CHAPTER 354: ARMY ON THE MOVE

"...Attention, all troops!!" I say to all the demons standing here in the open area, I look at Freya who nods at me in approval.

"Very good, Aokitsu, you’re improving quite a bit," she tells me as I smile, my tail moving with a slight excitement.

"Okay, troops, Aokitsu and I have gathered you here for a reason. The Demon King has given an order for us to start doing certain things, and you current soldiers have been selected for a mission," Freya speaks to everyone in a cold, authoritative tone.

"Aokitsu, you can try to explain, as Elena must have passed the orders to you," she says while I’m confused.

’Orders... which ones?’ Elena talks too much, too many things to do, and I don’t know how the Demon King finds time to do things, just looking at the pile of letters per day, there must be at least 500 from the Demon King.

A small part of them are for Queen Zephyra and Eclipsya, and another part is work done remotely, and 500 might be too little considering the pile of letters that can be found.

And of course, the majority are orders and plans that Elena reads and passes on to others, and there’s so much that I get confused sometimes.

"F-Freya, what is it exactly?" I don’t even know why we’ve gathered 2,000 soldiers here, I just followed Elena’s request to compile a list of the best.

"It has to do with the coastal area," she says, and I remember.

"Ah, that’s right..." I step forward, looking at the faces of the soldiers.

"Troops, the orders are simple. You have been chosen to go to a specific point on the coastal area, and your task is to clean the region, map it correctly, and create a small false route through the area, but the route must seem ancient," I relay the orders as the soldiers nod in agreement.

"And as a reward, all of you... will get to sleep with mermaid girls?" I’m confused about how this is an adequate reward for so much effort, but immediately, everyone seems extremely excited.

"Don’t be so shocked, Aokitsu. They’re demons. The chance to be with a girl, impregnate her, and then just abandon her seems great to the demons," Freya says with a little smile at me.

"The mermaids don’t want husbands, just children, and the demons would obviously be excited to be able to be with a girl temporarily without having to be responsible for her."

"Also, since the castle sends a monthly amount of demons for the mermaids to have children, rumors among the demons have become quite strong, so many want to experience a mermaid." I look at these soldiers with a certain unease.

"So... the entire payment you want for all the work of mapping that huge area is just a few days of sex?"

"Yes," Freya agrees, as if it’s normal. This reminds me that Pandora also gave the girls of my people as a reward.

’Why?! This is so strange.’ Why would they accept this dangerous job just for sex? I really can’t understand how demons can be so bizarre and simplistic.

’At this point, how are they different from stupid beasts?’ Not even the beastmen are so strange in this regard, except of course during the time when they are in heat, but that’s just a natural thing for our bodies and lasts only a specific season.

But the demons are like this all the time. Why were they created in such a bizarre way?

"Aokitsu, don’t try to understand too much... Even I can’t say why men are like this... Although Pandora seems to understand and approve, if it’s working, there’s no need to interfere," Freya tells me as she looks at the soldiers.

"As all of you have heard the mission and the reward, I think you’re ready to gather your things. We’ll depart in two days. For those of you with families, the kingdom will take care of them until your return, so you can go without worries," she says, while I look at her with strangeness.

’If they have families, why do they want so much sex with a mermaid?’ Every day, something new arises that seems like madness.

"...Aokitsu, if you try to find answers for everything, you’ll just get more confused. Demons aren’t very monogamous like other races. If they have reproductive organs, are of breeding age, and are alive, they can have children that’s the summary."

"It’s not like we don’t feel love. Obviously, we love, but love doesn’t always bear the desired fruit, so having multiple partners is good for most, even if it’s a temporary partner."

"And it’s not like we’re a race that likes to steal from each other. Demons usually only get involved with others who don’t have an ’owner,’ so no one will just steal your love out of nowhere."

"You can recognize it by the scent. If a demon has a specific scent, no one will try to be with that demon because they know that demon belongs exclusively to someone else," she says as I just listen.

’Do I really need this random lesson?’ It’s not so pleasant to have to understand more of the culture of those who humiliated me and now use my race as some kind of prize.

