THFN | Chapter 11

‘I don’t know what to say.’

That’s right. Clara was someone who, as an employer, didn’t even properly converse with his employees.

In fact, he barely remembered having proper conversations in his life. The people he interacted with were very limited and special, so he wasn’t sure if he should act the same way.

Clara, who had stood up, began to rationalize. What he just gave might have been burdensome. If he kept hovering, it would be uncomfortable. Yeah, socializing? Let’s build that with a clear and healthy mind tomorrow morning.

‘Let’s leave and let them rest.’

Still, feeling a bit reluctant, he straightened the crumpled bedding.

Leaving behind words he wished he’d heard from adults when he was very young, Clara left swiftly. Bright yellow eyes followed his departing figure.

“Don’t go hungry. Tell me if you’re hungry.”

⏾⋆ ⏾⋆ ⏾⋆

Ravid, who had been watching the departing figure for a long time, opened his mouth wide.

A human. And a king at that.

A king should naturally have tremendous charisma and tolerance, right? Maybe that’s why. Today, Ravid felt a wall with the human.

The respect he felt for the sea witch, who sometimes gave up her share of mud cookies to the children and smiled even when hungry.

When he saw the sea witch’s face, swallowing bitter water, Ravid sometimes couldn’t even lift his head due to her elegance. It wasn’t out of shame or fear; it just felt like he should. He felt a similar feeling with the human.

“…Cool.”

Ravid muttered unconsciously, sniffing the air with his nose.

After confirming the human had disappeared far away, he cautiously emerged from the blanket.

Ravid’s body, now revealed, was nothing like the fairy Clara imagined. Pointy, uniform scales. Furry tufts on the nape. Large golden eyes. If anything, he resembled a dragon? But he was too small, with stubby limbs and pointy horns that looked soft.

Still, his wet nose, wing membranes, and tail with evenly spaced spikes were definitely dragon-like.

“The human king is quite kingly. Not as much as the sea witch, though.”

Muttering boastfully, Ravid, with an embarrassed expression, buried his nose in the pie like a magnet. The sweet scent made his mouth water and drool.

Gulp.

Without realizing the loud swallowing sound, Ravid chewed and was purely amazed.

“Humans really know how to make food….”

In Ravid’s homeland, the underground, acidic rain fell daily, boiling lava occasionally splashed, and the only water was the salty water made by the sea witch.

Naturally, Ravid’s favorite food was mud cookies. Finely sifted and baked as if dried by lava fire, mud cookies had a salty taste and a peculiar aroma that felt pleasant in the mouth. The sea witch described it as the scent of sunshine.

Ravid was intensely curious about the surface, where the smell of his favorite food was said to be everywhere. That curiosity gave him both courage and recklessness for a long time.

It eventually led to an unauthorized runaway, or rather, a departure.

Recalling the sea witch’s angry voice calling from below just before he reached the surface, Ravid shivered secretly and began to look around as if everything was fascinating.

To be precise, it wasn’t just fascinating; it was genuinely amazing. Even this dark, barren warehouse without a single light source felt grand just by existing.

“…This must be what they call architecture?”

It feels like a dream. Muttering in a tired, languid voice, he tried to remember everything with wide eyes.

Ravid’s goal, living underground, was always to see the surface.

And the surface he saw was even more magnificent than he imagined.

The warm, pleasant scent of sunshine vibrated everywhere in the morning, and there was no acidic rain. There were no cliff holes where it was hard to escape if you got too close when lava splashed. A world filled with light and life felt like paradise.

The taste of tomatoes he tried for the first time was amazing too. He was so startled by a human’s presence while eating that he hid, leaving half of it behind, which haunted him like a nightmare last night….

‘…This is a problem.’

Recalling the taste, the ripe sweetness of the fig jam felt even more intense. Gulp. Ravid’s head lowered again.

I’m already full. Can I eat more even though I’m full? …I want to, but.

Ravid hesitated, recalling his life underground where he always had to give up when full, but seeing the pie slice neatly cut and placed in a pretty dish, as if saying it was his, he couldn’t resist the temptation.

With a mouthful of pie almost spilling from his open mouth, Ravid placed a hand on his cheek and relaxed his wide-open mouth. He didn’t forget to teleport everything except his share underground.

It would be great if it could help the children who might starve to death or the sea witch, who had been worried lately. And Lilith, who had long since lost the strength to bring new life into the world.

Thinking of his family, and recalling the sea witch’s bitter yet elegant smile, he felt guilty and restless.

Ravid, who had eaten just one more bite of what the human said was his share, fiddled with it a few times with lingering attachment, then closed his eyes tightly and teleported even that.

“…I-I’m full. …The king said he’d give more food tomorrow.”

Ravid’s family, the demons, weren’t few in number. What he sent now wouldn’t be nearly enough. But it should be enough to stave off immediate hunger.

‘If I get this later, we can eat well for a day.’

Recalling the conditions the human proposed, he looked up at the packaged fig box. It seemed even bigger than the largest Lilith.

It was supposed to be for the workers. And although Ravid hid his identity, he was still doing the work he was tasked with. In a way, he was a worker. So he should be able to get this later.

‘…Should I ask the human for the figs a little earlier?’

After a brief contemplation, Ravid became sullen and shook his head.

He was currently pretending to be the missing worker, deceiving the human to act as a proxy for the contract.

So far, he hadn’t been caught, so the human king thought he was human and treated him normally. He gave food, sweets, and helped with work… but that was because he thought Ravid was human.

According to the king’s words, it was a missing worker, but since Ravid filled that spot, he must have thought it wasn’t missing but still there.

‘So I’m a fake. Can I even receive it in the first place?’

Yeah. The human hadn’t seen Ravid yet. And if he did, he’d be shocked or disdainful. The king’s promise was made with another human, so the moment he spoke up, it would break.

It might not end there, and like in stories, the human might send Ravid to a bloody arena called the Colosseum and make him fight terrifying surface creatures until he died.

The scary imagination made his hunched back tremble. Ravid, who was terrified for a while, soon remembered he was a brave demon and shook his head, trying to erase the lingering images. Standing on his hind legs, a quadruped beast roared.

“I’m a demon. …I’m not scared!”

Of course, not being afraid of humans is different from taking something without permission! That’s stealing! Standing upright, Ravid sat back down with a proper posture and opened his eyes wide.

The human said he’d distribute it based on performance, so he had to wait patiently until the deadline. When the time came, they’d give it to him, and he just had to hide and work until next year without being caught, then take his share and leave.

Though greed was tempting, Ravid knew from distributing mud and stones underground that waiting for the promised day was important.

“I can wait. Sacrificing tomorrow for today is foolish.”

Swallowing hard, Ravid, who had buried his nose in the warm sunshine scent to resist the lingering fig smell, covered himself with the blanket.

But really, do human rules need to hold any meaning for demons in the first place?

That thought kept the child from sleeping.

Failing to fall asleep, Ravid rolled around on the floor, lost in deep thought.

The continuous stream of thoughts tormented him, almost shaking his soul out of him. He kept imagining his family, who couldn’t even fill their hunger with the pie he received, and the farm in stark contrast.

In truth, Ravid wanted to deny it, but it was a feeling akin to inferiority.

The gap between the surface and the underground was so vast that just seeing it made him feel it.

Just a few steps up, and a comfortable world unfolded. The air, refreshing with every breath, felt alive.

With such a good place, why did we have to live crawling on the ground all this time? Ravid’s suppressed true feelings finally took shape.

“We’ve been surviving on nothing but dirt and gravel for a thousand years. Why do humans get to eat such delicious food?”

Saying it out loud, old stories like legends briefly came to mind.