Entropy's Servant

Chapter 34 - Fulfilling promises

Hello everyone, Astaroth here.
I'd never been able to picture demons as doing menial tasks, like tailoring or cooking or such, when they were limited to video games.
As it turns out, though, when you're leading an actual army of demons, you need various roles filled, even if they're not classically considered fitting for a demon.

After what must've been at least an hour, I was approached by a Ghost Maid, although she politely placed herself out of the way--and almost out of my line of sight--since I was busy training Alpine.

I shot her a noticeable glance, prompting her to nod, so I told Alpine to continue training on its own as I approached her.

"They're done, then?", I asked, and my obvious response to her confirmation was to make my way over to the production area of the castle myself, leaving Alpine to train on its own--or against the other present demons, if it preferred. It seemed rather excited I was leaving the choice for it to make, for some reason I couldn't quite fathom.

This was my first visit to the production area in quite a while, so I was mildly surprised by the difference between it and the rest of the castle--that is, it was rather more decorated and extravagant, creating a surprisingly strong contrast with the rest of the castle's sinister look. Though the base black stone appeared to be the same, there was an almost obscenely large amount of decorations, ranging from gorgeously woven tapestries to expertly sculpted statues, and everything seemed to have some amount of gold worked into it.

What was unchanging was the fact that everyone bowed or saluted in my presence.

Using the power of mana probing, I managed to find the children in a grand total of thirty seconds, despite the fact that the production area was almost half the castle.

When I found them, they were busily looking around, seemingly amazed by even the slightest detail on each of the decorations.

"You've seen the treasury, and you're still amazed by something of this level?", I asked them after approaching them in silence, quite well aware of the smirk forming on my face.

Both children were so startled it was as if they were going to jump a metre in the air, and it was hard not to laugh as their swords clattered on the ground and they jumped into salutes.

"Mister demon king, you've arrived!", Asami said excitedly, apparently not knowing the entirety of military etiquette. I guessed she had only picked it up by imitating what she saw others do.

"Shh", Nexu told her as he attempted to subtly elbow her in the side. He failed at the subtlety part, but I was impressed he'd realised you weren't supposed to speak unless spoken to when holding a salute.

I waved my hand dismissively, and both children seemed to understand that meant they could drop their salute.

"Pick up your weapons", I said, jerking my chin, "it's time we get you properly equipped."

The pitter-patter of their footsteps followed me as I walked towards the forge.

Without touching them, I opened the rather heavy-looking doors to the forge.

I made momentary eye contact with a number of the Lizardmen, lizards that had not only the shape but also the size of a human, but since it seemed what they were doing was important, they only nodded to me before returning to their work.

The only resident of the room who did not break my gaze had an impassive face, steel-grey eyes and a robotic body--that is, the Chief Blacksmith, Rhud.