The Devil's Origin

62: Banquet.

"Maou-sama, I have something I wish to present to you."

Collin said as he kneeled in front of me in the Audience Room.

........ Somehow, I have a bad feeling about this.....

"What is it?"

"Thanks to Lugrant-sama's effort, the financial problem in Maou Castle is no more. Everything's running smoothly now."

Right.

I noticed that recently the meals and the clothing we were able to provide for the children had increased considerably in both quantity and quality.

Nowadays, we can have custom-made clothes specific for each tribe for the children.

"True. Lugrant, Collin, the two of you have done well."

Lugrant nodded with a face that said 'Well of course.'

"Thus, I wished to present Maou-sama with this."

Collin offered something that looked like a parchment of paper to me, he was holding it with an unusual level of reverence.

Just what is this thing exactly? I'm curious!

"This is... Land deed?"

"Precisely."

Collin smiled, his eyes narrowed into the shape of a crescent moon.

"That is the land deed for this whole region."

"Wha-?!"

Whole region? Does that mean the entirety of the forest surrounding Maou Castle?!

"With this, the humans won't be able to enter our territory as they please. Oh! Wait, wait... I can use this opportunity to threa- I mean, negotiate with some feudal lords that have financial problems to buy the surrounding territory as well. If I could manage to get them all, our territory could reach the size of a small country. Ah by the way I used the name 'Mao' as the rightful owner of the deed."

"Amazing!!"

Right, of course.

I forgot that this castle and this forest as a whole must've belonged to someone.

I forgot about that.

" Well, well... The issue with the legality of this area was a little bit complicated. The owners were at standoff against each other, no one dared to make the first move so it was a little bit difficult to develop this area. Well, I simply made the owners fall in debt so- I mean, I helped the owners when they were having some financial issues. Truly, everything fell perfectly into my plan...."

Collin snickered, his face looked ominous.

You set the lords up, didn't you? You sneaky cat...

"With this, we won't have to worry about humans every time a demon comes to visit us. It's truly a good thing, right? Besides, if some bad humans is deciding to trespass on our private property... Fufufu~ It is within our legal right to eradicate them, right?~"

Seeing everything going well like this makes me happy. I'm feeling really good right now!

I beckoned for Collin to come closer to me and rubbed the base of his neck.

"Collin! You did well!"

"Fufu~ You can praise me some more if you want to!"

Collin began to purr and leaned his body on me, just like a cat.

I've never felt so happy like this before!

That's right! At times like this, we should...

"Let's hold a banquet to celebrate the success of acquiring territory for Maou Castle!"