Chapter 4
* * *
After everyone had cried their hearts out…
“Hevenia, you must be hungry.”
“I made some stew.”
“Oh dear, your face is still so pale. Eat first and get your strength back.”
Perhaps embarrassed that they had all cried in front of me, the adults hurried me downstairs to the dining room.
One of them simply picked me up and carried me there.
The moment I sat down, a bowl of creamy stew was placed in front of me.
It was filled with meat and vegetables.
Just looking at it made my mouth water.
“Wow… this is really delicious!”
When I praised it, Mr. Popi proudly puffed out his chest.
This voluntarily bald man had been the cook back in Exilium.
His crime was causing deaths by violating food safety laws.
According to him, he had once been a rather famous chef.
After finishing our meal, we moved to the garden outside the house.
The moment I stepped outside, my eyes widened.
Wow… did rich people used to live here?
I sat down on the lawn.
My backside, which had grown used to sitting on hard ground for the past two months, flinched the instant it touched the soft grass.
Apparently I wasn’t the only one.
Everyone reacted the same way, and it made me laugh.
The oldest member of our group, Mr. Modi, stepped forward.
His charges had been assault and organizing and running an illegal organization.
“Before we discuss what comes next…”
“I’d like us to thank Hevenia one more time.”
“Come on!”
“Let’s give our heroine a huge round of applause!”
Ian grinned and lifted me into the air again.
Once more, loud applause and cheers filled the garden.
Placing a hand over my chest, I playfully bowed several times.
“But…”
“Why us?”
Mrs. Nema, who had been falsely accused of selling counterfeit goods, spoke up.
“I can’t stop thinking about what the guards said.”
“They claimed we were brought here…”
“…to mine ore.”
“But…”
“Would they really go that far just for that?”
Everyone tilted their heads in confusion.
We decided to see whether all twelve of us had something in common.
But…
No matter how much we searched…
We couldn’t find a single thing that connected us all.
“We can think about that later.”
Mr. Modi took charge of the discussion again.
“Right now, deciding what to do from here on is more important.”
Everyone nodded.
Including me.
He’s right.
We had finally escaped the prison we’d been unjustly trapped in.
But our freedom was only half complete.
We were still trapped inside a monster-infested primeval forest.
And before our names had been cleared…
We had officially become dead people.
If I’d known everyone had been framed…
I would’ve wished for us to escape to the outside world instead…
Did I make the wrong wish?
Anxious thoughts filled my mind.
Then—
“Still…”
“Thanks to Hevenia, we finally have room to breathe.”
Livi, sitting beside me, gently patted her chest.
“Hevenia, you haven’t seen it yet, have you?”
“The Demon filled the warehouse with food.”
“There are piles of clothes, shoes, and fabric too!”
“Honestly…”
“We could probably live here for the rest of our lives without running out.”
Ian joked that there was enough food to last forever.
Everyone burst into laughter.
They look so much more relaxed…
Only then did I notice it.
Everyone looked far calmer than before.
“This is such a relief.”
“We weren’t ready to leave yet.”
“That’s true.”
“Even if we insisted we’d been framed, who would believe us?”
“…Honestly.”
“I didn’t believe you all were innocent either.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“I’m sure everyone thought the same.”
“That we were all vicious criminals.”
I quietly listened to the adults talking.
That’s true.
For reasons I still didn’t understand…
The Emperor had framed innocent people and sent them to Exilium just to mine ore.
Then…
Once they were no longer useful…
He ordered them all killed.
For now…
The safest thing is to stay here and prepare for the future.
It seemed my decision hadn’t been wrong after all.
It had helped everyone.
“So…”
I raised my hand.
“I have a suggestion.”
Everyone looked at me.
“Let’s live well.”
“Let’s eat well.”
“And let’s build a good life together.”
For now…
That was the best goal we could possibly have.
* * *
“Let’s take a look around first.”
Following Ian’s suggestion, we explored our new home.
The settlement was enormous.
It felt like it took nearly an hour just to reach the edge of the forest.
“This looks like the residential district.”
“Were nobles living here?”
“Look how huge these buildings are.”
“No.”
“I think this was the commoners’ district.”
“The houses are too small to be noble estates.”
“And even these are this big…”
Only then did we truly realize how prosperous Exilium must once have been.
We also inspected the warehouse.
Just as Livi had said…
It wasn’t only filled with food.
There were clothes…
Shoes…
Fabric…
And countless other daily necessities.
Lord Demon…!
I thought he was just a handsome pervert with an obsession for cleanliness…
Turns out he’s actually incredibly generous!
From now on, I’ll respectfully call him Lord Demon.
“Still…”
“There aren’t any animals here either.”
Livi looked sadly at the clear blue sky.
“I’m starting to miss hearing birds.”
Just like Exilium…
Not even a single ant could be found here.
Perhaps because of the monsters living in the forest.
The clean, peaceful scenery somehow felt eerie.
Then—
A beast’s roar echoed from outside the warehouse.
Livi and I exchanged glances before immediately running toward the sound.
