
“Le-Leonhart-sama…also… Galtia-sama, I’m sorry to interrupt your meal.”
“You don’t have to worry about me—“
“What is it?”
I waited for the demon soldier’s reply while thinking about how dexterous Galtia was to be able to reply properly as he ate.
“Err, you see… Camilla-sama is waiting for you in her room.”
“…Hah? What was that?”
Even though he said waiting, I didn’t remember any appointment with her. Galtia tried to tease me when he heard that.
“Hyuu, you’re quite something. Having a meeting with a beautiful woman in your room?”
“If that was really the case, I wouldn’t be wasting my time chatting with a dude right now. In the first place, can you imagine Camilla having a meeting with a man?”
“…You’re boring.”
“Just shut up for a bit.”
On a side note, Galtia already met Camilla. Rather, he was also introduced the way I did before.
Camilla was as usual, didn’t seem to be interested in Galtia despite his easygoing attitude.
Rather, I didn’t make any promise… eh, wait… promise…?
“—Ah.”
At that time, thunder seemed to run through my brain.
—Consider this a debt.
I did have a promise with her!
I hurriedly stood up and called out to Galtia and the demon soldier.
“I’m going for a bit — also good work for contacting me.”
“Ooh, I’m waiting for a good report.”
“Ha, Hahah!”
I heard Galtia’s and the demon soldier’s replies and headed toward the dining room’s entrance.
…Well then, what will she be asking me to do?
Then as I went out of the dining room, I hurriedly walked toward Camilla’s room.
Tsukii Note:
Galtia’s original number of mushis was only mentioned to be more than 20 in original; perhaps this fanfic author declared specific number [48] divisible by 3 for his three apostles
I do have illustrations for those 3 apostles, but I know that they were mutants which combined the bodies of girls and animals, and they don’t wear any clothes.
What I meant to say is simply
NSFW warning
Launea: https://i.ibb.co/Xy2YhWv/launea.jpg
Thalgo: https://i.ibb.co/KwbBLcq/thalgo.jpg
Samezan: https://i.ibb.co/cT8W43K/samezan.jpg
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Uppi is a fire-breathing monster (while its advanced version Happi breathes ice). https://alicesoft.fandom.com/wiki/Uppi
i see. it seems i don’t search enough. thx for reference!
Alright, I saw the NSFW warning but I didn’t expect it for all three of them . I legitimately forget this is based off an eroge
yeah, not they are potential mate, but they do appear as your eroge design characters