Chapter 132 – Beautiful Girl Mask
“Come on, let’s eat.”
The financial management department group dinner started like that.
In fact, the reason I put pressure on the staff to unify the menu was because I really wanted to feed them the hunting stew of this house.
15 years ago, when I was sad because I had no money and no background.
It was at this restaurant that I came to have a meal while training while being beaten by my violent master every day.
If it wasn’t for the owner of this restaurant, I might have already suffered from malnutrition and searched.
In that sense, this hunting stew, along with Master’s whole chicken with apples, was one of my favorite memories.
“Whoa whoo whoo”
After simmering for over 10 hours, you can taste the rich meat and vegetable broth.
“Big…”
The old man’s exclamation that comes out naturally as soon as he eats it.
It tasted like cool broth, as if a ten-year-old congestion went down your throat.
The treasury office employees who tasted the hunting stew in disbelief after seeing me eat it widened their eyes and began to eat it in a hurry.
As I looked at him happily, Agnes, who was next to me, asked.
“By the way, Chief Treasurer.”
“Uh?”
“Why did you choose to work for this country, even though you are a high-ranking demon?”
It was a bit of a sudden question, but I thought it was a question that a human being could have enough of, so I said with a smile.
“Wouldn’t that be an answer if I just said that?”
“Yes.”
I hadn’t shaved in two days, so I replied by rubbing my short beard.
“Actually, I was the Wizard of Oz before becoming a rich man?
“Yes.”
“But when I actually tried it, I was really good at it.
In the background of Oz’s rapid development over the past two years, her breath was much greater than Ozma’s.
“…Is that all?”
“Yes. That’s all.”
In fact, the reason why I continued my dull and uninteresting job as treasurer was that I could roam the city of Oz as I pleased if I had money.
With Ozma’s approval, she could do this and that with the taxes she collected mostly from the nobles.
A better city to live in when demons rule than when human nobles rule!
How refreshing is it just to hear it?
After hearing this explanation, Agnes looked at me as if she was dumbfounded, but then she laughed and took a bite of her portion of the hunting stew.
“If anyone else said that, I’d consider it hypocrisy, but when the Chief Treasurer says it, I believe it.”
I asked her about her station.
“So what does Agnes want to do when she becomes chief treasurer?”
“…You mean me?”
“Anyway, if I marry Ozma and retire, you’ll be the successor right away. At that time, there won’t be one or two amendments to the policy you want to implement.”
Then, perhaps because it was a vague story, Agnes couldn’t quite imagine it, so she closed her eyes and answered.
“I will make Oz a better country to live in.”
“Specifically, how?”
“A world where commoners and nobles are not discriminated against. A world where you can choose a job according to your aptitude and talent. A world where you can do what you want regardless of gender.”
It’s something incredibly progressive.
It seems that the discrimination and persecution she received while attending her academy had a great impact on her identity.
Since she had no reason to stop me anyway, she affirmed.
“I’m sure you can do it well, Agnes.”
Someday in the future, when Ozma and I retire, a new governor will rule Oz.
Remembering that time, I decided to support her dream.
***
Perhaps because the stew is finished with a slurp after it cools down to a certain extent, all the staff in the finance office finished their meal faster than expected.
After all, hot soup is the best when you are hungry.
After safely clearing a bowl of stew, it was time to wait for the dessert juice that is unique to this house.
A deep voice came from the back of the table.
“Did you hear that? I heard that a beautiful girl phantom thief appeared at South Gate No. 3 this time.”
“Ah, I heard. Cyclops, who used to run a jeweler there, right?”
“They said they lost 600 gold. Aren’t you curious about which town will be hit by lightning again this time?”
“Ah~ I don’t have to pay, so I want to play rice cake with that beautiful girl phantom thief~”
“Kuh, you stupid bastard. Doesn’t the beautiful girl phantom thief have eyes?”
Is it a beautiful girl thief?
I’ve always read about it in the newspaper, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it talk like that in real life.
However, it seems that not many people are as grateful as I thought.
