Chapter: 02………………….
The Demon King’s Castle Maid
Ten years into her life as a maid in the Demon King’s castle.
Kwaaang—!
As the room exploded into chaos, Xenia leaned out from where she had been hiding behind the Demon King and took in the wrecked scene.
She then gestured urgently to a demon who had come in to submit a report and was now bleeding profusely from the head, signaling for him to leave quickly.
Once the demon, wearing a wronged expression and nervously checking the Demon King’s mood, slipped away, Xenia handed the corrected documents to the Demon King and spoke.
“It’s been a while since you last blew up a room.”
“…Why isn’t my skill improving at all?”
Red eyes sank gloomily beneath his fierce brow. Despite his massive frame and solid build, this was a Demon King buried in paperwork rather than swinging a sword.
She wanted to scoff, but couldn’t bring herself to. Xenia was in much the same situation.
“Well, that’s because Your Majesty, Eligos, and I handle all the paperwork for you, don’t we?”
Even the castle servants would bolt outside at every chance, claiming they needed training—so why would the legion commanders be any different?
Terrified of the Demon King and the butler, yet always looking for a chance to escape, they were impossible to keep in line with a smile alone, even for Xenia.
Unless I could punch them.
But Xenia, a human so weak she might as well be an infant compared to demons, couldn’t possibly lay a hand on them.
“I’ll review those documents once more.”
“That report doesn’t look like something that’ll be fixed with just another look.”
True enough. Despite her words, Xenia knew it would need to be rewritten from scratch, just as the Demon King said.
She shrugged lightly. The Demon King, his face etched with stress, crooked a finger. Xenia forced a polite smile and looked at him, and without even turning his head, he said,
“A massage.”
Clenching her trembling lips, Xenia grabbed the Demon King’s hand—twice the size of her own—and began pressing firmly.
His hands were large and straight-boned, yet smooth and unblemished. She pressed until her fingers reddened.
I want to tear them apart.
But she knew she’d only hurt herself if she tried, so the thought remained just that. She shoved all her pent-up frustration into her fingertips.
After working at it for a long while, Xenia cautiously released his hand and poured tea into his empty cup.
The Demon King took a sip and returned to his work. Reading the room, Xenia went back to her place and continued taking care of everything he needed, one by one.
I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
After so many years together, she could read his desires from the slightest gesture or glance.
The Demon King swept the hair falling into his face back. Xenia went to the vanity at the side of the room and took out a long silk ribbon.
“I’ll tie it for you.”
Stepping behind him, she gently smoothed his hair—softer even than the ribbon in her hand.
Wasn’t long hair supposed to symbolize power? Strength so absolute that not even a single strand could be harmed, or something like that.
Though the tradition had long faded, like the Demon Kings before him, the current Demon King wore his hair long.
And being well over a hundred years old, he couldn’t manage it on his own.
Imagine living this long and still not being able to tie your own hair.
Despite her inner grumbling, Xenia carefully shaped the ribbon and stepped back. As she was about to return to her seat, there came a knock, and the butler Eligos entered.
“Your Majesty.”
With short silver hair and a monocle, cold air practically radiating from him, he began scolding the Demon King the moment he stepped inside.
“I would appreciate it if you refrained from destroying rooms.”
He flicked his finger, and the shattered wall reverted to its original state, as if time itself were rewinding. Xenia had seen it countless times at the Demon King’s side, yet it never failed to amaze her.
Even as he nagged, Eligos seemed to know the Demon King wouldn’t listen. He turned directly to Xenia.
“If His Majesty tries to destroy another room, you stop him.”
How exactly was she supposed to do that?
Xenia did have a special ability, but it wasn’t enough to restrain the Demon King. Physical force was even more out of the question.
Am I supposed to get blown up instead?
She simply blinked in silence. Eligos sighed, seemingly realizing how impossible his demand was.
After staring at the ceiling for a moment, Eligos redirected his frustration toward those responsible for provoking the Demon King.
“Brains worse than a child’s.”
It reminded Xenia of something he’d said ten years ago, when she’d pointed out errors in the Demon King’s paperwork.
She wanted to ask whether she still counted as a child now, but saying that in front of demons well over a hundred years old would only earn her ridicule.
Unable to respond, she smiled instead. Eligos clicked his tongue as he looked toward Xenia’s desk in the corner of the office.
“Really, I should have taken you with me….”
