## Chapter 11 – No. 25. Going Out # 1
Aser stood in front of the fountain, arms crossed, fingers drumming nervously. The promised 30 minutes was almost up. This gesture betrayed his eagerness to take No. 25 out and show him the territory he had cultivated himself.
If the Demon King ordered, even the busiest person should put everything else on the back burner and pop out right away. These days, slaves had no manners. Aser vowed to repeat yesterday’s dog collar walk after the stroll, and took out his pocket watch to check the time again.
Just one minute until the promised 30 minutes. If he was even a second late, Aser intended to give him a stern talking-to.
Soon, as Aser wished, No. 25 emerged, following Charlotte. Thankfully, he wasn’t late.
But now, Aser thought, time didn’t matter at all. Earlier, in Charlotte’s room, No. 25 had been sitting on the bed with his head bowed, so Aser couldn’t properly see his face, but now it was different.
As some of the overgrown hair that had been covering his face was trimmed away, Aser could see his face properly for the first time.
Clear, deer-like eyes peeking out from under his neatly arranged bangs. A pure face untouched by the grime of the world. The combination of those two alone sent Aser’s heart into near-fatal shock.
‘Wait, how can he be so cute?’
As the Demon King, he couldn’t reveal his excited inner thoughts as they were.
Aser cleared his throat with a “ahem” and asked Charlotte in a deliberately annoyed voice.
“You’re late. What were you doing?”
Charlotte tilted her head slightly, as if she didn’t understand.
“Huh? Didn’t I arrive right on time?”
“That’s true… but isn’t it a bit strange to use up all 30 minutes to come out?”
Saying to come out after 30 minutes was just a formality, and Aser naturally expected him to come out before then. In fact, if it were just Charlotte alone, she usually came out in less than 10 minutes.
But Charlotte couldn’t honestly say, ‘I was late because I was sucking No. 25’s dick and burning the clothes and bedding stained with his semen. Oh, and of course, neither of us was wearing underwear!’ She wasn’t crazy enough to walk into the fire herself.
Charlotte touched No. 25’s hair and used him as an excuse.
“This guy was a bit slow getting dressed. He’s used to wearing rags, so he doesn’t even know how to put on clothes properly.”
Aser looked at the clothes No. 25 was wearing and stroked his chin with a questioning expression.
“Why is he wearing your clothes?”
If she said anything strange here, even for a moment, she would be split in half and killed instantly.
No. 25 was staring at Charlotte’s pink lips with a desperate look. Depending on the words coming from those lips, his and Charlotte’s lives would be decided.
“Just as I got him dressed and came outside, a maid came running up with a bucket of dirty mop water and tripped, spilling it all over our slave! I had to take off those clothes and put on new ones, so I was a little late.”
The lie she had just made up was flowing out without a change in her expression. Aser seemed to be fooled by her calm and natural demeanor.
“Is that so? Then I guess it can’t be helped.”
Aser was fooled for now, but Charlotte must have decided that talking about this topic any further was dangerous, so she changed the subject again.
“Let’s go quickly. Shouldn’t we show the slave the Demon King’s own cultivated territory?”
“Oh, right… No. 25, let’s go.”
No. 25 immediately nodded and followed behind them.
The Demon King’s castle was quite a distance even to the main gate, but there were flower beds planted here and there, so it wasn’t a boring walk for No. 25, who was seeing flowers properly for the first time.
Sometimes, he would blush with embarrassment whenever he realized he wasn’t wearing underwear, but Aser occasionally made eye contact with No. 25 and tried to talk to him, so he desperately tried to act nonchalant.
“Do you have any memories from before you became a slave?”
“Um… I don’t think so. When I came to my senses, I was already inside…”
“It seems you were captured when you were quite young. You must have suffered a lot.”
“Ah, no…! But if I think that I was able to meet the Demon King thanks to those people… it’s not so bad.”
After finishing his sentence, No. 25 shyly lowered his head, and for a while, Aser stared intently at the top of No. 25’s head. Unlike his calm appearance, Aser’s inner self was already starting to run wild to the point where he couldn’t control it himself.
‘Cute… I want to hug him. He’s lived such a hard life, how can he be so admirable? Are all men like this?’
Charlotte, seeing the affection pouring out of Aser’s eyes, clicked her tongue slightly. That action was clearly out of jealousy towards her rival in love. Charlotte had forgotten her duty as the head maid, but only for a brief moment.