"Haaa... Aokitsu, I wish I could be as naive as you..." Freya suddenly says.

"What do you mean? I’m not naive!!" I say, alarmed. First, there was Pandora who called me stupid, and now I’ve become naive?

"...Aokitsu, you’re quite ’young,’ being only just over 700 years old... a good age to think about the future. Tell me... have you ever thought about what will happen when you die?" She says out of nowhere.

"Well... obviously, I have. When I die, someone will take my position and..."

"Exactly," she interrupts me, leaving me confused.

"Aokitsu, most races live thinking about the future, but we demons don’t think too much about the future. We only think about the present... do you know why? Because none of us can expect to be alive the next day."

"Other races have the gift of being able to think about their futures, but for us demons, we can barely think about the future of how tomorrow will be. Do you know why that is?"

"N-No..."

"It’s because we are the most unstable race in this world. Without a Demon King, we never unite, even if we are being massacred. We live in a hostile and lawless environment, with the only being who brings order being the Demon King."

"The Demon King is a blessing... but even the most incredible blessing can turn into a curse. When our race gains stability, we start to reproduce at an alarming rate."

"And we already have a territory with little food, which means... we have more mouths to feed than we should. And do you know what happens when there are too many mouths to feed and too little food?"

"...I know, hunger and misery arise." Something my people were going through.

"Exactly... but Aokitsu, what do normal races do to deal with overpopulation?" I think about what I believe to be the answer.

"Well... we try to resolve it by invading other territories to obtain food, or by expanding agriculture and hunting?" I question.

"Exactly, other races try to obtain more resources... but Aokitsu, what happens when that option doesn’t exist? Since other territories are also going through famine?" She speaks as I think.

"Well... the population starves... until they die..." I say as she nods.

"Yes, that’s the normal thing for most... but not for demons..." She says, leaving me confused.

"...?"

"Aokitsu, when we suffer from overpopulation, the Demon King starts to kill his own people until it reaches an acceptable range." She says, shocking me.

"W-What?! That’s outrageous..."

"No, that’s life. By killing, we’ll have more food and fewer mouths to feed. The population of this kingdom is growing rapidly... in a few years, Pandora may decide to kill a portion of the population for control."

"In other words, we never know when this will happen, and Pandora knows she will have to do this. It’s our nature, understand? We may not have a future tomorrow, so we can only think about the present."

"Stability brings costs. Pandora has made our lives much better, and we are grateful, but we also understand that this stability comes with a long-term cost."

"And obviously, it will be the regular demons who will pay this cost. It’s not something we like to do, it’s just the course of nature following its action, after all, if the Demon King doesn’t do this, we end up without space, without food, and without water."

"It’s a weight that comes with the title of Demon King. Pandora’s sister also used to do this, it happened about once every 20 years or so. Back then, things were much better, and we had a lot more territory, but the population still grew quickly, so there had to be control." She speaks as I get angry.

"Are you saying she’s going to kill my people?!" I say angrily, I can’t believe she’s just going to kill others like that.

"Pandora is smart. She won’t just kill your people. She’ll do a population control. It’s different from extermination. Your people will still be alive. She will just exterminate a part of them until stability."

"She will probably kill a lot more demons than other races, since she needs to eliminate the race that grows the fastest. So you don’t need to worry so much."

"And she won’t kill you. She will focus on eliminating the most ’useless’ in her view, that is, common demons without anything special. It may seem unfair, but it’s just the logic of our nature."

"So for most, before dying, we want to enjoy the good things in life, and sex is good, isn’t it? They want this because it’s pleasant, that’s just it. They just want to leave an offspring of their lineage since they don’t know about tomorrow." She says as she approaches, caressing my head.

"You’ll understand when you spend more time here. Besides, I think we should go out together more often to show you the wonderful utopia we’re building here. You only stay in the castle, I think you deserve a chance to see it." She says with a smile.

"Are you courting me?" I question as she averts her gaze.

"I’m a demon," she says simply as she moves away and goes to the troops, though if I understood correctly, that was a yes, she just courted me.

’...’ I won’t pretend to understand this unhealthy logic, but I have little choice but to accept it.