Seeing the stack of documents on her desk rivaling those on the Demon King’s, he seemed to want her all over again.
Until then, the Demon King had continued sorting papers without a care, but only now did he react.
“If you want to see the entire castle blown apart instead of just a room, go ahead.”
It was a childish threat.
Rather than engage him, Eligos appeared to focus on the reason he’d come all the way up to the office.
Xenia accepted the red envelope Eligos handed her. Since he’d brought it himself, it was likely related to noble affairs.
She reported its contents, doing her best to keep her emotions out of it.
“Count Berith and Viscount Vine got into another argument as usual… and ended up offending Duke Gremory.”
Duke Gremory. It seemed the two perpetually bickering nobles had finally caused real trouble.
As Xenia pictured the duke’s cold face, the Demon King asked,
“Did the horse die?”
Though they called it a horse in name, the creature that exuded poisonous energy from every inch of its body hardly qualified. Imagining a winged beast, Xenia skimmed the report again before answering.
“There’s no mention of that. But if the horse had died, it wouldn’t have ended with just a petition like this, would it?”
Duke Gremory’s fondness for his horse was infamous even in the demon realm. Had it died, the two demons would have lost their heads already.
“That’s true.”
Because of their inherently belligerent nature, fights among demon nobles were common. Resolving such conflicts was part of the Demon King’s job.
To prevent demons from reducing their own numbers by killing each other, or so they said.
And when another noble got dragged into it—like this time—that was when things truly descended into chaos.
Xenia smiled gently at the already exhausted-looking Demon King and handed over the report.
“Then I’ll take my leave.”
They would be discussing punishments next, so she wisely excused herself. Ending her day a little early wasn’t a bad bonus either.
Ignoring the gaze she felt on her back, Xenia left the office quickly, her steps light with relief.
As she walked, she noticed more servants than usual slacking off and chatting—probably because she was leaving early today.
Feigning indifference, Xenia pricked up her ears. Sometimes, the stories she wanted to hear slipped from their mouths.
Like now.
“What? So the hero is really planning to come to the demon realm?”
Xenia turned toward the voice coming from the corner of the corridor.
The hero.
A term that had become famous alongside the Demon King—the human from prophecy.
The prophecy of a “human of light” who would banish darkness had filled oppressed humans with hope, making everyone long for the hero’s arrival.
Xenia’s parents had been such fervent believers that they’d even gone to the Grand Temple to meet the saintess who delivered the prophecy.
Until they were killed in a demon attack.
Remember the prophecy. You have to survive.
Xenia still remembered her parents’ final words, spoken like a will. That prophecy had sustained a ten-year-old girl captured and dragged into the demon realm.
“They say the hero’s been quiet lately because he’s trying to enter the demon realm.”
“Is that even possible? If the hero really invades—”
As one servant paled in fear, another raised their voice.
“But His Majesty is here. There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“I’m scared. They say he’s incredibly strong. Didn’t he behead some count in a single blow last time?”
“Th-that was—”
They stared at each other, faces drained of color. Then, as if to lighten the mood, they scolded one another for speaking too loudly.
But the forced laughter didn’t last long.
“…Xenia?”
Having noticed her, they stiffened. Xenia simply looked at them in silence.
She had neither the ability nor the intention to hide her presence. She merely bowed her head lightly in greeting, and they awkwardly bowed back.
Xenia passed them by as though she hadn’t heard a thing. Only then did she hear them exhale sharply in relief.
“I told you your voice was too loud!”
“Like yours wasn’t?!”
“She couldn’t have heard us. If she had, she’d have said something!”
Their bickering resumed. It seemed they’d been quite anxious about whether Xenia had overheard them.
From the outside, I probably look extremely close to the Demon King.
The unspoken trust—strictly in matters of work—between the Demon King and Eligos, the two highest authorities in the castle, must have looked like favoritism to others.
Simple-minded demons often forgot that she was human.
Not someone who’d wandered into the demon realm by chance, but a human who’d lost her parents to demon attacks and been abducted into the Demon King’s castle.
Well, perhaps it was also because she’d never revealed that her parents had died because of demons.
In any case, no matter how well she adapted or how much trust she earned, Xenia was still human.
The hero.
That was why she couldn’t help but rejoice at news of him.
Feeling her heart pound loudly in her chest, Xenia smiled softly. She was glad that her parents’ faith—and her own—had not been in vain.
She hoped the long-awaited day of salvation would come soon.
