32 – 32. Market of Demons
“Are you really okay?”
“Yeah, it’s okay. I’m sorry if I’ve caused you concern.”
Contrary to her worries, Stella was surprised to see that Arcel had returned and was bright.
She has a face that didn’t look strange even if she burst into tears just 30 minutes ago, but now she has a relatively bright appearance without such a thing.
“And Alfred. Thanks.”
“Huh? Don’t you have anything to be thankful for? I didn’t do anything special.”
Alfred greeted Arcel with a wide smile.
“…What were you guys doing anyway?”
“Ah! That, that… This is nothing! hahahaha. You don’t have to care. It’s really nothing.”
Stella waved his hand in embarrassment.
A trump card was clutched in the stirring hand.
“Right. I’ve also found out that the dwarf just can’t play dirty cards. I’m already on my 3rd losing streak, probably.”
“Are you done talking now? Again!”
“I think you need some more training. Anyway, I have some business to do in the morning, so let’s get ready to go out soon.”
Alfred changed his coat, lightly ignoring Stella’s hot temper.
“Preparing to go out, is there something going on?”
“I have something I need to buy outside for a while. It doesn’t matter if you follow me, but if you just come, there will be trouble, right? The place I’m going to is the market of demons.”
Of course.
At least, since the elves lived only in their hometowns, no one would recognize Arcel, but the demons, on the other hand, could be said to be the exact opposite.
For demons, a hero is the same as humans think of a demon king.
A warrior is the one who broke through the army with a few colleagues and attacked the castle of the devil and cut off the devil’s head.
For demons, a hero is the same as a monster.
“But if you want to take a look, you can come.”
“Is it a market for demons…”
Arsel pondered for a moment at the tempting words.
Not all demons were enemies to be defeated like the demon king, and if you were curious about their ecology, you were curious.
“I want to go. But like you said, if you’re a demon, you won’t leave me alone the moment you see me.”
“There will probably be a big fight. Of course, that was when I realized you were a hero.”
Alfred takes a red cloth from his pocket and covers Arcel for a moment.
“What is that demon doing?”
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Stella didn’t know what it was doing at first, so she just watched it.
After about 5 seconds, Alfred collects the cloth and brings a full-length mirror.
And then his eyes widened wide.
“What the hell did that demon do?!”
“Alfred… What is this?”
“Isn’t this a plausible enough disguise? Maybe even when the demon king comes, he won’t recognize that you’re a hero?”
Alfred made Arcel look like a demon in an instant.
Not only did it have horns that weren’t on its head, but it also had a small tail, making it look like a demon.
Of course, his skin also changed to the blue color of demons.
It all happened in just 5 seconds.
“Transformation magic? But it didn’t look like I was using magic.”
Stella rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
“Of course not, transformation magic only works for dwarves and idiots who rely too much on their own eyes.”
He also growled at Alfred, who did not forget to slash the elves.
“That demon again-!”
“Stella, calm down. You get nothing out of Alfred if you get angry now.”
“Ugh… ok, I get it.”
Every time that happened, Arcel stepped in and calmed Stella down.
Alfred looked at it and he was like watching a master calming a miniature monster.
I was impressed by the small monster sitting on my lap that I sometimes saw when kidnapping princesses, and barking loudly when I got close to the princess.
So, when kidnapping princesses, he did not forget to bring a muzzle for ears.
Unfortunately, I don’t have muzzles for elves right now.
“What did that magic feel like? Did magic envelop your body like magic or something like that?”
“I don’t know either, since I haven’t been able to confirm anything other than that something passed by in an instant…”
Arcel and Stella talked about magic.
In particular, Stella wanted to hear Arcel explain her magic with her curious eyes.
“Anyway, this isn’t magic, it’s magic. Shall we go then? I want to be back by noon if possible.”
“Wait a minute! ‘Cause I’ll follow you too I can’t send you alone knowing what you’re going to do to this kid.”
“Why?”
When Stella tried to accompany her, Alfred responded with an annoyance.
“Me too, try that great magic trick or something. Of course, I’m sure the demons will recognize me.”
Looking at the reaction, Stella also seemed to want to experience magic.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t worried about Arcel, but Alfred’s magic was one of the reasons she decided to accompany her.
“It’s annoying.”
Alfred noticed that, and of course he replied in an amused manner, as if he was even more bothered.
“Alfred, can Stella go with you? It can’t be helped if it’s difficult, but it’s possible…”
“If you want to, I will take you. Coincidentally, there are disguise items that are perfect for that dwarf.”
However, when Arcel asked for it, he immediately changed his stance.
The red cloth being taken out again.
As Arcel said, I felt something passing so fast that even the elves couldn’t follow it.
“It’s over, if you do this, the demons will probably not be wary of you.”
“Then where…”
Stella looked in the mirror with high expectations.
“?”
However, nothing much has changed.
It’s not that there hasn’t been a big change, there are no horns, and the clothes and skin color are the same.
“What is this?”
The only new thing that came out was an unknown accessory stuffed around the neck.
“Why is this not working?”
But strangely, no matter how hard I try to remove the jewelry on my neck, it doesn’t budge.
It wasn’t simply tightly locked, but sealed with magic, like a kind of restraint.
“Of course it won’t work, because it’s written for slaves.”
“Haa…”
Alfred said calmly and without hiding the slightest bit.
Arsel let out a deep sigh.
What Stella wore around her neck was a leash that slaves wear, and could not be easily taken off without the master’s command.
“What? Did you write that to me just now?”