Several adults had gathered in an overgrown clearing.
When we got closer…
We found Mrs. Elba, who had served time for violating pharmaceutical laws.
She was kneeling on the ground, frantically digging through the weeds.
Whoa…
Her eyes have practically rolled back!
As I froze in surprise, Ian quietly explained.
“She found an incredibly rare medicinal herb.”
“A medicinal herb?”
“It’s not just any herb!”
Mrs. Elba suddenly jumped to her feet and shouted.
“I-It’s Dulcevia!”
She was so excited that her eyes had turned bloodshot.
I looked at the herb.
It had distinctive heart-shaped leaves.
When I leaned closer and sniffed…
It smelled sweet like honey.
“It can detoxify poison.”
“Stop bleeding.”
“Reduce inflammation.”
“It works for almost every illness.”
“That’s why it’s called the miracle herb.”
It couldn’t even be cultivated artificially.
It had always been extremely rare.
Only one or two plants were discovered each year.
And…
None had been found for decades.
Scholars had already declared it extinct.
Yet now…
It was growing everywhere like ordinary weeds.
Which means…!
My eyes widened just like Mrs. Elba’s.
“Is it expensive?”
“Is it worth a lot of money?”
“One single stalk…”
“…can earn enough to feed a family of four for twenty days.”
And Dulcevia wasn’t the only thing growing here.
Rare medicinal herbs and mushrooms covered the entire residential district.
“T-This can’t be real…”
I was speechless.
“All this money…”
“And we can’t even sell it!”
Mrs. Elba beat the ground in despair.
I knelt beside her and joined her.
Honestly…
This situation deserved an animal-like scream.
* * *
Mrs. Elba confidently declared that the herbs and mushrooms she’d found today alone were worth hundreds of millions of Liv.
Which didn’t help us at all.
Since we can’t sell them…
Still…
At least I’d learned that the currency in this world was called Liv.
That was something.
“Oh, right.”
Livi suddenly called out to me.
“The Demon left a message.”
“He said you should summon him once you woke up.”
“Really?”
“I only just remembered.”
“I hope we didn’t keep him waiting.”
“I don’t think he’s the type to get angry over something like that.”
“Besides, I only just woke up.”
“That’s true…”
Livi smiled awkwardly.
Are they scared of him?
Looking around…
Everyone else also seemed rather nervous about summoning the Demon.
I wished they weren’t so afraid.
After all…
He had saved us.
Still…
Just in case he really was angry…
We decided to prepare ourselves first.
Back at the house we’d originally entered, I picked up a small stone.
Outside…
I drew a summoning circle on the ground.
An upside-down star.
A circle around it.
And finally…
Just like before…
I spat on it.
Ptoo.
“W-Why did you spit on it?”
“That’s the payment for the summoning.”
“…What?”
The adults were stunned.
“A demon accepted the saliva of a seven-year-old girl as payment…”
“…Well.”
“He really is a demon.”
“What strange tastes…”
Meanwhile…
The instant my saliva landed on the magic circle…
It burst into dazzling light.
Huh?
Did it do that before?
While I was wondering…
Thick white smoke began pouring out of the circle.
At the same time…
Grand, majestic opera music started playing out of nowhere.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion rang out.
Then…
A pair of polished dress shoes stepped through the smoke.
Oh no.
Did we really make Lord Demon angry by summoning him too late?
…He didn’t seem like that kind of person.
Still…
Just in case…
I quickly signaled everyone behind me.
“Lord Demon!”
“Lord Demon!”
“We believe in you!”
“We place our hopes in you!”
We immediately dropped to our knees…
Pressed ourselves flat against the ground…
And started praising him like a group of deranged demon worshippers.
When no response came…
I cautiously opened one eye.
“…”
“…”
A bright red silk shirt covered in gaudy flower patterns.
Baggy black pants.
A thick gold necklace.
An angel tattoo visible through his unbuttoned shirt.
A rough, intimidating face.
A large, muscular build.
Messy bleached yellow hair.
And…
Eyes that burned like a weathered sun.
The demon looked like an old-school gangster straight out of a crime movie.
He stared at us as if we were complete lunatics.
I stared right back.
…A demon with an angel tattoo?
Seriously?
* * *
To avoid confusing him with the previous demon I’d summoned…
We temporarily nicknamed this one the Bleached Demon.
The first thing the Bleached Demon did…
Wasn’t introducing himself.
It was scolding us.
“You idiots!”
“Have a few years of exile made you lose all common sense?”
“Do you have no idea how dangerous demons are?”
“And yet here you are worshipping one!”
…Getting scolded by a demon…
…for worshipping demons.
Did that even make sense?
“If you’ve got time for this nonsense…”
“Go care about your neighbors.”
“Take care of yourselves first!”
“Just look at your bodies!”
“You’re all skin and bones!”
“Seriously!”
Unfortunately…
He wasn’t wrong.
So we all sat there quietly…
Shrinking under his relentless lecture.
…This feels like being lectured by a murderer about living an honest life.