Well, it was something I expected from the first time I heard it.
Since he roamed the slums and threw cash to each individual instead of goods, at best he would be treated like a lucky lottery ticket.
It is true that the poor are the socially underprivileged, but not all poor people are good.
The beautiful girl phantom thief didn’t seem to realize that yet.
If it were me, I would have built a welfare facility that everyone could use with that money.
It was when I was immersed in contemplation, recalling the contents of the newspaper I had read the other day.
“Rather than that, when will the demon tribesmen go back to their hometowns?”
“Hey, hey, don’t say scary things. I’ve become a body that can’t live without a succubus window now?”
“Ah, the succubus window shouldn’t disappear. Then I’d like to leave the succubus alone and go back to the rest.”
“But isn’t the Governor-General pretty? He looks kind of angular, but that type is usually docile on the bed.”
“Ah, I know that. Something about the anus looks like a weakness, right?”
I suddenly cried.
It was because the guys who talked dirty about someone else’s fiancé didn’t look nice.
Others may say it like a joke, but it’s also uncomfortable from the listener’s point of view.
Realizing that my expression was stiff, Agnes hurriedly tried to organize her seat.
“Now, now, everyone. I will return to work soon…”
“I’m sick of talking about the governor all of a sudden. If I go to the succubus window today, I’ll have to ask the governor to dream of me.”
“Oh, I have to do it too. The last time was really good.”
These fucking bastards?
I kicked off my chair and stood up.
Then he slammed the heads of the two idiots who were talking dirty behind his back onto the table.
Bang!!
Inside the restaurant, like a mute who has eaten honey, it becomes quiet in an instant.
I said while showing the ID I took out from my arms.
“I am Patrasche, the chief treasurer of the Government-General’s Department. Now, they are committing insults to the Governor-General and are going to give a summary judgment, so don’t worry too much.”
The two guys who were grabbed by my head began to tremble as if they had grasped the situation.
If there are currently two most famous demons in Oz, it would be Ozma and me.
It was rumored even within the capital that it was Patrasche, the hound of the demon king Nero, who erased the protection of the walls of Constantinople, which was supposed to last forever, with two magic attacks.
It wasn’t because I cared about the common people that I was implementing policies for the common people.
It was an act done out of necessity because in order to control the rebellious aristocrats and easily form a support group, they had to win over the common people who could be said to be opposed to them.
Although there was also a purpose to change the underdeveloped system unique to the Kingdom of Oz.
Anyway, after hearing my name, the customers started leaving one by one.
I was sorry to the boss for kicking out the customer unintentionally, but I couldn’t help it because these two said something that I couldn’t hear.
“You two, tell me where the succubus window you just talked about is.”
Then, the two men who had been trembling just before holding me by the neck hurriedly said,
“Sah, save me!”
“I didn’t mean it!”
Kooooo──
I haven’t used arcane breathing in a long time.
The wind mana formed inside the body transforms into the desired form and reveals itself.
It was a thin, sharp needle.
Thousands of needles made of wind mana were created right in front of their noses, and the two men tried to escape by shaking their bodies, but they couldn’t because I was holding their necks.
“I’ll ask you again. Where is the succubus window you mentioned?”
“Me, this is Melusin! It’s quite a famous shop in the brothel area of the South Gate, so just mention the name…!”
Fu-wook!
“Quaaaaagh!”
The men screamed in pain as three or four needles pierced their tongues and came out the other side.
But I said it without blinking an eye.
“Since you said it right, I won’t kill you. But you’d better remember it for the rest of your life. The mouth is the door to disaster, and the tongue is the sword that cuts the throat.”
I told the two struggling men that the stitches would go away on their own in three hours, then I told the financial management staff, who were staring at me with dumbfounded faces.
“Let’s go.”
“”Yes!””
Then, the employees who answered with disciplined faces.
After throwing a bag full of gold to the boss as compensation for the messed up shop, I decided to go back to the Government General Office.
I wanted to find out what kind of store Melusin was, which broke the basic statute of not using celebrity faces.