“You wanted it, right? If you want to follow me, you have to endure that much. You don’t even need to wear a disguise, if you have just one, other demons will think of you as an ordinary dwarf slave.”
Alfred did not disguise Stella as a demon, but simply filled one of the slave restraints.
As it was Arcel’s request, he had no choice but to accept it, but he didn’t seem to be more kind than necessary.
“I just needed at least one porter.”
“But what about the face? Even a slave, if he knew who I was, wouldn’t be alone.”
“You don’t recognize me. Who remembers the kid who was meanly shooting arrows from the rear in the first place? It’s just because demons are hostile to elves.”
“…”
Stella desperately held onto the string of reason she was about to break.
I wanted to blow Alfred’s head off right away, but it was true that Arcel was right next to me and that he had saved me.
Inwardly, I am not an ungrateful person who does not know grace.
I swallowed the feelings that were barely rising, saying that I could only pass those words through one ear.
“Still, the clothes are custom-made, so it suits you well. How about changing your job to a slave at this point? If anything, I’ll make you a maid in my castle. I have good eyes, so I’m good at finding dust.”
But steam started leaking from the lid before I knew it.
“I’ll give you a decent hourly wage, so think about it, don’t you have nowhere else to go anyway?”
Deterministically, it exploded at the last word.
Arcel was barely able to stop hundreds of arrows from being fired at Alfred.
†††
“I really think the dwarves are ungrateful people who don’t even know grace. Don’t you think so?”
“You will make sure I hang it alive from the World Tree so that children can use it as a target instead of an apple.”
“Ah, that big tree that turned into charcoal? Maybe if you look for it in the market, you might find it cheaper.”
“Ji, how dare you call the world tree charcoal?!”
“…Why don’t you both stop? It feels like seeing a brother and sister who had a bad relationship in their old hometown.”
Three people walking in the woods.
Even though dozens of minutes had passed since they left the castle, the quarrel between Alfred and Stella showed no sign of ending.
Arsel was a little worried about what to do if it didn’t end after arriving at the Demon Market.
“Alfred, what kind of market are you talking about?”
In the end, we decided to change the subject.
It seemed like it wouldn’t really end if it went on like this.
“Asmodians don’t build large-scale cities like humans. Instead, members of the same tribe or family live together in small villages or huge castles like the Devil’s Castle.”
Fortunately, when I asked about the Demon Market, Alfred kindly explained as usual.
“However, I periodically open a large market for several days to interact with my family. Anyway, the demons also have currency and have economic ideas.”
Asmodians do not live well in community life.
It is because there were not so many people in the first place, and it was not a good environment for a community to form because it was a society that revolved around powerful families.
This was a habit of the demons themselves that could not be changed because they specially tried to change it, just like when the demon king reigned.
“Originally, it seems that most of them were simply plundered from other races nearby, but recently, a hero has decapitated the demon king, and he has no choice but to notice.”
“Ummm…”
Arsel made a very uncomfortable expression.
As a result, thanks to the subjugation of the demon lord, the number of demons plundering other races decreased, but I couldn’t figure out why I felt strangely uncomfortable.
“Then what do the demons buy and sell at the market? Humans mainly sell food and daily necessities, but sometimes weapons and magic items.”
Stella seemed to understand the culture of the demons better than Arcel.
Perhaps it is because, just as the society of the demon tribe revolves around the family, some powerful tribes of the elves move the society around the elder.
It’s not the same, but I could say it’s similar.
“Asmodians are not much different, but by human standards, they probably buy and sell various illegal things. I don’t know because I don’t go to the market well either. Isn’t that the same for the dwarves?”
“…I too was caught for cannabis leaves when I first went to the human city.”
“Ah, did some demons buy from the demons in large quantities? They dried the leaves, rolled them in paper, burned them, and inhaled the smoke… I don’t know because I haven’t tried it.”
Arsel, startled for a moment, looked back and forth between the two.
“The elves use it to decorate their bows, but how annoying it was to explain that it was a drug…”
Fortunately, Stella doesn’t seem to have been worried.
As much as I went through a lot of trouble catching a drug lord from the underworld in the past, I didn’t want to be involved with that anymore.
“Come to think of it, what are you going to buy at the market?”
“I read all the magic books, things in my mother’s study, and everything I had, but it didn’t help much. So I’m going to see if there’s anything else.”
Arsel let out a sigh of relief.
Rather, she was grateful for the story of finding a magic book to cure her curse, and felt kind.
You smile without realizing it.
Of course, Alfred didn’t know why Arcel was doing this, so he reacted strangely.
“But instead of going out and getting things, you deliver…? Didn’t you use that to buy what you needed? Why are you going to the market yourself this time?”
At the same time, I also had a question.
When Alfred brought food for the monsters, he was surprised to bring a large amount of meat using sealing magic.
A sealing magic that solves the problems of transportation and storage at once.
You might be wondering why he left such a convenient way and went there himself.
“The next two days from tomorrow are the crows’ day off. If you order now, it will come in three days, so it’s faster to go and buy it yourself.”
“Is that the reason?”
Arsel nodded as if he understood.
After walking for a few more minutes, I got on the carriage that Alfred had prepared, and after some time passed, I started to feel a lot of people nearby.
“We have arrived, over there is the Demon Market. From now on, let’s each act naturally. So that there is no needless fuss.”
A place that looks like a city but is not a city.
A place prepared by a famous demon family.
There were as many carriages as there were in most cities.
There were also many wagons loaded with various items, not just wagons for people to ride.
I arrived at the demon market.