Charlotte announced the end of this walk in a somewhat chilly voice.
“We’re here.”
The mansion’s main gate was the size of two adult men standing vertically. No. 25 was momentarily overwhelmed by its unrealistic size.
Despite its size, the main gate opened easily with a soft creak when Charlotte pushed it slightly.
No. 25 was filled with anticipation, imagining the world that would soon unfold before him.
Walking along the brick-paved path that stretched out from the main gate, the buildings built inside the territory revealed themselves in less than a minute.
No. 25 opened his mouth wide at Aser’s territory, which was slowly being revealed, and couldn’t help but admire it.
It was as if the city had been condensed as much as possible, creating a small town with only the shops necessary for life.
The buildings lining both sides of the brick road boasted the vitality of a market.
Just looking at the shops that were visible, there were clothes, a beauty salon, a bathhouse, food ingredients, street vendors, and so on. There was no end to the types of shops.
No. 25 couldn’t find a place to rest his eyes and looked around everywhere.
Aser went around to each shop, imprinting No. 25’s face on the merchants.
“This is where we mainly supply food ingredients to the Demon King’s castle. You’ll have to come here often for errands, so it’s good to remember.”
The shops, mostly run by women, had an explosive reaction every time No. 25 stopped by.
Some of the owners even tried to hug No. 25 without permission, only to be scolded by the Demon King.
“Really. They all go crazy when it comes to men… No. 25! Don’t follow just any woman. All women are foxes. You only need to trust the women in our Demon King’s castle.”
“Yes, I understand.”
He never imagined that he, who had only been treated badly his whole life, would receive so much love from so many people. The merchants passing by greeted the Demon King and waved at No. 25 as if he were cute.
No. 25 also glanced at Aser and Charlotte and waved slightly at the merchants. It felt so good to be greeting people on an equal footing for the first time.
The shops were slowly starting to disappear from view.
The end was beginning to show even in the pleasant times.
As if to announce the end, Aser opened her mouth in a low voice.
“The sun is setting, should we go back soon?”
He didn’t want to go back yet, but he couldn’t go against her. No. 25 quietly nodded and went back to Aser’s side.
Half a step next to Aser. That was the position given to No. 25. He liked it. Not in front, not behind, but next to her. Above all, Aser’s beautiful profile was very visible here.
When No. 25 made eye contact with her, Aser smiled slightly.
She showed a smile without discrimination even to a slave. She was so dazzlingly bright that he couldn’t look at her straight.
When No. 25 blushed, Charlotte said to Aser in a displeased voice.
“Demon King, aren’t you going to show him that place?”
At Charlotte’s words, Aser’s expression hardened slightly. After clicking her tongue once, Aser turned back from the direction of the castle.
“Yes, if you’re going to live in this castle… above all, you need to know where you were.”
The two were having a conversation that No. 25 couldn’t understand. Aser spoke to No. 25 in a rather stiff tone.
“Hold on to me tightly.”
No. 25, who couldn’t dare to grab the owner’s body carelessly, only lightly grabbed the hem of Aser’s clothes. Aser snapped her fingers as if that was enough.
He felt like his body was floating, and after that, No. 25 felt a completely different flow of wind than before.
He couldn’t even open his eyes properly in the strong wind. As the wind gradually subsided, No. 25 realized it only when he slowly opened his eyes.
It wasn’t that he had built the territory outside the castle. This small city, including the shops he had seen so far, was all located inside the castle walls.
And his body was already on the railing of the castle wall.
“Do you know now? What’s inside this castle is the territory I built myself. And what you see over there is District 7, which I have to manage.”
Aser leaned against the railing and pointed to the other side with her finger. Unlike when she was introducing the territory, Aser’s expression was horribly distorted. No. 25 timidly approached her and stood on his tiptoes, looking at where Aser was pointing.
“I don’t like it at all. District 7 is full of vagrants, a place full of the stench of trash who don’t even have the will to live.”
District 7, which Aser was denouncing as trash, had a different meaning for No. 25.
The world he had wanted to come out to so much looked so small from above, as if it could all fit in his hand. Was the freedom he had wanted so much this small?
But at the same time, it was beautiful.
In a small world, in a limited freedom, it was much more dazzling than the bleak reality he had dreamed of.
No matter how much Aser called it District 7 full of trash, the scenery of District 7 under the sky where the sun was beginning to set was a brilliance that No. 25 couldn’t capture with his two eyes.
